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Low Culture Podcast Six: Nadine Shah On Robert Palmer
John Doran , February 1st, 2021 09:24

The sixth in our series of subscriber-only podcasts features Nadine Shah talking about how Robert Palmer's 1994 album Honey helped through her Mum's illness and, as unlikely as it sounds, how it has influenced her music

Thanks to the pandemic the knackered old Quietus Clown Car is breathing a lengthy sigh of relief, up on bricks, leaking oil all over the pavement outside tQ towers. So instead of heading out on a Low Culture adventure, John and Luke speak to their guest remotely via the power of Zoom and a beleaguered wifi signal.

Nadine Shah talks amazingly about Robert Palmer's 1994 album Honey, which she describes as "one of the most schizophrenic pieces of work I've ever come across in my life" and is the first to admit that it's a hard album to love in its entirety. However she talks about how Honey was her mum's favourite album and it became the first album she ever loved, as an eight year old. Nadine, whose mother sadly died last year, explains how she revisited the album more recently and how the meaning of it has changed and intensified; and also, interestingly, how it may have influenced her own practice in a tangential way.

Nadine also talks to us about her recent campaigning work regarding the income earned by musicians from streaming companies, how she is kept awake at night by rogue parakeets and has news for fans regarding new musical projects influenced by Scott Walker, Diamanda Galas and Mongolian throat singing.

Plus there are the usual encaffeinated blatherings from the Quietus co-pilots about dragons, the Large Hadron Collider, corduroy and their cultural picks for the month: Russell T. Davies' It's A Sin and Max Porter's The Death Of Francis Bacon.

This responsibly produced and socially distanced podcast was recorded remotely in accordance with the latest COVID-19 guidelines.

To listen to The Quietus' new Low Culture podcast, you'll need to become a subscriber and sign up to the Low Culture or Sound & Vision tiers. You can find out more about why we're introducing the subs and all the amazing perks you can get here and join via the checkout below.