2. Grace Jones
I can trace back most of my vinyl collection to David Bowie and Paul Weller, there’s a direct line from Bowie to Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, then to Grace Jones through Iggy Pop. So I knew the original ‘Nightclubbing’ and always loved it. The two Compass Point records that Grace Jones did in Nassau with Sly And Robbie and Alex Sadkin producing are the best sounding things that have ever existed. I love the sound of her stuff. I love the sound of the band, that they’re not funky in any way, but they’re just so human, so liquid, and so sensual. They’re a million miles away from my upbringing and the music that I liked in my youth, which was gritty, dark, British, scruffy. This is purely sun-soaked, it’s absolutely fabulous. It’s the sound more than anything. I’ve tried to rip off her version of ‘Nightclubbing’ so many times and it can’t be done. Something is always missing in translation.
