5. Bally Sagoo
This is in Urdu. I speak Punjabi as my first language, but I still thought I understood a lot of the lyrics. But today was the first time I looked at the lyrics and discovered what they actually mean… They were different from what I thought. For me, this amazing song came out when I was still at school. It was the first time I’d ever seen an Asian on Top of the Pops, and in the charts. The first time I ever bought an Indian CD from HMV. It’s an old song, but he gave it this kind of fat 90s beat, like Massive Attack in a way. And I still think it sounds amazing. There was a really interesting time for British Asians then with Goodness Gracious Me on the TV, Talvin Singh was around, Bally Sagoo, Apache Indian. We were a very uncool community in the 80s; we were never on TV on the charts or anything. And suddenly, we were. That was a really important moment for lots of second generation populations who suddenly realised they could have a creative life and actually they didn’t need to sell out. They could keep in touch with their roots. This combined with Goodness Gracious Me made me realise that Brown people could be writers, and be creative. Everyone in my life was a factory worker – even my one uncle who worked an office job seemed outside the realm of possibility at times. And so, to think there was another level, where you could live a life of the mind and be creative? I think, even if it was subconscious, this was an important moment for me and realising what I could do.
