Stephen Parker has been our resident DJ at Port Eliot for the last four of our five visits. Once again, he’ll be opening proceedings and once again we are looking forward to hearing his first tune, which will not be random, but considered and perfect. We may have never heard it before in our lives but he always gets it right, because these things matter of course.
Join us in our tent for this special occasion at 15:00 on Thursday 24 July and listen out for his selection of the good and the great throughout the course of the weekend. This current top ten should give you an idea of what to expect, plus you can also listen in to Stephen’s Free Range Music Radio podcasts here.
1. Stanley Brinks & The Wave Pictures Orange Juice (Fika Recordings)
2. Mose Allison You Call it Joggin’ (Blue Note)
3. J.J.Johnson The Seventh Son (RCA)
4. The Dells Wear it On Our Face (Checker)
5 The Free Spirits Don’t Look Now (ABC)
6 The Burning Hell Amateur Rappers (Weewerk)
7. Kevin Ayers Circular Letter (Island)
8. Lambchop Soaky In The Pooper
9. Donnie Elbert A Little Piece Of Leather
10 The Black Keys If You See Me (Fat Possum)
Jeff writes: There’s a lovely story attached to me, Stephen and this festival. Well, I like it anyway. Many years ago, the mid-late ’80’s to be precise, I unexpectedly stumbled into a new occupation as a freelance publicist for bands and record labels. I had an office in London and life was pretty daft and things were never boring. The gist of the job was to hustle magazines and music papers to run features on my clients (among mine at that time were Sean and Bez, New Order, My Bloody Valentine and Primal Scream) and once you got the feature you were also given a photographer. One of the snappers for Record Mirror (and later Sounds) was Parker, and if I could ever get him on the job I would because not only was he a great photographer (still is) he was also such bloody good company (yep). We spent a lot of time together back then and it was always a pleasure. Jobs change, music papers fold, folk drift away and I lost touch with Stephen until July, 2009, when he walked up and placed himself immediately in front of me whilst I was playing records during our very first time at Port Eliot. Ha! It was really good to see him and it’s great to now have him on the firm.
