Whenever I put together a show, the music I choose to use - both in and around it - has always been very important
to me.
The songs I
settle on are never there by accident, as they’re an essential way of
contributing to the feel of the show as a whole. Admittedly, I’ll often go for
something by The Beatles or Paul McCartney as their music is something I’m
very passionate about, but invariably I’ll pick something obscure I suspect the
wider public won’t be aware of, but I think they'll like.
'Hey Bulldog' is
a perfect case in point. The song was only cut by The Beatles as something to do
while shooting a video for the single ‘Lady Madonna’ in the studio, and was if
anything a bit of a toss-off, but despite this it has long been a personal favourite;
consequently, it’s been the play-out at every single Mostly Comedy that’s ever been. It
doesn’t matter how many times I hear the song in that context, it still has the same
impact. I love the dark edge to it and like a lot of the late Beatles material, it
sounds astonishingly modern, like it could have been recorded yesterday; never
mind the fact it celebrated its fiftieth birthday just the other week.
Not so long ago,
a guy who’s been to a lot of our shows said, "You always play this song at the end; when are you going to change your house music?"
This was astonishing to me: the fact it’s there
is no accident.
Other songs to
crop up in recent solo and Doggett & Ephgrave projects include Macca’s
‘Check My Machine’ and ‘Coming Up’ and The Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley’. One particular
track that's part of our current interval Mostly Comedy house music that always catches my
ear as it starts is the next-to-unknown McCartney ‘Memory Almost Full’ bonus
track ‘222’; I’m bound to end up using it in something.
“But what about
this year’s show?” I hear no-one ask. It’s still early days, but I think I may close it with this:
(It’s another
McCartney song, inevitably, but barely anyone knows it. I didn’t know it myself
until very recently. All the more reason to use it, I think.)