John Grant on the first and last records he bought and the one he always turns to in an emergency…
FIRST
ABBA
‘Greatest Hits‘
(Atlantic, 1975)
“The first album I ever bought was ‘The Second Annual Report’ by Throbbing Gristle in 1977 when I was nine… wait, no, it was actually ABBA’s ‘Greatest Hits’, the one with the two couples sitting on a park bench on the sleeve. I thought they were fascinating, even though the record was somewhat spotty. I listened to ‘S.O.S.’ over and over while giant piles of snow gathered outside in the small town of Buchanan, in south west Michigan in 1975.”
LAST
Talking Heads
‘More Songs About Buildings And Food’
(Sire, 1978)
“The last record I bought was yesterday, Thursday, 19 October, in Reykjavík. It was the reissue of ‘More Songs About Buildings And Food’. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to it, because I was busy listening to other albums in their catalogue. I dunno, can’t listen to everything. The ‘Stop Making Sense’ movie blew my mind when I saw it upon its initial release in Denver, Colorado, in 1984 at the Esquire Theatre, which is my favourite movie theater in the world.”
ALWAYS
Black Devil Disco Club
‘The Strange New World Of Bernard Fevre’
(Lo Recordings, 2009)
“The record I go to in an emergency? What a nasty question! For a long time it was Nina Hagen’s ‘Nunsexmonkrock’, or Toshinori Kondo & IMA’s ‘Brain War’, but lately it’s been this. It’s a turbo freshening up of some of the songs Bernard Fevre released in the 1970s. You should have this record. It’s the most beautiful soundtrack to the coolest, delightfully weird-ass science fiction film never made. I’d love to talk to him about what he used to design all those beautiful sounds.”
