Tissue Island Discs (2) #2 - Jem

Greetings TIDdy fans and a happy new year to one and all.

Hope the festive period was good for you and yours.

Series 2 of your favourite forum feature continues and it gives me great pleasure to welcome tonight's guest Jem.

Here are his selections for your perusal:


rock island line - lonnie donegan

devil gate drive - suzi quatro

suffragette city - david bowie

fire in cairo - the cure

ton meilleur ami - françoise hardy

bust a move - young mc

creep - radiohead

the great beyond - rem


A very warm welcome to the TID studio Jem, hope my staff in the Green Room satisfied your every need.

I'd like to dedicate tonight's show to your recently departed cat who died on your lap watching MOTD on Saturday night - May he/she RIP Amen <<bowed head smilie>>

Let's kick-off with your first selection, Lonnie Donegan's 1955 version of Lead Belly's 1930's track, Rock Island Line - why did it make the cut....?

it’s not about the music, it’s about the memories.

thanks for your kind thoughts regarding the cat. I'm verklempt.

1. rock island line – lonnie donegan

the first time my dad picked up a guitar and played this song, I laughed out loud. it still has the same effect. mr skiffle. the skifflemeister. the skiffleasaurus. the skiffleopagus. is it my fault you don’t watch snl? the old man had an enormous jazz collection which he gave away to an ex-girlfriend (the madman! why would you do that?), except for three records – the seldon powell sextet, stan getz at storyville and introducing phineas newborn jr. all of which I have now removed to a safe place.

some dreamy jazz would be a more appropriate link, given his taste - something like sleepy time down south… I’ve never seen him happier that when I took him to the blue note in new york for his birthday once (he almost cracked a smile at one point). but the skiffle makes me laugh. oh.. and without lonnie there’d have been no beatles or stones. or something. he also sang my old man’s a dustman* and, er, world cup willie (lonnie, that is, not my dad). it was a time of goons and stuff, before my dad and I used to sit and watch python together like a pair of sniggering monkeys (back in the days when you could laugh at python and not feel guilty - ie: before the yanks turned it into a frenzy of m**********n). I get my pointless sarcasm from him. for which you should all be grateful.

seeing him pick up a guitar and play was like watching the janitor at the 606 club put down his broom and start playing the piano. except maybe not quite as spectacular or incongruous. in fact, it might be a bit of an exaggeration. my dad wasn't quite as good, but I had lower expectations. :0) he could have played rugby for england, though.

my old man’s a dental surgeon
he wears a dentist’s smock
he wears corby pressed trousers
and he lives in a rather nice flat in cadogan square actually

he doesn’t have a corby trouser press really (it just scans). we’re not f***ing middle class. :0)

anyway, this sums up the old man:

I may be right, I may be wrong..
I know you’re gonna miss me when I’m gone.

Interesting insight Jem

You'll see from my TID's that I admire people who can play geetar - must have been great for you to see your old fella pick it up and play a tune for you

Is the story true that Anthony james Donegan got his "Lonnie" tag in error...?

have you sacked your research team or something?

I believe he was up for a part in oliver, but there was already a tony donegan with an equity card. he had to come up with something else at short notice that his little sister could pronounce.































hey, I told you I don't know.

as a hostile witness, go ahead. :0)

Well let me tell you something you didn't know - the compere at the Royal Festival Hall gig he did back in the day, called him Lonnie Donegan, when he was supporting Lonnie Johnson, and the name stuck....


Selection number 2 is the leather clad Suzi Quatro's 1974 hit, "Devil Gate Drive" - her 2nd UK 1

Fill us in....

2. devil gate drive – suzi quatro

forget blondie, this was what pop crushes were all about. an absolutely dire song (like every song she ever did, to be honest, although one might argue there was a creditable version of tom petty’s breakdown thrown in, but why?). however, she was absolutely gorgeous to the young me (even if she looks like steve bruce now). I must admit, the first time I saw denis, denis on totp, I did sit up and take notice, though – that hooped top and the jacket slung over the shoulder. but blondie was too cool and sophisticated (not to mention she was already a bit old). suzi was like the young elvis on a motorbike on the wall of death. wah-wah-wee-wah! and she knew the fonz. just because she looks like she’s had a few bowls of pasta now doesn’t change history.

ah, yes… what does this memory signify? this is about the time I realised I had a c**k. and suzi was a “girl”. it was her or the angels from captain scarlet. I think I fancied vanessa howard too.

Ha ha - so she was the first woman who stirred the loins then....

who wasn't a babysitter.

Track number 3 is David Bowie's "Suffragette City" recorded in 1972 at the end of the Ziggy Stardust sessions, but not actually released until 1976.

He was 61 on Tuesday btw

A song about a man who would prefer to be shagging than help his mates (allegedly)

What memories does this track evoke Jemster...?