Bands have a sound check song. As a speaker and event MC, I don’t. What I do have is a favourite moment, just after it.
Neil Martin · Beats, Business & Life
Beats
How Rakim’s Sweat the Technique took me back to my bedroom decks
Get the story behind your favourite MC’s favourite MC, and what Rakim’s craft teaches anyone who makes things about sweating the detail.
Be unapologetically you: what I took from John Lydon’s Rotten
What John Lydon’s Rotten says about standing out by being yourself, and why you’re allowed to change your mind as you grow.
The Story of The Streets and the song I can never finish
How Mike Skinner turned a bedroom in Birmingham into a classic, and why his weaknesses became the thing that made him.
Beastie Boys Book proves they were always more than one party song
See why the Beastie Boys were always more than one party song, and what their book teaches anyone about making things without rigid rules.
Twisting My Melon and the Shaun Ryder you don’t see on telly
Meet the Shaun Ryder behind the TV persona, and see why his story of surviving the Happy Mondays years is worth reading.
What Scar Tissue taught me about putting pen to paper
What Anthony Kiedis’s raw memoir can teach you about recovery, about music and about getting your thoughts onto a page.
High Fidelity is about the man I could have become
Why a novel about a record shop owner made it onto a DJ’s shelf of true stories, and what Rob can teach you about living now.
Cash by Johnny Cash and the luck of staying alive
Why Johnny Cash’s own story beats the film, and what his darkness, hope and stubborn persistence can teach you about your own.
How Black Vinyl White Powder changed the way I hear music
Simon Napier-Bell’s inside story of the British music business, and the idea that will change how you hear every era of pop.
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About
Hi, I’m Neil
DJing since 1987, three decades in business, and the author of Done Beats Perfect. This is where I write it all down.