Ask me what I was listening to as a student and these are the songs that come out first. Twenty five of them, about an hour and a half, from Audioweb to Dinosaur Jr.
I was at UEA, the University of East Anglia. Nobody ever said it in full. On campus there was the Large Common Room, and nobody called it that either. It was the LCR. On Thursday nights it was the big student club, and the rest of the week it hosted some incredible gigs.
I saw Therapy? there, the Buzzcocks, These Animal Men and Salad. I saw The Goats open for Bad Brains and Fishbone, and by the end of the night all three bands were on stage together. I saw Audioweb play one of the best gigs I've ever been to, from a band I barely knew. They didn't have many songs yet. They covered a Happy Mondays song and did their version of The Clash's Bank Robber. Sleeper was always their standout single for me, which is why it opens this playlist.
Credit to the Nation is another LCR memory. The first time I heard Call It What You Want was on that dance floor, and it's been tied to the place ever since.
This was the sound of student clubs and bars, and of halls with every door open. Grunge, indie guitars, and that run of records where rap and rock crashed into each other. The Goats, Senser, Helmet with House of Pain, Naughty By Nature's thrash mix, and The Prodigy with Pop Will Eat Itself on Their Law.
It wasn't the only thing I was listening to. I got into jungle around 1994 and lived on it for the next couple of years. I was listening to Aphex Twin, and to Tricky, Massive Attack, Portishead and the whole Bristol scene. I was still into hip hop and still playing house and dance music. None of that fits here. Maybe that's another Sunday.
This is the stuff you heard everywhere, though. It's a small part of what I was into back then, and the part that comes back loudest.
