E08: The Music of North East England with Alex Niven

This is an edited version of the full episode. To hear the complete 12” cut, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod:

In this episode of LITM Jeremy is joined by writer and editor of Tribune magazine Alex Niven to talk about the musical history of England’s North East. Our interest in this subject was piqued by Sam Fender’s victory in last year’s Mercury Music Prize. Fender is himself an artist indebted to our recent subject, Bruce Springsteen. Alex talks us through the particulars of the region, one of Britain’s main post-industrial heartlands, exploring through music various expressions of white working class identity and a particular form of masculinity that artists have variously embodied or pushed against. Jeremy and Alex discuss blues rock, ‘sophsti-pop’ and Sting, the folk club legacy of the North East, Prefab Sprout, the smallpipes and the Sultans of Swing.

Alex Niven is the author of Folk Opposition, Definitely Maybe for 33 1/3, New Model Island: How to Build a Radical Culture Beyond the Idea of England and The North Will Rise Again: In Search of the Future in Northern Heartlands.

Tracklist:

Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under
The Animals - House of the Rising Sun
The Animals - We Gotta Get Outta This Plac
Eric Burdon and War - Spill the Wine
Lindisfarne - Clear White Light
Alan Hull - I Hate to See You Cry
Bob Davenport and the Rakes - William Brown
Lindisfarne - Fog on the Tyne
Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing
Chris Rea - Josephine
Prefab Sprout - Johnny Johnny
Pet Shop Boys - Being Boring
Sting - All This Time
Dubstar - Stars
Kenickie - In Your Car
Maximo Park - The Coast is Always Changing
Richard Dawson - The Vile Stuff
Sam Fender - People Watching
Kathryn Tickell - Bone Music