Q&A With Frank Broughton

Frank Broughton facing camera smiling, wearing a black and white patterned shirt

Frank Broughton is a music journalist and dance music historian, best known for his book Last Night A DJ Saved My LIfe – The History of the Disc Jockey, written with Bill Brewster, which was the first book to chronicle the entire history of dance music. The duo have recently created an extended remix edition of this classic read, packed with even more amazing characters and stories, which is available to buy now.

We thought it’d be fun to do a little Q&A with Frank so here goes:

BEST SCENE EVER

My fave food movie is Tampopo, a Japanese film about two cowboy truck drivers on a zen mission to create the perfect noodle joint. The film’s full of amazing food scenes, slurping, chomping and burping, but the best is between a supercool gangster, his girlfriend and a raw egg. No spoilers, you’ll have to see it.

ONE OF MY MOST LOVED SOUNDTRACKS

Late one night in my teens I saw Assault on Precinct Thirteen by John Carpenter on TV, which has the most amazing bassline running through it. In a pre-internet age it took me years before I found the record. I love all John Carpenter’s music. He did most of it himself and it’s all raw analogue synths, as much as anything because he did everything on a shoestring budget. Years later I discovered there was this incredible soul cover version as well.

LAST SUPPER

I’ve never told this story, but three years ago I was playing at the Beat Hotel festival in Morocco with my spar Bill Brewster. One of the days it rained all day and after a while we gave up soaked and retreated to the hotel with a bunch of the other people who were talking or DJing there. The hotel restaurant set up this really long table to fit all of us in – probably ten or twelve people. Among others there was Irvine Welsh, Andrew Weatherall and the author John Niven. The wine was flowing. At some point, Irvine asked everyone down the table to tell him what was the first record they ever bought. Mine was Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, Bill’s was Ernie The Fastest Milkman in the West by Benny Hill, and Andrew’s was something suitably cool by The Kinks. Once Irvine had been round everyone he went round the table again and made each of us sing it. Hilarity ensued. Apart from these shenanigans, my memory of the night is really poignant because it was this weird super-long table with Andrew sitting in the centre with his beard and bushy hair, and it was the last time I ever saw him. No-one took a picture but the scene is burnt photographically in my head because it looked exactly like Da Vinci’s Last Supper. 

GUILTY PLEASURE

Foodwise it would be some really good fish and chips with mushy peas and lots of ketchup, followed by my mum’s jam roly poly with custard. With a good strong cup of tea afterwards. Not that guilty really.

WHAT DO YOU LOVE TO COOK?

I cook by trial and error rather than recipes and I tend to make things that start off with frying onions and end with simmering for hours. So curries and stews mainly. Comfort food. I do a mean Italian style peasant chicken stew with mashed potato. Mmmmm.

So that concludes our Q&A with Frank – now let’s get to the music

This month Frank has curated our #spotify playlist and is kicking us off with this…

‘FRANK’S FRICASSEE – JUL 22 – BY FRANK BROUGHTON’

“A summer stew to put a glide in your stride and a dip in your hip x”

Have a listen, like and follow, and please share these beautiful vibes.

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