Mick Jones - Songwriter and Producer

"I don't care what key it's in, where it's come from, where it's been just play that music." The mighty Mick Jones and his Big Audio Dynamite. I was at the Rainbow in London July 14th 1979 for the first major show previewing the 'London Calling' material. I'd sneaked in for the soundcheck and was sat at the mixing desk. Mick walked over to talk to the sound engineer. "Take it right over the top" he said and grinned at me. I was totally chuffed. Here's Mick as producer with the Libertines:

songs about food: ice cream

If music be the food of love, play on! And what about the use of food, metaphoric or literal, in music? Let’s take Ice Cream, for instance.


Here’s Jamaican chanteur, Johnny Osbourne, protesting about ‘’Ice Cream’’ love; no he don’t want it because his, he boasts, is warmer than a chocolate fudge. And you don’t need the Dictionary of Euphemisms to work out what he’s implying.

Actually, the image of chocolate fudge drizzled over vanilla ice cream is seriously erotic, but that might just be me. Johnny went on to compare the love of his life to the sweetness of lollipops and sugar dumplings giving weight to the adage - the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.




Speaking of erotic images, what’s this next one all about (as if I need to ask)? Ozzie techno-jock, DJ Goodwill, offers us his take on the Cornetto. This confection, made for the adult market, offered more than a bald, whirly squirt of white goo into a ragged beige cone (hundreds and thousands topping optional). Instead we are teasingly invited to peel down slowly the paper-thin chemise and expose the delicacy within, encouraging a brief hit of lascivious voyeurism before communing, tip to tip, with the most sensual of all our organs, the tongue. Granted, this tune knocks O Sole Mio into a Gondolier’s cocked boater but what on Earth is it to do with Cornettos?




Canadian singer-songwriter, Sarah McLachlan, it is rumoured, has penned a song that may be the official theme tune to the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver. I’ve never been but I bet they don’t sell much Ice Cream in Vancouver during the snow. But Sarah has previously been heard Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, a collection which included the song, Ice Cream. No real metaphor here; she simply compares her lover’s love with said dessert and, good news for Johnny Osbourne types, it comes out well.

Of course, we don’t know Sarah’s feelings about ice cream, per se so it’s not exactly proof of life. Furthermore, she goes on to say that it’s better than chocolate. Frankly, unless she has an undisclosed food allergy, this is hard to believe. Women, I am reliably informed, love chocolate more than sex.


There are many more songs featuring Ice Cream, I could’ve gone on and on but I’m getting an ice cream headache just thinking about it. Personally, I’d always prefer a portion of jam suet pudding in a sea of custard but, I’m afraid, I might have to write my own songs….

Next: songs about peaches, featuring old favourites such as Laura Veirs, The Allman Brothers’ Band, and Britain’s own, The Stranglers. Tune in.

The Notting Hillbillies - Feel Like Going Home

Mark Knopfler and the team contribute some beautiful guitar work. And is that Chris Barber on trombone???

New England - Uncle Bill

Here's the encore! If Billy Bragg ever decided to be a DJ even Andy Kershaw might be quaking in his boots. If both of them did it together, they might just change the world. And yes music can change the world!!! Nay the universe!!!!!!!

1969 - Stooges

On Friday 22nd November 2002 Joe Strummer performed his last ever gig at Liverpool Academy 2, before sadly dying of heart failure a month later. I was there with my pal Geoff. We'd arrived early and were wandering though the many corridors of that venue. All of a sudden there was Joe being interviewed by a local journalist. I said 'Mr Strummer I haven't seen you for 20 years'. He growled 'Good to see ya'. I'll never forget that. During the gig he said 'Right we're going to massacre a Stooges number', and launched into this song, with his superb band the Mescaleros.