Back in the early 90s – in the days before Radio 1’s Night of the Long Knives – I used to wake up in the mornings and get ready for work to the warm voice and dry wit of Gary King. I’d stumble out of the bathroom and get dressed just as Gary was introducing my favourite feature on his show: Gary King’s Floppy Disc.
This section of my blog is sort of my tribute to that feature. But since the floppy disc itself has gone the way of the tracks Gary gave that name to (and since “George Luke’s USB Flash Drive” just doesn’t quite have the same ring to it), I’ve decided to name this section “The Y Crate” instead (that’s Y as in “Y wasn’t this song a hit?”).
When vinyl ruled the world, DJs had large plastic crates to carry their music collections in. The Y Crate is where I keep all those singles and albums that I loved but the rest of the public obviously didn’t – or even in some cases, never got to hear. Whether it’s the difficult second album (or, in the case of artists who never recovered from that, the unheard third album), before-they-were-famous guest appearances, whatever… they all have a place in my Y Crate. From time to time, I’ll dip into it and review an album or a single.
And so I give you the Y Crate – full of great tunes you never heard.
GEORGE LUKE 