Balearic Breakfast | Episode 181 | There's a Rainbow in the Sky...
- by The Lioncub
- Jun 25, 2024
- 13 min read
Updated: Sep 2, 2024
Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 181st episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud and Twitch TV socials on June 25th 2024.
About this episode. – Just when you think the sun will shine down on you, something happens, making you think again about the world you live in. To say that some battles are harder than others is an understatement. You might think that in our times and age, it would be easier to say "I'm gay and I'm Proud". However, attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community differ globally, with certain countries displaying significantly less tolerance than others (click here for an insightful article titled "The Global Divide on Homosexuality Persists").
And I came to think about it, but can you ask for such important recognition worldwide when there are still so many conflictual situations arising between people? As George Carlin once said, "We haven't learned to care for one another; we wanna save the planet?!" Let's just take a quick and easy example here. Let's say I have a different point of view from the one you defend in a conversation. Let's say I'm wrong, and I don't know it yet. Would you take the time to explain your point to me, or would you simply reject me from your life because I do not "follow your line"? Nowadays, I feel that communication-wise, we lack openness and humility, and many of us are defending our own points of view without trying to understand the hows and whys leading to different ways of thinking. And that's a shame. It's really a shame. We all must change the way we behave towards one another, and this starts by being able to discuss without bringing in judgment and rejection. The road is very long, but, as I like to say, there are people of goodwill... We need care, love, understanding and togetherness, and today's episode was all about this unity we're dreaming of... Let's stop building walls; let's draw prairies with blue skies filled with rainbows...
"Today’s Balearic Breakfast was a PRIDE celebration and is now archived on my Mixcloud. It was a joyous celebration and we had the most attendees on the live stream in the show’s history. Thank you for all who participated!
This Balearic Breakfast pays tribute to artists from the LGBT community. And as always, you delivered with the requests – there is a wide spectrum of songs and sounds – a rainbow of musicality. There are some of our favourite artists from yesteryear along with more contemporary artists, some new to my ear, as well. Thank you for delivering! And wishing a very Happy Pride to all of our Balearic Breakfast family members who are part of the LGBT community."
Listen back to the 181st episode of Balearic Breakfast:
PLAYLIST
(2024) Bay Bryan – Drifting
(2022) El Hardwick – Avatar (Nailah Hunter Remix)
(2024) John Grant – Marbles
(1984) Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Do You Know the Way to San Jose
(1981) Sylvester & Jeanie Tracy – Here is My Love
(2024) Meshell Ndegeocello – Love
(1992) George Michael – Too Jazzy (Happy Mix)
(1997) Diana King – L-L-Lies
(1990) Erasure – Ship of Fools (Orbital Southsea Isles of Holy Beat Mix)
(1983) Nona Hendryx – Transformation
(1979) Dusty Springfield – Baby Blue
(1983) Gwen Guthrie – Peanut Butter (Larry Levan Mix)
(2015) Smokey – I'll Always Love You
(1978) Brooklyn Dreams – Music Harmony & Rhythm (Disco mix by DJ Bobby Guttadaro)
(2024) Gossip – Real Power
(2004) Rufus Wainwright – The One You Love
(link) Wham – Everything She Wants (Danny Krivit Re-Edit)
(1977) Carl Bean – I Was Born This Way
(2022) Gus F (ft. Jimmy Somerville) – Smalltown Boy (Sunset Mix)
(1994) Terre Thaemlitz – Raw Through a Straw
(2023) Romy – Loveher
(1981) Patrick Cowley – Sea Hunt
(2024) Elkka – Right Here
(2004) Arthur Russell – That's Us / Wild Combination
(2024) Hi-Fi Sean (ft. Inaya Day) – The Redemption
(2008) Hercules & Love Affair – Blind (Frankie Knuckles Remix)
(1987) Frankie Knuckles (ft Jamie Principle) – Bad Boy
(1977) Sylvester – Over and Over
(1970) Peter Wyngarde – Neville Thumbcatch
THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE
(coming soon)
Starting the show with Bay Brian's new single "Driftin", which he calls both a callback to his concept album of last year, The Meadow, and a planting of seeds for what is to come, Colleen perfectly sets the tone of this new Marathon show, celebrating Pride Month and solely featuring artists from the LGBT community. Featuring a wide spectrum of songs and sounds, a rainbow of musicality as Colleen so Rightly put it, this 180th episode of Balearic Breakfast features both beloved artists from yesteryear and more contemporary ones, including brand new releases from 2024!
Keeping the "reflective" and, somehow, worried yet explorative vibe alive, Colleen then plays the following songs, crafting a beautiful introduction to this show, not resembling anything she proposed before:
London-based multidisciplinary artist and musician Elle Hardwick identify as trans, non-binary, with their work exploring the queer world and also how we can heal on a damaged planet. Last year, they released an album called Eight Remixes, a collective reworking of Elle Hardwick's 2020 debut album, an idea they had in store from the start. "Avatar", in Los Angeles-based harpist Nyla Hunter's version (she has an album, Love Gaze, of her own and plays harp for sound baths and meditation), certainly is a musical trip;
American singer, songwriter, and musician John Grant, who now lives in Iceland, is the former lead singer of The Czars and has had an illustrious solo recording career. His sixth and most cinematic and opulent new album, "The Art of the Lie" (from which Marbles is taken), allowed him to work with Ivor Guest, who co-produced Grace Jones' "Hurricane" LP ;
Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" has already been featured during the show and is a cover of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song, made famous by Dionne Warwick in 1968 (although she hated it), the song has been the city’s unofficial theme for fifty years;
Sylvester is a widely loved and much-respected artist. On "Here is My Love" in duet with Jeanie Tracy, he shows off his low tenor baritone range, leaving his Falsetto behind. The 1981 studio album was a huge disappointment for the fans as it proposed new material being far away from Sylvester's flamboyant musical style "Too Hot to Sleep is not a disco album; it is more like slow funk and pop soul, something that is definitely OK on the background in a certain place but not actually very exciting".
Taking us gently through the show, Colleen speeds up the rhythm in this section but never forces the mix, always standing on the edge of falling; I love that when she does not force a mix like so many other DJs. She's not afraid to let Silence speak, it's so refreshing, always keeping the beat though... Here are some more information about the songs played during that section of the show:
Meshell Ndegeocello has a new album coming out, "No More Water, the Gospel of James Baldwin", which will be released on the 2nd of August, marking the 100th anniversary of the late author's birth. James Baldwin wrote some great books, including "Giovanni's Room", a novel addressing gender and sexuality identities, which he wrote and he published around 1956. Meshell's album offers a transformative experience: part music, part sermon, part celebration and part call to action. "No More Water" promises to be a genre-defying, spiritually enriching journey that honours Baldwin's legacy and adds a unique musical perspective;
George Michael's Too Jazzy (Happy Mix) is the B-side to his Too Funky single, which he donated to Red Hot and Dance, a compilation that raised funds for AIDS awareness. George Michael was generous and an incredibly multi-talented artist with a golden voice, even duetting with Aretha Franklin (his "Songs from the Last Century" album is to die for...);
La La La Lies is taken from Diana King's second album, 1997's "Think Like a Girl", which debuted at number one on the Billboard Reggae Album chart. O ne of the most successful modern Jamaican artists who got their start appearing on Notorious B.I.G.'s 1994 song Respect, King then hit the charts with Shy Guy, a top 40 hit. In 2012, King became the first Jamaican artist to come out publicly and was awarded the prestigious Vanguard Award at the Out Music Awards;
Synth-pop duo Erasure is founding Depeche Mode member Vince Clark and singer-songwriter Andy Bell. Together, they released 19 studio albums, the most recent of which was 2022's Dayglo, based on a true story. Going back to a single from their third album, their breakthrough number one hit album, The Innocent, this track proposes a remix of their single "Ship of Fools" by The Orb (not Orbital ^^ - By the way, I love Colleen's mix right there, such a nice way to let the two tracks follow each other, what a groove...);
Nona Hendrix, formerly one-third of the LaBelle Trio, is a solo artist, author and an LGBT activist. Her single Transformation from her second album, Nona (a fun song she admitted), was produced by Bill Laswell's Material Collective, with whom she had recorded their hit Bustin' Out (to me a WOW moment of the show because of the lyrics of the song...);
Dusty Springfield had 17 UK hit singles between 1963 and 1970, followed by a gap of nine years until she appeared again in 1979 with the number 61 hit Baby Blue written by the Buggles (Trevor Horn's group), whose single "Video Killed the Radio Star" reached number one the same week that 'Baby Blue' was released. Dusty was also a TV presenter who helped popularize black American music to mainstream audiences here in the UK. In the late 1980s, she had another hit "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" With the Pet Shop Boys.
For the next part of the show, Colleen steps up the rhythm, playing the following songs:
Larry Levan's remix of Gwen Guthrie's Peanut Butter – One of the most influential DJs throughout the 1970s and 80s, maybe even now as well, Levan of the Paradise Garage has had a rich Legacy. An in-demand remixer throughout the 1980s, his remixes for singer-songwriter Gwen Guthrie are some of the best, as she had Sly and Robbie and Wally Bataru recording with her at the famous Compass Point Studios. Island Records commissioned LeVan to remix several of her songs, and they came together on the Padlock EP, which features LeVan's extended grooves, his abstract arrangements and futuristic synths;
Smokey (or John Smokey Condon), spent his youth partying with the John Waters crowd in Baltimore. He marched in New York the night after the Stonewall riots on June 28th 1969, and then moved to Los Angeles, where he recorded with budding producer E.J. Eamons. Together, they created Smokey and released seven singles with gay themes on their own label, S&M Records, which have since been collated on the Chapter Music compilation, How Far Will You Go?, including the Bowie-inflected synth work of "I’ll Always Love You";
the atmosphere of today's 180th episode really started heating up with Bobby Guttadaro's remix of Brooklyn Dreams' classic "Music Harmony & Rhythm". Bobby Guttadaro, first a pharmacist, started DJing at Fire Islands, the Ice Palace in 1971, and then Manhattan's Le Jardin and Infinity, becoming one of the hottest DJs of the 1970s disco scene. He was also a beat mix and remix pioneer and was the first DJ to be awarded a gold disc for his work on Love Unlimited Orchestra's Love Theme. Once awarded DJ of the Year by Billboard, he sadly succumbed to AIDS in 1989;
Keeping the fire burning, Colleen then chose Gossip's 'Real Power' from their most recent album (a celebration of creative expression and the power that came out of choosing family in the aftermath of collective and personal trauma), released in March this year, actually their first studio release in 12 years, produced by Rick Rubin. Gossip, an indie synth band formed in Arkansas, is fronted by Beth Ditto, who is also a solo artist, a fashion guru, an actor, an LGBTQ+ rights activist, and a style icon who's walked the runway for Jean Paul Gauthier;
Rufus Wainwright, the American-Canadian singer-songwriter, is an artist from a very musical family, as his parents are musicians Loudon Wainwright and Kate McGarrigle, and his sister is Martha Wainwright. 'The One You Love' is from his fourth studio album, Want Two, which was released in 2004;
The special Danny Krivitt re-edits "Everything She Wants" by Wham, a Balearic classic about a man trapped in a marriage (his wife never being satisfied with what he does). Wham filmed their video for Club Tropicana at Pikes Hotel in Ibiza! ;
Carl Bean's "I Was Born This Way" is a gay Pride classic, first recorded by Valentino, released in 1975, then by Carl Bean in 1977 (only issued as a single back then). The Motown recording artist, who had a harrowing childhood, later became a minister and founded a network of LGBT-friendly churches called the Unity Fellowship Church Movement. On his passing, the church stated, "Archbishop Beam worked tirelessly for the liberation of the underserved and for LGBTQ people of faith and in doing so helped many around the world find their way back to spirituality and religion".
In the next chapter of today's show, we're diving deep into a more Soulful musical approach...:
Bronski Beat's hit Small Town Boy (one of Colleen's favourites) was the first single from their debut album, The Age of Consent; the song tells the story of a young gay man who is bullied in his small town and decides to leave home, Colleen here plays a beautiful version of the song, entitled "the sunset mix' by Gus F, a musician, producer and DJ based on the beautiful island of Jersey whose edit was approved by Jimmy Somerville in person!;
Kevin Davey shared with us a memory, stating that Small Town Boy was Gilles' Worldwide Festival closing tune for the midweek night and Theatre De La Mer went wild! It was then teased the rest of the week untl Gilles closing set!
Raw Through a Straw by Terre Thaemlitz (aka DJ Springles) is an interesting composition: It's abstract yet uptempo and one that Colleen played at The Loft and which sounded great on David Mancuso's sound system (props to David Mancuso during this Pride Month);
Romy's "Loveher", taken from her first solo album, 'Mid-Air' (an album about celebration, sanctuary and salvation on the dance floor; dealing with love, grief, relationships, identity and sexuality and a love letter to the queer clubs where Romy found community and connection), released last year, produced by Stuart Price (Madonna's producer) and Fred again, also featuring an appearance by her bandmate Jamie XX;
Patrick Cowley was one of the defining producers of the high-energy scene that was born in the San Francisco gay clubs. Working extensively with Sylvester, producing some of his greatest dance floor moments, he is also recognized as an electronic music pioneer. His 1981 single 'Sea Hunt', is based on the theme song of Sea Hunt, a television series that aired when he was a kid, the song being featured on Cowley's 'Megatron Man' album;
London DJ and producer Elkka's "Right Here" is taken from her album Prism of Pleasure, which came out on Ninja Tune a few weeks ago in which the rising DJ and producer explores sensuality and queerness and a celebration of pleasure in all its forms - The track was written in the space of 40 minutes on the day of her father’s funeral. Speaking about the song she explained "It’s difficult equating an album about pleasure with something I wrote when I was in a very different headspace,” she explains. “But I wrote it in a time of extreme vulnerability… It’s about needing and wanting someone to be there for you, even if you’re going to lose them.” The result is a bubbling fever-dream of a song; all yearning piano and lyrics about longing. “It was pouring out of me, and I was like, I’m just going to follow this through. I needed this, and it just came – it felt quite special and spiritual. I’ll never understand that";
Arthur Russell's "That's Us/Wild" came out on a posthumous compilation released a couple of decades ago by Audica Records and Rough Trade. The tracks were taken from Russell's unreleased 1985 album, Corn, and a later unfinished album for Rough Trade. Some of the songs like that one were meticulously reworked and rerecorded dozens of times by Russell up until his passing in 1992 (click here to see more about the brand new book - click here for Colleen's event with author Richard King);
Hi-Fi Sean's 'The Redemption', a collaboration with New York singer Anaya Day - also known as Sean Dixon, he was in the successful 1990s indie group The Soup Dragons. Moving to New York, he came out in 2001, left his family and broke down. He then rebranded as Hi-Fi Sean and has been releasing some kicking dance floor crackers, including this one;
Frankie Knuckles' single 'Blind' by Hercules and Love Affair. The song was written by Andy Butler and Anoni (of Anoni and the Johnsons who released her sixth album, 'My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross'. And the Johnsons is a reference to Marsha P. Johnson, one of the prominent figures of the Stonewall uprising of 1969. He was a gay liberation activist and a self-identified drag queen, and a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front. He also co-founded the radical activist group STAR, which stands for Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, with Sylvia Rivera). In 1987, the late Johnson was an AIDS activist with ACT UP. Frankie Knuckles, the godfather of House, won a Grammy Award for Remixer of the Year back then;
Frankie Knuckles' (ft. Jamie Principle) Bad Boy, the 1989 single. Another house pioneer, Marshall Jefferson, told ID Magazine in 1986, "Jamie Principle got us all into the music. He was the first one to record House and get played by Frankie Knuckles. But by the time he got a record out over three years ago, everyone had ripped off all his ideas. People have got national recognition copying his songs note for note. But he hasn't got a deal and no one's heard of him";
Sylvester's "Over and over", a song celebrating the need for gay men to create bonds in finding friendships, and thus openly supporting the gay community, was played by David Mancuso in 2001 when he celebrated, with Colleen, the release of the Loft compilations on Nuphonic.
Colleen ends today's 180th episode by playing quite an incredible tune: this cult classic Neville Thumbcatch is from the late actor Peter Weingart, who recorded a solo album in 1970 when he was riding high as the star of the TV series Department S (he also played the lead in the first gay British TV drama, a 1959 broadcast of a play called 'South'). RCA wanted to record an album with Weingart, but he said no as he couldn't sing. So, instead, he proposed an album of his compositions and choice cover versions via spoken word...
What an incredible way to end such an important show that got the whole Family happily dancing, and oh so perfectly summed up by our pal dancing_james "I am going to be in so much trouble when my wife gets home this evening... "darling why haven't the tasks on the to-do list been completed?" Me sheepishly looking at the floor "er, dancing to Balearic Breakfast, Colleen played longer than expected..."" 🤣🤣🤣 And I can tell you a lot of us got into this kind of trouble! 😂😂😂
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