We speak to Adrian Flanagan, the brains behind Acid Klaus, about the perilous musical journey that made him…
Picture: Owen Richards
The first record I bought…
‘White Lines’ by Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mell. I bought it from a record shop in Cheetham Hill in Manchester using my school dinner money. It was probably the first electronic record that connected with me as a child; it sounded so futuristic to a kid raised on Elvis and rock & roll. What I remember distinctly about buying the record was, immediately after leaving the shop, a gang of lads from a rival school surrounded me and said, “GIVE ME 10p!” I ended up giving them my Greggs cheese and onion pasty as I had no money left.
My first gig…
Madness at the Manchester Apollo when I was about seven. My mum marched me up to the front of the queue and found the biggest skinhead lads she could find and went: “Oi! You! Look after my son inside and I’ll be waiting here when he comes out!” In I went, later being bounced on the shoulders of these drunk but fun headcases. My mum’s about four foot eight, by the way!
The first song I performed…
Again, I was about seven. Me and my next-door neighbour and his brother put on a gig in their basement. I made a makeshift stage out of an old tea chest and had a bike light inside a traffic cone as my spotlight. I then did my first gig where I sang ‘Embarrassment’ by Madness to my neighbour’s parents. I made a smoke machine using a massive pile of talcum powder and an electric fan which I started up as I climbed ‘the stage’. Alas! The neighbours and their basement were completely covered in talc. They politely clapped.
A song I wish I’d written…
‘No Diggity’ by Blackstreet. It’s just a sexy fucking song. The end!
I first fell in love with music when…
I realised I couldn’t rely on human contact alone for that deeper, more oblique healing communication that only music can bestow upon on us!
One song that I can’t get out of my head at the minute…
As I’m in the studio a lot working on music or working with other artists, listening to the same track evolve over and over again, other people’s songs don’t tend to get stuck in my head often. Nothing since the ‘Birdy Song’, that is – and that’s now that’s in your head!
A record that reminds me of a specific time and place…
‘Spirit Walker’ by Ween. I’d just done a gig in what was an old car-park-cum-art-space in Copenhagen. I recall some Viking dude giving me a tiny handful of nature’s little helpers (commonly known as mushrooms) and then lying on a couch in this makeshift office. I watched the cold grey concrete ceiling first turn into a concrete fist, then a concrete finger, and then a concrete labia that tried to swallow me up… all while listening to that song. It was a good night!
Step on My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory of Superstar DJ & Dance Pop Producer, Melvin Harris is out now.
