8.

Lydia Lunch – Queen Of Siam

Around the time I was listening to Joy Division, I was first encountering the New York no wave scene. Bear in mind that the first record I ever owned was by Eddie And The Hot Rods, Teenage Depression. My stepfather was a journalist and the LP came into the newsroom for review. He saw the cover of a kid pressing a gun to his head and he said, ‘Oh, I’ve got a depressive teenage son, he’ll find this funny.’ So even though I was an R&B and disco listening kid, I liked this record because I was growing tired of all the, ‘Oh, baby baby, love love’ stuff. I liked to go dancing to disco but I liked this other thing because I could tell something else was happening that was different. I had a massive, long time crush on Lydia Lunch [LAUGHS] so it was funny to actually end up working with her… I had to try not to fanboy out too much. The Queen Of Siam was co-produced by W. Billy Ver Planck, whose orchestra did the music for The Flintstones – and all of that music is really klezmer or Eastern European derived. There are certain people who do a great job of capturing the decade during which they reach the age of reason and Lydia is one of them.