Andy Lewis

@andylewis

Music producer, bass player, DJ. Soho Radio presenter. Weller band alumnus. Helped invent Britpop.

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Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jul 7

Pre 1967 they were white! Then they changed (I know these are Pye International ones but they were the closest photos to hand!)

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jul 5

Tough call, but I’m still saying this…

House Of Bamboo by Andy Williams. Other, considerably more worthy American music is available, without a doubt. But come on. This is one of the best things to cross the Atlantic. Admit it. You’re smiling…”Number 54, the house with the bamboo door. Bamboo roof & bamboo walls. It’s even got a bamboo floor…”

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jul 3

Shoplifting has got so bad over here they’ve had to put security tags on the Lucozade

Some pricy sparkling wine, one bottle of which is wrapped in the kind of orange cellophane that used to go round bottles of Lucozade when I was a kid a hundred or so years ago, when you could only fry it from the chemist.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jul 3

A boy falling into some water dressed in the heighth of mid 70s beige fashion, captioned DICK.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 28

Also included in the show at various points...

Moment Of Softness by the US T-Bones on a British Liberty Records promo copy in "birth sleeve" if you think such things are important which personally I don't. It's a mark of how weird people have got about collecting 7" singles that having the original slice of vinyl isn't enough. Oh no, it's got to be in the original sleeve it was shipped in or you're "not a proper collector". I am *not* a proper collector, I am a musician and a DJ. The records are the most important thing- or more exactly the music etched onto the records, That's the thing that really matters.

A record called Job Opening Part One by The Del Larks featuring Tyrone Ashley on a label called Queen City. When I bought this in 1990, I was told it was "probably a bootleg" but was still rushed £20 for it, a sum I didn't mind paying because it (and the instrumental flip) were tunes I absolutely adored having heard them on a tape passed to me by a fellow SDUC student who had taped it from someone who'd been given a tape of a set of records played by one of the DJs at Wigan Casino, or so he said. Having done a bit of research (looked it up on Discogs) it turns out it's not strictly speaking a bootleg, but a repress from the original stamper done a few years later to capitalise on demand for copies of it from the UK. While nowhere near as rare as the first Queen City press (that had a different label) it's the next best thing. Like I said, it's what's in the groove that counts. And in this case what's in the groove is absolute dynamite. Why this has been in my shed all these years instead of in my DJ box is beyond me. Probably because of not wanting to be seen to be playing a suspected bootleg. Knowing it's basically the same as the first edition but pressed a few years later changes everything. Into the box it goes.

A Soul City promo of I'll Be Lovin' You Forever by the 5th Dimension. Yes, them. Their first single from 1966 and it's a belting bit of Motown-esque dancefloor pop. The flip side is something about a train and apparently the one that went over big at Wigan, but as far as I'm concerned this is the tune to be played. I don't remember buying this, I can only assume I picked it up because it was by the 5th Dimension and it wasn't Up Up And Away or Puppet Man. I don't remember paying much for it, because at the time all of "that Wigan crap" was desperately unfashionable. Now, thanks to all the young people rediscovering Northern Soul and not being old and arthritic able to hurl themselves around dance floors like maniacs, fast-paced stuff is back in vogue again and about bloody time.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 26

We can’t all be the pope, Luke. (A sentence probably not uttered since they first preached the epistles to the apostles)

That thing everyone is doing where you answer questions about what you think of stuff and it basically tells you how woke you are. In this case I’m the pope

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 26

The first James Bond film I saw at a cinema, to wit this particular cinema in Watford's high street

A photograph of the Odeon cinema in Watford. A typical 1930s town centre cinema, a brick building with a white concrete facade. There are two shops either side of the entrance hall, a travel agent (Frames) and a restaurant called Gema,

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 26

A screenshot of an AI transcript from an audio podcast that reads All right, everyone, how you doing? Well, I've been today.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 25

A photo of me producing the Magnus Carlson album at Black Barn studios has surfaced on Facebook. 10 years ago today. I’m incredibly proud of that record. My dad wanted a copy but couldn’t get it here so he rang up the Lutheran Bishop of Stockholm & asked him to buy it & send it to him. As you do.

I’m behind the mixing desk at Black Barn studios. It’s a big table with lots of knobs and buttons on. Other bits and pieces of recording equipment are in shot.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 23

- Yes, the Philips VCR system which was already obsolete by the time we were presented with a barely functioning machine and a selection of incredibly used tapes by a well-meaning family friend who would otherwise have thrown it in a skip where it rightly belonged. Behold! -

The Philips N1500 Videocassette recorder, with its top open. It looks as though a cassette recorder, a radio, a Philicord organ and a Teasmade have had their genes spliced together by a mad scientist. On the right, a little clock which is the timer. Some transport buttons to its left. Some sort of level meter is next on the left, a crude tape counter and two knobs marked Audio and Tracking are on the left. On the top are a random assortment of buttons that set the channel to be recorded and various other functions long since forgotten. It's in the kind of wooden case beloved of late 60s/early 70s music centres.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 23

Kelly's Heroes is the first feature film that my dad recorded onto video cassette for us all to watch as a family. I say "video cassette" rather than, say, VHS or Betamax, because it was neither of those. Oh no. It was one of these, or more accurately four of these -

A hulking behemoth of a video tape cassette. It's square. It's called a Philips VC 45.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 23

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 22

I am well into my 50s and I still haven't really grown up at all

From the NYT "Strands" puzzle. I have spelt WILLIES.

And hurrah! The normally very prudish NYT accepts it as a word. First time for everything.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 20

Hello, Mr Cat! Where did you spring from?

A tabby and white cat pokes his head through a window and says hello, by staring intensely at me.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 20

This is the first time anyone’s sent me a Logic project and this has happened. Every single Logic project I’ve ever been sent to mix before now was recorded at 44.1. Something I said to the client must’ve sunk in. And it really does sound marginally better, as indeed it would.

The sample rate display of my DAC, showing a project running at 48.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 19

You’ll never believe what Black Pudding Bertha looks like now

The magazine Byline Times with Andy Burnhams on the front under the headline Northern Soul

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 17

Got to love an AI generated transcript #obviousfred

An AI generated transcript of a podcast on Spotify. It reads
Do you know what I mean?
So there's no.
Speaker 2
Obvious Fred running through them.
The only thing they do have in common I guess is me.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 16

Here's me with said tiny organ shortly before it was plugged in and I was allowed to play it.

A photo of me next to an original Jenny Ondioline that was taken in a musical instrument warehouse in New York. I am on the left of the photo crouching down, next to me is a keyboard instrument that looks ever so art deco, made out of wood with what looks like an old fashioned radio set underneath it.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 15

“This is British Intelligence Secret Headquarters, Operation Priest”

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 13

Just played this and if you don’t know it it’s a fantastic example of country got soul. A fantastically rare and these days very valuable piece of plastic, but easy to hear online if you’ve a mind to google it

Got To Find A Way by Cajun Hart. A proper one, not a bootleg unlike the one Eddie Piller plays.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 13

Swinging scenes in York right now with the best music in town

This Is The House Where Love Died by First Choice on 7”

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 13

Have you got this one? It’s in my bag for tonight in York

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 11

An Alesis 3630 compressor. A black box with two LED meters and lots of knobs. Infamously used by Daft Punk on the master bus of their mixer with the compressor's effect linked by a side chain to the kick drum so that whenever the kick drum goes BOOM the rest of the tune drops slightly in volume so that the initial thump of the BOOM is more present. A genius hack.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 10

This is a post on Facebook from infamous generative AI “fantasy soul” label Riker Records. The utter ratbag.

“So I’ve set aside Wednesdays for songwriting. Clearly it’s going well” A man sits behind a desk in front of a couple of screens with some interesting outboard equipment in racks but no evidence of any actual musical instruments. This is because he’s probably run out of things to put into the prompt dialogue box of his AI songwriting robot

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 8

The best song related to football that was ever recorded in my opinion. Flip side of the second best.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 8

Everyone probably knows that the BBC's motto is "Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation", but not enough is made of the time when it was briefly changed to "Quaecunque" which is basically Latin for "Whatever".

The BBC's coat of arms, eagles wearing hunting horns holding up a shield of blue with seven stars and the globe encircled with a gold ring. Above the eagles is a lion holding a thunderbolt. There's a motto in Latin under the shield which reads QUAECUNQUE. It's a photo of an example on the wall inside Broadcasting House in London.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 7

- there is currently a copy of this very album for sale in the charming Cotswold market town of Ebay-In-Marsh, from which this screen grab is taken. Full listing here - www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15554667... -

Going Underground THE FINAL VINYL. A vomiting gob spews out the names of the bands... The Booze Boys, Best Kept Secret, The Upshot, Going Underground Band, Speakeasy, Excel

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 6

Strewth! The little bastards are getting everywhere!

A BBC correspondent in Australia, a young woman sitting on a red sofa in an airy modern business space, is asking the question "So what's the reason behind these huge mouse invasions?". She is holding what appears to be a mouse. It's grey and fluffy and mouse-shaped. It's a microphone. One of those ones that are supposed to be clipped on but are used as hand helds by a new generation of social media content providers because a) they're cheap as mics go, and b) holding them in your hand nearer your mouth allows much more voice signal to be captured without you having to speak any louder. Useful if the only place you've got to file your despatch is a co-working space. Presumably because the studio is full of mice.

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 5

A man wearing the kind of armoured suit bomb disposal technicians wear. It's two-tone green, with a substantial amount of protective padding and a massive helmet

Andy Lewis @andylewis· Jun 4

I’m getting stuff together for Soho Radio on Saturday and suffice to say it’s going to be a lot of fun. Well, I’m going to enjoy it! Listen in from 1600! Features stuff like this …