Physical Distancing Discs

During the first UK lockdown in 2020, I started to make mixtapes by recording vinyl records to cassette tapes and sending them in the post to my friends. In 2021, Jon Cornbill asked me if I would like to have a show on a radio station he was about to launch. Physical Distancing Discs is a selection of edited versions of these tapes, that have been broadcast on Slack’s Radio. The project started and continues to be an attempt of being social and communicating by sharing music with friends.

The title of the programme came out of the frustration that the term “social distancing” became so prevalent, along with its negative connotations. This period was quite social for me as I started to communicate with friends and family who I had not spoken to for a long time, all be it from a physical distance.

While isolated at home and getting fatigued by only engaging with the world digitally, I returned to my neglected vinyl collection as a refuge from the screen. By doing this I rediscovered old favourites and unearthed some new ones that either slipped through the net first time around, or that my ears were not mature enough to appreciate at the time.

See below for the mixtapes that have already been aired. You can see the full track list of each show by clicking on the title which will take you to the Soundcloud page.

Slack's uses Instagram to promote the station's schedule and I try to keep up on my own account, which you can find here.

This mixtape was made for my wife Hannah. Many of the songs on the tape are linked to memories of moments we’ve shared with each other.

It will probably be the last tape I make for a little while as we’re about to start a new chapter of our lives together. I’m looking forward to creating more memories and listening out for songs what will remind us of them.

This mixtape was made for another Slack’s resident – Kitty McKay. The tape’s tracklist started to form after a conversation at the Ghosts of My Life day of discussion and performances that she worked on at The Lubber Fiend. Side A is mainly made up of recent bandcamp tracks and some old favourites, while Side B is a selection of vinyl records that I used play when DJing back in the mid-2000s.

This mixtape was made for two special people, Rona and Charlie – former teachers and, later work colleagues of mine. They are responsible for introducing me to the Fall. We went to see the band play many times over the years and they managed to get me backstage after a gig in London – where I was too scared to look in the direction of MES, let alone start a conversation.

Much of the track selection was formed whilst walking on the West Coast of Scotland, near to where we all when on a school trip when I was a teenager. The title of the tape is taken from Paul Hanley’s autobiography – which Charlie has told me to “not to trust a word of.”

This mixtape was made for my brother-in-law, David. We’ve known each other for a while, but it was relatively recently that I discovered an overlap in our musical tastes, when he disclosed that the last gig he’d been to was Slipknot. I never got into that band, but they became starting point for the track list. Heavy riffs are the main theme that runs through the tape, but it does go into quieter and melodic territory too. I hope that the tape can spark further conversations which reveal more of our personalities to each other in the future.

This mixtape was made for my friend Paul Raymond. We met in Durham when he helped me install an exhibition at Empty Shop gallery. During the install, Hot Potatoes: The Best of Devo, was on heavy rotation (as it was one of only three CDs in the building). From here we became firm friends, and a few years later we formed a fictional band together with one of the gallery directors.

The title of the tape is an homage to Paul’s 30^th birthday party where the only food provided was a large packet of onion ring crisps.

Physical Distancing Discs #20 – Abolish Uniforms, was made for my friend Rob Bidder. He is an artist and musician. Some of his songs have appeared on previous mixtapes (solo / band: Dog Chocolate). We met in Cardiff when we were both part of an exhibition called On Record.

A few years later he made a video piece for exhibition about Work that I curated with my fictional band (who also feature in this tape). It would be great to do something else together in the future…

The title of the tape was inspired by one of Rob’s excellent cartoons I saw on Instagram when I was making the tape. The cassette and case on top of the photograph Boy Destroying Piano by Philip Jones Griffiths.

This mixtape was made for my friend Alan who I met in Cambridge when we both DJed at an electronic music night called Clear, which was non-smoking event, before the government brought in the ban.

We haven’t seen each other in a long time, so I hope the choice of tracks still hits his musical tastes. Overall, it leans towards the heavier end of things (including a song by MASS who we went to see play in Newcastle one time he visited), but there are plenty of poppier songs in there too.

The title of the tape is taken from an early song by old band Saturday Night Gym Club, which was a favourite of mine and the first time I’d heard the phrase.

This mixtape was made for my neighbour Rich. We’ve known each other in passing for a long time, but got closer over the lockdown when I started to make these tapes. The Venn Diagram of our musical tastes as a healthy cross over but he draws a hard border when the guitars start to get “heavy”. I hope this selection of song falls within the overlap of our two respective circles.

The cassette that these songs are recorded on to was originally used to document my first visit to Heaton in November 2007 for a meeting at Gallery Glue which was on Heaton Road, around the corner from where Rich and I currently live. On that first trip I met my first friends in Newcastle who took me under their wing and are a key reason why I stayed in the North East.

The tape’s cover art is of Test Department’s installation DS30 at the Staiths on the River Tyne. The image was taken from Mark Fisher’s review of project in the Wire magazine. On the reverse of that page was a review of Monomania, a one-day festival in Cambridge (my home town) that my friend Jo Brooks of Bad Timing Nights curated.

This mixtape was made for my old school friend Mitch who recently came up to Newcastle to visit me. The tape is a selection of songs that remind me of him and that weekend.

This edition of Physical Distancing Discs was made for my friend Timothea who ran the Great North Run the weekend it was broadcast.

The tape was intended to act as a good running soundtrack – not sure if that’s how it turned out.

This mixtape was made for Ewan Mackenzie (AKA Dextro, drummer in Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs and fellow member of UBI Lab North East).

The music on the tape drifts back and forth between ambient, drone and metal, then ends with a live track by Tricky.

This mixtape was made for my old school friend Damien who I used to run a club night in Cambridge with called Charlie Don’t Surf. It was intended to be a selection of ambient tracks, but it ended up getting quite noisy in places. It also includes recordings of people talking about how we could re-organise society in a way that focuses on collaboration and care, rather than competition and profit.

This edition of Physical Distancing Discs was made for Slack’s head honcho, Jon Cornbill, to say Happy Birthday to Slack’s and a thank him for inviting me to be part of the project. It’s been an amazing year and it’s been great to see the station’s momentum and roster of DJs build over the year.

The mixtape was intended to be a selection of alternative party bangers. It didn’t turn out this way, but I hope you enjoy it all the same.

This mixtape was made for fellow Slack’s resident, Sarah Bird.

The show’s title and track selection were inspired by conversations we had while volunteering behind the bar for a Tusk Festival gig event at the Star and Shadow Cinema earlier this year.

This mixtape was made for my pal David Foggo and is loosely based on a film he made a couple of artworks about in the past.

This mixtape was made for fellow Slack’s resident, Fiona Anderson, predominately from MP3s, but it includes a couple of vinyl records too.

The track selection was inspired by conversations we had on the dance floor of a work colleague’s wedding last summer, the first big gathering I’d been to as Covid restrictions lifted in the summer of 2021. Yelling in someone’s ear over loud music became normal again - for a couple of hours at least.

The show’s title is a reference from the Blues Brothers film and a nod to Fiona’s excellent Slack’s show Wildflowers.

This mixtape was made for the mighty Joe "Posset" Murray, king of Dictaphones and Newcastle No Audience Underground scene.

Apart from the spoken word intro, it’s made up of vinyl records committed to tape during the festive session.

This mixtape was made for my old school friend Martin Keen. It’s made from my CD collection from the 90s. Most of them were retrieved from the attic to make this tape, but a few are still in the house and get played more than I would like to admit.

This special live edition of Physical Distancing Discs which was recorded in The NewBridge Project gallery as part of Slack’s residency in the Blazing New Worlds exhibition. The show was a back-to-back DJ set with Andrew Wilson (Lloyd & Wilson). Each record was dedicated to someone who had supported us over the years, either professionally or through friendship and acts of kindness.

This tape was made for my UBI Lab Network comrade, Sam Gregory, who introduced me to the term Rave Adjacent.

This was the first mixtape I made only using 7 inch singles. I shared with a whole bunch of people as a MP3.

Made for fellow Fall enthusiast, Andy Hilton and his wife Lyndy.

Made for Andrew Wilson who I have collaborated with for many years under the name Lloyd & Wilson.

Made for Bruce and Debs who run BasementArtsProject in Leeds.

The second tape was made for Laura Kirby.