Sunday, 18 March 2018

My Ear Candy #31 Kate McKay

It nearly kicked off on Friday night during my radio show. About halfway through, I bought myself time for a leak by playing a long track, only to receive pelters from some blokes outside in the corridor. There was a gig in the adjoining town hall and hangers-on of the band were giving it the large one as I tried to get past, they'd had a shandy and were now Billy Bigtime. I got the hump and told them so which lead to a confrontation. No blows were exchanged, not cos I'm hard but because the main protagonist was twice my size. I thought better of offering him out.

Back in the studio my special guest, Kate McKay, was being bored rigid by my co-presenter Steven J Innes. I wouldn't usually award him such lofty status but I need to stay on his right side if I want tickets off him for the cup final should Aberdeen turn Motherwell over in the semi. Kate politely humoured him but looked well relieved as I returned from my roadie altercation, there's only so many lame jokes you can tolerate in the course of three minutes. 

Kate owns a creative design bizzerniss called 4Ttude (here's a link) which she successfully got off the ground last year, it's based in Aberdeenshire but deals with people far and wide. I'm in awe of people with the courage to set up a business, it takes sphericals to leave paid employment and go it alone. 4Ttude is thriving and it couldn't happen to a nicer person. Listeners and I learned of Kate's roots in Fife, Freuchie to be precise, although her first four years were spent in Canada. I'm familiar with parts of Fife, thanks to my own family connections, so was surprised to hear from Kate that it had a 'nice' part. No offence like. Apparently Freuchie's a pleasant spot but I need some persuading, just because it's got a cricket club doesn't mean it's got class. Birmingham has a cricket club for example.

We talked of Kate's three lads, (aged 2, 8 & 15), followers of Aberdeen FC on the plus side but with regrettable Man United leanings in the debit column. If their musical tastes are as impressive as their mother's I can assure their prospective girlfriends that if Kate's sons' patter is found wanting, at least their music will compensate, just shove on one of their CDs. Any guest who selects Depeche Mode is fine by me, similarly monkey man Ian Brown can do little wrong and PJ Harvey is quality too, fine choices. The Fun Lovin' Criminals track I played with trepidation, had I mistakenly chosen the blasphemy strewn version my broadcasting career would have been toast but thankfully we got the clean version, so my meteoric rise to fame can continue apace. My agent is making noises about an appearance on the Jonathan Ross Show but that's perhaps a little soon. Besides, I can't stand the bloke (Ross, not my agent).  

Kate's selections rather put Steven's into the shade. I foolishly allowed him a pick too and he plumped for some lame American who had no more right to record music than I do. To top Kate's list off though we had a Bob Dylan cover which sounded superb until the news headlines crashed in on the hour, my time management going all to cock. The number of times I crash music into adverts and news headlines rivals the number of trophies Aston Villa's cabinet contains, hundreds. Still, we'd enjoyed a very pleasant hour together and will do so again later in the year, Kate's the sort of easy company that every weekend should begin with, fun, energetic and classy musical tastes. You can come back too Innes if you get me those tickets, you can forget it if you don't.

Kate's selections
1. Bassheads - Is There Anybody Out There
2. Ian Brown - F.E.A.R.
3. Fun Lovin' Criminals - Scooby Snacks
4. P.J. Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder
5. Depeche Mode - Where's The Revolution
6. Laura Marling - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

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