My House Is Your House

INTERVIEW: SEAN GRIFFITHS. PHOTOS: ROB JONES

“Our house is absolute chaos,” laughs Ashley Beadle down the phone, on one of his regular train journeys between Ramsgate on the Kent coast and London. “My wife runs five record labels so, as you can imagine, you’ll open the front door and there’ll be a delivery of boxes of 12-inch records that have to go somewhere.” The X-Press 2, Black Science Orchestra and Ballistic Brothers member settled in Ramsgate eight years ago after getting married and appreciates the area’s tranquillity after years spent in London.

“We’re about ten minutes from the harbour and I’m in the studio nearly every day in [nearby] Hastings so it’s just perfect for me,” he says.

While Ash admits to usually gravitating to the front room, the record room is “where all the magic happens”, yet despite eight years of marriage, Ash and his wife (Jo Wallace of Ramrock Records) are yet to blend their sizable record collections.

“Jo’s got one half of the room with her Northern Soul collection,” he tells us. “And I’ve got all my old reggae records on the other side.”

Currently producing music for a BBC documentary about James Meredith, the civil rights activist who was the first Black man to be entered into the racially segregated University of Mississippi in the 60s, and working on music with his North Street Collective (alongside his wife Jo and Darren Morris), Ashley’s choices are mostly ones which elicit cherished memories.

“I tried to steer away from it becoming ‘look at my really rare reggae record’,” he tells us. “I mostly wanted to pick things that made me laugh or brought back good memories.”

“I’ve always been a wanderer but when I married my dear wife Jo eight years ago, I settled in Ramsgate and it’s honestly the first place I can say: ‘I really like this town and it feels like home.’ You get older and need a bit more peace in your life and it’s quite tranquil here and in the evenings it’s very chill. It’s great leaving and getting on the train for gigs or to go to the studio but it’s even better when I get back.”

“My wife and I both got the news about Frankie Knuckles passing like the rest of the world and, honestly, we went into two days of mourning. A friend of ours named Richard Epps painted us this portrait of Frankie and brought it round to cheer us up. It’s beautifully done. Frankie broke one of my early records which was ‘Where Were You?’ by Black Science Orchestra and I remember meeting him at a club in New York and saying: ‘Thanks so much for playing it,’ and he said: ‘No, thank you for making it!’ He was the most beautiful, courteous man I’ve come across and sometimes you’d just look at him and think: ‘God, I wish I could be Frankie Knuckles.’”

“I’d heard one of the Beastie Boys talking about these portable record players in an interview and I think, at the time, they were only available in Japan. So when I was over there for some shows in the early-2000s I decided to get one. It’s still brilliant and I take it to record shops and stick in my headphones and have a listen before I buy anything. I just absolutely adore it.”

“When Andrew died, it was quite shocking that he wasn’t on this planet anymore, but, at the same time, we were there to celebrate his life too. He had such a huge impact on everybody in the scene and as a friend, he had impeccable manners and was always there to give good advice. He actually DJed at our wedding and played a mix of rockabilly, 60s garage and just bonkers records really. He danced to his own beat. The funeral was a Humanist ceremony, which I think superstitious in general but I just looked at it one day and thought: ‘Yeah, I like that.’”

Andrew would have chosen, and Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream made a hilarious speech about their days making ‘Screamadelica’ together. Andrew was always open to new ideas and it was beautiful to see all these old friends and celebrate his life together.”

“I always have the dice in my record room. I was just looking at the dice one day and they were both on a four, making an eight. Eight is the luckiest number in Chinese symbolism. So I have it there in my record room as that’s where all the ideas and samples and everything like that begins, so we want it to be our lucky room. I’m not

“Headphones are the tool of the trade. These are from Pioneer and I use them when I’m DJing, working in the studio or just listening to music on the go. When it comes to headphones you just want them to be loud and durable as I’ve ended up breaking so many pairs over the years. I try not to listen to music too loud but you want the option if you need it. These headphones have done the trick for a while.”

“I’ve had this shot for a while and my wife Jo got it blown up for me. My mum’s from Barbados and a gorgeous lady and married my dad who’s an Englishman. You can see in this shot that she’s in charge. I think I must be about eight in this shot in Harrow where I grew up and my mum’s got a beehive and this youthful energy which I love. There’s a real spirit in the picture and my dad, who’s sadly no longer with us, took it so I like that it links the three of us.”

“I can’t actually remember which awards ceremony this was but it might have been the Muzik Magazine Awards. I think we’d won best dance music act or something like that and I remember the three of us going backstage and going: ‘Oh my God, we’ve won an award!’ It was like getting an Oscar or something. This must be late-90s or early-2000s and I love the humour in it. We’re all just laughing and enjoying the moment.”

“When I was younger, I loved Chip Sticks and you used to get them everywhere. I got a bit addicted to them! Then they seemed to disappear but I went to Marks & Spencer’s in King’s Cross Station and they’d made their own version. I’m not as bad as I used to be with them though. I usually get them about once a month now.”

“I remember walking down the road in Brighton to the Skint offices and I saw a poster for ‘Lazy’ on one of those electric or gas boxes you get on the street. It was the first time I’d seen one for the single, then I got down to the Skint offices and after we’d had a chat, they brought out a framed version of the same promo poster for me. There was a lovely synchronicity to it. I’d describe ‘Lazy’ as a happy albatross to me. It won’t go away! Funnily enough, I was in the back of a cab and Radio 2 was on with Ken Bruce doing his PopMaster quiz. ‘Lazy’ came on and before the contestant answered we shouted the answer. The cab driver asked: ‘How did you know that!?’ and Jo said: ‘Well, my husband co-wrote it!’”

“When my dad passed away, I went to his and his partner’s place and took his records, stereo equipment and other bits and pieces back to mine. One of the records was by Ashley Hutchings who was a founding member of Fairport Convention and a few other folk bands. Later I was doing an interview with Record Collector Magazine and talking about this particular album. Then as I went to show the guy the album, two letters fell out where my dad had corresponded with Ashley Hutchings about how much he loved his work and Ashley had written back. I thought it was so poignant and beautiful. I didn’t really know what to say!”

“We were in New York doing promo and Rocky, I think, told him quite a rude joke and he just burst out laughing and the photographer captured the moment. We did a shoot with Annie Leibovitz for a magazine around the same time which was amazing but I just love this shot. The relationship with David began because originally he wanted The Ballistic Brothers [comprising X-Press 2 and David Hill] to be his live band and he called us and we had to tell him that, sadly, we were just a studio outfit. Then we did a rough demo a few years later and the studio engineer turned around and said: ‘This sounds a bit like Talking Heads, have you still got David Byrne’s number?’ He recorded the vocal on his Mac and we just used that version which still sounds amazing. He’s a lovely man and we ended up going on ‘Top of the Pops’ with him and doing press stuff in the US and over here. He’s fascinated with all sorts of stuff from architecture to photography so you end up chatting to him for ages and music might never even come up.”