Are you a 6Music Dad?

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“6Music Dad”? What’s that, then?

I don’t think it was ever really meant as a slur initially, but it did sort of become one. Coined by Sheffield artist Self Esteem (Rebecca Lucy Taylor to her friends):

It was during this tour that Self Esteem clocked the presence at her gigs of a certain grouping: men of a certain age, music fans all, and informed music fans at that. “6Music dads” quipped Rebecca and laughed.

It’s a stereotype, and those are never good, but they do exist for a reason. Obviously, there has been a lot of chatter about this on the 6Music groups that I subscribe to, but I have to say that it’s a stereotype and a moniker that I – and many others – have absolutely no problem with. If it is meant to be a bit patronising or offensive, it’s really not working – let’s face it, we’re all well past being upset by words.
[sarcastic tone] Oooooh! [/sarcastic tone]

(IYKYK)

I’m… wait… [checks] Yes, I’m a dad, and I do listen to a lot of 6Music, so is that enough? Well, maybe, but there’s a bit more to it than that, as Tom Dunne explains in his article for the Irish Examiner. In fact, there’s a 11 question quiz in there, with fairly straightforward Yes or No answers.

So how did you get on? I suspect many of you will have gotten many, many Yes answers to the point where trying to pretend you are not a part of this fabulous new club is just pointless. Smells like a duck, and walks like a duck: probably a 6Music Dad.

I scored 10/11, (only because I probably wouldn’t be seen at the back of an Idles concert) (although their new one is annoyingly actually rather good), but that 91% score is definitely enough to drop me very comfortably into the cohort.

And I’d absolutely rather be there than with the rest of the oldies over on Radio 2. I might not enjoy everything I hear on 6, but I like to be challenged. I’m not anywhere near ready for that easy-listening, middle-of-the-road stuff. Well, not all the time anyway. My musical tastes are both incredibly varied and totally binary: I like a load of very different songs and artists, apart from the ones I don’t like. Simple as that.

And I still like a lot of “proper” music that is coming out now: new releases from the likes of New Dad, Sigur Rós, Nitin Sawhney, Baxter Dury, The National and The Lathums have all featured on the blog in the last few months. And it’s no surprise to learn that they’ve all probably featured on 6Music as well.

So yeah, when it comes to being a 6Music Dad, I’m very happy to freely admit that I completely (well, 91%) fit the mould, and I hope to keep fitting it for some time to come.

A winner

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A good afternoon or at the newly refurbished and revamped Kenilworth Racecourse, including a win for everyone’s favourite horse* in his biggest race yet.

Many jubilant scenes in the sunshine in the new Winner’s Circle. You may even spot someone you know in there.

* especially those who placed bets on him. (It me!)

Lion around

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Absolutely no need for that pun. Gym and singing exam both went well, thanks for asking.
I’m watching a bit of Liverpool and Manchester City before we head out for a braai at a friends’ place.

So here’s a quota lion from last year on the Garden Route.

This one was so close to the safari vehicle that she didn’t even fit on the frame of the not ever so powerful lens that I was using. She could have just leapt in and eaten any one of us.

I – very sensibly – positioned myself just behind my daughter at this point. Just so I could get a better angle on the passing animals. No other reason.

It’s been a long one

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Exhausting day. And yet I seem to have achieved very little. Or at least nothing big. Does that make sense? Stage 6 loadshedding (despite him saying this). A bit of wasted afternoon. All rather frustrating.

On the plus side, it ended with some very decent Frankie Fenner (no relation (I don’t think, at least)) lamb burgers over the coals, partnered beautifully by some quickly homemade mint sauce.

Tomorrow: gym, singing exam (not me), football (watching), braai (not me again).

And hopefully still time for a better blog post, more jobs and less frustration.

Not now, mystery outbreak of respiratory illness in China

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Lol. It only seems like 4 years ago, we were talking about a mystery outbreak of respiratory illness in China that was alarming the World Health Organisation. And now look at this:

Yep. And if you look back at November 2019, we all thought that we were living in a pretty hectic, messed up world. And we were right.

But wow. Little did we know about what was to come. Suddenly, November 2019 looks a very attractive option destination for my time machine settings. Well, at least compared with November 2023.

But now is not the time to be adding issues to our already overworked, overstressed and overtired lives. So please, China: take your mystery outbreak of respiratory illness and sort it out quickly and efficiently (no! god no! not like that!) so that we can get on with prepping for economic disaster, pre-election violence and the seemingly inevitable outbreak of World War 3.

Happy days!