Plateprat med Ruth Brighton

If someone offers to buy you a drink, what do you order?
Whisky – straight with nothing added..

Foto: By Guinnog - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,

Describe yourself using at least five words.
Questioning/Passionate/Considerate/Dependable/Music-obsessed

If you were to choose a pseudonym or artist name, what would it be?
My best friend has always called me 'Rootsie B' and I sign into a lot of things with that name.

Which song (s) do you put on to get people dancing?
Too many come to mind, so I've managed to extract 3....
The Panthers 'Malkaus'

Rail Band 'Marabayasa'

The Starks 'Shelly Belly'

What’s your relationship with libraries?
I used to rent all of my CD's and music from the library. It was a Saturday ritual and I loved discovering things I'd never heard of..

What are your five favorite albums?
(Always mood depending...)
1. Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster "Horse of the Dog''

2. Terry Callier "The New Folk Sound Of Terry Callier''

3. The Doors – (ALL)..but if I had to choose "LA Woman"

4. Junior Wells' Chicago Blues Band - Hoodoo Man Blues

5. Eden Ahbez - Eden's Island (The Music Of An Enchanted Isle)

What are your five (now six) favorite songs?
1. Elvis – Crawfish

2. Little Richard – Hurry Sundown

3. Mimis Plessas ΚΑΡΑΓΚΟΥΝΑ

4. Chuck Berry – Downbound Train

5. Funkadelic – Music For My Mother

6. Human Expression - Optical Sound

What have you been listening to lately?
The Fabulous Three – Best Of

Biluka Y Los Canibales - 'Leaf-Playing In Quito, 1960-1965'

Abdou El Omari 'Nuits D'Été Avec Abdou El Omari'

Mehrpouya – Anything I can find but this is one of his I love 'Boosehye Moj' – I've featured more on my BLOG

Elisabeth Waldo - 'Realm Of The Incas' (THIS IS SO WONDEFUL!)

Don Ralke – 'Savage and Sensuous Bongos'

Los Destellos – Los Destellos

Brazilian & Greek 1960's – I've only got a few tracks in my playlist here, but these are beauties!!

THIS ALBUM TOO (tracks 4/5/6/8/9/10)

Is there an album/artist you think is underrated?

Anything by Gavin Clark

Is there a classic album you've never quite connected with?
I get so much stick for saying this, but anything of Bob Dylan. I just can't get into him.

Which three records are currently at the top of your wantlist?
1. Mimis Plessas – 'Greece Goes Modern'

2. The Inferno – The Inferno

3. Victor-Jara – Canto Libre

Do you collect records – and if so, why?
There is always a thrill when you find something rare and sometimes forgotten. Buying vinyl has proven to be a great way for me to learn about pressings, rarities and other geeky vinyl stuff too!
What was the last record you bought? Ever heard a leaf being played as an instrument?? Biluka Y Los Canibales - ''Leaf-Playing In Quito, 1960-1965''

What’s your favorite song in a language or dialect other than your own?
That's a tricky one. I've spent so much time the last few years exploring 1960's/1970's global music.

From South America to the Middle-East and whatever may crop up inbetween. One song that sticks in mind, however. This one I featured it on my blog a couple of years ago and its sang in Welsh! It sounds divine! I do love Spanish too!

What’s your favorite movie or TV series?
Series: Better Call Saul

Film:

Shaun of The Dead & Lost Boys (You can't beat those 80's movies!).

Vinyl, CD, cassette, or streaming – what’s your preferred format?
I read something that Moby wrote ages ago & it stuck in my head because I'm inclined to agree. As long as I can listen to music, it doesn't matter how:

“A great song is a great song, whether it’s on vinyl or CD or cassette or reel to reel or mp3. Then again, that might be an overly optimistic view, but I do think that great music will transcend the medium in which it is delivered.”

If you were to create a mixtape or Spotify playlist to celebrate love, which three songs would you include?
1. Growlers – Wandering Eyes

2. The Outcasts - Loving You Sometimes

3. Joyce Heath – I Wouldn't Dream of It

Do you have a playlist you’d love to share? What makes it special?
I have many playlists on my Youtube page, butif you fancy checking any of them out, you can find them here: The Listening Post Blog - YouTube
What makes them special? I've been adding to these for the last decade or so and have saved so many discoveries and evolving musical love's into these playlists

What non-fiction book would you suggest, and what makes it worth reading?

Not trying to get political but: A Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict by Ilan Pappe. It's really helped me to understand so much of what is still happening now..

What’s your favorite quote ?
"Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it." - Søren Kierkegaard

Which concert will you never forget?
So many good ones, but The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster in Brighton on Halloween was superb beyond words!

What’s your dream job now, and how did it compare to your dream job when you were 13?
My dream job is, was and always will be to work with music. To play on a radio show, to work for a reissue label and to compile playlists.

Anything that involves sharing and discovering lost sounds. That hasn't changed since I was 13 – and ever since I can remember! This is all I've wanted and want. This is another reason why my blog is so special to me...

Besides music, do you have any other hobbies or interests?
Other than music I love to walk! I love to walk in the mountains, by the sea and walk everyday over the fields! I also love to go birdwatching and am still trying to teach myself to identify bird song! I love being surrounded by the quiet and nature.

How do you think your friends perceive your taste in music?
They seem to like some of it, though its often referred to as 'obscure'. When I to to visit one of my friends he always has a good playlist going and I love that he plays a lot of songs from my blog!


How old were you when you "discovered" music, and what made you fall in love with it?
Looking back, my taste in music has alway been rather eclecic and I think I must have been about 8 or 9 when I started really taking notice of music, but it's hard to be sure.

I used to wait for the charts on the radio every week so that I could record the songs I liked. Me and my brother used to have a microphone set up to a tape recorder so we used to play at being radio DJ's. I LOVED that so much!

My Mum would play lots of Elvis and Demis/Aphrodite's Child, whilst my Dad liked prog stuff (Pink Floyd/Yes etc) and classical stuff. They both loved playing music.

I remember watching Elvis' ''Blue Hawaii'' so many times as a child and loved to sing along.

I also loved the 1973 film of Jesus Christ Superstar and still do. It was soooooooo funky!!! Carl Anderson and Ted Neely's voices are epic and the guitars were so 70's-funk in places.

I approached my teenage years listening to a random combination of A-ha, Bronski Beat/Communards and Faith No More...but I dare say there were lots more!

Has your taste in music evolved over time?
My taste in music has definitely evolved over time! Immensely, since I started doing my blog over ten years ago. I've discovered wonders from all over the globe and had no idea what was awaiting me when I embarked on The Listening Post Blog – nor what is waiting for me, in fact!

Finding new music is a buzz like no other! It makes me happy, more happy than I could ever convey and starting my blog has got to be one of the defining moments of my life.

It sounds dramatic but doing this blog has introduced me to sounds I never dreamt of. It has expanded my mind and ears to things I never knew existed and opened a whole new world to me! It also helps me to focus and provides a place to escape to every day!

If you had a time machine, which musical decade would you travel to?
Most definitely the late 1950's to the late1960's.

Is there something you'd like to learn?
I started learning to play the drums many moons ago and would love to have carried on. I love John Densmore's drumming and the fact he only needed a basic set-up to create his rhythmic magic! I even joined a pipe band to play the snare drum (me above red arrow on photo below)!

Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert?
Definitely introvert.

What are you afraid of?
Artificial Intelligence...Gorilla costumes!

Foto: By internets dairyderivative work: Hic et nunc CC BY 2.0,

Do you have a relationship with religion?
Not at all

What’s your favorite instrument?
Anything percussion/drums!

What’s the best or most beautiful song for a funeral?
That would vary depending on whose funeral it was, but I recently compiled a playlist for my Uncles funeral and this song was among the songs I chose. It's wonderful and so perfect for him!! I love it!

Is there a musician or band that you think has received far too little attention?

D.Dumbo – He has got to be one of my most memorable blog discoveries for me! He plays alone on loop machne and he has such a vast creative palette. Infusing world influences, his music is special!!

I waited ages for his album to come out after he was signed to 4AD. When it arrived I was devastated!! The label had ruined his sound! In my humble opinion the record was completely overproduced with additional embellishments that were totally unnecessary.

The beauty of this artist was that he didn't need any of that! He sounded perfect in all his raw glory and no flash production was needed.

I saw him live and he was just magic on his own with a basic snare/cymbal, guitar and loop machine. He was so good. I wish he would come back...

Who do you think I should have the next record chat with?
Ernesto Chahoud