01. Why did you start in this business we call show?
My first ever conscious memory is of the radio in 1966 when I was around two years old. And before that, my parents listened to the pirate stations for pop music. So music and DJs have always been in my ears and in my head and in my heart. I had a little tangerine and cream coloured plastic Dansette record player in my room when I was a kid and I used to put on shows for my dolls and teddy bears. Captive audience. But we’re talking the 60s and 70s here and little girls were discouraged from such things as DJing. I didn’t make the leap from dream to possible reality until we moved back to the UK in 1975 and I heard legendary Radio One DJ Annie Nightingale for the first time. I worshipped her. She was a girl on the radio. My head exploded.
02. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Music. Music. Music. And then some more music. I have synesthesia. I taste music. I taste colours. I taste certain shapes. Music is 1000% edible to me and rather like cooking I know what flavours work together and what spices I need to jazz things up, which bits to marinate, which bits to chop up, what works. I’m a great cook if I do say so myself.
03. What is your favourite swear word?
Fuck. Above anything and everything else. A friend of a friend once reported the following to their manager: “The fucking fucker’s fucking fucked, sir”. It’s the only word in the English language that can be used as noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. That’s pirate bad-ass right there.
04. What would have been the worst possible day for you to sleep through the alarm?
The day I got the email to join WFMU. I’d DJed online before and also DJed live and I did shows on hospital radio. But this was WFMU. The longest-running, OG freeform radio station. When I got the email I screamed, ran around the living room, and then cried for ten minutes solid.
05. Presley or Costello?
There is only one Elvis and that’s the King, Mr Elvis Aaron Presley. End of discussion.
06. What was the one gig (yours or someone else’s) that made time still for you?
Both times I’ve seen The Polyphonic Spree. They are the most transcendent musical experience in the world, bar none. The Polyphonic Spree is the musical equivalent of Ecstasy.
07. What sound or noise do you love?
My daughter’s laugh.
08. It’s 3am. The promoter stole all the money. Two people turned up to the gig. Your name is spelt wrong on the poster. It’s raining. What makes you get up tomorrow and do it all over again?
Because two people came to the gig. And for all I know, those two people just had the worst, crappiest day of their lives and they scrabbled down the sofa for the money to come and see me, and all they want is to be happy for a few hours and forget how crappy their day was. I do it for them.
09. Where do all the odd socks go?
I have a treasured theory about this. I think the centrifugal force inside the washing machine is so strong that it flings socks into a parallel universe where they mutate into those crap wire hangers you find in motel wardrobes.
10. What will it say on your tombstone?
“She made people happy”.
DJ GeorgyGirl presents two weekly radio shows on freeform station WFMU:
- An hour of library music and spoken word, Wednesdays 8 pm to 9pm, Hi-Waisted Modernists: https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/HW
- Two hours of 60s and 70s British psych, pop, mod, folk, prog, and assorted, Fridays 9 pm to 11 pm, The Flange & Frigate:
Also:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dj_georgygirl/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/djgg64
Plugged In Brighton 