FEATURE: One to Another: Saluting Tim's Twitter Listening Party

FEATURE:

 

 

One to Another

IN THIS PHOTO: Tim Burgess/PHOTO CREDIT: Nik Void

Saluting Tim's Twitter Listening Party

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EVEN though it is not an event and phenomenon….

 IMAGE CREDIT: @LlSTENlNG_PARTY/@Tim_Burgess

exclusive to 2020, Tim Burgess’s long-running Tim’s Twitter Listening Party has brought us together during a particularly horrid year! It would take too long to go through all the highlights and the brilliant albums featured, but I am especially looking forward to seeing You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby by Fatboy Slim being discussed on 1st January. Recently, Paul McCartney took us track-by-track through his new McCartney III album and, to get such a massive artist on the series, it shows that Burgess’ work has touched so many people! McCartney himself was very grateful to Burgess for hosting his listening parties, so let’s hope that continue strong through 2021. The concept is very simple: a certain album is chosen and then, at the same time, everyone can listen along to the album as that artist(s) tweets about the songs and their memories. You can search the #TimsTwitterListeningParty hashtag and catch up on what has been happening so far – go to the official Twitter page to get updates and information. Not only have so many people discovered something new about an album they thought they knew well, but there has been this sense of community and excitement with each new Listening Party – and I am sure many people have bought a certain album off of the strength of reading an artist sharing recollections and insight! It has been amazing to see such consistency from Tim Burgess and his whole team in a very challenging year.

In April, Burgess wrote a wonderful piece for The Guardian - where he explained why he did his Tim’s Twitter Listening Party series:

“It’s hard to write music during lockdown. A lot of songwriters I’ve spoken to just aren’t getting inspired at the moment. I did try. I wrote a song called Wash Your Hands and thought: “I’d better put the guitar down now.” That’s why I decided to start hosting listening parties on Twitter instead, which I’ve been doing every night from 9pm with the hashtag #timstwitterlisteningparties. We pick an album and listen together at a set time – 9pm or 10pm – with commentary from one of the artists involved.

The first week I did it we had Blur, Ride, Franz Ferdinand and Oasis – Bonehead did the commentary for that one. As soon as we started, it had become a thing. One of the maddest things was seeing it as the top trend on Twitter.

Everyone who’s taken part so far has said it’s like doing a gig. There’s the trepidation beforehand, then an hour of craziness, and finally a period where you’re kind of decompressing. The only difference with this is that nobody’s nicking your beers!

We’ve done about 30 so far, including our debut album Some Friendly, and there have been some great moments. My personal highlight is me not realising that I’d played Reading festival in 1999 – I still can’t remember it now, even though people have been telling me exactly what happened.

I also loved Dave Rowntree revealing his collection of laminated artefacts from the Parklife era – old photos, gig tickets. He made so much effort and that really upped everything because the listening party became a visual thing. The Cribs did one for Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever and were showing their old tour diaries and lyric sheets. Those are the kind of insights you don’t often get in a magazine – bands probably wouldn’t want to show those at the time of release anyway, but now there’s a bit of history involved and they feel more relaxed.

What I like is that it’s giving people the opportunity to listen to an album in its entirety again. Musicians I talk to, even the younger artists, all want to make an album that’s a masterpiece, that has a theme running through it, a start and a finish. That has been crushed in a way because people felt they didn’t have enough time on their hands. But now all we have is time, so it’s a beautiful thing for this moment.

We’ve had listeners from all over: New Zealand, Japan and even Antarctica. Part of the reason we do them at 10pm is because that’s when Japan is waking up. The other reason is because that’s when the 10 o’clock news is on, and I wanted people to have an alternative to that – you can watch the news at any time these days; this is a way of offering up an alternative good time instead.

I would urge anyone with even a passing interest in music to check out the schedule for the upcoming listening events and get involved when you can. I want to finish with another article that raises an interesting point. So many of us flick through albums on Spotify; we tend to cherry-pick songs rather than invest time listening to an album from start to the end. When we are listening together with Tim Burgess, the featured artist(s) and a host of listener around the world, we get to appreciate the longform album:

“In a world where our favourite tracks are at our Spotify fingertips, we’ve forgotten to appreciate the b-sides and the underdogs. Millie Finn delves into the latest way to listen to an album

Let’s face it, it’s natural to neglect delving into the innings of a record when, for so many, music is background noise for the morning commute, daily errands and – pre-Covid – social gatherings. While Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess’ listening parties were born well before 2020, the endearing concept was discovered and adored by thousands more when thrown into a worldwide lockdown.

With such unheard insights at the refresh of your Twitter feed, who needs to go out? When we needed it most, listening parties were added to our list of hobbies and forms of escape. And with a second English lockdown in full swing, the need to find a way to stay in tune with the world has never been more important. Keep your records close, your Spotify active, and settle down for the music.

In the words of Pete Doherty during a lockdown listening party, “bang, bang, bang, wallop”.

In such a crazy, horrible and strange year – where so many musicians have suffered and lost out -, the bright spot that is Tim’s Twitter Listening Party has enriched so many people. And, if Paul McCartney gives it his double thumbs-up of approval, then I think we should all come together and get behind it! Long may Burgess’ brainchild continue! The Charlatans’ legend has made 2020 so much more bearable and, with the help of a host of eclectic artists, we have all been brought together at a time when we are…

ALL divided.

Sam Liddicott