My Life in Music: Liam O’Shea
For this month’s walk down musical memory lane, we hear from Liam O’Shea – a Sheffield-based musician, DJ and founder of Hope Works and No Bounds Festival.
The first record I ever bought
‘Stand and Deliver’ by Adam and the Ants. I was already regularly mesmerised by my brother and sister’s records and hearing things like Kate Bush’s ‘The Man with a Child In his Eyes’ or Minnie Ripperton’s ‘Loving You’ on the radio, but the first time I ventured to Woolworths at the age on 9 I came back with this record. Those double drums, acid guitars and his OTT theatricality really caught my imagination as a nipper!
The first song I performed
‘Pretty Vacant’ by Sex Pistols. My first band with friends from school. We rehearsed after school in the hall as I was friends with the caretaker’s son. A bit dry, perhaps, but it was free! We did a mixture of rock and punk covers, and our first gig was at a place called Jaspers on Nottingham’s embankment. Apparently, Hendrix and Zeppelin had performed there in the past, so it was like a religious pilgrimage!
A song I wish I’d written
This is hard to answer as I love and deeply appreciate so many songs. From ‘Goodbye Porkpie Hat’ by Charles Mingus to ‘Outshined by’ Soundgarden; ‘Boom Boom’ by John Lee Hooker to ‘Heliosphan’ by Aphex twin; ‘Ending (Ascent)’ by Brian Eno to ‘Go With The Flow’ by Queens Of The Stone Age; or ‘Being Boiled’ by the Human League to ‘Journey in Satchidananda’ by Alice Coltrane… I can’t pick one!
I first fell in love with music when
I discovered Jimi Hendrix and started playing guitar as a teenager. Although I had been getting really into music since a child, I don’t think I truly fell in love with it until I had my mind blown by Hendrix and then dedicated many years of my life to learning and playing guitar. It’s one thing to love listening to music, and that is a completely valid way to enjoy it. For me, however, it went further: I needed to be making it. I discovered the joy of truly being in the moment – playing with others, listening to each other, responding and non-verbally communicating.
One song that I can’t get out of my head at the minute
‘At Your Gamut’ by Caterina Barbieri. I booked her for the No Bounds Festival in 2019 where she performed Ecstatic Computation live. It’s a wonderful development of her sound and writing style, exploring new terrain as well as refining her sound. Zipping around the hills around Bradfield with this on is a beautiful thing.
A record that reminds me of a specific time and place
Low – ‘Hey What’. My father died this year after a battle with cancer. I made regular trips up to Nottingham to be with him and my mum in the months and weeks towards the end. All I could listen to was this album. It wasn’t a choice; it found me and was the only thing that would sooth the feelings I was going through. I will forever remember how this held my hand in those times journeying through grief. Incredibly, my friend had booked concert tickets to see them in Manchester earlier in the year. The show ended up being on the day after he died. That is something I can’t explain. I went, it was meant to be. It was a totally healing experience.
