With the Ashes in full swing, England spin bowler Graeme Swann has put together a playlist of the tunes he’ll be listening to – well as long as his team mates don’t put David Guetta on first – in the dressing room. And the spinner knows what he’s talking about, because along with playing test cricket he also has a musical past, fronting his own band. “I put a band together with some guys at Northants called Dr Comfort And The Lurid Revelations,” he tells Q. “We did covers, but my England career took off at the same time the band started so I can’t gig at the moment.”
Queen – Killer Queen
“When I was a nipper in the back of my Dad’s ford Cortina this album was constantly on. I knew all the words by the time I was six. I loved the way Freddie Mercury looked like he was having the time of his life and I’ve always thought that was the way to go about things. I still find myself singing my head off if Killer Queen comes on the radio.”
Oasis – Some Might Say
“I was in my mid-teens and I just remember listening to Some Might Say over and over. It was the first time music really grabbed me by the bollocks. This was the first thing I played after passing my driving test and it’s the first thing I play in a new car. That may sound weird but I’m a sportsman and we’re all a bunch of superstitious freaks.|
Guns’n’Roses – Mr Brownstone
“I can still remember the day my brother got this album, he somehow convinced my mum to let him buy it! When we got home he played it at ridiculous volumes on Dad’s stereo until the first ‘Fuck’ rang out! Mr Brownstone was my tour song a couple of years back. I’d bang it out every day before leaving my hotel room in India and enjoyed the fact that none of the young lads had a clue what is was: What’s that noise? It’s a guitar, dickhead. Mind you, they like Chipmunk.”
The Verve – Bitter Sweet Symphony
“I’d loved the guitar since I was a kid. If it wasn’t Mark Knopfler or Keith Richards then it was Slash and later Noel Gallagher. But for some reason I’d always shied away from actually trying to play one. I was too sporty at school and thought any kid who carried a guitar case was a massive geek, which is something I regret like mad these days. I’ll be sticking a six string in my son’s hands on his fifth birthday and locking him in a studio until he’s mastered four Pink Floyd numbers!”
Stereophonics – Local Boy In The Photograph
“I’ve always loved Stereophonics. I saw them play the NEC years ago and couldn’t believe how good they were. Local Boy In The Photograph is the song I desperately wish I could sing properly. It’s a phenomenal vocal. I also love Last Of The Big Time drinkers. Find me a better song to sing with a pissed group of mates on a Sunday night… Champagne Supernova?”
NB Some Might Say is currently unavailable
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
“We were in Rome, staying in a little boutique hotel when I stumbled across a stereo and a small pile of CDs. Most of the stuff was opera, but the last one was Wish You Were Here. I loved Pink Floyd, but I’d never met a girl who was into them. I put it on only to hear my wife Sarah singing along in the shower. I was gobsmacked! I think I fell more in love with her at that moment than the first time she made me a bacon sandwich with both brown and red sauce on it!”
The Bluetones – Bluetonic
“When I was at school it seemed like I was the only person who were into them. Everyone loved Oasis and Blur but no one seemed bothered about The Bluetones. I thought Bluetonic was the greatest song in the world: There’s no heart you can’t melt with a certain little smile/ No challenge should be faced without a little charm and a lot of style… You might as well live your life by that! That’s the one for the funeral!”
The Jam – Town Called Malice
“In the band Town Called Malice was the greatest song ever to perform. As you start it [sing and clicks finger] Bah, bah, bah, bah… you’d see the bar staff stop serving and just sing-a-long! Is cricket mod? It could be, there’s all the blazers and bright colours, but to be honest I don’t think cricket is mod. Too few people appreciate the music. One time on tour there were four players sat around me on the bus were listening to David Guetta’s Titanium, on repeat! Me and Jimmy [Anderson, England bowler] just sat there shaking our heads.”
White Lies – To Lose My Life
“Jimmy Anderson really got me into them. When I got into it, I thought fucking hell these boys are good. They’re definitely my band of the moment. There’s a stereo in the Lords’ dressing room. Normally the fielding coach puts his iPod on, but if it’s not that the music that gets played is dreadful! What do make of my Barmy Army Joy Division chant? [Swann, Swann will tear them apart again]. To be honest… I don’t think it’s a great song. It doesn’t make me jump up and down in the same way that Laid by James makes me jump up and down!”
Thanks to the Heavenly Social, London, for help with the pictures
