Clint Mansell: Black Country Sounds

The fabulous movie soundtrack composer and one time Pop Will eat Itself frontman has put together a group of playlists featuring some of the songs that shaped his formative years in the Black Country.

 Here are some words from Clint about his selections:

"Where did you grow up? Where were the first places you went out and danced, got drunk, snogged, got into fights, laughed, missed the last bus home, sat on the swings in a deserted park at 1 in the morning with your best mate?

These were mine..this is the music they played while we were growing up.

Monday nights was the Summerhill in Kingswinford. The music there was New Romantic/futurist, glam, and some post-punk. Our clothes were cheap and my boots were held together with duct tape.

Fridays was JBs in Dudley, probably the best club in the world EVER. I can’t guarantee that Dermot, the DJ, played all these tunes but its a reasonable representation of the music he’d spin. Punk, reggae, new wave, mod, rock..the best education we could have ever hoped for.

Then once in awhile there’d be a disco at the Old Halesownians Rugby Club where it was northern soul, Motown and disco. It wasn’t easy to get in there because we weren’t members and the rugby crowd didn’t like us but whatever..we’d get in somehow and dance all night off because there really was nothing else to do. 

Check out Clint’s JB’s playlist below: