My Ears Through the Years with Benny Everitt
Welcome back to ‘My Ears Through The Years’! Our new series where we get to know the music that made you. We want to hear about the songs you grew up with and the songs you’ve boogied on down to; the songs that scored the good times and the ones that saw you through the bad; the songs you could never forget and the ones you wish you could; the belters, the bops, the ballads, and everything in between.
Next leading us through their musical life is Benny Everitt, executive creative director for Uncommon Creative Studio. Benny is the one of the creative minds behind some of the greatest ads on telly, but what does the writer of YouTube’s most-viewed and most-shared ad of 2012 listen to in his spare time? Let’s find out
Q> Hi Benny! Tell us, what’s your first memory of music…
Benny> My Dad was a morris dancer and ran a team called South Downs Morris, so I spent the first few years of my life being dragged around folk festivals and falling asleep under pub tables as different folk groups performed.
Q> And the first music you bought yourself…
Benny> Two trips to Woolworths: one to buy ‘World in Motion’ on vinyl (still got that) in the height of Italia 90 fever; and another for Gazza’s ‘Fog on the Tyne’ single on cassette (that went to the charity shop).
Q> Your first gig…
Benny> My dad somehow managed to get me in to see The Pogues when I was really young and it felt like a cross between football violence and a poll tax riot. Loved it.
Q> The first song that comes into your head at any given opportunity…
Benny> Tinnitus. Gutted.
Q> Your first slow dance…
Benny> Pretty sure The Bodyguard had just dropped so it’s Whitney ‘I Will Always Love You’.
Q> Your dancefloor anthem…
Benny> Pretty much any jungle or drum n bass from about 1995 to 2001. There’s an old Randall Dreamscape set that’s the most perfect 45 mins of music I’ve ever heard and it ends with ‘K2’ by Phantom Audio.
Q> Your go-to karaoke song …
Benny> ‘Nowhere Fast’ by The Smiths: “I'd like to drop my trousers to the queen. Every sensible child will know what this means”. What a line.
Or ‘5 8 6’ by New Order. But it’s got a really awkward first two minutes with no words.
Q> Your musical guilty pleasure…
Benny> BBC. Hootenanny. ‘Good Thing’ by Fine Young Cannibals. It’s terrible but I had a great drunk dance with my girlfriend to it. And it’s stuck for life.
Q> A song that reminds you of home…
Benny> The Pogues on cassette on family holiday drives was a thing. So it’s the first track of Red Roses For Me, ‘Transmetropolitan’.
Q> An artist you wish you loved…
Benny> Proper Garage never really made it to Brighton when I was growing up. Reckon I’d have loved it.
Q> A song you wish you wrote…
Benny> Can remember where I was the first time I heard Original Pirate Material. And I think the first three tracks are perfection.
Q> An unpopular musical opinion…
Benny> Ed Sheeran. Don’t get it.
Q> Your desert island disc…
Benny> Not on my list – but ‘Voodoo Ray’ by A Guy called Gerald. 00.33 – would die for that bit.
Q> Your funeral song…
Benny> Fell in love with the song ‘Bella Ciao’ at a football club in East London. Want that sung as my ashes get fired out of a firework over St. Mary’s football stadium.
Q> Best sync moment…
Benny> The last scene in A Room for Romeo Brass – ‘Going Down’ by The Stone Roses. Melts my heart each time and it feels like every street in the country could tell that story.
And of course, Daniel’s film for Chase and Status ‘Blind Faith’. Again perfection.
Q> Music that made an ad campaign…
Benny> ‘Impossible Dream’ by Andy Williams. Chris Groom absolutely smashed that.
Q> Best theme song…
Benny> Theme from Sparta F.C. on Final Score. It’s just The Fall init.
Q> Favourite soundtrack or score
Benny> Trainspotting. Never been bettered.
Q> The track you’d most like to sync…
Benny> I’ve always wanted to use ‘Welcome To The Jungle’. But it’s never fast enough for the edit.
