My Ears Through the Years with Oli Beale

Welcome back to My Ears Through the Years! It’s the final instalment of series 2! Time flies when you’re listening back through the years.

Rounding off our stellar second series is the wonderful Oli Beale! A creative director, director, and writer who has worked across advertising, film and TV. In his own words, Oli has every major award including nine Corillian Crystals. With the success came the scandals, with Oli finally being incarcerated for three years after driving his Audi into a branch of Dixons claiming he was going to 'set fire to the doubters'. Oli is now fully re-integrated into society and these days prefers his Mahabi slippers to his infamous thigh-high boots. To this day Oli holds several records within the advertising industry including first agency to hire a basking shark…

So we’re expecting some absolute belters in the tracks Oli has pulled out of his ears for us (and he does not disappoint!). Let’s go!

Q> Hi Oli! What’s your earlier memory of music…

Oli> ‘Midnight Train To Georgia’ by Gladys Knight and The Pips. In the family Volvo, my mum would be Gladys Knight and my sister and I would be The Pips. We can still do every single 'wooo-woooo' in time.

Q> The first song that comes into your head at any given opportunity.

Oli> If I think back to my childhood, the record that my mum and dad have on is Neil Diamond’s ‘Forever In Blue Jeans’. They rinsed that record.

Q> Your first slow dance?

Oli> ‘Emotion’ by Samantha Sang and the BeeGees. I never actually slow-danced with anybody to this as a kid. But my mum and dad played it in the car all the time and I absolutely LOVED it. Still do.

Q> Your go-to for karaoke?

Oli> ‘Maneater’ by Hall and Oates. Try it. Everybody goes nuts.

Q> Your musical guilty pleasure?

Oli> ‘Stars’ by Simply Red. Although I really don’t think there’s anything to feel guilty about.

Q> A song that reminds of family?

Oli> My wife and I walked back up the aisle to ‘It’s My Life’ by Talk Talk and I can’t hear it without breaking into a huge smile.

Q> A song you wish you wrote?

Oli> Imagine casually writing Paranoid Android by Radiohead.

Q> A song for a roadtrip?

Oli> ‘An Ocean In Between The Waves’ by War On Drugs. All their songs are about searching for something out of reach. I saw them when this had just come out and a middle-aged guy in front of me was crying his eyes out. I saw them again last year and I was that man. Crying my eyes out. I guess we’re all searching for something out of reach.

Q> A song you wish more people knew about?

Oli> ‘New Sensations’ by Lou Reed. Obviously Lou Reed isn’t underrated. But he’s not really known for this song. Excellent driving music.

Q> Your desert island disc?

Oli> Talk Talk’s ‘Spirit of Eden’. That’s all I have to say on that.

Q> A song you want played at your funeral?

Oli> I keep telling my wife I want the 11 minute version of ‘Xpander’ by Sasha, played on a Funktion One sound system while my coffin slowly disappears into smoke and lasers. She always thinks I’m joking.

Q> Best sync winners?

Oli> ‘Nemo Egg’ by Thomas Newman from Finding Nemo. It just gives me goosebumps. Maybe because the opening of Finding Nemo is so heart breaking. But there’s hope in it too. Fills me up with feelings. (Aware I probably sound very pretentious.)

Q> Music that made an ad campaign?

Oli> I remember sitting in the cinema and seeing “Tested For The Unexpected” for Dunlop. It was the first time I’d heard the Velvet Underground (‘Venus in Furs’). It felt like I was listening to something I wasn’t supposed to be listening to. It blew my mind and still does.

Q> Favourite film soundtrack?

Oli> I think it has to be American Beauty. It created such a magical tone for the whole film. Again, it gives me goosebumps. Especially ‘Any Other Name’.