My Ears Through the Years with Graeme Light

Welcome back to another My Ears Through The Years! The series where we ask brilliant and inspiring people in our industry to spill the tea on what they’ve been listening to over the years: from the songs that they’ll never forget and to the ones they wish they could.  

Up next we have the head of McDonald’s production at Leo Burnett’s, aka the Legend of Leo’s… the one and only…Graeme Light! Graeme is not only the mastermind producer behind many beloved McDonalds campaigns, he’s also a previous winner of the prestigious British Arrows Fellowship Award. And whilst you may never find him in a karaoke booth, you should definitely take Graeme’s METTY playlist for spin!

Q> Hi Graeme! What’s your earliest memory of music? 

Graeme> Having a dedication on Junior Choice one Saturday morning.… ‘Three Wheels On My Wagon’ by The New Christy Minstrels. I was actually terrified cos I thought that the band had had to go to the place where the programme was playing from especially to sing me the song. I thought they’d be furious and might be rude about me on the radio. Hadn’t discovered records at that point. 

Q> The first music you bought for yourself? 

Graeme> Abbey Road by the Beatles for 50p from Cheapo Cheapo in Rupert Street in Soho. Definitively the best second-hand record store in London when I was growing up. Closed in 2009, the shop’s story is here. 

Q> Your first gig? 

Graeme> Would love to say it was the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club or the Lesser Free Trade Hall, but it was the Boomtown Rats at the Rainbow in Finsbury Park in 1977.

Q> The first song that comes into your head at any given moment? 

Graeme> ‘The Killing Moon’ by Echo & the Bunnymen. I find myself thinking of that song (the 12” version) virtually every day… and I must play it three times a week and have done for about 45 years. Odd, cos it’s not even my favourite E & TB song… that’s ‘Bring On The Dancing Horses’.

Q> Your first slow dance? 

Graeme> ‘If You Leave Me Now’ by Chicago. Late ‘76/early ’77 at a disco in West Hampstead. The end of the night was beckoning and I might as well have been invisible, but somehow Gillian from Ilford accepted a request for a slow dance. It wasn’t the start of a long-term romance… she turned on her heels at the end of the dance and I never saw her again. 

Q> The first song you felt you could never escape from? 

Graeme> ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’, the West Ham crowd anthem/chant. I have been a big supporter of the club over the years, though less nowadays, but this song always annoyed me… it seemed an excuse for mediocrity: ’just like our dreams they fade and die’… makes me shudder, as did the 1975 FA cup winning team’s version that the team ran out to for years after at the Boleyn Ground. Tuneless, chord-less, and often a pre-cursor of a wasted afternoon as we lost at home again!!

Q> A song you grew up with? 

Graeme> Nat King Cole’s ‘When I Fall In Love’ always seemed to be on when my mum was cooking Sunday lunch. She had a few records but this was her go to artist. I was brought up in a pub - the Flask in Highgate - a very busy place and Pub of the year in 1974, so there was always activity. The pub was shut 2-7pm on a Sunday and we’d eat (above the pub where we lived) at 3pm….Nat King Cole was the backdrop….bringing harmony, I’m sure, for my mum amidst the confusion.

Q> Your walk out music? 

Graeme> ‘London Calling’ by The Clash. I walk loads in London…I love the city, so this feels a relatively fitting song to walk on to a stage to. Also, what a band…right up there as the best live band ever and this song has one of my very favourite lyrics: 

London calling Yes, I was there, too

And ya know what they said? Well, some of it was true

London calling at the top of the dial

And after all this, won't you give me a smile?

Q> Your dancefloor anthem? 

Graeme> ‘Nightmare (Sinister Strings Mix)’ by Brainbug (1997/Ibiza)

Q> Your go to for karaoke? 

Graeme> Wouldn’t be seen dead in a Karaoke bar. Music is to be lost in, to be overwhelmed by, or to be transported back to a moment or memory… it should not be butchered (in my opinion)

Q> Your musical guilty pleasure? 

Graeme> Two of my very favourite songs of all time are sung by Joan Baez, ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ and ‘Diamonds and Rust’. Joan feels a guilty pleasure and so different to everything else I listen to, but these two, with the latter just winning out as my favourite, are madly beautiful.

Q> A song that reminds you of family? 

Graeme> ‘I Wear Your Ring’ by Cocteau Twins. Elizabeth Fraser’s voice is incredible, possibly my favourite vocalist of all time. It’s haunting and involving… I just love it. I’ve no real idea what the lyrics of this song signify, but in the story that I’ve woven in my head it reminds me of my wife and I’m very, very happy with that. 🥳

Q> How has your musical taste evolved?

Graeme> Junior Choice to Max Richter, via the Clash, the Jam, the Editors, the Killers and the National. 

Q> A song you wish you wrote?

Graeme> ‘The Green Fields of France’ written in 1976 by Eric Bogle, and Australian folk singer. Best version is by The Fureys and Davey Arthur from 1979….but the Men they couldn’t hang did a great version in the ‘80s (the latter were amazing live). The song is about a young soldier killed in 1916 on the Somme, as if reading his gravestone.

Q> An unpopular opinion? 

Graeme> If Oasis were doing a warmup for their comeback tour in my back garden, I’d close the window.

Q> A song / artist that you wish more people knew about?

‘Touch And Go’ by Any Trouble (1982)… Not on Spotify or Apple Music, but, in my opinion, an all-time classic. Check out YouTube.

Q> Your desert island disc? 

Graeme> I have five go to albums that I play all the time.

Into The Labyrinth by Dead Can Dance

Blood On The Tracks by Bob Dylan

The Clash by The Clash

History by America 

After Virtue by Wim Mertens

And it’s this last one that I’d take to the island…. imagine I’d be feeling pretty panicky, and Wim’s masterpiece instantly calms me in times of stress.

Q> A song you would like played at your funeral? 

Graeme> ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ by Joy Division. This has been my favourite song of all time, by some distance, from the very first time I heard it. This band and the Jam played a massive part in my love of music… I saw the latter over 20 times in the late 70’s.

Q> Best sync moment?

Graeme> Giorgio Moroder’s Midnight Express theme. The ending of the film is cinematic and musical perfection.

Q> Music that made an ad campaign? 

Graeme> Levi’s Swimmer (1992) with Dinah Washington’s ‘Mad About The Boy’. Will never be bettered.

Q> Best theme song?

Graeme> And the nominations for best theme song are:

Mad Men, ‘A Beautiful Mine’ by RJD2

Succession Theme by Nicholas Britell

The Sopranos, ‘Woke Up This Morning’ by Alabama 3

And the winner is… THE SOPRANOS!!

Q> Your favourite soundtrack or score?

Graeme> Max Richter’s soundtrack for My Brilliant Friend. The incredible adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels… I think the final series is out soon!!

Q> A track you’d love to sync?

Graeme> ‘Anarchy In The UK’ by the Sex Pistols.