Cloud 9 (aka Nookie) – Gonna Be Alright 1992

As a kid of 11 or 12, I used to have a radio just above my head where I slept. It seems funny now as I’ve barely listened to the radio for more than ten years but back then I used to be lulled to sleep by the relaxing sounds of HARDCORE PIRATES.

I used to put a tape in the box, turn the dial to 92.3 FM and listen to The Weekend Rush, broadcasting from Hackney’s Nightingale Estate. When I was getting tired, and assuming the signal was decent that night, I’d press play and record and fall asleep. On a monday morning I’d have three or four sides of C90 to keep my walkman warm for the week. At the end of the week, I’d probably tape over them again, unless they were particularly good, in which case they’d get a numbered label in my best 12 year old’s handwriting.

The above tune is the original white label version of the Nookie track “Gonna Be Alright” which is often known as “Sound Of Music”. In my great love for cheesy chords, no keyboard line means as much to me as this one. Utterly sentimental. Simplistic. Played on a cheap piano synth. It couldn’t be tackier but it hit me as a kid and has stayed with me. I still have the tape that recorded the first time I heard it. I sellotaped it back together a couple of times but it still plays.
Years later, I now own this original mix, the famous mix, the Foul Play remix (very good) and maybe a couple more mixes, and find it doesn’t really matter what goes on around the keys, as long as they’re there in all their simple glory. You could probably sell me a Robbie Williams song with that piano line.

Thelonius Monk it is not but it is as important to me as anything else put to wax and I’m very grateful that those pirates weighed anchor in my neck of the woods when I was growing up. They could have been at sea, hijacking oil tankers but they chose to share the music with London. Ta.

Arena Pirate Radio Documentary Part 1 & Part 2.