international news _ 4th April, 2006
Ashley Beedle's Zombie Nation
Text by Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)
X Press 2's Ashley Beedle hooked up with Skrufff this week to discuss his new label Out Hear Audio and production project 'The London Heavy Disco Review' and opened up again about his formative years spent working with dead bodies at a hospital in London.
During the early 80s, the acid house pioneer and uber-successful producer worked as a hospital porter in the daytime while clubbing on the rare groove/ soul scene at night, though had to quit his job when he became increasingly unsettled.
"I was assigned to Accident and Emergency and that involved going into the morgue at the weekend sometimes because for some reason that's when a lot of accidents happen, such as drink driving related crashes. You'd be given an arm or a leg in this bag taken from people who'd had amputations and you'd have to carry it down to the fucking incinerator and throw it in," he recalled.
"The reason I quit was because I became desensitized, you'd find yourself talking about the football results as you threw legs in the furnace; I felt like a fucking zombie sometimes."
The X Press 2 star's hellish experiences matched those of Human League singer Phil Oakey who did the same job at Fullwood Annexe Children's Hospital in 1978, though with less traumatic effect.
"Actually dealing with them - burning parts they'd cut off and so on - was alright," the synth pop icon told FHM magazine several years ago.
"It was slightly fascinating. I used to toss a part into the incinerator, and you'd have to have a look. Crispy - you couldn't tear yourself away."
And chatting to Skrufff soon after, Oakey was even more upbeat, describing hospital portering as 'a good job for many reasons; there was no money in it but it was a good job.'
"It makes you look at life in a different way and you don't even have to be mentally strong to do it, because you're running around all day doing things that make you forget the darker aspects of the job," he mused, "Watching people doing it would have been more disturbing."
Ashley Beedle Presents the London Heavy Disco Revue: The Balloon Room EP, is out on April 3, on Out Hear Records. Check his site below for 2 60 minute free downloads of soul and reggae.
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