Lockdown Lullabies - Guest Blog #4 - Cameron Smith, Corporate Banker at Lloyd's

We are back again! In this latest instalment of the Lockdown Lullabies 'series' I welcome Cameron Smith into the Castin chair. Cameron is a banker in the Corporate Team at Lloyd’s bank with a focus on business with a revenue of ￡25m-100m in the Thames Valley. Originally hailing from Cardiff, Cam moved to the area in 2012 after a short stint in London.

Cam enjoys his music and following previous themes has chosen those songs that take him straight back to a particular time in his life and of the people he was with at the time. By way of his own intro, "I regularly have the headphones in when in the office (remember those days?), typically listening to a DJ set of some sort (usually drum and bass, or ‘noise’ as most people refer to it as). Back in my youth, I liked my guitar bands and regularly attended live gigs and festivals. What follows is a fairly eclectic mix of songs that bring back some good memories!"

Recordings:

Stereophonics - Bartender and the Thief

I moved back to South Wales from Edinburgh in 1995 and a lot of my new friends were talking about this band. I was quickly onboard, with their first couple of albums getting a particularly good listening to. We went to the Morfa Stadium gig in ‘99 which was awesome (Reef were one of the support acts). I got driven to it by one of my older sisters, got on the valley’s champagne (strongbow) and had a great day in the sun. This was one of the first tracks they played and the crowd went nuts - we were just about far enough back to avoid the crush at the front. Good times!

Roni Size - Brown Paper Bag

This track probably started my interest in DnB. I remember the video coming on MTV and was instantly hooked. It was a while before this became my genre of choice with a few of my friends also liking the ‘noise’ (50/50 split in my friend group as to who likes DnB so it is very marmite!). In the noughties, spent a lot of time in sweaty clubs dancing (badly) to this sort of music (High Contrast played a lot in Cardiff at the time). There is a great live performance of Brown Paper Bag when it was played on Jools Holland - well worth a watch on YouTube if you have a spare 4 minutes. 

The Music - Take the Long Road and Walk it

Heading in to my Loughborough university days now in the early 2000s. Couple of my housemates loved their music and this band was introduced to me. They flew under the radar a bit in my view as their first couple of albums were class (think they might have got big in the Far East!). There is a beat at 1:11 that we all had to air drum - we were so cool. Anyway, brings back strong memories of drinking cheap vodka and Powerade, playing drinking games and generally doing all we could to avoid studying. Lead singer of The Music has a side project going with Mike Skinner of The Streets fame called The D.O.T which is decent (had a lot of time for The Streets too). 

Kings of Leon - Slow Night So Long

I was a bit obsessed with these guys I’ll be honest! Saw them play Red Morning Light on Jools Holland and that was that. Got the Youth and Young Manhood album at the next available opportunity. This is the first track off the second album and is a superb opening. I tend to get a bit bored of most artists after a couple of albums but the Kings had me going until album number 4. I have seen them live a few times and they are phenomenal. If I could choose a band to have been in, this would have been it. Not sure I would fit in very well though...

La Roux - In For the Kill (Skream Remix)

A few tracks that could have been selected here (Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy were close) but this one brings back memories of the Cardiff boys first proper trip to the big smoke to see one of our friends who made it across the bridge a few years earlier. The journey there resembled something out of The Inbetweeners with us getting lost / stuck around Leicester Square trying to find our way to the Finsbury Park area. Friday night was big and I woke up at around 7am on the Saturday morning (10 blokes sleeping in a lounge not exactly conducive to great sleep) and put this on having heard it a few days earlier. Initially very annoyed, I was quickly forgiven by the boys and this was the soundtrack to the weekend as it was pretty much on repeat. What followed was a great day. Footy in the park at 9am (well on our way to be drunk again by then), getting excited about going on the tube to a club and a curry to close down brick lane. You can take the boy out of Cardiff......

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes - Homes

The song that would have been our first dance if I hadn’t (wrongly) vetoed it for some soppy Ed Sheeran number, a decision I regret to this day (the song choice, not marrying my lovely wife of course!) My wife and I met at the Wireless festival in London and in our early days of courting would regularly swap songs for each other to listen to. Music is a big feature in the Smith household with Alexa regularly on, although the wife and child often get their choices for a lot longer than mine (they have reasonable taste so it is all good). This song always makes us smile and brings me back to our wedding day (where it was played during the night) which was amazing. Honeymoon in Ibiza was also pretty cool!

Paolo Nutini - Candy

This song reminds me of my parents. My dad (who sadly passed in 2016) had almost no musical interest at all. A grumpy Scot, he would ask for the radio to be turned down / off most mornings while he read his paper! He mellowed in his later years (helped by the red wine I think) and my mum and dad both loved Paolo Nutini (I also think he is great). This track was each of their favourites and we decided as a family it would be apt for it to be played at my dads funeral. Rather than bringing sadness, it reminds me of my parents happy together. Time for a large glass of red I think....

Wilkinson - Afterglow

The song that has ended many a night will also end my short list of songs. One of my favourite DnB tracks is sure to get me up and dancing (again badly) if I hear it when out. The singer is Becky Hill who has done alright for herself since. Not much more I can say about this one other than look it up, get it on and get involved!

Book or Film (or boxset)

Dan very kindly gave me the chance to avoid picking a book or film and to choose a box set instead. Aside from reading to my son at bedtime, I don’t read much at all and didn’t think a Mr Men book would be a great choice given what’s gone before me. Films I tend to watch the same thing over and over, much to the annoyance of my wife. Culture vulture I am not!

Box set of choice would be therefore be Breaking Bad. We started watching it shortly after my son was born. As he didn’t sleep for the first 3 years, we figured we may as well binge a box set or two to help us through it and this was recommended to us. Took a couple of episodes to get into it but once we were, there was genuine excitement about watching it each evening. 

Luxury Item

Like Chris Dobson, I’m hoping that Dan has already sorted me out with some electricity, a DVD player and a TV on my island as freebies so that I can watch my box set without wasting my luxury item choice. On that basis, I would be looking to take a golf club or two and an ample supply of balls so I can do some much needed work on my game. Who knows, with all that time on my hands I may even be able to drive the ball straight eventually!

Thank you very much to Cam for getting involved and I hope all of the network will enjoy this read as much as I did. You learn so much about people - I am looking forward to a chat with Cam about Stereophonics, DnB and The Streets next time we get out on the golf course! Stay safe all and anyone else keen to reminisce and share their selections please do get in touch with me.