Declarations of undying affection, comparisons to a summer’s day? Who needs ‘em! Our writers recall the offbeat songs that capture their hearts

By Easter 2004, I’d been in a relationship with my partner, Maria, for four months and I was just realising how deeply in love I was. We had become inseparable. A magazine sent me to the ATP festival at Pontins in Camber Sands to interview “the Beastie Boys of noise”, Wolf Eyes. The interview fell to pieces when the band, in a state of great psychic refreshment, all wearing Manowar T-shirts, refused to stop watching a Manowar DVD and signalled they would only answer questions if they related to Manowar.

Alexandra Palace, London
Following a six-night stint in NYC, Fred Gibson returns to London for a brilliant, five-hour melange of his own tracks and wildly energising guest-star mini-sets

Fred Again, AKA Fred Gibson, has been on an impressive run in recent months: a tour from Madrid to Mexico City, a six-night residency in New York, and the emergence of dozens of the songs forming his unfolding album, USB002. He now comes home to the UK; literally with this four-show residency at Alexandra Palace in London, and also in the musical homages he pays on the opening night.

In succession, Gibson plays Arctic Monkeys’ When the Sun Goes Down, a techno mix of EsDeeKid’s 4 Raws, and a blend from Spice’s dancehall track So Mi Like It to the Chariots of Fire theme over a drum’n’bass beat – comedy patriotism, but very enjoyable for it, and all showing absolute disregard for any sense of purism in electronic music.