15 years of Sunset with Simon Caldwell

I was sitting in the fbi foyer doing a group interview for a volunteer position at the station. To see him in person was a semi-surreal moment – until then he’d maintained an almost legendary status in my head, a mythical figure in Sydney’s dj scene.

Eight months, and plenty of Sunsets later, and Simon and I are sitting at the Raglan in Redfern, enjoying a schnitzel with Bass, his other producer. Whilst much of Simon’s mystique has disappeared, it’s been replaced with deep admiration and respect. Helping out with his show over the past 6 months has broadened my perspective on not only music, djing, and the “scene,” but also life in general. Some of my favourite moments have included his MC Fats tribute, where he cut up some classic DnB (on wax nonetheless), a particularly memorable Philly soul special (which involved heaps of Teddy Pendergrass), and of course, all the times he brought insanely talented local musicians and djs to the forefront via guest mixes. Those two hours every Monday night are to me, some of the absolute best for any house (or just) music fan, and to be able to be involved in that was something super special.

Simon Caldwell’s contribution and dedication to Sydney’s music scene via the channel of community radio is pretty remarkable, and I wanted to mark the significance of his 15 years at FBi by having a chat with him about his time on air.

Regarding your own radio career – when did you start radio, and how did you end up at FBi?

“I started doing radio in the very early 90’s at 2MBS FM – a mainly classical station, late night show, with Trevor Parker. Trevor and I were part of All Funked Up, a DJ collective, and we then were invited to do a show on 2SER. We ended up with separate shows after a while, and I did a program on 2SER for about 12 years. In 2008 I was invited to take over Monday Sunset, as the current presenter Deepchild was going to live in Berlin. Previous to Rick/Deepchild, Lorna had been the first Monday Sunset presenter.”

Your show has had quite a few producers over the years… Do you want to run through them maybe? Do you know what they’re up to now?

“There have been some amazing producers on the show, who help put the whole thing to air. The first was Arya, who was a student of mine from AIM. Adi Toohey was doing reception at the station on Mondays, and I asked if she’d like to produce the show, and from then on all the producers have been pretty involved in making the show as well as playing some tunes. Obviously, Adi, Jackson, Ry, and Adam have all gone on to great things, but I can’t really take credit for that.”

Just from my short time on the show we had a Guy called Gerald and Byron the Aquarius as guests, and I know there are some other exciting artists coming on soon. You get in both seriously esteemed internationals and also local talent – who is the most inspiring person you’ve had on the show?

“Andrew Weatherall is totally up there. He was great because he didn’t wanna do any of the music talk. He’d always have these weird tangents he was on. His theory about psychedelic drugs and the bible, for example.

You know, there’s a type of lichen that grows on rocks in the Middle East. And he’s [Andrew Weatheral] like – look at some of those old testament stories – the burning bush etc. He was like – as if that’s [the lichen] not involved. He was just riffing about that that day.”

I’ve heard lots of people say that Monday evenings are the best evenings out of the FBi programs. I think the Monday slot is particularly significant for a dance music program however, as it’s directly after the weekend – some people may be recovering from…certain things… they did… or drank… or snorted… and I think it’s a fun way to relive the excitement of the weekend. Almost like a hangover remedy. I’ve often heard you do minor renditions of the stuff you’d played on the weekend – ghetto tech etc. Do you want to speak about the significance of a Monday slot?

“Well clearly Mondays are the best haha, but sometimes also not always the easiest, depending on the weekend.  It’s true that there can definitely be some hangover from the weekend, which might affect the selections. It’s also true that it almost never conflicts with a club gig, and there has been an occasion where I had to – uh, make it very clear that I did not want to move to a Friday or Saturday night. Shout out to those who know.”

I also asked Simon to compile a few meaningful tracks which he feels sum up his time on the program:

• The K-Scope Project - Organism
• Randolph - Leanin' (Deetron Vocal Mix)
• Rhythm & Sound w/Tikiman - Music A Fe Rule
• Fred P - Reach
• Two Lone Swordsmen - Glide by Shooting
• Aquarhythms - Reversion (Morgan Geist Remix)
• Jamie Principle - It's a Cold World
• Andres - Reality
• Biancolato & Gratts ft. Lesley Williams - Sunsets
• Hugh B - Powder Coat (bowl-o-sonic mix)
• Angus Mills - Yelp

Words by Madi Martin-Bygrave