Steve Lamacq (born 16 October 1965), sometimes known by his nicknames Lammo (given to him by John Peel) or "The Cat" (due to his ability as a goalkeeper) is an English disc jockey, currently working with the BBC radio station BBC Radio 6 Music. He was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire. His family soon moved to Essex and he grew up in the Halstead area in a village called Colne Engaine. Lamacq's career in journalism began as a junior reporter at the West Essex Gazette, after studying Journalism at Harlow College, Essex. In similar fashion to other music journalists who started fanzines during their teenage years, Lamacq started one called A Pack of Lies. It was during his time at NME that he began DJing on XFM, when it was still a pirate radio station. He formed a record label in 1992 with Alan James and Tony Smith, called Deceptive Records. The majority of the label's releases shared a punk-pop sensibility, with Elastica being their most successful signing, before the label eventually folded in 2001.
In 1991, Lamacq was unwittingly involved in one of the most infamous events in British rock music of recent times during a post-gig interview at the Norwich Arts Centre with Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers for the NME. After repeated attempts by the band's co-lyricist Richey James Edwards to convince Lamacq that they were "for real", Edwards gave up and carved 4 Real into his forearm with a razor blade. The editorial meeting in which the story was discussed was recorded for a BBC Radio 5 documentary, "Sleeping With the NME", which later appeared as the B-side to the Manics' 1992 charity record "Theme From M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless)". Between 1995 and 1997, Lamacq occasionally presented Top of the Pops on BBC 1 with fellow Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley. He presented the show alone on several occasions. Lamacq is a well-known fan of Colchester United, has written an autobiography, entitled Going Deaf for a Living and has also acted as a compere on the main stage at the Carling Reading Festival Weekend on several occasions.
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Links To Peel[]
pic: bbc.com
Peel and Lamacq were close colleagues and presented each other's shows if one was away, or occasionally hosted a show together, such as one on 28 April 1997, during London's Music Week. On 24 June 1999, the two men did a joint DJ set at Glastonbury for the last two hours of Peel's show.
On 02 August 2001, Peel claimed that Steve Lamacq was unable to recognise him when he walked down the street; he also noted that he had all his hair cut off earlier the same week and nobody at Radio 4 had noticed, although he had worked there all day:
"It proves the point that you become invisible in middle age. It's depressing at times but at other times it's quite useful."
After Peel's death, Steve hosted several tribute shows in 2004 and 2005. In an interview with the Metro in 2009, he commended Peel for finding the true jewels in all the demos he received:
"The legacy Peel left for those who worked around him and took on board how he operated was just how conscientious he was. If it was a lovely Sunday afternoon and the sun was out, he’d still spend the day indoors going through a pile of stuff. He knew that was the only method of uncovering real gems among a huge collection of demos." [1]
In a 20 year anniversary retrospective of his career at the BBC in 2013, Lamacq recalled how he would be sent with Peel to broadcast from student stations and festivals across the UK for Radio 1:
"They were tremendous weeks...Every night John would spin as many anecdotes as you wanted. I felt sorry for him some nights because every time he threatened to go bed, we would buy him another drink so he could stay up and talk to us more...[Peel] was everyone's conscience.. No one else has the reputation or respect that he had." [2]
Steve Lamacq was also co-founder of the Deceptive label, whose roster included Peel session bands Angelica, Elastica, Gene, Scarfo, Shriek, Snuff, Spare Snare and Ten Benson. Other Deceptive artists to receive airplay from Peel included Collapsed Lung, Earl Brutus, Idlewild, Jonathan Fire*Eater, Junket, Linoleum, Meices, Placebo and Unun.