Two shelves.
One education.
I’m Simone, a South London broadcaster, digger and soul obsessive with two decades in record shops and late-night listening rooms.
I grew up in Brixton with a mother who played Marvin Gaye on Sundays and explained every record like it was a story worth carrying. My father left his collection behind — his shelves sat next to hers. Two collections, two lives, one education.
Four summers from fourteen were spent at my Auntie Paulette’s in Savannah, Georgia — church on Sundays, then Stax and Muscle Shoals on 45s in her garage after. I never stopped listening the same way.
I cut my teeth on pirate radio and late-night sets across London and Manchester, learning the music from every angle without losing the reason I started.
Brixton
My mother played Marvin Gaye on Sundays and explained every record like it was a story worth carrying. My father left his collection behind. His shelves sat next to hers.
Savannah, Georgia
Church on Sundays, then Stax and Muscle Shoals on 45s in Auntie Paulette’s garage. I never stopped listening the same way.
Peckham
I started by making tea at a pirate station in a Peckham tower block and ended up with Sunday midnight to three. Four listeners, maybe. Worth it.
Manchester
Northern soul nights up north changed how I hear a record. Some songs only make sense at four in the morning.
A home for soul, funk, disco and R&B from when the music was made to last, where the story behind a track matters as much as the groove itself.
