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17/01/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Cornershop

The story of Cornershop's groundbreaking record, its impact and its legacy.

4 Extra Debut. Did Anglo-Indian band Cornershop's heralded 1997 album - When I Was Born for the Seventh Time - have a lasting legacy? From 2013.

In the early 1990s, the Anglo-Indian band, Cornershop, had had a couple of decent singles, but as a group they were rather ramshackle. Then in 1997, with the release of their album, When I was Born for the Seventh Time, they re-emerged with a different and refreshing sound. 

Their British Asian fusion was raucously experimental; their attitude was spiky, smart and often hilarious. They'd created a masterpiece of cross cultural music which gave them a worldwide hit, Brimful of Asha.  

The release prompted an excited music press to hail the album as a breakthrough in the integration of white and Asian music, and to predict an explosion in multi-cultural rock. 

Musician Talvin Singh, and Rolling Stone music critic David Fricke join band members Ben Ayres and Tjinder Singh to explore how the album was made, the impact it had at the time, and whether its promise of musical integration has endured.    

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.

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