Andy Kershaw: No Off Switch

In the first of a two-part interview, Andy Kershaw talks about ‘discovering’ Ali Farka Touré and the appeal of ‘bonkers’ countries like North Korea

Peter Moore

07 July 2011

You’re almost as well-known as a traveller than as DJ. What got you hooked on travel?

Not having been anywhere by the time I was 24. Certainly not anywhere that you would describe as ‘exotic’. And having a fascination with the world, nonetheless.

The age at which I became aware of the world was a very turbulent time. It was the late 1960s, so many things happened in a space of 24 months. Including man’s greatest adventure: leaving the confines of his own planet and landing on the moon. So I grew up against that background of exploration. Space flight was man’s biggest adventure since Columbus disappeared over the horizon.

I was very lucky, I came from a background of education and parents who had an awareness of the world. The house was full of books and newspapers. It wasn’t that I didn’t know much about the world, I just hadn’t seen much of it until I was 24.

What pushed you out into the world?

Billy (Bragg) and I started travelling around Europe. My boredom with Anglo-American rock translated into an appetite for something more stimulating from somewhere else.

I really like the story in the book when you’re on that first tour with Billy and you’re in Amsterdam stuck in a traffic jam…

That’s right, the young couple in the car in front of us peeled off their clothes, lit some cigarettes and turned up the music. In the sunshine, by a lovely canal. I thought “This is my kind of town!” In London they’d all be swearing at each other.

What first drew you to Africa?

The music, obviously. But then Lucy Duran really pushed me over the edge by taking me to Gambia via Senegal. That was the turning point. The moment that plane door opened in Senegal. It was so other-worldly to me at that time.

Even the smells, the aromas of Africa, were like something I’d never smelt before – the wood smoke, the damp vegetation, the paraffin lamps, the sweat, the sewage.The whole smell of human life was there! In one inhalation!

Strangely enough, I instantly felt at home. I had an instinctive, innate connection with the place right from the first moment. I thought, “This is where I want to be.”