‘Our computer sampler cost more than a house!’: how the Korgis made Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime
We’d had a Top 20 single in the UK with If I Had You and were recording our second Korgis album, Dumb Waiters.I was living in Bath and had a piano in the flat that I couldn’t really play – I am a guitarist and bass player.But regardless, I battled away at the ivories every day trying to come up with interesting chord sequences.Basically, I was trying to write a rock ballad that I thought might get us on the radio in the US as I was convinced that the Korgis could have a future there.One Sunday morning, I went to the piano and the first thing I came up with was the opening chords to what became the “change your heart” verse section.
This inspired the chorus phrase: “Everybody’s got to learn sometime,” But initially I wasn’t sure what feel the chorus should have,It was our drummer and guitarist Andy Davis who suggested keeping the chorus in a minor key like the verse,Then the song, though simple, felt satisfyingly complete,The musical vision I had in my mind was Paul McCartney’s demo for The Long and Winding Road where it was just solo voice, piano, bass and drums – which was how we did our original studio demo.
I think if we’d stayed with that, we would have ended up with simply a pleasant album track – but we owe it to our producer, David Lord, for seeing the song’s potential.He gave it a more luxurious production with big washes of smooth synthesiser strings and the occasional musical hook played by a sampled Japanese koto.The finished result sounded gorgeous and we really started to feel we’d come up with something special when friends dropped by the studio to have a listen and were bowled over by this strange and utterly unique creation.We knew then that if ever there was a radio-friendly pop record, this was it!Even so, we were amazed a couple of months later to see the finished track reach No 18 on the Billboard chart in the US, No 5 in the UK and No 1 in France, Spain and the Netherlands.I think people see it as being a romantic, one-to-one love song, which is a perfectly acceptable interpretation.
But for me, it was an attempt at a Zen philosophical statement, inspired by the Buddhist meditation practice I was into at the time.Since the 1980s, the song has had a life of its own, with more than 50 cover versions to date.My favourite is the dark and brooding version Beck did for the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.I have to remind myself that this was something I wrote in 20 minutes on the piano one Sunday morning 45 years ago.We had finished our Dumb Waiters album but felt it was running a bit short and needed another track.
James sat down at the piano and said: “Well, I’ve got this song,” He did a verse that was in a plaintive minor key but when he went to the chorus, it changed to a major which gave it a more uplifting mood, rather Beatles-ish sounding,Andy suggested a couple of chord changes to keep it in the same minor mood of the verse,James had also written a second verse, but nobody, including the record company, liked it,I guess the record company thought if it was going to be a hit, it needed a second verse.
They were really pressing us to get one.When we wrote a new one, they didn’t like that either, so we went back to the original.Most people don’t realise it’s the same lyric repeated in the two verses.And then Stuart Gordon added the brilliant violin solo in the middle which was done in one take.We were lucky because Peter Gabriel, who I’d been working with, lent us new instruments, his cousin having become English distributor for the revolutionary – and expensive – Fairlight computer sampler keyboard.
I believe that, at the time, it cost more than the average UK house!The Japanese-sounding hook between the verses was played on a sampled guzheng [a Chinese plucked zither] on the also very new Synclavier keyboard.If you played a key quickly it did this short-plucked string sound, but if you played a longer note the sample had a bend.So that became the distinctive oriental hook between the verses.Just four short notes and a long one with the bend.There have been some really some great covers of the song.
I especially love the Zucchero one.The new Korgis album UN-United Nations is out now, along with a new single, Red Flag Day
UK sells £1bn of bonds on most expensive terms since 2004 – as it happened
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Sizewell C cost ‘has doubled since 2020 and could near £40bn’
The cost of building the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk has doubled since the plans were presented to the UK government in 2020 and could now reach close to £40bn, according to reports.A rise in construction charges over recent years, combined with cost overruns and delays at EDF’s Hinkley Point C nuclear project in Somerset is expected to increase the final bill to build a successor project at Sizewell, according to the Financial Times.A report cited people close to the talks between EDF and the government, which are focused on how to finance the nuclear project. The Treasury is expected to decide whether to back the project in this year’s spending review.According to the report, one senior government figure and two well-placed industry sources said that the cost of building Sizewell C would be about £40bn in 2025 prices
‘We have enough products on the planet’: Nobody’s Child boss Jody Plows on the ethics of sustainable fashion
The chief executive of the clothing label is emphasising traceability and accountability in the supply chain – and looking beyond one season at a timeJody Plows sweeps aside a screen to reveal models, photographers and stylists swishing about the white-walled offices of the Nobody’s Child HQ in Camden.The boss of the fast-growing fashion label, whose clothes have been worn by the likes of Phoebe Dynevor, Poppy Delevingne, Sienna Miller and brand ambassador Fearne Cotton, says she has been “building a culture” as much as a business.The office is filled with colourfully dressed employees who, Plows says, hold a meeting once a month to “celebrate everybody” and the brand’s successes. “I think all of that is very motivational,” she says.Founded a decade ago by tech and fashion manufacturing entrepreneur Andrew Xeni, and backed by New Look founder Tom Singh, the brand began selling affordable dresses at around £40 with the aim of being more ethical and sustainable than its competitors
‘Don’t allow you to go to the bathroom’: big tech’s call center workers in Greece on strike
Call center workers for some of the world’s biggest tech companies including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Netflix are accusing their employer of retaliating against union organisers, constantly surveilling staff and even refusing bathroom breaks.In the US or Europe, if you call for technical or customer support from a big tech company, you may be speaking with a worker at one of Teleperformance’s call centers in Greece.Teleperformance, the largest call center operator in the world, employs about 12,000 workers in Greece, serving more than 140 markets around the world in 43 different languages and dialects. The company has seven multi-language hubs in Greece – in Athens, Chania, and Thessaloniki.Workers who have been pushing for a collective labor agreement with Teleperformance in Greece say the company has recently retaliated with targeted layoffs of union leaders
A bargaining breakdown and strikes: the ongoing union fight at Starbucks
Negotiations between Starbucks and its union have broken down, with workers calling the company’s proposals “almost laughable” and highlighting the multimillion pay package of the coffee chain’s recently appointed CEO.Since late 2021, over 530 Starbucks stores have won union elections, representing more than 12,000 workers at the company. But talks aimed at negotiating a first union contract have stalled and the company has called the union’s proposals “not sustainable”.Workers said the pay of Starbucks’ new CEO, Brian Niccol, who left Chipotle in August 2024 to assume the role of CEO at Starbucks, is at the center of the breakdown in contract negotiations between Starbucks and Starbucks Workers United.Niccol’s pay package includes up to $113m in total compensation, 10,000 times the median salary of a Starbucks barista, with a $10m sign-on bonus, $75m in stock options plus a remote office in southern California and access to the company’s private jet to travel to Starbucks headquarters in Seattle, Washington
JD Sports cuts profit forecast, blaming big fashion price cuts
JD Sports has cut profit expectations for the second time in eight weeks, blaming heavy discounting across the fashion market.The retailer said it did not expect any growth in sales at established stores during the year and warned that annual profits would be no more than £935m, down from previous hopes of between £955m and £1.03bn.Shares in JD, which also owns the Size?, Blacks and Millets brands in the UK, fell 10% as it cut forecasts below its previous expectations and warned of a tough economic backdrop for retailers.The JD Group chief executive, Régis Schultz, said: “With these trading conditions expected to continue, we are taking a cautious view of the new financial year
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