“I was considered a wild child by my parents who didn’t really know what to do with me, so they packed me off to a kibbutz at the age of 11.”
“If Tel Aviv was pretty remote from any kind of International youth culture in those days then the kibbutz was even further. Any kind of non-local music was impossibly exotic! Yet somehow the Beatles were so big that they actually got to the local electrical shop in the small town 3 miles walk from the kibbutz that sold a few records.
I bought the original double EP of Magical Mystery Tour there, complete with booklet. It would be really hard for anyone in this connected age to really understand, at the tender age of 14, what this magical link with an incredible culture, so alien to my surroundings but so exciting, meant to me.
I had a tiny record player and played it all night over and over with my ear right next to the speaker on the lowest volume. Even so, I got complaints from my room mates! I pored over the booklet, not only was there this incredible music but there were also images. They looked so cool I wanted to be them and marry them!
Many things in me started from that time, from that music. I felt connected in a way I never felt at home, I knew somehow that it was OK to be a dreamer and I’ve been a dreamer ever since and it started a love affair with the UK which has been my home for over 20 years now.”
—Malka Spigel
Malka Spigel’s new record, Every Day Is Like The First Day will be released September 4 on Swim.
