ODDS ‘N’ BODS
STEVIE WONDER ‘Lately’ is finally due on 7in (to combat Rudy Grant?) Fuse One ‘Fuse One’ LP is now a cheaper German import . . . Kleeer ‘Get Tough’, Free Expression ‘Chill-Out!’, Skyy ‘Superlove’, Narada Michael Walden ‘The Real Thang’ are due on UK 12in next week, followed by Firefly ‘Love’, Parliament ‘Agony Of Defeet’ / ‘Tear The Roof Off The Sucker’, Richie Rome ‘Remember Me’ / ‘Deep’ and a Barbara Mason coupling . . . Kool & The Gang’s current 4-track 12in is also available as a gatefold-housed 7in twin-pack — but is still too long to qualify for the new singles chart regulations (which, due to their “one artist only” clause, would debar all John Lennon’s hits featuring Yoko Ono on the flip, Frankie Valli ‘Grease’, Lee Marvin ‘Wand’rin’ Star’, and all the other classics with the misfortune to credit someone else on the B-side!) . . . Showstopper Promotions hold a ‘2001/Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon’ “space” theme alldayer on Easter Bank Holiday Monday April 20th at Southampton Top Rank with the usual mafia team . . . Gary Allan (Liverpool McMillans) and the Gnomes had special gnome suits tailored just for Caister but were too late for tickets and now beg for a chalet (call 051 – 526 5407), and will even pay over the odds for one . . . TISWAS’s Lenny Henry is making a record (again) – hopefully it won’t be ‘D.I.S.C.O.- K’! . . . Chris Brown’s ‘The Family Album‘ jazz-funk gig picture book has been picked up by W.H. Smith & Son for distribution to all their major branches at a much cheaper £4.95, for which it can be ordered at any of their shops not carrying it in stock . . . Canvey Shades first Wednesday was a blinder by all accounts (and not only because of the custard pies!) – Steve Walsh and friends (likely to be Owen Washington & Alan Jewell) will be there weekly . . . Al Taylor’s Sunday soul club at Rhyl’s Dixieland Showbar also got off to a good start . . . Thames Valley DJ Assn meets Sunday (22) lunchtime in Chesham Gatsbys, Lothian & Fife DJA’s AGM is on Tuesday (24) at 7.30 pm in Edinburgh’s Grange Hotel, Whitehouse Terrace . . . Inversions are getting rave reports for their live appearances . . . Cloud at Mayfair Gullivers last Wednesday played all the jazz hits you know and love – ‘Hunt Up Wind’, ‘Hard Work’, ‘Winelight’ etc – which were nice to hear live even if the youthful white group lacked the polish they are bound to acquire with time . . . Shock, the freaky futurist mime group, are at Gullivers this Friday (20) and next Wednesday (25) . . . Bob Jones has left Chelmsford Dee-Jay’s after eight years but is at Chelmsford Countryman Mondays, with Froggy at Copford Windmill Tuesdays, and Braintree Barn Wednesdays . . . Paul Bannon, recently moved to Sunbury-on-Thames (86124) from Belfast, is looking for London area jazz/funk/soul gigs . . . TWA have cut their package holiday prices to the USA if you book by April 30th, making four days in New York including flights and accommodation just £164 (less than two standby fares on their own!) – are you reading this Froggy? . . . Whitehaven Whitehouse soon start a themed Wednesday “international” night representing with drinks etc, a different country each week, people collecting tickets from all the eight nights then being eligible for a draw to win two weeks for two in sunny Spain (thanx for the drink, Phil!) . . . BRMB’s Nicky Steele acknowledges Edgbaston Faces’ floor response chart as a significant influence on the content of his Saturday night soul show . . . Alan Coulthard (Barry Atlantic Wine Bar), who visited Gullys with Cloud, reckons the public’s lack of interest in newies is only partly due to the depression and more to do with radio’s reluctance to play the sort of disco material that previously would have been automatic chart fodder . . . I certainly can’t understand radio ignoring such as LAX, Fantasy, Skyy, TS Monk, Ned Doheny . . . Whispers ‘It’s A Love Thing’ sounds stronger by the week while we wait for ‘Imagination’ and may have been a better UK singles choice after all – it’s actually getting screams of recognition now (although these may be from Americans!) . . . Shalamar, which last week looked ready for the knacker’s yard, has had an unexpected chart resurgence (how much are you paying ’em, Rowdy?!) . . . Bernard Wright, whose Arista GRP import LP is the week’s hottest entry, turns out to be only 16 years old . . . Robbie Dee, and anyone else who lost it, Island’s mailing list address is Elaine Sutcliffe, Island Records, 22 St Peters Square, London, W6 9NW – give full gig details . . . Graham Gold has an unbelievably good mix from Yarbrough & Peoples into the JB’s ‘Gimme Some More’ (Mojo)! . . . Turkish boffins, as you may have read, have determined that loud disco music makes mice queer and pigs deaf (they don’t mention native New Yorkers.) . . . Tom Amigo (Cardiff M Disco Services) says the Beatles ‘Twist And Shout’ is so much requested it could hit again . . . Marshal King (Sunderland Mayfair Suite / Genevieves) points out that pop dance hits are more popular than disco nowadays, but in the same area Graham Bond (Teesvalley Roadshow) reckons that jazz-funk has finally started going over quite well at all his discos . . . Gordon Lyle, Glasgow-based musical co-ordinator for Scotland’s Unicorn Leisure company, says that as many clubs have to play across-the-board music with a bit of everything (including funk), then this page should review the likes of Spandau Ballet (I did review their first record), Roxy Music and the like. Well Gordon, as you and every other DJ surely knows, the sort of punter that you’re dealing with really only want to dance to the hits and you don’t need me to tell you what they are, you only need to switch on the radio. While on the ether hand soul, jazz, funk (plus the other oddities that I do indeed mention from time to time) have a devoted following yet lack any comparable media coverage – so, by all means keep it varied, but also KEEP IT GOOD!
FUTURE HITS
RUSTY EGAN, not only drummer and tape-loop supplier to Visage, Shock etc but one of the leading DJs of the original fashion-setting Futurist scene, last Saturday organised at London’s Rainbow the biggest New Romanticism event yet, declares that he has now retired from jocking (we’ll have to see if that’s for real!), leaving the scene to its commercialisers. He’s such a generous guy though that he let me rummage around through his record boxes to find out what, for him at least, makes up the required material for Futurist gigs – and the result could come as a surprise! In point of fact, New Romanticism is still sufficiently ill defined for its followers to be unsure of what it is that they ought to like, so that Rusty finds whatever it is he happens to be playing at the time is what people want to buy when they hear it in his shop. Rusty’s record shop, ‘The Cage’ (conveniently next to ‘Axiom’ for stylish clothes) is in the Great Gear Market at 85 Kings Road, Chelsea. First off, he bubbles with enthusiasm about his forthcoming remix of ‘Burundi Black’ (Decca 12in), Visage ‘Mind Of A Toy‘ and Ronny ‘If You Want Me To Stay‘ (both due on Polydor 12in), before launching into THE LIST:
Landscape ‘Einstein A Go Go‘ (RCA 12in), Shock ‘Angel Face‘ (RCA 12in), Space ‘Tender Force‘ (French Vogue 12in), Metro ‘America in My Head’ (German Metronome 12in), Sugar Minott ‘Good Thing Going‘ (Hawkeye 12in), Me & You ‘La La Means I Love You‘ (Castro Brown 12in), The Reddings ‘The Awakening’ (Epic), Rinder Lewis ‘Put Yourself In Alpha’ (US AVI LP), Simple Minds ‘I Travel’ (Arista 12in), Duran Duran ‘Planet Earth’ (EMI), Talking Heads ‘Once In A Lifetime’ (Sire), Tantra ‘Hills Of Katmandu‘ (US Importe LP), Kid Creole & The Coconuts ‘Maladie D’Amour‘ (Island), Was Not Was ‘Wheel Me Out’ (US Antilles 12in), Harry Thumann ‘Underwater’ (Decca 12in), Grace Jones ‘Demolition Man‘ (Island 12in), Giorgio Moroder ‘The Chase‘ (Casablanca 12in), Kraftwerk ‘The Model‘ (Capitol LP, ‘The Man Machine’), Rinder & Lewis ‘Willie And The Hand Jive‘ (US AVI LP), Basement Five ‘1965 To 1980‘ (Island LP), Roxy Music ‘Jealous Guy’ (Polydor), Joy Division ‘Atmosphere’ / ‘She’s Lost Control’ (Factory 12in), Simple Minds ‘Celebrate‘ (Arista LP), Snakefinger ‘The Model‘ (Virgin LP), Depeche Mode ‘Photographic‘ (Mute), Lizzy Mercier Descloux ‘Press Colour‘ (US Ze LP), Shirley Bassey ‘Never Never Never‘ (UA), Doris Day ‘Move Over Darling’ (CBS), Liza Minelli ‘New York New York’ (Soundtrack LP), plus the following albums: Human League ‘Travelogue’ (Virgin), Yellow Magic Orchestra ‘Solid State Survivors’ (A&M), Talking Heads ‘Remain In Light’ (Sire), Telex ‘Looking For St Tropez’ / ‘Eurovision’ (Sire), Ultravox ‘Vienna’ (Chrysalis), John Foxx ‘John Foxx’ (Virgin), Sparks ‘Number One In Heaven’ (Virgin), Gary Glitter ‘Greatest Hits’ (GTO), Roxy Music ‘Viva’ (Polydor), David Bowie ‘Scary Monsters’ / ‘Heroes’ / ‘Low’ (RCA), Ziggy Pop ‘Lust For Life’ / ‘The Idiot’ (RCA), Lou Reed ‘Transformer’ (RCA), Visage ‘Visage’ (Polydor), Ultravox ‘Three Into One’ (Island), Kraftwerk ‘Trans-Europe Express’ (Capitol), Roboterwerke ‘Roboterwerke’ (German CBS), Wolfgang Riechmann ‘Wunderbar’ (German Sky), Love Of Life Orchestra ‘LOLO’ (US Fetish), Contortions ‘Contort Yourself’ (Ze), Don Armando’s 2nd Avenue Rhumba Band ‘2nd Avenue Rhumba Band’ (Ze), Scientist ‘The Best Dub Album In The World‘, Sly & Robbie ‘King’s Dub’. Rusty assumes you’ve already got Spandau Ballet, right? Well there you are, get that little lot and you too can be a Futurist DJ . . . except, as with any type of music, it ain’t what you play it’s the way that you play it which matters most.
IMPORTS
ALPHONSE MOUZON: ‘By All Means’ LP (US P.A.U.S.A. 7087).
Forget his zingy “disco” efforts, the jazz drummer is back on form with a dazzlingly brilliant instrumental set starring Herbie Hancock, Lee Ritenour, the Seawind Horns and a flugelhorn solo from Freddie Hubbard, the doodlingly starting smooth long 114 – 115bpm title track taking a while to become compulsive but then skipping and tripping through a well related series of solos, the more immediate (and my own fave) attractive nagging 99bpm ‘Do I Have To?‘ jogger dually synchs perfectly out of Yarbrough & Peoples while the even prettier 97bpm ‘The Next Time We Love‘ is similar, and ‘The Jogger‘ an intense sombre slow 90bpm jolter. Possibly in short supply at present, this should have wide enough appeal to be huge – it’s certainly the only stand-out in a busy but boring week for new imports.
VARIOUS: ‘Disco Mix’ (US Disco Mix AL-1001).
Don’t wet yourselves with excitement “disco mixer” fans, but here’s another real goodie! Dance-Orientated-Rock rather than soul, it brilliantly if slightly monotonously builds at 113 – 112bpm with some new freaky additions around Queen’s ‘Another One Bites The Dust’, blending into Kraftwerk, Steve Wonder, Genesis, Eagles, Doobie Bros, Timmy Thomas and more mainly instrumental “spot the intro” snippets — even the Stones ‘Honky Tonk Woman’, James Brown ‘Body Heat’, AWB ‘Pick Up The Pieces’ and, you’d better sit down if you’ve a weak heart, is flipped by the full ‘Let’s Do It’ in other words, ‘Bits & Pieces III’! What value! However be warned as there has been a bootleg of the original ‘Bits & Pieces III’ bootleg in circulation that only has the short disco side on both sides, leaving out the longer pop medley. To be safe, get this version. It has black print on white label, ‘Disco Mix’ on Side A, ‘Let’s Do It’ on Side B.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfILLl4n1sw
STARS ON 45: ‘Stars On 45’ (Dutch CNR 151.028).
“Legitimate” (depending on your viewpoint) Euro version of ‘Bits & Pieces III’, this 124bpm 12in recreation has been recorded with heavily accented singers as a bland medley instead of “mixing” the original hit snippets in bootleg style, and consequently sounds merely jolly like so many other Continental medleys even though it slavishly copies (in one continuous take) just about every detail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2VIMWhEsNo
QUINCY JONES: ‘Ai No Corrida’ (US A&M 2309-S).
So, all of you who ignored Chas Jankel’s happy skipper, the laugh’s on you. Quincy has added some twiddles and a short violent break on 123bpm 7in (ahead of his album) yet retains so much of the radio-plugged original’s flavour that this got my floor going while the punters were just beginning to arrive. Continue reading “February 21, 1981: Rusty Egan’s record boxes – “get that little lot and you too can be a Futurist DJ””
James Hamilton's Disco Page 