Month: November 1986

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

LOOSE ENDS’ commercially released ‘Nights Of Pleasure’ appears to be a single 12 inch containing Nick Martinelli’s 103bpm mix and just Dancin’ Danny D’s 104⅔bpm Dub version (not his vocal remix, once again), plus the older 120½bpm ‘Let’s Rock’ … Dancin’ Danny Poku has in fact joined Pete Edge running Cooltempo, the black music team at Virgin now being Mervyn Anthony and Justin Lubbock … UK promo copies of ‘Mr Big Stuff’ are flipped for collectors by the rapping and chanting 96⅔bpm ‘Uptown’s Kicking It‘, credited to The Uptown Crew despite the lyrics going “my name is Heavy D — and we are The Boyz”, evidently unscheduled here and (although it sounds awfully familiar) not due yet even in the US … Les Adams has concocted a 106½-111-121¼-0bm Jaki Graham ‘Megamix’ (EMI 12JAKIX 9) out of ‘Set Me Free/The Closest One/Step Right Up’, and has done a much smoother 114¾bpm lnto The Street Mix of Sharon Dee Clarke ‘Dance Your Way Out Of The Door’ (Arista ARIST 22682), other current remixes including an emptier 0-115¼-0bpm Commodores ‘Goin’ To The Bank (Credit Card Mix)‘ (Polydor POSPA 826), Phil Harding’s 130bpm Cupid Mix of Billy Ocean ‘Love Really Hurts Without You’ (Supreme Records SUPETX 110), a much chunkier 109⅔bpm New York Mix of O’chi Brown ‘Two Hearts Beating As One’ (Magnet MAGT 297R), Dancin’ Danny D’s go go-ish 100bpm Party Time mix of Octavia ‘2 The Limit’ (Cooltempo COOLR 131), and a US Warner Bros promo-only 0-108⅓bpm Victor Flores Passion Mix of Jeff Lorber ‘Facts Of Love’ (selectively mailed out by Phonogram here) … Mel & Kim’s Freehold Mix is indeed 119bpm … Cooltempo, who will be releasing it, warn that shops selling bootleg copies of the Naturals ‘Funky Rasta‘ run the risk of a visit by the BPI … Maceo & The Macks’ ancient ‘Across The Tracks‘, currently so hot its only just outside our Disco chart, is apparently being bootlegged here with the Jackson Sisters ‘I Believe In Miracles‘ as flip … Cultural Vibe has been repressed in the US with a brand new mix of ‘Dub Games’ … David Grant has left Chrysalis to sign with Polydor … Patti LaBelle duetted ‘On My Own’ at her Hammersmith shows with drummer John lngram, from the family group Ingram, and his sister Barbara Ingram was one of the three backing girls (in fact she was hardly able to walk as a lighting rig had recently fallen on her feet) … London’s WBLS returned with a strong signal, and is one of at least six black music stations now cockily running right through the week … Freddie Jackson ‘Tasty Love‘ topped US Black 45s, Cameo ‘Word Up’ and then the Communards ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ Club Play in Billboard … Bobby Nunn of the original Coasters died aged 61 from a heart attack in Los Angeles on November 5, just as elements of his group’s old style seem to be resurfacing in some of today’s rap records … Thursday (27) Redhill s old Busbys reopens as Millionaires, with Paul Fernandez of Purley Scarlets there every Friday and looking for PAs on 0268-727412 (office hours) … Robbie Vincent souls Didcot’s revamped Rio Friday (28), when Tony Blackburn joins Chris Britton at Tottenham Websters … Nick Lloyd of Swindon Pasha (Tues/Thurs) had his records stolen from his car, mainly seven inch singles, some rubber-stamped with his nickname “Funky Banana” or with “Pasha Nightclub”. He’s offering £100 reward, call Swindon Police on 0793-28111 … Randy Crawford’s totally tempoless ‘Almaz‘ is lovely for listening, but is it really a floor-filler? … Gap Band 8 —One Way 9, Hip Hop Electro 15 — Serious Beats 1, Hibernians 4 —Hamilton Academicals 0 … DER RUMP DUMP DUM DUM DUMP DUM.

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PATTI LaBELLE surprised many with one of the best live shows in a long time at Hammersmith Odeon two weekends ago. Looking stunning, yet very basic and human under the glitter, she kicked off her shoes, jumped up and down in gospel frenzy, lent her furs to people in the audience, and, cracking open a Heineken, said “I don’t like drinking out of a can … but I will”. Burp! The sudden appearance of Bobby Womack on stage almost stole the show, everyone spontaneously leaping to their feet, but in the end it was definitely Patti’s night. A blinder!

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HOT VINYL

FISSION ‘King Of Swing’ (Streetwave UKHAN 4)
Retitled so that Radio One won’t have to advertise a brand of beer, and remade using different recordings of the Glenn Miller tunes to get around copyright problems, this amusing 97⅚-0bpm rap ‘n’ scratch by Howierd The Duck and DJ Szeps is indeed the already raved about and now widely available ‘Miller Light’ (in two vocal versions, plus beats and the 119bpm ‘Private Dicks’).

CURTIS HAIRSTON ‘Chillin’ Out (Remix)’ (Atlantic A9335T)
Already huge on import, this Timmy Regisford remixed Jocelyn Brown-tempoed catchy 98⅔bpm jiggler (dub/edit too) is here joined by his LP’s introverted jolting (0-)109½bpm ‘Hold On (For Me)’.

HEAVY D. & THE BOYZ ‘Mr Big Stuff’ (MCA Records MCAT 1106)
Hottest hip hop of the day, this Andre ‘Dr Jeckyll’ Harrell-produced jerkily jittering 98½bpm rap revolves around Jean Knight’s repeatedly scratched-in 1971 classic of the same name (inst flip). Continue reading “November 29, 1986: Fission, Curtis Hairston, Heavy D. & The Boyz, Oliver Cheatham, M.C. Shy-D”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

JANET JACKSON’s weak 120bpm original 12 inch version of ‘Control’ has been replaced by an immediately attacking far harder (0-)122½-0bpm Out Of Control Video Mix (A&M AMX 359), which should turn it around now … George Benson’s dub of ‘Shiver’ is actually only on the single 12 inch version now, not on the twin-pack as had it been included that would have had too many minutes of music to qualify as a single … Radio One were threatening to ban Cameo’s ‘Candy’ as they thought the title was about drugs! … Richard Searling’s devotion to “quiet storm”-style soul instead of funky dance music has resulted in such low ratings for his Red Rose Radio soul show that he was going to be dropped by the station, until a public outcry ensured that his show will return, on Sundays, from January 2 … Stu Allan plays Original Concept and other def 1986 toons on Piccadilly Radio, sharing a Sunday 1-6am disco show with Chris Buckley and soloing later with harder upfront stuff Sunday 11pm-2am … London’s latest ballyhooed pirate WBLS lost their aerial after three days, but their signal until then had been lousy anyway … Shinehead’s 12 inch is so overpoweringly bassy that it’s being repressed to prevent blowing speakers! … Music Of Life picked up The Source featuring Candi Staton, while Club have had Wooly Reasonable &t The Yo Culture all along … Masterdon Committee ‘Funk Box Party‘ has been bootlegged in the UK with LJ Reynolds ‘Key To The World‘ and Hi-Tension ‘There’s A Reason‘ as flip … Run-DMC actually recorded ‘Hold It Now Hit It’ before the Beastie Boys were given their original Larry Smith produced track to lay vocals over, Tim Westwood being the proud owner here of an acetate! … Mario Reyes’ dialogue excerpts on the recently reviewed ‘Whatever Turns You On’ are in fact from ‘Pee Wee’s Big Adventure’ … Belfast Soul Club meets fortnightly on Thursdays (Nov 20, Dec 4) at Belfast’s Star & Garter in Rosemary Street – turn up, or call Terry Corr on Belfast 661761 for details … Saturday (22) Graham Gold, Jerry Green, John Matthews and more soul at 3.30pm alldayer at Northolt C&L Leisure (Polish War Memorial turn off A40), while the Hills (Chris & Kev) are alive to the sound of soul at Harlow Whispers, and Robbie Vincent souls Great Yarmouth Tiffanys … lain Norman is building up a funky little scene at Needham Market’s Barking Fox Sun/Fri, Ipswich Hoofers Wed … Tristan Bolitho has left his native Cornwall for Bristol’s Studio … Dave Rawlings during his Disco Aid night at Basingstoke Martines only played paid-for requests (no Madonna all night!), and took £5 to smash Nick Berry’s single on stage — after which he was given much more money for having done so! … Faze One were set upon by a gang of 15 white youths and kicked to a pulp when they stopped for a burger in Newcastle-upon-Tyne after doing ‘The Tube’, their attackers not knowing or caring who they were, just seeing their colour … John Morales & Sergio Munzibai were DJs for the opening of New York’s new 1018 club, on the West 18th Street site of the old Roxy roller-disco … Friendly, Curtis and possibly even Bobby too look like living over here along with brother Cecil Womack, who is even setting up his own UK label … Jeff Young warns that Swing Out Sister’s follow-up, ‘Surrender‘, is serious soul boy stuff! … DER RUMP DUMP DUM DUM DUMP DUM…

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TONY BLACKBURN takes the Radio London Soul Night Out into deepest Essex this Thursday (20), for the first time to Basildon Festival Hall, then next week (27) it’s back into the smoke at Clapton’s Dougies. Steve Walsh will also, of course, loom larger than life!

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HOT VINYL

CAMEO ‘Candy’ (Club JABX 43)
Although closely battled by ‘Back And Forth’, their LP’s winning track is this familiarly lurching 110½bpm weaving web of exaggerated voices, buzzing guitar, honking sax and off-centre beats, flipped by a sparser new 108½bpm remix and the lovely soulful slow 90⅔bpm ‘Don’t Be Lonely‘.

LUTHER VANDROSS ‘Give Me The Reason’ (Epic 650216 6)
Presumably A-side again as it’s from the currently showing film ‘Ruthless People’, this reissued ambiguously jiggling 138¾bpm spurter is flipped by his similar US A-side cantering 143-0bpm ‘Stop To Love‘, both vocally soulful if dodgy for dancers – oh, and yes, also on there is ‘See Me‘, the gorgeously weaving 102bpm swayer which by far is his hottest track here! Thrown away as a flip…

THE GAP BAND ‘Big Fun’ (Total Experience FT 49780)
Rush released wonderful Stevie Wonder-ish joyfully rambling 110⅔-112¾-112-113⅔- 114½-114-112½-114¼bpm soul burbler in three main mixes here, this being the Mega Mix. Continue reading “November 22, 1986: Cameo, Luther Vandross, The Gap Band, Beastie Boys, Billy Crystal”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

JEFF YOUNG’s essential Saturday lunchtime Radio London soul show ludicrously is being moved from November 29 to eight o’clock in the morning, ending at 10am, the thinking being that as it’s such an audience builder maybe it’ll get people switching to the station earlier in the day – the trouble is, its audience must mainly be made up of clubgoers, and for them its original 11.30am start was nicely timed to be their breakfast show! … Streetwave snapped up Fission for rush release in a remix using even more Glenn Miller (although remakes to get around legal problems), thus turning the original rare pressing into an instant collectors’ item … Mantronix’s new LP is evidently going to feature Glenn Miller-type swing tunes too … CBS finally saw sense, and now Oran ‘Juice’ Jones’s seven inch does indeed end with the rap that’s made it a US smash … Mel & Kim have yet another crucially timed remix, harder than scratching, this one called logically enough the Freehold Mix (Supreme SUPETZ 107), 119bpm off acetate – what next, the Planning Permission Mix? … Swing Out Sister’s 112¾bpm remix belies its subtitle A New Rockin’ Version by being actually much funkier right from the start, with an instrumental Horny Version flip, definitely the one to use now (Mercury SWING 2212) … Real Thing unknowingly pre-empted last week’s comment from DJs that a go go remix would help, with their Club Mix which strips back the vocal to expose more instrumental rhythm thus almost fitting the bill … Curtis Hairston ‘Chillin’ Out‘ is being rushed out here on Atlantic hopefully by next week … Jive appear to have the singles rights to Kool Moe Dee ‘Go See The Doctor‘, which in the current venereal climate might even be worth official support as the ideal way to get the condom message over to street kids! … Run-DMC are contributing raps to the next albums by both Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, the latter’s track being anti-crack (Jacko’s US release date of November 26 looks a bit ambitious, informed sources suggesting his LP will be too late for Christmas now) … London’s “warehouse” station WBLS 88.55FM was launched at the Limelight with, in the event, only six Technics decks and those only used normally in pairs, the event (later revealed to have been planned that way by Derek Boland) being probably the most “New York”-like in atmosphere ever in a London club, with no chat, no house, and lots of darkly dressed serious young men upstairs, the real socialising going on downstairs, all in all a good night … Gordon McLeod reports live from London every week to his mother Candy Devine’s Friday 9-11pm soul show on Belfast’s Downtown Radio … New York’s WNBC “flying eye” traffic reporter Jane Dornacker was killed when the helicopter she was actually broadcasting from crashed into the Hudson River … Melba Moore & Freddie Jackson ‘A Little Bit More‘ topped the US Black 45s in Billboard … Luther Vandross’s US newie is the fast rocky 143½bpm ‘Stop To Love‘ – oh dear, I hope we don’t have to follow suit here … Ben Findon’s “1986 Dance Mix” of ‘Love Really Hurts Without You’ is a total remake, containing not one note of the original 1976 hit version, even Billy Ocean’s vocal being from out-takes never previously used, as the original now belongs to CBS — I said it was controversial! … Ben Liebrand is following his hit Tavares revival with a remix of Hot Chocolate ‘You Sexy Thing’ — yawn! … The Time have not only reformed for A&M, but also Herb Alpert has cut five tracks with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis for his own new album, while the Brothers Johnson are back together again and back on the label … Thursday (13) Archie Bell & The Drells start their first UK tour for 10 years at Basildon Festival Hall … Bobby Womack joins Patti LaBelle on Saturday (15) at Hammersmith Odeon, but not the following night … Monday (17) Tim Westwood and Lyndon T start hip hopping Hammersmith Town Hall, for free on the local rates for the first two weeks … Thursday (20) Nigel Porter spins Sixties soul and R&B, at Exeter Boxes … Shake & Fingerpop scorch Soho’s Wag Wednesdays … Phil Simmons rocks the house on Fridays at Richmond-upon-Thames’ reopened Park Avenue … Streetwave’s disco plugger Andros, embarrassed by his mailing list being so out of date, wants DJs to help him update it on 01-997 9989 (instant meltdown at Ealing telephone exchange!) … Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley ‘Jack Your Body’ and the old First Choice ‘Let No Man Put Asunder‘ share the same bass line, making a terrific mix, tips Pete Tong … DER RUMP DUMP DUM DUM DUMP DUM…

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MIKE SEFTON, in a surprise move, joins the current spate of record company musical chairs and leaves Phonogram (where he’s long been their popular disco plugger) of the end of this month to head black A&R at A&M. This is a wrench, as he’d been looking forward to taking new US Phonagram signing CINDY VALENTINE (left) on a three week PA tour of Aberdeen!

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HOT VINYL

DUKE BOOTEE ‘Broadway’ (HardBack BOSS 2, via Streetwave)
The main man on ‘The Message’ now adapts Dyke & The Blazers’ 1967 classic ‘Funky Broadway’ into a similarly bleak, stark jolting 91⅔bpm go go hip hop rap ‘n’ scratch (inst/edit flip); extremely powerful if depressing.

GEORGE BENSON ‘Shiver’ (Warner Bros W8523TF)
Mellowed out and more hesitantly started, David Todd and Nick Martinelli’s 105bpm extended remix of his outstanding vintage-styled wriggly swaying backbeat jazz-funk jogger is flipped by a useful (unbilled) instrumental dub and the gentle 103/51½bpm ‘Love Is Here Tonight’, and for a “special limited edition” it’s twin-packed with older jerky 0-110¼bpm Jellybean remix of ‘20/20’ (seguing into its dub) and the craftily ‘Shiver’-compatible 105-104bpm ‘Love Will Come Again’. Good value, huh?

BEASTIE BOYS ‘It’s The New Style’ (Def Jam 650169 6)
Although somewhat overtaken by the even fresher Original Concept, this angrily Run-DMC-ish 0-98⅔-0-77bpm rap is exciting floors with its slower “whoa-oh” chant-along rabble rousing last part (dub too), flipped by two treatments of the speaker-blowing very strange backwards-run 46/92bpm ‘Paul Revere’. However, even hotter now is their LP ‘Licensed To Ill’ (US Def Jam BFC 40238), for full review next week but packed with exciting white boys’ rap and Led Zeppelin riffs, the most widely acclaimed standout, though, being their brilliant 0-96⅔bpm revival of War’s ‘Low Rider’, here called ‘Slow Ride’. Check it! Continue reading “November 15, 1986: Duke Bootee, George Benson, Beastie Boys, Donna Allen, One Way”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

NUMBER 85 was a pathetic national chart entry for Disco Aid ‘Give Give Give’, but this week should hopefully see a big improvement — it does rather undermine “the purchasing power of disco DJs”, though … London have picked up Younger Generation ‘We Rap More Mellow‘ for a remix that’ll add a much needed break … TC Curtis ‘Slave Of Love’ is now selling fast in its new go go-ish (0-) 101½bpm Go For Broke Mix (Hot Melt 14TC007) … Gwen Guthrie’s follow-up will indeed be ‘Outside In The Rain’, maybe by February! … Yasuko Agawa and other of the label’s current product should be credited to Bluebird Records alone, without 10 Records now … Eon Irving (Chelsea) points out that the rapidly UK-issued Vesta Williams ‘Vesta’ (A&M AMA 5118) LP’s standout 86½bpm song ‘You Make Me Want To (Love Again)‘ was also the standout 0-86-0bpm song ‘You Make Me Wanna Love Again‘ on the recent Con Funk Shun LP (whoops, but I found the latter album otherwise so average that I didn’t keep it!) … Gap Band have a dynamite soulfully building newie that so far has been scarce on import (check the chart in case it was about by the weekend) … London’s WBLS 88.5FM launches at the Limelight this Thursday (6) with no fewer than 10 Technics decks being scratched at once, and DJs including Tim Westwood, Jay Strongman, Derek Boland, Gaz, Jazzy B … Saturday (8) Paul Hardcastle sits in instead of Dave Gregory on Essex Radio’s soul show, and Radio Rushy Siding’s Noel St. John marries lovely Kim …Roger Tovell’s Friday 6pm Severn Sound soul show has been reduced by the 7pm arrival of Mike Allen’s syndicated hip hop hour, so now instead Roger’s including more imports and newies in the final 6-7pm part of his normal weekday drivetime slot … Mike Allen is in fact playing Kool Moe Dee ‘Go See The Doctor‘ on radio but with the dodgy bits edited in backwards! …Crossover Records are releasing Kool Moe Dee, and Calvin, while Serious Records are launching a new hip hop compilation LP series called ‘Serious Beats‘, each of the single LP sides’ four tracks also being megamixed … DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince’s ‘Girls’ follow up, ‘Just One Of Those Days‘ (US Word-Up), is a surprisingly dull disappointment … DJs are suggesting the Real Thing need a real go go remix to happen properly … Trouble Funk’s Live-In-London LP ‘Say What!’ (4th + B’way DCLP 101) is being twin-packed with their current UK 12 inch, but not Chad Jackson’s Razor Mix version – Chad, incidentally, has also done a similar Cut-Up Mix for the same label’s Run-DMC oldie ‘King Of Rock’ … Jon Davis, second-placed 1986 UK Disco Mixing champ, is rightly peeved that his `Jungle Book’ mix has been copied and claimed as his own by UK winner Chad Jackson — as Jon says, some originate and others imitate! … James (D-Train) Williams’ ‘Misunderstanding’ is the first US Columbia 12 inch I can think of that’s at 45rpm, instead of the more convenient for mixing 33⅓rpm … The Time look like reforming for a new album next year, including Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Monte Moir, Jesse Johnson, while they’re currently to be seen backing Janet Jackson’s ‘Control’ video! … Mike Shaft joins Radio Sheffield’s soulful Holcott Foster at Huddersfield’s Video-Tech on Tuesdays, when DJs Dr Jam & Ian & Manfred solidly funk Bristol’s Silks, and Gary Crowley & Vaughn ‘Mix Butcher’ Toulouse mix Fun House Samba Funk with Tom Jones, Connie Francis and Frank Sinatra at Soho’s Wag Club … Thursday evenings Dave Pinney plays our Disco chart’s hottest hits at South Ockendon’s Prince Of Wales … Adrian Dunbar (0202-296253 day/685333 night) is looking for a Bournemouth/Southampton area venue for a weekly warehouse-type gig in which to feature funk/house/rap — any offers? … Lynton Elcocks (0793-827199), funking Swindon Pasha Fridays, wants other gigs within 40 miles … Franklin Sinclair (Manchester Richfields) reports his top request two weekends ago was far and away for Oran ‘Juice’ Jones, but he couldn’t play it as strangely the CBS-distributed US smash had still not reached local disco stores … Streetwave’s DJ mailing list doesn’t seem very up to date, judging from the undelivered “gone away” record packages returned by the Post Office not to the label but to rm, thanks to the enclosed exhortations for charts to be sent to our address! … Vince Lawrence’s claim to be Virgo may not in fact be as great as Marshall Jefferson’s! … DER RUMP DUMP DUM DUM DUMP DUM…

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JEFF YOUNG, snapped here enjoying a joke with Chris Hill at Barry Island, joins serious soulster Bob Jones as headlining jocks at Sudbury Gainsborough Club’s latest 2pm-2am soul alldayer this Saturday (8).

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HOT VINYL

CURTIS HAIRSTON ‘Chillin’ Out’ (US Atlantic 0-86759)
Easily hottest import of the past fortnight, this Timmy Regisford remixed jauntily jiggling 98½bpm soul roller is classy and catchy with a creamy piano and sax break, the title line acknowledging today’s hip hop culture although the go go-ish beat is more in the Jocelyn Brown bag (dub/inst/edit too), a sure smash.

JAMES (D-TRAIN) WILLIAMS ‘Misunderstanding’ (US Columbia 44-05967)
Smoothly though insistently worried by D-Train’s newly personalised singer, this Francois Kevorkian/Ron St. Germain/Hubert Eaves III-remixed album smash jiggles to an almost go go-ish chunkily swinging happy 102⅚bpm beat with jazzily breaking piano and Full Force-style bounce (inst/dub flip), real good!

LOOSE ENDS ‘Nights Of Pleasure’ (Virgin VSD 919-12)
Another white-labelled twin-pack containing different mixes, all of which hopefully will be commercially available this time, unlike the ‘Slow Down’ cock-up. Nick Martinelli’s is a typically ticking clear cool 103bpm swayer, while Dancin’ Danny D’s 105½bpm Remix and Dub are more mushily shuffling, a fast wriggly 120½bpm Steve Nichol & Macca remix of ‘Let’s Rock‘ completing the pack. Continue reading “November 8, 1986: Curtis Hairston, James (D-Train) Williams, Loose Ends, Tella & Collins, Cultural Vibe”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

NAUGHTY NEWSAGENTS in some places apparently separated the free introductory issue of JOCKS from the copy of rm it should have been inside, and sold it at an estimated price – this was not right, and we’re sorry about it, but it has certainly alerted the newsagent chains to the new magazine’s existence quite spectacularly! … London’s airwaves seem crowded with black music stations again, many not just at the weekends, currently heard being TKO 90.7, LWR 92.05, KISS-fm 93.95, Starpoint 94.4, Time Radio 103.8, JBC 104.85 (the last two largely reggae), soon to be joined by WBLS 88.5FM dedicated to ‘harder’ sounds … Mike Allen is syndicating an encapsulated hour-long version of his popular Capital Radio hip hop shows to various ILR stations including (Saturday evening) Radio Forth, Pennine Radio, Signal Radio, Hereward Radio, Southern Sound and (Friday) Severn Sound, this ‘National Fresh’ version still featuring Chuck Chill’s Big Apple report and all the rest that’s def ‘n’ fresh in 1986’s truest teenage music … Tony Prince returns to Radio Luxembourg 208MW from this Saturday with a weekly 7- 8pm show featuring Disco Mix Club megamixes … Les Adams and Paul DaKeyne have created two sides each of an 86-track double album for Stylus Records which megamixes ’86 For 86′, the jocks being filmed for its TV merchandising campaign … Serious Records’ latest hot trax-filled ‘Upfront 3‘ compilation has serious competition in a similar double LP format from Champion’s brand new ‘Ultimate Trax‘ (CHAMP 103), not quite so upfront maybe but usefully including the (by chance?) just revived Kinkina ‘Jungle Fever‘ and a Battle Of The DJs in which DJ Cheese and Chad Jackson each have one whole side on which to mix the same records … Cheese incidentally was videoed grooving on the floor at Streetwave’s hip hop gig at the Limelight last week, where Hardrock Soul Movement’s new DJ Streets Ahead really impressed with his one beat cutting … Peckham La Plaza’s bouncers had a barney with some kids they’d offended, one of whom ended up by blasting a bouncer in the gut with a shotgun – not funny … Sunday afternoon (2) the Midlands’ disco exhibition Discoscene ’86 at Birmingham Kitts Green’s Mackadown (details 021-707 1925) … Phil Dinnis (01-670 2455) urgently needs a black music-mixing personality DJ for a top club in Malta … Jon Williams is leaving Malaco Dance to loin Ian Dewhirst at Fourth & Broadway, from which Tim Rudling is moving to EMI, while Dancin’ Danny Poku is at Virgin … Timex Social Club’s rather pop-ish LP has been largely remixed for UK release by Phil Harding and Dancin’ Danny D … Cooltempo is becoming a label in the USA, too, picking up black indie product for wider distribution there just as here … Duke Bootee borrowing from 1966’s ‘Funky Broadway’ and ‘Fusion Beats Vol 2‘ including 1969’s ‘Let A Woman Be A Woman – Let A Man Be A Man‘, these originals and other ancient funkers are still available on the late Dyke & The Blazers’ ‘So Sharp’ LP (Kent 004) … Streetwave’s latest label Hardback has picked up Duke Bootee … Bluebird appear to have licensed the Davis/Pinckney Project to Polydor here, rather late … Full Force have been producing Steven Danté, and – they say, in credible style – Samantha Fox! … Anita Baker’s US success with ‘Sweet Love’ has prompted its reissue here with a couple of live BBC recordings added to the flip … Gregory Abbott topped US Black 45s, Cameo Black LPs, Human League both 12 Inch Sales and Club Play in Billboard … Surface’s earlier incarnation, created by the same guys who are now the group, was then fronted by a girl … Georgie Fame’s 12 inch pressing (as opposed to my review acetate) is 102⅚/205⅔bpm … Thursday (30) Pete Tong & Co ‘Raid’ the Wag, Friday (31) Steve Walsh joins Danny Smith funking Gt Yarmouth Scruples … Saturday (1) the world goes out to a disco to support Disco Aid: all the participating clubs will have special attractions and, even if they are making a small supplementary charge, are the ones that deserve your custom that night … Monday (3) Stoke’s Trevor M starts a new black music night at Nottingham Easy Street, and Tony Worrell PAs at Simon Goffe and Streetlife Unlimited’s London Oxford Street Oxfords night … Tuesday (4) Tony Blackburn gets burned on a bonfire by Steve Walsh and Dave French at Bexleyheath Crook Log’s Drayman … Mad Marx spins salsa/samba/be-bop Saturday lunchtimes at Southend-on-Sea Scruples … Nellie ‘Mixmaster’ Rochefort has produced an updated remake of Diana Ross’s ‘Love Hangover’ by Tracy Ackerman, due on Debut imminently … Raze ‘Jack The Groove’ owes a debt to the Disco Dub Band ‘For The Love Of Money‘ … DER RUMP DUMP DUM DUM DUMP DUM…

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NICKY HOLLOWAY has one of his famous ‘Doos’ this Saturday (1), not a Doo At The Zoo this time, but a Doo At The Dome, at Thorpe Park amusement park near the M3/M25 interchange. With him will be Pete Tong, Chris Hill, Chris Brown, Johnnie Walker, Gilles Peterson, Chris Bangs and Martin Collins, funking and jazzing the house. How much will they raise for Disco Aid?

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HOT VINYL

HINDSIGHT ‘Small Change (Spare A Dime Mix)’ (Circa Records YRT1, via Virgin)
Ashley Newton’s label debuts with ex-Central Liners Henri Defoe and Camelle Hinds’ coolly throbbing 112¼bpm tuneful classy rap-cum-song (inst/dub too), its African Aid message subtly influencing the undertow rather than the whole sound. Although widely promoed, it’s not fully out for nearly a fortnight.

FISSION ‘Miller Light’ (Spacematic Records XING 111, via PRT)
Tottenham jocks Howierd The Duck and DJ Szeps have created the best homegrown hip hop yet, brilliantly scratching Glenn Miller tunes behind an hilariously worded rap, in two 95bpm mixes, a British ‘Bang Zoom’ destined to be large! The speedier flip’s 117¼bpm ‘Private Dicks’ is clever, too, but nothing like so fresh.

CLEAVAGE ‘Barah’ (US Studio Records STU-1011)
That’s the correct spelling for an excellent leanly bounding 118⅓-0bpm not-overly-house instrumental (in three mixes) borrowing heavily from 1973’s ‘Bra‘ by Cymande (which was a London based Afro-fusion band always bigger in the US). This sounds like a classic which could have come out any time in the last 10 years, a sure floor filler.

ORIGINAL CONCEPT ‘Pump That Bass/Live (Get A Little Stupid … HO!)’ (US Def Jam 44-05961)
Exploding two weekends ago when first only on seven inch, this is the exciting hip hop culmination of the Beastie Boys ‘It’s The New Style’ crossed with Run-DMC s rock guitar and ultra def 0-104-0bpm beats – in fact, a B-side track to the 84⅔bpm ‘Bite’n My Stylee‘, which combines reggae, Cheech ‘n’ Chong, and the ‘White Lines’ bass line (inst too). The freshest! Continue reading “November 1, 1986: Hindsight, Fission, Cleavage, Original Concept, Yasuko Agawa”