Month: January 1987

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

KEVIN ASHTON (St Austell Quasars) queries the date that Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley ‘Jack Your Body’ first reached the UK on import; it was just before Livewire’s Bognor weekender, where it was an instant hit, so presumably during the week ending April 12, 1986 — I certainly bought it then, too late for review in our issue of April 19 although not for the chart (where its entry at 60 was accompanied by full BPM details, the review following a week later) … US import deliveries were running late last week, so similarly check the Disco chart for the very hottest numbers, as usual! … Jackie Wilson’s follow-up, with unadventurous predictability, will be ‘(I Get The) Sweetest Feeling‘, complete with modelling clay video, whereas something less obvious like the exciting ‘Baby Workout‘ (already much played by radio and great in stereo) would surely help expand his marketable catalogue? … Technics DJ Mixing Championships heats last week saw the strongest line-up to date at Birmingham’s Millionaire, where the charmingly beatific Scooby Swift (from the Fox & Goose) was the crowd-pleasing winner — in fact, something the competitors in unruly Bristol could have copied, he actually shushed the crowd so his mixes could be heard! — with Phil Docherty (from Exchange One) second and Dave Evans (from Manchester’s Saturdays) third … Scooby so impressed the Millionaire’s management that he starts Mondays there this coming week, and is with his Friday Fox & Goose partner Paul Dixon plus Kenny B at Bonkers from this Sunday, too — the fruits of success … Bristol’s heats at Kingswood’s Chasers by contrast were the lowest standard so far (almost everyone that failed the preliminaries in Birmingham would have qualified there), being won by local favourite Dirty Den with Burnham-on-Sea’s hip hopping Martin Eccles a worthy second and Tristan Bolitho (from Bristol’s Studio) a Chad Jackson-copying third … February 10’s UK finals at the Hippodrome look like being a hot night not to be missed, while DJs of the stature of Jazzy Jeff are competing in the US heats for a place at March 9’s world finals in the Royal Albert Hall! … Raze ‘Jack The Groove’ has definitely been this year’s most mixed record, while ‘Set It Off’ still crops up, and others we’ve grown used to are ‘Holiday Rap’ (only at preliminary stage!), ‘Showing Out’, ‘House Nation’ … I find one hazard of wearing a specially tailored promotional baseball jacket emblazoned with MCA’s logo on the back is that DJs keep asking me to put them on the mailing list! … Cooltempo snapped up the sizzling Nitro Deluxe ‘The Brutal House’ (here 114¼bpm with a UK Edit flip) for release next week … Full Circle’s UK re-edit of the Special Sweaty Mix will be minus its electro intro … Paul Hardcastle has given the Siegfried Ipach-revamped (and ruined) ‘Frankfurt Mix’ of George McCrae ‘Rock Your Baby’ (Portrait 650312-6) a much stronger tight 112⅔bpm remix of his own, closer to the original in flavour … Midnight Star ‘Engine No. 9‘ (still too trite for my taste although I concede it is catchy pop) is already flipped on promo by the 0-119-119½-119¾-120-119⅔bpm ‘Les Adams Megamix‘ (MCA Records MAX 117), which sandwiches it between ‘Midas Touch’ and ‘Operator’ with some clever links … Robbie Nevil ‘C’Est La Vie’ is now in yet another creatively marketed remix, the extremely stark 103⅔bpm Steve Street Mix (Manhattan 12MTXS 14) … Swing Out Sister is also in less floor-aimed new (0-)52-103⅚-0-103⅚bpm Roadrunner Mix, laughter introed and slow to get going before then being rather abrupt, with an accelerating car effect instead of jets … George Benson’s follow-up next week is a Nick Martinelli & David Todd 111⅔bpm remix of ‘Teaser’ … Howard Hewett ‘Stay’, due here in two weeks (UK pressings being ⅓bpm faster), on US 12 inch with revised accuracy should be 98⅓bpm in the Before Midnight Mix and – I hadn’t expected Shep Pettibone to be so inconsistent! – 100⅔-98⅔-98⅙-97⅓-97⅔bpm in the After Midnight Mix … Neil Rushton’s new label Kool Kat has picked up Denise Motto ‘IMNXTC’ for UK singles release with a Scooby Swift scratch mix, plus Hollywood ‘Funk Me, Jack Me’ (again with a Scooby mix), and they’re readying a radical remix of Risky Business, all for a new deal via PRT … Wolverhampton’s Revolver Records is starting a new FM Dance label, launched by Detroit’s aptly named chantoosie, Tiger … Steve Walsh’s chantalong version and the four years old original of Fatback ‘I Found Lovin’’ are being treated like a newie in provincial discos (it’s taken this long to catch up with London?) … Walsall’s 17-year-old Andrew Brevitt has created some remarkably sophisticated studio-recorded megamixes, using digitally repeated bassIines and the like, a name to look out for … Tony Monson has quit his Saturday chart show on Essex Radio to concentrate on London’s relaunched Solar 93FM … Hammersmith Palais is currently closed for four months while Mecca gives it a massive £2½ million refit, the ‘Ask The DJ’ DJ Barry Upton therefore moving to Bedford’s new Sweetings … Midlands DJ Paul Anthony, still on crutches following a motorbike prang, has metamorphosed back into Mike Nunnerley (his real name) as general manager of Bournemouth’s new Clouds disco complex, where Paul Brady and Lorenzo Jones start a weekly soul night this coming Monday (2) with Mary Wells as special quest … Tuesday (3) Steve Walsh joins Chris “O” Kaye at Tonbridge Harveys, and Robbie Vincent souls Bexleyheath’s Drayman in Crook Log … Darlene Davis’s mother Rosetta Davis sang with Duke Ellington, while her stepmother Dee Dee Kenniebrew was an original member of the Crystals … DJs on mailing lists currently seem untrustworthy about some of the records they report in their charts as being “floor fillers”, things that by everyone else’s common consensus are more like floor clearers, with no sales support at all — please be honest! … KEEP CHILLED!

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TONY DeVIT, from Birmingham’s Dome and Nightingale clubs, at that city’s heat of the Technics DJ Mixing Championships appeared to be using glass slipmats! These unfortunately didn’t help him win a place (he’d come second in the two previous years), as his flawless hi-NRG mixing seemed too orthodox and tame by today’s raunchier standards.

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HOT VINYL

RISKY BUSINESS ‘Jammin’ To New Orleans’ (Kool Kat 12KAT 1) Due soon for a more widely available remix too, this Paul Hardcastle-ish good juddery slick 0-114bpm electro-backed piano instrumental (in three mixes) is the creation of three Midlands disco DJs, (left to right) keyboardist Kevin Roberts from Halesowen’s 42nd Street, scratcher Scooby Swift and drum programmer Paul Dixon, both from Birmingham’s Fox And Goose. In addition, Scooby was the winner of last week’s Birmingham heat in the Technics DJ Mixing Championships!

MILLIE SCOTT ‘Ev’ry Little Bit’ (US 4th + B’way BWAY-432)
Mildred seems to be Millie in the States too, slowing down to the Martinelli tempo for a Nazarian & Bradley-produced pleasant gently jittering 102bpm smooth swayer that’s had hot response as it’s in a popular format, the still fairly vocal Instrumental and Dub oddly making only the same use of David McMurray’s slick sax as does the A-side.

MR. K MIX BY SPECIAL K ‘Rock The House (Medley)’ (US T.D. Records Inc TD 801)
Reputedly connected with Chicago DJ Vince Lawrence, although not house, this fast-selling 113-114½-115-114¼-115⅔-114bpm mix medley, with a punchier 113¾-113½-113¾-113⅓bpm flipside variation, synchs and scratches James Brown, Hamilton Bohannon and others over what appears to be Magic Disco Machine’s ‘Scratchin’’, to far more smoothly flowing effect than some mixers achieve. A hot one! Continue reading “January 31, 1987: Risky Business, Millie Scott, Mr. K Mix by Special K, Lola, Sweet Tee & Jazzy Joyce”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

STEVE ‘SILK’ HURLEY – according to no less a source than ‘John Craven’s Newsround’ – apparently reckons he won’t be getting any royalties from his deal for ‘Jack Your Body’ and, as he’s now a member of J.M. Silk on another label anyway, isn’t going to help his hit by promoting it in person – he doesn’t appreciate, though, that by coming here he’d become a star in his own right, regardless of the royalty situation … Simon Harris has actually remixed ‘Jack Your Body’, for creatively marketed release … Technics 1987 DJ Mixing Championships heats don’t stop even for the weather, the winner at Manchester Saturdays being the remarkable Johnny Jay from the Gallery (see caption), with a mightily peeved Rob Manley from Bolton’s Dance Factory second, and local scratcher Danny Bennett third, while – after fellow judge Les Adams had driven me the long way round (via Birmingham and Leicester) as the Pennines were impassable – at Barnsley’s prettily decorated Japanese Whispers the winner was def Funkmaster Hutchy from Leeds’ the News, with Chuzzer from Hull’s Juliets second and local lad Sean Broadhurst third (although John Melkin of Sheffield’s Isabellas was highly commended) … Radio Manchester’s soul jock Mike Shaft created a truly marathon ‘Best Of 86 Mix‘ which must have taken weeks to assemble, very neatly apart from some clashing keys which don’t really matter … Les Adams seems to be commissioned to make a megamix a week, his latest being an incredibly smooth Tina Turner medley … Tashan’s UK single will be the US A-side, ‘Chasin’ A Dream‘, but flipped for the floors by ‘Read My Mind‘ … Gap Band’s follow-up couples ‘Bop B Da B Da Da‘ with ‘Keep Holding On (Remix)’ … Al Jarreau has at last recorded the theme from TV’s ‘Moonlighting‘ for singles release – incidentally, the series’ soul-loving star Bruce Willis has released a very respectable recreation of the Staples Singers’ ‘Respect Yourself’ on US Motown! … Shep Pettibone has remixed the old Colors ‘Am I Gonna Be The One’ (US First Take) … Man Two Man member Miki Zone died suddenly on New Year’s Eve – from spinal meningitis – only days after recording a follow-up to ‘Who Knows What Evil?’ … Ian Levine has been producing Mary Wells … Country singer Donna Reed wanted to make a funk record, so wrote to Prince, and he’s produced her on RCA! … Radio London’s newly named “NITE-fm” expanded evening programmes have recruited Gary Crowley for a ‘GCHQ’ show on Wednesdays 10pm-midnight, making a roster of Dave Pearce Monday/Thursday, Gilles Peterson Tuesday, all three alternating to present a specialist chart show Fridays … Steve Walsh’s chantalong Anthem Mix of Fatback ‘I Found Lovin’’ certainly gets played more in the North than it does in London! … Tony Jenkins is returning monthly with his star-studded Soul On Sound nights to London’s Hippodrome, starting Wednesday February 4, and likewise is at Harrow Weald’s Middlesex and Herts Country Club next Tuesday (27) … Kev Hill has started the Monday Mondo Bongo at Southend Chesters, with Chris Hill as co-host most weeks, and Pete Tong February 16, Robbie Vincent … February 23 Nick Halkes and mates funk Pressure Drop upstairs at New Cross Goldsmiths’ Tavern this Saturday (24) … Sylvester ‘Someone Like You‘ topped US Club Play, Luther Vandross ‘Stop To Love‘ Black 45s in Billboard … Bob Boardman, the ‘Bits & Pieces’ song you need is Ringo Starr ‘No No Song’ … I’d appreciate it if DJs did NOT send their charts to my home address – send ’em straight to rm … KEEP CHILLED!

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JOHNNY JAY, winner of the Manchester heat of the Technics DJ Mixing Championships, is likely to prove a sensation at the finals, and a hard act to beat, because he’s now posed a new problem for contestants to master — he mixes without using headphones! OK, it’s been done before, and he does scratch into the beats that he finds, but nevertheless he manages to produce a flowing programme with some stunningly accurate one line drop-ins presumably cued by eye and experience alone. Finalists who were confident before hove got the collywobbles now!

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HOT VINYL

STEINSKI & MASS MEDIA ‘We’ll Be Right Back’ (4th + B’way 12BRW 59)
Double Dee’s one-time partner has exploded first on radio and now in clubs with his debut single, which very cleverly cuts catchphrases and clichés from US TV commercials into a Full Force-type 0-101bpm bouncy beat (dub/bonus too), a real gimmick hit.

ANITA BAKER ‘Caught Up In The Rapture (Remix)’ (Elektra EKR 49T)
Her album’s most accessible dancer, this gorgeous gently loping and spurting 0-91¾bpm swayer has had its rhythm emphasised and brightened so sympathetically that now the original sounds quite flat in comparison – as does the flip’s live Hammersmith version – plus there’s Rod Temperton’s sultrily rolling slow lovely 84½bpm ‘Mystery‘, too.

THE SYSTEM ‘Come As You Are (Remix)’ (Atlantic A9297T)
Much mellower than the techno-funk duo’s past stuff, this jauntily trotting buoyant 110bpm tripper has an attractive vocal melody and could almost be another ‘Midas Touch’, it’s so catchy. Continue reading “January 24, 1987: Steinski & Mass Media, Anita Baker, The System, Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince, MC. G.L.O.B.E.”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

STEVE ‘SILK’ HURLEY’s unsurprisingly high but still dramatic chart entry was unable to be boosted by a ‘Top Of The Pops’ appearance as neither RCA (who now have him as part of J.M. Silk) nor London could locate his whereabouts last week! … Atlantic Starr have quit A&M to join Warner Bros, with a single due in a month … Les ‘Mixdoctor’ Adams has now created a Kurtis Blow megamix … Maze featuring Frankie Beverly play Wembley Arena February 27/28 and Manchester Apollo March 17/18 — let’s hope they’ve got a new stage act this time! … ‘Reet Petite’, as mentioned last week by Alan Jones in Chartfile, was the joint composition of Berry Gordy Jr and one Tyran Carlo, the latter turning out to be in fact the pseudonym of Hank Ballard’s featured guitarist on his recent London visit, Billy Davis – in addition, although Jackie Wilson had already reached number 13 on both sides of the Atlantic in 1957 singing ‘Stardust’ as lead vocalist of Billy Ward & His Dominoes (a fact forgotten by most people), his solo debut with ‘Reet Petite’ was surprisingly a real hit only in the UK, reaching number 6 here as opposed to 62 in the US, his first Stateside smash not coming until exactly a year later at the end of 1958 (following moderate success with ‘To Be Loved’), the also Gordy co-composed ‘Lonely Teardrops‘, which by then shamefully meant nothing here but was in retrospect the first example of the earliest discernible ‘Motown Sound” (incidentally, if you can find ‘To Be Loved’ on Coral seven inch, its 185-183bpm ‘Come Back To Me‘ B-side is another rockin’ floorfiller despite some dodgy guitar licks) … 1987’s Technics DJ Mixing Championships are now under way, the first heats being won last week at Newcastle-upon-Tyne Walkers by Chris ‘CJ’ MacKintosh (from London’s WBLS!), with Newcastle’s dole-drawing Paul Pringle a creditable second and Lincoln’s Mad Max Burns third, while at Edinburgh Amphitheatre last year’s Scottish winner won again, Glasgow’s George Little, with the local Brian LeVell a deserved extremely close second and Robert Asher third … Edinburgh’s venue, the Ampitheatre was an extremely impressively converted old theatre with lavish lighting, but it remained freezing cold and never very full — one girl there came up while Ray Elliot was competing and asked for a request! … Raze ‘Jack The Groove’, followed by ‘Jack Your Body’ and ‘Love Can’t Turn Around’ are fast becoming this year’s over-mixed clichés, replacing last year’s ‘Set It Off’! … Jon Davis, runner-up in both the UK mixing and personality DJ contests last year, has suddenly split these shores to spend 1987 in Singapore teaching disco techniques as a rep for Far East equipment and record importers Data Engineers – which leaves one less challenger for Chad Jackson’s crown! … Exeter’s Chris Dinnis, the only DJ ever to find a copy of Kanu Sukalagwan’s legendary Jap-jazz LP, has started a Saturday brunchtime 11am-1pm soul show on Plymouth Sound 96FM … Metro Radio dropped their soul show, leaving as the North-East’s only soul DJ Adrian Allen on Radio Tees – who, in his daytime capacity, forgot to play H.M. The Queen’s Christmas Day speech (nothing heavy, but he did play it an hour late in the end!) … London Weekend Television’s Friday night ‘South Of Watford’ series within the next few weeks features a programme all about Streetwave/StreetSounds founder Morgan Khan, including some dirt dished up by me … I hope you saw BBC2’s brilliant play ‘Coast To Coast‘ two Sundays ago, with Lenny Henry and John Shea as Sixties soul-playing mobile DJs (lovely observation of their awful gigs, and a great soundtrack) plus the increasingly visible Al Matthews as a soul singing US Air Forceman … The Naturals ‘Funky Rasta (‘87 Mix)’ on finished pressings is 104⅔ (dub too), with the Original Jam at 105⅔bpm … 4th + B’way for some reason have promoed Sly & Robbie’s old (0-)94⅚bpm version of Yarbrough & Peoples’ ‘Don’t Stop The Music’, instead of the truly in demand ‘Bits & Pieces’ … Billy Griffin, currently visiting the UK, will have a remix of ‘E.S.P.’ as his follow-up’s flip … Serious Records picked up Darlene Davis … A Perfect Fit turn out to be made up of white Edinburgh one-man band Michael Wuzkowski with ex-Shakatak singer Lorna Bannon – was the wool pulled over some people’s eyes? … I don’t know who was responsible for this New Year’s Eve party tape on Capital Radio, it certainly wasn’t me (to put all the complaints at rest!) – I was gigging live in North Wales, where Amos Milburn’s ancient original ‘One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer‘ was the hit of the night (how about a reissue, Charly?) … Paul Dakeyne’s brilliant ‘Blue Monday Re-Ordered‘ New Order remix from the October 1986 Disco Mix Club LPs however, despite a perfect synch out of the Communards ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’, was amazingly a floor-clearer – Paul himself mixes live at London’s Hippodrome every Tuesday from about 11.30pm … George Clinton ‘Do Fries Go With That Shake’, Sheila E ‘A Love Bizarre’ and Jesse Johnson ‘Crazay (Remix)’ all synch together, bar on bar … Billboard s US charts since last noted have seen Dead Or Alive stay atop 12 Inch Sales, Janet Jackson ‘Control’ and then Kraftwerk ‘Musique Non Stop‘ top Club Play, Bobby Brown’s sweetly romantic 67-0bpm ‘Girlfriend‘ and then Janet Jackson top Black 45s … rm Disco chart new entries in the unprinted full Top 100 last week were: 77 TC Curtis re-remix, 83 Willie Colon, 84 Jungle Wonz, 85 Master C&J, 87 Sweet T And Jazzy Joyce, 88 Masters of Ceremony, 91 Jean Knight ‘Mr Big Stuff’, 92 House Master Boyz ‘House Nation’, 95 Hot Chocolate, 98 Xray, 99 Wally Jump Jr, 100 Ray, Goodman & Brown ‘Take It To The Limit’, while Eurobeat newies were: 4 Mike Mareen, 14 Candy J, 24 Martin Bazar, 25 Lisa Smith … Steve Walsh points out his 72 inch waist measurement is for loose fitting blouson-style jackets … KEEP CHILLED!

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What the well dressed mixer is wearing this season: Stone Island designer flying helmet, Velcro-fastened fingerless gloves, and white lip gloss for that “sur la piste” sporty skier look. Yup, it’s 1986’s UK Mixing Champion CHAD JACKSON, revealing the current “look” with which he hopes to dazzle into submission all his new competitors at the 1987 final on February 10 at London’s Hippodrome.

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HOT VINYL

FRANKIE KNUCKLES ‘You Can’t Hide’ (US D.J. International Records DJ 923)
Chicago’s original Warehouse DJ, Frankie is seen above (left) with his co-producer/mixer Joe Smooth (right), while Chip E helped out too on the production of this liberally adapted 120⅘bpm house treatment (in four mixes) of Teddy Pendergrass’s ‘You Can’t Hide From Yourself’ — although who the actual singer is, moaning and hollering through the bassline prodded percussively pattering rhythm (in typical Chicago style) is unclear! The result, however, is not as typically house as you’d expect. A pity StreetSounds’ massive boxed ‘The Philadelphia Story’ somehow missed out Teddy’s version…

BOBBY McCLURE ‘You Never Miss Your Water’ (US Edge Records ED 12-005)
The ‘Peak Of Love’ singer whose early 1965 duet with Fontella Bass, ‘Don’t Mess Up A Good Thing’, was her first hit (flipped by Oliver Sain’s actually more popular here at the time ‘Jerk Loose’ instrumental), Bobby returns after 20 years with a James Gadson-produced swaying jiggly joggly 100bpm revamp of the Cash McCall-penned soul standard, completely modern sounding – while, as if to make a point, the even better Michael Wycoff-penned wailing chunkily rolling 104⅔bpm flip is called ‘It Feels So Good (To Be Back Home)’. Hang on, this latter sounds so good it could be another ‘I Found Lovin’’! A real pushing nagger, the B-side is a soul smash – be warned!

THE MICROPHONE PRINCE ‘Who’s The Captain (I Wonder, Wonder Who)’ (US Still Rising Records SRR-1006)
Are you ready for the Monotones’ (oh, all right, and Mudlarks’!) 1958 hit ‘Book Of Love’ used as the basis for a modern rap? Instead of the whole “I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who” – bomp! – “who wrote the book of love”, the chorus repeats only the first half and then, to a jaunty 91⅚bpm go go hip hop beat, the Microphone Prince and Count Busy ‘D’ conversationally swap classic music hall lines in sustained jokey misunderstanding that’s such fun it’ll make this the next ‘Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble’ – which the decidedly indelicate 0-93⅔bpm ‘Yvonne & Corry’ is more like, though not for airplay (inst flip). Continue reading “January 17, 1987: Frankie Knuckles, Bobby McClure, The Microphone Prince, Stacy Lattisaw, UB40”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

Barry Island holiday camp has been sold as building land, so Livewire’s next Soul Weekend has been moved to Prestatyn Pontin’s in North Wales and brought forward to Easter, Good Friday to Bank Holiday Monday April 17-20 inclusive (the first four-dayer) – not so good for the weather, maybe, although the camp is evidently superior, with closed-circuit colour TV in all the self-catering chalets, Roy Ayers as an exclusive live act, and the usual mafia DJs joined by Jazzy Jeff, Chad Jackson, Tim Westwood, Johnnie Walker, Ian Reading (details on 01-364 1212) … Disco Mix Club didn’t tell us that there is a London heat for the UK DJ Mixing Championships, at Streatham’s Sussex Tavern on Wednesday, January 28 while, just to recap, the other heats to come are at Manchester Saturdays Tuesday (13), Barnsley Japanese Whispers Wednesday (14), Birmingham Millionaires Monday (19), Bristol Chasers Tuesday (20), Bournemouth Clouds Monday (26), with the UK final at London’s Hippodrome Tuesday, February 10, and the World Final at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday, March 9 (limited public tickets for the latter are available with full details on 06286-67276) … Aleem featuring Leroy Burgess ‘Get Down Friday Night’ (US NIA NI-1258) has been reissued, a Sharon Brown ‘I Specialise In Love’-inspired burbling jiggly “I like to boogie” chanter, presumably still 113-113½-115-116-117bpm, one of the first (if not the very first) M&M mixes … T.C. Curtis ‘Slave Of Love’, a real nagging sleeper, has been remixed yet again as the 100⅔bpm Final Count Down Mix (Hot Melt ISTC 007), rhythmically go go-ish still with added silly noises and samples slotted in … Heavy D. & The Boyz’ 98½bpm ‘Mr Big Stuff’ remix (MCA Records MCAX 1106) is cut and scratched on top of the original scratching – different, if not entirely necessary … Sylvia Striplin ‘You Can’t Turn Me Away’, now I’ve finally located my original 1980 copy, squeakily weaves through 90½-89½-88⅔-90-88⅔-89-90bpm … Freddie Jackson’s sinuous smoochy 89⅔bpm ‘Have You Ever Loved Somebody’ is due on single (Capitol 12CL 437) to coincide with his UK visit … Davis/Pinckney Project’s hit has been given a totally pointless remix with added synth and tempoless intro … Les Adams has created a Midnight Star megamix to be UK flip of ‘Engine No. 9’ – which, let’s face it, to judge from import reaction will need the help … Champion are releasing the recently bootlegged old Masterdon Committee ‘Funk Box Party’ and have picked up M.C. Shy-D, Sweet Tee & Jazzy Joyce, Home Wreckers, Blaze, plus a remix by Phil Harding and Pete Waterman of the old Kinkina ‘Jungle Fever’ … Judy La Rose ‘Little Bit Of Love’, in a reverse deal, has already been picked up from Champion for US release by Profile, and with its lurching momentum is proving to be a bit of a grower which maybe I underestimated … Stacey Q ‘Two Of Hearts’ is due again in an even more blatantly hi-NRG 130¾bpm ‘Q-Mix’ – I wonder what the “Q” stands for? … Ian Levine has been producing Archie Bell & The Drells and Jr Walker – not, thankfully, in hi-NRG style – for his Nightmare label … Richard Long, who installed the world beating sound system at New York’s Paradise Garage, died of AIDS before Christmas … Michael Jackson, who, through his purchase of ATV Music, now controls the Beatles’ copyrights, objected to the Beastie Boys’ use of bits of ‘I’m Down’ on a track that consequently had to be left off their album … I concentrated so much on our year-end chart statistics for the Hammy Awards that I forgot my own personal choice for The One That Got Away, beyond any doubt Shirley Jones ‘Do You Get Enough Love’ … Wayne Fitzgerald (0733-237968), area controller for the Superjocks Hit Squad, is updating his DJ mailing list for the East Anglia area (which stretches to Lincoln, Northampton, Milton Keynes) … Buddy Holly lookalike, Johnnie Walker has got Mike Sefton’s old disco plugging job at Phonogram, who are reviving Casablanca as a label, while Mike at his new gig is starting an A&M Breakout black music label … Jeff Young lived up to our expectations and managed to oversleep before Christmas, arriving only in time for the last 40 minutes of his Radio London Saturday breakfast soul show, which luckily bright eyed and bushy tailed Gilles Peterson was able to start for him! … Richard Searling, back on Red Rose Radio from this Sunday 7-9pm, has his monthly ultra-soulful bash at Clayton-Le-Woods Halfway House next Wednesday (14) … Michael Knight, with no dance floor to keep filled, plays all sorts of classy soul Sunday lunchtimes at Brynmawr’s New Griffin Hotel cellar bar (on the A465) … Paul James souls Liverpool’s 19 Fun Pub Sundays … Tuesdays, Andrew Holmes spins soul/jazz/funk at Manchester’s Berlin, as do Danny Smith and Richard Routledge at Gt Yarmouth’s Two Necked Swan … Ricky John reports his Burnley venues Annabellas & Cat Whiskers are having a £1,750,000 refit in February … Arista’s press officers Patsy Johnson and Val Rooker took some journalists (self included) for lunch in Boulogne a week before Christmas; it was so rough that many were seasick and the ferry was so late that the booked restaurant was closed (the one next door was good, though), a Swedish guy had no visa and wasn’t allowed to land with us, and we only caught the boat back by five minutes – but it was great fun! … John Godfrey, who complained in rm about people throwing beer at the Barry Island weekender, was noticeably the first to chuck food about at Nicky Holloway’s party! … Essex R&B DJ Bob Jones had a haircut and seems to have gone grey – the Phil Seaman look? … Chris Hill is 10 years younger than Elvis Presley would have been today (January 8), the birthday also of David Bowie, Shirley Bassey, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, and Laura Leyton-Pope (her dad manages Matt Bianco!) … KEEP CHILLED!

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THE PHOTO we had to publish! Special Branch and Doo At The Zoo-promoting DJ NICKY HOLLOWAY is getting ever more ambitious with his recently formed Starship Enterprises, the launch of which he marked with a party for all the funk mafia DJs at Mexican restaurant Break For The Border (coincidentally exactly a year after Adrian Webb similarly launched Livewire). Nicky’s two main upcoming enterprises are a weekender at Poole’s Rockley Sands on March 20-22 and a funk holiday package in Corfu for your choice of one or two weeks in May, 9-16 or 2-16. DJs common to all events include Pete Tong, Gilles Peterson, Jay Strongman, Bob Jones, Chris Brown, Johnnie Walker, Paul Oakenfold, Chris Bangs, Bob Masters, Nicky himself, with others in Corfu and Jeff Young of Poole (details on 01-439 2628). Er, Nicky, you should have paid me the bribe!

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HOT VINYL

THE MOHAWKS ‘The Champ’ (Pama PMT 1, via Jet Star)
Number one on most DJs’ want lists ever since, thanks to its inclusion in so many recent scratch mixed medleys, they discovered it was a top New York break beat, this actually London-recorded UK club smash from 1968 is finally out again, on a 12 inch that (as the BPM will show) simply doubles up the original seven inch, inspired by Lowell Fulsom’s Otis & Carla-covered ‘Tramp’ in its female title chant and basic structure, it’s a bubbling and staggering 108½-114-111⅔-114-111-113¼-108½-114-111⅔-114-111-113¼bpm instrumental played by piercingly wheezing reedy organ with Stax-style brass and a very live drum kit. Had the charts been as fairly organised as they are today, it was big enough to have been a proper hit back then. Maybe now it’s gonna make it?

STEVE ‘SILK’ HURLEY ‘Jack Your Body’ (London LONX 117)
Unbelievably out here at last after being massive on import as long ago as last April, this is considered by London to be the official follow-up to Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk’s hit, a sizzling and rattling house bounder in four different versions, the 122¼bpm ‘Jack Your Body – Home Made’ namechecking “J.M. Silk” before monotonously repeating, as do the 122¼bpm ‘Club Your Body’ and 122bpm ‘Dub Your Body’, the basic “jack your body” title line, while the 126bpm ‘Steve Silk Hurley’ repeats that particular name.

HOT CHOCOLATE ‘You Sexy Thing (Extended Replay Mix)’ (EMI 12EMI 5592)
Dutch mastermixer Ben Liebrand has brilliantly created a brand new chunky 106⅔bpm go go backing into which he slots only some of the melody carrying elements and vocal strands of the original 1975 pop hit, to give a totally updated and much improved result (inst flip, and 107⅓bpm ‘Every 1’s A Winner’). Continue reading “January 10, 1987: The Mohawks, Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley, Hot Chocolate, Freeez, Blaze”