Month: August 1987

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

Stock Aitken Waterman are calling themselves The Extra Beat Boys for their latest custom remix, the cantering 119½bpm Deja ‘Serious (Extra Beat Boys Remix)’ (10 Records TENP 132), and they’ve also produced a galloping 124½(intro)-126¾-127¼-128½-126¾(break)-128¾-129bpm Hi-NRG/pop-aimed remake of 1980’s Nick Straker ‘Walk In The Park’ (Sedition EDITL 3333), due next week … Pete Waterman, no less, was in fact the first person to publish Beats Per Minute in this country, calculating them (rather inaccurately, as one now realises) by synchronising an electronic metronome with the record and reading off the tempo, the results being oriented by defunct trade paper Record Business in the disco sales chart that Pete has also initiated … Morgan Khan’s label Westside has signed Chicago’s DJ International Records for the UK, including its Underground and Fierce subsidiaries, covering all existing and future product but not current deals already in the pipeline, with a UK tour by such as Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk, Full House, Frankie Knuckles, Darryl Pandy and Chip E being planned for the autumn … EMI America apparently withdrew it before release in the States, but by mistake there are some eagerly snapped up Dutch pressings circulating of the Valentine Brothers’ latest LP, ‘Picture This’ (Dutch EMI America 064-24 0829 1), containing the ‘Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)’-type 112bpm ‘Cutbacks’ – get it while you can! … Charly Records are issuing a budget priced LP of rare grooves on September 14, containing such as Reuben Wilson ‘Got To Get Your Own’ (the album’s title track), African Music Machine ‘Black Water Gold’, Ripple ‘I Don’t Know What It Is But It Sure Is Funky’ – which should give Urban’s similar compilation a run for its money … Randy Brown’s cult collectors’ item album from 1978 has just been reissued through Charly too, ‘Welcome To My Room’ (Threeway Records WAY LP1), Philly-type soul although produced by Memphis’s Homer Banks and Carl Hampton … Loose Ends’s newie is the Nick Martinelli-remixed (0-)115¼bpm tapping wriggly ‘Ooh, You Make Me Feel’ from their last album, due in a week … MCA Records have taken to sending out import pressings as promos and then not following up with the UK pressings, so as I’m unable to recheck their bpms I will merely note that now out here evidently are Stephanie Mills ‘(You’re Puttin’) A Rush On Me’ (MCAT 1187), Heavy D and the Boyz ‘Chunky But Funky’ (MCAT 1173), Norwood ‘Should Have Been Us Together’ (MCAT 1180) … Tom Hodges may be amazed but Tony Blackburn has actually called his bluff and played Eddie Peters’ ‘Jock Mix 1’ (Rhino RNO 9), wickedly amusing impersonations of Blackburn, Alan Freeman, Jimmy Savile, Alan Whicker, Hughie Green and Robbie Vincent set to a not very danceable 0-132¾-0bpm backing track medley … Tim Westwood was spotted dropping off an audition tape at Capital Radio … Herb Alpert’s new ‘Making Love In The Rain’ single was always credited to Janet Jackson as co-lead singer when an album track, but now the sleeve rather pointedly just lists Lisa Keith … ‘Never Knew Love Like This’, the Alexander O’Neal & Cherrelle duet that’s obviously a smash that’s waiting to be unleashed, will remain an album track for quite some time to come, to encourage LP sales … Intrigue’s correct new spelling is Intrique, and last week’s review credited to ‘Colcut’ should have read Coldcut … Motown will be giving soul fans a welcome surprise with the imminent album by Garry Glenn … Sybil does her own version of Aurra’s ‘U And Me 2 Nite’ (as it’s now spelt), plus two treatments of Dionne Warwick’s ‘Don’t Make Me Over’, on her upcoming LP … CBS are presenting a silver disc as the prize for the first Milton Keynes Mixing Championship (entry submissions on tape must be in by the end of August, so hurry!) at Kincaid’s Queensway, Bletchley, Milton Keynes … Saturday (29) finds Simon Goffe recreating the Secret Rendezvous for a reunion party with CJ Carlos, Lyndon T and Gordon Mac at Dalston’s Oasis, while the SOS Band, Dazz Band, Robbie Vincent, Chris Hill, Pete Tong, Jeff Young and Froggy are in a tent on Finsbury Park in North London from 2pm … Sunday (30) similarly sees such as Freddie McGregor, Maxi Priest and Misty In Roots under a big top on Wormwood Scrubs as part of Notting Hill Carnival’s Music Festival from noon … Bank Holiday Monday alldayers include Steve Walsh, Colin Hudd, Paul Brady, Alan Matthews, Adrian Dunbar and more at Bournemouth’s Lucy’s/Madison Joe from noon, Bristol’s champion mixer Dennis ‘Dirty Den’ Murray and others at Bournemouth’s Co-Co’s from 1pm, Colin Curtis, Mike Shaft, Hutchy, Holcott Foster and more at Leeds’ The News from 4pm, Gary Meo, Paul Williams, James Lewis, Alan Coles, Michael Knight, Carl Bassett and others from the Taffia Mafia (like it) at Merthyr Tydfil’s Charbonnier’s from 5.30pm (Paul Williams plus guest being soulful there every Monday, normally) … Geoff Carr runs a black music room Thur/Fri/Saturdays at Sunderland’s Bentleys, in competition with the main pop room’s party DJ Paul Davidson … Mike Page has moved from Shrewsbury’s Park Lane to Walsall’s brand new and rather swish sounding The 5th … Steve Wiggins has added to his circuit Tuesdays at Barry Island’s Atlantic Wine Bar, where, incidentally, Alan Coulthard began his mixing career … South Wales surely is big enough for both Jeff Thomas and James Lewis (the latter of whose soul venues, past and present, I can vouch for) … Andy Douglas, rising to my bait at Glasgow’s Pzazz, seems to think that (despite my Scottish name) my knowledge of Scotland is lacking: the only mainland town in the entire country that I haven’t visited is Mallaig, otherwise there’s hardly an inch of the place I don’t know, something I’ll wager Andy can’t claim … Tony Blackburn’s favourite television show of the moment is TV-am’s kids’ programme, ‘Wide Awake Club’ – ‘nuff said? … LAH DEE DAH DEE!

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Sherrick has consolidated his position as the brightest new soul star with a strong eponymous album, ‘Sherrick’ (Warner Bros WX 118), containing the jiggly rolling go-go-ish 106bpm ‘Send For Me’, attractive swirling 112bpm ‘Let’s Be Lovers Tonight’, chunkily jiggling 115¼bpm ‘This Must Be Love’, spikily jittering 103⅓bpm ‘Tell Me What It Is’, jerkily trotting 116¾bpm ‘Do You Baby’, romantic 82bpm ‘Lady You Are’, lush 64⅔bpm ‘All Because Of You’, a wailing 55bpm revival of the Originals’ ‘Baby I’m For Real’ and , of course, his current 111⅚bpm ‘Just Call’ smash.

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HOT VINYL

LL COOL J ‘I Need Love’ (Def Jam 651101 6)
The pace-changing tranquil haunting semi-spoken slow 88bpm rap ballad from his ‘BAD’ album is rapidly becoming a massive crossover smash, with the flavour of another Force MD’s ‘Tender Love’ except neither sung nor so soppy, flipped by the properly rapped heroically worded jolting 102½bpm ‘My Rhyme Ain’t Done’.

CRIMINAL ELEMENT ORCHESTRA ‘Put The Needle To The Record’ (Cooltempo COOLX 150)
As we suspected all along it would be, this import released but here supposedly “LP only” dancefloor smash is at last on a commercial UK single! It’s a Wally Jump Jr-created thrashingly drummed and excitingly scratched ‘n sampled 116½bpm dated funk groove (in three mixes), the inspiration for M|A|R|R|S already and doubtless more to come.

DEREK B ‘Get Down’ (Music Of Life NOTE 007, via Pinnacle)
London DJ Derek Boland leaves the rapping this time to Easy Q while he concentrates on cutting Messrs Brown and Byrd into a funkily jiggling 101⅚bpm mix-up of thrashing rare groove drumbeat plus the piano from the Jackson Five’s ‘I Want You Back’ (in four mixes), the interestingly worded rap unfortunately getting too blue for airplay when Q gets down on it with a young lady! Continue reading “August 29, 1987: Sherrick, LL Cool J, Criminal Element Orchestra, Derek B, Joey Washington”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

ALAN JONES had done the chart, I had left the space, nobody else knew anything about it — consequently, the Pop Dance chart did not make its debut here last week, although right now it should be along with the Black Dance and Hi-NRG ones in the main charts section! … Phil Harding did the PWL Mix of Sybil ‘My Love Is Guaranteed’, but he and Pete Waterman have already created yet another totally different 118⅓bpm Red Ink Mix (Champion CHAMPR 1255), based unbelievably — in the most brazen scam to date — on the only just released M|A|R|R|S ‘Pump Up The Volume’, copying its beefy bounce and with a more houseified instrumental Part 2 … Phil Harding, having also turned the Two Grooves Under One Nation Remix of Mel & Kim ‘FLM’ into a mixture of ‘Jack Your Body/Do It Properly’ and ‘Le Freak’ (the flip’s a useful 121¾bpm instrumental dub of the remix, incidentally), has now given the same treatment actually to Chic ‘Le Freak’, making a 120⅓-120-120¼-121-120¾bpm ‘Jack Le Freak’ mix that includes some Mel & Kim and unfortunately is only on WEA promo! … Mike Allen has turned up at London’s “talk” station, LBC, hosting a weeknight phone-in plus (now that the station has a music licence) a Sunday 3-5pm hip hop show which will regularly feature world mixing champion Chad Jackson – meanwhile, another long established black music presenter at Capital Radio seems likely to be moving on, as well … Jeff Young is indeed moving to bigger (and, hopefully, better) radio employment … BBC Radio 1 apparently is planning to increase its coverage of “dance music”, with programmes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings from next month, prior to the October start of full FM transmission (at first just in the South and Scotland, other areas following as wavelengths are allocated) … Chris Hill has a weekly Saturday 8-11pm show on the new Radio 107 – in Hamburg, Germany! – flying over every fortnight to record the shows, on which he plays all the brand new black stuff in similar style to New York’s WBLS, talking in English … Nick Halkes, most recently jocking at London’s Maximus, has had a dream holiday job on student exchange in New York, working actually at WBLS in the programming department, compiling charts, filing records and dealing with pluggers: he suggests that UK record companies wanting to build a buzz on their material ahead of US release should sent it to his boss, Bobby Konders, Programming, WBLS Radio, 801 2nd Avenue, NYC, NY 10017 – recent UK soul hits playlisted like this on import have included Black Britain, Kenni Stevens and, of course, Stock Aitken Waterman (which will be on A&M in the US too) … Marley Marl, who does a daily lunchtime megamix  on ‘BLS’ has been producing house music with Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk … Fourth & Broadway, with Julian Palmer at the helm, will need a new young club promotions person – call Sue Hyams on 01-741 1511 after September 1 … Lyndon T has replaced Paul Oakenfold as plugger at Champion … Matt Black and Jonathan More have set up Ahead Of Our Time Records for their own cold cuts and other hot hip hop creations … Sherrick and Colonel Abrams have hot LPs in now, check the Black Dance chart for BPMs … Kenny G’s success has inspired the reissue of last year’s 93bpm sinuous sax instrumental, Direct Drive featuring Stan Stultzman ‘Oh Yeah’ (DDR GOT 1, via PRT) … Whitney Houston’s newie is the dead slow starting slushy 0-32-65¼-obpm ‘Didn’t We Almost Have It All’, nothing about the package being vital for discos … Colonel Abrams ‘How Soon We Forget’ would appear to be out here, but as the UK pressing was not serviced for review one must assume that it too is (0-)117½bpm … Nitro Deluxe’s ‘Let’s Get Brutal (Mega Mix)’ oddly appears to be only a promo … Tonya Wynne, recently featured singer with Stardom Groove, is now less well publicised as vocalist on 2 Puerto Ricans A Blackman And A Dominican … Birmingham scratcher Scooby Swift’s latest 2 Brummies A Cockney And A Mancunian remix of Denise Motto’s ‘IMNXTC’ could well be the first UK house mix released by a Chicago label, Play House Records releasing it there as the Union Jack Mix (like it!) … Thursday (Aug 20) Ian Reading previews Southend’s revamped and slightly renamed Zero Discotheque (previously Zero Six) … Nicky Holloway has another of his highly recommended Doo At The Zoo nights in London’s Regent Park this Saturday (Aug 22), with Pete Tong, Gilles Peterson, Chris Brown, Bob Jones, Chris Bangs, and a great atmosphere – advance tickets only, on 01-439 2628 (the number also for the Boscombe Weekender over August 29-31) … Kev Ashton, DJ Danny, Butch Robertson and more are funking the charity Redruth soul alldayer at the Peventon Hotel this Sunday (Aug 23), 3.30-11.30pm … Cardiff’s Red Dragon Radio soul presenter Ian Bruce now spins the soul downstairs in the wine bar while James Lewis is funkin’ upstairs on Tuesdays at Bridgend’s Astons … British Phonographic Industry sleuths apparently are deciding just which record shops to bust in their clampdown on the “rare groove”-encouraged soul bootleg industry … rm has the Beats Per Minute you can trust, to be consistent, correct, and “updated” for every different mix … LAH DEE DAH DEE!

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Aniela, a hot mixer who took a course at Les Adams’ studio and trained with Marie Thompson at Stringfellows, these days jocks alongside Brian Mason at Cricklewood’s Ashtons every Friday – and this Friday, you won’t only see her but also a heat of the National Miss Wet T-Shirt contest at the club. Reason enough for going?

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HOT VINYL

PRIVATE PARTY ‘Tennents’ (IMW 1201, via Red Rhino/Cartel)
Londoners PJ Tickle and Smiley C rap the praises of their favourite brew with such as the Seven Dwarfs scratched into the 98⅓bpm jitter by Scratch Master Dr K (centre, below), while Thunderbirds and Muppets make the 107⅚bpm ‘Puppet Capers‘ flip even more fun, for a wide audience (though maybe not so much for the floor). This is the first release from Islington Music Workshop’s co-operative community label. They seem to mean business!

FRESH GORDON ‘Feelin’ James’ (US Tommy Boy TB 901)
An American ‘Roadblock’, this sinuously jiggly 97bpm funk half-stepper continuously cuts in sampled grunts and phrases by James Brown, and “you got it” from Bobby Byrd’s ‘I Know You Got Soul’ (edit too), flipped by the more routinely rapped ‘n scratched jittery 96½bpm ‘I Believe In Music’ with ‘The Champ’ amongst its beats.

LONGSY D. AND CUT MASTER M.C. ‘Hip Hop Reggae’ (Big One VV Big 5)
Taking over as the definitive hip hop reggae fusion and fun enough to be a crossover smash too, this jerkily jumping 90½-90⅓bpm delight combines rapping, toasting, scratching, rare grooves, Bobby Byrd, The Mohawks, and an ace Delroy Wilson rhythm (instrumental 90⅓bpm PA Version, emptier 90bpm Original, sparse 90⅙bpm Beats). Continue reading “August 22, 1987: Private Party, Fresh Gordon, Longsy D. & Cut Master M.C., M|A|R|R|S, Coldcut”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

As hinted, we have at last found room to reinstate the pop venues-compiled Nightclub chart, now more accurately retitled Pop Dance (to complement the Disco chart’s equally accurate renaming as Black Dance), this new top 50 being within this column to draw your attention to it before moving to its permanent home within the reorganised chart pages (statisticians should note that the Pop and Black charts combined make up the top 100 published monthly in Jocks) – so, is everybody happy? … ‘Bad Meaning Good’, a film by Tim Westwood (the “auteur” syndrome, yet!) shown on BBC2 last week, gave a revealing insight for outsiders into London’s massively flourishing black street scene, the rap acts making proper stage appearances actually coming across less well than the more casually caught acappella performance in the back of a car by Sipho and Bionic of the London Posse, the well reasoned political rap under the Westway motorway arches by Daddy Speedo and Flyboy D from the Hip Hop Alliance, and the bedroom fast-cutting practice session by DJ Fingers (whose rapper MC Crazy Noddy also impressed) … Julian Palmer is returning from CBS to head the Fourth & Broadway label next month … Paul Oakenfold has left Champion and will be working for Profile when the label opens a London office … Housemartins bassist Norman Housemartin is hotly tipped to be behind the always fishy seeming DJ Mega-Mix Vol 1 ‘The Finest Ingredients’, which I had a hunch was British … M|A|R|R|S ‘Pump Up The Volume’ could be due for one of Jonathon More’s “cold cuts” remixes, especially as much of CJ Mackintosh and Dave Dorrell’s original scratching was left off the finished master because Colourbox felt it obscured the actual music … Bobby Byrd goes “yeah” throughout the Lyn Collins ‘Think’-based sizzling 107⅙bpm Cookie Crew ‘Females (Get On Up)‘, not due commercially for six weeks (if you can wait?), while Gwen McCrae (misspelt on label and sleeve as McRae!) has a mechanically bumped but quite good 101⅙bpm total re-recording of her old ‘Funky Sensation’ due here, also on Rhythm King, commercially in four weeks … Steve Proctor has compiled an ‘Urban Classics‘ album for late August release on Urban, containing rare groove funk, some more commercial oldies, stuff like the Luther Vandross featuring Greg Diamond’s Bionic Boogie ‘Hot Butterfly‘, Chakachas ‘Jungle Fever’, African Music Machine ‘Black Water Gold‘ … Roy Ayers ‘Can’t You See Me‘ will be on Urban 12 inch at the end of the month too, flipped by ‘Love Will Bring Us Back Together’/’Sweet Tears’ .. Sybil ‘My Love Is Guaranteed’, selling initially on import in the absence of UK pressings, has already been white labelled yet again in a second, far superior 118͕⅓bpm PWL Mix (Champion CHAMPX 1255), presumably from the Stock Aitken Waterman stable, much smoother although still quite Hi-NRG in a Mel & Kim-ish way … Natalie Cole ‘Jump Start’ is not necessarily improved by a boringly bashing 121¾bpm Deluxe Dub Mix (Manhattan 12MTX 22), with a similarly vigorous but more usefully vocal 121½bpm Car Mix flip … Fernand Fidore, DJ at London’s Xenon, has created a rather disastrously over-late 123½bpm remix of the House Master Boyz ‘House Nation’ (Magnetic Dance MAGDT 1R), still not actually out until next week … Hotline ‘Rock This House’ has been remixed to be B-side of its follow-up, incorporating now the break from Montana ‘Heavy Vibes’ – could this be a coming trend? … Germany’s BCM label has now compiled ‘The Very Best of Easy Street‘ (BC 33-2036-60), the LP twin-packed with a c.118bpm bonus 12 inch ‘Mic Mac’ Meyers mix of Hot Streak ‘Body Work’, Monyaka, World Premiere and other of the New York label’s oldies … Alexander O’Neal headlines at Live Wire’s October 30-November 1 Prestatyn Soul Weekend II, again at Pontins Holiday Centre, with DJs Chris Hill, Robbie Vincent, Jeff Young, Pete Tong, Tim Westwood, Paul Oakenfold, Nicky Holloway, Gilles Peterson, Sean French, Chris Brown, Froggy, Chris Forbes, Kev Hill, Johnny Walker, Ian Reading, Eddie Gordon (£42.50 ticket details on 01-364 1212) … Netphase’s rival October 23-25 Caister Soul & Jazz Weekend No 20 moves for the first time to Great Yarmouth’s Vauxhall Holiday Park, with the likes of Martin Collins, Bob Jones, Graham Gold, Colin Hudd, Jonathon More, Disco John Leech, Joe Field, Paul Clark, Danny Smith, Chris Bangs and SOLAR-fm (£39.50 ticket details on 01-367 9118) … Upnorth Promotions are running the North and Scotland’s first Berwick Soul Weekend at Berwick-on-Tweed’s Berwick Holiday Centre at the same time as Caster, October 23-25, which means that double-billed Martin Collins and Bob Jones will be alternating at both events (I don’t envy their car trips!), joining up north such as Colin Curtis, Richard Searling, Mike Shaft, Pete Haigh, Alex Lowes, Billy Davidson, Hutchy, Mervyn Anthony and special guests (£35 ticket details on 091-389 0317) … Johnny Walker guests this Friday (Aug 14) at Streatham Project at Zigi’s Scallywag Jazz Night, and Saturday (15) with Nicky Holloway and Gilles Peterson at London’s Farringdon Road Metropolitan … Sunday (Aug l6), DJ Elayne, Simon Goffe, Johnny S, Clarity Roadshow and Rapattack funk a 2pm alldayer at Caxton House in London N19’s St John’s Way … Monday (Aug 17) Phil Fearon is at Swansea Martha’s Vineyard … Colin Hudd and Keb Hill (although Kev may be away just now) are funking Thursdays at Basildon Raquels… Ken ‘B’ Brudenell has left Luton to open at Jersey’s newly refurbished Heroes in St Helier’s Inn On The Park … Tricky Dicky Scanes has joined forces with Bolts to promote gay nights at the Flowerpot in Seven Sisters’ St Anne’s Road, North London. Norman Scott jocking there Fri/Sat/Mondays (he’s still at Luton Ronelles every Sunday, his old bolt hole at Haringey Lazers having become a banqueting suite) … Desa seems upset at the lack of outside interest paid to Merseyside’s still funkin’ soul scene, citing the last Defhouse night at Birkenhead’s Atmosphere as a total roadblock (the next one is Monday week, August 24) … Alan Maskell, jocking at Legend and DeVilles, finds Manchester a bit restrictive and would appreciate offers from alternative/funk/indie/hip hop-type venues in surrounding Lancs/Mersey/Cheshire areas (on 061-236 1718, days) … Darryl Pandy & Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk are set to return with a revival of Southroad Connection’s ‘Free Man‘ … ‘Two Can Play At That Game‘ in a Godwin Logie remix will be Peggi Blu’s new single here … Michael Jackson’s 16 minute ‘Bad’ video, directed by Martin Scorcese, gets its exclusive TV premiere (along with some older material) on Channel 4 at 10.50pm on September 1, release date for his album of the same name – I don’t suppose many clubs will have their recorders running, will they? … LAH DEE DAH DEE!

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JEFF YOUNG, with possibly something bigger up his sleeve, has as of last Saturday already left his highly popular Radio London soul show, which has been taken over by a suitably startled looking PETE TONG (above!) on a temporary basis in its 8-10am breakfast time slot, with a view to taking over permanently if, as seems now very possible, it should revert to its old much more civilised brunch time slot. Both DJs do, of course, hold down important day jobs at Phonogram/London, the early hours of the present show naturally being a strain especially when they’re jocking in clubs as well, although apparently it’s not the hours that have prompted Jeff’s sudden decision to quit, git and split. Pete only recently stopped presenting a weekly soul show on Invicta Radio, and is already on Radio London’s roster of NITE-fm presenters during weekday evenings, so he should make a worthy (and inevitable?) replacement.

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HOT VINYL

FAT BOYS ‘Wipeout (Wave 1 Version)’ (Urban URBX 5)
Those stars of ‘Miami Vice’ are shaping up for a pop hit with this quite amusing 0-126½-0bpm revival of the Surfaris’ once instrumental surf classic, now with guest vocals by the Beach Boys around bursts of Beasties-type rap, much more accessible for middle-aged radio DJs to treat as a gimmick instead of that dangerous street rap that’s really happenin’!

BOBBY BYRD ‘I Know You Got Soul’ (Urban URBX 8)
Bobby was with James Brown right from the start as the longest enduring of his Famous Flames vocal backing trio, ending up his solitary vocal foil on both stage and (often) record, which is why it’s Bobby whose “get on up” has become the most over-scratched phrase of the moment despite that being on the actually James Brown-credited ‘Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved‘. He’s also had several solo hits over the years, from 1971 coming a timely 12 inch coupling of quintessential urgently jittering JB grooves, this (0-)114-112½-112-113-112½bpm original inspiration for Eric B And Rakim’s current rap ‘n’ scratch, the 118½-118-117½-117-118-118¾bpm ‘If You Don’t Work, You Can’t Eat‘, the 113-112bpm ‘Hot Pants…I’m Coming, Coming, I’m Coming‘, and an instrumental 112⅔-112bpm Bonus Beats of the latter specially created by Timmy Rogers so that UK mixers could have a new ‘Funky Drummer’ rhythm to use.

Meanwhile on import (check the Black Dance chart for BPMs), FRESH GORDON ‘Feelin’ James‘ (US Tommy Boy TB901) is the latest hot rap ‘n scratch to use James Brown plus in fact Bobby’s “you got it”, this time, from ‘I Know You Got Soul’, BIG DADDY KANE ‘Get Into It‘ (US Prism PS 2011) is another Eric B And Rakim-inspired Bobby Byrd rap ‘n scratch, KAY GEE THE ALL Featuring D.J. DREW ‘My Record Is Hot‘ (US B Boy Records BB 600) is a tricky cut ‘n scratch using a JB riff, SPANISH PRINCE ‘Dance Everybody Dance‘ (US 4th + B’way BWAY-422) bucks the trend by using “whoa-oh” chants and cutting in the Jackson Five’s currently rare groove-revived ‘I Want You Back’, PRIME TIME ‘He’s Def‘ (US Sun Town STPT 712) uses ‘Funkin’ For Jamaica’, all for proper review next week.

B-FATS ‘The B-Fats’ (US Rooftop Records RT 005)
The hottest hip-hopper of the past fortnight has in fact been this tight jittery subtly rhythmic 0-101⅓bpm go-go-cum-rare groove-ish rap about a new, self-titled, dancestep that’s a combination of the Whop and the Boogaloo (instrumental/edit flip). Continue reading “August 15, 1987: Fat Boys, Bobby Byrd, B-Fats, CJ Mackintosh & Einstein, UTFO”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

Rather irritatingly late in the day, the 121⅔bpm ‘Two Grooves Under One Nation Remix’ of Mel & Kim ‘FLM’ (Supreme Records SUPETX 113) has been hardened up with more of ‘Jack Your Body’ than their vocals, before suddenly becoming a remake of ‘Le Freak’! … Colourbox, augmented by scratchers CJ Mackintosh and Dave Dorrell, are the actual artistes cunningly disguised on “interesting” looking white labels of MARRS ‘Pump Up The Volume’ (4AD BAD 707), a vigorously pounding jittery 113bpm doom-laden instrumental in ‘Put The Needle To The Record’ style, the scam being blown by its undisguised matrix number (the one that’s engraved on every record in the run-out groove area, in this country usually the same as the actual catalogue number), which doesn’t stop it being a hot one! … PLASA, the Professional Lighting And Sound Association’s Light & Sound Show 87 is again at Hammersmith’s Novotel between Sunday-Wednesday September 6-9, entrance being free provided you return the official registration form before August 17 (otherwise £3 on the door): to get a form, apply (detailing your company or other professional capacity) to PLASA, 7 Highlight House, St Leonards Road, Eastbourne, Sussex BN21 3UH … Alexander O’Neal’s sizzling new album has been so long in coming because evidently earlier attempts were rejected by the label … Maceo & The Macks ‘Cross The Track’ apparently was withdrawn from release several weeks ago so that Urban could relaunch it (not that it isn’t still available on Serious Records’ ‘Dance Mania‘ compilation LP) … David ‘Pic’ Conley’s reissued remix was no sooner mentioned last week than yet another brand new very sparsely tapping tender dub-style 0-98bpm Love Mix also arrived of Surface ‘Happy’ (CBS 650393 9), trickier to use … Natalie Cole’s commercial pressing of ‘Jump Start’ turns out to be 0-122¾bpm, with ‘More Than The Stars’ 78¾bpm … Zuice keep trying with commercial dance product, returning later in the month on the 115¼bpm ‘I’m A Survivor‘ (115bpm US Mix), when surely a slower strong song would serve them better? … 10 Records have got around again to their annual reissue of Lonnie Hill ‘Galveston Bay‘ (TEN 111-12), the lovely mellow MoR swayer in its old 96⅔-97½bpm extended re-edit and 96½-97⅙ LP versions, as before … Andros Georgiou’s secretive Bee Gees pop revival, the 102bpm Boogie Box High ‘Jive Talkin’‘ (Hardback BOSS 4), as several jocks have discovered is flipped by a whistle-blowing percussive 115⅔bpm house-ish ‘Rhythm Talkin’ (Part 1)‘ instrumental that bears no relation to the top side … Fourth & Broadway has lost not only Ian Dewhirst but also Jon Williams, the Latter to Jive as an A&R man … Southern Sound Radio’s charity appeal Light-A-Laser has a star studded night this Thursday (August 6) at Worthing’s Carioca Club, co-hosted by resident jock Andy Heryet … Simon Dunmore and Dean Thatcher’s funk ‘n soul Rhythm Zone night, this one with guest Gilles Peterson, is as usual at Northolt’s C&L Country Club but now the first Friday of every month (thus this Friday, Aug 7) … Neil Rushton combines upfront soul and house with quality oldies this Friday and Saturday (Aug 7/8) at Burntwood No 7’s, in the Walsall/Cannock area … Shaun Williams turns it up Tuesdays from 10.15pm (only pre-paid ticket admission after 11pm) playing hard grooves, house and rap at Worcester’s The Pavilion, where promotions manager Andy King is always after PA’s on 0905-612428 … James Lewis’s Tuesday soul nights at Bridgend Astons go from strength to strength: last week he had not only Nat Augustin but also Rick Clarke & Emma there – a pity though the club bars people in jeans, no matter whom, which means that on a spur of the moment visit I didn’t get in! … Swansea Martha’s Vineyard now has giant screen video installed, resident soul DJ Jeff Thomas however being restricted by a shortage of black music videos to show (a common complaint) … Steve Wiggins (Barry), another of the few DJs in South Wales who do break new music (as I can vouch, since the Seventies), wonders what it takes to get through to some DJ mailing list operators … lain Norman is delighted to find his new Wednesday funk ‘n soul venue, Ipswich’s classy La Dolce Vita, is equipped with SL1200 turntables (the mixing DJ’s fave) … John Stapleton,the hip hop/rare groove-playing Dr Jam of Defcon 2, joins funk/house-spinning Chris Carrad on Wednesdays at Bristol’s Hollywood … Graeme Park, the def dude, is now hard ‘n heavy most Saturdays at Derby’s 20th Century Complex, only doing the odd night still at Nottingham’s Barracuda as he’s getting so many one night guest slots around the nation … Dennis Edwards chose a good time to rejoin the Temptations … The Surfaris’ classic ‘Wipeout’ has been revived not only by the Fat Boys, but also by Herbie Hancock for an Annette Funicello/Frankie Avalon comeback bikini beach party movie, ‘Back To The Beach’! … David Grant’s review, the top one in an old batch of unprinted overmatter, finally ended up being printed by mistake as lead review in this column, following which his record made its first showing in the national Top 100 (and then our Disco chart) — could there be any connection?! … Theo Loyla (no unfriendly attack intended) is as usual whingeing on about our black music chart not reflecting the music played in pop clubs, his undeclared main beef, of course, being that the records he plugs for Bullet Disco/Club Promotion are in the main unlikely to appear in it because they tend to be pop records (and Theo does love to list all the charts his “hits” appear in, no matter from what country)! … LAH DEE DAH DEE!

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HOT VINYL

WEST PHILLIPS ‘Tell Me’ (Kool Kat KOOL T7, via PRT)
Recently on hard to find import, this galloping jack track is here in a UK-only violently frantic 122¾bpm instrumental Crucial Mix, which accentuates the clichés, a good 122bpm Dub Mix, exciting simple 121⅓-0bpm vocal (inexplicably called Eurobeat) and 121bpm Bonus Beats. Basic raw stuff, to jack your body not your mind.

THE TEMPTATIONS ‘Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone’ (1987 Remix)’ (Motown ZT 41432)
First fruit from apparently a whole album’s worth of Motown classics completely revamped by young New York remixer Freddy Bastone, this 121bpm restructuring retains just some of the original vocal and bits of instrumental over a remade (but actually not that modern) rhythm track, easier to use than the interminably introed 1972 original (Dub Remix flip, and 1966’s original short 120-119-117½bpm ‘Ain’t Too Proud To Beg’, the song currently featured in a TV commercial).

ANQUETTE ‘Ghetto Style’ (US Luke Skyywalker GR 107)
Roxanne Shanté style, more like, this 108bpm female rap strongly scratches in all the usual current rare grooves to make it a perfect fit for now without being one of the actual innovators (instrumental too), the flip’s frantic 113-132½bpm ‘Shake It (Do The 61st)‘ being full of Bobby Byrd “getting on up”. Continue reading “August 8, 1987: West Phillips, The Temptations, Anquette, Imagination, Tony Cofi”

Due to the poor quality scan of this week’s column, some of the BPM fractions could not be deciphered, so in these cases they have been replaced with ½.

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

Stock Aitken Waterman’s ‘Roadblock’, which has exploded in New York City on WBLS (without actually having a US label yet!), is here now also flipped by a sizzling 0-99½bpm Rare Dub (Breakout USAT 611), cutting in bits from such as ‘Hustlers’ Convention’, ‘The Bugga Groove’, ‘Get Busy’, Paul Scott’s ‘Off The Wall’, Moonfou’s ‘Shut Up’ and, of course, the exhortations of James Brown and Bobby Byrd … BBC2 next Wednesday (August 5) at 7.30pm in the ‘Open Space’ slot are screening ‘Bad Meaning Good’, a documentary about London’s hip hop scene with Run-DMC, Tim Westwood, London Posse, Cookie Crew and many more – Tim Westwood, incidentally, is running a free admission open air jam on Wormwood Scrubs Common every Sunday afternoon, with two more to go … New York’s New Music Seminar sounds to have been much as usual, bad feeling surrounding the win by Cash Money (who scratched using his belly) over LA’s DJ Cooley in the DJ competition, while a secret ballot had to decide the rapping result, Melle Mel being awarded the belt by his peers for a tired performance whereas King Sun only came second following blistering extemporised raps about each of the judges (last year’s winner Grandmaster Caz came third, Roxanne Shanté being barred in case her bad language upset puritanical judge Kurtis Blow again!) … Gail King evidently impressed everyone with her def mixing at Stringfellows, of all places, during an Epic-hosted party the dance night at new “in” spot 1018 being shambolically over-crowded in typical New York style, while the planned British Dance Music Gala had to be postponed until next year’s Seminar following too many last minute snags … T-Coy’s ‘Carino’, the ‘Set It Off’-ish house hustler co-created by Manchester Hacienda DJ (and rm chart contributor) Mike Pickering, is now in an improved 115bpm Hot Remix (deConstruction Records M 263), flipped by 114½bpm Loco and Nude Mixes which have much less of the fiery Latin piano … Paul Johnson’s ‘Are We Strong Enough’ has already been circulated as a blander 104bpm Godwin Logie Remix (CBS PJOHN O3) … Capitol have preceded the first in their new ‘Capitol Collectables’ compilation LP series with a pair of promo-only and thus even more collectable 12 inchers, coupling Peggi Blu’s ‘Tender Moments’/O’Jays ‘Don’t Take Your Love Away’ and Cheryl Lynn ‘If You Were Mine’/Beau Williams ‘All Because Of You’, this last track in a brand new unreleased 108½bpm remix which makes it hottest of the lot … CBS are attempting to relaunch, now that it’s finally huge in the US, the 98bpm David ‘Pic’ Conley’s second remix of Surface ‘Happy’ … Sybil ‘My Love Is Guaranteed’, promoed ahead of August 10 release, is a jerky 118¾bpm canterer made almost Hi-NRG by its Ian Levine-type tinny “brass” and electronic rhythm … Brian Chin, my opposite number at US trade paper Billboard, has become A&R head of the Profile label … Virgin have signed Mantronix for the world, away from Sleeping Bag Records even in the USA … Mike Allen may be doing less on Capital Radio now, but instead he seems to be getting into CB … Tony Prince co-hosted a Le Palais, Hammersmith launch party for the Paul Dakeyne-mixed ‘Sixties Mix’ LP, on Stylus, with such veteran stars as Brian Poole, Cliff Bennett, Billie Davis, Screaming Lord Sutch, Mike Sarne, Dave Dee, Denny Laine, Clem Curtis … Millie’s 131½-130¾bpm Jamaica ska classic from 1964, ‘My Boy Lollipop’ has been reissued on probably the shortest 12 inch A-side ever at under two minutes (Island 12WIP 6574), other current pop party pleasers include the Ritchie Valens Mexican knees-up reviving 154½-156-156½-122bpm Los Lobos ‘La Bamba’ (London LASHX 13) and, of course, the frantic 192-190bpm Jackie Wilson’s ‘Higher And Higher’ (SMP SKM 12 10) … Jean Carn sings on Grover Washington Jr’s jazzy new import LP, Xavier Gold being the female vocalist for Ralphi Rosario … Sherrick’s review last week somehow got garbled, WEA servicing jocks with both the 12 inch and the original seven inch, as so many prefer the latter’s mix … Rick Astley turns out to be a surprisingly young looking redhead, possibly against the evidence of his mature voice … LA Mix’s ‘Don’t Stop (Jammin’)’ looks like making the Philly groove rare again … Alan Coulthard is now a fully qualified barrister, his first brief being to represent his colleagues at the Disco Mix Club in copyright law matters … Chad Jackson and world mixing runner-up Joe Rodriguez are touring France together in a megamix package … Derek B cuts ‘em up at Camden Town Dingwalls’ Across The Tracks this Thursday (July 30), when Epping Forest Country Club’s reopening is an underwear party with two rooms of fun and funk featuring such as Mick Brown, Roberto and Toni Forzoni, DJ Curtis … Sunday (Aug 2) Odyssey appear at Dublin’s gay Flikkers for a wear white night … Peter Sievewright proves it isn’t all Hi-NRG in Scotland (hee hee!), getting great reaction at Perth Yorky’s to James Brown’s ‘Honky Tonk’ from 1972, not the rarest of grooves maybe … Kev Ashton (Newquay Frizzbys/Tall Trees) says Cornish jocks are fed up with patronising tourists asking “Have you heard of house music?” and then requesting ‘Palpitation’ or ‘Power Station’ by the House Master Boyz! … Def Jam have made some rather saucy white shorts to promote the Beastie Boys’ ‘She’s On It’, which makes a change from T-shirts … I wonder how many people remember that the Gap Band’s ‘Oops Up Side Your Head’ was originally titled in 1979 ‘I Don’t Believe You Want To Get Up And Dance (Oops Up Side Your Head)’? … LAH DEE DAH DEE!

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Michael Jackson at last releases his album ‘Bad’ on September 1, its first single (serviced initially on seven inch) being out now, ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ (Epic 650202 7). Featuring that busy duettist, Siedah Garrett, it’s a gently pulsing 0-50/100 (99¼)bpm romantic swayer with an amusingly self-satirising tenderly whispered start – or is he actually being serious? Michael wrote eight of the Quincy Jones-produced album’s 10 songs, and duets with Stevie Wonder (on one that he didn’t write). Can you wait?

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HOT VINYL

ALEXANDER O’NEAL ‘Hearsay’ LP (Tabu 450936 1)
Party chatter and instrumental doodles confusingly (for DJs) intersperse many of the tracks on this eagerly anticipated and otherwise consistently strong Jam & Lewis-created set, Cherrelle duetting the gorgeous easily swaying 0-104-0bpm ‘Never Knew Love Like This’ with their voices complementing each other just as perfectly as on ‘Saturday Love’, big Alex sounding typical on the swaying (0-)101½-0bpm title track, tranquil cool (0-)69½-0bpm ‘Sunshine’, gently drifting 56½-0bpm ‘Crying Overtime’, Isleys-ish slinky (0-)81-0bpm ‘When The Party’s Over’, Janet-ish pumping (0-)115½-0bpm ‘What Can I Say (To Make You Love Me)’, rolling (0-)105-0bpm ‘The Lovers’ already known 112½-0bpm ‘Fake’, smoothly burbling 116½bpm ‘Criticize’.

NITRO DELUXE ‘Let’s Get Brutal (Mega Mix)’ (Cooltempo COOLD 142)
Cooltempo continue trying to crossover this the year’s biggest house tune, so far as club reaction rather than pop chart success has been concerned, now dropping ‘The/This Brutal House’ in favour of its original US couplings (here as 114⅔-115-114¾-115bpm flip) given an all new and quite altered 116¾-116½-116⅔-116½-116¾bpm bass burbled jerkily rolling remix with added muttering and effects but, like ‘The Brutal Mix’ before it, not much of the ultra-catchy piercing “whee-ee” hookline.

DUANE & CO ‘Hard Core (On The One)’ (Serious Records OUS7)
Marshall Jefferson programmed the drums for a house-cum-rare groove smash that trendily cuts in James Brown yells, as on the original ‘JB Traxx’, on the 121bpm ‘JB In Heat’ and ‘JB Traxx II’, 118¼bpm ‘Lowdown ‘N’ Funky’ and 118½bpm ‘At The Organ’ variations. Continue reading “August 1, 1987: Alexander O’Neal, Nitro Deluxe, Duane & Co, Dynamix II, Stephanie Mills”