Month: November 1987

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

NEXT YEAR’S DJ Convention in London is confirmed as a three-dayer, March 6/7/8, with a welcoming party at the Hippodrome Sunday, actual forums at the Astoria Monday, and star studded Technics World DJ Mixing Championship finals at the Royal Albert Hall Tuesday… Joyce Sims ‘Come Into My Life’ is in fact not scheduled (at the moment) for commercial release here until after Christmas, when it’ll be flipped by a Simon Harris-created ‘Lifetime Love/All And All’ megamix… Mirage’s current ‘Jack Mix’, following my suggestion some months back in Music Week, looks like being kept permanently in the pop chart by the regular updating of the hit material it includes!… I wasn’t re-serviced with Nina Simone’s exactly 30 years old ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’ this time around, but every soul DJ worth their salt has been playing the classic shuffling sophisticated swinger for years anyway, though pop jocks may need to note that in its superior original version (on seven-inch, Charly CYZ7 112) its 118½-119-120½-120-119½-120-0bpm… John Anderson’s terrific twisting 192-194bpm ‘Glen Miller Medley’, essential for mobile and party DJs, is out again as flip to the brassy TV themes-medleying ‘Non-Stop Cops’ (Modern Records POLICE 1, via Priority), (0-)132½bpm on the better seven inch or (0-)133-132¼-132½ on the needlessly extended 12 inch… Huddersfield’s Hotline have a frantic jittery 119⅓bpm London Town Remix of their Gil Scott-Heron-ish jazzy ‘Hell House’ (Rhythm King LEFT R17T), flipped at last by their Montana Sextet-copying 113¼-113bpm Heavy Vibes Mix (done long before LA Mix came out!)… Zuzan ‘Girls Can Jak Too’ is now in a jerky 123bpm US Remix by Jay Burnett (Supreme Records ZANTX 1), and Bobby Womack ‘Living In A Box’ in an untidily synchronised sparsely percussive slower 115⅓bpm Hacienda Mix (MCA Records MCAX 1210)… Matt Black + The Coldcut Crew ‘That Greedy Beat’ and Coldcut featuring Floormaster Squeeze ‘Beats + Pieces (Mo’ Bass Remix)’ are about to be back-to-back on the same 12 inch single!… Coldcut, incidentally, look forward to meeting and possibly working with Israeli superstar Ofra Haza, whose wailing version of the Yemenite song ‘Im Nin’alu‘ (just reissued on GlobeStyle Records NST 117) they used on ‘Paid In Full’… Stock Aitken Waterman’s remix of Dance Aid will be followed by a Les Adams remix, too… Stevie Wonder’s new LP, ‘Characters’ (Motown ZL72001), is especially disappointing in its vinyl version, a tired rehash of dated old formulae with only his brightly chugging 118bpm ‘Get It‘ duet with Michael Jackson likely to get much disco play, whereas its two best tracks are — madly —only available on CD and cassette versions, the typically bounding 0-118bpm ‘My Eyes Don’t Cry‘ and spikily leaping brassy 137½bpm ‘Come Let Me Make Your Love Come Down‘, with BB King on guitar (BPMs for these two are approximate. being off cassette)… Was (Not Was)’s follow-up doesn’t sound like a floor-filler, the trickily introed emptily jittering Level 42-ish 109¾-109½-0bpm ‘The Boy’s Gone Crazy (Walk In The Black Forest Mix)‘ (Fontana SFP912), while Ray Parker Jr’s follow-up will be his slow ‘Over You’ duet with Natalie Cole… Mission’s import LP is now out here, ‘Search’ (CBS 460265 1)… Profile have yet to establish a London office, so London snapped up Run-DMC’s ‘Christmas In Hollis‘ single and the hot ‘Christmas Rap‘ LP for UK release, and are after the terrific ‘Cold Sweat’-based Sweet Tee ‘I Got Da Feelin’‘ — irritatingly unavailable at time of writing yet plugged to death on radio by Pete Tong off acetate (in fact, Pete’s currently being called “PAT” by his colleagues at London, Pete “Acetate” Tong, ‘cos he hardly ever plays anything old enough to be on vinyl!)… Suburban Knight, not White Knight, is one of the Detroit house acts that Neil Rushton is UK licensing agent for (see last week), along with Derrick May’s brand new ‘Nude Photo 88‘ remix of Rythim Is Rythim… I regret the publicity agents who advised us of the venues for the JM Silk-headed current house tour proved to be rather unreliable, the Uxbridge date being at Regals rather than Brunel University, for instance — our apologies… Matt Black + Jonathon More of Coldcut fame are building a DJ mailing list for Ahead Of Our Time, c/o Big Life, 4 New Burlington Place, London W1X 1FB — applicants (this is a subtle touch!) must state why they want to be on such a list… Kool Kat Records are expanding their list for genuinely upfront DJs, Dave Barker being the contact there at Studio House, 10 Bishopsgate Street, Birmingham, West Midlands B15 1ET… Sandra Browne is updating the list for Passion (covering Debut and SMP as well as other independently promoted product) at South Bank House, Black Prince Road, London SE1 7SJ … Bill Grainger’s previously Scottish DJs-only mailing list is expanding to include some Sassenachs too, at First Class Radio & Club Promotion, Fire Island, 127 Princes Street, Edinburgh, Scotland… Alan Jones and I would actually prefer to receive charts from DJs who buy most of the records they play, instead of listing all the stuff they’ve received for free, but we’ve learnt to live with the imbalance that often occurs in our various disco charts when heavily promoted records do disproportionately better than the ones that are genuinely selling, knowing as we do that not everyone in the real world (ie: the general public!) wants to buy for home listening something that’s a terrific floor-filler: however, WEA’s disco plugger Fred Dove keeps causing us a real problem by repeatedly servicing his mailing list DJs with imports months after they did little or nothing when new, even though (as in the case of the August-released but only just charted Mason ‘Pour It On’ remixes) the records may be genuinely good — a couple he’s mailed out that I never bothered to review when new are Ce Ce Rogers ‘Someday‘ (US Atlantic 0-86687), a Marshall Jefferson-created piano plonked moaning smooth 119⅓-0bpm hustler, and Curtis Hairston’s double-sider with the spurting sparsely percussive (0-)113½bpm ‘Let’s Make Love Tonight‘ and better more urgently wriggling 118-0bpm ‘Take Charge‘ remixes (US Atlantic 0-86682)… I guess some of our Black Dance chart terminology needs clarification at this point: “white label” means a literally white labelled or otherwise unfinished advance pressing that is available for sale in possibly only specialist shops, “promo” means a promotional pressing that is not generally available even at that level yet, and “mailing list promo” means something that is either totally unavailable except to mailing list DJs or else (and here its open to interpretation!) generally available and in our chart despite a total lack of recently monitored sales!… Total Contrast at this point had better hope their sales improve… Tuesday, tonight (November 24), Nicky Holloway guests with Les Fisher and Simon Dunmore at Ealing’s’ Luckys wine bar… Roberto and Toni Forzoni funk the Italian Connection’s eat as much as you can Pizza Party on Saturday (28) at the city of London’s Spatz in Shoe Lane (two passport size photos needed to join on the night)… Andy Henderson souls Brighton’s West Beach Club every Monday, with Carl Cox as guest next week, while Dave Ralph and Chris Lynes spin solid funk at Rhyl’s Mirrors every Tuesday, and Ian ‘Muppet’ Stewart is well crucial every Wednesday at Chelmsford’s free admission BJ’s in Townfield Street… Robbie Dee now has no nights off at all — as well as his Tues-Sat residency at Southend-on-Sea’s Rain, he also handles Sundays at Walthamstow’s Charlie Chan’s and Mondays at Harlow’s HighWire… Chris Williams is being forced to retire from jocking by an operation on his eardrum — currently at Tokyo Joe’s, his other London residencies over the last eight years have included the Birdsnest, Venue, and Roof Gardens… Paul Allen is giving up jocking after years along the East Anglian coast, to don a dickie bow as assistant manager at Peterborough’s Shanghai Sam’s… Dave Joyce’s funkiest night is Monday at Portsmouth’s busy Central Park and Ritzy, where he’s entertainments manager as well as DJ… Jeff Thomas ended up being unable to do better than James Lewis in maintaining the now discontinued Tuesday soul night at Bridgend’s Astons, but is having success with hip hop on Thursdays at Port Talbot’s Pharoah’s… Phil English attracts funksters from across the Fens and further to his Saturdays at The Jenyns Arms, an isolated riverside pub near Downham Market at the romantically named Denver Sluice, Sunday venue also for Jamie Trundle (who jacks Tuesdays at Kings Lynn’s Frontline, amongst others)… Steve Stuart emphasises that the new management at Boston’s Elizabethan Club now bar the underage kids who previously scared off the bigger-spending older crowd who from a commercial viewpoint may be deemed more desirable… LiveWire’s recent experimental Radio 1 weekender at Prestatyn was such a success that it’ll be repeated next Year… Steve Day’s soul shows on Milton Keynes Radio have been extended, now Sunday 5.30-7.30pm and Monday 9pm-midnight… Jay Strongman has been gigging in Berlin and Vienna, where hip hop and rare groove (especially Ripple ‘I Don’t Know What It Is But It Sure Is Funky‘) went down well, and in Florence, where the Italians couldn’t handle hip hop but were into house and Latin… Foster Sylvers ‘Misdemeanour‘ (US MGM/Pride) seems to be one of the most sought old grooves of the moment… Steve Hills (Leytonstone The Cube) points out the bassline similarity between Rick Astley ‘Whenever You Need Somebody‘ and Steve Arrington ‘Dancing In The Key Of Life‘… Chris Paul learnt the sax as a kid by playing along to the theme from ‘Z Cars’… I was dead right, Steve Walsh’s follow-up does go “whoah-oh”!… DON’T STOP JAMMIN’!

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‘House Arrest‘ and ‘House Reaction‘ are two of the hottest homegrown house tracks of the moment, both being by Nottingham-based house groups, both of which include Mark Gamble in their line-up. Mark (on the left in both photos) is joined in KRUSH by Cassius Campbell (DJ Cassroc) and guest vocalist Ruth Joy, while his co-members in T-CUT-F are Delroy Joseph, DJ Franklyn McDonald and (unpictured) Leroy Crawford.

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HOT VINYL

KOOL MOE DEE ‘How Ya Like Me Now’ (Jive/ Rooftop Records JIVE T 156)
‘Night Train’-introed great ultra-jittery (0-)104⅓bpm toughly worded rap cutting in James Brown beats (edit too), flipped here by the old (0-)88⅓-0bpm ‘Do You Know What Time It Is‘, the hot track from his last album.

TEN CITY ‘Devotion (Club Mix)’ (Atlantic A9153T)
Marshall Jefferson-produced cymbals schlurped soaringly whinneying Sylvester-style 120-0bpm hustling disco bounder borrowing the bassline from Azymuth’s ‘Jazz Carnival‘, a proper song with the potential to be a pop smash (more dubwise 120¼-0bpm Bam Bam’s House Mix and Bonus Beats flip).

WALLY JUMP JR & THE CRIMINAL ELEMENT ‘Tighten Up <I Just Can’t Stop Dancin’>’ (Breakout USAT 621)
Terrific drums thrashed combination of two Archie Bell & the Drells classics (given Janet Jackson’s similarly tempoed ‘When I Think Of You’ bassline now), still better in its 0-116bpm original LP version than the A-side’s disjointed 0-116-0bpm remix although both are likely to be swamped by Jazzy Joyce’s fiercely transformed 0-116-0bpm ‘Lighten Up <I Just Can’t Stop Scratchin’>’ dub mix! Continue reading “November 28, 1987: Kool Moe Dee, Ten City, Wally Jump Jr, Public Enemy, Keith Sweat”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

NICKY HOLLOWAY’s recent Doo at the cathedral-like Natural History Museum was one of the weirdest and most spectacular gigs ever, with strobes illuminating the dinosaur skeletons, hanging projector screens, cavernously echoing massive sound (just right for Pete Tong and the other jocks’ “acid” house music), and all the vibe of a Sixties hippy happening — appropriate, considering flares were making a comeback!… Derek B’s 97½-98-97½bpm Urban Respray of Eric B & Rakim ‘Paid In Full’ (4th + B’way 12BRX 78) is totally different with groaning girls, clanging guitar chords copied from John Cougar Mellencamp’s ‘Jack & Diane’, Chuck Brown go go beats… Cookie Crew’s new 0-106⅔-106¾-0bpm ‘Females (Get What We Want)’ (Rhythm King LEFT R 12T) rearranges the James Brown rhythms, adding Trouble Funk’s “pump me up”, and transforming “this stuff is really fresh”, among other changes, with a truly transformer-ed scratching 107⅙bpm Cookie Monster Jam Mix flip… Rick Astley’s 114⅔-114¾-115bpm ‘Whenever You Need Somebody (Rick Sets If Off Mix)‘ (RCA PT41568R) uses the old Harleqiun Fours ‘Set It Off’ rhythm (with an instrumental 114½-114¾bpm XK I50 Mix flip)… Wally Jump Jr & The Criminal Element’s fiercely transformed Jazzy Joyce-scratched 0-116-0bpm ‘Lighten Up (I Just Can’t Stop Scratching)’ dub version is now on promo (Breakout USAT 621)… Glen Goldsmith has yet another largely instrumental even chunkier 104bpm Back Yardie Remix of ‘I Won’t Cry’, so far on promo only… Bert Rogers kindly sent me from Germany his own copy of the locally bootlegged Jeli version of ‘Pump Up The Volume’, re-scratched and over-dubbed with added rock guitar intros by such as the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton, 0- 114⅓-113¼-114½-0-115-0bpm before then branching out into a very long general disco oldies medley… Pete Hammond and Pete Waterman’s 109bpm PWL Remix of Audrey Wheeler ‘Irresistible’ (Capitol 12CLX 471) is more tightly juddering but not that different… I somehow missed the huskily impassioned rolling (0-)105½bpm La Rue ‘Can’t Let It Go‘ when reviewing the ‘Penitentiary III’ soundtrack LP… Brian Carter, of Germany’s BCM label (already famous for its Chicago house releases), is preparing a massive 100 track boxed set ‘The Story Of House’, on CD too, with an illustrated booklet and all the real rarities, including the music’s source influences… Jamie Principle’s eagerly sought original version of ‘Baby Wants To Ride’ never came out legally but was bootlegged around Chicago last winter, before he made a higher-tech re-recording during the summer for a deal with Manhattan which never materialised, this remake now being snapped up here by London for the next ‘Acid Tracks’ third volume of ‘The House Sound Of Chicago’ compilation series (after which it’ll be a single, too): meanwhile, any actual involvement by the lyrically namechecked “Jamie” in the much faster version reviewed last week as by Frankie Knuckles Presents on US Trax neither confirmed nor denied!… Will Downing, singer with Wally Jump Jr, has house-ified jazz great John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme‘ for his Arthur Baker produced upcoming 4th + B’way solo LP… Birmingham’s Kool Kat Records are UK agents for Detroit’s Transmat label, so Neil Rushton is looking for bids on 021-643 6584 for the hot Rhythim Is Rhythim and White Knight product… Serious Records have got the Bovver Boys to create ‘The Best Of House Megamix‘ out of the year’s top 18 jack tracks for LP release before Christmas… Les Adams has done a Nitro Deluxe-ish Brutal Remix of LA Mix just, strictly, for Germany… Jellybean’s ‘Jingo’ remix is scheduled for singles release next month already, hard on the heels of ‘Who Found Who’ (which has a remix due too)… Steve Walsh’s followup is the Stock Aitken Waterman-created ‘Let’s Get Together Tonight‘ (whoa-oh?)… Morgan Khan married his Dutch fiancée Jacqui just over a week ago, when they were meant to be keeping a cinema date with me!… Man To Man ‘At The Gym’ should have been printed as 130bpm, while commercial pressings of Krush are 120¼-0bpm… Dave Pearce has recorded the Def Jam tour for his Monday 10pm NITE-fm hip hop show on Radio London, featuring Eric B & Rakim, LL Cool J and Public Enemy, the latter of whom were mindlessly verbose (“you know what I’m saying?”) when his studio guests, although by strange contrast they were really sharp when on Tim Westwood’s excellent and all too brief Saturday night 12.15-12.45am Capital Radio slot… Chris Hill was flown to Hamburg by Radio Hamburg (to which he moves in January from that city’s Radio 107) a couple of weekends ago to be on air for two nights purely because the Prince and Princess of Wales were in town, and everything was being done in English to honour them!… Alexander O’Neal sang ‘(Sittin’ On The) Dock Of The Bay’ on TV’s ‘The Last Resort’, a coincidence as, had I the room, last week’s Prestatyn report would have continued about his “robust set that resembled Otis Redding’s in his heavily built rampaging and posturing, if not in the soul of his vocal delivery”… LaToya Jackson, in her many recent TV and radio chat show appearances, has come across a really bright cookie — a lot sharper than Mick Brown, on ‘Night Network’!… Manchester’s answer to Nicky Holloway, the moveable Trash events’ Gerry O’Connell and ‘Madhatter’ Andy Holmes present Matt Black + The Coldcut Crew’s first full live set ever (four decks, keyboard, samplers) this Wednesday (18) at Manchester’s Tropicana in Oxford Street.. Thursday (19) Gilles Peterson guests at jazzy Pearl O’Hara’s one-off Bordello night (normally Tuesdays) at Kensington’s Henry’s Club in Young Street… Derek B, Farley Jackmaster Funk and Bob Jones join Simon Goffe this Saturday (21) at the weekly Fever in London’s Astoria… Graeme Park is def now every Saturday at Derby’s 20th Century… John Matthews, a regular shopper at Rayners Lane’s Record & Disco Centre along with me, has taken over just down the road as main resident DJ at South Harrow’s Bogarts, where that other local lad Chris Paul came to fame… Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Walkers has started a well crucial Across The Tracks Tuesday night with Gary Majnujz (?!), Sid, and Geoff Carr, a bus for the outlying posses running from South Shields via Sunderland (details on 091-584 3249)… Eric B & Rakim’s luxurious gold dollar sign emblazoned T-shirts have now been followed by similar slipmats, for lucky mailing list jocks… Bang The Party by now should have learnt it doesn’t pay to conceal their true identity, first getting into trouble by stamping their UK white label’s sleeve with the confusing initials SAW, then having the same white label stickered in the States with its New York distributor’s name, Watts Music Corporation, the only visible identification and thus reviewed there as such!… DON’T STOP JAMMIN’!

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SPARROW HARRISON’s face got cropped from the Spooky Soul Sisters’ photo in last week’s cramped conditions, should you have been puzzled by the caption, but here really is the def trooper, surveying his North Wales estate! A prep school chum of John Peel, with whom he ran a music appreciation society as long ago as the late Forties, Sparrow (real name Robert — don’t ask!) led a notorious group called Sparrow & The Gossamers, and turned me on to R&B in 1962 when we used to catch Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies at the old Marquee in Oxford Street. A lot’s happened since then!

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PETE WATERMAN has periodically slotted Capital Radio DJ John Sachs’ “skiddendaddy” catchphrase through the upcoming STOCK AITKEN WATERMAN ‘Packjammed (With The Party Posse)’ (Breakout USAT 620), due fully on December 1, a disappointingly dull and contrived organ-based brassy (0-)99⅔bpm funk jiggler that’s too much like though not as catchy as ‘Roadblock’, with nothing really happening to grab one. Back to the drawing board?

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HOT VINYL

THE MICROPHONE PRINCE ‘Rock House’ (US Still Rising Records SRR-1007)
A totally wild rap three-tracker (plus instrumentals), featuring this jolting 96½bpm retread of the Commodores’ Brick House’, the 96⅔(-0)bpm ‘Memory Lane‘ which makes better use of Dennis Edwards’ bassline than even ‘Paid In Full’, and the Ed Sullivan impersonation started madly syncopated 83⅚bpm bonus rap ‘Hound Dog’ — yup, Elvis’s, brilliantly combined in fact with ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ and ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ in a rock ‘n’ roll rap that leaves ‘Go Cut Creator Go’ in the shade. These have to be heard!

BRENTFORD ALLSTARS ‘Greedy G’ (Studio One GRED 401, via Greensleeves 01-749 3277)
The burblingly chugging dub treatment of James Brown’s ‘Get On The Good Foot’ that we’ve been crediting to the Dub Specialists for want of any other identification when on LP, the basis for Matt Black + The Coldcut Crew’s ‘That Greedy Beat’ (and an influence on Derek B’s ‘Get Down’), is now on UK 12 inch in its original mix and a much thinner less resonant extended remix, plus (all at 109⅔bpm) a new rap treatment as T-SKI VALLEY ‘The Jam Is On‘.

HEAVY D & THE BOYZ ‘The Overweight Lovers In The House’ (MCA Records MCAT 1206)
The heavyweight 0-99bpm rap based largely on the JBs’ ‘Pass The Peas’ is here unbelievably flipped by (also released, MCF 3396) their ‘Living Large’ LP’s next hottest cut, the JBs’ ‘Gimme Some More’ and O’Jays’ ‘For The Love Of Money’-based 98bpm ‘Moneyearnin’ Mount Vernon‘, plus the oddly syncopated 0-79½bpm ‘Nike‘. Continue reading “November 21, 1987: The Microphone Prince, Brentford Allstars, Heavy D & The Boyz, “acid” house, Sparrow Harrison”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

ERIC B & RAKIM ‘Paid In Full’ is already due out in Derek B’s Urban Respray mix, while their T-shirt is one of the classiest ever, black with a luxurious thick gold dollar sign on the chest … Society ‘Love It’, the previously reviewed Coldcut mix, is out here on November 23 … Chris Paul’s far better (as warned) 123¼bpm House Mix of ‘Back In My Arms’ (Syncopate 12SYX 5) samples vocal phrases from all sorts of volume-pumping disco hits and really jacks along, the one to get … Radio London could be facing some drastic changes as, unbelievably, of all the BBC’s local stations it apparently attracts the lowest percentage of available listeners (despite what Tony Blackburn keeps claiming) … Jeff Young. who played Supertramp’s soulful ‘I’m Beggin’ You‘ Hi-NRG hit at Prestatyn, adds an hour to his weekly Radio 1 dance music show from Friday, Nov 27, running then 7-10pm … Pete Waterman is “doing a Jonathan King”, hosting a Saturday afternoon show on Liverpool’s Radio City, playing the records he thinks should be hits and inviting listeners to send in their own recordings on tape (which he’ll consider for release) … Catherine Buchanan is ‘Famous For 15 Minutes’ this Friday the 13th at 6.15pm on Channel 4, the singer of Jellybean’s ‘Sidewalk Talk’ (and operatic diva on ‘The Opera House’) being revealed as an artily worded rapper with Talking Heads-type appeal … Thursday (12) Tony Griffin and Jerry Hipkiss start weekly soul/funk/house (strictly no yardie music) at Bristol’s smart Parkside Club in Bath Road, with Fred Dove as guest DJ the opening night … Chris Forbes is guest Def-Dance DJ this Friday (13) at London Limelight’s weekly The Chain Gang, followed in coming weeks by Nicky Holloway, Dancin’ Danny D and Jeff Young, while Gilles Peterson and Chris Bangs jazz the basement … Sunday (15) Chris Hill and Paul Morrissey guest with Steve Aspey at Oxford Boodles, and Hazell Dean joins Norman Scott at Luton Bolts … JM Silk featuring Keith Nunnally, Darryl Pandy, Full House, Joe Smooth, Chip E and Frankie Knuckles are jack tracking around the UK, at Derby 20th Century Complex (Nov 14), Kentish Town Town & Country Club (15), Uxbridge Brunel University (17), Brighton Top Rank (18), Bangor University (19), Hull University (20), Bradford University (21), Birmingham Porsche (22), Bournemouth Academy (23), Stockton The Mall (25), Glasgow Fury Murrays (26), Manchester International 2 (27), Sheffield University (28) … Adonis & The Endless Poker ‘The Poke‘ is due as a single from Westside Records, who have also plundered their ‘Jackmaster’ compilation LP to accompany it on strictly promo-only white label with tracks by Nitestar, Patrick Adams, Out Of Control and Hokus Pokus … ConFunkShun’s now solo Michael Cooper, way ahead of January release, has on Warner Bros promo the melodically rolling vocally sinuous 116¾(-0)bpm smoothly chugging ‘To Prove My Love‘ … EMI have tried a scam by not revealing on white label promos that it’s Climie Fisher performing the ponderously go-go-tempoed scratching 90½bpm ‘Rise To The Occasion (Club Mix)‘ (12EM 33) … Manchester’s Expansion Records shop, opening this Saturday, is in fact the north-west branch of John Anderson’s Kings Lynn Soul Bowl shop, and nothing to do with his similarly named record company’s partner Richard Searling … I spent much of my time at Prestatyn turning people onto the excellent new compilation double album, ‘The RCA Victor Blues & Rhythm Revue‘ (RCA PL86279(2)), which documents (with informative liner notes by Jerry Wexler) the progress of black music from 1940 to the mid-Fifties, through sophisticated big band blues, booting instrumentals, jumping shouts and gospel harmonies to climax in the Isley Brothers’ ‘Shout’ — terrific listening for the historically minded, and, as Chris Brown suggests, a good alternative for hairdressing salon and boutique play … Mark (One) Hewitt, now at Derby’s Pink Coconut and Dudley’s Goldsmiths, when jocking in Spain at Lloret De Mar’s Tropics had not three but five Technics SL1200’s to mix with! … I fear there’s so much advertising on these pages this week that there’s hardly any room for reviews, so check the Black Dance chart for new entries’ Beats Per Minute … DON’T STOP JAMMIN’!

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Livewire’s second PRESTATYN WEEKENDER really showed how black music in Britain has polarised into two main types. Although soul and jazz were indeed played, the music that thundered through the speaker stacks to greatest audience response was rap and house. Even Robbie Vincent was playing it! By contrast, instead of the classy jazz and Sixties oldies that were normally featured upstairs, it was Nicky Holloway’s demented Seventies “disco” party that finally packed the smaller floor there. The biggest record by far was Eric B & Rakim, to such an extent that after the opening Friday night’s overdose of “Eric and Derek”, it was virtually banned! The Cookie Crew’s appealing live PA helped ‘Females’ too, while Pete Tong was featuring an acetate of the brilliantly exciting Jazzy Joyce-scratched dub mix of ‘Tighten Up’. The live star, Alexander O’Neal, left ‘Fake’ for his obligatory encore and was all ready to leave (some of the band had even re-boarded the bus) before being persuaded to come back and do his all-time UK classic, ‘What’s Missing’ — which nearly was! A good weekend, with few surprises and no trouble. Prestatyn III is at Easter, April 2/3/4, 1988 – details from Livewire on 01-364 1212.

ALEXANDER O’NEAL got so hot performing at Prestatyn thot he tried to take his tie off — a normally macho act for any male singer, but this time he couldn’t undo the knot, and even with help from the band it took him a hilarious three minutes!

The once again slimline SEAN FRENCH was, as usual, in charge of the Pontins comp’s closed circuit Live Wire Television and radio service, broadcasting interviews, movies and music.

Saturday at Prestatyn coincided with Hallowe’en, and the SPOOKY SOUL SISTERS were the best dressed posse! In the top left corner, incidentally, you can just see local North Wales landowner Sparrow Harrison, on old school chum of John Peel and the man who turned me on to R&B in 1962.

Radio 1’s ROBBIE VINCENT was really chuffed to be given an award for helping make Sherrick’s ‘Just Call’ a top 20 hit, and shored the moment with ConFunkShun’s now solo MICHAEL VERNON COOPER (left) and WEA’s veteran disco plugger FRED DOVE.

Breakout’s ROB MANLEY, Phonogram’s JOHNNY WALKER and Profile’s PAUL OAKENFOLD got so high on “house” (and very silly) that when the time to crash come, they were totally zonked!

Radio Broadlands’ CHRISSIE JACKSON and an enthusiastic visitor from the States, Warner Bros’s vice president of A&R BENNY MEDINA, were the most extrovert dancers on stage, Benny rivalling Morgan Khan’s squirming dance style.

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HOT VINYL

DANCE AID ‘Give, Give, Give’ (Supreme Records SUPE T 119) Last year’s Disco Aid charity single totally revamped in 112bpm rinky-tinky happy style by Stock Aitken Waterman, with chinky Chic-ish guitar at times, many of its “allstar” cast like Mel & Kim, Pepsi & Shirlie, Sinitta, Kenny G and Steve Walsh actually being stars this year (inst/edit flip). As the nationally co-ordinated Disco Aid night is this Saturday (14), it’s odd the record isn’t out until Monday.

SHERRICK ‘Let’s Be Lovers Tonight (Extended Dance Remix)’ (Warner Bros W8146T)
Vocally multi-tracked pleasantly swaying (0-)111bpm modern soul wriggler, flipped by the original 112⅓bpm LP Version and wailing staccato (0-)116⅓bpm ‘Do You Baby’, packaged with a poster.

PUBLIC ENEMY ‘Rebel Without A Pause’ (Def Jam 651245 6)
Really intense insistent (0-)99bpm exciting rap jitterer with an ear-snagging screech sound throughout, massive for months and now (after brief deletion) elevated to A-side status, with its useful previously US-only instrumental plus the droning 93bpm ‘Sophisticated Bitch’ and dense 98-86/43-0bpm ‘Terminator X Speaks With His Hands’. Continue reading “November 14, 1987: Prestatyn report, Dance Aid, Sherrick, Public Enemy, Just-Ice, Epee MD”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

Les Adams, none other than the LA Mix man himself, has done a “heavy, heavy” remix of Montana Sextet’s ‘Heavy Vibes’, for future creative marketing … Sybil is still “pumping up the volume” in the exciting brand new 0-118-0bpm Z Mix, by the Extra Beat Boys and Phil Harding, of the relaunched ‘My Love Is Guaranteed’ (Champion CHAMPZ 12-55), with an orgasmic “jungle fever” finish … Blue Mercedes have themselves had to point out that, different spellings apart, the two Street Latin Woolf and Street Latin Wolff Mixes are actually one and the same, a fact that was obscured in direct comparison between the two promo copies as, of course, the original pressing of ‘I Want To Be Your Property’ had its labels stuck on the wrong sides! … I wish some people would put their minds into gear and think at the same time as they read this column: nowhere did I say that I refuse to review all EMI releases, just those of their advance promos which contain only one song, as invariably the finished commercial pressings (the ones I will be reviewing) turn out to have different BPMs or contain extra tracks that are worth mentioning too, and doing so after already reviewing the A-side just gets clumsy and clutters up this Odds ‘n’ Bods section – don’t you agree? … Meli’sa Morgan’s UK pressing later this month will include ‘Fools Paradise’ and, hopefully, Hi-Fashion’s old ‘Feeling Lucky Lately’ (on which she sang) … Pete Hammond and Pete Waterman have remixed Audrey Wheeler ‘Irresistible’, and the Cookie Crew, finally out after months on promo, already has a remix due too … CBS, as mentioned last week, omitted from initial UK pressings the import’s much more exciting House Party Mix of Earth Wind & Fire’s ‘System Of Survival’, but have already white labelled this violently snapping 120½-0bpm version (now subtitled ‘Everybody Get Up’) as the A-side of a pressing that presumably is due for creative marketing (CBS EWFQT 1) … Jan Hammer ‘Crockett’s Theme’ has been beefed up considerably for dancefloors by Ben Liebrand in a thudding 95½-0bpm Dance Remix (MCA Records MCAX 1193) … Jellybean’s new 114⅓-0bpm remix of ‘The Real Thing’ is now in a UK pressing (Chrysalis BEANX 1-1) but apparently is only due commercially, with the flip’s Hot Salsa Dub too, as part of the imminent UK release of his Elisa Fiorillo-sung ‘Who Found Who’ US pop hit … Wayne Hernandez ‘Corners Of The Sun’ has been given a lavatory flush-introed brassy loud (0-)109-0bpm Mans Room Mix (Epic WAYNE Q2) … Breakout finally picked up Wally Jump Jr & The Criminal Element ‘Tighten Up/I Just Can’t Stop Dancin’’ for UK 12 inch release, with a new B-side dub scratched by Jazzy Joyce … Alexander O’Neal’s ‘Criticize’ has been pressed in limited numbers as a 10 inch, not very useful for DJs, as its two A-side mixes are “twin grooved” and run side by side, so it’s a matter of luck as to which spiral the stylus tracks into! … O’chi Brown & Rick Astley’s ‘Learning To Live’ has now been withdrawn by Magnetic Dance … Trouble Funk’s ‘Trouble’ has been repackaged on 12 inch (Fourth & Broadway 12BRW 80) with their old ‘Drop The Bomb’, ‘Still Smokin’’ and ‘Let’s Get Small’ – yawn! … Franklin Hughes now hosts a Saturday 7-10pm soul show on Coventry’s Mercia Sound 97FM/220MW … Mark Kavanagh is compiling an Irish DJ’s dance chart for fortnightly broadcast on the imminently relaunched Radio Leinster: send him your charts at 43 Thomastown Road, Dunlaoire, Co. Dublin … Ilford High Road’s Centerway has a brand new Music Power 2 disco-specialising record store, while presumably it’s Richard Searling who’s behind the November opening in Manchester’s city centre, next to Victoria Station, of Expansion Records Ltd of Manchester, a specialist soul/jazz/dance/R&B record shop boasting an “unrivalled” back catalogue department … PLASA’s disco equipment exhibition next year will be vastly expanded and at Olympia 2 … London Acoustical Developments have designed their new 942 Professional Disco Turntable to compete with the market-leading Technics SL1200 Mk II deck, similarly vari-speed but with the speed-adjusting slider working more logically so that it speeds up when pushed forward and down when pulled back, while the deck is totally without irritating clutter on the left hand side, leaving clear cueing and scratching access for DJs’ hands … Steve Gurley won the first Milton Keynes Disco-Mixing Championship at Bletchley’s Kincaid’s … Marie Birch and Sound Promotions have moved to South Bank House, Black Prince Road, London SE1 7SJ (01-735 8171) … Steve Rawlings regrets the move from Croydon’s Easy Street to Birmingham’s Libertys of ‘Stevie D’ Drake, the best club manager he’s ever worked for, Birmingham’s gain (he says!) … LL Cool J (who actually missed his plane) and Public Enemy were due as surprise guests at the Prestatyn soul weekender but had to cancel rather at the last minute as they hadn’t time to fit it in (full Prestatyn report next week) … DJ and record importer, the legendary Tony Monson got all fired up at Caister – he fell asleep in front of an electric fire and the trench coat he was wearing caught alight! … Mark Reed has set up a moveable b-boy night in Brighton called Tuff, this week’s venue on Thursday (November 5) being the Escape Club with guests Einstein, Thrashpack and DJ JD, while next Friday (13) it’s the Club Savannah with the Cookie Crew and Faze One … Bob Jones guests this Friday (6) with Simon Dunmore and Les Fisher at their monthly Rhythm Zone in Northolt’s C&L Country Club … Manu Dibango plays Kentish Town’s Town & Country Club next Thursday (12) … Sean French jazz-souls free admission Sunday lunchtimes at Greenford’s Oscars, in the Oldfield Tavern … Jamie Trundle packs upfront Sundays at the Jenyns Arms near Kings Lynn, while Ian P Scott’s heavyweight hip hop pulls around 500 b-boys into Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Rockshots on Tuesdays and Thursdays … Radio Thamesmead veteran Jamie Wisdom is after South East London area gigs on 01-311 3112 (days) … Kevin Ashton (Newquay Frizzbys/Tall Trees) points out that on the original Polydor pressing of Advance ‘Take It To The Top’, the label lists as co-composer one Spagna – the singer, or her brother? … Ralph Adler, like me, was surprised to hear that the Whispers were making “their first ever UK concert visit”, especially as he remembers seeing them with Carrie Lucas at London’s Dominion around seven years ago! … DON’T STOP JAMMIN’!

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HOT VINYL

KOOL MOE DEE ‘How Ya Like Me Now’ (US Jive/Rooftop Records 1073-1-JD)
‘Night Train’-introed sizzling ultra-jittery 0- 104bpm strongly worded rap cutting in chords from James Brown’s ‘Cold Sweat’, ‘Funky Broadway’ and more (in four mixes), by far the hottest new rap around London.

ALEXANDER O’NEAL ‘Criticize’ (Tabu 651211 6)
In four Steve Hodge remixes, this lurching 115⅓bpm smacker with catchily chorusing girls will certainly now work well and have pop appeal, despite being far from his album’s most popular cut.

WHITNEY HOUSTON ‘So Emotional’ (Arista RIST 43)
Pop-aimed smoothly rolling urgent 120⅓bpm jitterer with Eurythmics, Mel & Kim and Miami disco influences in a remix by Shep Pettibone (dub/acappella flip), Jellybean also apparently having a remix waiting in the wings. Continue reading “November 7, 1987: Kool Moe Dee, Alexander O’Neal, Whitney Houston, Roy Ayers, Lanier & Co”