Month: January 1989

BEATS & PIECES

Eddie Gordon it is who leaves MCA Records soon, as hinted, to run an RCA/Arista/Ariola/Motown combining dance department at BMG, while Dancin’ Danny D Poku (retaining consultancy links) leaves Cooltempo at the end of February to set up his own D. Mob smash financed Slam Productions, doing independent record promotion as well as productions and remixes … Jon Williams has already left Club, apparently because Phonogram aren’t really all that into dance music (one would never have known!) … Theo Loyla, after 11 years of disco plugging, is closing his Superjocks record promotion service at the end of March … Thames Valley DJ Association hold their annual equipment exhibition this Sunday (29), Disco-Ex 89 at Sunbury-on-Thames’s Kempton Manor from noon (£1.50 entrance), followed by the awards, cabaret and dinner Shownite 89 (£15.50 advance bookings only, on 0734-771450) … 1989’s Technics UK DJ Mixing Championships next week are at Ealing’s Broadway Boulevard (Monday 30), Romford’s Hollywood (Tuesday), and in Northern Ireland at Portrush’s Traks (Wednesday) – for last week’s winners see the photo captions over the page (remember the first two at each heat quality for the area semi-finals) … Manchester’s Hacienda had by far the best audience and atmosphere ever during the history of the mixing championships, the amusing funky Leaky Fresh who won there being one of the friends who had lifted last year’s local winner Owen D into his famous “swallow dive” … Leeds’ past area champ Hutchy passed the preliminaries at Nottingham this time but still didn’t win a place this year, despite accomplishing an accurate long distance scratch using two billiard cues, one hooked to the fader – the trouble is that these sorts of tricks have all been done and more original skills are winning through now, as exemplified by the sustained brilliance of young DJ J, who crammed in so many fantastic fast scratches that he stopped short once he’d shown what he could do! … DJ J currently heads the betting, with Leaky Fresh and DJ Trix next favourites, but even Chris Harris and DJ Sure Delight have put Mink, the previous week’s best, in the shade (he was too inconsistently brilliant) – however, DJ Pogo, DJ Bizness and defending champ Cutmaster Swift are yet to come, and are tipped to be even fresher than the “kid”, DJ J! … Liverpool’s mix fans proved a bit unruly at The State, nicking most of the special Technics camp chairs used by the judges, and stealing a shoulder bag from Jive’s Bob Masters that contained not only all his address files but also his and Mervyn Anthony of Sleeping Bag’s credit cards … Monie Love, a perpetually worried looking perfectionist, is always interrupting her live rap to demand the mic be turned up louder, but when DJ Pogo backed her in Nottingham she actually wanted it turned down – she herself manned the decks behind the Cookie Crew’s guest PA in Manchester, and is talking about entering the championships as a DJ next year … Tyree will be PA-ing at the Leigh Reubans area semi-final and Empire final … CCDP put on a terrifically energetic PA, limbs failing everywhere … “wooo”/”yeah” has become the catchphrase of this year’s championships, most mixer using this Lyn Collins ‘Think (About It)’ break beat in its embodiment by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock as ‘It Takes Two’, which CityBeat are about to reissue (the duo have actually just split, incidentally) – Germany’s BCM Records meanwhile have just issued a stunning picture disc 12 inch coupling ‘It Takes Two’ with ‘Get On The Dance Floor (The “Sky” King Remix)’ (BCM 18178) … DJ Mark The 45 King turns out to be only 18 … ‘Fine Time’ is indeed the new A-side by Yazz (commercially as Big Life BLR6T), with ‘Dream’ as flip – we wish her luck … Coldcut’s next featured female guest vocalist will be Lisa Stansfield from Blue Zone, on their upcoming ‘People Hold On’ … 1940 (before my time despite what some might think!) was apparently the last winter as warm as this, which rather deflates the “greenhouse effect” theories, and, while this week last year I was surprised to find flowers blooming by the Bristol Channel, this year they’ve been evident everywhere up north already on our DJ judging travels, with pansies in Glasgow even a fortnight ago – but nothing beats a bush in actual budding leaf on January 4th in Newport Pagnell! … GIVE IT SOME OF THAT!

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HOT VINYL

LADY TAME ‘Loud Ladies’ (061 Records STAG 1061)
Sarah-Jane from Tameside in Blanchester was just a radio listener last summer when she sent some self-penned rap lyrics to Key 103 fm’s Sunday night Bus Diss! and Souled Out presenting Stu Allan, and indeed the witty Roxanne Shanté-ish words are best in this percussively pattered funkily rolling and lurching 113½bpm fast talking rap by her that Stu then produced to launch his, and fellow Key 103 mid-morning man Tim Grundy’s, 061 label (named after Manchester’s telephone area code, in case you hadn’t realised).

LONGSY D’s HOUSE SOUND ‘This Is Ska (Skacid Mix)’ (Big One PRE 13)
Smash-bound crazy fun packed 125¼-0bpm fusion of skanking Sixties blue beat “wiv a Iikkle bit of” twittering Eighties acieed (to create “skacid!”), the rhythm and prodding vocal interjections being however what many now will think of as 2-Tone (busier 125-0bpm Dub), flipped by the totally acidic and overly frantic 133¼-0bpm ‘Things Just Don’t Make Sense‘ — Longsy D being revealed as the man behind the Housedoctors’ ‘Gotta Get Down’, incidentally, so he has a pedigree that goes beyond his previous reggae-rap fusions too.

JOE SMOOTH INC. featuring Anthony Thomas ‘Promised Land (Club Mix)’ (DJ International Records DJINT 6, via Westside Records)
Hailed now as a classic anthem of last year’s summer of love (so how come only three DJs ever chart-returned it during its earlier “peak” in July’?), Joe Smooth’s finally UK released schlurping hi-hat hustled speedy here 124½bpm sombre inspirational deep house canterer, sort of gospel made to feel mighty real in Seventies disco style (125¾bpm Underground and 125½bpm Freestyle Mixes too), suddenly finds itself with a thunder stealing rival from a totally unexpected quarter, THE STYLE COUNCIL! Their Magic Juan mixed much more fully textured and forcefully galloping 125¾-0bpm cover version is already winning the sales race while still on promo, ahead of full commercial release in a fortnight (Polydor TSCX 17). What a turn up! Continue reading “January 28, 1989: Lady Tame, Longsy D, Joe Smooth, Kyna Antee, Charles B”

BEATS & PIECES

The 1989 Technics DJ Mixing Championships are now well and truly on the road and rolling, the first winners and runners-up (who qualify for the regional semi-finals) being detailed in the photo captions … Mink is the man to watch from the first three heats, this Sheffielder having flashes of intense brilliance rather like last year’s UK champ, Cutmaster Swift —sorry there isn’t room to go into greater detail about them all … George Little, Scotland’s champ for the last three years, wasn’t even placed this time at Glasgow’s Hollywood Studio, while similarly Hutchy, North Midlands champ for the last two years, didn’t even make it out of the knock-out preliminaries of Leeds’ Warehouse (but may re-enter somewhere else) – incidentally, there were no Southern “ringers” travelling North to enter this time! … Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock ‘It Takes Two’ so far seems to be this year’s over-used cliché … DJs aren’t going to gain points by mixing without using headphones if the resultant mix is dreadful (so play safe and don’t do it!), but then most seem incapable of doing a basic running mix without it going out of sync anyway! … Stockton-on-Tees’ The Mall, like a larger and more comfortable Hippodrome, serves Stringfellows style food as well — there can’t be many towns where the best restaurant is in a disco … Swansea Martha’s Vineyard (Monday 23), Bristol Papillon (Tuesday) and Southampton New York New York (Wednesday) are next week’s mixing venues … Jive’s over indulging Steve Wren had to have his hotel room repaired in Stockton, while, also among the entourage of judges, London/ffrr’s ultra keen Johnny Walker wasn’t put off by recent air disasters and flew up to Glasgow, back to London for a day’s office work, and then up to Stockton … Lockerbie is a sobering sight to drive past, the size of the crater right by the road, and the gutted houses, being impossible to visualise accurately from TV … I see that hip hop has even reached sleepy Richmond in North Yorkshire, the graffiti “Def Jam” being spraycanned onto a door in this castle-dominated picturesque hill town — which unfortunately will only reinforce some people’s prejudices against the music and its followers … DJs are being invited to audition, by submitting a tape of one of their own typical club nights (to Andrew Wood of Power Promotions, 18 Keens Rood, Croydon, Surrey CR0 1AH), in order to win a PA by one of the artists on the Garage Trax label’s upcoming compilation album (likely to be someone along the lines of Adeva, Gary L or Carol Leeming) plus a full promotion package … Martin Collins, whose move from Chiltern Sound to take over the Sunday breakfast show at Capital Radio was delayed sadly by the death of his father, will also be sitting in for Pete Tong later this month … BMG, the record company group that now includes RCA, Motown, Arista and Ariola, could as of this week already have a much-needed dance product overload, poached from another company with a set of initials! … Dancin’ Danny D to fly solo (“acieed” paying the bills)? … Nicky Holloway, virtually running London’s Astoria now, has a host of US stars booked for his Friday/Saturday Sin nights there … Hip House is already the name of the night, with Bryan Gee and Pete Stuart, at Bromley-By-Bow’s Highway Club (in Gillender Street off the northern approach to the Blackwall Tunnel) … Tyree ‘Turn Up The Bass’ is due to be 12-inched here (in several remixes) ahead of the US, where ‘T’s Revenge’ remains his single … Joe Smooth, of course (not Smith!), mutters ‘Perfect World’ on his own ‘Promised Land’ LP, which is now out here (D.J. International/Westside Records DJART 903) — as is Luther Vandross ‘She Won’t Talk To Me’ (Epic LUTH T9), reviewed last week — while the Diaz Brothers’ title is ‘Blow Some Static’ … I missed the fact last week that the Mix Masters’ more frenetically acidic B-side is a separate tune, ‘Pump It Up Home Boy’, in the Hurtin, Home Boy and P-P Pumped Again Mixes that in haste were wrongly credited under the ‘House Express’ A-side title … Hi-NRG chart positions last week were totally incorrect duo to a typesetting computer error — sorry … Sterling Void’s commercial 12 inch only has ‘Runaway Girl’ in its Radio Mix and Pimp Dub, and just the House Mix of ‘It’s Alright’, while for some reasons the useful House Instrumental is replaced by on instrumental of the still-included original album version of ‘2 Hype’ on Kid ‘N Play’s commercial 12 inch … Mantronix ‘King Of The Beats‘, the US B-side that wasn’t on their last disappointing album, has been hanging on to such sustained specialist hip hop floor reaction since July that — considering how duff their last few singles were — one wonders why it still hasn’t been issued here? … GIVE IT SOME OF THAT!

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MINK, from Sheffield’s FON Force, winning in Leeds with an army of judges looking on, including (front row) Phonogram’s Linda Rogers, MCA’s Eddie Gordon, Virgin’s Rob Manley, Cooltempo’s Steve Wolfe, CityBeat’s Paul Kindred, (second row) M|A|R|R|S’s CJ Mackintosh, Supreme’s Bob Masters, Sleeping Bag’s Mervyn Anthony and Radio Aire’s Carl Kingston.

  

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HOT VINYL

MONIE LOVE ‘I Can Do This’ (Cooltempo COOLXR 177)
Proving remarkably accomplished and confident as the main guest attraction at all the Technics DJ Mixing dates, 18 years old Monie (British but also with a Brooklyn family base and heavyweight New York rap star friends) is obviously smash-bound with this terrific infectious jumpy 115⅓bpm jiggler, produced by Dancin’ Danny D with DJ Pogo, who synchs the Whispers’ ‘And The Beat Goes On’ through the Uptown Mix and hits a far harder James Brown groove for the Downtown Mix, huge already on pre-release promo but still not out fully until next week.

BÄS NOIR ‘My Love Is Magic (Club Mix)’ (10 Records TEN X 257)
Ronald Burrell created terrific pattering piano nagged and wailing girls gurgled spurting 122¾-0bpm percussively tapping garage leaper by Trenton, New Jersey, schoolgirl sisters Mary and Morie Bevins, (dub/edit flip), huge already on import.

ERROL BROWN ‘Love Goes Up And Down (Extended Mix)’ (WEA YZ340T)
Brightly bounding synth snorted (0-)122¼bpm cheerful romping and swirling smacker (Sub Dub Mix flip), joyously uplifting, the most genuinely “soul”-type thing the Hot Chocolate croaker has ever done – and the first I’ve ever really liked! Continue reading “January 21, 1989: Monie Love, Bäs Noir, Errol Brown, Black Rock and Ron, Hanson & Davis”

BEATS & PIECES

Last week’s Hammy Awards may have seemed a bit dry and dull, mainly because for some reason there didn’t seem to be room for most of the more personal ones, so here’s a recap…

DON’T POINT THAT THING AT ME (it might be loaded): James Brown (‘Papa’s Got A Brand New Mailbag’?)

GIMME A BEAT AND I CAN LOSE IT (in a tape edit): what sometimes seems like most studio engineers!

“HULLO, MICHAEL, ARE YOU AND BUBBLES FREE ON MARCH THE 14TH?”: Tony Prince of the Disco Mix Club (now with a hard act to follow)

HIS SHOES HAVE NOT BEEN FILLED: Steve Walsh

N-SIGN RADIO’S TV STAR: Tim Westwood

‘TOP OF THE POPS’ VIDEO STAR (if only for two seconds!): MC Jammy Hammy

PERFECTION TAKES TIME: Les Adams

SIX MONTHS’ SUPPLY OF LOBSTERS: Adrian Webb of LiveWire (that being what each Prestatyn weekender pays for!)

A TOPLESS STRAP OR A STRAPLESS TOP?: Joyce Sims

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UK heats of the Technics DJ Mixing Championships next week are at Manchester’s Hacienda (Monday 16), Liverpool’s The State (11), Nottingham’s New York New York (18) — be there! … Concorde Artists’ 1989 World Dance Championships appeared to be televised live from the Hippodrome last week in a cheap looking production, relegated to two o’clock in the morning — the winner, not that the result has had much relevance for several years now, was deservedly Nigeria’s Bimbo Gomero, helped immensely by his heavily fringed white clothes which moved in syncopation with his African dance steps (interestingly, Rhythm King supplied all the contest’s music, by such acts as S’Express, Bomb The Bass, Beatmasters and Jay Strongman, which was an advance over the Nigel Wright produced cover versions of previous years!) … Martin Collins seems to be joining Capital Radio … Tim Raidl is updating his DJ mailing list for Jack Trax and the new Garage Trax labels – send exhaustive work details to him at Define Promotions UK, 68 Sunningdale Round Green, Luton, Bedfordshire LU2 7TE … GTI Records likewise are building a mailing list, contact either Peter Harris or Errol Henry at 282 Westbourne Park Road, London W11 1EH (01-221 8698) … Carol Leeming may be from the Midlands but, press release notwithstanding, Boyz In Shock members Paul Denton and Dean Zepherin are actually from Harrow in North West Greater London … Lindsay Wesker points out that Seduction’s opening “fraternity chant” is by Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy from the railway car scene in ‘Trading Places’ … Alan Coles, Mark George and Mike Wilks spin modern and independent soul this Saturday (14) at Maesglas Working Men’s Club in Newport, Gwent … Paul Oakenfold’s Mondays at London Charing Cross’s Heaven are now known as The Land Of Oz … GIVE IT SOME OF THAT, KID!

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HOT VINYL

TYREE ‘Tyree’s Got A Brand New House’ (US DJ International Records DJ 1016)
Not maybe quite as consistent as his labelmate The DJ Fast Eddie’s LP but dominated by the already massive (and coincidentally ‘Yoyo Get Funky’-like) ‘Turn Up The Bass’, an incredibly exciting 123½-0pm “house rap” leaper using Lyn Collins’s ‘Think (About It)’ “wooo – yeah” amongst many hip hop samples, Tyree Cooper’s nevertheless good album has also the James Brown grunt punctuated strong acidic striding instrumental 125½bpm ‘T.J.G.P.‘, vocodered galloping old 127⅓bpm ‘Acid Over’, stuttery 124½-0bpm ‘House Line‘, almost Rick Astley-ish 123½bpm ‘I’ll Never Let You Go‘, bland acid rap 125¼bpm ‘Acid Is My Life‘, girl nagged tinkling 123¼-0bpm ‘Let’s Get Together‘, smoothly talking 121-0bpm ‘Life‘, datedly twittering 125bpm ‘Acid Overture‘, and Black Riot ‘A Day In The Life’ adapting 122½bpm ‘T’s Revenge‘ — not though one of the also 122½bpm mixes on the separately 12-inched

TYREE ‘T’s Revenge – It Takes A Thief’ (US Underground UN 128),
this routinely acidic choice of single being in stuttery Julian Jumpin’ Perez, twittery Fast Eddie’s Acid Mix, jumpily percussive Tyree’s Remix and all three combining Joe Smooth’s Mix versions.

FAST EDDIE ‘Yo Yo Get Funky’ (US DJ International Records DJ 968)
The other track that’s really setting the pattern for what must surely become a “hip house” craze, this terrifically exciting Lyn Collins ‘Think (About It)’, Maceo & The Macks ‘Cross The Track’ and other funky samples woven jumpily rapping 125½bpm flier is in Original Radio form or broken down into different repetitive elements for the Woo Yea!, Funky Music, Tyree’s Funky Beats, and Use To Hearin mixes. However, despite this being by far the hottest hit on his album too, instead the UK 12 inch is

THE DJ FAST EDDIE ‘Hip House’ (DJ International Records DJINT 5, via Westside Records),
which samples Hashim’s ‘Al-Naafyish’, in 122⅔-0bpm LP Version and meIlower Deep Mix plus more routinely 0-122⅔-0bpm Nightmare Mix treatments, coupled also by the synth washed and twittered jerkily leaping instrumental 123⅓-0bpm ‘I Can Dance (LP Version)‘. Get the LP instead! Continue reading “January 14, 1989: Tyree, Fast Eddie, Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, Turntable Orchestra, Adeva”

HAPPY NEW YEAR! … I regret that there is no room for more than the Hammy Awards this issue, which means that the conclusion of Les Adams’, and my Capital Radio five hour New Year’s eve party music will have to wait a further week (but then, if you heard it, you know by now what was in it), along – most irritatingly – with a huge pile of new reviews … US imports doing the biz before Christmas included not only Tyree’s ‘T’s Revenge‘ (US Underground) on 12 inch but also his album ‘Tyree’s Got A Brand New House’ (US DJ International Records), from which the ‘Think (About It)’ punctuated and previously mentioned ‘Turn Up The Bass‘ is in extremely similar “hip house” style to the now 12-inched Fast Eddie ‘Yo Yo Get Funky‘ (US DJ International Records), while other import hits (check this and the last issue’s Club Chart for relevant BPMs) have been Peter Black ‘How Far I Go‘ (US DJ International Records), Phortune ‘String Free‘ (US Hot Mix 5 Inc), the DJ Mark The 45 King-produced Gang Starr ‘Gusto‘ (US Wild Pitch), Bipo ‘Why?‘ (US Jump Street) … Ten City ‘That’s The Way Love Is’ has been white labelled by Atlantic here (ahead of late January US release of its parent album), Stock Aitken Waterman’s remix of Kool And The Gang ‘Celebration’ (Club) is now out in addition to the Moet Mix, while other new UK Releases this week should include the already well known Turntable Orchestra ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’ (RePublic Records), Adeva ‘Respect’ (Cooltempo), Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock ‘Get On The Dance Floor (The ‘Sky’ King Remix)’ (Supreme), Sterling Void ‘Runaway Girl’/Sterling Void & Paris Brightledge ‘It’s All Right’ (ffrr), Cash Money & Marvellous ‘Find An Ugly Woman’ (Sleeping Bag Records) … I never wrote that Quantize ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling/Loving Suite’ (Passion) was “badly” duetted – it should have read as “blandly”! … 1989’s Technics UK DJ Mixing Championships’ heats kick off next week, at Glasgow’s Hollywood Studios (Monday 9), Stockton-on-Tees The Mall (Tuesday), Leeds The Warehouse (Wednesday) – weather permitting, I will be making every effort to be at all the mainland UK heats, so come up and say hello! – the UK final, as previously warned, now having moved to February 15 at Leicester Square’s Empire (rather than the Hippodrome) … GIVE IT SOME OF THAT!

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“GET OFF!” Yo, MC Jammy Hammy here, and to the “hip house” backing of yet another riff sampled from ‘A Day In The Life’, it’s time to book the Royal Albert Hall, get James Brown out of jail, and present the annual club music awards that show what really happened in 1988. The results may not be the way you would like them to be in retrospect, but – sticking strictly to the statistics to be derived from the year-end Hi-NRG and Club Charts (printed in the Christmas issue of rm) – this is how they stack up in fact.

THE CLUB CHART HIT OF 1988: d. Mob ‘We Call It Acieed’ (ffrr), number one in the year end chart if both mixes are combined (its main chart impact being in the promoed LP mix).

RUNNERS UP: Inner City ‘Big Fun’ (10 Records), at number one in the actual year end chart, was separated by only one point from Ten City ‘Right Back To You’ (Atlantic), and by only eight points from The Todd Terry Project ‘Weekend’ (Sleeping Bag Records), the latter being likely to leap over the lot had there been a chart for week ending December 31 (in which hypothetical case, Inner City ‘Good Life’ would also have vaulted up spectacularly from the low placing of 96 that just three weeks in the Top 30, albeit at Number One, had earnt it).

RECORDS AT NUMBER ONE FOR LONGEST (all with five weeks): Joyce Sims ‘Come Into My Life’ (London), previously 1987’s import of the year, S’EXPRESS ‘Theme From S’Express’ (Rhythm King), Inner City ‘Big Fun’ (10 Records), d. Mob ‘We Call It Acieed (The Matey Mix) (ffrr).

THE CLUB CHART ARTISTES OF THE YEAR: Inner City featuring Kevin Saunderson

RUNNERS UP: The Todd Terry Project, Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, S’Express, The Pasadenas, Keith Sweat, Joyce Sims, Eric B & Rakim, Will Downing, Kid ‘N Play, Coldcut

PRODUCERS OF THE YEAR (tie): Todd Terry – The Todd Terry Project ‘Weekend’/’Just Wanna Dance’ and ‘Bango (To The Batmobile)’, Swan Lake ‘In The Name Of Love’, Royal House ‘Can You Party’, and arguably Jungle Brothers ‘I’ll House You’ (which uses ‘Can You Party’ as backing track); Marshall Jefferson – Ten City ‘Right Back To You’/’One Kiss Will Make It Better’, Kym Mazelle ‘Useless’, Truth ‘Open Our Eyes’, and just as arguably Royal House ‘Can You Party’ and Jungle Brothers ‘I’ll House You’ as both are underpinned by his bassline from ‘Move Your Body’!

BRITAIN’S DJ PRODUCERS: Mark Moore (S’Express), Tim Simenon (Bomb The Bass), Les Adams (LA Mix), Matt Black & Jonathan More (Coldcut), Norman Cook, Simon Harris, Eddie Richardson (Jolly Roger)

RAP ACT OF THE YEAR: Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock

RUNNERS UP: Kid ‘N Play, Eric B & Rakim, Public Enemy, and anyone called Roxanne!

IMPORT OF THE YEAR: Jungle Brothers ‘I’ll House You’ (US Idlers)

REISSUE OF THE YEAR: Rose Royce ‘Car Wash’/’Is It Love You’re After’ (MCA Records)

THE CLUB CHART LABELS OF 1988: 1 (–) ffrr, 2 (1) Cooltempo, 3 (2) Breakout, 4 (re) MCA Records, 5 (–) Rhythm King, 6 (4) Champion, 7 (5) Fourth & Broadway, 8 (3) London, 9 (re) 10 Records, 10 (–) Elektra, 11 (6) Atlantic, 12 (–) Sleeping Bag Records, 13 (–) FON, 14 (11) Urban, 15 (–) CBS, 16 (15=) Club, 17 (–) CityBeat, 18 (–) Reprise, 19 (–) Syncopate, 20 (7) Warner Bros

RECORD COMPANIES OF THE YEAR (labels ranked by hit strength): 1 (5) London (ffrr/London), 2(2) WEA (Elektra/Atlantic/Reprise/FON/Warner Bros/WEA), 3 (1) Chrysalis (Cooltempo/Chrysalis/Ensign), 4 (4) A&M (Breakout), 5 (13) MCA (MCA Records), 6 (–) Rhythm King, 7 (3) CBS (CBS/Def Jam/Tabu), 8 (6) Champion, 9 (8) Island (Fourth & Broadway), 10 (15) Virgin (10 Records), 11 (11) Phonogram (Club/Fontana), 12 (11) Polydor (Urban/Urban Acid/Scotti Bros), 13 (7) EMI (Syncopate/Manhattan), 14 (–) Sleeping Bag UK, 15 (–) CityBeat, 16 (–) Big Life (Ahead Of Our Time), 17 (–) Supreme Records, 18 (–) RePublic Records, 19 (–) US Idlers, 20 (14) Serious (RIP)

WE TRY HARDER: WEA

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO?: Soul Music

HI-NRG HIT OF 1988: Michelle Goulet ‘Over And Over’ (Saturday)

RUNNERS UP: Natalie Cole ‘Pink Cadillac’ (EMI-Manhattan), M&H Band ‘Popcorn’ (French Family, making it import of the year), Barbara Doust ‘If You Love Somebody’ (Saturday)

HI-NRG HITS AT NUMBER ONE FOR LONGEST: Eria Fachin ‘Savin’ Myself’ (Saturday), starting its chart career on Canadian Power in 1987, was number one for 13 weeks during that year and for another five weeks in 1988, making 18 (non-consecutive) weeks in all – otherwise, restricted to 1988 (with eight weeks), Yazz & The Plastic Population ‘The Only Way Is Up’ (Big Life)

HI-NRG ARTISTE OF THE YEAR: Hazell Dean

RUNNERS UP: Quartzlock, Eria Fachin, Seventh Avenue

HI-NRG LABELS OF 1988: 1 (–) Saturday, 2 (–) EMI, 3 (1) Nightmare, 4 (–) Reflection, 5 (4) London

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO: Passion, 1 in 1986, 5 in 1987, nowhere (not one hit in the year end Top 40) in 1988

RECORD COMPANIES OF THE YEAR (new award): 1 Nightmare (Saturday/Nightmare), 2 EMI (EMI-Manhattan/Parlophone), 3 Reflection, 4 London (London/Ibiza), 5 PWL (PWL/Lisson Records)

That’s where the strict statistics end. From now on things may get more contentious!

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY: Ten City ‘Right Back To You’ (Atlantic)

TURNTABLE TURNAROUND: Turntable Orchestra ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’ (US Music Village Records, now on RePublic here)

BREAK BEAT OF THE YEAR: Lyn Collins ‘Think (About It)’

(GREEDY) BEAT ON THE STREET: ‘Get On The Good Foot’

GIMME A (go go) BEAT AND I CAN USE IT (over and over again): Ben Liebrand, and Phil Harding & Ian Curnow

GIMME A CHANT AND I CAN ABUSE IT: Dancin’ Danny D (“acieed!”)

GIMME ANYTHING AND I CAN SAMPLE IT: Todd Terry

GIMME A BASSLINE AND I CAN REWRITE IT (but don’t you copy me!): Stock Aitken Waterman

“THIS IS WHAT WE DANCED TO ON OUR HOLS” Paul Oakenfold, Nicky Holloway, Danny Rampling, Johnny Walker

“CAN I COME TOO?” Pete Tong

“GIVE IT SOME OF THAT, KID!” Pete Waterman, on the now hugely enjoyable ‘The Hitman And Her’

‘TOP OF THE POPS’ VIDEO STAR: MC Jammy Hammy

WHO THANKS WHO? Brandon Cooke and Roxanne Shanté

THIS YEAR’S THING: “hip house”

LAST YEAR’S THING: “acieed!”

Finally, thank you to the closedown of BBC Radio London for turning me on to LBC, and the pleasure of talk radio! Continue reading “January 7, 1989: The Hammy Awards for 1988”