ODDS ‘N’ BODS
Jeff Young on his Radio 1 show appeared to think that the originator of ‘Jingo’ was Candido, when in fact, long before even Santana (who popularised it), the tune’s writer Michael Olatunji recorded it on a US Columbia LP around 25 years ago… Jellybean’s album version of ‘Jingo’, it would seem as a result of my prompting, is being 12-inched by Chrysalis this week as the Space Bass Mix, flipped by a new House Mix 2… London have just signed up Hurby ‘Luv Bug’ Azor, representing most of his productions including, of course, the Hurby’s Machine-featured acts, and Salt-n-Pepa (for the world excluding North America), to appear on the new ffrr label – that stands for full frequency range recordings, and old trademark of Decca… ffrr has also just promoed the slower, 118bpm, Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley-mixed re-recordings of ‘Baby Wants To Ride’ by Jamie Principle (that, incidentally, is the spelling of Principle used by the guy’s lawyers, who presumably know!)… Magnetic Dance picked up the Microphone Prince here, but only seem to be coupling ‘Rock House’ with ‘Memory Lane’, leaving off the brilliant ‘Hound Dog’ (the track that’ll break him on radio)… Ex-Sample’s basic backing to ‘And So It Goes’ was originally touted to record companies here featuring a full vocal over it by Viola Wills… Robert Clivilles and David Cole, of 2 Puerto Ricans A Blackman And A Dominican, have remixed Mel & Kim’s US-released ‘I’m The One Who Loves You’… Dancin’ Danny D apparently has remixed Total Contrast’s ‘Kiss’ in a belated attempt to turn the tune’s undoubted dancefloor acceptance into actual sales… Ian Levine has remixed Tiffany’s recent US chart-topping revival of Tommy James And The Shondells’ ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ for UK release in the new year, while the Hi-NRG import hit by Havana that Ian’s putting out here has a rival, as former Clash bassist Paul Simonon’s brand new group is also confusingly called Havana… Bluebird Records, already with stores in London’s Edgware Road and in Luton, have a branch opening early January in Streatham’s High Parade… LPs now out here, following full review on import, include the Various Artists ‘Christmas Rap’ (London/Profile LONLP 52), Tony Terry ‘Forever Yours’ (Epic 460504 1), Angela Winbush ‘Sharp’ (Club JABH 27), The Controllers ‘For The Love Of My Woman’ (MCA Records MCF 3404), Doc Powell ‘Love Is Where It’s At’ (Club JABH 28)… Zuzan’s ‘Girls Can Jak Too’ singles have been temporarily deleted until January by Supreme Records – of which label the managing director, is should be clarified, is Nick East, while, of course, Theo Loyla was the Disco Aid night’s co-ordinator… Steve Walsh was spotted getting heavily into rubber at Skin II, seemingly rather concerned that nobody should take a photo of him!… London’s trendier soul crowd, it needs clarifying, are the ones who sport not only flared trousers but also full afro hairstyles and po’ boy floppy caps – the full awful early Seventies Jackson 5 look! – and they’ll be out in force this Saturday (19) at the Astoria for Simon Goffe’s Cortina Party, starring Sharon Redd and Cash Money … Capital Radio’s king of rap Tim Westwood expects Cash Money to join him with Faze One and the London Posse at Mile End Road’s Queen Mary College the night before, Friday (18)… Radio London’s king of jazz, Gilles Peterson joins Dave Malone and Turbo at Great Shelford’s Defreville Arms near Cambridge on Saturday (19)… Tuesday (22) should see a real roadblock, if not a clash, on London Charing Cross Road at neighbouring venues, Just-Ice appearing with Radio London’s Dave Pearce, Roger Johnson and Gilles Peterson at the Astoria while, right next door (actually, underneath!), Busby’s has a Soul Splash with Jeff Young, Tim Westwood, Tony Dortie, Paul French, Disco Gary VanDenBussche, Segue Steve Goddard and more… Chris Kaye is joined by the Cookie Crew on Wednesday (23) at Tonbridge’s Angel Centre… Bank Holiday Monday (28), Chiltern Radio’s king of soul Martin Collins joins Chris ‘Charlie’ Brown, Bob Jones, Dave Malone and Dougie Osborne at Great Bentley’s Tartan House near Colchester… KISS-fm has a special party with Jules of Family Funktion, Norman Jay, Steve Jackson, Colin Faver, Madhatter Trevor, Matt Black + Jonathon More plus others at Soho’s Wag Club on Wednesday, December 30, when Steve Aspey, Paul Morrissey and busy Gilles Peterson groove it at Oxford’s Boodles… Hugh B claims to play the hardest, most upfront music possible in Liverpool at Thursdays Bop in the Mardi Gras Club… Mark Franklyn is getting into soulful gear, and black videos too, at Bermondsey Old Kent Road’s reopened Dun Cow on Fri/Saturdays, while Adrian John is delighted to be able to play nothing but soul, funk, house and hip hop at Telford’s Cascades… I’m afraid that’s it for this column until the beginning of January, but don’t miss next week’s issue of rm as instead there will be the usual Hammy Awards for the disco biz, the year end 1987 dance charts and all the year’s number ones, plus a full track listing of the four hour continuous party music tape, sequenced by myself and Les Adams, which will be broadcast by Capital Radio on New Year’s Eve from 10pm… Cool Yule, y’all, Hot Hogmanay, many thanks for all your cards and presents, and DON’T STOP JAMMIN’!
Nicky Holloway and his Starship Enterprises (01-439 2628) have two beezer Doos coming up in London after Christmas, and All Day Doo at Hammersmith’s Le Palais on Bank Holiday Monday, December 28 (3pm-midnight) with guest DJs Pete Tong, Gilles Peterson, Derek B, Norman Jay, Dave Dorrell, Jay Strongman and Ben + Andy, while on New Year’s Eve at the Astoria (10pm-3.30am) Messrs Tong, Peterson and Holloway are joined by Chris Brown, Bob Jones, Chris Bangs, Bob Masters, Rob Day and Johnny Walker. Party people only!
Chris Dinnis, one of the few people ever to find a copy of the legendary rare groove LP by Japanese jazzer Kanu Sukalagwun, has his Saturday 11am-2pm Brunchtime soul show on Plymouth Sound (97fm/1152mw) relayed also from noon by Radio In Tavistock (96.6fm, mono only), but next Saturday there’s a special five hour 9am-2pm Boxing Day With Dinnis show in which he’ll recap the year’s outstanding soul sounds. Early Seventies is the favoured vintage at his Friday nights at Ellacombe’s Monroes, Torquay, while he’s also just embarking on a series of moveable gigs around the area under the name of The Humdinger, playing late Sixties and Seventies soul with an emphasis on mid-tempo material and pure class.
HOT VINYL
BOMB THE BASS ‘Beat Dis (Extended Dis)’ (US Mister-Ron Records DOOD X 12001)
This excellent, if derivative, exciting (0-)113¾-0bpm volume pumping mix-up adapts the M|A|R|R|S bassline, the ‘Shaft’ wukka-wukka guitar, plus beats and bits from all sorts of stuff (even Coldcut’s “this is a journey into sound”), ending up fiercer and more jam packed than ‘Pump Up The Volume’ (edit/bonus beats flip).
**SUPER STAR** A-MAR FEATURING JAY BEE ROCK ‘Grasshopper Meets The Master’ (US Zakia Records PAL-7161)
Inspired by TV’s old ‘Kung Fu’ series, this fascinating concept finds the Master teaching his pupil Grasshopper the art of mixing, illustrating his lessons by scratching rare grooves through a jiggly ‘Bra’ beat before ending with early Sixties Motown classics, the brilliant idea being explored fully in the (0-)110-118-0bpm Club Mix (and Radio Edit) or just to JB beats in the (0-)110-0bpm ‘Grasshopper’s (Hip Hop Style)’. Listen closely!
TWO GUYS A DRUM MACHINE AND A TRUMPET ‘I’m Getting Tired Of Being Pushed Around’ (London LONX 141)
After months of being on promo primarily as the Untouchables (a name in fact unavailable to them), Andy Cox and David Steele from the Fine Young Cannibals now call themselves by their subtle name for the long awaited full release (on December 28) of this self descriptive scratching and leaping 121¾bpm jack track, flipped by the sounds-washed less punchily drifting 115bpm ‘Make It Funky’ and its seasonally-tinged ‘What Are You Waiting For?’ alternative version, featuring fashionable Arabic effects. Continue reading “December 19, 1987: Bomb The Bass, Super Star A-Mar, Two Guys A Drum Machine And A Trumpet, Hurby’s Machine, Joyce Sims”
The venue was the Tarm Centre, built in the middle of an industrial park (so no complaints about noise from the neighbours!), the main disco is surrounded by a complex of differently decorated bars and (good) restaurants, several outside in the open air fitted around a swimming pool which, thanks to cunning drainage, laps level with the floor — a great effect, and very pretty when lit up at night. The weather, incidentally, was glorious!
The crowd was much as you’d find at a DJ convention here (the usual quota of fat slobs with scrubby moustaches!), while whenever English was spoken on stage there seemed to be more four letter words than at a Steve Walsh gig! The club’s console area was huge, maybe 20 feet by 10, housing CD players, three record decks, lots of lighting controls, and (as maybe you can see) record storage in roll-out drawers.
The most remarkable thing though was the incredible laser system, which made the Hippodrome look silly. The club’s owners actually make lasers, so naturally use it as a showcase. The first indication of something different was when a live singer was accompanied overhead by an animated pair of hands, clapping in time with the music! Most impressive of all the laser effects was a fully animated multi-coloured cartoon, in which a wolf came out of the forest to be confronted by a monolith as if from ‘2001’, only for this then to become an upright piano played by a pig as all the animals jived around to Louis Jordan’s ‘
Amongst the live acts (can you believe German house music with an oompah-oompah beat?) and before the mixing heats, current World Mixing champ Chad Jackson did a long scratching exhibition that must have left the locals with something to think about (two copies of Chic’s ‘Good Times’ fastcut at 78rpm), while Hamburg DJ Jens ‘Jelly’ Ussat proved deft at fast cutbacks too but had untidy overall flow. Jens, one of Germany’s highest paid disco jocks, working in five different clubs with different music to play in each, spends around £700 a month on imports (yet gets all domestic releases for free). Far from the Modern Talking-type Eurobeat one might expect them to be into, German jocks (if not their audiences) are heavily into funk, finding out about the new releases from this very column in rm and, interestingly, from Richard Allinson’s daily 2-4pm (repeated 1-3am) programmes on the British Forces Broadcasting Service. The continued allied military presence there is a big influence musically. For instance, Long Island-born DJ ‘Fly Guy’ Frazier stayed on in Germany when stationed there in the US Army, playing basketball before becoming a DJ two years ago. Living like Guy in Hamm, near Dortmund, England’s Kidbrook-raised Bert Rogers plays funk to American, British and German audiences, joining many jocks in going to Holland to buy his records, Dutch releases being ahead even of the UK in many cases. These and the rm readers I met last week obviously speak English — however, for those there who don’t, I will soon be writing a column also in the fortnightly 
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