Author: Mike A

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

DJs are already crawling out of the woodwork to claim they’ve been playing Tullio De Piscopo since 1984 — all very commendable, but it wasn’t them that made it a hit! … Janet Jackson, Alexander O’Neal, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk, Jaki Graham, Loose Ends, and Mel & Kim were all due as special guests collecting awards on Monday at the Royal Albert Hall — as by now you may already know, as an unprecedented 140 journalists (plus TV) were covering the event! … Sunday’s DJ Convention saw record companies adopting a more American approach to it as a promotional outlet, Virgin for instance handing out bags containing a special promo LP of current product and “Virgin Dance”-emblazoned short-sleeved shirts for all attendees, while at the Albert Hall on Monday every banner-hung box was booked by companies for use as a hospitality suite … Morgan Khan had guaranteed StreetSounds’ bank overdraft and its debt to RCA against the value of his Sunningdale private home, so it’s not only his car he looks like losing … Serious Records seem seriously to be filling the StreetSounds void, signing a two year deal with PRT … Simon Harris has picked up the Microphone Prince ‘Who’s The Captain?’ for his Music Of Life label, now via Pinnacle, and is starting a StreetSounds-style LP series called ‘Def Beats‘, the label’s 12 inch singles ail being at 33⅓rpm and shrink-wrapped like imports … Charly snapped up UK rights to the old Anita Baker ‘Songstress’ album at last, so maybe ‘Angel‘ will be a singles hit yet! … Steve Proctor has quit Liverpool’s The State to take over club A&R and promotion at Polydor in London, where he’s after gigs on 01-499 8686, his first vinyl protect being the overdue legal reissue of Maceo And The Macks ‘Cross The Track’, flipped by James Brown ‘Funky Drummer’! … Slough DJ Tony Hodges is now club promotions man at Creole — and their brand new Nine O Nine label, to be launched by Wired and C.T. Satin here — building a DJ mailing list on 01-965 9223 … Rhythm King’s next volume of ‘Rob Olson’s Chicago Jackbeat‘ will include Hercules ‘7 Ways’, On The House ‘Pleasure Control’, this week’s T.J., plus other newies by J.B. Traxx, Denise Motto, Rare Form, plus they’re releasing a UK-only live double LP of Chuck Brown at single LP price … Portrait picked up Donna Allen’s LP for the UK, plus Frankie Knuckles, first fruits of Julian Palmer finally finding his feet at CBS … Keni Stevens’ debut LP for Elite, promoed on cassette, bravely sets his slightly Phil Fearon-ish tones to amorphous gently tapping atmospheric backings, nothing fast, and could be the first British entry in the Alexander O’Neal, Freddie Jackson stakes … Phonogram here is hoping to equal its US crossover success by reissuing Jeff Lorber featuring Karyn White ‘Facts Of Love’ (Club JEFDJ 48) as a twin-pack containing the Five Star-ish trotting bubbler in Victor Flores’ 0-108⅙bpm Passion Mix, Larry Levan’s 0-106⅔bpm Actuality Mix and 106⅙bpm Reality Dub, Jeff Lorber & Taavi Moté’s (previously unheard, I think) 0- 106½bpm ‘Fact # 1’, as well as its 0-106½bpm LP Version (plus ‘Every Woman Needs It’ and ‘Sand Castles’); meanwhile, a new US Warner Bros 12 inch credited there to The Jeff Lorber Band featuring Karyn White couples ‘True Confessions (The Left Bank Mix)‘ with ‘Midnight Snack‘, all the above from the same ‘Private Passion’ LP … Breakout’s commercial 12 inch copies turn out to be in fully pictorial sleeves after all, only advance copies being in the house bag design shown last week … Les Adams’ megamix of Luther Vandross material (too fast to include ‘See Me’) is at last on the new Disco Mix Club March edition … ‘Animal House’ fraternity party stars of ‘Shout!’ fame, Otis Day & The Knights (in reality, “Otis” is actor DeWayne Jesse, brother of rock ‘n’ roller Young Jesse) are being produced by George Clinton for MCA Records again … Loose Ends ‘Slow Down’, as you may have noticed, topped the US Black Singles chart, while Mel & Kim ‘Showing Out’ topped 12 Inch Sales and Paul Parker ‘One Look‘ then Company B ‘Fascinated’ topped Club Play in Billboard … Jeff Thomas has started a petition to get a specialist soul show onto Swansea Sound radio, send your collected signatures to him at 32 Landeg Street, Plasmarl, Swansea SA6 8LA … Chippenham Goldiggers needs a female DJ for Thursdays, call Barrie Thyer on 0249-656444 … Ken ‘B’ Brudenell has already left his post at Mecca Agency International to resume DJing … ‘Jazz Juice 4‘ is now so scarce (apparently it was never fully released by StreetSounds) that it’s selling for over a tenner … I bought Cannon’s brand new EOS 650 autofocus SLR camera so soon after its launch that some of the photos in its instruction booklet were taken just 11 days earlier, and on collecting my 70-210mm zoom lens straight from the warehouse discovered it was only the third one to be sold here to date – how’s that for up-front? … LAH DE DAH DE!

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Here’s proof that the brand new British single from LUTHER VANDROSS will be ‘See Me‘, in an exclusive UK Remix — a bit percussive and not an improvement to my mind, so maybe it won’t be inducement enough for all those who bought the original either on his LP or as the B-side of his last 12 inch to buy it again. Hopefully we won’t see another Alexander O’Neal situation, where the truly in-demand track had already saturated its market before finally becoming an A-side? Anyway, on seven inch (to which this is the sleeve) the flip is ‘A House Is Not A Home’. Luther will be returning here in July to play four nights at Wembley and two at the NEC!

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HOT VINYL

GRACE JONES ‘Party Girl’ (Manhattan 12MT 20) Remixed by Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero, this tapping and jittering typical 106½bpm Big Apple bumper is imperiously sung as ever although basically just a rhythm groove (dub too), and could work with Lola.

“Bam Boo” (US NCP 187)
On an oddly uninformative label that fails to identify either the artists or, with any degree of certainty, its own name this nevertheless is one of the freshest house hits in a while, happily galloping through bright 120-119¾-0bpm percussion, dated synth, “rock the joint” shouts and a muttered title line reminiscent of the old ‘Big Bamboo’ (dub flip), worth serious investigation.

HERB ALPERT ‘Keep Your Eye On Me’ (Breakout USAT 602)
Catchy enough in its stark way to be a smash, Herb’s drily muted trumpet tootles over a Jam & Lewis-created driving jittery Janet Jackson-style (0-)114½bpm rhythm track, with a freaky effects-filled intro. His US LP of the same name (US A&M SP-5125) was too late for review so check the Disco chart for BPMs. Continue reading “March 14, 1987: Grace Jones, Bam Boo, Herb Alpert, Jocelyn Brown, Salt-n-Pepa”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

DJ CHEESE will not be defending his title at Monday’s World Final of the Technics DJ Mixing Championships in the Royal Albert Hall as he is concentrating now on his recording career, so last year’s runner-up will take his place battling the 16 international finalists — and that runner-up of course is Chad Jackson! … Exposé will be special guests at the final, the girl group who are in the vanguard of the new Hi-NRG Latin Disco style that on US radio is rapidly becoming known as ‘Hot’, with Miami a ‘hotter’ source city than Chicago so far as US clubs are concerned … Streetwave and StreetSounds, according to their liquidator, had never at any point in their history been solvent and ended up with debts of £1,240,000, managing director Morgan Khan admitting that the labels had lost £750,000 in the last 13 months (about the time their magazine ‘The Street Scene’ folded), although he claims to have been unaware of the situation — one immediate result is that he’s already had to swap his Jaguar XJS for a more modest Renault 5 … Germany’s ‘Chicago Trax — Volume 1’ double LP will sell in the UK as London’s ‘The House Sound Of Chicago — Volume 2 (Chicago Trax)‘, all 19 tracks selling here for the price of one import 12 inch: meanwhile, Trax Records artists Frankie Knuckles, Marshall Jefferson, Kevin Irving, Adonis and Fingers Inc are currently over here going from house to house at London Limelight Thursday (5), Gt Yarmouth Tiffanys Sat (7), Nottingham Rock City (8), Manchester Hacienda Mon (9), Southsea 5th Avenue Tues (16) — but nowhere in the North-East, house’s greatest strong-hold! … Michael Jackson’s album appears finally to be due next month, after which in the US his two new Pepsi commercials will begin their TV airing … MCA Records for some strange reason have put back the release of Jody Watley’s single until the end of March, when everyone already serviced with it (including radio) will doubtless be expected to regenerate their enthusiasm! Cooltempo similarly have now rescheduled the Taurus Boyz to March 16 … Luther Vandross ‘See Me‘ has been remixed for release later on the month — but as an A side? … London picked up the Masters Of Ceremony ‘Sexy’ … I wish someone would boost the brilliant Microphone Prince ‘Who’s The Captain?‘, selling at hip hop stockists and attracting crossover interest but never charted by enough DJs to hit … Nitro Deluxe as warned is now being creatively marketed with the 114⅔bpm ‘Let’s Get Brutal‘ and its 114¼bpm Dub, flipped by a 0-115⅔-115¼- 15bpm Brutal Mix of ‘This Brutal House’ by Dancing Danny D, who’s so totally restructured it that oddly he’s left out the piercing synth hookline (Cooltempo COOLR 142) … Raze ‘Let The Music Move U’ is now flipped also by an excellent brand new proper Vaughan Mason-created 121⅔bpm It’s A Jungle Remix of ‘Jack The Groove’ (Champion CHAMP X12-27), with many musical overlays as it smoothly bounds along … Bluebird Records have just signed with Stiff for distribution via EMI, and are re-promoting Company B ‘Jam On Me‘ with a new Herbie-Laidley-created 112¾bpm Mastermind Remix as A-side (BRTX 27) — the Miami girls’ ‘Fascinated‘ will be follow-up even though they’re now on Atlantic, just in the US … Darlene Davis ‘I Found Love’ starts more sharply at 116bpm (before then wandering off again) in two new back-to-back Valentine Mixes (Serious Records OUSX 1) … CJ McKintosh has already done a scratch remix of Junior Gee & The ‘A’ Team … Boy George has bought himself some twin decks to practice scratching — can we expect him as an observer at the Royal Albert Hall? … Rick Robinson and DJ Kiwi, when together at Croydon Easy Street, created their own contemporary mix of ‘Lean On Me’ (covered by Club Nouveau) by synching the Bill Withers original (vari-speeded +6) with the Hot Chocolate ‘You Sexy Thing’ bonus beats (down -2) … Arthur Baker’s secret project for Champion turns out to be ‘Jackin At The Opera House‘, featuring Jellybean’s ‘Sidewalk Talk’ vocalist Catherine Buchanan and Freeez’s keyboardist Andy Stennett … ‘Love Ain’t No Toy‘, the Norman Whitfield penned song now revived by Amii Stewart, in case like most people you couldn’t place it, was originally an album track by Yvonne Fair … Go Go Lorenzo & The Davis/Pinckney Project’s UK follow-up ‘Top Bottom Side And Rear‘ will again be licensed to Boiling Point but promoed by UK owners Bluebird … Heavy D & The Boyz’ “fat boy rap” follow-up will aptly be called ‘Chunky But Funky‘! … The Gap Band’s US follow-up to ‘Big Fun’ is their album’s ‘Get Loose, Get Funky’, retitled though for singles as ‘Zibble, Zibble (Get The Money)‘! … ‘Moonlighting’ is being added to Al Jarreau’s ‘L Is For Lover’ LP, from which the moodily rolling 88bpm ‘Golden Girl‘ is also included on his 12 inch … Tony Blackburn had a hardened music biz audience in stitches as compere of the Music Week Awards 1986, which as he said was “like an audition!” … Robbie Vincent’s Sunday evening soul show on Radio One will be broadcast live in extended form at Easter from the Prestatyn weekender … Easter in Prestatyn also sees the opening of the brand new £2½ million Nova luxury discotheque, with swimming pools, restaurant and fun pub under the same roof … Chris Bangs and Bob Masters, not to be outdone by Livewire’s Prestatyn four-dayer, will once again be behind a small scale but friendly Easter weekender at Bournemouth’s Neptune on Boscombe Pier (details on 0582-65123) … Hardrock Soul Movement, Faze One, DJ StreetsAhead and Tim Westwood hip hop over to Holland for a March 11-16 rap tour (Tim’s Monday Rap Trap had to close) … Thursday (5) Jay Strongman and Rob Milton start the weekly Pay-Off at Charing Cross Heaven, playing black grooves from Sixties to now (including Hank Ballard, I bet!) … Friday (6) Georgie Fame and the Jazz Defektors star at Blackpool Tower Ballroom’s Spring Ball ’87, and Danny Smith jazz-souls Cambridge’s The Globe … Richard Short, funking Watford’s £50,000 refitted Pockets Thursdays, is after other Watford/Harrow weekend gigs on 0923-45217 (evenings) … Aberdeen mobile jock Harry Duncan, into soul and electro, feels isolated so far north and wants international DJ pen-pals at 100 Victoria Street, Dyce, Aberdeen, Scotland – in a place actually called Dyce, is his theme tune ‘I Can’t Take It’? … George Hargreaves, the song’s writer, is desperately seeking mint seven and 12 inch copies of Five Star’s forgotten first single, ‘Problematic’ (on Tent when via PRT) – call him on 01-247 9035 … David Grant – sporting a very severe Larry Blackmon haircut – debuts on Polydor with ‘Take Us Back’, a tapping and tumbling (0-)101½bpm Spandau Ballet-ish pop song which regrettably will mean nothing on floors … WEA’s disco plugger Fred Dove and I are considering starting a music biz club for Canon T90 camera owners – however, I’m now the much poorer owner of their new autofocus EOS 650, too! … Manchester’s jazz-funkers the Stems are now known as 5th Of Heaven and are supporting Maze here … Man 2 Man, Man Two Man, from now on the new spelling is Man To Man featuring Paul Zone & Man Parrish … the Fly Boys are “crutch rap”, make no mistake – what’s “crunch rap”? … ILLIN’ ‘N’ CHILLIN’!

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This is the sleeve design of A&M’s brand new Breakout label, launched during the International DJ Convention, with its first releases due over the next two weeks being the snappy (0-)114½bpm HERB ALPERT ‘Keep Your Eye On Me‘ (USAT 602), soppy sweet 43⅙-0bpm JANET JACKSON ‘Let’s Wait Awhile (Remix)‘ (USAT 601) — coupled for strength with Parts l & II of the old 103½bpm ‘Nasty (Cool Summer Mix)‘ — and very trickily remixed 112-0bpm VESTA WILLIAMS ‘Don’t Blow A Good Thing‘ (USAT 600) — maybe prophetically titled, so coupled with the soulful 86⅓bpm ‘You Make Me Want To (Love Again)‘.

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HOT VINYL

NORWOOD ‘I Can’t Let You Go’ (US Magnolia Sound MCA-23686)
Out of a trickily nervy intro the jittery 101⅓bpm electronic beat seems to mellow when it reaches the Philadelphia soulster’s prodding hoarse Abrams/Vandross-ish voice, repetitive female chants building the intensity in bursts, the whole thing ending up very soulful indeed with surging gospel fervour (edit and Luther-ish (0-56¼-)112½bpm ‘Don’t Let Love‘ flip). With a buzz already, it’ll be big!

VARIOUS ARTISTS ‘The House Sound Of Chicago Megamix’ (German DJ International Records/BCM DJ33-1006-45)
The same German label that originated the ‘Chicago Trax — Volume 1’ LP now has a 30 minute 12 inch containing three house medleys incorporating tracks by Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk, Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley, House People, Farm Boy, Raz, Mario Reyes, Femme Fion, Chip E, Fingers Inc and Mark Imperial, tightest and excitingly Hi-NRG being the Peter Vriends-created 0-124¾-126-127¼-126⅔-126¼-125½-124¾-0bpm Jackin’ Mix, ‘Mix Mac’ Meyers letting through one very sloppy link during his 119-121⅔-121¼-121½-121bpm Latin Mix but trucking tightly on his 121⅔-121½-121⅔bpm Dub Instrumental Version.

LILLO THOMAS ‘Sexy Girl (Sexy Mix)’ (Capitol 12CL 445)
The hit import now (0-)107⅔bpm yelping, cooing and soaring repetitive wriggly soul groove is here flipped by the old tensely wriggling (0-)108½bpm ‘Settle Down (Extended Remix)’ and even older calmly strolling 104¾bpm ‘(You’re A) Good Girl (Special Mix)’ instead of his excellent sincere remake of Otis Redding’s ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)’, which surely would have given it wider appeal? Continue reading “March 7, 1987: Norwood, The House Sound Of Chicago Megamix, Lillo Thomas, Lee Prentiss, Full Circle”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

Steve Walsh learnt while at MIDEM that Boris Badenough isn’t having a go at Rocky Jones, in fact ‘Hey Rocky!’ is about TV’s cult cartoon series ‘Rocky And Bullwinkle’, and will be promoed with a new B-side for radio which has the characters’ voices (cut-up Steinski style in the actual record) answering questions left blank for DJs to fill in themselves … 19 releases on Chicago’s Trax Records label, including current stuff, have been compiled on a fast-selling German import LP, ‘Chicago Trax (Volume 1)’ (BCM TX 33-5001-43) – presumably the ‘What’s Up Rocky?’ credited to Boris Betanoff is the same as the above? … Darryl Pandy has done a vocal version of ‘Jack Your Body’, to be called ‘Work Your Body’, for D.J. International Records … Chris Amoo of the Real Thing, as probably everyone knows by now, was the proud owner of Crufts’ Supreme Champion 1987 (we’re talking dogs here), Viscount Grant – commonly called “Gable” … MC Double Def Sef launches A&M’s new dance label Breakout with a lunchtime reception at Soho’s Le Beat Route in Greek Street on Monday, March 9, conveniently sandwiched between the previous day’s International DJ Convention and that evening’s World Final of the Technics DJ Mixing Championships (also conveniently, for out-of-towners, just across the road from Groove Records shop!) … Bathgate’s Bill Grainger (0506-54305), the guy who more than anyone else “broke” Tullio De Piscopo, has started First Class Radio & Club Promotions to plug dance records in Scotland with personal DJ contact (servicing all types of dance music, not just hi-NRG/Eurobeat) … Kool Moe Dee – true to his stance as rap’s caring social worker? – hosts the second annual rap awards this Saturday (28) at New York’s Town Hall, with appearances by such as Salt-n-Pepa, LL Cool J, UTFO, Spoonie Gee, Doug E Fresh, Oran ‘Juice’ Jones, Stetsasonic … Kurtis Blow is currently guest presenter of Saturday morning kids’ TV on the US NBC network! … Damon Rochefort’s involvement as producer of Junior Gee & The ‘A’ Team actually extends to being the impersonator of Arnold Schwarzenegger, recreating all ‘The Terminator’ (and Dalek!) dialogue himself … Breakfast Club, reviewed last week, turns out to be the “nom de disque” of Madonna’s frequent collaborator Stephen Bray, so it’s surprising he hasn’t concocted something a bit sharper for himself … I know, I know: the jazz tune synched under Salt-n-Pepa ‘My Mike Sounds Nice’ is Grover Washington Jr ‘Mr Magic’ – incidentally, the girls’ UK-only 0-91⅔bpm remix will be on Champion here March 10 … Nitro Deluxe, were the UK pressing and original import similar enough in format to be combined in the chart, would have been top Disco hit since two weeks ago … John Rocca’s ‘I Want It To Be Real’ may have always meant something in Chicago but even its Ultimate Mix ’87 (not due on CityBeat for nearly a month) still seems unlikely to mean much here in its main (0-)122-122½bpm Club Vocal, although the total instrumental 121⅔-121¾bpm Farley’s Hot House Piano Mix is self-descriptive and could find takers … Arthur Baker while here has produced a secret project for Champion … ‘(You’re My) Shining Star’ is Curtis Hairston’s new US release … Dennis Edwards, still recording solo too, has rejoined the Temptations … Livewire/Top Hat on Saturday, March 14, start a monthly soul and jazz night amidst the shark tanks at Brighton Aquarium, dubbed “the night that bites back!”, with Chris Hill, Robbie Vincent, Pete Tong, Gilles Peterson, Paul Clark, Big H and Froggy, in two music rooms … Livewire (01-364 1212) at their four day Easter weekender in Prestatyn have added to the DJ bill Paul Oakenfold, Chris Forbes, CJ McKintosh (Chad Jackson is booked anyway, plus hopefully Jazzy Jeff, and now maybe Atlantic Starr) … London’s ebullient soul jock CJ Carlos had better keep a higher profile if he doesn’t want his once distinctive initials to become more synonymous with Mixing champ CJ McKintosh! … Larry Foster of Gants Hill Villa has spent the last year preparing a Music Quiz for East London, weekly heats beginning on March 18 at Walthamstow’s The Lorne Arms, entry forms being available in advance from him on 04023-75059 … Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers play three nights at Kentish Town’s Town And Country Club, March 26/27/28 … Thursday this week (26), Paul Williams, Mike Knight and Alan Coles support go go-funk group Bustin’ Loose at Georgetown’s The Kirkhouse, Merthyr Tydfil, while Chris Brown, Chris Bangs and Simon Dunmore jazz-soul the Rhythm Zone at Northolt’s C&L Country Club (just off the A40 south of the Polish War Memorial) … Friday (27) Joe Field, Bob Masters, Chris Bangs, Bob Cosby and Dave Ealand fill two rooms with soul and jazz at Hemel Hempstead’s Heath Park … Saturday (28) Jasper, Norman Jay and Martin Drake have a Seventies Funk Attack at Hackney’s Shen-Ola Nightclub, while Kev Hill souls Great Yarmouth Mole Club … Eon Irving funks London West End’s Munkberrys Wednesdays … Andy Baker funks Fridays at Bangor’s hi-tech Octagon (on a par, equipment-wise he reckons, with the Hippodrome) … Bishop Stortford’s Juicy Duck is undergoing a complete £30,000 facelift (which would probably buy a few new pygmy bulbs for the Hippodrome!), much to the delight of Les Knott and his fellow jocks … Mecca, as well as aggressively recruiting new DJs around the country, have revamped Bolton’s Cinderella Rockerfellas into the new Ritzy (with a Central Park brasserie), while Tiffanys in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Dunstable are being renovated … Paul Frettingham soon becomes a real VJ, as well as DJ at Nottingham’s Central Park/Ritzy, where an actual TV studio will transmit closed circuit programmes of videos and PAs to the club’s 34 screens … Jackie Becker (Brighton Escape Club Mon/Savannah Club Tues/The Crypt Thurs) tips that Candido ‘Jingo’ mixes well with ‘Jack The Groove’ and ‘Jack Your Body’, plus Quando Quango ‘Genius’ is good with such as ‘It’s OK, It’s OK’ and ‘IMNXTC’ … Stacey Q ‘We Connect’ topped US 12 Inch Sales, Madonna ‘Open Your Heart’ and then Mel & Kim ‘Showing Out’ topped Club Play in Billboard – whose US Black Singles Chart, now once again printed in rm, is not in fact a reflection of the dance singles that are selling, but of the singles being played by black-orientated “urban” radio … DJs are still not supporting the Eurobeat chart in significant enough numbers yet they continually whinge that it isn’t truly representative of what’s really big in their clubs – so who’ve they got to blame? … ILLIN’ ‘N’ CHILLIN’!

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HOT VINYL

BRUCE WILLIS ‘Respect Yourself’ (Motown ZT 41118)
With the part of Mavis played by June Pointer in dominating support, the star of TV’s ‘Moonlighting’ tackles the Staples Singers’ classic in similar 118⅓-0bpm style. Bruce is actually promoting his album ‘The Return Of Bruno’ with a half hour video hosted by Dick Clark as if in the US TV series ‘Rock Heroes’ (like ‘Portrait Of A Superstar’), tracing through hilariously accurate period pastiches and dozens of superstar interview clips the supposed career since the mid-Sixties of Bruno Radolini, supplying this his singing alter ego with an instant mythic past. See it if you can!

BANANARAMA ‘Trick Of The Night’ (London NANX 12)
You’d never know from hearing the dreary seven inch pop version, but for the 12 inch its producers Stock-Aitken-Waterman and mixer Phil Harding have revived their old trick, making the first half of this (0-)105½bpm jiggler sound exactly like Princess’s ‘Say I’m Your Number One’, instrumental for ages before any real vocal begins! (A separate strictly promo pressing hasn’t any vocal at all, in dub and instrumental versions, for collectors). Now that DJs are discovering this, the flip’s house-ish (0-)117¾bpm ‘Set On You‘ is helping sell it, too.

FULL CIRCLE ‘Workin’ Up A Sweat’ (EMI America 12EA 229)
Massive on import but worth buying again now, the Randy Muller-produced Lutheran soul vocal group’s piano underscored jittery roller here is without the 109-108¾bpm Special Sweaty Mix‘s offputtingly electro intro and has a new mellower 108¾bpm Album Version, just the 108bpm Dub Version being still in schizoid original form, with juddery edits. Class, more than crossover. Continue reading “February 28, 1987: Bruce Willis, Bananarama, Full Circle, Donald Byrd, Gigolo Tony”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

Last week’s UK final of the Technics DJ Mixing Championships was plagued with equipment problems, to the extent that Bristol’s (much improved) Dirty Den and defending champion Chad Jackson had to compete twice, and Birmingham’s hotly tipped Scooby Swift was stymied by a headshell not fully rammed home – this however didn’t stop him from turning one of the pick-ups upside down to play the underside (backwards) of a record specially prepared and mounted on a spindle several inches above the turntable! … 21 judges hopefully left no room for dispute over the result, Chris ‘CJ’ McKintosh being a clear winner (his regular gig is Fridays at Escapism in New Cross’s Goldsmiths Tavern), Chad claiming second despite his bad luck, and Johnny Jay from Manchester’s Gallery coming third (using headphones most of the time, although as you see he pulled some other stunts!) … Des Mitchell, back again from Tenerife, was also much improved over his heat’s performance and only just missed a place … Glasgow’s George Little, as a photograph in my possession proves, wasn’t wearing much under it when he swirled his kilt! … Mantronik was due to spin a few in a PA but, working more with beat boxes than record decks these days, he apparently felt he’d be upstaged when the first thing he saw on arriving at the Hippodrome was Chad scratching with a chair, so he left! … Chad’s spot began blazingly with Elvis Presley ‘Trouble’, Eddie Cochran ‘C’mon Everybody’, synched over T. La Rock ‘Back To Burn (Dub)’, then LL Cool J ‘Rock The Bells’ scratched instead; at Adrian Sykes’ star-studded birthday party the following night in Mayfair’s Gullivers, Chad then did a blinding scratch set using the club’s records (in his retirement, he plans to start making records of his own this year, with fellow Mancunian mixer Rob Manley promising something different!) … EMI’s new dance label Syncopate will be launched with Lola ‘Wax The Van’ … MC Double Def Sef’s new project, the A&M Breakout dance label will kick off after the International DJ Convention next month with Herb Alpert, a coupling of Janet Jackson ‘Let’s Wait Awhile’/‘Nasty (Cool Summer Mix)’ and Vesta Williams ‘Don’t Blow A Good Thing (Remix)’ … ‘Scream’ will definitely be Mantronix’ follow-up here, and Loose Ends are reissuing ‘Gonna Make You Mine’ (in only one mix, Virgin promise!) … Jazzy Jeff’s LP on Champion is out here ahead of the US, where he’s now on Jive – who (not without argument) are claiming him for the UK too in future … Portsmouth’s Domino Records rather handily, considering its inclusion in ‘Touch Of Jazz’, are reissuing Donald Byrd ‘Change (Makes You Want To Hustle)’ … Chicago house label Trax Records’ pressings are sometimes of inferior quality apparently because the vinyl used is from recycled K-Tel LPs – what, label and all?! … StreetSounds’ albums are suddenly becoming collectors’ items, particularly the Philly boxed set (selling at £60 in some places) … Streetwave – separate from and not to be confused with StreetSounds – has a creditors’ meeting on Monday (23) at London’s New Berners Hotel to discuss the company’s probable liquidation … UKHAN? UKHANT! … Kev Hill and Simon Williams are after hip hop and heavy metal jocks for a mailing list: send work details to them at Pillar Promotions, Southbank House, Black Prince Road, London SE1 7SJ … Martin Collins, Bob Jones, Graham Gold, Chris Bangs, Bob Masters, Joe Field, Jonathon More, Paul Clark, Paul Morrisey, Bob Cosby, Tony Fernandez, Mervyn Anthony, Alex Lowes and Richard Searling are the DJ team for Caister Soul Weekend XIX on April 3-5 (details from Netphase on 01-886 8141) … Friday (20) Uxbridge Regals has a Record Industry Party with pluggers playing their own product, and Fat Larry’s Band join Dave Rawlings at South Harrow Bogarts … The KISS-fm club is open Saturdays 10pm-4am in Haringey’s Green Lanes on Salisbury Parade (not a stone’s throw from Bolts!) … Tim Westwood’s House Of Rap chills Monday’s Rap Trap just behind Charing Cross at the Sanctuary in Craven Street … Megastar earmuff-wearer John Saunderson sparkles every Thursday at Maidenhead’s Cinderella Rockerfellas … Carl Cox, Paul Clark and weekly guests go under the name of Brickhouse when souling Sundays in Brighton, usually at the Apollo (though check on 0273-698699 for other venues) … Melba Moore is soon to join the cast of ‘Falcon Crest’, playing a lawyer … ‘LA Law’ is the yuppy ‘Hill Street Blues’, full of well dressed, attractive, sexy people in otherwise familiar situations, for the time being a fresh change … Bruce Willis excelled himself on ‘Moonlighting’ last week, walking into the office singing the entire “hi everybody” intro of Archie Bell & The Drells’ ‘Tighten Up’ – incidentally, it’s the Pointer Sisters who recreate Mavis Staple’s vocal on his US hit revival of ‘Respect Yourself’ … ILLIN’ ‘N’ CHILLIN’!

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JOHNNY JAY scratched with everything including the kitchen sink and came third in the Technics DJ Mixing Championships, CHAD JACKSON used a chair (plus his nose, a ball, and his foot) and came second this year, while “C.J.” McKINTOSH relied on just his expert flawless scratching, exciting technique, and sense of music to come out on top. Is there a moral in that?

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COLIN HUDD, having left Flicks, is now playing his choice of the very best music no matter what its type on Thursdays at Welling’s The Station (guess what that’s near!), while his twin Dennis Hudd is getting ready to start a more pop-orientated night at Ealing’s Broadway Boulevard on Wednesdays soon.

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HOT VINYL

AMII STEWART ‘Love Ain’t No Toy (Remix)’ (RCA PT 41106)
Written way back by Norman Whitfield in his typical ‘Cloud Nine’ style, this purposefully pushing 102⅓bpm gritty jitterer drives remorselessly through emulator “toy-toy-toy” chipmunks as it develops towards a more coolly grooving last half, packing quite a wallop in the beat department, with a remix of her old pleasantly swaying 94⅚bpm ‘Friends’ and the Giorgio Moroder-produced 125⅘bpm Eurobeat ‘Lover To Lover‘ as flip.

D.J. JAZZY JEFF & FRESH PRINCE ‘Rock The House’ LP (Champion CHAMP 1004)
Jeff was turned on to jazz-funk in London and went home to scratch together an explosive 104bpm instrumental ‘Touch Of Jazz’, using Marvin Gaye ‘T Plays It Cool’ (from ‘Trouble Man’), Bob James ‘Westchester Lady’, Donald Byrd ‘Change (Makes You Want To Hustle)’, Bobbi Humphrey ‘Harlem River Drive’, and Grover Washington Jr ‘Mr Magic’. The set’s standout, it’s sure to start a trend! As well as the scratch ‘n’ rap duo’s singles, other fresh cuts are the human beat boxed partying 0-102- 0bpm title track, jiggly 97bpm ‘Just Rockin’‘, 90bpm ‘Taking It To The Top‘ with brass from James Brown’s ‘Cold Sweat’, and the typical story-rap 92½bpm ‘Don’t Even Try It‘.

TULLIO DE PISCOPO ‘Stop Bajon . . . Primavera’ (Greyhound Label 12GRY 009)
In fact familiar to some holidaymakers, and DJs, for several years, it took Scotland’s gay clubs to break this infectious lightly leaping Italian jazz-funk throbber, detailed last week and here at 104⅔-103½-103⅔-103⅓-104-0bpm with a shorter 104⅙-103-103⅙-102⅚bpm instrumental flip, now destined to be a crossover smash! Continue reading “February 21, 1987: Technics DJ Mixing Championships, Amii Stewart, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Tullio De Piscopo, Boris Badenough, Juicy”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

With ironic timing the day before he was profiled by London Weekend Television in their ‘South Of Watford’ series, Morgan Khan ran out of finance for his StreetSounds and Streetwave labels, making most of the staff redundant last Thursday while he struggled to assemble a new financial package to save the situation – hopefully his TV shot will help him … Disco Mix Club are looking for the UK’s best rappers to compete for the Shure Golden Microphone Award at March 8’s International DJ Convention – send demo cassettes to Shure Golden Mic, PO Box 89, Slough SL1 8NA, and be prepared if accepted for a rap slanging match to knock out your competitors! … Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley ‘Jack Your Body’ in its new Nomis Sirrah-mixed Monty ‘House’ Remix (London LONXR 117) clocks in at (0-)122⅓-122-121¼-122⅓-122-122⅓-121½-0bpm … Nitro Deluxe’s UK release, as well as doing away with ‘Let’s Get Brutal’ (which inevitably will be creatively marketed here in a few weeks with a remix), has been retitled for some strange reason from ‘The Brutal House’ to ‘This Brutal House’ … Paul Hardcastle’s remix of George McCrae ‘Rock Your Baby’, now that I’ve received it on 12 inch (Portrait 650312-8), turns out to be 112½-112⅔bpm and even better than the seven inch suggested … Record Shack are promoting Sadie Nine’s strangulatedly sung bounding 118½bpm ‘Let’s Work It Out’ (due Feb 23) as house rather than hi-NRG, although it’s getting support from both camps … The Jets, yet another family group who wiggle shoulders, arms and legs in a unison side-to-side three-step, have also had their Minneapolis-style frisky old (0-)125¾bpm ‘Curiosity’ re-promoted, flipped by a dub-ish 121⅔bpm ‘Crush On You’ version and the less danceable 119bpm ‘The Candle’ (MCA Records MCAT 1119) … The Real Thing ‘Hard Times’ has been much improved by a mellower more flowing (0-)110⅕bpm The Real Mix (Jive JIVER 137), although the lurching and surging song remains awfully uninspired … Steinski & Mass Media ‘We’ll Be Right Back’ has been stripped down into a dull (0-)101-0bpm Hard Sell remix (4th + B’way 12BWX 59) by the label’s Ian Dewhirst and Jon Williams, its only advantage being a backing-less Bonus Voices of the featured TV bits … Monte Moir is producing new material by Aurra … Atlantic’s new girl Miki Howard was of course in Side Effect … Maze, having sold out Wembley Arena at the end of this month, are adding four new dates on March 19-22 at Hammersmith Odeon – where Phyllis Hyman appears on April 13 … Caister Soul Weekend XIX is at Gt Yarmouth’s Seashore camp on April 3-5 … Roger Johnson, the first ever UK winner of the Technics DJ Mixing Championships in 1985, does live mixes every Monday on Radio London during Dave Pearce’s show, and otherwise works behind the counter at Hammersmith’s Spin-Off’s disco store – no globe trotting as an ambassador of mix for him … Dave’s radio guests two Mondays ago, scratching live, were Run-DMC! … Alan Coulthard would be first to admit that I was regularly using the term “Megamix” (which other people had even made my nickname in the late Seventies!) long before he is now reported to have “coined” it four years ago, when he began creating megamixed medleys as the Disco Mix Club’s original producer … Full Circle are having to be renamed as First Circle in the US to avoid confusion with another group there, although here they’ll remain the same (this means that only a very few rare copies of their now wrongly printed import LP have got through so far) … Hot House is obviously a good name for a group, except right now (with “house” having a whole new meaning) it may be the wrong name, their classy slowie sadly looking more like a turntable hit than a seller … Leeds’ Dave Hutchinson calls himself Funkmaster Hutchy, not (as last week’s caption had it) Funkmaster Hotcity! … LL Cool J is calling himself Ill Ill Cool J, as in “illin’”! … A&M’s disco man Mike Sefton now calls himself MC Double Def Sef! … Jamaican-accented the Masters Of Ceremony are from New Rochelle, just outside New York City heading north-east from The Bronx … Champion Records’ ‘Ultimate Trax 2’ compilation will feature another battle of the DJs, this one between Whiz Kid and Jazzy Jeff … Shep Pettibone has remixed Run-DMC ‘It’s Tricky’ for US release, flipped by the brand new ‘Uptempo’ … I’m pleased to see the Beastie Boys’ great ‘Girls’ is big in Liverpool! … Robbie Nevil topped US Club Play in Billboard – whose US Black Singles chart is now printed again in rm … Luther Vandross – nice for him but bad for us – has scored his first US Top 20 pop hit with the fast ‘Stop To Love’, which may influence his future release pattern … Luther did not, despite hints that he might, look in at Tony Jenkins’ welcome return to the Hippodrome (instead he was at Stringfellows) … Arthur Baker with singers Craig Derry and Will Downing of Wally Jump Junior & the Criminal Element are currently PA-ing around the country, including this Saturday in London at the Doo At The Zoo and Delirium … Friday (13) Danny Smith jazz-souls Gt Yarmouth’s Mole Club … Valentine Saturday (14) Jonathon More, Norman Jay and oldies-playing KJ & J McCray shake up Brixton St Matthew’s church crypt (opposite The Fridge) late … Adrian Dunbar’s popular Bolts gay nights have been forced to close at Bournemouth’s Academy with a farewell Valentine party this Sunday (15) … Man 2 Man meet Man Parrish are reviving Grace Jones’s ‘I Need A Man’ on import next month … Loose Ends PA at Swansea Martha’s Vineyard on Monday (16), when Jan Allen starts a weekly free admission jazz ‘n’ soul night at Eastbourn’s Bitter End … is the Limelight still burning bright? … you can stand still to anything – currently, it appears to be to ‘Almaz’! … ILLIN’ ‘N’ CHILLIN’!

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Raze topped our Disco chart for six weeks last year with ‘Jack The Groove’, which only now has followed ‘Jack Your Body’ up the pop charts too. Masterminded by Vaughan Mason (right), whose ‘Bounce Rock Skate Roll’ was a funk hit in 1980, the New Jersey-based group includes Ben Epps (who has a hunch he may be related to veteran bongo star Preston Epps), and East Orange’s frisky Wanda Sykes, four times a winning body-builder, who sings their more recent ‘Let The Music Move U’.

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STOP PRESS

Jazzy Jeff disappointed everyone (including judges Shep Pettibone, Steve Thompson, Bruce Forest and the Latin Rascals, who waited two hours for him) by failing to show up for the US Finals of the Technics DJ Mixing Championships at New York’s Hearthrob last Friday. As he’d won the North-Eastern US heat, there was no other DJ to represent such crucial cities as New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC, with the result that the winner (by unanimous decision) was San Diego’s ‘D.J. Master Rocker’ Joe Rodriguez, with Chicago’s Rodger Vergara Jr second and Miami’s Tony Garcia third. Jeff’s loss is Joe’s gain, the chance of international fame in the World Finals at the Royal Albert Hall on March 9.

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Avtar Singh, after competing in the London heat of the Technics DJ Mixing Championships, returned home to find his studio (he runs a DJ school) had been burgled. £7,500 worth of equipment had gone, (drum machines, samplers, studio mixer, most items marked with “Calibar Roadshow”), plus all his record collection. He’s offering a £1,000 reward for information leading to recovery, on Slough 45521. And he wasn’t even placed in the heat.

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Joanna Plumley is that relative rarity these days, a girl DJ. When discotheques began here in the early Sixties, it was normal for the DJs to be girls – a tradition carried on now mainly by the up-market hotel-situated chains run by such as Juliana’s, which is exactly who she worked for prior to her current shared residency at Bournemouth’s new Clouds. Incidentally, Ken Brudenell is keen to hear from more female DJs for the files of Mecca Agency International, so call him on 01-631 1976.

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HOT VINYL

MILLIE SCOTT ‘Ev’ry Little Bit’ (Fourth & Broadway 12BRW 58)
Glamorous Mildred – sometime member of the Glories, Quiet Elegance, and Cut Glass (obviously from a very young age!) – is now produced by Bruce Nazarian & Duane Bradley in the shuffling and tapping typical Nick Martinelli style on a pleasantly gently jittering 102bpm smooth swayer featuring David McMurray’s jazzy sax (dub flip), already hot on import.

TULLO DE PISCOPO ‘Stop Bajon (Primavera)’ (Spanish Blanco y Negro Music MX 114)
We have Scotland’s gay clubs to thank for discovering this superb Italian jazz-funk throbber (more commonly called just ‘Primavera’) – at 104⅓-103⅙-103⅓-103-103⅔-0bpm hardly Hi-NRG despite its Eurobeat chart placing – which I’ve known about for some time but first actually heard on Radio Clyde five weeks ago, ordering it immediately afterwards, only for it finally to arrive in this its Spanish pressing a matter of days ahead of UK release on Greyhound Records! Leaping lightly along, it features jazz trumpeter Don Cherry with tympanist Tullio and one of those Falco-style unobtrusive muttering European chant-raps, or a shorter 104⅙-103-103⅙-102⅚bpm instrumental flip. Either way, miss it at your peril!

MEL & KIM ‘Respectable’ (Supreme Records SUPET 111)
Due commercially on February 23, the girls’ follow-up is a beefily bounding 0-121¾bpm house-type churner created once again by Stock-Aitken-Waterman (so it’s not the Isleys’ oldie!), with a deadly commercial Eurobeat-ish singalong vocal melody, and more sparsely Chicago-style (0-)119¼bpm Extra Beat Version jack track flip. Continue reading “February 14, 1987: Millie Scott, Tullo De Piscopo, Mel & Kim, Taurus Boy, Herb Alpert”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

DAVE THOMAS (Shrewsbury Oak Hotel) reckons Robbie Nevil’s ‘C’est La Vie’ was first recorded by Beau Williams on his 1984 LP ‘Bodacious’ … Technics DJ Mixing Championships heats came to an end last week, Dudley’s Des Mitchell (Newcastle winner last year) flying back from his Tenerife Bananas residency to win at Bournemouth Clouds, with Angus Kemp from Ealing Lucky’s second and Warren Aylward from Portsmouth third (Finchley’s smooth Mark Savva couldn’t keep up the pressure on the night despite being best in the preliminaries) … Norbury’s Sussex (home of Les ‘Mixdoctor’ Adams) hosted with great hospitality the London heat, which saw a surprisingly low standard among 24 entrants to the preliminaries, being won by Hitchin’s Edwin Brome, with Kiwi from Croydon Easy Street second and Captain Kirk from the Bacchus circuit third, South East London’s Mark Ryder and Slough’s Avtar Singh deserving mention too … Midnight Star ‘Midas Touch’, Grandmaster Flash ‘Style (Peter Gunn Theme)’, Masterdon Committee ‘Funk Box Party’, Trouble Funk ‘Pump Me Up’, MC Shy-D, the Ovaltineys and ‘Snow White’ soundtrack songs ended up alongside ‘Jack The Groove’ and others already mentioned as the most mixed records by the time all the heats were over! … £350 worth of Technics CD-based SL-PJ20 hi fi midi system, including twin cassette decks, tuner, graphic equalizer and speakers, was the prize for each heat winner, while at the UK final next Tuesday in London’s Hippodrome (with Arthur Baker among the judges) the main prize includes a set of Technics SLP 1200 CD players, the first vari-speed compact disc decks! Numark, manufacturers of rival turntables which didn’t seem up to the job last year, will evidently not be sponsoring the US mixing competition at the New Music Seminar in New York this July (12-15, again at the Marriott Marquis hotel), during which UK and European DJs will be invited to play in that city’s discos … Herb Alpert’s upcoming Jam & Lewis produced ‘Keep Your Eye On Me’ is the first DJs-promoed club remix CD single in the US … Cooltempo white labels of the February 16-released Taurus Boyz ‘Looking For A Lover‘ have been selling like hot plates, a homegrown funkily lurching 115¾bpm house bounder with a pop edge (and is that Dancin’ Danny D on Darryl Pandy-ish vocals?) … Bruce Forest, while jocking live at New York s Better Days, added keyboards to a ‘House Mix’ of Jesse Johnson ‘She’, which may well be promoed here … Hot Chocolate ‘You Sexy Thing’ is now also flipped by a pop hits medleying 100-104⅓-105⅓-107-109-111¼bpm Megamix (EMI 12EMIX 5592), neatly edited together by Froggy … Level 42’s chunkily lurching 124½bpm rock chugger ‘Running In The Family‘ (Polydor POSPX 842) is pure pop as usual, though doubtless with some ‘soul’ support too … 12 inch copies of Sam Moore & Lou Reed’s 114bpm revival of ‘Soul Man‘ (A&M AMY 364) are flipped by ‘The More Sam Mix’, which not surprisingly leaves out Lou’s clashing vocals to give you more Sam, making it closer to Sam & Dave’s original … Experience “E.U.” Unlimited’s review last week should of course have read as 96-96⅓-97⅙bpm … Martin Scorsese has made a multi-million dollar video for a track called ‘Bad’ from Michael Jackson’s still unscheduled new LP, presumably its first single – Michael this time does not join his brothers for their chugging 106¾bpm formularized soundtrack-pop seven inch, The Jacksons ‘Time Out For The Burglar’ (MCA Records MCA 1129), theme song from the Whoopi Goldberg movie ‘Burglar’ … DeBarge as a group have left Motown to sign with its ex-president Barney Ales’ new label Striped Horse, although Chico, Bunny and El DeBarge may not be part of the deal as they’re still recording solo on Gordy … US snowstorms continued to delay import deliveries last week … Expose ‘Come Go With Me’ (Latin pop-disco peculiar to America’s Hi-NRG biased new “HOT” radio format) topped US Club Play, Sylvester ‘Someone Like You’ 12 Inch Sales, and Cameo ‘Candy’ Black 45s in Billboard … Run-DMC’s example has been followed in the US by the Beastie Boys, whose album has been made a Top 10 smash by the release of an out and out rock single, ‘(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)’ – how long before hip hop gets a chance there to cross over in its own right, without compromise? … Man Parrish has evidently remade the Rolling Stones’ ‘Brown Sugar’ in hip hop style … LWT’s edition of ‘South Of Watford’ shown in the London area this Friday (6) at 11pm will be the one about Morgan Khan, while Steve Walsh (who somehow turned up at MIDEM as “promotion liaison officer” for Record Shack!) was the subject of a similarly local BBC2 programme last Friday … Radio Luxembourg next year links with Radio Telefis Eireann to start broadcasting from the east coast of Ireland on long wave, covering most of Britain as well as Ireland even during the day! … Thames Valley DJ Association somehow managed to award Citronic for an amplifier model that they don’t even make – one of several mistakes at their annual exhibition, not least being their failure to inform me of the whole show this year … Luther Vandross, currently appearing at the Hammersmith Odeon for at least eight nights, had to add ‘See Me’ to his repertoire as he had no idea it was so much more popular here than his other new material … Second Image have disbanded, former members George Bromfield and Frank Burke forming Return To Go instead, managed by Marie Birch – who has relocated with Sound Promotions to 363/65 Harrow Road, London W9 (01-960 6999) … Mantronix play Kentish Town’s Town and Country Club on Tuesday (10), Terry Davis celebrates a year of real soul at Bermondsey’s Bugles in Grange Road Thursday (12) … James Lewis has already moved his successful soul night to Swansea’s Martha’s Vineyard on Mondays, following the sale of Harry’s Dance Bar, and Paul French has started a Monday soul night at London Leicester Square’s Empire Ballroom … Joe Field souls Hemel Hempstead’s free (but smart) White Horse Tuesdays, pub hours … Paul Anderson and the Meltdown Party funk the Word Fridays at London’s Oxford Street Spats … DJ support needs to increase dramatically for the Eurobeat chart to continue in rm – unless we start receiving many more regular weekly chart returns from gay clubs (ones that break new material), to give it more substance, it will only be compiled on a monthly basis for publication in JOCKS … ILLIN’ ‘N CHILLIN’!

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The heats are over, and these are the eight finalists who will be competing against the 1986 UK champ Chad Jackson at the TECHNICS DJ MIXING CHAMPIONSHIPS next Tuesday (10), at London’s Hippodrome. The winner there then takes on the World, at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday, March 9. May the best mixer win!

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HOT VINYL

JOCELYN BROWN ‘Ego Maniac’ (US Warner Bros/Jellybean 0-20469)
James (D-Train) Williams’ producer Hubert Eaves III whips up another ‘Misunderstanding’-like ultra-infectious jiggly jumping 104⅔bpm go go-type beat (so go go at the start that you’ll begin singing “in the capital of the nation”!), through which Jocelyn soulfully squalls and roars to incredibly exciting effect — certainly her best since, and every bit as good as, ‘Somebody Else’s Guy’! (Useful instrumental dub and vocal percappella too, plus a spine tingling pure acappella of her old ‘Love’s Gonna Get You’).

NITRO DELUXE The Brutal House’ (Cooltempo COOLX 142)
Not strictly house but so massive already right now that DJs are mixing it with the jack tracks, this Hamilton Bohannon/BT Express-ish ever shifting bass and jittering percussion boosted 114¼bpm instrumental has a catchy little synth figure that cuts straight through your brain, making it impossible to ignore! Here, for some reason the US copy’s possibly more popular shorter ‘Let’s Get Brutal’ version (and dub) are replaced by a UK Edit that amalgamates elements from all.

SURFACE ‘Happy’ (CBS 650393-6)
Already an album track smash, the soulful guys’ ‘phonecall-interrupted naggingly jogging 98bpm swayer (written by Surface although first recorded by Hi Tension) is shaping up as an anthemic singalong classic, with the tenderly impassioned jolting 33⅓/66⅔bpm ‘Let’s Try Again‘ as smoochy flip. Continue reading “February 7, 1987: Jocelyn Brown, Nitro Deluxe, Surface, George Benson, Gwen Guthrie”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

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

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

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HOT VINYL

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

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

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

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

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

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

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HOT VINYL

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

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

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

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

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

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

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HOT VINYL

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

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

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

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

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

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

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HOT VINYL

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

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

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