KOOL AND THE GANG: ‘Love And Understanding’ (Polydor 2001645)
This perturbing funky hustler has a long instrumental build-up to some KC-type chanting which oozes in through the rhythmic crescendo, only to end in a strange mid-air anti-climax.
JEFF PERRY: ‘Love Don’t Come No Stronger’ (Arista 51)
Slow intro to a happily romping Pop-Soul hand-clapper of wide appeal.
AS REPORTED, the Disco North exhibition last week in Liverpool began with a bang as all the lights (and sounds ) blew the fuses of the Centre Hotel. This also happened on the second day, with the result that many exhibitors were rightly disgruntled.
Roger Squire moved his own Disco Centre display into a private suite elsewhere in the hotel, and reported increased interest in these less noisy surroundings.
Jingle Singles pulled out after only one day, but that was because all their listening gear had been stolen from their van outside.
Theft and even violence was ever-present in crime-ridden Liverpool, the most horrendous experience being that of NEMS Records’ plugger Neil Ferris, who was actually mugged in his own car while asking the way. Maybe it was because the area is so depressed and DJ rates are proportionately lower that there was a relatively small turnout for the show, Liverpool and Northern DJs being disinterested in expensive new equipment?
The final attendance figure being approximately 1,000 visitors, many in fact coming from the South, would seem to suggest this.
Two inexpensive hits of the show were Atlantic Records’ 12 inch slip mats, and M-Jay Electronics (Bradford) handy-sized electronic siren units. Martin Blake kept being a nuisance with their fog machines, Judge Dread sang some rude songs.
Cookies Disco Centre presented an excellent programme every time their allotted 10 minutes of noise came around, and Creole Records got everyone drunk on cheap wine. Not to mention TVL’s video demonstration, which kept turning into a blue movie show!
At last I was able to meet Les Spaine, who really is the Godfather of all the DJs in Liverpool. My thanks go to Mike Davidson (Babalou) who showed many out-of-towners around, to Dave Porter (Oscars) who as king of the jingles will be a radio name one day, to Chris Graham (Scamps) who let me use his flashy console, to Terry Lennaine (Radio Mersey-side) who bought me chip butties, to Dave Eastwood (Radio City) who had me on his late night show, to Tommy Burns (Beachcomber) who coped admirably with the strippers, to Stan Green (Russell’s) who played good party records among the hustlers, and to Cliff Wilding (Early Riser Disco Services, Walthamstow) and Garrell Redfearn (MIF Disco Promotion) who got me there and back!
New Spins
KEITH EMERSON: ‘Honky Tonk Train Blues’ (Manticore K 13513)
ELP’s Keith turns to his “other” piano as he knocks out a great swinging version of Meade Lux Lewis’s 1930s boogie-woogie raver. Authentic in every way, Benny Goodman-type backing and all!
ATLANTA DISCO BAND: ‘Bad Luck’ (AriolaAmerica AA 102) (Billboard chart debut 10/4/75)
A disco smash since last year on import, this ultra-rhythmic bumpy bass and jiggly guitar instrumental is an established classic already. Drummer Earl Young was never busier!
HANK MIZELL’S high chart placing has taken many people by surprise, although it was forecast by this page several weeks ago.
His ‘Jungle Rock’ has been selling at the rate of 20,000 copies in just London and the South-East alone!
The record meant nothing in the States when first issued on King in about 1959, and it only really came to attention when included on a Starday Nashville compilation LP called ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On’, about four years ago.
It then appeared on a Dutch bootleg LP, this time two years ago, at which stage demand began to build for it via the Rock ‘n’ Roll disco circuit — where it was ideal for dancing the Bop.
Around the end of 1974 a British counterfeit copy of the King single became widely available and sold like crazy for £1.50, prompting at least three record companies to try. for the legitimate UK rights. Charly Records automatically acquired these through their catalogue deal with Shelby Singleton, current owner of King as well as Starday and Sun.
Prior to its issue by Charly, ‘Jungle Rock’ had become one of the most played records on Capital Radio’s ‘Cruising’ show, first being used two years ago on the London commercial station’s oldies programme. DJ Roger Scott was thus well disposed to it when it finally came out here, but even so was amazed when it went on to win his ‘People’s Choice’ vote – and then to maintain a consistently high daily placing in his ‘Hitline’ phone-in feature.
The success of this relatively obscure Rock-a-Billy rarity has now naturally inspired other record companies to satisfy the previously unheeded demands of the Teddy Boy fraternity.
MCA are rushing out Don Woody’s ‘Barking Up The Wrong Tree‘ / ‘Cast Iron Arm’, President are pressing Chan Romero’s ‘Hippy Hippy Shake‘ / ‘My Little Lucy’, and Charly themselves are readying Warren Smith’s ‘Pink Cadillac And A Black Moustache‘. Chiswick (one of the earlier bidders for Hank Mizell) already have Vince Taylor’s ‘Brand New Cadillac‘ (available through Lightning, London, and Selectadisc, Nottingham), and also still available are Jerry Byrne’s ‘Lights Out‘ (Speciality) and Johnny Kidd’s ‘Shakin’ All Over’ (EMI).
New Spins
SPARKS: ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ (Island WP 6282)
Treated as a quaveringly sung full-blown emotional ballad, the Beatles’ old bubble-gummer is now worthy of Shirley Bassey and screamingly funny. Alternatively, it’s like Smokey Robinson with a head cold! Good short-term MoR.
PETER FRAMPTON: ‘Show Me The Way’ (A&M AMS 7218)
Out here already, here’s the Face of ’76 bending his guitar via a Talkbox connected with his mouth, thus producing an immediately grabbing sound that makes this happy toe-tapper a pure delight.
SPECIAL DEMONSTRATIONS of video for discos will be amongst the star attractions at the NADJ-run Disco North exhibition in Liverpool this Monday and Tuesday, March 22/23.
TVL Distributors Ltd will be showing the CV3 “Super-Screen” video projection system, which beams giant colour television images onto the equivalent of a cinema screen – the type of system that was such a success at the recent Disco Forum In New York.
Disco North is being held at the Liverpool Centre Hotel, Lord Nelson Street, Liverpool L3 5UQ, and will be open between midday and 9.00 pm (9.30 pm on Tuesday), entrance is free to NADJ members and by pro gramme at 50p to the general public.
The grand opening ceremony will be performed at 1.00 pm on Monday by Phil Easton. DJ with Radio City, and other personalities from the Liverpool commercial station will be visiting the show (it is still uncertain if Radio City will be broadcasting live from their stand).
As well as the many major equipment manufacturers and suppliers who will be exhibiting their wares, most disco orientated record companies will be represented by their promotion people. Although only Atlantic and Creole have taken stands, the other companies’ pluggers will be making themselves conspicuous amongst the crowds and will be on the lookout for DJs on (and off?) their mailing lists.
Disco Mirror and Record Mirror & Disc will also have a stand, where I hope to be able to press flesh with anyone mug enough to come by and say “Hi”! So, see you there!
New Spins
BIDDU ORCHESTRA: ‘Rain Forest’ (Epic EPC 4084) (mentioned in Billboard column 4/17/76, Billboard chart debut 4/24/76)
Lushly arranged with sweeping strings and prodding brass, this beautiful almost Santana-ish rhythm throbber is an ever-evolving delight. I’ve been having great fun making it even longer by mixing two copies together. The flip will please many too, as its the much-demanded ‘Exodus’, an archetypal “disco” sound.
DISCO PICK
MICHAEL ZAGER & THE MOON BAND: ‘Do It With Feeling’ (London HLM 10521) (mentioned in Billboard column 11/22/75, Billboard chart debut 11/29/75)
Ex-Ten Wheel Drive, Zager gets a great funky chant thing going with a big bouncy beat.
Something ultimately harmful seems to be happening – something that needs a warning before it gets totally out of control.
Over the last month or so, the disco market has become saturated with product. The type of music released on singles in this country has dramatically changed, so that material appealing to disco audiences now dominates. “Heavy” groups have practically vanished. MoR has become beatier, teenybopper acts and straight pop purveyors are less in evidence.
In America, which is in the throes of an enormous “disco” boom, this trend could be expected. In fact, it is amazing to see how few of the really big disco hits actually go on to make a sizeable impression on the national Top 100 there. Which is the point of my message here . . .
A hell of a lot of good disco records are coming out here – far too many! Very few of them are going on to the sort of success that they deserve. Disco DJs, radio programmers and even record reviewers are so swamped with potentially useful singles that they haven’t a chance of being able to break more than just a few.
OK, so record producers have discovered that a market exists which they can aim for when concocting their creations (and a surprisingly large number of the disco singles come from Britain and Europe). But, please fellows, ease up before you kill the goose that lays those golden eggs! A look at the British Top 50 shows that disco reaction can definitely make Pop hits, but another look also shows that there is only so much room for disco records.
Ease up before there’s a backlash, as is beginning to be the case in the States. In fact, ease up before it’s too late.
New Spins
BRASS CONSTRUCTION: ‘Movin’’ / ‘Changin’’ (from LP ‘Brass Construction’, UA UAS 29923) (LP mentioned in Billboard column 1/17/76, Billboard chart debut 1/24/76)
From possibly the biggest selling import album of all time, now out here, these two eight minute plus tracks are almost as unremittingly funky as they are when done live. Terrific!
FUNKY PICK
THE ROYAL SHOW BAND: ‘The Hucklebuck’ (Irish EMI IEMI 5038)
A mind-reading plugger from EMI Ireland has sent me this re-issue of the Brendan Bowyer-led showband’s 1965 smash, an infectious party-type styling after Chubby Checker’s twisted treatment of the late ’40s dance tune.
MoR PICK
KEVIN AYERS: ‘Falling In Love Again’ (Island WIP 6271)
Marlene Dietrich’s languid lilter (rousingly revived by Alan Price in 1970) now gets a flustering rhythm retread from husky-voiced Kevin (whose Lou Reed-like ‘Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes‘ is also out, on Harvest HAR 5107). MoR jocks on the lookout for another ‘Misty’ are sure to fall in love again!
JH PICK
MILLS BROTHERS: ‘Opus No. 1’ (MCA 235)
Excitingly brassy 1954 swinger, a well-proven must for Jitterbuggers.
THE JITTERBUG — as it became known — was born in Harlem and nurtured there at the famous Savoy Ballroom, home of the great Swing big bands. Almost as if in a movie script, the dance was associated with street gangs, violence, Hollywood stars and dazzling fashions.
George “Shorty” Snowden was one of the winning dancers at an 18-day marathon in 1928, during which he won money from side bets by dancing with his partner in a more galvanised way than his exhausted competitors.
While doing this he amazed everyone by flinging out his partner in a break-away and dancing some flashy solo steps — which he shrugged off as merely being the Lindy. Named after Charles Lindbergh’s aeroplane “hop” across the Atlantic in 1927, the Lindy Hop dated back much earlier and in fact breakaways were an integral part of the Texas Tommy in 1913.
One of Shorty’s own breakaway steps was to be named after him — the Shorty George.
Shorty was a member of one of Harlem’s many secret gangs – known as “clubs” — the Jolly Fellows. Started in 1923 by Herbert “Whitey” White, who was older than the others and had an interest in dancing, it became the club for dancers and grew to over 669 members by the Thirties.
Although there was a violent and bloody relationship between the rival clubs, they all observed a strict code of formality and honour which they copied from gangster films. More disciplined than the other clubs, the Jolly Fellows unofficially but literally ran the Savoy Ballroom, with Whitey as head bouncer!
The Savoy, where Chick Webb’s band originated ‘Stomping At The Savoy’, would feature two bands competing in a “battle”, driving each other and the dancers so hard that the music became known as Swing.
Shorty and the regular dancers used to compete with each other in their carefully guarded “Cats’ Corner” of the dance floor, which was closed to all but the bravest of dancers from other clubs.
During the breakaways their self-expression and invention were put to the test, as convention forbade any dancer to copy another’s step. Celebrities and film stars came to watch and tip them, and all the big bands – white as well as black – were keen to play for them.
As big band jazz progressed into the Thirties, it spurred on the dancers and they, it. In 1932, Bennie Moten’s band re-energised the music and speeded up the dancing by making it flow to guitar and bass instead of jerky banjo and tuba. From there, things got even faster.
In 1936 the acrobatic style of slinging partners through the air began to appear, by chance at the same time as Benny Goodman emerged as a white bandleader capable of holding his own alongside the Savoy swingers.
In 1937 a team of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers were seen in the Marx Brothers’ ‘A Day At The Races’, and before long the exotically dressed Leon James, their star dancer, had joined his one-time rival from another club, Al Minns, to make the airborne style world famous by 1939.
Despite all this activity in Harlem and other black areas, the white public generally believed that the Jitterbug (as the Lindy became known) erupted out of nowhere when Benny Goodman invented Swing! During the latter Thirties his audiences were “jitterbugging in the aisles” and making headline news – as did Bill Haley’s later Rocking followers.
Soon, teams of Lindy Hoppers (many managed by Whitey) were guaranteeing success to stage shows and night club reviews, and the style of dancing spread into the War years amongst white big band fans. Typically, the white fans tended to prefer the white bands, leaving the black originators to split up and simplify their music into the roots of R&B when demand dried up.
The true Lindy-cum-Jitterbug could be called choreographed Swing, and while the airborne acrobatics helped make it a sensation the intricate footwork was more important to purists like Shorty Snowden. The Jive-like basic step of the Lindy was taught when Rock ‘n’ Roll evolved out of early R&B, and a slower modification is being taught now as the Swing-Hustle.
Thus, like the Twist, the Jitterbug has never died . . and that ain’t no Jive!
New Spins
BENNY GOODMAN: ‘Stompin’ At The Savoy’ (RCA 2657)
Adding further fuel to the jitterbug fire, Benny’s classic 1936 swinger gets a maxi coupling with the dreamy ‘In A Sentimental Mood’ and the jumpin’ jive ‘Swingtime In The Rockies‘, which cooks and cooks! A must for adventurous jocks.
JH PICK
GLENN MILLER: ‘Make Believe Ballroom Time’ (from LP ‘The Legendary Glenn Miller, Volume 10’, RCA LSA 3237)
Here’s the famous 1940 radio theme, long deleted, on one of the latest volumes in this great ever-growing series of all Miller’s studio recordings. Other goodies on this volume are ‘Five O’Clock Whistle’, ‘Yes My Darling Daughter’ and ‘A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square’, while of course the theme itself makes the ideal intro to your Swing spot.
JH PICK
This week’s column includes the first mention of remixing, in the review of Tom Moulton’s ‘Disco-Trek’ compilation LP.
New Spins
EDDIE KENDRICKS: ‘He’s A Friend’ (Tamla Motown TMO 1021) (mentioned in Billboard column 1/3/76, Billboard chart debut 1/24/76)
Produced by Philly’s Norman Harris, Eddie seems set to continue Motown’s new hit streak with this unhurried thumper, which — with the faster ‘All Of My Love‘ flip — joins the NY disco hits ‘It’s Not What You Got‘ and ‘Chains‘ on his new LP (STML 12016). How long before he and David Ruffin make two ex-Tempts on the chart?
WOODY HERMAN: ‘Woodchopper’s Ball’ (MCA 230)
Woody’s jitterbugging swinger from ’39 is to be followed by many more big band singles, which can only establish the new craze even better than the twist.
JH PICK
This week’s column includes the first mention of the new 12-inch single format, in Hammy’s review of B.C.G. – Sweet Talk.
Exhibitors wary of Disco ’76
Disco ’76, the recent Billboard-organized Disco Forum in New York, failed to come up with any new ideas during its formal panel sessions thanks to poor stage management and bad PA equipment supplied by the Roosevelt Hotel — the sessions never ran to time and were usually all but inaudible.
British equipment manufacturers and suppliers would have benefited by attending or exhibiting at the Forum. Had Roger Squire turned up for the panel that he was due to sit on, he would have done an immense amount of business. This being only the first Forum to be held in the States, exhibitors were wary (as they were before our own NADJ events became established).
Of the 30 manufacturers’ exhibits on show, few items of equipment were as well designed as their UK counterparts although as part of the apparent “bigger is better” belief that is widespread amongst US disco operators, there were indeed some extremely powerful speaker horns and amplifiers on display.
One of the gimmicks of the New York DJ style is to use vast bass horns, separately amplified, to emphasize certain passages of music, and likewise to bring out the sizzling cymbals through clusters of radiating miniature tweeters suspended over the dance floor.
The most eye-catching exhibits were the three competing video projection systems, all of which transmit three invisible beams of red, blue and green onto screens of up to 15 feet in size, on which they superimpose to produce full colour giant TV pictures. Video cassettes available include packaged soul shows from TV, specially created disco music programmes, and star performances including David Bowie.
For more about the Forum, see my full report in this month’s Disco Mirror.
And to finish off, let’s hope that more disco names from Britain will be there next year.
New Spins
BILLY PAUL: ‘America (We Need The Light)’ / ‘People Power’ / ‘Let’s Make A Baby’ (from LP ‘When Love Is New’, Philadelphia Int’l. PIR 69207) (mentioned in Billboard column 12/20/75, Billboard chart debut 1/3/76)
Two straight disco tracks that are getting NY radio plays too, while the Chris Hill-tipped last track is more as you might expect from Billy, and embarrassingly near the knuckle for many.
JH PICK
LOVE SOUNDS: ‘Ebb Tide’ (Pye 7N 45487)
Out here a year ago, this dreamy ‘n creamy Tony Hatch disco treatment of Frank Chacksfield’s old US biggie is currently getting NY action as an import – a fact which might surprise Pye!
BATAAN: ‘The Bottle’ (Epic EPC 3818) (mentioned in Billboard column and chart debut 1/11/1975)
Huge a year ago, this Salsoul version of Gil Scott-Heron’s tune was a NY hit and still sounds great – if late! – today. Bouncily hustling instrumental. Continue reading “February 14, 1976: New York Disco Forum special, part 3”
“Disco ’76”, the First International Disco Forum, organized by Billboard magazine’s Bill Wardlow at New York’s midtown Roosevelt Hotel on January 20-23, was a star-studded affair.
Speakers included Van McCoy, Bob Crewe, Norman Harris, LaBelle, and many record company heads.
Performers included Bimbo Jet, the Reflections, the Salsoul Orchestra, the Trammps, Crown Heights Affair and Gloria Gaynor.
Amongst the observers were Hamilton Bohannon, Jeanne Burton, Tamiko Jones, Jonathan King, Capitol Records’s Joe Maimone and a whole host of other record company executives. And then there were several hundred disco DJs and assorted club owners, equipment manufacturers and record pluggers.
It’s doubtful whether the Forum spread as many ideas amongst all the participants as Bill Wardlow originally hoped it would. Many panel sessions got bogged down with the recurrent (and predictable) pleas from DJs – especially from the Midwest – for free promotional demo records.
However, the Forum was immensely rewarding on a man-to-man basis – and it was through talking amongst their fellow kind outside the main assembly room that most DJs must have swapped ideas.
In fact widely acknowledged as one of the best Forum sessions was the mobile disco session. Well-established mobile DJs seem to command much higher fees in America than here, $120 upwards being quite normal, although an Atlanta disco firm’s rate of $220 to $250 and more made everyone gasp.
There is a certain aggressive arrogance about many East and West Coast mobile jocks who refuse to bend to their audience’s tastes and supply only the current “disco” style of programming, but they do also teach their audiences the latest dances.
James Hamilton's Disco Page 