ODDS ‘N’ BODS
LIONEL RICHIE’s ‘All Night Long’ instrumental was all set for the flip of his current UK 12in until nixed by Motown’s HQ, typically out of touch in LA — instead of running scared about alternative 12in imports from Britain messing up their US plans (and giving people what they actually want?), why don’t Motown move back to a ghetto, put people out on the street and find out where the energy’s really coming from today? . . . Brian Godson & Pete Funnell funk York’s Windmill in Blossom Street this Friday (2) — with Kelvin Knight they play more general stuff there Saturdays too (50p both nights) . . . Greg Edwards does Dartford Flicks Friday (2), when Dave Rawlings kicks off 4th birthday high jinks at Basingstoke Martines with a Pernod party before being joined on Saturday (3) by fire-eating Darryl Hayden’s video show . . . Miquel Brown flits between Bolts in Haringey this Friday and Brighton on Sunday (4) . . . Tony Prince & Steve Dennis co-host the Martini Screen Test finals at London Piccadilly’s Xenon early evening Friday (2) . . . Saturday lunchtimes are very jazzy indeed at London Oxford Street Spats with Darren Johnson, Ed Stokes & Gilles Peterson, the latter airing latin jazz Friday nights 10pm-midnight on the self-explanatory South London Broadcasting SLB 94.4 FM, sandwiched between Jerry Jones & Stu Wilson with a weekly guest show immediately preceding Gilles . . . Saturdays at Portsmouth Ritzy have taken off so well for him that Nick Ratcliffe will be there Thursdays too from next week (8) with Jeff Powell, getting as funky as they can, while Nick’s also back with John Dene on Fridays at Streatham Cat’s Whiskers and at Guildford Cinderella Rockerfellas next Tuesday (6) has a free admission army/nurse fancydress M*A*S*H night . . . Baz Maleedy & Baz Williams have started a specifically oldies disco/funk/soul/jazz Sunday at Manchester’s Gallery off Deansgate . . . Ernie Priestman, original partner in Whitehaven’s legendary Whitehouse, has returned to radioactive Egremont to transform the ancient Old Hall pub into a hi-tech disco opening next Thursday (8) with himself and Blackpool’s Steve Naylor getting as upfront as the locals will allow . . . Rayners Lane’s Record & Disco Centre has split in two with hardware, design/installation, disco hire etc at the new Middlesex Sound & Lighting just around the corner in Village Way East (01-866 5500), leaving records and video at the original shop (where the DJ elite meet!) . . . Steve Wiggins (Barry) wonders — fourteen weeks, eighty-eight quid and countless calls later — just when the Derek James Disco Centre will get around to supplying his projector bulbs . . . Luton’s recently opened Tropicana Beach (resident jock Mark West) is reaching its 750 capacity at weekends and wants PAs/promotion nights etc — call manager Mick Jordan (0582 458750) . . . Chris Britton at Watford Baileys shows up to twenty videos nightly to around 2,000 people (half of whom are seated) and would welcome any promo videos for guaranteed screening . . . David Grant’s had another haircut and is now practically a skinhead — the similarity of his new single to the Dazz Band’s ‘Let It Whip’, and all the spike-haired punks in its video, lead me to suspect that ‘Rock The Midnight’ is intended as an assault on the American charts rather than for here . . . Whodini’s story-telling video for the lacklustre ‘Rap Machine’ really brings it alive . . . Ebony Brothers turn out to be Pinky & Tony who danced on Top Of The Pops with Kelly Marie, Pinky’s brother Paul Pink being Capital Radio’s biggest engineer! . . . Eartha Kitt didn’t flatter herself on TV-am — she came across remarkably like Yoda from the Star Wars saga . . . Sharon Redd either bought her first record when aged just one, or else started out buying an oldie (see last week’s Profile and call me a cad!) . . . Sid Haywoode turns out to be the daughter of Ron Haywoode from the Fantastics, and before that more significantly the Velours, whose 1957 ‘Can I Come Over Tonight‘ was one of the all-time doo-wop greats . . . ‘I’m Out Of Your Life’ writer/Delegation producer Ken Gold, never out of Mayfair’s Gullivers these days, last week brought down this vaguely familiar looking guy — Paul Johnson, one of London’s DJ legends in the mid-60s (he did Brixton’s Ram Jam), latterly a record exec before leaving the business (I bought a whole pile of ska off him in ’66!) . . . ‘Kennedy’ on telly last week obviously sent all minds that are old enough back to that day twenty years ago — I was staying at an old school friend’s off the King’s Road, on the brink of joining the then incipient Beatles merchandisers Seltaeb Inc. washing up coffee cups when Paul McCartney & John Lennon came to call, and heavily into such sounds as Mary Wells ‘What’s Easy For Two‘, Stevie Wonder ‘Monkey Talk‘, Lloyd Price ‘Misty‘, Sam Cooke ‘Little Red Rooster‘ . . . ‘Dr Soul’s ’60s Stompers — The Girls’ on the next Disco Mix Club is a bit of a compromise I fear, the original medley was intended to end up with a further nine girlie group tracks out of the Bandwagon but they didn’t fit the time available, so for this continuation I built them up to twenty but by playing two verses instead of one I then had to cut back again at the end as only fifteen fitted — and the final three do come as a jolt now — the running order being Crystals ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’/Four Pennies ‘When The Boy’s Happy’/Chiffons ‘He’s So Fine’/Exciters ‘Do-Wah-Diddy’/Velvelettes ‘Really Sayin’ Somethin’/Tami Lynn ‘Gonna Run’/Betty Everett ‘Mighty Crowded’/Supremes ‘Where Did Our Love Go’/’Baby Love’/Martha & The Vandellas ‘Jimmy Mack’/Fascinations ‘Girls Are Out’/Mary Wells ‘What’s Easy For Two’/Chiffons ‘Sweet Talking Guy’/Candy & The Kisses ‘The 81’/Gloria Jones ‘Tainted Love’ (I had to end with that, right?!) . . . Disco Mix Club subscription details are on 06286 67276 . . . Al Jarreau will play Nat ‘King’ Cole in a biopic of the late star, next year . . . Capital’s reggaemeister David Rodigan plays the barman in TV’s current Malibu commercial! . . . Robert ‘Santa’ Bienman is heavily disguised as ‘Billy Jackson’ . . . MCA’s Katie Farmer seems to be taking a personal interest in Second Image! . . . Edgbaston Faces French Club Visage jock Jon Alsop for some strange reason now calls himself Jon David — he’s obviously after a job on hospital radio . . . Graham Hunter (Basingstoke) reckons the best disco in Paris, France is La Scala, in the Rue De Rivoli . . . ‘Street Sounds 7’ being heavily advertised on radio last weekend ahead of stocks being shipped was thoroughly irritating for record dealers, who now talk about “the late Morgan Khan” . . . Arnie’s Love seems to have peaked with the specialist audience, saleswise . . . LET THE MUSIC PLAY!
CHARTS
BRITAIN’S PUBLIC like dancing to what they already know. This was accurately reflected by our pop-orientated Nightclub chart, which unfortunately (from an editorial viewpoint) followed, rather than set the fashion, neither a pointer to the future nor even a useful shopping list. It’s gone. However, DJs who reckon their charts contributed towards it are still encouraged to send them in as Alan Jones will continue compiling them into a guide for the Performing Rights Society, amongst others — and along with the upfront soulful Disco and Boys Town DJs all remain eligible for the weekly £20 record token lucky draw. In fact it’s a hell of a job keeping the Disco and Boys Town charts as upfront as hopefully they are, and regular contributions from some of the jocks we ought to be hearing from yet who may feel it beneath them would be more than welcome. All charts (Top 20 or more, if possible, based on audience rather than DJ reaction) should reach us by Wednesday of the week before publication especially if enclosing any news items, sent to James Hamilton, Record Mirror, 40 Long Acre, London WC2E 9JT. Just in case you don’t know what’s big in Britain’s pop venues at the moment, record plugger Theo Loyla happens to have compiled a chart from all the clubs on his Super Jocks mailing list:
1. LIONEL RICHIE – ‘All Night Long’
2. MICHAEL JACKSON – ‘Thriller’
3. BILLY JOEL – ‘Uptown Girl’
4. McCARTNEY/JACKSON – ‘Say Say Say’
5. ROCK STEADY CREW – ‘Hey You’
6. SHARON REDD – ‘Love How You Feel’
7. SHALAMAR – ‘Over And Over’
8. CULTURE CLUB – ‘Karma Chameleon’
9. HOWARD JONES – ‘New Song’
10. STEVE HARVEY – ‘Tonight’
Yeah, and ‘Rock Around The Clock’ still gets ’em going, too!
HOT VINYL
DAYTON: ‘The Sound Of Music’ (Capitol 12CL 318)
Rahni Harris takes the helm for a superb soulfully flowing 54½-112-114-112-114bpm groove with a really nagging repeated hookline, catchy vocoder scatting and sophisticated jazz-funk feel, now on 3-track 12in with the disappointing Zapp dominated 111bpm ‘Love You Anyway‘ and 1980’s good speedily romping 119-120-119-117(sax solo)-121-122bpm ‘Eyes On You‘ (whose tinny strings sounded dated when it was new). Pure class — but unlikely to break outside circles as sadly sophistication and groovability aren’t enough for a general public who basically can’t dance.
XENA: ‘On The Upside’ (US Emergency EMDS 6541)
Very similar to Shannon, an initially offputting “disco” chick (she put me off it for a fortnight!) singing somewhat at odds with the busily 118½bpm 12in hip hop electro framework — except they blend together in naggingly melodic style and are now exploding doubtless because she and Shannon mix so superbly (complex dub flip). How she ever managed to carry the tune through it all is a miracle!
GIRLS CAN’T HELP IT: ‘Baby Doll’ (US Sire 0-29773)
When originally out here ages ago on Virgin this seemed such a blatant pop rip off of something else that I resisted reviewing it — the trouble is, now I can’t remember what it’s copying and have spent hours trying to think! Help, please! Anyway, newly remixed and revived on import — to huge local success following plugs by Robbie Vincent on Radio London — the girlie trio are sorta Bananarama doing the Mary Jane Girls after listening to Meri Wilson’s ‘Telephone Man’, the nagging familiarity of the spoken-sung languidly jiggling 97bpm 12in structure only adding to its compulsive catchiness (inst flip). Its time has certainly come. Continue reading “December 3, 1983: Dayton, Xena, Girls Can’t Help It, Hi Voltage, The B Boys”
James Hamilton's Disco Page 
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