ODDS ‘N’ BODS
MORGAN KHAN (to continue from last week’s Hot Vinyl) has taken his Streetwave label away from CBS to join StreetSounds being pressed and distributed by PRT, although the Hudsons will stay leased to CBS, his first acquisition given this new full independence of operation being Wish ‘Mr DJ’ — for which your own James Hamilton is creating a special remixed bonus third track . . . DJs Chris Brown & Mike Sefton will soon be circulating moody white labels of ‘We’re All Right Tonight‘ by Pagoda, a Greg Knowles-led splinter group from the Inversions . . . CBS release Visual in a fortnight and could be picking up Steve Shelto, this latter really now having taken off and despite my initial doubtful opinion of it, I too cracked it by mixing in the sequence David Joseph/Jazzy Dee/Jimmy Young/Steve Shelto . . . Polydor passed on C-Brand but Phonogram got it for inclusion on a future 4-track/4 artiste 12in, the C-Brand 116-115½bpm having been misprinted recently (I even used a nice new black typewriter ribbon last week but still didn’t win!) . . . Montana Orchestra is actually 123-122-123-126-124-126-124bpm, after careful consideration, and the Rah Band 97½-97-96½-96bpm — final commercial TMT copies of the Rah Band will contain other remixes either in addition or instead of those already included on Red Label copies . . . I originally thought the Nile Rodgers B-side, ‘Get Her Crazy‘, was too monotonous to be truly a dancer but now the somewhat electronic tempoed 116½bpm repetitive tribal chant jitterer is fast becoming the hot side . . . PRT have followed my suggestion and totally re-edited Disco Connection ‘Rock Your Baby’, the similarly and Belgian recorded original inspiration for Forrest ‘Rock The Boat’ — and Adrian (Bournemouth Adams) makes a back-and-forth medley of the two his current high spot of the evening . . . Island’s Bryan O’Connor has been circulating white labels of a 110½bpm cover version of ‘You Are In My System’ as by the R.P. Band — vocals (better than The System original) quite obviously by Mr R.P. himself, Robert Palmer! . . . Kinsman Dazz, now called Kinsman Dazz Band, have their classic 1979 album reissued on import US Casablanca (810 312-1 M-1) . . . Polydor’s Verve label has reissued the 1967 ‘Get It While You Can’ album by Howard Tate (Verve POLD 5096), who I saw at the Apollo in Harlem at the time when the title track and (included) ‘Look At Granny Run Run‘ were hot soul singles — he was on a bill with Peaches & Herb, The Fascinations, Robert Parker, Oscar Toney Jr, Mighty Sam, Albert King and more, July ’67 . . . Polo Records, up-dating their DJ mailing list, are looking for demo tapes from new artistes — contact their A&R office at 351 Edgware Road, London W2 (01-402 6954) . . . Theo Loyla’s recent DJ survey also revealed that 85 per cent of disco DJs use independent record shops rather than chain stores, the assumption being that as DJs buy mainly new releases they must reckon they get better service from indies (not that this really needed a survey to discover!) . . . Quincy Jones must be chuffed (and rich), his Michael Jackson LP and single are not only top of the LP and singles charts here but also in America, where they top the Black LP, Black singles and Dance/Disco charts too — a stupendous and unique grand slam — and not only that, it was the Quincy-produced Austin/Ingram duet which had been holding Michael from the top US singles slot until last week! . . . Loraine Trent’s assistant at CBS, Caroline Douratsos leaves this Friday with her husband to live on the Greek island of Syros — we’ll miss her muchly (but what a nice holiday destination, hint hint!) . . . Epping Forest Country Club surprised some at Soul On Sound’s alldayer last Sunday by not being a bigger venue, but had nice rooms for withdrawing into (some of the fellahs were even queuing in the Ladies!) — which was just as well as it was full to capacity, making the frequent PAs (by David Joseph, The Biz, Richard Jon Smith, Animal Nightlife and many more) difficult to see unless like the TV camera crew you were on the stairs . . . Manchester jocks Colin Curtis and Kev Edwards had to leave with their coach party at 9pm so the drivers were back within tachometer time, which upset all their punters . . . I celebrated my 20th anniversary as a DJ by playing one of the first records I’d used in March ’63, James Brown ‘Night Train‘, which actually got a round of applause, shortly followed by Tony Jenkins unexpectedly presenting me with a ‘Happy 20th BPMs’ birthday cake — thanks for both! . . . Soul On Sound’s next event could be in either Preston or Glasgow, incidentally . . . Chris Hill, well known Afrika Bambaataa fan, plays captain to a motley “crew” of mafioso at a Bournemouth Beach Party on Easter Monday in Boscombe’s Academy, promoted by Showstoppers (whose April Caister weekender is totally sold out) . . . Maze return for four nights at Hammersmith Odeon in May, but don’t bother trying to get tickets as amazingly they all sold out in an incredible stampede on Saturday following Robbie Vincent’s announcement of the dates on Radio London — however, Maze also play Manchester Apollo, Nottingham Rock City and Birmingham Odeon for one night each . . . ‘TCOB North Of Watford’ issue number 2 is a much better more substantial read than the first edition of Mike Shaft’s quaintly yclept fanzine . . . ‘Surface Thrills’, the less than startling new import Gordy LP by the Temptations, ought to be retitled ‘Surface Noise’! . . . Rush Release have been passing on (is that the right expression?) an hilarious new ‘Golden Circle’-type chain letter, only this one guarantees within one month to give 35 million people a dose of herpes! . . . Dave Rawlings reports the latest craze at Basingstoke Martines on Saturday nights is a hula-hoop competition, with all the local toy shops scouring the country for stocks to keep the practising punters supplied . . . West Sussex & Hants DJ Assn have an open night and equipment demonstration at Guildford’s Stoke Hall this Monday (14) at 8.15pm . . . Denise Williams stars at Watford Baileys for three nights from Thursday (10), while Viola Wills makes an exclusive London gay club appearance at Mile End Benjys on Sunday (13) . . . Terry Davis, whose monthly soul oldies show co-hosted with Clive Richardson on JFM this Sunday features a New Orleans special, has a ’60s soul ‘Function At The Junction’ on Saturday (12) at Lavender Hill’s The Cornet in Lavender Gardens (get there before 10.45pm) . . . Wigan Tiffanys has a marathon oldies alldayer/niter with a cast of thousands this Friday lunchtime right through until Saturday breakfast, while Friday evening finds yet more Northern jocks having a ‘Rare Soul Fling’ at Wolverhampton Old Vic Hotel’s Cavendish Suite, several of this mob plus others then moving on Saturday for a ‘History Of Northern Soul’ allniter at Burntwood Recreation Centre — d’ya reckon anyone will need artificial stimulation to keep going? . . . Neil Rushton tells me that the parallel ‘Modern Soul’ underground scene up north, for comparison with the south’s soul revivalists, has made a big floor-filler out of the Australian-recorded cover version of ‘I’ll Be Around‘ by Doug Parkinson . . . Pete Haigh & Steve Naylor do an ‘Urban Contemporary Dance Mix’ night on Thursdays at Standish Cassinellis near Wigan (M6 exit 27) . . . I found rather unnerving during my obviously all-mixed set at Epping Forest all the northerners clustered around the DJ booth watching my every move — hey chaps, it’s just a way of making the records flow, it’s no big deal you know . . . Joe ‘Minimix’ Field and Mike Allin have moved their jazz-soul Sundays to Hemel Hempstead’s kinky sounding Whip & Collar pub in Two Waters Road (free admission, and they get a good crowd) . . . Chris Kaye this week (12) adds Saturdays as well as Wednesdays funking the Eagles Nest at Badgers Mount in Kent (what names we’re getting this issue!) . . . Radio Horizon’s Barry Jameson now co-funks Fridays at Hackney Flappers with Mark Summers, who’s started a series of star PAs at the club on Thursdays . . . Steve Day, just engaged to Dawn Westbrook, now joins Larry ‘Daddy’ Foster on Tuesdays funking Stratford Reflections . . . Chris Bangs presents TC’s Latin/Jazz Fusion on Wednesdays at Kingston-on-Thames Jesters in Crown Passage . . . Buddy Lucas, jazz-souling Bermondsey Old Kent Road’s Dun Cow (Wed)/Green Man (Fri/Sat), says from reaction he gets, the nine-or-so months old Gene Chandler ‘I’ll Make The Living If You Make The Loving Worthwhile‘ (US Chi-Sound 12in) should be put out here . . . Lofty Lofthouse (Gateshead), amongst its many critics, says The Band AKA “at the tragic mixing point between ‘Joy’ and ‘Grace’” empties the floor . . . Simon Walsh at Bradford’s Time & Place is still hangin’ in there with the Webboes at number 2 in his chart, and this under-rated electrophonic phunker is showing further signs of life now . . . Ray Edwards (Raymondo of “sorry ‘baht that!” fame on Capital’s old ‘TV On Reggae’ show) has been replaced on Radio City’s weeknight late show by Brian Chalker, who despite his Country & Western background is reported by Cardiff listener Al Dupres to be continuing the slot’s soulful tradition . . . Capital’s Saturday evening soul show, currently presented by ‘The Baad’ Al Mathews (mmm-hmm), this week moves from 5-8pm to just 7-9pm — and it was the news of this curtailed time shift, no matter what else you may have heard, that discomfitted the show’s previous incumbent… Al’s actually calming his act down now . . . YES INDEEDY (MMM-HMM!).
HOT VINYL
PATRICK WILLIAMS: ‘Too Hip For The Room’ (LP ‘Dreams And Themes’ US PCM Records PAA-1001)
Already my favourite album of the year purely for listening, this composer/arranger/conductor’s beautiful jazz instrumental set features Tom Scott and all “the men” in subtly voiced brassy rather ’50s big band-type mood (try the lovely slow ‘Times’ for a great example), and I seem to have spent the whole weekend turning people onto it following in turn from Hertfordshire DJ Mike Allin turning me onto this particular featured track, a A fabulous sleazy good-time lurcher which takes off through 95-92-93-97/194-200-95-0bpm with a fast central section making that part ultra-specialist. The opening passage has produced squeals of delight every time I’ve chopped it out of the drum rolls that punctuate Tania Maria’s ‘Come With Me’, and then before the fast bit I chop into Chill Fac-Torr ‘Twist’. However that’s not all, as Williams composed the theme for ‘Lou Grant’ and, sho nuff, here’s the most definitive Tom Scott-played 95bpm ‘Lou’s Blues‘ that one is likely to find (as several readers have subsequently pointed out), while the multi-tempoed ‘Agave‘ is getting specialist Latin action. Give your ears a treat!
JOE SAMPLE: ‘Wings Of Fire’ (LP ‘The Hunter’ US MCA MCA-5397)
It’s a goodie! Totally independent of any fellow Crusaders, jazz pianist Joe’s self-penned instrumental set has returned one’s faith in his abilities at least, this melodic 119-120-121-120-122bpm adrenalin charger being the best dancer although the (0-)115-116-117-118-117-118bpm title track, 113bpm ‘Beauty And The Beast‘ (reminiscent of ‘Many Steps’) and (0-)91bpm ‘Night Flight’ are sure to get some attention too.
WHISPERS: ‘Keep On Lovin’ Me’ (LP ‘Love For Love’ US Solar 60216)
Worth the wait for its sheer quality as a self contained album if not so much as a dance set, their completely down tempo second side has a mellow resonance reminiscent of vintage Flamingos and is dominated by the deep soul 0-71-73bpm ‘Do They Turn You On‘, while the most impressive dancer is this classy 112bpm smooth chugger with nice little adlibs towards the end, the more laid back 0-106bpm title track also being good. The most obviously ”up” tune, on US single-issued A-side, the catchy 114bpm ‘Tonight‘ is in Britain coupled with the older 108bpm ‘Turn Me Out’ as 2-track flip to the slow Lionel Richie-influenced ‘This Time’ on 12in (Solar E 9878T). Surely that should have been the 7in plugside, but ‘Tonight’ would have made more sense alone on 12in A-side? Continue reading “March 12, 1983: Patrick Williams, Joe Sample, Whispers, C.O.D., Omni”
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