ODDS ‘N’ BODS
LAST WEEK’S ridiculous rush of strong imports, many of which must surely get lost, also included a set by the Commodores; Lionel Ritchie with one killer dancer amongst the slowies, jazz from Spyro Gyra, and the disappointing Diana Ross set (‘Muscles’ not being a dancer at all) . . . B.T. (Brenda Taylor) will be on Excaliber imminently, Virgin have picked up Ruddy Thomas & Susan Cadogan ‘Make Me Feel Good’ — was it Sharon Paige & Harold Melvin who did it first? . . . McFadden & Whitehead have signed to Capitol . . . Junior and the Warriors will be live at Caister next week, the four-dayer promising to be musically better than ever with lotsa videos and zany late nite film shows, big records tipped to be Greg Henderson, Gwen McCrae, and a moody Jap import from some months ago by Otis Clay . . . Caister-goers, don’t forget your FM radios, matches, bog paper, towels, soap, dry clothes . . . Camden Palace is bringing over Kurtis Blow and Afrika Bambaataa for a rapperama in November . . . Edgbaston Faces French’s DJ Convention will be on Sunday 7th November, this year’s theme being ‘The DJ — an entertainer or the pillock at the front with two record players?’, and the D. Jeneration Game being club DJs v mobile DJs . . . Watford Baileys Chris Britton (0494-772977) is selling a complete boxed record collection of some 1000 7in, 500 12in and 150 LPs containing all the classic dance records from the ’50s up to January 1982 and, get this, the ludicrously small offer of £400 will get ’em all . . . Holborn’s City Sounds record shop answered a request from a serviceman in the Falklands for new release info by actually taping a sample cassette of jazz-soul newies, and then were swamped with orders from half the force there! . . . City Sounds incidentally are pressurising CBS to release Billy Griffin ‘Hold Me Tighter In The Rain’, saying they’ll order 1000 copies straight off if it comes out here . . . Bournemouth Soul Centre has renamed and relocated itself as Destiny Records at Unit 108 in Old Town Market, Dear Hay Lane, Poole, selling general stuff now as well as soul imports and deletions . . . Marylebone Cinecitta jock Mark Clark launches his own Mark 1 Records shop in Wokingham this month, staying open late one night a week . . . Adrian Martin (Denbigh Bamboo/Towyn Hollie Nights) plans driving most Mondays to Manchester or London to buy imports and will give other local jocks a lift (Rhyl 0745 4672) — now there’s enterprise! . . . Ian Turner (Llandudno Speakeasy) and Al Taylor (Bodelwyddan Poppeys) combine resources to get PA’s at their respective clubs but both say the UK Players didn’t exactly create a good impression whereas the Hudsons were a joy . . . August Bank Holiday’s virtually unpublicised charity gig by IDQ, Chris Brown & Mike Sefton jazzing Ascot’s Belvedere, with £1 admission, raised £1000 (ie: 1000 punters turned up!) which was later presented to Eric Morecambe for the British Heart Foundation . . . Luther Vandross and, separately, Melba Moore were both in London last weekend . . . so now it’s ‘Linx featuring David Grant’ . . . Stacy Lattisaw’s ‘Attack Of The Name Game’ is following her ‘Don’t Throw It All Away’ up the US Black singles chart, both — and especially the kids appeal former — being better bets than the one that’s out here . . . Evelyn now tops both US Black and Dance charts. Alfie Silas is now breaking into both too (well deserved), while Steve Miller Band ‘Abracadabra’ and Yaz(oo) ‘Situation (Remix)’ are climbing the Black list (as Melba Moore’s manager says, they sound fresh and exciting to black ears) . . . 29 out of last week’s US Dance/Disco Top 80 were straight pop or “new wave dance”, rather than black or gay disco in the accepted sense, and 19 of those 29 were British . . . Tomorrow’s Edition, already cold here, are huge in US discos with ‘In The Grooves‘ . . . Ilford Room At The Top’s John Osborne, who denies looking like Nick Heywood (he says it’s the other way round!), needs a good new warm-up jock on the busiest Fri/Saturday nights — call him on 01-478 5588 after 9pm Tues-Sat . . . Room At The Top’s up-front imports night is now Wednesday, Tuesday being a free drink night (admission £4-£6 depending on membership and gender), Thursday is John’s silly party night, plus he packs Gants Hill Villa on Mondays — busy lad! . . . Steve Dennis, busy himself doing the overnight shows on BRMB in Birmingham, now makes a big feature of his ‘Midweek Madness’ Wednesday pop party night at Edgbaston Faces French, limiting himself there at the weekends to special spots on Thurs/Fri/Saturdays in both the electro Club Visage and funky Club Jardine with fun and games in both . . . Tom Wilson (Edinburgh Oscars) has had over a hundred black American sailors visiting his club every night, to his delight, pushing Zapp to the top of his chart . . . Neil Fincham (Edinburgh Mad Hatters Speakeasy), disorientated during his BADEM visit to London, staggered out of Xenon dazzled by the lighting display and then took seven hours to find his car! Bill Robertson, in seventh heaven at Bathgate’s Quincys, where the owner actually wants lots of jazz-funk, crams in 500 every Thurs/Fri/Saturday (free admission) but still isn’t on mailing lists . . . Malcolm Days, head DJ at Birmingham’s University of Aston where the student disco has £10,000 of equipment and plays to 100 a week, similarly wonders about mail-outs — pluggers call him at The Union on 021-359 6531 . . . Steven Fay, regularly sending charts from Darwen in Lancashire and presumably mobile, is playing some really classy soul these days . . . Lindsay Wesker, camera toting scribbler much in evidence at everyone else’s soul gigs, gets behind the decks himself later in the month at Mayfair’s Penthouse Club! . . . Sandy Martin (Swindon Brunel Rooms) now writes a chatty pop page in the Wiltshire distributed ‘Town & Country Magazine’, delivered monthly to Chuck & Di’s Tetbury pad amongst 30,000 others . . . Jinx Joynson, busily mobile around Merseyside, has a sound-and-look-alike called Dave Graham who plays 8 hours of “nightclub” a week on two different wavelengths (266/241 MW) . . . Greg ‘115bpm’ Wilson has pulled out of his Liverpool Rotters gig on Saturdays, the once funk orientated city now evidently no longer being able to support an up-front night . . . Les Spaine, your city needs you! . . . Rusty Egan is still undecided about a label for Cori Josias . . . BBC TV’s showing of Diana Ross in ‘Lady Sings The Blues’ evidently emptied all the gay clubs that night! . . . West End in the States have released a 30 minute ‘Master Mix Medley‘ on cassette only, packaged on a 12in sleeve . . . Adrian Dunbar (Bournemouth Adam’s — and looking for further Fri/Saturday work in the area) mixes George Benson ‘Turn Your Love Around’ with, FLB ‘Zoom’, Jim Kershaw (Sheffield), mixes Boys Town Gang ‘Disco Kicks (Remix)’ with the old Bob McGilpin ‘Superstar‘ (Ember 12in) . . . DJ Bowler does funky megamixes most nights at Southgate Pink Elephant (ex-Royalty) Dumbo’s Bar . . . Mark Summers (Hackney Flappers) joins the queue trying to find the now no longer available digital readout Technics SL 1200 Mk.1 decks . . . I myself wouldn’t mind a Revox B77 Mk.II tape deck, having really mastered the art of tape editing on the next Soul On Sound preview mix — however it’s got some tasty synch mixes too, like Peech Boys out of the very similar ‘E.T. Boogie’, Carol Williams out of Rockers Revenge (the latter being somewhat reorganised!) — tape edits though taking less time to set up . . . Streetwave’s Morgan Khan & Jolanda Lucassen gave me a lift out to Dunstable for Martin Collins’s Chiltern Radio soul show last Sunday, after which we ate of course at Watford’s Ponderosa (“unbelievable!” said Morgan), where a fire in the grill released a ton of extinguishing powder thus closing the kitchen, and then a customer passed out — but all was handled with exemplary tact, and those who’d already fed carried on with the usual free refills of drinks and salad — you’ve got to try the place . . . Gary Allan (Liverpool McMillans) reckons Jermaine’s ‘Tickle’ track is very like Peter Brown’s ‘Crank It Up’ . . . Kev Hill (Canvey Kings ) suggests that the “dance like Fred Astair” song enquired about by Steve Humphreys (Headcorn) is the ABC album’s ‘Valentine’s Day’ . . . Wham’s choreographer/dancer Dee is just as nice as Shirley . . . Streetwave’s 6-track Streetnoise 12in/LP has nothing to do with Melba Moore, despite last week’s illusion . . . I find you can’t even give away Junior’s newie . . . Graham Murray (Ormesby TeesValley Roadshow) says DJs DO IT BY REQUEST!
Situated in Mayfair surrounded by dodgy diplomats residencies, the Soul On Sound studio, where RM’s James Hamilton assembles his preview mix medleys, sometimes picks up coded radio signals on its microphone inputs when interviews are being conducted there — and this unfortunate phenomenon happened in the middle of a chat with Melba Moore last week!
UK NEWIES
THE BREAKFAST BAND: ‘Such A Feeling’ (Breakfast Music 12BM 102, via PRT).
The steel drums accented sexy jazzers start out jaggedly jittery on this self-produced 0-109-108-107bpm 12in with for the first time ex-Marley/Chosen Few vocalist Carl Lewis weaving scat lines into the rhythm before his simple group answered repetitive sinuously soulful singing gradually smooths away the exciting earlier edge. Ever gigging, the guys really know what they’re doing and have a distinctive sound of their own, which vocals can only help win a wider audience.
VARIOUS: ‘Streetnoise’ LP (Epic/Streetwave STR 32234).
Classified as an LP but marketed more like a 12in at just £2.99, this 6-tracker contains full versions of the currently hot Weeks & Co. ‘Go With The Flow‘, a flowing jittery 118bpm judderer emphatically sung with catchy chants and fierce final half, plus its calmer jazzier 118bpm instrumental version, and Hi Voltage ‘Let’s Get Horny‘, an interesting 124½bpm instrumental with several distinct sections quoting from various oldies as it builds on up, plus the LIVE Band ‘A Chance For Hope‘, a very Maze influenced good 0-111-109-110bpm jiggly jogger, The Salsoul Orchestra featuring Loleatta Holloway ‘Seconds‘, an acappella started disastrously strung out 109-112bpm Shep Pettibone remix of what was a soulful song but is in this form merely disjointed and dull, while considered by many the dark horse of the set but actually its biggest potential crossover hit (and certainly the one that I’ll now be using) is Carol Jiani ‘You’re Gonna Lose My Love‘, a simple terrific loopingly loping 123-122-121bpm ultra-soulful swinger with a lovely lilt and jazzy sax.
Sorry, we done run right out of space!
IMPORTS
WILLIE HUTCH: ‘In And Out’ (US Motown 66668-D).
Through a sensational busily snapping and tapping jittery 111-112bpm 12in rhythm texture and an intensifying blanket of synths Willie wails a great dead catchy “in and out — around” lyric line which has all the classic simplicity of another “Digging the scene with a gangster lean” sung in Bobby Womack-ish tones. What a monster!
GEORGE CLINTON: ‘Loopzilla’ (US Capitol 8538).
Starting with an indent for once mighty black New York radio station WWRL and carrying on with other call signs as they repetitively chant variations on “don’t touch that radio, don’t touch that knob, like ‘Planet Rock’ we just don’t stop we’re gonna drive you nuts!”, the Parliafunkadelicment thing drives on and on in a brain numbing and feet moving booming 114bpm 12in funk smack groove, incorporating bits from ‘Dancing in The Street/I Can’t Help Myself/One Nation Under A Groove/More Bounce To The Ounce/Baby Love’ and many more. Absolute dynamite!
BOOTSY’S RUBBER BAND: ‘Body Slam!’ (US Warner Bros 0-29919).
Obviously designed to work with George Clinton though more varied and less dense in sound, this also dynamite 115bpm 12in P’funk jittery smacker has great jazzy piano nagging through Bootsy Collins bass. You can’t get one without the other! Continue reading “October 9, 1982: The Breakfast Band, Streetnoise, Willie Hutch, George Clinton, Bootsy’s Rubber Band”
James Hamilton's Disco Page 
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