ODDS ‘N’ BODS
IMAGINATION, after doing backing vocals for Kelly Marie’s Crusaders- produced track, hint they weren’t exactly impressed despite the Crusaders’ twenty years of musical experience — “the guys are fantastic but they need to utilize what’s happening now, though we did learn a lot from them,” hastily adds Leee . . . Leee also says, “I can’t wait to get a flop, then we’ll know who the real people are in the music business” . . . Italy meanwhile has Imagination’s ‘Just An Illusion’ at 4 and ‘Body Talk’ at 10 in the chart, Belgium has ‘Music And Lights’ at 12, and in Canada ‘Just An Illusion’ has sold enough to go “double gold” . . . Dartford’s futuristically revamped Flicks reopens next week with a preview night party on Thursday (19) and a fireman’s fancy dress ball on Friday (20), when Chris Hill joins Colin Hood, and already the enquiries have been so heavy that the club has had to install an answerphone to handle reopening details on Dartford 25520 . . . Canvey’s Goldmine, on the first week of its tenth anniversary celebrations, had kids queueing outside at 10 in the morning last Saturday! . . . Orin Cozier is now deservedly the Streetwave label’s full time national radio plugger and artist liaison manager, Morgan Khan meanwhile is now hyping himself up on new singings, the Hudson Brothers . . . Howard Johnson ‘So Fine‘, which hasn’t stopped climbing since the news got about it wouldn’t be on UK release, will be out here after all, but as flip to ‘Keepin’ Love New’ (now watch the hipper than hip drop it fast!), spearheading the relaunch next week A&M’s Funk A&Merica series along with Magic Lady ‘Sexy Body’ / ‘Get Off’ (wot not ‘Give It Up’?), Jeffrey Osborne ‘Eenie Meenie’ / ‘You Were Made To Love’, Atlantic Starr ‘Love Me Down’ / ‘You’re The One’ . . . Britain’s first video pool, A. B. SEE provides a monthly one hour compilation of current hot promotional videos at £50 + VAT per month, initially sending two tapes so that the older one can be replaced after the first month thus leaving you always with two to rotate, and the service is already much used by London Clubs (I can vouch for the videos at Le Beat Route) although A. B. SEE’s Roz Bea would like to hear from more provincial clubs with video facilities — contact her at Albion Leisure Services, 147 Oxford Street, London W1 (01-734 9072) . . . Peter Powell’s Steppin’ Out soul show on Radio One (Mondays 6.10pm) would surely be of most benefit if it left all the brand new pre-release exclusives to the local radio specialist shows, which have more time available, and instead concentrated its 50 minutes on consolidating those soul disco hits which, with just a little bit more national airplay, could possibly cross over into the pop chart . . . Industry sources estimate that 5000 sales are needed to break even on a disco hit, many not getting anywhere near that despite apparent chart popularity, while with luck an average disco chart topper which also hits the bottom end of the pop chart can possibly sell around 30,000 after a lot of hard graft . . . Froggy’s Steppin’ Out mixes really should be more ambitious and busier — its no fun waiting right through a record just to hear one segue, especially now that young Alan Coulthard on Radio Luxembourg zaps you with something incredible every few seconds on his megamix masterworks (provided radio reception lets you hear it) . . . Martin Collins Soul Seekin’ show on Chiltern Radio (c.792 MW) every Sunday 3-6pm can be picked up in London, and I’m glad to hear he’s more than lived up to his earlier praised potential . . . Jeff Young is sitting in for Robbie Vincent on Radio London’s Saturday lunchtime soul show for the next few weeks . . . Capital’s recently absent reggae jock David Rodigan has grown a muff around his mouth, to go with the second star lead role he’s been off filming in Greenland for BBC TV’s ‘Shackleton’ series, due on our screens next spring . . . Tony Jenkins Soul On Sound cassette magazine got off to a great start, shops already reporting that my preview mix medley has brought people back in to buy records featured — remember, I can’t use more than a short excerpt (to comply with copyright laws) and so will never be able to do an ideal mix by waiting for all the optimum mix points, but I think you’ll find this week’s edition is even neater . . . Ambiance drummer Mike Parkinson stuck it out giving helpful nods while Tony Jenkins dozed off during the marathon all night session it took to end up with the new medley! . . . Technics digital readout adjustments to achieve the Rockers Revenge/Sharon Redd ‘Beat The Street’/Bobby “O” mix (during which I’m still not sure what bits belong to what records!) are +2.1/0.0/–3.7 . . . Bobby “O” (for Orlando) produced the Flirts ‘Passion‘ gay synth hit, a c.120bpm 12in remix of which is now on Canadian Unidisc (UNI-1086) . . . Graham Gold moves downstairs on Friday nights at Mayfair’s Gullivers in Down Street, leaving me to funk the whole night upstairs on my own (no hardship in itself!) . . . Wham’s glamorous platinum blonde dancer Shirlie Holliman gets nothing from gigs and so earns her keep, not working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, but as one of the remarkably friendly girls at Watford’s Ponderosa — the UK’s first truly authentic American restaurant which is so good I’ve travelled there from London twice in four days to gorge on dirt cheap steak with shrimp, unlimited help yourself salad, unlimited soft drink refills, unlimited um-yum! . . . Harringay Bolts national gay disco dancing championship was won by 20 year old masseur David Beard . . . Ian Levine (Charing Cross Heaven) has Sharon Redd ‘In The Name Of Love‘ at the top of the gay venue’s chart and reminds me that Stephanie Mills ‘I Can’t Give Back The Love I Feel For You‘ was of course originally Syreeta’s debut single when called Rita Wright . . . CBS conned a lot of jocks by disguising the Goombay Dance Band as the GD Band on white label 12in promos of ‘Rain’ . . . Marvin Howell’s ERC label (hot with the Boys Town Gang, whose ‘Signed Sealed And Delivered‘ revival will be the next single pulled off their September-issued LP) is now clarified as being the outlet for product licensed from the US, with acts going on Marvin’s Project label System being phased out (Pino D’Angio possibly being transferred to ERC later in the summer) . . . Adrian reports from Bournemouth’s gay Adams Disco in the Maison Royale complex that Carol Jiani ‘Hit ‘N Run Lover’ megamix is still Bournemouth’s biggest hit, the Fri/Sat/Sun/Tuesday club being busiest on the cabaret Tuesday nights . . . Tony St Michael’s nights at Islington’s Hemingford Arms pub have changed from funk to gay, Sundays for women, Mondays for men . . . Tony de Vit compiles a gay disco chart at Birmingham’s Nightingale Club which he then features on his Beacon Radio show, without identifying the fact that it’s gay, and supplies to listeners by post . . . Paul Parker ‘Right On Target‘ (US Megatone 12in) is top of the US Dance/Disco chart, although Ian Levine prefers the ‘Pushin’ Too Hard‘ flip . . . Laura Branigan ‘Gloria’ is now on UK 12in (Atlantic K 11759T) . . . Gibbo is playing so much material normally associated only with gay discos that I had difficulty in stopping our chart compiler Alan Jones from classifying Edgbaston Faces French Club Jardine as gay! . . . Tricky Dicky Richard Scanes in his Disco Music shop at 391C Mile End Road, London E3, offers UK 12in at £1.90 and US 12in at £3.50 to our gay chart readers, the same discount as for DJs, adding “If you’re gay and a DJ you get an extra special kiss!” . . . yeuchh! . . . Eddie Murphy, whose ‘Boogie In Your Butt‘ was intended as a disco parody but is in fact one of the best funk cuts this year, is a sort of American equivalent to Lenny Henry on TV there . . . Keni Burke, selling well on UK 12in, appears to have been around too long for jocks to stick with him . . . I don’t understand the evident rush to buy Glass — the girls are out of tune, dammit! — nor the surprisingly short lived peak reached by the incredibly good Redd Hott ‘Ecstasy‘ . . . A&M in America have started an AyM label series for strictly Latin music (of the ethnic Mexican/South American variety) . . . Gunch appears probably to be some new illegally ingested substance . . . Al Green is taking time off from his Memphis church to play the type-cast role of a minister alongside Patti LaBelle on Broadway in a new adaptation of the gospel musical ‘Your Arm’s Too Short To Box With God’, set for an eight week run starting in a month at the Alvin Theatre . . . Teddy P, many doctors agree, may never walk again — so I’m sorry about last week’s comment, based on earlier more optimistic reports — although he is already in other respects more mobile than the even more unfortunate Johnnie Wilder . . . Nigel Halkes (Portishead) reminds us that the flip of Shalamar’s ‘Make That Move’ was ‘The Pop Along Kid‘, all about body popping . . . Teesside jocks Cleveland Area DJ Association is now affiliated with the DJF, details from Graham Murray, 7 Crossbeck Way, Ormesby, Middlesbrough, Cleveland . . . Theo Loyla has returned to Mecca after 12 years, joining Dave Munday on Saturday’s at Guildford’s Cinderella Rockerfellas . . . Suzie Halls, remembered by many DJs as Fred Dove’s assistant a while back, now works just along the road from me in Willesden at Jive . . . Brian ‘Bazzer’ Mason jocks Mon/Tues/Wednesday upstairs at Southgate’s Pink Elephant (ex-Royalty) . . . Dion Schoun of Copenhagen’s Tattersall (Tatters Disco) recommends the Ding Dong record shop at Silkegade 3, behind the Illum warehouse, in Copenhagen as a hot source of imported US and UK material . . . Kev James is now permanently based in Denmark (this month at Skagen’s Disco Admiralen), where he says Rick James is king and Falco’s original ‘Der Kommisar‘ is classed as funk . . . Mark Clark (Bracknell) on a recent return to Rotterdam spent a weekend coaching Blue Feather to speaka de English, so now you know who to blame if you encounter them here . . . Rob Harknett (Roydon 027979 2329) had an expensive narrow escape (literally) from Czechoslovakia after his young son came out with measles (silly taking him there really), Rob only managing one gig behind the Iron Curtain but at least he was greeted by the crowd like a superstar — now he needs a copy of the 24.4.82 Record Mirror as the copy he sent his Czech chum was lost . . . Tom Wilson (Edinburgh) writes from Salou near Tarragona that Kasso ‘Kasso‘ seems big in Spain . . . Nick Ratcliffe (Winkfield) says the taverns in Corfu all wind up with a selection of terrible Eurodisco, the ‘Stars On 45’ singles and ‘Disco Bouzouki’, but it’s all good fun (apart from the other bloody foreigners)! . . . Mark Summers, resident at Hackney’s recently opened luxurious 1920s-styled Flappers in Temple Mills Lane, regularly gets visited by local tribe the Hymen Bursters! . . . Donna Summer’s recording sessions with Quincy Jones were more of a strain than originally anticipated, according to a good report in the LA Times, Donna being preoccupied by her unexpected pregnancy — and did you spot it on TV, but because of this her current video makes extensive use of a slimline cardboard cutout of her! . . . Mike Page (Shifnal Nell Gwynn), who’s always being told he’s too expensive, asks on behalf of himself and several other local jocks, who the hell is Trevor Hughes? (OK guys, meet at noon on main street) . . . Frenchie’s sweat dripped onto his close talk mike while he was fiddling with the badly earthed lighting controller the other Wednesday at Kirkham Charlie Max’s and — ZAPP! – instant hair straightener . . . Chris Cole (Cranleigh Cranley Hotel), please note that although provincial reaction comes via the mail, London’s contribution to the Disco 90 includes bang up to date verbal reports . . . Eddy James (Walthamstow Royal Standard) reckons BPM should now become CPM, for Claps Per Minute . . . WEA’s Fred Dove opines “There are too many DJs asking for free records because they can’t afford to buy them, not because they want to promote them” (think about it, there’s a subtle difference!) . . . Alfred McCrarys says “Absolutely!” . . . Delbert says “KEEP IT CRUCIAL!”
UK NEWIES
ROCKERS REVENGE featuring DONNIE CALVIN: ‘Walking On Sunshine ’82’ (London LONX 11).
Along with “D” Train’s ‘You’re The One For Me’, likely in retrospect to be 1982’s most influential disco record, this brilliant 115bpm 4-track 12in restructuring of the Eddy Grant song is already deservedly the hottest sound in the nation and an absolute delight for mixers. Try overdubbing its own acappella version (get two copies!). Aretha Franklin’s acappella intro, the US ‘Keep On’ B-side’s acappella intro, the Peech Boys acappella 7in, or synch for sensational effect as much of Sharon Redd’s ‘Beat The Street’ as you can manage. If you’re one of the few who haven’t yet heard it, look out for all the sneaky bits nicked from “D” Train and others. It’s a hit-bound cross fertilisation of culture, owing as much to the Human League as to funk. What a blast!
AFRIKA BAMBAATAA & THE SOUL SONIC FORCE: ‘Planet Rock’ (21 Records POPX 497, via Polydor).
People either love or loathe this blatant pinch of Kraftwerk’s ‘Trans Europe Express’ speeded up on 126bpm 12in as either an instrumental flip (big for many) or with a freaky US smash rap as the main side. Either way it’s big and getting bigger all the time, with lots of pop appeal.
GALAXY: ‘Head Over Heels’ (Ensign ENYT 229, via RCA).
Not widely available just yet but already eagerly sought on red label promo following weeks of teasing radio play by Robbie Vincent, this Phil (Kandidate) Fearon-penned/sung Quincy Jones-ish slick creamy 117bpm 12in roller was produced by the currently hot Pete Wingfield, whose own gorgeous piano playing on the jazzier instrumental flip is making that the most danced to side, although both develop beautifully as they flow along. Continue reading “August 14, 1982: Rockers Revenge, Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force, Galaxy, Wanda, Jay W. McGee”
James Hamilton's Disco Page 