Disco News
Curtis Mayfield ‘No Goodbyes’ will – amazingly – NOT be out here in any form, despite it being his best disco dancer since 1971’s ‘Move On Up’, so you’ve gotta get it on import! . . . Sweet Thunder’s 12in remix will be issued here at last, but – wait for it – on unlimited 33 1/3 rpm 7in, as the 12in (i.e. LP) presses are all tied up with Xmas album product! . . . Brothers Johnson ‘Ride-O-Rocket’ will be on Funk A&Merica soon, with ‘Rocket Countdown’ as a bonus extra on the 12in version only – and Atlantic Starr ‘Stand Up’ will be on extended US remix form on Funk A&Merica too . . . Quint ‘9 To 5’ is also on 12in (RCA PC 5114) . . . Rus Phillips offers a half-price import LP to any DJ spending £25 at his disco department (open Friday evening & all day Saturday) at ‘Ere For Music in Manor Park Broadway – he also needs Passport and Slave on 12in, so any swapsies? . . . Heatwave ‘Always And Forever’ / ‘Ain’t No Half Steppin’’ will be on 20,000 12in and Stanley Turrentine on 10,000 12in, both within a fortnight! . . . London’s LODJ Assn meets this Sunday (8) at 4pm in Three Wheatsheaves, 52 Upper Street, Angel . . . East Anglia DJ Assn, with 80 members from Norfolk/Suffolk/Cambridge, plans to expand, so contact Chris Archer on Norfolk 860241 if interested . . . in answer to persistent doubters, Mick Jackson wrote and originated ‘Blame It On The Boogie’, NOT The Jacksons . . . United Artists’ new policy switch away from disco product means that Ian Levine stops his UA mailouts but is currently compiling a US-style segued LP that mixes imports and oldies . . . Frenchies’ Palm Beach restaurant in Worcester Park turns up the funk-jazz volume control and has star PA’s every Saturday from 11am until early next morning, making it what they call the only all-dayer in a restaurant! The Frenchies beach party is again on Christmas Day at Camberley’s Cambridge Hotel, and in fact all hotel accommodation has already been booked by funksters from Bournemouth and Tottenham . . . Dublin’s gay Le Spank club is in the process of moving premises.
New Spins
Tough new deadlines (or actually the old ones kept to!) have not left me enough time to listen to any records for the last two weeks, for which many apologies.
Anyway, these are the most significant of the new disco releases:
SYLVESTER: ‘Step II’ LP (Fantasy FT 549), with full 6:39 ‘You Make Me Feel’ and 5:54 ‘Dance (Disco Heat)’; JOE THOMAS: ‘Plato’s Retreat’ (TK TKR 6049) (BNDA debut 8/12/78) on 4:46 7in only; TEDDY PENDREGRASS: ‘Only You’ (Philadelphia Int’l PIR 6713) on 7:58 remix 12in; OLYMPIC RUNNERS: ‘Get It While You Can’ (Polydor RUN 012) on longer 12in; ROY AYERS: ‘Get On Up, Get On Down’ (Polydor AYERS 12) finally out; ASHFORD & SIMPSON: ‘It Seems To Hang On’ (Warner Bros. K 17237) on 3:40 7in; GAP MANGIONE: ‘Time Of The Season’ / ‘Mellow Out’ (Funk A&Merica AMSP 7377) on 12in but minus ‘Sister Jo’; CAROL DOUGLAS: ‘Burnin’’ (Midsong BURN 12) (BNDA debut 9/9/78) on longer 12in; BONEY M.: ‘Rasputin’ (Atlantic K 11192) on 4:39 7in and 7:33 remix 12in; DONNA SUMMER: ‘MacArthur Park’ (Casablanca CAN 131) (BNDA debut 9/23/78); SUPREMES: ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ (Motown TMG 925); FOUR TOPS: ‘I Can’t Help Myself’ / ‘It’s The Same Old Song’ (Motown TMG 1120); SWITCH: ‘Switch’ LP (Motown STML 12096) with ‘We Like To Party . . . Come On’ and good slowies; AFRO-CUBAN BAND: ‘Rhythm Of Life’ (Arista ARIST 214) (BNDA debut 9/2/78) on 3:24 7in; LAURIN RINDER & W. MICHAEL LEWIS: ‘Envy (Animal Fire)’ / ‘Lust’ (Pye 7NL 25779) (BNDA debut 4/8/78) on 12in at 9:54 and 7:09; J.A.L.N. BAND: ‘Universal Love’ (Magnet MAG 131); MARSHA HUNT: ‘The Other Side Of Midnight’ (Magnet 12MAG 130) (BNDA debut 1/14/78) on 4:00 7in or 4:47 12in; QUINCY JONES: ‘Love I Never Had It So Good’ / ‘I Heard That’ / ‘Body Heat’ (Funk A&Merica AMSP 7385) on 7in and 12in with 3:20 or 5:14 A-side.