A tribute to my dad...

Without being too mawkish or too personal I wanted to mark to passing of my father on 15th July. At times like these you tend to recall many things and one of them was how my dad used to bring music back for me on his way home from work in London (probably stopping at London Bridge). The first example I remembered was a cassette of The Beat LP "I Just can't Stop It". The thing was my dad wasn't into my music and probably didn't understand why I was a Mod back in '79 / '80 (especially when you consider the aggro you got being a young mod those days...). He wanted to be sure I liked it and / or didn't already have it (the answer to that one was yes and no - cheers dad!).

Anyway, it then struck me that actually I think it was him who stopped off on the way home to buy me "So Far Away" by The Chords on its day of release in May 1980, complete with limited edition 7" single "Now It's Gone" / "Things We Said" and I recall playing it three or four times that night. Do you recall the thrill of getting that sought after record all those years ago when buying vinyl was still a real buzz and relative rarity? The Chords were my fave band of the time and they still have the ability to fire me up as I replay the album now as I write this. He would have stopped off at Sydenham station and gone down to Treble Clef on Sydenham High Rd (long since closed I think) before walking back home with a precious package. I'm sure he couldn't understand what the fuss was about, particularly as I practised drumming to the whole LP very loud on a makeshift kit of boxes before I got my kit a few years later. I wonder what the landlord upstairs thought...?

If you don't know The Chords from the '79 revival then I urge you to check them out. Try this site (not updated for a while mind) or buy the retrospective anthology from Amazon :



I could go on about the album, but it has some great critiques of suburbia, railings against the rise of fascism plus a decent cover of "She Said, She Said". All time fave Chords track? Got to be "Maybe Tomorrow" as the first single of theirs I bought and then off the LP maybe "Happy Families" and "So far Away"

Maximum R&B - at The Marquee...

News just in echoing the classic Who gigs and images of 4D Jones playing The Marquee in Norwich (Cattle Market Street) on Thursday 17th July. As well as the usual Muddy Waters, Slim Harpo, John Lee Hooker style of top quality rhythm and blues I'm told they've also added some Pretty Things and similar. Support comes from the Ida Mae Band who, I'm told, play in a British Blues Yardbirds / Peter Green vein

Sounds like a winner to me...

As the poster says, "Turned out nice again"

After all these years...

...you can still spot something which has been staring you in the face.

At our July do Steve and I were double-decking and I was wondering what to play after "You Really Got Me". I'd lined up "Bert's Apple Crumble" but decided instead to go for Julian Covey "A Little Bit Hurt". Having played both those tunes for years it sudenly dawned on me that the beat and tempo of the Kinks and Julian Covey were basically identical. Obvious now so why has it taken me the best part of 25 years to spot it?

Now, how about Mod Mega-mix 06 anyone? Get those mixers out and start blending...

Napster Downloads

For those of you wanting legal and virus-free downloads then Napster has a lot going for it. I've been able to find some nice stuff on there of late and throw the following in as a few of the tunes I've not only downloaded, but also purchased:

• I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free - Nina Simone - the tune was perhaps well known as the theme tune for Barry Norman's "Film xx" series on the BBC many moons ago by Billy Taylor on Blue Note
• Take Five - Carmen McRae - the vocal version of the Dave Brubeck classic
• Baby Help Me - Percy Sledge - seen this for 15 quid on the web - just above mid tempo mid-sixties chugger
• That's A Good Idea - Otis Redding - another suggestion I picked up on in "On The Scene" magazine
• This Is Northern Soul Vol 1 and 2 - some great Motown Northern-related tunes on this LP - including Brenda Holloway "Think It Over", Marvin Gaye "This Love Starved Heart", Eddie Holland "Just Ain't Enough Love" and the sublime Virgil Henry "You Ain't Sayin' Nothin'" - sheer class of a mid tempo shuffler
• High Numbers - Leaving Here - the 'orrible 'Oo in their early incarnation doing the great Eddie Holland (and Birds) track
• Aretha Franklin - Walk On By - great tune done by a great artist...
• Money - John Lee Hooker - so far THE version I've come across - Mr Hooker in his prime with a rough and ready version (also on the same "Serve You Right To Suffer" LP comes "Shake It Baby"

I offer these as few items to have a look for and browse what else is available - you may just be surprised...

RnB Meets Northern Soul...

RnB Meets Northern Soul…

A couple of weeks ago I treated myself to three CDs on the Goldmine label, namely “RnB Meets Northern Soul” volumes 1 and 2 plus ChiTown Boogaloo. I spent a day travelling to and from Leicester, during which time I managed to work my way through each CD at least twice. Now they’re all pretty good in their own way, but Volume 1 of “RnB Meets Northern Soul” really hits the spot.

It kicks off with a tale of hard luck and being down on your uppers – Willie Jones’ “Where’s My Money”. This has a fairly typical blues storyline with some soulful vocals over a solid RnB based track. A few tracks in and there’s a Billy Preston track I’d not heard of before “Volcano”. I got this a couple of days after reading of his death so this was topical. Based around a “Fever-esque” beat the production sounds like it’s been recorded in someone’s bathroom – sparse and a bit messy. Tambourine, sax, drums – they all compete for attention.

Other standout tracks include the classic Willie Mabon “Got To Have Some”, Jimmy Ricks “Oh What A Feeling” (this could be classic Big City Soul – with a voice sucking on hot gravel – deep and then some to coin a phrase), Little Sonny vocal and harp workout “We Got A Groove”, Pearl Woods’ classic “Sipping Sorrow” and Buddy Ace on the soulful side “True Love Money Can’t Buy”.

I’d recommend this for anyone who likes the bluesy side of soul and, arguably, the type of tune which bridged the gap between blues / RnB and soul. This isn’t Northern Soul in it’s usually understood manner. It’s too slow in parts, in some ways too soulful compared to the more uptempo dance-oriented tracks and maybe a bit too early. However if you like RnB and early soul this is a goodie.

From volume 2 I’d recommend “Honey Child” by Johnny Williams. I’d only heard the great Bobby Bland version and this is not dissimilar – a great dance tune with a staccato off beat. The next track on the CD is a nice version of the jazz standard “Summertime” by Cornerstone Trio. Before hearing this, my favourite version was the Billy Stewart vocal performance – this has jumped ahead of that. Forget any version you’ve probably heard before. This sounds very different. “Don’t Let Him In” by George Lee is reminiscent of various “Do The Hully Gully” type of tunes and tells the tale of keeping a dancer out of the room to stop the stealing the show at a dance…Finally “Hanky Panky” by the Captions feels a bit like Hestor / Wylie Detroit tunes – probably because of the title! Slowed down and rhythmic.

Off these three CDs if I had to choose one it would be Volume of “RnB Meets Northern Soul” – but there are tunes on there for many tastes who like their bluesy soul

Desmond Dekker RIP 26th May 2006

In case you haven't heard, one of the true greats of reggae / rock steady died recently. Full BBC story here. Desmond's own site here. The latter hasn't yet been updated but serves as a reminder of what the man contributed...

James Hunter - Contemporary British Blues

Whist listening to Paul Jones' RnB set on Radio 2 last week I heard "Riot In My Heart" by James Hunter from his "People Gonna Talk" CD. I'd not heard this before and it sounded similar to Georgie Fame circa 1966 to my ears. Digging back it appears Mr Hunter was also aka "Howling Wilf" and hails from Colchester. He's worked, according to his website, with Van Morrison and Doris Troy, amongst others. Not bad recommendations to my mind.

I've not heard the rest of the CD, but reviews appear to put it in the 1960s RnB vein along with a mix of big band and ska - may be worth a look. Feel free to come back and post comments if you've heard or bought this and let us know what you think.

Atlantic R&B CDs

Whilst having a little browse in a local branch of a well-known chain I came across a CD entitled Atlantic R&B Volume 2. I thought I'd check out the series on Amazon and you can see the results from this to Atlantic R&B . Running from 1947 through to the mid-70s this series contains a high number of classics you probably already own. However at the time of writing they were coming in at £3-33 each, which seems fine value to me - plus free delivery on all UK orders over £15. The first volume include Willis Jackson "Gator's Groove". If I remember correctly this artist also recorded "Later for Gator" (or similar) which I think was one of the early jump blues played at Jamaican sound systems which then formed the basis of Ska. I stand to be corrected on this latter point...

Anyway, have a look at this series and you'll also find other recommendations along a similar vein from other Amazonians - enjoy

Funky 16 Corners Blog

Whilst browsing for Johnny Otis "Watts Breakaway" (I can't find my Epic seven) I came across this blog. I've not had a chance to look properly but it seems this guy posts up details of his soul and funk singles and biogs about the artists. I just listened to his link to Dean Cortney "Rubber Neckin'" (not the Elvis tune...) and that is seriously down home southern funk and on Verve - nice

As a complete aside I had the media player on random and was listening to Mongo Santamaria doing a nice boogaloo / latin version of Booker T's "Hip Hug Her", which I picked up on Latin Dance Party Vol 2:

Mod Culture Blog

A fairly new addition to perhaps the ultimate UK / European mod and 60s web site is the modculture blog. Regularly updated including a selection of relevant TV and radio shows each week

Grasp! - new single

Those popular and widely gigging power popstars Grasp! have a new single out on 1st May entitled "Breaking Down The Walls". It can be pre-ordered online, which may help them break top 75 in the charts and push them further up the indie charts...give them a look

Have Love Will Travel

For those of you interested in "ad watching" you'll no doubt have heard over the last several months (or is it years) the Land Rover advert with The Sonics "Have Love Will Travel". Over the last couple of club nights Steve has been dropping the version by The Gallahads - a nice soulful and surprisingly hard edged doo wop / RnB version. For a couple of hundred quid you could try here

For a few quid less check out the CD from Amazon.

It was also done (originally?) by Richard Berry and the Pharoahs - the man behind "Louie Louie". More info on Wiki. Also available from Amazon.

A site I stumbled across whilst looking for The Gallahads was a US doo wop site which could probably fill in the gaps.

Happy listening

Who we are..

Just realised I didn't say who we are, which is sort of dumb. Though you can check the main web site...

Starting in November 1994 we hold a club nights every two months playing mainly 60s mod-orientated music to a mixed crowd of people. We're at The Waterfront in Norwich

Spam Avoidance (?)

Whilst playing around with the look and feel of the site (bear with me) I wanted to put an email link in the links section (kinda makes sense). However like most of you I'm fed up with spam and the "bots" which harvest email addresses from web sites. So I'm trying this little site to see if it encodes my address so the link works when clicked, but can't be picked up by programmes trawling the web for likely looking email addresses. Check it out if you post / publish online.

Hope this is of use

Future Dates

Next Dates:

Saturday 6th May 2006

Saturday 1st July 2006

Go to our web site for details