MARCH PLAYLIST

1.  Don Patterson with Booker Ervin – ‘Donald Duck’ (1964)

Organists like Don Patterson weren’t universally welcomed in jazz when they started cropping up, in fact there was open hostility, even from reviewers like Walter Catt who, when tasked with writing the sleevenotes for Hip Cake Walk, “put the record on my phonograph to brave what I thought would be an unpleasant experience.” Crazy fool.

2.  The 3 Sounds – ‘Yeh Yeh’ (1966)

From the Blue Note LP, Vibrations, comes this swinging piano/bass/drums version of the ol’ chestnut.

3.  Charlotte Leslie – ‘Les Filles C’est Fait Pour Faire L’Amour’ (1966)

Charlotte takes the Capitols ‘We Got A Thing That’s In The Groove’/‘Cool Jerk’ and dresses it in modish fuzz and French flair.

4.  The Producers – ‘Love Is Amazing’ (1968)

A Gamble-Huff production out of the Philly and typically sleek. Wonderful mix of male and female leads, harmonies by a group of angels, and horns and strings sent from heaven.

5.  Earth, Wind and Fire – ‘Help Somebody’ (1971)

“Reach out your hand and help somebody”. Oh yeah baby, let’s groove tonight. The eponymous debut LP by Earth, Wind and Fire is packed with strutting street funk.

6.  Major Lance – ‘Ain’t No Sweat’ (1972)

Released on Volt, and written by Major’s old buddy Curtis Mayfield, ‘Ain’t No Sweat’ is a mini-under-the-radar masterpiece that’s been overshadowed by ‘Since I Lost My Baby’s Love’ on the flip. Dig that violin!

7.  Katie Love – ‘How Can You Mistreat The One You Love’ (1972)

Even to this day not much is known about Katie Love other than she cut this Hayes-Porter song for Stax down in Muscle Shoals. Curiously has the feel for Stax’s old rivals Holland-Dozier-Holland and the stuff coming out of their Invictus stable.

8.  Neil Young – ‘Hitchhiker’ (1976)

There are many Neil Youngs but the best is Neil Young with an acoustic guitar, bag of Californian grass, bit of coke, sat under a full moon, playing songs. That’s what he did to record The Hitchhiker on 11 August 1976. The collection yielded future classics ‘Pocahontas’, ‘Powderfinger’, ‘Ride My Llama’ and more but the record company weren’t impressed with what they saw as an album of demos so it sat unreleased until 2017. It is, of course, brilliant.

9.  Go-Kart Mozart – ‘We’re Selfish and Lazy and Greedy’ (1999)

The Lexington in London was treated to the rare sight of Go-Kart Mozart last Saturday and what a fabulous gig it was. A brisk 40-minute set mostly featured tracks from new Mozart’s Mini-Mart where songs about depression, poverty, executions on the telly, Brummie prophets, knickers on the line and Crokadile Rokstarz, played in a plinky-plonky manner, took centre stage: modern life seen through Lawrence’s eyes and Lawrence’s eyes don’t miss much. If a group of young uns from wherever-is-hip-this-month were making these records they’d be courted across the land. ‘We’re Selfish…’ was one of the few old tracks Lawrence delved back into his trolley for.

10.  The Traffic – ‘Smack My Pitch Up’ (2016)

On the Australian label, Choi Records, comes two blasting funky reworkings of classics given a fresh makeover. Grandmaster Flash’s ‘White Lines’ on one side, and the Prodigy torn a new one on the other.

FEBRUARY PLAYLIST

1.  Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band – ‘You Know You’ll Cry’ (1965)

The self-penned B-side to second single ‘Please Stay’ and one indebted to the rolling New Orleans sound of Allen Toussaint/Lee Dorsey.

2.  The Delicates – ‘Shop Shovin’ Me Around’ (1966)

Challenge Records were set-up by the singing cowboy, Gene Autry. Gene had moseyed outta town by the time the Delicates cut this Motown soundalike, arranged by the phenomenally prolific and successful Gene Page.

3. Gela – ‘Pinta Mi Mundo’ (1967)

Swinging Spanish version of Pet Clark’s ‘Colour My World’.

4.  The Kindly Shepherds – ‘Lend Me Your Hand’ (1967)

Who you gonna call? No, not them, Jesus of course. Released on Checker this is happy-clappy gospel magic.

5.  Grant Green – ‘Iron City’ (1967)

It’s Green on guitar, Ben Dixon on drums and, according to the sleeve, Big John Patton on organ although there are plenty who swear it’s Larry Young. Listening closely, they may be right. Either way, this is supreme soul-jazz.

6.  The Impressions – ‘Stop The War’ (1972)

Curtis Mayfield had made way in the Impressions for Leroy Hutson to take over the lead role but still provided the songs and production to Times Have Changed. If Curtis hadn’t been cutting Superfly he would surely have been tempted to keep this for himself.

7.  Candy Opera – ‘Fever Pitch’ (1989)

Their recordings failed to see the light of day back in the mid-80s, only this month released this month as 45 Revolutions Per Minute, but what a revelation Candy Opera are. Although recorded at different stages the sixteen songs from this overlooked Liverpool band hang together as a superb, essential album. Fantastic all the way through, love it. Fans of Aztec Camera, in particular, take note.

8.  Men of North Country – ‘They Don’t Know’ (2016)

"We got some magic beans and we're rounding up the team". A joyous tribute to the secret underground topsy-turvy world of northern soul.

9.  Cabbage – ‘Arms of Pleonexia’ (2018)

Lyrically, musically and politically one of the most stirring bands around now, their 100 Club gig further cemented their reputation as an exciting proposition. The dark vibrating rattle and chant of ‘Arms of Pleonexia’ offers a taste of what’s to come from their first proper album, Nihilistic Glamour Shots, in March. Dictionary at the ready.

10.  Go-Kart Mozart – ‘When You’re Depressed’ (2018)

As gratifying as it is to see the Felt albums from the 80s reissued, don’t let that distract from Lawrence’s new Go-Kart Mozart album, Mozart Mini-Mart. Like music made for 1980s work training videos, here Lawrence deals with depression.

LAWRENCE OF BELGRAVIA (2012)

“I could be the first pop star pensioner. I’d be happy with that.”

Lawrence’s dream to be rich and famous, to live in a celebrity bubble, remains undiminished with time. Forming Felt at the dawn of 1980, he immediately assumed the status of a star in waiting – no surname necessary – and gallantly swished through the decade, convinced of his genius, releasing ten albums and ten singles before, with immaculate precision, closing the chapter as 1990 approached. Despite occasionally flirting with minor success – ‘Primitive Painters’ topping the independent charts in ’85 and providing Creation with a pop (near) masterpiece in Forever Breathes The Lonely World – their ten year mission to create “an underground/overground thing” was ultimately a commercial disaster.

Going full tilt at what Lawrence imagined would lead to mainstream success with Denim – the 90s viewed through the prism of his 70s childhood – began with being briefly touted as a flagbearer for an emerging Britpop but soon he was passed over once again and would be signing on rather than signing autographs for hysterical fans. After a period of freefall, he’s since settled on more modest ambitions as Go-Kart Mozart, something he describes as “the world’s first b-side band”.

Paul Kelly’s Lawrence of Belgravia, finally released on DVD by Heavenly Films, is a character study of one of music’s nearly-men (if music is judged by fame, and it is here) and plays more as a Channel 4 documentary than a BBC4 music biography. There are no talking heads espousing Lawrence’s influence on music or style; no musicians or colleagues offering a glimpse into his working practices, behaviour or personality; no grainy footage of Felt foppishly treading the boards at the Hammersmith Clarendon or Denim posing on Choppers. Instead the viewer takes a peak at the world through Lawrence’s eyes as he faces eviction from his flat while playing gigs, providing interviews, shopping for hats and creating the 2006 album Go-Kart Mozart On The Hot Dog Streets.

Lawrence, it’s fairly clear, isn’t made for these times. He’s a dedicated student of pop culture – a Lou Reed fanatic - who yearns for gangs of kids to paint his band’s name on the back of their jackets. He’s possesses, on the surface at least, an endearing mixture of naivety and childlike innocence. He’s incredulous when he discovers someone interviewing him doesn’t make money from his website. “Just for the love of it?” he wonders, wide-eyed. “I knew it was crap, the internet,” he says in his soft West Midlands accent. And yet this is someone who sent John Peel such a vitriolic letter Felt were scarcely heard on the radio and his current notebook contains details of small ad entry ‘Looking for love in an intimate relationship’ in which one of the things he is “into” as genital mutilation.

Kelly is sympathetic to his subject and personal issues regarding his finances, criminality, court appearances, drug use and mental health are skirted over, blink and you’ll miss them, as if impolite to pry, although with a noticeable sense of pride Lawrence does confide “I’m legally bonkers, you know” and rueing he wasn’t born in the 16^th century when he could’ve had a patron to fund his projects. With a degree of envy, he suggests he would be much better for Kate Moss than Pete Doherty and they could merge their money in a joint account, “She could put in all her millions and I could put in my dole money every two weeks”.

Money is a big issue, mainly because he’s never had any and yet even in poverty he still wears a Vivien Westwood tie and look like a pop star when painting walls. One thing he point blank refuses to entertain, for whatever money, is the idea of a Felt reunion although his reasons aren’t given.

But still Lawrence, keeps his eyes on the prize: craving fame, to be a millionaire and never have to travel by public transport. Whether this’ll happen with Go-Kart Mozart and their synthy 70s TV theme tune style and lyrics about the Queen Mum’s hip operation; drinking Um Bongo; scoring dope; and being “still susceptible to vaginas allure” remains to be seen but Lawrence’s indefatigable spirit will keep him going. Nobody has come this far and failed he notes. Enigmatic to the last, he’s no failure.

Lawrence of Belgravia is out now.