MAY PLAYLIST

(The Royal Flairs and friends - not dead yet)

This month's selection box...

1.  Blind Willie Johnson – “The Soul Of A Man” (1930)

Willie’s mother died whilst he was a baby and his stepmother blinded him by throwing lye in his eyes after catching his father messing with another woman. Not a great start to life and his last days saw Willie’s house burn down, he and his wife living in the ashes, him getting wet, catching pneumonia, the hospital refusing to take him due to his blindness, and so he died. Still, looking on the bright side, he recorded some brilliant music in between.  

2.  Little Robbie – “I’ve Got Troubles Of My Own” (1964)

I’ve had this slow burning 45 for years but still can’t find out anything about Little Robbie, yet this is ideally suited to the R&B dancefloor of today with its pace sympathetic to the needs of the more mature dancer.

3.  Rosco & Barbara – “It Ain’t Right” (1965)

Wonderfully raucous rhythm and soul duet on Old Town Records with full bloodied vocals from Rosco Gordon and his wife Barbara Kerr, punchy horns, thumping drums and dancing piano.  

4.  A. K. Salim – “Afrika (Africa)” (1965)

Ahmad Khatab Salim was a successful big-band writer and arranger during the 1950s (a broken jaw putting pay to any earlier ambitions as reed player) and after a period of quiet re-emerged in 1965 with Afro-Soul/Drum Orgy, an album of off-the-cuff, completely spontaneous recordings attempting to capture the band’s impression of the sound of Africa, with the drums and the horns “really having a conversation, not just playing in a traditional way”.  

5.  The Syndicate – “The Egyptian Thing” (1965)

Shooting straight outta Los Angeles we have this gravel throated, blues wailin’, sonic powered, garage punk rocket. You get the picture. No idea where the Egyptian angle comes in. Dot Records were suitably impressed and began to record an album on the boys but it never surfaced and they spilt the following year. Shame.  

6.  Edwin Starr – “Has It Happened To You Yet?” (1967)

Same backing track as his Ric-Tic label mate JJ Barnes’s northern soul classic “Sweet Sherry” (who co-wrote the song with producer Don Davis), this lay gathering dust in the vaults for 30 years. With quality like this it was little wonder Berry Gordy gobbled up Ric-Tic for his own empire.

7.  The Royal Flairs – “Suicide” (1966)

Primitive garage 45 with lead singer Bob Everhart offering to follow the unexpected suicide of his loved one (although in the true tradition of garage-punk they’d both done each other wrong). The guitar and harp are fantastic. Everhart nearly did achieve an early death when he was shot in a nightclub protecting a 350-pound go-go dancer, Miss Temptation, from the advances of a crazy customer, the bullet grazing his skull and taking a bit with it. Poor Bob came to at the hospital, turned to his side, saw a fella with his throat cut and promptly passed out again. The surf-instrumental flip of this 45 for Marina Records from Chicago was, appropriately enough, “One Pine Box”.

8.  Reuben Wilson – “Superfly” (1974)

The near-obligatory Curtis Mayfield cover in the monthly playlist goes this time to Reuben Wilson for his super funky Hammond version from the LP The Cisco Kid, released on the aptly named Groove Merchant Records. Wilson is puffing on a big cigar and looking dead pleased with himself on the sleeve, as well he might.

9.  Paul Weller – “Saturns Pattern” (2015)

On his previous album Lord Welly of Woking spelt Sonic with a “k”, and now banishes the annoying apostrophe to his bin of unwanted clutter just because he doesn’t like the look of it. This is a man who plays by his own rulez. Saturns Pattern follows the shape of Weller’s more recent output: sounds which jump and twist into unexpected areas rather than follow a simple straight forward song for geezers travelling on buses to whistle. It’s an approach I salute and one Weller wears well.

10.  Saun and Starr – “Look Closer (Can’t You See The Signs)” (2015)

Sharon Jones’s backing singers Saundra Williams and Starr Duncan-Lowe move into the spotlight backed by the unmistakable tight-funk snap of Dap-Kings. Has a real old Acid Jazz vibe to it. Think summer barbeques, stripy t-shirts, love beads, South American bottled beer.

THE PRIMITIVES live at OSLO, HACKNEY

Back in the late 80s the Primitives were bona fide pop stars. Credible ones too, who came up through the indie ranks to mainstream success. One could find them on a Thursday night’s Top of the Pops playing their latest hit single, pull a Tracy Tracy poster from the pages of Smash Hits, read a NME cover story, then catch them live on Saturday morning telly breaking out into an unrehearsed version of the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog”. It was an impressive feat and great whilst it lasted.

The Primitives’ reformation in 2009 came with little fanfare from the band, the music press or the general public. They simply eased themselves gently back: a gig here, an EP, a gig there, an album of 60s covers, more gigs, and then an LP of new songs and my album of 2014, Spin-O-Rama.

Currently doing a short tour they’re engaged in a new type of balancing act: that of the songs from their original three albums (1988-91) and those from the revitalised band. Across a near 20 song set there’s a roughly and 50/50 spilt and the beauty being every song is equally welcome. Everything fits together. There’s no this-is-from-our-new-album sinking feeling, just bang-bang-bang, one high octane buzzsaw thumper followed by another twisty jangler.

Early 45s “Buzz Buzz Buzz” and “Stop Killing Me” are succeeded by 2014 duet “Lose The Reason”; “Spin-O-Rama” is sandwiched between a throbbing “Sick Of It” and trippy “Thru The Flowers”; “Petals” sits next to older cousin “Spacehead”; radio favourite “Crash” slips into the whirling “Dandelion Seed”; a menacing “Rattle My Cage” makes way for an audience participating “Way Behind Me” and so on. It’s a relentless flow of punky-pop, sparkling without being overly polished.

Throughout the gig, the audience jostle amongst a television crew from Brazil. It might not be Top Of The Pops any more, and you’re more likely to read about them on a blog than the published music press, but The Primitives still look and sound to me like credible pop stars, and cultish underground ones at that. And those are always the best. 

JIMMY SMITH - "I GOT MY MOJO WORKING" (1968)

Here’s Jimmy Smith (growls and Hammond grooves), Nathen Page (guitar) and Charlie Crosby (drums) on Danish television playing “I Got My Mojo Working”. Dig it. 

LAMBERT & STAMP (2015)

The Who’s early managers, who guided them from cult Mod status to all-conquering rock superstars, were an unlikely pairing. Yet Kit Lambert, upper class son of classical composer and conductor Constant Lambert, and Chris Stamp, working class son of a stoker on the boats from Plaistow, made a complimentary and formidable team.  

Working in the lower reaches of the film industry they shared a passion to make their own movie and settled upon finding a new pop group to centre their idea. When Lambert passed a row of scooters outside the Railway Tavern, popped his head in and witnessed both the High Numbers and their audience, he’d found what they were after. As Chris Stamp explains in James D. Cooper’s directorial debut documentary, Lambert and Stamp, they didn’t know what they wanted, more what they didn’t want, and misfits Townshend, Daltrey, Moon and Entwistle defied the accepted conventions of the time in their look, sound and attitude. It began as a perfect marriage.

They made a terrific partnership with the band, now reverting back to their previous Who moniker, willing to join in with any excitable plan their new backers concocted, even if their original film idea gently faded into the background as they became managers instead. Kit Lambert's encouraging and influencing helped bolster Pete Townshend's creative song writing in a way his bandmates couldn't and was fundamental to The Who's development. The story is told through interviews with Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Richard Barnes, Heather Daltrey, Terence Stamp, Robert Fearnley-Whittingstall, Irish Jack etc, archive footage and, best of all, Chris Stamp, whose good looks, enthusiasm, cocky charm and charisma shine through; he could've sold anything to anyone.  

What also is evident is how exciting and fearless they all were in the 60s. If they had an idea they’d go for it. Fancy making a film; managing a pop group; signing Jimi Hendrix to a record label they’d only just thought of; making a rock opera? Yeah, come on, let’s go. Money was no object, insofar as they didn’t have any and racked up huge debts with little regard to any future consequences. Everything was lived for in the moment. The turning point came five years into their relationship and the enormous success of Tommy and then finally having more money than even they could spend.

Things fell apart in the 70s and relationships broke down, exacerbated by Kit’s drinking and drug habit; the appearance of Bill Curbishley managing affairs in a more money oriented manner; and the band giving Tommy to Ken Russell rather than allowing Lambert and Stamp to finally make the film they’d always dreamed of. Keith Moon in this period comes out with a lot of credit as he refused to sign any papers to terminate the band’s relationship with Kit and Chris, mindful of what they'd achieved together. Days after Keith died the job was done with brutal efficiency.

One quibble in the film is the failure to mention Peter Meaden and his influence shaping the Who. When Lambert clapped eyes on them, peering through the darkness of a Harrow and Wealdstone pub packed with Mods on a Tuesday evenning, it was in part due to Meaden creating the band in his own image and deserves acknowledgement for gifting the raw product to Lambert and Stamp who nurtured it into something far wider reaching. Also, the circumstances of Lambert's death in 1981 are brushed over. Chris Stamp died from cancer in 2012. Those things aside, it’s a wonderful film for fans of The Who, the 60s, and dreamers and schemers everywhere.  

Lambert & Stamp is released in UK cinemas on 15 May 2015.

APRIL PLAYLIST

On the decks this month...

1.  Jim Doval and The Gauchos – “Mama, Keep Yo! Big Mouth Shut” (1965)

Stalking garage version of the Bo Diddley classic. Love the lead guitar almost as much as I love the mangling of the rules of punctuation. That’s punk rock for ya man. What’s also punk rock is the record has the most sudden ending I’ve ever heard; like someone’s whipped the needle off in disgust. For that, I’ll turn a blind eye to their ponytails.

2.  Brother Jack McDuff – “Snap Back Jack” (1967)

Brother Jack on the Hammond, flanked by the horns of Leo Johnson and Danny Turner, Melvin Sparks on guitar and Ray Lucas on drums open Jack’s third of four albums for Atlantic, Do It Now! There’s nothing surprising about the LP - it's standard McDuff fayre - but no less tasty for it.

3.  Neil MacArthur – “World Of Glass” (1969)

This 45 on Deram, sung by Colin Blunstone and written and produced by Mike Hurst, is utterly exquisite. If you’ve never heard it, prepare for your mind to be blown with its beauty. If you have, listen again and marvel in fresh awe.

4.  C.C.S. – “Boom Boom” (1970)

Tucked away on the flip of “Whole Lotta Love” (the old Top of the Pops theme), Alexis Korner leads the Collective Consciousness Society through a big fat take on the John Lee Hooker chestnut.

5.  John Cale and Terry Riley – “Church of Anthrax” (1971)

Ten minutes of rumbling bass, squiggly harpsichord, soprano sax, pulsating rhythms, viola and goodness knows what else manages to be both hypnotic and invigorating.

6.  The Soft Boys – “Kingdom of Love” (1980)

Robin Hitchcock’s love of Syd Barrett clearly worn on his sleeve on this single from Underwater Moonlight. I say single but more accurately it was the first track on their Near The Soft Boys EP which also includes a great version of Pink Floyd’s under-the-counter “Vegetable Man”.  

7.  Yoshida Brothers – “Storm” (2003)

According to Wikipedia the Yoshida Brothers are “performers of the traditional Japanese music style of Tsugaru-jamisen which originated in northern Japan”. Now, I dunno much about Tsugaru-jamisen but the Brothers’ use of synths and drum machines behind their shamisen playing probably upsets a few purists but that’s no concern of ours, this is pretty damn cool.

8.  Mavis Staples – “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” (2015)

Your Good Fortune is Mavis’s new 4-track EP and finds her in fabulously form, real deep soul that draws in the listener to every heartfelt word, and with a slightly more contemporary accompaniment than usual. It works beautifully, especially on this old Blind Lemon Jefferson number.

9.  Paul Orwell – “You’re Nothing Special” (2015)

Latest sold-out 7 inch from Paul Orwell – who, incidentally, plays, sings, records and produces everything himself – is a double-sider in the truest sense of the word and shows he’s less a one trick pony and more a talented ringmaster of his own rock and roll circus. “Like I Did Before” is a kicking bundle of beat-psych with punchy organ and a fighty guitar break, whilst “You’re Nothing Special” is built on Brill Building pop classicism with simple yet effective lyrics and a melody so strong one could hang a floppy hat on. As Orwell so succinctly said recently, “I’m an artist, not a genre”.

10.  Joe Sarakula – “Northern Soul” (2015)

Joel Sarakula takes a tired Wiganesque northern soul template and creates a slick and stylish modern soul mover with precisely the right amount of out-of-reach anguish. It’s truly superb. Only surprise is it’s released on the tiny independent Heavy Soul label (full credit to them, and for the Orwell release too) as to me it sounds like something with wider commercial appeal.  

"MAGIC ONION" by THE LOVELY EGGS (2015)

After a couple of years mooching about the house not doing much, everyone’s favourite grin and grunge crackpots, the Lovely Eggs, are back with a new single, album and tour.

“Magic Onion” is the super 45 taster, accompanied in the best Lovely Eggs tradition by a suitably colourful and wonky video which you can see above. The tour began on Friday and ends on 9^th May, with an official launch party for the album, This Is Our Nowhere, taking place at the unlikely venue of London’s Jazz Café on Thursday 7^th May.

All that is exciting enough but even more so personally as Holly and David Egg have very kindly asked me to spin the platters at the launch party. Any tourists wandering in to the Jazz Café expecting an evening of New Orleans Dixieland or 70s style jazz fusion are going to be, well, confused I guess with songs about magic onions, green beans, beef bourguignon and sausage rolls thumbs. Bring it on. Just don’t expect an encore… 

For all your Eggy goodness, check out their site at The Lovely Eggs.

The Lovely Eggs play the Jazz Cafe, Camden on Thursday 7th May 2015 with support from Doglegs. Tickets here.  

IN MEMORY OF PERCY SLEDGE

For a man with only one genuine hit record in the UK today’s announcement of Percy Sledge’s passing, aged 73, still garnered significant attention with coverage on the major national news programmes.  But “When A Man Loves A Woman” wasn’t any old hit was it? It’s one of those songs, nearly fifty years old, which occupy a special place, woven into the very fabric of our lives.

Percy made plenty of other great records too of course: “Warm and Tender Love”, “Take Time To Know Her”, “True Love Travels On A Gravel Road”, “The Dark End of The Street”, “It Tears Me Up” and enough others to fill plenty of Best Of compilations no home should be without, but that record was the one.

I only saw Percy live once, back in 2011. That might’ve been his last London visit. I’m increasingly conscious to make the effort to catch people like Percy these days, whilst there’s still time to show appreciation in person. He was on a Soul Revue type show at the South Bank and the main reason I went. What I wrote at the time now looks, I hope, like a nice tribute to such a likeable fellow.

“Percy Sledge entered the fray wearing a tuxedo and what looked like a scouse calm down/calm down wig. If Eddie Floyd earlier in the week at his London show made a mockery of his passing years, fellow Alabaman Sledge had no qualms about playing the elder Soul Man. “People ask me, Percy Sledge, how come you talk so much when you used to just burn it up on stage. Well, I tell ‘em, I need to get my breath back”. He flashes that famous gap toothed grin of his and gets away with anything, including a bizarre, and very funny, Ride Your Pony type dance to one song. I can’t believe though he ever burned it up on stage even as a young man. The churchy chord changes to his expressive ballads had a different quality, dramatically described by Gerri Hirshey in her 1984 book Nowhere To Run as “his voice sliced through stone, bronze and petrochemical ages of human love”. Time has eroded some of the edge but he was sweet and “Take Time To Know Her” and “Dark End of The Street” were great to hear. “Nights in bloody White Satin” less so, but “When A Man Loves A Woman” was the big money shot and didn’t disappoint. Never have I seen a man fall so gingerly to his knees. He clambered up, did a false exit, milked the standing ovation, and was gone.”

Now he’s gone for good. Night Percy.