Monday 27 December 2010

oh holmes



in case your sick of the telly and still a bit too tender for a record rummage here's some storytelling. well dramatisationing really. thankyou radio four

sherlock holmes - the final problem

x

ps there's another bit of tale telling over the ghosts's

Friday 24 December 2010

condiments of the season



condiments of the season to you all

and a record to rocksteady you into festivity from rhe priceless pile my dear old dad got the lovely chaps in universal sound to dig out for him last year ... ba boom ba boom ba ba yah indeed

stay super my friends

bob andy - let them say

x

Wednesday 22 December 2010

double decker



one day i really will learn how to to rattle on in another language i will i will i will. well i won't obviously. thankfully the almost unbearably fabulous lani hall is a whole lot cleverer ...

sergio mendes & brasil 65 - baronbao

sergio mendes & brasil 66 - for me

x

with everlasting thanks to magic mick beirne for opening my eyes to sergio pre 66

x

Monday 20 December 2010

number nine excursion



sweet brothers darling sisters hands up who like presents who really really likes presents ? hot damn but i do so imagine my joy when a whole bunch of the blighters flew through the post and made my messy bit of world soar. huuuuuuge thanks to the most especially generous young glen grainger his loveliness for a positive depot of delights to warm our cockles and everywhere between and set us off on another glorious number nine excursion... hold on tight now

wolfgang dauner - take your clothes off to feel the setting sun

henry mancini - butterfly

gerry rafferty - her father didn't like me anyway

gil scott heron - race track in france

jon lucien - search for the inner self

oi va voi - refugee (matthew herbert big band mix)

the three degrees - collage

Saturday 18 December 2010

tenderly (again)



always had quite a spot for captain beefheart and his magic band even though almost everything he's done i've struggled to listen to so here's something i only bought cos roddy frame said it was his favourite song in some long ago nme thing and aw gee it's beautiful.

originally posted a couple of years ago and if i had my records handy i'd've played too much time off of the same lp - i'll dig it out when i'm home...

let's start the week all quiet and gorgeous and remember that we can find the tenderest soul in the most unlikely spots

captain beefheart - my head is my only house unless it rains

x

Friday 17 December 2010

goggle eyed



sorry it's been a while sweet dears but oooh what with this and that assorted what have yous and the obligatory duck feeding there's been barely a mo to spare and what moes that have squeezed through have been filled with the first series of breaking bad on the computey machine and they've been moes well worth squeezing in i can tells ya if decidedly dark squirmy and desperate. this ditty of true hugeness popped up in it too which made me even keener. do tune in if you're able

darondo - didn't i

ps
is there anything else i should be sitting too close to and ruining my peepers?

Wednesday 1 December 2010

there's a song that they sing...



now the first of december was covered with snow
and so was the turnpike from stockbridge to boston
lord, the berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frosting
With ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go



*
with thanks to the always debonair mr mark fincher

x

Monday 29 November 2010

calm



ruffled and riled still from last weeks comments kerfuffle and black sunday xmas shopping terrors so thought a bit of factory benelux might help and help it did dear readers. hope it helps yous too

durutti column - madeleine
x

Friday 19 November 2010

and relax...



well i say relax but i really must do the hoovering. tomorrow maybe with the football to soundtrack it. oh yes we know how to rock it round here. i'm still worn out from 99p soul and all it's wonders to be honest. there was even cake. imagine that. the tunes were smashers too and i've been humming this all week from the always super warm up hour or so... i do hope your weekend's as thrilling sweethearts

the stylistics - people make the world go round

x

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Friday 12 November 2010

a trip to the lights



turn yer back for two bloomin' seconds and my road goes all festive lights barmy. i'm not ready. it's still autumn. mid autumn. tell me it is please. but at least it fits this frankly fabe footage the darling carmel whoosed our way this week. don't our town look swingin'...

i'm off to dig records out for tomorrows shindig panic some and hope yous all have a ball wherever you are





jackie mittoo - juice box

x

Tuesday 9 November 2010

that's the sound of the men working on a chain gang



it'll play well with the voters was the phrase that chilled me rocked me riled me most this weekend. everything else was the vile cruelness we were all expecting (just maybe not quite so soon) but i'd forgotten the most important bit the most frightening bit.

perhaps an anthem would help.



ps

still not really sure this bit of telly is really real... curtis mayfield introducing phil ochs. maybe i've been wrong all these years and this was beamed straight from heaven... praise be

Friday 5 November 2010

hip hip



a thankyou a very very big and very very heartfelt thankyou to lovely dear rob carmel and mick for such top class selections is due i reckon with backs patted and glasses filled. I do hope that now the 99p soul doodah can be thrilled to just as much by far flungers and stuck inners and what with my backers as the hopping off the 63 bussers never actually making up the stairs away from the barers movers shakers and twirlers that get there live and in personers. that was kind of the idea anyhow. so i hope you can join in next saturday for a once round the floor and a drop of what killed auntie wherever you are

If i could find this flipping record i'd be reducing the room to floods but it's only on an lp i just can't manage to unearth. any sightings would be most gratefully and all pop spotters

chuck jackson & maxine brown - love is hurting thing

x

on double album cd thingy from the always fabe folk at ace

Thursday 4 November 2010

beirnin' love



oh boy oh boy only a week and a bit to go and i'm nowhere. nowhere nowhere nowhere. riah - abominable. drag - unfathomable. slap - charlie caroli. handbag - nanti.

thank gawd there's our very own (we've said it before but we'll say it again) brains behind the operation everybody's go to trotskyite magic mick beirne to rely on ship shape suave and brilliantined

when a man says "all i can say is that most of them were revealed to me by very generous friends and i love them" you just know you're gonna swoon

alice clark - you hit me

bobby moore - anything man

maxine brown - i can't get along without you

rance allen - there's gonna be a showdown

gloria lynn - i've just got to tell somebody

tunnie smith - finders aren't always keepers

joe bataan - shaft

deep breaths



x

Sunday 31 October 2010

night and day



welcolme to winter chucky eggs dark dark nights and toggled up duffles and the fire going in the little front bit of the red lion and up early mornings to grab the light. it's getting unsettlingly old lady round these parts wriggling as soon as the sun's up strained ears hoping for the scarcest passing tweetiness crumbs out the skylight just in case. there'll be housecoats and headscarves before we know it. and my dad's old folkies.


tom paxton - i give you the morning

x

Friday 29 October 2010

more love


gather round gather round you're just in time for another in our people get ready 99p soul warmer upper sessions to get you lean and limber prepared and perfected for a small do if you're braving the elements or kitchen shuffle if you're staying tucked up and toasty right there at home. whichever wherever the always fragrant carmel will keep us beaming... take it away my dear




nothing rare here at all but nowt wrong with that.... come and hear them at 99p where they work out at less than 15p each. and think what else is in store from ally, rob and mick…


the dells - wear it on our face

love so much of the dells output but this just might be my favourite. all those sumptuously uplifting vocals but also that weird out-of-tune piano at the beginning that sounds like a drunken monkey lurching across the ivories. psychosoul. but kind of prefer it to that psychadelic phase the Temptations went through...

smokey robinson and the miracles - more love

more joy. how marv is this? first tchoon I ever played to a dancefloor. around 27 years ago and I’m still rubbish at remembering to cue the next record when I'm enjoying the last. and if I do remember, it's probably on the wrong speed...

sisters love - give me your love

what can be said? fulsome sophisticated big-band disco-gorgeousness from these lovely gals. lost this for ages; thank the lordy for honest jon's.

tyrone davis - can I change my mind?

no you can't, tyrone, it's just toooo doggone late but we're all rooting for you, anyway. one of my favourite male vocalists. he might not have the greatest range but who cares, when he has such bucketfuls of…awwwwww....

jackie wilson - you got me walkin'

breakfast in the morning...? oooo, so good. can't name my fave jackie but this one’s just beautiful and very underrrrated. i think. and it's such a lovely stroll. yeah, yeah, yeah, o baby.

the esquires - get on up

"We're gonna do the monkey, the philly dog too, we're gonna do the jerk, just me and you". get on up if you aren't already. there's a site called sixtiescity.com where they'll teach you the monkey and the jerk. but if you know how to do the philly dog, too, come and show us at the next 99p. i'm thinking it's like a chilli dog but hotter.

the emotions - blind alley

so many great emotions tracks but this is my fave. another amazing beginning, so laid-back (and so sampled by the babies) but then erupts into such a dream of a soulful warning. you've got a smooth conversation but...basically, right, you're runnin' up a blind alley...

x

99p soul happens on the 13th of november at the betsy trotwood, farringdon rd ec1. 99p on the door.

Monday 25 October 2010

for reg



could the great voices of the world stop bloody dying now please.

the action - since i lost my baby

the action - baby you got it




i can't believe anyone could've survived without this in their record pile but if you've managed somehow you'll wander how. buy now.

Friday 22 October 2010

wide open ears



a bad week all round i think we'll all agree. attacks all round and the rotten loss of another pioneer but i like to think that radio four slipped in a raised fists however subtely hidden in woman's hour and desert island discs plummy tones and all but michael mansfield and especially gareth peirce drop bombs that've had me mulling and grumbling since. sorry the woman's hour doodah is only websitery - i dithered too long to grab the bloody podcast and it really is worth a listen. i'll be hoping the library can still afford to get me her book dispatches from the dark side although i think i'll probably be too scared to read it. and i forgave mansfield's floyd the first whisper of lkj. stay tuned.

gareth peirce on woman's hour

desert island discs - michael mansfield

if you managed all that you'll deserve a studio oner for skanking as you seeth

delroy wilson - i want justice

and ari's anthem just in case you've never had the pleasure

the slits - typical girls

create and rebel dear hearts

Tuesday 19 October 2010

we party heavy up heah



okay okay so the 99p soul build up proper starts now now now the new shoes are getting worn in the everything else to go with them is still a shopping hater's nightmare to come the invites are sent and it's time to welcome cutter outer extraordinaire and all round brave little soldier (not even pneumonia can stop him wowing a crowd oh no no no) hot from ryantown mister rob ryan is very flipping self... dancing away at top speed...




"these 7's are my fave sounds today, they might not be tomorrow, but right here in the now they are !! I dont know what a Sadity Lady is and I'm a bit horrified that I'm buying very jazzy sounding disco records by a band called TEAKWOOD !! and It's a bad feeling is the saddest reord I've ever got down to, the musical equivilent of the movie 'Precious', "Hold your head up like a barnyard strut - one day little girl you'll come out of the rut""

it's a bad feeling - mixed sugar - fgs
sadity lady - clarence mann - flower's records
suddenly you're my life - teakwood - encore

"Who were the people that made these records, these things of heartbreaking beauty, not knowing facts imagination comes to the fore ! I see the Sherrell Brothers on stage, one sings one plays the guitar constantly at war with each other to take control of the song - both win - it's the greatest draw ever known !
And Windy City from the Windy City, well, they just came to party."
the price - sherrell brothers - currison
we party heavy up in heah - windy city - innovation II

"Yowsah yowsah yowsah !!

Ralph rocks the gals at Ryantown HQ so much that we have to put some water on their funky shoes to cool them off ! and as for Christian Plicque, well it has all ! That is if you like records with whispering in them, flute solos and continual use of the word 'Foxy', does this make me a sexist jazzersizin' creep....well what can I say - guilty as charged !"
cool off the floor - ralph young - goldband
hot foxy woman - christian plicque - lacam

or you can have a lovely all crammed together in happy cosy bundle version

rob ryan's magnificent seven


do pop along if you like. it'd be lovely to see you

x

Saturday 16 October 2010

hanging on a memory



cry and wail children loud and long cos now we're another huge voice down. it's sounding like the sadder everytime phone calls to my dad round here these days always another funeral and another and another friends neighbours the lovely woman who ran the photo library ken from round the corner solomon and general johnson. go play your beautiful blue invictuses my dears then play them all again

chairmen of the board - when will she tell me she needs me

chairmen of the board - all we need is understanding




x

Friday 15 October 2010

be mine tonight



busy getting nowhere nowhere the whole day through all a bit befuddled and what have you. a small half with elvis helped no end. he does get a bit rowdy when he's had a few mind

elvis - surrender (torna a surriento)


glorious photo of the black horse,preston by george d. thompson

Monday 11 October 2010

oh my my

well you'd better listen my sisters and brothers... go easy solomon dear heart



x

Friday 1 October 2010

she's so modern



very occasionally very very very occasionally an almost nearly sorta kinda panic sets in my poor crumpled noggin bout the total absolute complete not a sausage of new with it happening right now sounds spinning about our little ol' lattie. there's not even been the fab latest release from some old soak even older than my old bones. no reformations here no sir. and i worry bout nostalgia. retro is such an ugly word and i know it could get stenciled in some last used on some only made seven episodes in 1973 cop show font on my front door way past easily. big and unscrubable. but i'm done with the new. i know it. i'd feel like a phony. and we know there's nothing worse. i miss it and all you know that thrill that insiderness that saturday morning rush soul jazz to rough trade to selectadisc to heaven knows where that knowing you're on it got it with it miles ahead ever moving forwardness but i've not been since oooooooh a long time ago really. a scary long time now it hits. turntablists drums and basses or some such a last real gasp and i worry that that too was really just the start of phonyisms not true love not real. there's always the fanclubs and the labs and the jills and erykahs and angies and beasties and all but even those treasures are in the mists somewhere not true to the now somehow. so i guess i'm heading back. but not to nostalgia. not retro. with greedy ears and shiny spectacles ever moving forward (only backwards)


smokey robinson and the miracles - i'll try something new

young disciples - step right on (promo)

jill scott - be ready

x

Wednesday 29 September 2010

raining in my heart



seven lonely days and a dozen towns ago i reached out one night and you were gone...

poor old dear old elvis we'll never leave you

elvis - kentucky rain

*thankyou davy for the reminder

x

Tuesday 28 September 2010

comfort



for these dank days. i know he's corny as all hell but but this turns the cold bits warm



x

Friday 24 September 2010

a little warmer



cor but it's gone and gotten all indoors all of sudden and me still with a summers worth of left on the shelf ripening nicely little rays of sunshine waiting for their big moment. the poor blighters'll catch their death. this'll be wrapped in the finest faux leopard topshop has to offer and brought out to warm an early arrival or two come the end of october too and i do hope it works right where you are

starpoint - you're my sunny day



x

Thursday 16 September 2010

warm up




we're having another go at a do. pop along if you like. or just join in here or on the farcebook thingy ( there's a little button over there that way up a bit there that'll take you there. give us a like if you like it -it's always nice to see if anyone's nipped round ). we'll be playing records and having a bit of a dance and the odd glass of something or other. i've realised now after three of the darlings that the bit early on when there's no-one there then just a few people then just a few more and we get to play records just to gently get us all started is kinda my favourite bit. playing things like this...

betty everett and jerry butler - our day will come

x

Tuesday 14 September 2010

torment tuesday



oh billy

billy fury - in my room
x


*with a huge thankyou to your heart out without whom i'd've missed this and an ever growing pile of things. gawd bless ya guv.

ps

have you ever heard such a record? astonishing. i'm scouring every box of small records i can find for the parlophone singles of billy fury. any sightings much appreciated.

x

Friday 10 September 2010

you're my guitar hero



long ago and far away a great big beautiful semi acoustic wonder had pride of place in my room all adored and worshiped and mistreated and wasted on lazy fingers that were miles past distracted and despite all the dreams had hated stages and crowds and trying to find the right noises... gee how it must be to make those strings chime...

jackie wilson - whisper's (gettin' louder)


Tuesday 7 September 2010

stop messing about



a piddling eight months since your last installment the bona school of polari brings you hot on it's very heels lesson four flipping teen. keep up now you small boys.




nanti
- no, nothing, nada (remember h honeys when we had handbag... nanti handbag is just so much much swisher than skint)

nochy - night (back to b again my beauties and bona... now good night will always be bona nochy)

it's all coming together now dear hearts ain't it. have a treat and give yourselves a warm hand

julian and sandy - bona nature clinic


n could only be for nancy now couldn't it... have we had this before? we must have surely. it's madly close to my heart

nancy wilson - call me

x

Friday 3 September 2010

back to life



i missed acid house somehow. passed me by. i saw the smiley faces and the baggy whatnots out the corner of my eye somewhere caught a glimpse out the bus window bar hugged the milk bar and assorted other happenin' spots but it never took. my 1989 moments had a different beat just as room shakin' and heart explodin'. this still makes me tremble

soul II soul - keep on movin'

Tuesday 31 August 2010

weekenders



for the whoopers and wailers the rockin' blues down to good timesers the clacton airshowers the traffic jammers. here we're crowd avoiders round the block saunterers cup of teaers. but there'll be encona in the beans on toast for sure

martine girault - revival

x

*obviously meant for days ago but i'm all rusted up shoddy as all hell so please bear with dears...

Thursday 17 June 2010

off



be good

the voices of east harlem - for what it's worth

x

Monday 14 June 2010

tweeting



they arrived in april one scooting about the chimney pots one singing loud enough from the very top of marshall street baths to charm all of soho zooming from one peak to another to show off that red tail and black blackness so even a bird buffoon like me could find it in a desperately useless 30p from the library sale field guide to huge corring and blimeying and well did you evering and they're rarer than golden eagles and ospreys you know just imagine golden eagles bouncing about your roof babbling. now every morning around ten and every evening just as the light is fading there's singing from the highest spots around and bugs picked off of walls with the best of humming bird hovering and us leaning out of bedroom windows beaming. soon they're singing loud as anything in the middle of the night no dawn chorus this but west end carousing all through till the middle of may and everything goes quiet my greedy heart sinking at the thought of them gone leaving us to the pigeons and seagulls. finally an empty week fills with the briefest hint of a something out the bathroom window and the little treasure is back but songless and solo and shy busy as a black and red bee almost impossible to spot with no mad tweeting to guide us and now right now there's cheeping somewhere on our roof baby bird cheeping and both the grown ups are zooming about like mad things morning and evening mouths full of flyey treats. we're thrilled




blossom dearie - try your wings




ps

they're black redstarts.

x

Thursday 10 June 2010

out



friday night dancing - we'll be there shaking and fingerpopping and doing it fluid and ooooh all sorts. see you there maybe

hopefully the dream team will play us this (and won't get caught out by the sneaky ending)

jeffree - love is gonna last

Monday 7 June 2010

missing



now then. there's been a worrying trend developing round these parts. very worrying. my old moniker has started growing. going a bit wrong like. developing capitals for starters. and a troublesome 'miss'. fine and dandy for your confederate states i'm sure but in the people's republic we tell it straight. and there's she who makes my heart go boom to think of too and all don't forget. so let's pull our socks up children and mrs all the way. or comrade has a lovely ring i've always thought. or just ally will do lovelyly.

it's political correctness gone mad.

walter jackson - speak her name

x

buy walter jackson records from the lovely folk at kent