John Eden presents RSI RADIO 5: grimey reggae 2010 by Johnedenuk on Mixcloud
A quick thing I threw together last night – a round up of reggae and dancehall infused grime from 2010, with a bit of muttering from me. Enjoy!
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1. Launch party for new bashment zine No Ice Cream Sound:
Shimmy Shimmy is proud to launch the first issue of its dancehall print zine ‘No Ice Cream Sound’ on the 17th January….here’s a little sneak peak of what’s in there:
Interviews with Mr Lexx, Natalie Storm, Serocee and Wrongtom, features on up to the time and vintage dancehall, an exclusive chart from The Heatwave…and much more!!
To celebrate we’re having a launch party at Passing Clouds on Thursday 13th January with a brilliant line-up:
Please see the flyer above (it’s also the cover of the zine), and the link to the Facebook event is here. If you require any further info, or you want to be put on the list, please don’t hesitate to get in contact. Feel free to blog, share…whatever you feel!
www.shimmyshimmy.co.uk
www.twitter.com/itsthelarge
www.soundcloud.com/the_large
2. Remembering the New Cross Fire 30 Years On
On Sunday January 18, 1981 a devastating house fire killed 13 young black people during a birthday party in New Cross, South East London. The black community accused the London Metropolitan Police of covering up the cause, which they suspected was an arson attack motivated by racism. The protests arising out of the fire led to a mobilization of black political activity, but nobody has ever been charged in relation to the fire.
Kwame Kwei-Armah hosts this event to mark the 30th Anniversary of the New Cross Fire incorporating music, film, spoken word and discussion to remember the young lives lost and the impact the New Cross Fire has had on the lives of Britons today.
The event hopes to be an inspiring and uplifting remembrance with contributions from Alex Pascall OBE, Professor Gus John, Menelik Shabazz, spoken word from Courttia Newland, El Crisis and Albany Associate Artist Zena Edwards and music from The Queens of Lovers Rock Carroll Thompson and Janet Kay.
http://www.thealbany.org.uk/event_detail/602/Events/Remembering-the-New-Cross-Fire-30-Years-On
The New Cross Fire was also remembered in a number of reggae songs, as documented by Transpontine.
This is Sir Philip Green, the billionaire boss of Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge among others.
These UK companies are part of Green’s Arcadia Group which is in turn owned by Taveta Investments Limited, which is registered to an office on the tax-haven island of Jersey. Taveta Investments is owned by Green’s family members living in Monaco, where income tax is 0%. It has been estimated that this set up enabled Green to avoid paying £300million in tax in 2005 alone.
Sir Philip was a vocal supporter of David Cameron, George Osbourne and the Conservatives before last year’s election.
Incredibly, he was asked to assist the coalition government with its spending review after it had been elected – a tax evader deciding on how tax revenue should be spent on services he doesn’t need to use.
The UK government has said with sinister monotony that tough choices have to be made in the current economic climate and that “we’re all in it together”. The tough choices have resulted in misery for ordinary people as wages have been frozen or reduced whilst Value Added Tax has been increased. Not to mention savage cuts to the welfare state and high levels of job insecurity.
Top Shop's flagship London store closed by protestors
(image above from Harpymarx blog)
So it’s hardly surprising that people got pissed off about this and protested at Arcadia shops in the run up to Christmas. What is more surprising is that these protests received reasonably positive coverage in right wing rags like the Daily Mail.
But what’s this got to do with the Sex Pistols, you might ask?
Well, after the protests Sir Philip spent the Christmas period at a £17,000-a-night Barbados resort with his family. Oh and his super rich chums Simon Cowell, Michael Winner and Sylvester Stallone. In fact Green likes his friends so much that he’s immortalised them on a special t-shirt:
Comparing himself to the Sex Pistols is clearly Green’s great new wheeze, because here he is again, this time with himself and his wife as Sid ‘n’ Nancy:
Punk was always a mixed bag of left and right influences, but surely a Billionaire Tory appointee like Green using Jamie Reid’s logo to bolster his own bogus “rebel” status is the ultimate in recuperation?
Or perhaps not – a number of people have pointed out that Green bears a striking resemblance to Sex Pistols guest vocalist and train robber Ronnie Biggs. But whilst Biggs and his accomplices in the great train robbery were convicted of stealing £2.6 million in 1963, Sir Philip’s ambitions are far greater – and completely untroubled by judicial complications.
It’s been a while since I did one of these so here goes:
First up Audrina Patridge wearing an Exploited t-shirt.
And OK, I’d never heard of her either, but apparently she’s a US reality TV show star who features in the lyrics of Tinie Tempah’s “Pass Out”:
Heidi and Audrina eat your heart out,
I used to listen to you dont wanna bring arms house
I got so many clothes I keeps em in ma aunts house,
Disturbing London baby we about to branch out
So that adds some early grime to the mix as well (Demon’s “you don’t wanna bring arms house / I’ll bring arms house to your Mum’s house / you don’t wanna bring no beef / bring some beef you’ll lose some teeth”).
I wonder what Audrina’s favourite Exploited song is?
Mild disquiet was expressed last year when Beyonce wore a t-shirt onstage with the words “punk ass motherfucker” and “Never Mind The Bollocks” on it “amongst other obscenities”
Finally, here is model Georgia Frost wearing a Sex Pistols t-shirt and a Prada skirt.
But if these attractive young ladies and their context-free fashion makes you seethe, just wait until the next installment…
FOOTSIE – RASTAMAN PICKNEY EP [CLICK COVER TO DOWNLOAD FOR FREE] | Newham Generals Official Website.
Well, looks like grime is still full of surprises! Most of the CDs I’ve checked recently have been too much on the vocoder/funky tip, but there’s still a ton of interesting things happening under the surface.
In the last week all the producers have been going potlatch crazy and giving away tons of tunes for free. Dot Rotten has given away seventy instrumentals today, apparently!
I’ve not got time to wade through it all to be honest, or even check radio shows. But when Stinky Jim posted a link to Footsie from the Newham General’s new EP, I was drawn in like a moth to a flame.
It’s FREE and you get four wicked grimey reggae refixes, including the Cuss Cuss riddim and Barrington Levy’s “Under Mi Sensi”. Download from the link up top.
I previously looked at the legendary Boots Sex Dread record with my “Keith Allen in Gay Rasta Scandal” piece. Thanks to all the lovely people who left comments, especially Bryon Coley for clearing up the details of how Sex Boots Dread ended up in the film “Bully”.
That left a few loose ends open, which the nerd in me still felt a need to eliminate.
Ray Roughler Jones – Drowning On Dry Land (Bone/Tangent Books, 2010)
I covered The Roughler fanzine (and the West London eighties counterculture it was part of) in the previous post. Ray’s autobiography is an OK read, charting his working class upbringing in Swansea and involvement in the Ladbroke Grove scene of the eighties and beyond. He’s been through the mill a bit and has a nice line in self-deprecation, especially where his drink problem and mishaps with the ladies are concerned. Mr Roughler is an accomplished storyteller, a skill obviously picked up from spending so much time in the boozer. There are a lot of guest appearances from various personalities like Joe Strummer and Class War’s Ian Bone. Indeed, Ray even gets involved in their infamous “Rock Against The Rich Tour” in 1988.
There is perhaps a little too much on being dysfunctional (which is at least entertaining) and the ins and outs of the Warwick pub (including its cricket team!). But Ray is eminently likable and the book is a page turner as well as being an interesting document of (ahem) anglo-welsh working class culture throughout the last half of the twentieth century.
Oh yes, and he also definitively names Keith Allen as being behind “Sex Boots Dread”
“Drowning on Dry Land” is available direct from Tangent, who also published Ian Bone’s autobiography “Bash The Rich”. I picked up my copy from Housmans, one of London’s few remaining independent/lefty bookshops.
Keith Allen – Grow Up (Ebury Press, 2008)
I said I couldn’t be arsed to read this last time, but then I spotted a copy leering at me on the shelves of my local library, so I gave it a shot. I’ve skipped through it but ended up reading a whole lot more than I intended to. Yes, Keith Allen is an egotistical cock, but he doesn’t pretend to be anything else here and he’s pretty funny with it.
Gems include getting nicked for rioting at the Notting Hill Carnival and then returning home to be ignored by his middle class socialist flatmates while they discuss the finer points of revolution, slagging off various alternative comedians, shameless affairs, smashing up a private members drinking club (he wasn’t a member), and pissing into a coffee cup whilst onstage (with his Mum and Dad in the audience) – and then drinking it. And that’s just a few highlights from the late seventies and eighties chapters.
A full account of “Sex Boots Dread” and its origins as a character of Breakfast Pirate Radio is given. I won’t spoil it for you (it’s pages 256-259 in the edition pictured above) but it includes a hilarious account of the tracks being played to a bunch of black yoot in the Rough Trade shop. Keith also reckons the tune sold 8,000 copies in San Francisco which I think is suspect (where are they now?).
And finally, some good news for vinyl fetishists whether straight, gay or whatever:
Someone has taken it upon themselves to bootleg the record on a pink vinyl 7″.
I’ve not been able to get hold of one, so I have no idea about the quality – given its illicit nature I think the best to hope for would be a recording of the original record, but the worst case scenario is that it’s been ripped off an mp3 or youtube or something. If you find one, let me know!
Pseudo Gay Rastas Part Three will appear in the fifth issue of Woof(t)ah.
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So what about this situation with the lovers rock versus dub scene?
C: “A party is nothing without girls and the girls check for lovers.”
(from Soundsystem Splashdown 1981 NME feature)
As I said in my lecture at Audio Poverty, I got into UK MC reggae records because they were cheap, because I liked their local lyrics and the fact that their existence told a story about the city I live in. Personally I would rather spend time rummaging through a pile of cheap vinyl than scouring the internet for those RARE collectors items everyone seems to be after.
But inevitably things change, and the prices of UK MC records have gone up. Tunes that were knocking about for two or three quid eight years ago are now selling for up to 5 times that. It’s hard not to feel validated by this, but I’m obviously wary of letting the market dictate what is good or not. Certainly you can’t put a price on the pleasure that my copy of Peter Bouncer’s “Rough Neck Sound” 12″ has given me.
And anyway, the rummaging continues. These days it’s often accompanied by some raised eyebrows: “7 quid for Tippa Irie’s ‘Panic Panic’ 12” – are you sure?”. But then perhaps the eye is drawn to the floor beneath the seven quid racks, to a pile of dusty records alongside a notice in felt tip pen proclaiming their unpopularity: “everything in this pile £1”. Ah… hello, my friends.
Most record collectors are male – boys seeking boys’ things. So it is hardly surprising that the reggae records which have been most resistant to collector-mania have been the ones which don’t deal with the sort of things that blokes check for. There are lots of Ebay Earners about war, overcoming tribulation, weighty spiritual issues and smoking ‘erb. So yes, these days much of the bargain bin reggae was originally sung by, and ultimately aimed at, teenage girls. Teenage girls are like kryptonite for record collectors, I think.
I’m not going to lie, there have been a good few things that I’ve picked up and then chucked out after hearing 30 seconds of screechy singing over artless digital backing. And yes, some of the tunes here are widely recognised as being the pinnacle of the sub-genre (and in some cases would make many people’s top 100 reggae tunes ever, I think).
This mix was thrown together one night a year ago whilst I was playing with a new effects box. I figured it was a bit rough and ready and I would get around to re-doing it one day. Then Paul Meme expressed an interest in collaborating on a mix again, so I bunged it his way. He is responsible for actually bringing it to your earholes, so praise is due. Paul has added a ton more effects and removed my most heinous mistakes as well. There are still some ghostly echoes of other things in mix, but I think that adds to it all.
I make no claims at being definitive, there are other places to go for that (see especially the compilations “The Lovers Rock Story” on Kickin’ and “This Is Lovers Rock” on Greensleeves). I would also wholeheartedly recommend Menelik Shabazz’s film “The Story of Lovers Rock”.
I would like to dedicate this mix to my long-suffering partner. I’d like to, but I won’t. Whilst she appreciates a good bassline, she finds high pitched vocals akin to scraping a cat down a blackboard.
Track by Track
1. Louisa Mark – Caught You In A Lie (Safari 7″)
“You… said she was your cousin…”
It all started here, in 1975. Apparently “Caught” was originally a soul song by Robert Parker, but I can’t bear to track that down after hearing this. Louisa was 14 years old when this was recorded for south London soundman Lloydie Coxsone. You can really hear all that adolescent anguish being channeled into the grooves. I was in a lock-in the other night where someone insisted in playing anthemic stadium rock. Louisa Mark reaches peaks of emotional intensity that middle aged rockers can only dream of. The backing band here is Matumbi, who we will hear from again in a little while.
2. 15-16-17 – Black Skin Boys (DEB Music 7″)
Again, the group were schoolgirls – their name came from the age of each singer in the trio. Lovers with a bit of afro-positive consciousness snuck in for all the rastamen in the dance. (See also Brown Sugar’s “I’m In Love With A Dreadlocks”). DEB was Dennis (Emmanuelle) Brown’s label whilst he was based in London.
3. Matumbi – After Tonight (from “Lovers For Lovers vol 3” LP)
UK reggae legend Dennis Bovell’s group in fine form, with the man himself on vocals I think. And yes, this is off a compilation album with a soft focus photograph of a naked couple on the cover.
4. Shade of Love African Blood – Tell Me Bout The Love (Arawak 12″)
Arawak is Bovell’s label, but the production on this is credited to B Spencer, D Luetaim and P Dover. No idea who they are and still no clue as to the identity of the vocalist. I think “Shade of…” is the name of the group rather than an individual. Any clues welcome!
5. Lorita Grahame – Young Free And Single (Intense 12″)
Bit of a disco number, almost into “Woo” Gary Davies Radio One Roadshow territory, but not quite. Lorita would go on to be a member of indie group Colourbox in the eighties, notably re-doing Jacob Miller’s “Baby I Love You So”. The NME did a double header feature with them and Augustus Pablo in 1986.
6. Melanie Fiona – Sad Songs (Island 7″)
Melanie is a new Canadian vocalist. Island snuck this out about a year ago, in a nice replica of their sixties seven inch singles. It obviously and blatantly leads us to:
7. Janet Kay – Silly Games (Scope 12″)
Everyone’s heard this, right? It was a number 2 hit in the national charts ferchrissakes! Still an outstanding record to this day. Dennis Bovell (for it is he, on the buttons, once again) is very amusing about this in the book about The Slits. He was producing their “Cut” album in some posh rural studio (where the legendary mud and flesh cover photo was taken) when Ari Up told him “Silly Games” was playing on the radio. So he dashed from The Slits to perform alongside Janet Kay on Top of the Pops. Contrast or what?
Janet recently appeared as a fairy godmother in panto at the Hackney Empire, much to the pleasure of all the Dads present. We even got treated to a brief rendition of this tune into the bargain.
8. Peter Hunnigale – Mary J (from “Free Soul” LP)
Mr Hunnigale is proper UK reggae grafter. To say he seems popular with the ladies is something of an understatement. This track is a bit of an anomaly – is it a love song or reality lyrics about a woman forced into making ends meet any which way? The LP this is taken from is superb – all sweet Hunnigale vocals over crisp original Studio One riddims, courtesy of the Peckings label.
9. Joy Mack – Reality (from “Lovers For Lovers vol 3” LP)
Yeah it’s that comp again, sorry purists, if you made it this far! I don’t know much about Joy, but this is a belter. In recent years she’s appeared in the stage version of “The Harder They Come”.
10. Maxi Priest – Strolling On (Level Vibes 12″)
Pretty much everything I wanted to write about Maxi is already here. Check the comments to see some of the love that abounds for the man. This is still one of those tunes to put on to reassure you everything is alright. Summer vibes in the middle of winter.
11. Massive Horns – Flowing On (Level Vibes 12″)
Massive Horns did loads of dubs for Fashion, including a whole album, “Merrie Melodies” which is awesome. They are credited on that LP as Annie Whitehead (trombone), Tim Sanders (alto sax, tenor sax), Al Deval (tenor sax) & Barbara Snow (trumpet). Whitehead is a bit of a legend, having also worked with Evan Parker, The Penguin Cafe Orchestra and Jah Wobble, who is very nice about her in his autobiography. I need to get around to researching the rest as well.
12. Kevin Henry & Kate – Born Again (Rhythm Force 12″)
I think this was the first Lovers Rock tune I bought. It was a dull day in Leicester, where I’d been sent by work. I found a record shop on the first floor near a market and it had about two things in I was interested in, the other being Greensleeves late 90s ragga twelve. This is proper trippy, sort of a Rhythm & Sound thing going on with it. I’ve not heard that many duets in Lovers Rock, but I think the vocal combo on this is stunning. It’s a Clem Bushay production – he also had a hand in some of the Louisa Mark tunes, for example her other huge hit “Six Sixth Street”. No idea who Kevin Henry, Kate or the band here are though.
13. Janet Kay – You Bring The Sun Out (Black Roots 12″)
I try not to repeat artists on mixes, but I will make an exception for Janet Kay in this (and indeed, in most things!). This is produced by Studio One’s keyboard king Jackie Mittoo and features him tinkling the ivories over the riddim pon the flip. I’m guessing this was recorded while Jackie was in London, right?
14. Trevor Walters – Love Me Tonight (Magnet 12″)
Easing into cheese territory perhaps, but Paul adds an avalanche of brutal effects to restore a healthy balance. In fact that tension between hard bass and sweet vocals is what makes all the tunes here work.
15. Kofi – Didn’t I (Ariwa 12″)
Mad Professor production – for a while he was releasing just as much lovers as roots and dub material, which just goes to show how popular the genre was. Kofi was originally in Lovers Rock super-trio Brown Sugar, alongside Caron Wheeler, later of Soul II Soul.
A surprisingly sensitive article on youth violence and “postcode wars” in the right wing London evening newspaper.
“Asher Senator, CEO of Code 7, regularly sees the problems at first hand. ‘The other day I took a couple of youngsters to a meeting and stopped off at a shop. When I came back they were lying down in the back of the car, hiding. They said it was a peak [dangerous] area for them and they couldn’t be seen there.
‘I grew up on an estate in Wandsworth. There was another estate over the road and we all used to link up and do things together. Now the people on my old estate can’t go there at all. They literally cannot cross the street without putting themselves in danger. We need to tackle the mindset of this generation. We need to introduce more London-wide initiatives so that youths from different areas have the opportunity to interact in a way that brings them together instead of pushing them further apart.’”
Of course, Asher will be better known to readers of this blog as one of the finest London reggae MCs of the eighties, as covered in Born To Chat: The Asher Senator Story.
Thanks to STN for the tip off!
A nice write up in the Independent on the 30th anniversary of the film Babylon.
Director Franco Rosso is on form as ever, with some nice comments about Jah Shaka’s cameo in the film. But it was this parting shot which got me most excited:
“Three decades later, Rosso is planning a sequel. The picture will have black writers, a black director, and a black DOP [unless Menges comes back]. The music, this time round, will be grime.”
A few films like Bullet Boy and Kidulthood have tried to document the London of grime, with mixed results. (Bullet Boy is my personal favourite of the two, and not just because it’s set in East London as opposed to Kidulthood’s west…). But the more the merrier – and if the sequel is half as good as the original it will be well worth seeing.
Much more info on the original over at my Babylon mini-site.
Who Makes the Nazis?: What Ends When the Symbols Shatter? My Time as a Death In June Fan.
An autobiographical post about my time as a neofolk obsessive and how I gradually came to reject it all.
