Chinese Jamaican Reggae podcast

I have set up a podcast account for 2005-6 Lucky Cat shows. To kick things off I have put up the show on Chinese Jamaican Reggae, co-presented by Jak Ripley, from 10th Feb 2006. Hope you enjoy, Zoe.


Click here to get your own player.

A record that needs a second opinion

The long arm of Western decadence had some pretty novel ways of reaching behind the Iron Curtain back in the 50's.

It was nigh on impossible for a the average communist era teen to bag a slice of rock 'n' roll action so ingenious music fans found a pretty original way of distributing the stuff locally.

The picture on the right is a record that is also an X-Ray. The material for medical photographs proved to be a suitable and plentiful medium for a process whereby recordings were duplicated by being cut on a converted record player.

Imagine being able utter the line "I've got Lloyd Price "Stagger Lee" on fractured Tibia actually."

According to a paper by Trey Drake of University of California, Santa Cruz:

This material was both plentiful and cheap, and millions of duplications of Western and Soviet groups were made and distributed by an underground roentgenizdat, or x-ray press, which is akin to the samizdat that was the notorious tradition of self-publication among banned writers in the USSR. According to rock historian Troitsky, the one-sided x-ray disks costed about one to one and a half rubles each on the black market, and lasted only a few months, as opposed to around five rubles for a two-sided vinyl disk. By the late 50's, the officials knew about the roentgenizdat, and made it illegal in 1958.

For more iimages and info on the roentgenizdat see Kevin Kelly's Street Use blog

Rudeboy Dance Party 15th September

This blog has been a little quiet for too long to mention so it gives me great pleasure to announce the next Rudeboy Dance Party at the Star and Garter in Manchester.

Once more Mr. Mass, Sweet C and Sugar Merchant mix it all up for a grand old Punky Reggae party.

The last one was an excellent night of booze-crazed skanking. Original Ska, Skinhead Reggae and Two-tone all delivered with a satisfying wall of bass by the more than capable house sound system.

The S & G is a great venue and Mass has put a fair old effort into making Rudeboy a proper event, 10pm - 2am. Get there before 11pm and it'll only set you back three quid.

Stick it in your calendar then!

UPDATE: Jak Ripley will also be DJ-ing another great reason to head over to the Star & Garter on the 15th!!

Nathaniel Mayer

Now you vinyl nuts out there will understand that feeling when you finally bag a tune you've been after for a while.

Today the eBay fairy has been kind enough to let me get hold of a lovely little Nathaniel Mayer tune: "I Had A Dream" on the old Detroit label Fortune.

This concentrated sugar rush of garage soul 'n' R&B was issued in 1963 and is a fine fine FINE example of what Mr Mayer was capable of.

Wiry guitar riff. Wailing call and response vocal line. Brutally rhythmic drum track. What more could you ask for? His few recordings for this label had a wonderful raw energy and were just in a class of their own.

The Fortune studio is often quoted as being a garage pioneer as a few of its hits actually were recorded in one. On another Mayer song, "Leave Me Alone" I fancy I can almost hear the garage door rattling in sympathy to one of the loveliest guitar solos of all time.

Unfortunately Mayers tenure at Fortune records was short lived. His first song, "Village Of Love" was his biggest hit, making it into the Billboard top 40 in '62. After that his idiosyncratic and alarmingly forward-thinking take on R&B didn't get the same level of attention in the mainstream again.

Mayer parted company with Fortune on bad terms then kind of went off the map for many years. The good news is that the "Nay Dog" is performing again and has recorded new material for the Fat Possum label in Mississippi.

By all accounts his performances are something to behold. 40 years on his singing has more power than ever. All hail the Nay Dog! Could you come and play over here Mr Mayer? Please?

The Soul Vendors On Tour

I really want to share with the good viewers of Copesetic Nights what my all time favourite LP is and why. The strange thing is I don't own that particular LP!!!

I had the LP by The Soul Vendors called "On Tour" on UK Coxsone back in the 1980's when I greedily spent all my money from various part time jobs and scams on (mostly) Jamaican music, with the 1960's stuff most highly cherished. The album just transported me away from the grimness of my 1980's existence in a dull SW London suburb to somewhere I cannot name. The year was definately 1967, but the place was bigger than a geographical location. To me this was musical heaven.

The Skatalites famously split in 1965. The various factions went their own ways, mostly into studio session work. Two amalgamations formed for two rival studios. Tommy McCook and The Supersonics recorded for Duke Reid at the Treasure Isle Studio whilst Roland Alphonso led the Soul Brothers at Studio 1. After some great late ska records, The Soul Brothers metamorphosised into The Soul Vendors. This group was pure class. The home of rocksteady may well have been the Treasure Isle studio at 33 Bond Street, but over at 13 Brentford Road, The Soul Vendors were laying down rocksteady tracks of such heavenly beauty that just hearing them takes me back 20 years in an instant.

The Soul Vendors, icluding previous Skatalites Roland Alphonso, Jackie Mittoo, Johnny "Dizzy" Moore and singers Owen Gray, Alton Ellis and Ken Boothe toured the UK in 1967. What I wouldn't give to be transported back to the Porchester Hall in West London or the Starlight Rooms in Huddersfield as those guys strolled on stage in their sharp mohair suits with skinny ties, hair in sharp "skiffle" cuts. To hear the one drop of the drums, the upright bass of Mr Lloyd Brevitte or the sharp stabs of Jackie Mittoo's Hammond organ.

The next best thing would be to play the 1967 LP on a Blue Spot radiogram I suppose.

What must've happened was that The Soul Vendors went back to Jamaica carrying tunes that they had heard in The UK with them to lay down for Clement Dodd at Studio 1. If you have never heard the LP, you cannot begin to appreciate the sensuality of songs such as their adaptation of Procul Harum's "Homburg" as "The Raver" (I kid you not!!) or the cover of Howard Tate's "Ain't Nobody Home" or Brenton Wood's "Gimme Little Sign". There was a storming Stax type instrumental for good measure too. In fact this album was COPESETIC!!!

Why do I not own a copy, you may ask. Well, when I was about 15, I needed money to go and see Laurel Aitken perform and to buy some clothes etc. I took a pile of LP to the Record & Tape Exhange in Notting Hill and got a few quid. In that pile of LP's was not only the wonderful Soul Vendors disc but a UK copy of Swing Easy!!! Well it was the '80's after all....a decade of many a lapse in taste. Some only have a photo of them with a mullet, wearing those hideous marble wash jeans and a one-button jacket with the sleeves pushed up to the elbow. I got rid of the greatest LP ever. I will carry my shame with me eternally!!!!

Lucky Cat Radio show

Lucky Cat has #2 in a series of 2 about the contribution that the Chinese community has made to the music of Jamaica. This show is on today at 1300 GMT on Resonance FM. Expect a fine selection of Ska and Rocksteady.

Kitty sez:

More killer tunes and my jerk chicken recipe, mmmmmmmmm.
Blog will be updated with playlists, pics and recipe later today.

Also on every Friday 1-2 pm on Resonance 104.4 FM or listen online at www.resonancefm.com, repeated Tuesdays at 10am.

Funky16Corners

Larry Grogan is a New Orleans Soul and R&B afficionado who writes constantly inspiring stuff about his record collection.

Now there are two good reasons for name-checking the guy today.

1. He's been away from his keyboard enduring some painful sounding surgery and deserves a warm "welcome back"
   
2. His post today is about Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels "Breakout"

A thumping tune this and a firm Northern Soul favourite from the glory days. I'm pretty interested in this kind of song as it doesn't necessarily fit well into any particular category.

Sure it's well known on the Northern scene but it's far from being a straight Soul tune. Depending on your point of view "Breakout" could be on the periphery of Garage or a straight ahead Rock 'n' Roller.

Funky16Corners has an mp3 up temporarily so if you don't know it it's well worth a click.