Author: onetruekev

A Trip Down Memory Lane – Leicester

Actual Leicester street sign, on the base level stones of St. Mark’s Church (now Empire Banqueting Rooms)

The full blog isn’t going to appear here. It goes on for over 24,000 words, and has 240 photos in it. I broke it down into 20 smaller pieces and posted them all on my Medium account. The list below names the parts and has the links through the the posts. If you do click through to Medium, don’t forget the applause button on the pages, you can click on that as many times as you like.

Part 1 – Getting There and Getting Started

Part 2 – Rushey Mead

Part 3 – From Gipsy Lane to Melton Road

Part 4 – Cossington Street to St. Mark’s

Part 5 – Old Belgrave

Part 6 – Around My Old Home

Part 7 – Evington and Beyond

Part 8 – Victoria Park and The New Walk

Part 9 – Winding Back to the Hotel

Part 10 – What Used to be Here?

Part 11 – 3 Old Churches and a Wall

Part 12 – From West Bridge to Western Road

Part 13 – Liberty, Dykes, Tigers and Art Deco

Part 14 – The Castle to The Cathedral

Part 15 – Guildhall to Granby Street

Part 16 – Charles Street to Bed

Part 17 – Richard III and Grandparents

Part 18 – Old Aylestone and Graves

Part 19 – Knighton Day to Queens Road

Part 20 – End of the Road (Trip)

The whole piece is a mixture of my memories and actual history of the places in the photos.

Setting Sons

This November marks the 40th anniversary of the release of The Jam’s album “Setting Sons”. Where has all that time gone? I was only nine when it came out, but the album has stuck with me (or have I stuck with it?) for all that time. It wasn’t The Jam’s debut album, or a triumphant finale, it wasn’t their highest charting, or biggest selling album. It wasn’t packed full of their most famous songs, in fact there is only one single release on the album. Yet, for me it was their best and most complete album. It is the best of all of Paul Weller’s works, and in my not so humble opinion, it is the best album of all time.

It was The Jam’s fourth album, and the plan was for it to be a concept album, based on three childhood friends as they grew up and grew apart after a war. In the end the pressure was on to get the album released and therefore the concept was never fully finished; though five of the tracks (“Thick as Thieves”, “Little Boy Soldiers”, “Burning Sky”, “Smithers-Jones”, & “The Eton Rifles”) were as intended, and three others (“Private Hell”, “Wasteland” & “Saturday’s Kids”) were rewritten from the concepts laid down.

The pressure was to release an album without having too much of a gap from their previous album “All Mod Cons”, which had been their first album to break the top ten. It had also included the double A side single tracks “David Watts” and “‘A’ Bomb In Wardour Street” and the single “Down In The Tube Station At Midnight”. It turned out that “Setting Sons” was released a year and three weeks after “All Mod Cons”. They had released non album singles, “Strange Town”, and “When You’re Young” in the meantime to keep their momentum going. The last three singles had all reached the top twenty, but it was to be the only single off of “Setting Sons” that would crack the Top 10 for them for the first time. “Eton Rifles” reached number 3 and paved the way for four number 1 singles over the next three years.

As was common for all of the Jam’s studio albums, most of the tracks were written by Paul Weller. The exceptions being; “Smithers-Jones” which was written by Bruce Foxton, and the final track on the album “Heat Wave”, a cover of Martha Reeves & The Vandellas’ (the best Motown girl group of them all) single written by Motown geniuses Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Brian Holland.

“Setting Sons” was recorded between August 15th and October 10th, 1979 and released on the 18th November, and was produced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven. It got to number 4 in the UK album charts, staying in the charts for 19 weeks.

The album was topped and tailed by two tracks that weren’t formed from the original concept. “Girl on the Phone” opens the album. It is in definite stalking territory, with the story of a girl that “knows everything about me”, and “knows me so well, better than anyone, better than myself”, and who repeatedly rings to tell the singer this. All done before the age of internet access and social media. The album is finished off with the aforementioned “Heat Wave”, a favourite from the group’s live shows over the previous two years, and a track that showed Weller’s ongoing love of soul music. It was the inclusion of Motown and soul covers on albums and B-sides that introduced me to Motown, and sparked my love of (some might say obsession with) the label. It is however this inclusion of “Heat Wave” that causes a lot of people to be more critical of the album than it deserves. It was an odd choice and doesn’t really fit with the rest of the album, but to me it shows a side of the group that is often undervalued, a versatility and willingness to try different things.

The rest of side one starts to weave a story; “Thick as Thieves” tells the tale of childhood friends who grow up and grow apart, which was what the whole album was originally to be about. It could be viewed as being prophetic with what would happen three years later with The Jam splitting up. “Private Hell” was reworked to be from a female perspective, as a 40 something housewife slides into depression over being cast adrift from the thoughts of her own family. “Little Boy Soldiers” gives a cynical view of war and how the government suddenly wants to know you when they want you to fight, and how they don’t really want to know when it all goes wrong. The orchestration of the tracks and its mood changes make this my favourite track on the album, I rate it as being in the top three of all the tracks The Jam made, just behind “Town Called Malice” and “To Be Someone (Didn’t We Have A Nice Time). Side one is rounded off with “Wasteland”; more cynicism, this time aimed at the state of the state at the time, and how bleak everything looked and felt. How areas had been forgotten in the supposed post war regeneration and modernisation of inner cities and towns across the country.

Side two started off with “Burning Sky”; a tale of one of the friends who has become a materialistic businessman, he bumps into his old friends, only to dismiss what they once had as “Fun, but that’s all it was and never real”. “Smithers-Jones” is the sorry tale of an aging office worker who is approaching sixty he’s “let go” whilst expecting a promotion, and he has to contemplate retirement. It was a re-recorded version of the song which had originally been the B-side of “When You’re Young”; re-recorded in an all-strings arrangement supposedly on the suggestion of Rick Buckler.  “Saturday’s Kids” celebrates everything about being a teenager from a working-class background. A lot of the content went over my head as a nine-year-old, but as I lived my teenage years, so much of this resonated with me. The penultimate track on the album will be the one track from the album that everyone knows. “The Eton Rifles” was all about the class struggle, and how life was stacked against the working class against the “old school tie brigade” that run the country. The lyrics and sentiment have remained appropriate in the forty years since its release, and under the current mess of government around Brexit it possibly has an even greater resonance now than it did upon its release. It seems that when David Cameron, one of the “Eton Rifles” the song is referring to, said that this was one of his favourite songs, he missed the fact that this song was anti him, or he was being extremely ironic. Yet whenever I hear it now, I can’t help hearing the childhood (and childish) change to the title lyrics being sung as “eating trifles”.

The cover shows three brass figures of soldiers moulded as one; huddled together under an overcast sky. It brings together the fact the group was a trio, the sentiment of “Thick As Thieves”, and the struggle from “Little Boy Soldiers” into a single image. It is a photograph of Benjamin Clemens’ bronze sculpture The St John’s Ambulance Bearers. Cast in 1919, it depicts a wounded soldier being carried by two ambulance workers. The sculpture is currently in the possession of the Imperial War Museum in London. The cover was designed by Bill Smith with the photos being done by Andrew Douglas and Andrew Rosen. In the modern era of having album covers as wall art, I jumped in with this being the first album cover to grace my walls. Other have joined it since, but this one will remain my favourite.

Thirty-seven years on from the split of The Jam, a group with one of its original members, bassist Bruce Foxton, still tours playing The Jam’s hits and other loved songs, and even releases new music under the title of From The Jam. They did have the original drummer, Rick Buckler, for several years as well. They tour continuously, and they are doing a 40th anniversary of “Setting Sons” tour; where they will be playing the album in full, alongside other Jam songs. The tickets have already been bought for my local gig. It will be the fourth time I have seen them in the last few years. They are as close as I’m ever going to get to seeing the actual group again, as Weller has always insisted, he would never be part of a reunion.

A Quiet Weekend

When the Bank Holiday weekend rolls around it feels great to know there is a three day weekend coming. Time to relax, to not do a great deal and to just chill out. I’m not convinced this weekend had read that particular script.

A barbeque at friends on the Friday night kicked it off. It was warm and the grill had started long before we got there, but somewhere between the chicken and the sausages night fell. Rapidly. Cooking only continued by torchlight, with the mini torch gripped between teeth as meat, and then halloumi was turned a few shades of grey darker. It was amazing how quickly the night fell, and in fact, how quickly the whole evening went. It was suddenly midnight and it was time to head home to rest before the next day’s frivolities.

This happened to be a Gin and Rum Festival. At what is now the Kia Oval, home of Surrey cricket club, now firmly embedded in Greater London. Having taken the wrong turn coming out of the tube station we had a little wander around Kennington in the searing sunshine, before doing an almost complete lap of the ground trying to find the gate in use for the festival.

The next four hours became more of a blur as we sampled an ever increasing number of gins, tonics, rums and mixers. Over thirty different makes were sampled, from the easy going liqueurs at a modest 20% abv up to the monster spiced rum at 75.5% abv. Purchases of full bottles were made at both ends of the structure.

It would have been rude not to have sat in on a few of what the organisers called masterclasses. Which in real terms were selling and tasting pitches. Not that a few free samples were ever going to be a bad idea.

We found out some interesting information, especially around the gin side. We learnt what classifies a gin as a London Dry (nothing to do with the city, and everything to do with not adding anything to the gin after the distillation process). We learnt that the eighteenth and nineteenth century bathtub gins were so dangerous to life and limb, that a law was passed to limit gin production to stills with a capacity of three thousand litres or more. Small still production was banned. Sipsmith took the HMRC to court to allow production of lower limits, as anything below the three thousand litre limit was considered as “moonshine” and was punishable by fines and prison sentences. They won the case in 2009, and now we have more gins than anyone can drink in a lifetime.

After a bottle buying spree we headed out towards to river at Vauxhall, and one of the bars at St George’s Wharf. However at the same time some friends were down in London for the day and were at O’Neill’s near Oxford Circus. With a lack of service by the river, we hopped on a tube and joined them for a couple of drinks whilst the Liverpool v Arsenal game was on. They had tickets for Joseph & the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Palladium, and so shot off after the match. Helen and I went for food.

We had been meaning to try out one of the Massala restaurants for a couple of years having read about them and their Thalis. We were only around the corner from their Massala Zone restaurant near Carnaby Street and so headed there for dinner. The food was very nice, and the service was very efficient. And therein lay the rub. They were probably a bit too efficient. Everything seemed to be done at a hundred miles an hour. It felt like we were eating in a rush, that they were trying to get as many people through as possible.

It was still warm as we got out and headed back to Crawley. But not to home. I had booked a cheap night at the Crowne Plaza to trigger a load of bonus IHG points, and so we decided to drag all out gin and rum bottles there and have a pet free night. And a bit of a lie in.

Because Sunday would see another festival. We had just about managed to get up in time to get to the Jubilee Oak for a Wetherspoons’ breakfast before getting home and changing and heading back out for Crawley’s annual Irish festival.

With it being at the Hawth, it wasn’t a long walk from home. Thankfully a decent part of it was through the woods so it was in the shade as it was another baking day. It was one of those days where it was going to be uncomfortable to a lot of the attendees. In fact I hadn’t seen as may distressed looking pale people looking for an escape from the big bad bullying sun for a long time, probably not since a day in the mid-eighties at Western Park in Leicester and a tug-of-war competition.

It would have been rude not to partake in a few Guinness’s whilst listening to various versions of the diddly diddly song book I had heard many times during my childhood. We wasted a pound on the tombola, picking tickets from one bucket, when all the prizewinning tickets were in another bucket being offered to family and friends. We missed all the dancing, and ended up at the amateur stage where various people were getting up to join in playing and singing songs that had even the remotest link to Ireland. The poor bloke who was left at the end had overdressed for the occasion, with a full on sparkly white short tuxedo jacket and bow tie. He looked like an escapee from a cruise ship entertainment party, and he would have sounded better at sea. Or anywhere else apart from in front of us.

It was time for more food, and the Harvester was the closest venue. It was packed, and so we sat in the bar area. Food was good. Well ours was. The couple behind us went to the bar to complain that their food was disgusting. They were offered a replacement meal which they refused. They just wanted a refund. I’m not surprised they didn’t want a replacement meal. They wouldn’t have been able to eat it, as there wasn’t a scrap of food left on their plates from the meal they had had. It had obviously been so disgusting that they had to eat it all up to prevent anyone from accidently having any. Nobody checked when they complained and they got a full refund. Some people just don’t have any shame.

Monday. Already. It’s hot again, and I’m reluctant to leave the house. Helen asks if I want to go into town. I’m not convinced and want to stay in the house hiding away from the heat. Right up until the point where she mentions ice cream. All of a sudden I have trainers on, my wallet and the car keys and we’re off. A few minutes shopping is followed by a huge sundae, as all good shopping trips should really be.

As it approaches bedtime I can only think that I could do with another couple of days off to get over the days off I’ve just had. At least it’s only a four day week this week.

Obsessed With Snatch

Stop sniggering at the front there, and get your minds out of the gutter, I’m not talking about that. I am talking about the film called “Snatch”, and a long time obsession with it.

For a start it isn’t my favourite film, it would be in my top ten I suppose, but wouldn’t be in my top five. You really don’t want to know what’s there. Such a collection of random (and mainly critically savaged) films you are less likely to see.

I had seen Guy Richie’s previous comedy / crime classic “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” when it came out. It got a lot of airplay on video (remember them?) and was quite quotable. I even saw the TV stories “Lock, Stock and…”, which weren’t bad (and certainly not as shocking as the recent “Snatch” TV series inflicted on us by Ron Weasley.) But for some reason I’d totally missed “Snatch” when it was released, and it was two years before I first saw it.

“Snatch” is funny and very entertaining; but it is violent, sweary, and definitely not PC, and followed on from “Lock Stock” in keeping with the London underworld theme. It just expanded to bring in a more global set of players. Guy Richie had kept Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng, Alan Ford and Vinnie Jones from “Lock Stock”, but added Hollywood clout with Brad Pitt as the pikey bare knuckle boxing champion, Dennis Farina and Benicio Del Toro as American gangsters, and Rade Sherbdgia as ex KGB and the almost impossible to kill “sneaky effing Russian”. It plays on some well-established stereotypes that it gets away with due to the pacing not allowing the watcher to pause long enough for it to sink in. You got all that years later with his absolute stinker “Revolver”.

By the time I got to see “Snatch”, my life had changed beyond recognition and I’d found myself washed up in Manchester, leading a faux student lifestyle in and around Fallowfield. It was the Christmas and New Year period of 2001-02 when I was introduced to the film by Mike. It is probably something he regrets doing as further commentary will show. From then on I would watch it at every opportunity. A lot of which were at 3am on stumbling back from a club. There were a lot of times that I woke on the sofa in the morning light with Klint’s “Diamond” playing on loop from the DVD’s main menu.

The obsession came from the fact that it is so eminently quotable. Eighteen years on, there is barely a day where I don’t slip a quote from “Snatch” into a conversation. Watching a film so many times during my Manchester years when I spent most of my time in an alcoholic haze seems to have embedded the script into my mind. I rarely break the DVD out to watch it now, but if there happens to be a live showing on any channel, then it is highly likely that I will dip in and watch it. The only thing I can’t promise is to keep my mouth shut during it.

By the summer of 2002, Mike had moved into the shared house I was in, bringing with him his PlayStation 2 and the DVD, and therefore a way to watch the film at home. This led to an increase in screenings. By the time he had broken his leg and was bed-bound in the room next to the living room, Mark had also moved in.

He got tired of us stumbling home and putting “Snatch” on, so he hid the DVD, putting it in the case of one of the other DVD cases. This didn’t deter me. I went out and bought my own copy (well I actually bought two, just in case the first went missing). The next day whilst we were out, Mike hobbled through to the living room and removed his PlayStation 2. I went to Argos and bought a DVD player the same day.

When I started writing my first e-zine – Surerandomality – I littered it with quotes from “Snatch” and kept a running total. By the end of issue eighty when I stopped writing it; the running total was over two thousand.

By then we had been through another shared house, and there was the day I got up on a Saturday morning and spoken in pikey all day. To everyone. Not just my housemates, but to those who served in the Co-op. Barmaids in pubs, doormen in clubs, bus drivers, taxi drivers and the all-important server of the kebab at three in the morning. How I didn’t die that day is one of life’s little mysteries.

When that shared house broke up I moved in with Mark when he bought a flat. His girlfriend Amanda moved in not long afterwards, and pretty soon bought a kitten. Somehow we managed to persuade her to call it Pikey. This obviously led to a lot of quoting “I effing hate Pikey” whenever it did something. One day it escaped, it got out the flat door, and down to the ground level and outside. When I got home, Amanda (and Mark to an extent) were looking for it. My immediate response to this was to quote from the film, “You won’t find a pikey that doesn’t want to be found. He could be in a campsite in Kampu-effing-chea by now.” This went down like the proverbial lead balloon. Her frantic searching got Mark a letter reminding him that the covenant to the flat prohibited the keeping of pets. Pikey turned up a day later, and it wasn’t long before I moved out.

At the outset my most used quote from the film would have been “Nothing, it’s tip top, I’m just not sure about the colour”, where colour would get replaced by whatever was relevant at the time. Now that I’m driving again, “it was at a funny angle” probably gets used the most, followed by “You can help me out, by showing me out.”

I must have been an annoying SOB for years with the “Snatch” obsession (I was bad enough before it). Yet when it gets triggered I can’t stop myself. One of the guys I went to school with, Dino, posted about watching the film on Friday night, and I had to jump into the chat quoting from the film. Nearly eighteen years on from the first viewing it’s a part of me. Other films may be better known, or be more obviously quotable than “Snatch”, just not by me.

The Greatest Hip-Hop Album Ever

If it wasn’t for The Jam, and my previous well documented obsession with all things Weller, then the fairly obscure Hip Hop compilation album “Electro 13” would be my favourite album of all time. If I were to look at it from a purely plays perspective then this would win hands down, even now, thirty-three years on from its original release, it still gets play on a regular basis.

Street Sounds Hip Hop Electro 13 was the thirteenth compilation album in a series and was released 1986 on the Street Sounds label. The album was released on LP and cassette and contained twenty-one electro music and old-school hip-hop tracks mixed by Herbie Laidley (known as Mastermind).

Morgan Khan’s Street Sounds label was set up in the early 1980’s and brought an eager UK market Hip Hop, Dance, Disco, Soul, and House music for the rest of the decade. The original run of the Electro series brought twenty seven albums in total, starting out in old school electro style hip hop and running into the golden era of the late 1980’s. Alongside this it had its Street Sounds series with twenty four albums of the latest dance, hip hop and house tunes. The Anthems series of Soul sounds, and a brief Housetrax series of Chicago House. It also brought together some great re-release material, including the four-album set of Enjoy Records, and the fourteen-album behemoth of the Philadelphia International label. The black and yellow Street Sounds icon on the cover of a record was a quality mark. Over the course of a decade they curated the greatest collection of compilation albums ever released.

“Electro 13” was a one off in the Electro/Hip Hop original main series 22 albums. With twenty-one tracks split over two mixes, and no complete tracks. All the other Electro/Hip Hop albums in the series had between seven and ten full length tracks with a brief mix overlap between them. The only other exceptions were in the larger Electro/Hip Hop series, as “Electro Crucial 3” featured two mixes containing a total of twenty tracks, and the “NY vs LA beats” which had two mixes totalling twenty-three tracks.

The departure from the usual format for this Electro album was due to UK Fresh ’86, a single day Hip-Hop festival organised by Street Sounds in conjunction with Capital Radio and hosted by Mike Allen at Wembley Arena. (It formed part of the larger ‘Capital Music Festival’ that ran that year.) To date that day is still the biggest single Hip-Hop concert every seen in the UK. Fifteen of the twenty-one tracks included on Electro 13 were by artists that appeared at UK Fresh ’86. It is still a source of disappointment that I couldn’t go to UK Fresh. Having only just turned sixteen, it was on the last Saturday of Leicester’s July fortnight when all the hosiery firms went on holiday. As such I would have been travelling back from the family summer holiday on the day of UK Fresh, and once back out of range of getting tuned into Capital radio.

I had shown an interest in Hip Hop fairly early on. Buying “The Message” and playing it to death horrified my mother, who still to this day expresses her disgust at this “new rap music”. Then a guy at school – Nick Starkey – lent me the first of the Electro series on tape. I made a copy, and from then on was hooked, saving money to get the albums when I could afford them. I used to pretend I was scratching by trying to replicate the sound by me rubbing my fingernails on the black vinyl of my Griffin Savers holdall. I tried with some records as well, quickly finding out that trying to do so without a slip mat just made an utter mess of the B side of the record you were trying to scratch with. Early Hip Hop had been playing looped up-tempo (normally disco) tracks with MCs rapping over the top of them. The Electro phase saw a move towards artists creating their own beats with the rise of drum machines and samplers. Then there was the progression to sampling and layering of samples to create a base to rap over, as Hip Hop moved from Electro into its Golden Age. For me, this was the crossover point.

Up to 1986, Hip Hop and the charts were only passing acquaintances. Hits in the UK singles charts were few and far between. Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel and The Furious Five accounted for half of the top forty hits. The Sugarhill Gang, Afrika Bambaataa and Mann Parish had “rap” hits. The Rock Steady Crew, Ollie & Jerry and Break Machine had the breakdancing hits, but outside of this there was very little. Even those breaking through in late 1985 and early 1986 were seen more as novelty hits (Doug E Fresh’s “The Show“, Whistle’s “Just Bugging“, Lovebug Starski and The Real Roxanne’s songs on this album, and DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince’s “Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble“). All that was about to change as this album was being mixed ready for release, Run-DMC were teaming up with Aerosmith to release “Walk This Way“. Within a year, top twenty hits were commonplace. Run-DMC, Eric B & Rakim, LL Cool J, Salt ‘n’ Pepa, The Fat Boys, Public Enemy, Mantronix and The Beastie Boys all had hits in 1987. by 1988, British Hip Hop Artists were having hits as well, even if they were looked down upon by the Americans. Wee Papa Girl Rappers, Derek B, The Cookie Crew and Monie Love all hit the top twenty. Yet so many more didn’t hit the charts, despite having better sounds, rhymes and overall songs than many who hit the charts today. There was a whole heap of artists who were born at least twenty years too early.

There are no full-length versions included on the album, and some of the tracks had quite short pieces used from them. Additionally, the mixes dipped back in time to use some tracks from before 1986 (and from previous Electro albums), whereas all the other Electro series were very much of the current time. I think that the release of Electro 13 can be seen as the point where the baton is handed over from Old School to Golden Age. It includes the first single from Eric B & Rakim who would change the game completely. And unknown to most non hip-hop heads, it saw Dr Dre and DJ Yella in their pre-NWA days as part of the World Class Wreckin’ Cru.

A common question asked, on forums and face to face, is what is your favourite Hip-Hop album of all time? Well, for me, this would have to be it. With some of the biggest names from the Old School on it (such as Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa), and future giants, it is the ultimate hip-hop album. There is some inventive mixing between tracks. Some amazing samples and beats, and a gamut of great lyrics, and future giants (Rakim, Dre). There is a lot of fun, a bit of bragging, some silliness, and masses of social commentary included. This album should be the starting point for any newcomer to hip-hop to hear what can be done before the major labels choked the life out of it.

I think to date I’ve bought seven copies of this album. I’ve lost two to house moves, two to lending to (ex) friends and one to being worn out and scratched to hell; and so, keep two copies of it now, just in case. Having the time and money to do it, I went about getting all the original 12″ singles for the tracks from the album. I started in 2003 and it took me four years and hundreds of pounds before I completed the set with the last two as they came onto Discogs at the same time. “UK Fresh ’86 (The Anthem)” by Hashim featuring MC Devon and “The State We’re In (Vocal)” by Easy Mike featuring M.C. Sure Shot, the latter of which I’d been (un)reliably informed had never been released. Plus, one I’d been told had been released as a single never had, as M.C. Chill’s “The Prophecy” was only ever released on his eponymous album.

Track listing

Side one

1. – “Style (Peter Gunn Theme)” – Grandmaster Flash.

Flash, now without the original Furious Five after alleged drug related and contractual issues, comes back with this single from his second album on the Elektra label. The main bassline from the song is from Henry Mancini’s “Peter Gunn Theme“, but he adds in samples from Freedom “Get Up and Dance“, Cameo “Single Life“, Maze feat Frankie Beverly “Before I Let Go“, and Afrika Bambaataa and The Jazzy 5 “Jazzy Sensation” to great effect. Released as a single in the UK, it didn’t chart. Was sampled in Prince Shahem Beloved’s “I Can Go Freestyle“. My favourite post Sugarhill Grandmaster Flash track, there are definite overtones of this being a diss record, lines like “you thought you had style, you thought you had grace, but you wouldn’t know class if it hit you in the face” suggest that there was some hangover of enmity from the split from Sugarhill. Flash (real name Joseph Saddler) faded away in the late eighties and nineties, but now nearly forty years on from his initial release “Superrapping“, he is touring the globe wowing audiences and gathering new fans. He really was the original superstar DJ.

Released on Elektra – EKR 39 T in 1986 with edited and instrumental versions on the B side.

2. – “Bambaataa’s Theme (Assault On Precinct 13)” – Afrika Bambaataa and Family.

Sampling the theme from John Carpenter’s original “Assault On Precinct 13” from 1986, this single, released on Tommy Boy was the first single release from his fourth album. Released as a single in the UK, this didn’t chart, but I did try and help it. Bambaataa was the founding father of the Zulu Nation. As such he was one of the forefathers of Hip Hop, as the Zulu Nation and Grandmasters helped to transform the gangs of seventies New York into the Hip Hop crews to lead them into the eighties. There is an elegant simplicity in this largely instrumental track. Yes, the music is borrowed, but it is used to great effect, and shows that Electro was about far more than just rapping

Released on WEA in the UK – U8663(T) in 1986 with “Tension” as the B Side.

3. – “UK Fresh ’86 (The Anthem)” – Hashim featuring MC Devon.

Known for his Electro classic “Al-Naafiysh (The Soul)”, Hashim was one of several artists lined up for Capital Radio’s UK Fresh ’86. MC Devon had his only appearance on this track which was put together to promote the UK Fresh event. Hashim (Jerry Calliste) had started as a promoter of Hip-Hop gigs. He worked as a janitor at Tommy Boy records before going on to start his own label – Cutting Records, before leaving that to his business partners to go on and set up Precise Records. It isn’t any surprise that MC Devon didn’t go on to have much more of a career releasing tracks. The rhymes are almost childlike, and it sounds as if he was struggling over the delivery. He was just born thirty years too early; he’d be a maestro nowadays. Hashim had featured on previous Electro releases.

Released on Streetwave, a label also run by Morgan Khan, on label number MKHAN72 with another mix on the B side.

4. – “Fast Life” – Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde.

The full version was featured on “Electro 5”. Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde consisted of Andre “Dr. Jeckyll” Harrell and Alonzo “Mr. Hyde” Brown. The group was known for its corporate business image, wearing designer suits and ties while they rapped. The group first performed under the name Harlem World Crew. After the group’s demise, Andre Harrell became the founder and chief executive officer of Uptown Records. He later went on to head Motown Records. The track is a quite serious and heavy social commentary about a teenage wannabe gangster. How the life attracts him, but how his peers eschew the lifestyle.

Released on Profile Records – PRO-7048 in 1984 with the track “A.M P.M.” also on the A Side, and instrumentals of both on the B side. Wasn’t released as a single in the UK.

5. – “Get Loose” – Aleem.

Aleem featured on other Electro releases. Just missed out on the UK charts proper, peaking at number 82 in January 1986. Sampled in “Get Loose” by L.A. Mix feat. Jazzi P, “Band in a Box’s Get Dynamite” by Band In A Box, “My Telephone” by Mikey D & the LA Posse, “Armed and Extremely Dangerous” by London Rhyme Syndicate, and “Who Am I?” by K-Bee & Ceil-B. Aleem were twin brothers – Taharqua and Tunde-Ra Aleem, who had been doing studio work since the late sixties and had worked on Jimi Hendrix’s “Cry Of Love” and “Rainbow Bridge“. They formed NIA records and produced several other early Hip Hop artists, including Captain Rock who also appears on “Electro 13”. A much more vocal release, with an electro backing track, and soulful singing from Leroy Burgess who is related to the Bell family of Kool & The Gang fame. It almost has the vibe of an early Chicago House track.

Releases in the US on their own NIA label in 1984, it was released on Streetwave in the UK – MKHAN61, with “Get Loose / Release Yourself” and a dub version on the B side.

6. – “(Solution To) The Problem (The DEFinitive Dance Mix)” – Masquerade.

Charted at number 64 in the UK singles chart in July 1986. Sampled Ronald Reagan’s “We Begin Bombing in Five Minutes” spoof speech, and “Change the Beat (Female Version)” by Beside. More social commentary, this time on getting nations getting dragged into overseas conflicts. Uses dialogue from then US President, Ronald Reagan, and UK Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher and the conflict with Libya and its leader Colonel Gadaffi as its base to bring together an anti-war message.

Released on Streetwave – MKHAN67 in 1986. This mix was the B Side, the A side was the Extended Vocal Mix.           

7. – “Square Dance Rap (Power Mix)” – Sir Mix-A-Lot.

Way before his massive world-wide smash of “Baby Got Back“, this features some of the fastest rapping I had ever heard at that point. The full version was featured on “Electro 12”.  Just missed out on the UK charts proper, peaking at number 81 in July 1986. Sampled “Rock Me Baby” by B.B. King, “Get Out of My Mix” by Dolby’s Cube, and “Change the Beat (Female Version)” by Beside. Sir Mix-A-Lot (Anthony Ray) was known for driving the streets of his native Seattle blasting out his new compositions to get them airplay due to the lack of other outlets for Hip Hop there. Cowboy rap, at the time I would have thought that this could have stood in its own category for eternity. Then came “Country Mike’s Greatest Hits“, the Beastie Boys in disguise, and of course Kid Rock. It was difficult to reconcile this with the style and pitch on “Baby Got Back“.

Another released on Streetwave – MKHAN69 in 1986. The mix was the second track on the B Side, which it shared with the Radio Edit. The A side featured the Rodeo Drive Mix and the US Original Version.

8. – “Return Of Captain Rock” – Captain Rock.

The full version was featured on “Electro 1” and “Crucial Electro 1”. Captain Rock (real name Ronnie Green) was an underground fixture in the early 80’s. His appearance at UK Fresh ’86 saw him allegedly strip down to his thong on stage. The track had very laid-back vocals over sounds that made you think you were travelling with a spaceship Captain, very much in the style of George Clinton. Before being Captain Rock, he was Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’s live DJ from their period in the Harlem World Crew.  He was known as DJ Ronnie Green. He went on to referee for NCAA Division 3 basketball in the late 80’s and early 90’s and to run a youth program in New York City, for underprivileged kids. Sampled “Change the Beat (Female Version)” by Beside. Was sampled in “Hyperspeed (G-Force Part 2)” by The Prodigy, “Dig Your Own Hole” by The Chemical Brothers, “Check It Out” by Ferry Corsten, and “Hyperspeed” by Drumattic Twins.

Released on NIA Records (NI1236) in the US only in 1983. The B side was the instrumental.

9. – “Running (“The Nest” Remix)” – Information Society.

Also featured in a mix on “Electro Crucial 3”. Formed in 1982 in Minneapolis the Information Society had independently released two albums before moving to New York and getting a record deal and released this single in 1985. A very Electro sounding instrumental section of the track was used in the mix on this album. There was a vocal version, but it didn’t sound much like this one. They had been a very sparse electro sounding band at outset, and gradually changed style away from that over their career, with the different versions of this track probably marking the main turning point. Sampled “Hot Pants Pt. 1 (She Got to Use What She Got to Get What She Wants)” by James Brown. Sampled in “Love You, Will You Love Me (Hard Love Mix)” by Judy Torres, “Emergency” by Cha-os, “Give It to Baby” by Altern 8, “Fallen Angel” by Clear Touch, “Freshmix Vol. 1” by DJ EFX, “Kamikaze (Took My Love)” by 2 in a Room, “Strange Mix Medley (007 Mix)” by Depeche Mode, “Paranoid Thugism” by Genaside II, “I’ll Be Loving You” by Collage, “A Night at the Edit Block” by Blade to the Rhythm, and “For All You Non-Believers (Have a Nice One)” by Spacework.

Released on Tommy Boy (TB877) in the US only in 1986. This mix was the first track on Side B, which it shared with the Instrumental. The A Side had the Vocal Mix and Percappella.

10. – “Mission Possible” – World Class Wreckin’ Cru.

The World Class Wreckin’ Cru also featured on other Electro releases. World Class Wreckin’ Cru debuted in a club owned by one of the early West Coast DJs, Alonzo Williams. Before he opened “Eve After Dark” in 1979, Alonzo was one of the most popular DJs in the Los Angeles area. He began producing dances under the name of Disco Construction, named after funk group Brass Construction. Seeing the popularity of this new craze, he entered the market of running nightclub performances. The club opened with Detroit-born Andre Manuel aka Unknown DJ directing the music program. Disco Construction created a subgroup called the into Wreckin’ Cru which were the Lonzos roadies and later adding World Class it became the name of the recording group. Lonzo hired local DJs Antoine “Yella” Carraby and Andre “Dr. Dre” Young who later became the original Mix Masters for KDAY. Alonzo Williams created the label “Kru-cut” which began releasing The Wreckin’ Cru music through the mid-1980s with very minimal resources through Macola Records. When this track came out, we knew nothing about Dr Dre or DJ Yella, within two years NWA were the biggest thing going. There is a big difference between this and “Straight Outta Compton“, and it was a few years before I made the connection. Dre in what looks suspiciously like make-up and shiny metallic outfits on the 12” and album covers is always good entertainment value for those who weren’t aware. Sampled “Dance to the Music” by Sly & the Family Stone, and “Mission: Impossible Theme” by Lalo Schifrin.

Released on Epic – TA7281 in 1986 with “World Class Freak” as the B Side.

Side two

1. – “Amityville” – Lovebug Starski.

When Sylvia Robinson was setting up Sugarhill Records, it was Lovebug Starski (born Kevin Smith) she approached to record the first release for the label. He was the house DJ at the Bronx club Disco Fever and was known to MC over the records, and is credited with coming up with the term Hip-Hop – Starski claimed that he coined the phrase while trading the two words back and forth while improvising lines with Cowboy of the Furious Five at a farewell party for a friend who was headed into the Army. He turned Sylvia Robinson down, who went and found what became The Sugarhill Gang and released “Rapper’s Delight“. Starski did turn to a recording career starting in 1981. This release was his biggest chart hit in the UK and is unfortunately seen as more of a novelty record, one that should really have been issued around Halloween, as it covers several Halloween’s tropes. Hit number 12 in the UK singles chart in May and June 1986. Another one that I’d bought as a single, and that got played nearly to death. He died in February 2018. No credited samples, but had an impersonator doing voices from Spock and Kirk from Star Trek amongst others.

Released on Epic – TA7182 in 1986. The B side was a Dub mix.

2. – “Pee-Wee’s Dance” – Joe Ski Love. 

Just missed out on the UK charts proper, peaking at number 94 in July 1986. Sampled “Tequila” by The Champs, “Synthetic Substitution” by Melvin Bliss, “Pump That Bass” by Original Concept, and dialogue from two scenes (Mario’s Magic Shop and I Meant to Do That) from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. Has been sampled in 197 songs, including 2Pac’s “Ambitionz Az a Ridah“, The Chemical Brothers’ “Hey Boy, Hey Girl“, Public Enemy’s “Rebel Without a Pause“, Beastie Boys’ “Posse in Effect“, Eazy-E’s “Boyz-N-The-Hood“, Mr. Lee (Chicago House)’s “Get Busy“, LL Cool J’s “You Better Watch Me“, and De La Soul’s “Area” amongst a whole host of others. Proof that you could rap about absolutely anything in the mid-eighties. I can’t imagine Pee Wee Herman getting a track dedicated to a dance like his if such a film came out now.

Released on Vintertainment and Elektra in the US, it came out on Cooltempo (COOLX125) in the UK in 1986. B side had the Acappella Beat and Instrumental version.

3. – “Latoya” – Just-Ice.

Just Ice also featured on other Electro releases. Born Joseph Williams Jr. he was a former bouncer at punk clubs, he was the first of the New York rappers to embrace gangster rap, and when he burst out of the Castle Hill neighbourhood in the New York City borough of the Bronx as Just-Ice, he gained instant notoriety. Muscle-bound, tattooed, aggressive—he resembled Mike Tyson in more than just looks—and with a mouthful of gold teeth, he certainly stood out. His debut album Back to the Old School came out on the independent New York label Sleeping Bag, and certainly sounded like no other hip-hop album, thanks to his fast and forceful rhymes, Ben “Human DMX” Paynes’ beatboxing, as well as the distinctive production of Mantronix’s Kurtis Mantronik. Not long after his appearance at UK Fresh ’86 he was charged with the murder of drug dealer Ludlaw DeSouza, but later proven innocent. Sampled “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by Peter, Paul & Mary. Was sampled in 48 songs including Alicia Keys feat. Mos Def, Common and Damian Marley’s “Love It or Leave It” Alone”, Welcome to Jamrock, MF DOOM’s “Kon Karne“, The Prodigy’s “Wind It Up“, Funkdoobiest’s “Rock On“, KRS-One feat. Kid Capri’s “Stop Frontin’“, De La Soul’s “D.A.I.S.Y. Age“, and Nas, MC Shan, UTFO and Kool Moe Dee feat. Grandmaster Caz, Dana Dane and Just-Ice’s “Where Are They Now (80’s Remix)”. Story of the song is basically; sees girl. Is nervous about talking to her. Mate tells him to stop being a chicken. Girl tries to brush him off before he starts. He raps to her anyway. She changed her mind. They get together. Like a Shakespeare tale four hundred years on.

Wasn’t a main single release, it was the second track on Track A of the “Put That Record Back On” single releases in the US only on Fresh Records – FRE-003 in 1986. The B Side had the instrumental of “Put That Record Back On” and “That Girl Is A Slut“.

4. – “The Prophecy, Part 1 (In The Beginning)” – M.C. Chill.

M.C. Chill also featured on other Electro releases. Never released as a single. Nice take on the Bible “in the beginning there was the word”. M.C. Chill goes on to prophesize there will be greed and destruction of rap. a lot of which could be considered to have become true. However, as this was his first (and last) album, his claim that he was there at the beginning and will be at the end, does seem a little bit of a stretch.

It was only available on M.C. Chill’s album “M.C. Chill“, released on Fever Records – SFS001 in 1986. It was track 3 on Side 2. The other tracks were (side 1) “M.C. Story”, “Downbeats” and “Chill-drens Rhymes“, and (side b) “Open Your Eyes”, “Jealousy” and “Bust This Rhyme“

5. – “Eric B. Is President” – Eric B. featuring Rakim.

Eric Barrier played trumpet and drums throughout high school, and later switched to experimenting with turntables prior to graduation. The newly dubbed “Eric B.” soon began DJing for radio station WBLS in New York City. Barrier wound up meeting Alvin Toney, a promoter based in Queens. Eric B. had been looking for rappers and Toney recommended he use Freddie Foxxx, a Long Island MC. Toney took Eric B. to Foxxx’s home, but Foxxx was not there, so Toney suggested another option: William Griffin, a.k.a. Rakim. Griffin had begun writing rhymes as a teenager in Wyandanch and had taken the name “Rakim” as a result of his conversion to The Nation of Gods and Earths. The various early pressings of this had the title printed as both Eric B is President and Eric B for President, and it saw the first release from the greatest MC of them all – Rakim. It is said to be a response to Janet Jackson’s “What Have You Done For Me Lately?” responding to her verse of “Used to go to dinner almost every night, Dancin’ ’til I thought I’d lose my breath, Now it seems your dancing feet are always on my couch, Good thing I cook or else we’d starve to death – Ain’t that a shame? What have you done for me lately.” with the third verse of “Go get a girl and get soft and warm, Don’t get excited, you’ve been invited to a quiet storm, But now it’s out of hand cause you told me you hate me, And then you ask what have I done lately, First you said all you want is love and affection, Let me be your angel and I’ll be your protection, Take you out, buy you all kinds of things, I must have got you too hot and burned off your wings, You caught an attitude, you need food to eat up, I’m scheming like I’m dreaming on a couch with my feet up, You scream I’m lazy, you must be crazy, Thought I was a donut, you tried to glaze me”. This was my first introduction to Eric B & Rakim, and so began the obsession with having everything recorded by them. In a time where numerous remixes came out for each single release, it means I have over thirty 12″ inch singles by them. I consider Rakim to be the greatest MC of all time, and it is great to see him in such demand for collaborations from all kinds of artists today. Released as a single in the UK, didn’t chart despite me buying two different versions of it. Sampled The Mohawks’ “The Champ“, Mountain’s “Long Red“, James Brown’s “Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved” and “Funky President (People It’s Bad)”, Fonda Rae’s “Over Like a Fat Rat“, and The Honey Drippers’ “Impeach the President“. Was sampled L.O.D.’s “I Feel It (Remix)”, 8-Off Agallah’s “Ghetto Girl“, Sham & the Professor’s “So-Low-Ist“, The Troubleneck Brothers’ “Back to the Hip-Hop“, Tony D’s “Buggin’ on the Line”, Da Beatminerz feat. Caron Wheeler and Pete Rock’s “Open (Remix)”, Facemob feat. Scarface’s “Rivals“, Urban Flow’s “Just for You“, Da 5 Footaz’s “It All Got Start“, T.W.D.Y. feat. Otis & Shug’s “Out 2 Get Mo“, Jackers’ “It’s Finna Be On” and a dozen other tracks.

Released in the UK on Cooltempo (COOLX129) in 1986. It had the extended dub mix on the B Side. A second version on (COOLN129) had “My Melody” on the B Side. Was released on Zakia and Fourth & Broadway in the US.

6. – “Bring The Beat Back (Vocal)” – M.C. Boob A.K.A. Steady “B”.

Warren McGlone known by the stage name Steady B, was a member (and de facto leader) of Philadelphia’s Hilltop Hustlers crew. Steady B released five albums over the course of his career, with mixed success. He is currently serving a life sentence in a Pennsylvania state prison for his role in the murder of Philadelphia Police officer Lauretha Vaird, during a botched bank robbery in January 1996. Sampled The Headhunters feat. Pointer Sisters’ “God Make Me Funky” and E.U.’s “Knock Him Out Sugar Ray“. Sampled in Sublime’s “Steady B Loop Dub“, DJ Red Alert & Mike Slammer’s “Just Wanna Hold U Tight”, EPMD and D.J. K La Boss’s “D.J. K La Boss“, and Vicious V’s “In Full Effect – Master Done It“. Includes some of the most off-beat rapping I’d heard. Well at least until Kanye West’s first album.

Was the B Side of “Yo Mutha” on the US release on Pop Art Records. It’s release in the UK on Streetwave (MKHAN75) had reversed the order, with an instrumental on the A side, and “Yo Mutha” and its instrumental on the B side.

7. – “(Bang Zoom) Let’s Go Go Go” – The Real Roxanne with Hitman Howie Tee.

UTFO went out to get a female MC in response to a war of words with Roxanne Shante, and to name her The Real Roxanne. Their initial choice Elease Jack, who recorded the first single The Real Roxanne under the character’s name had bailed by the time they got to recording this to be replaced by Adelaida Martinez. A top twenty UK chart hit, again unfortunately seen as somewhat of a novelty hit with the Looney Tunes samples included. The track also featured backing singing from Full Force. Hit number 11 in the UK singles chart in June and July 1986, one of those sales would have been to me, as this was another that got a lot of playing time when it came out. Sampled The Isley Brothers’ “For the Love of You (Part 1 & 2)”, Malcolm McLaren’s “Buffalo Gals“, Funk, Inc.’s “Kool Is Back“, Full Force’s “Alice, I Want You Just for Me”, John McLaughlin’s “Honky-Tonk Haven“, Billy Squier’s “The Big Beat”, Les Elgart’s “Bandstand Boogie“, and dialogue from Looney Tunes “The Wabbit Kicked the Bucket” and “That’s All Folks”. Has been sampled in 147 songs, including De La Soul feat. Jungle Brothers and Q-Tip’s “Buddy”, Eazy-E’s “Boyz-N-The-Hood”, Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Flow Show“, DJ Kool’s “20 Minute Workout“, Bomb the Bass’s “Megablast (Hip Hop on Precinct 13)”, De La Soul’s “Cool Breeze on the Rocks“, 3-2 Get Funky’s “Too Funky” and Rodney O and Joe Cooley’s “Supercuts (Yeah Boy)” amongst all the others.

Released on Select records in the US, it was released on Cooltempo (COOLX124) in 1986 with “Howie’s Teed Off” as the B Side.

8. – “Queen Of Rox (Shante Rox On) (Street Version)” – Roxanne Shante.

The full version was featured on “Electro 7”. Born Lolita Shanté Gooden she started rapping at the age of nine and changed her name from Lolita to Roxanne at fourteen. In 1984, the young rapper ran into Tyrone Williams, DJ Mr. Magic, and record producer Marley Marl outside the Queensbridge housing project. U.T.F.O. had recently released a single called “Hanging Out,” which did not gain much critical acclaim; however, the B-side “Roxanne, Roxanne“, about a woman who would not respond to their advances, became a hit. Shante was contracted to write a track in rebuttal to U.T.F.O.’s rap, posing as the Roxanne in the U.T.F.O. song. Marley Marl produced the song “Roxanne’s Revenge” using the original beats from an instrumental version of “Roxanne, Roxanne“. The track became an instant hit and made Shante, only 14 years old at the time, one of the first female MCs to become very popular. Sampled her own “Roxanne’s Revenge“, Bob James’s “Take Me to the Mardi Gras” and The Gap Band’s “Burn Rubber on Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)”. Sampled in her own “Runaway” and “Funk Daddy feat. Dee-Lyrious’s “Hoo-Ride“. The best Female MC of all time in a track that is a loose retelling of her story of how she was “discovered” and used to respond to U.T.F.O’s “Roxanne Roxanne“. Recorded with Rick James on “Loosey’s Rap” and then kind of vanished from the scene for nearly ten years before coming back on Mekon’s “What’s Going On“, showing she had lost none of her edge or delivery.

Released in the US only on Pop Art Records (PA1408) in 1985. This mix was the second track on the A Side with the Radio version, the B Side had the dub mix.

9. – “The State We’re In (Vocal)” – Easy Mike featuring M.C. Sure Shot.

Sampled James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” and Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s “The Message“. It was one of three singles Easy Mike released on the label along with “It’s Easy” and “I Salute“, all three being released in 1986. Had another release “Talk About Brotherhood” on Unsilent Majority Records. M.C. Sure Shot only appearance on any track came on this record. Back to social commentary, touching on politics, war and the ghetto.

Released in the US only, with the only official version being a promo on The Future Records – TF003. The A side also had the instrumental on, and the B Side had “It’s Too Political” vocal and instrumental versions on it.

10. – “Ladies” – Mantronix.

Mantronix also featured on other Electro releases. Hit number 55 in the UK singles chart in February 1986, the first of ten chart hits the group had over the next five years. Mantronix was formed by DJ Kurtis Mantronik (Kurtis el Khaleel) and rapper MC Tee (Touré Embden). They are primarily remembered for their pioneering blend of old school hip hop, electronic, and club music. They underwent several genre and line-up changes during its seven-year existence between 1984–91 and released five albums beginning with their 1985 debut “Mantronix: The Album”. While working as the in-store DJ for Downtown Records in Manhattan, Kurtis Mantronik met MC Tee, a Haitian-born, Flatbush, Brooklyn-based rapper. The duo soon made a demo, “Fresh Is The Word,” and signed with Sleeping Bag Records. Electro 13 used a lot of the instrumental part of the track before letting MC Tee into treatise on the fairer sex.

This was released on 10 Records (TEN116-12) in the UK in 1986 having had a US release on Sleeping Bag Records in 1985. It had another version and the instrumental on the B Side.

11. – “Sleep Walking” – Family Quest.

Established in 1983, Family Quest were one of the earliest UK rap groups but had only ever featured on 1984’s “Outer Space ’84 Rap” by Automation. The group Dirty Harry, E=Mix, Cheeko MC aka Daddy Hip Hop & Mystery (real names Zonya Sullivan, Hugh Christie, Barry Jacobs, Kim Arthurs and Mark Malcolm) were regular hosts alongside Tim Westwood & DJ Fingers at Spats club in London’s Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon, and were produced by Paul Phillips, formerly of funk band Hi Tension. As the title suggests there are mentions of sleepwalking, both the physical sense (“I dreamt I was making love in the dark, when I woke up all alone in the Park”) and the metaphorical sense of people just sleepwalking through their lives every day (“Every morning, yawning, they only look half awake”). Also has a section of the track which calls out sexism at the time, both in general life and the music industry, as a female MC has the line before the fadeout of the album of “In their dreams, we don’t exist, so they can’t see us doing this.” In 1986 they entered a “King Of The Streets” competition on Mike Allen’s Capital Radio show and won. The prize was this track, their only group release, produced by David Toop who wrote the book Rap Attack and released on Morgan Khan’s Streetwave label. They were the only UK act to appear on stage at the legendary hip hop show UK Fresh 86 at Wembley Arena and appear on the accompanying Street Sounds “Electro 13” album. Sampled Mike Oldfield’s “Blue Peter“, The Crystals’ “Do Ron Ron“, and dialogue from Peter Seller’s Inspector Clouseau in “A Shot In The Dark”.

Released on Streetwave (MKHAN74) in 1986. Had the Wake Mix on the A Side and the Alarm Mix on the B Side.

Label – Street Sounds

Catalog Number – ELCST 13 (Vinyl), ZCELC 13 (Cassette)

Artwork & Design – Federation

Sleeve Notes – Morgan Khan

Charts UK Albums Chart – Entered the chart on 6th September 1986, it reached Number 23 and stayed in the charts for 5 weeks. This was back before compilations were split out into a separate chart.

The Adventures Of Charlie and Teddy

As anyone who may have met him will know, the calamity that is Charlie is completely crazy.

For a long time he has been a very real menace to anything with stuffing in. Despite having being done at an early and appropriate age, he still gets the urge to shag the stuffing out of any cushion or pillow going. We can’t have cushions on the sofa in the living room because they don’t last more than a couple of days before Charlie has chewed all the corners off and then shagged all the stuffing out of the chewed corners.

For a long time he would find a way to break into the bedrooms, and when he did he would drag a pillow off the bed, or in to the middle of it and have his way with it. Having now installed handles on all doors that prevent him being able to force his way into bedrooms, he hasn’t been able to take his frustrations out in the usual manner.

Instead he had taken to tearing up the carpet upstairs and chewing the hell out of that. When there was no more carpet for him to wreck, he took to scrunching the rugs up and trying to shag them.

Therefore we thought it would be a good idea to go around the charity shops and see if we could find a large teddy bear. Which we did. We placed it next to his pile of blankets in the kitchen and left it for Charlie to investigate.

But, being an awkward sod, he didn’t. He ignored it for over five months. Therefore we moved it next to the front door to take back to a charity shop when it got around to being the weekend. Only to find the next day that Charlie had decided it was time to become friends with Teddy.

Close friends.

So over the last three weeks Charlie has built up an ongoing physical relationship with the teddy. He’s chewed holes in the ears, and all the stuffing has escaped from there. One of the arms has a hole in it as well now and is losing its stuffing at a steady pace and becoming withered. Every day we find another little bit of stuffing lying on the rug in the living room. And we frequently find Charlie laying in an exhausted heap panting like a loon.

Well, this evening, Charlie surpassed himself.

There I was, sitting at the kitchen table shelling peas. One for me, and one for the pot. When all of a sudden I can hear Charlie doing his puffing billy routine and I see him moving gingerly out of the corner of my eye. He is slowly trying to make his way out of the back door, struggling to cross the threshold.

Then I see the reason why. Trailing behind him, hanging by one ear between Charlie’s rear legs is Teddy. Charlie is looking back over his shoulder at me with a baleful look on his face. He is screaming help me, but not making a sound.

Upon closer inspection, Charlie has his penis stuck through one of the ears of Teddy and can’t seem to get himself free. He is all swollen and purple and unable to leave Teddy behind. Teddy is being dragged slowly across the patio and on to the lawn.

All that I can think of is the joke. Why did the pervert cross the road? Because he couldn’t get his cock out of the chicken.

Therefore I’m not doing a particularly good job of trying not to laugh, and Helen is a bit worried about how to disentangle Teddy from Charlie’s appendage. There is a reluctance to cut Teddy’s ear off, as scissors near Charlie’s bits are a recipe for disaster. Perhaps some water would help lubricate matters, and so Helen goes off to get some, just at the moment Charlie finally manages to break free from the overly attached Teddy.

I pick Teddy up and put him back in the living room on the table and return to shelling peas (I did wash my hands first). Charlie still has a pained look on his face, or does in the brief interludes he looks up from licking his slightly distended penis. After a good ten minutes of licking his bits he finally manages to get back on his feet and hobbles slowly back inside the house.

Only for him to be found in the living room near to where Teddy is suddenly back on the floor.

There really is no hope for the daft dog.

Stupid Weather

Why can’t we, as a country, seem to be able to cope with weather that is in the slightest bit abnormal? Half an inch of snow and the country grinds to a halt. Thunderstorms and heavy rain brings on full blown panic. a bit breezy and people forget how to walk or drive. And then despite the lengthy moaning of most people about the lack of hot weather (not something you’ll hear me moaning about btw), when it is hot, it’s too hot. Public transport becomes even more chaotic than usual. And some companies take this as a sign to be utter halfwits.

I may have mentioned my total disdain towards Southern Trains and Thamestink before (just the once or twice). Well they took full advantage of the hot weather to try and provide an even worse service than they are usually capable of. Southern Trains started out the day by blatantly lying about the running times of their trains. They had all services through Three Bridges into London as running on time. First on the national rail website, and then in the station where you buy tickets. All the displays show as trains being on time and running to schedule.

However, the moment you put your ticket through the barrier and head for the platforms then it all changes. The train I had gone to catch had all of a sudden lost twenty minutes. Either they are a bunch of unscrupulous lying weasels, or there is a time warp on their barriers. Either way I walked up to the platform and stood in as much shade as could be mustered for twenty minutes. And then, just for good measure another five minutes.

Having only just gotten comfortable by the time the train got to Gatwick Airport, it was somewhat perturbing to be kicked off the train to wait for the next Victoria service, so the train we were on could get back on schedule. So I waited with hundreds of others for the train from Folkestone, which is of course, running late itself. I get on, only for Southern to pull the very same trick at East Croydon. Having crawled along because of the potential for buckled rails in the heat. (They don’t have the same problem in countries that are this hot most of the year round.)

Finally I arrive at Victoria, and the tube is up the spout. Apparently with the same problems with the rails. Yep, the sun must have been really strong to get to the rails thirty meters underground. Bus it is, but the air con isn’t working, and they only have three windows on the whole bus, none of them much bigger than a tablet computer. Not that the bus is going fast enough to generate any airflow anyway.

Coming home is not much better. Thamestink are the culprits this time. They at least, say their trains are running late. Both online and at the station, but neither actually bear any resemblance to what is happening at St Pancras. The boards show trains are running with times for some of them. A number don’t have times and none say cancelled. But all of those proclamations are illusions.

They have a YTS kid at the top of the escalators trying to stop people getting down to the platform. Having not noticed him, and with an escalator working I just wander past and start heading down. YTS boy screams at me that there are no southbound trains running. The end of his scream is drowned out by the tannoy system saying that the train arriving on platform A is the delayed train to Horsham.

I’m not sure what happened to the YTS boy, but for all I know he may well be on the train to Horsham, carried along with the rush of people careering down the escalator he was trying to guard. After arriving at the station and boarding the mad rush of passengers, the train sits there for another quarter of an hour before actually going anywhere. At each stop through London it fills up some more, until all seats, the standing areas, luggage racks (including those above the seats), are full of people.

The air con is trying its best but is fighting a losing battle against the heat generated by the sardine tin.

The driver can’t even get the doors closed at London Bridge. Despite several desperate pleas over the PA system inside and outside the train, it is another ten minutes before we get going again. We stop at every tinpot station on the way, and then the train suddenly empties at Redhill. The train makes a noise very much like a sigh of relief and the display goes on the fritz, saying it is only stopping at Gatwick and Horsham. The driver assures all the passengers that we are actually stopping at all the other “small” stations on the way.

I eventually get to Three Bridges on the same day I had left it, but it felt more like three days.

And it was a shit meeting I went to as well.

The Pre Pre-Season Preview

Well, it was when I started writing this, but as I kept stopping to do other things and to write other pieces it’s taken me past he point where the pre-season has started.

It’s been less than two months since the Champions League final and Spurs’ insipid performance there. The last three months of last season were filled with such performances as we limped into fourth place in the league and fluked our way into the Champions League final. And now I’m looking ahead to what the new season will bring.

Anyone who knows me, or has read my pre-season blog posts before will know I’m not the most optimistic supporter. How can I be having been a Spurs supporter for forty odd (very odd) years. I’m quite realistic. Something that I don’t have in common with a lot of other Spurs fans or the knee-jerk sensationalists in the media. I don’t think I’ve ever gone in to a season thinking that we will win a trophy.

And guess what people, that isn’t going to change this year.

The summer has been somewhat less frantic than last year, with no resource heavy summer tournaments for the majority of the squad this time around. Not only that, but we have actually signed someone this season, after two buying free transfer windows we signed two players on the same day at the start of the month. Granted we loaned one straight back to Leeds, but it was a step in the right direction.

We have also been making sales. Trippier to Atletico Madrid was a bit of a surprise. However I’m not particularly sad to see him go, his performances faded as the season went on, almost as if he believed his own hype after the World Cup. Not sure what we are going to do about a replacement, Aurier and Walker-Peters don’t fill me with confidence, but Forth may fit the roll. As long as he can stay on the pitch and away from the penalty area.

It is likely that Danny Rose will also be leaving. His performances over the last month of the season showed what a good player he can be. He was easily our best player during that period, but he can be a liability. He gets involved in too much aggro, and falls over very easily. Something him and several other players need to cut out this season as VAR kicks in. (Alli, Son, Kane, Lamela, I’m looking at you.)

There may be others leaving, and although there are plenty of rumours of new signings, I’m not going to hold my breath that there will be any amazing incomings before the start of the season.

I’m not hopeful of the top four this season, I think we’ll end up just outside in fifth. After predicted seventh and sixth for the last two seasons, and finishing third and fourth respectively, I might just meet myself in the middle this time.

Thankfully there are no Champions League qualifiers to be played, or we could have been in the Europa League before we started. I’ve predicted us to go out at the group stage for the last two years, and I was set to make that a hat trick of pessimistic predictions, but I will say I think we’ll just about scrape out of the group, only to go out in the round of sixteen.

We got to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup last year, more by luck than judgement, only to go out on penalties in the first season they did away with the away goals rule. I can’t see us getting to the semi-final this year. Too much messing with the team selections and getting knocked out by teams taking it more seriously, which is a shame as it is a real opportunity to try and win something.

I got the fourth round exit in the FA Cup spot on. I can see us getting further this year, but losing out in the semi-finals for the ninth time on the trot in the competition.

We will have good runs during the season, and there will be a lot of over optimistic chat about winning things. We won’t. Mainly because there will be those appallingly bad runs that hit us. Most people call it February.

Then the inevitable will happen and Harry Kane will pick up an ankle knock and the reports will say he’ll be out for six weeks. Then he’ll be back in three and play despite being not fully fit.

We did this twice last year. He is a very good, prolific goal scorer, but he isn’t the be all and end all of the team. We went on very good winning runs without him in the team. Coming back early from injury meant trying to shoe horn him into the team when he wasn’t able to play at his natural best. When fully fit he should be in the team. He scores lots of goals, he holds the line well, and brings other players into play. He has a much more rounded game than he is given credit for. But only when fully fit.

I admire his will to try and get back playing as soon as possible. But he doesn’t do the team, or himself, any favours when he does. The manager needs to be stronger and say no. Let him get his full fitness and match fitness back by playing in the reserves, or coming on as a late sub. Don’t start him just because he is Harry Kane and the captain of England. And if the manager doesn’t feel able to do this, then perhaps it’s time for a new manager. It might also help if some of his team mates have a word. He might get carried away a bit the first few games of the season after scoring from the half way line in the first pre-season friendly win over Juventus.

It is likely to be an interesting season. VAR is going to make a difference. I’ll admit that it could hit us hard, as there have been some borderline decisions for penalties and free kicks where players have gone to ground too easily. Liverpool and Arsenal have been called out for this as well. The new handball rules could see a sudden increase in penalties and sending offs and make games more unpredictable.

I see it being close at the top again, but think it will end up the same as it did last season. Manchester City will pip Liverpool to the title again, and claim a hat trick of title wins. Chelsea will overcome their transfer ban and begin to use some of the vast array of talent they have out there on loan. Arsenal will be more settled, and despite mutterings of there not being much money for transfers they have been doing reasonable business, and they are likely to pip us for fourth.

Anything better than I have predicted for us will be a bonus to my mind, and for those that think it’s not good enough, just remember, there are eighty seven other league clubs who would snatch your whole arm off if you said they would get fifth spot in the Premier League.

Don’t be greedy, enjoy the good games, celebrate the wins, and ignore the critics trying to tear the team down. They weren’t interested when we were so rubbish we had a back four of Austin, Nethercott, Doherty and Edinburgh, so if they are interested now, then Spurs must be doing something right.

A Night At The Apollo

Although all the talk at the moment is about the fiftieth anniversary of Apollo 11’s Moon Landing, this night at the Apollo had nothing to do with that at all.

What it did have everything to do with was great songs, sung well by great singers. It was at the Eventim Apollo, formerly sponsored by numerous companies, it was the Hammersmith Apollo, and before that the Hammersmith Odeon, and if we go all the way back to when it originally opened in 1932 it was the Gaumont Palace.

It is a magnificent example of an Art Deco building, with original features both inside and out, and it thoroughly deserves its Grade II* listed status. The decoration and detailing inside is wonderful, and it is worth visiting the building just for that.

However we were there for what, when we bought the tickets, was an evening with Joss Stone, and she was going to be performing with the legend that is Burt Bacharach. However the billing was the other way around. It was an evening with Burt Bacharach, and Joss Stone was the leading lady in terms of accompanying him through his amazing songbook. however there were three other singers who also accompanied Burt as he went through a repertoire of songs covering more than sixty years of song writing.

It was a nice summer evening as we got there, having stopped for a nice Indian just around the corner from the venue. Again we were drawn in by the advertising of what dishes they did, only to find that the menu inside had been swapped around. As with the concert, we weren’t really disappointed as the food was good. That plus I had forty five minutes of a lovely cool air-con unit blowing cold air on to me, always a bonus.

There was quite a queue outside the Apollo as it got to doors opening time. And some people were still trying to pick tickets up on the door. As is usually the case the eccentric man in the queue happened to be in front of us and decided to spend the time snaking through the barriers talking at Helen. It was amusing that he had been tutting at people to hurry up and get in there, only to stop and hold the rest of the queue up on occasions when he stopped to take photos of the building. He was hoping that Burt would play “Do You Know The Way To San Jose?” but he was unlucky this time, as that was one of his classics that was missed out this time.

The support act started early and by the time we’d got a drink and to our seats he was on his last song. The orchestra and band started to accumulate on stage and then Burt came teetering out. despite looking somewhat unsteady on his feet, he was able to play the piano, and conduct the band in a free and easy way as befits his compositions.

Joss Stone joined him on stage for song two, a very good rendition of “Walk On By”, and stayed for seven or eight more songs, and some quite awkward chat between songs, before going off again. She made two more appearances during the two hour set, happily wandering around the stage in a gorgeous red dress and in bare feet.

The two hours flew by, and when it got towards the end, Burt wrapped up, saying there would be no encore, but getting the audience to sing along with the classic from the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid soundtrack – “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head”.

It was a surprise just how many of the so called Easy Listening classics Burt wrote or co-wrote with various other songwriters. I was also surprised that he is still writing, moving away from the general theme of love, hearts and flowers that his songs are so famous for, and moving into love of all people, as he played songs written about the difficulties there are in his home country under President Trump, and about the seemingly never ending toll of school shootings and deaths in the country.

He only sang the one song himself, a raspy version of “Alfie”, but it was probably the most memorable moment of a great evening of song.

We may not have booked tickets if it had been billed originally as and evening with Burt Bacharach and mentioned that Joss Stone would be singing for some of it. But we were both glad to have gone and seen one of the classic song writers of the twentieth century. At 91 he may not tour these shores again, and if he doesn’t that would be a shame. If you get the chance to go and see him while he is still touring then do so, it was a great evening well worth every penny.

Tamla Motown Number Ones

2019 marks the 60th anniversary of the Motown record label. In my own celebration of that fact I’m going to have a look at the number ones it has had on the UK single charts, and number ones related to the label over the years.

In the US, Berry Gordy started out with the Motown label, and added Tamla and Gordy to them in quick succession. Over the years there have been numerous labels associated with the Motown family as they branched out into all forms of music.

In the UK, there wasn’t the ability to issue on an American label in the late 1950’s and Early 1960’s and so records from the Motown labels, which fell under the Jobete Music publishing house were released on a number of different labels over here, starting out on London American, then Fontana, Oriole and Stateside before the Tamla Motown label started out releasing UK records in late 1965.

Therefore Motown’s first UK number one single wasn’t even releases on Tamla Motown, but rather on Stateside.

The Supremes – Baby Love b/w Ask Any Girl. Stateside catalogue number SS350. Reached number one on 19th November 1964 and was number one for two weeks. The group had had its first major hit with “Where Did Our Love Go” a couple of months before after having had the nickname of the “No-Hit Supremes” prior to that. This changed all that, and it wasn’t long after that Berry Gordy’s favourite got head billing and they became Diana Ross and the Supremes, and the animosity within the group started. It was another sublime piece of song writing by Motown’s main in-house writing and production team of Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland. It finally did get a Tamla Motown release in the mid-seventies on TMG915 and in the anniversary re-releases on TMG1044.

The Four Tops – Reach Out (I’ll Be There) b/w Until You Love Someone – TMG579. The first actual number one on the Tamla Motown label came nearly two years after Baby Love. This was another song from the Holland – Dozier – Holland production line and reached number one on the 27th October 1966 staying there for three weeks. It saw a couple of re-releases, on TMG1049, and in 1988 on the back of its use in a Right Guard advert a remixed version on ZB41943 (using the RCA numbering format imposed on the label when they were taken over in the mid 1980’s) and a 12” release on ZB41944.

Marvin Gaye – I Heard It Through The Grapevine b/w I Need Somebody – TMG686. One of the most famous Motown songs, it was written by Barrett Strong (who had had the first Motown single release ever with “Money (That’s What I Want)”) and Norman Whitfield. It had originally been recorded by The Miracles, before Marvin Gaye, but both versions were vetoed as single releases by the label boss Berry Gordy. It was first released by Gladys Knight & The Pips as a more up-tempo release in 1967. After appearing on Marvin Gaye’s album there was pressure from radio stations to have this version released as a single. Showing Gordy didn’t know everything. It got to number one on 26th March 1969, staying there for three weeks. It got to be on five different re-releases, TMG923, TMG987, TMG1045, ZB40701/2 and ZB40961/2 with the latter two both having 12” releases.

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – The Tears Of A Clown – TMG745. There were two different versions of the single released with different B-sides, one with You Must Be Love and the other with Who’s Gonna Take The Blame? Written by Motown producer Hank Cosby and Stevie Wonder as an instrumental for the Motown Christmas party, Smokey Robinson added lyrics. Got to number one after an office staffer in London lobbied for it to be released as a single on 12th September 1970, staying top for a single week. Reissued on TMG1048 as a double A side with Tracks Of My Tears.

Diana Ross – I’m Still Waiting b/w Reach Out I’ll Be There – TMG 781. Diana Ross’ second single release wasn’t going to be a single release in the UK until Tony Blackburn kept playing the album track on Radio 1 and persuaded the label to release it as a single. It got to number one on 21st August 1971 and was top for four weeks. It was written by Deke Richards (who would later go on to be part of what was known as The Corporation, a Motown song writing collective who wrote most of the Jackson 5’s and Michael Jackson’s early single releases.) Rereleased on TMG1041 and remixed in 1990 on ZB43781 and a 12” release on ZB43782.

The Commodores – Three Times A Lady b/w Can’t You Tease Me – TMG1113. Written by Lionel Richie, this got to number one on the 19th August 1978 and stayed there for five weeks. Berry Gordy had dropped the Tamla part of the label name by this point, and so this was the first UK number one as the Motown label. The Commodores had started out as a funk band more along the lines of Kool & The Gang or Earth, Wind & Fire, but moved to a more sedate sound with Richie taking over more of the song writing duties, such as this. He would break away with a solo career in the early eighties, but the rest of the band carried on without him.

Smokey Robinson – Being With You b/w What’s In Your Life For Me? – TMG1223. Having gone solo in the seventies, Robinson wrote most of his own music for his long solo career, this included. It hit number one on the 13th June 1981, staying at number one for two weeks, only to be knocked off number one by another Motown song.

Michael Jackson – One Day In Your Life b/w With A Child’s Heart – TMG946 and TMG976. Originally a non-charting single from 1975, this song, written by Sam Brown III and Renee Armand, was rereleased in 1981 on the original label numbers on the back of Jackson’s success with his Off The Wall album. It hit number one on the 27th June 1981, taking over from Being With You, and being the only instance of a Motown single taking over from another Motown single at the top of the charts.

Charlene – I’ve Never Been To Me b/w Somewhere In My Life – TMG1260. Written by Ron Miller, Don Costa and label boss Berry Gordy, this had been a US single release only in 1977. It was rereleased in 1982 after finding traction on a Tampa radio station. They had to track Charlene down as she had left the music industry, and found her married and living in Ilford, Essex. It hit number one on the 26th June 1982 staying there for a single week.

Lionel Richie – Hello b/w All Night Long (All Night) Instrumental – TMG1330 (including 12” and cassette single releases). Self-penned third release off his Can’t Slow Down album, it’s the one with the very creepy video and the clay head of some random that is supposed to be the singer. It got to number one on the 24th March 1984 and stayed there for six weeks.

Stevie Wonder – I Just Called To Say I Love You b/w Instrumental – TMG 1349 (including 12” and cassette single releases) and ZB42605/6. It got to number one on the 8th September 1984 and stayed there for six weeks. Of all the tracks this musical maestro wrote and released, this sickly sweet release from The Woman in Red soundtrack was Wonder’s only UK solo number one hit. I’ll touch upon his other number ones later. Just to show how strange the UK charts can be, his next release was a duet with Michael Jackson – still doing big business with the Thriller album – called Get It. It wasn’t a brilliant track but was decent enough, yet the combined star power could only get it to reach number 37.

Boyz II Men – End Of The Road b/w Instrumental – TMG1411 (including 12”, cassette single and CD single releases) and 860064-7. The final Motown UK number one single was written by the hot RnB writers and producers of the time, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Antonio “L.A.” Reid and Daryl Simmons for the soundtrack of the film Boomerang. It got to number one on the 31st October 1992 and stayed there for three weeks overlapping the dates twenty eight years earlier of Baby Love.

So only twelve (or eleven if you’re being pedantic) Motown number one singles in the UK, but if you look at the related stuff, then there is a whole host of other stuff.

There have been a number of cover versions of Motown songs that have hit number one in the UK. The first of which was Brian Poole & The Tremeloes with Do You Love Me a cover of The Contours 1962 release on Oriole (CBA1763) which hit number one on 10th October 1963 for three weeks. The original was famously on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

In the eighties there were a few, on the 15th January 1983, Phil Collins hit number one for two weeks with his cover of The Supremes You Can’t Hurry Love (TMG575), then the same year on the 23rd July, Paul Young hit number one for three weeks with his cover of Marvin Gaye’s Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home) (B-side to Too Busy Thinking About My Baby on TMG705). On the 7th September 1985 on the back of the successful duet at Live Aid, David Bowie & Mick Jagger got to number one for four weeks with a cover of Martha Reeves & The Vandellas’ Dancing In The Street (Stateside SS345). The following year on the 13th September, The Communards got to number one for four weeks with Don’t Leave Me This Way. Although this was originally released by Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes on Philadelphia International, this version was more in keeping with the Thelma Houston disco tempo version (TMG1060). The Christmas number one that year was The Housemartins who spent one week at number one with a cover of Caravan Of Love, Originally by the Isley Brothers, but after they had left Motown for Epic in the early seventies. Another Isley Brothers song – Twist And Shout originally released on the Anna record label that Berry Gordy had a stake in before signing them to Motown was covered by Chaka Demus & Pliers in a number one from the 8th January 1994 for two weeks.

Then there are those Motown artists that had number ones elsewhere. I said I would come back to Stevie Wonder. Prior to I Just Called To Say I Love You he had only hit the UK number one spot on a duet with Paul McCartney. Ebony and Ivory had been released on Paul McCartney’s label – Parlophone – and it hit number one on 24th April 1982 for three weeks. Then in the year after I Just Called To Say I Love You he hit number one three times without his name being on the label or cover. He played harmonica on Chaka Khan’s I Feel For You which hit number one on 16th November 1984 for three weeks and The Eurythmics’ There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) which hit number one on the 27th July 1985 for a week. In between the two he was one of the featured artists on USA For Africa’s charity single We Are The World along with Diana Ross, various Jacksons and co-writers Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, it hit number one on the 20th April 1985 for two weeks. Then in 1995 Coolio feat LV sampled the music and most of the lyrics for the chorus of Gangsta’s Paradise from his album track Pastime Paradise. It got to number one on the 28th October 1995 for two weeks.

Michael Jackson was so much more successful once he departed from Motown. He had seven further number ones, one with the Jacksons, a duet and five solo numbers.

25th June 1977 for six weeks – The Jacksons – Show You The Way To Go.

5th March 1983 for one week – Billie Jean.

15th August 1987 for two weeks – I Just Can’t Stop Loving You – Duet with Siedah Garrett.

23rd November 1991 for two weeks – Black Or White.

9th September 1995 for two weeks – You Are Not Alone.

9th December 1995 for six weeks – Earth Song.

And finally 3rd May 1997 for a week – Blood On The Dancefloor.

Diana Ross had a solo number one with the Bee Gees penned Chain Reaction which reached number one on the 8th March 1986 staying there for three weeks. Future Motown solo artist Billy Preston was known as the fifth Beatle for some time (one of many to be called that) and was credited on their number one Get Back which hit number one on the 23rd April 1969 staying there for six weeks. Johnny Gill was a member of New Edition before becoming a solo artist on Motown, and was part of their hit Candy Girl which got to number one on the 28th May 1983 for a week.

Writers that departed the Motown label also got a look in. The golden writing and production trio of Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland split with Motown in 1970 and former their own Invictus label. Their first major hit was Freda Payne’s Band of Gold which replaced Tears of a Clown at number one on the 19th September 1970 and stayed there for six weeks.

So with all that lot it brings up thirty five number ones delivered or inspired by Motown, that topped the chart for a total of two years. Not bad for a label started in the equivalent of a semi-detached house in a Detroit suburb in 1959.