Jah Jah Children In Need.

I’ve just been scouring the pages of everything from The Rough Guide To Reggae to Dick Hebdidge’s Cut’n'Mix because after gushing on last week’s show about Wogan being the 1st DJ to grace the BBC airwaves with the JA sound, I couldn’t find the info anywhere and was ready to resign myself to the possibility I may have even dreamed the whole thing.

Fortunately I took a 2nd glance at the Trojan story and sure enough hiding amid a section on string arranger and producer Clive Crawley is this episode…

Crawley’s background had been in sales, and then record promotion for B&C and Trojan Records. ‘I got into the music business as a result of a £10 bet funnily enough,’ he recalls. ‘I was in a pub one night having a drink with Lee Gopthal and I asked him how business was. He had some [Musicland} retail shops as well as the record company, and he said the record shops were doing great but the record company was a bit slow. So I asked him "Why is that?" and he said "Well we're not getting exposure on the records."

"What do you mean" I asked.

"Well" he said "We send them to the BBC but they never play them."

"What do you mean 'send them'?"

"We post them."

"No that's not the way to do it, I don't know anything about it but would imagine they call that plugging."

"Yeah I suppose they do," said Lee "but I couldn't do that." So I said "Well I bloody well could!" So I had a bet with him. I bet £10 I could get his record played on the radio.

'The next one he had coming out which was a song called 'Kansas City', sung by Joya Landis. I went down and played the record but thought "This is going to be tricky", 'cos although it was a good record, it wasn't really a radio record, more a dancing record. But I went home and got a copy of the Radio Times - I've a £10 bet on this, this was half a week's wages, you know? So I go off down to the BBC, having looked up the names of these record shows, and the very first play I got was by a guy called Ian Fenner, who produced a show called Late Night Extra, which was hosted by Terry Wogan.

This was in 1968 and it went on every night of the week Monday to Friday from 10 o'clock to midnight. And he's the first guy I go and see, this guy Fenner, and I gave him a lot of nonsense, you know, told him a few stories, a few dirty jokes, whatever and eventually he said, "Are you going to play me something else?" I said yeah and he said, "What have you got?"

"Well It's a new kind of music from the West Indies called Reggae, and if you put it between Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, it might sound half tidy." 'He quite liked that, "I'll play it wednesday night, before the 10:30 news," he said. I thought "Christ this is easy!"

So anyway, Wednesday night comes along and I'm sitting indoors with the news at 10 on, transistor down one side of the armchair, and sure enough at about 10:25 Wogan comes on and says "Now we've got a new kind of music from the West Indies called Reggae, and here to sing 'Kansas city is Joya Landis."

'Well! You can imagine I leaped out of my chair and the following day I was down there [at Trojan] collecting my tenner. And the [Lee Gopthal] said, “Clive, why don’t you carry on doing this? I’ll give you a fiver for every play you get.” And that was the start of my career. That led to 30 years in the record business.’

Taken from Young Gifted and Black (the Trojan Records Story) by Michael De Koningh & Lawrence Cane-Honeysett.

When will Hip Hop hurry up and diet?

By now you’ve probably been deeply shocked by Simon Reynolds’ latest article, though you’ve only got a couple of paragraphs in, paragraphs which let’s be honest, you didn’t really take on board because you were busy seething at the headline, not to mention still nursing your violently jerked knee from yesterday’s Speech Debelle debacle.

Maybe as I type you’re plotting some kind of summit to prove that Hip Hop is, as we all of course know, alive and well, though possibly living somewhere out in Buckinghamshire just up the road from the guy at Helly Hansen who you’re counting on sponsoring the event.

I wont be there unfortunately, I’ll be at home watching a boxset of The Wire from front to back with the same, all be it more robust lads who were with me when I bought my first Public Enemy LP from Our Price in Epsom. Yeah we keep it mad real, now pass me another burrito please Terry.

So when did we get fat, and what’s wrong with being fat anyway? Nothing obviously, just ask Fat Joe, Maseo from De La or most of the Boo Yaa Tribe or particularly Mr Marcel Theo Hall…

Mr Trick & Wrongtom: Show #59 (Nov.’09)

It had to happen eventually. In fact I’m amazed it didn’t happen sooner. Yes, 59 shows in and FINALLY me and Tom both brought in the same track to air. What was the track? Jammer’s acid-friendly new one, “Party Animal”, which takes its place alongside the ever-reliable Maytals, Mr Chop reworking Pete Rock, Fulgeance on the remix and Les Crane being… well… flat out strange if I’m honest…

Remember, if you like what you hear then do us a favour and click here to launch our page on iTunes to leave a comment and a rating… (and many thanks in advance if you do or have already!)

Tracklisting:
Aufgang -- “Barok (Fulgeance RMX)”
The Afro Blues Quintet Plus One “Moses”
Jammer -- “Party Animal”
Les Crane “A Different Drummer”
(in the background while Trick arses around with his Dub Siren iPhone app) Niney The Observer -- Travelling Version
Toots & The Maytals “Pee Pee Cluck Cluck”
Mr Chop feat. CL Smooth “Straighten It Out”
The Private I’s “Transgression Dub And The Professor In Action”
Courtney Tidwell “Sun and Moon (The Hands Off Cuba RMX)”

Mr Beatnick on soundbed duties with “The 4th Day”

Click here to download the show! (114Mb, 256k MP3)

Featured video this week was a choice from Tom: Toots and the Maytals performing “Sweet And Dandy” in the ever marvellous The Harder They Come…

Fancy leaving a comment for us over on iTunes?

Having finally been forced into the world of Apple thanks to a work iPhone, I couldn’t resist having a quick check on the Trick and Tom podcast page, where I saw the above rather kind words from Richey W and Bizzyfingers (who, alarmingly, are not known to us, making this something of a bizarre moment). So, in my first act of gratuitous begging, I thought I’d ask any of you iTunes listeners to also leave a comment or two. The more nice comments we get, the more coverage we might get by iTunes, which is no bad thing.

So, if YOU would like to leave a comment, please click here to launch our page on iTunes and drop a comment on there. In return we will owe you a beer*

Cheers,

Mr Trick

*unlikely to ever be purchased, but its the thought that counts.

I was a bad younger brother.

The blogs are coming in thick & fast with the sad news of Derek B’s death -- a heart attack at the still tender age of 44 is the saddest part but rather than go into an ill-researched break down of the man’s career i just wanted to share an anecdote with a nod to the bad young brother.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned on the show a fair few times that being the youngest in the family I inevitably wound up being the weird kid in school who was more into my bother’s/sister’s records than the pop of the time but there was a moment back in ‘88 when a young Derek Boland from Bow, flirted with the charts with his single “Bad Young Brother”. Suddenly there was this conflict of misguided adolescent will verses ‘wait a minute, there’s a tough tune on the Capital Chart show’.

Now picture about 30 kids on a musty coach heading out to the Kent countryside for an overnight school sojourn. I hadn’t yet heard the said single but I had come armed with a muffled tape of By All means Necessary and Memory of a Man & His Music. A kid called Michael Smith asked for a listen and passed me his own brick-like walkmen and within seconds I was “finger poppin to the sound of the drum and bass that kicks…”

Sadly what with the temperamental and almost bi-polar behaviour of the average UK Hip Hop fan I don’t think Derek was taken too seriously as an MC once his LP dropped, at least amongst school kids anyway but he’d cemented a love for UK rap with me none the less as the next couple of years were all about Overlord X, Merlin, London Posse etc etc not to mention some of the amazing records released on Music Of Life where Derek was effectively the A&R.

Anyway, back to the coach and we’d ditched the walkmans, I say I wasn’t into pop but there were still those breakthrough moments in the charts like the one which led to a huddle of teenagers tormenting a weary driver with what must have seemed like a never ending rendition of Walk The Dinosaur by Was Not Was. Even now I can imagine the sheer hell of being forced to endure an ill-ventilated bus full of smelly kids chanting “BOOM BOOM ACKALACKALACKA BOOM”, maybe the poor driver still wakes up in a cold sweat with our squeaky voices echoing through his frazzled brain, hands shaking at the thought of even touching a steering wheel again.

So why am I sharing this almost unrelated odyssey? Well…

Mr Trick & Wrongtom: Show #58 (Nov.’09)

This week its back to a dynamic (ha!) duo, armed with music under our respective arms that takes in anything from fake Finnish punk bands to ropey reggae recorder covers. As if that’s not enough, we drop some fine malt blues from the man Screaming Jay and some of the earliest dancehall tracks that were only available as 78s back in the day. Oh, and Uffie and Molly Hatchet… but we won’t dwell on that.

Go get some!

Tracklisting:
Herbie Mann “Kabuki Rock”
Hot Toddy “I Feel Love”
Screaming Jay Hawkins “She Put The Whamee On Me”
Sonny Knight “But Officer”
Willie Royal “General Alarm”
Molly Hatchet “One Man’s Pleasure”
(about all you could take of) Uffie “Pop The Glock (Mirwais Pop Remix)”
The Fuckers “Sexy Roy Orbison”
We The People “Break Down”
Count Lasher and his Calypso Quintet “Dalvey Girl”

Soundbed: the entire “Good Is Good” album by Om.

Click here to download the show! (114Mb, 256k MP3)

Featured video this week could only be one thing: this amazing clip of Screaming Jay Hawkins performing “I Put A Spell On You”:

Mr Trick & Wrongtom: Show #57 (Nov.’09)

AKA “Moog & Willies”. With typical technical finesse and the professional presenting abilities of Alan Partridge, we crash into another week with the erstwhile Ed Zed tucked under one arm to bring you another series of selections and banter as only we can. This week differs from usual shows, as Ed steps into Tom’s shoes to handle selection duties -- a situation brought about by Tom originally not planning to appear due to gigging commitments with Pama Int’l, only to have it cancelled due to a support slot with The Specials (Pama, not Tom -- he wishes!). So, with Ed stepping up with anything from classic Roxanne Shante to a highly obscure piece from Paul Simon (!), this is… well… much like our usual shows, really. We do also stride into the world of advertising as we force Ed to record a voiceover live on-air. The fame! The fame!!

Tracklisting:
Jaga Jazzist -- One-Armed Bandit
Moog Plays The Beatles -- Daytripper
Konk -- Love Attack
[unknown tune submitted by Craig Leckie - any ideas, please let us know]
Flaming Lips -- Convinced Of The Hex
Roxanne Shante -- Brothers Ain’t Shit
BlakRoc -- Ain’t Nothin’ Like You (Hoochie Coo)
Jerry Landis -- The Lone Teen Ranger
Thunderheist -- Little Booty Girl (Lunice RMX)
Golden Earring -- Kill Me Ce Soir

Click here to download the show! (109Mb, 256k MP3)

Featured video this week was going to be this rather excellent Richard Edson showreel, but sadly we can’t embed it on this site. So, in its place is Ed’s Golden Earring selection, as it got cut slightly short and is rather ace:

Mr Trick & Wrongtom: Show #56 (Oct.’09)

… AKA “The Beatless Special”. Given both myself and Tom are very rhythm-driven in terms of tracks we love -- or rather, appreciative of the power of a killer beat -- we thought it might be interesting to try a theme special where none of the tracks had beats at all. Well, that was the initial plan, though as you’ll hear something may have been lost in translation resulting in one or two tracks creeping in sporting percussive qualities at best and a bloody huge drum beat at worst (take a bow Ed Zed)…

So, with the Beatles/Beatless puns out the way and joined by our compadre Mr Ed Zed, we sidestep numerous technical disasters including the Resonance CD decks collectively refusing to play Melvins’ “Colossus of Destiny” (a wise move, many might argue) and press on with a series of selections that we hoped might go beyond your obvious choices to deliver something a bit more interesting. Did we succeed? Well, we shall leave that to you to decide, but if the tracklisting might sway you, here it is…

Tracklisting:
Pigbag “The backside”
Grinderman “Grinderman”
Inflatable Boy Clams “I’m Sorry”
Sigue Sigue Sputnik “Atari Baby”
Xela “Creeping Flesh”
Hightower Set “Putting Heads To Bed”
Stephen Duffy “Wednesday Jones”
Morphine “In Spite Of Me”
Social Climbers “Hello Texas”
Galliano “Roofing Tiles (Instrumental)”

As mentioned above, the soundbed was meant to be Melvins’ “Colossus of Destiny” album/track, but thanks to technical hell turned out to be “O Berimbau” by Nana Vasconcelos.

Click here to download the show! (114Mb, 256k MP3)

Featured video this week is a peach of a selection by Tom -- a slightly random clip of Martin Degville from Sigue Sigue Sputnik forcing some German TV presenter to dress up SSS-style: