There’s little to no info about this terrible news as yet, bar Fab Five Freddy tweeting about it earlier this evening but whatever the facts are I’m more gutted about this than most of the others we’ve covered.

I’m guessing if you’re reading this there’s nothing I could tell you about Rammell that you don’t know already and by now various social networking sites and blogs are no doubt inundated with links to Beat Bop, Crazy Sneaker or Death Comet Crew so instead I thought I’d share a snippet of a rare cinematic siting of the former Getovett who once rode a bus talking to our friend Long Distance Dan about Iconic Panzerisms much to the bewilderment of the local grannies hoping for a quiet trip back to Raynes Park.

This is a quick glimpse of Rammellzee on the hustle in Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise, which also featured fellow lower east siders John Lurie and Richard Edson from The Lounge Lizards and Konk/Sonic Youth respectively, Jarmusch himself having a brief stint on the downtown music circuit with The Del Byzantines who appear alongside Rammell & Death Comet Crew on the excellent Anti NY compilation.

Anyway, I’ve got work to do and quite frankly I’m sad so I’ll leave you to watch this…

Rammellzee in Stranger Than Paradise

For those unaware of his work, Frank started life as Chris Sievey, his music career kicking off with Manc-punks The Freshies who shaved the never regions of the UK charts with the really really fantastically titled “I’m In Love With The Girl On The Manchester Virgin Megastore Checkout Desk” back in 1981.

Sievey’s scope went way beyond his band, what with running DIY label Razz records, and releasing the Spectrum game The Biz which introduced Frank to the world with his confusing combination of working man’s club cabaret whilst looking like The Residents’ road manager.

After the Freshies disbanded Sievey continued his recording career with Frank turning out fantastic versions of Sex Pistols songs, Beatles classics and as you’re about to hear, quasi-post-punk-funk-rap songs about abstaining from eating pork.

“The Oink Psycho Rap” was a reworked version of the Uncle Pigg Rap originally released as a pink flexi on the cover of the curious Oink magazine published in the mid 80’s in the UK. Only available to Oink readers who’d cut out and sent off a voucher, featuring 3 songs produced by Frank, this 7″ was among my 1st handful of purchases back in 1986, maybe not what you’d expect of your average UK rap fair but still a little piece of forgotten history and one more fantastic feather in Frank’s cap.

Mr Sidebottom, we at Trick n Tom towers salute you…

The Oink Psycho Rap

It was announced at the weekend that the East London institution that is Plastic People is facing possible imminent closure at the hands of Hackney’s police force who wish to revoke PP’s license to prevent “public nuisance” and “crime and disorder”.

I could be completely mistaken and maybe there’s something more sinister at play here but in a town littered with what seems like an endless array of soulless drinking dens frequented by shit-faced city-boys and “going up London Gary” weekenders, why would one of the few venues dedicated to the cause of pushing new music face closure?

Remember The Spitz? Only a few years back you could have been one of a handful of people watching anything from outsider punk rock to Restiform Bodies wrestling both nasty hangovers and their Gameboys live on stage but sadly not any more because now Spitalfields, thanks to a mediocre makeover, is now a lifeless sack of nothing out of the ordinary. Has anyone noticed there’s now a tex-mex restaurant bankrolled by depressing hen night’s on Brick Lane? What’s really happening to this part of town?

Just to set some records straight this isn’t self centred gushing, I’m by no means bias, and will be the first to admit that Plastic People could often attract a cliquey crowd who to quote a nameless patron “would show up to the opening of an envelope” but I’d hardly associate rowdiness with the place or the people. Anyone that’s been to CDR can vouch for a crowd gathered together to explore the wonders of music so fresh it might have come off the mixing desk barely an hour before it was aired, in fact It’d be hard to name an event held there in the past decade which wasn’t solely about the music. So put simply, what on earth are the Met thinking?

Have the slew of strip clubs been issued with such an order? What about that BNP pub up Hackney Road? There are so many places which clearly contribute to the piss and vomit stained pavements of shitty Shoreditch that pointing the finger at the one place which doubtfully contributes to the local stench seems downright ludicrous.

As I say though maybe I’m gravely mistaken and there’s something we don’t know going on behind the scenes, or maybe the council for some mad reason want a Walkabout in it’s place, either way if you give a damn about one of the last bastions of creative clubland then get involved over on facebook.

On a personal level I’ve enjoyed many a night there from Big Dada’s Gosh! nights to testing out tracks on their amazing rig at CDR and hope this wont spell the last of these People and their fantastic Plastic.

Of course if you normally podcast the show and you somehow missed them…

Christmas Special 2007

Christmas Special 2008 (part 1)

Christmas Special 2008 (part 2)

Hi, Mom! is not a porno, though someone sought to market it as one with misleading alternative titles such as Blue Manhattan and Confessions Of A Peeping John, however the John in question is simply trying his luck in the porn industry. Hi, Mom! is in fact a satire, made in 1969 by Brian DePalma as a standalone sequel to his previous Greetings which featured an unknown actor by the name of Bob DeNiro exploring what he dubs ‘peep art’ before getting drafted into the Vietnam war.

Hi, Mom! follows up with John (Bob) returning to NYC trying to pick up the pieces of his post war life. The parallels with Taxi Driver end there as he sells his peep art idea to a porn baron who quickly pulls the plug on the project leaving Bob roaming the streets til he stumbles upon a group of black activists staging an off-Broadway play called Be Black Baby.

Funk & soul fans may have an idea of where I’m going with this as Grady Tate recorded a song called Be Black Baby back in ‘69, sampled by the likes of Main Source and Big Daddy Kane for the spotters amongst you. What you may not know is Tate made the track for Hi, Mom! specifically to accompany various sequences revolving around the militant theatre group as they attempt to spread their Black Power message to the middle class population of Greenwich Village…

A word of warning: the following sequences contain acts of violence which some may find upsetting, if you are of a delicate temperament or you don’t get jokes then I’d advise you go straight to the 4th video and simply listen to the Grady Tate track in full.

Be Black Baby Part 1

Be Black Baby Part 2

Grady Tate “Be Black Baby”

Though this entry isn’t strictly about the film it’s best that I give you a brief run down on the unsettling subject matter. Waterpower also often goes by the high concept title The Enema Bandit, and if we’re gonna be reductionist about this, it is about a bandit that applies enemas but, and this is a big BUT with no pun intended I assure you, this is so much more than a marginalised piece of exploitation.

The short version of the story goes -- Mafia boss calls up director to make speciality porn film, mafia boss wants nothing more to do with the project, director seizes opportunity to make what he wants assuming no one funding the film would watch it and sets about making the sex industry’s answer to Taxi Driver. Of course there’s much more to it than that and I urge you to read director Shaun Costello’s personal account which gives the film the further unique accolade of being possibly the only picture to have a behind the scenes explanation in place of a plot on IMDB.com.

You might be wondering why I’m sharing this or worse still why I even came to be watching such a monstrosity, and for the latter you can blame the unlikely duo of Jonathan Ross and my Mum -- Ross for including a chapter on the film in his Incredibly Strange Film Book, and my mum for buying me the book in the first place. Setting about searching for The Enema Bandit (Ross failed to mention it was also known as Waterpower) led me to a fair few unsavoury encounters and raised more eyebrows than the time I went on the hunt around NYC for Sexual Harassment. Finally I came across a guy who discreetly dubbed me a fuzzy VHS copy which I swiftly slipped home with and was soon staring at in abject horror.

So here’s why I’m telling you about it (aside the fact it’s a must for those of you that like bizarre films). While I was picking tracks for the show last week I wondered if I could track down Waterpower’s soundtrack. Alas it’s rare that a hardcore flick has an official OST and I gather much of this one was culled from other films including Thompson’s Cape Fear and of course Taxi Driver but amongst the rubber piping and hammocked between hookie motifs is a wealth of bizarre synth work and ambient noise akin to the Eno output of the time. There now follows the only clip I could find online which is both very short and not remotely filthy…

See what I mean about the soundtrack? If anyone reading knows anything more about it please get in touch as I would love to listen without having to wade through flushed bowels and ham acting (as appealing as that obviously might sound).

I couldn’t leave it at that though as whilst having a scout about for more info, I stumbled upon this clip from the equally Ronseal named New Wave Hookers which stars the Enema Bandit himself Jamie Gillis dressed like Darby Crash if he shopped in the Camden branch of Argos. I warn you, this one gets a bit sweary but I gather if you’re still reading, colourful language will be the last thing to phase you.

If you’re familiar with the format already, you’ll know we wont be rolling out the usual festive favourites but we can assure a cavalcade of curious Christmas records which in the past have covered anything from sleigh bell drenched Hawaiian hits to William Burroughs growling about heroine abuse on a cold winter night. Joining us for the party will be our irregular regular guest Ed Zed and as it’s our last show before Resonance breaks up for the Christmas hols we’ll no doubt be bringing in games, busting out the egg nog and oh shucks just tune in on the 16th to find out.

That’s just the icing on the brandy drenched cake though as we’ve got another special show this week in the shape of a Noughties run down. Yes, I’m well aware that we didn’t start at the year “0″ but if we did gauge the decade from zero then surely 1980 would’ve been in the “the 70’s”? Really though, does it matter? It’s simply another opportunity for us to cobble together a bunch of unrelated music with the ruse that it somehow ties together (let’s just hope our selections are marginally better than the name of the decade). Anyway as I said to my mum when I was told not to huff lighter fluid “everyone else is doing it so why can’t we?” So that’s this Wednesday at 10pm GMT  for the rundown and next Wednesday at the same time for the Yule rulers, and don’t forget we’re off for a couple of weeks but we’ll be back on January 6th.

Obviously the show degenerated into the expected innuendo, and the squeaky bed/conga combo of Erotica or the highly dubious “Rape Sequence” from Emmanuelle drifted way off the actual sexy mark into the absurd, and in the latter case, downright unpleasant. The plan was to battle the soft porn of True Blood which we’re currently in a clinch with over the 10pm time slot, subtlety and a soft touch weren’t on the agenda, so now to make amends I’ve chosen the Crème de la Crème of what Dan The Automator charmingly described as “music to make love to your old lady by”.

Donna Summer “Love To Love You Baby”

The sound-bed to our show and no doubt the soundtrack to many an illicit act since it graced the airwaves for the first time back in 1975, amazingly this almost wasn’t a Donna Summer release as she was reluctant to traverse the overtly sexual route which Moroder wanted to take her down (i’ll forgive you if you suddenly remember the “I’ll tell your mum you went down Sexy Road” joke). Fortunately Summer conceded and took to the mic channeling the spirit of Marilyn Monroe caught in the throws of passion resulting in an astounding 23 orgasms throughout the 17 minutes of the full length version.

Lil Louis “French Kiss”

Like the degenerate little sister of Summer, French Kiss looked back at Love To Love you Baby and I Feel Love and took everything which was perfect for both upright and horizontal pass times and put them together for what is arguably still some of the sleaziest of dancefloor action. I played this out only the other day and the venue manager suggested people weren’t ready for that kind of music, you’d hope after more than two decades of it being on wax that they were, personally I’d like to think that deep down, the world has been ready and waiting for this record for years before the phonogram, discoteques or even dry humping in public was invented.

Al Green “Simply Beautiful”

As if I would have left out the reverend; it was actually former Brownswood bubbler Orsii that reminded me of this beauty of a track but it’d be hard to single out one particular song from I’m Still In Love With You. I wouldn’t be shocked to discover that more kids were conceived in 1972 than any other year simply because of this LP. Many would argue that Marvin out-sexed the rev with Sexual Healing but everything about this record oozes unbridled passion, as opposed to the well matured cheese of Gaye’s titillating tune.

There would’ve been 5 videos here but alas thanks to Prince’s war with youtube the only version of When 2 R In Love is a shaky shot of a Dansette playing a scratchy copy of Lovesexy, and the few Majesticons tracks which appear pon “the tube” don’t include the thrusting computer funk of Prom Party. I’d also considered picking a couple of my favourite slow jams but let’s face it, they’re all pretty silly.

Addendum:

For some reason I couldn’t find this when I looked on youtube before but it just popped up in the search function so without further ado…

Larry Young’s Fuel “Turn Off The Lights”

Everything about this record can be construed as sexy -- the title alone says it all but then there’s the moans and yelps, the slow pounding beat, even the name of the band if we can get a bit nudge-nudge wink-wink for a moment, and don’t make me say something about Larry Young knowing his way round an organ (somebody stop me). Seriously though this track is as stunning as it is dirty, the synth work is bordering on barmy, like the drunken dirty auntie of Add N To X’s Metal Fingers In My Body slow dancing with granddad George Clinton.

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.

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…