Friday 30 July 2010

Soul Messages

Posted my first mix on soundcloud,  This is so easy to do and i'd recommend the site to anyone.

http://soundcloud.com/boyred/tracks



(Sound)cloud 9

Just subscribed to soundcloud. Brill site featuring mixes,orginal tracks and mashups. Will start to put some of my amateurish mixes up to share. This is a track I found whilst browsing - mashups rarely work well in my estimation but this seems to for no obvious reason other than it's well put together and they just match. Let me know what you think.

If You're Not Human (The Killers vs. Daniel Bedingfield) by D.J. Glen

Saturday 24 July 2010

Jill Scott - Jill Excites Us (remix)


White Label (possibly from 2003) track from her first album mixed as a house track. I heard this via the wonderful but now gone Giant45 radio show of the Norman Jay (obe). Now I have an mp3 somewhere of that show....

ps. Stoopid here has just found Giant45 is online (although gone from 94.9fm) at the site above - follow the link and enjoy.
pps. Just found out this is a remix by Tod Gardner (who he?)

Still M.I.A

Friday 23 July 2010

Lost & Found Department

I Need These
No I really mean it. I do. I'm no different from any other record collector I know. We've all been collecting records for years but at some point in the period we have given them up for some other desirable item (in my case at just turned 16 a Mark 3 Ford Escort which had the looks but not enough working parts to fulfil it's initial promise). Anyway you guessed it things had to go and the one thing I had plenty of was vinyl. I had a cassette recorder and (guessed again) mr not-so-bright-as-it-turns-out-now went all modern and converted all his music to tapes that then slowly disintergated over the years. I got probably 50p per album (rrp was about £2.50 at the time and about 20p a single (rrp 79p). Bugger. There are some stories and pleas about my quest to regain collection here in the pick 'n' mix. remember it's sometimes cruel to laugh at others misfortune or even their poor judgement - really you had to be there.

See The Lost and Found (which hopefully will include tracks when they are reunited with me)

The Original Mirrors - "Dancing With The Rebel" 12" Promo (1979)

This was a Mercury single back in '79. To promote it Phonogram pressed 500 white label 12" copies which then had the artist and title rubber ink stamped on them. I know as I worked in the factory and was responsible for getting them made. After they were pressed I stood with a lady in the finishing shop whilst she stamped away, boxed them up and passed them to me for dispatch to the label's west end offices. They were then destined for radio stations and for promotions all over the country. I'd had a sneak listen in a quality control booth as I was being told this was the next big thing. Great track. So on returning to my desk I asked my label contact if he would send me one for all my good work that morning. He agreed then promptly forgot. So 25 years later i'm on a quest to buy a number of almost long forgotten tunes. I'm at fairs and on ebay. Blimey i managed to find a copy. In Wisconsin! I pay £25 for it and it now sits on my shelf with a few others, has been played a few times and makes a short appearance here. This band were a forerunner of the Lightning Seeds as it featured Ian Broudie.  Hear it here



The B side of the 12" included a cover of the Brill building standard "On Broadway" 





p.s. (18th August) I have now found that there is a compilation album available which includes this track on one of those CD-R from the copyright owner (around $60) via Amazon

The Persuasions - "Gonna Keep On Tryin 'til I Win Your Love"

No idea what album this is from. It's 70's was on A&M records. Was released as single in the UK on the brown and silver label. The Persuasions are an accapella group. This is a live version of an old motown favourite previously recorded by Marvin Gaye, Jimmy Ruffin and the other class version by the Temptations (whilst they still had Eddie Kendricks). The writer, Norman Whitfield - i'll get to him in a post at some point i'm sure - used to repeat songs on all his allocated artists at Motown looking for the right combination. I had this as part of my original collection ( see "The Lost and Found") and have been looking ever since - if anyone needs other Persuasions albums bought on spec by me looking for this tracks' equal - i'm your man.

Missing In Action.

Thursday 22 July 2010

BA Story

Having arrived in Washington DC for a trip last month I found that my bag, clothes etc had decided not to go with me. at 9pm at night (+5 hours obviously) I was without the basics. Big problem as I was due to meet with our directors the next morning and planning to do so in my polo shirt and jeans wasn't going to work. Thank god for the internet. I was able to file my claim; search for a store local to the hotel; check opening times; sizes, prices and styles. I arrived at Brookes Bros virtually pushed the guy over who was still unbolting the door and found an ex-pat from Reading who on hearing my story set to work on getting me togged up.

I made the meeting ten minutes late after having bought a phone charger and other bits I needed and arrived looking dapper but unfazed. The panic was well hidden.

The claim is still outstanding and we'll see how BA do with it.

In Appreciation of ....Bobby Womack

I am a fan. Have been since 1972. Used to cut short my cross country running training with my mates to detour to Alan F's gran's house - she'd have his records and the toast on. We'd sit their for a few appreciative minutes listening to "That's the Way I feel about'cha" and "Woman's gotta have it" and then return to the race as it passed the house (back in the pecking order obviously - we didn't want to end up being picked for the school team). " I can understand it" was the subject of an early conversation with Bris - Music was always a safe subject to talk about with girls. BW at the Hammersmith Odeon c1976 was a gig/date burned in my memory and returning there some years later with Bris "large" with child was an appropriate intro for any son into the world of dad music. This clip is from Later with Jools Holland May 2010 - he was on as part of Gorillaz and JH got him to do this - it's short but he's still got it. Please Please Tour Soon.
all you others not so familiar with the Bobby - please don't confuse him with Womack & Womack - there's a connection but the music differentiates him as The Man!

Tube Etiquette



There we all are - trying to get to work - hating the tube - the heat, the overcrowding the repetitive messages from the driver, the guard (platform operative) and the various automated services telling you which station you are at/going to/which side the doors are/which line you can change to etc etc. Yep - we all face the same thing. So and But WILL YOU PLEASE MOVE DOWN. what are you afraid of? are you just selfish? think that you are the only one? need your own space? anyway - get the picture - you get on move down, we will get on, we move down the line and yippee - same time tomorrow!

The Answer is.....


I don't really know. The question? Why am I writing a blog? I am beyond the age of thinking I have to to be cool, don't have a great deal of time, but do think i'm falling behind with all this social networking stuff and whilst that's not an issue now - it will be when I am the complete dinosaur and unable to catch up - I was the same at nuclear physics. I have interests, stories and opinions and dare I say it perhaps I have an ego.

So what is this going to feature then. Well, basically a lot of me and mine - what i'm doing and my observations - see i'm a bighead already.

A bit about me. I am married to Bris and have a son, J, and two small dogs. That's us. A very happy family - not without it's issues - that would be a very ODD family - but we talk to each other and share good and bad - it works and it makes us happy.

I have a good job in the West End of London supporting creative people in one of the media industries. I'm an administrator. Sounds boring but my job is different everyday, covers lots of areas, contributes to the business in general - it keeps all those clever bastards doing what they do best whilst I sought out their legal, property, IT, equipment and people problems. I don't do it all of course - as i have a brilliant team of people who work with me that do all the work and I simply put my feet up and take the credit (well I picked the team didn't I?).


The things you will find will repeat again and again in this i'm sure will be (in no particular order) London; Music (very much Soul Music of the early 70's); Family; Idiots; Heroes; the usual books, films etc; Ireland; the Good & Bad Old USA; Mad Britain and even madder Europe; Dogs; Style for a man of a certain age (all help gratefully received); Gadgets.

if bored, move on now......it can only get worse.