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  1. 2023/4 Albums Thing 323 - Smoove & Turrell “Broken Toys”

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    Smoove & Turrell never veer far from what they do (think of them as the AC/DC of danceable grooves) so these pieces about their records are likely to be short (lulling you into a sense of security for some monsters on the horizon).

    This is music I don’t have to think about too hard for the most part. Infectious grooves, pleasant songs and a great singer is all  I need at times. That’s not to say Smoove & Turrell have nothing to say. While many of their songs are boy/girl out dancing at the weekend affairs the title track here looks at the affect other people’s wars have on those that have to fight them (“Queens and countries need their little boys, Playing with their lives like their latest toys”) and back on their first album “Beggarman” had some political points to make too. If you can make a point and have people dance to it you’re on to a winner. 

    The album ends on a proper “end of the night” arms around your mates singalong, “Now Or Never” opening with the line “Your face it stood out like a bombed out house on the terrace”. Have a listen, just down there…

    Now Or Never - https://youtu.be/OgfjeBLNi3g?si=f-hksdros2O4MSp5

  2. 2023/4 Albums Thing 322 - Smoove & Turrell “Antique Soul”

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    Right then, back to the alphabet after Saturdays excursion in to D...we're back at Sm which means...

    Smoove or DJ Smoove, aka Jonathan Scott Watson, is a DJ and remixer from the North East who had made a couple of albums for Acid Jazz Records. I first came across Smoove via a song called “Left Right And Centre”. The song had been written by Paul Weller in his mid teens and in 2006 Acid Jazz released a single by Lord Large, a recording of Weller’s song and a couple of remixes. Lord Large turned out to feature New York Italian singer Dean Parrish (who Northern Soul fans will know for songs like “I’m On My Way”, “Determination” and “Bricks, Broken Bottles And Sticks”) and one of the remixes I liked was by this fella Smoove. So I dug a bit deeper and found an album called “Gravy: Remixes & Rarities” by Smoove which featured a fantastic cover of the Spencer Davis Group song “I’m A Man” credited to  Dan Roberts (a 7” copy of which cost me a tidy sum some years later) and now I was really interested in this Smoove fella. The next thing I discovered was that Smoove was a part of something called Smoove & Turrell. I found their tracks “Hammond” and “Beggarman” online and quickly ascertained their sound was very much like the Dan Roberts single and here we are with a copy of Smoove & Turrells debut album “Antique Soul”

    Smoove had chanced across singer John Turrell after hearing him rehearsing with his band in a garage in the house next door to a keyboard player he was working with. After a couple more sessions scouting him through the walls they knocked on his door and hit it off straight away. Smoove & Turrell was born. Smoove & Turrell is a band, they are real musicians and not just a DJ/Remixers backing tracks with a live singer. They play a concoction of Soul, Funk, Northern Soul and Hip Hop that they dubbed ‘Northern Funk’ or sometimes the much better description of ‘Northern Coal Music’.

    This is pure dance music, aimed firmly at the feet and not the head. The grooves are infectious and Turrell is a great soulful singer, if at times you could easily mistake him for Paul Weller. Highlights are the previously noted singles “Hammond” and “Beggarman”, the barnstorming “I Can't Give You Up” and a great cover of Yazoo’s “Don’t Go”. 

    No deep dissection or philosophical rumination on the nature of this album will be entered into here. This is dance music pure and simple, that’s why I like it, pure and simple.

    Hammond - https://youtu.be/5wF_c69NT-M?si=YO3Cxw5AyhbX7YQj

  3. 2023/4 Albums Thing 321 - Ian Dury & The Blockheads “Do It Yourself”

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    By the time Ian Dury & The Blockheads 2nd album was released in May 1979 they may well have become the most unlikely pop stars of the last 60+ years. In the summer of 1978 their single “What A Waste” reached #9 in the UK charts and in January of 1979 "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" reached #1. These huge selling records were produced by a singer and band who were all veterans of the London Pub Rock scene, whether with Dury in Kilburn & The High Roads (guitarist/keyboardist Chaz Jankel, saxophonist Davey Payne) or bands like The Loving Awareness (bassist Norman Watt-Roy, drummer Charlie Charles, guitarist John Turnbull, keyboardist Mickey Gallagher). These were all seasoned musicians who were all, I’m sure, fully au fait with the subject matter of one of Dury’s earlier singles (that Jankel, Watt-Roy and Charles had played on) "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll”.

    Under the direction of Dury and Jankel this band, now christened The Blockheads, cooked up a groovy concoction of Funk, Jazz, Rock ’n’ Roll, Pop, Reggae and Music Hall topped off by Dury’s witty, wordy lyrics. All of that is laid out before you on “Do It Yourself”. 

    Off the back of 2 big hit singles “Do It Yourself” reached #2 in the UK albums chart. It’s slightly odd that no single was lifted from the album (“Inbetweenies” was issued as single in Europe) to give it that extra push up to the top spot but this was Stiff Records who never did the things that other companies did. The album was released in the UK in twelve different sleeves each based on a design from the Crown wallpaper sample book !

    We saw Ian Dury & The Blockheads on the tour to support this album at Birmingham Odeon in July ’79. The gig sold out in seconds but, as it was close to my brothers birthday and he really wanted to go, this was the first time, and only 1 of 2 occasions, I ever bought tickets from the touts outside the gig before the show. I don’t remember them being hugely expensive but if they were it was worth it, to this day, it’s one of the greatest gigs I’ve ever seen. The Blockheads really were a quite formidable band.

    This Is What We Find - https://youtu.be/L9Js_nrrtHo?si=aH9YiozUl5epkJ8D