John Kongos is a singer and songwriter from South Africa. He had success there and in 1966 moved to England to further his career.  In 1971 he had two hit singles in the UK. These days he’s most famous for his first hit “He’s Gonna Step On You Again” (#4 UK in May 1971) which was covered (adapted ?) by Happy Mondays for their 1990 single “Step On”. I prefer his 2nd hit “Tokoloshe Man” (#4 UK in November 1971), a Tokoloshe being a mythical African beast that’s said to terrorise and eat people at night.

Both of those singles are big beaty, rocked up dance numbers, proto-Glam rockers. I’d been keeping an eye out for both on 7” but although they are cheapies I never turned copies up. And then I came across this album and both songs are on it. “Tokoloshe Man” is that most important of songs, track 1 side 1, and “He’s Gonna Step On You Again” is the final track on the record.

I have listened to the rest of it, once. Dull early seventies soft “rock” with not a hint of “Tokoloshe Man” or “He’s Gonna Step On You Again” and their meaty, beaty rhythms to be found anywhere. Not anything I ever wish to hear again. But for now I have both of those booming singles to hand whenever I need them.

Tokoloshe Man - https://youtu.be/0dzxTcJX6QA?si=OKord-ihZphytvgS

I’ve added a few new items to the collection in the past couple of weeks so before we dive headlong into the T section let’s clear all those up before we get back to the alphabet…

I’d bought a boxful of CD’s for the shop. Not something I do very often as all the local charity shops sell CD’s for 50p or £1 each so unless I can get them dirt cheap there’s no money in them (hey call this lifelong Socialist a capitalist if you like but this is my living). Anyways, these were cheap and as I was putting them in the racks I was having a listen to things that looked interesting and I didn’t know. This was one of those and I was hooked immediately.

I like dance music (by that I mean music you can dance to rather than the shite that is, these days, called “Dance Music”), I like weird 60’s/70’s instrumental music, I’m a fan of great movie themes, Northern Soul, PWEI and, as you may have read on this Blog earlier, Smoove & Turrell. Chuck in some Hip Hop, put all that stuff in a big pot, stir it and simmer it for a long aul time and you’d likely end up up with something that sounded very much like The Go! Team. It began as a solo project by Ian Parton, a film maker from Brighton, but following the success of this album The Go! Team is now a living, breathing, playing gigs band.

Ian Parton recorded this album at his parents house while they were on holiday. He played all the instruments but, crucially, didn’t get clearance for any of the samples he used. He’d figured his little project wouldn’t attract much attention so he wouldn’t need permission. On its release in 2004 “Thunder, Lightning, Strike” attracted a lot of attention (it was nominated for a Mercury award !) and Mr Parton had a problem. He and his co-producer, his brother Gareth, had to go back to the tapes, work around or re-record the samples they were denied clearance for and added two new songs, to create this version of the album I own, released in 2005.

Two tracks that sum up “Thunder, Lightning, Strike” are ”Bottle Rocket" and "Everyone's A V.I.P. To Someone”. ”Bottle Rocket" is a bouncy horn driven dancer with a great rap going on throughout. Then with about a minute to go introduces a big sample from Shirley Ellis Northern Soul classic "Soul Time" (the “two-four-six-eight ten, two-four-six-eight twenty” bit if you know it. Listening closely it’s one of the samples he must have re-recorded). It’s dancefloor dynamite.

If anyone out there is making a modern day western then the Go! Team have already supplied you with a theme tune. “Everyone's a V.I.P. to Someone" is an instrumental based on banjo, harmonica, horns and  strings and contains samples from "Everybody's Talkin'" by Fred Neil and "Stoned Soul Picnic" by Laura Nyro. If you close your eyes you can picture the cowboys lazily moving across the prairie on their horses toward a giant sunset, it’s beautiful.

This is dance music to me. Drop me in a club playing this and The B-52’s all night and I’d be in frugging heaven.

Bottle Rocket - https://youtu.be/irTaVohfa-g?si=GXlZeCmnRoIEmHw0

An absolutely superb box set containing 7 LP’s that cover Joe and the Mescalero’s 3 studio albums and a double LP of demo’s, outtakes and rarities. There’s also a book explaining everything which includes unseen lyrics and art from Joe’s archive. It’s a beautiful and lavish collection.

I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing and how hard it hit me on 22nd December 2002 when I found out Joe had left us. The holy trinity in 1977 was the Sex Pistols, The Jam and The Clash. The Pistols were gone in the blink of an eye, my route led me to follow The Jam but of course The Clash were important, some said the only band that mattered. I never got to see The Clash but I did see Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros, at The Fleadh in Finsbury Park in the summer of 2002. They were fantastic, they played “London’s Burning” and after the gig had finished my brother dragged me across the backstage area, shoved me into another dressing room and into the presence of Joe Strummer. After a brief exchange with him both our souls were filled with what I can only describe as joy. Miles and me were seen later that night skipping down the street to the off-license shouting “We met Joe Strummer”.

Miles was also responsible for my first hearing Joe & The Mescalero’s 2nd album “Global A Go-Go”. I was staying at his flat in Stoke Newington and he put a CD on and left the room. I was only halfway through what I now know is “Johnny Appleseed” before I was shouting “What the hell is this ? It’s fantastic!”. It’s my favourite of Joe’s three albums with the Mescalero’s and includes the stunning “Bhindi Bhajee” wherein Joe explains to a freshly arrived in London New Zealander, out looking for mushy peas, about all the fantastic culinary options available on the High Road (“Balti, bhindi, strictly Hindi, Dall, halal and I'm walking down the road, We got rock sole, okra, Bombay duck ra, Shrimp beansprout, comes with it or without…”) and then about his band and all the different musical styles they incorporate into their playing (“Ragga, bhangra, two step tanga, Mini-cab radio, music on the go…We got, Brit pop, hip-hop, rockabilly, lindy hop, Gaelic heavy metal fans, fighting in the road”). And that’s how the brilliant Joe Strummer tells us about the joys of the diverse communities and cultures we have on our little island and the great things they’ve bought to us, an anti racist song about food and music…it’s also a killer dance tune.

The Mescaleros first record “Rock, Art & The X-Ray Style” is quite dense, with influences from all the music from around the world Joe had introduced us to in his World Service radio show “London Calling”, something I still listen to every few months…and some snippets of which are woven into the groove laden “Midnight Jam” on his final album “Streetcore”. “…X-Ray Style” weaves dance music, reggae, Bhangra, cumbia, rock and roll and a myriad other styles into a coherent whole.

Joe’s final album “Streetcore” was unfinished when Joe passed away but the Mescalero’s completed it and we got to hear great songs like the beautiful “Ramshackle Day Parade”, “Arms Aloft”, “Burning Streets” and the Punk as hell “Coma Girl” (with which Bruce Springsteen opened his 2009 Glastonbury set as a tribute to Joe but the BBC have never shown).

The final 2 records make up “Vibes Compass (B-sides & Rarities)” mostly demo’s of tracks we’ve heard on the albums. I don’t really like collections like this as a rule. Demo’s rarely reach the heights that the final recorded versions do (that’s what demo’s are for after all) and unreleased songs are usually unreleased for a reason. The most interesting thing within is a cover of Johnny Rivers “Secret Agent Man” recorded for a film score in 2002 but never used.

We lost one of the true greats when we lost Joe Strummer, I still feel blessed to have had my very short time talking to him. This is a lavishly constructed, beautiful box set containing some incredible music and is a pleasure to own (I have one for sale in the shop if anyone is in need BTW).

Bhindi Bhajee - https://youtu.be/AYMPz0MEKco?si=M7iMUFNovXNOjzhH