Friday Photo #40

Well what are the chances? Deep into the second half of a lifetime devoted to music, with a significant amount of those years enjoying the odd beer or two, I wind up in a little Suffolk market town where the local brewery is run by a pair of music obsessed brothers who combine both of those passions with the naming of their products. Step forward Bull of the Woods brewery (itself taken from the title of a 1969 13th Floor Elevators LP), whose front door is just 3 miles from my own. Their range of beers includes Twisted Wheel (named after the famed Northern Soul club), Shine a Light (from the Rolling Stones tune), Vapour Trail (after the 1991 Ride EP), festive ale Season of the Witch (from Donovan's hit of the same name), Woodstock (say no more) and an oatmeal stout called Black Ark, so monikered in tribute to Lee Scratch Perry's legendary recording studio. They're all really really great beers across the board, but, if you pinned me to the wall, demanding that I choose my favourites, I'd have to go for Hacienda, a highly gluggable 4% pale ale and Rocksteady, a malty, caramelly 3.8% session ale, both of which slip down an absolute treat. I'm working up a thirst just typing about them.

Today's photo finds me in the beer garden of my local, nursing a sublime pint of Rocksteady. All being well, that's where you'll also find me the day after tomorrow, for an hour or so at least. Excitingly, Sunday is the day that Bull of the Woods are due to launch a brand new golden ale, brewed exclusively for this very pub. I can think of worse ways to celebrate my 63rd birthday.

Alton Ellis - Rocksteady

Red Gold & Green #31 - Ken Boothe

Still working at the age of 71, Ken Boothe is probably best known to the world at large for his cover of Bread's 'Everything I Own', which reached the UK Number 1 spot for three weeks in October 1974. To quote Joe Strummer in '(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais', '...Ken Boothe for UK pop reggae...'. Boothe's career, however, stretches back to the late 1950s, with his first recordings appearing as part of a duo with Stranger Cole in 1963. His solo career began in earnest in 1966 with a series of ska and rocksteady tunes for legendary producers such as Leslie Kong, Sonia Pottinger and Phil Pratt. Boothe also recorded for Coxone Dodd's Studio One label and here he is on that very imprint in 1968, with his superb rocksteady reworking of a song written and recorded the previous year by another Ken, UK entertainer Kenny Lynch.

Ken Boothe - Moving Away

Red Gold & Green #7 - The Soul Brothers

I was laid low by a nasty bug for much of last week, though I couldn't rightly tell you if it was of the 48, 60 or 72 hour variety, as I became so feverish that time no longer had any real meaning to me. I poured with sweat, then became teeth-chatteringly cold, then hot, then cold, with the cycle repeating over and over again as I thrashed about in vain search of sleep. I seem to get these bugs about once a year - here's hoping that was the last one for at least the next 12 months.

Ace Studio One session band The Soul Brothers (also known as The Soul Vendors) featured former Skatalites members Jackie Mittoo, Roland Alphonso, Johnny Moore and Lloyd Brevitt, though they quickly moved towards the emerging rocksteady sound. The 1967 Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd production, 'Hot and Cold', is an instrumental version of 'Let the Light Shine' by The Ethiopians, released the same year.

The Soul Brothers - Hot and Cold

Red Gold & Green #2 - Justin Hinds and the Dominoes

If you know just one song by Justin Hinds and the Dominoes, it'll probably be the ska classic 'Carry Go Bring Come', produced by the great Duke Reid in late 1963 and released on the Treasure Isle label early the following year. Hinds and Reid revisited the song in 1967, this time recording a rocksteady arrangement and, following Reid's death in 1974, Lawrence 'Jack Ruby' Lindo produced a further, straight forward reggae version for Hinds' 1976 LP, 'Jezebel'. Justin Hinds died in 2005 at the age of 62.

Justin Hinds and the Dominoes - 'Carry Go Bring Come' (Ska)

Justin Hinds and the Dominoes - 'Carry Go Bring Come' (Rocksteady)