Straight To The Copycat Head

Much to my astonishment, the moment lockdown began easing, my estate agent called to arrange viewing appointments for Swede Towers. I'd naively assumed  that the last thing anyone would want to do would be to walk around a house that had been occupied throughout the whole period, but I was wrong and in the first couple of weeks I welcomed over a dozen masked and sanitised visitors into my home. It's a quirky place as I've mentioned before and so not suitable for everyone, but in due course an offer came in. It was substantially lower than I'd hoped for, though generally realistic given the age and condition of the place. Long story short, I accepted the offer and immediately went out and found a new gaff for myself. All that was a couple of months ago and, while the legal machinations rumble on, I've been steadily packing my life into cardboard boxes ever since. It's easy to get distracted from the endless endeavour, as I did the other day when rifling through the hundreds of old anonymous photos I still appear to possess, in spite of several, supposedly thorough, clear-outs. It's easy to see why I kept this one though - both amusing and slightly unsettling at the same time.

The appropriately titled soundtrack is provided by a sweet tune on the Bangarang rythm courtesy of the mighty King Tubby & the Aggrovators, which originally appeared as the flipside of  Derrick Morgan's 1975 single 'The Original Watering Man'.

King Tubby And The Aggrovators - Straight To The Copycat Head

Red Gold & Green #4 - The Aggrovators

Last week was a hot one. Throughout most of Wednesday, as temperatures soared through the 30° mark, I hunkered down indoors with the curtains closed - it was just too much for me. In the evening though, all hell broke loose in the form of a brief, but very violent thunderstorm, which left the air blissfully cool when it had passed. As the storm raged (and did it ever rage) I stood at the window firing off ten shots at a time, trying to capture a photograph of a lightning bolt. It's a tricky business with a little point and press camera, but my patience was rewarded with these two consecutive shots (click on them to enlarge).

The Aggrovators were one of the great session bands of reggae's golden age, working extensively with producer Bunny Lee throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The band practised something of a revolving door policy, with legends such as Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar, Jackie Mittoo and Tommy McCook all passing through the ranks at one time or another. 44 of The Aggrovators' dubs, mixed by the late King Tubby, have recently been compiled by VP Records as 'Dubbing at King Tubby's'. Here, from that collection, is the appropriately titled 'Thunder Rock', which was originally released in 1976 on the flipside of Cornell Campbell's 'Have Mercy Oh Jah'.

The Aggrovators - 'Thunder Rock'