The second ever single on the Rough Trade label featured Augustus Pablo's divine melodica drifting across the Rockers All Stars rhythm of Horace Andy's 'Mr Bassie'. The 1978 release was hugely influential amongst the the nascent post-punk counter loiterers back in the day and by all accounts is one of Geoff Travis's personal favourites. To the best of my knowledge 'Pablo Meets Mr Bassie' was only ever available as a 7", though let's offer a tip of the titfer to the anonymous online DJ who concocted this extended mix.
The Distractions came together in 1975, though it would be a further 4 years before the band committed any music to vinyl with the 'You're Not Going Out Dressed Like That' EP on Manchester indie label TJM Records. Side 1 track 1 of that release was the original version of 'It Doesn't Bother Me', a good song in search of a little extra oomph. Things get a bit hazy at this point as The Distractions simultaneously signed to Factory for a one-off single and also to Island Records for a more conventional and comprehensive deal. In the event Island was first out of the traps with a re-recorded, re-arranged stab at 'It Doesn't Bother Me' produced by Jon Astley. This time around the song ticked all the boxes - it's powerpop perfection.
The Distractions - It Doesn't Bother Me (1978)
In 1977, for 'Life After Life, Alternative TV's second single on Deptford Fun City Records, the band drafted in a young Jools Holland to provide stabbing soulful counterpoints to the song's reggae soundscape. Mark Perry & co were on an early career roll with the debut 7" 'How Much Longer' preceding it and 'Love Lies Limp', 'Action Time Vision' & 'Life' all following within the next 12 months - classic singles one and all.
My family moved out of London in 1975 and wouldn't you know it, no sooner was I was safely away up the A12, than lots of exciting stuff started to happen in the capitol - even in the bit where I used to live. The Punk movement grew over the following 18 months and crucial new record shops began springing up all over the place, including Small Wonder in my old hometown of Walthamstow. Over the next few years, my trips back to visit friends took in as many of these record shops as time and cash flow would allow. One destination I rarely missed was Rough Trade Records in Ladbroke Grove, initially at 202 Kensington Park Road (now a 'Shabby Chic Couture' shop - it makes you weep) and later at 130 Talbot Road. I bought some great records at Rough Trade on those trips and would usually also pick up the latest issue of Sniffin' Glue or Ripped & Torn fanzine to read on the train ride home. Just thinking about the full to the brim, Aladdin's Cave nature of the place in those days makes me curse my current lack of a fully working time machine. Most of those early purchases are sadly long gone, but a precious few still nestle in my collection. Like this one for instance. In my mind, I picked up 'Skank Bloc Bologna' by Scritti Politti on a 1978 visit to the old shop, but Rough Trade relocated to Talbot Road around that period so I can't be sure. It was all a very long time ago, but this record still sounds utterly fantastic nonetheless. (This one's for you Brian.)
I didn't own a VCR
in 1981, my first piece of kit lay 4 years in the future. Fortunately though, I knew
a man who did. My mate had a rented Betamax machine. It was the size of a fridge,
weighed a ton and took 40 minutes to rewind a tape, but after the pub it was all
back to his place to watch his clunkily edited TOTP compilations, full to
bursting with performances by the likes of Altered Images, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Jam
and Teardrop Explodes. There was the occasional gem from the Old Grey Whistle
Test too. We already knew Scars from the angular post-punk of the previous
year's single 'They Came and Took Her', but nothing prepared us for the
magnificent dark pop of 'All About You'. It became an instant Saturday night post-pub Betamax favourite. Watching the performance again in 2015 the band scream 1981 from the very core of their being, but
listen to that song. Crank it up.
During the 1970's and 1980's, Radio 1 broadcast their own version of the venerable Radio 4 staple 'Desert Island Discs', re-christened 'My Top Ten'. It was a programme aimed squarely at the young music-loving fraternity, where the weekly guest (normally a pop or TV star) would choose his or her ten favourite records and chat a little about their life in the spotlight. Marc Bolan appeared on the show in 1973 - I've still got a tape of the show in a box somewhere. Tellingly, he selected a track by Gloria Jones among his ten. We didn't know it at the time, but he and her were about to become a public item. Also on Bolan's playlist that day was 'Clean Up Woman' by Betty Wright, a single taken from her second LP, 'I Love the Way You Love'. Apparently Marc was so enamoured of the song that he gave a copy to Noddy Holder, suggesting that Slade record a version of it. That would've been an interesting cover.
I think I may have unwittingly alarmed a few people when I mentioned in the previous post that I'd reduced my 7" singles collection by such a large amount. To be fair, the majority of those records were never really a part of my collection as such. What usually happens is that when browsing at car-boot sales and flea markets, I pick up a handful of interesting singles and the stall-holder says words to the effect of 'you can have the whole box for a fiver'. He's clearly seen me coming and knows that I am physically unable to resist. The long and short of it is that I end up back at home with the handful of singles I originally wanted, plus a box of old rubbish. These boxes have accumulated over time, hence the long overdue clear out. I foolishly sold a lot of my really good 7" singles (along with too many great LP's) several years ago, when times were hard and cash was sorely needed. Agghhh...it pains me to think about it even now. But I've still got a small clutch of singles that are like little polaroid snapshots of a moment in time to me. I'm out of town on Bob Dylan, Robyn Hitchcock, Soak and Rozi Plain related business until early next week, so I'll share a selection over the next couple of posts, while I'm away.
First up is 'All Sideways', a 1994 single on Domino by American trio Scarce. The band morphed out of Anastasia Screamed with whom I'd been impressed in the support slots I'd caught a couple of years earlier. The Scarce story was nearly over before it began though, when front man Chick Graning almost died after suffering a brain aneurysm in 1995, which required him to totally re-learn how to walk, talk and play guitar. He somehow managed this herculean task, only for the band to split in 1997. Back in the Summer of 1994, I played this song to anyone who would listen.
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