Beware The Moon

Tonight something happens that only happens every blue moon – a blue moon. This provides the perfect excuse for me to watch a favourite film of the early 80’s, the John Landis comedy horror, ‘An American Werewolf In London’ (1981). David Naughton’s famous metamorphosis from man to werewolf made a major impression on Michael Jackson, who’d subsequently work with Landis on what’s now regarded as the greatest music video of all ‘Thriller’ (1983), complete with Jackson’s own werewolf transformation. He even referenced the disclaimer from the closing credits – ‘any similarity to actual events or persons, living, dead, or undead, is purely coincidental’.

By |2025-04-07T10:37:52+00:00August 31, 2012|Film, The Eighties, Video|0 Comments
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Living To Music – The KLF ‘Chill Out’

Back in 1990, with the Rave scene at its height, ‘chill out rooms’, where you could escape the constant main room 4/4 thud, were now a feature at a number of club nights and parties. Here the DJ’s set a more spaced-out atmosphere, creating trippy ambient soundscapes as opposed to rock the house rhythms. Ambient music had, of course, existed outside of the clubs previously, its best-known exponent being Brian Eno, whose electronic experimentations set the tone back in the 70’s (although you can trace its origins further back via the avant-garde). The DJ’s would pepper things up further with perhaps Pink Floyd, a BBC sound effects album, a section from a sci-fi movie score, a Strauss Waltz, or some weighty Dub – anything that fitted the vibe and enhanced the vibrations.

By |2025-04-07T10:37:53+00:00August 29, 2012|CD’s / Digital, DJ / Club Culture, Hear, Living To Music, Records, The Nineties|12 Comments
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Sit Down! Listen To This!

Whilst DJ obsessives in this country could tell you the minutia with regards to New York’s celebrated club culture of the 70’s, I’m often surprised to find that they know precious little about what was happening here in the UK at the same time David Mancuso, Nicky Siano, Larry Levan and the other NY legends of the 70’s were bringing Disco to the fore. Maybe they think that there wasn’t much happening here, and that UK DJ’s were simply following the US lead, whilst, to the contrary, nothing could be further from the truth – go back into the 70’s, before Disco hit its stride, and you’ll find hugely influential figures including Ian Levine, Colin Curtis and Les Spaine in the North, Chris Hill, Bob Jones and George Power in the South – DJ’s with a wealth of knowledge between them, who made their mark on popular culture here at root level. These are giants, upon the shoulders of which subsequent generations of British DJ’s stand, whether they know it or not.

By |2025-04-07T10:37:53+00:00August 21, 2012|Black Culture, Books, DJ / Club Culture, Manchester, Merseyside, Read, The Eighties, The Seventies, The Sixties|23 Comments
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San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)

Scott McKenzie, the singer of the 1967 Summer Of Love anthem ‘San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)’, died last weekend, aged 73. With the hippie movement growing at pace, on January 14th 1967 ‘A Gathering Of The Tribes For A Human Be-In’ was held in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The event was in reaction to the banning of the drug LSD the previous October, and between 20-30,000 turned out, far more than anyone could have imagined, listening to music by bands like The Grateful Dead, Santana, The Steve Miller Band and Jefferson Airplane, and talks by counterculture guru’s like Allen Ginsberg, Richard Alpert (later to be change his name to Ram Dass), Dick Gregory, Jerry Rubin and, of course, Timothy Leary, who introduced the famous psychedelic slogan ‘turn on, tune in, drop out’ that day. This acted as an invitation to young and curious people far and wide to leave their workplace or their schools and colleges and join the hippie adventure.

By |2025-04-07T10:37:53+00:00August 20, 2012|Hear, Psychedelia, RIP, The Sixties|0 Comments
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Video Blog – ‘The Rich Man’s Frug’ From Sweet Charity

Bob Fosse was one of the most innovative choreographers of both Broadway’s and Hollywood’s post-war era, his best-known work being ‘Sweet Charity’ (director / choreographer - stage 1966, film 1969), ‘Cabaret’ (director / choreographer - film 1972), ‘Chicago’ (writer / director / choreographer – stage 1975), and ‘All That Jazz’ (writer / director / choreographer – film 1979).

By |2025-04-07T10:37:53+00:00August 17, 2012|Dance, Film, The Sixties, Video, Video Blog|2 Comments
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Putting The Black In The Union Jack

Well, that was the London Olympics that was – what was initially greeted with mass cynicism ended up captivating the nation, engendering a new sense of identity that would have been unthinkable just two and a half weeks ago. It’s only a year since there were riots on the streets of England, and people were talking about, depending on their perspective, a feral or disenfranchised youth. Things were looking bleak, and Britain broken, but all of a sudden there’s a fresh wave of hope and national pride and, despite the ongoing effects of the recession, the Olympics have undoubtedly brought the feelgood factor back to the UK.

By |2025-04-07T10:37:53+00:00August 14, 2012|Black Culture, Misc|14 Comments
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Video Blog – Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers In Hellzapoppin’

Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers were a group of black club kids who’d pioneered the highly athletic second wave of the lindy hop dance style, which would spawn the jitterbug and the jive, at Harlem’s legendary Savoy Ballroom in the 1930’s. Perfecting the ‘air steps’ / ‘ariels’, which described the motion of the female dancers, who’d be thrown around by their male partners, this was as wild a style of dancing as ever devised, and it’d be another 40 years, and the advent of breakdancing, before anything came close in terms of sheer power, strength and energy.

By |2025-10-10T17:36:39+00:00August 8, 2012|Black Culture, Dance, Film, See, The Forties, The Thirties, Video, Video Blog|0 Comments
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Terje (Not Terje)

Great to see Todd Terje blowing up big time with his infectious ‘Inspector Norse’ single, a definite candidate for best new dance track of the year, it’s simple complexity the mark of somebody who very much knows what they’re doing, someone with an understanding of both feel and precision who strikes the right balance between head and heart. I suppose that by being a feelgood DJ with a sharp sense of irony, as well as being a student of physics at Oslo University, Terje was bound to have his own unique angle, which, when applied to making music was bound to produce intriguing results.

By |2025-04-07T10:37:53+00:00August 6, 2012|DJ / Club Culture, DJ Appearances, Hear, Mixes, Records, Remixes / Edits|4 Comments
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What Would You Do If I Sang Out Of Tune?

John Robb, my old friend and musical ally (I produced a couple of tracks for his band of the time, Sensuround, back in the early 90’s), blogged his views at Louder Than War a few days ago regarding Paul McCartney’s stuttering appearance at the Olympic opening ceremony last week. Like myself, John holds The Beatles in the highest regard, so I was interested to hear his take on things.

By |2025-04-07T10:37:53+00:00August 3, 2012|Articles, Live Performance, Psychedelia, Records, See, The Beatles, TV|10 Comments
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Video Blog – The Nicholas Brothers & Cab Calloway In Stormy Weather

To be described as “the most amazing dancers I have ever seen in my life—ever” by no less an authority as Mikhail Baryshnikov, one of the greatest male ballet dancers of all-time, you begin to get the weight of just how phenomenal the Nicholas Brothers were, yet most people haven’t even heard of them – a somewhat tragic state of affairs.

By |2025-04-07T10:37:53+00:00August 2, 2012|Black Culture, Dance, Documentaries, Film, The Forties, Video, Video Blog|2 Comments
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