Music Of The Moment


Half a century ago buying reggae on budget LPs was cost effective 12/6d in real money as opposed to 6/8d for a single. So an album for less than the cost of two singles.

Trojan ‘Tighten Up’ is well known but the various Pama sub labels also offered budget LPs. I had ones for NuBeat and Gas. Should have got the Crab one as well.
 
Half a century ago buying reggae on budget LPs was cost effective 12/6d in real money as opposed to 6/8d for a single. So an album for less than the cost of two singles.

Trojan ‘Tighten Up’ is well known but the various Pama sub labels also offered budget LPs. I had ones for NuBeat and Gas. Should have got the Crab one as well.

I'm certain that the '69 and early 70's skinhead reggae culture didn't reach the north of England, not in an impactful way. Certainly not my neck of the woods. Lots of older colleagues had been mods in the mid sixties and there was plenty of old Teds who had stayed true until they died, but nobody ever declared they had been into reggae in that period and been a skinhead. My father had a skinhead in 69/70, I see that from photographs when the family went to Llandudno with my newly born sister, but he was not into reggae. That period it was Motown and the furthest he went into reggae was the Bob Marley Legend Greatest Hits.

And that was the same with my older work colleagues from that generation - a couple of Northern Soul fans, no reggae fans. By the time I came along, my father was a hippy looking dude and a little bit later looked like a member of The Band.

Some uncles were a decade and a bit older than my mum who was the eldest in the family, and they were big into Bob Marley, which they classed as ''Rebel Music'' along with The Who. One of my cousins married an Irish gent who I got along magnificently with chiefly because we could both drink 10 pints of Guinness. He was the same: I'm into ''Rebel Music'' Bob Marley and The Who. None of them had skinheads.

The 2-Tone generation changed that and that's how I got into ska and reggae in big way. It was also the promise of a multi-racial society.
 
One thing about reggae and Ska - more so with ska - is that it still sounds fresh - I often play 007, Rudi, Israelites, Toots, etc original versions never sound stale or fixed in time.
 
‘Rude reggae’ :-


Saw Laurel Aitken in a club above Burtons in Uxbridge and/or The Railway Hotel Wealdstone (featured on a Who LP).
‘Batty take over’ (just don’t tell poster Lumpen)
 
‘Sock it to me baby’ as they used to say on Rowan and Martins ‘Laugh In’.


Nice voice. Rock Steady treatment of the song. I don’t know the original.
 
One thing about reggae and Ska - more so with ska - is that it still sounds fresh - I often play 007, Rudi, Israelites, Toots, etc original versions never sound stale or fixed in time.
It still stands up in a raw way a lot of 60s music doesn't.
‘Rude reggae’ :-


Saw Laurel Aitken in a club above Burtons in Uxbridge and/or The Railway Hotel Wealdstone (featured on a Who LP).
‘Batty take over’ (just don’t tell poster Lumpen)

Had one of his last albums on CD, it was ace, but got lost between cars. Even the missus liked it. Sadly, not found on any streaming service.

Saw The Skatalites here in The Hague in the mid-2000's, but it was very much focused on one of the female singers who had been behind getting the money for the tour.

 
It still stands up in a raw way a lot of 60s music doesn't.

Had one of his last albums on CD, it was ace, but got lost between cars. Even the missus liked it. Sadly, not found on any streaming service.

Saw The Skatalites here in The Hague in the mid-2000's, but it was very much focused on one of the female singers who had been behind getting the money for the tour.


Marcia Griffiths had the big single young gifted and Black a smoother sound. Big string arrangement was a first for reggae.

All these Jamaican musicians, like the skatellites, moved around in various groups with different names

 
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Japan's music still feels modern and undated to me. Which is what they set out to accomplish.

David Sylvian is a proper space cadet now if you find an interview with him. Up there with Chas Smash ''I'm a clean hippy in Ibiza with the people who love and care for me.''
 
i heard this song on the radio at pt today and it been stuck in my fucking head all night. now you people have to listen to it as well



i get how they were so popular in the 80's. its catchy as shit. also, were there people who legitimately didn't know george michael was gay after watching this video?
 
i heard this song on the radio at pt today and it been stuck in my fucking head all night. now you people have to listen to it as well



i get how they were so popular in the 80's. its catchy as shit. also, were there people who legitimately didn't know george michael was gay after watching this video?

I think with the girls it was a case of wanting to believe he was dead straight.

 
Yeh, I remember the girls at school all having pre-teen crushes on Boy George. The idea that he could be gay was a shock to us all, at that age and at that time.
 
I was driving in the car and couldn’t be arsed connecting my phone to Bluetooth for Spotify so I turned on the radio for the first time in years. They were playing an hour of grunge. Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, etc.

JFC that hasn’t aged well. I don’t hear much punk in there, just a lot of bad metal and shitty lyrics. Its like they never really listened to those Husker Du and Replacements albums they name checked.
 
I was driving in the car and couldn’t be arsed connecting my phone to Bluetooth for Spotify so I turned on the radio for the first time in years. They were playing an hour of grunge. Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, etc.

JFC that hasn’t aged well. I don’t hear much punk in there, just a lot of bad metal and shitty lyrics. Its like they never really listened to those Husker Du and Replacements albums they name checked.
Never took to that grunge, it was just heavy rock to me.

 
Yeh, I remember the girls at school all having pre-teen crushes on Boy George. The idea that he could be gay was a shock to us all, at that age and at that time.
I worked with a woman from Bushey who went to school with George Michael. She used to get invited to his parties. No mention of gay.
 
I worked with a woman from Bushey who went to school with George Michael. She used to get invited to his parties. No mention of gay.
A mate of mine who worked in London told me that all the Greeks in London looked and dressed exactly like George Michael. It was their trade marked look.
 


I wouldn't kiss Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Brown or Leonard Cohen
But I know someone who'd love to shift the drummer in Status Quo,
and I wouldn't drop the lámh on Bono" (lámh being Irish for hand) {*thanks to cjbcjb456 for the lyrics}
There'd be far too many legal wrangles

But Jesus Christ Almighty, I'd love to touch the Bangles

I wouldn't kiss AC/DC
Or Lemmy from Motorhead
I wouldn't kiss Tom Petty Tina Turner or the Grateful Dead.
And I wouldnlt kiss Mr Tambourine Man {*thanks mistyholly2003 for those lyrics}
No Matter how he jingle jangles

But Jesus Christ Almighty, I'd love to kiss The Bangles

I'd love to have it off with Susanna Hoffs
I'd love to have it off with Susanna Hoffs
I'd love to have it off with Susanna Hoffs .

.. my favorite's Vicky actually,

I wouldn't kiss Liam O'manlai
Guns And Roses or Muddy Waters
I wouldn't kiss Brian Wilson
Or his Lovely Yankee Daughters
And Shane McGowan is not my type
Because his teeth are green and mangled

But Jesus Christ Almighty, I'd love to bang the Bangles
Oh Jesus Christ Almighty, I'd love to bang the Bangles
 
i heard this song on the radio at pt today and it been stuck in my fucking head all night. now you people have to listen to it as well



i get how they were so popular in the 80's. its catchy as shit. also, were there people who legitimately didn't know george michael was gay after watching this video?

It was compulsory for pop stars to look gay at that time. Bucks Fizz of Eurovision fame is one example. They just got more fame for the dance routine where the girls skirts get pulled off.
 

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