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introduction
A club compilation featuring classics both new and old
that have filled the Blow Up Club Dancefloor over the years, from The
Quik's 60s mod classic 'Bert's Apple Crumble' to the 90s spaceage beats
of Soul Hooligan's 'Sweet Pea'. Read
'Blow Up A-Go-Go!' reviews.
track listing
- Bert's Apple Crumble The Quik
- Blow Up A-Go-Go! James Clarke
- Somebody Stole My Thunder Georgie Fame
- Sweet Pea Soul Hooligan
- Love Potion #9 The Coasters
- Watts Breakaway The Johnny Otis Show
- I'm A Man The Spencer Davis Group
- Cloud Nine Mongo Santamaria
- Bongolia The Incredible Bongo Band
- Sahara 72 The Bobby Hughes Experience
- Exploration The Karminsky Experience
- The Beat Goes On Buddy Rich
- House Of Bamboo Andy Williams
- Psychedelic Sally Eddie Jefferson
- 25 Miles Edwin Starr
- Soul Time Shirley Ellis
- Le Responsable Jaques Dutronc
- She's Got Everything The Kinks
- Shake Shadows Of Knight
- Humanize Big Boss Man
sleeve notes
"Vic Keary, co producer of The
Quik's "Bert's Apple Crumble",
claims the track was namd after the finest dessert in Bert's Cafe on the
Old Kent Road around the corner to Maximum Sound Studio where this track
was recorded. This tune, originally a B-side, kicks the album off to a
storming start. James Clarke's "Blow Up A-Go-Go!",
a music library track found one morning at a North London boot fair, became
a firm club favourite before it's inclusion on the "Blow Up Present's
Exclusive Blend Vol.2" album. It was from there that the Gap clothing
company picked up on the track for their "Khaki-A-Go-Go" TV campaign of
Summer '99. On its commercial release, and as a thankyou from the publisher
Ian Dale for its revival, the track became renamed after the Blow Up club
night. Georgie Fame, or Clive Powell as he
is known to his friends, performed regularly at the Flamingo in Soho,
recording a classic live album there with his backing group the Blue Flames.
The Flamingo has long since gone, but just above it in what once was known
as the Whisky-A-Go-Go, is of course, the location of the Blow Up club's
Saturday night residency. Thirty years later its good to know that Somebody
Stole My Thunder can still work an audience in the very same building. Soul Hooligan's Sweet Pea, couldn't help
but be included when it contains such samples as the Dean Parrish northern
soul classic "I'm On My Way" and the Mohawks' "The Champ" - two tracks
often found on the club decks in their original form."Watts
Breakaway" by The Johnny Otis Show,
is apparently about a dance craze sung by a Greek Cypriot and one time
preacher Johnny Otis, inspired by the low rent riot torn ghetto of the
Watts Projects, LA. A teenage Stevie Winwood and Stones/Primals producer
co wrote the ever popular and supremely confident Spencer
Davis Group hit "I'm A Man". The Incredible Bongo Band's "Bongolia",
as with their version of The Shadows "Apache", became an inspiration to
the early Hip Hop scene for its ample sumply of breaks, whilst proving
a great club track in its own right. This one time Motown session group
possibly performed backing on The Temptations' "Cloud
Nine", which Cuban percussionist and 1950s U.S. emigre Mongo
Santamaria reinterprets here. The BOAC jet-setting duo and resident
Blow Up djs The Karminsky Experience are
on fine form with "Exploration" taken from their debut E.P. The twelve year old daughter of jazz drummer
extraordinaire Buddy Rich is the vocalist
on this version of "The Beat Goes On" before it was a twinkle in the All Seeing I. This compilation would not
have been complete without Andy Williams' "House
Of Bamboo", a regular fixture at Blow Up and a defining moment
from the early days. It was recorded in the late Fifties, possibly inspired
by a TV show/film of the same name and is the earliest recorded track
on the album. Shirley Ellis had a minor hit with the 'Clapping Song' but
to many soul fans "Soul Time" is
the track that she will be remembered best for. "Jaques
Dutronc", French sixties heart-throb and beat superstar immortalised
in Cornershops' "Brimful Of Asha" by the line "Jaques Dutronc and the
Bolan boogie..." injects some cool gallic charm into the proceedings with "Le Responsable". On a final note,
there's Big
Boss Man. Their contibution "Humanize" was recorded in drummer/keyboard/vocalist (but not at the same time!)
Nasser's bedroom. Definitely one to watch, they are have just recorded
their debut album for Blow Up Records, so keep 'em peeled." |
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