SMOKE, GODZ & PIMP FREESTYLE

Normally you wouldn’t find me pimping family members but as nepotism is rife across the entertainment industry who am I to resist! I feel the urge to say something ‘yoof’ and I’d like to say those days are long gone but to be honest I never had them!!! I do know one thing and that is that Reggae was a very short-lived and almost inconsequential phenomena in Jamaica – even so Jamaican Rappers – that’s a new one on me!

REAL 2 REEL – I LIKE TO MOVE IT

What? You need an explanation? Gedoutta here! One day all videos will be made this way (ahem).

THE MEMBERS – SOUND OF THE SUBURBS

Fast approaching the end of my wander around the youtube archives for a while. Just time for a quick whizz around the days of my youth. 45’s and picture sleeves, ahh! Buzzcocks anyone? This didn’t get a lot of radio play – can’t think why it wasn’t a huge hit. One more oldie tomorrow and then I’ll book myself into a swiss clinic.

THE WHO – MY GENERATION

Those of a certain generation, or like me having older brothers or sisters having musical coat tails to cling to, find themselves reminiscing on the eternal question. Are you Beatles or Stones? Fortunately my contrary nature shouts “Who” every time!

BAD MANNERS – THIS IS SKA

If I could duplicate the effect of this in static or perhaps sequential imagery, trust me, I would! Btw I saw these guys in concert back in the day and they had to stop three times to try and calm the fighting in the audience! Skinheads – safer at a distance I say!

KILLER/PAPA WAS A ROLLIN’ STONE – GEORGE MICHAEL

There was a moment, and this is it, when you could’ve been mistaken for taking George Michael as a serious artist with a big A. He managed to shy away from that eventually, which is a shame as he had a perfectly good message to impart.

THE BROTHERS JOHNSON – STOMP

Skip to 2.20 if you have to. That’s bass slappin’. I said BASS! And then Level 42 went and made a career out of it!

THE RUTS – STARING AT THE RUDE BOYS

You might have had Kurt Cobain, but waaay before we had Malcolm Owen RIP. Left us aged 26 back in 1980 – now that’s what I call dying young. And you don’t get much more prophetic than songs like Love In Vein or H-eyes do ya? The lyrics to this one? Well, is it still as tribal now? You tell me. It was easier to tell ‘em apart back then in the good old days that were never that good!

THOMAS DOLBY – HYPERACTIVATE

This one hasn’t lasted too well, but the surrealism mixed with the hyperactivity influenced me for a good many years. Better in my memory as all things are! Probably better to look out for Peter Gabriel’s Digging in the Dirt for a more substantial three minutes on this subject.

THE BEAT – HANDS OFF SHE’S MINE

Happy memories are few and far between but this sparks at least one from a time when I really didn’t have a care in the world.