I'm no believer, but when I hear the spirit rise in the rockin' gospel of the 50s, I kinda wish I was.
They came from Doo Wop and the spirituals, they influenced Rock 'n' Roll, and Rock 'n' Roll influenced them back. Some, such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, turned her wedding into a gig with 25000 folks as paying guests. Gospel then, as now, was big business.
The tunes herein one can imagine as the stirring set closers or openers, the rousers; to imbibe the flock with the spirit of Jesus. As Mark Lamarr says in his sleeve notes to Vee-Tone Records' (www.VeeToneRecords.com) CD Screaming Gospel Holy Rollers: ..in 1950 Robert H. Harris, leader of the Soul Stirrers quit. His concerns were 'all the hysterical "carrying on", gimmickry and show boating from the performers. It is exactly that "carrying on" that we're here to celebrate.."
AMEN TO THAT.
Billy Reeves
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written by nostalgiaofthefuture
Everyone's favourite Reigate Rhythm 'n' Blues radicals return! Exactly a year on since their mysterious re-emergence (and subsequent live album) THEE FACTION have announced their first studio LP, and allowed us at NotF to be the first to hear it. And, an exclusive interview with BABYFACE backstage in a club in Belgium too.
Celebrity endorsements & starry-eyed reviews in national newspapers have galvanized the scary six; and - whether you agree with them or not - their return couldn't be more timely. The new LP is amazing; unpleasant communist soul & guitar R'n'B - what we in the 80s would've called 'agit-pop', but you can dance to this, and (more importantly I guess) the tunes will stick in your head - therefore the words will too...
It's fun to agitate!
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written by nostalgiaofthefuture
Hi and happy twenty eleven, comrade! Yes, this time NotF goes all Revolutionary - protest in music has always been a core part of the R'n'B experience, so here's the Blues/Gospel/Soul and Rock'n'Roll artistes who took just five minutes to decide whether or not they were go'hn be part of the problem, or part of the solution! We got you some Sister Rosetta Tharp, some Staple Singers, some Harlem Hamfats and many others - including the British red rockers from 1971 Third World War (proving that Fly Records spent all that T. Rex lolly wisely..)
See you on Friday in Putney for my new club! All the details are contained within this Podcast. Up the Workers!!!
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Greetings, cats. Elvis was famous for his excellent taste in music: some of his favourite singles would be stored and played on the Jukebox at Graceland. So in this NotF we spin some of those 45s you'd find on Elvis's Jukebox, baby! ...The singles were bequeathed to Gary Pepper, a kid with cerebral palsy who Elvis employed to run one his fan clubs. Gary has recently sold the collection to the famous Elvis collector Henrik Knudsen (for his replica Graceland in Denmark). The tunes are also being lovingly packaged as CDs by our friends at www.VeeToneRecords.com if you'd like to buy them.
So, it's not me, Billy Reeves that's DJ-ing on this NotF, it is to all intents and purposes, Elvis Presley...
Downloadable / embeddable MP3 here (stick this on your Facebook) http://snd.sc/htqsx4
Uncle Bob’s Wedding Reception starring Miss J.T. and Thee Faction is on Saturday 18th December. Discounted tickets here http://bit.ly/aXm2EG
written by nostalgiaofthefuture
DARTS - The brilliant doo-wop revivalists/70s pop greats - reformed for a rare gig at the 100 Club on Sunday. I was there: so to celebrate I thought I'd play you the originals of the R'n'B & Doo-wop tunes they ripped that night. What a band, DEN IS THE GUV'NOR, man! (What’s he doing now? Listen and find out..)
Downloadable and embeddable MP3 here http://bit.ly/d5RRRF
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written by nostalgiaofthefuture
Here’s a NotF celebration of the greatest living jazz vocalist, Mark Murphy. Uncompromising, a genius and - the last of the hipsters. Billy Reeves spins the sides. So come on cats hats and kittens with mittens, it’s copasetic, therapeutic and downright erotic. Listen and subscribe for your iPod here: AND cut ‘n’ paste this link onto your Facebook or Twitter and share NotF about a bit http://bit.ly/cMXlMM
Murphy was born in 1932 into a musical family, and has had a 50-year recording career: starting with Mel Torme-style sides for Decca & Capital, British Mod-Jazz in the 60s, Brazilian flavours in the 80s, and over the last 20 years is finally getting his dues with Grammy nominations and Downbeat magazine awards. He can skat, he can act, he can rave, but most of all, he can entertain the HELL outta you, buddy. Liza Minelli said “there’s a party going on in Mark’s head and I wanna go”.
P.S. get your tickets for Uncle Bob’s Wedding Reception featuring Miss JT, Hitman Hearn, Billy Reeves and Thee Faction, 18th December, Upstairs at the Garage, Highbury Corner, London here, NOW! http://bit.ly/cWZwuc
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written by nostalgiaofthefuture
Many gigs have a legendary quality (James Brown at The Apollo, Sex Pistols at The 100 Club); but none are as mythical as Communist firebrands Thee Faction at Ebbw Vale in 1985. Not long after they toured eastern Europe and dissappeared, rumour and counter-claim followed. It's almost like they were erased.... BUT tapes of the concert have recently emerged and, incredibly, Thee Faction have returned! We at NotF were contacted by TF's polemicist Babyface via this blog last week, and, unbelievably herein - their FIRST EVER BROADCAST INTERVIEW and the FIRST CHANCE ANYWHERE to hear tracks from At Ebbw Vale which is shortly to see a release on the Soviet Beret label. The music is astonishing, vibrant, groovy and very relevant still. It's even downright CATCHY! And Babyface isn't as scary as I thought..
The band are doing some selected dates too: check www.TheeFaction.org for details.
CRIKEY COMRADE!
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written by nostalgiaofthefuture
Billy Reeves ici. Formidable et bonjour. On this NotF we celebrate un petit bit of the work of Jacques Dutronc; the singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, husband of Francoise Hardy and the man who looks after almost all of the stray cats on Corsica..
Dutronc was a session guitarist in his teens, after his national service he worked as an A&R man and songwriter, with situationist/journalist/magazine editor Jacques Lanzmann as his lyricist. Things weren't going too well until Vogue Records released his demo of Et Moi Et Moi Et Moi and he became the classic overnight sensation. Dutronc & Lanzmann's songs satirise the petit bourgeoisie, youth culture and refelct (usually in a surreal way) the chaos of Paris in the late 60s, a time of tumolt.
He's carried on a successful career as a music-based artiste but is also a great actor, notably for his portrayal of Van Gogh but more recently he's been appearring in lighthearted movies. Still singing too: he popped up at four major French Rock fesivals this summer.
And this being NoTF it's not just the predictable stuff that gets spun. . .
PSST see you at the Bull & Gate on 18th September; see www.TheeFaction.org for the whyfores - and the big Uncle Bob's Wedding Reception which comes back home on 18th December..
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written by nostalgiaofthefuture
Greetings from Billy Reeves.
In 1983 I was 18 and beginning my clubbing career: in Staines we are 30 miles from London - but without a tube or bus service after 11am back home. I saw all the great bands of the day: but unless we could persuade a parent to get us at 12.30am from Hatton Cross (the tube station near Heathrow) we usually saw the support band, then the first three songs and leg it, or we'd have an 8-mile walk home.
We were lucky to have a little basement club however: Jacksons - it was for the straights and the white-sock crew, but every other Thursday it was 'Alternative Thursdays' for us freaks into Peel. Punk and Post-punk philosophy was very 'year-zero', we were against anything 'old', but by 1983 the DJs were getting bored playing 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' every fortnight - so inspired by trips to the WAG and the Mud Club in Soho a little bit of early Rock-a-Billy, Western Swing and Boogie was slipped in (thanks to the reissue labels of the time) and jolly good it was too! So here's a sweep of tunes from the 40s and 50s that it was "OK to like" in 1983.
C'mon baby, I'm gonna do the washin' machine boogie with you!
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written by nostalgiaofthefuture
Billy Reeves here again, greetings. Following on from the hugely successful NotF Autumn Leaves special, once again I take you through several versions/interpretations of one song. This time it's the Charleston hit which became a jazz standard and the Harlem Globetrotters theme to boot, one of my all-time favourite tunes - Sweet Georgia Brown, Written by Maceo Pinkard (music) Ben Bernie (arrangement) and Kenneth Casey (lyrics). It was first recorded by Ben Bernie & His Hotel Rooselvelt Orchestra and became one of the biggest hits of 1926, a Cotton Club staple and has been recorded by all the greats, even the Beatles had a go (with Tony Sheridan, not included here as it's a bit pony. You can check it on YouTube). You'll hear cred jazz versions, swinging 60s versions, early versions and some of my favourite versions. She may have two left feet but: NO GAL MADE HAS GOT A SHADE ON SWEET GEORGIA BROWN!
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