Saturday, October 13, 2012

Where was I?


Ah! Sorry, forgot to say last time: I was off on holiday. Mrs Darce and I swapped the endlessly indifferent (or is that just plain bad?) weather here in the UK for 10 days of endless sunshine in Spain. Nerja to be precise – we can thoroughly recommend it!

Back now. Back yesterday actually, and the first thing we did was go out for lunch at a local hostelry – it’s difficult to break the habit. In the front bar there were just us and one other couple. Then, a group of four ladies (what lunch) arrived and sat close to us. Close enough that we could not help but hear their conversation. One of the group had just come back from her holiday - in Nerja! How spooky is that?

I’m catching up on my many recent boot sale finds now. A few weeks ago I picked up this little collection of 45s. A mix of ska, rocksteady, reggae, and soul.      



They were all sleeveless and all looked pretty trashed – reggae records, at least, always are it seems – but at 10p a pop it was worth a punt. And they cleaned up very nicely; not a hop, skip or a jump between them. Some inevitable surface noise, but it all adds to the atmosphere. (Curiously the soul records in this bunch are all on labels beginning with the letter M - I left a few ZZ Hill 45s on MHR behind as well, although, now, I don’t know why). Wiping away the dirt at least took them back someways towards the Sixties sweaty basement mod hangout where they must surely have first spun their magic.

As another two weeks have passed since my last post I thought I would pick four of these to play by way of a catch up. The first is appropriate as I have spent much of the last couple of weeks sat on a beach in Spain reading Lloyd Bradley’s comprehensive history of reggae, and Jamaica – Bass Culture. It is also perfectly fits the description of "moody and magnificent". Any link between the second and a certain current high profile UK news item is, I assure you, purely coincidental. "Ole!". Both are B sides but deserve much more. The third and fourth are both “on the money” soul sides so to speak.

Enjoy! 
    



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