Belgrade 2002 Soundtrack

My man Rhys asked me what was the name of the first track we played, in the club scene, from the Belgrade 2002 film. Of course I couldn’t remember, so I turned to the tallest encyclopydia in the world, Adam Regan, and as always, he came up trumps. Also, with my new filing system working like a dream, I’m able to give you the second track too…

Track 1…

Body Flowers by Ernest Saint Laurent (Lou Records 2002)

Download Here.

Track 2…

Right Now by Michael Manahan (Zions Gate 2001)

Download Here.

Belgrade 2002

The people of Belgrade were very friendly and very warm towards us, and also very happy that we were there to perform. The general feeling was that, because of the war, they felt like they had lost 10 years of their lives and had a lot of catching up to do, when it came to music and partying. We were made to feel very welcome and, to be truthful, was a little surprised how cosmopolitan a city it was. I’m sure it’s even better now!

To think there was a war there, and the UN were bombing the city in Spring 1999.

Thanks to Kev and Andreas.

Fellow Brummie

I love a good book, but these days I find it hard to find the time to read one. It’s usually in bed, and then I can only manage a couple of pages before the eyes are rollin! Anyway, thanks to a recommendation from Adam Regan, I took this one on holiday and finished it, and its a great read – set in and around Moseley, a suburb of my beloved Brum, and written by a fellow Brummie, Charlie Hill.

Interview with Charlie Hill

Techno is the soundtrack to this story, and our adopted fellow Brummie, Anthony ‘Surgeon‘ Child gets a mention too.

Atol by Surgeon (Downwards 1995)

R.I.P. Gil Scott-Heron

Turned on my phone this morning to a text from my good friend Adam Regan, informing me that Gil Scott-Heron has passed away. Sad news indeed.

Gil Scott-Heron, soul poet, dead at 62

Public Enemy’s Chuck D once said hip-hop was black America’s CNN. If so, Gil Scott-Heron was the network’s first great anchorman, presaging hip-hop and infusing soul and jazz with poetry, humor and pointed political commentary.

Scott-Heron died Friday at the age of 62, according to his U.K. publisher. The Pitchfork Web site said the report was confirmed by a record-company publicist.His songs, including “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” “The Bottle” and “Johannesburg,” were hard-edged yet melodic, influencing subsequent generations of soul and hip-hop artists who revered him as a pioneer, including Common, Erykah Badu, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest and Kanye West.Scott-Heron was born in 1949 in Chicago and spent most of his childhood in Tennessee and then New York. He showed an affinity for writing at an early age. His first novel, “The Vulture,” was published when he was 19, then he shifted to music in an effort to reach a wider audience. He teamed with Brian Jackson, a gifted musician he met while attending Lincoln University in Oxford, Pa.”I had an affinity for jazz and syncopation, and the poetry came from the music,” Scott-Heron told the Tribune in a 1998 interview. “We made the poems into songs, and we wanted the music to sound like the words, and Brian’s arrangements very often shaped and molded them.”

Together they crafted jazz-influenced soul and funk that brought new depth and political consciousness to ‘70s music alongside Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. In classic albums such as “Winter in America” and “From South Africa to South Carolina,” Scott-Heron took the news of the day and transformed it into social commentary, wicked satire, and proto-rap anthems. He updated his dispatches from the front lines of the inner city on tour, improvising lyrics with an improvisational daring that matched the jazz-soul swirl of the music.Though celebrated for his political broadsides, Scott-Heron was a master of many styles. He could be playful and mischievous, and he found joy in the power of words and their ability to transform the tragic and tawdry into the comical and uplifting.His “H20gate Blues,” for example, took President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew to task as the Watergate scandal was unfolding: “If Nixon knew, ‘Ag’ knew/But ‘Ag’ didn’t know enough to stay out of jail.” On “Jaws,” he identified with the shark in the Steven Spielberg movie; common sense and trespassing laws were on the big predator’s side, Scott-Heron argued. Mixed in with the laughs were songs about love, addiction, childbirth, spirituality.”If you only focus on the political aspects of our work, you change us,” Scott-Heron said in the ’98 Tribune interview. “We’ve done 20 albums and not all of the songs on them are political. We acknowledged politics, just like we acknowledged the existence of condoms, guns, family, neighborhood issues. We were songwriters who tried to represent all the different aspects of the community.”After nearly a decade away from the record business, Scott-Heron returned in 1994 with the album “Spirits,” in which he addressed a new generation of rappers and urban poets who were in his debt with tracks such as “Message to the Messengers.”His work slowed to a trickle in recent years as he battled drug addiction and spent several years in prison for drug-related crimes. A 2010 album, “I’m New Here,” received acclaim, but also offered aural evidence of his declining health.

Scott-Heron never had any chart hits, but his work never really went out of style. Kanye West closed his latest album by including an excerpt from Scott-Heron’s spoken-word piece, “Comment No. 1,” on the track “Who Will Survive in America?”

“We never had a lot of airplay, so I never miss it,” Scott-Heron told the Tribune. “I wrote my first book before I knew how to get it published, and we started making music before we knew there was a marketplace for it. I have always worked like that, because the work itself should be motivation enough.”

© Chicago Tribune

I also posted about Gil Scott-Heron in an earlier post

On The Ones and Twos

It doesn’t happen very often these days (me DJ’ing), so I hope to see a few familiar faces at this excellent night…

More info here.

Your Vote Counts!

NME are running a competition to find the countries best small venue. Well there is only one winner in my eyes, the Hare and Hounds Kings Heath, Birmingham, England.

Get voting peoples – NME

Something to listen to whilst casting ya vote…

I haven’t tired of this album since it was sent to me in 2005.

‘Fairytale’ by Pelding & Joy Morgan from the album Spine (Lizard Shakedown Records 2005)

Download Here.

A Contrasting Weekend….

I had an enjoyable weekend listening to this guy…

…and this dude….

….and ended up here…

…and the soundtrack to this wonderful weekend…

‘Sore Fingers’ by Laurent Garnier (F Communications 1999)

Download Here.

‘Come and Get Dub’ by Jah Shaka (Mango/Island Records 1990)

Download Here.

Hupendi Muziki Wangu?!

Norman Jay MBE dropped this at the Hare and Hounds on Saturday night…

Hupendi Muziki Wangu?! (You Don’t Like My Music) by K.I.D. (SAM Records 1981)

Download Here.

Back in 1997 Biggabush and I made a sort of mash-up, inspired by the above track and this one…

‘Shout’ by Jack Frost and the Circle Jerks (Trax Records 1988)

Download Here.

….and we came up with this (yours truly on vocals)…

U Love My Music by Switchblade Sisters (Different Drummer 1997)

I have 3 sealed copies left of this track for sale – £5 + P&P (cheaper than what they are going for on Discogs). Please get in touch if you would like to purchase a copy.

Ivan Smagghe

In 2003/4 The Regan and I were asked by the Mesa Verde crew to start a monthly Leftfoot night in Paris, which we did at Le Batofar – an old fishing boat moored on the Seine. We traveled on the Euro Star with kilos of vinyl and our fellow Brummie breadbin, Ras Tweed. We took many guests – Roots Manuva; Steve Cobby; Richard Dorfmeister; Jah Grizzly; Farda P; Daddy G; Jazzanova, to name but a few.

Ivan Smagghe DJ’d at a House Music night on Le Batofar around the same period too. I found this interesting interview with him on this very interesting blog.

Its a long interview but worth watching.

http://vimeo.com/21638060

Ivan Smagghe

Ivan Smagghe Blog

Le Batofar

Ghostpoet

A great film, partly filmed at the Hare and Hounds and made by Keith Holland aka UTC, an Aussie dude livin in Brum (Birmingham England).

Ghostpoet