Slip Fingers O'Reilly

Not much found about Mr O'Reilly. This E.P. was found at Brick Lane a few years back I think. Again it was the amusing sleeve that made me buy it. The curious renditions of classical works fused with cockney knees-up pub piano and honking saxaphone would make most lovers of Brahms and Lizst reach for the ear-plugs!


Slip Fingers O'Reilly - Chopin's Nocturne

Slip Fingers O'Reilly - Schubert's Serenade

Slip Fingers O'Reilly - Bizet's Toreador Song

Slip Fingers O'Reilly - Tchaikovski's Melodie

Slip Fingers O'Reilly - Tchaikovski's Waltz Swan Lake

Slip Fingers O'Reilly - Verdi's La Donna Mobile

Hank Snow

Happy to upload some more Hank Snow from an EP I found a couple of years ago from the early 60's I imagine although these tracks seem much earlier. Nice country and western/ rockabilly cross-over style , more upbeat than the maudlin C&W of that era.


Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was born on May 9th, 1914 in the sleepy fishing village of Brooklyn, Queens County, on Nova Scotia's beautiful South Shore, just down the tracks from Liverpool.

"As a boy, Hank faced many difficulties and shortcomings. He had to face the trauma of his parents' divorce at just eight years old and he was forced to stay with his grandparents. He then had to deal with an abusive grandmother who forbid him to see his mother. He regularly sneaked out at night and walked the railroad tracks to Liverpool where his mother was living. Not willing to return to his grandmother, who would often beat him for visiting his mom, he would sometimes seek shelter in Liverpool's railway station, now home of the Hank Snow Country Music Centre.

Both his parents had musical talent and Hank picked up his basic guitar-playing skills from his mother. In 1926, Hank went to sea as a 12-year-old cabin boy on fishing schooners based out of Lunenburg to escape his abusive step-father and never returned to school. With his first earned income he bought his first guitar, a T. Eaton Special for $5.95. While at sea, Hank would listen to Jimmie Rodgers on the radio and began to imitate him and entertain the crew. It wasn't long before Hank had picked up his own style."

Discover more about Hank Snow HERE.


Hank Snow - A Fool Such As I

Hank Snow - The Star Spangled Waltz

Hank Snow - The Golden Rocket

Hank Snow - I Don't Hurt Anymore

Frankie Lymon

EP on the Columbia label from the early 60's I would guess. I've had this one for a while and can't remember where I bought it. I've always had a soft spot for a bit of Doo-Wop and this is some of the best despite the orchestral accompaniment.

Wikipedia says -

"Frankie Lymon was born in Harlem, New York City to a truck driver father and a mother who worked as a maid. Lymon's father, Howard Lymon, also sang in a gospel group known as the Harlemaires; Frankie Lymon and his brothers Lewis and Howie sang with the Harlemaire Juniors (a fourth Lymon brother, Timmy, was a singer, though not with the Harlemaire Juniors). The Lymon family struggled to make ends meet, and Lymon began working as a grocery boy at age ten, augmenting his legitimate income with proceeds gained from hustling prostitutes and was known for having relationships with women twice his age.

At the age of 12, Lymon heard a local doo-wop group known as the Coupe De Villes at a school talent show. He befriended their lead singer, Herman Santiago, and he eventually became a member of the group, now calling itself both The Ermines and The Premiers. Dennis Jackson of Columbus, Georgia was one of the main influences of Lymon's life. His personal donation of $500 helped start Frankie's career.

One day in 1955, a neighbor gave The Premiers several love letters that had been written to him by his girlfriend, with the hopes that he could give the boys inspiration to write their own songs. Merchant and Santiago adapted one of the letters into a song called "Why Do Birds Sing So Gay?" With Lymon's input, the song became "Why Do Fools Fall in Love". The Premiers, now calling themselves The Teenagers, got their first shot at fame after impressing Richard Barrett, a singer with The Valentines. Barrett, in turn, got the group an audition with record producer George Goldner. On the day of the group's audition, Santiago was the original lead singer but Santiago was late. Lymon stepped up and told Goldner that he knew the part because he helped write the song."


Frankie Lymon - I'm Not A Juvenile Delinquent

Frankie Lymon - Love Is A Clown

Frankie Lymon - Teenage Love

Frankie Lymon - Am I Fooling Myself Again?

Paddy Roberts (Re-UP)

Another EP found in a charity shop last year featuring whimsical songs about subjects not normally sung about in that strange olde worlde voice of his.

"Paddy Roberts (1910 - 1975) was a popular songwriter, having previously been a lawyer and a pilot (serving with the RAF in World War II). He was born in South Africa and died in the United Kingdom. He enjoyed success with a number of songs in the 1950s and 1960s and wrote songs for several films. He released several LPs and EPs of his own material, often featuring what were, for the time, slightly risqué lyrics."

Buy Paddy Roberts HERE.<

Paddy Roberts - Auntie Bridget

Paddy Roberts - The Little Village

Paddy Roberts - I Remember Tilly

Paddy Roberts - The Rabbi & The Priest

Tabou Combo (Re-up)

A record from that tragic country that has been in the news so much lately. A record found at a flea market some years ago. This record was recorded in 1974. The two tracks featured here are the title track "8th Sacrement" and " Pace Domine".

"Formed in the Port-Au-Prince suburb of Petion-Ville by the Chancy brothers, Albert on bass and Adolphe on guitar, this young band won the Radio Haiti mini-jazz competition in 1968. They relocated to Brooklyn in 1971, and their song "New York City," which spoke of the difficulty of life in exile, reached #1 on the Paris pop charts in August 1975. They competed with Ska-Shah for top band honors in the 70s and 80s and fought "musical duels" similar to the Weber Sicot/Jean-Baptiste Nemours battles of the 50s and 60s.

An irresistible live band, Tabou Combo takes Haitian compas to the widest of audiences. From their regular appearances in the '80s at the famous Zenith Theatre in Paris, to an audience of 20,000 in New York's Central Park, to the Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans, in football stadiums throughout the Caribbean, and on the turntables of the top DJs, this band makes people dance. Influenced by funk and soul in their adopted home, Tabou took on the likeness of the Commodores on the covers of their late-'70s releases. They even made a demo tape with hopes of a Motown contract. Their desire to reach the Black US market remains unsatisfied, but they should be proud that popular musicians such as Kassav' from the Antilles/Paris and Wilfrido Vargas from the Dominican Republic have absorbed their music."

Visit the band's official website HERE.
HERE.

Jimmy Cliff

An early Island label 45 from 1963. I couldnt find out much about Sir Percy who does a great B side here.

Wikipedia says -

"Cliff was born in Somerton District, St. James, Jamaica. He began writing songs while still at primary school in St. James, listening to a neighbour's sound system. In 1962 his father took him to Kingston to go to Kingston Technical school where he ended up sharing his cousin's one rented room in East Kingston. He sought out many producers while still going to school, trying to get his songs recorded without success. He also entered talent contests. "One night I was walking past a record store and restaurant as they were closing, pushed myself in and convinced one of them, Leslie Kong, to go into the recording business, starting with me," he writes in his own website biography. After two singles that failed to make much impression, his career took off when his "Hurricane Hattie" became a hit, while he was aged 14. It was produced by Kong, with whom Cliff would remain until Kong's death from a heart attack in 1971. Cliff's later local hit singles included "King of Kings", "Dearest Beverley", "Miss Jamaica" and "Pride and Passion". In 1964, Cliff was chosen as one of the Jamaican representatives at the World's Fair and Cliff soon signed to Island Records and moved to the UK. Island Records initially (and unsuccessfully) tried to sell Cliff to the rock audience, but his career took off in the late 1960s. His international debut album was Hard Road to Travel, which received excellent reviews and included "Waterfall" (composed by Nirvana's Alex Spyropoulos and Patrick Campbell-Lyons), which became a hit in Brazil and won the International Song Festival.

"Waterfall" was followed in 1969 by "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" and "Vietnam" in 1970, both popular throughout most of the world. Bob Dylan called "Vietnam" the best protest song he had ever heard. Also during this period, Cliff released a cover of Cat Stevens' "Wild World" as a single, but it was not included on his Wonderful World, Beautiful People album."


Jimmy Cliff - King Of Kings

Sir Percy - Oh 'Yeah

Bingy Bunny & The Morwells

A 45 from the ska box which also contains some later reggae including this one probably bought because I liked the sound of the name.

"The Morwells were originally formed by Maurice 'Blacka' Wellington and Eric 'Bingy Bunny' Lamont in 1973. Later friend Errol "Flabba" Holt was brought in. During the mid to late 1970's the Morwells released a string of singles on their own "Mor-Well-Esq" label with Bingy Bunny usually singing lead vocals. Their first album "Presenting the Morwells" is a cult classic and its companion dub album "Dub Me" has been reissued by Blood and Fire. The Morwells released a total of four vocal albums: "Presenting the Morwells", "Crab Race", "Cool Runnings", and "Kingston 12 Toughie". During this period Bingy and Flabba were also working in the Kingston studios as session musicians. Bingy on Guitar and Flabba on Bass. The Jamaican studios of the late 1970's were a bee hive of musical creativity. Bingy and Flabba joined forces with Dwight Pickney on guitar, Style Scott on drums and Gladstone Anderson on piano and began laying down tracks for some of the great Jamaican artist of the day; Gregory Isaacs, The Wailing Souls, Isreal Vibration, Bunny Wailer, Prince Far I... Prince Far I called them the "The Arabs" but it was Bunny Wailer who gave them the name that the world would come to know them by: "The Roots Radics." The rest, as they say, is history. Sadly, the world lost Bingy Bunny in 1993."


The Morwells - Greenwich Road Skank

Bingy Bunny & The Morwells - Swing & Dine

Baba Brooks

Another ska single on the Doctor Bird label from the late 60's. No idea who the Saints were on the A side they do a ballad called Brown Eyes but the B side instrumental by Baba Brooks is a top tune- a version of Making Whoopee called King Size.

"Oswald Baba Brooks started his musical career as a trumpet player with the Eric Dean Orchestra in Jamaica in the 1950's. The Jamaican bands played mostly Folk, Afro, Jazz, they played at clubs, big hotels and sometimes on local radio. This was an exciting scene at the time but began to die out towards the end of the fifties. Band members began to move into the recording studios in Kingston that were emerging at the time with the advent of the Sound System. The records that were produced kept the musicians well employed. Most big bands began to die out and only a few managed to survive into the sixties and beyond. One such band was Byron Lee, they became the Islands premire band and established many talented musicians including Baba Brooks. He soon became a popular session man working for many of the top record producers and featured on many of the great Ska tracks during the golden period from 1963 - 1967. He was riding high in 63' with three hits in the Jamaican charts, Musical Communion, Bank To Bank and his version of Watermelon Man. This was a year before the Skatalies had been formed as a band, with whom he was to play on many occasions."


The Saints - Brown Eyes

Baba Brooks - King Size

The Blue Beats

Another old Blue Beat single from the dusty box from 1964. No info. on Red Price who takes lead vocal on this. Sounds strangley MOR and not what you would expect from the label at the time. Covers of show tunes? An old Vera Lynne song? Very odd.

"The Melodisc label was originally dedicated to releasing Jazz and Blues imported from the US featuring artists such as Charlie Parker and Woody Guthrie, as well as UK recorded Jazz from early Jamaican artists such as Joe Harriotts 1953 e.p: Cool Jazz With Joe. Shallit also released African Highlife records from acts like Ambrose Campbell & His West African Rhythm Brothers, Rans Boi Ghana Highlife Band, Ayinda Bakare & His Meranda Band, and The Nigerian Union Rhythm Group. Trinidadian Calypso was also a big mainstay of the 1950s Melodisc catalogue and many sides were issued from artists such as Lord Kitchener, Lord Beginner, Trinidad All Star Steel band, and The Sparrow.

Revolutionised by jazz arrangements inspired by US big bands from multi-instrumentalist Rupert Nurse, and featuring noted Caribbean musicians like saxophonist Al King Timothy, and trumpeter Rannie Hart, the Calypso sound took on new dimensions on Melodisc, and gained much popular acclaim. A big seller of the time was Marie Bryants amusingly titled Dont Touch My Nylonswhich was written by the late Al Timothy. According to Timothys obituary, the song was also recorded by an artist known as The Charmer who subsequently emerged as Louis Farrakhan - currently leader of The Nation of Islam.

Jamaican Mento was another type of music which Shallit pioneered, and due to the lack of recording facilities in Jamaica the earliest recordings were made in London using Jamaican musicians, for example: Louise (Miss Lou) Bennetts Melodisc 78 Bongo Mandates from 1949, was recorded in London, and is possibly the first ever Rastafarian record.

In 1952 Jamaican entrepreneur Stanley Motta started making his own recordings in Kingston, inspired by Bertie King, an ex Alpha School Musician who had been resident in the UK since 1938 and was well known on the British Jazz circuit. King had released a few British recorded Mento records in the UK on his Limbo label, and when he returned to Jamaica in the early 1950s he suggested to Motta the idea of setting up his own recording facility and producing his own records for sale to the local JA market as well as exporting to the UK - in direct competition with neighbouring Trinidad, which was achieving much international acclaim for Calypso. "


The Blue Beats - Blue Beats Over

The Blue Beats - Kiss The Baby

The Piranhas

A 3 track 45 on the Sire label from 1980 I found in a charity shop in Crewe the other day. I vaguely remember seeing the Piranhas ( from Brighton ) play live at a pub in south London in about 1979. Very good they were too. Tom Hark was a medium sized hit but they didn't do much after that as far as I know.

Wikipedia says -

"They were formed in 1977, and were originally part of the Brighton punk scene, first coming to prominence when DJ John Peel started playing their single "I Don't Want My Body" on his BBC Radio 1 programme, but achieved their biggest success with their cover version of the South African kwela song "Tom Hark". This had been an instrumental hit in 1958 for Elias & His Zig Zag Jive Flutes, and had already been covered in a ska style by Millie Small. With new lyrics written by the band's frontman "Boring" Bob Grover, it was a Top 10 hit in the UK in 1980.[1] It was the first song to feature on BBC Television's pop music programme, Top of the Pops, when it returned in 1980 after being blacked out for several months by industrial action. It also became a popular chant amongst British football fans the tune being used for songs such as "Premier League, You're Havin' A Laugh". It is also popular at limited-overs cricket games, often being played when a boundary is hit, and the tune was also used in the novelty World Cup song "We're England", performed by the presenters of the radio station talkSPORT with adapted lyrics for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals. Two years later the band's version of Lou Busch's "Zambesi" - produced by Pete Waterman - was a Top 20 hit in the UK Singles Chart.

The band were however not involved with a song that entered the UK charts in 2005, a remake of their biggest hit entitled "Tom Hark (We Want Falmer)", recorded under the name of Seagulls Ska, featuring Brighton resident Attila the Stockbroker and members of the ska band, Too Many Crooks. This was to help raise money for a new stadium for Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. (nicknamed "The Seagulls") at Falmer.

"Boring" Bob Grover still lives in Brighton, and is currently gigging around the UK with his new band 'Dates'. They released their debut album, First Party, Fire and Theft on Hah! Records in March 2007.

Guitarist Johnny Helmer went on to become a songwriter. He is best known for writing lyrics for Marillion's second incarnation with Steve Hogarth after the departure of Fish. He also published a novel entitled Mother Tongue in 1999. As a day job, he works in marketing for a Brighton company (as of 1999)."


The Piranhas - Tom Hark

The Piranhas - Getting Beaten Up

The Piranhas - Boyfriend

Eli Buckett

A CD from one of my contacts that I've had a few years safely locked away in the cowshed. Maybe it should have stayed there? Anyway I thought I would give it an airing as you have all been so good and deserve cheering up ( is that the right phrase? ).
I dont know much about Eli but heres a blurb about a show he does-

"Goring resident Rod Scriven is presenting the popular West Country character Eli Buckett at the Kenton Theatre, Henley, on Friday, September 12th.

It Makes I Laugh will feature Eli and his band The Haybalers in an evening of comedy songs, stories and good natured country humour.

Rod has performed the character in theatres and clubs across the country and internationally, with tv and radio appearances and even released a single, The Yodelling Cockerel.

“People can come to the show and expect a lot of fun and a really good laugh,” said Rod.

“I’ve been performing as Eli for several years. If you split me down the middle, I’m a quarter Rod and three quarters Eli Buckett.


“It’s a good old West country show, with buckets of laughs,” he said. "


Eli Buckett - Somerset Born

Eli Buckett - Stooper's Hill

Eli Buckett - Her Romeo Just Walked On By

Eli Buckett - Oh Ah

Eli Buckett - When I'm Cleaning Windows (Cowsheds)