Startin' Pop Special

I have been on a couple of trips this week. I have just been revisiting my roots down in Dorset. While there we took in the Yetminster Fair at which we met an old school friend of mine, two of the Yetties flogging their old albums (yes of course I did) and a one-armed Oriental clog dancer.

You know they say that people lacking one or more of the five senses compensate by the others being more refined than normal. Well, I don't know if the same is true of limbs but the lady in question was a lot more nimble than most of the others. Whether the same applies to the three-legged greyhound in the final of the dog show I am not sure.

Earlier in the week I was working in Brussels. As usual I managed to pick up a couple of Congolese CDs in Matonge, which will no doubt follow in due course. Also as usual I found something intriguing in the bargain bin of the DVD/CD shop in Brussels Midi station. It is an album called "Startin' Pop 2", released in 2005, and whoever wrote the blurb must have had me in mind. How could I possibly resist something that starts "Startin' Pop is a Belgian collective based in Liege"?

I couldn't. Here is a small selection of leading-edge Liege sounds.

"This Dream's Gone" - Isola

"Play With Me" - Snow Bunting

"Fever" - 7 P.M.

Finally, I have had a request for a clip of Wild Man Fischer in action, as a belated tribute following his death a couple of weeks back. Here he is with a storming version of "My Sweet Little Kathy".



Wild Man's backing band in that clip were Barnes & Barnes, who were of course responsible for this classic.