Beautiful Belgique

I am off to Brussels for a few days tomorrow. It is a work trip but I hope to have a bit of spare time to ferret out some groovy Belgian sounds.

Regular readers may recall that on previous visits I managed to pick up a couple of volumes in the "Bel 80" series of CDs. They bring together a selection of vaguely indie Belgian sounds, with one CD for each year in the 1980s, and for people like me who are largely ignorant of the Belgian scene of that era are a good introductory guide. From the 1983 volume, here are Red Zebra with "Beirut By Night".

Sticking with the calypso theme of the last few days, as a bonus here from 1958 is Lord Invader reporting on his own visit to "Beautiful Belgique".

And here is the 2007 Belgian Eurovision entry, the KMGs (which apparently stands for the Krazy Mess Groovers) with "Love Power". It is worth sticking round for the keytar solo.

Latin Lovelies

Right. After yesterday's donkey-based distractions, I am going to have another go at getting into the spirit of things in time for the Notting Hill Carnival.

Here are a couple of calypso/soca numbers from the 1980s. Both feature men falling for the charms of ladies from Latin America - from Mexico and Panama respectively.

First up is the greatest calypsonian of all time, still going strong after over 50 years, the Mighty Sparrow. This is "Margarita" from his 1983 album which is appropriately enough called "The Greatest".

Many of his recordings are much easier to get hold these days, with a huge amount available to download on Amazon etc, but that seems to include very little of his 1970s and 1980s work except in re-recorded form. If you can ever track down this particular album it is well worth the effort - as well as "Margarita" it includes such classics as "Capitalism Gone Mad", "Prophet Of Doom" and "Phillip My Dear", which tells of the time Michael Fagin broke into Buckingham Palace and found his way to the Queen's bedroom. I must post that for you some day.

Our second tale of Latin love is "Companero" by Mighty Gabby. This was released in 1989 on Eddy Grant's Ice Records, and I assume that is Eddy you can hear on backing vocals.

That is a song about a lady from Panama, and as a bonus here is some calypso from Panama. This is from an album with the snappy title of "Panama 2 - Latin Sounds, Cumbia Tropical and Calypso Funk on the Isthmus 1967-77" which, together with Volume 1, is available on eMusic and probably elsewhere. Here is Sir Jablonsky with "Juck Juck Part 1".

To finish off, here is Sparrow in concert a couple of years ago:

Donkeyoke!

This coming weekend is August Bank Holiday weekend in the UK, which means among other things the Notting Hill Carnival. My original plan was to put up a selection of hot soca tunes to get us all in the mood but I got distracted and ended up posting the King of Cardigans instead.

I set off with the best of intentions. The opening selection is from an album called "Carnival 93", released as you will probably have guessed in 1993. Here are United Sisters with "Whoa Donkey".

All the references to donkeys got me thinking about one of the greatest of all calypsonians, Lord Melody, who recorded a number of calypsoes using donkey based imagery such as "Belmont Jackass". On his album "Mas Is Devil Power" - which has a fantastic cover - there is a song called "In The Name Of The Law", which relates a tale of the trouble that ensued when someone wouldn't move their ass out of the way. I'm told there may be some double entendre involved here, but I can't see it myself.

And if you are going to start playing songs about recalcitrant donkeys, you really can't leave this one out: Val Doonican with "Delaney's Donkey".

Apologies for failing to capture the carnival spirit. I will try to concentrate next time. But we can't leave the subject without Mr Bob Blackman and his classic contribution to popular culture:

Not So Modern Times

Like all other bloggers I am almost painfully hip, yet for some reason I have always had a soft spot for Al Stewart.

Here are two tracks from his 1975 album "Modern Times": "Not The One" and "The Dark And Rolling Sea".

The sound quality isn't perfect as they are ripped from my old vinyl copy. But if you are a UK reader and like them could I suggest you take yourself off to Amazon where you can currently get "Modern Times", "Oranges" and "Past, Present and Future" in a two-CD set for just £4.98 - what a bargain.

Here is a clip of Al in 1988 performing "Time Passages". I have always like this song but unfortunately whenever I get to the chorus I find myself singing "Pork Sausages" instead. I once tried to rewrite the entire song as a tribute to the humble banger, but it was beyond my humble lyrical gifts.

From the Banks of Lake Ohrid

Yesterday was an exciting day for the Goggins Global Outreach Programme - we had our first ever visitor from Albania. Welcome on board.

My globe-trotting friend Mister F visited Albania a few years ago and kindly bought me a compilation CD of local pop music titled "Super Perlat e Jugut". From that CD, this is Sinan Hoxha with "Kenge Per Cerciz Topullin". It takes a little while to get going but it is worth the wait.

I have never been to Albania. I have however been very close. In 2007 I went with Mister F - that man again - to Macedonia. The highlight of the trip was a visit to Ohrid, which despite its name is a delightful small town and UNESCO Heritage Site on the banks of the equally delightful Lake Ohrid. Albania is on the other side of the lake. Those blurred hills you can see in this failed attempt to capture the unique light there are Albanian.

While in Ohrid I bought a CD by Ferus Mustafov, also known as Ferus King because he is the King of Macedonian gypsy wedding music. The cat plays a mean saxaphone, as you can hear on this track: "What A Wonderful Woman".

Here is a clip of Sinan Hoxha in action, supported by some dancing divas from Durres:


And in order not to leave Macedonian noses out of joint, here is Ferus blowing up a storm.

Los Pop Espanol

When I was in Madrid a few months ago I picked up for about €5 a three CD compilation of 1960s Spanish pop called "Viva Los 60". As you would expect it was a fairly mixed bag, but there were a few goodies on there. Here are a couple of them.

First up is Frank Dube with the exotic "Mustapha". Then we have what is probably my personal favourite - Karina with "El Baul De Los Recuerdos" (The Chest of Memories).

Karina was a big star in Spain in the late 1960s and early 1970s and according to the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Spanish Culture "she won over Spanish audiences with her sweet, angelic, ingenuous air and became the ideal girlfriend for adolescents of her generation". Having seen this vintage clip of her performing "El Baul De Los Recuerdos" I can see why she would have appealed to the acne-ridden adolescents of Albacete. I think the backing dancers also deserve to be commended for their ability to all be out of time with each other.

Cricket's Coming Home...

Yesterday was a momentous day, with England regaining the Ashes in surprisingly convincing fashion at the Oval. But fear not, Australian reader, there will be no cheap triumphalism here. You lot are known for being as gracious in victory as you are in defeat, so I will try to do the same.

Instead we will try to console you by encouraging you to think back to happier times: 1993, Old Trafford, and the arrival in Ashes cricket of Shane Warne – a man of whom it was said, rather like the little girl in the nursery rhyme, that when he was good he was very, very good and when he was bad he was Hauritz. Imagine you were Mike Gatting and how you must have felt to be undone by what can only be called a piece of jiggery pokery.

That is what The Duckworth Lewis Method have done in “Jiggery Pokery”, a track from their new, self-titled album. They are Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy and some big, beardy feller whose name escapes me. The entire album consists of songs on a cricket theme.

“Jiggery Pokery” is actually one of the weaker tracks and untypical of the album as a whole. Much of the rest of it sounds to me more like XTC circa “Skylarking” rather than The Divine Comedy – maybe it is the subject matter or the influence of the big, beardy feller whose name escapes me. After a couple of listens my favourite track so far is probably “Mason On The Boundary”.

The single from the album is “Meeting Mr Miandad”. Here is the video: