Carnival

It is the August Bank Holiday which for Londoners means only one thing - rain! And the Notting Hill Carnival, of course.

I won't be going myself - things to do, people to see, you know how it is - but for those of you who are, here are four old standards to get you in the mood.

"Notting Hill" - Explainer (1983)

"Rock It" - Merchant (1985)

"Tumble Down" - Mighty Swallow (1987)

"Feeling It" - Baron (1983)

Bringing things more up to date, here from a couple of years ago are Patrice Roberts and Machel Montano inviting you to "Push Bumpa". I think you can probably work out from the video what that means.

Brenda

For those of you heading out this Saturday night, here is some 1990s disco from the late Queen of South African pop, Brenda Fassie, to get you in the mood.

As disco divas go Brenda was the real deal - as her obituary shows - not like the fabricated ones we get fobbed off with today. Brenda could have had Lady Gaga for breakfast, in every sense of the phrase.

"Kuyoze Kuyovalwa" - Brenda Fassie (1994)

"Vulindlela" - Brenda Fassie (1998)

Brenda first hit the big time fronting an outfit called Brenda & The Big Dudes. Here are some more big dudes. Look out for Bruce Johnston's expression at 3:40.

Midget Gems

For no particular reason, here are a couple of old favourites from the 1980s.

First up we have the Immaculate Fools with "She Fools Everyone". I could try to describe it to you - for example by saying it sounds like the Psychedelic Furs covering "Cath" by The Bluebells - but it is probably easier all round for you just to listen to it. Then second up we have the very late Gary Holton with his shouty pub-rock version of "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town". It was number one in Norway, apparently.

"She Fools Everyone" - Immaculate Fools (1987)

"Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" - Gary Holton (1980)

Poor Gary comes across as about 20% menace and 80% desperation (the Raoul Moat of cover versions if you like). I find the Kenny Rogers original much more menacing. If you don't believe me, have a listen and wait until he gets to "For God's sake turn around". Scary!

TGI Freedy

It has been a thoroughly miserable day here in London, so to make us all feel better here are some good old pop songs from good old Freedy Johnston - whose latest album, aptly enough, is called "Rain On The City".

I am not sure I would want to listen to one of his albums all the way through more than once. I find a lot of the songs just drift by without really being noticed. But it is worth sticking with it first time round as every now and then he'll come up with something that is absolutely spot on. Here are three examples.

"Tearing Down This Place" - Freedy Johnston (from "Can You Fly", 1992)

"Seventies Girl" - Freedy Johnston (from "Never Home", 1997)

"Venus Is Her Name" - Freedy Johnston (from "Rain On The City", 2010)

Here is Freedy in the video for "On The Way Out" (also from "Never Home").



Is it just me or does he bear a passing resemblance to the popular star of 'Cold Feet' and the Yellow Pages adverts, James Nesbitt? Jimmy is considered by his admirers to have a winning twinkle in his eye. But nobody twinkles like this fellow.

Eurostars

I know I have featured both of these tracks before, but they popped up in quick succession on my iPod on my way home just now and struck a chord with my own personal zeitgeist thingy.

"Plutonium Baby" - Miam Monster Miam

"Checkpoint" - Radio Telefunken Hamburg

Such little as I know about these two acts is summarised in the earlier posts (which you can find here and here).

Miam Monster Miam are from Belgium. Radio Telefunken Hamburg are from Germany. In between you have the Netherlands, which is where this lot were from.



Teach-In won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1975 with that. It's good, but how this deeply funky classic from Italy didn't win beats me.

He's Not That Sort Of Guy

The homoerotic subtext of the songs of Guy Mitchell has not to my knowledge been the subject of a detailed analysis, but I think it should be.

If that doesn't attract the attention of some of you flicking through Hype Machine I don't know what will.

Before the Guy Mitchell Trust or any lawyers out there start getting excitable, I am not for a moment suggesting that Guy was anything other than the thrice married All-American pop crooner of Croatian origin that he appeared to be. Nor am I casting aspersions on his producer, the legendary Mitch Miller, who sadly passed away last month at the grand old age of 99 - although I was interested to note that early in his career he was an enthusiastic player of the oboe - or the different songwriters involved.

Nonetheless, when you hear two songs opening with the lines "I love the sea, I love the navy" ("Pretty Little Black Eyed Susie") and "As I cruised out one evening" ("The Roving Kind") you have to wonder whether there is some sort of agenda. To my normally innocent ears the latter song, which takes the form of an extended and rather tortuous maritime analogy, appears to describe an encounter with a transvestite. Guy meets what he believes to be "a proper girl" who turns out to be "rigged up in a disguise". At the end of the song this individual makes him "walk the plank" and then "pushed me under too". One can only imagine what depraved practices those terms are meant to imply.

[While on the subject, I was recently approached in a bar by an individual who asked if I would let them "lick the brown pelican". I have no idea what this means but it sounded revolting so I declined. If any of you can shed any light on this - without scandalising my more respectable readers - that would be greatly appreciated.]

Anyway, back to Guy Mitchell. As with all conspiracy theories, once you buy into them you start seeing evidence to support them everywhere. I believe "She Wears Red Feathers" may be another song about transvestitism - surely no "proper girl" in her right mind would be seen dead in red feathers and a hooly hooly skirt? The porn shop on the corner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is fairly self-explanatory. But Heaven only knows what putting another nickel in the nickelodeon entails.

Perhaps I am imagining all this. Judge for yourselves.

"The Roving Kind" - Guy Mitchell (1950)

"Pretty Little Black Eyed Susie" - Guy Mitchell (1953)

"She Wears Red Feathers" - Guy Mitchell (1953)

In all seriousness, I love these songs, and there's nothing funny about me. Unfortunately, there is nothing funny about Guy's attempt to carry out a comedy routine with Petula Clark either, but stick with it for the singing.

Tsonga On Saturday

Great news, Tsonga/ Shangaan fans. A treasure trove can now be found on Amazon. Over 300 albums released on EMI South Africa are now available to download (at least in the UK). They include music in all styles but among them are albums by some of the Tsonga stars we have featured here - big names such as George Maluleke and assorted members of the Chauke family.

They also include "Phulumende No. 1: Munhu Wa Misava" by Patrick Nkuna & Mavutani Band. To be honest I had never heard of Patrick before but he merits a passing mention in our old friend Max Mojapelo's "Beyond Memory: Recording the History, Moments and Memories of South African Music". So I thought he was probably worth a listen.

The album is an appealing mix of Tsonga Disco and more traditional mbaqanga tunes. Here are a couple from the Tsonga Disco end of the spectrum.

"Mbenjani" - Patrick Nkuna & Mavutani Band

"Ku Rhula" - Patrick Nkuna & Mavutani Band

This gives me a perfect excuse to give you this clip of another Patrick with disco connections.