CLASSIC TRACKS: "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell & the Drells

I've been sitting back on a quiet Saturday evening, chillin' out and listening to some good music. Playing right now, all the way from 1968, it's one of the great funk classics, "Tighten Up", by another of my favourite groups, Archie Bell & the Drells.

This is one of the early true funk masterpieces, with some great grooves and incredible dance rhythms. Aside from Bell's voice, the one thing that really stands out for me in the tune is the fantastic bass rhythm, followed closely by the funky lead. Everything that makes funk great is present in this song. I defy anybody with an ounce of rhythm in their body not to start tapping their feet or shaking their booty when "Tighten Up" comes on the radio.

I usually associate the emergence of funk with the early-1970s, but there was a period in the late 1960s where the soul music of the earlier era was beginning to give rise to a more up-tempo funky sound, epitomised by the likes of Archie and his Drells, James Brown and others. The end of the Sixties and start of the Seventies saw the evolution of soul into funk, and then into a funky disco sound that was to be the vanguard for the coming disco movement of the next decade. It was an incredible era for music.

The version that I am listening to now is the LP version, which is just over three minutes long. There are two different versions of the song, Parts 1 and 2, which are the first and last tracks respectively on the album that I'm listening to now, ARCHIE BELL & THE DRELLS: THE PLATINUM COLLECTION. This one features twenty of the Drell's best tracks, and "Tighten Up" is by no means the only good track on it. The album can be found here on Amazon.com, and here on Amazon.co.uk.

Here also is a link to a YouTube video of a combined version of Archie Bell & the Drells - "Tighten Up" Parts 1 & 2. At about six minutes long, it's well worth listening to.

CLASSIC TRACKS: "Damaged Goods" by Gang of Four

I'm listening to this one right now on a various artists double-CD compilation of indie music, FEAR OF MUSIC.

Damaged Goods is one of my absolute favourite Gang of Four tracks, from their first classic 1979 album ENTERTAINMENT, although it had actually appeared previously as the A-side of their legendary first single, the 1978 Damaged Goods EP, which was released on the Fast Product record label. This EP also featured the equally legendary tracks Love Like Anthrax and Armalite Rifle.

Gang of Four incorporated various other genres such as funk, reggae and dub into their stylistic repertoire, which gave a lot of added "oomph!" to their music. Damaged Goods is like all good punk and post-punk - angry, short, and to the point - but it is also more sophisticated than many of its punk predecessors. This track is undoubtedly one of the pivotal post-punk anthems, and had a huge impact and influence on everything that came afterwards. The sheer simplicity of the best punk and post-punk classics like this reminds me so much of the great three chord/sub three minute garage tracks of the mid-to-late 1960s, albeit with large added dollops of anger and social awareness.

My tastes in music are pretty wide-ranging and eclectic, and on occasion I like some overproduced rock, disco and dance music as much of the next guy. But there are times that I just want to have it short, raw and punchy, like Damaged Goods, New Rose, Public Image, Ever Fallen In Love or Pretty Vacant. Heady company, that, and Damaged Goods is deservedly up there among these other classic tracks.

The version I'm listening to right now is the later re-recorded version of Damaged Goods, and the purists would undoubtedly groan and roll their eyes, and assert that the original version, and only the original version on the EP is the real Damaged Goods. And when it comes to music, I have to admit that I'm almost always a purist myself. So I invariably hate most cover versions of classic tunes. But not on this occasion.

I actually prefer this re-recorded version, which is faster and snappier than the slower original EP version. It just seems to be that bit more angry and aggressive, a searing indictment of love and lust. And angry and aggressive is how I feel a good punk or post-punk song should be. Both versions are classic, but the newer one just edges it for me.

Like I said, the purists will surely disagree with me strongly (most of them probably foaming at the mouth), but I don't care! :)

DJ Phil, a Brief Career Introspective - The Early Years (Part Three)

Sometime around October-November 1986, the "Gay Disco" left the disastrous venue of the Union Hall and returned to its original home on the Magee College campus. A new Student's Union had opened, a temporary portacabin structure known as "The Terrapin", which was to house all the student entertainment facilities until the current permanent Student's Union opened in September 1990.

As soon as the "Gay Disco" moved back to its original venue, the crowds came back and it returned to its former glory days again, with a packed house at every gig. The only fly in the ointment was that, from 1987-1990, until moving to the permanent Student's Union building, the entertainment license available to the Student's Union at that time only permitted the discos to play until 11.30pm. Admittedly, that was really irritating, but the solution was for the "Gay Disco" to begin earlier on Friday nights, and the revellers could then move onto another venue at 11.30 to continue the partying. Once the Student's Union moved into the new, permanent building, the late license permitted the disco to stay open until 1am. The "Gay Disco" would continue its association with myself and Magee College right up until 1998, when it moved out of Magee altogether and onto another permanent venue.

But back to late 1986, and the return of the "Gay Disco" to Magee, where a whole new chapter in my DJ career was to begin. As a direct result of that move, I was to begin my long residency as in-house DJ for the students in Magee Student's Union. After I'd performed at several Magee gigs for the local gays, all the time under the watchful eyes of members of the Student's Union Bar Committee and a few students who attended the "Gay Disco" on Friday nights (still once a month), I was in for a really unexpected surprise. They must have really liked what they heard, because after only a couple of "Gay Discos", I was approached by the Student's Entertainments Officer and asked if I would like to start as in-house DJ for the Student's Union, two nights a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays. I jumped at the offer, and thus began a very long residency as DJ at Magee Student's Union, all twenty-seven years of it, lasting right up until the end of September 2013, when I eventually decided to call it a day.

As I said, the closing time for discos at Magee during this period was 11.30pm, but we were all able to move on to another local nightclub afterwards to continue having even more fun, so things weren't so bad. For the first time since I'd started as a DJ, back in 1980-1981, I was now in regular work, two nights each week (along with live bands) for the students, one friday night per month for the gays, and almost every Saturday night and Fridays that I wasn't in Magee, I was working random gigs outside of my regular workplace, mostly weddings, christenings and birthday parties. It was a good time during my DJ career, and this continued for over a decade, up until the end of the 1990s.

I detailed in my last post about the radically different nature of the music at the "Gay Disco" compared to my earlier gigs - mostly hi-energy dance, disco, funk, soul and pop. Well, the regular Student gig on Tuesdays and Thursdays added yet another dimension to my music. It had some music in common with the "Gay Disco", mostly soul and late-1970s and early-1980s chart music, with lots of New Romantic tunes, which were very popular at that time. But there was also quite a bit of classic rock and glam rock music, such as Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Led Zepplin, T-Rex, The Sweet and Gary Glitter, and some hard rock favourites such as Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, Guns 'n' Roses and Black Sabbath.

But, aside from the above music, if I was to give a general description of the overall tone of the music that I was playing at the Student's Union in those early days of 1986-1990, I'd have to say "alternative". That's how student music was back then. Lots of punk rock, post-punk, early goth, ska, reggae and general New Wave, and indie/alternative music. The Sex Pistols, the Damned, the Clash, the Buzzcocks, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Killing Joke, the Fall, early U2 and Simple Minds, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Teardrop Explodes, early B-52s, the Pixies, Bauhaus, Joy Division, early New Order, the Police, the Beat, Madness, the Specials, the list goes on and on. It was a classic era for music at the Student's Union.

I played my final gig in the old (portacabin) "Terrapin" in June 1990, before it was finally demolished during the summer to make way for the new, permanent Student's Union, where I was to play my first gigs at the start of October 1990. This was to be the start of yet another new era in my career as a DJ. But I'll leave that story for another time.

To Be Continued...

DJ Phil, a Brief Career Introspective - The Early Years (Part Two)

Last time out, I made the comment that, if I was going to get regular work, I'd have to start gigging outside my comfort zone of the rock and alternative scene, sell my soul to the dark side and start playing at commercial discos.

Well, sometime in 1983 (I can't remember the exact date, but it was early in the year), and after several years of random, one-off soul, Northern Soul, punk, alternative, and hard rock discos (which I continued to gig at, by the way - the random gigs didn't just stop), I got my first regular gig. Actually, it was only one Friday night per month, but it was still my first "regular". And the music certainly was different from anything that I'd ever played before. Radically different. But it was most definitely NOT your typical Top 30 chart disco...

I'd been asked by some close friends if I would start playing once a month at a regular disco for the local LGBT community, which, at the time, I thought was quite amusing, as I've always been a strongly-committed, card-carrying heterosexual. I was delighted to say "yes", and this was to begin a fifteen-year association between myself and the local gay community, during which I was the official DJ, from 1983-1998, at what everyone in Derry almost universally referred to as the "Gay Disco". For the first couple of years, the disco was held in Dill House, an old Victorian red brick building which served as the Student's Union at the local University of Ulster campus, sited at Magee College, a nice, quiet spot on the outskirts of the town, well away from the city centre.

Back in the early-1980s, the local gay music scene (and gay society as a whole) was much more underground, yet, strangely, more cutting edge and progressive than it is today. Many younger gays might disagree with me, but I'd argue that, in taking huge strides towards becoming more accepted and assimilated into "normal" society, the gay scene (in my town, at least), AND its music have lost their edge a bit and become not only extremely similar to the "mainstream", but, dare I say it, bland and dull, at least in comparison to the underground heyday of the 1980s, when virtually "anything goes" was the norm on the colourful local gay scene.

Back in those days, anyone of LGBT orientation usually tried not to display their true nature and behaviour too much in public, in fear of the rampant homophobia (gay-bashing was pretty common in our town) in mainstream local society. The "Gay Disco" and other similar venues were usually in less central (to the city centre) venues, well out of sight of any hostile anti-gay groups, and were places where gays of all shades could feel safe, let their hair down, and have fun. And, boy, did those people know how to have fun!

Everything about the "Gay Disco" was fun, exhibitionist, loud, and Proud To Be Gay. From the patrons themselves, many in drag, all trying to outdo each other with the most outrageously camp behaviour and dancing, to the music, which was, with very few exceptions (maybe a very short "slow set"), relentlessly upbeat in tempo. Aside from a handful of the better dance songs from the charts, it was non-stop classic soul, disco, funk, eurodance, and gay club anthems, many of which I had never even heard before. At the very beginning, I didn't know whether I was coming or going half the time, and I was certainly winging it for the first few gigs before I started to find my feet. :)

Well, I had to learn the ropes pretty darned fast, I can tell you. So I went out and started hunting down some completely new (new to me, anyway) types of music, most of it unique to the gay music scene, just for this one monthly gig. As a guy who was accustomed to playing loud, heavy, guitar music to hairy rockers, or frenetic punk riffs and weird New Wave tunes to spikey-haired "fraggles", punks and skinheads, this was like stepping into a completely different world. There wasn't a hard rock or punk rock tune in sight. Absolutely NO guitar music at the "Gay Disco".

And y'know what? It was FUN! For a long time, the "Gay Disco" was the place to be for the best nightlife in Derry. Even the "straights" from the town (in the shape of crowds of gay-friendly punks and "fraggles"), looking for a late-night spot to hang out, would land up in large numbers at around 1.30am or 2am with their carry-outs (it was a "bring your own booze" gig), as the other pubs in the town would close around 1am, and the "Gay Disco" continued on sometimes until 3am or even 3.30am. For a couple of years, from 1983-1985, it was the best disco in the town.

But that all got put on hold for a year or two, as things temporarily took a turn for the worse on the gay social scene. The new, growing university campus at Magee College was being greatly expanded and redeveloped, with many of the older Victorian buildings demolished to make way for the brand spanking new modern university buildings. Unfortunately for the "Gay Disco", venerable old Dill House was scheduled for demolition, and at some point during early 1985, the "Gay Disco" found itself without a home.

A quick relocation of venue was organized, but, unfortunately it was a very bad move, to the Union Hall, which was right bang smack in the centre of town, beside the city walls. Now, the Union Hall was by all accounts a very homely and welcoming place - I'd done more than a few top-notch alternative gigs there. But the city centre was very hostile territory for gays, with gangs of drunken "gay bashers" roaming the town and waiting outside at the end of each gig to give some unfortunate victims a beating. So very few gays actually ever went to this gig (there were rarely any more than a couple of dozen people at each disco, almost all women), bar a handful of hardcore, brave, hardy souls. The "Gay Disco" limped along in limbo to near-empty halls for the best part of a year and a half.

Then, in late 1986, the "Gay Disco" returned to its original home on the Magee College campus, and a whole new chapter in my DJ career was to begin...

To Be Continued...