A new perspective ...

There are so many myths that persist down the years, and it seems that the more they are repeated the more they are accepted. It's like the sound of young Scotland. There are very few people that love Postcard Records more than I do, Funky Glasgow Now and all that, but you read some of the testimonials and wonder whether people have heard the same records ...

Anyway Edinburgh in 1979 seems to be the place to set the controls of your Tardis for, pre-Postcard. Just. And that's why it was so important that in the seventh issue of Your Heart Out, the pertinently titled The Archaeology of An Abandoned Soul Single, we were able to run a feature on The Visitors, whose first EP Electric Heat came out in 1979 and created quite a stir with its melody and menace. Realising that not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to dust off their well-worn vinyl and give the EP yet another spin, so it's an honour to be able to offer an exclusive live Visitors track, Exploiting The Masters, here for your delight ...

The other Edinburgh group that was blazing a trail in the Edinburgh of 1979 was the very glamorous Scars, whose debut single on Fast Product was one of the best ever and went something like this ...

There's one thing we've known from the start ...

Of course the whole nation, nay world, has been stimulated into debate by the seventh issue of Your Heart Out, the atmospherically titled The Archaeology of An Abandoned Soul Single, and in particular the question of how on earth The Smiths became so popular so quickly. Polls have been running in all the national newspapers about who would have felt the most aggrieved, and apparently more people have participated in this than the final of a TV talent show.

Anyway, the smart money seems to be on Hurrah! which is touchingly apt as its 27 years this weekend since their debut single The Sun Shines Here exploded onto the pop scene. Suddenly the Go-Betweens weren't the only fun in town, and there was a new anthem to put alongside Do You Believe In Magic? and It Will Stand. Dave McCullough rhapsodised in Sounds about the return of cool. Then as 1982 drew to a close Hurrah! recorded a session for Kid Jensen which showed the single wasn't a one-off, and gave the world its first exposure to the glories of Hip Hip.

Suddenly all the hipsters were talking about Hurrah! and autoharps, 15-minute sets and intricate harmonies, red Fender Jaguars and The Action, the Velvets and the Voidoids, Fire Engines and Josef K, folk rock and touch of jazz, '60s soul and Subway Sect. The revolution was imminent, and so into 1983 and eventually the second single appearing with Hip Hip on the one side and Flowers on the other which McCullough pointed out sounded like the Pentangle, which had to be a good thing. And still the people in the know sing: "Deep down inside we're all punk rockers at heart ..." Could anything stop Hurrah! and the Go-Betweens?

Grab your silk stockings and your dance invitation ...

If you've read the seventh issue of Your Heart Out, the piquantly titled The Archaeology of An Abandoned Soul Single, you'll know that one of the men behind that forsaken 45 Sylvester Levay moved on from swinging with the Ambros Seelos Big Band to being part of the Munich disco milieu. That whole Munich thing seems to have been a fantastic time for music. Very cosmopolitan, very adventurous, and the records still sound great today, whether you're idling or dancing.

So, here's our exclusive Munich disco mix to get the party started. If you fancy some Sister Sledge, Silver Convention, Donna Summer, Munich Machine, Moroder, Roberta Kelly, Penny McLean, Sparks and Joy Fleming, then this will brighten up your day, so as the ladies sang: "Get up and boogie ..."

And as Dee D Jackson was shamefully missed out from the mix here she is, all the way from Oxford, and disco doesn't get much more cosmic than this ...

All the news is bad again ... kiss your dreams goodbye.

Only one thing for it then, and that's get out the Kleenex. Only trouble is that whoever posted this clip won't allow me to embed the video. The cads. But there is also eight minutes of live Kleenex/Liliputian footage here. Yeehar!

So it at least gives me an excuse to post this Delta 5 footage. Ah nostalgia. Socialists. Rock Against Racism. Top of the Pops. Delta 5 on Top of the Pops? I think I would remember that. But I don't. Did it ever happen? Looks suspiciously like one of those 'youth' oriented shows that were occasionally on like Something Else. But I could be wrong. And who cares ...

Inspirations of London

If you've seen the seventh issue of Your Heart Out you will be aware the theme was trying to find out more about an old soul single by a guy called Joe Curtis, and the strange roads this archaeological expedition takes us down. I stumbled across this today, which suggests a certain soul single is still abandoned. It is a different edition to the one I have, and the sides seem to have been flipped which makes sense to me. But what is interesting is that it does confirm, as suspected, that the Ambros Seelos Orchestra was involved.

It is possible you may have come across the Ambros Seelos Orchestra via one of the In-Kraut collections Marina has put out in recent years, or there was another comp called Achtung! of swingin' German big band grooves which included Ambros' fantastically funky workout on Mabusso. My own favourite of Ambros' works which I've heard has to be the title track of his 1968 Fire LP. You'll know the song of course, but not this scorching ska/soul version. From the same LP comes Swingle Beat, written by Sylvester Levay (or Lysy) who was really the hero of The Archaeology of An Abandoned Soul Single. And if you like the Ambros Seelos sound then check out this CD, Inspirations of London which features some decidedly swingin' tracks.

And for a bit of big band action with a German connection you can't do much better than this ...

Soul flutes

Anyone who has read the seventh issue of Your Heart Out, the teasingly titled The Archaeology of An Abandoned Soul Single, will hopefully have picked up on the fact that Herbie Mann and Tommy McCook have one way and another contributed to a ridiculous amount of wonderful music down the years, and are very definitely heroic figures.

I am a real soft touch when it comes to flutes in pop/soul/jazz, so Herbie's got a bit of a head start. But he's been involved in some pretty special things, from working with the likes of the divine Chris Connor at Bethlehem in the '50s to his early championing of the bossa sound to doing the whole of Anthony Newley's The Roar of the Greasepaint, his more full-on r'n'b works like Memphis Underground, the more mod jazz flavoured LP with the beautiful Tamiko Jones, and so on.

Tommy McCook is something of a saint for the many, many great records he has been involved in with the Skatalites, Supersonics, Aggrovators and as a session player on so many of the great Jamaican ska/rocksteady/reggae discs. With the ever increasing enforced leisure time available to many of us there are worse things to do than skip around YouTube and discovering all those old ska and rocksteady tracks he played on.

And yes all of this is heading towards the fact that in the mid-'70s Herbie Mann and Tommy McCook recorded an LP together, which was called Reggae and features Mick Taylor on guitar among other guests who help mix things up in a wonderfully odd fashion. If you're like me and think the world's made a better place by there being 18 minute workouts of My Girl on a jazzy reggae rock theme then you'll be wanting to hear this and the rest of the record.

Manfred Mann's protest ...

Continuing the theme of anti-racist protests against Enoch Powell at the end of the '60s, as featured in The Archaeology of an Abandoned Soul Single, the scintillating seventh issue of Your Heart Out, it's worth highlighting Manfred Mann naming a track Konekuf on their fantastic Manfred Mann Chapter Three. Read backwards it spells out what Mann thought of racist politicians, and in the UK with European and local elections only a few days away hopefully enough of us will be making clear what we think.

Anyway the Chapter Three record is a fantastic LP, and features the definitive version of You're A Better Man Than I, as covered by Sham 69 when they were trying to lose their horrendous far right skinhead following ironically. Around the same time, the end of the '60s, Manfred Mann and Mike Hugg would be involved in making the music for Jess Franco's Venus In Furs, including playing with Barbara McNair in some memorable scenes. At Your Heart Out Barbara is a massive favourite, and the Motown recordings she made are often given a spin.

YouTube has clips of Barbara in Venus In Furs (steady!) but I got more excited at finding Barbara with Rock Hudson in an episode of MacMillan and Wife. I loved that show as a kid. Then I found this. Barbara on a Noel Harrison TV special, Where The Girls Are. The Byrds were on the same show, and appear with Barbara and Noel looking uncomfortable doing Good Day Sunshine.