Welcome to the RPM Record Club Seven Day Soundtrack, week ending Friday 12th August 2022... and I reckon it's too hot to do anything else other than to recline with a cooling beverage of choice and listen to this week's edition...which may take a bit of extra time this week as we have film and newspaper articles included for your delectation. Over to...

Jackie -

"A tribute this week to songwriter Lamont Dozier who died last Monday..."

Philip -

"My mind has been set at rest. Liz Truss gets on well with Larry the Downing Street cat, and that's what's important isn't it?

Three old favourites from the 70s this week. Best wishes and good health."

Alan -

"Well, this week was gonna be some early sixties instrumentals until I espied a film on TPTV temptingly entitled 'mods and Rockers', released in 1965 by Top Rank. I wasn't expecting much, and that's probably what I got, but there were one or two interesting moments. The seemingly unconnected opening scene is yer standard jazzy music with a posse of appropriately (well, almost) dressed young people, who probably went on to the Paddy Stone dancers whilst the soundtrack proper is a selection of Beatle tunes 'played' by The Cheynes, featuring a young Mick Fleetwood on drums, Roger Peacock on vocals/mouth harp and Pete Bardens on keyboards; a band who were better known for banging out r&b and soul covers in London's top mod clubs. All look suitably embarrassed as they churn out early Beatle hits and LP tracks in a style which could charitably be classed as 'muzak', on a stage at the rear of the youth club where all the 'action' takes place. Somewhere deep within Top Ranks Youth Department a hip forty something probably thought "We've had 'West Side Story,' we've had 'The Young Ones', why don't we combine the two featuring those degenerate mods and rockers? Oh and let's do it in full colour, not cheap black and white like that Beatle film!' Great idea, but then somebody started to cost the film out and any good intentions went out of the window. Script? Who needs talking, let the film supply the action! Big stars? I would imagine anyone who was approached to 'star' in the film soon found something, anything else to do. Music? Let's get a popular mod band to play Beatles songs..... oh, and put 'Music by the Beatles' in big writing at the top of the poster!! Still, the film has notoriety for a couple of reasons. Presumably in an effort to recoup some of the cost, the film was incorporated in its entirety into another 'yoof' feature entitled 'Go Go, Big Beat' which led to legal action to remove it from the, presumably, superior content of 'GG,BB'!!!. That particular filmic delight has so far evaded me!!!! Secondly, it soon becomes apparent that one of the mods is what was, at the time, politely termed 'sensitive', spending most of the film leaning provocatively on a sort of Greek god statue. At the end of the film, following the predictable mods v rockers punch up (to music of course!!), he is seen walking out arm in arm with one of the rockers, possibly one of the most overt references to homosexuality in British cinemas since 1961's 'A taste of honey'. The rockers all seem to be a fetishists delight (I can't remember any bikers in Harworth dressing like the ones in the film, and my cousin and his biker friends certainly didn't!!) whilst the mods do, by and large, seem to be 'of their time'. John should note one mod lounging prominently on a bench who does wear the de rigueur red socks but the 'lead' mods pathetic Beatle mop top and collarless jacket would have been laughed out of any West End club in 1965 I'm sure. One bonus is a fine clip of the mods arriving at the youth club on their scooters which surely had an influence on Franc Roddam when he began filming 'Quadrophenia' almost ten years later. The film was directed by Kenneth Hume, husband to Burly Chassis, choreography was by Peter Darrell and it was co-produced by Larry Parnes, so, instead of three tunes............. here for your delight is the whole 27 minutes of 'Mods and Rockers'. Enjoy!!!!"

(Please click the link to watch in a new window. Tim.)

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-mods-rockers-1965-online

"Black armbands all round in Oz this week......... RIP to Judith Durham (the voice of an angel) and Olivia Newton John."

Piers -

I was reading this article in the Guardian. ‘Better late than never’: how Brian Eno and David Byrne finally laid a musical ghost to rest

(Please click the link to read the article, Tim.)

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/aug/11/better-late-than-never-how-brian-eno-and-david-byrne-finally-laid-a-musical-ghost-to-rest

"It also set me thinking about my relationship with world music. (Funny old term as depending on where you are recording at any given time, everywhere else the music is foreign! But it will have to do.) But really world music has been all around me all my life… Does Francoise Hardy count as world music? How parochial do we have to be? Jimmy Shand?"

"I was in the basement in Dobells record shop some time in the early 80s (Not an unusual occurrence at that time, me being an acoustic blues fan) when somebody brought in a box of albums that they had bought in Paris. Piers, the long haired guy behind the counter (I wonder why I found that name so memorable) slapped the first album on the deck and I baggsied and bought it after just a second or two… It hadn’t even been priced up! This is that track that I heard. Ali Farka Toure. It altered my terms of musical reference."

John -

"Hi Everyone. Hope you're keeping cool, safe and happy! Here are three tracks from albums I've listened to in the past week."

James -

"Here's this weeks' picks."

"Supporting Lankum on acoustic guitar and penny whistle was John Francis Flynn. I saw him on Tuesday in Sunderland with his trio - acoustic guitar and penny whistle, clarinet, drums and electronics. Great, innovative folk/jazz/noise. The two support acts are my other picks this week, both excellent."

Tony -

"Here's my 3 random tracks heard during the week (including a rock'n'roll themed trip on the river Deben last Sunday). Best wishes to all hoping you are dealing with the heat ok."

Jayne -

"Best wishes to the RPM collective and I trust all’s well with everyone. Here are three very unrelated tracks that have caught my ear this week…"

Dave -

"Hi RPMers, hope you all survived this hot week !!! Here’s my 3 for this week..."

Tim -

"Here's this weeks three from me..."

'Til Next Time...