This playlist is 97% vinyl friendly. Soooo close! 

One of a two turntables plus mixer combo that made up artist Fabien Clerc’s unique (as in totally one-off) ‘Back in the Good Old Days’ creation and if your great great grandmother had been into DJ’ing she might have taken a shine to it. Fully functional and made up entirely of decorated and glazed earthenware it was shown at an exhibition which investigated the idea of luxury. Hopefully it stayed there.

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Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here. 🙂

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Lyric of Playlist 130…

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00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

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00.41

NEW ORDER – All Day Long – Brotherhood, LP – Factory – 1986

One of New Order’s most unusual arrangements, as Barney’s languid verses are initially met with instrumental choruses and then all but forgotten in the sweeping build. There couldn’t have been a ‘front man’ less worried by this.

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05.12

BIG BLOOD – Never Ending Nightmare – First Aid Kit, LP – Feeding Tube Records – 2023

The 50 run only Deluxe Edition (with 7″ lathe) was most probably sold before it was pressed, but vinyl heads also had a separate 1000 Limited Edition run, with Colleen and Caleb’s daughter, Quinnisa having grown from the adolescent fronting the Big Blood 41 Rooms show iD to… here fronting Big Blood! Girl, it’s most definitely in the genes… 🙂

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08.16

HULA – Torn Silk – Voice, LP – Red Rhino – 1987

For some reason I never can fathom I seem to struggle to program Hula into 41 Rooms shows as much as I’d like. One of a number of Sheffield bands of the era I really took to and when I was still living in Bedford in the late ’80s I was for a brief period involved with, towards the end of their existence. Years later I’d bump into John Avery and partner/late period Hula member, Jo Cammach often enough for us to then realise we were living just a few hundred yards from each other… in Islington, London. Sadly, don’t expect any ‘mastered from the original tapes’ Hula compilations to surface anytime soon… at all! Ron Wright recounted to me a few years back that all the band’s tapes were lost in label, Red Rhino’s sinking under its distribution wing going under. 🙁

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12.18

VEX RUFFIN – Front – Conveyor, LP – Stones Throw – 2017

He’s been sounding in a lighter frame of mind in more recent years but back here he had a tougher ‘industrial’ feel.

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14.42

SIOUXSIE and THE BANSHEES – Israel * – 7″ – Polydor – 1980

Winkles, Bedford on a Wednesday night in 1981. Definitely a club fave that got spun a few times by me.

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19.18

CAMPBELL * MALLINDER * BENGE – Dereliction Magical – Clinker, mini album – Les Disques Du Crépuscule – 2021

If this wasn’t influenced by elements of Will Powers’ Adventures In Success I’ll possibly eat the hat I don’t own.

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24.01

AU PAIRS – Sex Without Stress (John Peel session) – Equal But Different – BBC Sessions 79-81, CD only – RPM – 1994

The CD should have been titled 79-82, as this track comes from 1982 and their last session for the great man.

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27.46

LILIPUT – You Did It – 7″ – Rough Trade Germany – 1983

A style that still has a ‘kindred spirit’ audience and in the case of this single, a £60 price tag.

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31.20

NANCY AMES – Cry Softly – 7″ b-side – Epic – 1966

A US b-side but if only off the back of its storming/belting chorus it was rightly flipped to the A when released in the UK, and its collectibility in anything approaching mint condition will be down to the northern soul scene (and specifically Blackpool Mecca, it would seem) taking it to its heart in the ’70s.

A UK 7″ acetate with someone somewhere, there were only two words to spell correctly. 🙂

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33.53

THE FASCINATIONS – Girls Are Out To Get You – 7″ – Mayfield – 1967

Written for this Detroit girl group by Curtis Mayfield and released on his label, this was a sound that I seem to remember hearing a good bit a few years later after its release. Either it was on a jukebox in the Pilgrims pub in Bedford or got spun at various mainstream ‘discos’ in my late teens socialising, as I wasn’t a northern soul regular. 🙂

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35.56

CAROL ANDERSON – Sad Girl – 7″ – Fee Detroit – 1979

Sounding more like a tune the ’70s northern soul scene might have ‘cratedug’ from a decade earlier but in fact it was new in ’79 and is still revered now.

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39.29

THE SUPREMES – Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone – 7″ – Tamla Motown – 1966/1967

Talking bit alert! Still fronted by Diana Ross at this point, it’s a Motown classic in spite of the ‘narration for dramatic effect’ noodling.

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42.13

MR DAY – Queen Of The Minstrels (Taggy Matcher Disco Mix) – V/a: Disco Reggae Volume Two, LP – Stix – 2014

My mate, Barry Wom put me on to this recently with the note that ‘(It) appears to have a little something that one Mr D Hickey might be partial to!‘ In my head initially was certain Misty in Roots sessions for John Peel’s radio show but now I’m thinking it’s somewhere else I can’t quite pin down. Mr Day was the vehicle for Frenchman, Eric Duperray, with his 2012 soulful but pedestrian rock cover of the Eternals tune from 1969 given a more ‘Jamaican backdrop’ via Taggy Matcher. Apologies for the dated thinking in the sleeve design.

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47.37

THE TWINKLE BROTHERS – Free Africa – 7″ – Front Line – 1978

A gem.

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51.40

SPACEK – Language – Curvatia, 2LP – Island – 2001

Wonky soul? Steve Spacek on a trip of his own making and I remember Gilles Peterson and Ross Allen being UK ‘tastemaker’ DJs that were early on to him, the latter so much so that as Island Blue label boss, he signed Spacek.

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56.12

BENCH – Regardless * – A Trip And A Twist, LP – Placid Casual Recordings – 2002

Little remembered duo of Kris Jenkins and Rachel Thomas but they had some cool tunes that might have seen more daylight in the ‘triphop’ era a decade or so earlier.

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01.01.38

BREAD – Make It With You – 7″ – Elektra – 1970

I’m not sure there’s ever been a US singles chart No 1 on 41 Rooms… til now but that’s where David Gates, previously a successful songwriter for others, found himself and his band with this single. I was just too young to be buying when this was released but Gates’ up-front-in-the-mix vocal definitely pricked my ears enough over the radio (maybe both Radio 1 and 2?) to have me grab the 7″ second hand just a few years later – for anywhere between 10 and 30p, I reckon.

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01.04.41

GORDON LIGHTFOOT – Sundown – 7″ – Reprise – 1974

This would have been more of a Radio 2 sound back in the day, so my mum and her knitting (Aran jumpers her speciality) would have heard this more than me. 🙂 Incidentally, the Canadian singer/songwriter’s first ever US gig was at the 200 capacity Cleveland coffeehouse, La Cave, supporting a teenage Jose Feliciano, around 1962 or 3.

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01.08.09

THE MEKONS – Dear Sausage – I ❤️ Mekons, LP – Quarterstick Records – 1993

Though I’m guessing licensed to the above as well as Rough Trade, Germany via promo cassettes Paul Smith produced with catalogue numbers from his own label, Blast First. Do fans refer to the album as ‘I Love… ‘ or ‘I Heart… ‘? Dunno.

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01.11.43

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY – Mr. Clarinet – 7″ – Missing Link – 1980

Nick Cave and Co with a single that got me beyond Release The Bats for the ‘Goths’ at our Winkles club nights in Bedford in the early ’80s.

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01.15.24

KILLING JOKE – Kings and Queens – 7″ – EG – 1985

I don’t remember hearing this first time around but there’s always been just too much to hear. 🙂

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01.19.31

BAUHAUS – She’s In Parties – 7″ – Beggars Banquet – 1983

Maybe a brave move to release as a single and though I was happy to occasionally clear a dancefloor with a ‘slowie’ this wasn’t one of them.

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01.25.07

LOVE AND MONEY – Whisky Dream – Dogs In The Traffic, LP – Fontana – 1991

Maybe it’s the Celtic in me (albeit the Irish side in my case) that had me take to this song, whilst nothing else on the above album grabbed me. With its whiff of ‘traditional’ and strong storytelling it’s no surprise the song has been regularly highlighted on social media through lead man, James Grant’s onstage appearances in the intervening years since.

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01.28.30

M&M – Talk To Me (Bonus Telephone) * – 12″ b-side – Atlantic – 1992

The main vocals massively dispensed with, this is head nodding doodling cheeriness… and no more. 🙂 Not to be confused with M + M, the Black Stations/White Stations alter ego of Martha and The Muffins at one point.

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01.33.51

LONELADY – (There Is) No Logic – Former Things, LP – Warp -2021

Funky electronics from Julie Lonelady’s album of reflection.

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01.37.22

ELECTRIBE 101 – Talking With Myself (Original Mix) – 12″ – Club – 1988

Aarrgghh! ‘Talking bit alert, Pt 2!’ Diana Ross was at it earlier in the show and now Billie Ray Martin’s ‘sense of theatre’ goes for it as well. That apart, this tune and E101 as a whole was/were a class act, enough so to warrant (with Martin seemingly the driving force) the re-release in recent years of their one and only album – plus a separate remixes package. Thankfully, the gal is also still musically active with ongoing projects.

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01.44.02

DEEP 6 – We’re Going Deep (W/Piano) – 12″ – D.S.R. – 1989

Predating his and Oscar Gaetan’s liquid funk Murk workouts by a few years this was Ralph Falcon in 1989 – then as ‘Deep 6’ but, for some reason, ‘Deep Six’ for a 1994 re-release.

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01.49.27

ROBERT OWENS – Was I Here Before? (Fire Island Vocal) * – Was I Here Before (Remixes), 3×12″ – Musical Directions – 1996

One of the doyens of house music, to me he’s always been at his best when he’s riding beats with an undercurrent of ‘unease’… as in here with the Fire Island duo of Pete Heller and Terry Farley providing the mix needed. Owens’ slightly leftfield phrasing and tone just seem to add to the mood, not to mention (but I will) his lyrics mostly swerve the mundanity.

Some of what the Fire Island lads were listening to earlier in the ’90s.

Record Mirror article, 3.9.93

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01.53.25

NU COLOURS – Tears (Frankie Knuckles Mix) – 12″ Wildcard – 1992

‘This gloriously wailing girl and soulful guy led UK vocal quintet’s smoothly harmonised throbbing 121.7bpm melodic lush garage/house remake of Frankie Knuckles’ 1989 classic (promoed for the past two months flipped simply by its 121.5-121.7bpm Instrumental should cross over easily as it’s actually got a strong song, superbly sung‘. – James Hamilton, Record Mirror (Music Week), 23.5.92

‘… the Tottenham based superb soulful Fay Simpson and Lawrence Johnson led gospel quintet’s lushly harmonised bounding 121.6-121.8bpm joyous garage/house remake of Frankie Knuckles’ melodic classic proves to be flipped on its commercial pressing by a more subtly keyboarded 0-121.3bpm actual Frankie Knuckles Mix, plus the similarly sanctified jogging 0-102.2bpm ‘Want Your Love 2 B Mine’ (like the Emotions or Jones Girls singing The SOS Band’s ‘Just Be Good To Me’ – in other words, hot!‘ – James Hamilton, Record Mirror (Music Week), 30.5.92

Satoshie Tomie, Robert Owens and Frankie Knuckles’ original is a bona fide house classic and with London Community Gospel Choir beginnings in the Nu Colours’ ranks it was no surprise this version more than stood up. A worthy show ender. 🙂

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Sept 1 for show 131. 🤞

Dec x