uncarved.org blog

A while ago these images appeared on the North Sixteen Twitter:

I recognised them from a 1970s reggae documentary “Aquarius” as they are announced as being Stoke Newington (London N16), which is where I live:

(Footage starts at 4:50 but it’s well worth viewing in its entirety)

There was some interest about the exact location of these shots, as things have changed a fair bit in the meantime. I figured veteran reggae writer and lifelong Hackney resident Penny Reel would know. I grabbed him on the Chatty Mouth reggae forum.

Can you ID the locations of these shops in Stoke Newington taken from a 1976 film?

The top photo is Roy Shirley’s record shop cum studio on Birkbeck Road. The male in the doorway is Mr Shirley himself.

The bottom picture is Mr Johnson’s cafe on the corner of Sandringham and Birkbeck Roads. These two premises were within 20 yards of each other. In the back room of this cafe one could buy £5 deals of hashish and grass. It was the first Afro-Caribbean business on the street and is now a hairdressing salon.

Roy Shirley is pictured on the left of this photo. Back in the early 1970s, I used to go to blues dances in Birkbeck Road, off Ridley Road market, in the company of man like Ras Painter, Ras Paul, Gene Rondo, Sir Collins, Sir George, Roy Shirley and the rest of the Stokie rasses.

Many thanks, Mr Reel! It should go without saying that Stoke Newington has changed massively since I first visited in the late 80s, but it’s pretty much unrecognisable compared to 1976…

You should have seen Stoke Newington Church Street in the 1960s. Forget the Queen Anne villas and the “big houses”, back then it was a street of second hand shops. The whole area had lost its 18th century elegance and was now a slum street, full of thrift shops, second hand clothes and furniture shops, junk stores, indigent newsagents, cheap cafes, fish and chip shops, etc.

It was not until the Greenham Common lesbians moved in during the early 1970s, followed by the architects, media folk and squatters in the later ’70s that it turned into the wholefood, latte, sub-Hampsteadian parish it is today.

All the proles have moved to Herts and the provincial middle-class have temporarily moved in. However, once these people have children of five years old, William Patten school will not do for them and they will all move back to Devon, where they rightfully belong.

Penny Reel is the author of the essential Deep Down With Dennis Brown (Drake Brothers) which also includes a wealth of information about the reggae scene in London.

He also edited and wrote most of the 1981 Soundsystem Spashdown feature in the New Musical Express.

Hanging out at my mate Chris’ place this afternoon confirms my thesis!

Cybore / Box Set Go.

Matt owns a lot more boxsets than me:

These Trojan sets, compiled by Steve Barrow, were the most accessible way to get into Black Ark stuff in the late eighties. They foreshadowed Barrow’s later work with the Blood & Fire label – incorporating great selection, sound quality and design. And also the excellent Arkology 3 CD set on Island.

Sort of “Occult Roots of Big Beat” set, featuring mad breakbeat tunes from across the board. I got this ridiculously cheap (I think 6 quid?) from Berwick Street in the mid 90s.

Test Dept’s first LP with grainy photo inserts. This must have been the first box set I ever bought, in the mid eighties. Ordered via the back pages of “Record Collector” magazine. Also the first record I ever picked up from a Post Office depot, something which seems second nature now! Some if not all of this was produced by Genesis P-Orridge. Another Some Bizzare classic.

This used to be ubiquitous – peaking out of people’s record shelves at you when you visited them for the first time. Shorthand for a particular background and all-encompassing worldview which many of us have now jettisoned most of – but the traces remain. Lots of 4o year old anarchopunk “sleepers” out there, biding their time.

This set includes a whopping great booklet featuring the tragic tale of Stonehenge Free Festival founder Wally Hope. And a full colour poster by Gee Vaucher (which mine is missing, boo!)

I had this on tape for years and then finally found a copy in Reckless Records in Islington (RIP) for a good price in the late 90s.

Why Delila’s HDD Mix by Hipsters Dont Dance

(Big Bashy bashment throwdown. Good for housework / getting ready to go out / pounding the mean streets).

And finally:

 

 Moments In Love: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Moments In Love: Version Excursion by Nguzunguzu.

This is some mad shit, that Wayneandwax and DJ Rupture pointed me at. Many different takes on the Art of Noise classic, beautifully blended together.

But shockingly, not including this one:

Bebe Cool – Awete

The minimal keyboard melody in this is a real winner, I think.

The crossword graphics are a nice touch, but some of the effects maybe bleach it all out too much. Respect also to the reappearance of Bell Lager and a particular sacred herb. Also the dialetic of surrounding yourself with bogling girls on the one hand and being booted out of your yard by an angry girlfriend is present and correct.

Bebe has collaborated with a bunch of other Ugandan stars, including Necessary Noize and Jose Chameleon. He is also married to Zuena Kirema, a former Miss Uganda contestant.

The dancehall star is having a pretty rough time of it this year, though. In January he was shot by a copper following a support slot for R Kelly in Kampala. Shortly after this a tyre blow out resulted in Bebe and his family crashing into a swamp and sustaining a number of serious injuries.

In July, his concert was disrupted by a bomb set by an Islamic terrorist group: “Most people who died were just in front of me. The blast was so loud—the next thing I saw were body parts flying over”. That all certainly puts my trials and tribulations this year in perspective and hopefully things will improve for Bebe now!

So this is the last installment of the series – everything on my cruddy VCD is now uploaded to Youtube. I’m sure some people will be breathing a sigh of relief at that, but I’m really pleased to have seen these again and am irked that there seems to be no obvious source of Ugandan dancehall available to me even in these days of “music like water out of a tap”.

Stewart Home – Blood Rites of the Bourgeoisie (Semina, 2010)

Home’s latest novel is an installment in a series of books of experimental fiction. More on other episodes in the series anon, I hope.

“Blood Rites” has a number of themes – identity blurring, spam, the machinations of the art world in London. It confuses as much as it reveals, which should make for a satisfying read for the more adventurous. Dan Brown this isn’t.

The text includes a number of paragraphs of rewritten spam emails, which can be annoying, or poetic or distracting – just like wading through “real” spam when you’re trying to get to your email or blog comments. It gives “Blood Rites” a slightly off-kilter rhythm, which I enjoyed very much.

Much of the book also covers the thorny tale of the real identity of Belle Du Jour – something I’ve previously covered in relation to Stewart here. There’s even an appendix which includes some pretty weird comments from Home’s Mr Trippy blog, in which some nutjobs are completely convinced that he is Belle Du Jour, even after her actual identity was revealed. (Or was it? Ad infinitum tedium…)

Blood Rites of the Bourgeoisie is published as part of Book Works’ Semina series (No.7) edited by Stewart Home. Printed offset in an edition of 1,500 copies, b/w, 128 pages with a soft cover, and colour dust jacket. Designed by Fraser Muggeridge, 130 x 195 mm.

unknown by unknown

I have no info on this quartet, but still present their miming and synchronised dancing for your delectation.

This is what I always imagined Uganda’s cross-dressing secret police force, the “Black Mamba Urban Hit Squad” would actually be like, rather than the actuality of brandishing guns.

Ragga Dee – Ndigida

More awesome catchiness with some randomly-shaped dancers shaking their bits in synchronised style around a pool.

This has got the lot – breakdancing, hot gals shaking their asses, even some inexplicable cross-dressing madness.

The only downside is that it cuts a bit short, sorry about that – if anyone has a full version, post it up!

Bit of a high budget promo by the standards of this series. Seems like Mr Dee is doing alright as an elder statesman of Uganda Dancehall, and fair play to him I guess. Looks like he even owns his own beach.

Mind you it looks like he’s the son of a judge and has done a business degree, so not exactly a ghetto sufferah fwiw. Info from this interview with the man himself over at the ever reliable UGPULSE. Click the link if only to see him dressed in a raggamuffin nautical style!

These should be good:

The first in a new series of live events by curated by comrade Johnny Mugwump. More info here.

Followed by a short walk or bus ride up Stoke Newington High Street, to:

Krautfunkdiscocosmicspacebleeps to burn up the dancefloor

Higamos Hogamos (DC Recordings) Live!
Eat Lights, Become Lights (Enraptured Records) Live!

DJs
Jim Backhaus (Kosmische, Resonance)
Louise XIV (Sleep All Day Drive All Night)
Idle Rich (Sleep All Day Drive All Night)
DJ Matthias, direkt von Stuttgart

Friday 13th August
Eleven pm until four am
Six pounds entry
The Drop, 175 Stoke Newington High St, London, N16 0LH
(downstairs at the Three Crowns, on the corner of Church Street and the High Street)

Female pressure from the crew named Blu3:

This reminds me of Misteeq and the like (I still rate Alisha Dixon as an MC actually, shame she went down the sleb route instead of honing her mic skillz…) So I guess this is arguably more r&b than dancehall, but what the hell.

Nice bit of attitude, Eurovision-style bilingualism and some latex – what’s not to like?

I’m not about to dive into some global analysis of body-types and beauty but Blu3 don’t look like the Pussycat Dolls (for all their faux multiculturalism) which can only be a good thing. I have no idea how representative they are of what’s considered “hot” in Uganda.

Blu3 may stand for “Black Ladies from Uganda 3″ and it seems like they first appeared in 2003 during some kind of Coca Cola sponsored talent show.

According to this biog on Musicuganda.com “Hitaji” was their first big hit: “The ‘Hitaji’ single from their debut album of the same name, went to No.1 on every radio and television show in East Africa. The Hitaji video was No.1 on musicuganda.com for 2 months, beating already established Ugandan artists like Chameleon and Bebe Cool.”

Their Myspace (not updated since 2008) reveals that the group are: Jackie Chandiru, Lillian Mbabazi and Mya Baganda. But it seems like Mya replaced founder member Cinderella Sanyu at some point “due to unavoidable circumstances” (huh?)

The Myspace includes some more commercial tracks but “Burn” is worth your time if you like my clip, and “Strong Woman” is a bit like the Drop Leaf Riddim if that’s your bag (it’s not mine).

I’ve not been able to find out what the group are up to now, but am curious – let me know if you do…