‘Agit Disco collects the playlists of its 23 writers to tell the story of how music has politically influenced and inspired them. The book provides a multi-genre survey of political musics, from a wide range of viewpoints, that goes beyond protest songs into the darker hinterlands of musical meaning. Each playlist is annotated and illustrated.

The collection grew organically with an exchange of homemade CDs and images. These images, with their DIY graphics, are used to give the playlists a visual materiality. Almost everyone makes selections of music to play to themselves and friends. Agit Disco intends to show the importance of this creative activity and its place in our formation as political beings. This activity is at odds with to the usual process of selection by the mainstream media – in which the most potent musical agents of change are, whenever possible, erased from the public airwaves. Agit Disco Selectors: Sian Addicott, Louise Carolin, Peter Conlin, Mel Croucher, Martin Dixon, John Eden, Sarah Falloon, Simon Ford, Peter Haining, Stewart Home, Tom Jennings, DJ Krautpleaser, Roger McKinley, Micheline Mason, Tracey Moberly, Luca Paci, Room 13 – Lochyside Scotland, Howard Slater, Johnny Spencer, Stefan Szczelkun, Andy T, Neil Transpontine, Tom Vague’.

You can now order the book direct from Mute Books.

The audio for my contribution is now available here:

TRACKLIST

1. X/O/Dus – English Black Boys (Factory Records, 1980)
2. Audrey – English Girl (Ariwa, 1982)
3. Lion Youth – Three Million On The Dole (Virgo Stomach, 1982)
4. Steel Pulse – Handsworth Revolution (Island, 1978)
5. Maxi Priest – Love In The Ghetto (Level Vibes, 1984)
6. Papa Levi – In A Mi Yard (Level Vibes, 1984)
7. Papa Benjie – Fare Dodger (Fashion, 1985)
8. Laurel and Hardy – Video Traffickin’ (Upright, 1983)
9. Macka B – Bean and Egg (Ariwa, 1986)
10. Pato Banton – Gwarn (Ariwa, 1985)
11. Leslie Lyrics – Pull Back Your Truncheon (UK Bubblers, 1985)
12. Ranking Ann – Kill The Police Bill (GLC, 1984)
13. Raymond Naptali – On My Way (Fatman)
14. Lorna Gee – Three Week Gone (Ariwa, 1985)
15. Horseman – Horsemove (Raiders, 1985)
16. Daddy Colonel – Take A Tip From Me (UK Bubblers, 1985)
17. Tippa Irie – Complain Neighbour (UK Bubblers, 1985)
18. Demon Rocka – Hard Drugs (Unity, 1988)

Published early December…

Pre-order from Amazon. (I’m told the actual published price will be about £14, so it’s cheaper to pre-order…)

As promised, I will be uploading the mix I did as part of my chapter when I have a copy of the book in my hot sweaty hands.

Second issue of this great zine – now out, bigger and even better than the debut! Same bad-ass bashment attitude!

Great interviews with Dr Carolyn Cooper (author of the book “Sound Clash: Jamaican Dancehall Culture At Large”) on her lucidly academic take on bashment, Solo Banton on working with Jahtari, Ward 21 on starting out with King Jammy and then making mad riddim. There’s even an extended interview with Sizzla that attempts to get to grips with things like his Mugabe sponsored appearance in Zimbabwe.

But I think what really makes NICS stand out is the combination of great articles with smaller, more “ziney” things. This issue you can learn how to do the “Willie Bounce”, hear Gabriel Heatwave‘s fave moments from the awesome Stageshow event, take a trip down Nostrand Ave in Brooklyn to look at the record shops, and even get a primer in Japanese Dancehall acts.

I’ve contributed a three-pager myself on an obscure JA cop TV show from the eighties…

Plus supeber graphics and that whole hand-printed, hand collated DIY vibe.

No Ice Cream Sound is available NOW, from here. I would advise getting one sooner rather than later – they’ve printed so few that “limited edition” doesn’t even say it. (The Shimmy Shimmy crew will now share in the zine editor’s curse of having people ask you if you have any copies of your first issues left, for YEARS after you sold it out… *cackle*)

Check out these events in the next few weeks:

First up some sweet FREE madness in Kings Cross organised by Whydelila and The Large. Great line up with foundation UK dancehall represented by Saxon and a more contemporary take on those sounds by the man like Wrongtom amongst many others. I would hazard a guess that tunes old and new will be played. Should be ace.

Secondly, east London sees the launch party for the second issue of No Ice Cream Sound fanzine.

A great line up once again, not sure if there’s a door tax or not though. There’s probably more info on the facebook page if you’re on facebook.

The zine itself is said to feature:

Exclusive interviews with SIZZLA, WARD 21, SOLO BANTON and CAROLYN COOPER

A special look into Japanese Dancehall from our JP correspondent

Exclusive illustrations from Gabe (seen-site.com), Smutlee (YoYo) and Karen
Cazabon (HDD)

A huge dancehall chart from Al Fingers

Gabriel Heatwave’s exclusive review of Showtime!

AND MORE! 50 pages of dancehall badness!

Oh and a modest piece by me, if it made it though the rigorous editorial panel…

My review of the first issue is here.

‘2-Tone London’

with Pauline Black

Wednesday 3 August, 7pm

£3, redeemable against any purchase

Launching her autobiography, Pauline Black, lead singer of The Selector, shares her recollections of the 2-Tone music scene, as well as her personal experiences of growing up in multi-racial London.

The only woman in a movement dominated by men, Pauline Black has plenty to share about the 2-Tone music scene of. As lead singer of The Selector Pauline was very much the Queen of British Ska.

But even as she found success in through music, Black struggled with her ethnic and cultural identity. Born to Anglo-Jewish/Nigerian parents, she was later adopted by a white working-class family in Romford. In her talk, Black recounts her struggles to find her way in a community that made her feel different at every turn, and shares her personal view of early multicultural London.

Combining her life at the top of the 2-Tone phenomenon with her search for her birth parents, Black will speak about her experience of London, as told in her new autobiography, Black by Design: A 2-Tone Memoir.

Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, King’s Cross, London N1 9DX

Tel: 020 7837 4473

www.housmans.com

Entry: £3 redeemable against any purchase

Nearest tube: King’s Cross

Forthcoming events include:

‘The Glorious Times of the Situationist International’
with McKenzie Wark

‘Thirty Years on from the Brixton Uprising’
with Alex Wheatle

‘Chavs: the Demonization of the Working Class’
with Owen Jones

“Support the shop that supports your campaigns!”

I’ve reviewed both these books in the new issue of The Wire (with Roy Harper on the front and an ace advert for the new Bug/Soul Jazz bashment riddims comp “Invasion of the Mysteron Killer Sounds on the back).

Both books are produced by independent publishers – and are available by clicking on the covers above.

Max Schaefer – Children of the Sun (Granta, 2010)

I first read about this book the year before last over at Stewart Home’s blog. My interest was piqued as the subject matter was notorious gay neo-nazi skinhead Nicky Crane, who I’d previously written about here when his appearance in a Psychic TV video came to light. There wasn’t that much material available about Crane online (or anywhere) at the time and I’m still slightly concerned to see my site is the third thing that comes up in a google search for him.

I’ve been meaning to review the book for ages – it was my holiday read last year. This is based on my notes from a while back and what I can remember now.

“Children of the Sun” is fictionalised but accurate – Schaefer has certainly put the necessary research into this and there were no cringeworthy bits that usually crop up with depictions of the far right (from posh plays to The Bill). Various aspects of the British fascism are portrayed accurately but without descent into unnecessary trainspotterish detail. Some brushes with anti-fascists are described in similar ways to how they have been told to me as well.

The heart of the story is the interplay between two protagonists – one a contemporary of Crane’s on the far right, another a young researcher who is obsessed with Crane after his death. Although violence and sex are certainly part of the narrative it’s not a football hoolie book which is hagiographic and uncritical.

There is also a good depiction of the paranoia that an obsessive immersion in this material can induce…

The book is not something to read on the train as lurid news clippings and far right agit prop are reproduced throughout. Crane still exerts a morbid fascination on many from beyond the grave – both on the far right and in aspects of gay subculture. I saw him around on a few occasions whilst studying in central London in the early nineties and can confirm he seemed like someone best avoided. The fact that he was living something of a double life doesn’t really detract from this. Clearly a novel about his life will raise more questions than it answers, but it is a good read and I’d definitely recommend it if you have an interest in this sort of subject matter.

I don’t read a lot of fiction, but I’ve had time for Tony White ever since I saw him read from his novel “Charlieunclenorfolktango” above a pub somewhere in Farringdon in the mid 90s. He would have been on the same bill as either Stewart Home or some of the Attack! Books writers, or both – because those are the only literary events I was going to at that time.

I guess one of the reasons I like his work is that it covers similar ground to many of my obsessions – the London of squats and raves, industrial culture, reggae, slang. Tony’s Piece of Paper Press site is great place to get lost as part of your procrastination strategies.

He has just published “A Porky Prime Cut” – an ebook which covers a fictional teenager growing up and getting into 70s reggae, William Burroughs, and Throbbing Gristle – the latter’s logo becoming an unlikely totem…

The text conjurs up some heady memories for me – growing up in the south (St Albans for me, a lash up of Bournemouth and Poole for the fictional protagonist) and getting into all sorts of weirdness, as well as the violence from others this entails in small town England.

You can download A Porky Prime Cut for free here. It’s in “epub” format so you might need to download a (free) utility to read it – but that’s pretty straightforward and is all explained here.

Tony has performed a reading of “A Porky Prime Cut” recently at the National Portrait Gallery, and has posted an mp3 on his blog.

I would also thoroughly recommend Tony’s blog post on “street talk” scare stories from last year. And his other books, of course.

Tero Kaski and & Pekka Vuorinen – Volcano Revisted: Kingston Dancehall Scene 1983

“208 pages, paperback, full of colours! paypal accepted”

More info here

This is a new edition of a legendary book that was originally published in the eighties. I’ve never seen a copy despite being on the hunt for ages. So I’ve ordered my copy already and am very much looking forward to getting my mitts on it…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hit Me With Music (dir Miquel Galofre, 2011)

A new film covering more contemporary dancehall. World Premiere is at the East End Film Festival on April 30th.

More info here (and another 19 trailers on youtube!)

The festival also includes a film about Norman Jay that could be interesting.

You’ll probably know Beth from Dancehall: The Story of Jamaican Dancehall Culture, the lavish book of her photographs published by Soul Jazz, or her book on King Jammy – or even from Reggae Quarterly back in the day.

Shimmy Shimmy have just published a fascinating interview with Beth which covers the creation of all those publications, but more crucially than that goes into detail about the time she spent around studios and dances in JA in the halycon days of the eighties.

I also just received news today that Small Axe have published Beth’s new book The Legend of Sugar Minott and Youth Promotion, which I have no doubt will be just as essential as her previous works.

Click the link above for more details, as well as info on their new Guide to Reggae 1968-1970 which I’ve not got, and their Guide to Dub LPs which I do have and is most definitely recommended.