Alfredo

On Christmas Eve news of the death of Alfredo Fiorito started to come through via social media and an outpouring of remembrances, thanks and sorrow for a man who did as much as any to change the musical culture in the 1980s and afterwards. Alfredo may not be a household name but he was very much a person who, playing records in Ibiza in a time before it became what it is today, altered the landscape. 

Alfredo left Argentina in 1976, fleeing the military junta who were responsible for thousands of left wing and counter- culture figures being disappeared (murdered). He pitched up in Madrid and then Ibiza where he got a job collecting glasses and serving drinks at Amnesia, a club with an open air dance floor where partygoers could dance under the stars until the following day. He saw the twin turntables and mixer and after a bit of playing around, instinctively understood the power of playing music and mixing tracks into one another. He took on the role of Amnesia's DJ and began to play a mixture of records he liked that took the revellers on a journey, in his own words' telling a story with music'. 80s pop, soft rock, leftfield indie, Belgian New Beat, the nascent house music records, reggae, disco, funk, electro- a seamless blend of music united by not much more than Alfredo's ears and the heady euphoria of mid- 80s Ibiza. 

Amnesia and Ibiza was a playground- working class British kids rubbed shoulders with Italian princesses and pop stars, locals and holiday makers. The lack of snobbery in the playlist was reflected on the dance floor. At least, so I'm told. 

This played a key part in inventing acid house in the UK. One of the versions of the acid house origin story is that four London DJs visited Amnesia and when they returned to London, they were determined to do what Alfredo was doing in  Amnesia but in London. Danny Rampling, Paul Oakenfold, Nicky Holloway and Johnny Walker took Alfredo's spirit and record collection and created London's acid house scene. People from the north will give you a different version of the birth of acid house but there's no doubt that Alfredo gave the four London DJs a vision under the stars at Amnesia that they took home with them. 

In 2022 Jezebell (Darren Bell and Jesse Fahnestock) released a track called Jezebellearica, Alfredo's voice put centre stage in an eight minute tribute to the man, with soft drums, washes of synth, nods to various 80s songs, and Alfredo talking about music, the role of the DJ, freedom, the all ages, mixed race crowd, 'real nightlife people' and how that to make people dance 'you have to tell them a story'. Find it here. 

By the late 80s Alfredo's DJ sets incorporated a range of records that didn't necessarily seem like they had much in common but worked together as a whole, repurposing tracks. British indie bands that didn't quite fit into the NME/ Melody Maker controlled indie world at home found themselves rapturously received under the night skies at Amnesia- The Woodentops, Fini Tribe, Nitzer Ebb and Thrashing Doves (Jesus On The Payroll is below) all found a place in Alfredo's sets along with oddball, reclusive avant garde types from the USA such as The Residents (Kaw Liga is below). 

Jesus On The Payroll (Street Groove)

Kaw Liga (Prairie Mix)

The anything goes spirit of Alfredo's Amnesia sets is very much something that influenced me, at several degrees of separation- I never went to Amnesia, never danced under the stars  or sat at the Cafe Del Mar at sunset but what happened there filtered through and the way that walls came down in the late 80s, the blurring of genres and boundaries, affected a lot of us hugely. Over at Ban Ban Ton Ton you can read an interview Dr Rob did with Alfredo in 2014 where Alfredo took us through a Top 25 Amnesia Classics. Read it here. 

Alfredo had a stroke in 2021 and had been unwell ever since. Several times online fund raisers were set up to help pay for his care and rehabilitation. When he died, aged 71, his reputation as The Father of the Balearic Beat had long since been established, the sounds he played and records he selected forty years ago sending ripples out into the world. RIP Alfredo. 

Raise

Halfway up the towpath between Sale and Timperley (a nice stroll with the promise of a cup of tea and a sausage sandwich at the cafe at Timperley tram station before returning home) there is a post with a Boy's Own sticker on it (pictured). It's a bit mystifying. Boy's Own was very much a London thing and the sticker must be quite recent given it's not faded at all. It was pleasing to see it though, a little piece of 80s/ 90s culture stuck to a post by the Bridgewater Canal. 

Boy's Own was the collective formed by Andrew Weatherall, Terry Farley, Cymon Eckel and Steve Meyes, bored out in the west of London (Slough, Windsor) in the mid- to- late- 80s but with ideas, enthusiasm, records and an interest in clothes, music, clubs and culture. They started a fanzine, semi- inspired by Liverpool fanzine The End (which was produced by The Farm's Peter Hooton). A mate with a printer ran off 500 copies which they sold at the football (Farley was mainly the football fan, a regular at Chelsea), outside pubs and clubs and in a few shops. Their connections and sense of humour and style ensured the first edition sold out and would go on to produce more issues, covering whatever ticlled their interest. Issue one had an interview with Martin Stephenson (of The Daintees), Weatherall's account of a weekend in Manchester at the Festival Of The Tenth Summer, a review of a Trouble Funk gig and a column titled Uppers and Downers, a list of what's in and what's not. It ran for twelve editions through to spring 1992 when Weatherall called time on it and the others agreed with him.

Boy's Own went on to DJ, to put on club nights and events, set up a record label and briefly became a band/ group/ collective called Bocca Juniors- Weatherall and Farley with Pete Heller, Weatherall's regular right hand production man Hugo Nicolson and singer Anna Haigh. Their debut single released in summer 1990, was a tremendous slice of Balearic house called Raise. It was the first release on Boy's Own Productions record label, catalogue number BOIX1, the logical progression of some young men using Letraset, a typewriter and some photocopied pictures to make a fanzine to sell to a few like minded souls. It is a great record too, a summer of 1990 classic. 

Raise (63 Steps To Heaven) Redskin Rock Mix

The intro, some piano notes, the screech of tyres and a sample saying, 'boy! Am I gonna wake you up', gives way to a huge piano riff, the sort that can silence a field of people and turn an entire dancefloor into a seething mass of arms in the air. The crunching beats kick in and Anna starts singing, 'It's often said, that I want never gets...' as horns parp away behind her. The lyrics, written by Weatherall, quote Aleister Crowley- 'do what you will shall be the whole of the law/ raise your view of heaven keeping both feet on the floor'- and the chorus is about generally not putting up with second best- 'raise your hand if you think you understand/ raise your standards if you don't'. Early 90s positivity but with a very Weatherall edge. 

The piano riff has been the subject of some debate. Largely thought to be a sample from Jesus On The Payroll by Thrashing Doves, a while ago Sean Johnston suggested it was actually taken from this 1989 Italo 12" by The Night- S- Press (although it could be the Thrashing Doves piano riff sampled or re- played I guess- either way, I see no reason to doubt Sean). 

Bocca Juniors were named after the Argentine football club, the home of Diego Maradona. In the summer of Italia 90, No Alla Violenza and World In Motion this was all quite right. The Raise video is a blast too, a sea of faces having fun and the famous 'Drop acid not bombs' graffiti- a proper time capsule. 

 

Across the various formats there were a number of different mixes of Raise. The Piano Hoe Down is a stripped back, largely instrumental version, the riff, bassline and those 1990s drums with extended piano vamping and background voices, very nicely stretched out for maximum dancefloor fun. 

Raise (63 Steps To Heaven) Piano Hoe Down

There was a second 12" with some Tackhead remixes, Adrian Sherwood's outfit with Keith Leblanc, Skip McDonald and Doug Wimbish. The Dubhead remix pulls an extended version of Protege''s rap to the fore. There are two other mixes- the Heavenly Rap and the Philly House Skank- as well as another Tackhead one but I don't have any of those on the hard drive at the moment. These three should be more than enough to be going on with. 

Raise (63 Steps To Heaven) Tackhead Dubhead Remix

Boy, Am I Gonna Wake You Up

We drove into town on Saturday and I had a Boys Own compilation on the car stereo which opened with Bocca Juniors' summer of 1990 song Raise. They made a video which features a bunch of kids, gorgeous singer Anna Haigh and the rest of the Boys Own crew (Terry Farley in a hat, Andrew Weatherall with long hair). Very summer 1990. Although what you don't get with this three minute version is the massive Thrashing Doves piano sample...



For that, you need this (and you really do need it)...



The follow up, Substance, wasn't nearly as good unfortunately. Weatherall said what he learnt from Bocca Juniors was that you can't make records by committee. Although this record would seem to show you can do it at least once.

Jesus On The Payroll

Here's the source of that piano sample from Bocca Juniors' debut single Raise which I posted yesterday- Thrashing Doves 1987 single Jesus On The Payroll. The band were active between 1986 and 1991 and were almost fatally wounded when Margaret Thatcher praised a song of theirs on Saturday Superstore. Death knell for their funky rock pretty much. They also had a revolving door for bass players, one of whom (James Eller) went on to play with Julian Cope and The The and another (Gail Ann Dorsey) who played with David Bowie (and I think Paul Weller but I may be wrong). Guitarist Ian Button ended up with Death In Vegas. The rest of the band got into writing for TV and film. Before all of that though there was this, and very good it is too.

Jesus On The Payroll (Street Groove)

Raise Your Hands If You Think You Understand

While we're in the Weatherall area I thought I'd post this for Friday morning. It popped up on the mp3 player the other day driving to work with the sun shining and sounded really good. Bocca Juniors were the inhouse studio band of the Boys Own collective/magazine/cultural trendsetters/ex-football hooligans. In the studio this amounted to Andrew Weatherall, Terry Farley, Pete Heller, Hugo Nicholson and vocalist Anna Haigh, along with for this record a massive piano sample from Thrashing Doves' Jesus On The Payroll. So, it's got those pianos, well-balearic all-roundness, Anna Haigh's Alastair Crowley quoting lyrics, and a rap in the middle as many good songs had back then.

Raise (63 Steps To Heaven)