V.A. Saturday

Boy's Own began in 1987, four friends inspired by records, clubbing and clothes (and football)- they started a fanzine inspired by Peter Hooton's Liverpool based fanzine The End. Andrew Weatherall, Cymon Eckel, Terry Farley and Steven Hall had come together through connections in the Windsor/ Slough area and via Paul Oakenfold began hitting the early acid house clubs. Boy's Own ran for several years as a very funny, sharp and hipper- than- you fanzine, the 'acid house parish magazine'. I never saw a copy at the time but did pick up a few issues of The End. Eventually Boy's Own became a record label too and a band, Bocca Juniors, grew out of it releasing two singles, the first the superb Raise and a second, Substance. Boy's Own Recordings put out a series of the period's defining 12" singles, records by Less Stress, Jah Wobble, One Dove and LSK as well as their own Bocca Juniors singles. Eventually Andrew Weatherall moved on and did something different, as he was wont to do any times over the subsequent decades- he had a knack for knowing when to switch course or change lanes. 

In 1992 Farley and Hall created a spin off label, Junior Boy's Own which stated by putting out a run of essential 12" singles, some of the key dance music/ house/ techno releases of the mid- 1990s and then moving into the brave new world of dance acts making albums. The Chemical Brothers started on Junior Boy's Own and Underworld released their three 90s albums on the label, dubnobasswithmyheadman, Second Toughest In the Infants and Beaucoup Fish. In 1994 they compiled a various artists compilation that pulled together some of the records from those first few years, tracks that in some ways are the sound of the period- if you went clubbing in 1993/ 1994 you would have been dancing at some point in those long nights to some or all of Fire Island, X- Press 2, Underworld, Outrage, Roach Motel and The Dust Brothers. The influence of New York house, gay club culture and UK techno is here. The emerging sound of what would become Big Beat and the Heavenly Sunday Social scene can be found here too, not least in the massive sirens and crashing hip hop drums of Song To The Siren, The Dust Brothers' calling card. 

Song To The Siren

X- Press 2 released London X- Press in 1993, a percussive, relentless house groove and some funky guitar, synth sabs, thumping bass and that 'raise your hands' sample accompanied by sirens. 

London X- Press

Roach Motel were Pete Heller and Terry Farley, funky, early 90s house, deep, soulful, influenced by New York's club sound. Would still rock a dancefloor today. 

Movin' On

Underworld appeared on Junior Boys Own Collection twice, once as themselves (with Rez) and once as Lemon Interrupt. It originally appeared as 1992 12" with Eclipse but Bigmouth eclipsed Eclipse, a huge ten minute long Underworld drum track with head spinning lead harmonica on top, a swampy, chuggy, uplifting, funky, shot of 1992, Darren Emerson pushing Rick Smith and Karl Hyde into new places. 

Big Mouth

The Junior Boy's Own Collection sleeve was a very knowing mid- 90s thing too, portraits of various faces done as 1940s cigarette cards- Michael Caine, Tommy Cooper, Pete Townsend, Phil Daniels in Quadrophenia, Captain Scarlet, Al Pacino, Norman Wisdom, Sid James, Marlon Brando, Travis Bickle, Mick Jagger, Patrick McNee, Sean Connery, Terry Thomas, W.C. Fields and Zachary Smith. 

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

Forty Minutes Of Wobble And Weatherall

I had a different thirty minute mix in mind for today but then suddenly midweek it occurred to me that the Andrew Weatherall remixes of Jah Wobble in the early 90s would be an ideal way to ease in a Sunday in mid- February. I've left the Weatherall produced, massive dub bassline of Higher Than The Sun from Screamadelica off this, just because that would tip it towards an hour and it's not strictly speaking a remix. What you have here is the Weatherall remixes of Visions Of You from 1991 and the pair of remixes Andrew did with Hugo Nicolson under the Boy's Own banner of Jah's Bomba single from 1990. The 12" of Visions Of You, released as Jah Wobble and The Invaders Of The Heart in 1991 with Sinead O'Connor on vocals, was a real moment for me. I remember vividly buying it in Power Cuts, a massive basement record shop in Manchester just off Oxford Road (behind McDonald's and what used to be Rafters, a legendary venue in Manchester's music history due to its Joy Division connections). Power Cuts sold all sorts of stuff, cheap and piled high, including a lot of import records with either the corner cut off or a hole punched in the top right hand corner. Nothing cost more than a few pounds. The Visions Of You 12" was sitting there waiting for me, 99p I think. I got it back to my rented room and put the AW side on, a twenty minute  excursion/ reconstruction, almost half an album in its own right. 

The Bomba 12" came out the previous year but I don't recall picking it up until a year or two later in Vinyl Exchange, two remixes, one either side, with Natasha Atlas on vocals. The Miles Away Mix samples Miles Davis and his Sketches Of Spain album from 1960- it was a long time before I twigged the origins of the sample and title. Despite many of you being more than familiar with all the remixes here I hope you'll find them stitched together as one piece- a global, dubby, Balearic, acid house forty minute mix- as a fine way to see Sunday in. 

Forty Minutes Of Wobble And Weatherall

• Visions Of You (The Secret Lovechild Of Hank And Johnny Mix)
• Visions Of You (Pick 'n' Mix 1)
• Visions Of You (Pick 'n' Mix 2)
• Bomba (Nonsensicus Maximus Mix)
• Bomba (Miles Away Mix)

Abandon

The number and sheer quality of Andrew Weatherall's remixes in 1990 is staggering, from Loaded (not to mention his production work on Screamadelica that was going on that year and the Jesse Jackson sampling, ten minute euphoria of Come Together) to a few lesser known remixes such as Word Of Mouth, Deep Joy and West India Company. Then there's the speaker rattling/ ghostly vocals brilliance of My Bloody Valentine's Soon, Jah Wobble (Bomba, twice), the massive siren laden reworking of Come Home by James, remixes of World In Motion, skanked out heavy beats for Meat Beat Manifesto, two long blissed out remixes of Floatation by The Grid, the debut release on Jeff Barrett's fledgling Heavenly Recordings (The World According to Sly And Lovechild... and Weatherall) and the dub magnificence of his version of Saint Etienne's Only Love Can Break Your Heart. For a man new to the recording studio its an incredible body of work. He was alos part of the Boy's Own collective that released at least one classic record that year, Raise which has his fingerprints all over it. Fired up by the spirit of the times Weatherall brought his ability to spot a sample in his extensive record collection and a lorryload of ideas about how someone else's record could sound. 

 Andrew Innes of Primal Scream had encouraged him to remix I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have and described his disappointment as the first version Weatherall delivered was just too tame. 'Fucking destroy it', Innes told him. That seems to have become the process- take someone else's record to pieces completely, keep an element from the original so the spirit of the song exists, but stretch it out and send it to clubland. In 1990 Andrew's technical expertise was limited and he relied on the studio nous and engineering skills of Hugo Nicolson, the man who turned Andrew's ideas into reality on tape. 

In 1990 That Petrol Emotion were in the aftermath of a line up change. Founding member, guitarist/ ex- Undertone John O'Neill had left in 1988 amid some tension and drummer Ciaran McLoughlin and guitarist Raymond Gorman took over writing songs with American skate- punk frontman Steve Mack. Their 1988 album End Of The Millennium Psychosis Blues was a mixed bag but in some ways prefigured what was about to hit- dance influenced rock music, guitar riffs and sampling, half- sung half rapped vocals. By the time they recorded 1990's Chemicrazy they had Scott Litt on production and were sounding a little like R.E.M., more alt- rock than dance- rock. But in 1990 it made perfect sense for them to be remixed by Andrew Weatherall. 

The remix of Abandon that was released alongside the body of work listed above was credited to Boy's Own, technically a Weatherall and Terry Farley remix but there are tales of one person being far more engaged with the project than the other. That Petrol Emotion were also suspicious at first, not sure that they wanted their song picked apart and re- assembled with a 1990 drum beat slung underneath. At least one member of the group, Gorman I think but possibly bassist Damian O'Neill, positioned himself in the studio to keep an eye on proceedings, to ensure that the guitars weren't removed completely and that it wasn't a sell out of some kind. Apparently as soon as Andrew queued up the sample that opens the remix of Abandon, the voice of Yabby You, the TPE man relaxed and knew everything was going to be alright. When the drums come in and then the low- slung bassline we're into the forefront of indie- dance, a genre Weatherall did as much as anyone to invent (and then run away from). The crunchy guitars and snatches of Steve Mack's vocals are tailor made for the dance floor at the Thursday night indie/ alternative night as much as for acid house. This being a 1990 Weatherall remix we're in for the long haul, seven minutes more or less, the guitars featuring more and more prominently as the song builds with a nicely distorted guitar solo at the end and that rhythm, the bass and drums, chugging away. It may not be the best remix he did that year but it also doesn't sound like any of the others- read the list at the top again and then play them back- to- back and you'll see the variety in Weatherall's work that year too. Those remixes do sound like the work of the same person (people I should say, Hugo was hugely important) but they don't sound like each other. 

In sales terms none of this- remixes, crossover potential, Scott Litt, line up changes- worked for That Petrol Emotion. The album stalled at number 62 and Virgin dropped them. Andrew went up and up, Screamadelica and a further slew of remixes on his to- do list and then Sabresonic and Morning Dove White. His remix of Abandon is just one of an astonishing list of records he made that year, the only limit seemingly his imagination. 

Abandon (Boy's Own Remix)

Perfect Motion

This record, especially in its 12" remixed form, is exactly what some dance nights sounded like in 1992. Sunscreem were from Essex and were remixed by the great and the good of the scene, in this case by Pete Heller and Terry Farley for Boy's Own. This is long, designed for dancing too and to be mixed into and out of. A long progressive house track which edges towards trance, up and positive with a pumping bass and drums, repeating synth parts and a couple of lines of vocal floating over the top. This samples Simple Minds, their early 80s electronic classic Theme For Great Cities, which I posted here recently. There's a breakdown at 6.40, a moment to pause for breath and raise one's hands in the air, someone would whistle, then some rave hoover bass comes in, and then the keyboard starts to build again. On and on in perfect motion.

Perfect Motion (Boy's Own Mix)

Let The Music Use You

The Summer of Love, 1988 version, is being celebrated in many places at the moment, not least at Mixmag. Two veterans of the scene and Boy's Own alumni, Terry Farley and Pete Heller, have put together a mix of records that were big that summer. This could easily be accused of being a total nostalgia trip if the tune selection from the Boy's Own duo wasn't so great, including This Brutal House, Adonis, Ralph Rosario, Tyree, A Guy Called Gerald, The Night Writers, Turntable Orchestra, The Beloved, Marshall Jefferson and Ce Ce Rogers. Get Farley and Heller's words on the records are here. It is a bank holiday weekend here and this is an ideal soundtrack to three days off.

Into The Woods

This is a treat, an hour long mix Nancy Noise has done for an upcoming festival put on by Boy's Own. Nancy will be playing along with Terry Farley, Omar S and a bunch of other Balearic names. This is a summery, up, good vibes mix with some latin, some Frenchness, some afro and plenty of bounce. As a bonus you can download it for free too.



Tracklist...

1.  Jeff Kite - Timelapse
2.  Dele Sosimi - E go Betta (O'Flynn Edit)
3.  Alkalino - Vivo
4.  Riccio - Marcela
5.  Ric Piccolo - Sube
6.  L’Oiseau Dore - Moar
7.  Katunga - Palo Bonito (Nick the Record re-edit) 
8.  Barrabas - Woman 
9.  The Apostles - Banko Woman 
10.  Puzzle People - French Fried Boogie
11.  Loco Moto 
12.  Negrocan  - Cada Vez 
13.  Leonidas & Hobbes - Web of Intrigue 
14.  Nit - Imparfaite 

Another Dawn Appears

It's Friday, so as Drew puts it, let's dance! One of the fine blogs in my list to the right is Madchester Rave On, a cornucopia of 1988-1992 delights. Last week this song was posted...

Saturday's Angels

A 1990 release from If? that is a joy from start to finish, the sort of record that sent clubs into a frenzy, especially those clubs in the faraway towns- Warrington, Blackburn, Burnley- those kinds of places which had rabid club scenes with loyal punters. In fact there are many out on the net who will testify that it was Legends nightclub in Warrington that made this tune. Saturday's Angels was very nearly a proper hit too after the group appeared on The Word but they missed out. If? included Sean McClusky (ex of Subway Sect and JoBoxers) and were faces on the London club scene of the late 80s and early 90s. Here's The Word performance in shaky VHS upload format from the Youtube account of the man himself, Terry Christian...



It demands to be followed by this from Paradiso, also from 1990, released on Boys Own...

Here We Go Again (Stairway To Heaven Mix)

Clock Factory

Following Drew's post on Friday- it doesn't take much for me to return to Weatherall- here's some early Sabres Of Paradise, illustrated with a photo from Boy's Own fanzine (captioned in Lord Sabre's own hand I believe). Clock Factory took up an entire side of the vinyl release of Sabresonic (1993), a tad under fifteen minutes long. Across its seven tracks (or eight if you count Smokebelch the Beatless Mix, an extra 7" in initial copies and added to the cd release) Sabresonic has cuts aimed fairly and squarely at the dancefloor (Still Fighting), some very smart dub-house (RSD) and some more abstract, broken beat ones (Ano Electro). Clock Factory is the more ambient one of the set- whirrings and tickings and time moving slowly but purposefully.

Clock Factory

Is This The Way The Future Is Supposed To Feel?

Or just fifteen thousand people standing in a field?

I found this footage online, ten minutes of videotape from the massive Sunrise Energy rave in 1989. It's a fascinating piece of social history, so many people dancing in an aircraft hanger and outdoors in broad daylight. The stars are the crowd- black and white, male and female, all of them dancing- all of them- a mass of colourful clothing and dry ice. At the end a couple of cars are on fire- no-one really seems to notice.



'You want to call your Mother and say ''Mother, I can never come home because I seem to have left an important part of my brain somewhere, somewhere in a field in Hampshire.''

Away from the utopian dream of a new rave based way of life the two men largely responsible for Sunrise Energy were Tony Colston-Hayter and Paul Staines. Colston-Hayter was a young Tory entrepreneur and named in the papers as 'Acid's Mr Big'. He claims he was an anarcho-capitalist. The Shoom crowd say he was regarded as a Hooray Henry, a 'loud dickhead and a laughing stock'. Last year he was jailed for five and a half years for masterminding the theft of £1.3 million from Barclays by hacking into bank accounts. Paul Staines is the unpleasant right-wing blogger Guido Fawkes. Nice one, top one, sorted.

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.

Balearic Berkshire And A Remix

Today I offer you two Weatherall related items that popped up when I was away that you might have missed.

First a twenty minute documentary about the late 80s Berkshire acid house scene, documenting the spread of house music, clubbing, drugs and loose fit clothing from the Balearic islands to the Home Counties, a scene Mr Weatherall was an early part of- Shoom, Boys Own, Terry Farley and Primal Scream all included. It's highly recommended and a great watch, the pictures and footage especially. It's also amazing both how long ago it all looks and how beautifully romantic it all seems, as your past is served up as history. You can find it here courtesy of Dazed Digital.

And from the old days to bang up to date, there's a remix of the very recent Asphodells and Friendly Fires track Before Your Eyes by Jack Savidge- a banger for the dance floor, free download.

Weathertube

There's been nothing from Lord Sabre here at Bagging Area for well over a week so here's a couple of clips from Youtube to remedy the situation.

First up, Weatherall, Terry Farley and Pete Heller interviewed for the long lost and lamented Snub TV (from BBC2, late 80s). The clip is memorable partly for Weatherall's long, curly hair and biker boots. The trio discuss London's acid house scene and how they helped  invent it. Also features a Bocca Juniors video.



Second up, Weatherall djing in a club in Belgium last year. Somewhat better than your average club clip due to being filmed and put together by someone who seems to know what they're doing rather than a drunkard with a mobile phone, it features a heavily bearded Weatherall playing cds (gasp, shock, horror, not vinyl!) to  a crowd significantly younger than him. Judging from the clip the Belgians haven't banned smoking in clubs yet and there's always a girl dancing on her own right in front of the record cd players. Records played in the clip- his own remix of Fuck Buttons Sweet Love For Planet Earth and Briosky's Radio Anatomy (I think).



Enjoy your Saturday.

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)