Thursday, March 20, 2008

Fufu Stew Goes Mondo

There's no Funky Friday this week, it being Easter weekend - but instead there's a bumper Bank Holiday special.

Vince the Soul Chef who dishes up those sizzling mixes and spectacular singles on Fufu Stew, has beamed across the Atlantic to cook up a mix of punk, electro and new wave nuggets that is the soundtrack to scouring Smash Hits and NME for new releases, home made tapes (on 'compact cassettes'), late night listens to Radio Luxembourg and John Peel, picture sleeves, 12 inch singles, button badges and trips to the Great Gear Market (or similar) for togs like these. So over to Vince......




Hello, kiddies.

It is my pleasure to be here on Planet Mondo for this special post. Most of you may know me for my many and varied mixes of Funk and Soul music, but let me assure you that that is only the half of it. When I was a teenager, I was one of the millions who saw the birth of MTV. Back then it was inconceivable to think that the music video would influence me, much less having a lasting effect on my musical education. Some twenty five years later I look at my closet full of LPs and I am reminded of just how much influence it truly had...

I can vividly recall that fateful day in August of 1981 when the infamous rocket first took off. It couldn't have happened at a better time too because I was serving a very severe punishment for getting caught doing something quite stupid. Imagine having all of your records and tapes taken away for eight months! Well, it happened to me. Luckily I was still able to watch television so I made sure to keep my eyes glued to the set waiting for my favourite videos to come on. While I waited, I discovered a totally new genre of music that would find its way into my heart and most important, into my record collection subsequently replacing the R&B of the day that I normally played. It also helped that I could go to my local public library and dig even deeper into this new sound. From Glam to New Wave and New Romantic all the way to full blown Goth, here is just a small sample of some of that music and what it means to me personally.

01 Capitol Radio-The Clash (NU-Disk).
Taken from the original 10" LP "Black Market Clash", and lyrically a very important statement that should be adopted by practically every blogger.
02 Friends-TheTubeway Army (Beggars Banquet).
My first introduction to the minimalist vision of Gary Numan was obviously enough the hit single "Cars" until I heard the debut recording from 1978... WOW!
03 Judas Sheep-Hunters And Collectors (Virgin). I found this one digging through dollar bins one day. Being from the US, it was a novelty to have British imports in my collection so I gave it a try. What a brutal assault on my brain, complete with the funky wah wah pedal. More of that to come...
04 Metal-Gary Numan (Beggars Banquet).
Here is the flip side of the US pressing of the "Cars" 45, which I tend to dig a lot more than the A side.
05 Saturday Week-Katrina And The Waves (Aftermath).
Here's another dollar bin find that pretty much sat dormant in my crates until now. Of course I know their signature hit "Walking On Sunshine", but curiosity got the better of me. I had to pick a cut from this 1982 release just to see if it worked.
06 Big Shot-The Beat (Fame).
I don't mind a good dose of British Ska once in a while, and this tune certainly fed the need along with the next tune...
07 Nightboat To Cairo-Madness (Stiff).
MTV played lots (and LOTS) of Madness back in the day.
08 Belief-The Danse Society (Society).
Here's one that I didn't discover until years later when I was babysitting records for a friend during my heavy Gothic period. Another tune that made me go WOW!
09 Malpaso Man-Visage (Polydor).
And another classic MTV moment featuring the talents of John McGeoch, who in my opinion was the best of the many guitarists to play for Siouxsie & the Banshees.
10 Press Darlings-Adam And The Ants (CBS).
Mr. Mondo was pleased that I chose this tune to play. Kings of the Wild Frontier in my opinion is THE quintessential New Wave album.
11 Baby Oh No-Bow Wow Wow (RCA).
Yet another classic MTV moment. Being 14 at the time made it easy to have it bad for the very provocative Anabelle. Those of you who are around my age would certainly have to agree.
12 Armalite Rifle-Gang Of Four (Warner).
From the infamous Yellow EP, enough said.
13 Anti Pope-The Damned (Chiswick).
No need to say anything here...
14 Assassination K - Kanserous-The Wolfgang Press (4AD).
There was a time when 4AD could do no wrong. Even if the music was terrible, I still put my hard earned money on the counter, sometimes paying up to 30 bucks for a CD. This one is the remix from the "Bird Wood Cage" LP. Dig that funky wah wah once again!
15 Supernatural Thing-Siouxsie & The Banshees (Polydor).
Here's another one from that huge pile of records I got to babysit. Of all the tunes that Siouxsie covered over her illustrious career, this one was the most unlikely along with being the funkiest.
16 Telegram Sam-T. Rex (EMI) .
It's a known fact that Glam heavily influenced Goth. Being a huge Bauhaus fan, I loved the way they treated this one. When I found the original at long last, I was quite happy with myself.
17 It's Going To Happen-The Undertones (EMI).
MTV even had the video for this tune...
18 Madness-The Belle Stars (Stiff).
I discovered this band during a bout of insomnia one night. Suffice it to say when I saw all those hot women freaking that New Wave funk, I had to rush right out and find a record. This is the B side of the US 12" for "Sign Of The Times". I wonder whatever happened to them.
19 Chicken Outlaw-Wide Boy Awake (RCA).
Does anyone know anything about this band? All I can tell you is that I picked up the record in a dollar bin over 25 years ago because it looked New Wave...
20 Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)-Spandau Ballet (Chrysalis).
Another classic MTV moment, and quite frankly the first song of its kind that led me to realise that Funk can be found in the most unlikely of places.
21 Resurrection Joe-The Cult (Beggars Banquet).
I close with this tune from the proverbial turning point of this band's career, between the brilliant yet sadly out of print debut and their slow descent into crossover oblivion.

Please download and enjoy Fufu Stew Goes MONDO!

Fufu Stew Goes Mondo - 71 MB mp3 file
Fufu Stew Goes Mondo - 70 MB zip file

Thank you Mr. Mondo for giving me an outlet to share some of these treasures that I was afraid to share on my own blog. Not that I dig the tunes any less than my funk and soul 45s, but there's a time and place for everything. I would love to come back soon and do it again because I have many more tunes just waiting to get the patented Fufu Stew treatment. Here's hoping that you all enjoyed this little stroll down memory lane with me. As my British blogging colleagues would say, all the best!

Peace and blessings.

14 comments:

bitterandrew said...

Outstanding. This is going right to the top of my listening queue.

Thanks for putting this together and sharing it.

Simon said...

Wide Boy Awake were formed by Kevin Mooney, who'd been the bass player in Adam And The Ants. Which, if you didn't know that, is an outstanding coincidence for the mix. Great guest slot here, really great.

Chant No 1 is a particular favourite of mine. The Kemp brothers from Spandau were ex pupils at the school I went to.

Great stuff!

Mondo said...

BA
It is belter isn't it? And some real nuggets in there. Things like Gary Numan/Tubeway, which I never took to at the time sound fantastic now.

Simon

Spandau paved the way in from punk to funk for me - those punchy horn arrangements and tip top 12" remixes - it's easy to forget how hip they were until going off the boil with 'True' - The Visage album is another cracker from that period.

Paul Webb bass player from Talk Talk went to my School, I used to go to his house for tea(I was mates with his younger brother) we'd scare ourselves silly with his copy of 'Dark Side Of The Moon' until he threatened to shoot me with a harpoon (I hope he was joking)

Simon said...

PM, the 12" of Communication is still one of my favourite records from that era; there were still some pretty good things going on, even while they were turning into middle of the road soul boys

Cocktails said...

Excellent stuff. This is going straight onto my playlist for my long haul flight this week - loads, loads better than BA's inflight muzak. Thanks very much!

Mondo said...

Simon and Cocktails - glad it's got you both buzzing (Cocktails I must add you to my PM chart rundown a real oversight on my part - apologies)

Some of Spandau 12"s were superb - the remix of Chant No 1 on the flip side of Instinction 12" was incredible if you can find it (I can't).

I've got an incredible 12" remix of Simple Minds 'I Travel' which I must to dig out and post.

Simon said...

http://buscandoalgamusino.blogspot.com

Might be of some interest to you PM...

Devil Dick said...

oi vey!!!
vincent is the man!!!
eclectic indeed!
Cheers!
dd

Mondo said...

Simon, I'll be burning up my bandwidth allowance from that site - thanks for the tip.

DD - it's a cracking collection.
And I can't believe it's taken me all this time to see that the Numanoids were right all along.

Vincent the Soul Chef said...

Thank you bitterandrew, thank you Simon, thank you Cocktails and thank you DD...

Simon, I was telling PM that my copy of WBA had absolutely no information on the sleeve. I bet you if I had bought an import copy, it would have set the record straight from the very start. I still find that the British contingent have a much greater passion for good music than Americans. This is not to say that we didn't have great bands back then, but marketing and promotion was selectively given.

I'll be digging out more in the near future.

For the record, I can say that a good friend of mine from high school had one of David Byrne's old textbooks back in the day, and I can also boast the fact that X's John Doe is a local cat too... Baltimore's not such a bad town after all.

Peace and blessings.

I Am Not The Beatles said...

We both mention Telegram Sam on the same day ?

http://www.iamnotthebeatles.com/?p=416

What's going on Mr Mondo ?

*checks for signs of Doomsday*

marmiteboy said...

Cheers for such a blinding collection. I have actually seen Wide Boy Awake. I bought 'Chicken Outlaw' when it came out (and still have it somewhere in one of my crates of singles) and was pleased to see them supporting The Euryhthmics back in about 1982!! A right bunch of mouthy gits they were too.

Great to see the Danse Society in there too.

Piley said...

Fufu\Mondo - this is what blogging is all about! A superb mix, which has been wacked over to the external hard drive for safety! Some fantastic nuggets from my past on there. Top marks.

Whilst on the subject of quality music from my youth, I Interviewed Martin Gordon (ex Sparks, Jet, Radio Stars.. he was even a Rolling Stone for a bit) earlier this month, and i've just posted the 1st half of it up on my site. Some fantastic stories about Sparks and the 70's glam period. Check it out if you get a chance...

Start The Revolution Without Me

Piley

Mondo said...

Simon - that's spooky!

MB I never knew that?

P - It's a great interview, I'm buzzing to track down that Jet album