The G12″ Summit

Tenuous link warning:  so there I was mooching around the Shelves of Awesomeness (SoA) tonight and I noticed I seem to have a whole string of 12″ singles in the G section which are also the sole thing I own by that artist.  So in a bid to air this G-string of records …

First up is Gary’s Gang Let’s Lovedance Tonight from way back in 1979, a ’12” Disco Single’ even.  And so it is, all 8mins 05secs of it, as the sleeve directs – very helpfully, imagine your embarrassment if you stopped boogieing prematurely at 7mins 59secs, you would never be able to show your white-trousered self in any respectable discotheque ever again.

I love disco but I tend to draw the Fromage Line* at around the Earth, Wind & Fire level; I don’t like ’em.  Gary’s Gang, on ‘Let’s Lovedance Tonight’** serve us up something far more saccharine, which normally would be as appetizing to me as a cup of cold sick, but somehow magically works.  Maybe it’s the rather outré xylophone action that wins me over every time? whatever, it is a tribute to Gary and his chaps that I really enjoy this beastie.  I rather like the brass on it that hovers somewhere north of the rest of the track.

So after a bit of lovedancing, where next? World War Three, of course!

Gavin Friday You, Me And World War Three was a 1995 release by the ex-Virgin Prune, who rather unfairly seems destined to be recorded by history more for being a mate of Bono than anything he put out himself.

I have a DJ promo version of this with three mixes by The Grid.  The best mix is ‘The Grid – Orbiting Planet Mix’ which is excellent, really excellent.  It combines a pulsating, spiralling beat with a lot of neat atmospherics and an insistent vocal sample of Mr Friday singing ‘orbiting the planet’.  It’s a damn good listen, not much more to say.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to exist on the internet at all, so you won’t be able to stream it on your fridge or whatever you techno hepcats do these days, but here’s the original version (which I like too):

Last up is my second favourite eye patched singer^ Gabrielle with Forget About The World from 1996.  The downbeat mix by Rollo and Sister Bliss from Faithless is a real peach, a great classy slice of downtempo soul with a gorgeous vocal.  I don’t remember the song ever doing much chart wise but I thought it was great.

The Daft Punk remix is a noisy housey treat too, a bit too rhythmically glitchy to either dance to or listen to more than once every 3 years for me; it is sonically very interesting though.  I rather liked the very noisy uptempo ‘Matty’s Mix’ too, which bears absolutely no relation at all to the original tune as it stomps it’s way to the party with big rock guitars, even bigger beats and acid squelches^^.  It is rather bonkers in a good way.

So have I found a common thread in my exploration of the three d’Gees of separation? umm, no, none at all.  So that’s that then. Nurse! The screens!

854 Down.

PS: I couldn’t bring myself to listen to the Gary’s Gang B-side ‘Showtime’, not even for scientific reasons.  It is my ambition to one day (many years from now) die, never having heard it.  But if you don’t want to join me:

*Sort of exactly like the Plimsoll Line on ships, but for cheesy music.

**I strongly suspect the title might be a sex reference. I have my best people checking on that.

^Johnny Kidd being my favourite, natch.

^^I suffered from the acid squelches once, no fun at all if you can’t get to the toilet quick enough at work.