The NEW Beggar & Co and the Funk Jazz Collective CD - Live at the Jazz Cafe, Camden, London !!! This is Britfunk live and at its brilliant best on MBJ Records
CLICK HERE TO BUY THE NEW LIVE CD - Recorded at The Jazz Cafe, Camden
BRASS, STRINGS N' THINGS
Us Northern lads love gravy, mushy peas and owt we can put on a butty - shoe box int' middle of road. We had it tough! Came home before we went to bed, licked road with us tongues .... And you try and tell that to the young people of today ..... they won't believe you!
I spent my formative years trying to play guitar and then in 1972 I went to the Nautical College in Fleetwood, Lancashire for three years (I did come home at weekends). In 1975 I graduated (posh for scraped it) as a Radio Officer in the Merchant Navy ... spent 5 years travelling the world, getting drunk and tapping out morse code - in no particular order (most probably the morse but the drinking and travelling as well...)
On one of my first trips I flew to Singapore and spent 6 months travelling the Far East. After that there were trips to the US, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Egypt and the Gulf - including Iran, way before the world got crazy ... and an epic trip from Germany to New Orleans, Panama, Hawaii, China, Japan, Portland - Oregon, back across to Singapore and then Karachi where I was "paid off" (left the ship and flew home). In the late 70's that was a fantastic experience
I came ashore (didn't get my feet wet) in 1980 then spent three years working in an aerospace factory in Burnley - the most soul destroying time of my life. I just couldn't get used to being in one place day in, day out. After that I was a field engineer for Philips, fixing word processors and printers all over the North West and Midlands. We moved south to Essex in 1985 and have been here ever since.
My main musical interests outside of the Beatles, Leo Sayer, Brian Ferry & Roxy Music, Queen, David Bowie, Mary Hopkins and Peter Sarstedt (what a wierd mix) in the 70's was pure and raw Reggae, Ska and Bluebeat - the more raw the better!! Plus some of the early Soul sounds ... The weekends dressed as a "Crombie Boy", Crombie coats, Barringtons, two tone tonics, brogues, Ben Shermans, silk hankies .... Then as the 80's started I discovered jazzfunk/britfunk and it opened my eyes to even more superb music - especially the UK Britfunk movement - Light of the World, Beggar and Co, Freez, Central Line, Incognito, Level 42 etc etc. L42 became my main musical interest through the 80's - they were superb live, lost count of the number of gigs over the years .... its the knackered old hits these days - pity! The young East London Britfunk bands (Beggar, LOTW etc) stayed loyal to their roots and I'm very proud to be associated with them today, doing stage management for their gigs. They are - one and all, serious musicians and such talented people and now - friends.
Spent the last 20 years or so as a senior consultant in data and voice communications - mainly within the finance industry. Still travelling, I love it as much as I did as a green eyed kid in the Merchant Navy !!
My wife Janet and I have been married for 30 yrs with two grown up kids, a married daughter and a son - they are virtually self funded now ;-)My favourite hobbies are seeing live music and travelling with my wife Janet. If I put them all together then thats heaven to me....
Recently I've been involved with FMUK - Sharms and Fil ... I was Stage Manager at the Dingwalls,Camden benefit gig for Paul "Tubbs" Williams on Easter Monday 2007, what an experience ... It was a sell out gig, 35 artists and a night that would go down in Britfunk history and I got to work with some of my musical hero's over the years - brilliant !! The original Light of the World, Beggar & Co, Central Line guys plus Leee John (Imagination), Gregg Kofi Brown (Osibisa), Kenny Thomas and INCOGNITO - I was honoured to do this for Tubbs !!!! Namaste to Jean Paul "BLUEY" Maunick
I've done several gigs recently with Beggar & Co & Incognito - loving it!!!
Check out this brilliant Level 42 website, full of information - rare footage/recordings, gig videos, remixes, news, forum, picture gallery ....
www.Level42info.com
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Incognito - Blue Note gig....p>RARE VIDEO - DESMOND DEKKER & PRINCE BUSTER
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Level 42 featuring Omar - The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up)
Bob Marley: IT WAS I!!! I Shot The Sheriff
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I never had his beauty mark but Rufus Wainright is such a brilliant musician and his songwriting - pure poetry ....TURN UP THE VOLUME ;-)))
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