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Radio What Wave Playlist February 24/2017 Black History Month Special
Since February is Black History Month, it’s time to do another special on Radio What Wave. This time, we quickly covered a couple of the Canadian bands of African decent that have appeared at the local Sunfest Festival here in London. From there, we covered some of the early Toronto reggae scene, Toronto 60’s soul scene and into the later reggae scene. Then we went to Vancouver for a quick listen to some of their mid 60’s soul/R&B and back to London to cover Joey Hollingsworth, a name you’re going to be hearing a lot about shortly. One of the few punk/new wave combos from this area that featured black performers was The Dice….and we talked about their London Ontario connection. Then it was off to Jamaica for some real reggae! Hope you enjoyed the sounds on this show!
- Marcellus Wallace…..Brothers and Sisters….from their self titled debut CD and from London Ontario.
- Marcellus Wallace….Movin’ On Up…. As above. One can only hope the band can get back together as they blew me away when opening up for Barrence Whitfield and The Savages almost 2 years ago!
- Mighty Popo…..Turaje….from the Ngagara CD from 2003 and from Ottawa. Canadian Afrobeat!
- Tarig Abubakar and the Afro Nubarians…..Yuma….from the Live CD from 1995 and from Toronto. Saw this combo a few times at Sunfest and they always got the crowd up and moving! My favourite show we saw by them, was when they played the one off Winter Sunfest at the Western Fair and had a building full of people up and groovin’ to the tunes.
- Alpha Ya Ya Diallo….Gugha…from his Futur CD from 1996 and based in Vancouver.
- Ishan Band…..Egzebier….from the Last Pogo LP and the only non-white, non-punk band on the record. Recorded in 1978 as part of the closing of the Horseshoe Tavern for punk/new wave combos and there’s an excellent documentary on this event called The Last Pogo and the more recent The Last Pogo Jumps Again, both by Colin Brunton (whom we had on Radio What Wave at the time of the latter’s release). Colin is presently producer of the CBC comedy Schitt’s Creek which is now on Netflix.
- Noel Ellis….Memories…from the Jamaica To Toronto Soul Funk and Reggae compilation and we’ll be hearing lots more from this compilation. Noel is the son of legendary Jamaican artist Alton Ellis and this recording is from 1983.
- Johnnie Osbourne….African Wake…. As above and from 1974.
- Jackie Shane….Dual Trumpet Bounce….from his mid 60’s Live LP on Caravan Records. A big star in the 60’s Toronto soul scene, but troubled due to gender difficulties and disappeared for decades until found for a short time. Flamboyant and talented, Jackie could have been a major star in a different place and time! This LP has been re-ished on the OPM imprint out of Toronto.
- Jackie Shane….High Heel Sneakers…..as above and this LP is from 1967.
- Shirley Matthews….Big Town Boy….from the original 7” and a big hit in Canada in1963!
- The Majestics….Sweet Soul Music….from the CTV After 4 compilation LP that came out around 1968. This was for the television show of the same name that I watched as a kid. Bought the LP back when it came out and still have it to this day!
- Eddie Spencer….If This Is Love…..from the Jamaica To Toronto Soul Funk and Reggae compilation as heard earlier and this track is from 1967.
- Jo Jo and the Fugitives…..Chips Chicken Banana Split…..from 1968 and from the same comp as above. Big Thanx to Alicks Gee who was the CHRW Music Director when this comp came out as she introduced me to it and played this tune many times on her Magical Mystery Mondays radio show on CHRW.
- Jackie Mitoo….Grand Funk….from the same comp as above and from 1971.
- Trials Of Jayson Hoover…..King Size….from the compilation LP The History of Vancouver Rock And Roll Volume 2 and this is the lead track for our short listen to some Vancouver soul. Way different than the Toronto variety as Vancouver was more influenced by the US West coast and even Mexico! This track is from 1966.
- Night Train Revue…..Walk On The Wild Side…..as above and from the mid 60’s.
- Little Daddy and The Bachelors…..Too Much Monkey Business….from the same compilation as above and from 1965. This features future comedy star Tommy Chong on lead guitar as does the next track!
- Little Daddy and The Bachelors……Junior’s Jerk…..both this, and the above track were from their 1965 7” and on The History of Vancouver Rock And Roll Volume 2 LP.
- Joey Hollingsworth…..In The Mood…..from the mid 60’s and played this from Youtube, first time I’ve ever done this on the radio as I don’t own anything by Joey Hollingsworth. Joey is from London and you’ll be hearing lots more about him in the not too distant future.
- Joey Hollingsworth…..Little Dandelion….as above. Joey was most known as a tap dancer, appearing on Ed Sullivan, Mr Rogers and many many CBC television appearances.
- The Dice….Young and The Wild….from their first 7” from 1980 and were based in Toronto at this time. Punk/new wave trio in which 2 of the band members were black which was pretty well unheard of in Canada at this time. Caught them a few times here in London at the Cedar Lounge. They did a live to air on Fanshawe College radio approx. 1980 and I’ve been searching for a copy of it since hearing it live! Any help appreciated.
- The Dice….Typical Lies…..from their 12” from 1983. Singer/guitarist Gary Lima went on to Fanshawe College as head of the Music Industry Arts program for awhile and drummer Hayden Vialva is currently here in London drumming for blues bands and other projects. We had Hayden on the radio several years back.
- The Dice…..Chayla….their hit from their self titled debut LP from 1984. Lots of airplay on Much Music garnered them some success!
- Jimmy Cliff….The Harder They Come….from the compilation and the movie of the same name.
- Tommy McCook….Work Your Soul….from the compilation CD of the same name and features mid 60’s Trojan recordings from Jamaica.
- Lloyd and Glen…..Mini Skirt and Go Go Boots…..from the same compilation as above. Just love the sound on these 2 recordings as it’s so primitive, yet alive and vibrant at the same time!
- Boris Gardener……Melting Pot…..from a 1973 LP called Is What’s Happening on the Jamaican Dynamic Sounds label, yet it says licensed by Trans World Records from Montreal on the rear cover. Very cool Memphis influenced reggae soul!!
- Norma Fraser…..Respect….from a Studio One Soul compilation CD and originally released in 1967.
- The Maytones…..Sha La La….from the Trojan Records compilation called Tight Rock from the mid 60’s. Way cool compilation LP I picked up the other day.
- Fela Kuti…..Zombie…..from his Greatest Hits CD and didn’t get to play the full length as Jessie arrived for his show. Fela is one of my faves and there was a documentary on Netflix recently, that blended footage from the Broadway play about Fela with live footage and interviews with band and management. This song goes out to what is happening south of the border these days.
Big Thanx for all the emails, facebook messages and phone calls!! This was a fun show to put together and barely skimmed the surface of Black music. Do yourself a favour, check out your local record haunts and pick up some soul, reggae, blues, Afrobeat and just about any other form of Black music and you might be in for a huge surprise!! Most of the records I’ve been buying lately are by Black artists and I’m really enjoying finding so many musical treasures! It’s great to keep an open ear to different styles of music!
Next week we’ll be doing a special on London’s Legend Killers, a band that released an EP on What Wave Records as well as appeared on all our compilations but one! We’ll be playing many studio tracks as well as some audio of their very first club gig here in town from 1985…..it might really surprise you!! And we’ve got a stack of new releases just waiting to be played!
Here’s a link to the archived show:
https://chrwradio.ca/program/radio-what-wave