Saturday, November 14, 2009

T. J. Johnson (pt.2)  


I spent a lot of time going through pictures taken during the riots that took place in Brixton, London in April of 1981, it was hard to choose one, I didn't want to pick anything too explicitly powerful, or anything with a copyright notice on it, both of which were hard.

T. J. Johnson emigrated to the UK from the Caribbean as a youth and produced this record for the London based Switch label in 1982 in the aftermath of the riots, and the storied apex of the UK disco funk scene. Events such as the Brixton riots and the evolution of multi cultural Britain obviously influenced T. J as much of his later independant work right up to the modern day has socially aware lyrical inspiration. He still makes records and gigs on the European soul, funk, and blues circuit, as guitarist for a few bands and leading a couple of his own, although his earliest disco work is mostly forgotten amongst all the session work he did later on in the eighties. He was very much the UK Niles Rogers, both in his guitar technique (which was still distinctly his own) and the quality of his chops.

I have been collecting and championing lesser (and greater) known UK boogie for a while, but of all the rare grails, the most heavy, most monstrous, most dance floor destroying cuts to come out of the early eighties South London funk scene for me must be the first two T. J. Johnson records, the second of which 'I Can Make It (Good For You) / Dragonfly' I posted a while ago, and the first of which, 'Pretty Lady/Lets Do It (Lets Rock)' I'm posting now. Despite 'Pretty Lady' being a small underground hit in the UK I think this is an internet first, so all you thieving funk blogs get ready to repost the rip on zshare.

I haven't posted a secret weapon in a while, I have been holding back for some reason, mostly by some ultra whack hard electro remixes I heard that were sourced from tracks off of the site, but then the other day I remembered what the whole point of this site was meant to be in the first place, and what does it matter. So that being said, here is another one that sends the other DJ's on the lineup home early to jump on ebay. Good luck.

Posted by Black Shag | 23 comments

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Sunday, November 16, 2008

T. J. Johnson Band  


The best dancefloor friendly underground boogie tune is T. J. Johnson Band's 'I Can Make It (Good For You)'
I suppose we may as well shut down the blog now right? I'm disabling the 'post a comment' option as there is no point discussing it, its just fact. There are 9 places left open in the top 10 after this track that you can fight over.

T. J. Johnson is a British guitar player of Caribbean descent. He had a couple of domestic club hits in the early eighties, first with 'Pretty Lady' and then with 'Dragonfly', an incredible instrumental piece that lives on the flip of 'I Can Make It' (both of which I'am posting).

He still plays locally on the UK scene and put a new CD out last year, read a rare interview with him here:


Playing these tracks out in the USA is a real pleasure, the quality is so high they sound like they could have been a major label smash, yet the style is slightly removed from the standard American R'n'B top 40 formula of the time, boogie heads on this side of the Atlantic are left scratching their heads as they peer a look at the turntables then run home to eBay.

Posted by Black Shag | 9 comments

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Monday, October 08, 2007

Brit Funk  



I'm not from San Francisco, I'm from Sheringham in North Norfolk, England. Several cultural centres are located near the Victorian era seaside town of Sheringham, these include Norwich (the epicentre of the region), Kings Lynn and North Walsham.

A common preconception that I hear when talking to other dance music historians and urban culture historians that I encounter on my travels throughout the world is that no disco, rare groove, electro soul or boogie of any note whatsoever ever came out Norwich and its surrounding areas. Sadly, after much time and study of the subject it would appear they were right. Norwich was more of a post punk art school town in those days, a genre in which it punched slightly above it's weight (lightweight), but I still ask around and look through the local record bins when I'am back, in hopes that I will find something by Norfolk's one forgotten underground electro disco act that disbanded unheralded in 1983, leaving it's members disolusioned and heading back to the pig farms or mustard factory never to speak of their failed efforts again.
(a singing farmer from where I grew up)

Yet, where Norwich was lagging other parts of the United Kingdom had plenty to offer.

Britain has always done a lot with black American music, boogie was no exception and the 12" electronic soul and disco singles that came out of early eighties London fetch fair whack now, probably due to the low number of pressings as compared to their US counterparts and subsequent relative rarity, plus they are mostly good.

Ease Your Mind by Touch Down was produced by a guy called Nigel Wright who went on to become world famous for his sound and scoring work for west end and broad way musicals, I think he did sound production for phantom of the opera with Sir Andrew Loyd Webber, and the song was written by another guy from Bedforshire (not far from Norfolk but almost as rural if that counts), called Steve Vincent, who went on to have hits well into the ninties as a sort of hip house act called 'The Adventures Of Stevie V.' . This can be a pricey record on the used market, and like most Brit Funk records as popular with the acid jazz set as the electro collectors:

Touchdown - Ease My Mind

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