Playlist - 18th March 2023 - 2000th Edition
Dub Syndicate – Ravi Shankar Pt1 (China intro) – Leghorn
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band – Pachuco Cadaver – Straight
Martin Rev – Mari – Lust/Unlust
Muslimgauze - Sapere Aude - Permis de Construire (Coup d'Etat)
Alva Noto feat. Dave Gahan & William Basinski - Subterraneans - Noton Germany (William Basinski)
Arthur Russell - The Boy with a Smile On His Face – Audika (Steve Knutson)
Jim’s bit:
808 State / On the Wire (Live at The Ritz Manchester 6th December 1988)
Marshall Jefferson and Jim talk about Housemaster Baldwin
Housemaster Baldwin Presents Confusion - Zone (Which Mix) - Future Sound Records
Adrian Sherwood selections
Junior Delgado - None Shall Escape - On U Sound dubplate
LSK and £$P - Mystically (Who We Really Are) - On U Sound dubplate
Roy Shirley + Prince Far I - Psalm 1 - On U Sound dubplate (Adrian Sherwood selection)
Fenny’s essentials
The Notsensibles - Star Spotting and Wrong Love - Snotty Snail
Singers and Players – Autobiography - On U Sound
R L Burnside - It's bad you know - Fat Possum
The Fall – Wings (Live NYC April 1985) - Leghorn
Half Man Half Biscuit - A Lilac Harry Quinn - Probe Plus
Lucky Chops – Danza - Lucky Chops
Hot 8 Brass Band - Sexual Healing - Tru Thoughts
Oliver Mtukudzi - Mwana Wamombo - Sheer Sound
Brenda Fassie - Vulindlela - Universal Music
Christiaan Virant (fm3) - Tiger Grrl - 2003 dubplate (Christiaan’s selection)
Sandii & the Sunsetz - Zoot Kook – Alfa (kode9)
Jim’s Fenny tribute:
Half Man Half Biscuit - "It’s a clear day (but I can’t see the point)" - Probe Plus
Hovis Presley - I rely on you
Mrs Cakehead – Stealin’ in the Name of the Lord
The Fall – Kimble - Strange Fruit
Frank Sidebottom - On the Wire with Frank Sidebottom and Fenny
Noel Hawks’ picks:
The Soul Stirrers - By & By Pts 1&2 - Specialty 78rpm
Bob Marley & the Wailing Wailers - (I'm Hurting Inside) - Tuff Gong
Vivian Jackson & the Defenders - Love thy Neighbours/Version - Defenders
Steinski And Double Dee Lessons and Motorcade Mix for On The Wire 2000 by JR Binks, A Fab Gear production with thanks to Double Dee:
G.L.O.B.E & Whiz Kid - Play That Beat (Instrumental excerpts) - Tommy Boy
Double Dee & Steinski - The Payoff Mix (2016 remaster) - Tommy Boy
Double Dee & Steinski - Lesson Two (The James Brown Mix) (2016 remaster) - Tommy Boy
Double Dee & Steinski - Lesson Three (The History of Hip Hop) (2016 remaster) - Tommy Boy
Steinski & Mass Media - The Motorcade Sped On (2023 Double Dee Mix)
Funkology Selections
Osiris - War (On The Bull-Shit) - Jem Rose Records (Madhatter)
Fela Kuti & Roy Ayers - 2000 Blacks Got to Be Free (Edit) – Celluloid (Pete Haigh)
Ian Curtis Interview – Preston Warehouse 28th February 1980
Joy Division – Transmission - Factory
Demdike Stare - Physics Side B (excerpt) – DDS (Miles Whittaker)
Meat Beat Manifesto - Radio Babylon (Killer Crab Men Howl edit) (Richard Skelton)
Macka B - Blackman – Ariwa (Natural Suntan) (Shackleton)
The Fall – Couldn’t get ahead (On the Wire live at Clitheroe Castle 16th June 1985) (Ajay Saggar)
The Bug with SpaceApe - Guns of Brixton (Deep Space rmx dubplate) (Kevin Richard Martin)
SeekersInternational - NoParasites Lickshot - Sneaker Social Club (No Parasites EP)
(Spence from SKRS)
The Necks - Headlights - Wild Sound (Nick Shimmin)
Fuck on the Beach - Eat 'em All - HG Fact (Ossia)
Steve’s selections
Huan Qing - Guang Wu Road 108 - FM3 Productions Ltd (He Xie Fu)
Sun DaWei - Chu Yu Li Xing - FM3 Productions Ltd (He Xie Fu)
Intrusion/Paul St.Hilaire – Little Angel/Version – Intrusion
Tom Verlaine - Spiritual - Thrill Jockey (Warm & Cool)
Minister of Noise – Marvel of Miracles ft. Prince Far I – Unreleased Retroburn album
Arcane Device - Engine of Myth - ReR Megacorp
Henry Kaiser - Future/Jinx Blues - Metalanguage
In Tributo On The Wire #2000
On The Wire has established a deserved worldwide reputation and the show is not only a platform for countless forms of both old and new music but also a joy to listen to. Presented with exactly the right combination of knowledgeable attention to detail and passionate enthusiasm it is the type of show that radio presenters spend entire careers striving to perfect and is renowned and revered by music lovers all over the world.
Steve Barker allows the music to do the talking and has never looked for approbation for his immense contribution to the understanding and dissemination of countless genres of music.
I have been a regular listener for more years than I care to remember initially through shared cassette recordings and then through the internet. It is next to impossible to overstate the importance of the show to the development of innovative music and its role in archiving and broadcasting an entire range of historical music and interviews that would otherwise have been lost for ever.
1. By And By (Parts 1 & 2) – The Soul Stirrers – Specialty 78rpm 10” (USA)
During the eighties there used to be an occasional 78’s Record Fair at Wimbledon Dog Track on a Sunday morning that included a stall run by a man and his wife who sold the most incredible selection of mint USA 78rpm records in original company sleeves for one pound each. I bought copious quantities and was later informed that the man behind the stall was actually Chris Barber… yes that Chris Barber. Apparently, he had purchased a warehouse full of these records in the States and had them shipped back to the UK. The valuable collector’s items were long gone but this didn’t bother me in the slightest.
One of the records I purchased was a Specialty 78 of ‘By And By’ by The Soul Stirrers… apparently there were some Soul Stirrers records featuring Sam Cooke but these had been snapped up when the shipment first arrived. Recorded in 1950 it features RH Harris, one of Sam Cooke’s heroes, on lead vocal and is intense, heartfelt and heart-breaking…
2. (I’m) Hurting Inside – Bob Marley & The Wailing Wailers – Tuff Gong 7” (Jamaica)
I suppose it would be easy enough for me to pretend that of course I knew this record from the mid to late sixties heyday of rock steady but it wouldn’t be true. ‘(I’m) Hurting Inside’ was never released in the UK and the initial Jamaican Wail N Soul M pressing was a white label pre-release. I first heard the song when Big Youth cut a version for his ‘Progress’ LP in 1979, which was very good, and sent me seriously searching for the original. I discovered that it had been re-released in 1972 on the b-side of ‘Concrete Jungle’, the ‘Catch A Fire’ cut, on Tuff Gong although the label stated ‘Sun Is Shining’.
A few years later I managed to find a copy on an American oldies list from Nighthawk Records that had only listed the a-side and I took a gamble that this was the one I was after and not the USA Tuff Gong version of ‘Concrete Jungle’… which, by the way, is excellent. It took best part of a month to arrive but yes… it was ‘(I’m) Hurting Inside’! It is my favourite Wailers record, rock steady at its finest, and has subsequently appeared on a number of compilations… but it wasn’t so easy back then.
Marcia Griffiths also sang a lovely version for Mrs Pottinger’s High Note label in 1978…
3. Love Thy Neighbours – Vivan (sic) Jackson & The Deffenders (sic) – Defenders 7” (Jamaica)
One of Vivian ‘Yabby You’ Jackson’s best ever recordings produced by Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett and released on his Defenders label in 1974. Steve Barker knew I was a devotee of the music and singular stance of Yabby You and asked me to put together a selection of Yabby’s records for an On The Wire special in 1990. I duly sent Steve two cassette tapes of some of the best records from the self-styled Jesus Dread and Steve Barrow also contributed to the tribute show. I was honoured, and humbled, when, seven years later, Steve Barrow decided to use my selection as the basis for an epochal four LP/double CD box set, ‘Yabby You Jesus Dread 1972 to 1977’ on his influential Blood & Fire label. He also asked me to write the liner notes which led to my writing notes for a number of other reggae re-issues and, eventually, a complete career change.
A big thank you to both Steve Barker and Steve Barrow for their positive encouragement, then and now, and of course, to Yabby You for some of the most moving, spiritually inspired music ever created.
4. Version – Defenders (sic) 7” (Jamaica)
I would have loved to have included ‘Distant Drums’ by Family Man & Knotty Roots, a Nyahbinghi instrumental version of ‘Love Thy Neighbours’ released on the Fam’s label, but Steve stipulated only three choices. However, I’ve included the b-side of ‘Love Thy Neighbours’ here just in case…
Finally I have to say that I am proud to have been able to contribute, in a very minor way, to the continuing story of On The Wire.
Noel ‘Harry Hawke’ Hawks
March 2023
posted by On the Wire at 5:15 PM
