CHARITY SHOPPE

Synthy Minutes of Gladness

2010-10-09T10:26:00.001-07:00

So I was doing a mixtape for my friend Toby and decided, seeing as all the records conform with the Charity Shoppe Manifesto, I may as well post it up on our rather infrequently updated blog.

It's also a chance to post up one of my favourite record covers of all-time: Bronski Beat's, "It Ain't Necessarily So", where Dorothy's head from The Wizard of Oz is replaced with the head of the Devil. Nice. On that note, if you want to buy some golden goats skulls, you should head to East of Eden in Dalston, where they seemed to be doing a nice trade in said items.

The song itself has become a bit of a Charity Shoppe classic in recent months, finishing off the night in true, "it's time to go home", fashion. For that reason, I've finished off this mix with it. It's actually a cover of a song from the Opera Porgy and Bess, where one of the characters questions stories from the Bible, so Bronski Beat's decision to release their version around Christmas 1984 attracted some controversy at the time.

The video features a mince pie eating contest in a bortsal...

Bronski Beat - It Ain't Necessarily So
Uploaded by jpdc11. - See the latest featured music videos.

Now I've done that, I have to post up the classic video for the B-side,"Small Town Boy", (their first single), which tells the story of a young guy being kicked out of his home for being gay. The tune is a another Charity Shoppe dancefloor favourite, with the whole of the rather long intro on the 12" version usually being played.

Jimmy Somerville/ Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy
Uploaded by Sunshinemusikbox. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

The mixtape is very synthpop and kind of darkwaved-tinged and, as always with CS mixtapes, done live on a very shoddy mixer with plenty of crackling and buzzing to boot.

The title refers to a rather awesome Coldcut mix from the 90's "Journeys by DJs" CD series called "70 Minutes of Madness" (re-issued in 2002). It's a mix I listened to over and over again as a teenager and appreciated it all over again when I listened to it recently.

I should rather hastily point out that I am not in any way comparing this collection of songs to that classic mix. For a start, this doesn't actually include any mixing and the JDJ mix doesn't include anything remotely synthpop as far as I remember!

Enjoy...

Tracklisting:

1. Tomita - Somersaults in Space (Debussy - Snowflakes are Dancing)
2. Yazoo - Winter Kills
3. Japan - Life in Tokyo (Theme)
4. Techno Twins - Donald and Julie Go Boating
5. Soft Cell - Facility Girls
6. Human League - Being Boiled
7. Landscape - Shake the West Awake
8. Heaven 17 - Come Live With Me
9. Depeche Mode - Shake The Disease
10. OMD - Georgia
11. Yazoo - State Farm
12. Visage - Mind of a Toy
13. The Fun Boy Three - Summer of '82
14. Bow Wow Wow - El Boss Dicho!
15. Magazine - About The Weather
16. Heaven 17 - Are Everything
17. Erasure - Don't Dance
18. Blancmonge - See The Train
19. Bronski Beat - It Ain't Necessarily So

Synthy Minutes Of Gladness by Charity_Shoppe on Mixcloud

DOWNLOAD HERE.

Straight Thanet Gold

2010-05-28T03:38:00.001-07:00

I just came back from spending a week at my Mums down in Kent, where she told me that whilst she liked reading the blog, I swear too much on it. Well I've counted Mum, and there are TWO swear words in the last 7 posts. (I'm not including Ol' Dirty Bastard's name, cos that was his choice and he'll have to take it up with his old dear). TWO !! I feel like I haven't been swearing enough !! Ballsacks. And I don't even know if that counts.
Anyway, one of the joys of being in Kent is a visit to the Selfridges of charity shops, Ramsgate. Ramsgate is a decaying sea side town with beautiful architecture, insane murderous looking locals and charity shops raising cash for literally every part of the body and every kind of animal you could hope to dream of. Almost all of these shops are staffed by a combination of fey terrified indie emo types and bellowing OAPs, and they are ferlippin brilliant
Onto the goodies---- first up I found a suprise punkish cache starting with this vicious belter from Public Image ---

Public Image Limited - Memories

To be fair the live version on youtube is actually better than the recording, but a good find none the less---

And nestling next to it was a 7" of a Devo track I hadn't heard -- Come Back Jonee. produced by Eno, it's got that fanfare-for-the-future vibe they pull off so well, sitting somewhere between the ironic and anthemic-
Devo - Come Back Jonee

Hmm. My internet is playing up a bit, so for today I'm going to just post videos of some of the other bits I grabbed... message me for downloads of any of em--

first up, from a pile of disco boogie cast offs, I got another copy of Dazz Band's mighty 'Let It All Blow'-- this sounded great down Superstore last month-- Im open to offers to anyone who wants to take the crisp sounding 12" off me...

Next up, for the princely sum of 25p I scored a 12 of Timex Social Club performing 'Rumours'. I can't find the Shep Pettibone dub online, buts believe me,it's on the vinyl--

and finally for now, again from the 25p section, Hall & Oates with 'Family Man'. I'm feeling this ones pretty camp 80s buzz, have to see how it goes down this Sunday at the Cargo BBQ session where I'm sure we'll see you all.....

x

McLaren dead... Guru dead.... Thatcher still clings on...

2010-04-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

I mean it’s mind boggling how the great and good fall by the wayside, whilst Maggie Thatch, that vicious shrivelled spectre of evil has just about maintained enough of a vice like grip on existence to (probably) see the Tories back in charge again. If one good thing comes off the Cameron-bot getting elected it’ll be that the old witch can finally begin her descent to hell.

Ahem.
Back to those who have passed.

So this was going to be a special tribute to the questing, genre defying, somewhat pretentious Malcolm McLaren. But then, horribly, Guru of Gangstarr went and died, so we’re going to get a track for each. First up is the McLaren produced B Beat Girls, discovered, as with so much other gold, in Deptford market, on a sunny day a couple of years ago. I grabbed it because it had McLaren’s name on the label, and got a massive treat when I got it home--- amazing razor sharp electro with a much sampled intro and dirty low end frequencies. I’d download this quick if I were you as it’ll probably get removed—there’s no video of the full vocal on youtube so you’ll just have to trust me, this is a winner---

B Beat Girls - For the Same Man

As for Guru, most of the Gangstarr stuff I've got doesn't qualify for this blog as I bought it in proper shops for proper cash first time round... still after a lot of digging through the archives, here’s one thing I found in Islington Marie Curie earlier this year, a remix of Lina, a once hyped RnB diva who combined 20s swing with urban production. I can’t help but think she just showed up too early, and had she been around in todays burlesque loving climate she would have done a lot better. Anyway this remix from Premier is a banger without any of the swingtime affectation. The magical tones of Guru bless the start and middle of the track. I can’t believe he’s died at 43, what a great loss to hip hop, and music in general.

Lina - It's Alright (Gangstarr Mix)

Charity Shoppe Flip House Vinyl Mix by John & On

2010-04-13T16:09:00.000-07:00

I was about to say, "it's been a while since I've put up a post", but let's be honest, it's been bloody ages. Anyway, if for no reason other than to put a stop to Nasty's not-so-subtle jibes about when my next post is coming, here is a short mix I've done featuring some (but not all) of the best tunes you are likely to hear us play at our Dalston Superstore party this Fri.

It's a 40 min hip-house / 80's dance mix done live on 1210's with a very shoddy mixer, even shoddier headphones and a neighbour banging on their ceiling. Of course, in strict accordance with the manifesto, all records cost no more than £2 and come from charity shops and flea markets. I've got to say it's not exactly a seamless beat-perfect mix (a long way from it in fact) but it makes a nice antidote to all the soulless Ableton mixes floating around the internet. Plus... I couldn't be bothered to spend to do a million takes getting it exactly right as I had a scallop pad thai to cook. Yum...

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?zd5yzzdzjhi

Stream / Tracklist:

Charity Shoppe Flip House Vinyl Mix by John & On on Mixcloud

Buying 2 Step from a one handed man

2010-03-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

So in Stoke Newington last week I came across a shop I'd not spotted before: The Bosnia Herzegovina Charity Hospice. If your ever in the area, I highly encourage you to check it out, it's just round the corner from the overground station and packed with good stuff. There's clothes hanging from the ceiling, jammed onto racks, spilling out the walls, on the floor, everywhere. And they had boxes of vinyl which I feverishly scrabbled through.
In doing so I came across two garage bangers, first the MJ Cole remix of De La Soul's It Ain't All Good, which, whilst it isn't that rare (hip hop tracks are always massively over pressed), is a wicked dance tune, and then, yikes ! Roxy vs El-B doing 'Cuba'. All the Nu Garage kids love El-B and rightly so, he was making dubsteppy skippy garage back in 2001 before grime even had a name, and this track is a dark delight.
I took the records up to the counter and was a little perturbed by the 6"2 Bosnian (I assume) blokes lack of a right hand. In its place he had a kind of rejigged mannequins dummy hand. I only noticed the hand when he passed me my records, and as I took the bag it got snared in this gammy plastic appendage, so I was sort of tugging on the bag, and he was trying to release it but this hand looked fucking ancient and it just wasn't opening. I mean the poor sod. And, probably cos of nerves, I started laughing, then he laughed to, and the hand popped open. Maybe he engendered the whole affair to help wile away the hours keeping shop.
Still I imagine he could do with a new hand, so do pass by and spend some cash.
Anyway here's the El-B tune (download links after the videos)

And here's the MJ Cole

Roxy vs El-B Cuba
De La Soul Aint All Good (MJ Cole mix)

New-Ro 'She's A Nymphomaniac'

2010-03-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

Drum machines are amazing. I think they’re one of mankinds greatest inventions. I was born in 1979 and it’s funny to think that if I’d popped out a decade earlier then I would have had a childhood almost entirely devoid of hearing the boom of an 808. As it was pretty much everything I grew up with rode in on sampled kicks and mechanical snares. I think you could argue that the emergence of sampling was a bigger break with the past than Rock N Roll had ever offered. House and Hip Hop as close to Year Zero as anything was ever going to get. The freedom for one artist to create an orchestra single handed allowed a clarity of focus that is lost in collaboration. Hmmm. Probably need to think about this a bit more to be honest. One undeniable truth is that the rise of the drum machine produced a staggering amount of brilliant music through the 80s and beyond; when I trawl through flea markets and discarded stacks of records cluttering up car boots it’s amazing to see how many tracks I end up finding that I 1) Don’t know anything whatsoever about and 2) absolutely love.
Here is a fine example, found on a rainy day in Ramsgate, New Ro’s ‘She’s A Nymphomaniac’. It’s a sleazy Jamie Principle-ish acid house affair on the United Sounds of America label. As far as I can tell, this came out of New York in ’89 and was produced by a guy called Larry Anderson. If anyone knows if any of his other tracks are any cop, I’d love to hear from em. It’s got so much to it that I love, the faux sexy vocals, the little orgasmic cries, the nagging synth hooks and the melancholic bleeps. Mint. Hope you enjoy.

New-Ro - She's A Nympomaniac

We announce The Charity Shoppe Manifesto and play a few records to celebrate...

2010-03-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

CHARITY SHOPPE: THE MANIFESTO RATIFICATION PARTY
W/ JOHN & ON AND NASTY MCQUAID
THURS MARCH 18TH

THE QUEEN OF HOXTON, CURTAIN RD.
9PM-2AM FREE ENTRY.

In early 2009, having sat surrounded in their respective abodes by all manner of weird and wonderful pound shop vinyls for several years, DJs John & On and Nasty Mcquaid decided that it was time to (literally) dust off the best of them and start a party where they played only from this rather crackly collection of hot wax. They also invited others to bring along their best charity shop finds to be played and marveled at.

A year of parties at The London Fields has seen much table and bar-top dancing, fisticuffs, Whitney Houston being jammed together with Shalamar, The Pet Shop Boys with Big Band covers of Michael Jackson and other such oddities that somehow just work. Now they are finally branching out with events outside of the intimate bubble that is Hackney's Mare St and its surrounds.

It starts with an announcement of The Charity Shoppe Manifesto and a party at The Queen of Hoxton in its honour...

THE CHARITY SHOPPE MANIFESTO:

• ALL RECORDS PLAYED MUST HAVE COME FROM A CHARITABLE OUTLET, FLEA MARKET OR FOUND FORLORN ON THE STREET.
• ALL RECORDS PLAYED MUST HAVE COST THE OWNER NO MORE THAN TWO ENGLISH POUNDS.
• ALL & SUNDRY ARE WELCOME TO BRING ALONG THEIR OWN CHARITY SHOP GEMS TO BE PLAYED (SUBJECT TO A LAX VETTING PROCESS).
• CHARITY SHOPPE IS AN EQUAL-OPPORTUNITIES EVENT, NO GENRES OF MUSIC ARE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST.
• MARVIN GAYE IS GOD.

ALL MUSIC, GOOD AND BAD, WAS LOVED ONCE BY SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE.

X

The Psychedelic World of Phil Collins

2010-03-10T12:19:00.000-08:00

Here is a list of fun facts about Phil Collins:

1) He played a character named ‘Phil’ in Miami Vice. Phil looks really weird and kinda evil (the Miami Vice Phil, not the real one, obviously.)

2) He donated a song to the tribute album for famous Formula One butterfingers Ayrton Senna
3) There was a bizarre, amazing album of Phil covers released by RnB stars called ‘Urban Renewal’. You should hear Ol’ Dirty Bastards version of Susudio. Actually, you can, here it is—
Weird.
4) On the Face Value album he covers the Beatles psychedelic block rocking masterpiece ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, washes it down with a load of synth ambience and spits out a strange (yet by no means unpleasant) trip through the lysergic nether reaches of his pristine balding skull. I bought it the other day from the charity shop endearingly called ‘Charity Shop’ situated on Hackney High Street, and by golly I’m glad I did.
Here it is ---

Phil Collins - Tomorrow Never Knows

MARCIA GRIFFITHS COVERS THE 'MAC

2010-03-03T10:19:00.000-08:00

I found this in Deptford market. I’d been up all night battering K and decided that, as sleep wasn’t a friend, a possibility or an aspiration, I should have a mooch through other peoples’ crap. Thank God for that. I saw the cover, and having always been a fan of Ms Griffiths, thought I’d take a punt. I’ve done this loads of time and ended up with shite heartless 80s lovers reggae, which now clutters up my discogs account. Fortunately the one in ten rule applied (one good record for every ten stinkers) and this turned out to be Marcia covering Fleetwood Mac’s all time smash out ‘Everywhere’. I took it back to my shop, put it on the turntable and played it through. Then I put it back to the start and ran through it again. I had a tiny bump and ran it through again. I ran it through again. I ran it through again. The cycle courier who lived upstairs came down and said ‘i love this song’ and we listened to it together another 6 times.I welled up at one point. Now I close the night at Charity Shoppe with it and everyone sings along. I hope it gives the readers of this page as much pleasure as it’s given me.

Marcia Griffiths - Everywhere

Oriental International Brothers Band Of Imo State

2009-11-16T11:18:00.000-08:00

Yes !
A lovely find ....!
This beauty revealed itself whilst I was rooting through the bric-a-brac shop down the road from the mythical wonderland of Deptford Market.
I know almost nothing about the band, there's a limited amount online, I found one piece that detailed their sound as innovative due to it's fusion of Congolese elements with more traditional Nigerian Afrobeat, which sounds about right (I'm no expert on this though, eh)--
I was really surprised to dig up a later rerecording of the title track on youtube:

jesus England is cold.
And as the UKs just kicking into another stinking orrible winter, and as today I've got nothing better to do (one of the many joys of being a layabout) I've decided to upload the whole LP (all 2 tracks of it) in glorious 320 kbps

here:

Nwanne Awu Enyi 320.mp3

Amaghim Onye Bu Onye 320.mp3

Up The Monto

2009-11-10T12:30:00.000-08:00

As a kid I endured occasional holidays in Dublin in the company of my deaf, aggressive and endearingly alcoholic grandparents. The last time we stayed the mad bastard Grandpa McQuaid put on a cow's tongue to boil (as some sort of meaty treat for me and my sister) then went and got shitfaced for 14 hours. During this time the tongue and the pot it was in caught fire and began to billow thick clots of killer smoke through the house. The first I knew of it was my sister dragging me hacking and choking out into the garden whilst the fire brigade were called. Great days.
My last memories of gramps revolve around watching him through the rear window of our retreating taxi. There he was, one hand raised in an orators style, the other deathgripped on a can of guinness, unleashing an epic stream-of-consciousness chant of abuse like a pissed wizard. He seesawed breathtakingly from the inventive to the incomprehensible until we disappeared over the horizon. A true gentleman of the bottle.
I think this, alongside a few other special moments (gran's gin fuelled motorway U-turns spring to mind), contributed to my general aversion to Irish trad music. Which is a shame because Charity Shops are fucking packed with paddy gold. Had I not married a Dubliner I probably would have gone on in ignorance of these bangers from my forebearers-- so it's with a big debt to the missus, who got one of these from a flea market and inspired me to find the other two, that I present some tradfolk gems--

The Chieftains - Pride of Pimlico

I picked this up, on Chieftains 10, in Cancer Research in Islington and I've been playing it ever since.
I've played it at the Charity Shoppe night, at hip hop nights and at house nights, and everytime it's smashed it. I think it's as close as Irish folk is going to get to techno -- a bodhran, an excellent vocal and a drone halfway through. I love it. I wish there was a longer version-- if anyone knows of one please let me know !

The Dubliners - Monto

Totally raucous, rude and compulsive. This version is taken from a performance at the Albert Hall. If you can track down the footage of this gig you'll see that Luke Kelly, the lead vocalist, literally has no face- just ginger mane, gleaming eyes and a roaring mouth, like a saucy Mr Tumnus.

Paddy Reilly - The Movin Along Song

No Irish set would be complete without the melancholic. This is a sad and quite beautiful song composed by the great Euan MacColl, with (if I may be serious for a moment) some powerful interplay of traditional melody with modern concerns.
Check the cover of the record this is from--

There's not been much of an attempt to jazz up the town that Paddy loves so well on that shot-- Its pretty much the antithesis of hard sell-- Gasworks, skips, tenements, rain. Good man.

Digital Hardcore goes POP

2009-11-09T21:47:00.000-08:00

Nothing beats the peverse joy which accompanies finding a gabba LP in a charity shop. Like seeing a chubby nazi pop up on Question Time, or watching a dog eating its own poo, it's unpleasant, but strangely enjoyable.
So I got a rush of icky excitment upon coming across a Shizuo vs Shizor Digital Hardcore LP this week, buried amongst the grimey tat in the junk shop near Hackney Downs station. For those of you sleeping at the back, Digital Hardcore was set up by Alec Empire in the mid 90s, Alec Empire being the mastermind behind videos like this MTV-banned clip:

To be fair theres nothing on Shizuo vs Shizour that tops the genius of Revolution Action (but what would eh ..?) but it does have a few belters---
The B side opens up with New Kick which comes on quite pleasingly like the Prodigy made by friendly feral 9 year olds

Shizuo vs Shizor - New Kicks 320.mp3

After another 40 minutes of industrial cocking about (which you'll have to hunt the album down to hear), Shizou settles down with a queasy Blondie cover, which made me feel a bit oily and a bit stalk-y.

Shizuo vs Shizor - Blondo 320.mp3

mmmmmmmmmm

Oh God, not another new Blog site...

2009-11-09T04:52:00.000-08:00

There is something special about the music you can find in Charity Shops. For some people, hunting down weird and wonderful records that only cost a pound or two becomes an obsession of sorts. The Charity Shop record collector is a different breed to your average collector, who might spend hours on E-Bay bidding for that rare Bowie 7" only released in Japan, or who might get up at 5am to scour record fairs for that elusive Herbie Hancock album.

While you may stumble across the odd financially valuable item in the corner of your local Scope store, collecting music from Charity Shops really isn't about that. A lot of the time I buy things simply because the cover looks amazing (watch out for a post on that coming up) or because it looks like the musical treats on it appear to be something magical that I have never heard before. Sometimes the cover is naff, the record is worth nothing, it may even be pretty scratched or have a large brown stain on the front but I know it's a dance floor smasher that will go down a treat when I play it at the weekend.

A lot of the fun in Charity Shop collecting is actually listening to your purchases when you get them home to see what they sound like. Obviously sometimes you do get it completely wrong but over the years your eyes become well trained at spotting what could sound interesting, just by glancing at the cover.

Earlier in the year an opportunity arose for us both to start actually playing our rather large Charity Shop vinyl collections out in public. We are both DJs playing out regularly in London but figured that the crowds we usually play to probably wouldn't appreciate a bit of Tina Turner or a big band cover of a horror movie theme suddenly dropped in the middle of a Techno or Ragga set (John & On is resident at large weekly Techno / Electro night, Always Fridays at The Egg and Nasty Mcquaid is resident DJ for Off Modern at Corsica Art Studios and Best Before at Dalston Superstore, alongside running the bashment/ UK Funky/ bassline night Young Money Millionaires). Hence our Charity Shoppe night at The London Fields pub was born...

The Charity Shoppe Manifesto:

- All records played must have cost £1.99 or less and been found in a Charity Shop or Flea Market.

- Punters are encouraged to bring along their own charity shop finds to play.

- There are no boundaries to the genres we cover in one night.

- No records are played for the purpose of being ironic.

That last point could probably be expanded upon... Basically, all the records we play, we love! The night is a celebration of Pop Music in all its forms so we ask people to please leave their pre-conceived ideas of what is, "cool", and what is not at the door. In the words of Edwin P. Whipple:

“Irony is an insult conveyed in the form of a compliment”.

So, if you do happen to hear one of us playing Queen or The Bangles soon after playing some obscure Disco or Ragga 12" be assured that we hold good Pop Music in as high regard as any of the great underground music that we play!
Anyway...

On the Blog we will be posting up some of our best and most interesting finds, not only of the musical variety, but also pictures of some of the other fantastic objects / clothes etc you can find in your local charity shop. We will also be sharing with you some of our favourite shops around the UK as well as or own and other people's mix tapes.

I'm off to listen to my new Russian Folk songs 12" I picked up recently...