Night Comes Down

Various Artists (RPM)

Back in the early Eighties I’d have killed for a compilation like this. An overarching view of the discotheques of the Sixties during the height of the swinging London scene, Night Comes Down covers the whole range of British releases that could have been heard in the ‘happening’ clubs of the day, many of which still continue to be mod club favourites to this day, despite their rarity. A heady mixture of home-grown R&B, soul, mod, freakbeat and early psychedelia, it encompasses the lesser known elements of the club sounds of those days. Organised roughly by sub-genre, this trip through the beat undergrowth of that wonderful period of British music shows the sheer variety of music that hit the dance floor during this period. There are a handful of recognisable names, from a non-ska Laurel Aitken track, through to Heinz, Twinkle and Twiggy, but the vast majority are acts that never made it out of the underground – too many to list, but all worth inclusion. Personal favourites on this beautifully presented three-disc clamshell box set include The Outer Limits, A Band Of Angels, The Gnomes Of Zurich and, of course, ‘Blow Up’ by The In Crowd, an all-time classic if there was one, but I’m sure you’ll find your own quickly enough. I don’t feel that there is a bad tune anywhere on the compilation, an achievement when you consider that it is 87 tracks long, and is doing for the mod scene what labels like Kent have done for Northern, and Trojan for Jamaican music, in bringing releases that would never turn up on the open market to the ears of the discerning fan.