The best of scootering words and music as reviewed by Nik & Sarge.
Before heading into the world of classic releases, it’s worth a quick note that Riskee & The Ridicule’s truly brilliant Blame Culture CD from last year is now available on lovely, old-fashioned vinyl. Featuring Hipster, We’ll Never Belong and Daddy’s Boots, this really should be in everyone’s collection in some form.
Meanwhile there’s another batch of classic material hitting the shops this month, with reggae label Dr Bird leading the way. A couple of reissues of Desmond Dekker material, in the shape of a double-header – Action and Intensified – a reissue of The Maytals’ Monkey Man and From The Roots albums, along with what looks like an expanded version of You Can Get It If You Really Want, and a reissue of two very collectable Trojan releases – Here Comes The Duke along with Soul Of Jamaica – in a single two-disc package. We’re promised plenty of bonus material on this too, so it sounds like a good value package.
On the soul side, RPM are putting out a retrospective of Ruby And The Romantics, titled Our Day Will Come, which pulls together all the Kapp recordings of this legendary vocal band, and Soul Time are issuing a ‘best of’ from one of the most fondly remembered labels of the early UK soul scene, Contempo. Pulling in the various strands of soul, funk and early disco on to a three disc, 64-track compilation, this looks like a winner.
The 4-Skins surface with a box set of all their material in the years up to 1983, including the rare From Chaos To 1984 live set, and are joined by a second Cock
Sparrer set, this time covering the comeback years and onwards.
For fans of the obscure and rare side of American garage, rockabilly, strange teen pop and much more, there’s yet another two-disc set culled from the collection of The Cramps’ Lux and Ivy.
Destination Crampsville is – I think – the fifth in this series of wonderfully strange releases. Finally, there’s a welcome reissue of Bad Manners’ first five albums in a single set. Taking in all the early material from Ska’N’B to Mental Notes, with a mass of bonus material, it’s an overdue look back at this enduring band.