No 17 From My All Time Favourite 90's Dance Classics

For my next Classic Dance tune I've chosen the iconic 1991 'Papua New Guinea' by The Future Sound

of London. The duo consist of  Gary Cobain and Brian Dougans who first met in the mid 1980's

while studying electronics at University in Manchester, although they might not describe it

as a Dance tune. But it certainly was a different sound. And it may have even been a forerunner

to the new Ambient and Chill out sounds that were soon to take off.

VIDEO KINDLY UPLOADED TO YOUTUBE BY

THE FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON 

Above Gary Cobain and Brian Dougans back in the day. 

And as featured in an archive magazine

article HERE

Ingenious

Last week while passing one of the houses here in North London I saw this cleverly built

garden seat, and it was all made out of timber from a wooden pallet.

Of course this takes me back to August 2021 when I found a huge wooden pallet and created

a large plant container for the front of my house. And building the actual plant container was easy enough. The hardest part was breaking up the wooden pallet.

And so 5 years on and the plant container is still holding up.

That Summer Building Project can be seen HERE

No 18 From My All Time Favourite 90's Dance Classics

In 1993 The Dance Music scene was really getting into it's stride. Clubs were doing good

business and clubbers knew that something special was happening.

And so a top tune that I took to that year was this one by Monie Love. Of course there were

several mixes, but I particularly liked this Fire Island mix. Although it does actually sound like

there's a gospel vibe to it.

THE POWER - FIRE ISLAND MIX - MONIE LOVE (1993)

VIDEO KINDLY UPLOADED TO YOUTUBE BY SOULFUL EXCLUSIVE

N0 19 Of My All Time Favourite 90's Dance Classics

So for my second choice of classic Dance tracks from the glorious days of Dance and House

Music I've chosen that classic 1995 tune 'Respect' by Judy Cheeks.

In fact it's the first of two classics by Judy Cheeks that will appear here. And I think when I

first attempted my top 20 list on a previous blog, I got to about No 10. So hopefully we might

complete this list in full this time.

Video kindly uploaded to Youtube

by Steve Jax

The Legend That Is Francis Albert

It was 52 years ago this very month, October 13th to be precise, when American Crooner

and 20th century icon Frank Sinatra entered the Madison Square Garden Arena like a true

prize fighter for a Live performance titled The Main Event.

Sinatra has always fascinated me ever since I first listened to Pop Music in my teens.

Is there anyone else in the music business with such a grand back catalogue of classic hits?

He surely had a very windswept and interesting career, what with the ups and downs, the

many comebacks, his suspicious early connections with the underworld, and not forgetting

his most fruitful period that we know as The Capitol Years which produced some of his finest work

from the period of  1953 to 1962.

And just recently I bought the vinyl album version of The Main Event. The picture cover alone

is quite impressive.

Many A List stars were brought in for this New York performance, stars like Robert Redford,

Rex Harrison, Boxer Joe Frazier, tv anchor Walter Cronkite and former New York Mayor John

Lindsay.

And also sitting in the front row was a very excitable Sinatra fan that must have been bobbing

up and down through the entire concert. Even Sinatra was amused by his ringside seat antics.

He can be seen in the bottom middle gif above.

FRANCIS ALBERT SINATRA

Dec 1915 - May 1998

VIDEO KINDLY UPLOADED TO YOUTUBE BY Tjerk Letzer

The London Japan Matsuri Festival

Yesterday on Sunday I'd almost forgotten that there was a Japanese Festival taking place

in Central London. So I dashed off to Trafalgar Square and spent a few hours looking

over the stalls while watching a few of the stage performers.

The event describes itself as all day Dance, Song, Cosplay, traditional Japanese Music,

food stalls as well as a Martial Arts display.

So naturally I thought I'd grab a few photos as well as a Festival program and a t-shirt.

THE LONDON JAPAN MATSURI FESTIVAL