Divvies, Remember that word? I can, "Divvies", well this was the derogatory name for "Jim and Barbara" and for people who "didn't know their stuff" I remember getting on a coach in Hull as a very young spotty faced lad on the way to Wigan Casino. The "Big Boys" were all sat at the back, Paul n Paddy Smith, Martin Sayner, Sean Russlin, Martin Byrd and Rocky. I sat well up front not daring to look back too much. I was with Timmy Peacham (Sadly gone now well before his time RIP) and Mark Robinson, I suppose the complete set of Hull Soul Club was on that coach? We set off from out side The New York pub at the top of Anlaby road and I was shitting my self! I have since stormed machine gun nests and enemy trenches in Iraq and Afghanistan and not been so scared!
The year was probably 1980 although it may well have been 1979? It's all a bit fuzzy now and my memory chooses to do its own thing, I can't remember the trip there much, to be honest I can't realy remember what I heard that night musically, I do remember the flavour of the conversations thought!
Back in nineteen hundred and frozen to death we had, probably the same as kids do now, buzz words that were cool to use. Half the time we didn't know what they meant but adding them into the conversation was thee thing to do. I remember using words like black bombers, ionamine, Tenuate dospan, Filon, I sounded like a fookin chemist yet I couldn't tell you the difference between Aspirin and Dexamphetamine I daren't take anything! It was cool to talk about that stuff as if you were "in". Looking back now I see how scary it all was especially as I now have sons and a daughter of that age!
I remember the biggest buzz was talking records, this was a fookin mine field as every one else seamed to have "oracle" like knowledge of the black disks and I knew fook all! I suspect that most of us were in the same boat back then, don't forget every fooker seams to be an expert now days thanks to CD sleeve notes books and the internet. I must admit to being a little pissed off when I hear a "Nuevo" expert or collector who knows more now than me! Don't they realise how many hours I have spent listening to my cassettes! I couldn't afford the bleedin records back then!
When I look back at the stuff that got me into Northern in the first place the list of tracks that inspired me and became part of me are now almost taboo, we all know and love them yet the likes of "Interplay" and "A Touch Of velvet A sting Of Brass" are now only played by the brave or the stupid.
At what point did these tracks become "Divvies" music? Was it because they were over played at The Casino? Was it because they became the anthems bleeding over to Joe "Divvies" Public and creating the stereo type baggy trousers n bowling shirts? I can understand the hatred towards a misinformed public back in the late seventies and early eighties, but why did we begin to hate the music? Was that music just a casualty of the day; was it an acceptable loss in order to protect the deeper soul? I personally believe that this loss is unacceptable!
"Divvies", are they the ones who dance to "Wigan's Ovation"? Are they? Coz I think that the real "Divvies" are the ones who "Poo Poo" the classics yet freak out to "FRANK POPP ENSEMBLE"!!!!! or the likes of fookin Carbon Copy!!!!!
I dug out some of my old "Youth Club" soul this morning and tried very hard to listen past the cringe factor and hey, Interplay is quite fookin good and A Touch Of velvet A sting Of Brass still moves me to a special place, not a special place where people lick windows, it warms me and it always did!
So how about it, are there any tracks that deserve another chance? Who would play them, what you play and who is brave enough to loose the cool n dance to them?
The cool dudes can only be realy cool if you drop the conceptions; I'm cool as fookin mustard and its you that's the "Divvies"
Love Peace and Lentils, Imber Rocks. Yours ImberBoy :-)
P.S My fave divvies track is "What" Judy Street followed by A Touch Of velvet A sting Of Brass. "Whaaa wha ... wha wha wha wha wha wha........
Divvies
Divvies, Remember that word? I can, "Divvies", well this was the derogatory name for "Jim and Barbara" and for people who "didn't know their stuff" I remember getting on a coach in Hull as a very young spotty faced lad on the way to Wigan Casino. The "Big Boys" were all sat at the back, Paul n Paddy Smith, Martin Sayner, Sean Russlin, Martin Byrd and Rocky. I sat well up front not daring to look back too much. I was with Timmy Peacham (Sadly gone now well before his time RIP) and Mark Robinson, I suppose the complete set of Hull Soul Club was on that coach? We set off from out side The New York pub at the top of Anlaby road and I was shitting my self! I have since stormed machine gun nests and enemy trenches in Iraq and Afghanistan and not been so scared!
The year was probably 1980 although it may well have been 1979? It's all a bit fuzzy now and my memory chooses to do its own thing, I can't remember the trip there much, to be honest I can't realy remember what I heard that night musically, I do remember the flavour of the conversations thought!
Back in nineteen hundred and frozen to death we had, probably the same as kids do now, buzz words that were cool to use. Half the time we didn't know what they meant but adding them into the conversation was thee thing to do. I remember using words like black bombers, ionamine, Tenuate dospan, Filon, I sounded like a fookin chemist yet I couldn't tell you the difference between Aspirin and Dexamphetamine I daren't take anything! It was cool to talk about that stuff as if you were "in". Looking back now I see how scary it all was especially as I now have sons and a daughter of that age!
I remember the biggest buzz was talking records, this was a fookin mine field as every one else seamed to have "oracle" like knowledge of the black disks and I knew fook all! I suspect that most of us were in the same boat back then, don't forget every fooker seams to be an expert now days thanks to CD sleeve notes books and the internet. I must admit to being a little pissed off when I hear a "Nuevo" expert or collector who knows more now than me! Don't they realise how many hours I have spent listening to my cassettes! I couldn't afford the bleedin records back then!
When I look back at the stuff that got me into Northern in the first place the list of tracks that inspired me and became part of me are now almost taboo, we all know and love them yet the likes of "Interplay" and "A Touch Of velvet A sting Of Brass" are now only played by the brave or the stupid.
At what point did these tracks become "Divvies" music? Was it because they were over played at The Casino? Was it because they became the anthems bleeding over to Joe "Divvies" Public and creating the stereo type baggy trousers n bowling shirts? I can understand the hatred towards a misinformed public back in the late seventies and early eighties, but why did we begin to hate the music? Was that music just a casualty of the day; was it an acceptable loss in order to protect the deeper soul? I personally believe that this loss is unacceptable!
"Divvies", are they the ones who dance to "Wigan's Ovation"? Are they? Coz I think that the real "Divvies" are the ones who "Poo Poo" the classics yet freak out to "FRANK POPP ENSEMBLE"!!!!! or the likes of fookin Carbon Copy!!!!!
I dug out some of my old "Youth Club" soul this morning and tried very hard to listen past the cringe factor and hey, Interplay is quite fookin good and A Touch Of velvet A sting Of Brass still moves me to a special place, not a special place where people lick windows, it warms me and it always did!
So how about it, are there any tracks that deserve another chance? Who would play them, what you play and who is brave enough to loose the cool n dance to them?
The cool dudes can only be realy cool if you drop the conceptions; I'm cool as fookin mustard and its you that's the "Divvies"
Love Peace and Lentils, Imber Rocks. Yours ImberBoy :-)
P.S My fave divvies track is "What" Judy Street followed by A Touch Of velvet A sting Of Brass. "Whaaa wha ... wha wha wha wha wha wha........