It's Christmas Time

The Number One Son is spending some time with me and his mother this Christmas.

He's opened a few goodies and already it's looking like a good haul; these three lovely mini canvases were unwrapped early doors. Sun Ra fans will recognise the top one. And regular readers will know that James plays in a rather good Sun Ra Arkestra.

Happy Christmas James!

The One After 808

Sun Ra

Graham Massey, Madchester legend and the brains behind 808 State has put together a new combo. The one time Acid guru has collected a dozen of Manchester's finest, scooped 'em up and shared with them his love of Saturn dweller and jazz polymath Sun Ra: The Part Time Heliocentric Cosmo Drama After School Club are a twelve piece ensemble who, under Massey's orchestration, are currently tearing up venues in the North West. And one look at this video from their recent Liverpool gig will testify that the experience leaves everyone in the room shaken and stirred. The young lad on keys (front right) a.k.a. The Number One Son - who when he joined the band tweeted 'I've joined a cult' - tells me they hope to be recording an album real soon.

Special

It was all a bit tragic when Terry Hall dug out his Alexi Sayle suit from the back of the wardrobe and pretended to be twenty years old again. The Specials weren’t designed for the 21st Century;  at least not without Jerry Dammers. They weren’t railing against anything. And if Dammers - their leader, their mentor, their one time friend (it was his band, after all) - had been asked to join the party he would sure as hell have breathed new life and new arrangements into their tired repertoire; imagine full blown orchestral versions of Nite Klub or Little Bitch: Sun Ra meets 2 Tone.

And it's not as if Hall doesn't know a thing or two about rearranging older material. His reworking of Todd Rundgren’s I Saw The Light and Music To Watch Girls by, the Andy Williams lounge classic, are nothing short of sublime. And as for his 1994 take on Bacharach and David’s This Guy’s In Love With You. Now that is special.