TOP SHELF 8/8/88 - Lost Tracks?

 I've only just cottoned-on to this thanks to the brilliant blog, Olans Un Bekons recently.
Apparently there was an album that surfaced in 2007 which purportedly contained tracks that had been laying dormant in "an abandoned storage locker in New Jersey" since 1988 having been originally recorded at a studio named Top Shelf. The tracks were from big, big artists such as MC Lyte, Jungle Brothers, Biz Markie, Bid Daddy Kane and a slew of others.
To add more mystery and thus collectability the album was then released ONLY in Japan.

Sounds mad, right? I mean, undiscovered songs from artists of this calibre doesn't happen very often, does it? If ever?
And so the old adage goes if something sounds too good to be true....

I'll leave it up to you to make your own conclusions but if you need some help then check this link which may explain.
Meanwhile get over to OuB and grab the album as it is chock-full of diggy-dope stuff that just pisses all over anything around at the moment.

Big shout to WARLORD.

Grab it here: www.olasunbekons.com/2012/02/various-artists-top-shelf-8888-cd-2007.html

February 2012 ABU Takeover Show - DOWNLOAD

When you all turn up and visit the chatroom while listening to the ABU! Monthly Takeover Show it makes all the effort worthwhile.
Thanks to all the regulars, lurkers and newbies who are there on a Thursday evening at 9pm on Disco Scratch who get down to the sounds and talk nonsense.

Here's the re-up (I'm on a 'The Wire' tip again!) for those who missed or wish to listen in again.

Remember I need your early demos for the Demo Section. Also don't forget that I want your choices for the Album Spotlight, too. Send two cuts from an album that you love. Big shout to Ramses for his Black Sheep tip this month.
Send all correspondence to:  ageingbboysunite(AT)yahoo(DOT)com

Tracklisting in the Comments below.


Click HERE to listen
Or right-click and save HERE to download the show.

Mike Allen - A Waxer Tribute

I spoke to my homey, Waxer very recently and he was in a state of fevered excitement.
Y'see, he had gone to visit Mex Luthor - an ageing b-boy to the highest degree from Brighton - and was in the process of looking through all the Mike Allen artifacts that he had recently acquired.

The excitement stemmed from the fact that upon discovering other mind-blowing Mike-related items that I am sworn to secrecy not to reveal just yet, Waxer had in his hands......something so incredible it almost defies logic.

Waxer DiscoScratch was holding THE original 12 inch vinyl copy of The Russell Brothers 'Party Scene' that THE Mike Allen used each and every week on Capital Radio (and subsequently BRMB).


Check the video below to see for yourself just how this latest news regarding Uncle Mike is affecting us mere mortals. Waxer, as you can plainly see, is in a state of shock and you can tell by his honesty is just pouring out his heart over the experience of seeing things mere man was never meant to see. Truly.
Respect to the M-A-X going out to my breadbin, Wax and of course, the man who has been instrumental to the whole shenanigans, Mex Luthor.

ABU! DJ Set Live In Norwich - This Sat

Mark it in your diaries. Saturday 18th Feb. All roads lead to Norwich...
Well, maybe not ALL roads, MOST roads lead to Norwich. Okay, the A47 leads to Norwich. Head there and you'll find myself spinning vinyl of the hip and hop variety along with some other seriously charming chaps on the night - Dr UGHH and Hawaii Fresh (both Scare the Normals dj's).
Regular Chrome is away gigging in Hamburg with Illinspired on the same night so unfortunately there will be no freestyles - or dodgy jokes from Bill's black book....

I'll be making the record go back and forth against the needle, back and forth, back and forth. But let me tell you something I won't be trying this at home on my dad's stereo. Only under hip hop supervision, alright?

Think about it. Where else can you go out on a Saturday night and listen to great hip hop, breaks and Electro, all nice and loud in a town centre these days? Exactly.
I'm not saying that Norwich is the only place that does this because it isn't. Only that places like this are far and few between, so support your local true school sound systems!

Kicks off as ever at 8pm until Midnight at The Rumsey Wells pub (Downstairs), 4 St. Andrews Street, Norwich, Norfolk NR2 4AF. Free entry as well so if you're around the area why not drop in?
Hopefully some of the regulars will be in attendance; Jim C, Bit, Justin Hay-To-The-Hizzo and maybe 'Mistress Of The Mix' Ms Inch High as well.

N.b. Please leave your nines at home and bring your skills to the battle.

National Fresh - A Mike Allen Tribute

Some original reel-to-reel stuff from Sonic Graffiti. Photos copyright MEX 2012

I just wanted to mention something which some of you will already know about but will be pretty amazing to those who don't.

There's a new Facebook group entitled National Fresh - A Mike Allen Tribute. It's been started by Mex Luthor who is an old Brighton hip hop head.
The sad news was announced last year that Mike is currently suffering from Alzeimer's and in all likelihood will probably not sit behind a microphone again.
The concept is to put together a package of rare Mike paraphernalia such as photos, booklet, cd, t-shirt....etc... with all proceeds going towards Uncle Mike.

This is from the FB page in Mex's words:

"A message to the Army On Manoeuvres...


Recently, a friend of mine was given Mike's remaining records & memorabilia by a family friend, due to Mike now suffering from Alzheimer's and dementure. I will be acting as curator, my intention being to put together a tribute package.
As yet, I do not know the exact contents of the several boxes my friend has. I am meeting with him this Friday to go through it. I'm hoping to find enough recorded material to release a record, possibly alongside a booklet and t-shirt. This would be a not-for-profit project, with all proceeds going to Mike himself.

I've already been in contact with a bunch of hip hop luminaries in order for them to record thank-you messages for Mike. DJ Cheese, Cash Money and others are already on board.
It was very sad to learn of Mike's condition. I hope that the Army can march forward with this and give him something back.

More details to follow. Keep it locked to the Boss."

In addition to this Mex will be trying to centralise ALL of Mike's shows but this will involve all of us.
Again, Mex says:

Evening Troops,
I see there's some interest for a central site for Mike Allen show tapes.
If you want to upload a show, please use something like yousendit.com or sendspace.com and forward the link to me at:

mexluthor (at) virginmedia.com

I am going to set up a new mixcloud account (or similar) and will upload each show once the tracklist/date has been verified, so we don't have a page full of duplicates and bad information. Let's do this right!

PLEASE include the date of the show in the filename, ie. "MA_DDMMYY.mp3"


Many thanks,
Mex

The amount of stuff that Mex currently holds in his hands right now is pretty unbelievable.
We are talking Holy Grail stuff from Mike's archives. Original jingles and beds on reel-to-reel by Sonic Graffiti, Mike's own hand-written Groove Sales Charts on bits of paper....!

If you are as enthralled and captivated by this great man as I am then you need to be part of this.
Waxer and I are both keen fans of Mike - you could even say bordering on the obsessive - and had talked between us about trying to get together to visit him and do an interview. Sadly that might now not ever happen.
However what I would love to see - and this is not such an outlandish concept - is a BBC4-type documentary on Mike Allen as he has led an eventful life from paranormal expert, race-car commentator, talk-radio host and chill-out music king of the airwaves all on top of what we know he brought to the table.
The suits in charge of producing output on BBC4 are all roughly our age and you can bet some of them used to be fans!


Anyway this is the addess of the page - I realise that some of you are not fully-converted to social-networking (and Facebook in particular) but this needs all our attention I think you'll agree.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/nationalfresh

And, as always, please, please visit Simmo's http://www.mikeallencapitalradio.com/ if you have not already.

Greg Wilson Electro Mix

This turned up in the ABU mailbox the other day from my homeslice, Jiglo.

It's a really well put-together mix by legendary dj Greg Wilson.
For those that are fuzzy on the name, Greg was a very influential dj from Manchester right at the beginning of the early Electro boom. He helped promote the scene from the city's Haçienda club in 1983 and left an indelible impression on each clubber some of whom included Norman Cook and Radio Piccadilly's Mike Shaft.
Greg would later manage the b-boy crew 'Broken Glass' and produce the majority of the Streetsounds release, UK Electro.

Enjoy.




For further info, check:

Greg's Blog
Greg's Electro Website