Phill Jupitus
How Ace Records Rocked My World - By Phill Jupitus
Part One - Money Well Spent
Being born in the early 1960s and subsequently spending my formative years in the 1970s placed me at a particularly fruitful point in the history of popular music. The Beatles were probably the first band I was aware of. But at the same time my aunt was grooving to the contrasting sounds of Motown and Blue Beat. It's not until I went to school that music became something that you could bond with friends over at the Friday afternoon 'disco' in the dining hall. Mrs. Perryman playing 'Mama Weer All Crazee Now' out of a robust pine gramophone player on wheels. The sham glitz and faux splendour of glam and prog rock provided a dense fog that was only cleared by the gale force winds of punk. Once the willfulness of the new wave had dispersed I was left with a bunch of much more interesting friends and started to hang out at Wendy May's Locomotion on a Friday night at The Town & Country Club in Kentish Town. R&B, Motown, Stax, Two Tone, Hip-Hop, Ska, Folk, Cajun, Punk, Pop... A dizzying array of music bombarded the senses. It's no wonder that the place got a mention in Nick Hornby's 'High Fidelity'. The floodgates had opened, and I started to buy music more out of a sense of curiosity and wonder. What follows are ten albums (in no particular order) that I purchased between the mid eighties and today, which you can find in the Ace catalogue.
Phill Jupitus has been appearing on the BBC 2 comedy panel show Never Mind The Buzzcocks since 1996. He was a regular radio deejay on GLR between 1994 and 2000, and was the first deejay heard on BBC 6 Music, where he presented the breakfast show for 5 years. Phill has also worked with the Blockheads and the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, and currently plays bass and guitar (separately) for the Idiot Bastard Band.
Photograph by Andy Hollingworth
Selected releases
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Early Girls Vol 1: Popsicles & Icicles
Purchased principally because it contained 'The Name Game' by Shirley Ellis, this collection of pop gems introduced me to Earl Jean, the Blossoms and others as well as the camper than camp 'I Wish I Was A Princess' by Little Peggy March.
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Love That Louie: The Louie Louie Files
What could be more 'Ace Records' than releasing a compilation of twenty-four different versions of the same song? Very little, it turns out. A fascinating listen.
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Intoxica! Strange And Sleazy Instrumental Sounds From The SoCal Suburbs
This collection of bizarre instrumental tracks belongs to the kind of deliberate esoterica I forged a fascination for in the mid 90s. The title track is a belter, but 'Se Acabo' by The Del Rio Bros was probably the cut responsible for sending me in the direction of Latin music.
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Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop,Beat & Bossa Nova 1966-1970
In 2011 my eldest daughter went to Japan for a year to study at Musashi University in Tokyo. I bought this to play at her goodbye party, and in doing so heard the influences that must have fuelled the later work of Pizzicato Five.
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Yet Mo' Mod Jazz
These albums released by Ace under the Kent imprint are amongst my favourite compilations of all times. It was near impossible to single one of them out, but I've gone for "Yet Mo'" as it features the epic 'Right Now' by Mel Torme. But I can assure you, they are all worth having in the collection.
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Chess Northern Soul: Just Keep On Dancing
When I was working at GLR I was given an incredibly free hand with regard to what music I played. The result of this was that I got to play a lot of obscure Northern Soul stuff. This album is packed with some real stompers, including 'Seven Day Fool' by Etta James and 'In Orbit' by Joy Lovejoy.
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Let The Boogie Woogie Rock 'n' Roll
Bought on spec while on tour, this album features some of the most energetic and extraordinary music I had heard. Tracks like 'Bip Bop Bip' by Pretty Boy and 'Hey Memphis' by Laverne Baker set the bar very high for an amazing collection of sounds drawn from a time when influences from soul, R&B, swing and Rock 'n' Roll infused most music made in America.
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Gaz's Rockin' Blues
A man who has dominated London Clubland for years, Thursday nights in the West End without Gaz Mayall are almost unthinkable. Ace released this collection of some of Gaz's favourite tunes to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the club.
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Stax Gold: Hits 1966-1974
After spending nearly every Friday at The Locomotion, I developed a real love of the output of Stax Records, so before taking the plunge into individual artists, this was the first CD I bought.
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Precious Stone
If I had to pick just one of these ten, then this would be the one. A bit of a cheat I know as it's not a compilation as such, but the early work of Sly Stone is quite extraordinary, a brilliant glimpse at the early career of a true musical genius.
