1982 Revisited. Tommy is still recovering from yet another autoimmune disease, but he’s asked us to rethink his sax licks for Huang (sic.) Chung’s ’Dance Hall Days.’ He never got the credit deserved for his contribution to that hit from the 1980s, made up on the spot when he arrived late for a recording session. C’est la vie, C’est la guerre, C’est le Rock’n’Roll. Without Tommy’s ‘steam saxes’ he and Dáithí have had to rely on Yamaha YDS-150 and YDS-120 digital saxes to create the horn section. Nothing of them is quantised or sequenced, which is why one of them plays a bum note on the outro, but we liked it, so kept it in. Forty-three years later we’ve taken a harmonically and stylistically different approach to these licks, recalling the popularity of dub reggae back in our formative years, not forgetting ubiquitous tape echo and ever-present threats of racist violence. Even the Huang’s used the Roland RE-201 Space Echo for their earlier live shows, before digital took over. Springs and magnetic tape – Ah! those were the days. Before that we used to rig up two Revox machines to create tape delay for our electroacoustic dub experiments at the Edinburgh Fringe and Albany Empire in 1979. Tommy assures us that these and the other musical quotes (Spencer Davis Group and Cream) are legally unproblematic as either he owns the copyright (uncredited) or the music can be readily compared with ‘prior art’. This adapted title is ever so clever, huh!

Dancehall Days

The other name I considered was "Your favorite ego maniac." 
Maybe another day.
I dunno, I hope we get a proper Huang Chung remaster with bonus tracks some day. But I don't want to bug Jack on twitter. It doesn't seem very productive, please don't do that. 

Podcast Assignment - Edge of Sanity EP: -1 (Because it's less than a pilot.)

Marabi O'Hare: born in Cape Town but of Irish and Breton origins. Keyboard player, trombonist, former civil engineer (failed), merchant seaman, Celtic activist and teller of tall tales about his sojourns in New Orleans, Liverpool, Macau and psychiatric hospital.

Tommy Hogg: sax player and clarinettist with Don Rendell's Big Band back in the 1970s, before joining the original lineup of Huang Chung, jumping ship when they sailed West and went Wangy. Anglo-Irish Republican. Retired Professor of Music & Multimedia at the Royal College of Music, an institution for which he has barely-concealed contempt.

Dáithí Ó Dubhghaill: bass guitar, sax and music production, now struggling with hearing loss and a gammy leg. Irish Republican activist of Viking origins from the 11th Century. Licensing enquiries to Dáithí at: daveydoyle263@gmail.com

The banner is a painting by Percy French, who in his youth composed the music-hall song 'Abdul Abulbul Amir'... . Tiocfaidh ár lá

"Look at this smug son of a bitch." I hear you saying. My professor forced me to make it, okay? I didn't want to. Is what it is. Please don't judge me too harshly, that is all I ask.

New tracks tagged #huang chung