It’s another one of those stories that starts “one day whilst listening to what Spotify thought I would like….” but that shouldn’t detract from the musical interest here, promise!
I became aware of A Lack of Afro in the last couple of years directly due to a combination of Spotify and the Craig Charles Funk and Soul show on Radio 6 Music. The first track I was introduced to was “The Outsider” which went straight on a playlist and ended up on heavy rotation in my car. Second up was the track we are focused on today; “One for the trouble”.
I’ve no idea where Adam Gibbons (Mr Lack of Afro, himself) got his inspiration from or how he put the track together, but it triggered the mutating earworm off on another one of it’s journeys into my cerebral musical archive. What it was drawn to was the similarity of one of the hooks to a certain classic kids TV theme, namely that of Grange Hill. It took a bit of searching but eventually I found that the theme was a piece called “Chicken Man”; composer Alan Hawkshaw tells the story behind its creation in an interview with M magazine.
Whilst curating the playlist for my wedding reception this year I figured it would be great to throw in a few mash-ups amongst the standard party tunes and this seemed like a fun one to have a crack at. Sadly, ambition trumped ability and my hatchet job efforts are not good enough to share here. Personally I really hope Mr Gibbons shows just how well it should be done by remixing his own track and I’ll just leave that little gauntlet here…
If you’re new to Lack of Afro I thoroughly recommend a listen; Joss Stone features on “Take you Home“, Allergies fans will enjoy “Take it Up a Notch” featuring twins Wax and Herbal T along with “Back in Business” and I can give personal testimony that “Recipe for Love” featuring Jack Tyson-Charles’ fine fine vocals makes for a great first dance at a wedding.
Explore and enjoy.
Throwback tomorrow as per usual for a Thursday.
Donovan.