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Monday, 27 February 2017

It's What's Happening



When we were toddlers, a lot of us will have spent our time drawing pictures, or playing with Plasticine, or burying our faces in bowls of jelly or similar.  I think it's fair to say Lee would have had little time for such frivolity.  He would have been too busy with his Fuzzy Felt.

Although Lee's tastes clearly encompass a wide range of music, it's obvious that his first love was, and still is, big bold fuzz-drenched beauties.  And that was reflected on Sunday night as he brought us the latest instalment of his "It's What's Happening" sets.

This was not a set for gently listening to with a nice cup of tea - it was Jack Daniels all the way, and cried out to be turned up as loud as your ears could handle it.

Lee opened with The Rivieras "California Sun" - surely one of the greatest feel-good records ever - and kept that feel-good factor throughout, including - among others -  a smattering of soul, a chunk of rock n' roll, and the sublime vocals of Gene Clark and Lee Hazelwood, both of whom's voices could melt tungsten at a hundred yards.

He also included a great new track from The Black Doldrums, a band new to a lot of us who listened, but noted as ones to keep an eye on for the future.

But this was a set that was heading inexorably towards those aforementioned fuzz drenched beauties, none more so than his penultimate track, The Gremlins' raucous crashing version of "High Time Baby".

Lee brought the set to a close with Jackie & LaVern's naughty version of "Think Twice", a track guaranteed to put a smile on the hardest of faces.  But by then we'd been smiling for ages.

Another belter.

The full set-list is shown below, and there's a link afterwards that will take you to the @fusiononair  Mixlr showreel page where you can listen back.

Lee is on twitter @Ringo11Lee








Tuesday, 21 February 2017

Dr. Gonzo's Medicine Bag


Sunday night saw the welcome return of The Doc (Nick Beckett) with his Medicine Bag.

If you needed one phrase to sum up The Doc's shows, that phrase might be "predictably unpredictable".

It was - as always with Nick - a meandering journey of top-notch music, that took us from Georgie Fame's classic September 1963 gig at The Flamingo to the title track from The Doors' seminal '71 album "LA Woman".

Along the way he served up a feast of wonderful sounds, encompassing Soul, R&B, Funk, Garage and more, with a couple of newer tracks thrown into the set for good measure.

The Doc never lets you down.  Ever.  His sets are always bang on the money.  He'd never admit to the amount of effort he clearly puts into preparing them, but it's obvious that he does.  Entertaining, informative, and delivered in his own uniquely engaging style.

If there had to be one criticism, it would be that he's never fully grasped the concept that there's only supposed to be 60 minutes in a one-hour show.  But we'll forgive him that.  Again!

You can get Nick on Twitter @DrGonzo2411

The full set-list is below, and there's a link at the end that will take you to the Fusion showreel page on Mixlr, where you can listen back to it.