Long long ago, and very far away, this was the sound when I opened my eyes. Every time. It was wonderful. In the very early nineties, Martin Dempsey and I would play uptempo soul in the Cosmos on Duke Street every Monday night. To give you an idea of the musical climate of the time, acid house had just exploded and was looking to go to another level and loud, scratchy, American guitar music made by young men with overdrive pedals, long hair and beards was de rigeur.
Grunge, for the want of a better word, was also about to go stellar. Know your market, stuff like that. Bearing that in mind, it (the club night?) was partially successful. When people came, it was brilliant. However, that wasn’t always the case. It was 1990 and house and grunge were massive – we were playing uptempo soul. It was one of the few times I’ve ever played regularly with the same person and you get to know their tricks and traits. The stuff inside Martin’s bag was incredible – soul, rhythm and blues, ska and other wonders of the deep south and the Caribbean. Martin had a show on Liverpool’s premier pirate broadcasting system, TCR on Friday evenings and he’d play that sort of thing, at a time when nobody else was playing that stuff out. It was unfashionable and out of place. I’d just come back from New York City and had loads of new records to play – he invited me on his show to play them, which I did, every Friday for months. After a short while, Martin quit and left me to run the show, which was amazing. Somebody had given me a platform to show off and play me favourite records. I’d arrived.
The Mondays at the Cosmos was a spin-off from that. Both were a steep learning curve, particularly radio which was brand new to me. I have Martin to thank for my introduction. “Green Door” was one of those incredible records that would be played on those Mondays. It is alive and it makes you feel astonishing .
Wynder K Frog was the alter-ego of Mick Weaver, a deft exponent of the Hammond b3 organ, from Bolton, Lancashire. Mick had come to the attention of Island Records top person, Chris Blackwell and his hotter than hot producer, Jimmy Miller. Miller had recorded takes of soul and r’n’b classics with session musicians in New York. He then presented them to Weaver in London who spread his Hammond magic all over them, in the process creating one of the great party LP’s of the period in “Sunshine Superfrog”. A version of Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman” was released as a single and became a huge underground dance tune. Island Records allowed them the glory of a follow up and the beautifully executed “Out of the Frying Pan” was born. Like its predecessor, it contained soul and R‘n’B covers and a version of Jim Lowe’s 1956 American Number One, “Green Door’, which was also released as a single in 1967. It is an infectious, uptempo ball of energy, driven by Weaver’s massive, swelling organ and stunning saxes from seminal London jazz musician, Dick Heckstall Smith. “Green Door” is one of those records that should have been a Top Five hit in its day. If all the students and soul kids who bought it after hearing it an incredible party had bought it from Woolworth’s or another chart return shop, its stock would have been infinitely higher. It sold like Billy-o.
After “Out of the Frying Pan” Weaver made one more Wynder K Frog LP, the contrived, American effort “Into the Fire”. Following Steve Winwood’s temporary departure from Traffic, to be with Clapton in Blind Faith, he was drafted in as organist for a short while before Winwood’s triumphant return on “John Barleycorn Must Die”. Mick Weaver is still fairly in demand as a session musician, those deft exponents of the Hammond B3 organ being few and far between. “Green Door” is one of the best dance records made by anyone, anywhere, at any time in history and it will always take me to Martin’s bag, choc-full o’ singles. A wonderful, wonderful time playing music in the face of adversity. Play it, turn the bastard up dead loud, dance around in your bones. Where does that fantastic feeling go?
Wynder K.Frog – Green Door. Island WIP 6006. February 1967.
bernie@happening-things.com 