Fopped again!
My forthcoming guest DJ slot at the excellent How Does It Feel To Be Loved club night at the Canterbury Arms, Brixton this Friday night gave me a fresh excuse to pop into Fopp Records at Cambridge Circus.
Although time was short, I still managed to fill up some gaping holes in my record collection:
Free: Free at last, Beach Boys: Pet Sounds, Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On and Young Gifted and Black (50 classic reggae hits).
There’s a booklet that comes with the Free album and it documents the tragedy of their Mandrax-addicted genius guitarist, Paul Kossoff.
The band argued like fuck when they were together and split up less than a year after their uber-hit, ‘All Right Now’ hit the UK and US charts.
After the split, Kossoff plunged deeper into addiction and self destruction and, concerned for his welfare, the band decided to reform to help out their old friend – a magnanimous gesture.
Sadly, their best efforts weren’t good enough and after a host of non appearances, stage collapses and awful gigs, the band split for good. Sadly, Paul Kossoff died in 1976 of an overdose – but his work lives on and some of Free’s material is still worth slapping on your music player.
Currently playing on my highly unpredictable CD player is the title track of Marvin Gaye’s finest album, the breathtaking ‘What’s Going On?’ I’m glad to have it back in my album collection!
