Do you know too much? Does your musical knowledge get in the way of having a good time? Do you go to family parties and watch people going mad when Don't Stop Me Now comes on and think, "If only they'd played McFadden & Whitehead's Ain't No Stopping Us Now instead" (a big favourite of RC's advertising department). Does thinking about that put you in a tizzy about what the best version of Ain't No Stopping Us Now is: the original, or maybe further songs inspired by it such as Willie Williams' super-mellow reggae gem No One Can Stop Us, or Ras Midas' syndrum skank Can't Stop Rasta Now, or Risco Connection's reggae disco cut, or Cygnus' elegant lover's rock piece? That's not to mention alternative "sport" versions by McFadden & Whitehead. And if, by some mad chance, Mobile Sounds By DJ Don-Weddings, Parties, Funerals: Please Note: requests by prior arrangement only did happen to play it, would you have thought about these options so much that you'd ended up pondering them for six-and-a half-minutes of the original disco mix and hadn't participated at all? Then as you're belatedly approaching the dancefloor for the final 33 seconds of the tune, someone slops red wine over your white John Travolta flares ("Nah, honest, Gemma, I don't normally wear them, but your sodding brother wound me up and told me it was fancy dress").
This story is from the January 2023 edition of Record Collector.
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This story is from the January 2023 edition of Record Collector.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
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Someone needs to come and empty the bins behind the Lloyds Bank branch in Kingston-upon-Thames. It’s been raining and flattened cardboard slumps next to a flytipped air conditioning unit and a rusting clothes rack. There are two signs at head height on the red brick wall. One warns that you’ll be clamped if you park here; the other, a stainless-steel plaque, marks Nipper’s 100th birthday. Nipper, the dog at the heart of the HMV and RCA Victor logos, was a white terrier with chocolate brown ears, maybe a Jack Russell, Smooth Fox, or Bull Terrier, more likely a mix. This is his final resting place. He was buried under a mulberry tree but, you know, urban sprawl, progress, etc. The plaque was unveiled by the Chairman of HMV Stores on 15 August 1984, while Captain Sensible, Janice Long, and a Nipper doppelganger looked on. Round the corner, at HMV and Our Price, George Michael’s Careless Whisper was flying off the shelves, and every copy turned at 45 RPM.
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