Games Without Frontiers

I didn't like 'Games Without Frontiers' when I first heard it, but then, I was only eleven when it came out, and it did grow on me over repeated listenings. It seems I've always had mixed feelings about Peter Gabriel: I never warmed up to his Genesis-era work, but one of the first albums I ever bought with my own money was So, which I've always enjoyed.

I can't recall if I picked up on the references to the long-running TV show Jeux Sans Frontières and its British equivalent It's a Knockout when I was eleven, but it did certainly dawn on me as a teenager that Gabriel was using these as a metaphor for international relations, with a nod to the on-going Cold War. I didn't realise until much later that it was Kate Bush providing the backing vocals.

'Games Without Frontiers' was one of a batch of 7" singles I picked up at a Chepstow charity show three or four years ago. A former owner had put it in a plain cardboard sleeve, so I don't have the distorted image of Gabriel on the cover. On the B-side are two tracks that run together: 'The Start' and 'I Don't Remember', the latter supposedly in a different version than the one on his third self-titled album, which, to my discredit, I've still yet to hear in full.

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All Wrapped Up

Here's another of the compilation cassettes I bought this summer, having taken home a Denon twin-deck hi-fi cassette player from the local charity shop. All Wrapped Up is a 1983 compilation of singles by The Undertones, with Side One filled with A-sides, and B-sides on Side Two. A cassette must be the least desirable medium for such an arrangement, with a long rewind required if one just wants to hear the hits repeatedly. The Undertones were unapologetically provincial and anti-fashionable, with their songs sharply-written slices of life that pointedly avoided any mention of politics, or of the then-continuing violence in their native Derry. My favourite tracks are the obvious choices: 'Teenage Kicks', 'Jimmy Jimmy', 'Here Comes the Summer', 'My Perfect Cousin' & 'Wednesday Week'. Their later singles showed increased sophistication but lack the some of the straightforward charm of their earlier work. The B-sides, not unexpectedly, are mo...

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I knew Jay Berliner's name from his contributions to Van Morrison's Astral Weeks and Charles Mingus' The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady , so when I saw this curiously-titled LP at the local charity shop I was intrigued, and bought it even though I had no idea what kind of music it might contain. This was after the days when one could still buy records there for a pound apiece, but I don't think I paid more than a fiver for it. The music turned out to be an all-instrumental blend of funk, soul & jazz. Berliner's virtuoso lead guitar is only one of many attractions here. The band of first-rate session musicians behind him are all uniformly excellent too, and, crucially, sound like they're having a blast. Cornell Dupree's supporting guitar work, while less showy than Berliner's, is beautifully-judged, and the rhythm section is terrific. Arranger/conductor Wade Marcus was no slouch either, judging from the way everything comes together. Two of the funk...

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