The tune I’ve chosen to get your weekend started right is Mystery of Love by Fingers Inc. Fingers Inc is a group formed in 1985 in Chicago and consisted of Larry Heard (Mr Fingers) on production and Robert Owens and Ron Wilson on vocals. They released one album in 1988, Another Side, and then sadly disbanded. Both Heard and Owens went on to release various classic House tunes in the 80’s and 90’s though, well worth checking if you aren’t familiar with their work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhJv6qBOZbw
The first time I heard this, I’d bought The House Sound of Chicago Volume I from Woolworths. It was 1987 and I was 15. Jack Your Body had gotten to number 1 earlier that year, and these new sounds had me gripped. Hip Hop was already established, now there was something new to dance to. It had already started to go overground, and with House music it felt different like something very new was happening, the rest of course is history. Still can’t believe I was getting in nightclubs at that age, probably explains why I did so well at school :D.

Mystery of Love is for me THE greatest House tune of all time, I never ever get sick of hearing it. A track just filled with memories, odd I only ever heard it played once on a night out, John Kelly played it at the (infamous) Quadrant Park all nighter, still remember it clear as bell, 1990, blew me away. Happy Daze.

Enjoy!

You can listen to Ally Al’s ace mixes here!

The post Tune For The Weekend appeared first on Sock Council.

I have been going to football matches for well over 30 years, primarily Newcastle United, and had always wanted to write a book about my experiences.

Whilst researching for a regular feature that I do, for Newcastle fanzine True faith, called The Real Spain, I discovered a fan owned and very atypical football club, called CAP Ciudad de Murcia. It soon dawned on me that I had the perfect opportunity to write about football and my growing disillusionment with the modern game. It also gave me a chance to write about general life in Spain and the history and customs of what is a fascinating country.

I travelled far and wide, to every corner of the Region of Murcia and further afield to places as diverse as Gibraltar and Bilbao.

On my travels I saw some good football and some downright bad football, but all of that was only a backdrop. The people on the terraces took precedence over the players on the pitch but that has always been the way for me. I met some great people along the way from a wide range of places like Dublin, Manchester, London, Bilbao, Cadiz, Seville and many other places. All of these people had interesting stories to tell.

Along the way, I uncovered some lost football history, about the pioneers that had brought football to Murcia, none more so than the Geordie Spaniard, Manny Pelegr

The post Homage to Murcia – A Season of Football Anarchy appeared first on Sock Council.

This track is one of the reasons I love hip hop. The humour, wordplay and subject matter of it just address issues you don’t really get in other genres of music. Although ‘Keeping it real’ is a well worn phrase in hip hop, there are lots of MCs out there that still use ghost writers for their lyrics. Ghostwriter sees Skillz naming and shaming these artists on the mic, but their names have been bleeped out on the original. For legal reasons, no doubt. For me this just adds to Ghostwriters mystique, as even though it is well over a decade since it’s release, there are still only a number of the names that have been worked out from videos of his live shows, where he pulls no punches. I’ll include both the original and the live track for you here. Some of the names are wont come as a shock to you though. Unfortunately Skillz has retired from recording albums and just tends to MC for Jazzy Jeff and do his yearly rap up tune these days. Fingers crossed this is only temporary, as the man is one of the best.

Listen to the fantastic Soultwins podcasts here.

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For today’s Monday tune I offer “All The Love Of The Universe” by Santana. From their 4th studio album released in 1972 Caravanserai. I’m in no way musically talented, can’t play a note, but I’ve never understood Santana’s detractors when it comes to his guitar playing ( Frank Zappa had a real issue with him apparently ). I can’t argue the technicalities of it obviously, but it always sounded fantastic to me. He always seemed to play with real emotion and I’ve no doubt he was massively influential ( If Prince isn’t a fan I’ll eat my own 6″ purple high heels ) Anyways back to the music, Santana’s playing aside just listen to the rhythm section, Michael Shrieve on drums and Douglas Rach on bass ( His first album with the group ) absolutely amazing ! Like the song say “Everybody needs a helping hand” it’s nice to be nice. Have a good week brothers and sisters, enjoy !

You can listen to a back catalogue of Ally’s mixes here, I recommend you do!

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