Don’t turn around… ‘cause your gonna see a blog comeback

Yes, another long hiatus, I am back trying to pen another cracking blog for you on some such subject of pleasure as my wont takes me. 

Easier said than done, I have been suffering from something of a ‘writer’s block’ over the last few months which has disinclined me to the medium. However, it was the fellow guests at a rather jolly barbecue that I went to last weekend which convinced me to resume this intermittent content vehicle and amuse you with merry musings and awesome anecdotes. 

In this short post, unusual for me; I want to take the opportunity to sing the praises of a favourite song, and one which I think really captures the summer spirit. 

Most of my friends, peers and colleagues are aware that I am a big fan of 80s music but most, except for those in the know, will be blissfully unaware that I am also partial to a bit of reggae. Yes reggae! 

From the popular Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff, through to Desmond Dekker, Skatalites, Toots & the Maytails, Peter Tosh, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Sly & Robbie, Black Uhuru, UB40 and Eddie Grant (however, his music is technically Guyanese) I like it all, even Chaka Demus & Pliers! The music’s full of soul, rhythm, passion and a unique, bass-led quality you seldom find in any other genre. 

There’s one band I’ve left out for special mention… Aswad! 

‘Who?’, you young whipper-snappers might well cry. This fab band were once a mainstay on the UK radiowaves. Tracing their roots back to the 70s, they made a name for themselves in 1980s UK when reggae really took root in the popular psyche. 

Before 1988 (incidentally, a great year for music) they had a few rumblings in the charts, but it was in the aforementioned year that these lads really made a big splash. Distant Thunder, divided critics, it was a perfect pop album with reggae inflection according to some. However, I think this does the full record, which is now criminally difficult to get hold of, a disservice. It’s accessible and it’s brill. 

But that’s besides the point of this post, which has been written to sing the praises of a particular track on the Distant Thunder album, in fact it’s something of a eulogy. 

Don’t Turn Around never ceases to bring a smile to my face on a hot summer’s day, despite its rather gloomy lyrics. The track just gets it right on so many levels: great instrumentalism, production and vocals. It also has a crackingly dated video which seems to sledgehammer the song’s message through to great effect. 

It’s a shamelessly period piece, stuck in the late 1980s; I’m listening to it as I write this piece, it will signify the start, I hope of a blogger’s comeback!