The blurb says "Produced by Robert Calvert and Adrian Wagner, this limited edition CD single is re-mastered and digitally enhanced from the very rare original 7" flexidisc released in 1979 on Wake Up Records by it's founder and co-producer/writer Adrian Wagner for MediaQuest." I bought one and now you're going to hear about it!
The CD is very handsome looking with the flexidisc design translating well to being stamped on a compact disk. (Actually, it’s printed onto a sticker, which was threatening to detach itself from my copy). It comes in a clear jewel case, full size and not one of those wretched slimline cases or a cardboard sleeve like many CD singles. First surprise is the authentic sounding reggae vibes; the track opens with a clatter of suitably Caribbean sounding drums, and a vamped guitar accented in the right places (second and fourth beats of each bar) There are some pleasant female backing vocals and tinkling keyboards but no trace of the deep, punishing bass sound you’d expect from real reggae. When I say authentic sounding reggae vibes, I don’t of course mean that this is genuine heavy dub, but neither is it the kind of grave robbing that UB40 have resorted to late in their career - and it’s a cut above condescending exercises like 10CC’s “Dreadlock Holiday”. This is a fairly poppy brand of reggae, of its’ time (it was recorded in the late 70’s) and the trebly production subliminally suggests you’re hearing it through the speaker of a transistor radio. Bob’s voice is pitched higher than normal and he makes more of an effort to actually sing, i.e. carry a tune than his usual sprechtesgang style of vocalizing as used in Hawkwind. .
A bit of sampled cricket commentary and desultory county ground applause is thrown in about halfway through. I’d kind of like to hear the sonorous tones of John Arlott drawling “…and there’s Mrs. Johnson. She’s brought a cake for the player’s tea…it’s a lovely cake…” to emphasise how crap cricket is (not really, but to each his own). But this single is about another sort of cricket, the one that in the British imagination ties in with sun-drenched Caribbean beaches, pina coladas and long hot summers. Definitely one for the ‘feel-good’ department, and it’s not too great a stretch of the imagination to say that Bob could have had a novelty hit with this, if it had maybe been produced on a higher budget. Somewhere there’s a quotation from Steve Took, an old sparring-partner of Bob’s, to say that he thought doing a cricket single was a very commercial idea. And taking a look at the cover of the Hawklords album, I believe Bob was wearing batsman’s gloves for that shot, so perhaps there was something about the image of sweating at the crease that appealed to him! |
