Keith Beckingham and his organ

The label (above) and a Dutch picture sleeve (below)

 

Listen/Download – Royal Dukes – A First Full of Crumpet

 

Greetings all.

The middle of the week is upon us, and I am just about keeping my eyes open.

I think I may be getting to the point where the phrase “I’m getting too old for this shit” will be nailed securely into my vocabulary.

The days where I would roll in through the front door after sunrise without a care in the world are far behind me. It seems that for every night I’m out way past my bedtime spinning records, the number of subsequent days reserved for recuperative efforts grows ever larger.

This is not to say that I don’t enjoy spinning records, because it’s just about my favorite pastime, but rather that unlike in my 20s, I am now living the life of a suburban dad with a pretty full dance card, and spending a reasonable number of hours in the land of nod is a crucial prerequisite to feeling like something besides shit.

I spent last night (happily) spinning funk 45s at Spindletop @ Botanica. Since our host Perry Lane was indisposed, I was flying solo, and surprisingly enough managed to get the equipment assembled and working without any major problems.

Me and my box of 45s were settled in by 10PM for no less than three full hours of musical wonderfulness, for what was a surprisingly large crowd (though the unseasonably warm weather probably had a lot to do with that).

I managed to record the proceedings, and since the fam and I will be vacating next week, I’ll post some of it then for you to ruminate on until my return.

That said, please keep in mind that I’ll be hitting the legendary Subway Soul Club this coming Saturday for an evening of high energy soul on 45 alongside Connie T Empress and Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus. If you’re in the area (Brooklyn, that is) you really should make an effort to fall by as it promises to be a gas.

Then (YES, There’s MORE!!) after some of the aforementioned vacation I’ll be spinning for two nights in Massachusetts, Friday 4/22 in Greenfield, Mass at Sweet Exorcist @ the People’s Pint, and then Saturday 4/23 in Northampton, Mass at Wooly Bully @ the Basement. Both nights promise to be very groovy indeed, so if you’re within driving distance, you should join us.

The tune I bring you today is a little something I picked up many years ago in furtherance of my Hammond organ obsession.

I’d never heard of the group or the song, but the sound clip was intriguing so I bid and won.

That said, the record remained an almost total mystery until very recently, when I started scouring the interwebs.

As is always the case, when nothing obvious presents itself, you have to start Googling the available info on the label, in the hope that some connection might be made.

The first clue that I might be on to something came when I started looking for John and Malcolm Jackson, listed as producers on the label.

As it turns out, the brothers (I’m assuming) Jackson were fairly busy running what appears to be something of an exploito music factory, casting their net rather widely, attempting to get a hit in a number of styles, including as it turns out, Hammond organ LPs.

The trail – as far as I was able to follow it – sees the Johnson brothers machine working as far back as the early 60s beat boom, moving on into psychedelic pop and then into easy/loungey Hammond records with groups like the Bunnies, the Flintlocks, Rainbow Ffolly, Tony Knight’s Chessmen and the Second City Sound, with author credits often going to the duo of Thompson and Hancock.

Today’s selection, ‘A First Full of Crumpet’ by the Royal Dukes, appears to have been issued a few times (this is an Italian 45), credited a few different ways.

One of those ‘ways’ led me to organist Keith Beckingham (with an LP appearance of the track being credited to ‘Keith Beckingham on the Hammond with the Royal Dukes’.

The song itself (released in 1972) is quite interesting, with a reggae-ish backing, over which a relaxed, atmospheric Hammond carries the melody.

It is in no way ‘funky’, but it carries with it a very groovy, Euro soundtrack vibe – reminiscent of some of the Peddlers later Hammond instros – that I dig.

I had originally thought that the title of the song was the result of a typo (assuming ‘fist full’ where it says ‘first full’) but the spelling is repeated that way more than once, so I’ll go ahead and assume that this is the result of some impenetrable English slang construction.

If any of you good people have any info to contribute, I would be most appreciative.

See you on Friday.

Peace

Larry

 

 

 

 

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo), in regard to the April 2nd walk. The whole Funky16Corners gang will be walking in support of autism services, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

 

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3 Responses to “The Royal Dukes – A First Full of Crumpet”

1. Michael Eddiehausen says:

   April 13, 2011 at 2:38 am

   Larry
   crumpet is English slang (a bit dated now)- check it out

   Definitions of piece of crumpet on the Web:

   •A very sexually desirable woman
   en.wiktionary.org/wiki/a_piece_of_crumpet

   so a fistfull – which it now doubt is supposed to be- well, I’ll leave to your imagination.
   still enjoying the site
   michael

2. Larry Grogan says:

   April 13, 2011 at 8:22 am

   I get the “crumpet” part. It’s the “first full” I’m hung up on, unless it is supposed to be “fist full”, in which case, oh my…

3. Michael Eddiehausen says:

   April 14, 2011 at 1:25 am

   that’s right Larry!