ASWAD – "Don't Turn Around"

‘Plasticky’is precisely right. Add ‘trebley’ and ‘underpowered’ to that, and you’re starting to explain why this one irritates me so much. I don’t mind the idea of pop-reggae, and would have no complaints about Aswad compromising their roots credibility in search of chart success if only this just sounded more organic or of emotional significance to the performers. As it is, its not a patch on ‘I Don’t Wanna Dance’, the last time Popular dealt with something in this territory.

“You know what live and direct means? It means…live and direct!”

One of the greatest live performances I have ever seen was Aswad live at the 1983 Notting Hill Carnival; simultaneously welcoming and threatening, at once celebratory and insurrectionary, with a sense of dynamics seldom matched by any other group and, in Drummie Zeb, a drummer worthy of placement beside Elvin Jones and Clyde Stubblefield. The performance was recorded and issued on the mini-album Live And Direct; “African Children” alone is sufficient to put nearly all other music of its month, if not its year, to abject shame.

Aswad had long since been established as Britain’s leading reggae band with classics like the serpentine instrumental “Warrior Charge,” the unofficial signature tune of the 1981 Brixton riots. Unfortunately the mainstream public seemed to believe that UB40 were Britain’s leading reggae band, with the result that by 1988 Aswad badly needed a hit. “Don’t Turn Around” was another product of the Warren/Hammond AoR battery farm; originally a Tina Turner B-side, and also a minor US hit for the late soul singer Luther Ingram in 1986, it was summarily given the UB40/Boris Gardner reggae-lite treatment. While Brinsley Forde provides a typically superb lead vocal, the arrangement suggests that the band were kept out of the studio at bayonet point in favour of the trivial tinsel of synths and drum machines, as though these revolutionaries had been forced to become humble mendicants. It went to number one within a month, and thus much more of the same followed, but “Don’t Turn Around” is the equivalent of former Communists being paraded before the West, compelled to recant their previous “sins” – thoroughly lifeless and indirect.

Light Entertainment Watch: Aswad’s 1988 change of direction opened doors for them. As to whether they were doors into rooms into which people would want to go, you can be the judge…

CANNON AND BALL: with Marti Caine, Hilary O’Neil, Aswad (1988)

THE HIPPODROME SHOW: with Uri Geller, Spike Milligan, Sheena Easton, Aswad, Tommy Tune (1989)

THE LAST RESORT WITH JONATHAN ROSS: with Steve Nieve & The Playboys, John Benson (Announcer), Aswad, Kathy Burke (Tina Bishop), Rowland Rivron (Dr. Martin Scrote), Simon Bates (1988)

LATE NIGHT IN CONCERT: with Aswad (1984)

LATER WITH JOOLS HOLLAND: with Crowded House, Aswad, The Cranberries, The Auteurs (1994)

THE MONTREUX ROCK FESTIVAL: with Johnny Hates Jazz, Jermaine Stewart, Ziggy Marley, Aswad, Sting (1988)

THE OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST: with Aswad, XTC (1982)

ORS 84: with Aswad, Steve Levine (1984)

ROUND THE BEND: with Aswad (1989)

SIGHT AND SOUND IN CONCERT: with Aswad (1984)

SOMETHING ELSE: with Aswad (1982)

THE TUBE: with Jools Holland, Leslie Ash, China Crisis, Aswad, Burt Kwouk, Geoff Weston, Miquel Brown (1984)

WHISTLE TEST–ON THE ROAD: with The Cocteau Twins, Aswad (1984)

WIRED: with Michael Jackson, Aztec Camera, Aswad (1988)

WOGAN: with Aswad, Doctor Melissa Fitzgerald, Peter Howitt, Natalie J. Robb, Amanda Walklett (1988)

WOGAN: with Aswad, Fenton Bresler, Judith Craig, Willow Legge, Imogen Stubbs, Joseph Wamburg (1989)

Although this peaked at #45 on the U.S. R&B charts it got no Pop chart action. This is indeed a good song, done better of course by Ace of Base. But I don’t mind this version.

You see, Admin, everything comes to he who waits!

This doesn’t apply to Punctum of course (whose analysis of this is spot on) but I bet 9 out of 10 of those who accused them of selling out didn’t actually own anything from their supposedly seminal earlier material. I think a more appropriate mataphor would be someone like Margaret Hodge an out-there radical who had to come in and take the Blairite shilling to get a decent pension.

This is the second number one in a row with links to a much-loved TV programme since Brinsley Forde was Spring in “Here Come The Double Deckers ” (was he the first black child on TV anyone ?). I absolutely adored that as a kid ; what could be better than having a bus as a den for you and your mates ?

Mike #12 – I think we agreed on a mid-70s thread (Barbados?) that his character Spring was the first example of a black character in a sitcom whose colour was totally incidental (some time ahead of Denzil in Only Fools and Horses).

I’m not sure if I’d ever heard this before watching the video half an hour ago, and I’ve already forgotten how it goes. Not Diane Warren’s catchiest tune.

One week at number 34 in the Australian charts.

I saw Aswad at a student disco at LCP (where my sister was studying film and TV) in maybe 1985! Not the ideal venue — it was half empty — but still very memorable.

TOTPWatch: Aswad performed Don’t Turn Around on Top Of The Pops on four occasions (we’ll deal with the Christmas one when we get to it);

17 March 1988. Also in the studio that week were; Bros and Eighth Wonder. Gary Davies & Mike Read were the hosts.

24 March 1988. Also in the studio that week were; Sinitta, A-Ha and Simon Harris. Peter Powell & Simon Bates were the hosts.

31 March 1988. Also in the studio that week were; Eighth Wonder, Climie Fisher and Wet Wet Wet. Mike Smith & Nicky Campbell were the hosts.

Memoirs of Hot Rods bassist Paul Gray including the Aswad/Ultravox tour:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.gray/archives%20&%20stories1.htm

Check out the width of the trews!

Strange how a band that can be as passionate and earnest as this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb2uN_spvEU&feature=related
can end up being so toothless and anodyne with DTA.

People of Earth!

DTA was of course sung by Drummie Zeb, not Brinsley Forde. Brinsley always sung the roots reggae tracks and Drummie Zeb the lovers rock tracks. Tony Gad sings lead on a few occasions too.

Drummie Zeb used to be the drummer and also sing lead vocals at the same time. With this song everything changed and he left the drums and took center stage. In the end Brinsley Forde left the group.

Drummie at the drums singing lead vocals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb2uN_spvEU

Brinsley Forde lead vocals (Shine)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIw3BtSPHtI

Tony Gad lead vocals (Feelings)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqsqem5fCrM

ROSIE UPDATE:

Thanks for the paging, MC.

I’ve only now had this opportunity to access Popular having been in Italy for a few days and then suffering loss of Internet at work.

The news about Rosie is most encouraging after what were truly alaming events. She was moved back from the Royal Preston to her local hospital in resplendant Barrow over the weekend and the last text I received mentioned something about a romance with a chocolate orange. She particularly forbade me from exchanging jokey obituaries with Erithian (whenever someone of note edges one to the keeper, he and I are on a race to get the gag in first) as she assures everyone that she doesn’t intend to check out (of life) just yet.

I would like to thank everyone for your messages of support, which I have passed on to Rosie. Her contributions to the Popular project have been considerable and the bunfights with Marcello, in particular, entertaining for a variety of reasons. I’ll let you all know when there is an update and copy this to whatever number one we are discussing at the time.

Cheers, everyone.

Well! I’m a little taken aback by the general sniffiness, as I’ve always had a lot of affection for this single: spry and refreshing, like a cool breeze on a muggy spring afternoon, and with a spacious, distinctive sonic palette that, while far removed from Aswad’s roots-reggae origins, absolutely works for me as pop-reggae. I particularly like the ooh-ing that underpins the second verse, and the three repeating organ chords in the chorus. Sell-out? Well, I’d enjoyed “Bubbling” from 1985, which pointed towards a lighter direction for the band, so “Don’t Turn Around” didn’t come as a huge surprise. But by the time I saw them at Rock City a few months later, they had indeed tipped almost fully over into jerk-chicken-in-a-basket cabaret cheese; a cloying cover of “My Baby Just Cares For Me” sticks in the memory. But for now: a lovely pop moment, and a 7 from me.

Oh, and thanks for the reassuring update, Waldo – welcome news!

“The Double Deckers” another reason why it was good to have tour childhood in the late 60s/early 70s –

I’d agree that Brinsley Forde’s character would take some beating as far as British telly goes on the black character front (in America they obviously had a few such characters already eg Uhura in Star Trek from 1966).
But the Double Deckers made in 1969 and broadcast from 1970 may be first in this country.

As history has it, Phuture released “Acid Tracks” in 1987, played first by DJ Ron Hardy at The Music Box in Chicago. It’s accepted that “Acid Tracks” was the record that begat the Acid House movement. Such is “accepted” history.

Provenance in the UK is mired in misinformation and mythology. If we’re going for a No Charge monster thread, then I’ll be looking forward to see how the facts can be cleaved from the fiction 🙂

I remember the Double Deckers too – cosy Saturday morning TV IIRC. I was vaguely aware of Aswad throughout the 80’s but this threw considerable light on them. The mix always seemed all wrong with the soulful vocal not sitting correctly with the thin mechanised backing track. A pleasant tune all the same but fatally flawed. 4 maybe 5 on a good day.

#28 Glad to hear Rosie is ok.

Good to have you back Rosie.

And another story of London pop stars’ schooldays: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/may/22/shazia-mirza-dizzee-rascal

It suddenly struck me that Brinsley Forde starred in the film Babylon granted a (very) rare showing on BBC2 just a few months ago.
Babylon and the notorious Clash movie Rude Boy are both fascinating for how vividly they capture the disgruntlement of black youth – white youth at the turn of the eighties. In both films inner-city Britain seemed a barren and divided place. These two oddly similar films showcase some terrific music.

Re 37: Lovely to have you back.

I met Aswad a few years after this. They were looking for songwriters to help them shake off the pop stigma of Don’t Turn Around and take them back to their roots. It struck me as pretty strange to approach a couple of white middle class kids from the other side of the North Downs with little more a couple of Keith Hudson albums to recommend them as ‘roots’, but we gave it a go. They rejected our attempts and released the rather limp Shine instead.

Babylon is on dvd now for anyone interested. And Rosie, good to have you back.

Hello,
I own a copy of this even though it’s middling at best, coming in a lucky dip pack of 7″ singles purchased from Our Price in Rochdale a few months later. Reggae, but not as we know it, perhaps Island were trying to exploit the reggae novelty market field plowed by the likes of Boris Gardner and Judy Boucher, or perhaps it was their last chance before being dropped after failing to reflect their critical acclaim with sales. Perhaps both. Who knows, or indeed, cares. Aswad always, ALWAYS seemed to be on the Radio 1 Roadshow after this pushing their latest single which invariably peaked at number 34 or therabouts.
The last Aswad based straw for me was when they reviewed Boy George’s ‘No Clause 28’ single for Smash Hits, were obviously uncomfortable and said it ‘Wasn’t something they agreed with’. Sadly it was obvious that they weren’t talking about Clause 28.

re 40 & 42 Babylon is currently available to watch on iPlayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00mqc2s/Babylon/

For some reason I knew who Aswad were when I was 5, I can only guess because of the popularity of Shine. While watching ‘Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers’ circa 1994, in the section where the rangers called out their animals (“Sabre Toothed Tiger!”/”Pterodactyl!” etc), I thought the Black Ranger was saying “Aswad!” every week and wondered what they had to do with the show. In fact he was saying “Mastodon!” which somehow I misheard.

…not sure why I consider that important to post here, but hey, you won’t find it anywhere else on the ‘net.

This song? Pretty unfamilar to me in either this or the Ace of Base version. Slightly *too* heavy production, needs a simpler, more chilled ‘Red Red Wine’ backing rather than distracting hi-hats everywhere, but there’s a good tune buried under it all somewhere. The AoB version suffers from similar problems.

This is okay, slightly faxed-in pop-reggae. Ace of Base nailed the melancholy so much better. Tina Turner’s original is a horrendous brutalist mess. I’m guessing there aren’t many songs in history where the second [high-profile] cover is the best?