Allison Brook

In the '50s and early '60s, there seemed hardly a single film noir that didn't involve a scene in a nightclub. There'd be smoke, elegantly clad women in evening gowns that were all zip and hip… and sharp-suited men attempting to look cool by linking Marlboro's with Martini's. Amidst it all, there'd be a singer, sometimes seated at a piano, who would slow down the action for a moment or two with a song of lost love or maybe a touch of the blues. These were the 4am people - folk who drifted homewards just before dawn. And this 2CD compilation celebrates some of those singers and the songs which made that era so memorable.

When the Rolling Stones returned to the recording studio in 2015, and topped the charts in 2016 with the album Blue & Lonesome, it was a musical trip back to the sweaty London clubs of 1963 that gave them their start. The music the Stones played at the beginning of their career was a long way removed from the pop charts, as Keith Richards later reflected: “When we started playing in London we started off with Chicago blues. If you wanted stardom that was not the way to go!” Many of the songs you will find on this collection featured regularly in the group’s live repertoire as they found their feet in the turbulent pop scene of the early 60s.

Producer, songwriter and vocalist Mike Vernon’s award winning career has encompassed the birth of British blues including Clapton, Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac etc. He also worked with the younger David Bowie, Focus and soul singer Andrew Roachford.

Yet despite its enduring popularity, the music that inspired the original mod stylists has remained largely undocumented. Boogie Chillen sets to put the record straight, collecting 75 of the most popular and influential tracks on the burgeoning mod scene of the early sixties. Annotated and compiled by first generation mod, Rob Nicholls, the 3CD set takes a musical journey, highlighting an array of classic R&B, jazz and rock & roll classics that found favour among those considered Britain’s coolest youths.

Wagram Music Presents Soul Essentials Chill With the Legendary Voices of Soul Music album 100 original hits and the original artists genre Jazz, Blues.