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02.07.18
Steady As She Goes Mr.Constantine

In the true spirit of ‘if you can remember the 1960s, you weren’t really there’ I have no idea what actual year in I saw Galliano at The Jazz Bop down in Brighton. Early 90s? Sure, I could Google it or look for the flyer among the boxes of old toot, sorry I mean research, currently cluttering up the flat, but where is the fun in that?

No, instead, when I thought of writing about the band for these pages, I immediately lost myself for an hour catching up with my favourite tunes of theirs on YouTube. And very enjoyable it was too. 

I sort of knew members of the band, before I knew of the band itself. Vibes controller Snaith was a local Peckham-ite and went to school with my brother and I used to see Constantine all over the place in London. Clubs, shops, and markets…He was just ‘there’ and always very well turned out. I had even sold him a pair of ‘vintage’ shoes from the stall I had in The Stables at Camden in the late 80s, so we were on loose nodding terms.

This was the era of Dingwalls and Duffer of St. George. I would often get to Dingwalls for the Sunday afternoon sessions on my extended lunch break from that stall, and I spent more than enough money at Duffer HQ on D’Arblay Street, Soho to know the staff on first name terms. Along with the radio shows of Gilles Petersen and Patrick Forge, this very much made up my cultural life for a summer or two and I soaked it all up eagerly. 

It all tied up nicely when I first learnt of the band itself. Signed to the Acid Jazz label run by Gilles and Eddie Piller, the other members along with Snaith and Constantine, were Rob Gallagher on main vocals and Crispin Robinson on percussion. Their first single was a liberal reworking of ‘Freddy’s Dead’ by Curtis Mayfield, which incidentally was the first ever, release on Acid Jazz. 

The release that hooked me in big time though was their first album titled ‘In Pursuit of The 13th Note’ which was released on the ‘Talkin’ Loud’ label in early 1991. Songs like ‘Coming On Strong’ ‘Stoned Again’ and ‘Reviewing the Situation’ all caught what was described at the time as the ‘Neo Mod scene’. 

For me, it was multi cultural, jazz tinged and clobber obsessed and I was a card-carrying member. 

Anyway, back to Brighton. I was down there with a couple of pals and it’s fair to say we had a couple of lemonades and a fancy woodbine by the time the band hit the stage. 

They were fantastic live and seemed to be having far too much fun up there as we were in the crowd. For a reason, which now escapes me, I thought it would be a good idea to get on stage with them and rattle a tambourine, which I did all the time standing next to Mick Talbot, performing keyboard duties on the night. I have since apologised to him.

When I clambered back to my two pals on the night, they had somehow lost my coat, along with all my puffs, my return train ticket and the key to our B&B. Where we slept and how we got back is lost in those days of no responsibility, but needless to say we managed it and we ended up going to see them the following night at The Fridge in Brixton. 

Such days.

The band went onto release the album ‘A Joyful Noise Unto The Creator’ in ’92, which contained belting tunes such as ‘Totally Together’, ‘Skunk Funk’ ‘Jus Reach’ and the majestic ‘Prince of Peace’ with Carleen Anderson and Valerie Etienne adding to the mix with some fine vocal work.

1994 saw ‘The Plot Thickens’ with ‘Twyford Down’ the standout track for me and then ‘Galliano : 4’ released in 1996.  In honesty, I had lost touch with it all by then though. 

Fair to say, over the years commercial success had all but evaded them, but for a while, Galliano were the sound track of my tiny world and I thank them sincerely for that.

Peace. Out.

The Mumper of SE5