Get your back up off the wall

Do you wanna get down?

Alongside the likes of the much-missed Baroness Betty Boothroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Paul "Crocodile Dundee" Hogan, Albert Roux, Chevy Chase, Johnny Ramone, Rev Jesse Jackson, Ray Reardon, Ardal "Father Dougal" O'Hanlon (who is 60), Matt Damon (55), Bruno Mars (40), Sadiq-fucking-Khan, Bill "Selwyn Froggitt" Maynard, Ursula von der Leyen and - erm - King Zog I of Albania...

...it's the 75th birthday today of one Robert "Kool" Bell!

By way of a celebration - and no, it's not their hit of that name - here he is with his gang [of which he is the only surviving founder member], and my fave number of theirs:

Kool & The Gang - Get Down On It

Faboo!

Fresh and lovely

Yayyy! It's almost the weekend!

Let's take a mini-timeslip, dear reader, back 40 years to December 1984. In the headlines: heavy snow causing disruption up and down the country, the Bhopal disaster, the future of Hong Kong signed away in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the privatisation of British Telecom, and of course Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas?. In our cinemas: Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Dune. On telly: Dallas, The Box of Delights and the last ever series of Crackerjack!

I had only just come out, and I remember the charts of the time like it was yesterday. Frankie Goes to Hollywood's third mega-hit The Power of Love was at #1, and in its wake were Jim Diamond, Nik Kershaw, Eurythmics, Our Glorious Leader Madonna, Limahl, Paul McCartney, Chaka Khan, Shakin'-bloody-Stevens, and (erm) Alvin Stardust.

Among the meld, however, were those ever-reliable purveyors of party choons Kool & The Gang with this catchy number - Thank Disco It's Friday!

Kool & The Gang - Fresh

[Could the video be more 80s if it tried?!]

Have a great weekend, folks!

So bring your good times and your laughter too

Another busy week draws to a close and, true to form after a beautiful sunny and warm week, it's gone quite gloomy and grey out there. The garden is inches deep in leaves, so I hope it doesn't rain before we have had a chance to get them swept up and into bin bags.

Never mind all that for the moment - we have a tradition to keep up to welcome in another much-needed weekend - a Celebration indeed! Albeit with a "McClintock twist"...

Thank Disco Mash-ups It's Friday!

Van Hagar & the Gang - Celebrate Both Worlds [McClintock mash-up: Van Halen - Best of Both Worlds vs Kool & the Gang - Celebration]

Have a great weekend, dear reader!

Missin' several angels

Go, girl! *

It's the final, final countdown - not merely the end of a week, but the end of a year!

Having depressed everyone yesterday by opening the "Book of the Dead 2021", it's time to (sort of) make amends - with a party. We shan't be hosting a real one again this year, more's the pity, thanks to fucking Omicron ["our gang" will be gathering via Zoom/Teams/wotever instead] - but let's get some dance choons lined up for a (solitary) boogie nonetheless!

Every track on this playlist is from someone who has departed for the ever-growing dancefloors of Fabulon this year - so let's raise a glass to the memory of each and every one of 'em, and Thank Disco It's New Year's Eve Friday!!

Tavares - Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel

The Supremes - You're My Drivin' Wheel

Patrick Juvet - I Love America

Kool & The Gang - Celebration

The Gap Band - Oops Upside Your Head

Eartha Kitt & Bronski Beat - Cha Cha Heels

Baccara - Yes Sir, I Can Boogie [Starparade 02.06.1977]

Raffaella Carrà - Do It, Do It Again [Top of the Pops 27-04-1978]

Have a faboo New Year, dear reader! Clink, clink. It can only be better. Can't it?

[* Scary fact: the boy in that classic "meme-y thing" is now 39 and living in Boston]

What you gonna do? You wanna get down?

There's a sunny and warm spell ahead for the UK, dear reader - the much-vaunted "Indian Summer" may well be on its way. True to form, however, it's not predicted to get really hot until - you guessed it - Monday. So I have taken Monday off in readiness! Yay!

But first, let's get things (ahem) warmed up, as is our wont, in anticipation of the forthcoming weekend. Our "gang" will be having another of our Zoom parties to mark The Last Night of the (socially-distanced) Proms tomorrow, and that could get very loud and raucous...

Following the sad news of the death of founder member Mr Ronald Bell earlier this week, what better than a classic funky number from the marvellous Kool & the Gang? Thank Disco It's Friday, and "get down on it", indeed!

Kool & the Gang - Get Down On It

Hey, hey, yeah, what you gonna do? You wanna get down?
Tell me, what you gonna do? Do you wanna get down?
What you gonna do? You wanna get down?
(Get your back up off the wall, dance, come on)
(Get your back up off the wall, dance, come on)

(Get down on it, get down on it)
(Get down on it, get down on it)
Come on and
(Get down on it, get down on it)
(Get down on it, get down on it)

How you gonna do it if you really don't wannna dance
By standing on the wall?
(Get your back up off the wall)
Tell me, how you gonna do it if you really don't wanna dance
By standing on the wall?
(Get your back up off the wall)

'Cause I heard all the people sayin'
(Get down on it)
Come on and
(Get down on it)
If you really want it
(Get down on it)
You gotta feel it
(Get down on it)
Get down on it

Profound.

Have a great weekend, peeps!

I got the boys to make the noise

The end of what has felt like the longest week of my life is in sight - and we have a three-day break to look forward to, including a visit by the Mother to Dolores Delargo Towers. It's predicted to be a hot one, too, so plenty of opportunity to give the extensive gardens some much-needed TLC after the neglect it's had, with the double-whammy of being disrupted by the presence of scaffolding and us being away. It's probably also the last real chance to get some rays on our skin...

I think we're in need of a celebration - and, in the hands of a "mash-up master", an unusual one. Thank - erm - Disco(?) It's Friday!

Kool & the Gang vs Quiet Riot - Bang Your Head (It's a Celebration)

Who'd have thought Heavy Metal could sound so jolly?

Have a good one, dear reader.

Sophisticated mamas

Go, Granny!

A news story that (for once) cheered us up this miserable week:

Two lifelong friends who took a day trip to London to celebrate their upcoming 90th birthdays ended up 200 miles from home - when they got on the wrong train back.

Mollie Muetzel and friend Kathleen Lowndes had enjoyed afternoon tea at the Savoy Hotel when they mistakenly boarded the wrong rush hour train at King's Cross. Instead of heading for Knebworth, Herts, just a 30-minute journey away they got on a non-stop fast service to York.

Mollie, 89, said: "We went past four or five long carriages, all first-class, before eventually getting on. Two young chaps gave up their seats and then soon after the train had departed I heard mention of York.

Mollie and Kathleen

"The man came to us and said 'I'm awfully sorry but we can't stop as it's a fast train'!" The conductor did, however, keep the pair supplied with free teas and cake to make their northbound journey as comfortable as possible. When the Virgin East Coast train arrived at York a member of staff escorted them to a Stevenage-bound train and they finally go home by 10pm after their unexpected four-hour excursion.

The ladies, who have been friends for almost 80 years, said they often go on adventures together, but usually like to plan ahead.

And, as we hurtle ourselves towards the adventure we call "weekend" (complete with dressing-up party for our friend John-John's birthday), there is only one appropriate song to play, really - it's Ladies Night by Kool & The Gang... Thank Disco It's Friday!

Kool & The Gang - Ladies' Night

Girls, y'all got one
A night that's special everywhere
From Knebworth to North Yorkshire
It's ladies' night, and girl the feeling's good

[Well, those should be the lyrics...]

Have a great one...

Get your back up off the wall!

OK, I know I am only in work this week for two days, but those are excruciating enough after the madness of New Year for me to be craving the weekend.

And this weekend, we have our dear chum Jim's 40th birthday to look forward to, so the party continues - especially when we don our funkiest "pimp suits" and Get Down On It as only a room full of dirty bitches can when Kool and the Gang are playing...

As ever - Thank Disco It's Friday!



Have a great one, folks.

And Happy Birthday Jim!!!!!!!!!!

Cole and Boogie

At last, this week drags itself to an end - at times I felt this would never happen...

We're off to the rather swanky Pheasantry in Chelsea tonight to see the venerable actor John Standing (Sir John Ronald Leon Standing, 4th Baronet, no less), performing his one-man tribute to Cole Porter, which should be rather fabulous.

In the meantime, I suggest we all don our afro wigs, our tightest satin trousers and platform shoes and funk along with Kool and the Gang and Jungle Boogie - Thank Disco It's Friday!

Kool & The Gang - Jungle Boogie

Have a great weekend, whatever you do!