Singles, Bass and a Barbershop...

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Dandy - The Operation b/w A Little More Ska


    The joy of the 7" single is now pretty much the sole province of collectors and those of us old enough to have bought the things in our youth. My first ever record was The Yardbirds 'Shapes of Things' featuring Jeff Beck on guitar, bought when I was still at junior school. Many, many singles went into the old party tapes down the Green, not least the one in the picture - Dandy's The Operation and it's obverse (or reverse, I think it was a double-A-side,) A Little More Ska. Prior to our discovering Roots and Dub, Ska was the main squeeze and a feature of Birmingham, specifically Winson Green and Handsworth, life.
    In todays' convoluted email conversation, the hallowed name of Dyke came up. The man in our street with a system. Dyke ran a weekly shebeen at a barber shop on the corner of Winson Street and Dudley Road and his sound system was a thing of joy - sonic bliss, courtesy of about half-a-dozen 18" bass bins and a similar number of 12" Tannoy Dual-Concentrics for top and midrange; the amps large, powerful and valve-driven. Proper, visceral bass coupled with a sweet top-end and a dialled-back midrange so as not to offend the ears. He was an artist and like pretty much all good systems, his was home-cooked and hand-built. Hats off to the memory of the man.

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