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Vinyl LP version also available directly from the label at www.whatmusic.com Soho, London, in the late 80Õs was a hotbed of specialist record stores and small time dealers à the Ôbag menÕ who would carry around a record bag full of rarities and move from shop to coffee house meeting up with buyers, sellers, and anyone who shared their huge passion for music. The archetypal London of the swinging sixties and sexually ambiguous seventies had given way to a money orientated materialism across the capital, but in Soho, the music lovers were unaffected and to fuel their passion, turned to the exotic and real rhythms of Brasil and the rich Jazz sounds from all corners of the world. There were all sorts of colourful characters there in soho, the dodgy dealers that would swear this £150 record was the last they had, and a huge rarity, despite the fact they had another 40 of them round the back. There were the travellers, who would trek off to Brazil and take buses down long dusty roads to distant towns to find the most sought-after titles and bring them back, often on-demand, to the dealers in Soho. There were the passionate customers, who would rather buy a record than eat if they were down to their last funds. There were the shop-owners, who often had to rely on the Dealers to tell them what to buy. There were the DJs who would be the first to buy a new discovery, playing it on the dancefloor until everybody wanted one. There were the merely curious, who hung around just because they loved being in the buzz and the excitement, and of course there were the foreigners, who came to Soho from the four corners of the earth, who mixed and mingled with the locals and who made Soho such an exciting place to be. The most famous of the record dealers by the mid 90Õs was a man named John Cooper. While everyone else would have record bags full of £10 or £20 vinyls, John could always be counted on to have a £500 or £1,000 record of near mythical proportions in his. He was looked up to like a God by the other dealers, and there was always a buzz when he opened his bag. John was and is, a walking encyclopaedia. If you give him the name of the most rare title you know, he can tell you the musicians, the catalogue number, how many times it was repressed, by who and in what years, which tracks were on which edition and every other album each musician played on. This is before he starts talking to you with huge passion about the music itself. John was one of the first to take it a step further, track down the original license owner and repress 1,000 copies which he would sell privately to his contacts. It was at this stage that one of his nomadic wanderers who brought records back from Brazil, named Gary, and his friend James, a classy designer with a head for business, had an idea to turn JohnÕs business into a famous global brand. They sold John on the idea and between them they set up whatmusic, now all they needed was the money. Fronted by GaryÕs passionate and enthusiastic endorsement of the team, they found me, and my name is Charlie. I raised the money to start things going and set up the business. For two years we grew and expanded, suffering the usual small business crises of cash, production problems, but our most interesting difficulties were with the fulfilment companies we paying to pack and ship our products. The most amusing story was a time when a customer in America rang up to let us know that someone in the warehouse had peeled back the cellophane and written on the corner of one of the vinyl albums: Òlet me out of here!Ó. IÕm not sure what became of them, but we changed warehouse supplier pretty fast! Check out the artist's website: http://Whatmusic.com Track List: 1. Open Sky Unit 2. Crumblin'cookie 3. Valerie (only the Melody) 4. Madame Pela Umburgo 5. What Is This Thing Called Love ? 6. Taboo 7. Papuera 8. Feel Like Making Love 9. Agora E Minha Vez 10. Coisa No.10 11. Rei Do Kilombo 12. Batendo a Porta 13. Fibra 14. Samba Vocalizado 15. Palmas No Portao 16. Sambossa 17. Vera Cruz 18. Surra 7 19. Correnteza 20. Merengue En Copa 21. E Samba Suggested CDs:
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