Rio Rock

What this episode covers

In it’s heyday-the late 70’s/early 80’s there was no better place for your musical education than Kensington Market! -in terms of fashion and style it was very diverse- and not surprisingly the music reflected this too. -Each stall would have its own music policy- which was often an extension/reflection of the clothes they sold.    Doug an Paul had a stall on the first floor of Kensington Market in the early 80’s called ‘Rio Rock’ selling a mix of old an original 50’s style clothes. -They sold a lot of pegged trousers then, similar to a couple of other, bigger stalls like ‘Johnsons’ an ‘Rock a Cha’ who were on the same floor, just around the corner- but each had their own style an a slightly different take on things…. P. Doug had been into ‘Acme Attractions’ down the Kings Road, a few years earlier, I think they were probably a big influence on us. We were both ex-punks so I know we wanted to push the rock ‘n roll/rockabilly thing a little further. Neither of us had any training in fashion, we just knew what we liked- We were always interested in lookin for the fabrics that were a little different/unusual- stripes, checks, patterns-whatever. We had a great pair of ‘sunset pegs, which glowed bright orange an yellow- changin colour when you moved. We used to get a lot of our fabric from a shop down Brick Lane. We also had a fantastic bright blue an pink tonic type fabric, which also changed colour as you moved your legs- the singer from the Polecats bought a pair-great for stage wear. MUSIC. P. I remember when I was around 13/14  buying a few rock ‘n roll records from Woolworth’s in the town centre- Little Richard, Jerry Lee an Bill Haley- it was all vinyl then. It changed a bit later on in the shop-it got more diverse, but originally we played a lot of Rockabilly an Rock ‘n Roll- We had a couple a really fantastic tapes- made up by a friend of ours from Benfleet called Woody that we use to play a lot at the time- which was mostly Rockabilly stuff- though actually we were more into Doowop an R’nB ourselves. -I use to go to the little shop around the corner (in Ken Mkt), whenever things were a bit quiet, I think it was called ‘Chicken Shack’? (it rocks it rolls it swings!) to look thru the 7”. I picked up a few other 7”/ep’s- esp the ‘jivers’ from a few of the rockin events/clubs we used to go to at the time. We were also into a lot a the 40’s big band stuff like Glen Miller an the Andrews Sisters – probably an influence from the days at the Goldmine? An I also had a couple of Al Jolsen 10” I’d inherited from my Dad’s collection. 1.gene Vincent & the blue caps-pretty pretty baby 2.the penguins-aint gonna cry no more 3.warren smith-ubangi stomp 4.otis Williams & the charms-two hearts 5.vernon green & the medallions-buick 59 6,Johnny carrol-hot rock 7.sanford clark-the fool 8.the five satins-in the still of the night 9.the cadillacs-my girlfriend 10.the treniers-go go go 11.joe clay-sixteen chicks 12.benny joy-little red book 13.fats domino-the big beat 14.the penguins-love will make a mind go wild 15.billy lee riley-red hot 16.the del Vikings-down in Bermuda 17.king curtis-the honeydripper 18.freddie bell & the bellboys-hey there you 19.johnny burnette trio-please don’t leave 20.ronnie self-big fool 21.the channels-the closer you are 22.the five satins-words of my heart (inst) 23.don woody-barking up the wrong tree 24.the squadronaires-right now, right now 25.vernon green & the medallions-volvo 59 26.boyd Bennett-my boy flat top 27.dale Hawkins-little pig 28.the jive five-my true story 29.the Shangri-las-remember(walkin’in the sand) 30.al jolsen & the Andrew sisters-way down yonder in new Orleans 31.elvis presley-blue moon.   Runnin time-1.15ish the slippery1. Extra’s- If you worked/had a stall in Kensington Market and would like to compile/put together a playlist – please contact us at drop the biscuit. thanx.

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