VA - Get on the Right Track: Mod R&B, Jazz & Ska (2014)

Compiled and annotated by Lois Wilson (Mojo, Record Collector), Get On The Right Track brings together 90 magnificent recordings, mostly R&B, but with a smattering of jazz and ska, which reflect what mods would have been enjoying on the early to mid sixties club scene. When Jamaican born Duke Vin, a former DJ on Tom The Great Sebastian s Beat Street System, set up his own system in 1955, he got the place jumping. The sound system was like nothing London had witnessed before. It was loud, exciting and had no curfew. Duke Vin inspired Count Suckle, another Ladbroke Grove resident, who set up a rival system and the pair soundtracked the first generation West Indians blues parties with a playlist of US R&B 45s. Club Eleven and the Flamingo attracted newly settled Jamaicans too. Out of these clubs and sound systems, mod grew. These mods were defined by their impeccable music taste and their smart clobber. They would dance their nights away at the Scene, to records spun by Guy Stevens, the UK Sue label manager and one of mod s main pivots. They also frequented the Marquee and Count Suckle s Roaring Twenties. The first two discs on Get On The Right Track collect together the R&B, blues, soul, jazz and ska singles you would have heard at such clubs. Disc 3, meanwhile, captures the sounds from the same period (many of which were unreleased in the UK at the time) that light up the mod scene today. Get On The Right Track has been carefully compiled to avoid track overlap with Fantastic Voyage s previous mod collection Boogie Chillen, and is also available as a 2LP vinyl collector s edition, featuring 32 of the most sought-after tracks and a colour insert.