06 April 2023

I Need Me a Naffi Sandwich --- Yum!

From the murky, clandestine shadows of Tamworth Street, Earlestown, came a new sound. It rose in the stillness of the dark air & drifted ghost-like towards Market Street. Bemused passers-by breathed it in, the music revitalising their bodies like a breath of fresh air. Stray dogs pricked up their ears & stealthy cats paused to take in the magical sound.

Paul Catchpole (aka Captain Catchpole, aka Bomber McBain) - electronics, drums, & vocalist, Gerry Kenny (aka Freddie Viaduct, aka Minister of Noise) - guitarist & bassist, & Brenda Kenny (aka Polly Rithim, aka Brenda & The Beachballs aka Brenda Ray) - multi-percussionist & vocalist were Naffi or Naffi Sandwich or Naafi Sandwich, depending on which mealtime you caught them, I guess.

Naffi Sandwich derived their name from the Navy, Army, & Air Force Institutes (NAAFI), an organization that provided goods to the British armed forces. A 'Naafi Sandwich' is a sandwich with no filling, just two slices of bread with margarine.

The work the threesome created together reflected the humor suggested by this branding. They tended to indulge in offbeat humour while at the same time striving for homespun expansiveness.

The group came from Earlestown, a small town on the border between Merseyside & Greater Manchester. A sleepy, docile, post-industrial typical English town. They came about through humble beginings... a studio behind an old barber shop. Yet Naffi Sandwich went on to receive coveted plaudits from John Peel, supported Julian Cope on a three night run in Liverpool. They drew rare praise from Nico after she witnessed them play in Manchester during her early 80s tenure in the city.

The Naffi Sandwich crew, particularly core vocalist Brenda Ray, propagated an exuberant DIY pop primitivism that smirked & made strange faces, contorting & disorientating its sound into an ecstatic dazzle of Dub abstraction. What distinguished both Naffi & solo Brenda Ray was an ability to tap into a Dub future as yet unrealised, one that was otherworldly but daft; an interplanetary music brimming with nonsense & absurdity.

The first Naffi Sandwich was Rum 1. (rum one or rummun is a Norfolk [north England] expression meaning strange, odd, different, peculiar. "Tha's a rummun ent it"). It's a fitting title for sounds so skewed. A self-published cassette which bore the doctored image of an armed forces drill sergeant on the cusp of an officiously enacted goose step, this is Naffi Sandwich at their most esoteric, blurring grainy DIY dub & recondite novelty exotica.

On Rum 1, Naffi Sandwich are: Captain Catchpole - drums, fx with melos echo unit, & contact mike; Freddie Viaduct - guitar, bass, & cornett; Polly Rithm - alto saxophone, cabasa, cowbell, guiro,melodica, triangle, vibraslap, bell tree, flageolet, & claves. 

 

Naffi Sandwich - Rum 1 cassette, Naffi Productions rum 1, 1979.
all decryption codes in comments

Side A -
Muvva Dubber
Lee Street Bounce
Uranium Geranium

Side B -
Skank Rank
Hoochie Pooch
& not listed on tape, but included here -
Yum Yum 
 
 
 

The band's first single followed the same year on Manchester's Absurd Records, a place where Naffi's enshrouded Dub mischief would be right at home. After all this was the label that had in the same year put out Gerry & The Holograms - The Emperors New Music.

Naafi Sandwich - Slice 1 / Slice 2 7", Absurd Records ABSURD 8, 1979.

Side A -
Slice 1

Side B -
Slice 2
 
 
 

Fast forward a few years.

Yum Yum Yum Yum Ya was released on the Liverpool ARK label in 1982. Early on in this debut LP  the band present the Naffi misfit manifesto "Krazee Music" suffused with prolonged waves of reverb, delivered with an exaggerated, self-parodic style that seemed to sum up what Naffi had been about all along:
      "Well if you need it baby this is what you gotta do/You gotta let the world know that you're krazee too/Krazee/You got me krazee too/Have a krazee time, playing krazee music for you…"

By the end of the album, they come full circle & end with "Krazee Version", a nod to both their ethos & their love of Dub. 
 
Naffi - Yum Yum Yum Yum Ya, ARK DOVE 1, 1982.

Side 1 -
The Scream
Krazee Music
Space Alligator
More like Beans
Every Day Just Another Dream
Slow Train to Viaductsville
Yummy Yummy Ya
Moroccan Roll

Side 2 -
Ain't No Doubt about It
Take Me in Your Car
Blues for Toxteth
Don't Forget
Moonbeams
I Don't Understand
Krazee Version
 
 
 


Jump to a new Century. 
 
Brenda Ray gone solo. Having held dear to her love of Dub & reggae, Brenda had hooked up with Roy Cousins. Roy had been lead singer of The Royals, who had recorded for Duke Reid, Coxsone Dodd, & Joe Gibbs in their heyday. Roy had produced Prince Far I's final recording (see Spear of the Nation post here.

Cousins later funded his own labels, Tamoki Wambesi & Uhuru. Cousins emigrated to Liverpool in the aftermath of Prince Far I's murder. He set up a record shop in Wavertree by the name of Cousins Cove. Roy was a prominent presence within the Liverpool scene of the time. Roy & Ray inevitably crossed paths. Brenda helped Cousins out with reissues from the Tamoki Wambesi back catalogue. This led directly to Walatta. The two took existing master tapes from the label's vaults, riddims that featured the likes of Scientist (a reimagined "Rejoice for the New Born" in the form of "Dreamin"), Prince Jammy (a reimagined "Negus Dub" in the form of "Another Dream") , or Prince Far-I ("Sweet Sweet Wine" is a touching tribute to Prince Far I, who's gravel-rich 'Voice of Thunder' is integrated into a surprisingly cohesive duet with Ray).

They then reimagined the riddims in typical Naffi style. The results is a curious marriage of tough repurposed Dub & avant-pop that Forced Exposure called "slices of psycho-Dub/doo-wop/jazz-fusion/exotica music"
 
I hope you are ready from some truly special Lover's Rock.
 
 
Brenda Ray - Walatta, Tamoki-Wambesi-Dove TWCD1036, 2006.

Star Light
D.i.z.z.e.e.
Sweet Romance
Sweet Sweet Wine (featuring Prince Far I)
Dreamin'
Lend a Helping Hand
Hearts Entwine
Swirlin' Hearts
Another Dream
Perfect Choice
Please Be Mine Tonight
Everybody's Talking
Love's to Share
Keep on Rollin'
Rollin' Down
Sweet Sweet Wine
Vision-Dreamin'

Enjoy,

17 comments:

  1. Naffi Sandwich - Rum 1
    gLCMFxI3IHDWRib4aysmdP7VG_yx-VboW-rzg4_ltuw
    Naafi Sandwich - Slice 1/Slice 2
    -qF3dl5-dfaujRrkVUL5B2f_AkgCX_oAd_mO4bdgGfg
    Naffi - Yum Yum Yum Yum Ya
    d06G-nUx4hHDfq-GiZdRfPNxX2D0BbASV5M1CESaJz8
    Brenda Ray - Walatta
    b4vzvFDWo1mxn5em1muOovl8uIR4ADHDrfc9h7WgO3w

    ReplyDelete
  2. An intriguing find - never heard of them. Thanks a lot!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anyone looking for some interesting music will be well rewarded with this selection, IMO. Hope you find it worth your time.

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  3. People searching for the missing link between Naffi and On-U Sound should listen the the Brenda & the Beach Balls mini LP "Volume One" : https://www.discogs.com/release/3626508-Brenda-And-The-Beach-Balls-Volume-One
    Thanks a lot for the Naffi galore !!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here's Volume One for anyone so interested.

      Brenda & the Beach Balls - Volume One 12“ 45, Probe Plus PP17T, 1986.

      Side 1 -
      Rain Keeps Falling
      Wait

      Side 2 -
      Every Day Another Dream
      Please Don’t Tell
      Theme from a Tall Dark Stranger

      https://mega.nz/file/etUQlYIL#DTwbQv6Qh6HZle5N5mStZtLfx-EgJFT6AEZvezahcoc

      adrien (de rien?), I'm not really getting the missing link aspect. Illuminate me.

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    2. Look at the thanks on the back cover, thanks to the Fats Comet (AKA Tackhead) and Steve "On the Wire" Barker. And Sir Freddy Viadukt remixed a Lee "Scratch" Perry / On-U Sound track on the compilation "Bugs On the Wire" (https://www.discogs.com/master/1498787-Various-Bugs-On-The-Wire)

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    3. Thanks for the education. I think I have that "Bugs" comp. Gonna dig it out & check it out. Awesome.

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  4. I think I first heard Naffi (and Brenda & The Beach Balls) through Jillem's blog Holland Tunnel Dive, and now HTD is gone... Fanx for the cool sounds, Nafan Nuffin!

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  5. Do you know anything further about HTD? Just temporary cuz of the Zippyshare fiasco & done?

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  6. HTDs demise was a very sad loss, The site has been archived at https://archive.org/details/jillem-full-archive and https://archive.org/details/jillem-full-archive_2 You can download specific zips but it is slow......

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for this further information. Thanks for the links. Will miss HTD dearly.

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  7. Hello, thank you for your great selection.

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  8. Great blog, hadn't visited on a while. These are nice to hear, I've got one or two of Brenda's later releases but up to now had only heard the Naffi Sandwich 1&2 single so cheers for those. Anyone heard Brenda's 'Perfume Of The Soul' album? That's a good one. Bit steep at £14 digital only imo but free to listen on her bandcamp, likewise 'D'Ya Hear Me!: Naffi Years, 1979-1983'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the comment. Definitely some good stuff over at Brenda's bandcamp. Always a good listen. tried to post some earlier stuff not so easy to find.

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  9. I am trying to contact Jerry Kenny, he is an old friend but over the years I have lost contact details. Does anyone have any information.
    Thanks
    Ihaigh@live.co.uk

    ReplyDelete