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Sunday, 3 May 2015

Smokey Robinson: Hold On to Your Love

Track of the week - w/e 3 May 2015

Most weeks this feature will include records that I am fond of but because of the nature of this 'moment in time' idea there will be occasions when it won't. This is one of them. This song is awful. So why have I chosen it? I'll explain...

I've been working my way through some old cassette tapes in my car on my journey into work over the past year or so. Some are pre-recorded albums, some mix-tapes that I or old friends have made and some are more of a mystery.

This tape didn't have a card sleeve with it and the paper strip stuck to the cassette itself just said 'All worth listening to' in handwriting I didn't recognise. I pushed the tape into the deck and it started to play...

It was a recording of a radio show, the DJ identified it as the now-defunct GWR station and played this dreadful 'new Smokey Robinson single'. It was at the end of the song when things got weird. It was dedicated to me! For my 21st birthday! That very day!

No one who knew me would want this song played for me unless it was some sort of joke. I suspect the DJ had a request to play something and just chose this mess.



Surely the Smokey Robinson who sang The Tracks of My Tears, I Second That Emotion and The Tears of a Clown couldn't be proud of this horror. (It failed to make the US or UK top 100 - deservedly so.)

The rest of the cassette was a series of interviews from people involved in Swindon Town Football Club at the time. Recorded in January 1986 (or thereabouts) it charted the rise from fourth from bottom to the top of the table in the season they would go on to win the fourth division with a record number of points. (I was a 'staunch' fan at the time - that's what the DJ said!)

The interviewer was my friend Michael's father (it must have been Michael's writing on the tape). In the course of his reporting on the 'Town' he took us with him on various away trips. In a poignant coincidence he passed away recently so I'll dedicate this to Chris. (Sorry if you never liked this song.)

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