Soul II Soul Club Classics Vol I – 30 Years On & Still a Classic

Hard to believe I know, but Club Classics Volume One by Soul II Soul is 30 years old this week! Released in April 1989 its still a landmark album for British soul and R&B today. From the opening funky beat of ‘Keep On Movin’ through to the closing ‘Jazzies Groove’ it impresses.

Soul II Soul was the baby of Jazzie B (formerly known as Beresford Romeo) born in the UK of Antiquan parents. He started the embryonic Soul II Soul with mate Philip “Daddae” Harvey after leaving school. They were modelled on the Jamaican mobile DJ/dub crews and started to get hired for gigs in the mid-eighties. In 1985 a misunderstanding and a fight with Bristol’s “Wild Bunch” who had hired Soul II Soul for a party in London ended up with the Wild Bunch’s Nellee Hooper joining Soul II Soul. Successful club nights followed in rapid succession and resulted in the guys being signed to 10 Records who were a subsidiary of Virgin. Their first singles ‘Fairplay’ and ‘Feel Free’ reached as high as Number 63 in the Top 100 and set the formula for their future.

Club Classics Volume I 
The next single was the great ‘Keep On Movin’’ which opens the album. It was released ahead of the album and reached the Top 5 setting the standard for a whole genre of UK smooth soul. It was a club and pop classic with the most recognisable drum track ever. It sounded American - but it wasn’t! It moved UK black music truly into the mainstream. There was an obvious Chic influence but hey, there’s nothing wrong with learning from the masters. Caron Wheeler’s vocal, Hooper’s production (especially the piano and strings parts) all made ‘Keep On Movin’’ one of the album’s standout tracks.

The other truly great track on the album is ‘Back To Life’. The track got to Number One and was fully deserved.   On the album though it was the original a cappella version rather than the single version. For me this made it even more special. When the drums do eventually kick in they lead very nicely into ‘Jazzie’s Groove’ a track that really epitimised the era, with it’s James Brown style beat and the stabs of horn it was appropriate to not only close the album but the Eighties too, setting a new benchmark for the UK nineties soul and R&B sound that influenced heavily the likes of Jamiroquai, Lisa Stansfield, The Chimes and Massive Attack.

Of the other tracks, ‘Fairplay’ moves you into a grittier, urgent sound especially the feral, funky vocals of Rose Windross. ‘Holdin’ On’ with its message was clearly influenced by Gil Scott Heron. ‘African Dance’ brought African sounds to a Chicago House beat which along with ‘Dance’ has a breeze of chilled-out beats and flutes making the album truly feel like a new dawn for UK soul.

Club Classics Volume I is still a peerless summer soundtrack, which truly provided a blueprint for how things could be done. It was a huge international hit but it was also probably the pinnacle of what Soul II Soul achieved. Wheeler soon left to go solo,  Jazzie B soldiered on, to varying degrees of success, but was always a formidable presence in British black music. Hooper left to have further success with Massive Attack. There were more Soul II Soul albums up to 1997 but none reached the heights of that debut.

A True Classic
Hearing Club Classics Vol One today still takes you right back to the vibrancy, excitement and possibilities of the coming nineties decade. It might be 30 years old now but it hasn’t really aged. Go dig your old copy out now and enjoy it all over again I say.