Craig Charles’ 8 Tracks Of Not All Strictly Funk

Music

Craig Charles is a busy man, that should be no suprise to anybody, he's just finished a ten year stint on Coronation Street as affable cabbie Lloyd Mullaney in order to resume his role as David Lister on science fiction series Red Dwarf (and he used to do Robot Wars! I Love Robot Wars! – Ciaran). In preparation for the new series of the cult comedy, Craig Charles has been gargling salt, brushing up his dulcit scouse tones and setting about a Daniel Day-Lewis level endeavour of getting into character. He's been down the shops in the manner of David Lister, sweeping the leaves off his driveway in the manner of David Lister and even performing his Funk and Soul DJ sets at Manchester's Band on the Wall in full David Lister get up. He could not be more dedicated to his craft. So it is with enormous gratitude that we here at R$N Towers can say that we've been given a selection of Craig Charles' very best records to play out and about. Unfortunately, busy as he is, he couldn't provide us with any accompanying text to explain what the track means to him. That's OK, we doesn't mind. In fact, we've decided to save him the job. We're going to explain what Craig Charles' 8 tracks mean to us instead. It's going to be an emotional journey.

First up, there was no video available for this one so we're going to have to make do with a Soundcloud embed. If you wanted it otherwise Craig, you would have sent us a video as well as witty captions!

This one goes out to anyone in possession of one of those posters they sell at university freshers' fairs, with the big Bob Marley made out of loads of tiny photos of Bob Marley. How did they do that? For anyone who's ever wondered that, this one is for you!

It isn't just the original version of Could You Be Loved though, it's the Smoove version, backed with a punchy breakbeat and layered with Craig's honey dripping voice, ad-libbing original radio DJ fare. We couldn't find a YouTube for this so it's straight from his radio show.

For us, this track means a first year in halls bonding with strangers over how best to cover up the smoke detector in your bedroom while you completely fail to turn up to lectures pre-1pm.

See The Craig Charles Funk & Soul Club at Motion on Saturday 18th July – find out more here.

LISTEN

Zapp & Roger - More Bounce To The Ounce

Like a classic hook from Snoop Dogg’s Doggy Style, this is the kind of track to make you want to dress up in one of those fancy dress shop pimp outfits, with the purple velvet flared suit and a shoddy plastic cane (even though it’s a Halloween party, you dick, that just isn’t a scary outfit!).

It reminds us of Halloween.

Zapp & Roger - More Bounce To The Ounce

Like a classic hook from Snoop Dogg’s Doggy Style, this is the kind of track to make you want to dress up in one of those fancy dress shop pimp outfits, with the purple velvet flared suit and a shoddy plastic cane (even though it’s a Halloween party, you dick, that just isn’t a scary outfit!).

It reminds us of Halloween.
Parliament - P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up) (1975)

Parliament, the legendary cosmic group that gave this world the insane bass licks of Bootsy Collins and the zany, soulful ramblings of George Clinton. It’s pretty wild. It feels like aural penetration. “Doing it to you in your earhole” is what this track is doing, if weren’t too clear on that.
Clarence Carter - Snatching It Back

Clarence Carter… well what can we say about Clarence Carter? How about instead of talking we just dance? Shimmy…

It’s got that bright, 1960s Atlantic sound- all brass stabs and runaway pianos, soulful, impassioned vocals singing kind of generic things about love that give more than a mood than any meaning. Let’s boogie!
Wilson Pickett - Land Of 1000 Dances [Full Version] [Hq Audio]

So this is a song about all the different dances you can do (16 in total), it’s also got the ‘na na na na nas’ that you might recognise from Ini Kamoze’s ‘Here Come The Hotsteppers’. It’s lively and makes you want to jive.

The backing trumpets go “batman!” throughout. This makes us happy.
Georgie Fame - Papa's Got A Brand New Bags

Woah Georgie Fame, look at you and your naked string trio! Did they even play on this track! No, they did not. This is of course a cover of the James Brown song, about the time his dad came home with a new rucksack. Right? We would like to swing you (Craig Charles) round the dancefloor to this.
Redd Hott - Big Fat Bottom (Funk)

Don’t let it be said that we keep things tame at R$N, not with a song title like this! This is some more funk from a band called Redd Hott. Clearly Craig was doing a fair bit of crate digging when he found this groovy gem. If you’ve listened to a funk record before, you’ll get the gist of what happens in this one pretty early on. Still, we’re happy that someone paid attention to our large behinds at last.
Pete Rodriguez - I Like It Like That

Let the latin rhythms sweep you away to another time, another decade, Maybe thinking the setting of Dirty Dancing 2 with Diego Lunar, but I bet you’re not thinking that. That’s OK. I bet Craig wasn’t thinking about that either. You might know this music from the idents used at the Odeon cinema between the years 1998 and 2003 (you were trying to place where you knew it from, weren’t you! You cheeky thing, you).

We don’t write much about salsa but maybe all that could change… Maybe…