Robbie Vincent talks to Soul Survivors

Our very own Robbie Vincent chatted to Fitzroy of The Soul Survivors Magazine recently about his early career, catchphrases, Donald Byrd, Maze, Emperor Rosko, the Jazz-Funk Mastercuts, the Funk Mafia and much more.

Here’s an edited extract. To find out more about The Soul Survivors Magazine, become a member and read the full interview with Robbie, go to the Soul Survivors website.

And Robbie will be hosting the annual Soul Survivors Awards in London on Saturday 22nd October – click here for more details.

Fitzroy: You joined the news room at BBC radio in the early 1970s and hosted one of the earliest phone-in shows, including one at the time of the miners’ strike. What’s this story I read of you playing Slade and Rod Stewart pop songs and in the last half hour incorporating imported black music recorded off air from Emperor Rosko’s show two minutes prior?

Robbie: It wasn’t quite like that but it is true that amongst the general pop stuff, Rosko was the master and got the good exclusives as that was the shape of his Saturday show. It was one of the popular, musically-exciting things on Radio 1 and I used to record his exclusives and play them a few minutes later. The black music was ‘softly-softly-catchy-monkey’ in those days and people running local radio often had little idea of anything contemporary whether it be fashion, food or music. I gradually and slowly learnt the job, bearing in mind I was appalling beyond belief and unimaginably bad in my presentation. I was very corny and inexperienced, but then no one really listened to local radio and I broadcast to a very small platform so it didn’t matter too much. I was able to learn what to do and improve on the job and I think I was very lucky.

Fitzroy: There were many tongue-in-cheek catchphrases being used in the early days like ‘May The Funk be With You’, inspired by ‘Star Wars’ of course. But the most unpolitically-correct innuendo has to be ‘If It Moves, Funk It’ – how did you get away with that?

Robbie: I think it originated from a listener who wrote in and inspired it… How did I get away with it? I never thought of it as anything else. It’s only people with dirty minds that thought it meant anything else but that, being the clean-living boy that I was and still am!

Fitzroy: How did you view the integration of different cultures in that early part of soul history, amalgamating to create the ‘one nation under a groove’ family and unite at a time when racism was rife?

Robbie: My phone-in show helped here as I suffered a lot of abuse and would not tolerate racism or bigots, who at times have similarities. I’m very proud to have stood up to those views and the great uniter is music, which is a common language universally. It was exposing people to a lot of great music that gave great joy and there was the black and white element. Music over the years has been shown to unite evermore and will continue to do more. Does that make sense?

Fitzroy: Yeah. I was one of those coming from an Afro-Caribbean background who remember the racist door policies in the ‘70s and early ‘80s.

Robbie: Tell me about it; don’t forget I grew up in an era where Tamla Motown didn’t put their artist photographs on the cover sleeves because they were black and they worried they might alienate a white audience. This is an often missed point and an utter disgrace that an artist of colour couldn’t be on the front cover because they were black… It’s appalling… We should hang our heads in shame.

Fitzroy: Speaking with Chris Hill, he confirms that you’d seen an 18/30s event and the long serving Caister phenomenon was spawned. You seem to be quite a private person and take a back seat in the main flow of things, but remain a humble instigator who doesn’t need to boast – in fact, your fans seem to do that for you. It’s quite genius really, so between me and you, how much do you secretly pay everyone to sing your praises?

Robbie: LOL! I’m embarrassed and embarrassingly flattered by it, because I am a very private person. Caister was my idea and had I not had the idea there would not be a Caister. I took it to the right people and it had the right support and grew. I never expected it to be still going after 100 years with ageing people in bath chairs hobbling about on stage and playing the same things… It’s quite extraordinary.

Fitzroy: You are noted for introducing us to the Japanese jazz world like Boy Katindig’s ‘Whatever Happens To The Love’ and Hiroshi Fukumura’s ‘Hunt Up Wind’ via your Fusion 40. What made you capitalise on such a specialist market genre of music that resulted years later in you doing the ‘Mastercuts Classic Jazz-Funk Volume 6′?

Robbie: There was no accessible jazz on the radio anywhere and I didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing. I liked finding things that excited me and sharing them with people who had the same enthusiasm. It was different and good, it really was, and not until you stop doing it do you realise how appreciated it was as it was never really said at the time. The ‘Jap Jazz Mastercuts’ album was done by Jeff Young who was my protege and did the show when I was unable to.

Fitzroy: Not only was I introduced to music from you via the radio, I remember a fave compilation that I picked up, ‘Fantasy Dancin’, with all the Fantasy catalogue including Johnny Guitar Watson’s ‘I Don’t Wanna Be A Lone Ranger’, Arthur Blythe’s ‘Beale Street’ and Side Effects’ ‘Keep That Same Old Feeling’. I must commend you on your sleeve notes and in particular what you wrote about the multi-talented Donald Byrd. You met in the mid 1970s and stated that he ‘out cooled’ Fonzie and that he was one of your all time favourite musicians… why?

Robbie: Apart from being a thoroughly nice person and a great artist, he had a great team around him and in black music terms he incorporated jazz and soul more than a lot of jazz musicians which made him important. Majorities do not come from minorities as it takes time to build and Donald Byrd was very much a part of that building scene that a lot of people came along to enjoy. What I liked was the jazz music police’s reaction to a great jazz musician making dance music and in their horror rushing to the loft to listen to an old 78 for themselves to recover from the shock of people dancing to jazz!

Fitzroy: Anna from Soul Survivors, aka The Duchess of Kent, remembers vividly going to see you at Flicks in Dartford – what’s your memory of that?

Robbie: Great and extraordinary times to be doing that on a Thursday night and for it to be rammed like it was. It was tough doing it and then having to get up in the morning to do a morning talk show but it was fun with so many people coming out on a Thursday to hear great music.

Fitzroy: How instrumental were you in bringing Maze to the UK?

Robbie: In a way I was and in another I wasn’t; they were coming over and I was very excited to see a top flight act and everything that black music had in a way that’s about fun lyrics, great music and great players. I was genuinely enthusiastic for Maze to be exposed to as many people as possible. It was a brilliant idea for Asgard to bring them over as part of their European tour. I had no idea there was a huge appetite for Maze to appear live. I gave exclusive details of the gig as I was the first source for the masses to find out and delivering the news, which showed how hungry people were to see such a class act.

Fitzroy: Your other claim to fame was your no-nonsense approach on your legendary LBC talk shows. Many a mouth was left open with your impromptu cutting callers off the phone and embarrassing them like a child with their hands caught in the candy bowl. I think people rang just to tell their friends they were humiliated by Robbie Vincent! How much fun was that to have a show with no comeuppance from the management that revolutionised phone-in radio shows?

Robbie: It was all very controlled and you couldn’t lose your temper. I didn’t get a free ride as there were boundaries to stay within. There were a number of complaints where only one was upheld and a minor one at that. I remember it was a nurse complaining about us giving aid to the starving people in Biafra, which was a horrendous situation. I asked her how many babies she’d seen dying on the pavements of Streatham and she should know better. I don’t know why it was upheld but I didn’t really care and thought it absurd that a caring person would question that. I never deliberately humiliated anyone but tease them I did. I liked eating bigots and spitting them out.

Fitzroy: There are many people, who, even though it was totally illegal, still have hundreds of tapes of your historical archive shows, amiably transferring them onto new technology format as they are that precious. I reckon Christie’s would make at tidy sum for those on auction. Do you ever listen to some of the old shows and then think back and understand why that phenomenon happened?

Robbie: It is quite spooky and even playing new music on Jazz FM I’m still getting the same response. The cassette thing is interesting as the times I’ve been told that people are more concerned about the tapes of my shows that went with the cars that have been broken into or stolen and it never ceases to amaze me. I was contacted by a guy in Italy who said a friend of his has a cassette of my show and plays it at full blast. Anyway, someone stole the car and the owner is beside himself with grief and has gone into mourning for about a year.

Fitzroy: Chris Hill said the Mafia idea came from a promoter remark and reference to collective organised rhyme syndicate you were all part of. However, he much preferred to be the Consigliere than the Godfather he was championed as. He also acknowledged that it divided some into thinking this was some honorary DJ gents club. Clearly you and Greg Edwards were initiated with your individual and combined radio audience, but what was your concept of the Funk Mafia?

Robbie: It’s very simple and it was consumer protection. Sounds like a grand title but I would not personally work anywhere that I felt that the music enthusiasts were either taken advantage of or went to places where you wouldn’t want to be because of the surroundings. If you went to one of our gigs, you knew there would be a certain standard and there are things we wouldn’t tolerate for a variety of personal reasons. We were guilty from time to time of playing in places that we bitterly regretted and that was due to some promoters were not able to fulfill what we expected – for instance, decent sound systems.

Fitzroy: There are huge testaments on the net to both you and Greg Edwards on various forums including Youtube for the musical education and you clearly inspired opening of doors for future legal and pirate station shows and presenters of black music. The younger generation have no concept of why they have what they have now. Back in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, the accessibility to black music was literally less than five prominent weekly shows a week totalling less than 10 hours. Today it’s 24/7 and you couldn’t possibly imagine 30-plus years later that Kiss, Jazz, Choice FM would grow out of that, could you?

Robbie: That’s what made the scene so exciting as it was pioneering. The people who danced and were enthusiastic about the music made me very proud to be part of it. Because people were so passionate… It had to grow and remember the young black musicians were inspired by their brothers in America. You didn’t have to become a boxer – you just learned an instrument. It was so infectious and had to spread and it was inevitable that the music back then would be integral to popular music today.

Fitzroy: I’ve never seen you DJ live.

Robbie: I’d have to say you’re lucky and I have to say that anyone who’s never seen me DJ is blessed from a higher being.

Fitzroy: Chris Hill said he loved the clubs and hated the radio. Which do you prefer and what was the difference in how the audience responded?

Robbie: The radio by far. Chris is a natural live performer who is more comfortable on stage as I am more comfortable on radio. There are plenty who multitask but I’m better at one rather than the other.

Fitzroy: What did you make of the jazz-fusion scene and how it dominated the dance floor?

Robbie: The jazz dancers were absolutely outstanding and I used to love it as a consumer and be privileged to see such wonderful dancers.

Fitzroy: You’ve recently returned back to Jazz FM from recuperating from your illness and many are pleased to see ya back on your feet. How are you finding returning back to what has been a driving force career in your life?

Robbie: Health wise, I’m feeling a lot better and have had fantastic support from Jazz FM and particularly Jeff Young who stepped in for me. Mike Vitti has supported me and been very caring and the messages of support from the audience were very genuinely humbling and I’m grateful to them. The day when I don’t find a new track inspiring that I want to share with everyone is when I’m either dead or I jack it all in.

Fitzroy: Anna raised an interesting point that in some ways you have been seen as important as some of the musical artists we have interviewed because you touched so many people’s lives, not just in London but around the world with tapes of your shows being sent here there and everywhere. You have been since day one a very popular candidate to be interviewed, so thanks for doing this Robbie, and for agreeing to host our Award night on 22nd October 2011.

Robbie: Thanks, Fitzroy.