| Lord Upminster | ||||
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| Studio album by Ian Dury | ||||
| Released | EUSeptember 1981 USNovember 1981 CDDecember 1989 JP 25th July 2007 |
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| Recorded | April - May 1981, Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 36:04 | |||
| Label | Polydor | |||
| Producer | Chas Jankel, Steven Stanley, Ian Dury | |||
| Ian Dury chronology | ||||
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
Lord Upminster is a 1981 solo album by Ian Dury. It was his first record for Polydor Records and was recorded in The Bahamas with his old writing partner Chas Jankel and the famous reggae duo Sly and Robbie.
Lord Upminster was re-issued on CD in the UK, but it is currently out of print and arguably harder to find than the original vinyl LP itself. A recent CD re-issue was released in Japan.
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Island Records' Chris Blackwell suggested that Dury and Chas Jankel, who had returned from America and temporarily buried the hatchet with Ian Dury fly to Nassau and record with Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, the duo who were renowned as both reggae musicians and producers, and were also on Island Records.
However, Dury and Jankel were greatly unprepared and without enough material for a new album, so they wrote much of the album either on the plane or at their destination. The final album was 8 tracks long, and both of them were ultimately disappointed with it.
While recording the album Dury and Jankel were mobbed by Jamaican band Smokey, who mistook a line from his hit "Reasons To be Cheerful, Part 3" to be about them. The reference to "sing-alonga Smokey" was actually about Smokey Robinson. Dury politely agreed to listen to their new album while his co-writer sneaked away.
One of the songs, "Spasticus (Autisticus)", proved to be controversial. 1981 was the official "Year Of The Disabled", a notion Dury thought was ludicrous and patronising (he was disabled himself by Poliomyelitis he caught at Southend-on-Sea as a child). On his BBC Documentary On My Life Dury mentioned plans to tour the country with a band named 'Spastic & The Autistics' until a friend (Ed Spieght, who had played on Dury's seminal New Boots and Panties!! LP) suggested the name 'Spasticus' bastardising the name of the freed slave Spartacus. Despite accusations of courting controversy, "Spasticus (Austisticus)" was released as a single (August 1981) and was banned with an odd ban that only covered the period before 6pm. The single's chart success was nil but "Spasticus" was to remain in Ian Dury's set until his death, even after other raucous songs like "Plaistow Patricia" and "Blockheads" were dropped.
Beside Spasticus, another noteworthy track appears on the album; "Girls (Watching)" is the only officially released cover version Ian Dury recorded, it was written by Sly Dunbar. However MP3s of Dury, performing The Stranglers single "Peaches" and "Bear Cage" live, along with Hazel O'Connor and members of The Stranglers can be found on some download services. As well as being found on two Stranglers live albums And Then There was Three and Stranglers and Friends both CDs are of the same gig, when Hugh Cornwell was in prison, various artists including Dury took turns to sing.
Lord Upminster was a commercial failure and received lacklustre reviews from critics and Dury himself later admitted that the only track he would listen to again was Spasticus. Chas Jankel was a little kinder and continues to praise "Lonely (Town)" as an underrated gem on the album. "The (Body Song)" and "Funky Disco (Pops)" are the tracks most currently selected for greatest hits compilations (along with "Spasticus").
All tracks are by Ian Dury and Chas Jankel unless otherwise stated.
Note : the original US release re-arranged the running order of the tracks as follows :
Some compilations mistakenly do not put parts of the song titles in brackets (especially "Spasticus"), it is a 'theme' of the titles on the album and all of them do have words in brackets as shown above.
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