Nicks` Cabinet of Curios

Jama was a UK-based reggae record label.  De Koningh and Griffiths in their book Tighten Up ; The History of Reggae in the UK quote singer Pat Rhoden as saying that the label was begun by himself, Tito Simon and Earl Martin, the reason being that the two labels he had previously been working with, Pama and Trojan, were not recording new material at that time.  It`s said that Jama was short for Jamaica. I have always wondered if the idea was to create something that could easily be mistaken for the output of the longer-established Pama, but that`s just speculation on my part. Jama was active in the `70s and early `80s. The parent company was Jama Music and there were two or three subsidiaries, Eagle, Love and (I think) Wolf.  I have read that Earl Martin dropped out of the company later, to be replaced by Les Foster. However, that`s just from memory and I`ve not been able to check that*.  The top disc is one of Pat Rhoden`s own singles, Sweet ...

T E B Clarke - Murder at Buckingham Palace - Hale - 1981 This is the book I`m reading at the moment. Thomas Ernest Bennett Clarke, known by the nickname Tibby, was a prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction but is probably best remembered as a screenplay writer (The Blue Lamp, Passport to Pimlico, The Lavender Hill Mob and more). He is known for writing crime fiction novels disguised to seem like works of non-fiction, Murder at Buckingham Palace being a case in point. In fact, the disguise is pretty thin and I cannot imagine anyone reading this without realising it is a novel.  While I haven`t finished it yet it is thoroughly enjoyable and I`m giving serious thought to trying some of his other books.   

The Ringer (1953) A film I saw yesterday for the first time.  This is one of three films with this title, all based on an Edgar Wallace novel of the same name.   The earlier film versions are from 1928 and 1931. Another version of the same story was released in 1938 as The Gaunt Stranger, known as The Phantom Strikes in the US. Personally, my taste usually runs to a relatively short B movie, but this intriguing film with a very accomplished cast made for a good couple of hours viewing. 

Thorwald - The Marks of Cain - T&H - 1965 Another addition to my book collection, a very interesting book on the history of fingerprinting and ballistics, aimed at the general reader.  I`ve not made much progress with it yet as I was part-way through another book when it arrived. However, I`m enjoying what I`ve read so far.  Much of the contents are covered elsewhere - Vidocq, Bertillon, the history of Scotland Yard - but it is quite wide-ranging and some of the cases etc discussed are not so well-known, or not known to  me at any rate.  Mine is the UK first edition, published a year later than the original German edition, but wasn`t especially expensive. 

Rain ; The Best of Bruce Ruffin 1967-71  - Trojan CDTRL449 2001 I only bought this album recently, and there`s a reason for that. Given the title , I assumed it would be basically a re-issue of BR`s Rain album, which I already have, plus maybe a couple of bonus tracks. This impression was re-inforced by the use of a badly-cropped version of the cover illustration from that album on the front.  In fact, only some of the tracks appear from Rain appear on this, and what you get is 27 tracks featuring most phases of his career - solo tracks, The Techniques, The Shades, Pat and Bruce, Tyrone and Bruce, Winston and The Shades. There is nothing here from his band Chain Reaction - I must admit I`m quite glad about that as for some reason I can`t get on with their stuff !   With such a comprehensive collection, my only quibbles are rather minor - I personally would have included Make Love Not War, for instance.  What we get here is the essence of Bru...

Just finished watching this fascinating and very watchable 1940s wartime murder mystery movie.  I won`t be writing a review as it`s been a long day, but I will post a link for anyone wanting to watch the film in the very near future (possibly later this evening).