I’d like to think that with this title Smoove & Turrell were paying homage to their local boozer. The Crown Posada is, after all, a Victorian pub nestled beneath the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle. It was originally named simply The Crown until, sometime in the 19th-century, an owner with a wife from Spain decided to add the word Posada, the Spanish for hostelry, to the name. There is also a fine hostelry named The Posada in Wolverhampton. Here’s to fine hostelries everywhere.

But back to this album…if you cast your mind back to the end of September last year you may recall a very short blog post I wrote about Hot Chocolate’s album “Man To Man” and the only reason I owned it being for the track “You Could've Been A Lady” which I knew in a version by…ta-daaa…Smoove & Turrell. That very song is the first track on “Crown Posada”. Its a proper dancefloor banger and I was almost disappointed when I realised it was a cover.

More of the same, I like it. They end on another belter “New Jerusalem”…”And we built this pleasant land by workers and their hands, Now it crumbles oh how it crumbles just for their greed”…

You Could've Been A Lady - https://youtu.be/Dq3Ag5KTS6E?si=bor3LbUbEAjUuGdV

Smoove & Turrell never veer far from what they do (think of them as the AC/DC of danceable grooves) so these pieces about their records are likely to be short (lulling you into a sense of security for some monsters on the horizon).

This is music I don’t have to think about too hard for the most part. Infectious grooves, pleasant songs and a great singer is all  I need at times. That’s not to say Smoove & Turrell have nothing to say. While many of their songs are boy/girl out dancing at the weekend affairs the title track here looks at the affect other people’s wars have on those that have to fight them (“Queens and countries need their little boys, Playing with their lives like their latest toys”) and back on their first album “Beggarman” had some political points to make too. If you can make a point and have people dance to it you’re on to a winner. 

The album ends on a proper “end of the night” arms around your mates singalong, “Now Or Never” opening with the line “Your face it stood out like a bombed out house on the terrace”. Have a listen, just down there…

Now Or Never - https://youtu.be/OgfjeBLNi3g?si=f-hksdros2O4MSp5

Right then, back to the alphabet after Saturdays excursion in to D...we're back at Sm which means...

Smoove or DJ Smoove, aka Jonathan Scott Watson, is a DJ and remixer from the North East who had made a couple of albums for Acid Jazz Records. I first came across Smoove via a song called “Left Right And Centre”. The song had been written by Paul Weller in his mid teens and in 2006 Acid Jazz released a single by Lord Large, a recording of Weller’s song and a couple of remixes. Lord Large turned out to feature New York Italian singer Dean Parrish (who Northern Soul fans will know for songs like “I’m On My Way”, “Determination” and “Bricks, Broken Bottles And Sticks”) and one of the remixes I liked was by this fella Smoove. So I dug a bit deeper and found an album called “Gravy: Remixes & Rarities” by Smoove which featured a fantastic cover of the Spencer Davis Group song “I’m A Man” credited to  Dan Roberts (a 7” copy of which cost me a tidy sum some years later) and now I was really interested in this Smoove fella. The next thing I discovered was that Smoove was a part of something called Smoove & Turrell. I found their tracks “Hammond” and “Beggarman” online and quickly ascertained their sound was very much like the Dan Roberts single and here we are with a copy of Smoove & Turrells debut album “Antique Soul”

Smoove had chanced across singer John Turrell after hearing him rehearsing with his band in a garage in the house next door to a keyboard player he was working with. After a couple more sessions scouting him through the walls they knocked on his door and hit it off straight away. Smoove & Turrell was born. Smoove & Turrell is a band, they are real musicians and not just a DJ/Remixers backing tracks with a live singer. They play a concoction of Soul, Funk, Northern Soul and Hip Hop that they dubbed ‘Northern Funk’ or sometimes the much better description of ‘Northern Coal Music’.

This is pure dance music, aimed firmly at the feet and not the head. The grooves are infectious and Turrell is a great soulful singer, if at times you could easily mistake him for Paul Weller. Highlights are the previously noted singles “Hammond” and “Beggarman”, the barnstorming “I Can't Give You Up” and a great cover of Yazoo’s “Don’t Go”. 

No deep dissection or philosophical rumination on the nature of this album will be entered into here. This is dance music pure and simple, that’s why I like it, pure and simple.

Hammond - https://youtu.be/5wF_c69NT-M?si=YO3Cxw5AyhbX7YQj