I had vaguely heard of the Duke Special a few months ago – there was a rather fab track called Brixton Leaves on a free CD. I liked it, still do, but it had joined that ever-growing pile of great bands I must buy.
Then over the last 48 hours, there were two things that raised my attention – firstly, there is a free 5 track ep available for download at his site which included a cover of ‘Stumble and Fall’ by Radiohead, and then an e-mail (record company sent but anyway) saying that his latest release, the single ‘Freewheel’ was hovering around the edge of the Top 40, so could we go and buy it?
Well, I’d got stuff for free, liked what I heard and a few glasses of wine down thought ‘Why Not?’ I was not disappointed, and nor will you be. With his dreadlocks, he reminds me of a member of Scritti Politti circa ’79, but he could and should be joining Mika into the charts. If you buy the ep, you get a gorgeous cover of ‘Drink To Me Only with Thine Eyes’ recorded with Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy.
what are you waiting for?