A cover version this morning, and a mighty fine one too, if I might say so.
I know sod all about the artiste, so I figured I’d do a little research, but managed to find out very little. I can tell you that this is from Seconds, her 2005 album of cover versions, that she’s the cousin of Grand Central Records‘ head Mark Rae and that she appeared on several Grand Central acts’ records, incluing Aim’s Cold Water Music.
There are four other albums by her, none of which I own, so I can’t recommend them I’m afraid. What I would say is that if they’re as good as Seconds, they’ll be worth a listen.
So instead of any useful information, let’s head to the anecdote-ometer, give it a spin and see what it comes up with.
Spin! Spin! Spin! The Wheel of Anecdotes! See how fast the bastard turns! (Yes I have nicked/adapted that from Vic and Bob.)
Many years ago, I used to run a video rental shop in the Canton area of Cardiff. One of the lads I was given to manage was a charming, erudite chap called Matt. Matt was a dashingly good looking chap, shaved red hair and a chiselled jawline to die for. He loved your World Cinema, and since my knowledge of this huge category pretty much began and ended at Delicatessan and Betty Blue (both of which I had to buy for the shop – along with a copy of Withnail and I – as it didn’t already own them. I know, incredible, right?) I was happy to have him along.
His surname was Rogers, by the way. In case you were wondering what the link is.
Canton is fairly close to the Llandaff and Pontcanna areas of Cardiff, both renowned for being inhabited by your arty types – the BBC Wales HQ was just up the road. And every now and then, one of those arty types would wander into our store, and that’s where Matt came in: he was the lion to their cut-off-from-the-pack gazelle. He was supposed to drag them to the small but humble World Cinema section, and devour the £1.00 nightly rental fee from them.
What he generally ended up doing was chatting to them for hours about films we didn’t have, before half-heartedly trying to get them to rent a copy of Cool Runnings, which they never did because he’d reminded them that they hadn’t watched La Dolce Vita or Through a Glass Darkly or Jamón Jamón or whatever – films we didn’t stock – for ages, and they had their own copy at home already.
One day he came into work and asked if he could see the rota for the week, which, fortuitously, I had just finished. To indicate who was working when, I would simply write their initials over their shift – nobody had the same initials, so there could be no misunderstanding.
We looked at the rota together.
“Jez,” said Matt. “I can’t see my initials on here anywhere. Do I have the week off…..?”
I wrestled the rota from him: “No you’re definitely on here, look….”
I pointed at where I had entered his initals.
“That says GR, Jez. My initials are MR. Who’s this GR chap who seems to have all my shifts….?”
And then I realised the hilarious trick that my subconsciousness had played on me.
“Erm….GR is Ginger Rogers…..” I offered, sheepishly.
Two minutes later, it had been agreed that he would do the shifts he preferred all week, and in return he wouldn’t report me to senior management.
Anyway, here’s Kate Rogers being a Pixie:
Kate Rogers – Here Comes Your Man
More soon.
A History of Dubious Taste 