"Right Now!/That's What Friends Are For/Closing The Gap" by GEORGIE FAME – April 1979, October 1979 and September 1980 UK Albums on Pye and Piccadilly Records – Guest Musicians included Alan Parker, Bernie Holland, Jim Mullen and Terry Smith on Guitars, Ray Warleigh, Bernie Holland, Steve Gregory, Malcolm Griffiths, Dick Morrissey and Henry Lowther on Horns, Brian Odgers on Bass with Barry Morgan and Henry Spinetti on Drums – Collaboration with Elvis Costello on the Title Song of 'That's What Friends Are For' and Jamaican Reggae Legend Lloyd Charmers on the 1980 album 'Closing The Gap' (September 2024 UK Beat Goes On Records (BGO) Compilation – 3LPs onto 2CDs – Andrew Thompson Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

As you can see from the above BGO website photo

It appears Beat Goes On made an earlier cover which mistakenly places the

'That's What Friends Are For' LP as the first with the 'Right Now!' LP as 2nd

But the Release Date Order of these albums is the other way around 

The physical copy I have shows the correct comp title and running order

See photos below

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thats-What-Friends-Right-Closing/dp/B0D9C3ZD74?crid=1S5EGEJJP30X8&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8ozSMfS2Q59k0C64ZSYMpA.QSWtjOOzJ6YCU5hVeIrBo9vALazUJ7ckqTfOIyaRQyg&dib_tag=se&keywords=5017261215338&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1733336170&sprefix=5017261215338%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-1&linkCode=ll1&tag=mabasreofcdbl-21&linkId=07553fbaa6ae2d2cc220829fc63361e7&language=en_GB&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

RATINGS: 

Music: ***

Audio **** to *****

Presentation *****

"…Warm And Soft As Sin…"

At 82 years of age in 2024 – the mighty Georgie Fame is a five-to-six decades survivor and purveyor of Pop, R&B, Latin, Jazz, Samba, Soul, Funk, Reggae and a few hundred other music genres in-between.

But what you get here in September 2024 is three forgotten LP platters originally on Pye and Piccadilly Records – two from 1979 (April and October) and one from September 1980. Forgotten now (and in some cases for good reason) - you would have to go a very long distance down the biggest dictionary to describe any of them as classic. However, excepting limited and expensive Japanese imports in the 2000s – this trio has been off the British digital radar for almost as many decades as George has been around.

So along comes England's Beat Goes On Records (BGO to you and I) and they have lumped all three into one handy 2CD compilation bundle – remastered the lot to superb results and presented the garish clump to us hipsters in their usual stylish card slipcase and value-for-money manner. To the sins of the past, warm and soft…

UK released Friday, 12 September 2024 - "Right Now!/That's What Friends Are For/Closing The Gap" by GEORGIE FAME on Beat Goes On Records BGOCD1533 (Barcode 5017261215338) is a Compilation with 3LPs Remastered onto 2CDs (April 1979, October 1979 and September 1980). It plays out as follows:

CD1 (80:23 minutes):
1. A Different Dream [Side 1]
2. Funny How Time Slips Away
3. Little Samba
4. I'm In Love With Ya Baby
5. Ollie's Party
6. Eros Hotel 
7. 'Cross A Lazy Afternoon [Side 2]
8. Country Girl
9. Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing
10. Too Shy To Say
11. Zulu
12. Last Song
Tracks 1 to 12 are his 14th Album "Right Now!" – released April 1979 in the UK on Pye Records NSPH 18600 (no US issue). Produced by JAMES PARSONS and KARL JENKINS – it didn't chart.

13. Maybe Tomorrow [Side 1]
14. Lovely Day
15. L. In L.A.
16. You
17. I Don't Care Who I Dance With
18. That's What Friends Are For [Side 2]
19. Don't Hit When I'm Down
20. Sitting In The Park
21. If I Didn't Mean You Well
22. Cat's Eyes
Tracks 13 to 22 are his 15th Album "That's What Friends Are For" – released October 1979 on Pye Records N 119. Produced by GEORGIE FAME and TERRY EVENNETT - didn't chart. Title track written by Elvis Costello, Tracks 14 and 21 are Bill Withers cover versions, Track 20 is a Billy Stewart cover. 

CD2 (43:13 minutes):
1. Give A Little More [Side 1]
2. Run Away With Me
3. I Love Jamaica
4. Eros Hotel
5. Everything I Own [Side 2]
6. Lean On Me
7. Uptight (Everything Is Alright)
8. Bring Back My Love
9. Give A Little More (Dub Version)
Tracks 1 to 9 are his 16th Album "Closing The Gap" – released September 1980 in the UK on Piccadilly N 137 (no US issue). Collaboration with Jamaican Reggae Legend Lloyd Charmers who Produced, Arranged and Conducted across the whole LP. 

The card slipcase for BGOCD1533 is a classy looking item (as all these Beat Goes On reissues are) and houses a 16-page booklet with new CHARLES WARING liner notes on this 'comeback' period in Fame's career. The front and rear artwork is there as are the musician credits - Guest Musicians like Alan Parker, Bernie Holland, Jim Mullen and Terry Smith on Guitars, Ray Warleigh, Bernie Holland, Steve Gregory, Malcolm Griffiths, Dick Morrissey and Henry Lowther on Horns, Brian Odgers on Bass with Barry Morgan and Henry Spinetti on Drums. 

There's a collaboration with Elvis Costello on the Title Song of 'That's What Friends Are For' (Fame commissioned him specifically to do so - the first artist to ask Costello to do this) and Jamaican Reggae Legend Lloyd Charmers Arranged, Produced and Conducted the 1980 album 'Closing The Gap'. Waring does a brief prenup on Fame's illustrious Sixties to early Seventies musical career (up to the 'Georgie Fame' album for Island in 1975 and the aborted 1976 LP 'Daylight') before going into a deep dive on all three LPs. Long-time Beat Goes On Audio Engineer ANDREW THOMPSON has done the Remasters from original tapes and the transfers are uniformly brilliant even when the material is seriously dated and letting the side down. 

Released into a Disco and Soul and Punk and New Wave world in April 1979 - Georgie Fame's "Right Now!" feels out-of-place to the landscape - even if a good few tunes are how own compositions. The Willie Nelson ballad classic "Funny How Time Slips Away" and two Stevie Wonder Motown Funks - "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" and "Too Shy To Say" - get Famed but not in any particularly great way. The side 1 ender is probably the best offering here - "Eros Hotel" - a six-minute strings and melody London-love epic that feels adventurous and accomplished - Fame doing the music to the poetry of Fran Landesman. 

The second 1979 platter 'That's What Friends Are For' LP opens with an attempt at hitsville - "Maybe Tomorrow" trying hard but again feeling like Gilbert O'Sullivan going Pop - just not in a good way. And like every other songster on the late Seventies scene - Georgie was digging Bill Withers big-time. Bill's gorgeous "Lovely Day" and the softer "If I Didn't Mean You Well" both getting excellent GF makeovers that don't very too far from the Soulful originals. Another highlight is Fame's cover of the 60ts Billy Stewart R&B classic "Sitting In The Park". But overall, you end the LP listen with too few thrills and too many fills. 

All CD2 takes up the third offering - a Georgie Fame nine-track collaborative album with Jamaican Reggae Legend Lloyd Charmers on the September 1980 LP "Closing The Gap". Right from the Chalmers opener "Give A Little More" you are aware of the Aswad-sounding Reggae Pop vibe - high production values on the brass, girly answer vocals and in-the-pocket rhythm. But George's vocal trying to ape Bob Marley grates a little and has not dated well at all. Songwriter Charmers also contributed "Run Away With Me", "I Love Jamaica" and "Bring Back My Love". Cover versions include Bread and Ken Booth's "Everything I Own", Bill Withers ballad "Lean On Me" and Stevie Wonder's 60ts Motown hit "Uptight (Everything Is Alright)". Don't know if I like the reggae-fied version of "Eros Hotel" (appeared to great effect on the "Right Now!" LP. The production values are gorgeous - but this is not The Clash doing Reggae and Georgie doesn't cut it. 

In the end it's all too easy to hear why none of these forgotten albums charted and why they are forgotten. Fans will love this September 2024 Georgie Fame 2CD compilation "Right On!/That's What Friends Are For/Closing The Gap" it - great presentation and top-quality audio - but anyone else needs a listen first...