If you ever shuffled your feet and swung your butt on a dance-floor in the 1970s and 80s, it's a near certainty that, at some point in the evening, you were dancing to The Fatback Band (or Fatback as they later became known). Between 1973 and 1983, their music constantly ignited the dance floor crowds and consistently charted in the US R&B (and, occasionally, pop) charts and the UK Top 40.The concept of Bill Curtis, Fatback took their name from the influential 60s 'fatback' jazz beat of New Orleans music. Their first three albums and singles were made for the Perception label and featured Gerry Thomas on keyboards (Gerry has been with the band for the longest time after Curtis). The band's move to the Spring/Event labels resulted in sixteen albums and twenty-five charting singles, the biggest US chartwise being Backstrokin', Gotta Get My Hands On Some (Money) and I LIke Girls (No.s 3, 6 and 9, respectively), though in the UK, the ones that mattered most were the ones that possessed the most staying power. Yum Yum Gimme Some, Night Fever and Double Dutch all made the UK Top 40 but (Do The) Spanish Hustle actually reached the Top 10 in 1976 and (Are You Ready) Do The Bus Stop the Top 20.
The group's funky instrumentation, "live" feel and the vocal energy of their performances made Fatback a club DJs "must" so, with that in mind, Southbound are not only reissuing the great Fatback singles on CD but also bringing together, on a vinyl LP "6 Twelves", six great extended versions, ripe again for the club-minded. Among them are the near-seven minute disco version of Night Fever, previously unissued extended versions of Master Booty and Double Dutch, the UK only remix of 80s dance anthem I Found Lovin', a promotional only mix of The Girl Is Fine (Part 2) and a near-nine minute version of Is This The Future?The sum total of all this is musical ecstasy with some of the most incendiary dance grooves ever assembled from the 1970s and 80s. So...(Are You Ready)...?