Nine Below Zero
Album: Don't Point The Finger/Third Degree
Label: A&M
Tracks: 12+16/11+10
Website: http://www.ninebelowzero.com

Ah the heady days of the early 80's. Punk rock had flowered and a burgeoning pub rock scene was all the rage.

No more so than in South London where one band - named after a Sonny Boy Williamson song - started off down a musical track that lasts until this day.

Every Christmas for as long as I can remember Nine Below Zero have put on a show at the wonderful Ripley Blues Club in North Yorkshire. And every Christmas the show is sold out.

The audience know they are going to get a real good injection of rhythm and blues and Nine Below don't let them down.

So here we have two reissues from 1981 with some tasty extras - Don't Point Your Finger - the band's first studio album - and Third Degree.

Don't Point comes with a bonus disc of a live gig in Bristol in October 1981 which catches the band on really on fire with that heady mix of guitar, drums and blues harp.

Third Degree is very interesting. We are given the chance to hear the recordings the band did with the legendary producer Glyn Johns - and subsequently dumped by the record company - alongside the second recording done with rookie producer Simon Boswell, which was put out.

Anyone who has seen the band will recognise many of the song featured here as they are still being performed today. Point Your Finger includes great tracks such as Three Times Enough, the bluesy Sugar Mama, and a really rocking Rockin' Robin.

Third Degree features songs such as 11+11, Sugarbeat and Wipe Away Your Kiss. The alternative Glyn Johns album, which is slightly more mellow than the Boswell recording, features a song I first heard on a Ry Cooder album, Why Don't You Try Me Tonight.

Two great albums that should be in any R &B fan's collection.

John Knighton