I'm really into how Gerd Janson is starting to use Running Back, as well as releasing the bangers, to also (re)release the music that sits closely to his heart. Gerd knows house. We kind of need to put that at the top of this review. He really knows the good stuff and one sound he particularly loves is often specifically related to the sound of Zanzibar and Tony Humphries.

As a stop off here's Frank Tope with a tale about his trip to Club Zanzibar, which was pretty rare for someone from the UK to visit.

[Editors note - it's actually quite hard to find pictures of the club itself so the below picture is from a fancy dress party held at Zanzibar from photographer Vincent Bryant.]

"I had, like a lot of people in London, been to see Tony Humphries at Danny Rampling's party in Wembley in the summer. I was a massive fan of him. Dave Lee had done his 'Garage New York' album back in '88 with all those Blaze records and I really wanted to go to Humphries club Zanzibar. So, I went to New York, it was my first time there, and met my girlfriend at the time and some people she worked with at an advertising agency and went for a drink.

They were asking. "What are you doing tonight?" We told them, "We're going to Newark to go to this club" and their faces were aghast. I think to them, it's like if an American came to London and when asked the same question said, "I'm going to Chelmsford, to go to a nightclub." They thought we were mental. So we had to get a Greyhound bus to Newark, and then the Zanzibar is kind of in, was in, a sort of motel / casino complex. It was pretty shady.

So we got down there and my girlfriend had sort of rang them up and told them we were from The Face magazine and that we were there to write about the club. So we got in on the guest list, and we were in this bar and they was a guy playing the classics. 'The Mexican', 'It's Just Begun', that sort of thing. There were a few Latino kids breakdancing and we were sat in there for a very long time, like a couple of hours, just trying to sort of nurse our drinks. Eventually I was like, 'this is taking forever' and went up to ask the DJ when it was really going to get going. And he was like, 'Oh it already is. It's going upstairs.'

I go from this quite kind of, Brilliant Corners size bar, which was a bit empty with a few breakdancers, up some stairs, and there's like an enormous warehouse space for a couple of thousand people and, 'oh shit', it's absolutely packed. It was Tony Humphries birthday, He came on just after midnight and he turns everything off on the EQ apart from just the high hats and the whole crowd is singing "Happy birthday Tony. Happy birthday."

When he played in Wembley, he was very slick in the mix, really good, I think it's on SoundCloud now, but in his sort of home territory he was definitely a bit more eclectic. Kind of more rough and ready EQ style. Like a lot more exciting. So anyway it was fantastic. We were there until about 6 a.m and met a lot of people. I started chatting to this woman who turned out to be Ceybil of 'Love So Special'. 'Oh, wow, I've got your record'.

She told us about the Shelter, Timmy Regisford's club, which had just opened so went there. It was great too. I also remember chatting to two guys by the doors of Zanzibar who were saying not to get a taxi as they were often crack dealers. Not sure if that was true but we ended up going to Newark Station and having to step over loads of homeless people to get the train back in to New York. For someone who was scared to go to Labyrinth in Dalston it definitely felt way out of my comfort zone. But you know, if just felt like you were a part of something completely different from your normal kind of clubbing / musical life. It was just great."

Anyway, back to the record in hand. Professor Supercool is Dr Rob of The Blow Monkeys and this record is produced alongside veteran, and legendary DJ of the Northern Soul scene, The Real Hector who used to DJ at The Wag and more. It's brilliant mid-tempo house music and was originally made to promo a new Blow Monkeys album. UK DJs such as Graeme Park got behind it but it also reached the hands of the aforementioned Tony Humphries. The vocal is nice but you know, the dub might steal it as that's the one the heads want. Gerd Jansen also supplies a mix which sits perfectly in between the vocal and the dub with tight vocal breaks and drops and a "light touch slightly more now" production. It's a top record.

Professor Supercool is available to buy at the Running Back Bandcamp and to read more on Club Zanzibar head to this brilliant piece by Bruce Tantum for Red Bull. Cub Zanzibar costume party photo by Vincent Bryant.