Kalita are happy to release the first ever reissue of Stirling March’s 1985 Bahamian 12″ boogie grail ‘Under Cover Lover’. With original copies painfully hard to find and commanding eye-wateringly high prices, we believe the time is ripe to share this masterpiece with the world once more, accompanied by never-before-seen photos and interview-based liner notes.
Falling in love with music at an early age, Stirling listened religiously on the radio to both soul and disco greats, as well as to contemporary pop and rock musicians including Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5 and Elton John. By the age of twenty-one he decided release his own record in an attempt to demonstrate to the Bahamian music industry his own ability, and in the hope that it would help him launch his musical career. Written over the space of just a few hours, the result was ‘Under Cover Lover’. A sun-kissed Caribbean boogie track, Stirling explains that “this was the first song the I had written that I felt was good enough in its arrangement to put to tape”.
Kalita are honoured to release the first ever compilation focusing on the musical career of Julie Coker, the queen of Nigerian television. Here we collate seven of Julie’s most sought-after Afro disco and hauntingly-beautiful Itsekiri highlife recordings, accompanied by extensive interview-based liner notes and never-before seen photos. Available both as a gatefold LP as well as a CD with booklet.
After gaining fame as Miss Western Nigeria 1957, Julie began her career in the Nigerian entertainment industry as the country’s first ever (and Africa’s second) female television presenter, as well as a popular national radio host.
