I LOVE MY UMBRELLA

"It feels as if this rain will never stop" you say, gazing out at a very damp London and feeling rather like one of the kids at the beginning of The Cat in a Hat.  But I don't mind.  It is public knowledge that I love the Rain and, if we needed any more proof,  Antique Beat are releasing the original version of The Real Tuesday Weld's "I Love the Rain" - on an umbrella.  Yes, you read that right, they are putting out an Ep of the song with brand new music and remixes ON AN UMBRELLA - and it's totally fabulous. Our US friends may know the song from that very nice Chevrolet 'Rainy Day' ad and one of the remixes is by our very swinging friends Bart and Baker - the Parisian Kings of Electro-Swing**. It is toe-tappingly cute. 

So forget about Wet, Wet, Wet (I'm sure you'll be happy to), if you want to be singing - and swinging - in the rain, this is the way to do it. It was partly inspired by Fred Astaire, partly by Paul Newman and Katharine Ross in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  It is 'a love letter to the clouds' and a super stylish shelter from the coming storm.. whatever the weather with you.

And, if you should live somewhere very hot and dry like my Californian friends, what better way to signal your disapproval of those constant blue skies or hide from the oppressive monotony of The Eternal Sunshine? Then again, you could always get the matching T-shirt...

The umbrella is a beautifully made limited edition and can be bought here - just in time for Valentines if you are super quick.

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**Speaking of Electro-Swing, I sometime get asked if I invented it.  It is true that I had been mixing 1930/s jazz with electronic beats right back in the nineties and I suppose "I Love the Rain" may have been the first of the genre. I would be a fibber to say I don't find it nice when people remember that, but the answer to the enquiry is: 'No, I didn't invent Electro Swing' - because we called it 'Antique Beat' - and that means something more - it is where memory and melody meet.

I was, and remain, as much influenced by the sound and by the song as by the swing and have never liked being part of a scene. That is why we created our own.  And that is why when dear Chris Tofu introduces me as 'The Godfather of Electro-Swing"  I always protest: "No, Chris, no, no, I keep telling you - I'm the Fairy Godmother of Electro-Swing.."