A shocking state of affairs, I think you'll agree, would be the best description for the inconsiderate lack of fresh posts hereabouts in the Kitchen. What can I say? Well, for a start, I can say hello in sixteen languages, but that's still not gonna placate the dear readers who crave more scraps than have fallen from the table of late. There's no excuse...oh, wait, yes, there is. I've been busy, touring the country (OK, I lie, I only went to Joburg for a gig) and playing shitloads of dates (Ok, I lie, it was only a helluva lot) at clubs, pubs and backyards up and down the eThekwini Metro.

What can I say? It's been a beautifully mild winter down this way on the right hand coast of darkest South Africa, I've had lots of good books to read and there's always an endless list of important lunch dates with folks who need someone to finish off the leftovers. Oh - and I work.

In any case, we'll try to make more of an effort in future, and to make up for the lack of goodness flowing from this particular neck of the hoods, here's a fine ditty put together by none other than that old charmer, crooner and shaker of the voodoo stick singer man, who was, it's true, loonier than a sack of Ghanaian Squirrel Rats after a weeks' float down the Niger, the one and only Mr Screaming Jay Hawkins. Go on, then. Fill 'er up.

Screaming Jay Hawkins - Africa Gone Funky.mp3