Brimful of Asha

What do Phoenix Nights, Balsall Heath, electronic dance music and corner shops have in common?

The answer is an Indian singer who is rarely seen on screen but who is acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most recorded artist in music history. 

She has many admirers. Her name is Asha Bosle.

A Consummate Crooner

In Phoenix Nights - the fictional nightclub created by Peter Kay, Dave Spikey AKA ‘Jerry St Clair’ sings ‘Brimful of Asha’ a cover of the 1998 hit song by Cornershop. This is a deliberately cringe-worthy send up of a night-club singer. 

Mr St Clair has obviously been given the early-evening spot before the main act - mercifully before the carpet gets really sticky. Silver-suited Jerry puts all his best moves into it.

Phoenix Nights - Brimful of Asha (Jerry St Claire) - You Tube 

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Cornershop are a British indie rock band formed by Wolverhampton-born Tjinder Singh, his brother Avtar, David Chambers and Ben Ayres. The name of the band, Cornershop was also chosen as an ironic reference to a stereotype – and at the same time a tribute to all the South Asian migrants who opened convenience stores on the corner of many streets. Cornershop: Brimful of Asha   

The title of the track refers to the Indian singer Asha Bosle. In the enthusiastic response to the record few people knew what the title Brimful of Asha - meant. 

Picture of Asha Bosle in 2011

She is an Indian playback singer with a career spanning over eight decades receiving multiple accolades. 

A playback singer records for the soundtracks of Bollywood films and the film actors then mime the words and the editors lip-sync the songs. 

Asha was born on 8 September 1933 and started her career as a playback singer at the age of 10. As well as Hindi, she has sung in over 20 Indian and foreign languages. In an interview in 2006, Bhosle said that she had recorded over twelve thousand songs in her career.  

A still from the film Yaadon Ki Baraat

New Delhi to Balsall Heath

Another tribute to Asha Bosle was made by Bally Sagoo who was born in New Delhi in 1964 and brought up in Balsall Heath, Birmingham. Bally (Baljit)’s father Saminder Sagoo ran a record shop in the 1970s, after playing in his own band ‘The Musafirs’ in the late 1960s.

In his teens, Baljit was friends with kids from the various migrant communities of Balsall Heath and developed a taste for reggae, R&B, soul and disco. Before the age of 10 he was using the HiFi at home to make mix tapes.

‘I had my bedroom named ‘Curry Wood Studios’

He went on to DJ in Birmingham’s clubs becoming  a major international record, film and TV producer.

In 1994 he produced the album ‘Bollywood Flashback’. The track Chura Liya * was a huge success. Asha Bosle's wonderful voice can be heard soaring over the great orchestral dub introduction.

Chura Liya: Bally Sagoo - You Tube

 It was play-listed on Radio 1 making Bally Sagoo the first Indian artist on mainstream British radio.

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Balsall Heath was the musical home of another ground breaking band – UB40.  

UB40 arrive at the 'Peaky Blinders'
premier in Birmingham

In an interview with the BBC in 2018, the UB40 vocalist Ali Campbell said

I  lived in Balsall Heath in South Birmingham which was a predominantly immigrant area. The first
generation of Windrush kids were all my friends, and I grew up with Indian and Jamaican friends. So the music of the streets was Indian music, which I love—Mohammad Rafi and Asha Bhosle and all that—and reggae.

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Note *

"Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko"(That You’ve Stolen This Heart") is an Indian Hindi song from the 1973 Bollywood film Yaadon Ki Baraat. It was sung by Asha Bhosle and Mohammad Rafi. The song was performed in the film by Vijay Arora and Zeenat Aman. It was written by Majrooh Sultanpuri and composed by R. D. Burman.