Starring a young Dennis Waterman (soon to find household fame in The Sweeney and Minder), 1968 film Up The Junction was part of a wave of gritty, realistic ‘kitchen sink dramas’ to enter UK cinemas in the ‘60s. Manfred Mann’s accompanying soundtrack is one of the era’s unsung gems, mixing the melodic nous the group had got under their belt via a string of chart hits with a more downbeat, jazz-influenced take on the baroque psychedelia found on The Zombies’ Odyssey And Oracle the previous year. The title track transplants The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” to a London bedsit, “Walking Around”’s harpsichord-driven chug is a not too distant cousin of The Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home,” while on the instrumental numbers they display some scorching mod jazz chops, honed in their pre-pop days on the capital’s club scene. A far more accurate take on so-called swinging London than the playing dress-up of many of their contemporaries, you can practically hear the soot-stained streets and muddy waters of the Thames here.