WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE?
A biography by Alan Light and published by Canongate Books.
The music of Nina Simone, born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, is known to everyone, although it wasn’t until the likes of ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’ and ‘Ain’t Got No/I Got Life’ were used for advertising Chanel No.5 and Müller yogurts respectively, that many awoke to the music of the woman who reluctantly accepted the title of the ‘High Priestess of Soul’.
Having taken to the piano at a very young a
Various Artists - Harmony Of The Soul Vocal Groups 1962-1977 – CDKEND 409
This is the fourth instalment of Kent’s “In Perfect Harmony” Series, which concentrates on the sweeter side of group soul spanning the length and breadth of America, highlighting lesser known artists as well as including higher profile acts like; The Pretenders, Brothers Of Soul, Bobby Moore & The Rhythm Aces and The Mad Lads. The CD contains 24 tracks of which, nine are previously unreleased (including two demo’
They Danced All Night - Gethro Jones - ISBN 9781523393183
This is a very personal history. One which focuses on the lifestyle that became known as Northern Soul.
It’s quite hard doing a review of a biography without giving the whole story away really, so I’m just going to do a quick synopsis of how the story goes, and throw in why I found it so interesting.
Gethro’s story starts with a couple of very sad and heart wrenching chapters about how grim his life was, thrown into the
BOOK REVIEW ‘ANYONE WHO HAD A HEART - MY LIFE IN MUSIC’ : BURT BACHARACH
Like many on here, I enjoy reading a good soul music related book. Lots are great but many are a real disappointment. Too many artists gloss over the detailed information of their recorded work as they feel cheated / let down by the labels they were signed to. Many music related books fall outside the boundaries of what appeals to me, dealing mainly with none soul related matters. One such book was the biography
This Is Clarence Carter / The Dynamic Clarence Carter And More - Kent CDKEND 444
Lovers of Southern Soul have been spoilt by Ace/Kent Records the last few years with the releases covering genre and in particular the World-renowned Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals, Fame. You have had to be lost in the deepest darkest Amazon not to have seen or heard these fantastic compilations.
The latest features the rich deep soulful voice of Clarence Carter and in particular his first two LPs that
It took me many years to track down this guy, but eventually I was sitting with him on Detroit’s East Side. Over a ten year period I had been down several blind alleys looking for Tyrone Edwards and Tyrone Pickens, the name he wrote under. But his story starts as one half of the singing duet Tony & Tyrone, who built up a strong reputation around the Detroit city clubs as a lively stage act with undoubted singing skills. Early on they became close friends of Carolyn & Aretha Franklin, who
The Post Wigan Years By Karl ‘Chalky’ White
Much has been written about the Northern Soul scene up to the demise of The Wigan Casino, but very little has actually been written about what followed. For many, the scene died when Wigan Casino closed its doors for the final time. These same people would perversely discover that the scene was far from dead and that a hard-core crowd had continued to keep the flame burning and in the process, had taken the scene back underground with an aggress
THE ANN SEXTON STORY Compiled by David and Val Box 2015
With a lot of help from Ann Sexton, Brendan Greaves and Jason Perlmutter
Ann Sexton was born Mary Ann Sexton, on 6th February, 1950, in Greenville, South Carolina. She was raised by a family influenced by gospel music. As a child, Ann sang in her church choir and spent her adolescent and teenage years singing in school and winning talent shows.
On Ann’s first recorded cut, in her home town in 1966, she is the youthfu
This Soul Map of Scotland is a tribute to Shotts Northern Soul All-niters held at Allanton Miners Welfare Hall Lanarkshire from 1987-1991. Founded by Jim O’Hara, Brian Welsh (RIP) and John Nielson.
The Road/Journey is integral to Northern Soul. I thought a map could convey that pilgrimage. We used to join the Aberdeen crew when their bus came down from up North on route to Shotts, the bus was packed and smoky with Northern blaring through coach speaker’s with the
The Uk Vibe website has a must visit lengthy and photo heavy article just up. The title 'The Art of Ian Clark' should have you already right clicking and opening in a new window, but if you are still here and not convinced here's a brief preview of what you be getting..
A Soothing ‘Slow Moody Black n Bluesy’ Art Direction by Ian Clark Image taken at a Reggae night in West Ealing sourced from Pictorial Press, Described by Ady Croasdell as ‘The Mona Lisa of Soul Music’ Due to th
Manchester Embraces a Son Of The Windy City At Long Last!
By Dave Moore
Once again New Century Soul is about to warm the cockles of Manchester’s winter hearts! Another fantastic year is to be rounded off once again in style! This time with the first ever appearance in UK of one of Chicago’s iconic voices…
The voice that would grind out some of Chicago’s great urban bluesy soul songs o
Not too long to go now till the 1st of August for the 10th Anniversary Cream Cracker. I have also decided that the 21st of Novembers Charity Cream Cracker in aid of Scotties Little Soldiers will be the last Cream Cracker. I wasnt going to mention this until nearer the date as I didn't want the usual "He's only doing this to get bums on seats and then it'll be back on next year", but Pete Lyster said I should, so I am. I have been thinking about this for around 18 months. To be honest there's jus
A TALE OF TWO DITTYS. I'm very much aware that ditty is not the correct word, but it allowed me a literary reference, just to remind me the following is just the usual Sunday morning wibble. If it helps sing the words as you read them, or hum if your vocal abilities resemble my own. The title refers to 2 reviews of last night's outing. The first is for the busy, 'White Rabbit' types who undoubtedly have a huge list of chores to perform and every minute counts, in the interest of diversity, it al
So 24 hours or so after the event, I thought it would be right and proper to put together a few words to reflect the weekender as a whole. For those with a short attention span, it was absolutely unforgettable, and all in all BRILLIANT!! For anybody else who can firstly forgive my propensity to waffle at a moment's notice, and who like a little more detail as they've managed to move beyond the attention span of a goldfish, the following Over the last decade and a half, those of us who are o
Lil Gray: “Are You Fooling” Lil Gray was born Leoncy Luvern Lloyd on the 3rd of July 1929 in the city of Hattiesburg Mississippi. She later moved to Chicago with her great grandmother during 1948, where she met her future husband Norwood Gray Sr, whom she married in 1950. Their first son Norwood Gray Jr was born in 1951 followed by a daughter Denise in 1952 and a further two sons Melvin in 1954 and Romaunt in 1956 (now both sadly deceased). Lil’s husband Norwood Sr, held down two jo
------------------------- SoulShakers Bamberg 10 -------------------------- As always there is a little trepidation in the weeks leading up to this event in our house. Will anyone turn up? Will the guest DJ's fit in ?, Will the weather be nice ? Have either of us any good records to play? Well Malayka left to go there on the Sunday to get everything ready and regularly rang to tell me this and that was fine. I stayed until Thursday to do my radio show and take Soul Sam with me. The radio sho
Bob Collins and the Fabulous Five By E. Mark Windle. Bob Collins and the Fabulous Five from Greensboro, NC were a popular frat party booking throughout the Carolinas and Virginia. Venues in the 1960s included the Polo Club (Winston, Salem), the Casino (Nags Head, NC) and the National Guard Armoury (Greenville, NC). Their largest mainstream hit in the mid 1960s was “If I Didn’t Have a Dime” a.k.a. “Jukebox”, a previous minor hit for Gene Pitney. Their version was released on the Greensboro
Forgive typos please, using my phone rather than a computer tongue emoticon Skegness weekender and where to start? I could begin with a gushing wordy review of the music, venue, promoters, value for money, DJS, committed PROPER soul fans.... but I've done that many times in the past, and somethings are a given, and ever consistent. This is Skeg, the dancers dance, that's what they've come here for, novel idea that hopefully will catch on at nighters across the country. Wierdly, they smile and
The Generation By Mark Windle This Wilmington, North Carolina band was largely composed of high school students. Their sole 45 release was a very competent beach cover of The O’Jay’s Minit classic “Hold on” on a local Wilmington label in 1968. As The O’Jays version was already a northern soul classic, it was perhaps not surprising that The Generation’s take (Mockingbird MR 1010) would also find favour on the British soul scene. An up-tempo soul dancer, this track is not dissimilar to The O’J
GEORGE McGREGOR - Detroit's busiest drummer.
There can't be many people who have seen active military service as a teenager in Korea, played music for some of the most famous doyens and despots in the world, yet enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a musician and record producer in one of the most creative eras of popular music ever. George McGregor has. Over five decades, beginning in the mid 1950s, he played drums on everything from marching bands to Motown with a technical p
The Delacardos
By Mark Windle
The Delacardos were an all black vocal and instrumental group from Charlotte NC, who formed initially at high school. They made at least nine records between 1959 and 1967, some of which received national release on major labels. Vocalists were Vernon Hill, Chris Harris, Harold Ford and Robert Gates and later George Morris. Publicity shots generally featured the vocalists only, but regular musicians included Luther Maxwell (tenor saxop
The Tempests By E. Mark Windle The Tempests were a very popular band from around Charlotte NC, which ran from 1963 to the mid seventies, with frequent personnel changes (up to twenty five members in its history). They were an all white line up except for their lead vocalists. The earliest version named The Tempest Band recorded “Love Have Mercy”on Atlantic, with Mike Williams on vocals. At this time they were under the management of female DJ and entrepreneur Hattie Leeper before Williams we
For those avid collectors of rare soul vinyl, the mail order list of SoulBowl (proprietor, John Anderson) should have a special place in their heart, because for the last 50 years it has been at the forefront of vinyl digging for those rare soul imports that we hold so deep in our hearts.
Soul Bowl is to present a connoisseurs room at this forthcoming Prestatyn weekender and has lined up some of it's previous primary customers, including Colin Curtis, Richard Searling, Soul Sam etc. to play
THE PASSIONS By E. Mark Windle
One of the most popular and rarest 1960s girl group 45 discoveries with northern soul appeal is without a doubt The Passions for their “If You See My Baby” (Elvitrue & Satelite 177). What was known before this piece of detective work commenced was that Elvitrue was an independent record label out of 1108 (1-2) South 7th Street, Wilmington NC. Set up in 1959, it was owned by John Lewis Jones and possibly James Wheeler. It had a most sporadic recording histo
Image courtesy of Rugby Store
RUGBY & I AIN'T TALKING BALLS.
Where to begin? It's been a while since I put pen to paper for a Venue review but this is different because there were people there I'd not seen or spent time with for some time, so thanks to them you get the tale of Rugby past.
Rugby's always a great night, why? Because the Dj's are given free rein to play what they want, therefore you get an eclectic mix, so as we've done for the past too many years
If anybody is interested in 'The Delgonives' updated version of 'Loving you always came easy', here it is. It has a Detroit type groove with a Beach/Blue Eyed feel. I guess I am pigeon holing the song, but I favour more retro sounding material from the 1960/70’s as many know. The issues for me creating this style of song, is to sound authentic in the writing, plus of course back in the day it was real instruments and a studio set up for the recording. I do not have the financial resources to pay
From the events section, a few dj profiles lifted from the NYE London Allnighter Event Guide Comments David Flynn — Hey! Mr DJ Flynny has been based in Tokyo, Japan for the last decade, but was one of the resident DJ’s (alongside Irish Greg, Alan. H and Carl Fortnum) at the much lamented Capitol Soul Club. He runs AnoraksCorner.com for full-on Rare Soul collectors and even breaks down how to identify where and when, and indeed by whom, your 1960’s US Soul 45’s were manufactured, set alongside
L to R Don Davis, Bob Babbitt and Dennis Coffey at Theme Productions c 1966
(Courtesy of Edward and Sue Wolfrum 2014 All rights reserved)
Sadly, 2014 will probably be best remembered for the release of a film rather than the passing of two of the soul scene's most revered icons. Don Davis contributed as much as anyone to the Detroit recording scene during his lifetime, as a session musician, producer, songwriter, arranger and all round 'mover' and 'shaker', as well as making crucial co
Being a relative newcomer to what would become a lifelong obsession. I was a wide eyed kid in 1976/77. And the whole excitement of the Northern soul scene consumed my life, the old adage of living for the weekend was never more true in those days. New friends, new outlook, new life. Every weekend was a new adventure to me. Of course the first place I attended was the legendary Wigan casino, and from the moment I walked through those doors, I breathed in the sound and the atmosphere of Northern s
SHOPPING AROUND FOR HITSVILLE……………CHRISTMAS IN DETROIT 1960
A Detroit Christmas Story.
A few years ago an envelope arrived. In anticipation, I opened it rather quickly and the contents fell to the floor. As I reached down, I wondered what it was. I picked it up, removed the paperclip and…………………whoa
SHOPPING AROUND FOR HITSVILLE……………CHRISTMAS IN DETROIT 1960
Christmas in Detroit, cold, snowing……...
Close your eyes…....
……….……..…….. ..…Picture the scene
How To Sing Your Way Out Of Jail: The Charles L. Blakely Story
In 1969, a 20 year old Charles Lorenzo Blakely along with fellow members of the street gang he hung out with became involved in a shoot out with another rival Milwaukee street gang which resulted in the death of one of their rivals members.
Following the arrival of the Police, the shoot out developed into a high speed car chase with Charles being the driver of one of one of the evading vehicles. Charles’s vehicle was eventu
An interesting article shows up online via the Cincinnati.com website, not just looking at the story behind Junior McCants but passing on news of a upcoming panel discussion at the library called “Listen to This: The Mystery of Soul Singer Junior McCants”
A preview below of the article and the link to the full article follows....
Commercially, that was true. From 1965 until it closed Cincinnati operations in 1971, the Hardest Working Man in Showbiz kept King alive with Top 40 sm
The Marvin Smith Story
Contents:
Introduction
Interview (August 2014)
(The Unissued Songs)
Discography
Wilton Concert Details
The Marvin Smith Interview
Introduction
This is an article based on an interview with Marvin Smith this year. Marvin was better known by his time as lead singer of the Artistics, so I will first give a little background of Marvin as lead singer of the Artistics, and his solo recordings.
click to view in full
THE JOHNNY TERRY ACETATE COLLECTION Winford 'Johnny' Terry's career in the music business began in the 1950s when he collaborated with James Brown to write his first major hits,'Please please please' and 'Prisoner of love'. In 1963 he joined the Drifters as a bass singer and contributed to such classic hits as 'Under the boardwalk' and 'Saturday night at the movies' amongst many others, before leaving the group, in 1965, to concentrate on his own productions. One of his first efforts featured
At The Foot Of The Stairs Theres Darkness The mighty 100 Club, saturday night, was fun...........
I've regularly descended these stairs for over 30 years and still it's a great place to be. It's oh so easy to take places for granted and then they are suddenly gone. I've done that with many places over the years. But saturday night in Old London Town made me realise just how special this small 4,000 sqft odd of the capitol city really is.
Many that go treat it as something special and a
A LESSON IN PERFCTION - CREATING A MUSICAL MASTERPIECE
By Dave Moore
At last year’s New Century Soul 10th Anniversary Allnighter we had the pleasure of the company of 2 Philadelphia Legends, Bunny Sigler and Ronnie Walker. I was lucky enough to spend the week with them and Martha, Bunny’s wife, as we chaperoned them from airport to rehearsals to gig etc resulting in finally seeing Bunny sing a whole Northern set.
Well folks...it’s that time of year again! When Chris Waterman gave
I Found It All In You - The Trey J's Story The Trey J’s were a vocal duo which featured James Binford and Joseph Smith. James Binford originally from Indianapolis, Indiana began singing in various local Doo-Wop and church ensembles from the age of 9. Something he continued to do after enlisting in the Marine Corps as a 17 year old, often performing in Officers clubs where he was stationed. He also ventured out of camp to perform in local clubs, building a solid reputation as a performer. Whi
Most record diggers will have at least a few of what became known over the years as simply ‘Little LPs’. The traditional soul fraternity are fortunate enough to have had a number of larger, better distributed labels show interest in producing these interesting discs including Atlantic, ABC, Okeh, King and of course Motown. But what on Earth was it that made the Stereo, 33 rpm, multi track, single 7inch disc, seem an attractive prospect?
To appreciate the history of the ‘Little LP’, it’
Whilst browsing the web, I came across this interesting kickstarter on Indiegogo for a documentary about an explosive talent that is fortunately very much still with us... https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/indiegogo-go-go-power-for-sugar-pie-desanto Clip from site: The Perks: Get To Know The Sugar We want you to get to know the real Sugar Pie DeSanto through this documentary film, even before its release. The perks for supporting the film are all about that. Receive personal shout-outs fr
Richard A. Brookes was born on the 13th of May 1940 in Chattanooga, Tennessee as the eleventh child of John Wesley and Mattie Stephens Brooks. While attending The Howard High School he formed a vocal group known as the Pleasures with Richard wooing his audiences as a juvenile Elvis impersonator.
Later Richard joined his older brother Arthur’s group ‘The Four Roosters And A Chick’ their line up being Arthur Brooks, Fred Cash, Sam Gooden, Emanuel Thompson and his sister Catherine Thomp
Bobs sister Jenny just posted me this audio clip of a raw unedited version of an past interview featuring Bob Abrahamian.
Her friend Kristina interviewed Bob back in 2009, this was later edited and played on the WBEZ station a public radio station in Chicago.( A 7 minute clip is online here http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/local-radio-host-shares-his-love-soul-music )
However the audio clip below is the full raw interview from Bobs bedroom, raw, unedited and covers 1 hour and 20 mi
Dear Cleggster, Some weekend! Thanks to all who attended and supported the event so strongly. Within a couple of hours of arriving at the venue I was out of my despair; your attitude and spirit turned it into a hugely enjoyable event and amazingly, one of the best weekenders ever (certainly one of the most memorable). Lessons have been learned. By sticking rigidly to the licensing hours this year we can now go ahead with the 23rd 6TS Cleethorpes Northern Soul Weekender in 2015. The licenses
DORÉ: L.A. SOUL SIDES
Lewis Joseph Bedinsky, better known to Soul Music lovers as Lew or Lou Bedell, and his cousin Herb Newman set up Era Records in the mid 50’s along with backing from Max Newman. In 1958, to increase airplay on radio a second label was added and it was named Doré.
Despite the closeness of Bedell and Newman they did have differences musically and these differences eventually led to an amicable split approximately a year after the formation of Doré with Newman retaini
The Complete Fame Singles. Vol 1 - 1964-1967 Three words synonymous with Southern Soul are Muscle Shoals and Fame. Florence Alabama Music Enterprises or simply FAME to all its fans, was founded by Rick Hall, Billy Sherrill and Tom Stafford in Florence, Alabama before moving to where it still stands in the small backwater town of Muscle Shoals when Hall split from the others. It went on to record many hits by many R&B, Rock and Pop superstars for many labels as well as it’s own. For
Steve Janas just passed on word of a interview that he recently did with Bunny Sigler Filmed whilst driving through the Philadelphia neighbourhood in which he grew up in. Bunny talks about his days including 45 background info, Gamble & Huff, Philadelphia International Records and more, along with video clips, images etc featured. Aptly titled "Bunny Sigler - Hanging With a Legend" the 18 mins or so video can be viewed below. Steve Janas Philadelphia, PA becker154Apr 26 2014
Site note - the second in our hoped to be regular feature - A lets have a look at members clubs...
Rugby Soul Club
Around fifteen years ago a seed was planted that eventually grew into Rugby Soul Club. We say fifteen years ago because although Rugby Soul Club is now in it’s twelfth year, there was only one venue we would consider, and they were booked solid three years in advance.
The Benn Hall is Rugby’s equivalent of a Civic Hall, originally run by a private company but lately h
I first went to a rare soul all nighter in early 1969. It was in a solitary disused railway station about half a mile from the hamlet of Kelmarsh in north Northamptonshire, 5 miles from my home town of Market Harborough. I knew the big soul acts of the day whose records had made it to the UK - Otis, Wilson Picket, Carla Thomas, Temps, 4 Tops, Supremes, Fontella Bass, Brenton Wood Etta James - but the records I was hearing at the nighter were by the Esquires, Tony Clarke, Homer Banks and the Amer
Tears In My Eyes — Recounted by Kenny Hamber and John Smith The market for soul related material at the moment does seem to be sadly focused on ill-designed badges with owls on, memories drawn from a specific era in a North West UK ballroom and the fashions that somehow have been mistakenly been given a soul creditation. With cringingly TV snippets and British films with a soul ‘Scene’ theme at their core, it’s refreshing to discover that some people are still spending time, effort and even mo
Site note welcome to the first of a new feature. A lets have a look at members clubs...
SOLID HIT SOUL — A LITTLE CLUB WITH A BIG PASSION FOR 60’s NORTHERN IN THE HEART OF LONDON
The development of Solid Hit Soul has taken place over quite a few years to where we are now. The “music policy” for want of a better word is quite simple “60’s Northern”. Now that’s not to say that the odd “Crossover”, “70’s” or “R & B” doesn’t occasionally slip through the net, but overall that’s the mai
One In A Million: The Songs Of Sam Dees - Various Artists (Songwriter Series) CDKEND 411 Meet Samuel L Dees — A Song-writing Phenomenon As Tony Rounce clearly states in his opening gambit to the liner notes of the Kent offering: The Songs Of Sam Dees, “Few songwriters command the level of respect amongst soul fans that Sam Dees does. No single compilation could cover the whole career of a writer whose song list is a big as Sam’s”. As is usual with the Kent releases, you’d be hard pushed t
