Charlie Rees

Hello David, great to hear from you albeit under such tragic circumstances, hope you and George are well. My great friend Dean Johnson worked for John, managing the Expansion shop in Manchester and drove to Kings Lynn every Wednesday to collect stock. John gave Dean carte blanche to dig through the shelves and find all sorts of great unknown (at the time) seventies soul, funk and Jazz in addition to the core stock of 60`s northern and 70`s modern soul that was in demand. Dean often said that this was his dream job and that John was an unbelievably brilliant employer.

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Mick had been a regular at the Teddington and Walton monthly soul nights over the past three years. He turned up out of the blue one night and we joked that we thought he had died (Mick had a great sense of humour as has been mentioned elsewhere) but were glad to see him. He had spent some time caring for Glynis and after she passed he started to come out again. He was diagnosed with cancer a couple of years ago and the treatment took its toll on him but it never stopped him coming to the soul nights, he said it was his only respite. I last saw him at Teddington in April and we joked about some of the letters he exchanged with Pete Lawson (and others) through the pages of Blackbeat and he wondered what Pete would have made of the scene today. Always a realist he also said that the treatment was not helping him and he felt like shit. R.I.P. Mick.

This could turn out to be the biggest and best thread ever. The weekly emotions a Soul Bowl list would generate for me from the early seventies when I was still at school meant that I could only call at lunchtime the following day. Sneaking out of the school grounds to the nearest phone box was stressful enough, sometimes to find the phone box out of order; running to the next one only to find the number engaged until, eventually, the answer `Soul Bowl`. The elation in finding the record(s) I wanted still available; the utter devastation at the words `sorry, thats gone`.

Johnny Caswell you dont love me anymore thatphillysound.com/artists/johnny_caswell.html

According to an interview with Quercus books in August she is currently working on a series of short stories about northern soul for Radio 4.

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere, apologies if everyone knows all about it. The Sinceres - Girl I Love You Posted on January 28, 2008 by Kris Holmes Pzazz was a small label out of Hollywood that released a real variety of stuff in the few years it was in business. It was the baby of Paul Gayten who was a music industry veteran having been a force in the 1950s New Orleans R&B scene as a musician, bandleader & talent scout. Gayten moved to California in the early sixties to spearhead Chess' west-coast A&R before leaving Chess & starting Pzazz in the late sixties. The label really is visually catching with the bright green background & there are a few reasonably sought after funk & soul 45s within it's fifty odd releases. The Sinceres started life as an acapella doo-wop group while it's members were still at high school in Kansas City. By 1968 they were doing the rounds in Vegas picking up lounge gigs as they came. At around this time they moved to LA & cut this 45 for Pzazz, they also decided to change their sound & image. The Sinceres started playing instruments as well as singing, they based their new look & sound on artists such as Hendrix & the Isleys, started upon an ever revolving succession of drummers & changed their name to Bloodstone. Bloodstone evolved into a pretty handy soul/funk/rock group & in 1971 they relocated to London & started working with producer Mike Vernon (Blue Horizon, Fleetwood Mac etc.). In 1973 the group released the single "Natural High" & the rest is history. "Girl I Love You" was originally recorded as the flip side to group member (& soon to be Hendrix-styled guitarist) Willis Draffen's mid-tempo groover "Don't Waste My Time". "Girl" was written by the team of Ellene Levenson & Renee Lee Tener. Levenson had won the BMI Student Composer award in 1963 (may also have co-written "Life Beat" for the Supremes?) & Tener would go on to write with Galt MacDermot in the eighties. Apparently this 45 is highly regarded by some people in the Northern Soul scene, but for me it's essentially a great slice of late sixties west coast soul with an interesting background story, enjoy.

Dear Liz and Jim When you called me on Friday to tell me of Glens death, I was literally coming in from work and Heidi answered the phone fully expecting the normal light hearted banter that we are used to when you call. Before she handed the phone to me, she tried to warn me that you were upset, but nothing could have prepared me for the news. John Baxter called later and we both just broke up on the phone, nothing can prepare us for events like this. I did as you asked and called the lads, and then went in to the garden with a beer and cried. Paul Temple came round and we gradually tried to cheer ourselves up, remembering the great times we had with Glen and the rest of you guys from Macc, I don`t feel much better now although my family have tried all weekend to lift my spirits, shame the same cannot be said about our football team although that is an irrelevance compared to what has happened to Glen. Mr Heartache sums it all up. See you at the funeral, we need to give Glen an appropriate send off Love Charlie

Oh this is desperately sad news. As others have already posted, Glen was a number one soul brother and a really top bloke, great (dry) sense of humour, with a comprehensive knowledge of and committment to the rare soul scene. I met Glen at Ady`s first weekender and we became firm friends, discovering that we grew up about 8 miles from each other in Cheshire and shared another common interest, that of following team in the lower reaches of the football league. We were quick to introduce each other to our friends and over the years have spent many brilliant times in the company of Glen, Gillian and the rest of the Macclesfield soul crowd. We would exchange tapes of tunes and latterly cd`s, as he introduced me to lots of great music from his collection. My three abiding memories of Glen are the banter he received from all sides about his policy of buying two tickets to the 100 club anniversary all nighter just to secure 2 copies of the single!!: the second, his performance at every Cleethorpes weekender in the sunday afternoon quiz with the rest of the Macc crowd: and finally his determination to be last man standing in our chalet all nighter in the early years of Cleethorpes on the Sunday night having endured some serious partying from the Friday afternoon seemingly without taking a break. My thoughts at this time are with Glens family and all the brilliant people from Macclesfield who will be rallying around Gillian and supporting her. Remember the good times guys, stay strong and try to smile a little if you can. I shall be raising a glass or two to Glen over the weekend and will enjoy some of the significant sides he put me on to over the years.

The love I find in you is, in my opinion, one of THE great love songs with the classic line "on a street called happiness, at the corner of Love Boulevard" and has been a long time favourite and to appreciate it in this format is even more spine tingling than simply hearing it on vinyl and takes it oanother level for me. Brilliant stuff, thanks for sharing.

Hi Mark Seasons greetings to you too mate, thought I`d share a little seasonal story with you....... Four of Santa's elves fall ill and the trainee elves aren't producing the toys as quickly as they should. Santa is beginning to feel the pressure of running behind schedule. Then Mrs Claus tells Santa that her mum is coming to visit, stressing him out even more. He goes to harness the reindeer, but finds 3 are about to give birth and 2 have jumped the fence. He loads the sleigh anyway but one bag falls off scattering toys everywhere. Fed up, Santa goes indoors for a cup of cider, but finds that the elves have downed all the drinks and there is nothing left. In frustration he accidently drops the cider pot which smashes into pieces all over the kitchen floor. Exasperated, he goes to get the broom...but finds mice have eaten the straw off the end....Just then the doorbell rings, so Santa trudges over to open the door...Outside is a little angel with a great big Christmas tree....Seasons's greetings,Santa...she say's brightly...isn't it a lovely day?...I have a beautiful tree for you here...where would you like me to stick it?...she asked cheerfully And so began the tradition of little angels on top of the Christmas tree..... Cheers Charlie

Can`t remember if it made the top 20 but Rodger Collins Sexy Sugar Plum was danced to on Top of the Pops by Pans People so it must have sold a few copies somewhere -Its on you tube

One hundred club, 100 Oxford Street, London W1D 1LL