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Eddie Foster Dreams of Wigan Casino - Black Music 1970s

Eddie Foster Dreams of Wigan Casino - Black Music 1970s magazine cover

Eddie Foster Dreams of Wigan - Black Music 1970s

'The music is black american and obscure - ghetto sounds which never made it, the followers are mostly white and fanatical - working class kids in the industrial heart of Britain who dance like there's no tomorrow to records most of us will never hear. The Northern Soul Scene is a strange mixture of good and bad, of burning dedication and grubby exploitation. Despised by some, misunderstood by most, it is the ultimate Underground scene. Tony Cummings investigates...'

Three scans of a well remembered and often mentioned article that featured in Black Music Magazine

Originally posted in 99, but went missing, did say recently on the forum that if do find will repost, so here you go

Part 1 of 3

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Part 2 of 3

'...the drum socks home a crisp backbeat a vocalist sings about falling in love  being a gas. The minutes move on. The sound isn't as good as il could be. It's loud alright, volume enough to make your nose bleed. But there's distortion and some of the effect of the Large orchestrations common on all the records being blasted is lost in a morasse of noise. But still. the beat, the beat always THE BEAT smashes it's hypnotic way into mass consciousness...'

 

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Part 3 of 3

There are plenty of kids getting high just on the music  But a pretty good dance item "Shy Guy" by Johnny Baker on Fog City gets less dancing action than "Condition Red" a rotten pop sounding instrumental by…

EFoster3.jpg

 

 

 

 

 




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Tony Cummings was my favourite writer at the time - his in-depth pieces in BM were always something to look forward to. I thought the three articles he wrote about Northern Soul whilst provocative, were very well written and accurate.

Mike

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Tony Cummings was my favourite writer at the time - his in-depth pieces in BM were always something to look forward to. I thought the three articles he wrote about Northern Soul whilst provocative, were very well written and accurate.

Mike

They were a load of biased rubbish read a decade later

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They were a load of biased rubbish read a decade later

I didn't think so and it is hard to judge anything with the benefit of 10-20-30-40 years hindsight. They were well written and gave an accurate picture of what was going on to the wider BM readership.

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I didn't think so and it is hard to judge anything with the benefit of 10-20-30-40 years hindsight. They were well written and gave an accurate picture of what was going on to the wider BM readership.

Well I defy anyone reading that article to not come to the conclusion that there is a pro-Mecca anti_Wigan bias throughout. "Dull brained, black bombing" I think the Wigan punters were described as, and that's without looking at the article, it kind of stuck...

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From the article I wrote in 88

Finally in BM's article on the Northern scene, we have another Wigan slag-off as our roving reporter visits Blackpool Mecca and describes the punters as "the connoisseurs of the Northern scene" nd of their counterparts says "the black bombing, bootleg playing, dull brained brothers from Wigan". It's strange how Tony Cummings keeps contradicting himself in this piece. On one hand he's praising the Mecca for it's policy of "no white stompers allowed" but then slags off almost every record he hears: Chris Jackson-Since There's No Doubt "Pleasant but just like a thousand others" Lydia Marcelle-Its Not Like You "A Supremes rip-off" And to end the piece, one last dig at the Wigan Casino: "My brother heard them play the pressing of Eddie Foster at Wigan, bloody pressers ripping off the artists". Question is, how did he know they were playing the pressing???

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Well I would say that the Blackpool Mecca punters were the connoisseurs of the northern soul' including the many that went on to the Casino nighter. It was never Mecca OR Wigan until the Mecca switched exclusively to new release Soul or disco.

As for slagging off, I would hardly say Pleasant but just like a thousand others" and "A Supremes rip-off" is slagging off ? and the quote about Eddie Foster is from a punters brother not Tony Cumming's brother, perhaps the person in question was in the know, maybe he stood on stage and saw it played like many did? Mike

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Well I would say that the Blackpool Mecca punters were the connoisseurs of the northern soul' including the many that went on to the Casino nighter. It was never Mecca OR Wigan until the Mecca switched exclusively to new release Soul or disco. As for slagging off, I would hardly say Pleasant but just like a thousand others" and "A Supremes rip-off" is slagging off ? and the quote about Eddie Foster is from a punters brother not Tony Cumming's brother, perhaps the person in question was in the know, maybe he stood on stage and saw it played like many did? Mike

Sometimes you can have an Eddie Foster "original" in your hand and not be certain - those dark blue ones are very difficult to tell.

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