Do you think the fact that there were 'real' other forms of music around you during your youth helped you be more musically mature than todays kids?

I'm not saying there isn't good stuff about today or there wasn't nonsense about then but the focus today seems to lean toward nonsense.

Was a good grounding in music in general a factor in your understanding of Soul music?

And can you add three non-NS artists/bands that made an impression on you in your youth.

Edited October 13, 201212 yr by Barry

1966 and I had just left school, some old friends took my mates and I to a seedy club up an alley in Reading, I was blown away by the music , things like Rex Garvin , Sock it to em , The Capitols , Cool jerk and many more . From this point on I was not interested in chart music . Come the early 70's I was heavily into the likes of Rory Gallagher (In my opinion the best guitarist ever) , Captain Beefheart and Led Zeppelin ( who I saw at Wembley in the early 70's . So those are my three

Barry,

that club in Reading,might have been called "WHEELS" a spin off from the "TWISTED WHEEL"remember it had old bicycle wheels on the walls.First heard Willie Tee-Walking up a one way street and Eddie Floyd--- Things get better and appearing that night was John Mayalls Blues Breakers,i believe it was a planned allnighter but the police said they would shut it down if any attempt was made to stay open.

Always been a soul boy who loves the lyrics(call me an old softie) the 3 for me was Sam Cooke,Impressions and the early Temptations .

Maz

Barry,

that club in Reading,might have been called "WHEELS" a spin off from the "TWISTED WHEEL"remember it had old bicycle wheels on the walls.First heard Willie Tee-Walking up a one way street and Eddie Floyd--- Things get better and appearing that night was John Mayalls Blues Breakers,i believe it was a planned allnighter but the police said they would shut it down if any attempt was made to stay open.

Always been a soul boy who loves the lyrics(call me an old softie) the 3 for me was Sam Cooke,Impressions and the early Temptations .

Maz

Can't remember the name or too much about it, for obvious reasons, but sounds like the place , was it up London Street ?The records youv'e mentioned were certainly played there . I do seem to recall a coffee bar called The Kentucky Wheel .

Great observation Barry.

I think there's a couple of things going on here - Terry Hall sumed it up well: All you punks and all you teds, mods, rockers, hippies and skinheads...

I'd say today's kids don't have the benefit of the tribalism that 'youth culture' had back in the 60s & 70s: you were a mod, ted, skinhead, soulie or into your reggae or jazz funk etc - and you took that music very seriously - it went hand in hand with your identity and style - and you did your homework, you read the right magazines - you listened to the right radio stations: you could have gone on Mastermind you knew that much. In the 70s politics got thrown into the mix too, so hippies, oi punks added to the mix - NF marches, CND, feminism, rock against racism, Thatcher etc... all shaped musical taste to certain extent for young people. Kids in the 70s that were into prog rock, glam rock, Bowie were replaced by kids in the 80s that were into synths, new romantics, goths alonside all those other tribes. Add to the mix those tribes that didn't really dig music but went along for the journey: casuals, foootball hooligans ICF etc and you get the idea. Then something really strange happened - it even silenced Morrisey for a while: the ecstacy tablet and the nightclub conqured all (well almost all - there are some exceptions). That tribalism seemed to vanish. Even the anarchists got into the rave scene - and football hooligans hugged each other on the terraces. Who would dare to be different? Post the House and dance boom there's not been much to unify or separate kids in terms of 'youth culture'.

A second factor which is probably more fundamnetal and has been the way kids now get hold of thier music - that illeagal or legit download verses a purchase of physical record changes your relationship with music. When I first started buying records in the late 70s it was a spiritual experience - the smell of the vinyl, taking care of the disc, the actual visit to the record shop - nothing could compare. Kids just don't have that emotional relationsip with music anymore. They don't have to store their stacks of 7"s or have many shops to buy them in - they just make sure thier Itunes library is up to date with whatever is doing the business. That's also reflected in the music media which has gone the same way - online as opposed to print format (were even doing it online here) - and a really narrow choice when compared to even 5 -10 years ago - even Smash Hits folded and ToTPs and MTV took a hit as broadcasters. This change had a massive affect on the music industry which clearly didn't see the MP3 revolution coming. Profitabilty went out the window - and so did big marketing budgets and all those big advances for second rate dance tracks (that's not knocking the dance scene either). Major labels were in real trouble in the early 2000s as illeagal downloading began to bite and artists realised that they could easily sell their own music online. The solution for the record compaines was to change tack - use cheaper online channels for targeting youth market rather than CDs and vinyl - YouTube is now one of the most important marketing channel for major labels. Just look at what's happened to PSY's Gangnam Style over the last month - online driven and picked up by the mainstram media - a fairytale for some record exec!

So where does that leave kids today? It's not surprising that XFactor is so popular - most kids wouldn't know where to look if they did dare to be different. But the WWW is a wonderful thing, very democratic - it can make and destroy Simon Cowell, so who knows what's around the next corner. Long live the revolution!

Three artists that made an impression: Jimmy Cliff, The Clash and The Specials (Jerry Dammers).

A fantastically well-written potted observation of youth culture mate - good read.

I must say i've enjoyed reading this thread, it seems most if not all have had many varied influences,

but then thats what may define us, we are receptive to music

I must say i've enjoyed reading this thread, it seems most if not all have had many varied influences,

but then thats what may define us, we are receptive to music

I always hope for the answers that I get before I post these questions Dekka...this one paid out in spades...this is a tight knit board- Yes and we've all had our fall-outs, always will but I think we need to take each other as people with miriad influences - we all on her are freinds by any definition and music is the only thing we all hold dear obviously - so always a good starting point to draw out more of our personalities and make up....anyway.... I have really enjoyed seeing more of you all than I generally do.

another punk/new wave background here ..... i was born in '65 so by about 1978 i was starting to listen to stuff like the jam, costello, boomtown rats, blondie ..... plus pistols, clash, uk subs, SLF etc. also flirted with the mod revival of 1979 .... and two tone.

got into all this pretty late compared to most here ......... probably about 1996 when i was DJ-ing at an indie club (modernworld) where we had a playlist that included up to date britpop, indie classics, 60s guitar (action, who, small faces, beatles etc) and motown. got asked to DJ at another club by a bouncer who worked there who was well into his northern .... he played me some ..... from there on i started buying it.

bizarrely though ..... i managed to totally miss the northern soul scene, didn't know anything about it. scooter rallies too (although there was a regular rally at hayling island for a few years i think). i also went to a couple of untouchables mod rallies from about 1995, went along with a local mate who used to go to them regularly.

Apologies, got to post this...not ventured near Facebook for months...have done for the SSW2 event I'm playing....what do I see when I open my page but a load of pics from the late 80's that I didn't know existed (Carlton Warrington), Sam Dees etc....but the one that made my day is this one, I was given the job of looking after Kevin McCord and Candye Edwards for the evening....a memory personified that I thought was gone:

...what a baby I look