Just putting together a 'Blue-eyed Soul' compilation CD and was wondering whether I could include these Northern classics? I'm guessing they are white artists?

Ronnie & Robyn 

Cobblestone?

Ben Zine?

Paula Durante?

The Jades (I'm Where It's At)?

Wombat?

Living Color / Mystery ? Men (Thank The Lord For Love)?

Dawn (Love Is A Magic Word) or the other Dawn (I Believe They're All Talking About Me)?

William Bonny?

 

 

Edited June 20, 20177 yr by Soul-Slider

Pretty sure these are all "blue eyed", but Soul is debatable. Having said that, only the first four sound as dire as they did back in the day, the rest dont seem so abysmal now!

Christy Allen Walk Tall Like A Man    Seeds Pushin too Hard    Bobby Jason Wall To Wall Heartaches    Marion Sodd Permanent Vacation    Shirttails I Want You To Stay With Me    Traits Too Good To Be True    Empires Youre On Top Girl (Does nothing for me but i appreciate its the dogs b for many)   

 I'll be Ten Miles High if this is included on the CD     

Jay and the Americans - Got hung up along the way - UA

Massive Yate spin - great example.

20 hours ago, soulatthedale said:

Pretty sure these are all "blue eyed", but Soul is debatable. Having said that, only the first four sound as dire as they did back in the day, the rest dont seem so abysmal now!

Christy Allen Walk Tall Like A Man    Seeds Pushin too Hard    Bobby Jason Wall To Wall Heartaches    Marion Sodd Permanent Vacation    Shirttails I Want You To Stay With Me    Traits Too Good To Be True    Empires Youre On Top Girl (Does nothing for me but i appreciate its the dogs b for many)   

Agree, the last 3 are great tracks (imo), Shirtails in my collection, with pic sleeve... other 2 a bit harder to obtain, of the many bands called The Traits, the lot you mentioned had Roy Head on lead vocals.

I never had the Empires down as a white group? Anyone have any details?

The kind of topic that's always gonna generate highly objective interpretations. For my money, 'Blue Eyed Soul' was made by white boys and girls who had the ability to sing and who loved soul/R&B, so it was natural to them to make the music they loved. They made soul music.

That's a million miles away from the various strains of white pop music that got played on the scene simply because of it being fast, danceable and us being off our heads on proper good gear. 'Northern', but not 'Northern Soul!

Righteous Brothers, Dusty Springfield, Magnificent Men etc knew exactly what they were doing, it wasn't soul by accident. Same with the southern boys m'good man Mark Windle covered in his books.  The likes of The Seeds were bugger all to do with soul and not intended to be.

On 2017-6-9 at 11:22, Soul-Slider said:

If you're talking about this one chalky, it does explain in the comments that they are using a photo of the British group.

I would say, if they are referring to the picture below, with the high trousers and white socks it actually looks like a group of circa 1979/80 Mod revivalists.

 

 

the group in this picture are Purple Hearts a 1979 mod revival band from romford

5 hours ago, chalky said:

I never had the Empires down as a white group? Anyone have any details?

Me neither. I doubt very very much that. They could be another mishmash color group, but the vocal works on here are way to souple, dynamic and sure IMHO to be "blue eyed". And I love my blue eyed soul from time to time. To prove I'm not dissing "my race" I have the 3 single of Silky Hargreaves amongst others...

George Soule;  " Get involved" great record always sounded black to me. Never seen a picture but ive read hes white

Check out Myspace (when was the last time anyone said that?):

https://myspace.com/georgesoule/photos 

7 hours ago, chalky said:

I never had the Empires down as a white group? Anyone have any details?

Don't know how reliable the source is but this makes sense to me...

27 minutes ago, Godzilla said:

Don't know how reliable the source is but this makes sense to me...

Update: the pic above is an earlier doo wop group. However here's one of the group who recorded for the Chavis/Candi Delaware based labels...

1 hour ago, Godzilla said:

Update: the pic above is an earlier doo wop group. However here's one of the group who recorded for the Chavis/Candi Delaware based labels...

Must admit, Dl Thomas does look very much like the one on the left in the earlier picture? Could be the same group.

Bob Brady 

Chris Clark

R Dean Taylor 

11 hours ago, Soul-Slider said:

Must admit, Dl Thomas does look very much like the one on the left in the earlier picture? Could be the same group.

It says that his group recorded Love You So Bad. Game set and match

Nightwatch - Lips To Your Heart.....

 

Ah, Long Long Way, The Ellingtons

Just now, chatty said:

Ah, Long Long Way, The Ellingtons

Of course! and their 'Destined To Become A Loser' 

21 minutes ago, Steve S 60 said:

Nightwatch - Lips To Your Heart.....

 

Aren't we into the realms of appalling pop-sh*te that we should be ashamed was ever played rather than 'blue eyed soul' here?

10 minutes ago, DaveNPete said:

Aren't we into the realms of appalling pop-sh*te that we should be ashamed was ever played rather than 'blue eyed soul' here?

You can't rewrite history.

When / Where was this played?

Its about the worst example I've heard so far on this topic, and the first time I've ever heard it also.

Ed

On 13/06/2017 at 16:14, tobytyke said:

George Soule;  " Get involved" great record always sounded black to me. Never seen a picture but ive read hes white

Wow! I'd have never had guessed that. Great record yes - and all about the struggle. 

10 minutes ago, tomangoes said:

When / Where was this played?

Its about the worst example I've heard so far on this topic, and the first time I've ever heard it also.

Ed

Presume you are talking about Nightwatch 'Lips To Your Heart' ? I remember it all over East Anglia in the early 1980's. Always presumed it was a Wigan oldie?

Just now, Soul-Slider said:

Presume you are talking about Nightwatch 'Lips To Your Heart' ? I remember it all over East Anglia in the early 1980's. Always presumed it was a Wigan oldie?

Definitely a Station Road spin....Alan Rhodes?

2 minutes ago, Steve S 60 said:

Definitely a Station Road spin....Alan Rhodes?

I'll vouch for it being utter shite. 

50 minutes ago, DaveNPete said:

Aren't we into the realms of appalling pop-sh*te that we should be ashamed was ever played rather than 'blue eyed soul' here?

Who the hell played that out,  behind closed doors  in a lunatic asylum maybe ?   The so called strange world of n\s ?😱👎

50 minutes ago, Steve S 60 said:

You can't rewrite history.

What history? 

2 minutes ago, chalky said:

What history? 

Err...things that happened in the past.

3 minutes ago, Steve S 60 said:

Err...things that happened in the past.

There are northern soul apologists. 

 

1 minute ago, Peter99 said:

There are northern soul apologists. 

 

Exactly Peter, shite was played back then and continues to be played today.  

Paula Durante is definitely white, and of American Italian extraction; I  met her and her Producer / Manager Tommy Calandra many years ago. On the 2 8 x 10 black and white 60's photos I have of her she looks like Helen Shapiro etc, complete with Beehive etc.

There is in fact quite a funny story re her ethnicity.We agreed to meet on the car park of some Burger King or similar. A while later a car matching the description of hers appeared but kept driving around and around. As it turned out later, she was apparently looking for and expecting a white Englishman and I was expecting a black American woman.lol. A  Lovely lady and a good friend of Holly Maxwell.

Please don't leave out Ambassadors (Pee Vee group) and Velvet Satins and Nabay. All white and all awesome Northern!

3 minutes ago, Steve S 60 said:

Exactly Peter, shite was played back then and continues to be played today.  

Surely the people that played that kind of pony back in the day can't be involved in the wonderful world of soulful music now, because surely they would be lambasted by anyone with an ounce of knowledge or feeling for soulful music  . bandwagoners spring to mind 🎶🎶

34 minutes ago, Spain pete said:

Surely the people that played that kind of pony back in the day can't be involved in the wonderful world of soulful music now, because surely they would be lambasted by anyone with an ounce of knowledge or feeling for soulful music  . bandwagoners spring to mind 🎶🎶

I think you'll find that back in the day the local chemist shop had more to do with dance floor reaction than soul ever did. Not to denounce the many, many great soul records that were played.

2 minutes ago, Peter99 said:

I think you'll find that back in the day the local chemist shop had more to do with dance floor reaction than soul ever did. Not to denounce the many, many great soul records that were played.

Still does, but the chemicals involved today are Algipan and Sanatogen.

17 minutes ago, Steve S 60 said:

Still does, but the chemicals involved today are Algipan and Sanatogen.

On 13/06/2017 at 17:14, tobytyke said:

George Soule;  " Get involved" great record always sounded black to me. Never seen a picture but ive read hes white

So right great record take a look at his wiki page makes for interesting reading 🎶🎶

Reading some of the recent comments reminded me of these guy's/Station Road.

Tim Tam and the Turn-On's.

Also, to try to dodge incoming flack, I'll mention James Walsh Gypsy Band. Also, Lamont Cranston Band.

(I could post scans of the L.P's if anyone is keen!!)

9 minutes ago, bo diddley said:

Also, to try to dodge incoming flack, I'll mention James Walsh Gypsy Band. Also, Lamont Cranston Band.

(I could post scans of the L.P's if anyone is keen!!)

Please

12 minutes ago, bo diddley said:

Reading some of the recent comments reminded me of these guy's/Station Road.

Tim Tam and the Turn-On's.

Now that is a top ten contender for worst record ever played. Utter shite, horrible. 

James W and his buddies....

Lamont Cranston...

4 minutes ago, bo diddley said:

James W and his buddies....

Cheers mate. Now you've posted that I do recall seeing it before. I used to think they were some posh English band - probably the name James! 

2 hours ago, Steve S 60 said:

Err...things that happened in the past.

But aren't we or I thought we were talking about blue eyed soul wih the emphasis on soul or have we moved on to white pop shite played on the northern scene?

39 minutes ago, chalky said:

But aren't we or I thought we were talking about blue eyed soul wih the emphasis on soul or have we moved on to white pop shite played on the northern scene?

That's not how I read it on the original post.

51 minutes ago, bo diddley said:

James W and his buddies....

Cuz it's you girl .  the epitome of what is great blue eyed soul ,looking at that album cover you wouldn't go near it with a barge pole  big up to all the crate diggers !🎶🎶🎶👏

3 hours ago, colouredman said:

Please don't leave out Ambassadors (Pee Vee group) and Velvet Satins and Nabay. All white and all awesome Northern!

Ambassadors on Pee Vee, a great group who deserve the 'Blue-eyed Soul' tag.

Nabay was Indian/Asian I believe? Would he be considered on a list of blue-eyed soulsters? Let's not forget Thee Midniters, a Latino-American group who had a couple of brushes with Northern. Is there such a thing as 'Brown-eyed Soul' 

1 hour ago, Steve S 60 said:

That's not how I read it on the original post.

To be honest, the original post was only intended to find out the ethnicity of the artists I listed but I got a good lot of info about other artists, many who I had heard of sure but some gems I didn't know. 

On reflection I should have changed the title to 'Are these artists white?', I guess the term Blue-eyed Soul is doing some of the artists a great favour  as some of it is just 'pop' with a dancing beat and not Soul at all.