Just watched the final part of Soul Britannia & i must say that after last weeks shambles it got back on track with a very good round up of the general Soul scene in the UK.

Some very valid points from Eddie Piller, Trevor Nelson, Norman Jay & i'm probably going to get shot down for this but Jazzie B talked some good stuff as well.

Couple of minor hiccups, another comment about the Northern scene being an exclusively white scene & god knows why they had to show Lily Allen but overall a pretty good effort.

Anybody else watch it?

PS, Soul Britannia concert now on BBC 4 & well worth watching.

Just watched the final part of Soul Britannia & i must say that after last weeks shambles it got back on track with a very good round up of the general Soul scene in the UK.

Some very valid points from Eddie Piller, Trevor Nelson, Norman Jay & i'm probably going to get shot down for this but Jazzie B talked some good stuff as well.

Couple of minor hiccups, another comment about the Northern scene being an exclusively white scene & god knows why they had to show Lily Allen but overall a pretty good effort.

Anybody else watch it?

PS, Soul Britannia concert now on BBC 4 & well worth watching.

Yeah not too bad this time I agree with what you say Martin

The Barbican was good btw

Edited February 16, 200718 yr by Simon M

Just watched the final part of Soul Britannia & i must say that after last weeks shambles it got back on track with a very good round up of the general Soul scene in the UK.

Some very valid points from Eddie Piller, Trevor Nelson, Norman Jay & i'm probably going to get shot down for this but Jazzie B talked some good stuff as well.

Couple of minor hiccups, another comment about the Northern scene being an exclusively white scene & god knows why they had to show Lily Allen but overall a pretty good effort.

Anybody else watch it?

PS, Soul Britannia concert now on BBC 4 & well worth watching.

:tomato2: Boo Hiss Boo, not talking to you again !

Haven't watched yet, i have to watch the later showing because they are watching some other rubbish. I did say i wasn't going to bother this week, but was it really better Martin ?

Yup much better this week.... recording the concert now cos the mrs want's to watch the news....

I agree it was better and on more solid ground, but i was still confused as to what the programme was trying to say. It didn't seem to be about the soul 'scene' in Britain (i'm not talking about rare and northern) but was about various British singers influenced by soul. They aren't really the scene are they? What about the clubs, the current sounds etc..?

I was pleased to see Massive Attack (not sure about Portishead) but where were Basement Jaxx and The The? Lemar? Do me a favour.

I didn't get the last bit. The implication was that without immigration from the caribbean there would be no soul scene in Britain (not true in my opinion since influences were taken from the U.S. surely?), and that the sum total of the last fifty years of a British soul scene was the Notting Hill carnival and multiculturalism.

Better than last week but still a bit confused in its direction.

I quite liked that Lily Allen hit, whatever it were called. Though rather reminiscent of Tippa Irie "Hello Darlin" from years ago which blended reggae and I guess "London patois" for want of a better term.

Didn't watch third episode after feeble start [OK, a few good clips] and abysmal second programme.

ROD

I didn't bother after the debacle last week but this one doesn't sound too bad-when is it repeated?

I didn't bother after the debacle last week but this one doesn't sound too bad-when is it repeated?

It's usually on again on the same night around 12:15, that's when i've been catching it

...The implication was that without immigration from the caribbean there would be no soul scene in Britain ....and that the sum total of the last fifty years of a British soul scene was the Notting Hill carnival and multiculturalism...

This is exactly as I predicted in my earliest posts on this subject, for which I was sneered at and told to "wait and see". In fact, anyone who had read the synopsis for the series on the BBC website would have realised that this "politically correct" analysis of how Soul music came to be popular in the UK was a foregone conclusion as far as the BBC were concerned. In fact, they would probably not have commissioned the series had a different outcome been likely.

That is also probably why the Soul scene in the North of England was so wrongly portrayed as virtually exclusive to whites, as the stunning longevity of the Northern underground dance movement cannot be easily explained within the narrow (and narrow-minded) perameters the producers had set themselves. The Northern Scene does not fit easily into those prefabricated and false assumptions that so concern our masters down in Wood Lane - therefore it must be either totally ignored, or explained away as an irrelevant sideshow to some utopian version of the UK Soul scene's genesis. ie. an abstract "multiculturism" that takes no account of real people and their interactions.

I call the BBC racist for assuming that black people must, by right of birth, listen to and enjoy "black" music, and that only those born with a black skin can genuinely appreciate or empathise with the musical output of Black America. Anyone on the Soul music scene could have told them different, if they had simply bothered to ask.

Edited February 17, 200718 yr by mel brat

Watched it & even though it was slightly better i'm still totaly confused as to the point of it all really ? Just so many contradictions !

On one hand the program seems to say that the 60's black American sound had little influence on the black artists of the UK & was more down to carribean music & then the tribute show to celebrate the program consists of entirely 60's artists set to a backdrop of rare soul clubs & allniters ??

& the 'Rare Groove' scene that was covered, the amazing influence of these 60's soul icons & unknowns, well isen't that what we do too ??

Also, if it was the carribean culture that had most influence, & forgive me if i am wrong here as i don't have the best short term memory in the world, but the one mainstream world succesful band that embraced that the most was UB40 ! so why so little about them ??. Perhaps i was too busy getting my arse in my hand about Jazzy B's comments last week & missed it, but i can't remember the program going into great depth on them ?

Which brings me to another point, & sorry if i upset the Southeners here, but i think the program sould have been titled 'Soul Londonshire' ! I got the impression that if it didn't happen in London it had no relevence, which is probably why we got such short shift !!

Ending on a positive note, wasn't Sam Moore fantastic still !!

Just watched the final part of Soul Britannia & i must say that after last weeks shambles it got back on track with a very good round up of the general Soul scene in the UK.

Some very valid points from Eddie Piller, Trevor Nelson, Norman Jay & i'm probably going to get shot down for this but Jazzie B talked some good stuff as well.

Couple of minor hiccups, another comment about the Northern scene being an exclusively white scene & god knows why they had to show Lily Allen but overall a pretty good effort.

Anybody else watch it?

PS, Soul Britannia concert now on BBC 4 & well worth watching.

Watched the Soul Britannia concert. Was worth it just to see Madeline Bell sing Picture me gone, with footage of the casino in the background. Truly awesome. Wow just realised i,ve made a 1000 posts on this forum

Steve

Edited February 17, 200718 yr by Winsford Soul

Watched the Soul Britannia concert. Was worth it just to see Madeline Bell sing Picture me gone, with footage of the casino in the background. Truly awesome.

Steve

Bugger, i missed that ! I went to bed when Eric Burden came on, got the impression the duet with Jimmy James was all she was going to do.

It's usually on again on the same night around 12:15, that's when i've been catching it

BBC4 also run it again mid week - Weds / Thurs around the 11pm slot... not sure exactly without checking the Radio Times.

Bugger, i missed that ! I went to bed when Eric Burden came on, got the impression the duet with Jimmy James was all she was going to do.

It will probably be on BBC on demand.

Steve

Watched it & even though it was slightly better i'm still totaly confused as to the point of it all really ? Just so many contradictions !

On one hand the program seems to say that the 60's black American sound had little influence on the black artists of the UK & was more down to carribean music & then the tribute show to celebrate the program consists of entirely 60's artists set to a backdrop of rare soul clubs & allniters ??

& the 'Rare Groove' scene that was covered, the amazing influence of these 60's soul icons & unknowns, well isen't that what we do too ??

Also, if it was the carribean culture that had most influence, & forgive me if i am wrong here as i don't have the best short term memory in the world, but the one mainstream world succesful band that embraced that the most was UB40 ! so why so little about them ??. Perhaps i was too busy getting my arse in my hand about Jazzy B's comments last week & missed it, but i can't remember the program going into great depth on them ?

Which brings me to another point, & sorry if i upset the Southeners here, but i think the program sould have been titled 'Soul Londonshire' ! I got the impression that if it didn't happen in London it had no relevence, which is probably why we got such short shift !!

Ending on a positive note, wasn't Sam Moore fantastic still !!

Good point Bogue,

The majority of the contributors did seem to be Londoners or Southern based so perhaps a brief profile of the 100 club could have been squeezed in (assuming Kenny would let e'm in )

I may be wrong here but ain't BBC 4 based in Manchester?

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I may be wrong here but ain't BBC 4 based in Manchester?...

If that's the case, they have even LESS of an excuse to get it wrong!!