Sorry, a few questions, probably common knowledge but not to me!

For me it's the ultimate record to have ever surfaced and i think many others would agree.  First heard by me only 5 or so years ago (yes i know) so after first hearing it still has those magic ingredients which make it so unique, the rawness, the story, the energy the music the vocals of course the elusiveness - I've NEVER had the joy of hearing this at a "function".

 

1. Is the intro performed by them or is it a "sample" from the Supremes? obviously quality of recordings is both very different, i really can't tell?

2. What is the instrument used? is it a guitar?

3. I understand there are 4/5/6? but did the group ever say how many copies were originally pressed?

Just curious

PS As time goes on, I'm starting to think that the 16K copy recently was an absolute bargain😆

29 minutes ago, Shinehead said:

Really !  Obviously your soul journey is just beginning 

 there are thousands of great cheap records out there.

 

Thanks, Shinehead "Slightly" patronizing but i agree, you're probably correct. There are indeed tens of thousands of records I've never heard yet - every evening is indeed a school day, but I've heard a vast amount of those "classic" back in the day NS records that really do nothing for me and people rave about them - I'm not mentioning them though! I get much more of a buzz buying a great record for no money, for me it's never about the value, it's really the opposite.

At the end of the day, i still love MSs, always will, it's a record i always go back to (plus a good few others) - it's my "fix"   

Mercy Men - You Made it Thunder?

Maynot be £20 now, but it was about that price for ages and ages...

1 hour ago, Mal C said:

Mercy Men - You Made it Thunder?

Maynot be £20 now, but it was about that price for ages and ages...

it was £100 around 2005 then stock was found and like you say dipped right down to £20.. think i sold one this year for £30

 

On 04/12/2023 at 09:40, Simsy said:

Ah right, thought Kitch had multiple copies at one time but may have been mistaken.

Remember reading about someone stumbling across a copy in the States at a record fair or sim. Unsure of condition, but think that copy went to auction?

That may have been the copy that Shifty got.

14 hours ago, Solidsoul said:

Loved because it's exciting, fast and great to dance to Northern Soul all-nighter dynamite! 💥

Absolutely!

 

Anybody want to talk about the Snake LoL,

Nope, they got to be exciting as Mello Souls, but only worth a fraction...

I think 'Mercy Men - You Made it Thunder' is a credable one here, not as fast and manic as Mello Souls, not many are, but it's got that edge! and thankns @Dave Pinch I knew it was expensive when it first turned up, don't remember who's discovery that one was.

4 hours ago, Mal C said:

Mercy Men - You Made it Thunder?

Maynot be £20 now, but it was about that price for ages and ages...

Love your posts Mal, always relevant🥰, but...............................................................................................................

I think my ears are definitely broken? - Not a bad record ie good voice/good production/mildly catchy etc just does not do a single thing for me? - IMO nowhere even close to MSs, as i feel this topic has turned/turning into

"Records that are better and a lot lot cheaper than MSs"🙂

Just to add slightly off track, some of these rarities/trophy records were probably a lot more "special" and meant a lot more before You-tube etc - for me, never had to travel 200 miles to an event just to hear a particular record.

You’ve got a long journey ahead Dax try starting at the beguining  you will enjoy it better

32 minutes ago, Soul Salad said:

 never had to travel 200 miles to an event just to hear a particular record.

 Most uptempo records always sound better in a venue.

I have heard records out which I own and thought wow only to play it the next day and I think it must be a different  record , the atmosphere makes the record in some cases.

 

6 hours ago, Tony Smith said:

That may have been the copy that Shifty got.

Shifty's was I'm pretty sure from one of his contact/dealer mates?

21 hours ago, Solidsoul said:

Loved because it's exciting, fast and great to dance to Northern Soul all-nighter dynamite! 💥

It's everything you want IMO in an all-nighter record.  It wasn't just the Mello Souls at the time either, every record in Butch's set and the other Dj's at the time.  It was a great time for Northern Soul.

Edited December 6, 20231 yr by Chalky

On 03/12/2023 at 17:50, Soul Salad said:

Sorry, a few questions, probably common knowledge but not to me!

For me it's the ultimate record to have ever surfaced and i think many others would agree.  First heard by me only 5 or so years ago (yes i know) so after first hearing it still has those magic ingredients which make it so unique, the rawness, the story, the energy the music the vocals of course the elusiveness - I've NEVER had the joy of hearing this at a "function".

 

1. Is the intro performed by them or is it a "sample" from the Supremes? obviously quality of recordings is both very different, i really can't tell?

2. What is the instrument used? is it a guitar?

3. I understand there are 4/5/6? but did the group ever say how many copies were originally pressed?

Just curious

PS As time goes on, I'm starting to think that the 16K copy recently was an absolute bargain😆

Sorry to be late in responding

1. The Supremes ' You Keep Me Hanging On' was released on 12 Oct 66 ... 'We Can Make It' was done on  Sunday 24 September 1967   ... Keith, who passed on last month, played the intro on his guitar ... he said he was "inspired and influenced" by YKMHO as it was a sharp and interesting sound ... so he copied it with his twist 

2. answered above

3. No .. but minimum press was 500 for a 45 at that time   ... the band said it was in the local record store for a week and they never heard it on their local radio station

Will any more copies turn up in quantity ...  I doubt it ... I thought Mr Marshall. the group manager, might have any remaining stock given he paid for the session and pressing of the 45 ... but when I finally tracked him down he had just passed .. I talked to his children and they had no knowledge of him being involved in music ... his daughter said she would search the house but told me that a lot of the house had been destroyed in a fire many years ago but he decided to rebuild ... so if he had the remaining stock of the 45 I think they either got incinerated or he binned them  

And ... yes I did get 3 copies when I went to the USA to meet the guys

Edited December 7, 20231 yr by Andy Rix
typo

On 04/12/2023 at 10:47, Hooker1951 said:

No offence, it’s ok but nothing special, there are thousands of better sounds out there and a million times cheaper , each to their own but for me it’s one for the Anoraks and virtue signallers, I will now Batten Down the Hatches

ML

 

24 minutes ago, Woodbutcher said:

 

I’m glad do many people agreed with me,  the truth has got to be said, 
Just tell it like it is

LOL,

ML

It is one the best records ever to be played on our scene.

The best is, of course, Don Gardner - Cheating Kind. Closely followed by Court Davis. Eric Mercury, The Poets (J2) and of course The Mello Souls

8 hours ago, Phild said:

It is one the best records ever to be played on our scene.

The best is, of course, Don Gardner - Cheating Kind. Closely followed by Court Davis. Eric Mercury, The Poets (J2) and of course The Mello Souls

 I will take your word for it and scrub my favourites from my mind and imprint those you have mentioned 🙂 

Edited December 8, 20231 yr by Shinehead

Original thread, way off track now but its great (in a FUN way) and not in any way to cause a commotion, but...................... Don Gardner (for me) is average at best? - Its not bad at all but truly i find it quite bland.

"If" I'd been there at the time this was discovered and played then my opinion could have been a whole lot different. It's never really "just" about the song is it? - it's the whole package i.e. where/when you first heard it/in what context/friends you were with etc etc.

The record is symbolic for me really, I always wondered if they actually thought it would be a hit, even locally. That atmosphere of menace and the attitude it's played with, tbh they actually sound like there on amphetamines, it's got an almost punk or metal attitude that elevates it to mythical status.

I said to someone I love it so much because it feels like it's going to topple over and collapse at some point. Butch was wise to cover it as the del larks, it has exactly the same kind of low fi magnificence, that destined it to commercial failure, yet eternal obsession so many years later. 

Without doubt a great record and like so many other truly great records it was right for the time.  

10 hours ago, Geeselad said:

The record is symbolic for me really, I always wondered if they actually thought it would be a hit, even locally. That atmosphere of menace and the attitude it's played with, tbh they actually sound like there on amphetamines, it's got an almost punk or metal attitude that elevates it to mythical status.

I said to someone I love it so much because it feels like it's going to topple over and collapse at some point. Butch was wise to cover it as the del larks, it has exactly the same kind of low fi magnificence, that destined it to commercial failure, yet eternal obsession so many years later. 

Wish I'd written this 😁 - Youve hit the nail right on the head perfectly - just when you think it'll be a short 2 min record it comes right back at you again and smacks you right in the face, almost a pt 1 and pt2.

I think it's fantastic, but maybe that's because I acquired one fairly recently after having it on my wants lists for many years.

Edited December 20, 20231 yr by Weingarden
grammar

Slightly irrelevant but knew I'd heard another "similar" into😆

Does the title of this topic always have to have the word "Yawn"  after the Mello Souls? Is it all so boring?

Edited December 24, 20231 yr by Solidsoul

It's the imperfections that make it perfect just loud brash feed em raw liver Northern soul. 

I just don't hear any Soul in it at all, but that's true of other songs too.

15 hours ago, Thinksmart said:

I just don't hear any Soul in it at all, but that's true of other songs too.

I do and  the lyrics certainly are?  It is proper urban black dance music.  

I am often critical of many average  but super rare  45s that seem to be around nowardays and get raved about mainly by  individuals who have elevated rarity over quality  , However , for me , ( and has been mentioned  earlier , its only personal taste after all ) both The Mello Souls and Don Gardener are the absolute Epitome of the kind of sound I love . Both have that rough , raw frantic feel  that seem to get right inside me , not been a nighter /scene/ stimulant  participant for aeons , but i can imagine with these records , what a mix they would make .    Merry Xmas to all x 

Its the best thing since sliced bread, or its a triumph of rarity over quality.

I think what we've learned from this thread, its about personnel taste - as we all know. 👍

The seemingly endless discussions about the Mello Souls fascinate and bemuse me simultaneously. Butch and I found/discovered this record, and Butch then played it and made it the epic iconic monster it has since become. As such, he and I probably have unique perspectives on it; heres mine.

I know when we pulled this out of the rack at John Moores in Philly that day, and put it on the ‘unknowns’ pile, and subsequently played it on Johns little counter deck, we couldnt have known the impact it was gonna have. I say that partly because, we played a couple of bars on it, looked surreptitiously at each other and quickly pulled it off the turntable so as not to alert John to its potential Northern attributes, but I dont think we were blown away by it or thought it to be outstanding.

We’d heard enough of it to know it sounded promising, but even later on when we’d had chance to play it all the way through, and assess it, I dont recall that either of us got particularly excited or animated about it; I know I didnt for sure. I also definitely remember that we didnt talk about it particularly, or discuss its prospects; it was just another oddball record we’d found. I dont think either of us for one minute thought we’d found the next Cecil Washington, Deltours, or Damon Fox calibre of record. I mention those records coz that was the standard of top niter records we had not long before been privvy too at Wigan, courtesy of Richard. Maybe thats why we werent getting over excited; I dont know.

For me it conjures up an era, a point in time, memories of great record/road trips with my best mate; some of the best times of my life etc, in the way that music can instantly take you back to a time and a place. I get it, that for others this record does the same but that the associations are about venues, great niter nights, Butchs superb spots etc. 

But I think, other than that, if I try to assess this record as objectively as I can, I’d say this. Its most definitely Northern, its absolutely a great niter record, and Butch absolutely did the right thing to play it and stick with it til the punters got it. It was perfect for that time/era. 

For me though, as group Northern records go, its noisy, which works in terms of niter atmosphere, but isnt great for just listening, it has a great dancefloor-beckoning beginning, and a great sax break, which is always welcome aswell. Its also very atmospheric in that indefinable ‘niter-2-in-the mornin’ way. But I find it to be poorly produced, and instrumentally lacking and uninteresting. The Servicemen’s ‘are you angry’ is similarly loud brash, frantic, in your face and hectic, but its so much more polished and better produced, with much more interesting stuff goin on, as loud noisy records go, in my view.  The Mello Souls is also not lyrically strong either. 

For all that though, if I’d had dj aspirations in that era, and I wanted an unknown, hectic, explosive niter record to ignite the chemically-inspired masses, at the height of their speed induced euphoria and enthusiasm, I would definitely have played it, without necessarily loving it.

What carries this record in my view, is the sense of utter frantic  audio mayhem. The Jewels had that, the Twans had that, General Assembly, Trypt on love, and so many more have that too. The Combinations on Kellmac has it too. Whats interesting is that ALL those records, bar the Combinations, are as dead as a dodo, with no niter, dj, collector or interest whatsoever. The Twans was once one of the biggest, most sought after, most discussed niter records; you couldnt buy a conversation about the Twans now! Trypt on love; Richard’s Eddie Jason c/up, wouldnt even cause anyone to travel as far as their Ipad YouTube, these days, let alone a niter, but it did back then. Noisy busy Northern like that very often doesnt stand the test of time, but this clearly has.

All music appreciation (or lack of) is subjective. Whilst Im proud that Butch and I found it, and even more proud that he saw potential in it and played it, and made it huge, for me its a record Ive thought little about since the day we found it. 

When Ive read this thread and now thought about it, Ive realised the following (and I say this without in the slightest wanting to offend anyone, or be derogatory about the record, or be deliberately controversial or provocative about it). Ive never played it at home in any way shape or form, (Youtube etc), never owned it or wanted to. Also, if I could only take forward 2000 Northern/Rare Soul songs in tape or record form, to listen to for the rest of my life, that most definitely wouldnt be one of them, and I mean that absolutely sincerely and without any malice towards the record or those who love it.

If someone found 500 copies of it, and it came down to a £50 price tag, maybe then I’d buy one, and only for record trip memories etc. But from that same general era I would definitely want ‘Go on and laugh’ ‘Love is alright’ Tommy & The Derbys etc; different class completely, hence the potential inclusion.

Ive privately speculated about whether, if the Mello Souls would be just another Torch oldie, from a bygone era, long before Stafford, Blackburn, 100 Club etc, the same folks who talk it to death now, would still be doing so. If it sat alongside ‘our love is in the pocket’ ‘whats wrong with me baby’ ‘girl across the street’ epitome of sound’ etc, as just another great, but inherited overplayed oldie, from the Wheel, Torch, Wigan, Cats, etc etc, would it still be the iconic ‘must talk about’ tune for these same people? 

If The Mello Souls had been played at the Torch by Keith or Colin, at the same time as ‘our love is in the pocket’, would these people still conclude (relative to the obvious quality of something like ‘our love....’ ) that its the best record ever? Something I cant pinpoint, tells me it wouldnt, but at the same time I cant nail down why; its just a very strong feeling I have. Food for thought. 

I get it completely that for some people this record is completely iconic and super meaningful; absolutely nothing wrong with that. It isnt at all for me, but I would say that I DO think its a very significant record, not for how it sounds (to my ears), but in terms of what it is. To my mind what it is, is THE record to define an era as linked to a specific dj and playlist; Butch. I mean this in the same way that ‘Skiing in the snow’ and ‘Queen of fools’ seemingly defined a specific era of The Torch and Keith and Colin. Similarly in the way that ‘Country girl’ and Cecil will always be Richard and late Wigan era, and probably Frank Wilson with Russ and early Wigan era. These are key dj and points-in-time milestones, which took the audiences of those eras by storm, and will forever have those associations for them. 

Its a superb niter record, its undoubtedly Northern, and for some people its great Northern, or so much better than great. For me its not, and never was or will be, and so the continued discussion about it, decades after its first spin, will remain a puzzle for me, but each to his own; its all good. Am I glad me and my best buddy discovered it though; absolutely I am lol.

 

Great post from Tim there. Always thoughtful and well written.

My own personal experience of this record, comes from much later in time.

I’m not certain whether it was the very first Lifeline all-nighter or the second one?

Anyway, some friends of mine were constantly regaling me on the quality cover ups that Butch used to play back in the day. And one in particular, was his old Del-larks cover up.

Well, I had been dying to hear this record, and all the other unknown to me sounds that Mr. Dobson had at his disposal.

So it was with this in mind that I drove out to Dewsbury and the first ever Lifeline at Sherringhams.

The place was rammed, and Butch did his usual 90 minute spot, which I recorded on a small cassette recorder. During that time, I approached Mark and asked if he could possibly play the Del-larks as I had never heard it? He replied that he couldn’t because he hadn’t brought it with him. But he promised to bring it next month, and would play it for me.

Only slightly disappointed, his set was incredible, I went away and thought no more about it.

Roll on to the following month, I was dancing away to Butch’s spot, when he suddenly announced over the mic. This one for Phil.

Boom! The place went mental. I’ve never seen a reaction like it. Needless to say, I loved it.

After that reaction at Lifeline, everywhere I went to see Butch, he opened with the Mello Souls. I can clearly remember the first CIS all-nighter in Manchester. We all trooped downstairs to another room that had a temporary dance floor, as Butch was playing in there. He opened with the Mello Souls again, and the reaction was even greater than before. I’ve still to this day never seen such a reaction as people rushed it seemed from every direction to get on the dance floor.

 I must agree with Tim though. This type of record, and there are many, don’t sound like anything when played at home. These aren’t listening tunes, they are made for throwing yourself around to. 
Absolute dynamite for me at the time.

Thankyou for that, that's interesting.

For me, there isn't anything else quite like it to my ears, a bit like if the Sex Pistols wanted to have ever recorded a NS record (with as much energy as well). The fact that the vocal isn't great, neither are the lyrics neither is the production, it is repetitive, the recording is poor, it sounds like a hurried take, as though some teenagers recorded it in their basement/bedroom, all adds to it for me. It's just a record which is so unpolished, it just has that X Factor which you can't always explain.

Definitely isn't Motown😄

 

Absolutely THE all-nighter record for me and still get goosebumps when I hear it! Always takes me back to the very best of time on the scene for me.

And here’s why….recorded on my Sony tape deck in 1990 then cleaned up by Chalky and posted on his Mixcloud. The whole recording is worth a listen, but head to 37.5 mins to hear it blow the roof off🎼👏💥🎷

 

 

Wow...how do you follow that? First of all, big thanks to Tim for his essay, especially when he should be wrapping presents, busy in the kitchen etc.

Yes, all enjoyment of music is subjective and very personal, but me, like many others, the Mello Souls features very prominently amongst the very best of Northern records, kick-started by a rousing introduction that John Manship terms a ‘clarion call to the dance floor’.

This is a dancers’ record. One best heard in a venue packed with like-minded souls. The tempo is perfect, fast, but not too fast. The duration of 3 minutes 12 seconds is magical - a full 50 seconds more than a typical Northern track - the song could have finished after the sax-break but goes on and goes on, just what you want the best songs to do before they fade out.

As Tim says, Butch made this record the grail that it is. For those who danced to his sets at the 100 Club and other venues in the nineties and noughties, you witnessed something special. Mark would play better and better sounds, mixing things up a bit with his latest acquisition, a mid-pace gem, a frenetic crossover, umpteen one-offs and cover-ups then drop this into his set to trump everything beforehand...the supreme DJ as always.

Tim puts the Mello Souls nicely into context. The Northern journey started for many with Al Wilson and Dobie Gray. Good songs back in the day. Then came other eras of good songs, Leon Haywood, Seven Souls, Major Lance etc. By now, the essential ingredients of a decent sound were established - beat, melody and harmony. The many great tracks of the Casino era had these qualities and sometimes an unusual twist eg Jewels, Cecil Washington, Deadbeats etc. The Stafford era conditioned the connoisseurs to accept a wider range of sounds and to tolerate their flaws, muffled vocals, low-fidelity, minimal solos etc. And then the Mello Souls came along... hear this played out and you know you’re at a royal banquet, dining at the top table. It is a rare treat indeed and made all the more enjoyable by not playing it on YouTube too often!

Anyway, it’s at the very top of my Christmas List if anyone has a spare copy?

1 hour ago, Mark W said:

Absolutely THE all-nighter record for me and still get goosebumps when I hear it! Always takes me back to the very best of time on the scene for me.

And here’s why….recorded on my Sony tape deck in 1990 then cleaned up by Chalky and posted on his Mixcloud. The whole recording is worth a listen, but head to 37.5 mins to hear it blow the roof off🎼👏💥🎷

What's the song at 21.45?

 

 

7 minutes ago, Soul Salad said:

 

This won,t change - Lester Tipton.

Just now, Shinehead said:

This won,t change - Lester Tipton.

 Thanks Shinehead 👍

6 minutes ago, Soul Salad said:

 Thanks Shinehead 👍

You said not long ago in a "slightly" patronising way LOL along the lines of "you've a lot to learn" - Your completely right i do.

On a positive these amazing records I've never heard are all new to me but not to the majority of you on this forum. That Lester Tipton Blows my mind!

Absolutely love the Mello Souls, pure dynamite crazy excitement northern… but only as it has been mentioned on this thread - if i HAD to pick (and i know i don’t or ever will), but i’d go for Lester T out of the two. That’s a level that barely any others surpass or match. IMHO of course!

 

ps, both would be nice.

Edited December 24, 20231 yr by Corbett80

Thanks, Tim, for the fascinating history and opinions.

Anyone need a copy of this? Message me.

On 24/12/2023 at 15:35, Colouredman said:

The seemingly endless discussions about the Mello Souls fascinate and bemuse me simultaneously. Butch and I found/discovered this record, and Butch then played it and made it the epic iconic monster it has since become. As such, he and I probably have unique perspectives on it; heres mine.

I know when we pulled this out of the rack at John Moores in Philly that day, and put it on the ‘unknowns’ pile, and subsequently played it on Johns little counter deck, we couldnt have known the impact it was gonna have. I say that partly because, we played a couple of bars on it, looked surreptitiously at each other and quickly pulled it off the turntable so as not to alert John to its potential Northern attributes, but I dont think we were blown away by it or thought it to be outstanding.

We’d heard enough of it to know it sounded promising, but even later on when we’d had chance to play it all the way through, and assess it, I dont recall that either of us got particularly excited or animated about it; I know I didnt for sure. I also definitely remember that we didnt talk about it particularly, or discuss its prospects; it was just another oddball record we’d found. I dont think either of us for one minute thought we’d found the next Cecil Washington, Deltours, or Damon Fox calibre of record. I mention those records coz that was the standard of top niter records we had not long before been privvy too at Wigan, courtesy of Richard. Maybe thats why we werent getting over excited; I dont know.

For me it conjures up an era, a point in time, memories of great record/road trips with my best mate; some of the best times of my life etc, in the way that music can instantly take you back to a time and a place. I get it, that for others this record does the same but that the associations are about venues, great niter nights, Butchs superb spots etc. 

But I think, other than that, if I try to assess this record as objectively as I can, I’d say this. Its most definitely Northern, its absolutely a great niter record, and Butch absolutely did the right thing to play it and stick with it til the punters got it. It was perfect for that time/era. 

For me though, as group Northern records go, its noisy, which works in terms of niter atmosphere, but isnt great for just listening, it has a great dancefloor-beckoning beginning, and a great sax break, which is always welcome aswell. Its also very atmospheric in that indefinable ‘niter-2-in-the mornin’ way. But I find it to be poorly produced, and instrumentally lacking and uninteresting. The Servicemen’s ‘are you angry’ is similarly loud brash, frantic, in your face and hectic, but its so much more polished and better produced, with much more interesting stuff goin on, as loud noisy records go, in my view.  The Mello Souls is also not lyrically strong either. 

For all that though, if I’d had dj aspirations in that era, and I wanted an unknown, hectic, explosive niter record to ignite the chemically-inspired masses, at the height of their speed induced euphoria and enthusiasm, I would definitely have played it, without necessarily loving it.

What carries this record in my view, is the sense of utter frantic  audio mayhem. The Jewels had that, the Twans had that, General Assembly, Trypt on love, and so many more have that too. The Combinations on Kellmac has it too. Whats interesting is that ALL those records, bar the Combinations, are as dead as a dodo, with no niter, dj, collector or interest whatsoever. The Twans was once one of the biggest, most sought after, most discussed niter records; you couldnt buy a conversation about the Twans now! Trypt on love; Richard’s Eddie Jason c/up, wouldnt even cause anyone to travel as far as their Ipad YouTube, these days, let alone a niter, but it did back then. Noisy busy Northern like that very often doesnt stand the test of time, but this clearly has.

All music appreciation (or lack of) is subjective. Whilst Im proud that Butch and I found it, and even more proud that he saw potential in it and played it, and made it huge, for me its a record Ive thought little about since the day we found it. 

When Ive read this thread and now thought about it, Ive realised the following (and I say this without in the slightest wanting to offend anyone, or be derogatory about the record, or be deliberately controversial or provocative about it). Ive never played it at home in any way shape or form, (Youtube etc), never owned it or wanted to. Also, if I could only take forward 2000 Northern/Rare Soul songs in tape or record form, to listen to for the rest of my life, that most definitely wouldnt be one of them, and I mean that absolutely sincerely and without any malice towards the record or those who love it.

If someone found 500 copies of it, and it came down to a £50 price tag, maybe then I’d buy one, and only for record trip memories etc. But from that same general era I would definitely want ‘Go on and laugh’ ‘Love is alright’ Tommy & The Derbys etc; different class completely, hence the potential inclusion.

Ive privately speculated about whether, if the Mello Souls would be just another Torch oldie, from a bygone era, long before Stafford, Blackburn, 100 Club etc, the same folks who talk it to death now, would still be doing so. If it sat alongside ‘our love is in the pocket’ ‘whats wrong with me baby’ ‘girl across the street’ epitome of sound’ etc, as just another great, but inherited overplayed oldie, from the Wheel, Torch, Wigan, Cats, etc etc, would it still be the iconic ‘must talk about’ tune for these same people? 

If The Mello Souls had been played at the Torch by Keith or Colin, at the same time as ‘our love is in the pocket’, would these people still conclude (relative to the obvious quality of something like ‘our love....’ ) that its the best record ever? Something I cant pinpoint, tells me it wouldnt, but at the same time I cant nail down why; its just a very strong feeling I have. Food for thought. 

I get it completely that for some people this record is completely iconic and super meaningful; absolutely nothing wrong with that. It isnt at all for me, but I would say that I DO think its a very significant record, not for how it sounds (to my ears), but in terms of what it is. To my mind what it is, is THE record to define an era as linked to a specific dj and playlist; Butch. I mean this in the same way that ‘Skiing in the snow’ and ‘Queen of fools’ seemingly defined a specific era of The Torch and Keith and Colin. Similarly in the way that ‘Country girl’ and Cecil will always be Richard and late Wigan era, and probably Frank Wilson with Russ and early Wigan era. These are key dj and points-in-time milestones, which took the audiences of those eras by storm, and will forever have those associations for them. 

Its a superb niter record, its undoubtedly Northern, and for some people its great Northern, or so much better than great. For me its not, and never was or will be, and so the continued discussion about it, decades after its first spin, will remain a puzzle for me, but each to his own; its all good. Am I glad me and my best buddy discovered it though; absolutely I am lol.

 

Thanks Tim,

That has to be the most honest appraisal , description , like or dislike , call it what you like of any record ever,  played on planet earth under the banner of Northern Soul , sheer brilliance .

I enjoyed readings Tims story of the Mello Souls discovery and his "take" on it.

As one of the old school who started at the Mardi Gras/Torch I have to say I really love the MS. I have not heard it at a nighter but only at home via the net. I think it still sounds magical and so northern. It is certainly in my top ten.

Tim is right in that it probably wouldn't have stuck around much if found in the heyday of the 70's, but as a "new" sound found later it packs such a punch. And without a nighter experience it still sounds magical played loud on headphones or in the car.

Dave Banks

19 minutes ago, Davebanks said:

I enjoyed readings Tims story of the Mello Souls discovery and his "take" on it.

As one of the old school who started at the Mardi Gras/Torch I have to say I really love the MS. I have not heard it at a nighter but only at home via the net. I think it still sounds magical and so northern. It is certainly in my top ten.

Tim is right in that it probably wouldn't have stuck around much if found in the heyday of the 70's, but as a "new" sound found later it packs such a punch. And without a nighter experience it still sounds magical played loud on headphones or in the car.

Dave Banks

On a PC or phone it's just an OK tune.

You really need to hear this in a big dark room , on a big system , at three in the morning .

 

1 hour ago, Woodbutcher said:

On a PC or phone it's just an OK tune.

You really need to hear this in a big dark room , on a big system , at three in the morning .

 

Just reminded me of a three in the morning moment Wigan Casino  George Blackwell Cant lose my head... BOOM some stuff just fits the moment 🎶😁

An excellent and honest appraisal from Tim @Colouredman.

What I take from this and the subsequent comments is that it was really ‘of its time’ which is my own feeling on it.

Nighters were still the place to go and the dancers were looking for something frantic and pounding to dance to, and this fits the bill. There are many other Northern tunes in a similar vein as has been said.

Does it fit in to todays scene, I’m not sure ? But as I said previously it’s about personal taste. 
 

Andy