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Ian Levine, Motorcity, Centre City, Blackpool Mecca, And Swons

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Cunnie
Cunnie

Should your username not be Stafforder1 then

Ady Croasdell
Ady Croasdell

As I said Soul Of The North was an article heading not a description of a type of music, that came later as Northern Soul which he had been using for some time. Sorry to be pedantic.

Koolkat
Koolkat

You got good use out of that shirt and sweater Ian. Same outfit 12 months apart.

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Dave Moore Veteran

Dave Moore

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Posted

Howard how goes it mate, are you off to Spain for the Hitsville Weekender with Amigo 2.

Regards

Alan (Amigo 1)

Yep,

He arrives on Thursday. We'll be awaiting your arrival on Saturday. Once again The Three Amigos will get together for their annual play together. Can't wait. It's a long time since Spoofers innit Ian?

Regards,

Dave

(Amigo 2)

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Alan Pollard Regular

Alan Pollard

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Posted

Yep,

He arrives on Thursday. We'll be awaiting your arrival on Saturday. Once again The Three Amigos will get together for their annual play together. Can't wait. It's a long time since Spoofers innit Ian?

Regards,

Dave

(Amigo 2)

Hey up Dave your right it is a long time since Spoofers but what a great venue as a Rocket warm up plus lots of solid friendships made there. It will be great to the 3 Amigo's together again in sunny Spain spinning some great tunes.

Regards

Alan (amigo 1)

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Mark B Veteran

Mark B

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Posted (edited)

Hey up Dave your right it is a long time since Spoofers but what a great venue as a Rocket warm up plus lots of solid friendships made there. It will be great to the 3 Amigo's together again in sunny Spain spinning some great tunes.

Regards

Alan (amigo 1)

Hi alan

Never got there but that was where you introduced ian to Bull bygones,wasnt it. or have i got that wrong.

Have a good time in spain Alan you deserve a good holiday, see you soo mate. any chance of you being at the three greyhounds next week should be a good one with Dave Ripolles.

mark

Edited by mark.b
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Alan Pollard Regular

Alan Pollard

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Hi alan

Never got there but that was where you introduced ian to Bull bygones,wasnt it.

Have a good time in spain Alan you deserve a good holiday, see you soo mate. any chance of you being at the three greyhounds next week should be a good one with Dave Ripolles.

mark

Hi Mark,

Nice to hear from you mate, you would have enjoyed Spoofers, the music was awesome of like I've already said we met some great peeps there, anyway things seem to be improving a bit for me so I am hoping to get out and about a bit more and we are hoping to get to both the 3 Greyhounds and The Greatstone in the next month or so, infact Tony told me to let you guys know when I felt I was up to playing a set at The Greatstone anyway I reckon I'm up to it now so if you could have a chat with the others about getting me a date I would appreciate it.

Regards

Alan

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Alan Pollard Regular

Alan Pollard

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Posted

Hi alan

Never got there but that was where you introduced ian to Bull bygones,wasnt it. or have i got that wrong.

Have a good time in spain Alan you deserve a good holiday, see you soo mate. any chance of you being at the three greyhounds next week should be a good one with Dave Ripolles.

mark

Hi Mark,

Yes it was,the 1st Spoofers where I introduced Ian to Bull 'Bygones' and also the same night Bettye Jean Plummer 'How can we save it' and also Pat and The Blenders 'Just Because'.

Regards

Alan

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Mark B Veteran

Mark B

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Posted

Hi Mark,

Yes it was,the 1st Spoofers where I introduced Ian to Bull 'Bygones' and also the same night Bettye Jean Plummer 'How can we save it' and also Pat and The Blenders 'Just Because'.

Regards

Alan

Hi alan not bad for a small time collector from stockport :) we are booked up for nov Dave Ripolles and dec Sam, not sure re oct so will speak with tony, or maybe start the new year off with a bang and do jan 2009, will speak before anyway hope to see you at the greyhounds will speak then.

mark

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Guest

Guest

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Posted

I think the line under the main subject header says it all "Continuing on from the Sixty Pages in Part One."

Come on Ian admit it you may have a little bit of an ego thing going on there!

Who ??????

ME ?????????????????

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Guest

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Posted

Great to see the great man in action

How old was he when you recorded that with him

must say he still sounded very good

It was filmed in Las Vegas in early 1999.

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Guest

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Posted

Have I forgotten any ??

Hoagy Lands, Willie Tee, Isaac Hayes,

Regards

Alan

I couldn't find Hoagy Lands when we filmed SWONS.

He was found later and came over to England, but died without ever being filmed.

Willie Tee agreed to be filmed then didn't answer his phone or his doorbell when my guy went over to do it. He really gave us the runaround, so we filmed Tommy Ridgley in his place.

Isaac Hayes was not really a Northern Soul artist, was he ???

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Alan Pollard Regular

Alan Pollard

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Posted

Hi alan not bad for a small time collector from stockport :) we are booked up for nov Dave Ripolles and dec Sam, not sure re oct so will speak with tony, or maybe start the new year off with a bang and do jan 2009, will speak before anyway hope to see you at the greyhounds will speak then.

mark

I think it's October we are definately coming to the Greatstone as our Joanne is kicking us out of the house so she can have a birthday party so regardsless of how I feel we are out somewhere that night.

Regards

Alan

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Guest

Posted
Posted

there are few tracks by him which if we had a few more broad minded DJ's would get some spins such as 'Cafe Regio's'

In 1970 I taped a few cassettes off Miami soul stations, and Les Cokell went bananas over this one bit of a famous Miami soul DJ called Gary The Master Blaster, doing an old style rap (not what we now know as rap at all) over Cafe Reggio's.

I believe this guy died in the 1970s and I would probably be the only person in the world with a recording of this.

Anyway, years later, in memory of how much Les Cokell loved this, I went to a guy I know called Mark Ayres, who is a sound expert who works on the Doctor Who DVD range, restoring the sound. He is a genius, and he removed a loud buzz from an interview I did once, so I gave him the old tape of Cafe Reggios, and he removed the talking from the song so you could hardly hear anything at all behind the voice, then we cut a brand new version of Cafe Reggios (we could never have used the original because Stax owned it), and made a whole new record out of it, synching the "rap"over our new version of the song, and which is my tribute to Les Cokell.

I didn't know where to get permission to use Gary The Master Blaster's voice, so I just hoped he wouldn't mind being remembered from his DJ station in the sky, after nearly forty years.

If anyone has a CD copy of the "You Didn't Say A Word" CD, from 2000, on Goldmine, please would you post a sound clip of it on here, as I'm sure a lot of people would enjoy hearing this.

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Guest lifeandsoul

Guest lifeandsoul

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Posted

Hi Ian

Taken me a while to contribute, but here's a few random points/thoughts/questions.

I was an early member of ANS you may recall, you kindly gave me a copy of your rocket CD, and a copy of the 'okeh' Ebony Alleyne. I also received and got a copy of the Weinerworld DVD set which I reviewed on my website, as I was reviewing all Wienerworld Black Music DVD's at the time - review is still up there somewhere! Lee asked me to rejoin a couple of years ago but i couldn't really be bothered - my 'membership' had lapsed as i left in a fit of pique or something I can't remember.

I'm into new soul artists and have not been that interested in a lot of the content/ reminiscences although some of it has been fascinating reading. For me its the music, not the scene,and I've never really got into all that although have been in it around it etc and did go to Blackpool Mecca and other places around that time. Never been a vinyl junkie either so discoveries , valuations and all that just passes me by. However,

In my visits to New York particularly I have come across and spent time with Little Tommy and Curtis Blandon- were either of these two ever on your radar or anything done with them.

I have a pre copy of the forthcoming Noel McKoy album - i haven't seen the credits so I don't know who was involved on the writing /production etc. Not so keen, they're aright, on the uptempo quasi Northern tracks, but there is one very nice old soul pastiche called Fly away with me - were you involved in that.

Just a little anecdote - I was Djing at a warm up event to a nighter a few years ago, and played a 'Northern' set (OVO if that matters!) - I played the Ebony Alleyne mentioned above as an 'ender'. Few guys who had travelled and were about to head for the nighter came up to me and said 'great set, enjoyed that etc - oh and what was that last track you played- really nice' - 'oh thats that Levine crap (polite interjection!), how can you play that rubbish blah de blah!' So its not whats in the grooves- ha!

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Guest Gene

Guest Gene

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Posted

Ian,

quick question: Why did you start MARE at 26 and not 1?

i started my Invoicing for my company with an early soul release on Brunswick. i.e. our first invoice ever was #55280 (or something like that).

does 26 signify something, or did you want the impression of having already put out 25 other records? I know some small labels did that in the 50s and 60s.

Gene

For anyone who is genuinely interested, here's the official discography of Motorcity Records. There were some that never got released, but this is the official list.

THE OFFICIAL MOTORCITY SINGLES DISCOGRAPHY.

TWENTY EIGHT MOTORCITY RELEASES ON THE NIGHTMARE LABEL.

MARE 26 - KIM WESTON - SIGNAL YOUR INTENTION

MARE 28 - THE VELVELETTES - NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK

MARE 30 - MARV JOHNSON AND CAROLYN GILL - AINT NOTHING LIKE THE REAL THING

There were a large number of albums and CDs but I never compiled the definitive list.

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Posted

I was Djing at a warm up event to a nighter a few years ago, and played a 'Northern' set (OVO if that matters!) - I played the Ebony Alleyne mentioned above as an 'ender'. Few guys who had travelled and were about to head for the nighter came up to me and said 'great set, enjoyed that etc - oh and what was that last track you played- really nice' - 'oh thats that Levine crap (polite interjection!), how can you play that rubbish blah de blah!'

This is the cross I am forced to bear, and this is the reason I made The Four Vandals and Venicia Wilson.

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Posted

I have a pre copy of the forthcoming Noel McKoy album - i haven't seen the credits so I don't know who was involved on the writing /production etc. Not so keen, they're aright, on the uptempo quasi Northern tracks, but there is one very nice old soul pastiche called Fly away with me - were you involved in that.

No, but I have allowed Noel to use six of the tracks that I did with him for his album on Acid Jazz.

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Posted

Ian,

quick question: Why did you start MARE at 26 and not 1?

i started my Invoicing for my company with an early soul release on Brunswick. i.e. our first invoice ever was #55280 (or something like that).

does 26 signify something, or did you want the impression of having already put out 25 other records? I know some small labels did that in the 50s and 60s.

Gene

You have totally misunderstood. There were about 120 records on the Nightmare label.

Only 28 of these were Motorcity Recordings, a bit like 46 UK Motown releases were on Stateside before they got their own label identity.

MARE 1 was "Tightrope" by Evelyn Thomas, but most of the high energy stuff on that label are of no interest to the members of Soul Source, whereas a few people had privately asked me to list all the Motorcity releases, as it appears some of them are becoming quite collectable (J.J. Barnes "I've Seen The Light", Ronnie McNeir "Wholeheartedly", The Monitors "Standing Still", and David Ruffin "Hurt The One You Love", to name but four currently hugely popular ones, and very in-demand)

Sp apart from those 28 I listed, all the rest of the releases on the Nightmare label were not Motorcity recordings, meaning they were not by artists who had been previously signed to Motown.

Here's the J.J. Barnes that so many Southern Soul DJs are busting their balls to locate.

">
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Posted

does 26 signify something, or did you want the impression of having already put out 25 other records? I know some small labels did that in the 50s and 60s.

Gene

Just to doubly clarify, there were indeed 25 previous releases, and they all do exist, but as I said, they're not Motorcity.

But the first 25 include records by Barbara Pennington, Archie Bell, James Wells, Susan Wells, Evelyn Thomas, Viola Wills, Darryl Pandy, and Steve Mancha

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Hitsville Chalky Veteran

Hitsville Chalky

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You have totally misunderstood. There were about 120 records on the Nightmare label.

Only 28 of these were Motorcity Recordings, a bit like 46 UK Motown releases were on Stateside before they got their own label identity.

MARE 1 was "Tightrope" by Evelyn Thomas, but most of the high energy stuff on that label are of no interest to the members of Soul Source, whereas a few people had privately asked me to list all the Motorcity releases, as it appears some of them are becoming quite collectable (J.J. Barnes "I've Seen The Light", Ronnie McNeir "Wholeheartedly", The Monitors "Standing Still", and David Ruffin "Hurt The One You Love", to name but four currently hugely popular ones, and very in-demand)

Sp apart from those 28 I listed, all the rest of the releases on the Nightmare label were not Motorcity recordings, meaning they were not by artists who had been previously signed to Motown.

Here's the J.J. Barnes that so many Southern Soul DJs are busting their balls to locate.

">

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Guest

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Posted

You have totally misunderstood. There were about 120 records on the Nightmare label.

Only 28 of these were Motorcity Recordings, a bit like 46 UK Motown releases were on Stateside before they got their own label identity.

MARE 1 was "Tightrope" by Evelyn Thomas, but most of the high energy stuff on that label are of no interest to the members of Soul Source, whereas a few people had privately asked me to list all the Motorcity releases, as it appears some of them are becoming quite collectable (J.J. Barnes "I've Seen The Light", Ronnie McNeir "Wholeheartedly", The Monitors "Standing Still", and David Ruffin "Hurt The One You Love", to name but four currently hugely popular ones, and very in-demand)

Sp apart from those 28 I listed, all the rest of the releases on the Nightmare label were not Motorcity recordings, meaning they were not by artists who had been previously signed to Motown.

Here's the J.J. Barnes that so many Southern Soul DJs are busting their balls to locate.

">

" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350" />

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Pete S Veteran

Pete S

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I couldn't find Hoagy Lands when we filmed SWONS.

He was found later and came over to England, but died without ever being filmed.

Willie Tee agreed to be filmed then didn't answer his phone or his doorbell when my guy went over to do it. He really gave us the runaround, so we filmed Tommy Ridgley in his place.

Isaac Hayes was not really a Northern Soul artist, was he ???

There used to be some footage of willie tee doing one way street on youtube - don't know if it's still there

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Alan Pollard Regular

Alan Pollard

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I really liked that track. Fav so far for me.

Jayne.x.

Yes I really like too Jayne, but doesn't it just bug you when you hear a backing track of a really big classic northern sound with different lyrics that completely throws you off course as to what the original is.

Anyone ?????????????? please put me out of my misery.

Just about to press send and it came to me it's Alexander Patten 'A lil lovin sometimes'

Regards

Alan

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Yes I really like too Jayne, but doesn't it just bug you when you hear a backing track of a really big classic northern sound with different lyrics that completely throws you off course as to what the original is.

Anyone ?????????????? please put me out of my misery.

Just about to press send and it came to me it's Alexander Patten 'A lil lovin sometimes'

Regards

Alan

I can't hear it.. I'll have another listen.

I know what you mean though, I remember when that shapeshifters track which took from the Johnny Taylor record started getting radio plays ages before it was released and I didn't suss what the track was immediately. Very annoying. :thumbsup:

Just listened - yes, I can hear it straight away now. Still like it though, the shortest guy of the four has a fantastic voice..

Jayne.x.

Edited by Miss BurySoul
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John Al Regular

John Al

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Yes I really like too Jayne, but doesn't it just bug you when you hear a backing track of a really big classic northern sound with different lyrics that completely throws you off course as to what the original is.

Anyone ?????????????? please put me out of my misery.

Just about to press send and it came to me it's Alexander Patten 'A lil lovin sometimes'

Regards

Alan

I don't see it either Alan but perhaps it's my ears....... I'll listen again too!

It is a brilliant track and ranks alongside the two Johnny Bristol songs, the cover of "Man Up In The Sky" and "Keep This Thought In Mind". Outstanding, in my opinion.

Ian, I'm sure I asked you this last week but were you involved in Johnny's "Come To Me"? ......and are there any other JB songs available or in the offing?

John.

EDIT: Just realised my mistake. I was talking about JJ Barnes, whereas you were on a completely different song. DOH!

Edited by John Alden
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I don't see it either Alan but perhaps it's my ears....... I'll listen again too!

It is a brilliant track and ranks alongside the two Johnny Bristol songs, the cover of "Man Up In The Sky" and "Keep This Though In Mind". Outstanding, in my opinion.

Ian, I'm sure I asked you this last week but were you involved in Johnny's "Come To Me"? ......and are there any other JB songs available or in the offing?

John.

EDIT: Just realised my mistake. I was talking about JJ Barnes, whereas you were on a completely different song. DOH!

:thumbsup: ..John, I did exactly the same thing too! LOL.

Jayne.x.

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Guest

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Posted

I really liked that track. Fav so far for me.

Jayne.x.

Wow.

For me it's the most authentic Northern Soul yet.

I'm thrilled someone on here accepts that without questioning it.

You are the way forward, a shining beacon for the future. I wish they all had open minds like you do. Bravo.

I think you'll like this one too.

">
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Guest

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Posted

Fantastic. Is this available?.. I would love to find a copy. (I'm probably light years behind everyone else here, only just heard it).

Jayne.x.

I think you're wonderful.

You can find the audio track on this...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/King-Northern-Soul...4611&sr=1-2

And you can buy the video on this DVD set...

https://www.wienerworld.com/wworld.php?catnumber=WNRD2436

And I'm really encouraged and excited that you took the trouble to ask. It is such a rare pleasure.

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Guest

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Posted

Yes I really like too Jayne, but doesn't it just bug you when you hear a backing track of a really big classic northern sound with different lyrics that completely throws you off course as to what the original is.

Anyone ?????????????? please put me out of my misery.

Just about to press send and it came to me it's Alexander Patten 'A lil lovin sometimes'

Regards

Alan

No it's not Alan. It's nothing like Alexander Patton apart from the basic beat. That's like saying "It's The Same Old Song" sounds like "THis Old Heart Of Mine".

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Guest swoz

Guest swoz

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Posted

Could Part Two beat it ?????

IAN DON'T YOU THINK IT STRANGE ALL THOSE THREADS. SLAGGING YOU OFF, PUTTING YOU DOWN ETC

BUT GUESE WHAT IAN LEVINE , STILL MANAGES TO GET CAPTIVE AUDIANCIES. ALL THE BEST OLD BUD.

....KEEP ON KEEPING ON....

SWO :thumbsup:

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Guest

Guest

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Posted

I don't see it either Alan but perhaps it's my ears....... I'll listen again too!

It is a brilliant track and ranks alongside the two Johnny Bristol songs, the cover of "Man Up In The Sky" and "Keep This Thought In Mind". Outstanding, in my opinion.

Ian, I'm sure I asked you this last week but were you involved in Johnny's "Come To Me"? ......and are there any other JB songs available or in the offing?

John.

EDIT: Just realised my mistake. I was talking about JJ Barnes, whereas you were on a completely different song.

No, John, actually you're talking about Marv Johnson.

This one in fact.

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