Garethx

That Willie & West is really good. Thanks for posting.

Very sad news. A tremendous singer.

Sam Coplin's office address as listed in Billboard 24 June1967 as: SAM COPLIN THEATRICAL ENT. 3303 LEE PARKWAY DALLAS, TEXAS PHONE (214) LA 2-1011

Anyone got an issue copy of Stemmons Express "Woman, Love Thief" on Wand. Looking on popsike all copies listed there seem to be demos with black type. Neither the Wand demo or the local issue on Karma list a writer. Does the issue? A scan would be nice.

From the ebay scan the typefaces look the right ones but the entire thing looks scaled down to fit the smaller than regular sized label.

Definitely a Dutch bootleg. I recognise the ink-stamp on the label from Dutch used record shops. The label is a facsimile of one version of the real dj copy, which would have been manufactured by Calla through Roulette at an RCA pressing plant. My own copy has a scratched matrix but also a stamped "R" representing the RCA Rockaway, New Jersey factory.

I have a mint- copy I'd let go for a decent offer. What did it make on JM's auction?

There is the Jazzman reissue on a pastiche of the famous black and white Wand logo. Instead of "Wand" it reads "Soul7".

This is basically what happened to good records in the scene's heyday. Few copies of a brilliant record turn up: everyone who plays newies has to have one; record gets hammered; eventually record gets dropped. Difference in the last decade is that not many records as good and relatively scarce are around the corner to replace it on playlists, as would have been the case in the 1970s. Perhaps because of that it stayed around too long and got over-exposed. A shame because listening to it again after a few years of not going near the thing reveals it be (to my ears at least) absolutely top notch. Used like any classic oldie in the right context I'm sure it will always do the business. Now the dust has settled this record will always at least hold its value as it's great and has proven difficult to get hold of easily once more.

Pretty much as good as any 70s soul record ever played on the scene if you ask me. In the same ballpark quality-wise as the definitive seventies things like Carstairs or Montclairs. Had this been in the hands of the right djs as a new release it would be seen in the same light as those above mentioned classics.

I think all the obsession about the 'detail' or lack of it in Quadrophenia misses the point massively. It was a film I'd always avoided seeing until the opportunity arose to watch it at the NFT with a talk by the director Franc Roddam beforehand. He thought it was interesting that a whole generation of mod revivalists had tried to use the film as a template on How To Be A Mod when the entire point of the original subject matter by The Who was a vicious satire on conformity itself and the damaging effects on a borderline personality of being made to follow a set of rules imposed by society on one hand and the peer group on the other. A lot of the period detail in Quadrophenia is indeed wide of the mark: the scooters are wrong, Sting's haircut is wrong, blah, blah. Yet to me that is immaterial really because not one jot of of that detracts from the film's emotional power and resonance. Sitting in a cinema and muttering that you 'wouldn't have worn those socks in 1973' would be to kind of miss the point.

Very insightful and honest post Len.

Very sad news. Chuck's live shows were, as everyone has said, something else.

Maybe I was a bit harsh in saying it's just another song. Laura Barton wrote an interesting piece on it in The Guardian a couple of years back which gives it its due: https://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/21/hail-hail-rock-n-roll

Rhys's story about the song is interesting but tantalisingly incomplete. Presumably the other people he mentions who bought the master to Amy Mala Bell were The Wildweeds or people connected to them via the Syncron Studio in Connecticut. Rhys's version makes no real mention of how the song became the record or how Tobi Lark/Legend got involved. The original germ of the song was obviously a good one, but it is the arrangement, production and the vocal which makes the finished record a masterpiece. it's ironic that the cheque Rhys received was probably off the back of Kylie Minogue's execrable version which shows that without the beautiful Tobi Legend vocal and the majestic arrangement of the Mala 45 this is, let's face it, just another song.

That's such a lazy and ill-informed posting that it demands some sort of reply. Why make the tie-in with the stage play Once Upon A Time In Wigan? These are two completely separate entities. Suggesting putting on a stage play to raise funds and awareness is laughable (as if stage plays themselves require no funding, no research, no casting, no directing, no publicity). This is not a film version of an existing play, it's from a completely original script. Comments about records played in '73 not getting a look in today are puzzling and to be honest completely irrelevant. The figure mentioned as a funding target is not the entire budget. A production company, sales agents and so on and all that entails are already on board. As for demand for the film being only within the scene that's a crazy standpoint. The film and the scene are also two completely separate entities. The film is not being made as an instructional manual for prospective converts or a nostalgia piece for those who have been on the scene their adult lives. It's a story about growing up in the North of England in the '70s and uses being on the scene as a very important part of the background story. The way the story is told will have a universality beyond the confines of the back-story, like any quality drama. Audiences for films can go beyond those who actually have first hand experience of the subject matter. How many who saw "Saving Private Ryan" got shot at on the Normandy Beaches, for example? Pointing out that this is hardly likely to be a 'profitable investment' when I suspect (forgive me if I am wrong) you are not an expert in feature film finance is unhelpful at best and mischievous at worst.

Sugar Boy has been on refosoul here for some years masquerading under a cover-up name. Great little record.

Extremely sad news. There aren't ten better singers than this man in the whole of soul history.

It's a leap in logic to say that any attempt to portray something in art is necessarily 'commercialising' that subject. I can't speak directly for Elaine Constantine but I would imagine that this is a story which is very personal to her and one she wants to tell through the medium of film. You seem to have a very one dimensional view of film in general. Not everything on the big screen needs to be a flashy commercial blockbuster on one hand or a 'Mutiny on the Buses' on the other. I don't think the aim of this film is to 'revive' interest in Northern Soul or if it even needs reviving. As I said above I understand scepticism about any project like this as one of the guiding principles of Northern or rare soul as a scene or movement is that it was entirely created by its participants, maybe the first thing in Britain ever distinctly like that in character. It wasn't a case of the music industry or television channels or daily newspapers in London telling young people what clothes to wear or what records to buy or what night clubs to go to. Its very underground nature was one of the defining reasons why it was so important to the people who followed the lifestyle every weekend and maybe the biggest key to its longevity. If someone who was on the scene wishes to make a film about what it meant to them and how it shaped their values we should respect their choice to try to tell that story.

I wonder what musicdonkey's agenda is here. A handful of posts all critical of this project. Accusations of a 'cash-in' are so wide of the mark as to be ridiculous and need to be answered. Elaine has been working on this project for a very long time. As Byrney and others have said above this is the best chance the soul scene will ever have of getting a decent representation on film. Here is a director with long-standing first-hand knowledge of the thing but crucially also one with real talent and vision. I can understand a degree of scepticism given previous attempts to represent Northern Soul in a feature film but the crucial difference here is that the creative drive behind all of this is from someone who's been on the scene whereas projects in the past have been written and directed by people who by and large were not there. I know we all like to grumble about aspects of the scene every day here but the simple fact is that at its heart is the genuine magic we all fell in love with: the music, the dancing, shenanigans with chemicals and the friendships (and rivalries) which have come to last a lifetime. These are stories that deserve to be told. They are part of the fabric of ordinary people's lives, experiencing something extraordinary during their weekends. British cinema has been chock-full of 'coming of age' dramas based on the lives and angst of the middle classes. Here is an opportunity to try to represent some of the particular magic of the NS phenomenon with all the style and passion that the topic merits.

Can only echo all of the above. A very sad day.

Very sad news. So many great performances from an exceptional singer, but my favourite of them all was "I'll Make It Up To You" on Kent. Timeless soul music of the very highest quality.

The ballad version of "Color One Tear Black" on the other side of the Strike 45 is a truly incredible record.

Very sad news. My thoughts go out to Mr Wylie's family and many friends.