Garethx

Ian is right in lots of ways. Transmission media informs the kind of music being made as well. The truly awful N-Dubz mix their records for crappy mobile phone speakers in the same way Berry Gordy mixed his to be heard on a transistor radio at the beach. The more banal and nursery-rhyme-like the hook is the better. No teenager will listen to a whole album any more so the idea of complex and profound music which requires a little effort on the part of the listener will be a non-starter in the decades to come. Obviously the age group at the other end of the spectrum bought up on pop music (for want of a better word) is expanding but if we're looking at the future (and I guess we are in this topic) I can only foresee bad times ahead for music. Visionary musicians will spring up in the future: they always have and always will. Whether those visionaries can become worldwide stars in the way Sinatra, Presley, Dylan, Lennon & McCartney once did is open to huge question. Perhaps the future will see a return to a local or parochial sphere of influence for musicians like the folk musicians of the nineteenth century. I don't give two hoots for the record industry as such: they were warned about all this but didn't do enough to think about how technological change would fundamentally challenge their stranglehold on delivery mechanisms. Record companies are a peculiarly 20th century phenomenon if you think about it.

Agreed. The only chance this thing has to continue is to NOT WATER IT DOWN IN ANY WAY. The very esoteric and uncompromising nature of the music and the scene will attract some. Others it will repel. Same way it's always been. On a broader note deejays should stick to only playing good records. If you think it's crap don't play it. If you've only got crap records give up deejaying. This is my opinion and I am right.

Don't think was a US single either, at least on original release. May have appeared on the later red re-issue label through Fantasy though.

Unless I've been completely led up the garden path on this both versions were recorded at the same session, with different leads within the group. Charles 'Diamond' Perry on the pink 70s release, Johnny Hendley (yes, that Johnny Hendley) on the super-rare orange 60s release. When Joey Jefferson was approached to put out the record again in the 70s he chose the Charles Diamond version. May have been that no master of the JH version survived or it may have been that he simply thought it was the better version. To me the pink label version is a better record: the vocal on the other one is all over the place really. Obviously from a collectibility point of view the orange label is one of the scene's true Holy Grails.

Hi Can anyone sell me a clean copy of Shirley Finney Everyday People / What The World Needs Now Jas 515 Issue or demo, minimum VG+ with clean labels TIA for any leads gareth

The CD of "Goldwax Collection" Volume 1 featuring Spencer Wiggins "Let's Talk It Over" appears to resemble a very shoddy bootleg. I've never seen a copy with higher production values so maybe that's just the way it was. The vinyl of "Volume 2" is of superb quality with fairly nice artwork, OBI and lyric sheet: pretty typical of the Vivid Sound releases of the time. For what it's worth I marginally prefer the no horns - no backing singers version of Willie Walker myself but maybe that's because it is the one I heard first.

An early incarnation of The Natural Four. Good record but doesn't seem to command the same sort of high price that it once did.

Isn't there a Precious Three on ebay at the moment? That Donald Thomas is a brilliant record. Really regret not getting Don's own copy via Tommy Potts a few years ago. Had no idea how scarce it would turn out to be.

It's not British.

The flip of the Twinight and Chosen Few cut is another great ballad titled "You're Being Unfair" / "You Been Unfair" respectively. Love all four sides personally. Both versions of Lift This Hurt are essential Chicago soul with blistering vocals from Elvin.

Hi Rob In addition I have: 014 Marsha Wilson "Whole Lotta Woman" / "O.D. Blues (Good Loving Man)" (the same artist as on the great Quadrastone 45?) Also the Las Vegas subsidiary: LV-0100 Fantastic Mainstream "Play That Funky Style Black Man" / "Let's Be Friends"

I wouldn't say it was 'rare' exactly, but it's not common either. I don't have a spare at the moment, and I've never seen an issue, but think about £75 would be a reasonable price for the DJ copy. Good luck in your search.

Yes, you're right Dave. It's "The Joneses" which is the re-promoted demo, probably 'cos "Chop Down That Old Tree" sounds like the worst record the Partridge Family never made. I picked up copies of both demos and the issue from the same seller in Florida in one go a few years back. Six dollars for the lot.

One of the demos has words to the effect of 'DJ re-service' on it. I'll have to check later but I think it's the dreadful 'Oak Tree' one which has this: probably seen by the brass at Epic/Columbia as having more potential on pop radio than "Keeping Up With The Joneses".

I'd say £30 was entirely reasonable for a playable copy Dave. The upper figure would be for a minter. Does anyone know if this is getting spins anywhere at the moment?

Goes without saying that the issue is far more difficult to find than the DJ copies. However unless there's any great recent demand for the dance side I'd price this at around £40-50: it's not one of the rarer Epic issues such as Bill Coday, Billy Proctor or Sonny Munro.

"Get that cab out Arbon!"

Sean I would defend your right to give this record the thumbs down 'til my dying day, but I'm convinced that its over-exposure is at least a part of the problem.

Sometimes the very rare records are subject to over-exposure and this is probably the case with FS. Had there been enough copies around to make this a hundred quid sound we wouldn't hear it as much, but I maintain that it's more than competent small-label soul which shows real talent in the group line-up.

^ I agree. Knocking this record is an example of reverse snobbery. The falsetto vocal and flugel horn are distinctive and, to my ears at least, pretty accomplished. Taking monetary value out of the equation this is a good record. Not the greatest record ever made, certainly, but still far more than adequate.

Roscoe Robinson on Gerri?

Those listed on gemm are re-pressings by the Eccentric Soul people. I maintain that the original of this is tricky to pick up these days. Won't necessarily be expensive, but quite tough to find. A wonderful record used as backing music in season three of Mad Men no less. Edit: just noticed a couple of copies on popsike for a couple of hundred dollars. I would say these are isolated examples and it should be possible to pick it up a bit cheaper than that. With regards to the recent repress they are very easy to identify as they are on a facsimile of the typical 70s red/black Twinight logo. The original is on a yellow Twilight 102 label.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Nationalise the scene. Licenses for deejays. Regular refresher courses for punters. Kitemarks for events.

Concept was a strange label. Don't know for sure but it possibly has a connection to the people behind Merben. To me each use of the Cody Michaels backing track is poor and the kind of thing that gives Northern Soul a bad name to outsiders but I am a fan of the Richie Cee 45 on the label "Games Too Cold Blues", which is a wonderfully orchestrated Philly ballad. Mr Cee himself isn't the greatest singer in the world (like his labelmates) and there are distinctly dodgy vocal moments but the overall effect is tremendous. I think deep soul aficionados Pat Biggerstaff or Les Fisher have posted it in Refosoul in the past.

As Paul says above these were bootlegged for the Dutch deep soul market of the 70s/80s. Looking at the typesetting above I'd say this was manufactured towards the end of the 80s. It's pertinent to ask why they would choose to bootleg such relatively easily available titles but you must remember that not everyone interested in that music was a 'record collector' in the sense that we would understand it: many just wanted the sound and weren't fussed about owning the original artefact. Rather than source the original label 45 from the pages of Goldmine or the lists of the likes of John Anderson there was a ready-made market for cheap and plentiful soul oldies in the record shops of Holland. I was amazed at the amount of soul in Amsterdam record shops when I first visited in the 80s. While there were lots of these strange looking bootlegs of the more popular titles there were also a lot of obscure deep soul originals and maybe more interestingly, really convincing counterfeits of rarities like Ralph 'Soul' Jackson on Sounds of Birmingham. I'm convinced the latter was an example of an attempt to defraud the few collectors prepared to pay lots for certain rare originals.