Garethx

I didn't hear too much at the 100 Club on Saturday night which deviated from the template of quality rare soul as we know it. I can think of an occasion there a few years ago when Keb played a few new things from his KayDee productions empire which raised a few eyebrows, but this was nothing like such an occasion. The fact is that the scene has deviated from finding the next "You're Ready Now" soundalike since the early seventies. Some records which break the mould in a given time can come to have a pretty short shelf life (Black Nasty anyone?), where others become accepted classics ushering in a host of imitators (Kell Osborne on Titanic and Sam Fletcher giving birth to other Popcorn-style sounds being played springs to mind). Other sounds seem to need decades to reach their rightful audience (examples I'm thinking of here are records like Rufus Wood "Before 2001", Delrays Incorporated or The Delegates of Soul). I maintain that Northern Soul isn't a genre of music as such (how can it be when it can incorporate something like Roy Hamilton's "Earthquake" on one hand and Glenda McCleod on the other) but the best deejays have always had the nouse to realise what will work within the format, and how to create sets out of the building blocks: underexposed Black American music with soul as its bedrock. It's to the scene's benefit that the foremost collectors can still be bothered to deejay with the kind of records which are exciting them at this moment rather than trotting out a hackneyed approximation of what was shaking the Torch in 1972.

I think it's impossible to dance to in a Northern Soul style. Doesn't stop it being an interesting record and it fits well into the 100 Club atmosphere. I forgot to mention that Butch also played Willie Tee's "You Gonna Pay Some Dues" in his first set: a classic, flowing midtempo fingersnapper and about as far from deep funk as it's possible to get!

This topic mystifies me a bit. I thought Butch played maybe one record which might be classed as deep funk: I don't know what it was, sorry, but it was a long way from Fatback band style 70s street-funk as in the misleading Youtube clip above. He played an instrumental which can best be summarised as "Tighten Up with stings" but that's been on his playlist for at least the last six months as far as I can recall and has always received a really good reaction from the floor as it has a lot of identity and atmosphere. I'd be interested to know what contributors feel about records like the Milton James 45 on Dor: so different from traditional northern in practically every respect but has been a staple of Butch's sets for some years now. I suppose because it's a sixties recording it escapes the ire of the purists. I think both Butch and Marco played the Talmadge Amstrong cover-up, which while a long way from traditional uptown Northern Soul is a tremendously earthy southern obscurity with a lot of soul; similarly the Salt and Pepper 45 is also a long way from something like (off the top of my head) Lynne Randell; but to me it fits in perfectly with the ethos of the 100 Club: a basement in the middle of Cosmopolitan London, not a church-hall in rural Lincolnshire. It's also worth mentioning that Marco played a couple of things first time out like the Tempests and Precisions cover-ups which would be classed as classic group harmony Northern in anyone's book, so to characterise these sets as purely funky is slightly misleading. I think the balance was just about right on Saturday, as the other deejays offered a counterpoint to what else was going on: Keith has his own thing going on with lighter and more melodic stuff, Mick threw a few classic oldies in and Ady offered a few unfamiliar sounds with the classic textures of (non-funky) uptown soul. To me the strength of the 100 Club has always been its eclecticism. Playing sets of largely unfamiliar records is sometimes going to be challenging and not everything is going to stick and become a classic, but I applaud the intention of trying to keep things fresh.

On Glades from 1976. Written and produced by Jerry Washington himself. Price has come down from a high in the last couple of years and it should be possible to pick up a nice copy for about 3-350 pounds.

It has to said that The Temptations made more than a few truly perfect group Northern records: Come On Back To Me Baby, Angel Doll, Loneliness Made Me Realize and Gotta Find A Way To Get You Back to name only four. A long-standing favourite of mine in the underplayed Motown stakes is Marvin Gaye's wonderful version of The Drifters' There Goes My Baby from the "In The Groove" album: obviously an older recording included as filler, but there's an effortless cool to the vocal and a marvelous ease to the backing track which makes me play it repeatedly.

Hi John The Soul Bowl one is a first press demo. The copy on JM's site is the second issue and I think prices for both are spot on. I understand Garry Cape was instrumental in getting the Lewis family to repress this: possibly for the Japanese or European market. He's a member here so can perhaps tell us the full story. Congratulations on snagging an original issue. best, gareth

Jerry Butler & The Impressions "For Your Precious Love" is as good a place as any to start: a crucial transitional record between doo-wop and soul and a stone-classic which every soul fan should own. There are usually copies on the Abner and Falcon labels on ebay for not too much money: it sold in vast quantities on its release. Nice too on UK London and very nice indeed on maroon Vee Jay (with a pricetag well into four figures).

The original press was quite hard to find for a long time, but I've had a couple of dj copies off ebay for peanuts (both under a dollar) in the last few years. Both copies had an inaudible pressing fault: a blemish which looks like a small crack in the styrene. As it's in exactly the same place on both copies I'm guessing it's on others too, but like I said it's inaudible. I've never seen a legitimate first issue though and imagine it's quite a tough one, but I wouldn't have said it was any more valuable than the dj copy unless you're thinking of selling to someone who might particularly covet such an item. The represses are on vinyl and the type is smaller than on the styrene orignal. The ballad side is a wonderful slice of Chicago soul, the crossover side is a bit generic to be a truly good record although the ingredients are all in place.

As an aside: does anyone have a striped (Frankford/Wayne vinyl) Oscar Wright on Fairmount for sale? I have the Hemisphere and west coast, styrene Fairmount releases. Also, if memory serves, my Billy Leonard is the 'west coast' label design, but on vinyl; I'll check later if that's a Monarch or F/W press, which might mean the other logo was in use nationally. Don't recall ever seeing Billy Leonard on the other label variation. I also have dim memories of another Fairmount release (The Pageants?) being like this. As Tony says, the 1963 date on the labels doesn't refer to the year of release of the records, just the incorporation date of the Fairmount label itself.

This 45 exists on both blue/white striped Frankford/Wayne presses and apparently Monarch Black/Blue/Orange presses with the logo in an arch for the West Coast*. Think all copies of both I've ever seen are DJ copies although the East Coast issue does exist too. Pretty rare on all formats, I suppose, and couldn't speculate the quantities of either relative to each other. *There's a scan of the Monarch press on here somewhere, courtesy of Mark Hanson. Something about it doesn't quite ring true to me: the typeface used for the credits seems at odds with any Monarch records of the time. I'd be interested to know what others think...

Isn't the Paul Kelly 45 called The Upset?

Pete Parker on Kapp; definitely a proper soul singer rather than a pop artist appropriated by the Northern scene. His "Standing On The Outside" 45 is a Leonard Jewel Smith production and a fairly decent deep soul ballad. On the other side of the coin is Steve Davis on RCA Victor; definitely a pop artist but his "Laugh A Little, Cry A Lot" is a beat ballad I've always had a great deal of time for as an exquisite example of the genre. I presume this is the guy who wrote Percy Sledge's immortal "Take Time To Know Her", too, so his country-soul credentials are impeccable. Also on RCA there is Steve Colt, an artist I don't really know much about but I believe is another blue-eyed singer. We mustn't forget Steve Dixon, a fine singer with several bona-fide Southern Soul rarities to his name with the most notable one being "Depend On Me" on Spotlite: one of the most expensive deep soul records out there.

Hi Bob Interesting acetates. I think Ady still has a copy of "Daydreamer". It was found in a London record shop in the early 90s, and they had two acetates featuring the track: both 10" multi-track publishers discs featuring more than one artist as opposed to the seven inch you have. I think the copy Ady has features Daydreamer as track one. I put a deposit on the other disc (they wanted £450 for it), which featured Daydreamer as track four, side one, but never picked it up and the shop closed its doors shortly afterwards: I wonder who ended up with that copy? I think Rob Thomas has another acetate and Pete Lowrie also owned a copy at one time, so there are others around. For what it's worth it's my favourite unreleased Motown track, a real beauty which shows what an under-recorded artist Eddie Holland was: the song's tremendous and his vocal's very soulful indeed. Ady re-counted the tale of finding this amid a great haul of one-off publishers discs in the sleevenotes to the Kent CD Gettin' To Me (the eponymous Ben E. King monster was also in the catch) so I'm sure he can tell us more: it was a kind of once-in-a-lifetime find and I'm sure members who are unfamiliar with the story would be very interested by it.

Don't see many mentions of J.J. Lewis "When" on Malaco from the early 70s: was unknown to me until recently and the most enjoyable record I bought in 2008: brilliant tricky midtempo southern soul with vocals of the highest quality and a knee-freezing ending as he sings to much intent against a mass of male backing vocalists.

Martha was about as good as you'd expect her to be: I don't know if she's ever been feted as one of the great technical vocalists and years of not singing regularly to a high standard have not been kind to her. However the point of the enterprise was to pay tribute to her and the song: an icon in its own right which will probably outlive everyone who performed it last night. Performance of the night for me was Dizzee Rascal: he displayed a lot of energy in running through a completely compelling pop song: for me one of the year's finest.

Herbie Mann did a great version on Atlantic.

A truly superb group record. One I was lucky to pick up before the recent hike in the price and am very glad I did. The harmonies are glorious and the swapping of the lead vocal is brilliantly handled, particularly as the record speeds up after the spoken section and the falsetto vocalist comes in. I was thinking of opening a topic on records which owe a debt to the "Tighten Up" rhythm and I think this is one of the very finest of the lot.

A good topic, Dave. Haven't got the facility to post soundfiles but a few off the top of my head would be: Charles Earland & Odyssey "Drifting" from The Great Pyramid (Mercury) although this is on a 12" single as well. Charles Earland & Odyssey "Shining Bright" from Revelation (Mercury) The above two Charles Earland tracks feature the vocals of The Sound Experience's Arthur Grant and are both wonderful soul cuts: Drifting is uptempo, while Shining Bright is maybe the greatest stepper of them all. Pharoah Sanders featuring Phyllis Hyman "Love Is Here" from Love Will Find A Way (Arista) A beautifully profound ballad and for me Phyllis Hyman's best ever record. Melvin Sparks "Get Ya Some" from Melvin Sparks 75 (Westbound) A pounding but cool soul instrumental as opposed to a 'jazz funk' track. This album also features two great vocals from Detroit's Jimmy Scott. I should also mention Coke Escovedo's "I Wouldn't Change A Thing" from Comin' At Ya (Mercury), which might be old hat to many, but is pretty much the definitive example of a soul anthem on a Jazz Funk lp. I think this track is overdue a journey onto the mainstream Northern scene, where I'm sure it has the potential to be very popular.

An awesome record and probably my favourite of Rozetta's issued material. Was quite tough for years but demo copies seem to crop up on ebay every few months now. I've personally never seen an issue copy of this 45: does anyone out there have one at a working man's price (after Chris has been sorted of course)?

I feel exactly the same about it: bought it when I was still very new to soul collecting and thought it was rubbish. It has sat in a box of odds and ends for over two decades. Stumbled across it again recently and was surprised to see that it shared the credits with Wilson Love's fantastic crossover record, The Money Song on Natural Soul Records (in fact both sides of The Natural Soul Band and The Money Song are supposed to be on the same LP: The Natural Soul Show). It got me thinking that while Wilson Love was once something of a rarity until more copies were found, The Joker itself seems decidedly elusive. But while it might be worth £75 in terms of relative scarcity I think I'd have a job actually selling a copy for that amount as it's still, to my ears at least, not a particularly good record.

The Natural Soul Band The Joker c/w Milestones Way Out West Ltd. W.O.W. 3030 Anyone got any clue as to what this is worth these days? TIA for any assistance gareth

The term "essential" is sometimes overused in the soul marketplace, but I consider all these records to be just that. Fair pricing too.

One of my all-time favourite records. I would be interested in hearing some opinions as to the current value of this brilliant 45.

Hi Russ am hoping to hear "Searching" by Change at the 100 Club.

I have a spare in M- condition if anyone's interested.