Daved

I love Betty Wright but she could be a candidate. I mean that it an amusing, respectful kind of way because she's done many brilliant things over the years and is a great song writer too.

Damon Rochefort also started up a mag to rival Blues & Soul in the 80s, which featured Richard S and Ralph Tee as columnists. In fact, I think Damon used to write for B&S too. He may have been The Mouth.

As far as I can see that's his only appearance so far. Pity because he's still on my wish list of live acts I haven't seen yet.

Great stuff. Really enjoyed that.

Agreed. I think it's the best compilation they've released in years.

Yeah, and he probably played it first in 1978! Seriously, it wouldn't surprise if he did play in as a new release in 1982. He was quite good.

Martha Reeves & the Vandellas - No More Tear Stained Make Up. A lesser known, wonderful ballad penned by Smokey Robinson, which ends full of optimism

Good post. Just a few things to add from me. The early 80s scene you describe is still very much alive in a revival kind of way. Similar to the norther oldies scene (but perhaps with slightly younger folk), there are countless dos in the southeast attend by middle aged people still dancing to Standing Right Here. Caister continues to be very popular too. Agree about the rapid change from 1987/88. I saw that Prestatyn weekender video recently too and I was alarmed at the change and how huge acid house was so quickly. Hip hop and other genres were also getting huge too. The music itself caused a demise. It went very downtempo and some of those mid 80’s productions were awful. I always think that release of Keith Sweat’s “Make It Last Forever” LP was the beginning of the end and as far as soul releases on major labels were concerned for the next 8 years or so. However, there was some very high quality real soul releases going on which weren’t widely popular in regular clubs like By All Means, Broomfield, Chapter 8, Dee Dee Wilde, etc. As for rare groove, the big stuff (not just Jean Knight J) did get nationwide exposure and I liked some of it. It should have resonated more with me having been brought up on northern soul, but I’d just spent the last 5 years buying old records and was enjoying buying lots of contemporary new releases from places like City Sounds.

This cam out in January. Lots of other great tracks have been released since but this not bettered yet imo Rhonda Thomas - Show Me How To Love You

Maybe I've misunderstood, but there's no way The O'Jay's "I Love Music", Luther Vandross "Never Too Much" and some others listed above can be considered northern soul. Their appeal was much, much wider and even if it was played in a handful of small northern venues, it didn't do anything to broaden that appeal (except perhaps to the 100s who were there on the night)

I saw that, What a terrible, opportunistic title for stuff that is neither northern, modern or soul!

Sorry I have nothing to add regarding the intro or different releases, but does anyone else think this record is absolute rubbish. It's got to be up there with the worst 10 played on the scene ever

It was even a big tune in Gillingham. It was probably 1984 by the time it reached Kent lol

Very sad news. I met Sean when I went to the first Morecambe Soul Festival about 7 years ago, that he helped to organize. The first night involved a coach trip to the Orwell at Wigan and he sat in front of me talking about music, football and cricket. I made a very long journey up from Chatham that day and he told me he once attended a Morecambe away match in Margate and made the return journey in one day. A lovely fella, who was very chatty and welcoming. We exchanged pm's a couple of months ago, when I found out he was ill, and it's so sad to hear about this so soon after. RIP my friend.

It wasn't bootlegged. it was a legal reissue from Soul Brother.

Good luck. I'm sure you'll have a great night. I'd enjoy seeing them.

Thanks. I saw them on Friday at Hyde Park supporting The Who on one of the smaller stages in the afternoon. They were great!

Daptone is mentioned

The jazz funk scene had a lot more black faces but it was still predominantly white, with no racism there either.

What about on July 18th when Crystal Palace are playing there?

It's not quite as bad as the vocal to "You Better Wake Up Girl"

Peggi Blu appeared at the Fleetwood weekender in 2002 to promote her excellent Livin' On Love CD which Expansion released. I would've thought that if she was Carl Hall's sister, it would've come out then. I could've asked her husband and manager, Ted Perlman, in early 2003 had I known of the possibility then. After I listed her CD in my top 10 of 2002 in an article on this site, he got in touch with Mike and offered an interview with her, which Mike passed on to me. I started to do some research and prepared some questions on working with Jerry Ragovoy amongst other subjects but, regrettably, never followed it through. Dave M, I presume it's Ted that you're going to ask?

No idea but it sounds like they spent a lot of time listening to Cloud Nine.

​Yes, that CD set is one of the best of its kind for many years imo

A lot of those tracks were big in the late 90s when I was out and about a lot so maybe 1997/8?