macca

Their 'Have Love Will Travel' is better than Richard Berry's too. I've just said something heretical, but what the hell...

You mean feets on floors Reg :-) Tables & chairs should be banned. No rest for the wicked etc; M

Interesting thread. When I first attended all-nighters at the age of 15, most of the older guys were probably no older than 25, at the very most. Had we been surrounded by people our parents' age, we simply wouldn't have gone, would we? The vast majority of people attending UK venues are approaching 50, some approaching retirement age or over, in some cases. I visited the 100 Club two years ago with two Spanish friends who are my youngest nephew's age 26. The first question they asked was 'why are all these people sitting down?' What are the tables for?' Record dealers, I replied somewhat unconvincingly. Two thirds of the crowd were sitting down, unthinkable at a Sp nish gig. Over here, I'm in a clear minority & I feel my bloody age, surrounded by folk aged 25-35. I would hardly consider 30 something to be middle aged either, unless life expectancy in Brown's Britain has taken a tumble. I understand these guys' concerns a 100% & say go ahead on, create those venues & take it to river.

I've obviously missed out the cheese front then. LR & other stuff, like Cobblestone, used to have me run off the dancefloor well sharpish. But then I've danced to Flamma Sherman for gawd's sake. I blame the medicine of course. :-)

I went to the KGB just once, but being a st.ives nut I wasn't that impressed. My only memory of it is buying Let Her Go - Otis Smith on Perception and leaving my brand new leather bomber jacket in the cloakroom there. I only realised when I got to the station that it wasn't on me back. Had to walk all the way back to the KGB, missing the train. I remember Terry Samson as a curly haired, famiable sort of chap, actually welcomed us at the door, asking where we were from etc; Don't know whether it was PR or what, but it was appreciated at the time, especially after having st.ives wrenched from us.

Surprised a man of your soul pedigree owning that Lou Roberts tosh Mr. Bicknell ;-) Macca.

Interesting points Russ. I do think we have to be careful with the word tourist though. Could the guy/gal who went assiduously to the Casino (& other venues) from 73 onwards be considered a tourist in the commonly understood sense of the word? Some of these people, rightly or wrongly, couldn't make that musical transition of the post Wigan era. I myself got onboard the beery 'Don't You Just Know It' vibe of West Hampstead & the 100 Club, but I guess it must have seemed very bizarre to some folk. I never attended Stafford, but from what I've heard it was very left-field & as revolutionary as Blackpool Mecca in its heyday. It wouldn't suprise me if some folk couldn't make head nor tail of that scene either. I guess it's a case of horses for courses. The good thing is that there seems to be something out there for everybody, wherever you go, be it the UK or over here on the continent.

Baby Sugar I love You - Prince Ella & Sydney Jones on Prince. Sam used hammer this back in 76 & it used to drive me crazy. Played it off the NS Story Vol 8 the other night & thought bugger me, it's not that bad. A real tub thumper. Has this record remained rare?

"They gone native with the ma±ana approach - i.e. they cancelled without telling me." I've lived here for 17 years and have NEVER encountered such a problem, on the contrary. Think it's more to do with them being a rude bunch of c***s than a reflexion on the 'natives'. I find it galling to read stuff like this on what is essentially an international forum Or have I got out the wrong side of the bed this morning? If I'm wrong, I'll apologise unreservedly. M

Getting Mighty Crowded is as good as anything that came out of the Motown stable, no? Chicago put down some tunes, no doubt about it... M

Don't think we can talk about it in these terms 'cos when Berry stumbled on that sound, Dave Godin hadn't yet formed the TMAS & was 5 or 6 years away from coining that term, peculiar only to the UK. I'd say we're partial to music recorded in that style & Motown of course weren't the only purveyors. They would say something like 'often imitated but never equalled', but that's down to personal taste rather than hard facts. If 'This Old Heart Of Mine' had been discovered by Ian Levine or Graham Warr, it'd be one of the holy grails (clich) of the scene. Answering the question, yes, I love Motown. The early stuff bores me a little, but when they get into that thump, thump groove ie 'I Guess I'll Always Love You' it's just so uplifting. The Psyche like Ball of Confusion & Cloud Nine doesn't really reach my parts, even though the vocals are second to none. Motown is definitely the corner upon which the house was built, in UK terms that is. M

When I went to the Casino for the first time in february 1975, Love Bandit was at its height & it was a big record. I didn't know what to make of it, being more into things like the Velvet Satins, but it was certainly a big sound. Jem Rice, a geezer from Peterborough, bought a copy of it that night & was fondling it lovingly on the train all the way back home. My memory could be playing tricks on me of course. Was that a Mecca thing that Winstanley gave the nod of approval to? M

I love Jake Thackeray. There's some nice vids on Youtube of the great Jake. Got to see him too, at Cambridge Folk Festival. Brought the house down. Wry Yorkshire humour... & I'm from Cambridgeshire.

Nowt that a good kenwood magimix wouldn't put right though, is it? I heard that Los Canarios was massive in Hose Street (is it fashionable now to say the club's location rather than the name?). The lead singer of Los Canarios, Teddy Bautista from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is now the president of the Spanish SGAE, an organisation that defends writers & artists from intellectual property theft. He had a damn good voice in my opinion. Here's Teddy:-

Looking for a M- stock copy of this record. Anybody got one they want to shift? Cheers, Mac.

Duelling Banjos is Eric Weissberg I think. I once sat through a whole gig of his stuff & loved it to bits. I decided to attend Cambridge Folk Festival in I think 1976, or probably 1977, having a month off from the scene, so to speak. I still love Bluegrass & Old Time to this day. Always fancied meself as a fiddle player too. Mike Post could have done Rhona's Theme as well. It all seemed so right then, didn't it?

Incidentally, I had a stocker of this in the late 80's & don't remember paying a lot of money for it, certainly no more than 30 quid. Same goes for Thelma Lindsey 'Prepared To Love You' on Magic City. I paid a top dealer 40 quid for it in 1990. Was 40 quid indicative of nominal rarity then? These things are beyond me, really. I don't see any arrogance in Johan's post. I think it's very matter of fact & I also think that language has to be taken into account. We would probably have said 'this kind of thing is not really my cup of tea' or 'doesn't really push my buttons'. More to do with tone than content. Exploitation is a strong word in this case methinks. When I think of exploitation I think of children in sweatshops in Asia. Subsharan immigrants trying to cross the straits of Gibraltar.

Mighty list. I thought Mr. Levine had claimed most of these for himself. I guess we'll never really know, but if it's true, Mr. Warr ought to receive a lifetime achievement award.

In an age of seemingly unapproachable DJs, Brian was already ready to share his knowledge of records & the early scene with whippersnappers like me. That meant a lot to me back then & still does now. Un tio cojonudo, as they say here. :-)

I think I said on a previous thread that my parents had received a phone call out of the blue about 5 years ago but he didn't leave a number or an address. I've tried googling him, but haven't been able to throw anything up. I'm sure he'd be touched by the st.ives party idea. as mick says, we were young guns & people like james were fair game, sadly. I used to put him on myself from time to time, but never in a really cruel way. I think he valued the fact that he was welcomed not only into my family home, but also into me old mucker mark draycott's. When I think of james I think of the brown singlet, the fu manchu moustache, the WWI army greatcoat & that plumby oxbridge accent. "macky, do you think tony dellar would mind awfully if I asked him to play joe hicks again?" He used to literally lose the plot to linda jones 'I just can't live my life', so the man evidently had taste. yvonne vernee & nancy wilson were other records that 'got to him' in a big way. I'd call his dance style expressive in an unorthodox way.

Saw this listed as a Mod classic recently. I can imagine them taking to it, but it sounds like unlawful appropriation to me. On my way to the cloakroom...

Van Morrison has been paying homage to BB throughout his performing career, so if anybody has talken Bobby Bland to a wider audience, it's him. They are good friends & have gigged together on numerous occasions. Mick Hucknall? Never my cup of tea, but if it helps BB sell more records, then all well & good.

now that is sad to hear. I last saw him at skegness 1980/1. I remember being in pub with tony warot & martyn, being brave lads, we'd slipped in their quietly to avoid the marauding 'we are the mods' lot, who were hell bent on a 'row' on the seafront. funny old game...

In the grounds of a stately home such as Knebworth House would be nice. The catering doesn't have to be awful, Cambridge Folk Festival always has good tucker. A beer tent sponsored by a brewery like Fullers & then individual marquees hosting music by genre, another marquee for record sellers & dealers, & a special area set aside for camping facilities, showers etc; Children's entertainment etc, etc. I don't think it's such a bad idea & I think I'd prefer it to the holiday camp type experience, but then I'm just a snob. I wouldn't mind setting up a tapas stall there. I'd bring a suitably attired spanish granny over to turn out authentic tortillas non-stop. The vino would be brought over in a transit van & I'd wack it out for 8 quid a bottle or two quid a glass. Can't say fairer than that, can you? The more I think about it...

I'm very pro-Bloomfield 'cos I'm a big Bob Dylan fan, even admitted the fact on here a while back. When the flak started flying, Mr. Rounce & a few others kindly came to my aid. :-) It's interesting to note that Frank Elson & Dave Godin are/were also big Dylan fans. When I learnt that they were 'members of the club', I didn't feel such a heretic chilling out to Blood On The Tracks after a night at Wigan. :-) Going back to Bloomfield, most people seem to think Clapton is the man, but I prefer Bloomfield's searing, menacing style & that weird hunch-back position. Maggies Farm at Newport 65 is another extraordinary clip of him in action.