Ady Croasdell

Please Ady

Because not everyone wants Motownesque records all the time, because Ian Levine's taste was far from infallible, he has a much higher love of pop than most soul fans (as do I) and the records that went big through the 80s and 90s came from 100s of different sources, Ian's neglected collection was only one small part of it.

Chris, your post is ridiculous. Butch plays virtually all classic soul style records and your leader Mr Levine would concur with that. He doesn't clear dancefloors anywhere and that's why he's been rated as the top rare Northern Soul DJs for the last 15 years at least.

I'll ask the other DJs whether it would be something they would use, I know it would be helpful to me on the Friday and Sunday. What exactly does Tom do when he's scribbling, presumably for his own interest. Is he in the main room most of the time and how late does he stay up?

The writing down by the DJ wouldn't work for me. With 2 and a bit minutes records and people up on stage for requests, I don't have time. If I've been upstairs at the 100 Club working or just extra dozy, I ask someone who's stationed themselves at the front of the stage most of the night, Mike Gibbs, Trickster, Joel, James, Matt Bolton etc. The only problem is when James says Pat & The Blenders has been played when it hasn't cause he's bored with it. It's not a big problem at the 100 Club but at Cleethorpes with people wandering round at odd hours and in odd places, I perhaps could get a stenographer to list the sounds for everyone. They'd have to be very knowledgable though and hopefully wouldn't start uncovering Butch's cover-ups!

I think you were probably right first time; it isn't just leopards that don't change their spots.

That post put it in a good perspective Rod. I'd disagree a bit with the beat ballads though. Barbara McNair wasn't that slow once it got going and was ususally played on UK because it was iconic, rare Motown. The Drifter was another mid tempo play but the likes of Johnny Maestro, Kurt Harris, Tony Mason's 'Take Good care', Trends 'Not Too Old To Cry' and Simmsy's favourite 'Gone Gone' were slower and more ballady (such writing skills!). Slower records were usually only played as enders until then. Also the 6TS nights weren't R&B nights in the slightest, they just featured some good R&B dancers. It was the 6TS Rhythm 'n' Soul Society and the mix has often been used as a genre by some clubs to describe their music policy. Sorry for being pedantic but we might as well get it all right while we're at it.

He Didn't Know and Let The Good Times Roll are Spring tracks they must have added to the Uni LP hopefully legally by licensing them from us.

If we'd been finding a constant stream of If That's What You Wanted, Key To My Happiness and Agent O O Soul we might not have gone so far down that road, but I think the scene needed a variation in black music styles about that time to make it interesting and vital, so with our roots I think we would have gone down that path anyway. Records like Johnny Maestro weren't that easy to find.

Just to clear up any 100 Club/Stafford misconceptions. The original 6TS nights were very much 60s Mod Soul nights as inspired by original mod Randy Cozens and some great London based soul DJs who knew their stuff. So we played mid-tempo, R&B, Latin influenced and cool mid tempo numbers out of choice, not because we had run out of stompers. They were evening nights with beer as opposed to nighters with gear and the mix was brilliant. When we changed to nighters out of necessity, we reverted to a more Northern formula to match the new hours, after a few years the scene had stagnated somewhat and the newies of Stafford revitalised everything. Being more of a soul fan than a Northern fan, I personally took the beat ballad, Latin and R&B type records and added them to my play list. We kept the classic dance style records but personally i didn't go for the manic dancers like She's Fire that some of the Stafford crowd liked (I'd stopped taking doobs by then!). The master tape discoveries from Scepter Wand and RCA etc, meant we could play great new discoveries like Magic Touch, Torture, Ooh It Hurts Me in the classic uptempo style but could also spin What's With This Loneliness, Willie Kendrick's She'll Be Leaving You and The TKOs Make Up Your Mind. So we went mid-tempo at times out of choice not necessity and still played brilliant new classic stompers. A case in point was me swapping Ernestine Eady with Butch for Cleveland Robinson Love Is A Trap. Bad economic sense but I don't regret it and played Cleveland much more than I would have Ernestine Eady because I love one and am indifferent to t'other.

No and I saw the lad I sold it to on the 22nd at the Harboro do. He'd have told me if he'd contacted the bloke he sold it to.

I think that early 80s period was a time when the knowledge of collectors, DJs and dealers taught us what records were genuinely rare and the clever ones picked up tomorrows monsters relatively cheaply. I am very sorry to say I was not one of that clever crowd. Yes I think rarety at the start of the Northern Scene was secondary to how good the music was. Because it was all new, the quality of the record (for the tastes of the time) mattered above all. It still is to a large extent but rarety has come more into it on some parts of the scene. I think the Tams HGDBM was first re-released because of the scene but picked up plays from non-scene DJ's quickly and crossed over to the great unwashed. It must have been N Soul's first big hit, and possibly its biggest

Yeah Cavaliers before Al Gardner but before that at least three different Larry Banks versions.

Really sorry to hear that news mate. He's a tough charachter but he'll need to be at the moment. My thoughts and sympathies are with you Nogger. Ady

I won't be able to hear it until next year now.

At Ace we've got a master tape which goes on quite a few seconds longer at the end. Andy Rix used to play it out.

All sorted for this and the two others now thanks. SS does it again. Ady

PM me if you can help and I'll give you summat for your stocking.

PM me if you can help and I'll give you summat for your stocking.

I should also say that Dave Burton let me have it for much less than he could have got for it because I was an impoverished student and he was always dead kind to me.

I bought a copy off Dave Burton from a legendary chest (literally) of 45s a music biz rep brought down his shop in Soho about 1972. Lots of discoveries came out of that box. My favourite story that I bore everyone with is - I was in Val Shively's shop in Philly when John Anderson happened to also be there and I asked him if he'd ever had Nolan Chance on Bunky. He told me it didn't exist to which i smugly replied that I'd got one. No one knows everything! i sold it to John Vincent in the mid 70s, I'm not sure where it ended up.

We thought of it as an 8 track 12", but it's debatable.

You were working as a journo for the gutter press (Back Beat!). Those exposes on my flairs probably blew your chances.

It was actually just short of 100, 80 or 90 something. i had about 6 Corey Blakes and sold them for a few quid each; not the smartest.

See the post before yours Mike.