Ady Croasdell

That's very interesting and good for you for sticking with it and not letting those early incidents put you off. I think this and other anecdotal replies an PMs show that there may have been the odd incident but few and far between and nothing too serious though I wouldn't condone any at all. I'm sure there's been the anti-Scot, Welsh Irish, European, Southern, even Northern comment over the years too. If anyone has racist views, hopefully not, I'm pretty sure they keep them to themselves. I think that quote has been largely discredited unless something else comes out of the woodwork.

He's not a Guardian reporter, it was a quote

The Night Angel, actually Hanway Place, next door. I took a posh girl to Colombo's down Carnaby St which was virtually all black but cool too.

Agreed, but is it an old quote or one for this article?

Nowt wrong with the Guardian, we'd still have the News Of The World, Tabloid phone-tapping, Andy Coulson and Jonathon Aitken if they'd not been around.

He's a wuss then, I went down a reggae all nighter in the West End on my Jack in 1970 and was the only white face; no trouble, great fun.

In today's Guardian, there's a discussion on young black Americans producing new vintage-style soul sounds. In it Craig Charles says "The whole Northern Soul scene was white. Some black people who went to those events suffered racism." I've been going since 1969 and knew Dalbert a black DJ from Wellingborough who was a popular face on our Northants scene and met several other black people over the years. I myself was the only long-haired person among 100+ skinheads at my first nighter, but was welcomed by one girl in particular who said "It's nice to see some weirdos here". It would be nit-picking to argue about the scene being white, as it was overwhelmingly but not exclusively. My experience has always been that people are more than happy to see black people anywhere on the scene and in fact we don't even think in those terms; it's a given. So where did this quote come from? Was it the Jazzy B TV comment of a few years ago which was just ignorance or have some black people experienced this? It would be ridiculous to think that there had never been racist comments somewhere, some time, but would these have been from people on the scene or attendees who just came along for a beer or some gear? It would be good to have some examples of prejudice or welcoming; particularly from black people or their close friends.

Quite right Mike, an interesting article which unfortunately doesn't mention the likes of Lee Fields and Charles Bradley or Jake Mitchell. The Craig Charles comment deserves a separate thread which I'm just about to do.

Never heard of that, it would be interesting to hear.

I got the impression it was a made up label for YouTube that someone had done. I've never seen a vinyl copy. They put one on an OC Tolbert 45 of ours.

About September

Yes

Indeed, not issued the Cavaliers on that one

But on Rare Collectible & Soulful Vol 2 CDKEND 156; still available

If I remember correctly it's a Kent Harris song

I doubt he claimed that, it would have been impossible then. I think all the covers they did came out on uk labels and Epstein used to order one of everything or summat like that

True but he reserved most of his vitriol for the Moody Blues great version of Go Now, so different from Bessie Banks they could have been different compositions; but weren't of course

John was the nearest to a soul singer, listen to him on the inappropriately named Happiness Is AWarm Gun

George had a jukebox that was 90% soul

George was a big soul fan and when on Ready Steady Go went out of his way to thank Dave Godin for his promotion of soul music in the UK. They were big chums with Doris Troy of course and signed her to their Apple label

Yes longer and alternate to some degree, Kent CD or 45 still available as we speak.

Thanks Andy, the Paxton line is the correct one. I didn't know about the Cinderellas so that was useful too. Cheers Ady

Thanks Mark, now I can picture it. Sounds a good weekend. I'm cool with the CDs there; as long as they're Kent ones LOL

I'm glad you had a nice time but I am none the wiser as to what the music was like or who the DJs were or how many attended Brits and locals.

Sorry, yes Ohio and Kenneth Head are Kenny Carter and we don't know anything about Kenny Carlton. Thanks Robb