Dave

I don't really get this. Are you two saying that some people visit soul websites instead of going out to events? If so, I don't believe it: Listening to music via mp3/cd in a solitary manner is a completely different experience to listening to it played loud at an event, sharing it with like-minded folk! They are not interchangeable. For me this and other sites have led me to events that I may not otherwise have visited and I can't remember the last time I brought a flyer home with me, and I'm sure I'm not alone there, so the net benefits some venues. Indeed I know people who have returned to the scene who only discovered the scene still existed when they got the internet! IMO the main factor reducing attendances is the current overkill, with too many similar nights spreading crowds ever thinner and pulling friends to different venues. Once you go to a place thats half full and lacking both atmosphere and the friends you expected to see there, you generally don't go again, thus compounding the problem.

Your very first post and a contender for plank of the week award!

Yes, yes.. I know. I don't need a history lesson. The point I was making was that the audience of a lightweight tea time prog wouldn't be interested in facts as we know them. Much better to present a bit of easily digestible nostalgia in fancy dress.

Indeed! A wigan pastiche! Which differs from a cornish pastiche in that it contains potato rather than swede.

Fair point Davie. So you're saying the show actually flattered the scene?

Another example of how the scene is, don't you mean? Let's be honest, that was a fair reflection of 80% of the soul nights every weekend. It's a nostalgia scene for the majority. I don't understand why everyone is getting so uptight about this programme, what did you expect? It's a frivolous, teatime light entertainment show, not a documentary. Do you really think the show's audience care if Winstanley exaggerates a bit, or that they want to know about the way a minority of the scene has evolved into the small upfront nights that a few hundred anoraks attend today? It's not life and death!

Interesting stuff! Can we have more detail/links re some of these stories? I'm particularly interested in any anecdotes involving Trouble, as they are always entertaining. Did his detractor really call him "mate"?

Well I'll say so: I don't like it. How's that?

12? As in number of disciples? How spooky is that?

Profits to the "Latter Day Church Of Born Again Record Dealers"??

But presumably she looked at him and realised there are far less distasteful ways of settling here, yes?

More than one very valid point there Mark! One of the best posts on the whole sales thread.

Hmm.. can't comment really as personally I've only heard them at fairly "conservative" events. Awesome is the right word for Milton James! So powerful I can't really think of it as mid-tempo.

Bit of a sweeping generalisation, that! There are DJs that have the variety of records, and sufficient regard for the paying crowd, to entertain at either type of venue. One who can, and does, is Mick H.

Decent track, I'll give you that. Better than most on this Sales thread, but "one of the best soul tracks ever"? Steady! And stop shouting!

Blimey! Just had to check where you are from. I thought I recognised that Mr Lazy for a second. Spooky!

Right.. I don't really want to get drawn into this little side game but as a final word I would say your point was actually dis-proven. And I think there is only one way to "take" you when you start calling respected members "ars*hole"!

Sorry Richard.. you got there just before me!

Wind away if you like Beeks, without personal abuse if possible mind, but you've shot yourself in the foot with the remarks about the leading DJs, and again with the remark about RW.. he is the total antithesis of what Butch, Mick, Andy and a few more stand for!

Seriously Steve, yes a number of us punters on here do care, but there aren't that many of us punters on here, are there? Most are Promoters, DJs, even those involved in the music industry and a lot of them seldom go to events apart from their own and those they're DJing at. Probably 90% of out and out punters, especially oldies fans, don't look on here and, (be this patronising or not), do not care about format. As was said some time ago, the nostalgia scene has no bearing on the "progressive" side and is arguably contributing to it's decline, but whatever we think makes no difference, particularly as the progressive scene is very much the minority sport.

That's astonishing hypocrisy. Akin to condemning the makers of child pornography then saying the people that download it have no responsibilty for it.

Beeks, that really is a ridiculous post. Have you heard Butch, Andy or Mick play? Do you understand the two distinctly different scenes within "northern soul" which have been talked about on this thread? If you are going to make posts like that, you would be better off in the shopping centre thread... that's the place for such ignorance!

*Exits stage left amidst a swirl of chiffon*

"Tell me darling, is that a furnishing fabric?"

Maybe Ed thought you might have a tiny bit of interest in the real northern/rare soul scene? You know.. the one where thousands of people attend events to enjoy music every weekend? The sort of thing that this site is about? No? Ah well, silly idea really.