purist

There's been a couple for sale that I've seen, and they were around the 300 pound mark, so I think 1500 is way over the top. I personally like it, from the NMD nites, but dont think it has mass appeal as its not 100% northern, or 100% x-over/modern, kinda having a foot in both camps but not the whole body in either. My neice, who lives out there, has asked all over Barbados and the local surrounding islands for a copy for me, but to no avail. so its not exactly gonna be a common find. I think Simon told me his copy was found in europe? scandanavia? The guy himself runs talent shows I think, an island hughie green if you like :-)

Anyone looking for a black stock copy, I have a spare, bought in mistake for their other RCA goodie. Cash offers or trades of similar value

Soul Joe Clements - Ever Ever - Stafford Guy Hennigan Jocelyn Brown - Somebody Else's Guy - I will never tire of this track.

It's rare, and fits into the category of " collection sticker" ( in other words, once they get into a collection they stick there) If you've not got one, can I suggest you buy the affordable & findable "My Woman's Love" by the same group to keep you going. It's subtle beauty should not be dismissed the way it often is (outside of Stafford era and X-Over fans)

I've had several and never noticed this fault, mind you when I'm playing oldies at home I often get fed up with most records after about a minute :-)

It's on Triumph. 60 quidish, seen it go up a bit lately. mostly demo's it seems, I like the multi coloured issue label. looks proper. Quite often on the bay, belgium addresses or texas for some reason? Same as her RCA gem "That's Why I Cry" well wroth the investment if you like big voiced gals. check out her Brent 45, Breaking Hearts c/w Fly By Night. Two good sides, FBN being the more venue played of the two, but neither side is over played. The label says Varetta & The Thomases, but think from memory she gets a name credit as writer of one side, so it's definately her ( can't really mistake that wonderful voice)

One nite at TOTW Stafford in the mid 80's my wife suddenly declared this was to be her last niter. No rows or anything, she just said "you'd enjoy it more if you went with your mates". She'd probably done something approaching 10 years by then. I thought she'd have a break for a few weeks and then come back to it. I was wrong, it's got to be getting close to 25 years since she "retired", and in that time she's been to a handful (maybe 5) of soul nites and zero niters in total, and all of them have been soul nites with some special theme ( 40th birthdays, new years eve, etc) yet she loves the music and always dances around the house when I play stuff ( although I can't convince her on the validity of some r'n'b and the slower midpace stuff doesn't often get approval status, and she won't entertain 2K or popcorn at any price- " not northern" is the quote) As for the record buying, we made an agreement when we were young and both earning decent wages, that I wouldn't criticise her for the amount of money she spent on clothes, shoes, make up, tights, etc and she had no say in what I spent my money on, and we've stuck to that ever since. Wouldn't work for everybody, but it works for us, well it has for about 34 years together.

Many thanks for this. One of the best things I've EVER seen or heard on the net. The net has changed vastly our knowledge of soul music, and I'd like to relate this tale for those amongst you who have only recently become soul converts as an example of how we'd chase any leads to try to track down info/records back in the good old days. I read in some obscure privately printed book that Walter Scott often left behind his Bob Kuban band mates to go sing in Chicago studios under various names, as a way of supplementing his income. This fitted in with what we already knew from the few artists we'd got to interview who'd also told us about recording under a variety of names. Because of his vocal ability and tone sounding at times more black than white, I spent a whole evening listening to all the tracks I knew were his, and trying to compare them to any tunes of lesser known chicago recorded acts. You can just imagine the lightbulb moment when I suddenly thought of the LA CINDY 45. It had to be him, guesting with the Admirations while their lead singer was away doing his national service maybe ( it's funny how your brain finds a way to make the facts fit the theory) I knew that somewhere amongst all the junk I'd kept over the years was on a live venue tape with one side of it on. I totally convinced myself that I was right, so now I am so pleased that someone has actually got to the right people, and blown my silly theory out of the water. How strange that they also got their tunes played on the scene under their various guises - you'd never have connected Walter & Admirations with Velvet Hammer - now i'm Happy too !!

Gawd Pat, I remember going to a radio one roadshow at the Laff, sure to be about '68/69, although all I do remember about it was chasing after a blonde girl named Ann. Was there more than one at the laff ? think there was also one at the civic or wulfrun that I went to? anyway back to the good music nites - My memory from most of the 70's is gone due to the lambretta accident I had on the way home from the Laff one nite. Bits I do remember include monday nite live acts, some you mentioned (although I spent many a happy nite there, inc the girlie thursdays ! working in the construction trade we got paid thursdays, so always spent part of the nite there making arrangements for what we were gonna do that weekend, and how we were gonna get there. Even on the pop nites they'd always play a fair amount of northern & current new import soul) I was up on stage dancing with several of the acts, inc Chairmen of the Board and Rufus featuring a very slim, very beautiful Chaka Khan. Major Lance was very cool. I think he performed live there on several occasions, 3 or more times maybe ? On one soul nite after talking to him for quite a while he asked me "where can I get some snow, man?" - Naive, I hadn't got a clue, I thought he must be from a sunny country and had never seen snow before, so I told him he'd have to wait for winter !! It was a few years before I knew where he came from, and what he meant - Is there a more snowy city than Chicago !!! If he hadn't said Man at the end of the sentence I might have twigged, Snowman I ask you Having managed to get a laff membership card at 16 ( looked old even then, were you supposed to be 21 or 18 to join? ) it was a difficult dodge getting in to the teen thing, and being that few years older than most I felt out of place. It was not really the done thing to talk to the "kids", especially as the lads I hung out with were all 2/3 years older than me. Perhaps that's why I ended up first talking to/meeting Harpo at Blackpool Mecca, despite living about a mile apart in wolves and obviously attending many of the same places ? happy days, well about one day in ten was happy, the rest were...... Just remembered one time when Major Lance was on at the Laff was when he was doing a bit of a tour and we saw him at 3 venues the same week. As well as seeing him at the Laff he did a performance at two venues in manchester on the same day, one was a dayer at a club called the Hardrock under the 'New' Torch banner, and I'm guessing the other might have been the Ritz? We moved from the one venue to the other so we could see him perform. I think this might have been '74? anyone confirm when the Ritz started?

Mick, Would that be the black stock copy with the dog at the top, or the dog on the side ? here's mine - fave 70's 45 kalyan - just let me love you fave 60's 45 willie kendrick -whats that on your finger fave ender 45 charles drain i'm gonna stay fave album only roy hamilton - reach out for me but these choices will change every half hour - there you go, less than half an hour and I've already changed, talk about choices - how about Choice Four - Hook it Up, or me saying there you go, how about freddie paris there she goes? just too many ace tunes, but that's what makes it a fun label to collect !

Has anyone got a stock copy, or seen anything other than the yellow demo copies ? purist - p.s. "thee" has two E's in it, a bit like some people at the weekend :-)

Rugby. never miss if I can help it.

Unless you are a "US labels Only" collector can I suggest you buy the UK issue? I've had quite a few US ones and they all played less than perfectly ( I'm being kind, they looked good but played between annoying & rubbish, and this is from someone who's not that fussy) yet every UK copy I've come across plays great. You pays yer money and takes yer choice, I'm not looking for an arguement, this is just my suggestion.

I don't get it, and never have. I've had this friendly arguement in endless record bars at Niters since these tunes were in their first years of play. Surely the Fourth Day version is the one to own? Everything about this record is way much better than E.L. but the final 40+ secs of the F.Day track are heartwrenchingly soulful ( you know the bit when the singer lets go a bit) Plus the lyrics fit much better, the overall feel of the record makes all other versions/takes of this backing sound like unfinished demo's to me. In my memory it was always the F.Day version that filled the floor back in the day. I can only figure that E.L.'s versions were deemed as " rare" and therefore more worthy, but recent internet sales don't seem to bear out this "rare" tag, or am I wrong ? I've always thought that if the E.L. versions had someone else's name on it then it would have never got beyond 3 spins and out. And before you start throwing stones I am a fully paid up member of the E.Laskey Appreciation Society and love almost all of his output, just definitely not this one. Sorry.

many thanks for that John. I'd love to hear it again, even half the track, or a dodgy live venue recording, just to remind myself. Am I about right date wise for this thread, or was it earlier?

I vaguely remember something that I think Richard played that I loved dancing to. Now over the years my memory has faded so can some less forgetful soul help me out? It was called something like " Space Age Lover" or "Automatic Lover" or " Space Age Automatic Lover" you get my drift. He may have credited it to Bill Brandon, but just as likely I'm wrong on that also. I bought Bill " Space Lady" in the hope that this was what it was, but It wasn't the right tune. I bought quite a few Bill Brandon/Sam dees tunes over the years in the vague hope they might get me closer to the answer, they didn't, but they were all good records so no harm done there. Please somebody, HELP !!!!! If you don't know the identity but remember the tune please shout up, so I know I haven't gone bonkers !

It can be a great way to draw attention to a new spin, even if everybody and his dog come up afterwards and tell you they know what it is, at least it's got folk talking about it, which isn't always that easy in a nite of super rare and obscure music. And in these days of more 'so called dj's' copying other dj's spins rather than using their own intuition, it virtually guarantees these guys and gals tracking down a copy and playing it in their very next set, effectively spreading the faith on that tune rather than keeping it hidden under a label. And yes in years gone by I admit I've sat for hours with a photocopy of a wdj label & the lettraset sheets, to create a masterpiece, or at least a decent looking cover up label. My fave wdj to use was a Golden World one, you can imagine the faces when folk came up to deck clock, usually a double take with neck whip at around 150 mph Cover up's are a huge part of our scene's history, it would be such a shame to lose them, or the practice of doing them. On the subject of artistic impersonation, Did anyone else ever buy a hand drawn labelled copy of some indemand 45 in the dark of an early years Niter? I bought two at least on different occasions. One I remember was a UK "Please Operator" made to look like a US, not so much a rip off, more a lesson on pre photocopy art - wish I'd kept them now, bet somebody would want to give me mucho dollars for the nostalgic artwork !

Have some great memories from the BH, all eras, even a few family weddings. I remember the nite when Pep first went with two rooms, and Carl fortnum playing a blinder of a set in the converted cupboard room, as the screwed together dance floor disintigrated before our eyes - think Paul Everton (&/or Brocky maybe ?) were responsible for constructing the floor that afternoon, finishing with only minutes to spare? Did the first dj have to miss their spot because it wasn't quite finished in time, or am I imagining that? Obviously too many uptempo numbers, perhaps a few more beat ballads would have made the floor last until the end of the nite? Saw and held the Kimtone labelled beauty that nite, dunno whose copy it was, yours Ted? or was it Carls or one of the Cavendish regulars? and maybe that was also the first nite I heard "You My Love" (a.k.a. Run Away Tami Lynn) through a big system, when would that have been, 80's? 90's? Dave did you come down the nite Mick Smith was on as guest? I still think to this day in 4 decades that I've put in listening and dancing, that his set that nite was in the top 3 of all time. We told him to cut loose and play all the things he didn't normally have the chance to play. It was such a shame as so few people were there to hear his brilliance. This was when Max, Ken & I had a go at running it, not 100% sure, but after Pep 'n' Helen but possibly before Tait, Martyn, Lin & Davie? I can only date it by remembering it as being the venue where Roger Banks first started playing Kiss My Love Goodbye, which would date it as....? a dozen years back maybe, dunno? The strange but wonderful Cavendish Club nite at the Wagon & Horses - I can tell you the story behind that if you like? When Jack Macdougal moved back to Scotland we kept the weekly soul club going by moving from the Wheatsheaf to the Wagon. Jack had created & overseen the Walsall based club, and in the process had set a record for the longest running weekly (non Niter) soul nite which never missed a week - can't remember now but maybe it was something like 7 1/2 years? - some ridiculously long time anyway, those of us who were regulars decided we didn't want to lose the club so kept it going for another few years. All told we never did miss a nite 52 thursdays a year, even when our regular thursday fell on xmas we still put it on. Typically you'd get a full house one week and 10 paying punters the next week, but it was where we met up to arrange lifts to that w'ends Niters etc - oh the simplicity of the scene before the interweb! So, on the nite in question, when we turned up at The Cavendish people were starting to arrive and were being told the nite wasn't going to happen, so I suggested to Pep that I could go ask if the Wagon would let him have the room for that evening. After much begging and pleading the landlord agreed, so Pep posted some unfortunate soul by the Cavendish door to tell everyone where the pub was and off we all set. (I'm not sure now what reason we were told the nite couldn't go ahead at the Cavendish, maybe it was the room was double booked, or was it that there was no equipment?) I kept my equipment in the pub most of the time so it was easy to set it up and the Cavendish nite went ahead with folk jammed in tight in the darkness, with equally as many upstairs in the lounge and bar rooms, even some out the back door onto the car park - even in those days we were ahead of the game, I'll bet the young 'un's today think they invented going outside to have a cool off and a smoke To me that nite was like when I first went into a jammed 'Octopus' as a kid, and if one person danced everybody else did because you were all wedged together, so you kinda got caught in the swaying motion - Hi Ho Bloody Silver Lining indeed !! Anyway back to the Wagon nite, I seem to remember being told by one old face that he'd tried to get downstairs but it was too full so he'd sat in the lounge all nite, but still got charged full money, " and so you should" I said, "You could still hear the brilliant music" Bet that didn't surprise anyone that he'd paid, what's the odds that the bar room regulars were charged that nite for occupying their usual seat in their own local ! The upshot of having that mega packed nite? - well the landlord expected us to be able to reproduce those numbers every thursday, which of course was impossible, so we lost our room, and the long running weekly club ended. Talk about no good deed going unpunished. I enjoy these threads as we all have different bits to contribute, different memories, which all together help paint the picture that is our scene's history.

Irrespective of which title, or which side of the 45, you gotta admit ol' Marvin's voice has got a quality about it that few could match. For me it's definitely one that fits into the "Impossible to play to death by overplaying" category, but my additional question is on the UK Kent pressing - are the only promo copies ones that bear the sticker of the promotion company, or are there any printed promo's? btw Rod, you makes oiy larf

There's another mix or version, Hitsville Chalky played it a couple of years back, and to be honest although I really like the released one, this one is better, from a northern soul perspective. This other version deserves more playing at venues, so if you see him dj'ing ask for it, you wont be disappointed...

Hi Craig, Behave Yourself was covered up as Christine Cooper, and like many flipsides that came into vogue many years after the topside was popular, it remained covered for quite a long time - well at few months anyway Cant tell you exactly when (I expect somebody with a set of old Black echoes can track it down, should they so wish, as I remember it being listed in several playlists I think) my guess would be when the more relaxed tempo, more soulful vocal sounds came to the fore - 1979-1985 ?? You rarely hear it played out these days, which is a shame as it's a blinding tune, great shout Craig ( always knew you had good taste ) From memory it was around the same time as Mel Britt " Just Sit & Cry" c/u, which was Jerry Tiffe on Scepter, reinvented as a new discovery by a certain dj about 20+ years later, cant remember his name I think it sounds much better under the cover up name than the real one, but that's possibly another thread... Flipside finding - One of my greatest joys ever was to sit with a newly arrived Soul Bowl 100 pack, carefully slice open one end and play through each record, first one side then the other, in the order they came out of the box, preferably without looking at the labels, finding the edge of the record by feel, being careful not to put the stylus down too far into the song. I'd then write the artist name and only the side I thought worth playing on a fresh cardboard sleeve and file them away. I'd stretch the process out to make it last as long as I could, because I couldn't afford to buy one very often. Funny thing is, donkeys years later when I play through them again I find my tastes have changed, and the side I wrote on the sleeve isn't the side I prefer now - and when you do find something you've owned for decades tucked away on a long forgotten flip it's like having free records - yippee !! The packs I'm talking about were the 100 records for a tenner, think that might have been eleven quid odd including a very slow parcel post? (couldn't wait for them to arrive) It's no wonder every time these packs come up in a record bar conversation that the same quote is heard - " I should have bought more of them packs "

For me the best ones always look like the music means something to them, as though they are at one with the vocals, the instruments, the lyrics, not just somebody incorporating gymnastics just for the sake of it. I think each decade has it's icons, as music styles have changed so has the dancing, but for me the overall best has to come from the most prolific generation, the 1970's, and back then Wolverhampton's Gethro (and his missus) epitomised northern soul dancing. He had an effortless grace, irrespective of the tempo. He never looked out of control or hurried, even when other seemed frantic as they attempted to keep up with those thousand mile an hour stompers so popular back then, he never did. One thing that always strikes me is that you can tell when folk started their dancing by the differences in the style they dance, for example people from around my way who were around in the first five years of the 70's tend to dance much more leaning back (appearing to almost sit on an invisible chair, can't think of a better way to describe it) with their knees slightly bent, than people who came along later did. Not all, but some, recent converts to the scene dance very upright or even worse, leaning forward as though they want to watch their own feet ( just looks wrong to me, sorry. I worry that they are about to topple over, face first into the dance floor. Or maybe they are just checking that their laces are tied ?) Just remembered another old school one, was a tendancy to turn their head to look left when shuffling right, and turn the head left when shuffling rightwards. Always looked cool that one, dancing one way while looking the other. Those cool looking little touches that set dancers apart seem to have almost disappeared these days, or am I just not noticing ? I never mind people not being able to dance these days, but I get miserable that folk can't even clap in the right place, and most don't even bother - have people got no sense of the tribal customs of our scene?

I was having problems with lifting all my old boxes of various sizes due to my illness (oh for those 1970's days when I used to run up the stairs to venues with a 600 count box in each hand, and yes of course you needed to take 1200 records to do a four hour soul nite!!) so I decided that the best thing to do was find something smaller for the odd occasions that I go out dj'ing these days. I knew I was going to HTFRec's in B'ham to buy a new turntable, so I searched through their site to see what boxes they had of a smaller capacity. One, a matt silver with shiney corners flight case style etc, looked quite narrow in depth but 3 rows, seemed to fit the bill as it quoted capacity of 150 (even my brain could work out they meant three rows of fifty) and I reckon on my best day I could lift that amount (or ask my son to, as he usually gets landed with the job these days) I took ages making my mind up over which deck, and even longer on which stylus to buy, so the box was almost an afterthought. When the salesman got it out for me to buy, along with all the other stuff I'd bought I thought it looked bigger than I'd imagined, but by then I just wanted to get all my purchases in the motor and get home. Several weeks went by before I decided to transfer some 45's into the box. I quite looked forward to the challenge of whittling down my 250 box, playing through, deciding which dancefloor disasters would get left behind. Knowing things like capacities are only ever approximations I thought what I'd do first was fill the new box with records from my 250 box and see how many I still had left, which would tell even a dummy like me thats how many I had to leave out when I'd sorted through. I knew it should have been 100 but you know some 45's are on thicker vinyl and many acetates are 3 times the size of those thin RCA wdj's. So I started to transfer them a handful at a time, from the old 2 row 250 box, to this 3 row 150. Pretty soon I knew something was off kilter. They all went in - with room to spare ! I went and got more records and continued filling it. Now some of my 45's are only in a cardboard sleeve and others are in the company sleeve inside the cardboard, and the odd few picture sleeves are in card and plastic, so they're not all the same thickness. The eventual count was 284 - some funny 150 count box this is !!! I thought about getting rid of the box, but I didn't, because I liked it. Now either my son, or one of my put upon friends get the job of lifting it into venues, with it straining at the seams with about 290 wedged in ( well you always think of one more that you absolutely need to take - well I do just as I'm about to leave home) I've got some smaller boxes and I even bought some of those cheapo HMV 50 count size, but for now I'll stick with my " 150 " , ..... and yes it has got rounded edges p.s. just looked, it's not on their site anymore, shame, I was thinking about buying another!

Best Bassline Intro into a Northern Dancer ? Sam Dees "Lonely For You Baby" SSS a.k.a. Dan Brantley C/U Stafford Wuff Wah !!

dont think they're the same backing (?!) but to my cloth ears they're similar - well I always have to stop and check which one it is coming out of the speakers Chantels - Indian Giver - Verve Gloria Grey - Its A Sweet World - Wbros anybody ??? prefer G.Grey myself