Davenpete

Would be useful to know the sorts of things you're into. Top of the list for me would be The Showstoppers Ain't Nothing But A Houseparty/What Can A Man Do - dead cheap, historically important and there ain't many better Northern tracks than WCAMD to my mind. Dx PS I'd go for Please Stay Close to Me every time rather than Playgirls Love from the Five Stairsteps.

Jeanette HAS to be the worst - when I bought the last copy I had at Morecambe for £7 (the previous two I had were under a fiver) there were 20 copies in the box. I believe that Tim Brown used to have 350 copies of that dreadful Doug Banks rubbish, Dx

I could certainly see Ady being a top candidate for an award for the crucial work he's done for the furtherance of soul music over the years with Kent/Modern, the 100 Club and Cleethorpes etc - however that in no way detracts from Richard who thoroughly deserves this award and is of course a much higher profile figure amongst the general public. Dx

Personally I prefer the original version by Simply Red 🤡

I would've thought it a reasonable assumption that it's Tony Orlando, as in the old Wigan stomper 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon' : )

We managed her for RS and Kev over the weekend - lovely lady. Dx

Plus of course pretty obvious, but Barbara Lynn's version of William Bell etc (much prefer WB) - Trying to love two. And Barbara Carr's god-awful version Clarence Carter's version of Messing With My Mind.

...And a little off topic but Johnnie Taylor and Carla Thomas' brilliant duet version of Steve Mancha (etc etc etc) - think it cost me £1.50.

...Or the other side of I'd Rather Go Blind - from Etta James...

How about Little Mac and the Boss Sounds' answer to Wilson Pickett from the Wheel...

I remember Bob Hinsley being somewhat bemused when I traded my Garfield Flemming 45 with him for his copy (knowing full well the difference in value) - it's a record that appeals to my doo-lally mindset when I'm really off my tits. Seem to remember hearing somewhere that at least some of the 'sisters' are blokes (Jerry Williams & Brooks Odell - ?) with their voices processed (a la Johnny Regae). Dx

They called themselves 'Cloggies' due to wearing sparking clogs (my little brother went through a phase of them as did a few scooter boys), their other band was New Model Army (who did a cover of There's a Ghost in my house, as did the Fall of course, as a tribute to their original musical roots). I always have respect for people who are passionate about their music (even if it isn't a patch on our's) - even greasers - at least they have strong musical feelings - to me the worst self condemnation you can have is to say 'I like chart music' - it just means 'I'm a sheep that listens to whatever pap every other sheep listens to'. Dx

Completely disagree - at least from my past days of double nighters EVERY weekend (for a good fifteen years ++) - I strongly believe/ed that the unique and fundamental emotional core of proper soul music (by contrast with other forms of pop music) and the deeper unspoken 'we are the same down inside' understanding that mutual intense feeling (rather than just 'really liking it') for the best of our music implies (I'm talking real deal Northern SOUL, not micky mouse pop stomp) ties us closely even to those we don't know well purely by that mutual recognition... Though perhaps this has sadly drifted away today. By contrast brother is the ultimate hyper-Stranglers fan - and famous for it, having seen them over 500x and once owning the best collection of their vinyl in the world (including legendary collectors items like the Bolivian test pressing of No More Heroes (3 known) and both the British (5 known) and Dutch (11 known) copies of Girl From the Snow Country etc etc etc) - they even came to his wedding - yet this sort of super fandom is lesser and different and just a case of 'liking' a kind of music a lot rather than being driven by it (the music still constantly plays in my head even though I've not been able to go to a nighter for three years). Dx

...Except that I LIKE it - A LOT (and have done for a long time, and if I ever make it out again - Pete not being up to it - it's what you'd be most likely to see me dancing to) - but you can't deny some of it IS sameish as indeed I don't deny that a lot of 60s is. Dx

It's a great record (got a lot of this stuff when it was fairly new on CD thanks to Roger Williams) - but I'd certainly agree a lot of it's pretty formulaic - specially when you listen to 20 odd artists in a row where the percussion track is pretty much interchangeable... And of course it's now 15 years old - older than some 60s discoveries were when they were being played at Stafford! Dx

Yes - think it was probably me that actually wrote that wording (look who designed it on the back) : ) Must admit I don't like the stuff on the CD - most of it's neither one thing or the other. Dx

PS From what I've heard in the way of new releases posted on various threads on here there is some fantastic modern soul being produced - certainly better, and apparently more, than there was a few years ago.

Er no. That is a simply an exact remake of a mix (Isaac Hayes and a radio piece by fast talking DJ Garry 'The Master Blaster' ***forget his second name***) that Les Cokell did in the mid 70s (we have the original on one of Les' tapes somewhere). Dx

Shouldn't they be doing JJ Barnes and Darrell Banks? Dx

Yes I saw that - but obviously that's not the music. Dx

Yes I got that name only yesterday.

What's the two samples/lifts in this? They're bugging the hell out of me - can't find them on the net - specially the main theme which was a big spin I remember at nighters in the early 80s. Dx

Took me many years of listening before the penny dropped that Jerry Williams was sing "You're my alpha and omega, there's nothing left to say". Dx

HAS to to be... 'I move your pictures from my wall, and I replace them, both large and small. And each new day finds me so blue. Nothing takes the place of you. I read your letters one by one and I still love you when it's all said and done. Coz nothing takes the place of you. As I write this letter it's raining on my window pane. And I feel the need of you, because, without you nothing seems the same. So I'll wait until you're home. Again I'll love when when we're all alone. Coz nothing, no nothin takes the place of you'.