Soul16

My understanding is that all originals have the raised lettering. Problem is, they're hard to spot if the labels are free of any grime (dirt makes them more obvious) or the letters happen to drop amongst the label text. The letters are located 15 mm from the edge of the centre hole on the YDLM side and are sometimes easier to feel than see. I brought a very clean copy some years back, where the guy said it was a boot due to not having raised lettering. It did, on both sides.

No licences should be issued without the passing of a theory test first in any case. For example: "What is the maximum number of handbags allowed in a single pile for every 12 square metres of dance floor?" 🤔

As the saying goes, "Everything is for sale if the price is right" Lee has simply advertised the fact and dumped a hefty price tag on it. It gets him a lot of attention, this thread is testament to that. I remember when he bought the record back in 2020, his drinks business got some publicity out of it too. Up until that point, I had no idea how he'd made his money. He's either shrewd or lucky, possibly both.

Here you go. It was handed over in a long-poled landing net. 😁 3 mins 45 seconds in...

Until the dancing regulatory authority taps me on the shoulder, I'm gonna carry on without qualification or any kind of approval Certification.

Thanks for the heads up, Julian.

Teddy Randazzo

Learned to dance in my mates lounge during the school summer holidays whilst his parents were both at work. On a seemingly daily basis, we'd move the furniture out to clear the space, play and dance to our records (mostly bootlegs and cassette recordings in those days) and then put the furniture back before his parents returned. We'd then put it into practice at the weekends in the local halls etc. Expressed the music and beat with our legs and interpret the breaks and lyrics with our arms. Once in the zone, you just KNEW when the claps were inevitably coming (a detail that is often missing these days, I think). These days, on the rare occasion I do go out I have a tendency to enthusiastically sing the lyrics whilst dancing too - probably not a pretty sight.

Personally, I think dancing competitions are an unessesary distraction, however for those that enjoy it, it would increase the tension if the announcement of the winner was done by first naming third place and then naming the winner from the two that are left. Current format leaves the victorious winner standing there whilst the runner-up is being congratulated, so his 'big moment' is lost.

Me too

Seems odd to cover up a (not very good) version of a well known Jay and The Americans 45 and then expect to get £850 for it.

1 weekender a year (Where there are no mugs and other merchandise for sale) Local afternoons and nights maybe once a month, proper vinyl events only.

This is how I got into Northern Soul. In 1975, at the age of 12, my best friend in our street had an older sister, who had a collection of cassette tapes lying around the house. She would bring them back from Wigan, a seemingly mystical place that she visited on coach trips. My friend and I would play these tapes without really knowing it was Northern Soul - it was just ‘music’. Music, that at the time seemed to be everywhere in Kidderminster, blasting out of passing cars and open house windows. To be fair, the Prog Rock brigade were also around in numbers and taunting / fighting wad not exactly uncommon, however I managed to dodge all that. By 1976, we had learned that it was called ‘Northern Soul’ and we began to go to local ‘discos’ at various community centres where NS was played. We also collected records between us and never really questioned why many of them seemed to have poorly printed labels, fuzzy sound and were frequently pressed off-centre. Jeanette Harper - Fools Paradise, springs to mind. Other 45’s were fine, so I guess it was a case of originals being mixed with boots in the same sales boxes, it didn’t seem to matter at the time. By 1980, we had joined the local Citizens Band radio club, which had a weekly ‘meeting’, in essence it was just yet another excuse for a Northern night. I also have a vague memory of going to the Fenn Green Hotel where (I think) the West Midland Soul Club held regular nights in the cellar bar at the time. A few years later, Kent LP compilations were an education, the Old Vic in Wolverhampton became a venue of choice (11pm buffet), together with The 86 Club in Swancote (Red Stripe on draught), Keele University All-nighters and multiple other Soul nights elsewhere, from Tewksbury to Stoke. 48 years down the line in 2023, me and the wife attend the occasional Soul night / afternoon session and also the Llandudno Weekenders. It’s been an enjoyable journey but my eyesight isn’t what it was, my knees are beginning to give up and the 45’s are getting very expensive...

They definitely existed in the mid 1980’s, probably around the period when the Kent LP’s were at their height. I bought it from a scooter parts fair in Hinckley if I remember correctly. It was a white T-shirt, with a Navy blue ‘footsteps’ design on it. There were two other designs available on the same stall, forgotten what they were though. I wore it with great pride at the time 🙂. Not sure I’d wear one these days though.

Sunset at Oia, 19/09/2023. More new arrivals Sunrise at Kamari, 22/09/2023. This was already quite a beautiful sight, but when that boat drifted by it took it to a whole new level.

I'm currently in Greece and the BBC World Service News (the only English TV channel available to me) also did a live interview with Dave Evison, mixed together with the usual This England footage. Nice to see he didn't miss the opportunity to plug his book either!

Boeing 737, landing gear lowered, flying into Santorini airport. It took me nearly 5 hours lying on the beach to get a shot of a plane fully in frame 🙃.

In general, I think prices are high enough thank you 😊. I like the functionality of Darren's website and trust his grading, so he is my record dealer of choice. For me, pricing wise, he hits the spot (for the records I'm familiar with) As for auctions, I'm not keen because I don't have the deepest pockets - I'm just an average NS fan.

Now that he's listed Rodd Keith for sale, hopefully he'll see this thread, understand the anxiety he's causing myself and Jonko & then post our records to us.

I'm in a similar situation with the same seller, he assured me that my record would be posted last Thursday, no tracking details yet though.

Maybe the lengthy sales blurb and juicy descriptions go some considerable way to achieving the final figure. "Two clean full rich red labels", maybe that has some potential bidders drooling and adds to the must have factor. Darren Brown sold an 'ordinary' red labelled one for £800 this very week, albeit in EX condition, and his EX condition never disappoints...

Sound quality begins at the stylus tip of course, so everything after that, from turntable set up, mixing desk quality, good amplification & decent speakers all contribute to the end result. Rubbish in = Rubbish out Quality in = Quality out Room acoustics then need factoring in, which I guess can be difficult initially.

Yes, indeed it did.

I can only really speak for the Keele all-nighters in the 80’s and 90’s. Huge speakers hung up high on the wall, tilted down towards the dance floor. It was very loud and the sound quality was excellent, that was the first thing I noticed about the place. Bobby Valentin never sounded so good... I still am something of a sound quality fanatic, which can be a curse at times.

Methinks it might be more about the 'flan' than the dancing in this particular instance.