Agentsmith

article in the detroit free press

robert kreinar aka bob babbitt, who stepped up to the plate as the prime alternative to jamerson, who even in the great man's shadow, accredited himself to a jewel encrusted plethora of motown anthems and a myriad of moonlighting sessions that are interwoven into our northern soul scene. i can say it was a privilage to have witnessed this great man display his unwavering talent and ability firsthand at the carling apollo in manchester some 8 years ago now, a display jointly with his fellow funk brothers that i will never forget. the abiding memory is that his contribution to popular music was finally recognised after over 4 decades in anonimity...finally achieving the spotlight he so richly deserved. there's a great rythmn section being put together upstairs.....one day we'll ALL get to see them perform. god rest your soul bob babbitt, funk brother

definitely colin, an inspiration to generations...richard searling, who always strives to broaden the boundaries of quality soul new & old, ian levine, an original pioneer who bridged the gap between here and the states and unloaded a wealth of tunes on the unsuspecting and naive northern soul ear in its infancy. and when the dust had settled on the "nero fiddled as rome burned" wigan epoch, butch, keb and guy taking up the mantle of preservation and mutual sanity at the helm of totw with a host of other likeminded connoiseurs in tow. pep & soul sam, for being individualistic both in persona and playlists, the latter to this day, still considered a man of his own mind and opinion whose choice of records on the whole have gone against the grain...and not to the detriment of the scene.....AND after the dust HAS settled....colin's still standing, never had to reinvent himself....still original to the bone...and still on the eternal odyssey of discovery, to bring the best music to the attention of an appreciative and broadminded audience.

did an interview once, with jimmy conwell at the ritz ( richard's 50th with the originals ) screamed and shouted so much during the gig, i lost my voice....when i recorded it, he had to read the questions and answer them himself!

bet that looks cool, can you post it up?...and are any of them record shops just out of interest?

may 17, 1966 steve

at least you appear to be open & honest about yout intentions, but you'll find that the holy grail called a virtual or totally unknown tune either dosnt exist now because after 45+ years anything thats worthwhile has been discovered ( yes i know thats not entirely true ) or its been under everyone's noses but even after 45+ years, its still not considered seriously good enough to get played in abundance, but the few collectors who do have said record, keep it tucked away in their collections simply BECAUSE its been proven, eventually, to be obscure anyway!. then, like has already been said here, you'll just have to ask the people, be they dj's or collectors to come on your show...afterall, as you must surely realise......THATS WHAT ADDS DIVERSITY TO A RADIO SHOW.

spot on win, uncle t was catwalkin' last night......well, actually he was sitting down doing an hawaiian display! bit like andy riley of a good few years ago but quality shirts....the record collection goes without sayin'....RIGHT ON UNCLE TED!

pm'd you

makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, dosn't it ian?, the adrenalin rush is perpetual, even after nearly 5 decades. we say that love is a drug...well, the love of northernsoul is a drug that will never diminish,...it dosnt matter what corner of the globe your life may take you, you're never far from a tune, its an internationally accepted stimulent..it de-stresses me, i can testify to that....once introduced you can never get out, its in the blood for life and you feed it with vinyl...who needs botox or anatomy sculpting to keep you chipper?, the only plastic thats good looking is black, shiny and 7"in diameter...WHAT A FIGURE!

correct, they are probably our foremost intelligencia because they have dedicated a good part of their lives to telling the story through their investigative work and the proliferation of information from countless sources around the world, without their endeavours, a good many deejays wouldn't have been responsible for breaking tunes that are now household names, though many adventurists from behind the decks have blazed their own trail independantly to the states in search of the perennial exclusivity, the bulk of what we know and have heard, has come via these sources...oh, and lets not forget ian levine...this is so similar to other threads on here, the hard and conclusive fact is though, no human can confess to being an oracle, even the soulsource network...if used as a library,still couldnt account for everything as, nearly 50 years on stuff is still turning up and thats not including whats under our very noses thats been ignored and overlooked for years.

dave, apologies, but any chance of soundclips for the uninitiiated ( like myself! )?

spot on pete, people can be as realistic or unrealistic as they want about prices but if they truly want to shift the product then they have to cut a reasonable deal or it aint going nowhere.its just a question of how long the £7/10 will be around when they finally have their day and become appreciated...thats WHEN the punter becomes appreciative and respective of the dealer, because the person who is still true to his sales pitch, is the one who, despite the dwindling amount of stock and the possible price rise because of a particular records exposure to the big dancefloor and universal acceptance, is willing to sell for what its true value is ( and probably has been for decades ) and not the "smoke & mirrors" of temporary overinflation. had the said tune been in limited stock years ago then you would naturally expect a higher price, but there are many £5 - 40 tunes that have floundered unreasonably as far as the intelectually minded with an appreciative ear, are concerned but the subsequent dwindling of stock and the fruition of a higher price is felt justified and rightly so...its a fine line between selling someone, something thats good and valuable and something thats just plain...valuable.

afro american music in the form of what we interpret as r&b has been with us for as little as...lets say, 5 decades, give or take the mid to latter half of the 50's, though it is increasingly referred to as doowop, yet the most prevailent and prestigeous era for the music we commonly acknowledge as "dance" will, forever be, the 60's...when the whole ethic of racemusic being acccepted internationally, exploded in dynamic fashion via motown and the subsequent pyramid effect impacting upon wannabe artisits and writer/producers throughout the states resulting in a myriad of labels and recordings that gave us british, what we have today.of course, it took the plundering of america's unsuspecting yet disregarded treasure for over three decades, before they finally realised they had created something worthwhile...they now know and fully understand why we have been, and still are, on the most heavenly and sublimnal trip anyone could imagine in the name of truthfully pure and evocative music and lyrics that still make us want to pound the dancefloor with not a zimmerframe in sight!. the joy of collecting and discovery eternally refreshes and re-invents...there is absolutely no doubt that what america gave us and the tools we used to forge the northernsoul phenomenon will endure like the stars so long as there are generations who are invigorated by its fascination. in reality the 70's probably spawned more material than we could ever imagine and thats not deriding the incalculable output of the previous decade, but the irony of economic deprivation ( principly, the oil shortage of 1974 ), put paid to a plausible vinyl vault as the furnaces melted it down and the possiblities were lost for all-time. had this not come to pass, we may have had an even greater but significantly more enjoyable headache on endless quests for illusive tunes in equally diminutive numbers. lets just settle for what we've got now.....an endless quest for illusive tunes....period!

pmd you

pmd you bro.

played yer cards right there jools....LOWER!, LOWER!

actually, a slight reappraisal on the artist's catalogue and i can also assure connoiseurs not grudgingly, ty karim's output PROBABLY is worth significantly more,....outrageous prices for items in infinitely minute quantities but all knowingly brilliant and a voice different in many ways from tobi's, a delightful little croak as compared to a warble...boy, if we could all just afford em, they'd be in our collections. perhaps we can persue this aside in another thread...suggestions please for other artists catalogues and collective values?

you're correct on that bro, ive the first book...i think when tim did the reappraisal a couple of years later the prices where closer to the mark, but we have to face facts, the market today is all over the place...but then its global isnt it?, it just goes to show how obsessed folks have become with collecting vinyl as it is, without doubt, SECOND ONLY to antiques as the most expensive past time on the planet....for the simple reason...these black shiny creations, wether vinyl or 78's, in 7" or lp format, are a unique antique marketplace theirselves. i would imagine that outside of actual supremely obscure record labels, tobi's resume is, more or less, one of the most priceless in existance...but, at the end of the day its whats in the grooves that counts and the lark & ledgend is a sound beyond comparison ( linda jones accepted ). heart of hearts dave, YOU WILL NEVER TIRE OF "TIME", because its "timeless",...the most evocative lyrics that can drive people to the dancefloor in a tidalwave.

disagree dave, couldn't be closer to the mark, so at present date someone's marking up a bigger profitt....and incidentally its £870 on j.m with 3 0r 4 days to go?....im rubbin' me hands.....paid £450 for an issue 6 years ago...minter off henry....wouldn't have got it any cheaper then and mr. atkinson cuts brill deals if i may say so. deffo worth the money in anybody's book if you've got it to spare. lets face facts here...it dosnt matter how you regard it personally as a played out tune....to the up and coming generations, thats not an issue....TO EVERY MAN JACK,...ITS LYRICALLY INSPIRING, ITS ORCHESTRATED TO KITCHEN SINK PERFECTION AND HOW MANY LARKS CAN TRULY MATCH THE VOICE OF TOBI?....PUT YOUR BOREDOM ASIDE CHILDREN AND JUST BE PROUD OF A TRUE "LEDGEND"

top man!, pmd you

i'll take the cynthia & imaginations if you still have it rob

i've loved this scene and the music since time began for the groundswell of us...that time began in the 70's....sadly, even back then, too many burned the candle both ends far too quickly along with the drugs so its not exactly like we're paying for it now is it?. of course it cant be ignored that well worn and much beloved faces & characters ARE passing over, im sure that if you could converse with any of their spirits, they would say that they didnt want to leave the mortal world at that certain moment in time...im just as sure they would also confirm that they wouldn't have missed a minute of the good times they DID have....and the moral of the story is....IF YOU AINT BOOKED YOUR TICKET YET, YOU AINT GONNA GET ON THE DANCEFLOOR UPSTAIRS.....ITS ALREADY FULL!!

considering director ridley scott was asked to orchestrate this project, it didnt match up to its billing as a day in the life of hundreds of people ( if it had been thousands, we would still be viewing it now! ), instead a decision appears to have been made to actually concentrate on about 7 or 8 human stories that could have fitted better into long lost families and just a mish-mash of flashing images pasted in between. so as it got to the end of the 90 mins, it was quite obvious there was going to be a sting in the tale...oh, and the bbc certainly knows how to concoct a sting...its midnight, just about the right time to intervene at an all-nighter and as is already obvious on here, a good many were gagging for the sequence where our music and people get a full public viewing....blinking is most definitely a frustrating thing....especially more annoying when THERE'S LITERALLY NOTHING TO SEE!!. more fool us, thinking we were going to see something tangible and enlightening amongst a colloberation of typical everyday observations that one could watch on the evening news. guess we duped ourselves into expecting too much...well, there is one saving grace.....THE NIGHT THAT WAS FILMED WE WERE ALL ROYALLY ENTERTAINED BY REAL DANCING... NOT BLOODY COME DANCING!!

see,...this is what happens when mutual enlightenment prevails. people, willing to put aside their hardships and woes, or whatever personal predicament they have...or just purely out of human kindness and compassion and a devotion to the music and the artists they revere....final fitting closure and a place that can be visited and be instantly recognisable for future generations of pilgrims to the city who want to pay homage. this has been a just cause for steve mancha and his family...it should be the same for all of our unsung hero's, so here's to hoping that both uriel jones and lou pride gain similar and swift dedication.