Agentsmith

i know of two...residing with arthur fenn & ginger taylor...other than those, not sure how many other djs have it and as for private collectors, its anybody's guess but there definitel aren't many.

appologies big bloke, something about the grey cells? good call dave, incidentally how different ones are there on that title?

appologies big bloke, something about the grey cells?

excluding bootlegs.....how many times has a northern soul records appeared legitimately? example: tommy neal - going to a happening pameline - green, pink, yellow palmer - red&white vocalion - u.k. black issue & red demo stimulate your grey cells people.....any takers?

linda jones , for many, is the epitome of class...not one average tune, all 5 star loma or not and under the guidance of ace songwriter/producer, george kerr.....as i said a while back on here, can you imagine if she had recorded "you hit me ( right where it hurt me )"? dont get me wrong alice clark & kim weston's are wonderful readings of a truly impassioned song....but LINDA JONES?.....WOW!!, now that would be legendary!!. bearing in mind dave godin,s association with the british release of the best of the loma catalogue, im sure that shrewd connoiseur of soul would have sniffed it out of the archives, had it existed.

damn right about the records rich, before anybody forgets, ian was there FIRST, exactly the same as he was with productions. yes his family were comparitively well off thus the frequent exodus to the states to bring back the records that fuelled the fledgling scene. IAN was the catalyst for others making the pilgrimage to the vinyl goldmine over the pond. HE, unlike john anderson, martin coppell and simon soussan ( who have been discussed here before at length ) bougtht these wonderous discoveries back to play them, as a statement to gain attention for just how good they were, broadening the choice of tunes to dance to beyond the wildest of imaginations and quite knowingly promoted the fact that to hear them first before anyone else in the u.k. YOU HAD TO GO TO THE MECCA......thats almost religious...isnt it?. not to put too finer point on it, the mecca was a shrine for everything new and continued to be so, even with the advent of the casino and,....ians reputation was enhanced even more as a lot of his discoveries crossed over to even bigger approval at station road. ian even had a routine for deciding what was in or out regarding the quality of the playlist at the mecca, much like berry gordy and his "quality control friday sessions.....lest anyone has short memories, ian would always have a behind the scenes preview of what he had bought back with colin, tony jebb and johnny beggs and yes, he did tend to rely a lot on colin's input...but when all is said and done, it was ian wh owas pulling the rabbits from the bottomless ( and it seemed like it was in the 70's ) hat. there will always be plenty who judge thats his studio ventures pale into insignificance, but he had the bottle to do it AND he, during the course of this gained access to many previously unseen artists as well as quite famous ones but probably shared the same puzzlement as to what our scene was all about and why we were so interested in their music and their backgrounds, but through ian, were given a fresh lease of life, however brief and a chance to be in the spotlight....many of whom have made it to these shores and been blown away by US!!. IAN'S contribution is extraordinarily unique......would the myriad of tunes we have grown up with, turned up EVENTUALLY, via someone else?......probably, via the dealers who were going out there...the question is, would they have just disappeared into private record collections?, afterall, the dealers weren't djs and richard and kev had still to build their reputations at the casino and until that happened, the large influx of potential monsters were not in their hands,...ian however, was IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME and because of him the foundations for the northern soul scene were built. the mecca was ian's template for the future for what we have now, THE GREATEST MUSICAL PHENOMENON THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN!

mike, the best thing to put on "slugs" is salt :lol:

gotta be "LING TING TONG".......was somebody having a laugh, or is it something to do with matt lucas in little britain? :lol:

the fact the soul scene exists and is true to its word, it binds us all together and welcomes newcomers with family arms,its escapism from the reality of an outside world that is false, hypocritical and unforgiving. its about real music written, directed, arranged and sung by real musicians, unsung hero's not "15 minutes of fame" instantly forgettable boring wasters. the satisfaction is that in a hundred years time no other trend will be able to touch the excitement & vibrancy of northern soul....the same as it is today. no other music creates a driving urge to get on the dancefloor, that sends tingles down your spine when its a tune that you particularly love...that makes you travel unimaginable distances to get your kicks and baffles ordinary people, as to why you do it....that is the very reason why we're here talking about it now...its the most brilliant time consuming drug that you just cant get enough of and even if you move to live in far flung places its magnetism is never far away as almost every civlised country on the face of this island earth has heard of it and worse....has been infected by it!! once its in your system its a habit you cant break...if we all had one dream, could it be to have been born and at that very moment we were indoctrinated by the music,..as it is, we will all live and die with it in our brains, our veins and in our bodies and souls. whats not to like about our scene and our music?

tony, i dont disagree. the lovemasters is amongst a myriad of tunes, trawling round the vinyl universe and it gets plucked out of semi-known acceptability to be given "an opportunity". i recall that dee dee sharp - deep dark secret was just a tupenny-hapenny record that could be purchased for £2 or less but in an effort to give the undervalued some meaning and in the face of the continual arguement about "the same 500 records", some dj's intuitively decided it was the right time...and they certainly didnt hedge their bets as it took off big style and,....infuriatingly, so did its value. of course its since bottomed out but it is still worth considerably more than its original pauper status. anyway, the dell larks will always be supremely rare as will don varner and that is the overriding fact and they ARE great tunes, no doubt, but regardless of the limited value that is placed on spyder turners tunes, you could still play them alongside the aforementioned and get the same response and turner has a great voice to boot, and he was significantly better known via his recordings at terra shirma for the mgm logo and later warner bros. finally, as i said we can all buy his product legitimately whereas, BECAUSE OF THEIR RAREITY the two mega money tunes got booted to satisfy the ordinary punters demands, unfortunately somebody got really clever in the counterfeit process and duped a minority, unwittingly into buying what they believed were a clutch of genuine originals that had mysteriously turned up...surely after 3 decades, and not a sniff of a dell larks on the breeze, the alarm bells should surely have started to ring....a bit too late. all of these cheapo's will have their day because there will always be somebody who will buy them and show some faith, im most certainly not the first person to say this,...you only have to read the liner notes for record sales online ( "will have its day - will be big" ) its like a fairground attraction where you hook the duck...these tunes are just waiting their turn...there's nothing wrong with that is there?, certainly not in the name of playing "something different and there are enough copies for people to buy, whereas only the same handful of people will EVER own a dell larks or don varner.

favourite tunes then or should i say preferred, in the wake of the double dialogue: barbara pennington - i can't eraze the thought of you evelyn thomas - weakspot exciters - reaching for the best james wells - baby im still the same man lj johnson - your magic put a spell on me doris jones - he's so irreplaceable barbara pennington - 24 hours a day frances nero - footsteps chuck jackson - all over the world ronnie mcnier - lucky number and of course...supremes & originals - back by popular demand like many of you out there, ive heard and danced to all of these at one time or another and even bought some of them but the outstanding fact is that they span four decades and ,many of them still have relevance in todays market wether or not they have the resonance of genuine 60's records.

yep, thats a treasure bro, got one of myself as well, with freddie and the other originals and i think, walter gaines daughter who was sharing vocal duties on the night...shot was took during afternoon rehearsals...oh, and get this...i hastily scribbled a jingle on a piece of paper and with a micro recorder, got them to sing "dont stop now" as the clincher .....we've a mate who did a soul show on local radio who broadcast it!!...was he made up or what?. do you know....that must have been one of the most exciting performances for them as well...i think they got a real kick,...first EVER u.k. performance and they were just open mouthed with the crowd singing back to them......anyway, i know its off tack but THAT levine tune was right in there, scherry payne or no.

oh, and the LOVEMASTERS on jacklyn ( orange ) been around donkeys...i trust its being mentioned now because its being PLAYED and mr. taylor has just aqquired one......in which case it will go stellar.....and the price!!

er, am i a bit late for this? you can buy any of spyder turner's singles and they'd all be genuine.....but you wouldn't want to be fooled by a dell larks "original"....would you?.....remember a few eons ago, the ruckus about who'd got a real one and who hadn't......and nearly all of em HADN'T? ( sharp intake of breath ) old chinese proverb: wook before you weep anyway, i havent got one...nice expensive tune but then, spyder hasnt made a bad one either so......

correct as always guvn'r mmm....how did i miss that one?....poor old bazza, he's beginning to look a bit like joycelin wilderstein dont you think?...anyway, more of the plastic, less of the surgery eh?

ER,PARDON ME YER ON'R.....WITH DEFERENCE WASNT THIS A DONNA SUMMER TUNE? BUT ACCEPTING THE FACT THAT IAN GOT HIS HANDS ON ROBBIE & CO FIRST?...and made it a #1

wow yeah!!.......HANDS UP WHO WAS AT RICHARD'S 50TH WHEN THEY DID THIS LIVE AT THE RITZ.....WOW, WOW, WOW!!! :thumbup: NOT BAD FOR A LEVINE TUNE...AND A1000+ SOULIES SINGING IT BACK TO A GOBSMACKED FREDDIE GORMAN!!

who says there's not appreciation for the man?...not a bad word to say with any of the posts thus far

doris jones - he's so irreplaceable exciters - love you baby carol woods - heading down fools road ronnie mcneir - lucky number frances nero - footsteps supremes-originals - back by popular demand tyrone ashley - running in and out of my life plus all the others mentioned...quite a comprehensive body of work over 3+ decades

pete, the funny thing or, should i say, ironic, is that the 70's recordings were genuine recordings using GENUINE instruments....granted, the synth may have been creeping in there a bit but drum machines really are so bland and predictable. ians stuff was all cut true proper to... recording traditions and none of this remixing mullarky...in laymans terms, despited them being "produced" for the scene, they are starting to sound "old"...and afterall, they are from decade thats now long since passed...are they maturing like fine wine?......maybe thats an over-the-top phrase and yes, its still dosnt capture the excitement and imagination of the 60's but a replicant of that golden age, it aspires to be and 35 years on it has its place in our cultural history. oh,...and there's no escaping the fact that for all the contraversy surrounding him, ian levine was/is & always will be, a pivotal and integral part of why we got into northern soul...the man maketh the venue...blackpool mecca became what it was because of ian....and of course, to no lesser extent colin curtis...but it was ian who, so to speak, brought home the bacon ( from the states ) and made the highland room the focus of our fledgling career's attention. i personally, will never forget the nights at the civic and wulfrun halls in wolverhampton and the masses dancing to evelyn thomas, lj johnson and the likes and they were greeted with the same enthusiasm long before we subjected ourselves to critique...and i loved em'.......especially when colin was dishing out the "tomorrow" demo's im glad i witnessed the second coming, indeed the inaugural gig at manchester ritz when i, like many others, didnt recognize who he was....complete makeover?,....soul sam was probably the first to suss out ian's subtrefuge with " the wrong side of town"....i am, afterall, the beholder of the infamous "the fifth vandal must go!" photogragh that was perched in the dj booth....what happened next with both ginger and butch is now consigned to the annals of history!!. you simply cannot take it away from him, he is the master of re-invention and he was attempting to give the scene another lease of life off the back of so many 35/40 somethings returning to the scene after their family sabaticles...he also brought some great semi-known 60's offerings to table and made them mega.....like him or love him, we ALL owe him a debt of gratitude and if your "weakspot" is a "magic spell" then its because ian's "still the same man".

check out rarenorthernsoul.com and grab a copy of willie tee's lp, "teasin' you" original issued 2002 on hotline via tuff city..only 500 pressed u.s. only. steve's picked up half dozen.....probably long since deleted so this could be the last of the stock, but believe me ( and you can listen to the soundclip ) its well worth having..all his big tunes on it.....BEST TWENTY QUID THIS MONTH!

you're right, an absolute top tune and completely obscene rareity...ive got one and as you say, the a-side is scuffed at start and its got a warp but plays ok....i think the b-side is brilliant and did you know....the vocalist is barbara mercer....such a distinct voice

deffo remember butch playing "sad, sad way",.. like dave says it was quite a while ago though

tony's right of course...what an absolute howler, overlaying artificial instrumentation. on cd, of course, both tracks can be found on "the master" 4cd booklet and " lost & found", respectively

actually john, i think the soulies in dundee are not short on imagination, considering they have a wonderful testament to the northern scene housed in the city's natural history museum...tell me other major city's in this country are shouting and balling that they have similar product, i havent witnessed any yet....and believe it or not, this PERMANENT exhibition includes.....a short film which is shown in a small but very atmospheric room....AND...shot in black & white....very vogue i would say. under the circumstances if they want to send theirselves up with a bit of artistic license, then thats entirely their decision.