Jerry Hipkiss

Slim Harpo's "Baby scratch my back" on Stateside was a big tune at one time...and going back even earlier, when I first started clubbing my local club always used to start the evening by playing a Sue white label promo LP with Homesick James, Elmore James, Bobby Parker etc....when they refitted the place in '68 I rescued it, battered and scratched, from the top of a cupboard. Still got it and wouldn't part with it!

was going to post this on the original thread, however other things have been going on, but this is part of an interview with 90's house dj Terry Farley on djhistory.com: I went to Wigan once, about '76, I didn't even realise that people took drugs there. I was very into all that stuff and I didn't realise what was going on. I went with a Slough DJ called Alan Sullivan who was a soul DJ and also, apparently, the leader of the Shed! When I moved to Slough he had a gang called Sulli's boot boys and they said he was the leader of the Shed. He used to DJ and he was a pretty good northern soul dancer. There were northern parties going on at the Top Rank in Reading. We started going there and he said they were running mini buses up to Wigan. Gary Haisman went, couple of black guys from Slough who were treated like absolute royalty. People buying them drinks and shaking their hands. I'd been up north a few times by then, with Chelsea, and it had been disastrous. You'd get the train bricked, you'd get murdered up there, so I couldn't believe how friendly they were at Wigan. Nothing like it was in London.

Doesn't surprise me at all Pete, there were many things that packed the floor at Yate and probably St. Ives that would have failed at the Casino AT THAT TIME...the "Pop" effect was in full swing...and I'm sure that people who went to Cleethorpes (never made it myself) could come up with examples as well.

Yes, it was one of those tunes that hadn't been booted, hadn't been played for ages, so I started reviving it at Yate and it just grew from there. Funny thing is, when I first heard it at the Cats, I didn't even like the darn thing!

Your blind spot's showing again Pete...at the risk of droning on, Thorleys big Yate cover-up

Think Pete French had a Priority Irma and the Larks on his site.

Yup, and "Memories" was actually the follow up to "Hang on in there baby"...hoods up, fellow anoraks!

...or the more truthful version...you had the place jumping!

Ah, but did you ever hear Jo and my duet version live at the Saracens? Priceless...

Ha! have to dig out my 10" promo LP with BB & Q "On the beat" and Maze "Joy and pain"...auto'd by Frankie B and the group as well!

Sadly, a drum machine and a synth don't make that classic sound no matter how hard you try! That said, Ian HAS made some good tracks, for instance Barbara Pennington's "On a crowded street" and "Fan the flame" have always been in my collection, but they weren't NS aimed.

What? tell us more...unless the guilty party is on here?

The Leavers - Nothing but lovers on my family tree!

Been playing this off and on for years - I can never understand why it hasn't yet been a major reactivation!

Been playing this off and on for years, I can never understand why it hasn't yet been a major reactivation!

Yes, I agree that the LH bit has gone off topic a little, but never mind... ...back on topic, I'm afraid that back in the day, to me at least, the colour of peoples skin at Wigan, Yate, Cats or wherever just didn't figure on my radar. They were there or they were not, they were mates or they weren't, it just wasn't an issue in any way, shape or form!

Eexcellent posts Mel Brat! They suddenly awoke a memory - Spring 1973, I'd been to the Torch for the first and only time, absolutely bowled over, and of course at the time instrumentals were massive, Exus Trek, Thumb a ride etc. etc.. I had to do a short notice two-day relief job for work in Dudley the week after, and found myself there on a Monday night with nothing to do. Somehow I ended up in a hotel ballroom in Kingswinford (sure it was there) with big Northern tunes blasting out, pretty sure it was Mike Hollis DJ'ing. The unplanned nights are always the best!

...and a nice clear vinyl US demo 12" as well!

Certainly if he'd ever been on the Kiddy coach he would have done a routine about "Mad" Val from Droitwich by now! And didn't the Phantom Flan Flinger turn up at Notts Palais? Sure I've seen a photo somewhere!

Agreed Tony, I've never believed this story, at the time she was a secretary in Detroit while Frank Wilson was still out on the West Coast, so you'd think that if she ever recorded for a small label it would have been Detroit based!

Yes but he was certainly around wasn't he Pete? I heard an interview some time back where he mentioned "Rat Race", and a week or two ago I was listening to a programme with him on Radio 3 of all places, ostensibly about his love of classical music but he mentioned the Northern scene including Carl Dene and Oscar Michael (Mike Hollis) by name.

Sure I've heard that line used somewhere before!

Try Snooky...after all, what good's it doing him stuck in Spain - I'm sure you've got something you can blackmail him with!

Thanks for that...cheque from Leon and myself in the post!!

That's one of the all time Yate legends, where's Steve Smith, he'll remember it as well! Hippo.