Ged Parker

Thats much more helpful you're getting into the spirit now It wasn't meant to be a manifesto just a way to let the paying punters know what they are getting. Like I said I'm not a world authority on originals you dealers are much better at that besides I wasn't buying records when it was a new release unlike some on here

I thank you most sincerely for your helpful and constructive critique

Following on from the debates what should get played originals or not and the interesting, if not very intelectual, debate on the Grapevine 2000 thread. How about a registration scheme where DJs and Venues can commit to playing originals only. I'm not a world authority on originals or a paid up member of the 'soul police' but a couple of us gave this some thought a while back. A number of relatively big DJs thought it may not be a good idea. Dunno why Just to get the debate going here is a summary of our thoughts as I remember them: (acknowledgement goes to messers Murphy, Ferguson, Hayes, McWilliams et al) Soul Probity What is it? It is a sort of "kite mark" to indicate to visitors to particular venues what they are buying with their admission fee. Why has it been developed? The venue competition within the Northern and Rare Soul scene has grown tremendously recently. The proliferation of tracks available on CD, bootlegs and legitimate re release has facilitated this and it is now possible to play many of the top rarities at minimal cost. What's wrong with that? On the face of it nothing and for some dancers particularly this is something positive allowing them to dance to sounds that they would have had to travel miles for previously unless of course they have a dance floor in their front room. However without the massive investment, financial and otherwise of some DJs and promoters how would these sounds develop and without that continued development what is the future for the scene? Isn't this just elitist snobbery? Far from it. It is more about allowing everyone to be more discerning in their choices if this is important to them. There are venues that have solid and long-standing reputations with dancers who want to hear the stock oldies; and who can argue with their success. This scheme will not impact on such venues at all. If however hearing a balance of classics with some new and different sounds is important then the 'Soul Probity' logo will provide some assurance to the punter. Who benefits from this? The punters - Through the ability to make more informed choices and knowing in advance what to expect at, even the newest of, venues. The diversity of sounds heard will increase as the rarity of some sounds has a natural limiting effect on the numbers of DJs that can play them. This will encourage creativity and imagination in those venues, in those DJs, that adopt the scheme. The promoters - There will be a better match between what is expected and what is delivered and that can only help build the satisfaction of the customer who pay the bills. Building a following and reputation for a soul night can be costly and time consuming this mechanic helps speed this process up. DJs - This will encourage a greater degree of professionalism and offer up some recognition for those who invest heavily. There is a widening gap between what is invested by many DJs and what income they can expect by way of fee from promoters. This provides a way for some, albeit non-financial, recognition to be had by those who follow an originals only policy. After all it must be annoying in the extreme to pay £400+ for an original "Rita and the Tiaras" only to have the DJ before you play the £5 "Joe Boy" copy. Collectors - Record bars are the place where most of the "Oh God I'm sick of hearing this" comments are heard. New and varied sounds on play lists is what many collectors want particularly if the latest sound to be broken or reactivated is one they own. Dealers - These have most to lose from the bootleg CDs or acetates made from mini-disk recordings of mega rare tracks. We often hear of the damage caused by bootleggers sometimes through "poachers turned gamekeepers". Whatever the rights and wrongs of this market, whether the CD are sold or given away this initiative will limit their use, publicly at least. Vinyl will be the only medium used, except where the recording was originally released only in an alternative format e.g. Ivan Matias "Somebody Knows How You Feel" on C.D. Original releases will form the content of all DJs sets. "Original" will include: · The first local and national U.S. label releases. · The first U.K. or foreign label release if contemporaneous with the U.S. release, e.g. The British Soul City release of Gene Chandler's "Nothing Can Stop Me" would qualify but not the British Soul City release of Jack Montgomery's "Dearly Beloved". · The first foreign label release where the track was not released in the U.S. e.g Doug Parkinson's Aussie release of "I'll Be Around" · Album tracks are permissible where they appear on albums released at the time of the original release of the 45 e.g. Ace Spectrum's "Don't Send Me Nobody Else" from the album "Inner Spectrum" is permissible however any track from a "Various Artists" album would not be allowed. · Acetates can be played but only if cut from original masters; EMI discs are not allowed. Who Can Get Involved? Promoters and DJs If a promoter chooses to operate an "originals" only policy they can become "Venue Members". This will entitle the venue to use the Soul Probity logo on their publicity material for events where they only use DJs who are current members of the Soul Probity scheme. If a DJ commits to an "originals" only policy he / she is eligible to become a member of the scheme and have the Soul Probity logo displayed after his / her name on any publicity material whether playing at a venue that is a "Venue Member" or not. I'll stand back at this point and wait for the comments (:tomato2: )

Yeah Yeah and the punchline is..................................

Thanks for your compliment on the Spanish 'BIGSOULMAN' but I have to say the venue as with all venues is not without it's problems as a promoter I usually arrive at about 3 in the afternnoon and by the time 2 X 3k rigs and an 8k rig have been set up and sound tested there is little time to do anything else. We do of course act as the first port of call when the room is too hot, too cold, too dark, not enough barstaff, drinks too pricey, no toilet rolls in the ladies, bulbs out in the toilets etc etc and thats how it should be no question. But all promoters would love to have a top notch venue where everything is A1 unfortunately venues like that don't exist God knows I've looked for one. So give us promoters a break we respond to issues when we can but there are many things we can do nothing about no matter how hard we try.

Just my thoughts on the what you will play thread.There should be two approaches and people should adopt one or the other. 1. Play anything by anyone if it sounds 'soulful' enough. 2. Only play 'soulful' music by black artists. Any mixture of the two approaches is hypocritical; or at least unprincipled IMO. If Dean Parrish is OK then why not Elvis, and Timi Yuro then why not Dolly Parton. Remember no one (with the a few notable and mainly crass exeptions) ever set out to record a northern soul record. They just happen to hit the formula that hits to spot with some of us at least. Obviously this accidental hitting on the right formula can happen to any artist. Even Paul Anka. For my perspective if it sounds good and soulful it gets my vote.

Hi Daniboy and welcome to the comm. A good source of sounds, just to see what you like is www.soulclub.org you can find many tracks and hear them before shelling out on another site to buy them. That way you won't need to buy 'blind'. As Brian said price is not the best indication of quality, or even what you'll like. Ged

I guess you've found your feet on the site now northwest I guess we deserved that for all the Chubby Checker stuff the other day. Anyway I miss the days when you lot over there didn't know anything about northern and I could buy 'beach music' listings for a few dollars. I for one don't think you lot are all "morons" thats why ebay for me at least has past it's best.

I'll give you all the details at Salwick

Bernard Williams and the Blue Notes "Focused on You" is on Harthon (136) not sure of the year. The flip "It's Needless to Say" is better tho IMO. Hope that helps Ged er it was released in 1965 apparently

Yeah it was a good un too so good it was approved It wasn't a medical school though like you went to or have you swalloed a copy of grays anatomy

Doug Parkinson is actually an aborigine. This is a great version bit played out (in the NW at least). I agree on the Terri Wells should be able to pick that up for a couple of quid or so.

Off Topic Pete, Is that George Berry? I went to the same school as him only remeber him as he alledgedly was caught having "extra lessons" from Ma Kelly our English teacher

Sounds alright but you can't beat thier "You're Gonna Make Me Cry" on Whittier fantastic flip too.

Popcorn is a term a bit like northern hard to tie down. The 'Popcorn' scene in Belgium has been around for years and it is not easy to know what they will play/ not play. The confussion with northern is that items such as Betty O'Brien / Kurt Harris / Ketty Lester are well established 'Popcorn' tracks that have also found there way onto the northern scene. If we find it hard to define northern, what chance have our friends from over the pond. I have seen allsorts classified as northern including the Goodies - 'Black Pudding Bertha' due to the line 'Black Pudding Bertha - she's queen of northern soul'. Personaly I think the heyday of ebay has gone. In the mid nineties before the UK version was launched it was great lots of cheap stuff on the US site. Now only bargains are stuff that gets 'lost' in the wrong category. Still did get a George Freeman for $60 recently

Lets face it we are all after a bargain and want to make money on what we sell if only to placate the wife / credit card company or to fund more record buying. I am perhaps worse than many rarely buying from anyone who knows the "Real Value" of what I'm buying. I rarely sell anything any way though I will have a few choice items at for sale Prestatyn. They will all be priced though Any way no offence North West and welcome to the group.

I can remember when I lived in Preston. There was a little girl running up and down the bus I was on. Her mother said "Samantha come sit here NOW or I'll smack you" Samantha replied "Yeah just you do and tell daddy you peed in his new bucket" The woman got off at the next stop Always wondered what the kid meant

Interesting debate this one. In many businesses sellers look for a specific amount of gross profit on items they sell and if that is 50% and they buy something for £10 they are happy with £20 as a selling price. Records are different somehow people want to buy very cheap and sell at top dollar. That is fine when they know what a record is 'worth' and they offer it for that, but if they don't know what it is worth surely they know what they paid and how much profit they are happy with. If they don't know the value how do they know they fulfilled their commitments like "top prices paid for collections" or is fine not to know the value when you are buying off some unsuspecting widow / kids of a one time collector? This is in no way a personal dig at anyone on this thread I was just wondering thats all.

Soul Brothers Six 'I'll Be Loving You' perhaps the best Atlantic record ever?

Of the mentions so far the Rockmasters has lots to offer. The Panic is on is just pure class no matter what you categorise it as George Freeman is also top quality. Some more for the pot - Jimmie Bo Horne 'I Just Can't Speak', George Smith 'I've Had It', Buddy Smith 'When You Lose the One you Love' and the Soul Communicators 'Please don't Go'

I usually buy them then don't even read them. I'm a busy guy you know Seriously I usually scan through and read stuff that catches my eye and that could be the writer, the featured artist, label or track not firm rules. Seperately but related Roly and I have been toying with the idea of reviving 'In the Neighbourhood' the freebee we used to give out at the Neighbourhood. Only worth the effort doing it if people found it worthwhile.?

Come on guys (and girls) the collective brain power on here must be able to give me some info or is it a totally unknown??

Ground Breaking Record I would say big in '76 when no one was playing slow stuff opened a door many slow tracks have pushed through. I think I was alone in the Blackpool crew in liking it when it was being played again '79ish when it came out on Grapevine. But then I always have been ahead of (or is that behind) the times.

I'll grace the Neighbourhood with Jimmy Beaumont 'You Got too much going' Bang Demo first time out. I'll defo play it in the rare / r&b room early and so how the flor 'feels' in the main room last hour

Not gonna give away all my secrets but paid a lot less than £10 for The Cautions - No Other Way and paid well over £200 for Rita and The Tiaras - GWTW. Guess which I think was the better value for money.