Paul-s

I keep seeing Youtube and FB comments on clips of dancing, which mostly feature people dressed in a, shall we say, retro Northern Soul style. Many of the comments say 'thats proper dancing' and I have to admit to being a bit mystified by this term. What do they mean? When I asked one of them they really meant a version that they recognise from a particular period, which in most clips is a hoppy, skippy, slightly teapot, wear my emotions on my sleeve, demonstrative style. Its a sort of judgement that seems to be on the rise amongst self-appointed dance aficionados, fuelled by a constant barrage of online clips filmed at oldies events. I have a problem with people, often long absent returnees, claiming authenticity in dancing because different people have different versions, all of which are correct to them. I personally enjoy watching people who are "in it', meaning 'in the music' and that might be full of movement or barely moving (eyes closed and gone!) So, does anyone care to elaborate on 'proper' dancing please? Does this idea of a historicised, reified, certified version, fixed in time and space, come from the World Championships thing held at Blackpool and the many 'line dancing style' tutorial videos now available online where people tell you "this is how it's done"? Cheers Paul

Dennis Landry - Miss Hard To Get - Soul Unlimited vg++ £15 Cheap and great! Sonny Anderson and Prince Conley - Love and Laughter Emerson vg+ (plays great) £40 Great and unique tune and dancer Morris Dow and Eastern Sound - Night Rider / Black Child - Dee Dee vg++ £20 Junior McCants - The Boy Needs A Girl - King vg++ £60 Love this tune, underplayed and so soulful. Cleveland Eaton & The Kats - Its Mookie Time Pt1 & Pt2 - Cle An Thair vg+ (wol) Plays great. £25 Tough Instrumental tune to track down, veering on the funk side. Junior McCants - The Boy Needs A Girl.mp3

Chicago Travellers -He Will Make It All Right on BGS vg++ Very rare LP with the supremely soulful 'Standing at the Station' on it. £120 The Inspirational Ensemble - He Will Save You - Private Press Vg++ again Very rare LP with the driving 'Come Holy Ghost' on it. £90 01 Standing At The Station.mp3 01 Come Holy Ghost.mp3

Yes, the student newspaper.......so to give an idea of their research here. Mick Martin never went to Wigan, was never, and is not, a soulie, knows nothing of the music, and I took him to his first nighter in 1986. Yet they write - "As well as portraying a lasting tribute to the cult of Northern soul, writer Mick Martin, a Wigan Casino veteran himself, seeks to explore the ideals of liberation and escape embodied in soul music."

RW has only ever been interested in Net Profit.....

spot on!

Reading lots of academic discourses on Northern Soul and some of the delusional rubbish that interviewees have given to past interviewers is beyond arrogance. Anyway here is an example where RW claims that a Northern Soul revival happened due to his book 'Soul Survivors' (which we all read as a fictitious load of guff!). Revival? It never went away, unless of course you have based your life around Wigan Casino and its commercial branding power. Here is the quote from the chapter for which she interviewed the man in question: "By the mid-1990s, Northern Soul had experienced a rebirth. DJ Russ Winstanley considers this rebirth a response to the release of his 1996 book, Soul Survivors." (Smith, 2009) This is what RW told her in an interview. Fortunately she sussed him out and counters the claim with an informed perspective.

Best just to ignore dire attempts at ruining a classic piece. They will keep attempting to do it as the playwright hasn't written a decent play since I commissioned the original 'Once Upon A Time In Wigan' in 2003 (a script that was created through an intense collaborative process between the actors, me and the writer) . Since then the script has been watered down, bastardised, hacked and sold to any fool to put on. No care, soul, theatrical or life experience of the reality for them to use as none of them were there. Its similar to what Binstanley has done to any semblance of respect for those great nights once had at Wigan, by turning them into a four decade long marketing and commercialising strategy. The play now resembles the tea towels, mugs and cheap merchandise that has informs the re-constrution of a tourist orientated simulacrum of Northern Soul.

Whoops! Just added it mate £50 + post

I am quite amazed that this is still not sold.....real soulful with a great flip too. A hard tune to find. vg++ (wol) £50 plus post which is a real bargain. seen it at £175 recently! SOLD

SOLD.

Gaining popularity very fast now and copies dried up! Put em on the Right Track (storming dancer) & It must be Love (superb mid-T) Vg++ on Real Thing £35 + PP on HOLD paulsadot@hotmail.com

Spiritual Aires - Working For Jesus on Church Door vg++ good soul/gospel and rare £60 HOLD Johnson Family Gospel Singers - Imitations on Raina Vg+ (vg++ really, but has few surface marks.) £45 On SOLD.

I would say it depends what sort of nighter. for instance a Goldsoul Top 500 or a rare soul event. A historical re-creation event or a moving on event etc. So the list is good, but maybe people can qualify what sort of events they mean? For instance I see Good Times Bad Times here and Margaret Little, which to me are not within the timeframe your referring to...

Well put indeed.

Yes, but I guess I am doubting that it will extend a Northern Soul strapline running beyond that or before that, thats my point. They tend to reify the whole scene into a narrow time warp......as if it began and ended there. Unless I have got it wrong and its covering the Torch and Wheel in this bit and then in the 80's and 90's section picks up the momentum of the scene again with Stafford, 100 club etc, etc and then in the millennium covers Europe & UK etc, in which case, I stand corrected and apologise to the fantastic producers.

'What!'! 'Say it Isn't So'!? 'Nine Times Out Of Ten' these programmes replicate each other, 'Marching' along the same path. Oh, god another Wigan-centric soul history, as if there was no scene after it. The Wigan brand being pushed yet again. 'If You Ask Me', its lazy, poor, un-researched journalism in these type of programmes, acting as if time stood still when the doors of Wigan Casino closed. Why do they never look beyond the commodified brand? They just don't 'Get it Baby'....

I had Sity and James covered as Gwen & Ray when I was playing it out in UK around 2003/4. Have you tried Andy Dyson? It is a very tough find. Good luck.

That assumes that the good stuff is defined by price....subjective as Peter99 says.

Why oh why......?

PM'd you.

Sons of Nature – Disillusion City, Town - Juldance vg++ £50 Rare uptempo proper funk edge soul. Sold Darryl Carter – Looking Straight Ahead – Hi m- £15 Beautiful tune I used to +3 it! HOLD Singers – Just A Little Further - Lebam vg++ £25 Dirty, dirty super cool soul. HOLD 4th Kingdom – Call It Dope – Janion (wol) vg+ £40 Uptempo soul stormer with superb xover flip. SOLD The Gospelaires of Dayton, O – God Helps Those Who Help Themselves - Savoy (white US demo) m- £30 Jackie Rhett – Get Him In Your Life – Raines vg++ £40 This should be bigger than it is really. SOLD Sensational Voices of Faith – Keep The Faith – Carter & Lloyd vg+ £35 Bethea The Maskman – Ghetto Love - B.B.C. vg++ (couple of slight surface marks) £40 Just the best dirty ghetto soul dancer 45! SOLD Bongi & Nelson – That’s The Kind of Love/ I Was So Glad – Editions Picture sleeve vg++ £60 Brilliant double-sided dancer. SOLD Little Dondi – I Forgot To Get Myself Together – Rains vg++ £100 rare and out there dancer, little known and deserves more. SOLD Sonny Anderson & Prince Conley – Love & Laughter – Emerson vg+ £35 Unique uptempo - funk-edged soul (I hate that term since it was appropriated for shit fonk!) that me and Karl Heard used to play out. Junior McCants – The Boy Needs A Girl – King vg+ £65

Totally agree. Also tells the real story of Wigan along the way...

Thanks for clarifying that both of you and sorry if my comments came across as accusatory. I am just shocked by some of the praise he is getting. Once guy on FB wrote "Whatever people say about Tony, he was a great DJ"........just moronic commentaries really and totally insensitive.