Twoshoes

A few pictures from my walk today, the Tower on Holcolmbe Hill has been taunting me for over a year every time I've sat in the garden or looked out of the window, finally felt strong enough after bypass to give it a go today, bloody knackered when I got up there, the Urn caused quite a bit of disagreement when it was first installed as part of the Irwell Valley Sculpture trail as many thought it had nothing to do with Ramsbottoms history, the Stag is in some ones garden on the hill, not sure what it's made of but it looked pretty impressive, the roots of the trees on the path have always impressed me, the photo doesn't really do them justice, the view is looking across the valley to my house, it was wonderful to be out walking again and maybe in the near future I won't have to stop quite as much when the fuel runs out...

That's a marvellous turn of phrase Baz and much deeper than it seems, made me smile on a wet windy morning.

At last I'm able to do a decent walk after my bypass, maybe not great pics but things of interest along the way...First pic is of a set of carry in/carry out steps thought to be one of the few remaining in Lancashire and a throwback to when cotton was spun at home, cannot remember exact details I have the info somewhere but cannot find it, bales of raw cotton would be delivered up the steps and the top floor of the cottage would be where the spinning into cotton thread was done and then carried out down the steps. Second photo is taken from Scout Moor opposite my house and shows Holcolmbe Hill with it's tower and Winter Hill behind to the right. Third and fourth pictures are on the Irwell Sculpture trail, sadly both the Three Kings and the Picture frame are falling into disrepair, the Three Kings is a homage to Lancashire's Industrial heritage I believe ,there was more to the picture frame, some sculptures behind it but they have long gone and rotted away as has the bottom part of the frame.

Welcome Kevin, look forward to seeing your future contributions looks like you could have plenty of stories etc to share.

Got to be up there somewhere.... miserable but so good

I can't really add much as I don't remember a lot about the night other than having a great time,my main memory is setting off for home in the morning on two borrowed scooters and mine breaking down after about three miles. We got talking to Tony Cummings the journalist who took a shine to one of the girls we knew who ended up living with him in London for a time. I lost touch with the two mates I went with after a couple of years and have not seen a hide nor hair of either since, I've always wondered if they continued their love affair with the music or are the two piles of records lying in a dusty attic somewhere.

I've got one arriving soon, a gift from a mate in France who no longer has a record player, he tells me he sold his good stuff years ago but still has a few in the loft, he's warned me not to expect much but the anticipation and excitements still there,one mans rubbish hopefully becomes my treasure, I'm not interested in value by treasure just something that makes me smile and my ears sing.

Always sad to see a long established night end, as with Paul above never been to the Harold but heard you play at other venues and echo his sentiments.

Odd that If You Don't Know Me By Now is one of the songs in the show, I checked you tube as I wasn't aware they had done a version the only one I could find was as backing to Jean Carne, with the size of their back catalogue you'd think there would be one of their own that would fit the storyline which I guess is why it is used or am I just being pedantic. Thanks for posting wasn't aware of the show which I guess will make it's way over here some time in the future.

Had a few records sent me by an old mate who now lives in France, was delighted to find this amongst them. I'm not well up on pressings ,issues etc, the one I got is on Ron's records.

if true Steve that's great for the ones near me, they came from Germany I think and are still serviced by the Germans, so much for the jobs they were going to create. Someone post a photo quick before I hang myself from a blade with all this windmill chat ☹

It would not surprise me, I'm led to believe they also turn them off when there's enough power going into the national grid, a mate of mine has an app on his phone that tells you at any given time how much power is going into the National grid and what percentage is from what source eg:wind turbines ,power stations etc. My beef with them is once erected you cannot escape them, you can see them for miles in what is fast becoming every direction plus their efficiency is still in doubt with a lot of people, anyway rant over back to the photographs.

Just realised the top photo is very similar to one I posted some time ago when we had that period of fantastic skies night after night difference being this one was taken towards the opposite end of the hill opposite my house, don't know how others feel about windmills but I have them on the hills at the front of my house and to the side at the back with the threat of more on the hill directly opposite most of which is owned by the National Trust so hopefully they won't be successful.

Sorry for waffling.That would be a shame Rob it's been an interesting thread, meandered a bit as some threads do but if nothing else whether you agree or disagree with some of the more strident views expressed you cannot deny it has shown the passion in whatever way expressed we all have for the music and the scene. I would say well done to Babyboy for the way he has handled the thread. I've started a reply several times and deleted it without posting either because my view has already been stated by someone else or my reply could be taken in the wrong context and caused offence. This part of my post is for Babyboy as I seem to remember way back on the thread he asked for peoples history on the scene ,how they got into etc , some times I also in some ways on here don't always feel qualified to comment on the early days of a scene I was not active on, I went to Wigan twice and that would be about it for the seventies apart from a couple of other one time visits to an event. I had a brief period on the scene in the mid to late eighties and came back about fourteen years ago. I have collected Soul Music since the age of about fourteen, didn't realise that a lot of my collection was considered Northern until I struck up a friendship through music with someone into Northern, our first conversation started in the pub where he approached me at the bar and said "I believe you're into Northern Soul", I replied no just sixties soul, Motown, Atlantic etc, he then came to my house looked through my records and proceeded to point out all the tunes that were Northern ,I of course responded with "well it's all Soul to me". Over the years my tastes have changed, I've like many run the whole spectrum of black music Mento, Ska Funk, Jazz Funk you name it somewhere along the line I've listened and bought it. Where do I stand now, still like to hear the top 500 but wouldn't choose to go to an oldies exclusive night and do get tired of hearing the same old same old, get annoyed when top name Dj's play the same set time after time when they must have a plethora of great underplayed stuff in their collections. I'm open to anything at the moment ,I'm a prodigious downloader ,love the rare and underplayed though a lot of what I hear extolled as brilliant I tend to think is pretty average. Recently started playing what is left of my collection and have been surprised to find much enjoyment in hearing mundane stuff like Wicky Wacky by the Fatback Band and flipping records over hearing b sides ignored for over thirty years or more. A for a youth culture in the hands of old men, I don't see owt' wrong with that, as for there being no youth culture now I disagree, it's a nation wide one of belligerence ,no respect, I'll walk a slow as I like across the road in front of your car, make you step in the road to pass, strut like Peacock with your jogging pants stuck inside your socks and talk like a gangster from Harlem even though you're a fifteen year old from Luton (no offence to Luton been watching 24 Hours in Police Custody. Listening to other music other than Soul, always have, the first time I saw The Lightening Seeds before they went big gave me as much a of buzz as many soul gigs I've attended and I've attended a few,mind you they didn't bring a tear to my eye like sat waiting for Gladys Knight to come on stage in 1971. Having three kids has given me a guilty pleasure of Kylie, Green Day, Mighty Bosstones etc, lov Janis Ian, Beautiful South but the one thing I've learnt over the years is listening to all of that only enforces how great, fabulous, magnificent and how deep my love of Soul music is, number of times I've listened to any one of the above and thought that was great only to then play Darrell Banks or any one of a hundred soul artists and think but that was something else altogether. Commenting on how others dance, I think Chalky covered that one to a tee in a few of his replies, spinners? if you can't spin within a relatively confined area don't spin, nothing worse than trying to avoid a tornado on the dance floor, love to see someone wrapped up in a tune singing along, dancing with no sense of rhythm carry on, enjoy but please don't dance next to me. Sorry again for the waffle was trying to cover all aspects of the thread from memory, in conclusion live and let live, there's room for everyone....finally maybe one for another thread Babyboy......Northern Soul ,It's a Way of Life....is it? Discuss

The guy at the front is rockin the Sombrero and Sandals look,

Great sky at the back of my house tonight, the Windmills are around four miles away, pictures were taken about twenty mins apart

I think I'm right in saying Lancashire a go go is Stuart Raith Chalky

Me and she who must be listened to, one of the few photos were Lou isn't hiding behind either a glass, her hand or my head..

Don't buy much these days but being a sucker for an instrumental heard this on a podcast last week and had to have it, my mate describes it as the Floral Dance on acid, sure it won't be to everyone's taste, bit of a Marmite moment me thinks

I for one hope you're right Joey I love a good instrumental and wouldn't mind hearing this one, hope someone can shed some light on it. We've had two quite large thread on Instrumentals on here but that one never came up as far as I can remember.

Seeing this had me digging out another from Ronnie after a morning of listening to a load of 70's /80's funk from the likes of the Fatback Band and Rufus etc

No particular examples but I'd say yes certain records are better suited to a small intimate venue rather then a large cavernous hall type venue, might be my age but any tune or even a whole night can be ruined for me by it being just too loud, when it becomes just a distorted mess and you have to shout to let yourself be heard in a conversation then it's a notch too high. Great when the promoter has the set up just right until another Dj starts tinkering from behind the speakers, I know it's personal choice and lots of people like it blasting out but not for me.

Having had a quadruple heart bypass on the 26th April it has to be The Stylistics You Make Me Feel Brand New, not brand new just yet but getting there.

I've loved Popcorn since I first became aware of it mostly at first down to the Northern Soul side of things they play but as has been said it is an all encompassing scene and definitely won't be to everyone's taste on here. I listened to countless playlists on You tube over the years and you have to dig deep to uncover the less obvious tunes that appeal to a more Northern ear. As an example of the slowing down of a tune I'm of an age I remember the singer Anne Shelton, quite a large lady with blonde hair, one of her tunes came up on a playlist and I thought that doesn't sound like the Anne Shelton I remember, I looked for another version and sure enough the playlist one was slowed down to fit the required tempo. I'm not posting it because I think it's a good tune it's just an example for those who are wondering what they are trying to achieve though on this one they are both on shown as popcorn so maybe it isn't always slowed down. If any of you guys are tempted to check out some Popcorn for the first time don't be put off there will most likely be 95% that you think is terrible, with a lot of patience and button pressing there are some fabulous tunes to be found.

Likewise with your Sam Dees and Maze