Twoshoes

I was in a charity shop just last week, one with quite a bit of room, just by the door two guys were knelt going through to large bags of cassettes,, they were selling at 10 for a quid or a fiver per bag. Doubt they will be there next time i go in but if any remain I'll see if there's anything soul related. Got rid of mine ages ago but found a Luther Vandross Busy Body if you want it,pm me your address if so.

Me too, tried to reply came back email undelivered fortunately

Having just watched the Reckoning and followed to some extent the whole Saville, Rolf Harris stories I think there's little doubt they knew Mal. I just looked a little further into Tomorrow People and there is a link to the BBC in they employed the director of Dr Who to oversee the first series of The Tomorrow People so maybe he thought he would get a little dig in, pure speculation of course but makes you think.

Cheers for that one Mal, watched it yesterday, as you say a long one but it holds your interest throughout, the woman with the freaky eyes when she first went in set the tone of menace for me

When I look back I see what may be tentative links to my future love of soul music and the slow build to a life long passion, my Dad played in various brass bands for many years hence there were always instruments in the house, up until around the age of eight or nine I reluctantly attended the local Salvation Army where my uncle was the bandleader and taught, why I never took to learning an instrument remains a mystery lost in time but my future love of instrumentals, Jr Walker and the sax in general probably stemmed from there. I had two older brothers and a sister, I was the youngest by 7yrs , they had records, not a lot and none specifically soul related, when I reached sixty I did two cd's for those at my party, one titled where it all began ,the other where it ended up. The Ronettes and the Crystals were two of their favourites which maybe led me on to the Supremes and the like, PJ Proby I consider to be my stepping stone into big beat ballads. Luckily Cliff and the Shadows held no interest or I'd probably be listening now to Coldplay rather than the Loma box set for instance. Moving on a few years at secondary school a few of us used to watch the Andy Williams Show which had a fair few soul related acts as guests. This peaked our interest in Motown, a couple of slightly older friends were into soul music, Atlantic Stax etc this led to my first experience of the Motown in the setting of a disco in the local church hall. Hearing Edwin Starr and the Contours had me hooked. Limited funds at 14 or 15 meant trawling the second hand shops for anything soul related. Age 17 I get a knock on the door from a lad who lived further up the road from me, I'd never spoken to him and as far as I knew we had no friends in common, his opening question "I hear you are into Northern soul" to which I replied "you hear wrong, I collect soul music ". I'd obviously heard of Northern Soul , by then I'd left school and drifted away from the fellow record collectors there, my older friends had moved away from soul music which was great for me swelling my collection for little money. On seeing and flicking through said collection my new and future oldest mate pronounced half my collection to be Northern Soul. I guess I should have been wiser and looked into it a tad more, I started buying Blues and Soul, became more aware of what records were under the "northern" banner though to be honest to me they were still just soul records. Which is why after dating for a short while a girl whose brother was a Dj at a local Palais and being shown the caravan in the garden he used as a pad strewn with 45's, being told to help yourself, I came into possession of a quantity of Jay Boy, Atlantic and Motown green and white demos. I then happily swapped the haul of demos for the issues with my new mate, after all they were the same records weren't they? That was it for me, all about the music, no history of going to any venues, Wigan a couple of times, collected everything from chart soul, funk, sweet soul, saw most of the major acts of the 70's and early eighties, most if not all the name Motown acts, the big funk bands Ohio Players, War etc . Then in the mid 80's met up with an old mate who was still on the scene and started going to events, Burnley Miners (the one by the canal), Westhoughton Cricket Club, various venues in and around Todmorden , Parkers in Manchester the Trafalgar opposite Blackburn Rovers ground. Took a while to get there with that ramble but after collecting soul music for nigh on twenty years I guess I got into "northern soul" in the mid 80's, or did I?

The Knight Brothers Temptation Bout To get me springs to mind with that suggestion, not as a suggested play more how much money do you think I've got to spend on records, to quote another song Willpower Weak temptation Strong, that said there's always savings to be made when records enter the mix

B side of Guilty Al Green, B side of Sexy Mamma the Moments another, B side of Isley bros I guess i'll always love you was another i think, if not affordable then available, I bought a couple mentioned on another thread by Mal C, could be coincidence but one had sold same day he posted which begs the question once the cheaper ones have been bought is the bench mark set at what's there on say discogs which I think, could be wrong is the easiest port of call for many as a guide to a ball park price. Since starting buying again 4yrs ago and not getting out since Covid so not seeing sales boxes etc I've found it's very much a case of searching the net ,watching ebay etc to get a record at the price you want to pay, no dealer or site is consistently cheaper than any other though taking discogs again as an example too many on there are over ambitious shall we say in what they expect to achieve or maybe they are not actually bothered about selling.

3rd photo, beam me up Scotty...some lovely shots there

I posted a link to Youtube some months ago about a guy digging for records in West Africa, albeit not soul but still very interesting. If you put in Record digging in West Africa it should come up.

Something from Tony Troutman?

Obviously not a great photo but might bring a smile, ready for the Tour of Britain passing my house in Shuttleworth with a Lancashire welcome for Tom Pidcock. Before some pedant points out according to government boundary changes I'm technically in GT Manchester, never accepted that and never will, Lancashire born and bred and always will be.

Same here, gets a play every now and then

It's exactly like that, when I took it out of the box I expected the tape to have perished like masking tape does after time but rolling a couple of inch off the barrel the surface was still very sticky. Rolling it over the pop record made no difference,no trace of anything on the roller, maybe when new the tape was a tad more spongy, still wouldn't want to try it on any of mine either.

Usual great service, kept informed of delays from label, arrived super quick when available.

You could try one of these low tech options, don't know where it came from found it whilst clearing stuff. Tried it on an old 60s pop record, didn't make any difference whatsoever.

I haven't seen how the event was received by the wider public, maybe we will find out after last nights showing. I was hoping we might hear how the musicians and singers found the experience.Perhaps with the wealth of instrumentals to pick from we might get a future prom focusing on them. Without the subjective opinions on the quality of some of the vocals an instrumental prom would maybe be better received by the naysayers. Much as I enjoyed it there is no substitute for the real thing which had me thinking , if I was Joe public watching would it make me want to go to an event, not sure it would but that's just me.

I was lucky in two ways when my marriage ended, a mate at work had gone through a very messy break up where his wife made it very difficult for him to see his daughter until eventually all contact was lost to the point she moved with her daughter to the US. seeing the pain and heartache he went through I swore to myself that if it happened to me I'd do all I was able to do to ensure the children came first. When it happened my kids decided to stay with me, I bent over backwards to ensure my wife saw the kids as much as she wanted, she called virtually every day, she had complete access. Hard as it was and believe me it was hard the kids came first for both of us, after the break up we had few disagreements but not many, after many years we had an amicable divorce without going backwards and forwards through solicitors We have stayed friends to the point myself and Lou went to the ex's wedding to the guy she left me for. we all get on though it did take me years to stop swearing at him as he drove past in the car. Her hubby has been great with the kids,in fact done more for them with their home improvements etc than I ever could. Whether my experience is not the norm or not I don't know but I can't imagine depriving children of a parent unless there was a very good reason. I now find myself in the position of not having seen my youngest son for three years due to a disagreement with his sister that escalated into him cutting himself off from the whole family, grandparents and all. I can't imagine Len missing out on the whole growing up years of my children, the last three years have been bad enough, I've only seen his children about six times if that. Luckily for me I have the mindset that people will do what they do regardless of others feelings and as long as he is happy good luck to him, he knows where I am should he need me. It might be a naive simplistic view but I feel that if people at the starting point of a break up could just sit down and think why they were together in the first place and use a bit of common sense and decency and not make it a war where there has to be a winner and a loser. Very happy for you Len to have reconnected with your son and daughter and wish you all the best for the future.

Enjoyed the blog last time Mal, look forward to looking in how you are doing and reading a few stories of the people you meet along the way and of course the photos. Wish i had done at least part of the Camino when I looked at it early 2000's when I was fit enough and had nothing to prevent me other than the nervousness of never having holidayed solo.

I've enjoyed this thread and can agree and disagree with comments on both sides of the divide.I did enjoy the Prom but it wasn't until just now that I realised on what level. After playing recently bought contemporary soul I then played some 80's electronic pop which I collect in a small way, my guilty pleasure if you will. Now much as I like some of the electronic that's about it, I don't love it with a passion as I do all the different genres of soul that I collect. Hence as much as I enjoyed the prom it was with an open mind, I didn't expect it to be blown away by it and wasn't, they did it very well but for me it was what it was. Had I been there would I have been up dancing in the aisles , no, were all the vocals top notch,no. Where I do feel slightly aggrieved if I am reading some of the adverse replies correctly is in some way my taste or respect for the legacy if you will is questioned, if that's the case I'll take my place on the naughty step next to some long standing members on here, who though I don't know them personally I have the upmost respect for. That said I also have have respect the detractors to, many who are far more knowledgeable than myself.

Much as I expected Mal which is why I put in my reply someone would be able to give a more realistic price as to what to expect. I'm not sure how sales history works on Discogs whether it's general sales or just sales on there.

I'm no expert on prices, Discogs has last one sold 2022 £325 with a couple of very good plus at £130, I'm sure someone with better knowledge of what you could realistically expect will reply.

As I said during the performance definite highlight for me

I don't disagree with most of what you say though I don't see any exploitation in this case.Much as the majority who have contributed to this thread whilst listening enjoyed it and I may well be wrong here I doubt many would buy a recording of it were such a thing made available taking it into the realms of exploitation depending on your view. Much as we might like to think of the music as ours it never has been and never will be.

I wouldn't be interested in such a break but followed the link to see what was on offer, still not interested. I guess for some people if you're going to have a weekend break at a hotel that provides entertainment you might as well go to one that offers something approaching the music you like. I don't think they are cashing in they are just providing a service which going by the amount of breaks and the various musical genres there is an obvious demand, you pays your money and takes your choice. I don't think it fair to compere these with the Prom concert. Only my opinion but two entirely different things which no doubt will be covered on the relevant thread. Would you consider events like the Jersey Weekender etc where you book the full package to be cashing in or are they ok because they are run by people involved in Northern soul, just asking and only mentioned Jersey as it's one I've been to in the past.

Cheers for that, the question and answer part with Joe Duddell is very enlightening as to the process involved. I hope somewhere we find out the reactions of some of those involved in the night. To the naysayers I'd say a British institution , The Proms has paid homage to the music we all love and did it very well, shouldn't we be in some small way proud of that.