Thinksmart

I think a little bit of interest is talked up continually way beyond its actual size. If they are happy, that's great but it often feels like hype in the way others report it.

As I have grown older and my Soul music reach has expanded along with other genres, I've come to appreciate Quincy Jones increasingly. Sad to see his passing, but it looks to of been as good as they ever can be.

That is quite an extensive article, which was nice to see.

Excellent to hear the stories first hand. David Nathan has done a huge amount for Soul Music and still continues now. Thanks everyone. I look forward to more episodes.

Of course it could be an AI thing..... you can now literally put in a few parameters and it will generate a song.

You picked a good one - I just couldn't. Would it be a stomper or a beat ballad, Northern or Modern, happy or sad? It changes continually.

Far Out Magazine is notorious for shallow semi-AI-produced clickbait, often derived from earlier music content. It's best ignored.

Excellent reading and listening, thank you

Well it's 1968 era Sunshine white pop with a psych-middle. Close to David & The Giants or Spiral Starecase with the urgency of Steve Karmen Big Band's 'Breakaway' or Human Beinz later on. I don't know it and it's not for me these days. I'd of enjoyed it a lot at their age in the video I bet. There have been a fair few 'Sunshine Pop' compilations in recent years of this type of music, so may be findable via them if not already known.

The Castle In The Sky theme reminds me of the song of that title by Gerri Grainger - but I don't think it has that specific lyric. Can you share the link and point in the video?

I have the utmost admiration and enjoyment of Terry Caller's music, his albums and singles are in constant rotation. Beyond his Northern & Modern Soul spins his albums take him into the same realms as Gil Scott-Heron, Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway, Bill Withers etc. I didn't connect to the later UK made albums at the time, but will go back and try them.

Hi Richard, welcome. What areas of Soul do you enjoy?

I had the above on demo original and got an offer far beyond what I had paid, but wish I had it now for sentimental reasons. I danced to that on my living room floor more than just about anything else apart from Love's The Only Answer.

Ordered the CD and looking forward to hearing it. Thank you

Excellent, thanks Mike. I've seen it reported that he has sung it live and it sounded more than a demo when Richard played it. Richard digs out many of his one-offs and unreleased songs on the second hour of his Sunday Solar show. It's always worth a listen and has cost me a fortune over the years in rare Japanese CDs and the like.

Played it today too and I still cannot track it down.

I never play off CDs, I rip them (twice) to lossless FLAC format and only play those on my Astiga personal cloud. The CD essentially is just the master source for me.

I have now listened to this CD a few times and the album with all the extra songs is wonderful. Well recommended. We can only hope Expansion continues these high quality, licensed reissues. On his show at Solar, Richard said they are working on the Alvarez reissue a few months ago.

You make a great point, no money actually returns to artists from old vinyl.

Davey S - Expansion licence properly, his contract with the original ABC label I do not know. I cannot specifically comment on that, but this is done properly and took a long time to release. Bobby appeared at Blackpool in 2016 organised by Richard who is a director of Expansion, and has mentioned dialogue to make this happen on his radio shows. So given Expansion's long history of doing releases properly, I trust that is the case here too.

See https://www.expansionrecords.com/pr/NGV_BtvJzEOjfvciAHyw1w My preorder arrived today - all the Bobby Hutton songs and unreleased ones too, on CD and vinyl. Wonderful!

I think I have all of this from the extensive Complete Goldwax series, Goldwax Story series, Goldwax Northern Soul and related artist releases they did before, but the music is of course wonderful.

Yes I order all these and was enjoying that one over the weekend along with the new George Duke one too. There have been two of the post-Motown run of Spinners albums recently too. Coming later in the year is a excellent looking one for Blue Magic, that I am looking forward to greatly. I've bought all the albums reissued on CD individually, but to have them mastered well and complete with extras is welcome.

All good recommendations,so long as flat sole, Goodyear welted gibsons/derbys or brogues. Made in UK if possible. Another perfect option is Sanders from Northampton who often have discounts. For dancing I'd avoid overpaying as sweat will age the shoes quickly. I have Crockett & Jones,Russell & Bromley,Barkers etc but would not dance in them- same with Churches or Cheaney who are too good for that use to me. Loake and Sanders seem the right quality to price for me to dance in.