Thinksmart

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.

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.

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!

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.

Excellent, thanks.

So many across the decades....not mentioned the songs with Barbara Acklin yet here, so right back to the start of the scene with such as From The Teacher To The Preacher.

There can be no such thing as AI 'Soul music', it is evident why from the name it has. It could adequately reproduce the sound, but that doesn't make it Soul music in any way as the humanity and lived experience it expresses cannot be delivered that way. I'm open to AI in other areas of my life and other styles of music, but not in this area. It's a complete anathema, a false premise. We don't even accept people trying to do Soul music easily who are just fans of the music, these come and go then fade away. There's a difference between the sound and the feel. In a world of technology, it will be the humanity, emotions and feelings we remember - so it's even more important that Soul music truly reflects life as lived, or aspired to be - at least for my own enoyment of it. I simply don't have a need for AI Soul music, when there is a world of real music to discover, including that being made today that I'm still purchasing from contemporary and emerging artists. I don't mind electronics in music at all, it's the human intent and expression that matters for it to be something I choose to engage with.

Thanks Mike, the quiet work is appreciated.

Yes very nice and a memorable tune. Plenty of good songs in his last few years.

Absolutely all of them right up to Fan The Fire for me. Quality all the way through.

Look at Charly Publishing Limited at Companes House. This ties back to original investor. From there you can view the People tab for the appointed directors. At their website it says they are Charly Acquisitions Limited, which I tracked to be registered in St Kitts and Nevis through an offshore tracking site. There isn't a UK company of that name. At LinkedIn they are listed as registered in Sark at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/charly-acquisitions-ltd/ Again this shows the original investor to Charly there in the people tab.

Apologies for the slight off-topic, but a decade or so ago (probably more now), one of the DJs who focused on Northern Soul at Blackpool Mecca prior to Ian Levine and Colin Curtis got in touch from Canada, then another who was put in contact after the first. They wanted to some extent put the record straight that Blackpool Mecca was well established and had its own scene they had been cultivating for ages long before the DJ change. They were talking about 68-69 era alongside Twisted Wheel and the TW also in Blackpool which I never knew about and has been mentioned here at the site a few times.

If a UK release then it should, but it has been been printed on overseas or some event/rally boot CD sleeves to make them look genuine. If you post up the CD then we can guide. Ifnit ia genuine, the CD issuer has nothing to hide.