Johndelve

While I understand being somewhat sad about not being able to afford some records, what about the thousands - tens of thousands, even - that DON'T cost that much. Just go after them instead.

Mine, too. Have been looking forward to this one for a while...well done yet again, Alex and co.

Well done again, Alex. Hope this excellent release does well for you, I'll certainly be buying one....

And the original UK LP had more tracks than the US release, including the superb "Never In Public"....

Very much easier said than done ! Took me years to find a copy.......

Excellent LP, got it yesterday, highly recommended. Did not know Jato Von Del was a group, rather than a singer.

I'm coming to this one a little late, but I'm with "Stateside" 's earlier posting where he stated: "I presume that B&S must have been distributed through S&S and Contempo had struck a deal with them to get access to the servicemen in Europe. Hence the 75 cent price tag. Just guessing now." I think that is almost certainly the case and was a means of distributing the magazine to U.S. personnel over here at a reduced cost and /or to circumvent some sort of rules regulations in force at the time. (Or maybe just to make sure that "B & S" included a little bit more info that would be of particular interest to servicemen/women over here. ) The front cover appellation, "Stars & Stripes", stopped some time between the end of 1973 and the late summer of 1974. In short, "Blues" and Soul" grew from an earlier publication of John Abbey's, "Home of The Blues", it did not evolve from a magazine called "Stars and Stripes", which, imo, did not ever exist.

I like it a lot too, am delighted I bought it, and think it deserves to do well, but I just wish the songs were a little stronger. I don't think any of them are as instantly memorable as "Thrive" which , sadly, isn't on it....

Agree with comments that say, basically, to think we were dancing to escape the socio-political realities of life was complete bollocks. I was not on the 'northern soul' scene at all, but was very much on the 'southern soul' scene, often going out 4 or 5 times a week in Brighton throughout seventies. Not for one second was it anything to do with escaping 'social' realities, which often weren't great in mid seventies with 3 day weeks, enforced power outages etc. etc. I also did not earn much money at all, but what little I did earn went nearly all on records. I loved the music, simple as that, nothing else. It's just lazy journalism.

It's "Top Of The Mountain" by The Staple Singers.....

If you/we are talking about 'Northern' related or 'low rider' related soul collecting I would agree with you. However, there are still thousands of records for sale by hundreds of top soul artists that still sell in the easily affordable to pitifully low ranges. Paul Kelly, "Don't Burn Me" LP, as good as soul gets, £8.99 on discogs. And for those who only want singles, his 45 of the same name goes for about £4.

I can understand sellers hiking up prices on records that have a chance of attracting interest; what is particularly dumb is when records are priced at amounts that are never going to sell in a million years. And there are thousands of them out there, on ebay particularly.

I totally agree about UK ebay. Absolutely ludicrous prices, It's as if everyone who posts things up there has no idea that discogs exists.

Good choices, Greg.. I would agree that the quality of new releases in last couple of years or so has been very high. My favourite new LPs from last year were : Gloria Scott - So wonderful. Probably as strong as What am I gonna do. A very nice surprise indeed. Kim Tibbs - The science of completion. Her voice has taken a while to grow on me, but it now has, and the songs and music are first class. Thee Sacred Souls - same. As you say, hard to choose one track over another.

Hi, I used to live in Egypt, albeit quite a long time ago. I would think there is no chance whatsoever of any soul clubs or bars in Hurghada. There certainly weren't any in the past. BTW, I never saw a single record shop there, either, even in Cairo. Great country, though. You'll have a good time.

It strikes me that the one 'genre' of soul that NEVER gets played out, or I never hear it anyway, is 'country soul.' There are loads of superb records of this type, here are just two:

John ( & Tracey's) Browne's Soul Kitchen in Tunbridge Wells. A few Sundays every year, the best soul music I have heard played out in decades.

My copy has now arrived. A marvellous LP, well done again Alex.

One of the greatest talents to work within the sphere of soul. We were very lucky to have heard his work. R.I.P.

Very sad. Saw them in Bilbao. A never to be forgotten show. R.I.P. Sam.

Yes, agreed. The soul4real LP looks great and deserves to sell ten times more than it sadly probably will......my order is - of course - already in....

Alan Freed was no producer but he was one of the most influential in R and B. You do not need any influence on what the artist is making, you are missing the point. Anderson not only had huge impact on Northern but on the Rare Groove scene in Lonon.All these ripple effects from him, led to people like Snowboy, Acid Jazz and countless others who ventured to him for records. They in turn created a scene. Putting, John Anderson aside, you are totally wrong if you think an influencer has to be invovled in the making of a product, to have an influence in that field. You are right. My response was clumsy in this regard. Of course DJ's, promoters, writers etc. can have a huge impact in music. But I would still argue that, using the criteria of "influencers", people like, say, John Richbourg, Frankie Crocker, even Tony Blackburn, were significantly more 'influential' in terms of popularising black music, making hits etc, than the great John A.

I specifically used the word "producer" in my reply. Clearly, as a producer, writer and record company founder, Jim Stewart's influence on "black music" was vastly greater than John Anderson's. And I don't doubt that John would agree. John's ability to find records was second to none. And his importance to record collectors and D.J.s in this country was enormous, too.. He accomplishments are beyond doubt. But I still disagree that he was one of the most influential figures in black music in the sixties and seventies. None of the artists we love would have had the faintest idea who he was when they were cutting records in the sixties and seventies. Later on, when he was involved with Grapevine , it was a different story when he did indeed get involved with actively helping with releases. So, in short, huge respect to him. But he had NO influence on what singers were actually cutting in the decades you mention. Nor did he help get them the recognition that Alan Freed did.

His contribution to finding records is unparalleled, without doubt. A very good bloke and I have a huge respect for what he did. But he didn't actually make any music and so I would be extremely wary of saying that he was "one of the most influential figures in black music in the Sixties and Seventies". The singers, musicians, producers, writers etc. who actually were involved with making the records deserve that accolade. Without them there would have been no John Anderson. Indeed, without them there would be none of us.

Does anyone on here have a London UK copy of this unheralded LP from 1976? My copy looks to be more or less unplayed but it has a great deal of surface noise and I'm wondering if other copies are the same? i..e have I just been unlucky or is it a poor pressing plant job and all copies suffer from this same problem ? There are three very nice slow and soulful tracks on it, by the way, although much of the rest isn't great.