Mickey Finn

And a standout track from a standout album:

His 1978 LP "City Lights" is a personal favourite, but his rolling piano style can also be found on a lot of session recordings, including this from BB King's 1981 LP:

Great news! Well done to Richard for years of dedicated work. Not only has he opened the ears of many to this wonderful music, and in so doing helped to bring great joy and deserved recognition to the artists who were otherwise ignored, but how much of northern England must have benefited from the economic impact of the events he has organised? Congratulations to a true gentleman.

According to his bio on Discogs, this is indeed the same Ernest Kelley as owned Lake Records. He moved to Detroit from NY in 1968 to work with Motown for 4 years. He stayed in Detroit when Motown upped sticks and his Soul O Sonic label was issuing output in 1973/4. Apart from Carol's 2 singles, this one above by Ruby seems to be the only other release on Mid Town. The producer is Carol's brother and the Garling Publishing Company was owned by mother Essie. For more info on Ernest Kelley, Dave Welding is once again your man, as he wrote the liner notes to this Grapevine comp, also cheaper than a new 7:

Dave Welding wrote extensive notes for the cd collection on Grapevine released in 2004. A few copies of this are still available, cheaper than a new 7. Carol's family is particularly relevant due to her mother's key role as financial backer, music publisher and record company owner (Mid Town). According to Dave's liner notes tragedy struck in 1983 when Carol's mother died of cancer on Christmas Day. Carol herself died of cancer a few months later. Her brother George, a photographer by profession and also a financial backer of Carol's career, died later of the same disease. It was Al Perkins who teamed up Carol with Ernest Kelley, following some heavy lobbying from Carol's mother Essie. Kelley was the owner of the Soul O Sonic label which released a few singles on Carol. Pat Lewis was a long standing family friend, and Carol was the godmother of both Pat's sons. Perhaps Dave would have more info but it's worth digging out the cd for the unedited version.

David Morris is better known in jazz funk/boogie circles for his "Saturday night" single on Becket. He was also involved in Garfield Fleming's "Don't send me away" as well as Archie Bell's own Becket released LP. However previous to these he released various singles, including this manic stomper:

It also appears on the cd reissue of the LP on Funkytowngrooves a few years back: https://www.discogs.com/Melba-Moore-What-A-Woman-Needs/release/2748459

Neil Rushton: Q: What are you up to now? What are the plans for the future? A: I’ve almost finished a revamp of my book ‘Northern Soul Stories’ to celebrate 10 years of the original release. https://www.bensherman.co.uk/the-blog/The-Last-Word-Neil-Rushton Looking forward to this

This is the kind of tune that is likely to be known on the French funk scene. I tried scouring the many French bootleg cds of this genre but couldn't find anything. You could try asking DJ Bronco for help (not to be confused with the California version). His email is public information: broncofunk@hotmail.com Please let us know if you find out.

Hi Les, many thanks for the Folkestone weekender last October ... Too young to have been at the Mecca but assuming that's no barrier to entry I'd be interested in what comes out of this. Hope you get a good response.

I can see why you might not want that, but all the same there are regular comments and agreement on these throughout the forum about the dire quality of some records that managed or still manage to fill floors on the scene. A thread like this might be more useful if there would be some kind of insight as to why e.g. Tribute should be so popular, when there are so many better properly soulful tunes out there that don't get a look in. Going back a bit, why would a record as (to my ears at least) transparently terrible as that Pierre Hunt nonsense have been acceptable to dancers who might otherwise take the hump at records with a far more soulful pedigree? I get the novelty of Joe 90, but there are some records that filled floors despite having no obvious joke value, never mind soulful content. It's also interesting to see how opinions diverge sharply over someone like Helen Shapiro. If we can discuss it rather than just post something simply to slag it off then is that not a good use of the forum? Before the gates are locked once and for all, is there anyone on here who has while deejaying ever played out any of the above nominations? If so, why? What sort of crowd gets down to them, do you get down to them, is there something we're missing, are we all just mindless snobs?

Fair point - maybe the better way to do it is some sort of Q&A like at the summer Blackpool festival.

Professionals get paid. Some of those artists might never have got paid in the first place. Discovering there's a bunch of people crazy about your work that you thought was long forgotten, and who are prepared to pay to see you in person, must be really uplifting. Easy to knock promoters for seeing the angle, but without them the artists might be none the wiser, and a lot of punters denied the pleasure of seeing and even meeting their heroes. As for those who keep on recording, I wasn't too wild about much of Aretha's stuff on Arista but there was a big audience for it, apparently. It doesn't have to take away my shelf space or listening time that's better used for more worthy releases.

It's certainly working out better for them than it did for a previous generation of heirloom owning offspring:

Richard Searling just published a book like that! Great idea - it would be a good way of sharing memories of the scene in addition to bringing some insight and maybe even generating new appreciation for the well worn, the rare, or simply the underplayed obscurity. I don't think this place is so negative at the moment, although I don't scour every corner. For me this thread has been a good laugh and Ed deserves our thanks for starting it off and giving us yet another chance to enjoy "Tribute". Can somebody kick off a new "Personal favourites" thread?

Apparently not: https://www.discogs.com/artist/120167-Peter-Shelley

If I may be permitted to nominate a standout contribution to the dung pile:

Absolutely. I don't think he came near to fulfilling his potential on record - the highlights featured above hint at what could have been done if he'd been discovered a few years earlier, before the music became overly programmed, or if a different producer like Michael J. Powell had been able to work with him on a full album, rather than just a track on an album. Having said that, his work with MAW was terrific and there could easily have been more along those lines. Grateful for what he left us.

Sensational!

I like debate of this kind and appreciate your attempt to give us something to debate. But this debate is part of how the thread has evolved. The definition of 2 step remains an open question and hopefully we'll get some more perspectives on that. The regional variations are interesting, for example. Meanwhile Babinski will hopefully find some good tunes along the way. And the same goes for the rest of us. For what it's worth, those bpms you are quoting up there probably are more 4 to the floor than 2 step, in my opinion at least.

As I write I'm listening to the Expansion Soul Sauce volume 2 comp and this track by Wilton Felder featuring Bobby Womack from 1992 came up - seems to fit the bill: