Mickey Finn

OK, we seem to have gone back to surname order ... which is great cos now I can nominate my favourite Tina Charles song Not. But it takes care of two Bs that will have to wait a long long time... Meanwhile, what about Chic (featuring Alfa Anderson):

Indeed - some tasty tunes on that one:

In the same way that Max Bygraves and Ethel Merman made disco "mainstream" ... i.e., missed the point completely, got justifiably rubbished and sank without a trace, but not before helping to drive it all back underground, while the real artists and scene carried on anyway.

Bessie Banks:

The Undisputed Truth, featuring Billie Calvin and Brenda Evans:

Barbara Randolph:

Not forgetting this a-lister, Ann Peebles:

Wouldn't want any deserving A-listers to be left out. Both A and B are covered by Benita Arterberry:

Alicia Myers:

Alton McClain and Destiny:

Alison Limerick:

Adeva:

Brenda and the Tabulations:

Wot no Aretha?

Adaritha (aka Ada Dyer) on this Norman Connors classic:

IT is definitely a cash cow for the Royal Mail. There is no proper justification for such an expensive handling charge, but when your goodies are being held to ransom, what are you going to do? And remember, as a now privatised corporation the Royal Mail is a Proper Business with greedy shareholders to satisfy, long before any public interest. Chalky, you won't be far wrong when the looming car crash that is on the horizon plunges the state into serious financial difficulties and it will be a mad scramble for whatever "user" or "handling" charges can be levied just to keep some organisations afloat. And for a country that produces so little of its own, that is extremely serious. Apologies if this is now regarded as off-topic, but it's all connected and unless something close to a miracle happens it's going to get worse before (if) it gets better. And Andy, sorry for being a smart arse, obviously not your fault where you live, but the strange status of Guernsey and other offshore havens is going to be even more in play as a result of what's coming. And if I'm wrong about any or all of the above then thank heavens above for that.

No, it is being implemented in Finland also, unfortunately, on anything valued over 22 USD. It's also being done on a pot luck basis, which means it sometimes slips through the net, and at others it's intercepted and a notification is sent via post instructing the receiver to contact customs and determine the charge to be paid, based on the value of the contents. What is interesting about this to me at least is that it's a significant ramping UP of the restrictions on free trade. Of course governments are short of cash etc., but my conspiracy theory mind wonders if the big trade deal that was supposed to happen between the EU and USA under Obama has got something to do with it - deliberately throw some sand in the gears of the current setup so that people warm to the idea of even more free trade, even if it means signing up to a whole lot of other dodgy stuff that is the main reason why so many people are against it in the first place. Now with Trump the deal is off the table, but the money still rolls in anyway. Paying taxes in Guernsey must be quite a new experience

Jean Carne's "Bet your lucky star" from her 1981 "Sweet and Wonderful" LP deserves more airplay out and about

I liked it at the time and can remember buying the Ensign Records 7. Still ok to these ears. The retro thing depends a lot on the timing - some then state of the art 80s stuff sounds woefully overproduced and clunky today, whereas early 80s "retro" sounds then are often sounding very much fresher today than they were back then. Seemingly obvious hits are not hits because they fail to stand out in circumstances that are different to when these tracks are later recognised for their greatness. As for Kelly Marie ... well, I have a similar thing about Anita Ward's "ring my bell", which was written and produced by Frederick Knight of all people. No Munich Machine in sight but the same pew-pew-pew. It's good that there are people crate digging for undiscovered and rare tunes that merit a soul audience. Soul Sam is still one of the leaders in unearthing late 70s early 80s tracks that deserved a proper chance the first time round but didn't quite make it. I wouldn't want to be stuck with the jazz funk or modern soul equivalents of the NS top 500 - especially for jazz funk the tracks are longer which means it's more like the top 100. And I've complained on here before about modern jocks playing it totally safe. The classics sound so much better when they are played alongside the less familiar. And even better alongside eurodisco

Great Barbara Lynn tune, also done later by her for Ichiban... First heard this courtesy of Dr Bob Jones, wonderful record with the wonderful voice of Hari Paris:

That would have been a stretch of imagination for the programmers, or a distant ambition ... it was years before Radio 1 went 24 hours. I can remember the breakfast show starting at 7 (after an hour of Radio 2's breakfast show broadcast on the same frequency), with programming all the way through to 6pm, going back to Radio 2 until 11 when there was an hour of, whoop de doo, John Peel. That was weekdays. Weekends were even barer, with Ed Stewpot Stewart getting things going about 8:30 with Junior Choice, with programming all the way through to 6 or 7 and then that was it. This would have been late 70s. The first soul shows I'm old enough to remember were those of Al Matthews (largely forgotten). He had the Saturday late evening slot once that was opened up, and he also had a Friday evening show, "Discovatin'", 7-9 if memory serves (it was where I first heard Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers "Bustin' Loose"). Around the same time or earlier Alexis Korner did a blues and soul show on early Saturday evenings (after Alan Freeman, not arf).

Reading the article brought this song by Curtis Mayfield to mind:

Enjoyed this, thanks for posting. The "Divine Disco" comp put together by Greg Belson is an excellent collection, well worth your time. The Enlightment tracks alone are fantastic

Don't think anyone has posted this, a Canadian release by Black and Ward: