Everything posted by Mickey Finn
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Ordered this as soon as I saw it available, looks terrific. Once again, thanks to all at Kent for keeping these coming, including all the notes and research that goes with them. -
Ordered this as soon as I saw it available, looks terrific. Once again, thanks to all at Kent for keeping these coming, including all the notes and research that goes with them.
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As a kid these were great value at 2 new pence per tube:
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Seeing that image of Pacers above reminded me of what they used to be called before being rebranded:
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Lovely looking production up to the usual high Kent standards, and some nice not so obvious tracks in there among the better known. Still plenty left to choose from if anyone wants to celebrate his 84th
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Lovely looking production up to the usual high Kent standards, and some nice not so obvious tracks in there among the better known. Still plenty left to choose from if anyone wants to celebrate his 84th
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All the best to you, Peter
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As a punter and regular customer of those selling on Discogs I find the new "improved" version very clunky and less easy to use than before. It seems to take longer to load up and when I use the search features the results often don't load properly or disappear (i.e., no backtracking). Also frustrating!
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No worries, I get your main point and agree with it. The whole cultural appropriation argument to me is something I am very uncomfortable with because it is so open to abuse and, well, appropriation. My line is as MickL said in another thread on here: Give credit where it's due, it's all you can do. Wise words and we would avoid so much bother and aggravation if they were heeded, and not only in the soul scene.
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No, it's just certain academics playing the same self-promotion game by finding a form of oppression and then developing an angle on it. Nothing to do with Marx or the virgin Mary. As with social media, academics compete for likes (citations) via posts (publications) that simultaneously appropriate (borrow/adapt/quote) from the work of others whilst marking themselves out as somehow unique from the crowd and therefore worth following. Much of academic publishing today is influencer marketing gone mad. People who have never read Marx call this "Marxism" because its practitioners adopt oppressed poses and claim to speak for the oppressed, even as they build nice careers and are anything but oppressed themselves. Ultimately it's all about them and little or nothing to do with the ordinary people they claim to defend. Marxism it most definitely is not. It's just a variation on what seems to be the central theme of this and some other older threads - appropriation for the singular purpose of self-advancement.
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Very encouraging to see new releases like this. Mine should be winging its way as we speak. Thanks to all concerned.
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Very encouraging to see new releases like this. Mine should be winging its way as we speak. Thanks to all concerned.
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A decent obituary of Marlena here: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/jan/23/marlena-shaw-obituary
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Merry Christmas to the team - your work is much appreciated
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Merry Christmas to the team - your work is much appreciated
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Just appeared on the Dusty Groove front page: https://www.dustygroove.com/item/165147/Steve-Guarnori:All-Platinum-Making-Of-A-Sound My copy is waiting at my mother's for pick up in early January.
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That's a very fine retailer that I've used over many years. Very competitive prices, great selection that is constantly updated, good service ... they deserve every success. They typically stock relevant books, and I reckon they are among the best outlets for any book of this kind in the US. Nice one, Steve.
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Nobody is likely to beat Lukie D, although there are perhaps features of the Jamaican scene that make his track record less unlikely - especially if combined with digital download only releases. One soul artist that comes to mind is Donald Height. He released singles between 1960 and 1976 on King, Soozee, Jubilee, Old Town, Roulette, RCA Victor, Shout, Jubilee, Hurdy-Gurdy, Honey, Bell, Mayhew, Dakar and Soulful Music. As Don Day Curtis he recorded for ABC-Paramount. As Prince Jefferies he had a release on Old Town. 15 labels in 16 years.
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Such an important point and sadly all too true for our culture today as a whole. Kids get this at school from an early age - they are encouraged to "sell" themselves at whatever they do, and as technology develops they get the tools by which to sell themselves even more intensively and collect likes, thumbs up, and whatever else gives them the dopamine rush. No wonder mental health problems among teenagers are so well documented. I saw the obituary of this remarkable lady today: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/nov/15/anna-scher-obituary I remember she had a tv show on Saturday mornings during the 70s which was basically her just doing her classes with young kids given a chance to do something they might never otherwise get a chance to do. Many went on to great things. Kathy Burke tells it best how she was able to open doors for kids who otherwise had nothing from the formal education system. But she also encouraged them to listen to each other and understand how to relate, not just to each other but to an audience. She understood them as people and encouraged them to communicate and listen, rather than just show off. The wider culture has changed to such an extent that instead of children preferably being seen and not heard, today it's preferable for them to be seen, heard, liked, recognised, followed, famous, but no chance of them being listened to and understood as real people. No surprise if they are too busy performing to listen and understand others. That's a major reason for the disrespect, narcissism, and total lack of awareness, sadly about a lot more than northern soul. Every older generation tut tuts at the antics of the young. But it's our generation that's responsible for promoting a lot of the nonsense that passes for education these days so to some extent at least we should be mindful of the choices we make and the examples we set. Fortunately there's a lot of youngsters who are too busy enjoying themselves and the music to bother selling themselves, as the documentary clip shown at September's Blackpool festival showed very clearly. But they are also mindful of the history and eager to understand the legacy they have inherited, and can be trusted to carry it forward in their own respectful way.
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Those who are interested will have to explain the difference between what passes for the norm in future and what was filmed in the "This England" doc.
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Got to put a word in for Izipho Soul - some of their recent output has been tremendous.
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From experience I can say that there are deejays with very substantial collections playing a lot of regularly played stuff played also by other deejays with similarly very substantial collections. This is not just a Wigan 50 year anniversary issue. It might be promoters telling them what to play, it might be punters voting with their feet, a combination of these, or just fear of pushing the envelope, but it does seem a waste and it seems to be very far from the original spirit of the scene. I was too young to attend the Casino but I know from playlists and recordings that a lot of records played there in later years by e.g. Richard S and Gary R have not been revived except maybe by a few non-headliner deejays given afternoon or early doors slots and therefore free to be more adventurous. Most people seem to assume that punters attending evening events want to hear familiar sounds, and I was told by a deejay earlier this year that he is not "allowed" to play some of his afternoon spins during evenings because the audience won't let him. There is clearly a market for nostalgia and just as in whatever remains of the jazz-funk scene there are people of a certain age who want to relive their past, and promoters naturally cater to them. As we all get older it's no surprise that preservation takes over progression for some. And if we judge "success" as a full dancefloor, then many oldies deejays are very successful. However I love hearing new, unfamiliar and forgotten sounds played out as it is clear that the surface is barely being scratched in many cases. Maybe "success" should be measured by how many people stay in the room, rather than only on the dancefloor - if the music is crap then punters will walk, especially at a multi-room event, whereas chin-stroking and liquid consuming can be done while listening to what is played. And a lot of people don't seem to appreciate just how fresh the familiar records can sound in the middle of unfamiliar sounds. There are some promoters who take care to provide space for rare and underplayed sounds at multi-room events, and maybe the only "criticism" of them I can reasonably offer is that this aspect could be emphasised more strongly. Otherwise the best way to hear less familiar sounds is to turn up early and support those spinners who are not necessarily headlining but who can be relied on to dig deeper and play the underplayed. You'll quickly figure out who is worth following and who is just playing obscurities for the sake of it without any sort of quality control, which is a different problem altogether but one that can also reduce attendance at events. Another possibility would be to relax the OVO rule as this places in my view unreasonable limits on what can be played, prioritises format over music quality, and feeds the chequebook deejay phenomenon that many here highlight as a big problem. That's going to be controversial but it should be possible to provide space for non-OVO content without compromising OVO policy in e.g. the main room of a multi-room event.
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From experience I can say that there are deejays with very substantial collections playing a lot of regularly played stuff played also by other deejays with similarly very substantial collections. This is not just a Wigan 50 year anniversary issue. It might be promoters telling them what to play, it might be punters voting with their feet, a combination of these, or just fear of pushing the envelope, but it does seem a waste and it seems to be very far from the original spirit of the scene. I was too young to attend the Casino but I know from playlists and recordings that a lot of records played there in later years by e.g. Richard S and Gary R have not been revived except maybe by a few non-headliner deejays given afternoon or early doors slots and therefore free to be more adventurous. Most people seem to assume that punters attending evening events want to hear familiar sounds, and I was told by a deejay earlier this year that he is not "allowed" to play some of his afternoon spins during evenings because the audience won't let him. There is clearly a market for nostalgia and just as in whatever remains of the jazz-funk scene there are people of a certain age who want to relive their past, and promoters naturally cater to them. As we all get older it's no surprise that preservation takes over progression for some. And if we judge "success" as a full dancefloor, then many oldies deejays are very successful. However I love hearing new, unfamiliar and forgotten sounds played out as it is clear that the surface is barely being scratched in many cases. Maybe "success" should be measured by how many people stay in the room, rather than only on the dancefloor - if the music is crap then punters will walk, especially at a multi-room event, whereas chin-stroking and liquid consuming can be done while listening to what is played. And a lot of people don't seem to appreciate just how fresh the familiar records can sound in the middle of unfamiliar sounds. There are some promoters who take care to provide space for rare and underplayed sounds at multi-room events, and maybe the only "criticism" of them I can reasonably offer is that this aspect could be emphasised more strongly. Otherwise the best way to hear less familiar sounds is to turn up early and support those spinners who are not necessarily headlining but who can be relied on to dig deeper and play the underplayed. You'll quickly figure out who is worth following and who is just playing obscurities for the sake of it without any sort of quality control, which is a different problem altogether but one that can also reduce attendance at events. Another possibility would be to relax the OVO rule as this places in my view unreasonable limits on what can be played, prioritises format over music quality, and feeds the chequebook deejay phenomenon that many here highlight as a big problem. That's going to be controversial but it should be possible to provide space for non-OVO content without compromising OVO policy in e.g. the main room of a multi-room event.
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until