Mickey Finn

If I'm allowed 2 more: Standing in the Shadows of Motown

On the non-fiction tip, I thought this was particularly good:

Many thanks for this. I met Harry with Hans Diepstraten last summer at the Blackpool festival, having been introduced to their radio show earlier by Colin Brown. I have a copy of this, apparently a second volume of a 2-part series: Some worthy uptempo sounds here.

Not impossible ... there was a lot of music made in and by people from the former Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) and the quality was sometimes very high. There seems to have been a big enough market for soul-related music in Amsterdam for it to be made locally: Billy Jones was from Texas but settled in Amsterdam and recorded a few albums there.

A fuller obituary can be found here: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/linda-lewis-obituary

Anything requiring electricity will be more expensive in these times. The surprise is that rates have stayed at 8% until now. Was it necessary to increase rates by a full percentage point (= 68% increase), rather than e.g. only a half percentage point to 8.5% (= 34% increase)? Perhaps, depending on what sort of electricity supply contract that Discogs' server host has, in addition to other things like staff. We're accustomed to thinking of the internet as cheap or free. Given how pervasive it is now with smartphones and all the other devices including televisions, the demands on its services are only growing. Sales of advertising can get platforms and websites only so far in this kind of situation. How does this price increase compare with the costs of running Soul Source over the last year?

This seems to have been proofread (in the Grauniad of all places): https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/04/linda-lewis-death-british-singer-and-famed-backing-vocalist-dies-aged-72

Now that's a volume I would buy and enjoy. A few of these have been on cd before but not on any comps as far as I know, and among these the Arthur Miles and Choice 4 tracks are relatively rare in that format. Creme de creme is screaming for a reissue. As indeed are the first two Choice 4 albums. Etc.

Bankrupting me again ...

Just bagged a copy! Also looking forward to the Howard Youngblood Bomar compilation. And too much else to mention.

The clubs would have been much smaller and much less fun but the arguments just as intense. Raine should stop play. That's what people like her call "cultural appropriation". The rest call it bollocks. Encouraging to see youngsters giving new life to the music.

It's not made easy, is it? I followed several lines of investigation before eventually finding the Finnish customs' easy to use VAT calculator (what a great innovation!). However, EEA membership was something I had assumed would have incorporated some of the things that apparently do not belong after all. It's a strange kind of "equal partnership in the internal market".

Finland is a member of the EU. According to the Finnish customs website, purchases from Norway are subject to declaration and VAT: https://tulli.fi/en/customs-duty-calculator#/ The link provided by Russ includes item 5: "The EEA Agreement does not cover the EU common agriculture and fisheries policies, the customs union, the common trade policy, the common foreign and security policy, justice and home affairs or the monetary union."

On the Outtasight website page for Volume 14: https://outtasight.co.uk/Real-Side-Records-Presents-SOUL-ON-THE-REAL-SIDE-14-p452515814 Scroll down a bit and you will see: "PLEASE NOTE: THERE IS NO #13" Presumably superstition. Or an invitation to a creative bootlegger.

For some years I've seen dancers with walking sticks moving to the music the best way they can. That might be me one day and all I can say is good on them for keeping the faith. I've never encountered exclusion in the soul scene, not even in the 80s when I was considerably younger but individuals older than my parents who came to events were treated respectfully and even welcomed. Today there are also djs who are physically disabled but still able to pack a dancefloor, as I saw in Folkestone in 2018 when Mr Levine, recovering from a serious stroke, played some great records with assistance for 2 hours one Sunday afternoon. We should welcome anyone who truly appreciates this music and use the time we've got to share that appreciation before we're unable to for whatever reason. Life's too short. And doing that doesn't change my memories of decades past one bit.

Mine's on its way and will be first in the players as soon as it arrives. Really impressed with this series - long may it continue!

Once again a fantastic selection of old, new, reissued, discovered ... the full kit! There's a reason some of us have been listening for years - you never fail to deliver. Every show costs me. Looking forward to Lonnie Liston Smith's new album, and will be digging out the Mandrill and Little Beaver from the collection as a result of this show. Great stuff

He was a fantastic radio presenter. The otherwise very dull drive up the M6/M74 on summer Sundays was made a lot more fun by listening to him on Radio 2. The Battersea tv shows were very popular here in Finland - how could they not be. Such sad news. "Lovely Human Being With A Big Heart who will not be forgotten." Amen.

Not south of Watford. Every year jazz funk dj Frostie organises this event: I attended one in 2016. It was quite surreal ... a U-shaped pub somewhere in Hornchurch, packed to the rafters, Froggy's sound system lovingly all set up at the top end of the left side, with another ordinary sound system set up at the top end of the right side ... and a third sound system set up directly opposite Froggy's ... all going strong all day long. The purpose of the event was/is to pay tribute to Froggy's supreme skills as a sound technician ... by ensuring that his wonderful kit will be drowned out by 2 inferior systems in competition. Go figure There was a programme published professionally with some useful info and pics. Grahame Joyce's clothing stall was set up bang in the middle between Froggy's sound system and the house djs at the other end, with Grahame looking like he was patrolling the border between North and South Korea while under heavy fire from both sides. Surreal.

That CT Thompson track is an absolute belter. A brilliant set as always, Mick

Indeed he was and seemed to be made for broadcasting. No idea if he ever played out - would be interesting to know if anyone here ever heard him at an event. He was a bit over-protective of the "soul cellar" tag which he didn't have to be as he was one of a kind, and lost it a bit with other presenters who used the same show concept. This took some of the shine off for me as it was completely unnecessary and even childish. But still a good nomination in the radio category. The compilation he put together for Expansion is going for peanuts right now which is ridiculous as it's a great selection of the kind of tunes he championed over the decades:

I think there are better ways to pay tribute to particular djs without making them number one or better than the rest. There are examples of this kind of discussion elsewhere on the forum, where people simply say why so-and-so does it for them (or not). Mick's points above explain very well why any nomination for The Best (or even the worst) is going to be ultimately impossible to settle. "Give credit where it's due that's all you can do." A more detailed appreciation of Colin's contribution would be a good place to start.

Some of the earlier TK soul 45s appear on this very nice Japan-only cd comp that came out in 2020: https://www.discogs.com/release/16603491-Various-We-Dig-Good-Old-Songs

One of the reasons we enjoy attending soul events is the northern rooms where you can almost always find people who dance with passion and who are totally into the music. At this January's Blackpool LSW, where northern content has sadly pretty much shrunk to almost zero, Soul Sam and Barry Maleady now hold the fort, unfortunately overlapping with the concert on the Saturday. But before we headed off to the concert we heard Sam play a terrific set that had the floor busy from early doors right up to the changeover, and the highlight for me was seeing the dancefloor response to Bobby Thurston's "Just ask me" - no cameras, just sheer joy, and in the background the familiar bobbing figure of a master at work. Well worth the price of entry.

One of the most disturbing and horrible stories I've heard for some time, and we've not been short of those recently. First things first - here's hoping Ted is physically unharmed. That's at least something to be grateful for if true. The above posts explain the problems of offloading such precious items very well, and things don't look promising for the culprits - something else to give us all hope. In future anyone out and about with valuable records, especially those headlining at an event, will have to be even more security conscious. Punters can keep an eye out for suspicious types. Promoters also will have to take such things into account. Let's look out for each other and keep on keeping on enjoying the music and the friendships it creates.