Stateside

Just to add my two penneth. I think that academics and anoraks are often one and the same thing. It's much harder though to be outgoing, a socialiser, staying up late and do well in further education because sooner or later it catches up with you. Collecting or listening to soul music shouldn't IMHO have any effect on the way your life turns out, but getting home at 5.00am and suffering from sleep deprivation is more likely to affect your chances of holding down a good job or getting good exam results. There, I've said it!!

Can I have it please Kev

Raindrops Love & Sunshine - Robert John Somethings burning - Marvellows Detroit Executives - Cool off 100% proof - 90 day freeze Kool & the gang - Too Hot

Any early Van McCoy stuff Leon Huff was good even before he teamed up with Kenny Gamble - anything that he did as Madra -White - Huff Billy Jackson (good producer as well) Jo Armstead Philip Mitchell has to be one of my all time greats, his name just turns up on tons of stuff Sam Dees - again is brilliant. As well as H-D-H at Motown there were tons of other writers like Smokey, Frank Wilson, Dean & Weatherspoon, Sylvia Moy, Gloria Jones............................. Where do you stop and it is really hard to pick one as being the best.

There was also a track by L J Johnson - Your magic put a spell on me - which had a fantastic string laden beginning but I think was too fast to dance to at the time let alone now. Careful now, the man himself might get tempted to come on this forum if we're not careful. Being relatively a newcomer, has he ever been on here before. Kev

Thanks for that really enjoyed them Kev

Mark, I love these reminders, it brinks it all flooding back. I was recently watching the old Granada TV footage and when they focus in on people sifting through the record boxes someone pulls up my copy of "Sandy Wynns - The touch of Venus" still in the white cardboard sleeve and with my handwriting all over it. Amazing really that even though I went at least 25 times a year for 3/4 years I hardly recognize anyone on the various bits of footage. (must have had my head somewhere else) Whilst writing does anyone on this site see themselves on this early footage - I remember the cameras being there but they never shot me - which is strange because most of my friends think I should be shot.!!

When I was hunting for new stuff in the 70's I would always look at the label and who produced the record - if I saw certain names I would buy it without even listening to it. Apart from the obvious like H-D-H and Gamble & Huff I always bought anything by the following: Teddy Randazzo Charlie Callello Mike Terry Baker Harris Young Bert Keyes Who would you rely on

Just downloaded the Karen Young track as I have never heard it before and I'm afraid that it just sums up the pop rubbish that made me stop going. danceable it may be but soulful it ain't.

Doesn't half bring back memories but I stopped going by then mainly because of the pop stuff. Still got my membership card although it is covered in sellotape (Nov 1973) My favourite part of the evening was when it first opened and I would set my tape recorder up on the balcony and get all the new stuff on tape before they became big. It always seemed that they would try new stuff early doors. I was always amazed that it would sometimes take years for records to become big. But I suppose it is no different than radio, hammer a record enough times and eventually people will pick up on it. The first pressings I ever bought at Wigan were. Sweets - Satisfy me baby - Soultown Glories Dana Valery Mel Williams Gems - Moses Smith(Epitome of sound) - You don't love me ( I still play this speeded up version because that's how I like to remember it) Frank Beverley Rocky Roberts Fabulous Jades - Tony & Tyrone - Funny really because I have never really wanted to own them all on original except Frank PS. Mark, your post reminded me about the tapes, so I looked again, but couldn't find them. found some of those old soundhog tapes but they only had current stuff from 73/74 on them. I'll keep looking because I have definitely got some.

I never got into this scene for rarity, I got into it for the music, sure I have bought bootlegs, how else was I supposed to get to listen to great records at home. I never had the money to spend on rare stuff especially as a student, even now that I could afford certain records I still couldn't justify to myself spending more than say £100 on one 45. I have some quite rare stuff that I have picked up just by luck and nothing else, which is fine. If people want to spend 4 figures on a 45 good luck to them, it is a bit like collecting anything that has potential to increase in value, like antiques and in a way northern soul collecting is a bit like that, with market forces being led by the dj's who can influence the value of a 45. But as is always the case with buying anything off a dealer, they will rarely give you the same figure you paid for it, if you were to sell it back to them and thats business.

It can go against you when your selling - I've had two buyers who only wanted standard first class mail, but said that the record never arrived - after 2 weeks they reported me to e-bay and I had to refund their money. So I lost out both ways, no money (£20 each) and no records!. They put positive feedback and I couldn't really put negative feedback on them because I had no proof that they had received the record. So an easy scam for untrustworthy buyers who every so often could say they never received a record and they get a refund. I've learnt from that and I only send recorded or special delivery

Simon T Jun 15 2006, 06:49 PM Post #15 Not bad, but I seem to have got you on the lyrics Q3 very well known song, but not so well known is this extra verse, which was included when someone else did it as an album track. It then turned out that the well known version also had this extra verse on the master tape but was edited out for the single. Now available on cd!! and we're talking Motown. It's the male vocal of "Helpless" which sounds like Levi Stubbs, so it's Chuck Jackson? Spot on - Four Tops - Helpless and also Kim Weston on her Anthology cd

I had a Chuck Wood record on Big T which seemed to go on for at least seven days

Couldn't agree more Still keep playing this over and over again - a bottle of wine, some fine headphones,the volume cranked up, the lights off, and I am transported to another level. 08_I_Come_Running_Back_Sandra_Wright.mp3

Don't know if they are the same Kev

Sean, Not bad, but I seem to have got you on the lyrics Q3 very well known song, but not so well known is this extra verse, which was included when someone else did it as an album track. It then turned out that the well known version also had this extra verse on the master tape but was edited out for the single. Now available on cd!! and we're talking Motown. Freddie Gorman was the postman although R Dean Taylor may have been as well - I don't know Q14 Lee Charles Close! - "Sitting on a time bomb" is on the other side and is the inst to the Honeycone. Kev

Time for another quiz! Sean - I hope you're in bed 1 What is Kiki Dee's real name 2. Which Velvelette was also a Vandella 3. Which song do these lyrics come from - "as night falls and I can search for you no longer, as I go home alone, needing you grows stronger" 4. Which was the first Jay Boy release 5. Dead or Alive - Roberta Flack 6. Bobby Hutton - "Lend a hand" was from which album 7. Dead or Alive - JJ Jackson 8. Which soul singer played a nun in the film "Change of habit" opposite Elvis Presley 9.Which Motown singer/songwriter originally kept his job as a postman whilst working for Motown 10. Who brought the Jackson 5 to Motown 11. Name three female singers who once members of the Raelettes 12. Which song do these lyrics come from "I walk around with my chest stuck out, cause' my baby's worth bragging about" 13. Which northern soul 45 only came out as a freeby in an album 14. Lee Charles "Get your house in order" on Invictus is the backing track to which song 15. Name two groups that Gloria Jones was a member of 16. Who was Sandra Williams better known as 17. Solomon King was also known as 18. Who replaced Florence Ballard in the Supremes 19. Jackie Lee's real name 20. What group was Lenny Williams lead singer with

Favourite falsettos:- Anything by Chris Bartley, Billy Griffin with the Miracles singing "Give me just another day" The Players - Why did I lie , Lee Roye - Tears, obviously anything by Eddie Kendricks, The Marlynns - The very next time (wish I had it). Wish I was still 14 when I could sing falsetto!

Rod, You've got me going down memory lane now - I remember in 1969 when a 45 was 6/8d (six shillings & 8 pence for those born after Feb 71) and my school dinner money was 7/6d so I would buy a single each week with my dinner money and then go to the chippy every lunch time and pinch a few chips off the first years to get my lunch. I was so well in with the woman in the record shop that she would let me behind the counter at lunch time while the shop was shut so I could go through the records picking out all the goodies and putting them away until the next week.

I was born in 53 and had an older brother who was into Hendrix/Cream/Beatles/Yardbirds etc and an older sister who went out dancing to Motown and soul. I had both lots of music rammed down my throat and chose the soul route. That doesn't mean that I can't stand anything else. I dj'd in 3 nightclubs for 3 nights a week from 75 to 78 and had to play a real cross section of stuff from Wings to Tavares with some Chuck Wood & Jackie Wilson slipped in between. I've listened to KR on his show in the afternoon and to be honest the stuff I heard was ok and had a good mix of 60's & 70's soul with some bearable non soul stuff. I remember when Jazz fm first went on air it played some quite good stuff but unfortunately the general listening public aren't that discerning and they couldn't sustain it, so they rebranded to smooth fm and throw in plenty of commercial stuff. Personally, if I never hear Luther Vandross - "Never too much" again, it will be too soon. I can see your point though and I have to say that I don't really listen to the radio that much either nowadays, I've got so much of my own music that I'd rather listen to. I don't know why, but in 1970 when I used to listen to Seargant Milt Kemp at midnight on American Forces Network, I was listening to new stuff and I wanted to get my hands on it asap, but now when I listen to the middle hour of Richard Searling's show, where he plays new stuff, most of it leaves me cold. So I have Radio 4 or Talk sport to wake me up in the morning, not because I'm some intellectual, but because it guarantees I won't have some irritating record putting me in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Kev

Yep, my copy on Jayboy slows down near the beginning. Also had two copies of Ila Vann - You made me this way on PiP and that had very bad hiss and distortion on both copies (Styrene) even the Goldmine cd version sounds s***e

Had a drink and my photo taken with Martha Reeves in the restaurant at the Philharmonic, Liverpool before she did her act. John Peel bought me a pint and we talked football and music when I was at a mutual friends 60th, but the best thing that has ever, ever happened to me bar none, was to spend a day in a friend's recording studio with Lamont Dozier producing Terri Walker in 2004 on one fantastic track that has yet to be released and then going out for an Italian meal with both of them and asking them all the things you ever wanted to ask and him signing all my albums and getting loads of photos to prove it. The worst thing was having to explain to non soulies who Lamont Dozier was!

Saw him as well with the Funk Bros but always had a place in my collection for Outer Space, although it was more funk than Northern it always amazed me how he managed to play such a complex tune with such ease - couldn't even keep up on the air keyboard. RIP Billy

Never knew that - I had Darrell Banks, Jackie Wilson, Doni Burdick and Tyrone Davis - didn't know Betty Wright had done a version either. Kev