pow wow mik

Everything he did is just not quite right for djing imo. He does an inst version of 'I dont need no doctor' which would be great if it wasnt ruined by heavy guitar solo. I think I nearly thought about playing his 'drums a go go' 45 once, it uses the kinks 'all day' riff with drum breaks but is pretty shit in the final analysis. edit - oops, that last one's hal blaine sorry.

oh shit, sorry mate. you did make it clear you're only interested in the Genesis stuff. How about a copy of 'Invisible Touch', signed by Mike Rutherford?

Ok, just to prove I do actually read, and am interested in, what you have to say: I think the fundamental mistake you make is to give the northern soul scene the nature of an organisation, with rules and leaders. It isn't. It has evolved one way because people, voting with their feet over the decades, refreshingly free of outside influence, wanted it to be that way. Those that didn't left and did other shit. A lot of people did other shit at the same time, it's particularly condescending to assume that everyone who goes to soul dos is somehow backward, are people who go for walks also thus? If you want to get pretentious about it, it's the ultimate in democratic folk culture, or as Paul Sadot said recently on here I think, 'anarchistic' folk culture; You think the DJing on the northern scene is lacking somehow, and that the music and enjoyment of it, would be enhanced or progressed by doing it a different way, then do it... You are free to and there is no rule to say you can't....your argument seems to extend to 'why do people who like one thing not like another thing'. there really isn't anything more to say. It will progress or it wont, maybe it just will when it needs to and doesn't need telling to? like it always has.

I know that you want that to be the case. I know that you want to be the deep, interesting guy, intellectual yet soulful, armed with incisive cultural analysis. I know that you want me to be the simple idiot - intimidated by language, hostile to what I don't understand. But unfortunately reality isn't always as we'd like it to be. My own development, as you bring it up, has included the study and understanding, more or less, of the writing of Nietzsche, Kant and Hegel etc. so it's not that i'm averse to difficult language or complex issues. So, if I came across critical, it's not of elaborate language, but of over-elaborate language used in an unnatural, overly studied, long-winded manner used to disguise a lack of meaning or to make a pretty banal point seem contentious or profound. You write as no one thinks or speaks, as if you're writing an essay for GCSE sociology while cuddling a thesaurus. I don't want to be rude either, but it is actually offensive as it comes across as pretentious and somewhat pompous. As far as I can tell, you're saying that the northern soul scene, by wilfully ignoring the technical advances made by DJs of other cultures, has failed to...no, has caused...no,... what are the effects again, of either progressing or not progressing in this particularly trivial area? I am interested in culture as you seem to be, and I hate to bring up my own development again, but one thing I have learned is that it doesn't stand up to much analysis or theorising, as much as white journalists wish it did. This is why there isn't really anything worth reading on the subject of music, records or DJing... why the great thinkers tend to stick to abstract subjects, or at least have more success with them...and why it was so ridiculous of you to approach such an issue in such a forced scholarly style. I appreciate and respect your opinions, please express them as you would if we were talking in a pub, and you might not make such a knob of yourself. Mik

I was always more into phil collins solo stuff, got a nice pic disc of 'easy lover' if you're interested denbo?

It's cos no one, including the thread starter, knows what it's about. However, i firmly believe that the framus interestects with the ramistan approximately at the paternoster

https://www.plainenglish.co.uk/campaigning/awards/2012-awards/golden-bull-awards.html I'm nominating him

Shouldnt need 'top cash' for the quotations, I used to pick these up quite often for a few dollars. Rare on footnote though.

Outstanding piece of music. I wanted it badly until I tried to dance to it - nearly tied my fucking legs in a knot. Respect to keb for trying this in the early 80s, a radical, but great record.

troy dodds been stuck at around 600 for about 15 years. Just not quite rare enough to be a trophy piece and not exactly flavour of the month, the a side anyway. I got it for the real thing side ten years ago, and paid about that, so It's lost worth in real terms.

the e.q. ! bullshit aside, it is very important to understand this if you're playing 60s music, almost every track will require the top end adjusting to suit. And the man is right, what is the obsession with turning the bass up and top end down - just makes a muddy noise. Hmmm, judging from the lack of response from the thread starter, the thread's a wind up. Someone having fun with some meaningless sociology waffle is my guess, although a strange way to have your fun. Maybe it makes up for deep-rooted frustrations in other areas...

I'm still trying to work out what point you're making, even after carefully reading your post twice. No offence meant, but any chance of you boiling it down to a sentence or two of plain English? I'm just nipping out to build a wall for 8 hours but I'll get back to you

told you!

er, yes. if you like a certain type of soul sound, that's different from the current flavour, great, just start a night and play it. if you think that the blend of gritty soul, r&b and blue eyed you want to play is similar, in style and spirit, to that of the twisted wheel, for example, then advertise it as such, absolutely understand that... but playing the exact same records, and deliberately limiting it to those is just bizarre. would you play a crap record if they did back then? Would you not play a great record, cos they didn't...even crazier! what if its a record they would have played, if they'd known it? what are the rules? the thing is with old clubs - I totally get the interest in knowing what they played, real historical / cultural value in that, but copying it now? surely their djs were massively limited in knowledge compared with djs even 5 years later, babyish knowledge compared with a good dj now - why would you copy them? they had such a tiny % of records available to them, apparent from the playlists which feature mostly big sellers. I'm sure they'd have loved to have had the records available that we do now, why remove 40 years of discoveries from the repertoire? absolutely defies belief. however, if ive got the wrong end of the stick, and you just want to get an accurate impression of the sound enjoyed back in those clubs in order to re-create it...then I still don't get it, cos if you don't know what they played, why would you want to re-create the sound?! sorry but you're going to struggle to explain this, I can tell.

I think every effort should be made to put them off. A club limited to the stuff that clubs played in a couple of year period, 45 years ago?.why? Like a soul scene battle re-enactment? what about all the records they didnt know then...wouldn't that be most records, and most of the best ones? Why not just play stuff you like? What's an 'early soul' dj!?.. Oh I dont get It, I cant even think about it any more

Well it's not that subjective or relative, humans have established definitions of young and old. Whatever age you are, 20 is young and 60 is old. ]

well, we've heard from a few in this thread who've deliberately let young people dj, because they're young... not really something i see the merit in, although presentation is a factor - it might help inspire people to party if the dj at least looks capable of doing the same.

'Young' always been under 25 to me. Up to 25 you can still knock around with 18 year olds without looking like a wrong-un. it's absurd to describe a 30 year old as young, after 12 years of adult life, you've no excuses - if you're not making the grade it's not cos you're young, it's cos you're shit.]

My favourite is this though: 'The only thing we've learnt from history, is that nobody ever learns anythings from history']

That is a good point. You do wonder how good a soul dj can ever be if they're never going to play any awesome butexpensive classics, or any of the £1000 + records, some of which are simply stunning soul records. I know that if I was to seriously try to put together an interesting northern style set that I'd go up against anyone with, I'd need 20 grand. I cant do that so I'll stick to r&b, and just enjoy listening and dancing to northern, as I have so far. if younger generations are to establish a good scene, they really would be better to fuck off the whole format thing, and concentrate on pure musical quality and set programming - an underrated skill, than play second rate originals, trying to stick to the rules of a game that's pretty much been played. As cover-up said a few pages back! ]

Fair enough but in any debate on here, I dont take the oldies scene into account - it is infinite and unchangable so nothing to debate or influence. I think its fair to assume that the future of soul djing, whatever age group's hands it is in, is not in churning out nostalgia. I'm sure no 20 year old aspires to that....do they!?

dont know why he deleted that. Its a fair point, and not offensive]

it's the same with banking! It's just a public school boys club where they just look after each other. There's no way someone like me could get a look in... The above statements may be true, but it doesnt mean that I'd be a good banker or that I know anything about banking, or that I deserve to be a banker any more than the shitbags who already do it in the end, you cant blame other people for your lack of opportunities, unless there's some real civil rights issues in play. Dont like what's going on? Start your own club.

that's a bit out of order. Henning and those other djs sets certainly appeal to me and I think would have been enjoyed by plenty of people who's taste isnt dictated by the northern soul rule book. they've made their own style and you call it soul pack rejects? For a start, soul pack rejects might be better than past biggies to some ears. Not everyone thinks that the soul sound favoured in the 70s is the best. these guys are doing their own thing and you slag them off, as I'm sure you would if they played the same old shit...talk about not being able to win! henning - you've got the wrong stick all the way through this post. No one is saying that you cant be a good dj if you're young...just that it's very hard and apparently prohibitively so, as there doesnt seem to be too many in the uk who can compete - remember, theres a LOT of collectors in this country and there's obviously a lot of middle aged savings / inheritance money in the game. You may have more young folks in europe who can bring something, but your'e still only to provide us with a handful of names.

I think the point is that anyone would struggle to start building a decent collection now with prices being what they are. Big records have always been expensive relative to an average wage but I think the real obstacle now is the lack of good cheapies and newies in any style, which makes it very hard to create your own identity. When common but great 45s like irene and the scotts, and darrow fletchers on groovy are £100, you know you're starting with an incredible handicap. when I was buying a lot of r&b, early to mid 00s, a quality newie on ebay might have been contested by 5 or so people and go for $200, the equivalent now are $500-1000, and they come up rarely. without the opportunity to source unique spins, the best a new dj can hope for is to play known records in their own order - not really as exciting a proposition as breaking new tracks every month. so it's one thing to say that new djing blood is needed, but what would be different about it?