Kesalocasoul

A short feature by Colin Paterson on the BBC News at Six about South London funk band Cymande, which may be of interest to some (about 26 minutes in, between the French farmers' protests and the escaped macaque stories). https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001vwr9/bbc-news-at-six-01022024 It follows an article in the Guardian, almost two years ago. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/mar/09/cymande-the-classic-british-funk-band-you-dont-know-you-know They made some great, and clearly enduring, records like The Message, Brothers on the Slide, Dove etc, which I used to hear at the 100 Club in the 1970s. I am not aware of them having much traction on the NS scene at that time, but they might get played in Bristol now.

Hi Simon, A couple of adverts from Blues and Soul, one in May 1985 showing number SOS #038 and then in July 1985 with an offer of buy one get one free (to clear the remaining stock?). I can see no more adverts after that. This was at a the time when CDs were taking over from cassettes (and vinyl, but not for many of those on here!), so perhaps demand for anything on tape was dropping. I'll pm you about the remaining tapes.

Welcome Simon, My collection goes up to number 39 (1985), which as far as I am aware, was the last. It featured interviews with Frankie Beverly, the Dazz Band, Joanna Gardener and Steve Arrington as well as two preview mixes from Mick Parkinson.

Another of my Marlena Shaw favourites is "Could It Be You" from the Phil Upchurch album "Name Of The Game" (1984). Unfortunately, I cannot find a YouTube link to this track (although there are about 1,000 uploads of "You Can't Sit Down" (1961)). Phil's website https://philupchurch.com/ details his interesting career and many other collaborations.

Thank you for sharing this. A sad loss. Here are a couple of my favourites.

Rob, I suspect the one you are referring to is SOS #5, where the mix includes D Train - Keep On, Wham - Young Guns and Rockers Revenge - Acapella Sunshine (Walking On Sunshine), together. There are many, many versions of Walking On Sunshine listed on Discogs, but this one is called Acapella Sunshine. https://www.discogs.com/release/19735-Rockers-Revenge-Featuring-Donnie-Calvin-Walking-On-Sunshine-82 In 1982 I was living in Tanzania, so the SOS tapes were my soul lifeline. This issue introduced me to some wonderful tracks for the first time including Curtis Mayfield - Hey Baby, Johnnie Taylor - What About My Love, Gil Scott-Heron - Explanations, Gwen McCrae - Doin' It, Willie Hutch - Inside Out (we'll ignore Wham, Nick Straker etc). Here is the list of the complete mix:

Rob, Welcome. It must have been one of the early mixes - 1982 - so issues 1 to 10. A version of Walking On Sunshine by Rocker's Revenge (featuring Donnie Calvin) is part of the mix on issue 1, along with Keep On by D Train, but not You're The One For Me or the Wham track (not really our thing!). I'll keep listening and let you know if I come across the other tracks. They are only 30 second bursts and the sound quality of the first issue was poor; they got better. Here is the rest of the mix on issue 1

Did anybody else hear this on Friday? The NS feature starts 29 minutes in... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001v3w2

I have always enjoyed the Originals version of Just To Keep You Satisfied, a sequel to the Monitors original (?) version and a prequel to the re-written version by Marvin Gaye on his Let's Get It On album. Here's all three. There's also a version of God Is Love by Marvin that reuses the music from the Monitors' version of JTKYS. I am sure others on here will know even more connections.

There are so many, but one I have played often recently is the Premium (Fortenberry III) version of Keith Barrow’s “You Know You Want To Be Loved”. The song was written by Michael Stokes and Ronn Matlock; I wonder if there is a Ronn Matlock version somewhere? Alas, both Barrow and Premium died relatively young and in sad circumstances. Incidentally, Premium also recorded an album, Keep It Comin’, with the recently departed Jean Knight.

As my job took me to live in various places in Africa, Asia, Australia and beyond, I transferred much of my record collection onto TDK tapes, which weighed considerably less than vinyl, so less expensive to ship. If anybody in the Chester area is interested in collecting about 200 tapes of every type of soul music, but mainly 70s, do send me a PM. They are yours for a donation to our local homeless charity. https://shareaid.co.uk/ I have an Excel spreadsheet detailing their contents, which I would be glad to send to anyone who is prepared to give the tapes a good home. Can't vouch for their quality; some are 40 plus years old and have travelled 70,000 miles.

I have a CD released in 1995 called Led Zeppelin's Sources of Inspiration

Has anybody mentioned Muscle (Mussel) Shoals?

Which reminds me "I've seen fish full of mercury". Marvin Gaye : Mercy, mercy me (the ecology)

Junior Parker: Just Like A Fish on Mercury

From the earlier days of our music

If we add Cod Bless The Child by Billie Holliday A Plaice in the Sun by Stevie Wonder and You Set my Sole on Fire by Edwin Starr we'll have enough for an album (the Compleat Angler?)

Here are DG's comments on "Secret Sounds" and two reveals, printed in B&S #74 (Dec 1971). He promised more in subsequent issues, but I haven't found them, yet.

The last issue I have is #39 (Frankie Beverly - bottom right), so it ran on for a few more months. Two different issue 33s inside two 34 boxes (see pic), a planned club in central London and the addition of northern club news around this time, so production issues and seemingly a last attempt to expand its audience, before its inevitable demise, I fear. I'm playing number one as I am typing and it plays OK for a forty plus year old much-travelled tape. I can't find any more, but if anyone is interested in making a serious offer (as seen, not heard), do send a pm...

Here are a few more. I think I have some of the half dozen missing numbers too; I just need to go through a few more boxes! If I remember rightly they made a mess of the numbering and labelling around #33 and 34. Not my favourite soul music-era, but I was living in Tanzania when these were first issued (1982), so they were a bit of a musical life-line at that time.

You might like to read this article about Moses Dillard, which appeared in Blues and Soul #160 (May 1975). Moses was also politically active, so it runs in the family. (I'd forgotten that Joshua Dillard was a fictional brother; he was actually a Mr James Moore.)

As the Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield once wrote (quoting Edgar Allan Poe), "Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear". If they had known about the internet, perhaps they would have added " and even less of what you read on-line".

Why not contact daughter Chandra Dillard, who is a South Carolina State Representative. A busy lady I'm sure, but she will be pleased to read of your (our) interest in her father's work (see link). https://www.localmusicscenesc.com/moses-dillard By the way what an interesting album "Now!" is. Way ahead of its time when released in 1969.

And then there was Kurtis Scott (aka Kurtis Harris or actually Curtis Futch Jr) - see review from Dave Godin's Rhythm and Soul USA New Series #1 (dated 1966) and a couple more early photographs of Jimmy. For anyone still awake on this topic, BMI's Songview website lists 319 of his songs to go through, under various combinations of his names (most interesting are the names of his collaborators, which may - or may not - indicate they are separate people). BAILEY RALPH 319 Work Titles Current Affiliation: BMI IPI #: 1833916