John Reed

Other big 2 step tunes were: Hutson LP's I & II 80's ladies Turned onto you Sheree Brown -It's A pleasure Randy Brown's Parachute & choc City stuff (but not Always in the mood) Dee Edwards I can deal with that (the deto verson) Hari Paris - You hit my love Runette Roberts - you dont know Jefree - Loves Gonna last Various Barry White or his productions such as I'm gonna love you just a little bit more

One thing to remember is that both the Rare Groove and 2 Step scenes were youth driven "dance scenes" as they're not musical genres just dance scenes that picked up on particular records that fit at that particular time whether they be soul, funk or jazz. The same can be said for the "northern scene", but people believe its a musical genre which it isn't. That's the thing about successful "dance scenes" they take the best from whatever source it comes from to fit that moment in time.

The 2 step scene was based on the beat, similar to Ramp everyone loves and sunshine, Arnold Blair, Clausell let mew love you. The baseline was the driver to success. Even Barbara Streisands Guilty was a massive track. Rare Groove was more of an anything goes: funk, Jazz, soul something with now haw can I say this a funkier beat. A good example would be Voices of east harlem. Cashing in and Wanted dead or alive were both on the same LP. Rare groove ignored cashing in and went mad for WDoA and probably vise versa for the Northern perspective. As it was quite a trendy thing, I don't remember people being over 30, urrr, like going to a club with your granddad and the same quandary debated many times on here.

Regionally all of the events I attended in the mid to late 80's were in and round London and don't remember going out of London as Rare Groove evolved from the Warehouse parties where most of the then big named London DJ's evolved from. Also I think there was more of an ethnic mix with rare groove probably being a 50/50 mix black and white whereas 2 step was predominately black.

Steve, I do think you are being quite harsh. Both the 2 Step (more so) and the Rare Groove scenes musically both thrived on finding that elusive unknown exactly like the Northern scene. And the Rare Groove scene was also duped with the taylor made Roadblock by Stock, Aitkin and Watermand the same as the Four Vandals. There was more of a trendyness about the people attending, probably in the same way Wigan/Mecca was 10 years previously, now you had magazines like "the Face" to help promote it. What I have seen over the last few years is that as Northern has got more funky records which were played on the Rare Groove scene are now getting embraced commanding much higher prices(in relative terms) than they did when they were big on the Rare Groove scene.

I remember Arnold Blair - Trying to Get To Get Next To You, being a massive London 2 step tune. It was quite a while after it was big, did I hear it at a modern do and when played people moving to the dance floor going "what the f*ck is this"

I don't know if i'm reading this correctly are you saying that Terry mostly played 2 step? I would have said Terry's leaning was more towards everything soul with a good dose of Motown and wouldnt class the Norfolk as a 2 step venue. Some of the big tunes he played in its hayday were Corey Blake - How Can I Go On, Bobby Taylor - Dont Be Afraid, Isleys - My Love Is Your love. There were quite a few sound systems in London at the time, such as Touch Of Class and many others and it evolved around the same time as the scene in Manchester, but even there there were differences as big tunes in Manchester bombed in London and vise versa.

There was a huge mix of genres played in the different clubs. A lot of James Brown productions were played (People/Brownstone/etc...). Norman Jay also used to play a lot of Philly Stuff at Shake & Fingerpop. Jazzie B at the Africa Centre also played some Reggae and I remember Jonathan More playing Little Willie John's Fever at one night. The rare groove scene in London was different to the 2 step/blues parties although some records did cross over such as Ramp. Gwen McCrea's - All This Love That I'm Giving is also up there as one of the biggest Rare Groove tunes also

Surely two of the biggest rare groove tracks played were the Jackson Sisters - I believe in Miracles and Maceo & The Macks - Across the Tracks

Yes, definitely sounds better played loud in a club. I agree with you Bob, when I got the LP and listened at home, I too was underwhelmed.

There are two versions of the Demo one with large text and red star on the right hand side and the other with smaller text with a star on the left hand side. Was it an east coast/west coast thing or was it demo'd twice at different times?

£150-£250. By issue do you mean the red/orange one? As the white/purple ones are issues too.

Here's another Tangerine one, not as sexy as the picture sleeve.

Dont think this came out as a US single, unless its ZS8 4779 or ZS8 4780, which would be the tail end of 1975 and the other missing US numbers are later than that.

I've heard it at a couple of nights early-on over the years, but its not really a dancer and is more sweetish.

I think his release of Don't Take Your Sweet Love Away/She Knows What To Do For Me ticks all the boxes for me, a great Quinvy double sider.

What about the reggae single by Earl 16 - Malcolm X on Belmont

I've been passively looking around for an issue of this and cant seem to find one. But as I was looking around I know of 3 different styles of the demo, so they must have had some faith in the record. Were they all released at the same time?

Sounds great, have you included Union of the Snake (The Monkey Mix) from their rare Tiger Tiger Japanese EP? As I wouldnt like to include duplicates in the same swap.

There was a comprehensive discography of his work including his productions/labels in the back of his autobiography which I think Cliff White compiled

Chalky, I'd be more than happy with an anything goes CD and I'm sure the others would have no objections, so please give it a go.Meanwhile must get back to digging through my Nana Mouskouri collection

6 mins 27 seconds

My thoughts too, was interested early on, when i looked near the end tonight for an extra bid, it was too rich for me. Saying that It is a trophy item and has been on a lot of deep collectors want lists for many years, probably as long as I've been collecting and way before Can You Win was picked up on for the dance floor. Lucky the (cheap) Volt demo has Love Changes. Can You Win was also one of the missing sides when they released the Complete Stax box sets a few years ago.

Put me down, but I'm gonna widen the music genre on mine, been getting into Nickelback recently....

I regularly read the web version of Billboard Magazine and in the R&B section of November 1964, it has it as a "record to watch" and surely at that time apart from DJ's playing it, you couldn't have had a better place to plug a record....