Guest Account

My copy arrived yesterday so I have had time to read and digest it's contents. I'm mightily impressed on it's thoroughness and scope. It's often a nostalgic read and bought back many memories of past fanzines and magazines. I have copies of some but far more have gone so to be reminded of them and in a well written way is something of a joy. McCartney and his his co-helper Martin Scragg name 'There's the Beat' (Iain) and 'In The Basement' (Martin) as their favourite 'glossies' of all time (Iain has 'In The Basement ' at no. 2 whilst Martin has 'There's the Beat' as his no: 5 ). My choice would be David Cole's 'In The Basement' as well. It was so well written and I have a complete set. Their favourite 'non glossies' are 'Shades of Soul' (Iain) and 'Soul Up North' (Martin). Impossible to argue against those choices I'd say. As I say a fine piece of work well written and edited. Maybe a bit more about some of the writers - Cummins and Abbey get a mention but nothing on John Ridley aka. Sirshambling and London Fats or Steve Guarnori, two of my favourite contributors through the years. A lovely piece of work. Thanks. PS. I'll add that I contributed regularly to 'In The Basement' so I am a tad biased.

Didn't Say A Word, Night Owl, The 81 ... all great songs

Merry Xmas!

I know we're in the middle of a pandemic and everyone's wearing a mask but this is no excuse for daylight robbery! £52??? An academic study into Northern Soul. Oh dear, pretentious nonsense where academic overlay their own narrative over the facts and draw all sorts of silly conclusions on flimsy "evidence" to support their viewpoint. The truth? It was all about mainly white working class kids in the North of England having a good time dancing to and collecting rare records. Morphed into middle aged and then elderly folks waiting on hip replacements who still enjoy the music and who reminisce 'bout "good old days"

For what it's worth which ain't much I like Ms Noble's voice and think it's a pretty decent record. She's part of the DJ unit Noble & Heath who entertained us royally last year. Oh and harrythedog I never rated Duffy.

Sorry but I disagree. The 3 parts jumped all over the shop and barely scratched the surface of any topic featured. Minority music? Jazz is a minority music, yet it got the full Ken Burns treatment. Soul is such a wide umbrella, 3 hours left me gagging for more!

More bad news. 2020 has been a terrible year. We've lost so many great people.

A 10 - part Ken Burns examination of the music would be fantastic but its never going to happen as this is a minority music. There were old tropes but some of those tropes might actually be true. What was good was it was black voices telling the story including many that were there. Sir - you were negative before you'd seen it, It wasn't perfect but I think you prejudged it wrongly.

The BBC has a terrible history when it comes to playing/supporting music created by black performers, be they American or British. I wonder just how often some of the music featured during this 24 hr period was playlisted and heard on the BBC when it was originally released? Even A list black artists struggled to have their music played on Radio 1 in the late 60s through the 70s and well into the 80s.

The BBC mess it up AGAIN! A frustrating experience for this viewer, very short clips of artists performing then in comes the voiceover. An overly simplistic potted history that seemed to focus on Dr Martin Luther King, Aretha & Otis at the expense of so many other important artists who made a significant contribution to the development of Soul. Similar to the recent Motown documentary it barely scratched the surface with every topic then bounced back and forth. It resorted to the old tropes "raised in the church"- lots of clips of old ladies call & response with the pastor zzzz. There was not enough focus on the music and too much on Civil Rights. No doubt many gaps will be covered in eps 2 & 3 but the Genre is so wide it deserves a more indepth study similar to the two recent Ken Burns 10 part series on Country Music & Jazz.

A lovely soul record . Sammy Campbell RIP

I’ve just watched Soul America on record and enjoyed it. It plays it pretty safe starting with the influence of gospel and doesn’t challenge the accepted wisdom that Aretha was the greatest soul singer but then its probably a truism. What was excellent was that it used the voices of the few soul survivors from the time: Candi, Mavis, Clarence Carter, Martha Reeves, Otis Williams , Duke Fakir plus musicians like Spooner, Cropper and David Hood to tell their story. Al Bell told a great anecdote though I’m never sure whether to believe him I’m afraid. Carleen Anderson was an excellent choice for narrator. There was some fantastic footage and a sad realisation that America has gone backwards on race relations – and quite a long way back. There were faults. The Supremes were featured although as Mary Wilson said ‘we were pop not soul’ and no mention of Bobby Bland or Jackie Wilson. Maybe no film was available and just one picture of Etta at FAME but I quibble because I enjoyed the whole hour. It was an interesting insight into the birth and formative years of soul music. I assume Marvin, Gladys, Ruffin and Curtis feature in the next episode.

It's the BBC, they'll F it up. Get ready to count the mistakes!

Lou Ragland R.I.P.

Happy Birthday Keith, great memories of you at the Torch with Colin, Martyn, Alan, and Tony (who sadly passed away a few weeks ago). Stay safe, and hope you can soon get out and about.

Used to spend my wages in bews burslem,where kieth sold records,skiing in the snow my first,and still own in my collection,still have a lot do with him,at local venues,A TOP GUY,WHO KNOWS HIS MUSIC ,HAVE A GUD UN MATE BERT AND MAXINE

Yes a great youthclub tune,thats still played today,YOU MY LOVE,my fav by a lovely lady R I P, tammy.

Count me in Gilly, I will send an e-mail with my personal details, cheers Gary

More mouth watering goodies. I have just received my copy of the Thom Bell disc- awesome Philly sounds- surely this is the first a series focussing on the work of Thom Bell!

Another fantastic compilation form the guys at ACE/KENT. The quality of the material is top drawer and of course the artists featured are terrific. The accompanying booklet is stuffed with bios, publicity shots, info on each track and label scans. No one comes close to these guys when compiling a disc. The sound quality is excellent too. Love it!

Always look forward to any new book about Motown,

It's a "yes" from me 👍🏼. Go Anthony!

Found this, Record Mirror readers letters page from 1966. Complaints galore about James Brown's RSG special...

Thanks for the info guys. I remember Channel 4 broadcasting a short run of RSG shows in 1984/5. The Morown Special being a particular hi light. Dave Clark released a couple of video compilations at the time. Videotape was expensive back in the 60s and TV stations around the world were in the habit of wiping shows after they were broadcast in order to reuse the tape for future episodes. So many great performances and iconic shows have been lost forever. There is always the hope that someone somewhere has a copy in their loft or garden shed and will be uncovered someday soon. The James Brown Show sounds electrifying!

I enjoyed the documentary but was also frustrated by it. Detail seemed to be secondary, for example no mention of when it was first broadcast. It would've been nice to know which artists appeared on the debut show and what songs did they "perform". That kind of detail does matter! Great to see the old clips of the artists in their prime- teenagers and 20 somethings. I wonder how many of them thought they would still be around and enjoying a successful career almost 60 years later? It was great to see a large section of the documentary devoted to R&B/Motown. I was surprised that the Supremes did not feature in the performances documentary that followed- Motown's biggest act!