Seano

Great article @Roburt thanks, love all the evocative photos and flyers. My go-to Record and Tape Exchange branch was the easy to get to Berwick Street one, here in the attached photo from 2010 when it was still open, next to Vinyl Junkies, just down the road from Selectadisc too, and at one time further down through Walker's Court onto Rupert Street there used to be a market stall and shop selling records that I can't remember the name of. I'd buy lots of cheap singles on spec, and then next time I went down to London I'd take the stuff I didn't want with me and get an exchange price at the Berwick St branch where, at least for a while, they guaranteed that they'd buy anything, even just for a penny, so I could at least get rid of those and try some new finds. As you say, singles were just 10p a shot back then, so it was reasonably affordable to take a punt. I went to the Notting Hill one you've pictured a fair few times over those years too. The last time I was there was back in 2013, and things didn't end well. I had an accident with a record box and ended up in hospital to have a chunky splinter removed from under my fingernail. The guy working in that upstairs room at the time was so unsure of what to do that he just let me take the records I'd picked out and waived the payment - wish I'd chosen more!

I watched it too, expecting that it was one I'd seen before and that I just didn't recognise the title, but obviously not. It was really good, as @Twoshoes says, interesting insights, and for once, interesting talking heads too.

Sounds great, I love these reggae inspired tracks Daptone have been putting out.

Nice work. Good point about black / coloured vinyl. When I replied to @Johnlloyd 's question I didn't think to mention that my copy is black vinyl (personally I'm not keen on the coloured versions so go for black where possible).

Mine's been fine, though if both of your copies skip in the same pace that does sound odd. I don't know how things work with batches of records pressed, maybe someone else can explain if it's a known issue that some records in a batch can have a fault even if the rest don't?

Fascinating thread. I thought I'd have a delve for anything about soul on cassettes, and of course it's here in Soul Source. The reason I was having a look around was that I've been reading a book called 'High Bias - the Distorted History of the Cassette Tape' by Marc Masters. Despite there being no references to soul music nor to the tape-swapping scene within soul that was a big thing for many of us, it's a great book. One particular aspect of it is how so many individuals and bands just used basic cassette tape equipment to record their own music, and instead of even trying to get it then issued on vinyl or in later years CD, would simply copy the tapes and give away or sell direct to anyone they could. It made me wonder how many aspiring soul acts took the same route, and whether people have been digging for obscure home made cassettes with some stunning soulful tracks that only ever existed on that cassette? Potentially this could be cassettes from the early days of the equipment being available in the late 60s onwards, though of course as the ability to record to CD and digital media emerged many would have switched to those media. https://www.waterstones.com/book/high-bias/marc-masters/9781469675985

Got mine from Fish at Simply Soul for £9. He'd promoted it pre-release for a few weeks, maybe even a month. I had overlooked that it hadn't yet been released and thought I'd see if I could just pick up a copy directly from him at this month's Ease Your Mind, as he sells there each month. So when I got his email noting it was now released I ordered, along with 3 other singles I'd been thinking of getting. Order placed on Thursday 21st, and they arrived in the post yesterday, 22nd. It's certainly a great double header. As people have said, 'If You Want Me' is an instant like for the dance floor, but the flip side 'I Just Don't Want You to Say Goodbye' sits well in the Lowrider feel, straight ahead quality deep soul. And of course, it would always have been hard to ignore a record with that Womack pedigree!

Great thread Mark! Here's a bunch from our trip to Cuba over Easter in 2016:

Well worth checking out the thread on New Releases too, which is another topic in this 'All About the Soul' forum. Loads of variety on there, ranging from stuff that fits very comfortably with the description Northern & Crossover, but plenty more beyond that. So if you're looking to broaden your horizons, once you've worked your way through all of the excellent suggestions above, there's plenty more already posted on that thread! In fact the most recent 2 put up on there that I just listened to today are right in that N&C vein; The Womack Sisters and The Altons, so maybe work backwards on the thread as you'll be going from the most up to date releases that you can probably pick up for around £10 (Simply Soul has The Womack Sisters for £9 for example).

A pair of very nice releases.

Great to see it featured here, I had a listen and to make searching a bit quicker the section runs from 1 hour 59 minutes into the show, through to 2 hours 23 minutes.

Just seen this in The Guardian. Interesting interview with Irma Thomas that also talks about her new album recorded with New Orleans musicians, Galactic. Great dress she's wearing in the photo of her on stage with The Stones! https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/may/26/irma-thomas-galactic-soul-queen-new-orleans

Great article thanks Chalky. I was lucky enough to get quite a few of the Mar-V-Lus and One-derful releases in a soul pack, very probably one of Soul Bowls, though I don't remember now. The Admirations and Young Folk 45s were some of the best of the bunch. I had another stroke of luck some years later when I had time to browse a music store in an airport in Scotland (I think it was Edinburgh, could have been Glasgow), and found an offer on CDs at 3 for £12. I picked up the 3 Charly releases covering Mar-V-Lus, One-derful and m-pac! as in the photo:

This looks very interesting. Here's hoping it makes it to at least some cinemas in the UK. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/may/03/swamp-dogg-interview-documentary

Great documentary, really strong tale of how influential black music has been on culture in the UK, and behind that, the essential place of record shops and nowadays, record sellers.

Good luck with the venture - it looks like you've made a great start! I had a quick listen through the tracks via your website. Nice track by Barbara Jean English. The Whatnauts track was already familiar, but I was intrigued by the final Escorts track, Look Over Your Shoulder. The opening riff was so familiar, and it suddenly hit me that it was used for Jill Scott's bit hit back in 2004, Family Reunion. It's fully acknowledged in the sleeve notes, I just hadn't realised. Meantime, I'd had a quick look on YouTube and for anyone who's not seen it, there's an interesting 20 minute interview with George Kerr talking about his work with the Escorts "The Untold Story of The Legendary George Kerr & The Escorts". It was posted 3 years ago, so I'd imagine you came across it already, maybe even that he told you to take a look!

Documentary on BBC4 right now about her life - Friday 28th Feb 9.05pm.

Following the sad news of Gwen McCrae's death yesterday, the Guardian has published an obituary today: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/feb/22/the-late-gwen-mccrae-brought-emotion-to-dance-music-like-no-one-else Mike - not sure why when I post webpage links it doesn't come up with the graphics of the page; feel free to replace this posting when you get time.

That's an impressive archive! I'll be dipping into that periodically thanks Chalky 👏

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/feb/13/black-genius-documentary Following on from the excellent Summer of Soul, Questlove has partnered with Joseph Patel to make a documentary about the life of Sly Stone. The trailer looks very strong. Unfortunately for me it's coming out on Disney - anybody know if it might get to cinema?

Yes flipping any record over has always been important; I used to write a few bits based on this for Shades of Soul many years ago 👍

Yes of course, very much his perspective, and as Solidsoul says, the same is true of the books already out there and no doubt those yet to come too. I'm fine with that, still enjoy reading them, and I do find the way Manship writes engaging.

I always find John Manship's descriptions of the records and their history make fascinating reading, and the combination of final prices and when the auction took place strike me as lining up a series of books he could put out. Already written, just waiting to be compiled along with the scans of the records.

When I first heard George Benson's On Broadway (I think it was at the Casino) I was initially taken aback, partly because it was already fairly well known generally. But one of the interesting things about the changing music that flows through the scene is that it often helps you to be less rigid in your sense of what is or isn't Northern, and to just tune into whether it's good music and if it gets your feet going.

Thanks for these Chalky, I never bought them at the time so plenty of fascinating reading lying ahead. Skimming through the first issue I really like the overall attitude that comes across, and in impressive choice of artwork to grace the first edition too!