Seano

Great news Rob - nice to think that these guys can finally get paid for their contribution to soul music. I'm puzzled about Fred Bridges though, having come across this a while ago suggesting he'd died in January 2018: https://www.soultracks.com/story-fred-bridges-dies

Just spotted that Channel 4 have Elaine Constantine's film, Northern Soul, scheduled for 1.50am tonight / New Year's Day morning. I'm guessing everyone's seen it but it might help to welcome the New Year in!

Harlem 69 is definitely up there, excellent book. And as Keamus notes, mention has to be made of Richard Searling's book. The earlier books by Stuart Cosgrove have been in Fopp and Head for about £3 or £5 this past year. Another find in Head was the James McBride book, 'Kill 'em and leave' - 'searching for the real James Brown' - a very good read that only cost £3. For 2019 I'm looking forward to reading 'Rodigan - my life in Reggae' and 'Long, slow train' the book about Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - both Christmas presents.

Tim - this guy's videos all seem to be Low Rider Soul / Chicano Soul. Stylishly edited though the visuals may be a bit of a marmite-type thing for some people. It was via his video to Darrow Fletcher's '(Love is my) Secret Weapon' that I first heard the track and am now the proud owner of the Kent 7" issue of the track. https://www.youtube.com/user/ianwhitt100?pbjreload=10 If that link doesn't work just search YouTube for Ian Whittington. I don't know anything about him, I've assumed he's a British Soulie who moved over to LA - anybody here know the story?

What a brilliant compilation! Love catching these tunes via YouTube with some great videos that Ian Whittington puts up but access to this set on CD is fantastic. Nice cover too, and I'm sure the sleeve notes will be as comprehensive as always with Kent. I can imagine a 70s compilation might be a thought too but guess we'll have to wait.....

Forgot to add this, despite liking it so much that I bought copies to say thanks to the guys who DJ'd for my 60th! Cheers, Eddie, Charlie & Tom:

Loved the Darrow Fletcher and as it was possible to finally get it on 7" that worked for me. Ernest Ernie and the Sincerities 'Do something' is spot on too (very strong echo of Marvin Gaye's 'What's going on') - as with algsoul's query, is it out on vinyl? Worth mentioning the Masqueraders single that's just come out 'Prophet of Love' / 'You're the one' - anything new with Bobby Womack has got to get a rating. Also Sean Hampsey's issue on Diggin' Deep of Tony Borders 'Promise to myself / Bill Brandon 'Rainbow road.'

Sad to hear of this, her Wigan monster made me aware of her, so when "I've never been to me" came out in 1977 I got hold of it - turned out that the flip side was the one: "Here it comes". Nice 70s dancer with a good break at about 2 minutes in then building back up for the ending.

Post delivered mine today - nice Christmas Cracker! two great sides, arrived safely packaged and in a high quality picture sleeve along with the record in its own plain white paper sleeve that slips inside, topped off with a snug plastic outer sleeve. Many thanks Alex.

Absolutely agree, good topic as well.

Mine arrived in the week but I'd been away so picked it up from the sorting office today. Thanks Sean, excellent 45, both sides.

Sounds brilliant, hard to go wrong with Mr Womack.

Just read the article about Jamie - really good too. Apparently the UK release of the film is set for 1st February 2019.

The trailer's great, looks like a film well worth seeing! Thanks for posting this.

Ten shades of blue might have been nice! Sadly my blue card was stolen as I used to keep it in my wallet (just for the nostalgia!) at the time about 20 years back.

Exactly what I moaned about to my wife while watching it - loads more interesting stuff to say if you want to reference Gladys' Motown period. It would have been far better to have just had the clips and none of the sofa chat, especially as it wasn't even chat, it felt far too scripted for that. I didn't actually mind having Bob Marley on, though based on the little I know of his music I'd have gone for 'Waiting in Vain'. But the closest things came to Parliament/Funkadelic was Elton John's glasses, and even then it didn't exactly sound like Bootsy.... The tiny glimmer of brightness was that they did include Bobby Womack, but even there I've seen better stuff featuring him on BBC programmes, which I presume was the constraining factor for their supposed "beginner's guide for an alien". The problem seemed to be in the construct; it tried to blend people talking about their early and then subsequent musical influential moments relating to a specific genre of music, in this case Soul, but then drifted through the programme to include other bits that seemed to be more about their informed opinion of key artists. So it started with the Jackson 5 because it was one of Trevor's first recollections, then later we flick back to a 60's clip of Aretha simply because she was known as the Queen of Soul. The programme would have been much stronger to be either entirely about the personal historical moments of music that moulded these two presenters, or abandon that and, like Kegsy and Cologno say, find someone who has a far more comprehensive knowledge of this area to select the clips, even if they still have to be restricted by what's already owned by the BBC.

Just spotted that at 8pm tonight Corinne Bailey Rae and Trevor Nelson are in a programme about how Soul music influenced them. The write up refers to it being episode 5/10, but no idea what the previous 4 were, whether they were all focussed on Soul, or who the featured people were.

And then the ending. I'd forgotten the sequence of along titles dropping down at the end. I think I was overwhelmed by seeing it at a modest cinema not long after it came out when my cousin was living in New York's East Village and absolutely loving the reaction of the audience, just whooping and clapping as the credits came up! Might be fun to track back over the song titles and see what comes across as a surprise....

Just got to the later moments of the film where the full band of the Funk Brothers get ready to play with the photo images of the ones who've already gone proudly posted on stands inbetween them all while the strains of "Ain't no mountain high enough build up." Emotional just as a soul fan - who knows what it must be like for their relatives and friends?

I've not been one to pay too much attention to the lyrics in past years, more the overall feel, but watch out for the difference if you click on Google for the lyrics to Jimmy Ruffin's 'What becomes of the broken hearted' as opposed to hearing him singing it via this YouTube' link: Here's Google's top link for the lyric: https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=what+becomes+of+the+broken+hearted+lyrics&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 Google gives us "As I walk this land with broken dreams" whereas Jimmy sings "As I walk this land of broken dreams." What a difference a word makes, 24 little hours.

Just been re-watching ‘Standing in the Shadows of Motown.’ Good quote from Ben Harper at about 44 minutes into the film saying: “Soul music is powerful. Soul music makes you believe. Soul music gives you hope in the way that you feel. In the way that you want to feel.” Like that.

Nice, but I'd still have fancied having 45! Having noted my being pleased to see Richard's approach of listing the records by first name of the artists, I am intrigued to see him writing on page 41 (in the piece about Billy Harner) that he accidentally reversed over his record box in 1977, but that thankfully because "What about the music" was filed "A-Z by title" it escaped the worst damage and still plays with a hairline crack. Come on Richard - what's the story, how come you changed your approach to filing, or was it only by first name for this book? Also - chuffed to read that you are already planning a follow-on book!

Great set John and from Dan too, thanks both. Got to say a huge congratulations to the Banbury Soul Club for 15 great years of soul nights in the town.

I'd have liked to have got the '45' issue!

493 for me. Nice touch on presenting the numbering within the image of a 45.