Seano

It started out as a flat Kapp in Yorkshire....

On a weirdly connected note, the original swastika was an ancient symbol that I believe was associated with yoga, amongst other things. My wife, who trained as a yoga teacher in recent years, was exploring various positions with cranked arms and kneeling on one knee, whilst teaching online due to covid. I happened to notice that at one point as she moved her arms at the elbows up and down she ended up suddenly in the swastika shape. That move didn't make the cut, and never will. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

My sister sent me a picture of this float, noting the same thing about this symbol. Hadn't seen it before but despite never having been to the Wheel I knew immediately that it wasn't the one associated with the club.

Just had a look. Daptone have copies at $8 but shipping estimated starting at $18. Rough Trade have an option to be notified when it comes back into stock.

Interesting reaction from producer Joseph Patel in regard to the award being overshadowed by the slap and also the insult by Chris Rock in introducing the film too: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/mar/31/summer-of-soul-producer-criticises-will-smith-and-chris-rock-oscars

I think it was 1975 when I got into Northern via the Winter Gardens in Banbury. People who were already travelling to places like Wigan and previously the Torch and Wheel were bringing it all back to little towns like ours. They managed to persuade the Saturday night DJs to play a few records of choice now and then, and would all dance in an area together in a way that you were either amazed by or reacted aggressively to. For me, obviously amazed; but you did get the other side of people being twats with things like flicking cigarette stubs where people were dancing, splashing drink, or just walking around to make it difficult to dance. A fair few of us were drawn to the music and style that these people highlighted, and began to try and emulate the dance styles and find out more. All very much like the Youth Club scene in the film, Northern Soul. At the time, as a late teenager, I thought it was all completely new; new music, new styles of dancing, fashions, everything. I was surprised as time passed to see that pretty much all of it was drawing on the past in so many ways. But in terms of the dancing and a generic style.... Back in the mid 70s I spent a year or two trying to perfect what I thought was the style of the day (and my knees are paying the price today!). But I think that like most people in that period, I transitioned fairly quickly to feeling that the variations in how people were dancing was a good thing, and began to be a bit freer with how I danced too. I'm sure that to anyone outside I'd have just looked like anyone else on the dance floor, but within the scene I think we all began to find subtle ways of dancing in an individual style. The walking and stepping style needs a little unpicking I think. There was an element of facing in one direction and shuffling side to side, but then (and now) there has always been a style of the shuffle moving round, sometimes in a steady circular change, at others moving partly in one clockwise direction but then, sometimes unexpectedly, switching to the opposite. Obviously with all styles of upright dance, there was always the spin, the classic backdrop, and athletic extras. I never mastered the spin ( though I tried!), I did manage backdrops back in the day, and even up to the early 2000s I could kick up in the air and drop down to a sort of kneel. But the walk and shuffle is the key I suppose. It was fundamental to the dancing of the mid-70s, and maybe earlier, and right through to now, it remains the core of how we all respond to our music and allows us to enjoy a much wider range of tempos with regard to dancing as individuals. We don't have to be blasting at full speed, nor do we have to feel we need to ask a partner to slow dance, we can just go with the feel of the track. One aspect of the 'area' based style of Northern Soul dancing that has always pleased me, is the positive social aspect of not only trying to avoid physically clashing with other dancers on the floor, but taking care to tweak how you're moving to avoid crashing into each other. Also the social niceties of acknowledging a person if you do end up bumping into them and sort of singing and mouthing "sorry". What other music scene has that built in?

Not sure what happened to that photo....

Incredible stuff Paul! I never went but it certainly gives a sense of place 👍

I went for the Really Useful boxes with the deeper lids so that you can store singles and larger boxes, again with the deep lids, for albums / 12". Bought some plywood to put shelves into the alcoves giving just enough space between to slip the boxes in.

Not sure if this link will work. John Manship is offering a copy to one lucky person who shares the posting on Facebook. I couldn't see a simple option to just copy the link so here goes: https://www.facebook.com/seaneosullivan/posts/490210245830478

Just been skimming through copies. Bloody hell. Looking back now I'm in awe of the detailed knowledge contributors set out, and the amazing work Steve and Kevin put into this specific magazine, as well as obviously all the others through the decades. I enjoyed reading my Christmas present, Iain McCartney's book Soul In Print, reviewing soul magazines like this, and you just have to give thanks for all their dedication and willingness to share. Great to now have access to these digital copies. When you think of all of that research pre-internet, and publishing pre-home desktop computer/scanner/printer, it just beggars belief really.

Totally missed this thread - I loved Blackbeat at the time and great to be able to download them. Thanks @Chalky

I read this in the digital version of The Guardian on my phone, but couldn't find it on the main website earlier. Anyway, hopefully this link will work for you: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/dec/28/wanda-young-obituary

I guess any scene has moments when it just steps out to have some fun and laugh at itself. Not sure that was fun but they seemed to be enjoying it....

I've still got the Al Green biography by Jimmy McDonough 'Soul Survivor' to read - this thread will be a good nudge to get on with it!

I remember Makes You Blind along with I'm on Fire both being played at our local disco and treating them as ok to dance to, but I don't think I heard either at Wigan. Mind you with Joe 90 getting air time I'd fully expect those two to have done as well, even if only briefly before everyone moved on.

No. I didn't go all that often, but I think that would have stood out! Maybe it was the all-nighter on Saturday April 1st, 1978.

I'm guessing people already know this, but in case not, the backing track seems to be identical, the record number WM 767 and 101 are the same, and McClain shares writing credits on both records too. Obviously both on Sable too. If it's new to you, the intro before the lyric kicks in will surely convince you!

Update in an email yesterday: PRESALE BEGINS 9AM MOUNTAIN STANDARD TIME DECEMBER 1ST. ORDERS TO SHIP ON OR BEFORE DECEMBER 10 OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE. It’s been a long time coming, but finally The Estimations are back with a second record! The A side, Heart Of Stone brings fuzz guitar, 4/4 drums, and a Levi Stubbs lead with haunting backing vocals to set a Norman-Whitfield-psychedelia-inspired soundscape for repressed lovers. If you’ve spent your life getting hurt, it’s near impossible to trust and give yourself to someone completely. This song is a hymn for the inhibited, rejected and pained out there who aren’t ready to get back in “the ring”. Turn over the disc and Don’t Go Kissin’ My Baby maintains the Motown theme with a bouncy bubblegum-soul arrangement, this time more typical of mid-60s Frank Wilson or Smokey Robinson productions. Not only are we still in Mr. Gordy’s sphere of influence, but we’re also keeping the continuity here with the subject of trouble in relationships. Between being withholding and being jealous, this release shows that Jory and Co. might not be scoring high on the next Facebook relationship quiz, but musicians aren’t supposed to be good role models anyway, so who’s really surprised? So where’s Kimberlite been for the last two years? Let’s please just accept that it’s been a hard time for everyone, and understand that real life has gotten in the way of a lot of passion projects. We’ve got a lot in the works and are trying to get ourselves back together. Cost is $12 CAD for the physical release: stock labels, black vinyl, hand printed sleeve designed by the inestimable graphic artist Elaine Banks.

I was just about to post the link too - will now have a read!

Next up - a new one on Kimberlite that might have some appeal.....

Just seen this on YouTube on Colemine Records: Sounds really good to my ears. I wondered at first if it was a version of the same titled track by Eljai from April 2013: I'd be interested in what people think of both.

One of the great things about Northern Soul has always been the range of music welcomed within it, and how it can encourage you to explore artists and styles that lie beyond your initial preferences. Even in the days of 100mph stompers sounds like ‘The Drifter’ were huge. I remember tracks like George Benson ‘On Broadway’ and Nina Simone ‘My Baby Just Cares for me’ rather messing with my efforts to describe to friends just what this NS thing was all about, but happily embracing them quite quickly and both helping me to be just a bit less narrow minded than I was at the time! With regard to whether sounds got played out at events billed as NS is, to my mind, not a limiting factor, though clearly very relevant. I think back in the day, buying soul packs of 100 45s you’d have a very instructive lesson in what ticks the box of NS and not. I’d eagerly flick through the records hoping to recognise names, titles, labels maybe, that I was familiar with, and give them a quick listen first. Then I’d move through the rest, in all cases giving a brief play to both sides to see if there was something that I liked. It was fairly rare that I thought that a record was so awful that I’d put it aside as one to take down to Record and Tape Exchange to see what I could get in swap value. I had a sort of cataloguing approach that maybe fits this thread. Maybe out of 100 records, I’d find 20 that I perceived as ‘full-on Northern’, perhaps 50 that I thought were really good but not what I considered (at the time) Northern, another 20 that seemed to me to be easily justifying a play at an all-nighter or soul night but that I wasn’t familiar with, and then maybe that last 10 or so that I wasn’t planning to keep. Surely the strength of NS is that it is not only capable of adapting, but that it can cherish its past and grow?

It was also available on the 2008 DVD "The Four Tops; Reach Out. Definitive Performances 1965-1973".A really excellent DVD that also makes a cappella versions of these songs available: Baby I need your lovin' - (spellcheck switched that to 'login' at first 🤣) I can't help myself It's the same old song Something about you Loving you is sweeter than ever 7 rooms of gloom Walk away Renee If I were a carpenter Reach out I'll be there A simple game Well worth getting if you can find it!

Just spotted that this is on this evening. I dare say it's been shown before, but with not having Sky I've not seen it but it is on via Freeview which shows Sky Arts programmes.