Seano

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!

I've got a couple of the Kimberlite releases and did get their email in advance about this one (Posted the info in the New Releases 2021 thread), but like yourself felt it was just not quite my thing. Good to see the label active again though, and looking forward to other releases in due course.

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!

Very nice track, and good luck to the guys with this and further releases.

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.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/08/carl-bean-singer-i-was-born-this-way-dies-aged-77 Thought people might be interested, used to get plays, not sure about nowadays.

Mine arrived today 😀. Hopefully if you're waiting for a copy it'll be coming to your door in the next day or two. Nicely put together. I was surprised to notice a couple of photos with little details like cans of Tuborg scattered around people crashed out or sitting on the floor, presumably that they'd brought in inside their bags. Not sure if that was a last night thing or just something that passed me by in earlier years.

I did have one of the Schweppes boxes back when I started buying records (well, a few years in I guess), but sadly got rid of it on the way. Great photo!

Decent price, but you might find a lid useful. I have my vinyl in "Really Useful Boxes", with 45s in these: https://www.reallyusefulproducts.co.uk/uk/html/onlineshop/rub/b09_0litreXL.php Be warned - you can find the same horizontal dimension boxes in places like Staples etc, but they don't come with the necessary higher lid that accommodates 45s. Further warning - The boxes don't stack inside each other when empty so the packaging is pretty large, depending on how much you order - don't be surprised at the size of the delivery! Final warning - think about the weight of the box once you've got the records in it. I'm happy with these boxes on a stack of shelves like this, but did find that the ones I thought would work for LPs and 12" stacked face on were far too heavy, so changed to ones where you stack the records side on to the handles instead ( as you can see on the floor below the shelves).

Great article; thanks for posting.

Fine record, flip side 'Get on up' equally worth a listen. Mine is on Bunky too, red with black text and Bunky written vertically on the left in red text against a black partial circle background. But sorry, I don't know if it's Canadian.

I had a flyer from an exhibition of his in Oxford but couldn't find it at the time. Just came across these two photos that I took of it, one with background info about the artist:

They've made it!

Looks very interesting....

I was never as dedicated as you describe here with regard to wants lists, but do agree that a big difference is the convenience vs the physical search. The danger via the modern technology route is that you can be pretty rapid in either liking or disregarding a tune on the first few seconds of hearing it, and so tailor your buying to what style you like at the current moment. One of the long term pleasures of buying blind, soul packs especially, but also junk shops and 2nd hand record shops that rarely had listening decks as I recall, was that unless you really hated a tune, you just held onto it. Over time, when you delve in and play stuff you had overlooked, you come across records that seem just right now, but that weren't quite right back when you got hold of them. I genuinely believe that buying records that I thought might be worth a punt helped to broaden my taste, as even if I was a bit disappointed that a certain 45 wasn't an out and out stomper, I'd still normally find that I enjoyed it and felt it was just good soul of a different style.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/mar/20/philly-soul-philadelphia-international-records-women Interesting read.

That was the version I got in a dodgy soul pack back in the 70s. Mind you, in another pack, a bit later on I think, I got another Hoagy Lands on Spectrum with the fairly straightforward and punchy dancer 'Why didn't you let me know' and the pretty sublime 'Do you know what life is all about' on the other side. Well worth checking out.

Just been out to collect it from the sorting office. Highly recommend doing it this way...... You get to dig out your passport (not used mine since September 2019), present it for official checking, and the payoff is then waltzing around with a great soul record in your hands, feeling like you've just bought one at a soul night! And now I get to play it: win-win! As Kenb says, terrific extra getting the very detailed flyer from Melvin Davis too.

Despite not getting out much (rules are rules), I managed to be out when the postie came round so will have to go to the sorting office tomorrow to collect mine unfortunately. We just went for a half hour walk and saw the guy getting back into his van and drive off just before we got home to find the 'couldn't deliver' card. Still, worth waiting for I'm sure!