Barry

So emotive Ken.

Me and t'wife are about to book. Without sounding like a twonk, will we enjoy it?

I simply have to add that we should put this 'high-brow' nonsense that surrounds boots/pressings to bed. Without the business acumen of said booters, thousands of early Soulies would have been denied access to 'out if reach' tracks in their youth. Boots are part and parcel of this scene, the simple fact that this process went on added to the mystique of the NS scene. Fair do's, bootleggers made money only for themeselves - but - at the same time allowed 15 year olds like myself to get off the bus at 8.30am and able to stick 'Manifesto' on my teenage deck at home by 8.40. Again it brings up the question 'Is bootlegging any less detrimental to US artists than covering a track up?' Is it Father Jack! Btw, as an aside, anyone know why Pete Lawson sped up his George Blackwell boot?

Vinyl - Durable...Styrene - sharper of sound. True?

My mate Gerry (Kenny) used to produce some of their stuff. He lives down the end of a country lane in Burtonwood adjoining his next door neighbours, who breed Alsatians. They have a kind of agreement whereby Gerry can knock out 'white noise' all night (all anologue valved noise as it happens) as the Ally's make so much noise during the day. Karma. https://www.discogs.com/artist/Sir+Freddie+Viadukt

I don't know what to say to that reply.

Stevie, the last time I was in was a weekend in sometime in November1984. Assumption is a poor secondary to fact. I know I go on mate, but given the simple fact that you feel the need to reply gives my 'necessary ramblings' credence. Think about it.

Roddy...please. Would you prefer that I don't set these ridiculous, self-answerable questions mate? You just wasted time answering my sh*t question with a sh*t answer. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Yes but Spider, regional views and fashion should have little to do with understanding what is a qaulity soul production. There are massive, and I mean Massive for me anyhow, records that have only been brought to my attention of late. Am I wrong in feeling a little hard done by - given that I rely, and always have done (as I have had no other option, being that I am what would be classed as a follower] - by the movers and shakers on this scene? Don't get me wrong, I have had sooooo many records brought to my attention by the aforementioned m&s, I have also been sold some crock.....while all the time there have been killer cuts waiting in the wings. Devils advocate, nothing more.

Just to hi-jack a bit but I remember me, Rich and Duncan (The Three Sullies) getting the 4.20 to Euston, on the way to the 100's Club (about '84 maybe, somebody'll correct me) and reading in Black Echoes that 'The Man' had turned off Jackie's life support system (Something to do if I remember correctly with wranglings over the deciding 1% ownership of Brunswick records - this may be one of my urban Soul myths, but hey). We were playing flyer tennis in 1st class going through Rugby I think, at the time and I spilled my tin of Labatts and started to mop it up with this toffee bag I found on the table....it started to fizz up like yellow sherbert...whence I realised it was our bag of Dexy's that I had foolishly used as a dish-cloth. Anyway, amidst this, I remember getting all schoolboy emotional about the wrongness of all this, as you do....then getting off at Euston, hiding our toffee bag in one of the garden squares opposite Euston TS and then exiting the 100's Club in the morning and forgetting which square we left them in. This happened every 100's Club journey btw. Good times, sad times...both of which sat either side of a belting excursion to a Nighter or a nightmare of a lift home from some irrelevant other. (Or Brian Rae....each lift courtesy of Brian was a story alone.) Anyone remember Cliff White? One of Bri's mate's, compiler for Charly Records - I used to stay at Cliffs prior to the early 100's Club outings - his missus was a white witch. Fantastic cork filled walls in his houser retro 60's plastic couches and floor to ceiling 7" racks. A la Brian though, terrible jumpers.

Being a dancefloor beast, a Beta, a follower, a kid. It seems I have always been a victim of my working class roots; not much cash, struggling to attend Nighters that were a bus ride, two train journeys, a good walk and a weeks money away. Now I'm old enough to understand that the NS scene has always been a time and a place, dancefloor side, punter led. But the amount of obviously fantastic tracks that have become major dancefloor fillers (say over the last 5/10 years....tracks that I would understand that collectors [dj's, older more experienced Soulies than myself] would have been aware of in the mid 80's for example), that have taken 25 odd years to get played to the scene is ridiculous. I'll compress my view: I struggle to comprehend that the amount of obvious NS dancefloor killers that have never seen the light of day over the years have recently been aired - given that I would think that they were always there and that people, jocks, collectors, were aware of them. Again, I understand that the scene has always been dictated to by it's to's and fro's, it's social postioning, it's cyclical movements etc....but there are certain records that were never played out at Nighter level but have been known, until recently. How? (Does that make sense, if not please come back at me.)

Shame on you! Nobody has answered the question. Stop reading these sad forays of mine and utilisiing them as a forum to quote 'clever' musical quotations relevant to yourselves - it's lovely to read for me, yes, but answer the question. It's not hard. I truly believe that there are good and bad productions in every named sphere of music....how many posts have you read on forums such as this whereby a given person believes that a certain track is a paltry one, not worthy of the note it is given on the scene? Flip backward to their school years - it may be a punk track, new romantic or a plain pop track that they at heart, love. At what point does accepting personally that a non-Northern Soul track has made an impression on yourself (your youth, your life) become a vehement denial of other forms of music? Judy Street - deemed overplayed and cheesey - not cool. The Clash - Rock The Casbah - a truly fantastic moment in time...musically. As Harry Hill would say on 'The Burp'... "FIIIIIIGHT!"

Not as easy a question as it first appears as, which one person is able to deem a track worthy of the 'Northern Soul' mantle? No one person can deem a track as such obviously as the masses on the floor have always made a track worthy of being called a 'NS' track - the dancefloor has always dictated. The majority swings things generally, elections, Big Brother etc. Therefore the term 'Northern Soul' and the huge volume of musical history behind it must be a democratic based term, no? Bringing about the question: Are people who spend their life banging on about one given area of NS (60's, &0's, Modern, whatever) clueless?

It's a subjective thing yes, you're prob right in that instance.

Mate, I'm made up with that addition - where did you get it from? It's the first time I've had some confirmation on that old Blackbeat tit-bit.

If you listen it has the worst cut in the edit I've ever heard - a close second comes Patrice Rushen's - 'Haven't You Heard' 7" edit - unbelievably bad. For me the plain white demo is the most desirable and appealing of the GSH releases. The best looking coloured vinyl, seeing as you've took me there, is Brainstorm's - 'LIRMG', the deep red/orange vinyl plays of the orange Tabu label so well. 'Coloured vinyl and Soul'? Mmmmmm - don't worry I won't open a thread.

That's very 'Enterprising' Cunnie.

Off at a tangient here but to quote but a few examples of Modern tracks where, to me, the 7" original edit is better than the, in most cases, poorly extended 12" versions. I say 'poorly extended' as indie 12" extended versions tend to simply straight cut edit the track [repeat the previous 8 bars], they don't tend to do a Shep Pettibone on tracks. Yet strangely the 12"s tend to command a premium, maybe due to their 'scarcity' and the recent interest from the Disco fellows. Alfie Davidson, King Tutt, Curtis to name a few of the more popular all are more complete edit-wise in their original 7" form. This view doesn't apply, to me that is, regarding every 12" version - Eddie Holman, Greg Perry, Skip Mahoney for eg. all work better in their longer edited formats (looking at that last sentence, two of them were Salsoul tracks, a label with the money to pay for quality, re-worked by savvy engineers, Thom Moulton etc but you get me drift.) Edits can make or ruin a track - look at that awful 'The Bottle (drunken mix) edit for example. The only reason I love 12"'s is for the response you get over a system from them, but I will forever be happy with my KT 7" (even with it's poor response) over the rather annoying extended version. Am I rattling again?

Any excuse Malc. We could take before and after charcoal sketches and flog 'em at events. We should push the 'after' demolition sketches if we do (less charcoal, more profit). Stick wi' me son.

Group night out Malc?

Just a quickie, a cryptic one though, the final off-beat horn crescendo to AOTR has strangely been utilised on a Granada Xmas advert of late.

Every time a King Tutt thread comes up I have, over the years, posted this possibly dull point of (possible) interest, but anyway here we go again: I remember an interview in one of the old fanzines (Poss Blackbeat) with him (seeing as I've met you, would you mind if I called you 'King') and apparently KT was Jimmy Bo Hornes drummer and had no recollection of recording 'YGMHU', I would think due to his skunk fixation - I may have made that last bit up but what else could it have been? Only track I remember being played at Wigan that I actually realised played in stereo on the Cas speakers.

Now there's no wrong answer to this question, so don't worry. But. To understand fully anything....be it in your social life, your work life or in any sphere that you as a human being need to take on....you need to generally have to take on board other factors that go to make up your views on the afore-mentioned, things that you may not, at first, agree with or understand but after a while, as you grow (mature), these once irrelevant factors go toward helping you formulate a (your) view on matters, yes? If you follow the above statement, as regards things in your life other than music (Northern), then I feel that you should try to relate this formula to your musical views. I'll butt out here as I am in danger of sounding like a Miss World contestant's "All I want is World peace" statement. I apologise for my postings here, I am getting no feedback from the board right now (no wonder Baz, it's late) and at that (this) point I generally begin ranting (like now). So I'll leave it there.

Quo Vadis!

While I'm on it, Brian Rae's innards have been featured on at least four episodes of 'Time Team' - Tony Robinson has found one of Bri's kidneys under Ham Hall in London and another buried beneath Dave Evisons LI 150 (unearthed under a medieval kiln in Stoke). Brian Rae's offal has historically been found to be the only substance that scientist's have been oficially unable to carbon date. No, honestly.