Ian Dewhirst

Lined up now mate! Playlist coming up. A nice exclusive on Brenda St Clair which sounds wicked plus the usual wander across the eras with a few surprises in there! Well, hey, if you have the ammo........ Ian D

Well not exactly spare but your enthusiam is irresistible LOL, so PM'd ya. Simon was exactly right. Killer record! All it needed was a decent 12" mix.......... Ian D

Yep PM'd ya with the 12" mix. Don't tell Simon M LOL...... Will buzz ya..... Ian D

Yes. Killer tune. And guess who's just found a 12" remix which'll blow ya socks off! Ian D

For sure. I used to order 'em from Mopsy in Sheffield. I'd see him at the Mecca, tell him what tracks I wanted on each side and hey presto, they'd appear next week. That was probably circa '72 'cos the first one he did for me was Duke Browner "Crying Over You" inst and the Kaddo Strings "Nothing But Love" inst. I think he'd been at it for a few years 'cos he had the operation down to a tee....... A couple of years later, my old deejaying partner Twink bought an Emidisc machine and he'd knock 'em out in his garage as well........ So definitely Torch era and they most likely started in the Wheel era...... Ian D

You're probably right Peter, but if they can't stop boots being sold in HMV, Oxford St or on E-Bay, then I doubt if they'll marshall the forces to raid a Northern Soul night up North mate........... Ian D

Mmm. I'll take Levine's Soul Steppers CD and we can listen to it on the way up there. That should be fun ay? Ian D

Says the guy whose entire vocabulary consists of the word 'Soul' and 'Bowl'........ When's the next Lifeline then.....? And everyone's 100% right. I need to get my arse up there don't I? Ian D

Well gimme a lift up there for the next one then. I fancy some amusement on the journey........... Ian D

Yeah but a lot of those are revived oldies Marc. Which Ethics is it by the way (I'm beginning to wince already since you couldn't give Ethics records away at one time LOL)? Ian D

So what are the biggest tunes of the moment then folks? Ian D

No I'm not Beeks. The vast majority of my favorite tunes are probably £10-£30 items, but if I've got 'em right here I'm hardly going to spend 6 hours in a car and £80 in petrol to hear 'em 200 miles away am I? Ian D

I agree with a lot you say Adam, but the reality is that the vast majority of £10 records aren't really going to excite me in quite the same way as some of the harder to find stuff. I actually applaud anyone who can turn a £10 record into a popular tune but there aren't really that many of 'em that we haven't heard already that have the potential to become huge after 40 years are there? Someone did do a list earlier in the thread and I looked at it and whilst the records were OK, I don't know that I'd want to travel 200 miles to hear 'em again. I agree that a mix with rare/cheapies/classics/lesser knowns is the way to go though. It's got to be a lot more difficult to 'break' something on a national level these days though isn't it? In fact, what are the top 10 O.V. monsters in the UK at the moment? Does anyone know or is there such a thing anymore? Does it boil down to Butch, Andy and Sam's boxes or is there a general criteria which dictates what is big these days? Ian D

Like a record baby...... That's 'cos there's really no easy answers. Or maybe there are come to think of it. The well-equiped DJ's of the future should do the following:- 1) Invest £200K in buying O.V. Northern originals and a number of one-off's. 2) Invest another £5K on every legitimate CD release. 3) Invest another £2K on every legitimate Download release. Then you're covered for all angles! Now all you need is good taste which can't be bought at any price! Ian D

And what about the Jose Burgos feat Kenny Bobien "For Your Love" - arguably one of the biggest tracks of the moment but only available on download. Should the audience be deprived of hearing this? It's easily the most requested track on the show from an equal contingent of Northern and Modern fans? Ian D

I know mate. Everyone had an acetate or two in their boxes back then. Another weird quirk was that if a pressing came out too early, like if a sound was still building in popularity but there weren't enough originals around, then it was kind of OK to play it for a couple of weeks before the wallies jumped on it. I remember virtually everyone caning "Afternoon Of The Rhino" on Soulbeat 'cos it was on a 45 for the first time and the fidelity on the O.V. LP wasn't that good...... Youngblood Smith "You Can Split" was a great example of a pressing coming out before the record had even broken. Same as Lou Courtney "Me And You Doing The Boogaloo" (why?), the Sunlovers "You'll Never Make The Grade" and even Rubin "You've Been Away".......... The bootleggers were quicker then the bloody DJ's back then......... Ian D

Give 'em another year or two and that's what they'll be doing anyway Steve! C'mon someone - fund me on setting up a Northern Soul retirement village quick! Oldies only mind........ Ian D

Yep, I'm ashamed to admit that I bought a Duke Browner "Crying Over You"/Kaddoo Strings "Nothing But Love" acetate for £3.00 off Mopsy from Sheffield at the start of my deejaying days. I was young and foolish back then........... Ian D

DJ Credibility Rating In Relation To Playing Eddie Parker's "Love You Baby" Format DJ Rating Original Ashford W/L Promo 10/10 Original Ashford Normal 9/10 French Googa Mooga 8/10 UK Grapevine 7/10 Original Torch era D/S acetate 6/10 CD Reissue 5/10 Ist US Pressing (large ARCHER Stamp) 4/10 2nd US Pressing (small ARCHER stamp) 3/10 3rd US Pressing (no ARCHER stamp) 2/10 MP3 1/10 Can we please now start applying this formula to every single DJ out there on every one of his or her records, build a national Northern database and then grade 'em in the Northern DJ Credibility Top 100? Ian D

Yep, of course. It was a legitimate issue. Anyone who thinks it wouldn't be aceptable would have to disqualify every original U.K. pressing of every U.S. Northern Soul release on the same basis surely? Ian D

That's 'cos there weren't any oldies DJ's in the early 70's - I think Dave Evison was pretty much the first and then Mr M's established the Oldies thing. So there was really no Oldies/Nostalgia scene for the majority. The people who played pressings back then were like local DJ's who were holding a Northern night in a pub on a Tuesday night. Everyone else was trying to break new records or playing established ones that hadn't yet been bootlegged. So you're right Dave. Everyone absolutely knew who the real DJ's were because the 'real' DJ's didn't tend to play oldies. Difficult these days. It's like the old Northern/Modern split except this time it's Oldies/Top 500/Crowd Pleaser/Nostalgia versus Rare/Northern/RnB/Doo-Wop/Crossover etc. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the incredible popularity of the bootlegs to the core audience sales-wise. The Northern Soul scene have always bought them in droves - that's why they're still here some 40 years later since the original Soul Sounds pressings in the late 60's. So whatever preaching there is about O.V.O. it doesn't seem to ever stop people bootlegging 'em or, perhaps worse, the same audience buying 'em. The message has been missed somewhere along the line by the looks of it. If it's O.V.O. all the way, then shouldn't bootlegs be banned everywhere? Venues, dealers, magazines, shops etc, etc. And would people actually stop buying 'em? Ian D

Jerry Cook's "I Hurt On The Other Side". I bumped into Sydney Barnes (the writer) a few years ago in the South of France, bowed, then fell to my knees on the croisette and said "I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy......." Ian D

Ian D

Hard to believe this was the same guy who released "Lord If You're A Woman" after reading the testimony from some of his lady friends...... Ian D

Well, I've been a collector for over 40 years and sometimes I just don't have the budget for super rare originals. If I had a spare £50K I may well put a bid in for Frank Wilson but until I get enough dosh I'll just have to make do with the reissue. I'd prefer not to deprive myself of the aesthetic value of listening to the music if possible. Plus Frank will actually receive royalties as well..... Same with Warhol's artwork which I also love. Unfortunately it goes without saying that Charles Saatchi is likely to outbid me on any Warhol originals which are still knocking around but the fact that I can't have a £15,000,000 original on my wall in no way deprives me of appreciating his art. We can't all own an original Mona Lisa Davie......... Ian D