Ian Dewhirst

Most of chapter 8 I reckon. I've kept a few great stories back as well which wouldn't have been appropriate for S.S. but will work nicely in the context of a book hopefully....... Ian D

Oh, there'll be plenty of Salsoul in there. It's my favorite label of all time and I've known all the players since the 70's, so plenty of stories there. Hopefully I'll remember 'em all....... Ian D

Well, I'm actually in the process of piecing something together - it's been an ongong project for a number of years now and I've got a number of chapters together but reality/everyday life/financing my lifestyle keeps getting in the way LOL! For instance I was just about to roll my sleeves up and get seriously cracking when a Sugarbabes production project, Soul Intention records and a number of compilation albums suddenly popped up. But that's what I like about Soul Source - it leads me down avenues which I was in danger of forgetting about. At the moment, it's panning out like this:- "Fastlane" Chapters 1. How The Hell Did I Get Here? 2. The Beginning 3. An Early Awakening 4. School Daze 5. Starting Work & The DJ Bug Begins 6. How To Become A Northern Soul DJ 7. The Golden Years Of Northern Soul - Life At The Top 8. Good Morning America & How To Become A Million-Selling Record Producer 9. Back To The UK & Starting Again 10. How To Become A Jazz-Funk/Disco DJ & Nightclub Operator 11. How To Become A Record Plugger 12. The Golden Years Of Disco And Jazz-Funk 13. Back On Top Again 14. How To Become A Mixing DJ 15. Running A Venue & Another Million-Seller 16. Moving South. 17. How To Become A Club Promotion Man 18. Big Business, Corporate Politics and More Million-Sellers 19. Going Indie & Back To Corporate 20. Imploding 21. The 'Lost Years' 22. Re-Invention 23. How To Become A Compilation Maestro 24. Domestic Life 25. Back On Top Again 26. How To Become A Record Company Magnate 27. How To Become Bankrupt 28. Corporate & Indie Again 29. Running A Record Company in The New Millenium 30. Disillusionment & Mid-Life Crisis 31. How To Become A Best-Selling Author "Fastlane" List Of Contents 1. How The Hell Did I Get Here? Current position. Disilusionment with the music biz. The end of an era. Adapting to modern realities. Punishment society. More responsibilities, less fun. 2. The Beginning Brighton. Mum & Dad. Moving up North - Halifax/Leeds. Talbot Road. 11 Plus. 3. An Early Awakening Mirfield Grammar. Discovering Soul Music. Ibiza with Parents. First HI-Fi System. Local youth clubs. Tamla Motown. 4. School Daze O Levels. Al Horseford. Marvin, James & Sly. First Record Collection. Northern Soul. Saturday jobs. Bostocks. Girl friends. Mirfield Pentagon. Huddersfield Starlight. Meeting the Torch Boys. Neil Holdsworth. Bradford Polish Club 5. Starting Work & The Bug Begins Moving out of home. Fartown Road Flat. Kelly. Team Constructions. Leeds Central. Blackpool Mecca. Delavon. Burnley Cricket Club. Rob Ward. Caz. First Record Auction. 6. How To Become A Northern Soul DJ Leeds Central. Collecting Northern Soul. Julian Bentley. Brian '45' Phillips. Soul Bowl. Car crashes. J.J. Barnes @ Keighley Variety Club. 7. The Golden Years Of Northern Soul - Life At The Top Leeds Central. Sheffied Samanthas. Wigan Casino. Cleethorpes Pier. Dave Godin. The price of records. The Trammps @ Cleethorpes. Car crashes. 8. Good Morning America & How To Become A Million-Selling Record Producer Simon Soussan. Carol Lopez. Hunting Records. Chez Nous. Don Cornelius. "Uptown Festival". Ike & Tina Turner. Bolic Sound Studios. El Coco. Parliament. Jim Callan. Willie Hutch. Motown Records. Frank Wilson. Philadelphia. Val Shively. 9. Back To The UK & Starting Again Back to parents. Moira. Living like a king. Girls. Going broke. Dewsbury Bingo Hall. Zhivago's. Paul Schofield. Stringfellows. Jamaica. 10. How To Become A Jazz-Funk/Disco DJ & Nightclub Operator Leeds Central. All-Dayers. The in-place. Jumbos. Spin Inn. Girls. Ibiza. 11. How To Become A Record Plugger Decca Records. On the road. Radio stations. Record libraries & pluggers. Manu Dibango. John Miles. Richard Searling. 12. The Golden Years Of Disco And Jazz-Funk On the road. Botties Over Britain tour. Manchester Ritz. Blackpool Mecca. Club promoters. DJ politics. Toni. Roy Ayers. Brass Construction. 13. Back On Top Again Two nights a week @ the Central. The In-Time. Going To Jail. Casinos. Professional DJ. The Warehouse. Amnesia. Bistro 55. Jill. 14. How To Become A Mixing DJ Mike Wiand. Leeds Warehouse. Skegness All-Dayer. Glam, Bowie, Roxy. Students. Musical tastes switching. 15. Running A Venue & Another Million-Seller Booking bands. Trips to London. Pulsebeat. Diane. Christina. Soft Cell. Vicious Pink. Sisters Of Mercy. Cardigan Road. Chris Jenkinson. Brian & Josie. Speed bust. 16. Moving South. EMI. Martin Freeland. Expense Account. London Clubs. Rusty Egan. The Playroom. 17. How To Become A Club Promotion Man Ashford & Simpson. Freddie Jackson. Tavares. Diana Ross. Pet Shop Boys. The Team. Gee Bello. Poker. Stafford Road. 18. Big Business, Corporate Politics and More Million-Sellers Wicked Pulse. Steve Rumney. Damon Rocheforte. Rare Groove. Go-Go. New Music Seminar. Boardroom battles. Gleneagles Conference. The Embassy. Mark Fuller. 19. Going Indie & Back To Corporate Mahesh Bajaj. Serious Records. Upfront series. Trips to New York. 4th & Broadway Records. Chris Blackwell. Jon Williams. Tosca. Eric B & Rakim. Sly & Robbie. Drugs. The Wild Bunch. Nellee Hooper. 20. Imploding Clive Banks. Sacked from Island. Empty US Trip. Back To Serious Records. New York. Rap. Hip-Hop. Adrian. 21. The 'Lost Years' Serious Records. New York. Chicago. The Wag Club. Early House. L'Equipe Anglais. Sam. MCPS. USA trip to Denver. Mike Wiand. Pisces. Spiral Cut Records. Man With No Name. 22. Re-Invention Repossession order. Lots of thinking. Compilation market. Mastercuts. Beechwood Music 23. How To Become A Compilation Expert Mastercuts. Gordon Mac. Gary. Kiss FM. Shepperton Film Studios. DeWinters. Luke. Total Distribution. Marketing. Parties. New Jack Swing. 24. Domestic Life Diane. Savannah. Wedding in Vegas. Holidays. Cars. Money. 25. Back On Top Again Mastercuts successful. Jazz-Funk. Funk. Salsoul. Electro. House. Choice FM. Dope Jams. New York with Aaron. Deep Beats. John Beecher. Disputes with Bee & Chet. Lezline. Lisa. The end. 26. How To Become A Record Company Magnate MasterCo. Aaron Hercules. Kenwood. Shaun Casey. Battersea office. Grapevine. Nigel Reveler. Steve Fearney. Rewind Selecta. David Rodigan. Big Life. Jazz Summers. 27. How To Become Bankrupt Closing MasterCo. Moonlight flit. Dealing with Bankruptcy. Chrissy Wood. Shaun Casey. Move to Wallington. Move to Hackbridge. Selling Records. Awful times. 28. Corporate & Indie Again Joining Warners. Rob Dickens. Martin Craig. Corporate politics. Disc Detective. Most Creative Corporate Campaign award. Leaving Warners. Mahesh in Kensington. Princess Di's funeral. Marnie. Joining Simply Vinyl. Mike Loveday. Duke St. Carl Cushnie. Mike Morrison. Mikey Jnr. San Diego. Cannes. Betrayal. Leaving Simply Vinyl. Claire Shave. Los Angeles. Arlan. Mama Sutra. 29. Running A Record Company in The New Millenium Chris Barnet. Salsoul Records. New York. Glen Laruso. Ken Cayre. Germany. Cannes. Deejaying again. Paris. Ibiza. 30. Disillusionment & Mid-Life Crisis Music biz implodes. Downloading. An industry destroyed. 31. How To Become A Best-Selling Author It's a long tractectory but that's kind of got it down in a simplistic form. Doubtless there'll be thousands of other things to add once I actually start writing in earnest. That's the hard bit by the way! That's why Soul Source is good. I've pieced together a nice chunk of the L.A. story and quite a few record-collecting stories from writing some Soul Source threads. So all positive. 6 pages a day for three months should do it....... Book should be ready for late next year touch wood, if I survive that long LOL...... Ian D

Blimey. How does he get away with it? He's in the UK with 123 positives, so there's a mini-industry going on right there! To think E-Bay kicked off a legitimate Jeff Buckley promo I tried to sell a few years back - maybe I should have just cut a carver and flogged that instead! Ian D

As an ex promo guy, I think it's a 'reservice' in regard to U.S. Radio Stations, which means that they re-pressed another load of promos and re-serviced the radio stations. They were effectively re-promoting the record, which means that there were two runs of the promos - the second lot being called 're-service' to prompt the radio stations to have another listen. It shows they had faith in the record. But it bombed anyway didn't it? I used to have it and it was just OK, so I flogged it. Is it better than I thought? Ian D

Phew. Thank god for that. So sorry this happened but it's much better then the mental aggravation of not knowing whether you were deliberately targetted or not! At least it's a happy-ish ending. Best, Ian D

OK back from holiday and it felt great to be back behind the decks for another 2 hours of beautiful Soulful gems from across the whole spectrum. Just a mere week away and I'd missed it! So join the party, kick back for a couple of hours and enjoy it! Six Million Steps Presents The Original Mastercuts Show with Ian Dewhirst, on Sunday 2nd November 2008 on www.starpointradio.com. To download the show simply hit the link below! Or for this and all archived shows please pay a visit to www.sixmillionsteps.com where you can download the last 4 weeks worth of all Six Million Steps produced shows. That's 16 hours of free music over the last 4 weeks alone! Plus, loads of new fully downloadable KILLER mixes in a variety of styles! So let's go with this week's show:- 1st Hour New Love Symphony - Love Ballad Connor Reeves - Nobody But You (Booker T Remix) Samantha James - Angel Love (Scott Wozniak Remix) Castle Beat - Today, Tomorrow & Forever Frisky - You Got Me Dancing In My Sleep Jimmy & Vella Cameron - Be Fair To Me Above & Beyond - Love, Love, Love Splendour - Special Lady Cameo - We're Going Out Tonight Homeboy & The C.O.L. - A Love Connection Paradise - One Mind, Two Hearts 2nd Hour Marlena Shaw - California Soul Brenda Holloway - Home Is Where The Hatred Is Vermeytta Royster - The Shelter Of Your Arms The Jackson 5 - Looking Through The Windows Friends Of Distinction - Grazing In The Grass Niteflyte - All About Love Patches - I'm Gonna Make This World A Better Place Jesse Gomez - Lace The Young Heart - Sweet Love Ralph Tresvant - Sensitivity Kaiya - Scandalous Stephanie Mills - You're Puttin' A Rush On Me Eugene Record - Overdose Of Joy https://www.sixmillionsteps.com/6MS-...2-Starpoint.mp3 Best, Ian D

Yep, I've heard that figure bandied about as well. I think you have to make a distinction almost between hard-core and soft-core Northern Soul fans. It could be argued that there were many local discos which played Northern Soul (or Northern Soul spots) especially in most of the Midlands/Northern towns, all of which had a regular element of fans even if they didn't necessarily go to nighters. I guess it was these type of fans that made up the bulk of the sales of some bootlegs - 20k in the cases of Gloria Jones and the Mike Post Coalition reputedly. Also there was a run of 'crossover' Northern Soul hits like "Hey Girl Don't Bother Me" - The Tams (No.1 in '71) "There's A Ghost In My House" (No.3 in '74) and even "You Sexy Sugar Plum" - Rodger Collins (No.22 in '76) which means that a lot of people bought the records - at least 250,000 in the case of the Tams and R. Dean Taylor but whether they could be considered fans is another question. I reckon 10k hardcore and maybe 100k softcore between '70-'77? Ian D

A dazzling cornucopia of sizzling Soulful music from the last 3 decades coming up in 90 minutes folks! 2.00-4.00pm on www.starpointradio.com! Ian D

I'm gonna give this one a whirl. I think Seal is a phenomenal vocalist and I've got pretty much everything he's ever done. I'm wondering if the "It's Alright" is a cover of Sterling Void.........? Ian D

Way hey, I'm back again LIVE tomorrow afternoon between 2.00-4.00pm on The Original Mastercuts Show on www.starpointradio.com following a week in Fuerto Ventura last week. As per usual, the show covers a number of areas over the last 3 decades with the emphasis on uptempo House, Garage & Disco 2.00-2.30, some solid 80's Grooves 2.30-3.00pm, some Northern, Modern & Great Soul 3.00-3.30pm, some killer Slow Grooves 3.30-3.45pm and we round off with a brace of classy Soulful gems to close the show. Tomorrow we're looking at........ New Love Symphony, Connor Reeves, Samantha James, Frisky, Jimmy & Vella Cameron, Above & Beyond, Splendour, Homeboy & The C.O.L., Paradise, Marlena Shaw, Brenda Holloway, Vermeytta Royster, The Jackson 5, Friends Of Distinction, Niteflyte, Patches, Charles Russell, Jesse Gomez, The Young Heart, Ralph Tresvant, Kaiya, Stephanie Mills & Eugene Record See y'all at 2.00pm sharp! Ian D

Hi Mel, Glad you enjoyed it dude! Sorry I didn't reply sooner but I've been away for a week. The Ruth Dawes is just thunderous isn't it? Killer groove from Profile Records. The Bobby Caldwell track is from the CD Come Rain Or Come Shine (1999). I'm back live again tomorrow! Best, Ian D

Oh come on Ian - we want the night to have some pzazz and an element of frission don't we? James is just playing his angry outspoken young man card - not a million miles disimilar to someone else I knew at that age years ago! I'm not sure if he can make it anyway............ Ian D

Well, it is one of my top 3 books of all time along with "The Catcher In The Rye" and "The Coinnesseurs Guide To Extremely Dangerous Drugs"............ Ian D

LOL, trust me to pick the one forum where such things don't impress! Of course, anyone who might want to introduce some new tools to my armoury, is very welcome. I'll probably start flagging @ around 11.00pm.......... On the other hand, I'd better keep my shit together thinking about it. I'll have Levine yelling in my ear whilst I'm keeping a sharp eye on Gavin at the same time as sorting James Trouble out with a drink in the deepest darkest corner of the gaff! That's if his timetable permits that is.......... Ian D

Well it's a Monday night so I'll probably keep things pretty low key, so I guess it'll be 2 x grams of coke, a bag of hydroponic skunk, a couple of Kesey endorsed acid tabs, a handful of uppers, downers, snoozers and screamers, £20 quids worth of MDMA, a half-pint of liquid mescalin and a few beers. That should get me in the mood....... Ian D

Toy........? Are you sure that this is a valid derogatory term Dave? Ian D

Agree with the last sentence for sure Steve. But again, if someone actually went to the trouble of making up "Levine Must Go" tee shirts as well as a banner in the mid 70's (when such things weren't as easy as today), that strikes me as being a bit of a concerted personal campaign by someone who went to great lengths to attack IL dontcha think? That kind of sounds like a vendetta to me........ If it were me, I might have have voiced my discontent and even had a discreet word with the management or better still just gone to Wigan. But printing up tee-shirts.....? Ian D

Dammit! We're running out of people to argue debate with! Have a good weekend Simon. Ian D

Yep, there is. The name currently escapes me, but on the odd occasion when I had to master from vinyl for the Mastercuts series I used a real time filter called.......I think it begins with an 'F' or 'S'...........? It's quite well-known and I'll probaly remember it tomorrow LOL........ Ian D

C'mon Prophonics 2029, do you know how daft your statements sound? I've been collecting soul music for 40 odd years now and like to pride myself on knowing a thing or two about great Soul music when I hear it. I've also released over 1000 commercially successful releases over the years which means my taste appeals to a lot of people, hence anything which I like is pretty valid for a lot of people out there otherwise they wouldn't buy my releases. I learnt that lesson from Northern Soul - to date the best measure of audience response I've ever experienced. It's served me very well indeed ever since. Just like you I had a tendency to write off the majority of Levine's productions as being mostly pedestrian in concept. In fact I could be quite snitty about it at times if the truth be known and whenever he enthused about a particular production I had a tendency to filter most of his inherent passion out of the equation, ignore any hype and make my own conclusions as to the merits of the recording. However, I also loved a number of his productions, notably, "Reaching For The Best" - The Exciters, "Baby I'm Still The Same Man" - James Wells and "24 Hours A Day" - Barbara Pennington from the mid 1970's. After that, I had my hands full with other things and kind of ignored the majority of his stuff. It all sounded the same clunky type of SAW productions which I traditionally hate anyway. So not for me. But I've recently had reason to re-evaluate Levine's catalogue for both commercial and aesthetic reasons. As a result, I've actually LISTENED to tons of his stuff with different ears. And I'm finding hidden gems everywhere because there's loads of stuff. Too much in my opinion LOL. But I'm constantly amazed at the quality of certain tunes. I'd defy anyone to argue that these aren't GREAT soul records and I don't think any of 'em sound the same................ James Wells "Baby I'm Still The Same Man" https://www.zshare.net/audio/507285707f8b84c1/ Barbara Pennington "24 Hours A Day" https://www.zshare.net/audio/50728617fee6c6d4/ Brenda Holloway "Home Is Where The Hatred Is" https://www.zshare.net/audio/1988564700753962/ Vermeytta Royster "The Comfort Of Your Arms" https://www.zshare.net/audio/5006842273dfc312/ Gary The Master Blaster "Cafe Regio's" https://www.zshare.net/audio/183698315b8bc59d/ C.P. Spencer "This Man Needs You" https://www.zshare.net/audio/50729140aa4672a9/ The proof is in the pudding. Under-rate him at your peril. This stuff is great to my ears. What's NOT to like????? Ian D

Correctomundo again Family Tree! Couldn't have put it better myself. Ian D

Correctomundo Family Tree! Couldn't have put it better myself. Ian D

Yeah but he was baited almost incessantly Epic. This particular project has consumed him for the last 2 years, he sees it as a valid piece of work and I think a lot of the criticism towards him has been very personal. I seem to recall him quite reasonably asking various parties to ignore the thread if they weren't into what he was doing which seems eminently fair to me. The thread states quite clearly what it's about and Levine's deliberately kept out of any other threads to avoid getting dragged into any more controversy. I think most people would probably be pretty pissed-off if their work was trashed in the same way wouldn't they? He's just an easy target for some people. However, I think over 130,000 views over both parts of the thread tell their own story. I asked him to try and rise above it all, keep his dignity and come back on here. The Mel Britt ommission's put him on a pretty big downer though so I guess it's not been a good week for him all round........ Ian D

And boy, that "Lace" track is something else! Brilliant stuff - only just got hold of it and it's the last label I would have checked for a song like this. Ian D