Ian Dewhirst

Having just spent the last 2 days buried in my record room refiling my 7"'s, all I can say is physical formats are a pain in the ass and make no sense in this day and age. One can study a record and marvel at the physical beauty of it for a little while but ultimately it's just a format in the same way that cylinders, 78's, 8 track cartridges and cassettes were in their day. I'm much more bothered about what comes out of the speakers ultimately and that can be from any source. I think I've probably got over my vinyl addiction at the right time to be honest and I'm beginning to realise that knocking your brains out and emptying your pockets to possess a 7" piece of plastic makes about as much sense as using a CB radio or even two tin cans and a piece of string to communicate with someone. Mind you, it's taken a good 40+ years for the penny to drop LOL. Vinyl is quaint but hopelessly outmoded in this day and age. In the last 2 years I've discovered more tunes by crate-digging 1000's of blogs then I ever did from countless trips to the U.S. I've found at least 10 of the best tunes I've ever heard in 40 years of collecting simply by crate-digging from my sofa! Vinyl collecting makes sense if you're of a certain age and mindset but in the grand scheme of things, music formats have moved on. And the dust, the weight, the stylus replacement and the hours of re-filing have kind of outlasted the appeal for me personally. Naturally there'll be mostly die-hard vinyl freaks on here who wear their collections like a badge of honour, like my mate who has 1000's of blues 78's lovingly kept in his huge garage but mostly plays 'em to an audience of one these days LOL. And don't get me wrong, even though I have 20K tunes on my lappy I'll always keep a few thousand vinyl 'cos old habits die hard. But I think the future will be all about knowledge and taste in music and the format will be electronic, simply because that's what makes the most sense in this day and age. It may even be a good thing as it will free up playlists, liberate people and let the music spread on it's own merits rather than be confined by whether it's rare or not. Difficult for some to take I know but things move on and technology can be embraced positively if you want to. Soul Source is the living example. Ian D

Ian D

LOL, I've just had visions of 'promo police' studying CCTV footage of every Oxfam shop in the UK...... Ian D

Or alternatively how about sorting out the wood from the chaff DJ wise? With the all new handy DJ grading system! It works like this:- 'A' DJ's - £5000+ rarities only 'B' DJ's - £4000+ rarities only 'C' DJ's - £3000+ rarities only and so on until 'Z' DJ's - Badly scratched and/or warped Wigan's Ovation, Muriel Young and Joey Dee records only Ian D

Hey Rob, I just had a great idea! With 450 DJ's on here all raring to go, why bother with actual punters, when you can have the ultimate......... NORTHERN SOUL DJ SOUNDCLASH! Invite all 450 DJ's to the next do, they can play a record each, so it'll work out like this:- 450 DJ's x 2.5 minutes (average length of a Northern Soul record) = 1125 minutes divided by 60 minutes = 18.75 hours. So do an All-Dayer & All Nighter, invite the Guinness Book Of World Record people down, charge each DJ a tenner apiece for the publicity they'll reap by being involved in such a record-breaking event and bob's yer uncle! So that way all A,B & Z DJ's get to play, you pocket a quick £4,500 and there's no need for any actual customers! This could revolutionise things entirely. Punters? Pah. Who needs 'em when you have 450 DJ's! Ian D

You may have hit on a point there Rob. In the early 70's there were probably 10-15 key DJ's and a further 10-15 enthusiasts/DJ's playing to thousands of people every week. This crept up by the mid to late 70's when more DJ's entered the fray and then from the 90's onwards the floodgates seemed to open and the DJ's seemed to multiply as fast as the record prices were going up. However, the Northern scene isn't that much different to a lot of other scenes which are fueled by musical enthusiasts. Basically Deejaying is the greatest job that anyone could ever hope for. To get paid for playing music you love to a willing audience really cannot be beaten in my opinion. I realised that at the age of 14 when I saw DJ's for the first time and realised that Deejaying would be my life's calling. So I can't really blame anyone for wanting to try and good luck to 'em! However, there is a world of difference between Deejaying and playing records! The sequencing of records, the art of working a crowd and knowing when to put the right record on at the right time is a skill which can only be learnt by playing to audiences regularly, preferably 3-6 nights a week. And in my experience wo betide any DJ who didn't deliver to a packed house - they'd soon be out on their arse with no gigs. However these days, as you quite rightly pointed out, there seem to be more DJ's than customers LOL....It seems that everybody and their dog seems to be a DJ these days and I think that may have something to do with the decline in audiences at some of the gigs I've attended. To me, there is not enough vibe and energy at many gigs - the emphasis seems to be more concerned with rarity or the flavour of the moment rather then creating an incredible atmosphere and having a packed dance-floor. Also much of the sequencing and choice of records sucks IMO. Plus, as I've said on here before, there really needs to be an injection of youth onto this scene, if only to keep it viable for the long term. I'm saying all this as an objective observer much of the time these days. Whilst some DJ's are very good at what they do, unfortunately many others are not skilled enough to be playing to a paying audience in my opinion. I dunno how you go about fixing that Rob. It could be that the scene will eventually whittle down to a few blokes in a pub playing their favourite records which I think would be a massive shame. It pains me to say it, but these days the nearest thing I've seen to the brilliant Northern Soul gigs of the 70's in the last year or two, is Dimitri From Paris playing to a couple of thousand energetic punters and ripping the place up. Mind you, he's a professional DJ and knows EXACTLY what he's doing which is why he has such a fanatical audience and why his gigs are generally unmissable. THAT'S what the Northern Soul scene was always about - raw, exciting, makes-you-feel-good-to-be-alive BUZZ and brilliant music. Is it because it's now become purely a collector's scene rather than an all-round 'miss-at-you-peril' type of scene? Or maybe it's just an aging scene which needs re-inventing? WHERE ARE THE KIDS??????? Ian D

Wow. Thanks Simon. It's amazing how much information one can glean from a simple one syllable three letter answer so many thanks for the depth of your reply and the amount of detail contained within. Did you enjoy Cleethorpes? Feel free to just gimme a quick answer if ya like...... Ian D

Wow, just heard this stormer from '82 which ticks all the boxes - produced and arranged by Gene Redd on a tiny N.Y. label. Has it ever been played? Ian D

I'm gonna bootleg your bootleg guide and get mine out first LOL! Frank

Nothing much that I can find either apart from the Malaco site which has a list of distributed labels:- https://www.malaco.com/Catalog/list.php Ian D

Even worse was myself and a colleague bought the rights to distribute the P&P catalogue for 3 years off him for $10,000 a couple of years back. We got the first release out only to be informed by Unidisc that they'd bought the rights from him in 1999! Cue massive amounts of legal hassle, potential litigation etc, etc. At one point it was suggested that maybe I should fly over there, go to Harlem and get the cash back LOL.....(anyone who knows Peter would know that the chances of that were zero). It only got sorted in the end because the other parties documentation was less than complete and because I basically put the entire catalogue together properly and found most of the missing masters so an accomodation was reached and we eventually got our dosh back. But I had visions of getting over there and having to round-up King Sun, Just Ice and a few other NY heavyweights and apply a bit of pressure LOL. That would've been fun and another one for the book but luckily it never came to that.......... Funilly enough I still speak to Peter every so often. Now he's one person I'd love to do a proper interview with if only I could understand what the f*$k he was talking about! Ian D

Well we can all guess Ernie LOL! Even worse was the P&P DVD. Did you ever see/hear that? It had a Peter Brown interview on it with just abysmal sound quality so it was impossible to hear what he was actually saying even if you could understand the accent! Also it had a horrible looped version of "Atmosphere Strut" as the background music throughout the interview which made listening to the interview even more difficult. When I was putting out some of the stuff on the Deep Disco Culture series, I actually had a guy from New York come in to try and translate the interview but even he gave up in the end. The quality was about the same as most of the records LOL........ Ian D

Haha LOL! You're the don dude! I guess you'd better put Hollandale, Mississippi on the schedule for that road trip next year! Ian D

Also you have to tread veeeeeery carefully with any P&P related stuff. It's probably the most bootlegged label around these days. I can't believe how close the re-presses are to the originals. Peter Brown really is the original Harlem hustler - he's sold his catalogue to two different people and regularly boots his own stuff LOL.... Ian D

Me too Harry. It'd be daft if it were any other ruling methinks. What would they do? Appoint E-Bay Police to pounce on every promo seller? Ian D

A U.S. court has just ruled in favour of people being allowed to sell record company promos on E-Bay...... https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7450112.stm Ian D

Oh, NOW it all makes sense LOL! But typical of Ian, it's just not right for a Radio 2 popular vote. He's blown with that choice I'm afraid. Funnily enough both of his choices didn't really crack it in the decades they were released. The Charades didn't get played until the 70's and Gloria Gaynor didn't crack it 'til the 80's - great records though they are. He'll argue till he's blue in the face, but I still think there were a zillion better choices to better represent the 60's and 70's. I'll get earache over this LOL. He's already phoned up tonight and I'll be at another one of his launches shortly where I'll get him to publically apologise for losing the vote! Ian D

Nowt wrong with my ears youngster! Great record though it is, it's a lousy choice 'cos no none-Northern soul listener will vote for it. Just wait and see and then I'll remind everyone of this thread once the vote's come in! Ian D

Well gotta disagree Jules. This is for 'The Greatest Dance Record Of All Time' which will be chosen by a public vote. I hardly think "The Key To My Happiness" will garner many votes from the UK public LOL..... "Band Of Gold", "Tears Of A Clown", "There's A Ghost In My House" etc would maybe pull some healthy votes since the UK public has actually heard of 'em since they were all massive UK hit records unlike "The Key To My Happiness" which has never been released in the UK and is unknown outside of Northern Soul circles. Anyway, I'll guess we'll see when the votes come in. Anyone wanna take a bet on the Charades winning? Ian D

But the obvious question: Why did they bother booting it????? Ian D

Mmmm, might be better for 'em to just drop the 60's angle completely and concentrate on the 70's onwards methinks........ Doesn't do the 60's a good service at all which is ironic considering the word 'discotheque' was coined to describe 60's clubs......... Ian D

Yep, it just doesn't make any sense at all. Maybe "This Old Heart Of Mine", "Dancing In The Street", "Landslide", "Tainted Love" or "Blowing My Mind To Pieces" or, in fact, several thousand other more popular records which would be a better example of a 60's Dance Classic and would be better than "Key To My Happiness" which wasn't even played until the early 70's anyway, never released here and really wasn't a massive record on the Northern scene either compared to others. It's just nuts. It's probably the choice of a 25 year old researcher who doesn't have a clue! It's already got a massive beacon which is screaming 'not to be taken seriously' before it's even aired! You'd think the BBC would have a bit more bloody sense wouldn't you? This is just embarassing............ Ian D

"The Key To My Happiness" - The Charades???? As one of the Greatest Dance records of all time??? Someone's having a laugh aren't they? Who are the so-called experts? Surely it's patently ridiculous to have the Charades as the 60's example isn't it? For a start, it was never even released in the UK, no one outside of Northern Soul knows it and, good though it is, it wouldn't even be in the Top 500 Northern records would it? Just bizarre and incredibly stupid. It's put me off already............. Ian D

And funny that as I was writing that diatribe it came on the news that many people's loan/mortgage insurances are worthless - apparently two million of 'em because of 'the small print'. Do you think they print it small so that people can't read it LOL? One of the nastiest con-tricks of all time IMO.... Ian D