Amsterdam Russ

Yup, can't do without the pic sleeve. 👍

To the best of my knowledge, he didn't.

Returning to France, here's Claude Francois and his version of the Frankie Valli/Timebox classic "Beggin'"...

Bit of a cheat here... While this is a French-language tune, and is described as such in the vid, in reality it's actually French-Canadian. Probably only released in the French-speaking Quebec region of the country, the 45 – which comes with a picture sleeve – is a tough one to track down and is sought after on the Belgian Popcorn scene.

And here's Paul Anka singing a tune called "Sei piu forte di me" (You're stronger than me). This pre-dates Rufus Lumley's version by two years.

There are loads of French-language covers of soul tunes, all sung in the native tongue and with lyrics completely unrelated to the original song. Here's Nicoletta singing a little ditty called "Live your life"...

A very Merry Christmas to one and all!

Got to give huge amounts of kudos to this absolute incredible gospel stormer... I mean really, just WOW!!!

Thank you! Can I also remind people that this is a photography thread - and not just pictures of "anything"! Please continue to post the great photos you've taken with your camera - because you thought it was photogenic and worthy of sharing.

In contrast to the warmth of the sunset, this was this morning’s view. It’s a bit after 3 o’clock now and it still looks the same out there.

Once you've heard Linda's take on the song, the others just don't compare.

Jo Wallace, currently living on the south coast. Compiler of Motown CDs over the years, DJ, promoter, and nowadays owner of her own record label. She was a member here, but don't know her user name. She is on Facebook, here: https://www.facebook.com/jo.wallace.144

Wood glue needs to be left for around 24hrs, or until the glue turns transparent. Also, the glue needs to be spread over the playing surface thickly as per this pic, which I took 7-8 years back. There are some old threads on Soul Source that cover the subject of wood glue. Here's one of them:

From Sky News: "Fans of nature photography are being given the chance to pick a picture to be included in the full Wildlife Photographer Of The Year 2018 exhibition at the Natural History Museum." Well worth a look as some of the photos are really rather stunning. At the same time, the photo of the polar bear is very sad. https://news.sky.com/story/vote-for-your-favourite-wildlife-photo-of-2018-11570731

We have two winners for November's "Most-liked photos of the month". Step forward @Mal C and @Andrew Jordan. Interestingly and coincidentally, Mal's and Andrew's photos were taken in Cornwall. Congratulations to you both, and well done to everyone for the impressive number of outstanding photos you all posted! 👌👍📸

Oh, Lord! What have I started? 🤣

Ah-ha - I'm with you. Have to admit it's a film I've not seen, although I'm familiar with the storyline. As you can imagine in a land of greenhouses, news stories about illegal plantations being busted are exceptionally common - and especially locally as we're in the heart of the horticultural industry. In Dutch, the generic term for a place where things are grown is kwekerij (pron: quaker-eye). However, if a space is used for breeding animals, it's called a fokkerij. I kid you not!

It wasn't meant to be impressive - just a "reflection" of what I see on my tiny back balcony. The light you see in the pic is probably from a rather small commercial greenhouse set-up. Look from a distance at this whole region of the Netherlands and you'll find the night sky is like this, magnified across the horizon 10,000-fold.

Any members from 50 years ago still playing for your favourite football team?

Not a great quality pic as I took this from the back balcony about half an hour ago with my aged iPhone 5. It's not the end of a sunset, but comes from a horticultural greenhouse that's using artificial daylight to force fruit, veg or flowers to grow more quickly. The light is made particularly dramatic as it's bouncing off the very low cloud we've had these last couple of nights. Sadly, light pollution like this is extremely common in a country that grows so much in large-scale greenhouses. All the same, I thought the view looked rather eerie!

Put it down to the huge number fabulous photos!

Tim Brown has a Sam & Kitty in his auction. Scan and description as follows: Source: https://www.raresoulvinyl.co.uk/auctions/

It's that time of the year again when Sinterklaas (Sint-Nicolaas) arrives in the Netherlands having sailed from Spain by boat. The Sint is always accompanied by his entourage of Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes). Putting to one side the annual national argument about whether dressing up as Zwarte Piet is racist or not, I managed to capture this portrait of a Piet from the comfort of our 2nd floor apartment where I was watching the afternoon's Sinterklaas celebrations through an open window (and with camera at the ready). Have to say I'm absolutely delighted with it!

Sure they weren’t just little actors in otter suits?