Amsterdam Russ

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A market stall selling brightly painted gourds and local produce - seen on the island of Lesvos opposite the site housing the tree cave lived in by Greek folk painter Theophilis.

Hassling women while they're in labour marks a new extreme in the hunt for coveted 45s! Shame on you - and congratulations at the same time!

Absolutely no offence taken. My opening point is exactly as stated - that the only way you'd get a proper answer to your question would be to ask the author what they meant or to run it by Berry Gordy. I wasn't able to add earlier - as I was using my iPad - this screen grab of some text from a book entitled "The black culture industry" by Ellis Cashmore. In his own words Berry Gordy highlights the lesson learned from the Bob Kayli situation, and a life lesson that I feel the author Maury Dean is referring to in his left-handed Buddy Holly comment. It certainly all adds up for me. Now, about you being able to show how Doris Day was left-handedly responsible for the Motown sound. I'd like to hear that one…

It doesn't matter if you don't have a poker face - they can't see you at all! ;-)

So the seller gets $361 for it, but that's not enough for them. They put it up for auction again and this time get less - only $350! It would be a pretty dumb seller who couldn't see the writing on the wall here: only one buyer is interested in acquiring it in this price range - you. If they put it up for sale again, bid on it again. Be cool in your communications with the seller - point out the obvious: that the record has your name on it. And, faced with what you're prepared to pay and no other buyers, common sense should prevail. If there is a next time on this, don't go sending three messages all in a flurry. You know they're getting your messages, so be cool; be poker-handed about it. They can have your money or nothing. That means you have the upper hand because you know they're in it for the money. Good luck with it, and remember Ezzie's words - good things come to those who wait...

Isn't that something you should be taking up with the author, or better still, Berry Gordy? The author's comment is incredibly ambiguous, meaning it's not clear what he's actually conveying. If we don't know what the author means exactly, it's hardly possible to conclude that he's "taking a few liberties with the facts..." The Gordy-co-penned Reet Petite made it to 62 in the Billboard Top 100 in Sept 1957. The Bob Kayli track hit something like 92 a few months later, thus at best both songs were minor Billboard hits. There's quite a bit of biographical information out there that highlights the ultimate failure of his brother's recording as being a formative and very important lesson for the ambitious Berry Gordy. It appears that Kayli's song was selling quite well until he decided to make personal appearances, after which sales dried up. Seemingly the record-buying public took it for granted he was white (singing in a Buddy Holly style) and turned their back on the song when they discovered he was black. Apparently this had a profound effect on Berry Gordy. Perhaps the author is in some way alluding to this lesson. Perhaps he means something completely different. Considering the vagueness of the statement about the Buddy Holly contribution to the success of Motown, any discussion around it is pure speculation.

Cheers, Bud, but it was a joke! Some people have no sense of humour whatsoever. If you can't laugh at your collective self, ie, the scene as a comic whole, then there's little hope. Good luck to Dave and family. They made the choice to be on telly, in an advert that uses Northern Soul to promote a high-fibre cereal. I'm sure it's been a very exciting ride for them, and I'll bet they're chuffed to bits with the outcome. I probably would be too if it were me. At the same time, I reckon Dave & Co can also see a humorous side to the whole thing. For sure they'll have mates who are giving them a right good ribbing. There are far more important things in the world than shredded wheat, and in a week or so when the campaign's run its course we'll all move onto something else. That's life. Let's not be too serious about it.

Wonder if it'll be jumping on the Northern Soul cereal bandwagon. If it does, it might be wise to change its name to shredded credibility.

The only connection that I can make is courtesy of a book called Rock and Roll: Gold Rush (Maury Dean). On page 252 it states: "Buddy left-handedly created the Motown Soul Empire for Berry Gordy, via Robert Gordy's "Everyone was there"." That's it. Robert Gordy released the song on the Carlton kabel in 1958 under the name of Bob Kayli and it was bit of a hit. The label credits songwriters as Kayli-Gordy Jr. It also states that it's Bob Kayli with the Barry Gordy Orchestra! The allusion is that the song is in the Buddy Holly style and that its small success encouraged Berry Gordy move on to greater things musically. Possibly - through bad editing - Betts' encyclopedia accidentally left out the specific reason for Holly's inclusion. Stranger things have been known in publishing. Here's the song...

I'm sure it must have been a really amazing experience, especially in those conditions.

Excellent light - everything's just starting to turn golden.

And a worthy winner, without a doubt. I noticed that he likes to be "on high" when taking photos - and with stunners like this one, you can immediately see why. Really fantastic work!

Great photos - really impressive. Your son has buckets of talent!

A friend's band - Working Voodoo Club - in action at Amsterdam's North Sea Jazz Club.

Yes, you can see it's like… Whoa! Where's that big chunk of wood going???

Taken at a jousting tournament in Amsterdam. I took quite a few shots looking to get the moment a lance broke after impact and the effort, I'm pleased to say, eventually paid off.

At the same time, people are still reliving the days of the Wigan Casino (etc). You just have to look at the volume of threads and posts on Soul Source to see that's true. If even the more progressive die-hard keep on about "the old days" what are people outside of the scene supposed to think?

When it comes to Nostalgia cults, most participants want to wear what their mums and their dads wore when they were 15! And, whether people on here or elsewhere like it or not, the reality is the Northern Soul scene is also partly a Nostalgia cult.

With deals that include shipping at $20, $40 per item, I'm not surprised US sellers are becoming "reluctant" to sell to the UK and Europe. The negative feedback on shipping is too damaging. I just paid nigh on $20 to have a very slim newspaper shipped to me in the Netherlands. I queried the seller and they said it'd be sent in LP packaging so that it was extra secure. All I got for that 20 bucks was literally that - an LP carton and a newspaper. There was no actual protection whatsoever. Increasingly sellers are ripping buyers off through extortionate p&p. Craig Moerer and plenty of others can still ship 45s to Europe at under 10 bucks. Why then do others have to charge double, triple that? Enough is enough - and I think rip-off US sellers are getting the message. Sadly though it's ultimately to our own detriment!

You got it. Technology mastered.

If it's possible, can people try and resize their photos and make them smaller? Some of them posted are absolutely huge and are way too big to be seen properly on screen. It's just a suggestion, but if you can reduce the width of images to somewhere between 700 pixels and 1200 pixels then I reckon most people should be able to see them ok.

Had a good look at your blog yesterday…

Nice - I do like these mountain landscapes. My older brother's close to completing the Munros and he regularly sends spectacular shots from his excursions.