Liamgp

Most UK 45s also had the 'grips' around the outside of the label to enable the stacked records as above to move as one.

I bought the first one when it was released and it was very educational - i.e I knew none of the tracks! Compilations up to that point were full of fairly well-known tunes (Inferno's Out on the Floor, RCA's Jumping at the Go-Go were still superb - Casino Classics less so...). Of course, it wasn't aimed at a purely Northern audience so there were lots of different sounds and tempos which increased the appeal to people such as myself who had come from the Mod scene. The real turning point was For Dancers Also which was a mind-blowing compilation. Suddenly everyone had a copy and were collecting the 45s if they could find them, getting 6Ts memberships and heading off to London and the 100 Club so the scene expanded and we heard a lot of great music and met a lot of great people.

Some UK 45s have a much more punchy sound then the US versions too (some are worse...)

One of my all-time faves in the mid-tempo genre...Junior Lewis "Where Do I Go From Here". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnF2ZbBFli0

'wrist slashers' - now that's a genre label to savour

Well it's on his Facebook page so I guess not.

Just another Hitler video but I thought 'what would be the most ridiculous scenario?' The idea of Hitler as a Northern DJ lusting after the Mello Souls seemed like quite a laugh, so that's what I put together. Some of the sentences are too long and some are too short but not bad for a first attempt and I wasn't 100% sober anyway. The hardest part was deciding what rubbish records he played in his set. Footsie, Joe 90 and Love on a Mountain Top are sort of Northern clichés that ordinary members of the public often think of as representative records, so in they went! Glad people like it, and, no, it isn't a incitement to bomb John Manship in case the police are reading this!

Not another 'Hitler' video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUbdAWMrzrg&feature=em-upload_owner

Mucking around on the 'make your own t-shirt' website...

A good reason to quit smoking if nothing else...

Was at work yesterday and I overheard an English guy (age about 25) talking to one of our American staff about music. The topic turned to soul music as the Yank was from Detroit and after a bit of a chat about Motown, the English guy said "ever heard of Northern soul" - at which point my ears pricked up. I've never discussed my own musical tastes to anyone at work, so this chap was totally unaware I was familiar with the subject and, oh dearie me, did he big himself up. "Yeh, me and my mates used to go to this big club called Wigan Casino, they played all this soul music and we would dance all night after taking loads of drugs." "The records are so rare that you only hear them at this one club and people travel miles to go there." "Only a few hundred (!) people know about this scene in the UK and I'm one of the top DJs in Britain." And on and on it went.... I'm still tempted to confront him with the horrible truth that I know exactly what he's referring to and tag him as a Walter Mitty, but it might be more fun if I asked him to tell me more about this fascinating subject and how one joins such a secret and select group!

Just saw this also...those were the days! https://martins_box.tripod.com/id33.htm

Was re-reading a book about Black music from the 80s and a lot of the entries were written by Roger St Pierre. I also seem to recall him writing for Northern fanzines in the early 80s. A quick Google and: https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Writer/roger-st-pierre Was he just a writer or was he also a DJ/collector/anythingelse? Just curious as he seems to be a figure of some interest on the soul scene in general, but what was his involvement with Northern?

There seem to be some missing, but here's Keymen on Soulful Kinda Music's site. https://www.soulfulkindamusic.net/keymen.htm

There isn't a big profit margin in producing a book like this for a comparatively small market, so any contribution to charity after the editors, subs, production staff, printers, and distributors have been paid isn't going to amount to a whole lot. I haven't worked in publishing for a while but the profit returned from sales used to be only about 40% - not a lot.

London and Inverness? A rather strange contrasting pair of places for her to appear. I mean Inverness yes, but London?

There was a huge interest in jazz well before 1948, and I trust the authors aren't going to be foolish enough to assume that it was the arrival of Windrush in 1948 that introduced Black music to the UK as that clearly wasn't the case.

Yep. I think mine is a boot albeit a genuine Capitol blank one as the seller had two identical copies on sale. It wasn't too pricey either thank god...

In the 80s I bought a copy of Alexander Patton 'A Little Loving Sometimes' which looked perfect. Then I read Manship's guide which said it was pressed on Capitol blank 45s, so it was therefore pretty much undetectable as a boot . However, I THEN read it was actually an East Coast pressing and wasn't a boot after all...

Being from Edinburgh, I was curious as to the identity of the soulie with the violent past and nae teeth (in Scotland, surely not?) as related by 'Beezerholmes' and his thrilling tale of escaping from a damn good thrashing by 50-year-old hard men (gosh!). A set of '60s psych, kraut and weird funk'? He's lucky he wasn't hung, drawn and quartered.

I have never heard a record of his that didn't have something special or extraordinary about it. He and Little Willie John are the only two soul/RnB vocalists about whom I can honestly say that.

Just noticed this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/MELLO-SOULS-WE-CAN-MAKE-IT-THE-ULTIMATE-NORTHERN-SOUL-RARITY-LISTEN-/360558485894

Well that explains it. Really great stuff!

How is the sound so clear?

The Nancy Ames was very cheap. Someone did well there and is probably a little surprised at winning! Always feel that UK stuff is overlooked by many people as they only want US labels these days.