Liamgp

And he also played for Hibs in the early 90s and even won the League Cup with them! (Hibs fans reading this will confirm we only win a trophy every 30 years or so...)

Hmmmm. I thought it had 'Tell Her' listed as the B side as well. Must be some sort of mass hallucination. Well apologies to the seller if I've got it all wrong.

Strolling through Ebay, I came across: https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...ssPageName=WDVW isn't this a bootleg? £75! No wonder he's not getting any bids...

Although best known as an 'indie' DJ, he played quite a few Northern and R'n'B tracks on his show. Sad loss...

Interesting that he ommitted Bettye Swann - 'Make me Yours' was said to be his all-time top record. Mind you there is so much quality to choose from, ain't there?

Well considering that the Northern scene has basically been an 'oldies' scene since the early 70s it isn't doing too bad!

Hey folks, it's just too easy to run a soul night these days! Getting venues and enough reasonable sounds together for a whole night's entertainment used to be the biggest problem. Now there are loads of possible clubs and pubs available who don't look at you like you're crazy when you tell them what you want their dancefloor for, and (yes, it's sad but true) loads of re-issues, boots and even CDs making up some lists. As far as I can see the whole thing is a mixture of old soulies and their mates getting back into DJing, newer folk wanting to have a shot and the usual lot who've always been around, well, still being around. But, yeh there must be more Northern soul nights now in Scotland than since the late 70s.

I do remember when Mel Torme's 'Coming Home Baby' was being toted as this amazing undiscovered track by some now-forgotten DJ. I couldn't believe that people didn't know who it was by as it was a very well-known record - the 'B' side of 'Right Now' and a fairly substantial hit in the 50s.

For sentimental reasons, I am looking for a copy of Roy Robert's "For Your Love". Anyone got one for sale?

He is a great, great singer! One of the best of the Stax squad and didn't ever get as much fame or recognition as Otis Redding or Sam and Dave did. Although, Ms Kolla, I think Homer Simpson's version of 'Born Under a Bad Sign' is probably the definitive one!

Inspired by that episode of Father Ted where the DJ only has The Specials 'Ghost Town' in his box to play at the local disco, I was reminded of the evening long ago when I turned up to a local do in Edinburgh to discover that the bloke who had hired out the PA was insistent that his DJ was the only person allowed to touch the decks. Cue an instant dancefloor disaster as he followed his brief of (I presume) 'play 'em some 60s oldies' to treat us to an hour of The Beatles, Dave Clark Five, Lulu and Cliff Richard. Sanity only prevailed when a riot looked like breaking out and he agreed to play stuff given to him by the usual jocks. But we still had to put up with the usual DJ babble of 'Heyyyy! Here's a great track you're all gonna love by, er, Dave Parrish!' Are there worse memories out there? I bet there are...

The first time I ever knowingly heard what I knew to be a Northern record - and saw Northern dancing - was when this bloke aged about 20 turns up at the local youth club, wearing baggies, tank-top with patches, etc. He says "put this on" to the DJ and proceeds to start doing back-flips, spins and high kicks to 'Tainted Love'. Record finished, he picks up his 45 and walks out leaving this completely baffled group of 12-year-olds to get back to Saturday Night Fever or whatever we were listening to before.

I noticed that someone else on Ebay paid $133 for Betty Turner's Be Careful Girl. US Liberty demo but with a worn label and VG condition - surely that's a bit OTT or has that record soared in price?

Was browsing through a certain dealer's website and saw that he's asking £300 for A.Alexander's Keep Her Guessing. Surely not!? I got one in '87 and it was £40.

Anyone remember the Stafford v Morecambe rivalry? I always enjoyed hearing arguments about the relative merits of each one with, occasionally, rival fans practically frothing at the mouth as they attacked or defended each venue's music policy. Certainly at the time, the Staffs R'n'B-type sounds were considered very heretical by the Morecambe crowd (Arthur Alexander records!! Latin!! Slowies!!). And with all the anti-R'n'B types out there, there hasn't been much progress in 20 years it seems! Oh, and is it only me, but is it usually mods or ex-mods who are the main R'n'B fans?

I'm always amused by objections to slower R'n'B type-sounds being played and then hearing the detractors calling themselves 'soul fans'. 99% of the greatest soul music ever recorded is, of course, S-L-O-W. A lot of people just want stompers all night, but you should never give people what they want all the time - it's just not good for them!

God, there are acres of crap records out there in ersatz-soul land. Take enough 'artificial happiness' and you too might end up dancing to garbage like: Penny Gold, I'll Hold You, Moonlight Music and You, On the Brink, Frank Bloody Popps, numerous 100mph Wigan-era horrors. To mis-quote Citizen Smith "come the revolution all these records will be put up against a wall!" Whoops, here comes the boss, back to work.

I've found loads of interesting stuff at Oxfam, car boots and the like. But i still have nightmares about standing next to a guy at a record fair who's rummaging through the 50p box. My eyes were out on stalks as he pulls out Roy Roberts 'For Your Love' (which at that time (mid-80s) was only known at Stafford as far as I can recall). He turns round to his mate and sells it to him there and then for £30! Also had a friend Andy who got a box full of about 100 Mar-v-Lus and One-der-Ful 45s for about £5. The bloke who sold it to him was an old Wiganite who couldn't believe that there was still anyone interested in Northern after the Casino closed. No doubt he had some Spencers bags and an old vest for sale too!

I would compare rare vinyl collecting to art collecting - sure, you can buy a print of Van Gogh (read: CD, MP3, etc), it looks fine but you know that only the original work (read: a rare soul 45) can give you full sensory satisfaction. So you pay money to a museum to see essentially the same picture that's on your wall. But it's not the same - it's the REAL THING. And so a little silver digital disc is cheap and the sound is essentially the same as the 45 but ultimately its just like a million other little silver discs - but a genuine 45 from Detroit or LA or Memphis is almost a living link to the past. It's an icon. It's a thing of beauty. It makes life worth living - well, that and Hibs getting to the League Cup final (now win the damn thing!). Anyway, has anyone heard Howard Tate's new album?

How much hairspray is on that barnet then? They liked a bit of laquer in them days, oh yeh. (No quotes from Quadrophenia, please)

So it's true - your soul does go to heaven! Do you suppose St. Peter looks through your box and if you've got any bootlegs or dodgy acetates (or copies of The Snake or Love on a Mountain Top) then, WHOOSH, straight to hell!

Well at least nobody's turned up on the decks of the 100 Club recently with that lost gem 'Casino Classics vol 1' and its interesting collection of little-played and, indeed, almost forgotten tracks. Yours in impending terror of 'Joe 90' - El GP. And let's all have a good weekend.

Album tracks have and always will be part of a DJ's bag of tricks and quite right too. Spinning unissued CD tracks and compilations? Hmmmm. Can't really see how that's okay. Bit like going to visit the National Gallery and it's full of colour photcopies, isn't it? Apart from anything else it's riding to DJ glory on the back of someone else's graft - tracking down the unreleased cut, putting a compilation together, getting rights permission and getting it put out on sale. Some individual going on stage with the fruits of an HMV record token who gets a round of applause for playing, say, Lorraine C's You Only Live Twice, is a fraud, frankly.

What about Jackie Edwards 'I Feel So Bad'? Never released outside the UK? (well...maybe in Jamaica) I do kinda hope that its price goes through the roof - my copy might pay for a nice holiday!

Or you can pay £150 at Manship's for the 45 itself. Expensive but tempting...