Colin Curtis - Too much to Swallow.

By any reckoning, CC is one of the 5 most important Northern Soul djs ever and, taking Black Music more broadly, is on his own among them. He requires no defence from me but I'll attempt to do so anyway.

In fact this is deja vu for me. In the early days of the weekenders, as word got round I was responsible for the dj schedules, some of the more junior djs would ask me how come he got all the best spots when he always played the same records. Not so, I would protest, sometimes he opens with Flowers, sometimes Beloyd, sometimes Gloria Scott but never Collins and Collins. You never knew if he would play Jesse James or Anthony White, he had 2 Jeff Perry tracks to choose from and 2 versions of Lucky Fellow. Sometimes he played the Carstairs before the Montclairs and sometimes Cashing In before either. Later he added the Dells.

If still not convinced, I would remind them that they were all perfectly capable of playing all of these records but none of them actually wanted to. With Searling, he was the only dj with nothing to prove to anyone and, if Richard occasionally appeared to look on with disdain, the rest of us thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to lighten up for an hour. In short, he got the best spots because he is Colin Curtis and without people like him there wouldn't be people like us. I should also mention his radio shows were far more interesting.

Last friday at the Swallow Hotel in Gateshead, emerging as the best of the North East nostalgia nights, he was criticised for committing the cardinal sin playing the incorrect variety of plastic, variously described as crap and disgraceful. In the absence of any explanation why this was so terrible, the presumption must be that it is obvious or common sense, words entirely anathema to anyone with any cultural studies.

I have never had an issue with formats, perhaps because I had pocket money for my first 4 years as a Soul Fan and wanted lots of records rather than a few collectable items. Without pressings, British releases and compilation albums djs like Alex could never have become established and Northern Soul could not have thrived beyond a few local pockets and would have quickly imitated the dodo.

Also, I always try to catch all the live acts which I consider an important part of music appreciation which clearly has nothing to do with some vinyl/ cd dichotomy. I have never understood why vinyl collectors can't listen to cds like a live performance or a radio show and then buy them on vinyl.

I found myself buying cds by accident. I moved into a tiny room with no record player, no records and no space. Since I was mostly listening to music in the car, the obvious format was cassettes and Dean of Expansions named me the cassette king. I recall Malaco were very good at putting out their product on cassette and I was an avid Malaco listener. As cassettes became more scarce I started buying cds and getting people to tape them for me.

When I bought a house with my girlfriend she brought her cd player with her. I had always sold records to buy new so selling cds was easy. By buying and selling I got through an astonishing amount of, not only Soul, but Jazz, Blues, Reggae, Rock, Classical, World, pop, rock and roll, folk, country and western, hip hop... For me to do with vinyl what I did with cds would be like crossing the road in LA. My Amazon basket has over 400 items and I buy albums every week, sometimes every day.

Away from Soul Music the debate has concerned itself mainly with sound quality. Initially cds were trailed as an improvement but recently the discussion has surrounded compression and authenticity, another word reviled by culture students. I don't worry too much about sound quality lest we all end up listening to Dire Straits and the latest Beatles remasters and never get to hear early Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Country Blues or Reggae's premier label Studio One, renowned for its poor sound. All of the above have improved dramatically beyond anything achieved on vinyl. With Soul Music, I get the impression it's not the quality of the sound but that perennial demon politics ( economics, religion, sport ).

I always find it ironic that you cannot put on a Soul Night without advertising it via networking but you are not supposed to use technology to mediate the actual music. Whenever I go to Esington I always wonder whether the film footage they show is VHS or Betamax.

Recently somebody told me Soul Music will always be intrinsically linked to vinyl, like s/he would know and I wouldn't. Ninety years ago it was widely thought that recorded Classical Music would never catch on but it would always be wealthy, educated people reading music from manuscripts, playing the piano and attending concerts. Nowadays most people cannot read music, do not own a piano and do not attend concerts and it is hard to believe that, in another ninety years, record players and records will exist other than in antique shops. Indeed, it could be argued that cds are already obsolete. Make no mistake, if Soul Music is dependant on vinyl, apart from Marvin Gaye's masterpieces, Stevie Wonders more accomplished albums and a few other odd bits, Soul Music will disappear.

Colin Curtis has managed to upset people in the past but has always proved ahead of his time. I see the increased availability of Soul Music via cds and computers as a positive thing. No longer are there big/ in demand/ rare record only available to people with the most money and the greatest access to dealers. This will open up the playlist beyond the same 200 records or the next 200 records or the 200 records after that and Soul Fans will be richer because of it.

photo Lucky Hell by tetradtx, on Flickr