Rare Groove / 2 Step Thread

[Still Diggin]

Would it be 'closer'? If you've got a 12" for sale Rod I'd love one as I've only got the CD album.

dean

Forgot about that one Dean. You probably sold me one of those cd's. Brilliant piece of music.

Andy

[dean jj]

it does stand up even today

dean

[Guest Ivor Jones]

 

Good post. Reading all this stuff has brought many memories flooding back. Never went to Prestatyn back then but have seen the youtube footage mentioned and remembered just how quickly that whole London Soul [Special Branch] scene imploded due to the Acid House craze. One minute everyones walking around in Bass Weejuns, Blazers and Levis next minute its Smiley Face T-Shirts, Dungarees and bandanas !

My crowd used to frequent the West London area and pretty early on, I heard stories of Ecstasy parties but at that stage it wasn't associated with House music. The first time I can remember realising something was actually going on was a weekend event at Broadstairs in Kent. All my crowd attended and just before the weekend my friend told me that Danny Rampling [DJ] was bringing 2 or 3 coaches of punters with him. I remember thinking that was some achievement at the time. The weekend sticks in my mind because of the totally polarizing effect of the Acid House stuff that Danny was playing had on the crowd. His crowd loved it of course but everyone else around me hated it. There were nearly punch ups going on over it !

After that weekend, it was a pretty rapid change, I would say within about 3-6 months, that whole scene was gone forever,replaced musically by the London Modern Soul events [for diehard soulsters] and Acid Jazz[for the Jazz cats]…….The London 2 step scene was a totally separate scene to these as well.

Alex Lowes started his Weekenders at around the same time from memory which then gave some much needed focus for the Soul scene but as far as London was concerned, the existing Soul scene just collapsed.

The observations about the quality of mid 80s "Soul" are spot on as well. I believe it was the music itself which changed and was the main cause, it was definitely the reason for the Rare Groove scene taking off like it did and I'm sure the reason for the ultimate implosion of the Jazz Funk and Soul scene of the time.  A perfect storm which opened the door for the dominance of House music as club music which continues to this day. A mixture of super-smooth but ultimately Souless over-production from mainstream Soul, non-songs and lack of genuine Anthems for the clubs left the progressive Soul scene directionless. The combination of radically different Acid house sounds coupled with the Ecstasy phenomenon was just too intoxicating for many to resist. The idea of staying up all night and having it was nothing new to Northern Soul devotees of course but if you had never done anything like that before then I guess it was quite revolutionary wasn't  it ? I used to laugh at all these idiots in the pub who overnight had become "Clubbers" all wearing the Acid house uniform…..

The scene was always made up of one set people who genuinely felt,understood and loved the music and another set who were just there because they thought it was the "in" place to be. You can't buy taste…….  

Edited July 31, 2015 by Ivor Jones