The Importance Of Melba Moore's The Magic Touch

[Ady Croasdell]

I've got the original original cut but we did more for Keb and others. I doubt if there would be more than five of Magic Touch and only one or two of most others. The first Torture had Jackie Day's name on it to put off the likes of Goldmine who would happily nick the music from under you if they could.

[Wiggyflat]

At it's peak the scooterists certainly made up a big chunk of the ''northern scene'' but mods & a few skinheads had always a soft spot for a little bit of soul. In Hamburg from 79 onwards it was firstly soul & rnb what keept the mods moving but soon garage was the preverred diet of the mods. At allnighers throughout the 80's/90's mods, scooterists, skinheads & herberts made up the punters. Soul was always quite popular in Hamburg but I guess the scooter scene certainly got a lot of people into Northern Soul as well. In the 90's Northern Soul became a stable diet for more and more tradional Skinheads in Germany and also the mods found their way back into soul. At the same time the music policy at many scooter runs went far far away from northern soul ......house, techno, hip hop and a little bit of northern soul & ska was keeping the crowd happy. Now, the scooter scene is pretty small and somehow northern soul crept back into it but you only see a few at allnighters. The rock & roll scene however seems to turn up a little more often nowadays and even some of them enjoy a little bit of modern ;) .... In Hamburg however soul, funk, acid jazz and so on......was always quite popular troughout the 80's/ early 90's with the ''normal'' punters. Especially the mojo club got a few people into soul/northern soul as well. So, would the soul scene survived without the scooter scene ??? Yes, but it would have been a lot smaller !!!!!!!!

..... it was the whole ''Kent Package'' what got many people into northern soul who had no connection to any scene. Nevertheless, the ''Magic Touch'' certainly was a biiiiiiiig tune and always on the menue at allnighters & runs !!!!

I'm off to Soul City in Cologne next week....be interesting to hear what gets played there.

[Wiggyflat]

The scooterists were a very good injection of young life into an ageing scene and were originally very Northern until Oi and the rest got into the playlists. I think the ones who preferred the soul would go to nighters too and boosted the scene, no doubt many recruits came that way including Elaine Constantine who is in the middle of shooting a great film about the scene. Pete Wid used to sell masses of Northern at the runs and woke 'em up to Binky Baker & His Pit Orchestra!

Ady

I remember Redcar in 85......there was a full on northern niter ran by the allnighter club of great Britain.Most of the mid seventies northern scooterists were all into northern

Edited September 14, 2012 by wiggyflat

[Guest ScooterNik]

As a scooter boy, this record holds a great deal of importance to me.

I've never owned the album it was on, it was one of those 'always meant to, but if it was "either a new Kent album or an original piece of sixties vinyl..." So I never got a copy, even though at that time it was huge on the scooter scene and I was DJing a lot of the northern National rallies - someone else would always play it.

However.. The single came out on the weekend of Scarborough rally, that year on Olivers Mount racetrack, and we were running an outside disco all weekend. I realised there was chance I could pick the Horace release up there and so forgot about the album.

IIRC it was officially released on the saturday, and I was about first in the queue to buy a copy once the aforementioned Peter Wid had finished playing "Toe-knee-black-bloody-burn".

I was due to go on before a lad who I knew would play almost exclusively a northern soul set, so I played a reggae/ska/punk sort of set, winding up with three or four soul records - not northern, mainly Stax R&B end stuff - but the final record I dropped on was the single of Magic Touch. As the opening bars broke, the following DJ suddenly span round, and in his hand was the same blue and white label as I was spinning.... His words weren't complimentary!

And so I claim to be the first DJ to play the single release on a scooter rally.....

As for the original question, no, I would say that Dobie Gray 'Out On The Floor' has that claim nailed down, and remains a great record to this day.

But 'Magic Touch' is better...

[ImberBoy]

The Importance Of Melba Who?

Edited September 18, 2012 by ImberBoy

[Mal C]

as one of the kids that was turned in the 8ts, I'd plum for Magic Tough as that LP in fact all the Kent LP's were hot property in 2nd and 3rd year.. which would have been 1982/3/4

The only other record which for me was as big maybe a tad later in 85/6/7 was Suspicion - which then was covered as the Detroit Prophets.

Mal.C

[Geeselad]

I've got the original original cut but we did more for Keb and others. I doubt if there would be more than five of Magic Touch and only one or two of most others. The first Torture had Jackie Day's name on it to put off the likes of Goldmine who would happily nick the music from under you if they could.

no surely not, thats a shocker, here's me thinking goldmine were a legit business the payed all royalties that were due, '

now that what I call an insult to northern soul, part 1!'

[Pete S]

I've got the original original cut but we did more for Keb and others. I doubt if there would be more than five of Magic Touch and only one or two of most others. The first Torture had Jackie Day's name on it to put off the likes of Goldmine who would happily nick the music from under you if they could.

They weren't even in business then where they? There was Soul Supply who put out the Northern Soul Story albums and a couple of singles.

[Simsy]

Great track then and now and as influential still with the nu-rave crowd picking it up as 'Simon Harris' - 'Your Smile'.

A minute and thirty in for that familiar piano riff ...

[Chalky]

as one of the kids that was turned in the 8ts, I'd plum for Magic Tough as that LP in fact all the Kent LP's were hot property in 2nd and 3rd year.. which would have been 1982/3/4

The only other record which for me was as big maybe a tad later in 85/6/7 was Suspicion - which then was covered as the Detroit Prophets.

Mal.C

Suspicion was earlier, 1982, but it had a big influence as did many of the Motown that turned up at the same time.

[Toodarnsoulful]

Seen Melba Moore live in Manchester earlier this year, one of the best performances from a live Soul Artist i've seen.. incredible voice and great performer, about 40 people at the venue max i was embarrassed that none turned up in Manchester. But they lost out, fantastic night and it was a pleasure to hear her sing live.

[Chalky]

Didn't even know Melba was performing. Same for several artists this year. The promotion of these acts isn't very good IMO. If anyone knows of any act give me a shout and I can put something up in the article section.

[Ady Croasdell]

They weren't even in business then where they? There was Soul Supply who put out the Northern Soul Story albums and a couple of singles.

You're probably right Pete, I owe my illustruous friends an apology, maybe it was Soul Supply or Charly or one of the others. It was defo a problem I had later with Goldmne but not in 1985. I did call it Jackie Day for that reason, I've still got it, I just can't remember the potential culprits.

Edited September 19, 2012 by ady croasdell

[Guest steve64]

I always bought the kent LP's, they were a massive influance on my musical taste & with the 100 club easily reached from where I live, it's probably down to Ady rather than any one record that got me on to the scene