I was just flicking through the recent issue of Scootering and came across an interview with Ady Croasdell and 30 years of Kent records. A nice read and good insight into his path into the scene.

"The Kent influence"

This may have been covered by others before but for me i didn't realise how much the Kent Lp supply influenced my taste into the music until i started to read the track listings again. Much to my surprise i found that i had cherry picked lots of numbers off the LPs , which i now have on original 7'inch vinyl.

How many of you out there have had the same "Kent influence" to your collections ?

Welldone Ady , keep up the good work and see you at the 100 Club (another great influence).

ATB ,Frank Webster Norwich.

Lots of us I expect

Any chance of someone posting a scan of the article up here?

 

I have quite a few of the Kent LPs from back in the day, not only a perfect introduction to obscure tunes on a good themed basis but also the only way to own some of the big unissued tunes of the time, It's Torture for instance.

Kent is the Rolls Royce of Soul releases.

The Kent LP's expanded my areas of interest in the 80's and every album introduced me to something I didn't know. I am the proud owner of a full set and love them all. Ady influenced my love of soul as much as Roger Eagle, Richard Searling and my mate Dave. I can't speak highly enough of him! Genuine hero!

For me along with the excellent material that Kent issue,

they are always top notch quality and fidelity of the recordings - no compromise always the best.

Plus the in depth sleeve notes - unfortunately for me I down loaded the pied piper material so no sleeve notes!

  On 13/09/2013 at 19:40, soulhawk1960 said:

Kent is the Rolls Royce of Soul releases.

I'd say that Kent's standing in the quality soul releases is like Moet & Chandon Dom Perignon White Gold's standing in the world of fizzy wine. 

Edited September 13, 201311 yr by Roburt

Peerless. Having said that, I've found lots of other compilation labels bringing sounds to me that I didn't know or own as well. One of the reasons tape swapping was so brilliant back in the day.

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.

as a twenty year old the kent album "floorshakers" was my way in,im still in nothing but respect for adey not just for exposing me to some great music but for putting something back into the pockets of those who made it.

without doubt, adey croasdell has been, is and always will be probably the greatest exponent of twisting record companies around his little finger, to extract from them every last shred of evidence hidden in their vaults, amidst their ineptitude and reluctance that anything possibly of value has been overlooked. for his sizemic efforts, almost into 4 decades now, we will be eternally grateful and indebted...his sleuthing has proved sherlockesque, no stone unturned, born out nonemoreso, than his persistance with the dave hamilton catalogue which has stretched into 10 years but has resulted in finds of such gravitas...patience of a saint is somewhat understated here. it has taken equally as long to see a further installment in the pied piper story come to fruition, when for many years both he, and us, despaired that ( sony i believe? ) would ever give up the treasures we knew still existed, to be given a fitting release.....only adey croasdell could possibly accomplish the impossible. i know we can eulogize about what achievements richard has had, with a little help from john anderson, exposing previously unheard material ( little ann, betty boo etc ) but you can well imagine the esteem in which adey would have been held at the casino, had maxine brown or melba moore received exposure there, courtesy of this architect of the unexpectedly brilliant...all those wonderful tunes on the same playlist under one roof?. it still brings a shiver of expectancy when adey announces something new on the horizon...because he's always looked beyond it.

me mom sent me down town to buy clothes,i came back with kent lps,nuff said

jason

For me the introduction to quality was the For Dancers Only LP on red vinyl. The premium Uk label for introducing me to sounds beyond the same old same old.

Take a bow chaps.

I guess the same can be said for so many of us who came onto the scene early 80s...

 

Our respect indeed....

 

 

Our introduction to real soul music like this....

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZhTyfyAMtU

 

   

Edited September 16, 201311 yr by little-stevie