Northern soul and where it was played

[heartandsoulktf]

Hi just wondering if there were any books or web pages relating to details regarding where individual records were originally played ie : Wheel, Torch, casino blackpool, and so on. cheers 

[Guest Shufflin]

the "Northern Soul Top 500" book Kev Roberts has pages on this very topic, so get a copy of that! or else search playlists for individual clubs e.g, Colin Curtis has a great blog where he lists pretty much everything played at the Mecca in Blackpool...

 

 

[heartandsoulktf]

Cheers for that, though looking for a fair few outside the top 500, been on the wheel torch sites and they only seem to list a few. Am sure i once came across a site that detailed individual tracks but buggered if i can find it again

[Chalky]

https://www.soulunderground.co.uk/TheStaffordStory/

[Guest Shufflin]

43 minutes ago, chalky said:

https://www.soulunderground.co.uk/TheStaffordStory/

yeah that's an amazing site Chalky, is it yours? [edit: doh] it's been in my browser favourites for years...I've a Stafford playlist on my iphone

back to OP - the Colin Curtis site has loads of tracks that are nowhere near the top 500 - the point I was making about the book was it includes pages with small record listings of ALL the major clubs and many aren't in the top 500 either, I wasn't recommending the top 500 lol

anyway m8 how about this for a list of Twisted Wheel plays (there are plenty):

https://home.btconnect.com/twistedwheel/Playlist/brazenose_st_1.html

Edited May 22, 2017 by Shufflin

[heartandsoulktf]

Brill brill many thanks boys

[Chalky]

7 hours ago, shufflin said:

yeah that's an amazing site Chalky, is it yours? [edit: doh] it's been in my browser favourites for years...I've a Stafford playlist on my iphone

back to OP - the Colin Curtis site has loads of tracks that are nowhere near the top 500 - the point I was making about the book was it includes pages with small record listings of ALL the major clubs and many aren't in the top 500 either, I wasn't recommending the top 500 lol

anyway m8 how about this for a list of Twisted Wheel plays (there are plenty):

https://home.btconnect.com/twistedwheel/Playlist/brazenose_st_1.html

Yes it is mine and thanks for the comments. Appreciated. 

[Mr Fred]

There's a book all about the Twisted Wheel in Manchester called Central 1179 by Keith Rylatt and Phil Scott.Even lists the records played.Hope this helps 

Regards Fred.

Edited June 3, 2017 by Mr Fred

[Tomangoes]

So this was played at the Twisted Wheel?

Fantastic...

Got it on a best of blues cd around 2000 and always wondered if it ever cut it at a 60s soul club.

 

Ed

[Pete S]

The records themselves can help: records on the Soul Sounds label all go back to The Wheel.  Records on Out Of The Past are from the Torch and Cats.

[Girdwoodinc]

Reg Stickings - Searching for Soul has some good info about when and where records were played, but not only that a great read

[purist]

I do think if you are looking for accuracy then it is a bit of a minefield. Some of the DJ's worked with each other, so it's easier to identify the era than the actual venue. For instance my late friend Blue Max when DJing at The Catacombs told me he would meet up with Keith Minshull & Colin Curtis in some pub mid way between Wolves and Stoke,, and swap and trade records and talk about what 45's were going well and what wasn't. So this helps explain that certain records that say Max had tried at The Cats and hadn't managed to make it 'go big', he might trade with Keith or Colin who might then take them to their clubs and they might take off there, and vice versa. The same thing applies with the tunes that had already gone massive in one club but the other club didn't have a copy, so they'd trade emidiscs of these 'biggies', if not the actual records themselves because they'd had enough of them by now. So, for example, does that make those records Torch records because that's where they broke big, or Cats records because that's the club which first tried with them, or vice versa?
We had some fun in the Stafford era, where DJ's were being braver and trying a broad approach, because this threw up a small number of tunes that we knew from ten years earlier in the Cats times. There's one particular Monster rare tune that somebody I have huge affection for, claims to have both found and broken in that era, and this is generally accepted to be the truth. We know it was definitely played by Max before the Casino opened. I really like the DJ so would never tell him what we know, why burst his bubble.
In addition, people with better knowledge than me often insist that the first two years of the Casino was largely reliant on Cats/Torch/Mecca/etc known tunes, with a few new things dotted in amongst them.
It didn't end with the 1980's either. In the 90's clubs like Albrighton, for instance, did very well with picking up on forgotten 1-2-3 spin wonders from 70's clubs like Blackpool Mecca, Yes these songs were first tried in the Highland Room, but if you weren't there on the actual Saturday you wouldn't know them because they'd often disappear without a trace into a collection. So unless you were one of the few remaining vinyl hounds from the Mecca days with an exceptional memory, when these tunes blew up in the later 90's, should we refer to them as Blackpool revives, or Lea Manor Monsters?

One example, ask most folk where The Professionals was first played. Not as you might think at the Casino, but the Cats by Max. I think it's fair to say that most people believe that The Enchantments I'm In Love With Your Daughter is an 80's TOTW era tune. Yet Pep played it at The Cats. Then there's all the other non "big time clubs" that we all talk about. I remember hearing a record at Whitchurch (probably? - can't say for sure, but think 72-75) Pretty certain I heard it there a few times and all I knew for sure was it's cover up name and a few words. Never heard it anywhere else. It took me about 25 years of asking around to find out what it was (and it was down to Butch because he not only identified it by the small snatch of lyrics I remembered, but sold me his copy) Now if that record became massive tomorrow is anybody but me gonna refer to it as a Whitchurch tune?
Have fun with your quest, but my advice is don't set too much store on certainty, outside of the likes of the old guys who did it at the time.
p.s. apologies if this has sounded like a party political broadcast on behalf of The Catacombs and it's outstanding contribution to the scene, it's just that I'm a Black Country kid through and through. If I'd been born and bred in Stoke then my bits of knowledge would be more pro Torch type of thing.

[heartandsoulktf]

Many many thanks