We have just updated the Soulvation web site

www.soulvation.biz

and to tie in with Graham Warr's appearance at the annual ex-Catacombs Dj's bash on Saturday July 12 (nothing to do with the owners of the Catacombs copyright!) at Soulvation @ Lea Hall Club, Rugeley have put up a list from Graham of just some of the records he discovered on trips to the USA and brought back to the UK with them getting their first plays in Temple Street, Wolverhampton.

I was a regular at the Catacombs and can remember the anticipation when Graham was due back from the States but never realised just how many quality 45's he discovered.

Graham must be the most underestimated DJ and record finder ever on the Northern scene? And as he didn't bother with the All-dayers etc that much, probably on the jazz-funk scene too.

This is the list from the web site..The amazing thing is Graham can recall where every record was found and has a story to go with each find.

  NeilRushton1 said:

We have just updated the Soulvation web site

www.soulvation.biz

and to tie in with Graham Warr's appearance at the annual ex-Catacombs Dj's bash on Saturday July 12 (nothing to do with the owners of the Catacombs copyright!) at Soulvation @ Lea Hall Club, Rugeley have put up a list from Graham of just some of the records he discovered on trips to the USA and brought back to the UK with them getting their first plays in Temple Street, Wolverhampton.

I was a regular at the Catacombs and can remember the anticipation when Graham was due back from the States but never realised just how many quality 45's he discovered.

Graham must be the most underestimated DJ and record finder ever on the Northern scene? And as he didn't bother with the All-dayers etc that much, probably on the jazz-funk scene too.

This is the list from the web site..The amazing thing is Graham can recall where every record was found and has a story to go with each find.

Haha LOL. I'd take those discoveries anytime! Amazing hit rate.

Regards to Graham - one of the earliest, if not THE earliest Northern Soul crate-digger. I met him @ Keb Darge's a couple of years ago and his stories are legendary - especially his first U.S. trip in 1970 or thereabouts. He isn't referenced as much as he should be IMO - his contribution to both the early Northern scene and Jazz-Funk was massive.

Please give him my regards and tell him to give me a buzz next time he's down thisaway.....

Best,

Ian D

I bought my first ever proper Northern record off Graham when he had a stall at the Oasis market in Birmingham must have been around 78 / 79 not sure

It was a pressing of Major Lance : You Dont Want Me No More

Wow!!. - What a great list. Must have been fantastic hearing them for the first time - stiil looks like great "oldies" spot to me.

CLASS!!!

  NeilRushton1 said:

We have just updated the Soulvation web site

www.soulvation.biz

and to tie in with Graham Warr's appearance at the annual ex-Catacombs Dj's bash on Saturday July 12 (nothing to do with the owners of the Catacombs copyright!) at Soulvation @ Lea Hall Club, Rugeley have put up a list from Graham of just some of the records he discovered on trips to the USA and brought back to the UK with them getting their first plays in Temple Street, Wolverhampton.

I was a regular at the Catacombs and can remember the anticipation when Graham was due back from the States but never realised just how many quality 45's he discovered.

Graham must be the most underestimated DJ and record finder ever on the Northern scene? And as he didn't bother with the All-dayers etc that much, probably on the jazz-funk scene too.

This is the list from the web site..The amazing thing is Graham can recall where every record was found and has a story to go with each find.

Hi Niel, I am going to try and make it down for this,will look forward to meeting Graham again a real top bloke and never got the credit he deserved pass my regards to him will you.I see my old record dealing buddy Carl is on aswell should be a great night.

best regards Brian Phillips

  NeilRushton1 said:

We have just updated the Soulvation web site

www.soulvation.biz

and to tie in with Graham Warr's appearance at the annual ex-Catacombs Dj's bash on Saturday July 12 (nothing to do with the owners of the Catacombs copyright!) at Soulvation @ Lea Hall Club, Rugeley have put up a list from Graham of just some of the records he discovered on trips to the USA and brought back to the UK with them getting their first plays in Temple Street, Wolverhampton.

I was a regular at the Catacombs and can remember the anticipation when Graham was due back from the States but never realised just how many quality 45's he discovered.

Graham must be the most underestimated DJ and record finder ever on the Northern scene? And as he didn't bother with the All-dayers etc that much, probably on the jazz-funk scene too.

This is the list from the web site..The amazing thing is Graham can recall where every record was found and has a story to go with each find.

Excellent. That makes for an outstanding CV for the northern soul scene in anyone,s book . Brings back some memories that little list of vinyl does. God back in the day (197---whatever! ) when I used to collect the odd ditty or two I bought most of them at varying prices ( think I paid £18 for the Tripps and £3 for the whispers ---bargain). When I come to reflect on that list it was quite an amazing achievement 'discovering ' those sounds. As punters and collectors from those days we didn't really have 'celebrity dj's/collectors' to rave about as there are now. Therefore efforts such as this by Graham Warr largely went un-noticed to most of the scene.

It would always seem to be 'thats a Mecca sound' or thats a Torch sound or a cats sound' . It is only now with the benefit of hindsight that one can really appreciate what this chap did with regards to breaking 'sounds ' on the scene. There was no internet for research and not much of a template to work from (this was the early days of the scene) so there was probably not much in the way of learning from peoples previous mistakes cos not many (relatively speaking) were doin what he did.

Because of his part in that era of the soul scene a belated doffing of the cap is due to him big style from me

will try and get there for that night sounds like a belter!!

Not quite sure if you're saying he discovered all those records on the list, because he most certainly didn't.

Sam & Kitty springs to mind - when he returned from the states he had this at £6 on his list ( it was already being played at the Mecca and fetching £20) - trouble is, he'd bloody sold it when I got in touch with him!!!

Seem to remember he was a top bloke though.

Julian

  NeilRushton1 said:

We have just updated the Soulvation web site

www.soulvation.biz

and to tie in with Graham Warr's appearance at the annual ex-Catacombs Dj's bash on Saturday July 12 (nothing to do with the owners of the Catacombs copyright!) at Soulvation @ Lea Hall Club, Rugeley have put up a list from Graham of just some of the records he discovered on trips to the USA and brought back to the UK with them getting their first plays in Temple Street, Wolverhampton.

I was a regular at the Catacombs and can remember the anticipation when Graham was due back from the States but never realised just how many quality 45's he discovered.

Graham must be the most underestimated DJ and record finder ever on the Northern scene? And as he didn't bother with the All-dayers etc that much, probably on the jazz-funk scene too.

This is the list from the web site..The amazing thing is Graham can recall where every record was found and has a story to go with each find.

For some reason (work computer?) I can't open/enlarge the list can somebody post it in real size please

Thanks

  JulianB said:

Not quite sure if you're saying he discovered all those records on the list, because he most certainly didn't.

Sam & Kitty springs to mind - when he returned from the states he had this at £6 on his list ( it was already being played at the Mecca and fetching £20) - trouble is, he'd bloody sold it when I got in touch with him!!!

Seem to remember he was a top bloke though.

Julian

That wouldn't be Julian Bentley - perveyor of fine records back in the day would it?

Ian Dewhirst

  JulianB said:

Not quite sure if you're saying he discovered all those records on the list, because he most certainly didn't.

Sam & Kitty springs to mind - when he returned from the states he had this at £6 on his list ( it was already being played at the Mecca and fetching £20) - trouble is, he'd bloody sold it when I got in touch with him!!!

Seem to remember he was a top bloke though.

Julian

Hi Julian,

Graham is definitely saying he discovered everything on the list on trips to USA from 1970 to 1973,except for Soul Twins which he found first copy in Hammersmith and then 100's of copies (many scratched) later in Miami.

I will pass any queries on to him and am sure he will come on Soul Source with response. I was talking to him last week and he said he found 3 copies of Sam & Kitty and nobody liked it.

Neil

  SHSDave said:

For some reason (work computer?) I can't open/enlarge the list can somebody post it in real size please

Thanks

I can't post it any larger but go to the web site

www.soulvation.biz

and look for it as "pop up" on Lea Hall page reference Catacombs DJ get together in July.

Neil

  SHSDave said:

For some reason (work computer?) I can't open/enlarge the list can somebody post it in real size please

Thanks

Hi Dave,

I had same problem but went to "save as" then opened from my documents folder where it was saved.

Hope it helps

Dave.

  Ian Dewhirst said:

That wouldn't be Julian Bentley - perveyor of fine records back in the day would it?

Ian Dewhirst

Sure would Ian, and how is your good self today?

Julian

  NeilRushton1 said:

Hi Julian,

Graham is definitely saying he discovered everything on the list on trips to USA from 1970 to 1973,except for Soul Twins which he found first copy in Hammersmith and then 100's of copies (many scratched) later in Miami.

I will pass any queries on to him and am sure he will come on Soul Source with response. I was talking to him last week and he said he found 3 copies of Sam & Kitty and nobody liked it.

Neil

Hi Neil

memories are terrible things at times. I'm sure I'm right, but hey, what's the point in disagreeing about something that happened 35 or more years ago?

Please give Graham my regards.

Julian

dont know or care who discovered what... but i do know that is some list of sounds from those days... would have killed for that lot on original in them days...fantastic every one was a monster cheers ezzie

Mighty list. I thought Mr. Levine had claimed most of these for himself.

I guess we'll never really know, but if it's true, Mr. Warr ought to receive

a lifetime achievement award.

This depends were you lived and where you went some of these records were laying about the UK and in collections before the were played at the Cats.

  JulianB said:

Not quite sure if you're saying he discovered all those records on the list, because he most certainly didn't.

I've never met Graham to the best of my knowledge, and I'm sure that he's a great bloke and all that, but I know for a fact that there are at least three records on there that I took up to the Mecca for their first Northern plays, well before they broke elsewhere, so I tend to agree with you, Julian...

  TONY ROUNCE said:

I've never met Graham to the best of my knowledge, and I'm sure that he's a great bloke and all that, but I know for a fact that there are at least three records on there that I took up to the Mecca for their first Northern plays, well before they broke elsewhere, so I tend to agree with you, Julian...

Which ones Tony?. Let me ask Graham about them. Don't forget Ian and Les Cokell were frequently coming down to the Catacombs and hearing records they hadn't got at the Mecca.

  macca said:

Mighty list. I thought Mr. Levine had claimed most of these for himself.

I guess we'll never really know, but if it's true, Mr. Warr ought to receive

a lifetime achievement award.

As Ian will tell you, his best ever find of records was in a Miami charity store,the shop had previously been found by Graham who did not have time to go through everything. One night at the Catacombs Graham told Ian the address for the store and when Ian eventually got there the records were still there.

Graham is definely very unheralded for what he did, in the same way the Catacombs never gets the credit it deserves.

come on guys don;t spoil a great thread for those that are old enough to remember those wonderful days...its 38 fukin years ago ffs

I read the list and had a 72 flashback that lasted longer than the other three Ive had, it was Kylie Minogue winking that she was about to swollow, great thead guys.

If Ive offended any female SS , tough shit.

  PaulDonnelly said:

come on guys don;t spoil a great thread for those that are old enough to remember those wonderful days...its 38 fukin years ago ffs

I read the list and had a 72 flashback that lasted longer than the other three Ive had, it was Kylie Minogue winking that she was about to swollow, great thead guys.

If Ive offended any female SS , tough shit.

For me , It would be Kristen Scott - Thomas ........

Or the woman whop ran the chippy at the end of Hose Street ........

........

Graham Warr : whether he did or not discover the stated tunes , still a top chap .......

Malc Burton

  Malc Burton said:

For me , It would be Kristen Scott - Thomas ........

Or the woman whop ran the chippy at the end of Hose Street ........

........

Graham Warr : whether he did or not discover the stated tunes , still a top chap .......

Malc Burton

You ventured into a chippy on Hose St did you like the smell? come to think about I don;t remember a chippy then again I don;t remember when it closed...

Edited March 17, 200817 yr by PaulDonnelly

  NeilRushton1 said:

Hi Julian,

Graham is definitely saying he discovered everything on the list on trips to USA from 1970 to 1973,except for Soul Twins which he found first copy in Hammersmith and then 100's of copies (many scratched) later in Miami.

I will pass any queries on to him and am sure he will come on Soul Source with response. I was talking to him last week and he said he found 3 copies of Sam & Kitty and nobody liked it.

Neil

i did! i brought one along with many other things the amazing graham dug up in the states! if my memory serves me i remember graham told levine where to go to find copies of the tunes he had bought back, as you can imagine they were exciting times at the "cats" with so many new tunes to be played along with the one's found by myself, i only wish that i had kept a record of when tunes were first played at the "cats" how useful that would have been!!! really looking forward to us all getting together in july, " a total night of nostalga"

max...

  max.millward said:

new tunes to be played along with the one's found by myself,

max...

Vonettes, Dickie Wonder, Ray Agee seem to remember these being played by you Max

Ken

  Soulhustler said:

Vonettes, Dickie Wonder, Ray Agee seem to remember these being played by you Max

Ken

ok ken i'll own up they were mine!

max..

  max.millward said:

ok ken i'll own up they were mine!

max..

Why not tell the story of you picking Graham up after one of his trips?

  TONY ROUNCE said:

I've never met Graham to the best of my knowledge, and I'm sure that he's a great bloke and all that, but I know for a fact that there are at least three records on there that I took up to the Mecca for their first Northern plays, well before they broke elsewhere, so I tend to agree with you, Julian...

HI TONY, I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT THOSE THREE WERE! IT'S INTERESTING & WHO KNOWS WE MAY BE ABLE TO TOTALLY PINPOINT SOME TUNES!

MAX...

That list reminds me of being a spotty 14 year old, and buying a copy of the LP done by Colin Bee, with no track listing.

I had to play it time after time, cross referencing the tracks with what I thought they might be called from the playlists and stuff in Blues and Soul. Then one day round a mates house I spotted an ad with the tracks listed. I'd got some right, but made a few howlers. Wish I'd kept the list I made. It would be funny to look back.

Not heard Bob Relf for ages. Timeless tho.

  Soulhustler said:

Why not tell the story of you picking Graham up after one of his trips?

yes why not ken! well lets start with picking graham up from the station loaded up with 2 big suitcases full of records,no clothes, he'd thrown them away to get all the records in those rammed cases, we got back to graham's mom & dads house & graham was really riffy, his hands & fingers engrained with dirt from sifting thru 1000's of records over the 3 weeks he had been away! his fingers were red raw, he said you start sorting i'm gonna have a good soak in the bath. so i started sorting them out into alphabetical order, record after record i'd never heard, i was so excited! but resisted the temptation to switch on the record player till he came back refreshed from his soaking in the bath, a look of relief on his face at getting back to something like his normal self!! so we waded thru most of the tunes, with graham selling me a selection of them!

well to be honest at least 1 of everything he bought back, a totally amazing find all in one trip,so as you can guess that sat night at the "cats" was a very special night with loads of new spins booming down the two long passageways! a truly awsome night!!

as i remember he had 250 copies of "quick change artist" so after the "cats" it was a quick trip up to the"torch" to start getting rid of them, i remember him saying he'd got so much money from selling he could afford to go to the states again next week!! he didn't though! as i look back things do become that much clearer & i'm sure i'll be able to tell some more super stories!

max..

  max.millward said:

yes why not ken! well lets start with picking graham up from the station loaded up with 2 big suitcases full of records,no clothes, he'd thrown them away to get all the records in those rammed cases, we got back to graham's mom & dads house & graham was really riffy, his hands & fingers engrained with dirt from sifting thru 1000's of records over the 3 weeks he had been away! his fingers were red raw, he said you start sorting i'm gonna have a good soak in the bath. so i started sorting them out into alphabetical order, record after record i'd never heard, i was so excited! but resisted the temptation to switch on the record player till he came back refreshed from his soaking in the bath, a look of relief on his face at getting back to something like his normal self!! so we waded thru most of the tunes, with graham selling me a selection of them!

well to be honest at least 1 of everything he bought back, a totally amazing find all in one trip,so as you can guess that sat night at the "cats" was a very special night with loads of new spins booming down the two long passageways! a truly awsome night!!

as i remember he had 250 copies of "quick change artist" so after the "cats" it was a quick trip up to the"torch" to start getting rid of them, i remember him saying he'd got so much money from selling he could afford to go to the states again next week!! he didn't though! as i look back things do become that much clearer & i'm sure i'll be able to tell some more super stories!

max..

So enjoyed reading that......what a super story......them were the days ay Max

JB xxxx

  max.millward said:

HI TONY, I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT THOSE THREE WERE! IT'S INTERESTING & WHO KNOWS WE MAY BE ABLE TO TOTALLY PINPOINT SOME TUNES!

MAX...

Hey, Blue Max I presume?

I can say one thing, and that is that the scene was slightly more regionalised back then, then it is now what with price guides, the internet, rare soul forums and multiples of people going to the U.S. etc, etc....

I was always hearing about records that Max and Pep had but seldom saw them play 'cos Wolverhampton/Birmingham was a long way from Leeds in the pre M62 days.

I can remember going to the Birmingham Locarno and a few other Brummy area gigs in the early 70's and hearing a lot of sounds which weren't being played elsewhere. In fact that was the first place I ever heard "Afternoon Of The Rhino" and I'm pretty sure Pep had the Volcanoes, Don Varner (?) and many others long before they became popular further North.

Mind you I can remember Twink picking up the United Four and Susan Barratt off Julian Bentley early on and I got one of the few early copies of "Thumb A Ride" off him, so a few rare records were floating around the UK at the time in different regions.

It's great that we have the likes of Graham, Julian and Brian '45' Phillips on here 'cos they were all at the sharp end of record dealing in the early days.

And I can read their stories all day long LOL.......

I'm gonna try and make this gig!

Ian D

  Ian Dewhirst said:

Hey, Blue Max I presume?

I can say one thing, and that is that the scene was slightly more regionalised back then, then it is now what with price guides, the internet, rare soul forums and multiples of people going to the U.S. etc, etc....

I was always hearing about records that Max and Pep had but seldom saw them play 'cos Wolverhampton/Birmingham was a long way from Leeds in the pre M62 days.

I can remember going to the Birmingham Locarno and a few other Brummy area gigs in the early 70's and hearing a lot of sounds which weren't being played elsewhere. In fact that was the first place I ever heard "Afternoon Of The Rhino" and I'm pretty sure Pep had the Volcanoes, Don Varner (?) and many others long before they became popular further North.

Mind you I can remember Twink picking up the United Four and Susan Barratt off Julian Bentley early on and I got one of the few early copies of "Thumb A Ride" off him, so a few rare records were floating around the UK at the time in different regions.

It's great that we have the likes of Graham, Julian and Brian '45' Phillips on here 'cos they were all at the sharp end of record dealing in the early days.

And I can read their stories all day long LOL.......

I'm gonna try and make this gig!

Ian D

hi mr dewhurst sir!

i do totally agree with you on regionalized tunes but in those days there were not many places one could pick up different stuff,most dealers of the time seemed to have the same tunes for sale so a lot of them were played all over the country the same weekend i would think!! thru the network of dealers if you really got on well with them you could sift thru odd things that were not listed at that time & find a few gems! not generally available, but as you are aware it did not take long before these were pressed to meet heavy demand,when graham came back with his haul i can honestly say i had only got 1 record that he came back with, so a bit of scoop i would say. on an occasion in i think early 72' i swopped simon soussan 6 of my tunes for 87 records that i had never heard before or seen listed anywhere! most of these went on to become massive national favourites as dj's managed to find them, having i think all available lists at my dissposal i know that quite a lot of those 87 tunes remained very rare for years!! then of course the intellegent dealer realised that by supplying selected dj's who were in a position to break new tunes, helped to keep the supply of rarities ongoing, plus you also had guys bring bring you a record to see if you new it & if it was good you would buy it off them, the same still goes on today!! all i can say is "the wonderful world of northern soul" a total mania & long may it live!!!!!!!!!!

max...

  max.millward said:

hi mr dewhurst sir!

i do totally agree with you on regionalized tunes but in those days there were not many places one could pick up different stuff,most dealers of the time seemed to have the same tunes for sale so a lot of them were played all over the country the same weekend i would think!! thru the network of dealers if you really got on well with them you could sift thru odd things that were not listed at that time & find a few gems! not generally available, but as you are aware it did not take long before these were pressed to meet heavy demand,when graham came back with his haul i can honestly say i had only got 1 record that he came back with, so a bit of scoop i would say. on an occasion in i think early 72' i swopped simon soussan 6 of my tunes for 87 records that i had never heard before or seen listed anywhere! most of these went on to become massive national favourites as dj's managed to find them, having i think all available lists at my dissposal i know that quite a lot of those 87 tunes remained very rare for years!! then of course the intellegent dealer realised that by supplying selected dj's who were in a position to break new tunes, helped to keep the supply of rarities ongoing, plus you also had guys bring bring you a record to see if you new it & if it was good you would buy it off them, the same still goes on today!! all i can say is "the wonderful world of northern soul" a total mania & long may it live!!!!!!!!!!

max...

JB xxx

  max.millward said:

hi mr dewhurst sir!

i do totally agree with you on regionalized tunes but in those days there were not many places one could pick up different stuff,most dealers of the time seemed to have the same tunes for sale so a lot of them were played all over the country the same weekend i would think!! thru the network of dealers if you really got on well with them you could sift thru odd things that were not listed at that time & find a few gems! not generally available, but as you are aware it did not take long before these were pressed to meet heavy demand,when graham came back with his haul i can honestly say i had only got 1 record that he came back with, so a bit of scoop i would say. on an occasion in i think early 72' i swopped simon soussan 6 of my tunes for 87 records that i had never heard before or seen listed anywhere! most of these went on to become massive national favourites as dj's managed to find them, having i think all available lists at my dissposal i know that quite a lot of those 87 tunes remained very rare for years!! then of course the intellegent dealer realised that by supplying selected dj's who were in a position to break new tunes, helped to keep the supply of rarities ongoing, plus you also had guys bring bring you a record to see if you new it & if it was good you would buy it off them, the same still goes on today!! all i can say is "the wonderful world of northern soul" a total mania & long may it live!!!!!!!!!!

max...

Yep, you're right. Graham was one of the (very) few people who actually made the trip to the U.S. back then. He told me a few great stories about his finds and I told him he should write a book! I'm certain that Julian and Brian '45' had their own U.S. based connections, which, in many cases, were from the same souce, so not surprising that the same records were turning up at the same time. Also I can remember the London contingent - Tony, Clarky, Ady, Dave Rivers etc would always be turning up with goodies from their own sources too, so it really was a magical period.

Happy days mate, where every week would bring a whole raft of truly great records. We were very lucky and blessed to be there at the time.

Hopefully I'll see you @ the gig and maybe get a carful of us over!

Best,

Ian D

  Ian Dewhirst said:

Yep, you're right. Graham was one of the (very) few people who actually made the trip to the U.S. back then. He told me a few great stories about his finds and I told him he should write a book! I'm certain that Julian and Brian '45' had their own U.S. based connections, which, in many cases, were from the same souce, so not surprising that the same records were turning up at the same time. Also I can remember the London contingent - Tony, Clarky, Ady, Dave Rivers etc would always be turning up with goodies from their own sources too, so it really was a magical period.

Happy days mate, where every week would bring a whole raft of truly great records. We were very lucky and blessed to be there at the time.

Hopefully I'll see you @ the gig and maybe get a carful of us over!

Best,

Ian D

THAT WOULD BE BRILLIANT IAN!! NEVER MIND THE TUNES WHAT ABOUT THE CHATTING & THE STORIES WE COULD ALL RELATE!! YOU GOTTA MAKE IT!! WOULD MAKE A TOP TOP NIGHT OUT!!

MAX..

Max, Out of interest, where did Grahams parents live? Ade

  marchja said:

Max, Out of interest, where did Grahams parents live? Ade

HI ADE, THEY LIVED IN WORDSWORTH RD OR WAS IT AVE! GOD IT'S A LONG TIME AGO!! THAT WAS IN W'TON OF COURSE!!

MAX..

  max.millward said:

HI ADE, THEY LIVED IN WORDSWORTH RD OR WAS IT AVE! GOD IT'S A LONG TIME AGO!! THAT WAS IN W'TON OF COURSE!!

MAX..

Max, the reason I asked is because I remember a mate of mine pointing out someone at the Plaza in Old Hill (couple of miles out of Dudley) and telling me that this fella frequently went to the States to buy soul records. Once I'd come to terms with the fact that someone would ever do such a thing I can remember thinking "oh well, there's no point in anyone else going ever again because I bet he's bought the lot"!!!! This would be about 1971 when I was 16 and had yet to go to the Cats. See you Ade

  marchja said:

Max, the reason I asked is because I remember a mate of mine pointing out someone at the Plaza in Old Hill (couple of miles out of Dudley) and telling me that this fella frequently went to the States to buy soul records. Once I'd come to terms with the fact that someone would ever do such a thing I can remember thinking "oh well, there's no point in anyone else going ever again because I bet he's bought the lot"!!!! This would be about 1971 when I was 16 and had yet to go to the Cats. See you Ade

wouldn't have thought graham would have gone to the plaza!! but you never know!!!

all the best

max..

  max.millward said:

hi mr dewhurst sir!

i do totally agree with you on regionalized tunes but in those days there were not many places one could pick up different stuff,most dealers of the time seemed to have the same tunes for sale so a lot of them were played all over the country the same weekend i would think!! thru the network of dealers if you really got on well with them you could sift thru odd things that were not listed at that time & find a few gems! not generally available, but as you are aware it did not take long before these were pressed to meet heavy demand,when graham came back with his haul i can honestly say i had only got 1 record that he came back with, so a bit of scoop i would say. on an occasion in i think early 72' i swopped simon soussan 6 of my tunes for 87 records that i had never heard before or seen listed anywhere! most of these went on to become massive national favourites as dj's managed to find them, having i think all available lists at my dissposal i know that quite a lot of those 87 tunes remained very rare for years!! then of course the intellegent dealer realised that by supplying selected dj's who were in a position to break new tunes, helped to keep the supply of rarities ongoing, plus you also had guys bring bring you a record to see if you new it & if it was good you would buy it off them, the same still goes on today!! all i can say is "the wonderful world of northern soul" a total mania & long may it live!!!!!!!!!!

max...

I think you are right on that score Max. I seem to remember going to Bewes's record store in Burslem (when keith Minshull used to sell from there) and then going going to ralphs records in manchester and then on to Spin in in manchester and the imports 'list' was very similar within a week.

I must say though we were very lucky in those days, it was certainly a 'rich vein of northern soul' in that period. nearly every week something new would 'break' to what would later on be described as timeless classics.

As just a collecter in those days it would be hard to keep up I think there was one period within 3 weeks where I bought Fuller bros 'times a wasting' for 25 quid, then the following week i had to buy earl jackson Self Soul........ and the Spanish of Los Canarios and then f**k me if it wasn't the bloody Shakers that broke the week after . Bloody expensive times, but wouldn't change a thing and so much fun doing it ,bloody brill

Certainly was a rich vein though 70- 73. Not sure that would happen again ' So back on thread, outstanding list Graham and

shall 'look forward to looking back ' when the event is on in July

  Dave Morris said:

Hi Dave,

I had same problem but went to "save as" then opened from my documents folder where it was saved.

Hope it helps

Dave.

Thanks Dave & Neil

sorted now

ATB

Dave

  max.millward said:

yes why not ken! well lets start with picking graham up from the station loaded up with 2 big suitcases full of records,no clothes, he'd thrown them away to get all the records in those rammed cases, we got back to graham's mom & dads house & graham was really riffy, his hands & fingers engrained with dirt from sifting thru 1000's of records over the 3 weeks he had been away! his fingers were red raw, he said you start sorting i'm gonna have a good soak in the bath. so i started sorting them out into alphabetical order, record after record i'd never heard, i was so excited! but resisted the temptation to switch on the record player till he came back refreshed from his soaking in the bath, a look of relief on his face at getting back to something like his normal self!! so we waded thru most of the tunes, with graham selling me a selection of them!

well to be honest at least 1 of everything he bought back, a totally amazing find all in one trip,so as you can guess that sat night at the "cats" was a very special night with loads of new spins booming down the two long passageways! a truly awsome night!!

as i remember he had 250 copies of "quick change artist" so after the "cats" it was a quick trip up to the"torch" to start getting rid of them, i remember him saying he'd got so much money from selling he could afford to go to the states again next week!! he didn't though! as i look back things do become that much clearer & i'm sure i'll be able to tell some more super stories!

max..

Really enjoyed reading that!

Could someone kindly paste the bleeding list up, I can't see it anywhere on here, it won't open for me. HELP!

  ady croasdell said:

Could someone kindly paste the bleeding list up, I can't see it anywhere on here, it won't open for me. HELP!

Ady, have you tried right click on mouse then open link. (worked for me when I couldn't get in )

dunno if work

but try clicking link below

https://www.soul-source.co.uk/index.p...st&id=43451

  jez jones said:

Ady, have you tried right click on mouse then open link. (worked for me when I couldn't get in )

Thanks, that's done it and what a bunch of belters there are there too. I cut my teeth on most of them. My first trip wasn't until 1974 and there were brilliant sounds around then, but not of that quality, in that quantity. Reeeeeeeeeeeeespect!

Now I can see the list, thanks Mike

Theres some classic all time greats amongst that list

Saxi

Dena

Johnny Caswell

Epitome

Roy Hamilton

Willie Kendricks

Vel-Vets

Luther Ingram

Lorraine Chandler

They really have stood the test of time on the NS scene

Like Adey said respect there to Graham, I didn"t realise it was he, who bought these tunes to the masses, wonderful list.

ALLRIGHT NEIL, fANTASTIC THREAD REALLY ENJOYED IT.RESPECT TO GRAHAM HE MUST HAVE BEEN BUZZING FINDING THOSE TUNES. CHEERS. SID

Graham is having a think and will add some more titles.

At The Catacombs at that tiime it was amazing to hear what he was bringing in from the trips to USA.

One of his best finds was from a Chicago warehouse where Soussan had visited before, had himself locked in all night and done a runner. As a result Soussan (typically) lost out on a lot of brilliant vinyl.

Graham's stories about trying to extract British rarities from certain London record stores are brilliant too.

Neil

www.soulvation.biz

  Soul Sid said:

ALLRIGHT NEIL, fANTASTIC THREAD REALLY ENJOYED IT.RESPECT TO GRAHAM HE MUST HAVE BEEN BUZZING FINDING THOSE TUNES. CHEERS. SID

WOW, THE DOGS B******S OF A THREAD TRUE SOUL HISTORY LESSON, VERY INTRESTING. RESPECT.