Mike

October 19th is the date of an one off special event being held to mark the Kent Record Labels 25th Anniversary The artists lined up for the night are Maxine Brown, Tommy Hunt, Mary Love, The Flirtations and Winfield Parker The djs for the night are Ian Clark, Mick Smith and Ady C The venue is The Forum, 9-17 Highgate Road, Kentish Town, London Ticket details: www.seetickets.com (0870 150 0044) It was 1982, the mod revival was in full swing, disaffected Northern Soul fans were turning away from pop stompers and second rate disco and Ace Records had just acquired the Kent & Modern 60s soul catalogues. Ady Croasdell and Randy Cozens’ 6TS Rhythm & Soul Society was entertaining packed crowds at London’s legendary 100 Club and discerning soul fans demanded records inspired by the original 60s soul ethos. Who would save them? Would it be a bird, would it be a plane or would it be Harboro Horace? You guessed it, the bird and plane were unavailable so HH knocked together “For Dancers Only” 16 tracks of pure 60s black soul beat. It caught the zeitgeist or hit the groove (depending on your school attendance record), sold by the carrier bag full and kept Horace out of the pubs for hours at a time while he worked on the imaginatively titled “For Dancers Also” sequel. We then had “Footstompers”, “Floorshakers”, “Right Back Where We Started From”, “Club Soul” and “Brainstormers”; solo LPs from Jackie Wilson, Maxine Brown, Chuck Jackson, The Impressions and Tommy Hunt. Just short of 100 slabs of 12” vinyl in all. Then it was the silver discs of “Dave Godin’s Deep Soul Treasures”, “Okeh; A Northern Soul Obsession”, “Rare Collectible & Soulful”, “Northern Soul’s Classiest Rareties”, “Mod Jazz”, “New Breed R&B”, and big selling solo items from James Carr, Irma Thomas, Dyke & The Blazers, Doris Duke and Eddie & Ernie. Not forgetting the good old fashioned 7” vinyl Town and City singles. So 25 years later we reckon we’re owed a BIG party and we’ve arranged an authentic 60s soul revue in London Town about half a mile from where we started. The fabulous talents of Maxine, Tommy, Mary Love (who kicked off our first ever CD), The Flirtations aka The Gypsies and Baltimore’s own Winfield Parker will entertain and amaze you, with a top live big soul band playing their hearts out behind. It’s an incredible old venue, similar to the Apollo where these shows used to happen. Original 6TS DJ and Kent cover artist Ian Clark is coming out of retirement especially for this night and along with Mick Smith and Ady C, we’ll dance through to the early hours. Maybe Harboro Horace will turn up too!