Mike

Rare Soul Review - Issue 1 2001 Rare Soul review - Issue 1 (note 2 x clips are fairly large - 200kb and may take a few mins to download, but worth the wait) Recently had the good sense at a niter to think better buy myself something to read before putting myself at the mercy of Railtrack on a Sunday. Quick look round the dealers stalls and spotted the glossy cover of the first issue of Rare Soul review. Had a flick and thought yeah give that a go. Now Railtrack being Railtrack yiu may be surprised to hear that they gave me a good chance to read this, (ended up a 10 hour journey ) so must have re-read it a fair few times (just ask me what is the third 45 on page 34). Anyway enough late nite ramblings and onto the meat, right in these days of many mags/fanzines, a new one on the streets has to stand out and offer something new. So what's on offer here then, well a few years back one of the highlights of the maildrops was a fanzine called Soul Galore, which offered pages of 45 reviews and nothing else, since it stopped theres been nought really the same (that Ive spotted) . So when I did do the quick flick through at the stall I was quite chuffed to see that it follows a similar format. Quite a few differences though, the first obvious one being the quality, as you can see by cover (Mr Hoagy Lands featured) and the clips below were talking about glossy WH smith format here and the presentation, grapics and layout shows were talking definitely about the year 2001 standard. So as you can see, it looks good what about the content, well for your money you get about 35 pages of soul reviews, the majority done by your man Tim Brown, and due to the diversty of current days split into different sections - Northern Soul Circles, Crossover to the Modern side, A Gallimaufry section (translates to misc as in doesnt fit in to mainstream cats), all by Tim Brown, and a Adams Apples (rare funk by Adam Lever), also short articles/listings on Rosie Grier, Unissued Motown doing the rounds, and 3 pages of recent cds reviews. To give you a better idea of format here's a clip OK excuse the size and quality of scan. But you get the idea for each 45 you get a bit of detailed background and comments, value and availability, with interesting label scans of some. And way it is written is not as per some dusty stock catalog, but your man offers more with his own views, compares with similar and so on. Main attention by myself was to the northern bit, but the others inc the modern are of interest especially as the modern covers a lot of "decent" 70s 45s, (which is more to my taste rather than some of the other "cutting edge" stuff called modern nowadays). Any gripes, nah not really, of course would have liked it to feature even more 45s, as in be like 2 inches thick, but all things considered with the quality, effort, and standard I feel the price and content are right. A suggestion that would work for me is a contents page, with each 45 listed, and in each forthcoming issue an index of all 45s featured and what issue and page, so in future when youre frantically searching for the info of that 45 someone is flogging, you can find it quick and easy, not like my current method of searching thru every mag you have and as always finding it in the last one you look at. And as the "All you need to know about .." mags advertised on telly say, "will build up to your own comprehesive reference libary"! Anyway not a lot more to be said, end of the day, found it worthwhile as in its informative, a lot of unknown info to me, enjoyable, always enjoy reading the background to these bits of black vinyl, artist info, label info, first played etc its all part of the buzz that get out of soul music, and a good reference. Highly recommended, am sure anyone who enjoys listening to rare soul will enjoy it no matter whats their background, and the final word by me is will be a addition to my must buy list. No need to take my word, here's another clip Contact details are after this the mag is £4.95 (includes p+p) or £5.95 overseas. Anglo-American, PO Box 4 Todmorden, Lancashire, OL14 6DA, England uk If want to pay by credit card email postmaster@raresoulvinyl.demon.co.uk At the moment the mag isnt featured on the publishers site but will be in future