Missing Link

I can't believe nobody's mentioned Earl Wright - Thumb a Ride. I remember this being massive there even though it was discovered before Wigan began. I can hear the handclaps now - ooh nostalgia ain't what it used to be.......

That's weird - I was watching disc 3 of SWONS this morning whilst having breakfast (as you do) and there was a 'filler' section showing various scenes driving in Chicago and New York with this cracking instrumental playing and I thought "I wonder what that one is - it's really good?". I then played 'West Coast Shingaling' and there it was! Brilliant stuff - whatever happened to instrumentals?

And mine. Here's a few more release dates for the obsessives: 5444 TEDDY PENDERGRASS 22nd July 1977 6790 JERRY BUTLER 17th November 1978 7843 JONES GIRLS 14th September 1979 8840 JEAN CARN 25TH July 1980

Trouble is it's such a long time ago that I have great difficulty in remembering where I actually went and when. Do know that I went to Yate on the night Martha Reeves was at the Casino which, in hindsight, was a big mistake. Feel lucky to have seen Jackie Wilson just before he had his stroke in '75.

Pete's got the correct answer. They also used to snip the corners off LP sleeves (much thicker card than in the UK) for the same reason.

Just been looking through a few old diaries (how sad is that?) and came up with a few dates for acts I went to see at the Casino: Edwin Starr Sun 8th December 1974 Jackie Wilson Sun 15th June 1975 Exciters Sun 31st August 1975 Seem to remember seeing Tommy Hunt but don't have a record of when. Another date that I didn't attend was: Martha Reeves Sun 12th February 1978. According to Dave Shaw's 'Casino' book there were loads of acts that appeared at the Casino including:R.Dean Taylor, The Elgins, Junior Walker, The Marvelettes, Major Lance, Detroit Emeralds, Archie Bell & the Drells, Gloria Jones and Betty Wright.

Just found another one on a related label that might be of interest: TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia) label from 1980 which has a PIR number: 9501 MFSB MYSTERIES OF THE WORLD/ MANHATTAN SKYLINE This is a purple label with PIR green logo and I seem to remember there being more on this offshoot.

A few more to add to the list (source: Chris Savory's 'UK Black Music 45s 1950-1980'). 2211 O'JAYS BACKSTABBERS/ 4191 ARCHIE BELL SOUL CITY WALK/ LET'S GROOVE 4203 O'JAYS LOVE TRAIN/ I LOVE MUSIC 4882 O'JAYS BACKSTABBERS/ LOVE TRAIN 4888 MFSB TSOP/ SEXY 4891 PEOPLE'S CHOICE DO IT ANY WAY YOU WANNA/ HERE WE GO AGAIN (DISCO DOUBLES) 5051 JEAN CARN FREE LOVE/ WHERE DID YOU EVER GO 5179 ARCHIE BELL EVERYBODY HAVE A GOOD TIME/ I BET I CAN DO THAT DNCE YOU'RE DOIN' 5444 TEDDY PENDERGRASS I DON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE/ EASY, EASY, GOT TO TAKE IT EASY 5969 THREE DEGREES WHEN WILL I SEE YOU AGAIN/ DIRTY OL' MAN 6093 O'JAYS I LOVE MUSIC PT. 1/ LOVE TRAIN 7064 THREE DEGREES TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOURSELF/ IF AND WHEN 7728 FRANTIQUE STRUT YOUR FUNKY STUFF/ GETTING SERIOUS 7740 TEDDY PENDERGRASS TURN OFF THE LIGHTS/ IF YOU KNOW LIKE I KNOW 7842 ARCHIE BELL STRATEGY/ WE GOT 'EM DANCING 7998 FRANTIQUE NIGHT PEOPLE THESE DAYS/ DISCO DANCER 8203 O'JAYS FOREVER MINE/ GET ON OUT AND PARTY 8858 THREE DEGREES TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOURSELF/ WHEN WILL I SEE YOU AGAIN 8864 O'JAYS LOVE TRAIN/ BACKSTABBERS 8865 BILLY PAUL ME AND MRS JONES/ LET 'EM IN 8866 LOU RAWLS YOU'LL NEVER FIND ANOTHER LOVE/ LADY LOVE 8867 HAROLD MELVIN DON'T LEAVE ME THIS WAY/ IF YOU DON'T KNOW ME BY NOW 8869 O'JAYS I LOVE MUSIC/ USED TO BE MY GIRL 8871 MCFADDEN & WHITEHEAD AIN'T NO STOPPING US NOW/ DO YOU WANT TO DANCE 8907 STYLISTICS HURRY UP THIS WAY AGAIN/ IT STARTED OUT 8928 O'JAYS GIRL, DON'T LET IT GET YOU DOWN 8964 MCFADDEN & WHITEHEAD I HEARD IT IN A LOVE SONG/ ALWAYS ROOM FOR ONE MORE I can only substantiate 4891 & 5444

Is this the one you mean? Willie Tee doing a medley of Teasin' You, Walking Up A One Way Street and Thank You John.

That's exactly the same as my copy bought from Soul Bowl way back and according to JM's bootleg guide is an original. The pressing is supposed to have a poorly copied gloss finish label.

In an ideal world there would be existing footage from the 60s,70s and beyond of all our favourite singers singing the Northern Soul 'monsters' but it has to be remembered that film and videotape were very expensive (particularly in the '60s - hence the wiping of many BBC television series including early Dr Who) and most of the singers were not 'stars' so extremely unlikely to ever appear on film. We are so used to the fact that anyone can now make films in the 'You Tube' generation with a camcorder which costs very little but back then this was not possible so Ian decided to do the next best thing and film as many Northern Soul singers as he possibly could. For this alone he deserves to be congratulated not scorned. The tape/ DVD is a very valuable document of Northern Soul music. I'm sure if footage had existed then he would have sought it out and compiled a documentary. I found a lot of the SWONS tape quite hard to watch because of the 'gimmicky' and very distracting effects and am therefore looking forward to seeing the new edits - the 'You Tube' clips have been very good. As far as the re-recordings go - would not the original recordings have sounded similar if they had had the same recording equipment as now? The implications of copyright have already been explained so no matter how much it would be desirable to have the original recordings it was not possible.

Nearly as wet as that.

You may find this useful: https://www.urbandictionary.com/

Don't know - I've only got the 12" so I can't compare. It needs someone who has both to provide the answer.

Just played it and compared to the refosoul version - you're probably right that it isn't any more disco - just got a long instrumental bit in the middle. As far as I can remember Gentleman and Their Ladies was the top side though it was a long time ago so I might be wrong on that too.

From my recollection it was one of the earliest 12" singles to come from the US which I bought when it came out. I listened to it again recently after hearing the single at a local soul night and it is definitely more of a 'disco' mix than the 7".

I've liked this record since I picked it up about 30 years ago but I don't think it was ever played anywhere (it was a little too funky for the early 70s and not uptempo enough). As to value - JM has a WD on his website for £10.

Previous thread can be found here: /Ootp-La...tml&hl=ootp Rather surprisingly a label listing appears in JM's UK price guide considering that it is purely a bootleg label.

There was a discussion a while ago on the first £100 record and the first £1000 record which might be relevant: /100-Rec...hes#entry643764

All the scans so far have been US so I thought I'd throw in a rather nice UK design from the early 80s.

Here's a scan of the Producers and a few of my favourites from the 70s. Casablanca, Chocolate City and Mowest are among my other favourites.

There was a thread about Jethro quite recently: Might explain what he's been up to.

Surprisingly Shane Meadows has already made a film called 'Northern Soul' in 2004! It isn't, however, about our favourite music but about a lonely man obsessed with American wrestling (see Shane's web site: https://shanemeadows.co.uk/ under the Shorts drop-down menu).

Toni Smith.

Tim Brown advertises soul packs on his web site: https://www.raresoulvinyl.co.uk/ Haven't bought one so I've no idea if they're any good or not.