Garethx

That's probably the most desirable format, the MGM-pressed demo.

It was bootlegged for the drug-fuelled elite. You can tell this because it has a white label.

The bootleg has the instrumental of "Ain't Got The Love" on the flip, titled "Ambassadors Theme". As far as I know there is no boot of "Ain't…" c/w "Music".

The one above is a genuine Monarch-pressed demo. Quite a hard-to-find variant.

Stafford created a buzz. The things that went on there caused a stir. As people have pointed out other venues which ran at the same time had similar numbers through the door, but Stafford was the venue everyone talked about. Certain figures were evangelical about it–not necessarily the promoters themselves–and it was the talk of the scene. That was down to the characters involved. Think how passionate Pete Lawson and others were about some of what was going on there. When doing the book one of the factors I used to decide whether to focus on a particular venue was whether you saw the name against records on lists: "Big at the Wheel", "Torch classic", "Mecca secret sound" or whatever. For whatever reason Stafford was the place in the 80s which got this reputation, even though many of the records played there had been tried at other venues. I think of Tony Galla or Tommy Navarro and know that Keb and Guy played records like these at other venues before they ever got on at Stafford. Pat Brady was obviously doing everywhere, yet it's Stafford that we associate his big sounds with. We seldom see "Morecambe classic" or "Huge at Hinckley" to anything like the same degree, although those venues were popular too. Branding, whether conscious or not, plays a big part in that.

Not even a patch on other pop monsters like Vivian Carol.

I think if you're in the middle of the scene–promoting, collecting, DJing, or just dancing–it's always exciting. That's its strength but also maybe a weakness. It's easy to become myopic. Looking at the bigger picture and trying to pick out what was momentous, or of lasting cultural value can be more difficult. The book was really written for a wider audience, as it had to be. It was published by the biggest publisher in the world. The focus was to be a tie-in with the film and the hope was that the film would introduce people to NS. I hope that didn't mean a dumbing down. I tried to write it for people who had a wider interest in music and cultural history. It was written in a hurry (less than two months from start to finish) so the list of people I could interview was limited. I think there is scope for a more intimate portrayal of the scene, for consumption within the scene alone. That would be more comprehensive and more nuanced, but it will take a hell of a lot longer to research and write.

In a word Dave, branding.

What you say is true Chalks, but none of those venues were as ambitious, numbers-wise, as Stafford had been. That's why I think of it as a kind of cut-off point. The sounds could become big, word of mouth things to an in-crowd, but how many have truly permeated the bigger consciousness of the scene (if such a thing has existed)? A load of people still don't recognise The Mello Souls for chrissakes!

The structural changes came maybe towards the end of the 1990s. Big weekenders, the returnee phenomenon, the internet, international pockets of Northern appreciation etc.

I think it's fair to say that the clubs of the 80s and 90s didn't really do anything structurally different from what had gone before. The form and format of the scene and the associated rituals and ethics evolved in the preceding decades. That's the major issue in documenting the post-Wigan years. The roots and the evolution are very interesting. Finding something structural to say about the scene post-'85 is difficult. It just becomes a list of venues, records and DJs. Yes, there will be great anecdotes on the social side of things, but that's for a different book really. Obviously there were dozens of allnighters in these years, tens of thousands of punters and hundreds of DJs. Ranking the importance of those clubs and jocks will always be subjective. From my point of view in writing the book one thing became apparent. By the time Stafford closed it was becoming very difficult to run a big allnighter where the main musical diet was composed of newly-discovered records of whatever vintage. At that point–1985-86–the scene fragmented and became based very much on parochial or local scenes again. Of course people travelled, but not in the way they had done to the big 1970s allnighters: i.e. regularly and fervently in large numbers. A critical point in the musical timeline was when the balance between Oldies and Newies became weighted overwhelmingly in favour of the former. After Stafford closed it became unusual to attend a venue where each DJ exclusively played sets of newly-discovered NS records. Yes, great records were still found (and continue to be 'till this day), but the idea of one central venue based on newies where the bulk of the scene congregates in very large numbers on a regular basis was pretty much gone forever. Maybe the Torch and the Casino were exceptions in the historical timeline, not the norm. Rare Soul started in dingy cellar-type clubs, so maybe the concept of a 2,000 capacity venue in a huge, high-ceilinged ballroom was the anomaly. Food for thought.

That combination is the first lacquer cut on one side, the fourth of the b-side track on the other. The mastering studio would typically cut a number of lacquers at one time. Each had a unique code. Bear in mind that this coding system bears no real relation to the order in which the lacquers might be used to make metal parts.

Hi Robb You're right. Simple geography would dictate that. For those who are interested here's a link to the 45 Cat subject on Columbia Custom presses: https://www.45cat.com/45_forum_topic_view.php?ps=1&t=3804 So many weird anomalies that it's impossible to make hard and fast judgements about how these operations actually ran. Fascinated to see the ZTSC presses of things like "Fingertips" and "Way Over There". As far as ascertaining how to tell where your Columbia pressed 45s came from, the Pitman 45s often have a very faint machined P to the right of the matrix. Santa Maria 45s sometimes have a mark which looks like a hand drawn Question Mark in reverse at the same position. Sometimes this mark is on its side. My copy of Edwin Starr's "S.O.S." c/w "I Have Faith In You" has this mark. ZTSC-107499-1F stamped on SOS side, ZTSC-107549-1 (no letter code) etched–as opposed to stamped–on the IHFIY side.

Not strictly the case. ZTSC was Columbia's code for custom presses–i.e. for outside clients–out of their Chicago office. They had no pressing plant there. The mastering studio was in Chicago, but the 45s mastered there could be cut at any of their plants. Similarly Nashville was an office/mastering studio but not a pressing plant. The Columbia pressing plants in the mid '60s were Pitman, NJ; Terra Haute, IN, Santa Maria, CA. Early '60s included a Bridgeport CT plant and a Hollywood CA plant. These ran alongside the others for a time before they were closed or sold on.

I take your point Dave, but it helps to think about it in these terms: you make the first lacquer 1-A. It goes into a box and gets sent to California; you make the second lacquer, 1-B. It goes into a box and gets sent to Indiana etc. This happens at the first lacquer cutting. The time delay between 1-A and 1-L is therefore negligible. L does not 'replace' A: it's simultaneous. Successive lacquers, replacing the first for whatever reason, become 2-A, 2-B etc. The A-L codes are not location specific at all. 2 is the second pressing. This may be from the first tape, but with each successive lacquer cutting the tape box gets the numeral superimposed. On Columbia albums there are plant specific codes. P for Pittman, New Jersey, S for Santa Maria, California, T for Terra Haute, Indiana etc. These are on the run outs, and occasionally on the back of the sleeve.

With Columbia pressings A to D doesn't denote successive lacquers. That would be–for example–1A to 4A. The A to D are different location codes for the individual parts, but the letter codes do not relate to specific plant locations. A is not always–for example–Terra Haute, B is not always Nashville etc. That's why you can have a 45 with a 1A per one side and a 1E on the other.

Interesting that this still has legs. For all the talk of funky newies etc. this type of sound still connects with a lot of people.

^ Two great choices. Even though the Darrell Banks follows the line of the traditional soul LP up to that point (a few covers etc) it has a really unified sound. It's immaculately played and arranged and the singing is absolutely spellbinding. The Impressions' is probably their most complete LP. Freddie Hughes on Wand is a great album all the way through and The Many Grooves of Barbara Lewis is perfect in its execution and sequencing. All the Wilson Pickett LPs on Atlantic feature top class moments. All are essential despite being occasionally uneven in terms of the material. Favourite is possibly The Midnight Mover as it has 'Trust In Me' and 'It's A Groove' on it. Would be far higher in my all-time list if it didn't have to fall back on a couple early singles as filler (not that they're bad tracks at all, just available elsewhere).

From the photo archive of Norman Rogers. He has a mind-blowing collection of photos of the early scene: Kettering, Rushden and loads more from around there plus the best pictures from The Wheel I've ever seen. It would make a wonderful coffee table book for anybody with more than a passing interest in youth culture.

Some great 70s jazz on the label. The Visitors album is mind-blowing. Not to be confused with the TRC or Dakar groups. Some interesting singer-songwriter stuff too.

Interesting label, Cobblestone…

Pete, Kegsy, Ian. I accept all those points. My comments were a reaction to the idea put forward here and elsewhere that the 80s scene was largely irrelevant to the point of not being worthy of a mention. It didn't feel like that at the time. There's no doubt that in the mid 70s the scene went overground spectacularly but briefly. I wouldn't want to turn this into a pissing contest between the respective decades because that's impossible to do. The criteria for those judgements are almost entirely subjective. To me there is a continuous story. Peaks and troughs of popularity, dynamism, innovation. The narrative proposed by Friday's documentary was one where there was a total hiatus of interest for thirty odd years after the closure of Wigan–which was simply not the case.

Young people continued to join the scene in the 80s. But also bear in mind that even in the 1970s NS was already different to 'youth cults' as we understand them in that there were people who'd done The Wheel etc. and had stayed aboard. The age range was relatively broad even in, say, 1975.

Again Paul, I'd have to disagree with some of that. Northern was never the youth cult of the 70s in those terms. It was always far more underground than that, minuscule in comparison to Skinhead at the start and end of the decade, football violence throughout the decade, patchouli-swilling hippies, greatcoat wearing Prog fans, Peter Skellern fans, Glam Rockers, proto-punks, punks, post-punks, neo-punks etc. etc. It's always been practically invisible according to yardsticks like sheer numbers, media visibility, chart exposure, a coherent external literature.

That's a deeply flawed analysis Paul. I'm 47 and started going in '82-'83. There were lots of people my age who got into it at the same time via various routes, the most common seems to have been the Mod revival. I wasn't aware of anything dying on its arse. There was a very vibrant scene and you had a great time every time you went out. A lot of people my age got into collecting records straight away and really threw themselves into it. Maybe that's different from the so-called heyday of the mid 70s where many attended clubs occasionally but didn't necessarily let it rule their lives. Collecting the big oldies honestly didn't seem like an attractive option at the time because there were always more newies to chase: the true lifeblood of the scene. That point was hammered into me constantly as an 'apprentice'. The values of the scene in the early '80s were a return to the scene's roots: away from the bloated excesses of the '70s. That's genuinely the way we saw it at the time. Yes, genuine classics were harder to find: how could they not be? Any scene based around music of even the recent past faces a contraction of the supply of the raw material. Thankfully some people never stopped looking. The big problem with the 1980s scene was Promoter Wars. Some unscrupulous capitalists trying to fill the vacuum left by Wigan and grind other promoters into the dust. Often-vicious venue clashing accounted for the lower attendances at individual venues. I am convinced there was just as big a nationwide scene. The calls for a separate volume on the post-Wigan years sound suspiciously like backtracking to me. It doesn't need that. It is a continuum, one that stretches back a long time before Wigan ever opened its doors. There has been evolution at every step of the way if you're willing to look hard enough for it. Why do the BBC Music department continue to go to the well regarding Northern Soul? Because it's a genuinely compelling phenomenon and they (or any centralised media machine) have never been able to corral it, control it, influence or reflect it. Because of that they continue to press their noses to the window, drooling at something they can never truly get close to.