Garethx

Hi Can anyone sell me a clean copy of Shirley Finney Everyday People / What The World Needs Now Jas 515 Issue or demo, minimum VG+ with clean labels TIA for any leads gareth

The CD of "Goldwax Collection" Volume 1 featuring Spencer Wiggins "Let's Talk It Over" appears to resemble a very shoddy bootleg. I've never seen a copy with higher production values so maybe that's just the way it was. The vinyl of "Volume 2" is of superb quality with fairly nice artwork, OBI and lyric sheet: pretty typical of the Vivid Sound releases of the time. For what it's worth I marginally prefer the no horns - no backing singers version of Willie Walker myself but maybe that's because it is the one I heard first.

An early incarnation of The Natural Four. Good record but doesn't seem to command the same sort of high price that it once did.

Isn't there a Precious Three on ebay at the moment? That Donald Thomas is a brilliant record. Really regret not getting Don's own copy via Tommy Potts a few years ago. Had no idea how scarce it would turn out to be.

It's not British.

The flip of the Twinight and Chosen Few cut is another great ballad titled "You're Being Unfair" / "You Been Unfair" respectively. Love all four sides personally. Both versions of Lift This Hurt are essential Chicago soul with blistering vocals from Elvin.

Hi Rob In addition I have: 014 Marsha Wilson "Whole Lotta Woman" / "O.D. Blues (Good Loving Man)" (the same artist as on the great Quadrastone 45?) Also the Las Vegas subsidiary: LV-0100 Fantastic Mainstream "Play That Funky Style Black Man" / "Let's Be Friends"

I wouldn't say it was 'rare' exactly, but it's not common either. I don't have a spare at the moment, and I've never seen an issue, but think about £75 would be a reasonable price for the DJ copy. Good luck in your search.

Yes, you're right Dave. It's "The Joneses" which is the re-promoted demo, probably 'cos "Chop Down That Old Tree" sounds like the worst record the Partridge Family never made. I picked up copies of both demos and the issue from the same seller in Florida in one go a few years back. Six dollars for the lot.

One of the demos has words to the effect of 'DJ re-service' on it. I'll have to check later but I think it's the dreadful 'Oak Tree' one which has this: probably seen by the brass at Epic/Columbia as having more potential on pop radio than "Keeping Up With The Joneses".

I'd say £30 was entirely reasonable for a playable copy Dave. The upper figure would be for a minter. Does anyone know if this is getting spins anywhere at the moment?

Goes without saying that the issue is far more difficult to find than the DJ copies. However unless there's any great recent demand for the dance side I'd price this at around £40-50: it's not one of the rarer Epic issues such as Bill Coday, Billy Proctor or Sonny Munro.

"Get that cab out Arbon!"

Sean I would defend your right to give this record the thumbs down 'til my dying day, but I'm convinced that its over-exposure is at least a part of the problem.

Sometimes the very rare records are subject to over-exposure and this is probably the case with FS. Had there been enough copies around to make this a hundred quid sound we wouldn't hear it as much, but I maintain that it's more than competent small-label soul which shows real talent in the group line-up.

^ I agree. Knocking this record is an example of reverse snobbery. The falsetto vocal and flugel horn are distinctive and, to my ears at least, pretty accomplished. Taking monetary value out of the equation this is a good record. Not the greatest record ever made, certainly, but still far more than adequate.

Roscoe Robinson on Gerri?

Those listed on gemm are re-pressings by the Eccentric Soul people. I maintain that the original of this is tricky to pick up these days. Won't necessarily be expensive, but quite tough to find. A wonderful record used as backing music in season three of Mad Men no less. Edit: just noticed a couple of copies on popsike for a couple of hundred dollars. I would say these are isolated examples and it should be possible to pick it up a bit cheaper than that. With regards to the recent repress they are very easy to identify as they are on a facsimile of the typical 70s red/black Twinight logo. The original is on a yellow Twilight 102 label.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Nationalise the scene. Licenses for deejays. Regular refresher courses for punters. Kitemarks for events.

Concept was a strange label. Don't know for sure but it possibly has a connection to the people behind Merben. To me each use of the Cody Michaels backing track is poor and the kind of thing that gives Northern Soul a bad name to outsiders but I am a fan of the Richie Cee 45 on the label "Games Too Cold Blues", which is a wonderfully orchestrated Philly ballad. Mr Cee himself isn't the greatest singer in the world (like his labelmates) and there are distinctly dodgy vocal moments but the overall effect is tremendous. I think deep soul aficionados Pat Biggerstaff or Les Fisher have posted it in Refosoul in the past.

As Paul says above these were bootlegged for the Dutch deep soul market of the 70s/80s. Looking at the typesetting above I'd say this was manufactured towards the end of the 80s. It's pertinent to ask why they would choose to bootleg such relatively easily available titles but you must remember that not everyone interested in that music was a 'record collector' in the sense that we would understand it: many just wanted the sound and weren't fussed about owning the original artefact. Rather than source the original label 45 from the pages of Goldmine or the lists of the likes of John Anderson there was a ready-made market for cheap and plentiful soul oldies in the record shops of Holland. I was amazed at the amount of soul in Amsterdam record shops when I first visited in the 80s. While there were lots of these strange looking bootlegs of the more popular titles there were also a lot of obscure deep soul originals and maybe more interestingly, really convincing counterfeits of rarities like Ralph 'Soul' Jackson on Sounds of Birmingham. I'm convinced the latter was an example of an attempt to defraud the few collectors prepared to pay lots for certain rare originals.

The link to the 'feeder' clubs seems to have been broken. The mod scene in London just doesn't seem to provide the raw recruits for the soul scene any more. Maybe this is an avenue that can be explored in some way: maybe through marketing and also by having one of more suitable deejays from that scene as an occasional guest.

I think it could possibly help things a lot if Ady were to get the odd guest slot at other major allnighters. He tends to sometimes under-rate his own record-finding and deejaying capabilites. While a lot of the plaudits rightly fall to Butch it's worth bearing in mind that Ady himself is still turning up more great and exclusive rare soul tracks than most out there. Playing the likes 'Torture' and 'The Magic Touch' at selected other venues in the 80s gave the 100 Club a huge credibility boost when when it was possibly still considered to be outside the mainstream Northern scene of the time. As we've discussed ad infinitum on here it now takes ages to break a tune nationally these days. Maybe if some of his newer exclusive discoveries were given an outing at another venue 'on tour' as it were it might convince travellers to start making the journey to the 100 Club itself. Marketing is important and this is a vital part of marketing to the soul scene if you ask me. Having said all that I'm convinced that the major issue is one of changing demographics. London can scarcely support a viable medium sized bi-monthly soul night at the moment. A nighter every month which needs a couple of hundred paying customers to remain on an even keel is a stretch when times are tight and the competition both in the other regions and internationally is stronger than at many times in the past. The increase in the number of weekenders has had a massive impact on nighter-going in my opinion. From spring to autumn it's possible to attend a weekender somewhere in the world (even Brooklyn!) practically every fortnight. The relative comfort offered by the weekender format is attractive to an aging soul scene. Monthly nighters have suffered as a consequence.

The smoking ban has hit the Club really hard too. At any one time there are seemingly dozens of people on the Oxford Street pavement smoking and socialising who would once have been doing so inside while actually listening to the music. The atmosphere inside has definitely suffered as a result. Other venues are luckier in having outside space which is a more integral part of the venue. I realise that this is something completely beyond Ady's control, but it has had a significant and unforseen consequence.

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