macca

Len, the nail I was referring to was in the coffin of the baggy trouser look.

You're right that the majority were in bags still in 1978, which is when Spencers probably hit their peak in terms of business. I think the punk thing and also the jazzfunk thing helped bring about the change. I remember wearing straight leg cords and baseball boots as early as late 77 but changed to baggies when I got to the nighter in question. Wasn't brave enough! By late 78 I wore cords all night. People still gave you funny looks though. As you say the Mod thing was the final nail...

Say what you want Heisenberg, there's no single school of thought on here. You're also not the only one who was underwhelmed by the record when they first heard it, 30 odd years ago or last week. It was also idiotic of the guy to single out your nationality, but there you go...

Great, great record. We also know them as The Volcanos, right

The problem is people's lack of imagination once again. Why hand over a hard earned shekel when you can make your own tat? In one of my gallery pics I'm wearing a lapel badge I'd crafted myself Valerie Singleton fashion. This was late 1977, Wigan Casino, post TV cameras, so definitely not underground. I'd taken a Stanley knife to me sister's Four Tops Live At The Roostertail album, removing the Tamla Motown logo in the process. I then fixed that to a piece of cardboard with bostick and put a small safety pin on the back with sticky backed plastic et voila. If I'd been at Prestatyn I'd have had those tables over, Jesus in the temple fashion. Finally what does bread and butter Soulie mean? Is that all the impoverished bastards had to eat of a Wednesday night during the three day week up north? You be hard pushed to define a scene as anything but "underground" in the pre-Wigan period, I'd have said. Someone from Fylde or St. Helens that went to the Mecca, VaVa's, Catacombs, Up The Junction etc weren't exactly mainstream Soul fans, were they?

Those tunes were about as divisive for many folk as the 70s newies were. They were deemed ok only by the folk that played them or danced to them, and you can apply that to both camps.

Stemmons Express is about the only saveable track in that lot for me. Though I prefer The Precisions these days, it was Stemmons Express I heard first. Peggy March and Jackie Trent were the straw that broke the camel's back for me... I didn't go back to Wigan till mid 1980... Trouble was, you couldn't escape it anywhere else either. It was either the Funk room or the record room...

One of the best sides EVER, never in the field of human endeavor has so much been owed by so many to so few etc...

Daft hypothetical question, but given the opportunity to be beamed down into the Twisted Wheel Brazenose St in 1964, how many of us would really 'dig' the playlists there? I can listen to Dimples at home but my own concept of what it is "Northern" is probably quite narrowly defined and limited to what I really 'dug' at nighters I attended from 74 to 84 and that includes the 70s classics and Stafford era tempo change stuff. Charles Sheffield isn't a Northern record to my ears yet The Enchantments "Im In Love With Your Daughter" and Bud Harper "Wherever You Were" are. My judgement may be fooked but that's just the way I perceive them. I understand the It's Northern if it's played at a Northern event argument, but my listening prejudices sort of get in the way. We all have different ears.

You beat me to it... Nobody would doubt those dancers were 'real soul people', would they? They lived and breathed it.. and then appeared on TOTP. Who cares? It was all so long ago. 1975 is not 2014... As Alison says, when the day shift clocks on tomorrow, there'll be much foaming at the mouth and garment tearing...

A slightly inflated estimate, it seems. 50 quid then?

I just acquired for what seems like a good deal (40 quid) a promo, same song both sides, stereo/mono, of the above. JM only lists the stock copy, and for a 100 quid. What sort of value are we talking for a mintish dj copy, please?

I echo Soustu's words. Very often it's at home, when you're listening to stuff on random mode (?) on the Ipod. You might be listening to Tom Waits or whoever then suddenly those opening piano chords of Sweet Lover by Fortson & Scott hit you and move you close to tears. This music never fails to grab you emotionally...

It survives in the expression 'ill gotten gains', something that describes perfectly the European polítical class of today. ;-)

That reads like one of those infamous "Macca-reputedly Ian Levine/James Trouble" comments from your old site. He's not on the warpath again, is he?

plus Jay Traynor while they build up confidence...

And if you give them Ben Zine they'll do it spontaneously without prompting of any kind...

If you'd hung on until at least December of that year, possibly January of the following, you'd have witnessed the spontaneous eruption of applause to Looking For You in the main hall at Wigan. We've since had it ratified at branch level, after going through the machinery of negotiation. Garnett Mimms is to blame. Documentary evidence to support this claim can be provided on request. I resisted applauding at first but was soon sucked into the vortex...

Looks like a great venue too, round like our bootiful RAH.

Thanks Len. Pity it's 350 quid in JM's guide. :-( The Betty Lou & Bobby Adams is worse, at 850 quid. Are they really that scarce? New records to me. I'd practically left the scene by 1985 when this superb video was recorded.

Fabulous Wiggy. The picture quality is amazing and the music even more so. How good do Betty Lou & Bobby Adams and The Showmen sound!? Totally transported. I thank you! Mac p.s. What's the Latin sounding track in Baz's set? Reminded me of Manny Corchado.

Do it to it, baby, that's what I say. Was there ever a Soul artist that didn't clap whilst performing? They all did, Major Lance especially... Happy new year chaps!

Thanks chaps. I'm on the look out...

I've seen a VG UK Motown demo copy listed on here for 120 quid. Does that mean 200+ for a minter? Anyone know what a fair price for an EX/M- UK issue would be?

The revivalists have been with us for more than 35 years via oldies rooms/niters. There have always been people who are unreceptive to new sounds, you'd find them dancing to The Valentines, The Incredibles, Chubby Checker and Jason Knight in a darkened room at St. Ives while the main hall was rammed to the likes of Billy Arnell, Milton Wright, Chris Cerf, Herbert Hunter etc. They swore too that the old classics were superior to the new stuff and in some cases they were right, in other cases they were manifestly wrong, in my opinion... Amazing how we still bang on about it after all these years though...