macca

U2 filmed him for Rattle & Hum.

I agree with you, a great record, but it was a big chart hit which they even performed live on prime time TV in the US at the time of its release. My point was that that NS venues at the time, especially Wigan, were not usually given to playing stuff like that for being considered too commercial and in conflict with the rare and obscure ethos of the scene. The oldies allnighters that started up around 76 (?) undermined that, I think. Otherwise we definitely wouldn't have heard Sam Cooke's Another Saturday Night or even Nowhere To Run by Martha & The Vandellas at an all-nighter.

I just remember oldies being used to describe records from another era, recent or distant, as opposed to newies, whether 60s discoveries or out and out funk/disco releases around 75/76. There's a tape of Sam at St.Ives on Youtube, 1977, where he introduces Rosemary What Happened as a requested 'oldie'. I wouldn't attribute it to Wigan promoting itself...

I had thought of betty fikes, but it never has been a played out oldie so I'll have to get me thinkin' cap on again...

Maybe it was that bit about "I sit and wonder/but I don't understand/ why folks won't reach out/ and give a poor boy a helping hand"... then he hits us with his having the answer, that we must love one another, not like a sweetheart, but like a brother, Americans living out the true meaning of their creed etc... I get to do some serious equating at times.Even surprise meself. I've heard that PJ Proby version too and quite like it.

I can't see why someone would pooh-pooh (general melchett voice) the idle few. The song is epic. The lyrics speak volumes too, probably released around 68 while the ghettoes were aflame. and the vocal is black to my ears. Knocking a record like that is plain daft. they ought to have a word with themselves.

Definitely an oldies allnighter. Seems strange, looking back, to see how 'commercial' tunes like Dance To The Music and Uptight were being lapped up. My Weakness Is You sounds bloody good though. :-)

Ian Levine's team filmed him for The Strange World of Northern Soul and Strange Change from those sessions is on Youtube.

100% agree with Dave on HTG. It was one of those sounds I'd make a B-line for the dancefloor for. Strange Change had a massive impact on me when I first heard it around 1977-8. There's been so very few of those down years... RIP Herb.

So, we can take it as 'gospel' now that all Arctic releases featuring black lettering are reissues/boots?

Polk Salad Annie by TJW was big in the early 80s. I saw them frug to it like lemmings at Leicester Oddfellows around 1984.

Good call!

S'truth. And Clayton wasn't aware of its dodgy provenance when he acquired the record then, Mick? That copy should surely have been rightfully returned to you. Things you hear.

I think it's fair to say that they're (the Larry Santos 45s) sitting in hundreds of collections across the country, like so many of these 'bonafide' classics. If those copies began to circulate again, the price tag would have to come down, surely? Someone recently told me Willie & The Mighty Magnificents 'Funky Eight Corners' had doubled its value in the last year or two because it had been 'activated' by Soul Sam and was now more sought after than it had been previously. So what cost 30-40 before is now costing 60-80, if one wants to pay that, of course. Supply + demand = capitalism etc...

How did we get from splits, backdrops and highkicks to dubes and chewing gum under tables. SS never ceases to amaze!

I can think of far worse records in the 'played and accepted' category you mention, Nick. I wouldn't say it's devoid of Soul either. The band behind him sounds like any Detroit inspired outfit from the period to me. His vocal isn't exactly R&R either, in my opinion. In fact I can hear "Whole Lot A Shakin' In My Heart" in the overall sound of the record. Funny how we can all perceive these records differently, isn't it? Devoid of Soul is Lou Roberts or Trade Martin. ;-)

Richard Temple was played first at the Cats, I think. How fitting...

Bobby Paris was in a really bad way when they found him for TSWONS, poor bugger. I wonder what he was like in his prime though. Can't deny that his records have been huge on the scene, going right back to the early era. PER-SO-NA_LLY used get my teenage feet going though, and of course we're told by the old sages that that was no need for a shit filter at Hose Street, unlike that dump in Station Road. What street was the Cats based in?

It's funny you should say that. I was blissfully happy in my first relationship when these records were big, so the records don't remind me of anything horrible in that sense. I seem to remember this mid to late1978 period as a period of change in the scene I was familiar with - a new dance style, new shoes (polyveldts), all the british label blue eyed soul productions being played by keith minshull and nev wherry, and worst of all, a lot of people 'experimenting' with barbiturates. 1975-77 were wonderful (to me) in comparison. :-)

Words can't describe how much I loathed and loath these records, all huge in their day. I'd have to narrow it down to six (yes, I know it was 3)... Paul Anka - When We Get There Peggy March - If You Loved Me Don Ray - Born A Loser Cobblestone - Trick Me Treat Me Ben Zine - Village Of Tears Lou Roberts - Ten To One

If you take a glance at any phoenix soul club all-nighter (the wirrina peterborough) poster from 1975 you'll see the home team calling themselves spena (gary spencer), smudge (andy smith) and jonah (steve jones), pk& biffo (pete & dave mindem the promoters) and paul donnelly, who bravely went as himself. that's quite an array of aliases, ain't it?

Went once. Think I heard Something New To Do for the first time there.

We're all 'opinioning' here Benji. I wouldn't be as conceited as to present mine as incontestable so you can question them as much as you like, in fact I welcome it, mate. My opinion on Butch is entirely subjective. I like his style, I like his boundary pushing across the different genres, not just Northern Soul, something that all DJs should aspire to, again in my opinion. However, I am aware that one man's meat is another man's poison and that opinions are like colours in that there are a lot of them. ;-)

Ian Levine has described on many occasions the scene in the Blackpool flat upon returning from Miami with the famous 1973 charity store haul. He, Les Cokell and Colin Curtis more or less divided the records into three piles - hits, misses and maybes. I can't imagine Ian Levine continually deferring to Colin and Les in this matter. He believed in the music as much as they did and evidently fought his corner as only he does on specific records. He was also introducing stuff like Rose Batiste to Rob Bellars at the Wheel in its final year, was he not? I can't imagine him getting some kind of sage's wise nod off Colin before doing so. Regards the topic, Butch is the numero uno without question.

The Del Reys - Destination Unknown is quite trippy too...