macca

There's an awesome clip of them in action in Belgium in 1965 doing I Can't Help Myself. Don't think we can post Youtube links, can we? It should be easy to find though. "The Four Tops 'sugar pie' in Belguim" ...

Lost for words. RIP Levi.

I think Aretha would have languished had she not been pushed so much by Jerry Wexler & co. She is undoubtedly a great singer, but sometimes I find her a bit tedious. She has the ability to blow me away or completely bore my gonads off. I prefer Etta James, if pushed. Linda is simply a huge, unsung talent. it's only fitting that people in the US are starting to discover that searing emotion. JCLML is flawless, hardly suprising considering George's involvement.

Christ Trevski, not keen on that at all. I prefer Johnny & June Carter Cash's version, but then I'm a lost case.

Darlin' is a great record. John B Sebastian, the lead singer in The Lovin' Spoonful, apart from being a top musician/session man in the 60's, had a great, soulful voice in my opinion. Daydream could have been written decades before the so-called Summer of Love.

Love this story about Elvis & JW. Personally I don't think his version of IGTSF has been bettered. The very talented Erma Franklin 'goes off on one' too much for my tastes & Soul Sam used to play another version of it, but I can't recall who the artist is right now. Anybody remember it? https://www.elvis.com.au/presley/jackie_wil...s_presley.shtml

I remember the Peterborough Fair for the big commercial hits of 1974 like 'Rock The Boat' The Hughes Corporation, 'Rock Your Baby' George McRae & 'Hang On In There' Johnny Bristol, and then the funkier stuff like 'Low Rider' & 'Me & Baby Brother' War. 14 years old & the old hormones going through the roof. Lots of clumsy fumblings & tongue thrashing under the arches, so to speak. I'd hate to go through all that again... :-)

I will gladly watch the film. I was nervous when Dickie was making Gandhi, but my fears were soon assuaged. The portrayal of a slight man in a loin cloth, rimless spectacles and flip-flops could have been open to all sorts of abuses.

It's only a film after all. If half of us spent a quarter of the time, energy & passion on something really worthwhile, I reckon the world would be a better place. People will vote with their feet, some will like it, some will loath it, end of story.

In the bogs with Trotter? Loafers? I hope you're not referring to the ingestion of illegal substances old boy. I've heard he's back in town. & thanks for clearing up it for me, though I still don't remember 'love machine', 'overture' or 'waldo roderick'. The mind is a strange thing. I obviously had a miracles filtering device surreptitiously installed in my frontal lobe.

I don't know why I was bunging the miracles in the same sack then. I attended all-nighters in the east anglia area from late 74 & throughout 75 & 76, with occasional visits up north to wigan. I just don't remember the miracles getting plays at the wirrina or st.ives. paul donnelly might be able to put me right on that front. I remember all the ian levine produced stuff, and things like barnaby bye, rodger collins, alpaca phase III etc, but NOT the miracles. maybe it's a case of selective memory. the mind is a funny old thing... M

s'truth. never would have thought. 'love machine' by the miracles was another of those, wasn't it? I see it on compilations now but associate it more with your 'annabelle's nitespot' than the all-nighter scene.

What's KC & The Sunshine Band doing on a Wigan CD? The Queen of Clubs was a chart hit & pub disco favourite, or am I missing something? M p.d. Holly St. James? Dire record in my opinion, but certainly had them flocking...

A nine year old PD watching Black Beauty? Pull the other! BB wasn't shown until at least 1972, when you were lurking in the dark alcoves of hose street.

Sublime poet in my opinion, so I can take his fibs on board. Winter In America is stunning.

Sorry Paul, I wasn't paying enough attention... :-)

the levine campaign was much earlier, 1977, I'd say... I don't remember a searling campaign, & I was much more tuned to moses dillard than larry atkins back then. are we going to see some cap in hand apologies then? :-) M

Thanks everybody. Thought the issue was a lot more common for some reason...

Well done Mark. If anything it serves as a reminder of just how grim things got musically. 1978 was a seriously naff year for me, but as others have said, you had to be there to grasp it. peggy march I used to find particularly irksome, but that said, the next record might have been something awesome like matt lucas. the references to trains that people have made, I reckon, are inseparable from the whole 'wigan experience'. the waiting on the platform of crewe station for that saturday night train up from euston. if there were football fans about, one just tried to blend in & hopefully not draw their attention, a fairly difficult thing considering the 'uniform' we were wearing, our bags, record boxes etc; those travelling from peterborough had to change in nuneaton as well. I used to find it was like going on holiday with my mum & dad to the coast, you were just itching to get there, every waiting room, train platform, overhead bridge was an ordeal. it's a great britain that has largely disappeared too, don't you think? only 30 years after WWII for gawd'd sake!! oh' for tardis, indeed!

I've always been of the opinion that a 'pressing', bought with your school dinner money/pocket money, was for home consumption, or the tuesday night 'soul session' at the local school youth club. when somebody, invariably older, say 18 & at work, turned up at the club with rarities, we were all gobsmacked, in awe even. but, it was the youth club, not a soul night with paid deejays. I admired these guys, lugging in their huge boxes and spinning the new discoveries, watching knowledgeable collectors sift through boxes, proudly having their piccie taken with their latest rare purchase etc, etc. There came a point, when I was 17 & in my first job that I could no longer justify buying pressings even for my bedroom. I started, very slowly at first, to build up a collection, spending most of the night in the record bars listening to the 'shop talk' of dealers like Mick Smith. I ventured into the main hall, where big name jocks spun the big sounds of the day. I began to see the 'pressing crowd' as either misguided fools or, I hate to say it, plain divs. You might call it an elitist position, but it was how I (and many others) felt at the time. To talk of the dancefloor as if it were some kind of mobile mass of jelly with no mind of its own is quite insulting in my opinion. Some dancers clearly care about OVO & some don't. I can't help thinking that NOVAP (can we use this acronym?) is a cop out. I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but I consider rare records to be a vital component of 'thing' we call Rare Soul. Does this make me an elitist/anorak/taliban etc, etc? I think not.

I know not Steve, I thought you might be able to tell me. The tom, dick and harry scenario hadn't quite kicked in when I made my move to spain in late 1991. The historical re-enactment societies were still very much limited to Marston Moor and Sedgehill. More's the pity...

I have to say James' use of the word dullard is frighteningly accurate, and serious note should be taken. It seems that the dullards originated in Boetia, in central Greece, not far from the ancient city of Thebes. These hapless people were so abjectly dim, that their sheer dullness apparently blighted crops, causing widespread famine and pestilence in the region. At the height of the Byzantine period, they had successfully established themselves in Philistia, earning themselves the derisory term of philistine, i.e. to be culturally ignorant in the extreme. By the middle ages they had successfully penetrated the upper echelons of the growing religious reform movements of 14th century, almost supplanting their far brighter comrades, the lollards, stern followers of John Wycliffe who gave us the first English translation of the Bible. Their mind-numbing determination took them across the Atlantic Ocean with the Pilgrim Fathers, where they infiltrated Boston high society in the 18th and 19th centuries. The secret of their power and success is their apparent insensibility to blows, bring a mallet down on their head and they'll respond with a smile and disarming compliment. James knows more than he's letting on.

ask dave moore, he's a known WD fetishist (?). :-) thanks for the info. shall we say 60-80 for a minter then, or more? I haven't seen it listed anywhere for ages, unlike the issues.

I've never actually felt the need to approach the decks. Such a hideous stench emanates from the speakers when a non-legit eddie parker is spun that it's evident it's not OV. under those circumstances one has no other option but to abandon the ubiquitous maple sprung floor and seek solace in a bottomless glass in the breathtakingly tacky lounge bar, replete with 'real leather' sofas.