macca

great thread, the james bell interview is very revealing. he does speak from a personal angle though, stressing that he himself wasn't poor. plenty of others, no dount, were, & the US, in the early 60's, wasn't exactly the land of milk & honey if you were black, I don't think any of us would deny that. speaking of david ruffin, I think his brother jimmy was a bit of a kant too, don't you? his disparaging remarks of the NS scene shouldn't have gone unchallended in TSWONS. cretin. a lot of these artists were only as good as the enormous creative machine behind them, churning out stuff for them to record. that's what separates the wheat from the chaff in my book. read marvin gaye & stevie wonder. frank sinatra & elvis presley were great interpreters but they neither wrote nor composed a jot.

thanks for the link john, but sorted.

thanks for the info guys!

There's a pic in my gallery of the o'connor twins. I last saw them in 1982 when they'd more or less left the scene. we went over to their house, their parents were on holiday & I remember us smoking dope endlessly, having wild munchies sessions, watching bizarre films like jungle burger, & them strutting around the room to stuff like the dead kennedys. we all went to a pub in godmanchester & keith chester was there, along with jack spratt, a lovely bloke. where are they all now, I wonder?

It doesn't really surprise me Malc as I doubt that Ms Jones herself attaches a lot of importance to her Uptown recordings. Some of these artists can't even remember cutting these tracks or are even a little dismissive of them. A good example is Garnett Mimms in TSWONS, 'it was one of those Ragavoy things' & even Marvin Gaye, who apparently didn't want to spend the rest of his life 'shaking his ass', looking for witnesses. When you're Marvin Gaye & have something to say, I can sort of understand that. But then again, it has to be said that these two were established artists & not also rans. If I'm not wrong, Bolan was a mod who later took too much acid got consumed by all that wizards, elves & goblins crap. The night Gloria appeared at St.Ives I didn't go & Bolan was rumoured to have played drums, but I think it's only a rumour. Can anyone confirm that?

Tidings of comfort & joy to ye all this Winter Solstice (sic) Best wishes Macca And thanks to Jayne for the font colour idea, very seasonal :-)

just got this p/s scan from a mate who played this at a 60's weekender over here recently. I was surprised to hear it 'cos the guy in question is a psyche/freakbeat chap. sometimes the line is very thin. that awesome intro did sound cool amongst all the swirly, twirly stuff though.

the first one I went to was early 1976, on a coach from peterborough. I remember folk gathering at the legendary 7 wives pub beforehand. that walk past the spooky church graveyard & the monumental crush to get in. slippin' around & dust my broom in pitch black darkness in the oldies room. & the norwich crowd, the crowd from birmingham, especially the black couple, was it sammy & ninnette? she was gorgeous, used to teeter on stillettos, quite a sight. & what ever happened to chick? also from brum. the guy knew everybody. in the main hall soul sam reigned supreme with stuff like nate evans, eddie garrigan, milton wright, yvonne vernee, billy arnell, the inspirations, the ellingtons & gene woodbury. they mixed it up with stuff like silvetti 'spring rain', brass construction 'ha cha cha' & JJ callier 'pusherman'. I even remember ginger taylor spinning the isleys brothers 'living in the life', a new release in 1977 & very, very funky. I was quite distraught when it closed down, as were many people. I remember many a night sitting on the stage thinking to myself that it just couldn't get any better. I never went in the 80's or 90's, though I can't imagine they ever equalled that golden era. we had alternatives, the fleet peterborough, the samson & delilah ballroom norwich, the KGB sheffield, & later on the stars & stripes yate, but it never felt quite the same again.

Paul Weller, within his own genre or sphere, is an influential musician I reckon he has the right, like everyone else on here, to pursue his soul interests wherever they take him. As far his music is concerned, I was never swayed. Just ain't my cuppa. M

Agree with all these comments. He was already massive by 1967, & most of the glitterati of the rock world were in absolute awe of him. Bob Dylan is supposed to have written 'Just Like A Woman' for him, showing him the chords to the song backstage at the whiskey-a-go-go in LA before he'd even recorded it himself. What might have been...

I distinctly remember a black echoes special on cleethorpes, maybe 1976. the story broke the news, to the wider community, of james fountain changing hands for 250 quid, but didn't mention who'd actually bought it. this is like chinese bloody whispers!

quite frankly, I would rather have it than not have it. it's virtually the only document we have on folk that were just tunes to dance to or labels to drool over for some of us (I respect that viewpoint but don't comprehend it). I feel rather grateful for being given the chance to see people like jimmy burns, herb ward, gwen owens & yvonne baker, actually relishing the experience. & what's wrong with a good old cringe? barbara mills confirmed my suspicions, as did bobby paris, but it was strangely enjoyable to watch them ham it. I also think it would've been selfish of us to have expected them to remain in the shadows forever. All in all, I think Ian's project was most commendable. M go on neil, tell us about mr. paris in blackburn... :-)

that stopped mr. donnelly's farting in church, didn't it? can't imagine the twirling leg to this one paul! cheers & thanks rich. M

monster hammond frenzy instrumental. love it. any idea on availability, value etc?

Grim news indeed. As with many on here, Blowin' My Mind To Pieces was one of those immediate impact sounds that got me onboard at the tender age of 14. We owe him a lot. RIP Robert. M p.s. Fully agree with Pete's comments. I still watch SWONS from time to time.

I bought mine on ebay recently. I only realised after I'd placed the bid that it was coverless. a 'low numbers' (?) radio station copy that was apparently supplied in a green 'generic sleeve' & filed away for the next 40 years. I don't think it's really cricket to pull out of auctions, so I coughed up the 75 bucks + 15 shipping. It'd be nice to have a cover though. A mate has offered to do a quality scan of his so I can do a home-made job temporarily. nowt wrong in putting the feelers out though.

saw gary derroux last christmas. 26 years had passed us by. scary. I too look forward to seeing the pics.

I remember going up one night in the car, 80/81 (nick!) & finding the place like a morgue, just a handful of people milling around, unsure if the all-nighter was actually on or not. the main hall was closed. I think M's was opened out of pity. it was a profoundly depressing night. there was a guy there with a tache & flat cap called alf (?) from the notts area, one of those guys that seemed omnipresent at the time. he knew everybody, punters & jocks alike. we gave him a lift back, I remember him still being 'vocal' in the back seat of nick's capri. paul d is right about the wirrina ballroom 1976. st.ives was also another cracker, especially in 77. I wasn't that enamoured of the stuff wigan was breaking back then & I'm sorry, but I still don't like cecil washington to this day. I became verydisenchanted & like many, gravitated towards the west hampstead/100 club scene.

a shot in the dark I know, but if anybody has a duff copy they can't sell, but the sleeve is in reasonable condition, I'll be interested. cheers, macca.

I don't think anybody's opinion should be trashed as absolute cack, unless it's absolute cack of course. we are a wide church & mudslinging has been going on since day one. I'm of the opinion that everybody should keep the odd defamatory epithet up their sleeve, 'cos one never knows when one might be tempted to 'draw the sword'. here's a few to be going on with, thanks to sir thomas urquhart of course: prattling gabbler, lickorous glutton, freckled bittor, mangy rascal, shite-a-bed scoundrel, drunken royster, sly knave, drowsy loiterer, slapsauce fellow, slabberdegullion druggel, lubberly lout, cozening fox, ruffian rogue, paltry customer, sycophant-varlet, drawlatch hoyden, flouting milksop, jeering companion, staring clown, forlorn snake, ninny lobcock, scurvy sneaksby, fondling fop, base loon, saucy coxcomb, idle lusk, scoffing braggart, noddy meacock, blockish grutnol, doddipol-jolthead, jobbernol goosecap, foolish loggerhead, flutch calf-lolly, grouthead gnat-snapper, lob-dotterel, gaping changeling, codshead looby, woodcock slangam, ninny-hammer flycatcher, noddypeak simpleton, turdy gut and shitten shepherd. Macca.

thanks sebastian. somebody must've bought the bugger 'right now', cos I can't see it. probably go for one of craig moerer's copies. M

1. I had one exactly like this but din't get a grand for it. 2. I love the word muppet. 3. He's from Dewsbury. 4. Voy a coger mi abrigo (monoglots refer to Babelfish please)

Anybody know how much this is going for ? Great tune (the flip).

pilgrims. now you're talking. & talking about skins, there were some who were genuinely into soul. rhyder used to have the hots for one of them, a lass called bev if I remember well.

Bobby Bland - Call On Me Love that cha-cha-cha beat...