macca

More about the music? It's still about identifying oneself with a tribe for many, hence the retro clothing and obsession with oldies at events that draw that kind of people. If you read the comments of people like Shelley in the book, for the first five years of the scene, the music played second fiddle to getting smashed and being part of a cool, underground and often shady clique ("you didn't waltz around The Torch"). Put simply, no drugs, no scene...

I admit to a FS berét. The bottom feeding fraternity at Peterborough's White Lion prior to the Wirrina allniters took particular exception to it, as I remember.

I'd wager it's 80-81...

Beer towel the height of divdom even back then for me. Loathsome appendage.

Horses for courses etc...

Why would such a transformation have taken place by 76, from exciting Torch/Cats dancers like the much quoted Frank Booper to "messy arms and legs all over the place" kids then commanding the floor at Wigan? Surely it can't all be blamed on Kung Fu and Sandy Holden?

Yes, agree 100%. I have Shoah on DVD, off a Torrent site. Harrowing is not the word.

Or experience the queue at Treblinka.

You might be onto something there Ian.

Mine arrived Wednesday. Very nice work mate, going to enjoy reading it.

Who were the other backdropping american soul artists to appear at the wheel? C'mon admit guys, it came from the teds.

Oscar Tony Jr, Inez and Charlie Foxx, Jimmy Ruffin, Jr Walker, Edwin Starr... they all backdropped and did the splits, right?

Remember lads coming to school with rice flails? A lot of people were pretty obsessive about Bruce Lee and martial arts in general at this time 71-74. It would coincide. I think it's more likely that acrobats at the Twisted Wheel and Torch were more familiar with Bruce Lee than with the 40s Jump scene, black dance duos like the Nicholas Brothers, or even the gymnastics of Jackie Wilson. I'm not sure that it's a myth. I'd prefer it to be Jackie Wilson or The Vibrations but the truth is probably far less 'right on'...

Indeed Coops. Bound to be a fall out of sorts, especially with all the positive reviews and the industry having been caught napping. You might get to launch that NS dance studio yet. Opportunity of a lifetime, and we've been graced with several of those already. Have you managed to see it yet, old chap?

Pete's experience is exactly the same as mine. The coaches to Wigan from the Brit in Nottingham were rife with it, and inside the Brit itself. It was two years before I 'took the plunge'. If you knew who to ask, you'd come up with the goods easy enough. I think the loos at Wigan were a lot riskier than those of other venues so I didn't venture in their unless it was to get changed or have a slash. As Manus F said before, the loos at St.Ives were very busy gear wise, and the oldies room where it was pitch black. Plenty of cover for 'business transactions' in there. As far as the visible effects of the 'gear' are concerned, you'd see some right old sights which then made you wonder if you were 'giving yourself away too, furtive glances in mirrors to check your 'state', attempts to tone down the chewing and verballing. That was a game in itself. Great times!!

Just ordered mine from Amazon. Delivery 27-31st of October. Much looking forward to it. You geezers are lucky to have seen it at a proper cinema!

Massive difference to a cheap and nasty repro of some northern monster aimed at dunderheids to a complete document of Dylan's 65-66 US and World Tour with rare photos, meticulously put together booklet,sleevenotes etc, Outside the hermetic world of NS it takes on a whole other meaning. Never forget the first time I heard She's Your Lover Now. Mannah from heaven.

Yes, and it took Bob Dylan twenty odd years to realise the potential of officially releasing what had and hadn't been circulating since those acetates of what became the Basement Tapes first fell into bootleggers hands thus kickstarting the industry. I used to love buying boot LPs at record fairs but they were bloody expensive though. Swingin' PIG, TMOQ etc

I wouldn't care if I never heard Tainted Love again, but Shirley Ellis is a great record. Is she still with us?

Supply and demand, not an entirely alien concept to most businessmen. Soulvation have identified a niche and are exploiting it. Wouldn't be the first time.

I'd rather just hunt the clowns without the added distraction of costumes, arf, arf.

Quadrophenia was made only 15 years after the events portrayed in the film so for a 15-20 year old in 1979, some of us were barely out of nappies and short trousers. It'd be like going to see a film about Blair's "Cool Britannia" of Pulp, Oasis, Blur etc. People in their early 30's would be fine combing it and others, like the young 'mod' that came on here attacking mid 70s retro dressers would have zero reference points, apart from the ecstasy addled recollections of their big brother/uncle about the seismic shifts in the fabric of British society that took place at the turn of the milennium, bla, bla, bla.

Yes, I know mate, and my post wasn't supposed to sound admonishing. Apologies if it did. :-)

Think the old boy's got more on his plate at the moment than a bout of litigation....

Might have been Sooty's towering influence that warranted the inclusion of the word 'soz'.