Soulacola

One of my all time favourites is the chuck Jackson version. Can't be beaten. If you are humming a song all the way back from an event you know it has that X factor.

i didnt know she was an Ikette. but i suppose there were a few. always loved this track, got a massive adrenalin rush of sound.

another thing the internet has opened up i admit is craigs list in USA. i just got a bemused guy from Ohio to post me a copy of Crystal Mansion - Somebody outa turn your head around - motown for 10 dollars purchase price and 15 quid snail mail. he also had a tumble dryer listed on same ad. so that makes this a very small world. not sure if its a big saving or not but the whole worldwide web allowed me access to a small town advert in a one horse town id never heard of. id rather dig through a box of records but the ability to do this is simply unbelievable. i mean , thats just crazy.

when you've bought a turkey because the label was good its still a turkey though!!!! being able to play a toon on YouTube has saved curbed my enthusiasm for throwing money down the toilet on a whim. good or bad resource. its probably saved me from excitedly rushing home and putting my latest discovery on the turntable only to find a sickly ballad of lost love sung by a foghorn dressed as a clown.

here's a thing i've noticed. all the fails i bought at somebodies record stall or shop in the 80's, 90's. 2000's before i could check what the track was like went into the failed section of boxes at the back of the garage. when i revisited these recently after my tastes changed i discovered loads of gems and memories of the last decades. where i bought originals later on i found some wonderful bootlegs on Boot records and SOS and horaces that really felt special to hear again. the slower stuff i did'nt like back then was like raiding a record shop of my own. if i had checked those records out like i do now or had accesss to originals via the internet i wouldnt have this potted history of memories stashed away. my mistakes have turned out to be a lovely place to revisit.

pre internet, i had no idea what i wanted til i found it. once i'd bought the classis i shopped by label and year, building up a collection of chess and sue. i often go back to records that were too slow or that i didnt like, did out an old box and fall in love. just cant resist buying a copy immediately now without even shopping around for a few months. i have instantitis in the youtube click bait world just as bad as my teenage daughter.

furlough money is strong in the force. 60's vintage teak furniture even in the niche market i usually collect has doubled in a year. there seems to be a direct correlation with the rise in popularity in vinyl. when 16 year old girls start shopping in vintage and charity shops instead of demanding the latest trends there's something more underlying at work here. could it be the shift towards sustainable energy also means there's a move to reuse not only bottles but music culture and clothing as part of a lifestyle. or maybe the growing realisation that quality has dropped over the last decades and that there's a epiphany moment in society in general to own a motown record because it offers a wonderful experience and it also may go up in value and so can be owned for free or indeed at a profit!. most bands now release a vinyl copy first as its the way to make money' not only is that an important consideration again, the sleeves have become art again and many are mastered for vinyl not digital. could it be we're on the edge of seeing the rise of the vinyl 7 inch again to conquer all other mediums.

we're hoping to go to a scooter rally on 25th of June in Kent. there's supposed to be a soul room on the campsite but it may be swapped to open air stage. This could possibly be my first chance to dance since march 2020!!! not sure how my legs will cope, i might look like a spinning top without a giroscope. but if the bands and dj's are outside then there's at least the chance of it happening. not heard any news of soul events in Sheffield yet, thats going to be a bit later in year id guess.

caught my 18 year old daughter looking through my records boxes the other day. she said .." my mates say some of these old records are cool". on the plus side it was the first time she's spoke to me in about a year. on the minus side i'll probably lose the records i've got. Better get a years sunday morning membership to carboot land and the bargain cruise. if i can just find a scratched third edition of Band of Gold that someone hasn't expertly valued on ebay as a master copy.

my main point being, although there's a world of wealthy and tasteless people they never invaded the everyman's cool. old cars and old vinyl records. the sad thing is the lines have crossed over. the things that made life worth living such as collecting cool soul records and being in a sub culture that thumbed its nose at "new". has become a blurred line now money has become a factor. i think soulies never saw the value of a record , they saw its value in quality. i was hoping one day that 40 quid records might be 40 quid records again!!!! ah well.

i was perusing the internet looking for a few old records i owned in the 80's and a couple of accessories for my lambretta and i was amazed at how prices havent just held up in the pandemic but the value of "old things" has risen at many times inflation. As well as vinyl soul records which is discussed on here, classic cars have GONE THROUGH THE ROOF. i've always smoked around in old 70's Porsches, 80's BMW's and 60's Mercedes as i thought they were cool and they were cheap insurance and plenty of fun. usually cheaper than a new basic Ford Fiesta. it seems now anything from the pre 1980 era is climbing to rich peoples land. same with vintage guitars, i've started shopping further and further down the desirability table for Gibsons and Fenders to such an extent that i'm considering guitars that i would have ignored in the 90's. A good second hand 60's les paul has gone from 200 quid to 30 grand in my lifetime - way ahead of inflation. take the price of a pair of second hand technics 1210's; they were 300 to 400 quid for a pair for 20 years, often with a mixer chucked in . now were looking at 1000 quid plus and new?....., forget it!!. classic cars have now been made ULEZ exempt forever mot free, tax free, meaning even Austin Maxis will be a rich Londoners toy soon !! there's Lambrettas on ebay now at well over 10,000 quid. my point is they always said when the older enthusiasts died out that old "stuff" would become worthless again. in an increasingly modern world i dont think so, i think old records, cars, furniture, clothes and even tech will be more collectable than ever. my chances of owning certain soul records wont improve at all if i do yoga til my joints creak trying to outlive the current owners!!!!.

There's definitely too many choices which often leads to not making one. quality does suffer. on the scooter rallies at the prospect of 1000's of riders coming to a seaside town used to get the publicans shutting up shop or begrudgingly serving us. the evening do's and club do's had vinyl dj's with a high standard of soul. when the landlords got on board because of the money angle they employed every cd and laptop dj in town. this had the effect of reducing the thrill of getting to the evening event as you'd been subjected to wall to wall two tone and 'sign of the snake' for several hours. the end result was less people in the evening do and so the organisers put dj's on who played "a bit of everything" to cover all bases. usually the same soul classics you get in Tesco compilations. you need to support the quality do's to keep good Dj's buying records and playing their hearts out. certainly when we get a chance to dance again i will be supporting quality events and hoping that their are less choices on the calendar and more passion than ever for those that remain.

im not going to let a flu bug change my lifestyle completely but i wonder how nervous i might get on a packed sweaty dance floor. thinking about the sweat dripping from the ceiling in Eggborough it would be Butlins for a virus. i guess with a jab ive got to just get lost in the music. the thought of a sanitised , dettol flavoured version of the same style of night is a horror im even more scared of . i thought the smoking ban reduced the feel of the "lager,cigs and soul' i loved. still it could be much worse. Health and safety might make laptops mandatory in DJ booths siting the sharp edges on vinyl as a risk.

i really did take for granted i could dip in and out of soul nights when i felt like it. often pulling out of a long drive to stay in with a takeaway and a can. i really regret now not supporting more local nights and making more effort to travel to some of the great venues on the soul scene. ive learned a lesson here, its a short life and then youre gone. im going to make sure i pass on the night in and get busy dancing before the hour glass runs out. i miss the simple joy of dancing in a sweaty room to old vinyl played loud and proud. you really dont know how lucky you are to be able to do this til its taken away. Cant work with masks and table service so i dont think personally this will happen in 2021 but im looking to get sweaty again in 2022.