Dayo

That's a good point, Quinvy. It was all difficult. No mobiles, no internet, even getting from Worcester to Blackpool was hard - that's what made it sooooo worthwhile.

Now I'm drooling Robb! By the way, I know you are a long standing American soul collector; Motown apart, did you happen to buy any of our future Northern Soul classics as new releases? Just curious...

Anyone get the feeling that a lot of these adverts were phoned in? Hence the the quite frequent spelling mistakes...

I don't know if this topic has been covered before, but does anyone agree that the practice of clubs advertising their "top sounds" by title or artist had a massive effect on the early scene? I think the first sounds advertised in Blues and Soul may have been Suffering City, Chinatown, baby Reconsider, The Sloopy and Cigarette Ashes, but I can't be sure or recall which club. Cats? If memory serves, it first started happening in 1971. Speaking for myself, I can vividly recall the tingle of excitement at seeing those ads - especially if it was a record I didn't know (and back then, most of them were!) For me and my mates at the time it was a massive driver of the scene. We just craved more knowledge. "Exus what? Exus Trek? There's a record called Exus Trek?!!! What? Who?" The height of excitement was a full page ad when Va Va opened with a list of Richard Searling stuff to make you drool.... Was anyone else anorak enough to write these titles and or artists down in a book and tick them off once you'd heard them? Happy days.

I've said elsewhere that Los Bravos had everything needed to be a Torch monster. Would have sat very well with the pop-northern of Wayne Gibson, The Shakers, Guy Darrel etc. Shame it was a hit really.

Much as I love this track, anyone agree that it's badly let down by the terribly twee instrumental break? Doesn't matter who sings it, those few bars always make me cringe....

Forgotten that one Steve - some goodies on there if I recall! Weird that the Hendrix label had a foot firmly in the door marked soul for a few months...

Admit those are stellar finds that most of us could only dream of, but surely those records would have been discovered sooner or later anyway, Kev?

Can't deny that either, but the turnover of big records in the heyday of the scene was insane and many of them dived horribly in value after the pressing came out. We could have, or perhaps should have, enjoyed those great records for much longer at the time when it really mattered.

Did it come out as a single on Track in the UK?

Thanks to Mr. Soussan, so many of the scene's best and most iconic records got booted so quickly that they were sometimes only played for a few weeks and then dropped. I can't think that was a good thing. We burned up a lot of great stuff so quickly.

Alphabetical artists? Labels? Decades? All on a database with label, writers, publishers and date of purchase? No system, but I know where every record is?

I don't think it was pressed was it? Those Magic City copies that Selecta had were all originals...

Mecca '73? Probably mentioned in the same B&S advert as Johnny Jackson! (and thanks to Kev R. by the way, for nailing my opening knowledge-gaps for me)

I don't know if anyone else wants to run with this thread with there own knowledge gaps. Might be fun... Ok, here are three things that I ought to know but don't! Help please... 1. When the heck was Patti & the Emblems "Gonna love you etc" first played? It sounds like it ought to have been a Wheel fave and it seems to have been around forever, but I can't think when the heck I first heard it.... 2. Was there ever really a record called "Let's shing-a-ling at the go go" by the Johnny Jackson Experience (?) or was it a Levine fictional cover-up? 3. Whatever happened to John E Abbey? Many thanks!

Of course!

Hmmm... If Russ is 62 and I was 15 when Wigan started, that made him 22 in '73. He looked older I must say.....

That's a shame. Baby Help Me was one of the first soul records I bought and still a great record.

hmm ... getting the same reaction I've always had when I mention or play this record to anyone; complete indifference! I guess that tells me all I need to know. I'll get the coat....

I sometimes wonder if if there will be a market for rare soul once our generation have all shuffled off....

Thanks for clearing that up Ady. A huge long shot, but I don't suppose anyone has any idea when Baby Reconsider was pressed do they? 1970?

I came across this one from Clifford Curry in a soul pack around 1971. To be honest, I always thought it had the potential to be a big record; but I've never heard it played out. I know you can get blinkered and biased and lose perspective when it's a record in your own collection, but I thought after all these years I'd get some other opinions. Why no plays on this one then? What am I missing here? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w59TZZvF24A

Loads of people presented SOTS before Brian Mathew, including Simon Dee.

I thought so Chalky - but was it the very first pressing? It's certainly the first one I can recall.

On topic, I think; Was Baby Reconsider on Soul Sounds considered the very first Northern Soul bootleg? Would have been around 1971 or 1972, I think. I have a feeling it came out of Leicester..... Anything before that apart from legitimate reissues on Memory Lane etc?