Ady Croasdell

The 2008 6TS Northern and Modern Soul Weekender at Cleethorpes boasts an impressive three act live performance at midnight on the Saturday all-nighter. KARIME HARRIS The opening act sees us witness the start of a new musical career for a very talented young singer. Karime is the daughter of top LA songwriter and producer Kent Harris and the legendary LA singer Ty Karim. She has actually now made north-west London her home and lives 2 miles from Ace’s offices. Over the past few years she has been performing as the lead singer of the funk group the Killer Meters, but has now come to terms with her parents’ music which she had previously revered so much that she was loath to perform it. However Kent Records’ recent and future reissuing of her mother’s 60s and 70s recordings has put that music back to the forefront and seeing Duffy, Adele and Amy hitting the charts with US soul style songs has made her determined to claim back her birthright and perform a special tribute to her parents’ work. She has inherited her mother’s husky, deep (for a woman) voice and will perform her biggest Northern and Modern tracks including ‘Lighten Up Baby’, ‘You Just Don’t Know’, ‘You Really Made It Good To Me’, ‘Wear Your Natural’, ‘Lighten Up’ and ‘I Ain’t Lying’ aka ‘Ain’t That Love Enough’. It will be a memorable night for both us and her. FRANK DELL Speaking of big voices, we are proud to be bringing New York singer Frank Dell over to Europe for the first time. Frank is a soul collector’s household name on the strength of his one superlative Northern Soul smash ‘He Broke Your Game Wide Open’. Though he has been a singer throughout his life, his career has mainly been on the jazz circuit, which has been our loss and their gain. He recorded with New York stalwart producer Phil Medley, most famous for penning the original ‘Twist And Shout’ and Dave Blake the guy responsible for the Quotations and Jackye Owens recordings, among others. Apart from HBYGWO he cut the uptempo ‘Baby You’ve Got It’ which is soon to feature on Kent’s “Northern Soul’s Classiest Rarities Vol 3”. He recorded more sides with Phil and Dave in the 70s, some of which mysteriously came out on the Guinness LP devoted to Frank. More tracks were laid down that never made it onto vinyl like the excellent two-stepper ‘You’ve Got To Deal With It’ and one that came out as a Valise label 12” only, ‘What More Can I Do’, which is getting a lot of Modern soul action right now. He also had a pair of singles for the Philips and Blue Rock stable of labels under his surname of Murphy; his real name being Franklin Delano Murphy. As Big Frank Murphy he cut 'It's All Over But The Pain' while as Big Frank & The Essence he recorded the magnificent 'I Won't Let Her See Me Cry', one of the monsters of the Stafford inspired "60s newies" Northern Soul scene in the 1980s. It will be an honour to hear these recordings performed live. There's no doubt that Frank’s deep rich voice is going to thrill Cleethorpes and this charming and talented New York singer will show the soul world his vast talent. GIGI & THE CHARMAINES Our headline act this year is none other than Cincinnati’s fabulous girl group the Charmaines. Lead by Gigi Griffin this notable outfit has been present at some of the most ground breaking moments in soul music history, supplying backing vocals to many of James Brown’s legendary King sessions and working with the great Herman Griffin/Lewis in Detroit and Chicago in the mid 60s when those cities ruled the airwaves. This will be their first ever European appearance singing their uptempo soul songs. Though the girls had an impressive series of 45 releases throughout their career, it is three unissued (one unheard) tracks that have shot them into the spotlight in recent years. Firstly we discovered a throbbingly tough version of Ike Turner’s ‘I Idolize You’ in the Fraternity tapes that Ace purchased and though the song was given a release number, no vinyl appears to exist of it. That was until acetate plays at London’s 100 Club turned it into the monster R&B/Northern crossover record that eventually lead to it being released as the 6TS 23rd anniversary single. It’s now very hard to find and quite expensive too. A similar path was lead by the girls’ stupendous 1966 Date recording, ‘I Don’t Wanna Lose Him’ a previously unissued track that was cut by Gigi’s future husband Herman Lewis at the same session as the issued stomper ‘Eternally’, a Wigan monster once bootlegged as by The Sweet Things. ‘Lose’ eventually saw life onto vinyl 4 years late as another 100 Club world exclusive. The third mystery track of the triumvirate is Gigi’s original version of the Andrea Henry and Janice Northern Soul classic ‘I Need You Like A Baby’. It’s a song Dale Warren wrote for the Charmaines that got as far as the demo stage but was then used on Andrea Henry. Sadly the demo version has not been heard since it was cut, but Gigi remembers Andrea copied her performance completely. Dale also wrote ‘Guilty’ and ‘Girl Crazy’ for the girls in this period, two great Columbia singles that will also be sung live at Cleethorpes along with their great reading of JJ Barnes’ ‘Poor Unfortunate Me’. And if that ain’t enough for you, original group member and Gigi’s sister, Gerri Jackson, was the girl responsible for the wonderful duet with Herman Lewis (Griffin) version of Clara Ward’s stomping Wigan classic ‘The Right Direction’. And she’s going to relive that rare soul moment with us too. So I feel this year’s Cleethorpes live show will be a remarkable and entertaining experience for us all. You might even catch me with a smile on my face. Ady full info on weekender and all things 6t ish can be found at links below http://www.6ts.info/ http://www.6ts.info/