Ady Croasdell

Jim eddlestone ran one in the middle of the wilds of Lincolnshire some sort of country club. If anyone seems him tell him he's more than welcome at Cleethorpes, he's threatening to come.

When were Cleggy's Cotton's all nihters in Stockport. Market Harborough Leisure centre run by Ally & TC then Me & TC also Loughborough Town Hall. Sorry if they've been covered too many to read. The TAC Weekenders were brilliant and the inspiration for Cleethorpes.

Too hectic to reply, it sounds like a Saturday afto discussion at the Cleethorpes bar to me.

Simon, I think you're bending a few facts to justify your theory. There are a few sentences I'd take issue with. Of course rhythm is a huge part of black music but to say pre-68 the influence was from white music is wrong. Black Americans started jazz and Rock and Roll and that's where all the best pop music came from. And no Nat King Cole and Sam Cooke weren't mainly admired because they made it, lots of blacks made it through sport or music mainly; it was their incredible voices which literally hit a chord with the audience. Most black people could afford record players, they were poor but not that poor, I would guess many had them in the 40s and virtually all by the 50s. Blues records sold in their millions. Bobby Bland's records sold more for his singing style than the beat which is far from funk in most cases. I agree that post MLK it was a different black attitude and face but that doesn't mean any of the previous black music was pandering to the whites. Some was but most crossed over because it was such great music and a lot of white kids got access to it and finally were in an enlightened enough time to go out , buy it and enjoy it. For example The Spinners 'Could It Be I'm Falling In Love' was made in the funk era and sold to as many black people as JB's hits, because it was so great that it crossed over to pop whereas some of James' didn't doesn't make it any less black. As for musicians of course the "blacker" sound seemed to come out of the southern studios like Stax and Fame and those guys had more white musicians than Tamla and Philly ever had. I'd better go and sort some caravans out now quick!

I'm not knocking 60's soul music at all because I truly love it - but my heart is with the rawer sound because it what I believe is the true soul of Black America however negative, sexist or primitive it sounds. Northern Soul's altered the perception of Soul music forever - but it is a white European perspective on it. link

Luther Dixon, Van McCoy (I've just discovered the flip of Toni Lamarr's 'Just In The Nick Of Time') and Thom Bell. I'll give you three more when the IPA wears off.

Hipshaker, Bobby Byrd was there singing alongside JB on one or two of the tracks, he was the echo voice. Time was limited so they concentrated on the main areas. One of my mates at cricket today (5 wickets and I'm bladdered) pointed out that JB's stuff was good up to Sex Machine and Say It Loud, but when it just got into a riff like Make It Funky it lost a lot of soul. All in all though he's a genius and like Bobby Bland or Little Johnny Taylor is a black American's soul singer more than a white European's. Discuss, if you can be arsed.

Cheers, that's kind of you. Gil's highest chart entry was #15 R&B and he didn't have one pop hit, I know he was mainly LPs but it's reflective of his lack of fame in the US.

I'm a huge fan of Gil's but can see why he wasn't in it, because he didn't sell many records and isn't known by the man in the street. I think they chose great artists last night and just about got it right. Sly was superb, I remember Dance To The Music as a new release, Oh for anything half as exciting to be recorded now. There was that great GSH documentary about 9months ago that catered for pervs like us. And footage and photos etc are always harder to find than the records. Anyone lend me a copy of the Southern Soul one and the first in the series? The gospel footage in the second one was incredible.

He was good on the telly last night and gave a cracking performance with the original line-up at TAC's Yarmouth Motown weekender about 15 years ago. 6TS wishes him a speedy recovery.

Right I'm going to say it (prompted by Geoff) and damn the consequences. I think there could be a few more oldies chucked into DJs playlists for the new punter or the returnee stomper. A hell of a lot of DJs don't play any in a spot and sometimes their playlists read better than they sound. This really isn't a dig at anyone in particular, I've got no one in mind and I'm sometimes guilty of it too. The oldies themselves should be a mix of the rare, the forgotten, the evergreen and even the crass; once in a while. I used to have this argument with some of the Stafford die hards and I think it's still appropriate today. Obviously it depends on the crowd, and sometimes it would be a bad move, but at other times it probably wouldn't kill anyone to play The Snake and it might give a couple of people a great night. I don't think an all oldies dance would work, whereas an all rare could as long as the crowd knew what it was going to be. An appropriate mix is the ideal. I think there are very few oldies DJs about down south, let alone good ones.

London will be in Cleethorpes. That's why!

I agree with Mikey that the R&B played at the Dome last year didn't help the crowd and in general is much better for smaller clubs like Shake than gaffs with big dancefloors. I also think that the standard of DJing now isn't great. People like Greg and Shifty are missed and though I enjoyed myself at the Dome on Friday I don't think many of the DJs pleased the crowd that was there. Far too much playing a record because they'd planned to play it beforehand and not enough sizing up the crowd and giving them what they want. Lots of collectors don't make great DJs, which is fine at small scale dos where people are doing it for the love of it. Bigger dos are tough. I find it tough to play new stuff in London nowadays, there's a definite need for a good mix of oldies, rarities and the odd collector's or personal favourite but ONLY once you've got the crowd on your side.

Thanks but someone must have a copy of Plus Four, it's not too hard. A scan of both sides would be helpful

Wossit sound like?

Great, thanks Dazz. Hard luck Gareth, apparently he was Willie Parker.

Can anyone lend me a copy of The Happiest Girl In The World by them on Warner bros? And has anyone seen demos of GWP or GWP's Grapevine except for Frankie Newsome? And did that come out on Sagport? And wasn't he someone else before he was FN?

Levine's not Algerian, I think he's a Lancastrian. You're mixing him up with Simon Soussan who was Lebanese! (insert your own imaginary smilies)

That's a cracker, I've soaked my socks.