Tomangoes

2nd time round I will add FALBALA, along with 'the flasher' it was a youth club anthem. Never heard it since 1977, not sure I want to now!! Ed

I remember as a teenager going to one of the 'Scarborough' weekends in the late 70s and whilst in the Salisbury pub one afternoon, got sat next to this geezer telling the tale. None of us knew who it was, and as 'Cleethorpes goers' had never heard of Martyn Ellis anyway so treated him just like all the rest of the crowd and we traded piss taking etc. After a while we noticed some of the 'bigger boys' were almost bowing to him but he just kept talking to us the same and never let on who he was. We met him several times over the weekend and the penny dropped that he was one of the 'originals' but he still kept acting the same and now as I think about it, what a great guy he was. The truth is he loved being 'one of the boys' and had a real sharp sense of humour. Never met him after that again, but the mark he made stayed with us for years to come. Its only a while ago I read he had passed away, and was sorry to hear that. Im sure his son knows how much of a legend he was on this scene and should be proud. Ed

It also had many great soul nights midweek and followed on from the Assembly rooms soul nights that bred many hundreds of soul fans. Great memories. Ed

Well, lets make some rules to have a sytem of eliminations. 1. It cant really be a good seller (the rareity value) 2. Better not be an established artist at the time of release (No big time Charley for us) 3. Has to have mad/obtuse lyrics (tired old ladies kissing dogs, kind of thing). 4. Cant be too popular with the general public (we like to keep it in house). Sooooo Ghost in my house/Loves gone bad/Your loves amazing And of course DILYIID without a shadow of a doubt the definition of Northern Motown Soul, before it got out!!!! Ed

A great venue, great people, great sounds, great times. Superstar Lady, Torture, Over the top, and many more previously mentioned. Cider drinkers delight in the afternoon. The sexy Goole girls............. God Benson as the driving instructor. So much new material I suppose it was the closest to the mecca format for years. Ed

In any case this guy should be proud that his Mother sang on one version of what has been a revelation as far as newly found material (at least many years after Bird Walking was beeing played at Cleggy!).Ed

Just read the articles about how many rare soul tunes got released in Australia, and wondered what other countries put out rare soul. I know Greece / Spain / France etc has a fair few, but any soul-sources know of other strange countries that distributed rare soul on its own labels? Ed

Saw the show in Manchester and all went as expected until Brickhouse old and new versions got played. Exit half the crowd........................ Not the motown sound they were hoping for. Overall though as good as you could expect from who was there, with Mizz Reeves playing the crowd. One thing that does p*** me off is when the 'tribute' bands put their own mark on a perfectly brilliant song. Why not just play it like it was?? Ed

Im hooked, the variety is brilliant................ Thee Midnighters, The Royals. Arthur Gunter This is fandabidozy. Ed

Even though Ive seen 'Dont Pity Me - JS' on UTUBE etc, its still gets the hairs on my neck standing up when I hear it played at a soul night and the dancefloor is full and the crowd love it etc. What tracks defy convention for you? Ed

NOT SURE ABOUT NOT BEING A GENRE. LORD GODIN MOST CERTAINLY THOUGHT IT WAS............ Ed

Just finished listening to EE tonight and kept it running to some dude called CLIVE R. This is Brilliant, Roscoe Robinson (How much pressure), Shorty Long (FATJ), etc etc. This guy knows his stuff ( unless he is reading from the back of the CD COVER) Seriously, taking the rough with the smooth, its a great show. Check it out if you like variety. Ed

Hi Eddie One thing that has always puzzled me about records like Easy Baby, although they are regarded within our rare soul scene as 'gems' its almost always the case that commercially they did not make the writers/producers/singers rich. So what inspired you to make them the way they are, uptempo, gritty, and unlike the smooth motown sound that obviously did sell? Without artists like you we would not have this brilliant collection of records from the 60s and 70s that form what we class as Northern Soul. In fact 'Easy Baby' could quite easily be a 'definition' of what that genre is. I hope you find all your material in due course and I like many others on here would like to thank you and your compatriates involved in making those tunes for us to enjoy. If you ever get the chance to experience a well attended Northern Soul night with up to 2000 people dancing to and singing along to Easy Baby. word for word, Im sure it would be reward enough. Thanks again. Ed

Just got back from rife and found manhattans bar closed down. No doubt a few of SS readers will have had a good night out there over the years. Managed to find another bar in Fanabe called Motown that was not too bad, but no Northern. On the upside, the food was good and the beer was cheap (er). See you all at SITS/Jungle bar Ed

The very best of Ian Levine........................................ Sorreeeey, just avin a larf. There cant be many artists who could put 20 tracks out, that have not made a best of cd/albumn etc. Darrow Fletcher must be the front runner and is obviously still plenty young enough to make new material to compliment it. Ed

Darryl Are you sure you are not related to Smokey Robinson? What a look-a-like. Ed

If you had your chance to put a record as the backing to a tv ad what would work for you. Like the KFC stuff. Starting off: Laura Lee - Rip off (Any bank adverts) Or Mary love - You turned my bitter into sweet (Beer adverts) Just a bit of fun....... Ed

I suppose its a matter of opinion. Some folks who never attended the dayers and nighters in their youth but now have jumped on the bandwagon of the scene could be judged as not full members, just as much as those who did the apprenticeship but have found the need to attend venues, not important or hard to do. Those who have remained attendees from 14 years old up to date could 'pull rank' but not many do. Northern Soul Freak / Northern Soul Obsession were popular terms back in the 70s and still apply today although the tilt may not be so much on the 'Northern' In the great big melting pot theres room for all, so as long as you are happy with what you get out of it, just enjoy it. Ed

As Henry Lumpkin sang, Soul is taking over. Walking through Marks and Sparks the other day and heard Mamie Galore - It aint necessay. RUFC will play Franks DILYIID just before the players run out In an electrical shop in Rife last week and they were playing Lee Ritneurs Fly by night. Lets be fair, If I was in charge anywhere of putting music out, Id do the same. Ed

It would be interesting to know how many sales were recorded against each cd produced. Its probable that 99% of all tracks of interest to the Northern Soul and expanded soul scene are already on cd, so it was just a matter of time before they closed down one way or another. Ed

I know what you mean, maybe Modern should be replaced with Newer Oldies!! Northern Soul by definition embraces any record that can fill a dancefloor etc and aside from personal choice it could be a record from the early 60s to now. Robbie Vincent used to do a soul show on the BBC about 25 years ago with 'new soul' being played and I was lucky enough to tape some of the shows. When I listen to them now, they are still too modern to be played at most venues, so what chance would AKON have except as a one off. The late 70s and early 80s produced thousands of great 'modern' tracks and we tend to live on the back of them far too much. Ed

I was there a few years ago and there was a bar upstairs playing Northern off of CDS etc. The lady running the bar used to go to the Torch and knew her stuff. Lovely place for a holiday. Take your belly board for those great waves!!! Ed

Hi, Ray did a remake of the 'I can see him making love to you baby' himself, and it was a decent uptempo version, but the Anderson Brothers original was ground breaking. This record was significant in that along with several others of the same style it brought about a change in the rare soul scene. That change is still contested over 25 years later!! Wish him well. Ed

Why just this music? Ed

Hi Paul Im sure you know you played a large part in this rare soul scene being created. Thanks for that. Did you ever wonder how Burning Sensation became so popular in The UK ? Please name names and tell stories about your career, its priceless. This scene is always looking out for new undiscovered material, especially mid and uptempo soulfull productions. Im sure you would get good sales from putting a cd together etc. Keep the faith. Ed