purist

I was only reading in the last week about him being a neighbour and friend of an artist I was researching, and him being responsible for encouraging numerous talents to take the brave step to give up their day jobs and become professional singers. According to this article he was held in great esteem more so as a songwriter for other artists, and very little was written about his singing, although it did mention several groups he was part of. Does anyone know if this was how he made his living as a songwriter ? Wish I'd kept these pages, they were a fascinating read. Of course Love, Love, Love was his monster but don't dismiss the remaining parts of his output, search out his version of " I Was A Boy When You Needed A Man" if you like a bit of melodic but sparse x-over, "I Love Everything About You", " Some Kinda Magic", but as already mentioned " Love Me" (fabulous) "You Wanna Change Me" along with "L.L.L." all livid in the shadow of "Sunny" for the great mass of - and that's a shame. thanks bobby, for great tunes and great times.

pretty sure i've had both, and dont remember there being any appreciable difference in the sound quality? maybe it was just the copies I had? I remember the wdj being scruffy. Sold my last (issue) copy to Butch at Albrighton (where it was quite popular) and have regretted it since, really should have kept one

Hey Kev, Despite other people argueing against me, I've always maintained that when it was first being spun it was said that 'On The Outside Looking In' was one of the unreleased batch they played all together in that era, and that it was several years later before it was known by most of us that it was an actual released record. I think this album kinda proves the point, and reminds us how little we knew in the days before label listings, discography books and the internet ! This is a Fabulous Album, Every Northern Soul Loving Home Should Have This ! Highly Recommended.

Some years back when i was frequently listening to the now defunct Soul Club website there was a tune i kept going back to again and again, and this is the source of my puzzle (Stupidly I never kept an mp3 of it so I cant put you one up.) I knew the song very well, but the one version I knew previously had a female group vocal. I think I may know of another slower female version but the one I'm talking about is the flipside to the Ila Vann classic Can't Help Loving That Man, called something like I've Got The Feeling. ( the UK disco demand copy had the same flip, and to be truthful that's where i first came across the song, back when we were kids we knew the flipsides to all our records !) It's a tune I used to feature many years ago when I was playing an alternative sides set (the buzzing bees as they became known) and I really liked it as a girlie dancer. Now this version that was on Soul Club was under the name "Frank Garcia", but as you'll remember SC often had things down under their cover up names, so despite a lot of effort I've never gotten anywhere near learning who this version was by. Please help me find this tune ! and hopefully on vinyl ! (if this isnt in the right place can a mod move it for me)

Dont understand this point about deleting prices to save buyers privacy. How would anyone know who bought any particular record except the buyer and the seller? I've always told my wife exactly how much any record has cost me, (thats if/when she's asked or itscropped up somehow) so I never get that hiding stuff idea at all anyway, but when I see something I want I pm the seller, agree the details and send the money. I never write on the thread ( you've got a pm type thing) so how would my wife or anybody else know that my recently arrived copy of Fred Scruggs came from one particular sales on soul source so therefore I must have paid £X, and not from one of the thousands of other sales arenas where the price could be completely different? One off's aside ( and lets be honest there's very few of them) no one can know where any of your records come from, can they, unless you tell them and if you are a secretive person then you ain't gonna tell anyone anyway, so what's the point? confused of the black country

you probably know this already, but just in case..... Christine Cooper was a member of the Terri Nelson Group, I used to play it (SOS) from the album, just to be different when I was doing my 'alternative to obvious oldies, but still oldies that sound similar or the same' sets, a few years back, (often the new years events at Broad Lane & other party type doo's, Dora Hall's 123, Dusty's Long After, that type of thing) ( some would say it's more like I played it from the album just because I'm a bit of a dick :-) and there's every chance they'd be a bit right !! that album rarely sells for more than a tenner, well worth buying for rare soul fans !

found this - Hi, my name is Iggy Cossentino* and this is the story about how our group "THE TIP TOPS" began. Our roots began in Canarsie Brooklyn during the 60's. I first starting hanging out with my friend Milty Fields. Milty already had a group known as the "Matadoors". It was through Milty that I met Phil Rosen. Phil had a brother named Lenny, and after awhile I learned that Lenny could sing. Lenny and I would hang around and practice singing, like most singers in our neighborhood, and we learned how to hit some good harmonies together. When Lenny left our group we were very happy that Milty choose to join us. His vocals and his love of music and his experiences added to our groups sound. Again thru Milty I met another singer, and he was Frankie Graziano. Frankie would come to visit me at my home in Canarsie and he showed us some songs he thought we would be interested in. We'd like to thank Frankie for his help with our groups endeavors. We often used my backyard to practice these songs. It wasn't too long after that another singer came to visit me and his name was Vinny. With Vinny we were beginning to develop a halfway decent group with good harmony. Now we needed a lead singer. Through some friends I was introduced to James Arnea. He agreed to join our group. So now our sound was really beginning to evolve into something very exciting. As time went by Vinny left the group and we needed a replacement, and that's when Paul DeRogatis joined our group. Now we were cooking, cause Paul with his high tenor vocals helped to pull our sound together and I knew we had finally struck on that something "special" going on, because he really helped to make a difference. The next thing we needed was a bass singer and as luck would have it I was approached by Joey Nicosia, who just happened to be walking past my house one day. We started talking and he said he was looking for a group to sing with and I said we were looking for a bass singer. Well, that was that. We now we had a "full sound" with exceptional harmony. We did some gigs at the 5000 Club and met a group there called, "The Tip Toppers", who today are known as "The Invitations". Gary Gant, the lead singer of this group became a very close personal friend of ours and he would often come to our rehearsals and give us advice. He would even take the time to teach us our routine steps for our songs. Through various groups along the way we met someone who was signed with Bill Ramal and Marty Wilson. I am not sure of the spelling of his name but I think it was Ragen. He set up an audition with Bill Ramal for us. We were given a song called, "Super Soul" to learn. We rehearsed it for weeks in James' basement. When we were ready we went back to NYC to Bill Ramal to record it. After we finished the song , Bill said we needed to do another song for the flip side of the record. We didn't have one. John McNamara pulled out a song and said, "Go and rehearse this song and do it fast"! So we did. We rehearsed it for about 1 hour and then we went in to record it. When it was finished we went back home to Brooklyn. The next day I received a phone call and was told that they were going to use "RAMA LAMA" as the "A" side. Imagine that! The song we only rehearsed for 1 hour. Well that had to be our lucky day because as it turned out that was the song that was a Hit for us and put us on the charts. To this day they love this song and we love the memories of rehearsing it , recording it and performing it ,and all of those days not too long ago. We would like to THANK all those who have expressed their interest in" RAMA LAMA" , and in our group! Along the way some of us have performed with other groups, known and unknown and some of us had to serve our country, during that crucial time. We Sang Under Various "Group" Names , Such As "The Destinations", "The Hamilton's", "The Tip Tops" and "The Groove" Each having a "story" behind them I "TIP" my hat to all the members & friends who helped us during this exciting time in our lives "TIP TOPS FOREVER" **** Added By Paul**** As "THE GROOVE" , We Recorded "THE LIGHT OF LOVE" AND "LOVE IS GETTING BETTER", on 20th Century Fox Records and Then On Wand Records Here I was given the opportunity of singing the lead on both songs" I shudda looked on youtube first,d'oh, but still like the sound those aussie r'n'b boys who also used that group name had, bit of info here -https://www.milesago.com/Artists/groove.htm quite fascinating really, all these teens in far flung countries fidning out about rare soul sounds and wanting to copy them, ah the 60's, a blessed decade, we miss you !

I was told they were an Australian group, who along with a couple of other acts from down under were taken to the USA to record with experienced soul producers and musicians. This was pre internet days when info was a lot more sketchy, but one of the other acts was a female singer who did some credible Northern styled cover version of things like Hesitations etc, but whose name escapes me ( think Mick Holdsworth had one of her 45's for sale recently?) The photo I saw was reminiscent of the Magnificent Men and other sharp suited garage soul bands of the 60's, but as I said this was years ago and they could have been mixed up with some other group of the same name. I do remember finding something on the net a few years back which was a series of reviews of them playing the teen dances to great applause... sorry can't be more positive with this info, but as no one else had tried to answer thought I'd share what little I knew, no matter how sketchy

Fairly sure I've got an issue of Shirelles tucked away, had both types in the past. It may take me a while to get at it.... if you think on, remind me later please..

now sorted, Wants to the rescue once again !

Looking for an O'Kaysions E.P. of Girl Watcher, not bothered if it's the American release or one of the various european or worldwide releases. Expecting to pay around £25-30 for a decent copy, maybe a bit more for something unusual or exceptional condition of both vinyl and sleeve, but really I'm just looking for something that plays. Please, don't offer me the album or the single, that's not what I'm looking for, cheers john

think many of us have had a go at collecting this label over the years, so many nice things in different styles with lots of double siders. some of my fave's - 4034 deletts whats the use/look at me 4053 johnny moore such a wonderful feeling/without your love 4070 johnny moore lonely heart in the city 4071 adventurers somethings bad/nobody can save me 4072 keanya collins it aint no secret (deletts ? has every demo copy got a red felt pen ring written around the title? think i've had either 3 or 4 copies and they've all had this?) (4053 j.moore, my copy is wrecked, anybody got one that plays well that is spare) (4072 keanya niter floor packer, used to play this up at NCSC few years back alongside joann courcy, which I think it's similar too. bought a spare copy of this stomper for a friend who asked me to find him one...then he told me he'd found one, so anybody looking for one shout me P.S. with the connection to Smash mentioned above (and my desire to learn more about that label) can i ask for Smash to be next label threaded?

Like so many others have said, I really want to put something down in writing but cant yet get my head, or my heart, around it properly. I'd like to share with you all the life stories that we shared, and the ones he told me over the years, so you could know him how I knew him. Reading some of the above posts I know people knew there was a lot more than just music to Max. Here's just one example from hundreds, of the kindness of the man. On separate occasions both Ken & myself fell out of work during a particularly tough time for unemployment in the 80's and what did Max do? he gave us both a job working in his record & video shop. I'd never worked in a shop before, and I don't think Ken had either, but that didn't make any difference. On my first day I broke a brand new video, it had just cost max 70 quid, and before he could even get one rental out of it I'd wrecked it. If the shoe had been on the other foot I'd have told him not to bother coming back the next day, but Max wasn't like that. I did learn, rather quickly, after that, just how to do the job. Don't think I broke anything else, wore out a few styluses though ! My experience in the shop led in a round about way to running my own enterprise, and it was Max who encouraged me to try it on my own when I was unsure of whether to try it. He gave me invaluable assistance and advice on running your own business, one gem I always remembered and repeated it to anyone who asked advice from me over the years " Only do business with people you like". Truly the only time in my businesses that I had trouble getting paid was from people my gut instinct told me were wrong un's, and when I'd tell Max this he'd remind me, heavy emphasis on the first word - 'Only People You Like' as he wagged his finger playfully. We've had many exploits, funny and otherwise along the way, both from happily being "just punters" out for a night of great tunes and good company, to the other end of the scale, DJ'ing and Promoting. Max thoroughly enjoyed getting out and about, perhaps my fave from that period would be our jaunts up to Wigan for the Orwell nights. Yes of course the music was fabulous, with guests like Richard and Gavin, let alone the resident line up to die for, it was always gonna be, but honestly what made the nite my fave was because, at Max's insistence, we'd always stop off on the motorway home for a full English, with extra mushrooms of course. Over the years on the way home from venues far and near we tried all the different Motorway Service Stations, rating their abilities in the egg frying department and mushroom generosity. Between 3 and 6 in the morning you can get a strange mix of people working in these places, but Max could always charm them, especially the elderly women, into giving us a few more deep fried mushrooms! Thinking of places where we'd stop for a breakfast on the way home from bought this to mind - Max rarely danced, but one time up at the Pigeon Club Niter in Bolton, about third record in my set I got him going with Jimmy Gresham and he stayed dancing to the end of my set. One of my fondest memories, happier times, both for the scene and me personally. Of all the joint DJ stories I'd like to share, I'll start with an easy one. Max had been asked to go play some Catacombs era tunes and he asked me to join him as we were doing most of our bookings as a double act at the time. We get up to Yorkshire with me fairly in the dark as was usual. " I've asked if we can do one longer set instead of doing two short separate ones" he tells me, fine thought I, much prefer doing one hour instead of two half hours. We kept a couple of boxes made up of Oldies from the early years, so we didn't have to keep going looking for records every time a booking came along, so I was quite confident we had what we needed. The set got underway and went well. I don't wear a watch but as I realised we'd gone through a large percentage of the boxes we'd taken with us, I asked Max how long we were supposed to play for? He answered " Just keep going", which we did. About ten or fifteen records later I asked again " Keep going, I'll go find out", he says as he leaves me to it and disappears into the other room. We usually reckon on twenty two or twenty three records per hour, so I'd gotten through at least a further half hours worth of vinyl by the time he came back. He didn't say anything, just got his head into the box looking for something to play, as though he'd only been gone a minute. When he turned around I expected him to say something, but instead he just cued the record up, introduced it and then turned to me with an odd look, I presume this look was in response to the puzzled look I was wearing. " What did they say" I asked, " Who? About What?" he replied. " About how long we're supposed to carry on for?". "Oh, I didn't ask. I went to the toilet and forgot to ask. Got caught up in a conversation with some lad, nice guy, you probably know him, says he knows you". I was what we call gob smacked. There was just nothing to say, and every time I looked at him he'd just laugh, or grin, but always with that familiar twinkle in his eye. " Keep going, we can always start playing the B sides" he chortled. In the end we did a set that probably lasted about three and a quarter hours or something equally silly. Knackering, but I loved it. Funny thing was about five years later we're at Keele Niter and one of the most respected Promoters on the scene taps me and says " That Niter you did up at Sheridans, I tell people that's the best set I ever heard in my life, the music was perfect and you put it over so well". "If only he knew" I said to Max. Needless to say after that when Max phoned to say he'd got us a booking my first question was never where is it, or what style have we got to play, it was always " How long is the set" A tale of a different sort- One time while I was doing some sorting of my collection Max was visiting and noticed I'd got two copies of Delegates Of Soul. I'm a bit hopeless at getting rid of any spare copies I've got of things, and he'd constantly be on at me to move them on, " turn them back into money and then back into a different record" was what he'd say. Eventually I half relented, then came up with the excuse " Ah but which one should I let go? Knowing me I'll sell the one that's the rarer of the two". He gave me that look, picked up the super clean issue and said " That's Easy. Sell this one". I looked at it in all it's pristine mintyness, then at the other copy (which is a rather sad and scruffy looking white labelled version prob. a demo but it doesn't say so? Perhaps it's just water damage?) and asked " Why do you say keep this one?" " It's had a life" he says with that familiar twinkle in his eye, and I immediately knew he was right. Max and I agreed on many things, our one big difference was on the WDJ's versus stock copies debate. Max being originally a white demo man back in the day when it was almost all UK labels only, and me being (preferably black) issues, though neither of us followed it exclusively or even seriously, it was just something to banter over. We'd tease each other when we bought records in the others favoured format, you know the score, me saying " What you had that for, you could have had a beautiful issue for half that much, and you'll have to buy a new rubber to keep it gleaming white after every play". Him saying " As you've bought the white demo will you get the kids box of crayons out when you get it home to colour it in" Anyway, being a good lad and doing what I was told I sold the clean copy, and then typically, a couple of months later it was fetching five times as much as I sold it for. When I pointed this out to him saying " This is why I hate selling records, I always do the wrong thing". Quick as a flash he countered with a wink and " Ah but you kept the right one "...... ;-) Another story I'd like to share is about Messrs B and T. Years later we were still getting asked about this, how it came about etc, so here's the tale - Following his 20+ year hiatus he made his return to the scene in the late 90's and was to be found attending, and then later playing sets at, progressive non Oldies venues like Albrighton, where he mixed it up in true across the board style (X-Over, 70's and rare 60's) He loved the freedom of these sets but he felt that he'd never escape the formative years tunes he was so well known for, the Cats classics etc. Every so often he'd get asked to go play an Oldies set somewhere, and he rarely if ever refused, and never disappointed the dance floor. He got around it by asking for an early set at one Oldies nite (which clashed with Albrighton) that used to regularly ask him , so he could get up to Lea Manor by Eleven, in time for the main sets. Not daft our Max ! Had his cake and ate it. One nite he came into the Manor from this oldies nite asking if Dickie Wonder had ever been booted. When everyone said No, he proudly produced a nice mint one, telling us he'd got it from a box of boots at this Oldies nite. Best part was they were 3 for a fiver ! No wonder he was always smiling ! He did have a small hang up when he returned to DJ'ing on the scene around the time the great mass of returnees came back. He said that when some folk saw the name Blue Max on a flyer they expected him to play the tunes that were the big newies in the early 70's not the big newies of today, and he drew the comparison with me and 80's/Stafford era tunes. I felt that people should be able to work out the difference whether the flyer was advertising Blue Max doing a set at Goodyears' (which anyone with half a brain knew was going to be 99% Oldies) as opposed to seeing his name on a flyer for The Cross Keys Hednesford (where his set was obviously going to be 99% X-Over) Max being Max he'd accept the booking to go play early years Oldies, using his gifts to ram the floor, then he'd spend his DJ earnings buying more Rarities and Newies which really floated his boat. Sorry, wandered off the story a little there. The style that later became known as Y2K and the whole Modden Soul/Nu-soul influence was growing on the rare soul scene as we approached the magic date on the calendar, and because of Max's record industry contacts he'd sometimes get exclusive tracks and rare mixes which were more dance floor friendly of these new releases. Although we both enjoyed including one or two of these new Y2K tunes in amongst the 60's/70's it was a lot easier to play them all together, doing them as a modern room set. A few months later, at the height of the very humorous pretend R'n'B versus Y2K fake war of words, Max and I were going through the passageway from the main room to the modern room and we had to pass all the record sellers as this voice popped up. In his lovely mix of mostly North West but with a faint scattering of Dudley accent, Dave Rimmer shouted after us " I suppose you pair are off in there to play that bloody horrible bumpy and thumpy music now" pointing towards the modern room. Duly admonished we trudged away, tails well and truly between our legs at the thought of losing our membership cards to the rare 60's soul appreciation fellowship, having been outed as players of modern and the dreaded Y2K ( and if you believe this last part you'll believe anything :-) Once behind the decks we were soon in the 2K groove, and whilst I'm not 100% sure after the passing of time, I'm fairly certain that it was me who came up with the idea of using Dave's taunt as an alter ego for our DJ'ing exploits on the dark side. Once we started to use the names Bumpy & Thumpy it gave us the chance to cut loose that nite, and the only problem came later, from the repeated questioning of the names. For the record I was Bumpy and Max was Thumpy, the reasons why I'll save for another day I've kept just a few flyers over the years but I must confess to having a liking for the ones where it said Blue Max & JP in the pro 60's main room, but Bumpy & Thumpy in the modern room. Not exactly Superman and Clark Kent, but it kept us amused for a while. Before I go. On thing Max used to like to trot out to any soulie who'd listen was how " These pair of bathplugs" ( or a word that sounded something like that)as he'd point at me and Ken. "They dragged me back on the scene. I was quite happy in my little shop, my years of Northern Soul behind me". Well we hardly dragged him, we did bully cajole him a bit, with nites of curry and tunes around Ken's house, but from that first nite back at Lea Manor, he loved it. Of course he didn't know the records, but somehow he did this thing, where every few tunes he'd say " I like this one, rare? how much ?". And do you know what, he instictively missed all the five pounders and picked out all the really rare tunes, some newies on their first or second spin. One thing he was adament about was that he wasn't going to start collecting again. Well within a couple of nites he'd got himself a little book, to write down all these new wants and the rest as they say is history. Northern Soul is Max, and for Max his-story is Northern Soul.... All these stories and thoughts aside, my favourite memories of Max wont be music related, it will be of him at my house with my kids. Both he and Ken became honorary Uncle's in my family and my kids love them both dearly, because of how they have been with them over the time that they've known them. Invariably Max would always leave our house with the same saying " You Kids, be good for your Mom". I knew he meant ' You can play your Dad up as much as you like' :-) When I told the family of Max's passing my son Will said " Max knew me from being a baby to being a young man". I answered " It's pretty similar to me, he knew me as a schoolkid, not even a teenager, right through to what today feels like a very old man". God bless you Max, I hope you've got a while before I join you, so make a start on sorting out the best places up there for the post Niter Full English. With extra mushrooms of course ! John Pugh (mods- if this is too big should I put it in a blog?)

In our prayers for a speedy recovery. hoping they dont let him watch the footie in hospital in case he gets too excited john

Often described as the world's prettiest bassline, I give you my all time favourite - Jackson Five - Darling Dear I'd love to hear an isolated bass track of JJ playing this. There's lots of folk who are JJ wannabee's trying to play this on youtube, and although they are not as good as the great man you can get to see just how fabulous he was at laying an inventive and danceable bass line. ( try the one uri7777) of copurse no-one does the JJ one finger hook, but it is sweet to listen to, along with the young black version of MJ on vocal. In Northern Soul terms Sam Dees "Lonely For You Baby" SSS Int. takes some beating, especially the intro.

Wont the capacity get filled up with lots of unsaleable crap records that nobody wants? the sort of things every dealer has got lots of copies of/garages full of. Or the equally unsaleable 'over priced by a margin of 30-50% rare originals'? Am I wrong in thinking the reason records don't sell is a) there's no interest in /demand for this 45, b) people don't want to pay the price asked as they feel it's too high/double the price they saw one in a venue for, c) collectors don't have the money, and by the time they do get some more money they've moved on to chasing some other tune. d) they are badly advertised Only rare records or high demand records are difficult to locate in the present climate and I for one dont imagine this long term sales listing would contain many records of that calibre, or am I wrong? If you are talking about breaking up a collection then in principle this sounds ideal, but wont the cream get taken at the start and the stuff thats left is just plain unwanted? (until Butch or somebody of that ilk starts playing it :-) My pet hate on ebay is how it's swamped with boots which are not described as such, what would stop this site suffering the same fate and then the seller turns around later and says " Oh sorry, I didn't know"? I'm not against selling boots and reissues, just make sure they go in a section clearly marked as such, and punish anybody who lists boots as originals with a long term suspension. It would be much better for the scene if as well as long term listing the dealers chucked these records in a box and took them to venues to sell, marked them up for the prices they are likely to sell at instead of asking 50 quid for something you'd see in Des's box for a tenner ( not picking Des out, it's just he does seem to price records to sell them unlike some who don't imho) Mail order sales are fab, but you cant beat being able to see it and better still play it before you buy ( and flip it over for 20 seconds of that side, just in case we've all missed a potential monster ! ) If this is adopted could it be like Amazon where it say something like " 10 available at prices from £3 to £300"? p.s. I think I'm an average collector, maybe 3-10 records a week average, how many have I bought via Gemm ? None. Not One. Overpriced and Undesirable imho. They should rename it..... I could think of a few suggestions.... Gem indeed......

why isnt there an oldies option on the poll ?

found this whilst mooching about on t'net - "The Majestics' (I Love Her So Much) It Hurts Me probably has both Chick Carlton and Barry White on it and is the best and most unique track here since it also features the Ralph Ventura Mariachi band which adds tremendously to the musical arrangement." so next time it gets a spin it'd be nice if the DJ gave credit to RV & his Mariachi's ! btw There's a Faro release by Chick Carlton & The Majestics, and like some other Faro releases it has their photo's on the label. There's five faces, so presumably that means there was 4 members to the majestics? Chick was a songwriter for many LA based acts and his name crops up on a number of labels. one other thing, might not be the same group, but again its a latin line up - From Manhattan N.Y. Litle Joe Rivera-Lead. Jose Luis Torres-1st Tenor. Albert Diaz-2nd Tenor Luis Hernandez-Baritone. Leoncio Rosado-Bass. They recorded in 1966 for Relic Records - whther they're the same group? On the tangent - Steinways def predates Wigan, a Catacombs/Wolves area (and probably Torch as well ) spin, '72 maybe. Think maybe I remember reading the name on the adverts in B&S before I had heard the tune. Heard it one nite and learned what it was the following sat morning in one of the dj's shop's (max's/pep's/alan & bob crockers in stafford street or possibly over in b'ham on the oasis market, but perhaps those stalls were a few years later, so maybe that rules them out?) I can still see the label, and it looked cool to my teenage eyes. It was a demo, white label green writing, it was years before i saw an issue, and decades before i saw my first all white demo, is that the rarest format?

My current fave 2nd room is the Freestyle Room at Rugby Niter, but if I was running the world all 2nd rooms in every venue would be a mix of classic oldies, forgotten oldies and the odd surprise/unknown just to keep folk on their toes - because all main rooms would be playing in the style of all great venues of the past, Torch, Cats, Wigan, Stafford, etc, i.e. a mix of completely new and unknown, fairly new, Rare and not so, the odd request, and some previously tried that didnt quite make it. Of course these main room plays would have no barrier due to their year of recording- and it'd be the same rules in the 2nd room

I may well be wrong but to me the whole bag carrying thing started back in the (skin/suedehead) boots-wearing era of 68-70 maybe? You had to take shoes to dance in seperately 'cause it was a bugger trying to dance in Polish Monkey Boots or the DM's that went high up yer leg. We hung out at the local Rollerdrome and had holdalls for carrying our Skate Boots around in, not sure which came first in our area? Whilst trying to live on virtually no money (like most teens/schoolkids) and still look fashionable, we found there was an ex forces outlet, not so much a shop as a hatch window in the side of a building just down the road from the Molineux stadium, we all bought ex RAF shoes for something like the equivalent of 20-40pence, and they certainly did the job, easy to shine leather upper and sole, often repaired a number of times so you had to pick through them and the price wasn't fixed so you could haggle down from the individual prices. My mate bought a pair the first time we took him and he thought he'd had a bargain for a shilling (5pence) until the sole parted company from the upper about ten steps away from the place. We also bought hugely baggy oversized navy trousers for about the same sort of money(71-72 maybe?) They may have been made from the itchiest wool known to man but they were great in the winter, The trick was to buy the ones with the biggest waist and the longest legs, often maybe five pence more, but they were'nt knackered at the bottom ( like my kids overlong jeans are today) I think it was due to these much wider than the existing fashion trousers of the time, that my short lived knickname of 'Flapper' came about (not long after everybody moved from 24 inch bottoms to 28 to baggy 36 inch plus - but when did platforms come in? The only non leather soled shoes I could ever dance in were platforms, plus I liked feeling taller :-) It kinda took some of the fun out of it when we all started to get proper jobs and could go into tailors and have stuff made- (btw a couple of years back I bought some beautiful Loakes online after asking Guy where he'd got his from one night up at the old NCSC Niter. Then we had a death in the family so when they came i chucked the box in the cupboard and it was months before I tried them, and of course they were too tight for me (I've got broad feet) I felt I couldnt return them as so much time had passed, so i have an unwanted pair of 'as new' loakes which cost about 100 pounds, size 10, anybody wanna make me an offer? sorry if I shouldnt have mentioned it on this thread, but it only just occured to me)

Nothing to do with the record, but just thought I'd add that she was a lovely woman when she came over and performed a few years back, and she'd still got her voice too - plus she'd got small quantity on all her RCA 45's which she had for sale on the nite, wonder if anybody bought then all save her taking them back to the states? maybe she left them with her English friends ?

There's a thread on this already - in the last year possibly ? unreleased Richard spin back in the day..

" I Just Want This Feeling To Last " on Hot Tracks 12 Dunno where to start with it, I know it's pretty rare as the label was only pressed in small numbers. The album on South Bay has a version of this song but the one to play out in a venue is the Hot Tracks remix version, imho it's a stronger dancer, heavier beat and possibly a quicker bpm but it's been a while since I played the album to compare the two. I'm not knocking the album version, its a great song by a great singer whichever version you've got, just if you want to dance this version sounds better to my ears. From memory I think it was Mr Thorley who spun this at Stafford but I'm not sure if Robin or Adam didn't also give it some plays ( I seem to remember another dj playing it as well as DT ? hmm?) (Somebody told me the album version was the first one to get played and it was dropped in favour of the Hot Tracks version, dunno about that?) There's a video clip of me playing it on the new century site at the previous Stafford reunion, try this link https://www.newcentur...fford-reunion-3 somewhere around 07.35 you'll see folk dancing to it. That is definately the right version, although it's not the actual copy I have for offers. It's never failed to fill the floor every time I've played it over the years, now it's up for offer, by p.m. if you're interested cheers john