Davenpete

I've had this discussion a number of times on other unrelated forums (salmon fishing of all things) - I for one don't believe people should not be allowed to join under anything but their real name (the only reason I'm PeteNDave is coz everyone knows us better as that than as David Carne and Peter Whitney) - I know all the arguments against this, but they're all really just mealy mouthed crap... The one thing that cools people down when they get argumentative is knowing that people know who THEY are - it acts as an attitude filter if people realise they will be recognised as being d*ckheads when they start firing off unnecessary abusive crap - I'm sure some people are just angry at the world... it reminds me of road rage the way some people get the pack hunting mentaility (as people who do a lot of motorway driving); some people are just looking for an argument/confrontation all the time in their because they have some pathetic 'the world's not given me a fair crack so I'm gonna teach it/everyone a lesson' attitude - and in a similar way to when people start phillying about on the road they soon calm down when they realise there will be consequences (in the case of drivers, realising that there's two blokes in the car and they might get battered and not some frightened mother with her kids). Dave

I think there are probably a fair number of 'fakes' or rather American bootlegs from the original time of release about - so are they fakes? I have heard tell of a certain legendary record dealer repressing from the original plates - complete with matrix stamps of course (I understand normal practice was to trash the plates when the press was finished) - if there is no way of telling is it a fake or something else???????? Dave

I have a copy. Neville Brody the legendary designer of the Face (the most influential magazine and type designer of modern times) was big into Northern, met him a couple of times whilst at college and visiting the Face offices with the other students from my course - who all got pissed off coz all we talked about was Northern and they wanted to hear about typography. Dave

Never!... and I thought she was crap and BLACK... Very lightweight and lacking in substance (IMHO of course), there are A LOT of better white 70s tracks - James Walsh for starters (to pick a really obvious one) - give me TM any day! Dave PS Manus - you said it!

Just sent you a message via eBay - anyway really hope you and your's are doing well - we're up in swinging Carlisle now - not going out much - to busy with work and being middle aged. All the very best Dave

I certainly know who the Castle pressing plates belonged to (remember him coming back from John Anderson's with them along with genuine Studio acetates of Betty Turner and the Vondells) and I'm pretty sure he won't have sold them - he always had some amazing stuff - and a great love of huge Cadillacs - great chap and a mate I really miss seeing, didn't know he'd moved from Yate though - but not seen him for about 10 years. Dave PS Sorry didn't see someone had let the cat out of the bag - it's defo Vince Ayers.

Are you SURE about that Rod? You sound a bit sketchy on the detail. As an aside (or maybe back on topic) I've was told by Brian (and have seen it done at a few of his revivals) that you did on occasion see couple dancing at the Wheel - doing a perfect mirror of each other's steps. Dave

All 'JUST dance music'? Ouch! 'electro pop/dance' - oh dear. I love stuff that has 'it' - that ranges from very early Wheel to post-2000 (if it's good enough)... I guess 'it' is soulfulness - I can hear it in the wild spirit of 'proper' disco, I can hear it in blues - I often CAN'T hear it in Northern stomp. Dave

As a graphic designer by profession I would say flyers remain more important to attendees than you, and indeed they, may think (on the occasions we go out we will always download the flyer off the net if we haven't been able to pick one up) - not as much as pre- the net of course (when I went out every week I hardly knew what day it was so needed em to remind what was on next week, specially after Echoes went) - some people may be organised enough to note down dates for venues they want to go to well in advance (this is what spouses are for!), but many won't and a flyer stuck to the fridge is an easy way to remember the upcoming dates... So you could see numbers dropping off without providing at least occasional reminders of when you're on - and of course, like a dancefloor, once you lose the punters it's a bugger to get em back. I would say one of the cores of good design is that it should 'speak' to the recipient audience - ie it should be relevant to the subject and communicate something of the 'culture' of a venue... Pretty though it may be, a '70s groovy grooves' look just WON'T work in promoting the venue in its own right if that do is actually firmly in a Wheel stylie - and indeed it may count against you (bear this in mind too with amending a cover design as a leaflet - despite the sounds on say Soul Superman, if you were to use a tweaked version of this cover to do a leaflet it would fall flat to the UNINITIATED/NON-COLLECTOR because it just looks too trippy for the crowd that like the music contained on the album - though of course this could also mean it can be used as a handy filter if you want to discourage divs). Finally within my business there was for a long time the perception that the net would wipe out print to a large extent - it simply hasn't happened (and on the contrary has resulted in an expansion of print off the back of an increased tendency for 'information collection' kicked off by the net) one key reason is that printed matter carries more perceived weight/value and tends to be retained better than stuff read on screen (in my business you soon learn that you cannot proof read on screen and have to print stuff out to check - this should tell you something). I'm sure the above is pretty obvious - just thought I'd shove my oar in. Have to say there's some cracking flyers around at the mo - though some miss the point that they need to clearly inform what/when the bleedin' hell they're promoting. Dave

As a sort of aside (and I have NO DOUBT it's 100% legal) but I'm afraid I have to say that the mastering on JoeBoy's Precisions CD is garbage (Pete's just bought it to add to the mound of CDs he's just got - think he's racing me on vinyl) - it's clearly taken from vinyl and VERY badly done to boot - I'd get better cuts off my own system using my own vinyl copies of the records (there's only the unissued stuff and one of the Bs I don't have). Dave

It's pretty well known that it knocked 54 into second place, but (if as DT says above it was defined by assuming the membership all voted for it) how could we possibly know either way? (apart from the odd person who might have been)... And if we're talking best 'DISCO' I think that 54 would defo deserve the vote over some manky old dance hall that didn't even have a light show - but surely that's NOT the point of Wigan is it! (or any other crappy old ballroom in the north of england that only allowed some dodgy characters to put an allnighter on coz the venue needed the money)... Terming them 'discos' at all is to belittle the value of the music to us isn't it? Dave

About a million tracks using the Time's A Wasting backing with the Fuller Brothers pretending to be different people (Love and Brotherhood is the best song, but forget the name). Dave

F*king ludicrous!.. A weak record that's dead common (bet the prats who are bidding on this don't even know 'Two of a Kind' - now THERE'S a proper record!) Dave

Is 'What Are You Trying To Do' not a Wheel sound??? Dave

Yep a much better track! (likewise Not Only A Girl Knows on the other side of the Victors - used to spin it at the thinnest excuse - which reminds me I MUST buy that one back) My copy used to play perfectly on a cheapo deck, but jumps like hell on my new deck (the headbanger side) - guess its grooves are just to violent for a modern needle. Dave

Since Kev didn't DJ at the first few it MUST be later. Dave

'Just Walk In My Shoes' on the MM album is brilliant. Dave

This long standing argument that 'oldies' pack em in/'newies' are small and badly attended is a load of crap! The point is that proper newies/musically healthy nights run with an aggressively righteous approach are often 'magically' well attended because there ARE the people out there who come out of the woodwork when they KNOW they'll hear decent (ie not the usual rank hyper-overplayed oldies) music... Pete used to bemoan the lowbrow mentality of the big 'trouser' venues (despite our going to them through personal loyalty) and it wasn't til the first Lifeline do I dragged him (kicking and screaming) to that he sat up and said 'sod me this music's great - proper northern that I don't know!... And who are all these (young) people who are so into this music?' coz he'd been so hoodwinked by the propaganda and brow-beaten with stodgy third rate 'old' maintstream newies of the ilk of Doug Banks into the belief that was what he would hear. To be honest we've actually made a conscious policy over the last few years of deliberately waiting for the scene to contract a bit coz it got big enough that the lowest common denominator rule killed off any hope of hearing consistently good music at most venues. Dave PS For our second nighter in 18 months we'll be at Lifeline.

Trenchant Gardens is where they used to hold the extreme hammered oldies nights. Dave

What a silly idea - there's hundreds and hundreds. The White Heather was me and Pete (later on - Pete Lowrie started it at the Swallow Hilltop before it was moved) along with Dave Routledge and Chris (I always did the first three hours!!! - you can have real fun on a spot with that amount of time - allowed you to do a 'proper' spot ranging from wheel right through to modern) - loved doing it but it was murder to get people in - we wanted to move it to somewhere more accessible but the others wouldn't have it, ended up having to close it coz we had a couple of nights where we lost a lot of money. Anyway we decided to 'do it right' and go for quality - we had Saus, Roger Banks, Carl and Spenna, Mark Bicknell (I think) er loads of others. Dave

Looks like the booty to me - have a look for a matrix stamp (Bellsound or Frankford Wayne or something - can't remember). Dave

That's the crudest piece of sampling I've ever heard - Spencer Davis Group 'I'm A Man' is much more playable than this - but we wouldn't play it so why go for this? (similarly in the past, though it was quite nice to listen to at home, why go for a song sung to the backing of Backstabbers when we wouldn't play THAT at a nighter?). Dave

Why Do We Have Dj,s? Someones got to look after me coat/beer/bag Seriously to me a DJ should be there to serve the floor, but more than that - to raise horizons: saying 'if you like that one you already know - how about THIS one that's similar but better that you don't' - envangelising for the music ...Sadly too many DJs seem to lack the knowledge, technical (spot building) skill and records themselves to do this - scrabbling for spots because of the ego trip they get from standing there behind the deck whilst this or that expensive overly well known (and over played) classic is on the turntable (showing a suitably impressed world they own it) - NOT because they want to spread the neglected music they believe should be played - many of the best DJs I've ever seen hardly ever get spots because they ain't pushy and self impressed, just solid soul fans with a superb collection and a real feel for the floor. Dave

The Moments was just sold on EBay - I was sorely tempted though it would have meant instant execution by the boss. Dave