Davenpete

I for one am there for the music (when I am actually there and of course apart from the verbals etc) and as such am only interested in hearing from the DJ if he actually has something worthwhile to say - telling me what a record is if I'm (that being the royal 'I'm' - the crowd as a whole) not likely to know or some other interesting nugget - what I AIN'T up for is listening to someone grandstanding and looking for adulation coz he has just played X on XX (fill in the blanks) and wants you to be impressed - to me DJing should be about answering the needs of the floor blended with evangelising - the 'if you like that one - how about THIS that you don't know that's similar but even better' approach. As for the 'without speech you might as well shove a CD on' view - well if the clubs you go to have DJ's that blindly play whatever with no adjustment of the playlist (as if they were just spinning a CD compilation) in reference to the behaviour of the floor and the tatstes of the crowd that are in - they AIN'T DJ's and that AIN'T a proper spot. Dave

100% agree - I would say steer clear of Mr Manship's prices as they're pretty steep in my eyes - try and buy at allnighters coz you can see what you're buying (can often play them) and usually get better prices - and you can get advice on whether they're boots or the real thing, you'll also get recommendations from other collectors - whilst as Joan said ALWAYS buy what YOU like - when people know your tatstes they'll push you in the direction of stuff that may interest you. A well formed collection is like a pyramid (sounds like the cue for a song) - A LOT of cheaper stuff (the average value of my all time favs is still only about £20-30) with a pinnacle formed by expensive stuff you just HAD to own - a collection that are merely a list of 'fancy records I want to own to impress my mates' is not a SOUL (records that after all should touch YOUR soul - sod anyone else) collection at all and rightly draws ridicule from those who collect from genuine deep love of the music. Dave AS a PS to JJ's point 2 - decide what a record is worth to you - DON'T go over that even if it means you can't own a copy - though you'll be amazed what comes along over the years cheap if you keep searching and checking every sales box you see (specially the little 50 boxes from guys who ain't been around for ages - I'm amazed how many records I've owned for years and consider £10-20 sounds are now over the ton - without having checked if I had them in my box for sale I'd be pricing them at £20).

Bearsoul? You'll be confusing the natives Hear you've been seeing Ricky and Sue a fair bit - we were round there pre and post Radcliffe - next outing Nov 7th at Droylesdon. We do hope you and your's are well - we just been head down in a shit storm of work. All the very best P&D

That's for nighter crew who don't have access to decent 'enhancement' Anyway, modern, oldies, newies, underplayed... If you love the 'SOUL' in the music with a genuine passion you're 100% fine by me, and there IS a place for pure nostalgia jerking oldies (even at more 'progressive' dos on occasion) - just as long as they're treated and played with respect - not simply caned mindlessly for easy success. D PS The pressing issue - I firmly believe 'it's what's in the groove that counts' (though I collect originals myself) - trouble is that the term often tends to get trotted out by people that actually don't care enough about the music to BOTHER spending anything on it or taking the time to track down originals (and in turn don't have the drive/passion to look for tracks they don't know that are equally as good) - this is to me the crux of the orig/pressing issue in my eyes.

There are of course numerous different interest groups and factions - though we're all of a soul bent (some of us being more bent than other ) - that said personally I'd see the split as essentially being nighter crew / soul night people - I know at least all the guys I mix with tend to not feel they get a proper soul fix from a soul night (I almost never go to them unless it's warming up for a Saturday nighter or on the way to the nighter - at least when I AM going out)... Whereas soul night people for the most part tend to have always been soul night people and usually have never been big nighter goers - (before I get shot down in flames) I would of course say there are exceptions - equally for the most part I think the really rank oldies tend to get their spins at soul nights wheres in general the regular nighter crew tend to be more wary of overplaying etc coz they hear so much soul (both whilst out and pre and post-going out) and so quickly get sick of stuff that gets spun too often (the 'I love it but I'm pig sick of hearing it' factor - which of course applies, or SHOULD apply, to excess spins of new discoveries too). Anyway not rocket science but it's what I think as a regular who's in hybernation Dave

Lenny Welch - Darling Take Me Back (better than Ray Pollard). Though that said being a beat 'Ballad' they ought really to have a story rather than just be a slow(ish) paced record - so how about 'Can't Stop Looking For My Baby' by The Fantastic Four as a left field option. Or as I've just noticed Theola Kilgore - how about 'This Is My Prayer' - just slays me. More pointless nomenclature really - how about a Crossover 60s Newie Beat Ballad. Dave PS Kell Osbourne? Quicksand? Sorry I absolutely detest it - it's like luke warm porridge.

Still braking your nose with your kneecap Rod? The Pier - just the best place I ever went (being a mere pup). Dave Carne

Ady Croasdell during one of his forays into different haircuts. Dave

Would have been a damn sight easier if you'd added a link - anyway it's the Freeman Brothers on Soul - it's on loads of Motown compilations. Dave

No problem D

'Sam We Miss You' - Donald Height on Old Town - the gorgonzola of soul. Dave

I presume this is yerself Mr Sargeant - being pedantic (since it seems to be the way on here) - MJ also relesed on Cotillion, Atco, Atlantic, Ichiban etc - we've got pretty much all her albums - she's the D'sBs. BTW isn't Medicine Bend UK yellow Stax only on 7"? Hope you're fine and dandy - heard you were coming to Radcliffe - no show though. All the best Dave

I'm sorry but b*ll*cks - this has nothing to do with crossover - I ONLY MENTIONED JOYCE SIMMS IN THE FIRST PLACE AS AN EXAMPLE OF TWO STEP AND ONLY MENTIONED THE OTHER TRACKS THAT YOU'RE ARGUING DATES OVER (THAT I DON'T ACTUALLY GIVE A TOSS ABOUT) AS ONES I FAR, FAR PREFERRED AT THE TIME (AND STILL LOVE AND OWN). As it happens the 'early' is more to do with when I used to hear it, since I left Hull (where the modern do I used to go to that played JS was) in June, with the last Tower do I went to being about Easter - making it early 86 - frankly I don't know why I'm feeling I have to justify myself over this stupid detail about a record I think is crap. Dave

The other stuff earlier, but Catch Me 79, Joyce Simms early 86 - but aren't we way off the point and into the land of irrelevant pedantry. Dave

6 or 7 by my reckoning - I WAS listening to new stuff too - just wasn't taken with 'All and All'. D

It was just too lightweight and tinny to me (and the nasty two-steppy dance turned me off - specially as it involved doing it with a GIRL) - I was wrapped up in the Pockets, Creative Source and Today's People at the time. Dave

I'm talking about 25 years ago. Dave

Much as I love this, it's the last thing I'd pick as an example of crossover - apart from Nolan Porter of course. Crossover to me - going back to when everyone was talking about the stuff (and I was as much a wedged modern kid as a stomper so was/am a big fan) - was (usually) late 60s stuff that was so bloody good that even dyed in the wool modern fans couldn't help but love it (ie it crossed over to become popular on the modern scene, as such it was generally of a sound that didn't hit the mark for mainstream northern fans at the time) - Garland Green 'Angel Baby' or Nooney Rickett 'Player Play On' for example - Mel Britt is another typical track that you would regularly hear at 'northern type' modern soul dos. Two step - nightclub pop (almost always current releases originally) retitled to allow it to be played at modern soul nights so that plastic psuedo-soul fans could turn up in their XR4is and dance badly (first one I remember was Joyce Simms' 'All and All' - all in all bloody awful). Dave

Guys I knew in Hull were Striker, Bob Skewis, Sean and Chalky (all old Hull Drifters SC), and not forgetting Paul Madden of course and the fabulous Kate (coolest girl I ever met, she did the door in later years at the Griffin in Leeds). The twins were the most identical I've ever met, but I didn't meet em til about 1986. Used to travel to Peterborough regularly with Striker, Bob and Chalky as well as Martin Midgely on scooters in 83/84 (and occasionally Thorne in 85) and co-ran a soul night with Striker at the Adelphi in Hull (used to be murder to get people to turn out in them days - everyone was still on the funeral march after 1981), Brian Rae guested occasionally. Bob also used to put on a modern do at the Tower Ballroom next to the art college (where I went) on Anlaby Road - Sam used to come up for it - Bob's older brother was a close friend of Mr B's. Really enjoyed Radcliffe - though I was a bit 'tired and emotional'. Dave

If we're anywhere 10:1 it'll be Lifeline - great to see you - enjoyed the spot. Dave

'Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport' by Diana Ross and the Supremes. ...God I'd love to hear it - one unissued recording that miraculously has never surfaced. Don't forget the Uncle Tom comment was in terms of 'at its worst' - doesn't matter which era we're talking as that was never a caviat of the original point. Dave

'6 Million People Can't Be Wrong!' Oh yes they can Dave

Have to say this seems a somewhat selective reading of what I wrote - 'My own view on Motown is that at it's finest it's magnificent, at its worst its a squandering of magnificent talent on making Uncle Tom mush for a fundamentally racist white audience' I don't see how when quoted IN FULL anyone can disagree with this - what's 'Rocking Robin' if not Uncle Tom Mush? The point about aiming to make money is patently obvious. 'Different eras different music' re-the likes of Fortune - surely this was the whole point I was making? - that Motown was not the first from which all grew - you could equally say the same of Motown itself - Mojo Hanna or the Hunch ain't got a lot to do with Down To Love Town sound-wise. As regards poaching - perhaps this was the wrong term, but the fact is that numerous writers and producers had a meaningful career before they joined Motown (let's say Harvey Fuqua for starters) - like Frank Wilson - as did a goodly number of the artists. As for Lamont Dozier versus FW - well FW certainly had more INDIVIDUAL success at Motown and always says himself that he was their most successful producer (and I'm not dumb enough to even have Do I Love on my radar when talking about him). There are many labels like Chess and Kent/Modern that had success pre and independent of the Motown sound. Again 'lacking in direction' - it's pretty clear I was talking about MUSICAL direction - NOT business - I don't think anyone can question that there was something of a hotch potch of different sound streams going in Motown around 63. I'd have to agree with your assessment of the other labels though - in that post-Motown's success they were heavilly influenced, but built on the sound to create their own style - this is a much fairer point than the original one made by webbydublin that I took serious issue with - that everyone else was just a slavish soundalike. Anyway I thought I was being fundamentally positive about Motown - seems people are more interested in the asides than they are a statement like 'My own view on Motown is that at it's finest it's magnificent' or 'I do think that many of the Motown greats are neglected because in the initial instance everyone knew them at or near the time of release, then later on with say my generation they fell by the wayside amongst kids who hadn't heard them in the first place'. We have shed loads of the stuff upstairs (about 100 albums and 250 singles) so I guess I must like it despite what people seem to think I said. Dave PS 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport' by Diana Ross and the Supremes.