dean jj

Great news...I've got two in the house [as an old soul boy they are of course in different rooms] but as I've had them since the 80's I suspect they could do with a service. dean

METROS 'SINCE I FOUND MY BABY' [RCA PROMO] MINT £300 CAVALIERS 'HOLD TO MY BABY' [RCA PROMO] MINT £150xxxxxSOLD CLIFF NOBLES 'MY LOVE IS GETTING STRONGER' [ATLANTIC] £300-GRADED VG+ BECAUSE OF FELT TIP 'W' ON BOTH LABELS AND CUT OUT HOLE BUT PLAYS MINTxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxsold PM ME AND PAYPAL GIFT MEANS FREE POSTAGE DEAN

Thanks very much gents.

The latest example in my quest to delve into the strange world of seventies boots. I'm sure the info. is useful to others as well, and may stop [hopefully] some fraudulent sales. Again many thanks to all who contribute to my quest for truth! dean

Thanks chaps, I think I have the real looking boot, goodness knows what that is worth. dean

As the collective hive mind should have recovered from the extended weekend: can anyone guide me on this one? cheers dean

same guardian: decline of night clubs article...some relevance to us toothless hags I think. dean

I don't recall it...ask other members?

I barely remember anything apart from the smell of the fish van we used to hire [cheaply] to get there but new major releases from willie collins and chapter 8 maybe indie stuff like gerald mallory? dean.

Richard DJ'd early playing mainly new releases then went home and the nighter became straight northern. The beat ballad thing was the latest envelope stretching reinvention at the time. Meanwhile in the front [nearer the shore] smaller room the playlist was oldies only. Seems like a very very long time ago on a galaxy far away. dean

I don't think there was room in the soul hole for a 'massive table'

mine has silver text so i superpose its a boot...£2 in the 80's not surprising...sounds great though! dean

Again I appeal to the collective: how do you tell real or boot? many thanks dean

I played wide night...nude was fridays and pure house music

boss dancer...used to play that at the Hacianda! dean

Lamont Dozier 'Why Can't We Be Lovers'. Tony Blackburn on radio 1 always played it at 8.15 in an attempt to make me late for school. Used to play it at Parkers. dean

it does stand up even today dean

Morecombe pier was a bit mad: Richard played new stuff then went home and it became northern...different dance steps meaning you had to change your legs at three in the morning. Have you tried fitting a set of spare legs in a adidas sports bag?

Gotta be there! dean

Would it be 'closer'? If you've got a 12" for sale Rod I'd love one as I've only got the CD album. dean

Well, I'm unsure about the correctness of commenting on your own nights but as you kindly asked Uncle Glynn. In the late 80's I played a night called The Groovers Convention every Friday at the Gallery with Jon Tracy [at the time the last defiantly black night club left in Manchester] and Wide Night every Saturday at the Hacienda with Dave Haslem. At Groovers the sound was mainly two-step soul, funky soul, cross-over soul, well soul really. The story Glynn refers too is that I was the last person to play a record in the Gallery. The police had targeted the place for sometime but the undercover officers enjoyed it so much that they failed to accurately report the full extent of its social infrastructure. Anyway at about 9.30 one Friday a coach load of police pushed in the doors and a man with lots of pips on his shoulder waved his swagger stick under my nose and said 'turn that f**cking shit off'. Rather unprofessional if you ask me. As you know they don't do things by half in Manchester: the Gallery is now a pavement. I did Saturdays at the Hacienda for two years until the pressure to play just house music, which I did play but playing one thing all night is painfully dull if you ask me, meant I was given the elbow though returned in the early 90's to do a funk night called Fuse. Dave Haslem would play Hip hop, Manc. guitar bands etc. and I would intersperse that with the previously mentioned house music [one set of soulful house and one of acid house] along with modern soul, northern soul, Latin, funk, disco, and if playing the last records some sneaky two-step. Once I played Otis Gayle 'i'll be around' last record which upset the management no end. The joys of having two clubs in the same wonderful city at the same time is that if you found something you liked it would fit it to one format or other. Later I managed the same thing with Djangos and Parkers. Anyway enough of this nostalgia, I haven't DJ'd since February, give us a gig? dean

Oh well may as well stick me sixpence worth in.... Jazz-funk as a music was disco made by jazz musicians unable to pay the rent playing jazz in the 1970's. Obviously, having the chops, these did make rather more complicated disco records which appealed to the fancy movers and fleet of foot on the contemporary black music club scene in the UK. It must be remembered, here at the heart of northern soul fandom, that new release black American music has always been popular in the UK ; especially in urban areas. Jazz-funk as a term pretty much vanished by 1982 as its aficionados annexed themselves from the mainstream in upstairs rooms and specialist nights with a pure jazz dance policy. Rare Groove, a mainly London based fashion driven club thing in the 1980's, played forgotten seventies 45's overwhelmingly of the funky variety from James Brown but not exclusively. Certainly not as rare as northern records but getting on for ten years or more old so did need finding I remember on a rather extended night out in London we ended up, via a private party at the RCA playing northern [Keb 'even oldies were newies once!'] and a Kalima gig at the Blue note, at the Cat In the Hat where a slightly squiffy Charles Reese, being a serious Mecca boy, rather pissed off the DJ's by loudly naming every record they played. Two-Step, as stated before, shebeen soul, pilfered and refined by us naughty northerners. Some of the really big tracks were all groove and crap vocals so some refining was required. Rod mentioned Victor who did appear hunched over the crates on Rod and Dave's stall and in Expansions. In the shop he was also looking for new indie releases fresh from Soul Bowl as well as the deletions, oldies, etc. I remember buying 'Hutson1' from Rod and Dave for £3 and playing 'lucky fellow' in Manchester, while Richards Mum picked one up from a revolving LP rack [remember those?] in the village post office, for a similar amount, and at almost exactly the same time, and he choosing 'all because of you' to play at The Half-Way House etc. Aaah! Such innocent times. All these trends crossed paths, bumped into each other, referenced and stole from each other....cultural life is never as simple as the as labels put on it would have it. By the mid 80's you've got cross-over, the beginnings of really rare funk being played, and the increasing influence of various styles of Latin music influencing various scenes including northern. The story goes on and on... dean

Good morning Chaps, I continue this theme with 'sitting in my class' I have three different copies! Any clues to realness? many thanks dean

Might make a list..but meantime how about the perfect double header: the UK 45 of The Tempts sublime 'loneliness made me realize...' has the earlier 'a love i can see' on the flip. What a very splendid piece of plastic. dean

Thanks Chaps, mines a boot! dean