Soul16

Frank Wilson DILY I would imagine.

I totally agree with your analysis, however I still couldn't resist voting for Susan Rafey due to the 'Northernness' factor

First time I heard it was in the late 80’s at the Severn Soul Club at Perdiswell in Worcester. I seem to remember the DJ was Steve Smith. Gino was one of a great three in a row that I’d never heard before; the other two being Goodbye Cruel Love by Linda Griner and It’ll Never Be Over For Me by Timi Yuro. Happy days!

Blimey, I’d forgotten I uploaded those videos to YouTube. There was more footage but the quality was very poor due to the low lighting in there. I remember walking in there for the first time and ‘You can’t mean it’ by Chapter Five was belting out of those massive speakers high up on the wall. The atmosphere was electric and I was instantly hooked. My membership number was 227 I think, so not far behind you in the queue Steve.

Agreed, it was very common in the mid 70's. I bought two: one for me and one for my then girlfriend. I also bought the green boot at the same time. All from the same sales box.

RP = Robert Paladino (I would have thought)

The letters are on both sides of the record. They can appear anywhere relative to the label text of course, but obviously always the same distance from the centre hole. The record is definitely legitimate in my opinion too.

See attached image from your photo. It's a long shot, but try this location for the lettering.

I’ve compared the photo to my copy of the record and both the run in and run out widths look correct. The label colour looks right too, the red text looks a little fuzzy, but that could be the photo quality I guess. It looks like an original to me. If it is a boot, a lot of effort has gone into it. When feeling for the raised lettering, relax and only apply very light pressure with your finger.

Floyd, With regard to Mr Rielly making a claim, I would have thought there’d be some small print defining what is considered an acceptable way to ship relatively valuable items via Royal Mail and from your photos, the packaging looks as if it falls way short. Unfortunately, it looks like he cut corners in order to save a few pence. I know it won’t help you at the moment, but I’d be staggered if they actually pay him out, assuming he’s been honest about the packaging. I like to think that most people are thoroughly decent and that he will feel under extreme pressure to settle this with you by paying back what he owes you. His reputation is at stake here and for less than £300, he has the opportunity to rescue it. Good luck with getting your money back

Payment just been sent

Stay cool mate. I wasn’t condoning the sale of illegal items, my stance on bootlegs has been documented on this forum more times than I care to remember. Feel free to take a look

Been reading this thread with interest. Back in the old days, NOC stood for No Original Centre, but in some quarters it appears to have morphed into Not Original Copy. You’ve got to smile! ’Bootleg’ is the correct term, but for those that sell such items, that can make items difficult to list for sale on some platforms I guess.

I would love a copy please, email sent. Andrew.

I've treated some of my records to new sleeves, so I've got about 160 to recycle. Please see photo, good condition, but all written on as shown. These were originally purchased from Sounds Wholesale. Not sure if anyone would be interested, but if you're in the UK mainland and happy to pay £6 to cover postage and packing, first to PM me can have them. I will send PayPal F&F payment details via PM reply.

Any NS event that you pay on the door, that doesn’t also advertise itself as including other genres like Ska etc. I wouldn’t necessarily expect original vinyl only at a multi-genre event. For me, it’s just a case of trying to maintain certain standards. Again, all in my humble opinion. I’ve been involved in this debate on numerous occasions before, so I think I’ll leave it there.

In brief, if I’m a paying customer at a proper Northern Soul event, I would expect to be served up original vinyl only. Originals look better, feel better, sound better and are better. All in my humble opinion of course. In the same way, if I go to a steakhouse, I expect to be served up beef and not horse meat.

What a fascinating read this thread has turned out to be. You guys are a fountain of knowledge. Great stuff .

From my experience of what I've seen, I would say that Larry is the rarest version. I'd be keen to know how come there are two versions though.

Here’s a close up...

Surely, if you need dancing lessons, you ain't really feeling it. Howard Guyton - I watched you slowly swim away...

Northern - Seven day lover - James Fountain Modern - Heaven in the afternoon - Lew Kirton (12” version, because I love it)

As cringeworthy as it was last week, now I’ve got used to the idea, part of me is looking forward to it tomorrow! I’m as protective of ‘the scene’ as anyone else on here, but we also have a reputation for being a friendly bunch, so I’m gonna run with that attitude. Northern Soul stopped being a secret society decades ago, but the simple beauty of the music never fades for me. It could have been worse, at least he didn’t open up by dancing to Frank Wilson and demonstrated to the masses that there are more than two Northern Soul records in existence - the other one being The Snake...

If memory serves me correctly, I read somewhere (Record Collector mag?) that the BBC auctioned off a lot of vinyl for charity on a particular day in the 1990’s. DJ Mike Read was the auctioneer and did it for ‘free’, other than being paid in a few vinyl 45s from the BBC Radio 1 / 2 library - one of which was said to be Frankie and the Classicals on Philips.

That's how it used to be back in the day for sure. It still is for the more discerning of course. Sadly, with all the dodgy bootlegs that are apparently getting played out, it seems you don't need to travel anymore to hear your favourite tunes if you don't care about the format.