Agentsmith

currently have the earl gaines hbr lp with the definitive version, played at the casino by john vincent...also had the deluxe 7" a few years back which was a slower version

live performances have always contributed to artists standings on the northern scene, particularly in the early years with regular visits by major lance, the exciters etc...it was a big thing to see these heroe's then, but i think i tend to agree with the previous comment as the large proportion of us, as we have got older have concentrated on the catalogues associated with, not just these artists but many others and as a result, we all have our favourites. my examples would be: jack montgomery, darrell banks, garland green, deon jackson, roy hamilton & on the female side linda jones, tobi lark/legend maxine brown....its possible to go on forever because as the decades have passed, we've discovered many more unsung greats...its such a pity that the scene has taken such a long time to evolve, where we've reached the point that those who are still alive, can be brought to the stage & spotlight by people such as kev and ady, but they're in their twilight years....we've had to take time to develope a deep appreciation of them before we realise exactly what we've been missing....just goes to show that the northern soul scene is a continual learning curve in every aspect

i can assure you, when i first heard it some 10 years ago at notre dame, i was completely gobsmacked!....you should ask nick brown about it, he did the original...i simply went into a recording studio with it fresh in mind, told the tec how the two tunes should be spliced and he mixed it down. it rounds up to something like 5 minutes...i had 3 copies cut, gave one to kenny onions and one to neil....cant for the life of me remember what happened to the other....believe me, it sounds BRILLIANT and it certainly WONT drive you off the dancefloor, even at 5 mins long....so perhaps neil might consider doing a limited run of it just to prove a point.

what?.....only ONE tune john?....you're having a giraffe lad, you've got THOUSANDS more like this hidden under your bed

ive read all the quotes on this continuing saga and decided to chime in on this one in particular, but just in brief. just like our formost iconic dj's, the scene does not revive, it simply reinvents to suit the next generation. our scene and our music is durability accentuated. one thing it could never be tagged with is an andy warhol " fifteen minutes of fame" rebuke. a "wearing our hearts on our sleeves" celluloid celebratory acknowledgment of our all-consuming love for northern soul, surely is worth the effort, especially in the hands of a true soulie who wants to tell the story without so much as a stereotypical commercial distraction....the trap that has been fallen into before. this has to be a statement, akin to a stone carved monument,...a defining moment that from a visionary's point of view, we have never come close to fulfilling without unwelcome intervention from an unknowledgeable media and its other subsidiaries. im probably like a good many others who do not know elaine personally, but reading the dialogue here, has alone, convinced me of her positivity. i remember, like a good many of you out there, the hype and furore that encompassed the release of the award winning documentary about the funk brothers and the triumphalism of finally achieving the recognition they deserved as much as the indebtedness, owed to them by their begrudging employer's motown....without them, there would have been no story and remember,....the foundation stones of our scene were built on the sounds coming out of detroit....the initial backbone of what morphed into northern soul. that documentary is like an eleventh commandment, set in stone, where the roots of our musical heritage came from..... so now is the time for a twelfth and, be it not a documentary, its by the people, for the people, the most important belief anyone should possess in telling our story the right way. i truely believe we can have before us a film we will watch and relate to, over and over for the rest of our natural lives.

hi neil, just a thought, but didn't you consider putting that remix i gave you, onto vinyl. nick brown was responsible for that, a good ten years ago. remember i did you a cd?

im pretty sure when we were at mick h's birthday bash, kitch told me richard played eddie daniels at the casino so,...it wouldnt be a surprise if he did have the hopkins brothers at that moment in time, would it?...i think we are all aware of a sea change beginning in richard's taste of music around 76, although these tunes ( or tune ) probably didnt feature til around 78, so i am lead to believe.

this could distinctly be a polished professional job, especially as the producer appears to have the necessary credentials, age, experience e.t.c. once again opinion will be swayed only with the final finished product...when it hits the screens, and in the case of some of the glitterati amongst us, the exclusive first showing, so,, before there's any disquiet or hell's kitchen-style knife sharpening at the prospect of another commercial foray into scene belittling....lets just get on with our soulful lives as normal, doing what we've always done for the last 4+ decades....enjoying our gigs, dancing and buying those little black vinyl thingy's....and whatever comes afterwards, we'll just take it in our stride....cool,calm & collected!

december 9th.....and it just so happens to be my birthday as well......old fooker!! :D

yes, and the good lady & myself will be on the door to greet you all!, this is a fabulous venue with a truely great dancefloor and quite appropriately its in the hands of the master promoter so, beware the lockout signs if you value a good night's dancin'....hopefully ricardo will have raided his "garage" for some of those "one-off" cover-ups that have been gathering dust!!

id imagine soussan would have supplied advance copies ( acetates ) of the instrumental to the top djs of the time and then decided to boot them as a double a-side once they were big tunes, disregarding the genuine b-side in preference to the urgent need for stompers. as weve grown older and wiser, weve come to appreciate the finer things and b-sides such as this are distinctly more receptive to the ear...and we can actually dance to them.

ask uncle ted about strange, worth considerably more than WNAU,...nice tune though.....young timothy even borrowed my LP VERSION of strange because the professor didnt even know it existed and he dosnt have a copy of the sonja recording anyway..see you cant own everything can you?.....oh, and i still haven't heard uncle ted's gem

bought one from you last years i think pete, the original has obviously gained greater value since the acceptance of the b-side, relevant to the crossover scene. tim offered me an original last year for £900...an established price id say. with regards to its history, its always been classed as a stormer and at this period in time where djs are searching out oldies that have just been quite accidently forgotten, the sweets fit right in that catagory. the instrumental is unique, regardless of it being on the b-side of the boot, simply because it dosnt exist in an original vinyl format...soussan being in the fortunate position of stumbling across the backing track, i guess in a demo format ( not vinyl ) whilst on his forays on the west coast. i think that this strange quirk of fate actually justifies playing the instrumental regardless of the fact it is, to all intents and purposes, a bootleg, and as with so many of the early, solid vinyl pressings, they have, in time, disappeared into people's collections....just like the originals many couldnt afford to buy....a case which still applies today...i dont think too many can argue vociferously about the case for playing certain things, for instance,...mel britt, billy woods, rufus wood....like you're just going to go out and buy any of these rareities tomorrow without spending a small fortune....yeah right, so the bootlegs have become sought after.....£50 - £100....the tamangoes was bootlegged TWICE!, in vinyl, styrene and LEGITIMATELY on grapevine, yet all three command prices not to be sniffed at,...well, getting your hands on a genuine WASHPAN would certain break most people's bank balances. so, in the case of THE SWEETS, its time to be spun again, long overdue....instrumental played at the tower? ( not cheating )....watch and listen!.

just been browsing the u.k. sue discography ( please dont start yawning, you authoritarians ).....couldn't believe my eyes....gerri hall - "who can i run to" & joe matthews - "sorry aint good enough" with official release dates and catalogue numbers....is this true, do they extist or were they scheduled but never released?. bearing in mind what a hotline copy auctions for, a u.k. issue would be a true holy grail in every sense of the word.

second single?...get the soundclip up here please.

ian, you're spot on, i remember tim relating this story to me last year,...in his own record room.....IN HIS OWN HOUSE, FOR FOOKS SAKE!! ...you know, our beloved mp's are about to trot out the old hanging pony again......well, if it ever comes about, it should apply to these lowlife's

spot on,...cctv is best bet then, so its about checking out who owns what, if its privately installed or council and if they're willing to examine footage for evidence....this barsteward thinks theyve got clean away....in this day & age??, they're having a giraffe!!,...til their collar gets felt and they wake up on life support...so everyone needs to be sharp as a tack now, no matter which end of the country we're in.

still nothing heard on this yet?....i can only summise that with it being the smoke, madam jojo's being in soho, and even at 3am there's a probability its some opportunist who dosnt realise what was in the bag, just picked it up...if it is someone from within the club at the time,perhaps most people there would know or recognise each other...did they have to produce some sort of membership or sign in/stamp on their hands...any cctv inside or out?. so its look out for internet & paper ads, check your texts/emails for anything that sound suspicious, pawn/secondhand shops need checking out, and like as been said here already, all record dealers, weather shops or websites, should be informed. was the bag a name brand and did it have any distinctive marks on it or badges for instance that would give it away. most of this is what the cops would ask anyway, but so long as the scene is keeping its eyes wide open and its ears to the ground, there's as good a chance as any that it will be hard for this/these scum to move anything without it being noticed.

thats correct, laura lee herself told kev roberts the story, she recorded it before darrell banks.

by the way girl, how are you these days, most recently had a chat at stoke after a long time, hope youre looking after yourself?....hope we'll see you at lowton in december or dunkenhalgh in october. atb may & rob

thats fookin' shite isnt it?....remember eddie from donkey's back at ilford palais....they should take a leaf out of saudi's book and chop the barsteward's hands off in retribution

geese lad...is it really that predictable?, i find it totally refreshing that the broadsheets are treating it with respect unlike 74/75...thank god it isnt being courted by TNOTW.....i would have demanded a hacking investigation ( come to think of it,...perhaps IT WAS THEM in 74/75....quick, where's me lawyer??!!

yes mate, im afraid richard must have been having a brain storm and it threw me!...not difficlt these days despite the deference to go to vinyl, which is understandable right now, i believe its just a matter of time before ady twists lou's arm...preferably by the time of the tower...maximum exposure there, and it will be heavily featured on virtually every internet or radio show you can imagine...for all i know its happening right now...i know for sure kev & richard will be featuring it before the months end

a few bits for sale.... jean battle - ive got to come in - clintone ( written & produced by sam dees ) xol ex £80 tommy tucker - thats how much - festival ( red issue, number before flirtations ) ex £50 tamiko jones - cross my heart - metromedia ( brazilian, in company sleeve george soule - terry woodford composition) sol ex £35 pieces of eight - come back girl - a&m (d) blue eyed soul stormer ex £50 gayle adams - baby i need your loving - prelude ( great 80's cover of the tops classic) ex £40 inferno orch.b/w the showstoppers - im not strong enough/got to get closer to my love - inferno (d) (wigan anthem plus unissued stormer - a side has slight click at start ) vg £20 brenda holloway - im so happy - studio blank ( version of phillip mitchell, levine production ) ex £ 20 albert jones - up to the sun - bumpshop ( probably rarest on label & his hardest recording to get great detroit ) ex £200 interested?....cheques please!...contact robhaigh2011@hotmail.co.uk

monday 1st august, bbc radio 2 broadcasts a two part program about aretha, its on at 10.30pm, hosted by paul sexton. its part of the new "summer of soul" season....got to be worth a listen?