hipshaker 05

aah .......... vince hilaire. a favourite player of mine when at portsmouth too. a few years ago i ended up living in the flat above him in portsmouth. it was a bit of a shock for me the first time i walked past him on the stairs ..... i was waiting for him to dive!! i remember i got a phone call from british gas one day asking if i knew his whereabouts!

that'll be them all then will it? i wonder if they'll be c*nts the next time you need them.

when very young somehow my mum managed to persuade me to buy a tammy wynette greatest hits album with some christmas money ......... and i think she still has the LP. also a beatles 62-66 comp on red vinyl. first proper choice i made was elvis costello - oliver's army on 45 i think.

can i join in? ...... c*nt ........ f*ck ........ sh*t .......... re*ssue!!

on this point too ..... if you have a great venue and fair price i think people will attend. you will have to consider if other events are on in your area at the same time as this will have an impact. if you make any profit i'm sure the charity concerned will be grateful. maybe in the end though, if you feel that you will lose money it might be an idea to try to raise money in some other way.

in my opinion it is a little naive to expect promoters not to want to make some money out of the night(s) they promote. It is often hard work, involving lots of time and money which should be rewarded in some way .... and when all is said and done there is some degree of gamble involved. Most promoters will have a break even point they must achieve in order not to be out of pocket. Often the bigger the venue the bigger the gamble. Also, there seems to be some resentment aimed at people who earn a living from promoting on the northern soul scene. I'm sure a lot of people actually would like to be able to do the same ...... working in an area they love and making money! Who wouldn't? These promoters I'm sure put a lot of time, effort and thought into what they do. And why shouldn't they want to strive to offer quality ... whether it be in terms of venue, flyers, adverts or whatever? I think its unfortunate when charity events cannot get off the ground though. I'm sure you will find DJ's willing to play for free ...... but less sure that you will find club owners or flyer companies willing to do the same. These things do cost.

this is all a tad serious ........... any mention of fun in the manifesto?

as good as surprise surprise is hammy .. it was yo yo i was thinking of

nothing's out of bounds for us ....... if it can stand up as a decent dancefloor track .... tom jones ... elvis ... peggy lee ...... sandie shaw ..... lulu ..... cliff ..... cilla ..... some good tracks from that motley crew.

we love the elvis tune down here at hipshaker davie. its nice to stick in a few tracks that surprise people ............. you heard cliff doing "aint nothing but a houseparty"? ..... storming version.

gary ............. what was the night called at the students union?

no one else like boot apart from me then?

we're very partial to the sideburn down here at hipshaker ............. both of us sport them. sorts the men out from the boys!! i wrote a little article a few years ago about sideys for a south coast magazine ................ found out the got their name from a general in the american civil war called Ambrose Everett Burnside. Teddy Boys started calling them sideboards. Can't remember where i found it out though.

With all this debate about reisssues and bootlegs v originals going on I thought it might be an idea to see what labels people like. I'm quite partial to BOOT myself ........... with the fantastic hand drawn boot of course

well i certainly enjoyed it. the students did pretty well because there's a fair bit of interview footage about people they've never heard of (marvin gaye, berry gordy, martha reeves etc) ........... some of them knew who stevie wonder was though. if i cover them again i can watch some more!

at school wednesday morning (i'm a teacher by the way) .... i'm free period 1. my name is up to cover a music lesson with a year 9 class (13-14 yr olds - some difficult characters and music quite difficult to cover for the non musicians among us). ask the other music teacher what the work set is. a couple of worksheets he says ......... seeing the look in my eyes (year 9, boring worksheets!) .... "but i have got a DVD they can watch" he says "about motown" ........ my eyes light up ... "its a documentary" he says. in answer to my question about the title he says "standing in the shadows of motown"!!!!!! ........... fantastic! most enjoyable cover lesson ever ..... the kids generally watched it well, and learnt a bit i'd say ....... i was able to explain the story to them having seen the film a few times ..... put it in context for them (used girls aloud actually, asked them if any of them knew who played the instruments ....... not the mosrt appropriate band to compare to some of the motown artists though). we managed about 40 minutes of it .... saw about 4 or 5 performances ........ a few of the kids seemed quite impressed with bootsy collins and his outfit! just thought i'd share it.

card ...................... full colour. my point is not that paper is not good enough (as for those clubs that use paper it is i'm sure good enough) but that for the great unwashed that some people seemed to have been concerned about, the "outsiders" that were going to ruin the scene, I think they wouldn't have been very "attractive" to ...... and along with the other aspects I mentioned would contribute to my view that the influx was never going to happen. I think when people are so wrapped up in a scene they lose sight of how obscure it is to the majority. Even if they got past the flyers they'd still have to contend with the "mumbling DJ's" ........ and the no drinks on the dancefloor policy ....... that's if they wanted to go into the scout hut/community centre/social club in the first place to hear all these KFC classics.

hate the food .. love the ads. to be fair .... this mass infiltration thing was never going to happen. its too difficult to get into. in some cases - out of town and unappealing venues ...... paper flyers ...... dj's mumbling all over records ........ etc itwould all be too much for many i reckon.

i'm not a huge fan of the slow stuff but i like marlena shaw's "california soul" ............ went down well at the end before the ads .... and still does. slow but powerful.

i vote marvin ............. the voice has it!!

i've been on the rainbow again ........... since you been gone ... top tune ...... picture cover too!

like davie ..... i agree whole heartedly matt. i've heard some right insipid dross that seems popular due to its rarity and high price. can't say i could name much of it, although when i have a look at the manship auctions a lot of the expensive stuff sounds dreadful to me. although .......... it is partly a rare soul scene i suppose