Stevesilktulip

I heard all these dreadful pop records as a kid in the sixties and thought they wer dreadful. When I heard the originals years later I thought they were brilliant. Jagger doing the Wolf; who did he think he was? Zappa, Ian Anderson (the Jethro Tull one) and even Iggy Pop realised they didn't have the cultural facility to play blues.

So we're back on dissing the Stones. Never tire of that. I've never understood why anyone would buy an album by Stones, Rory Gallagher, Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughan or Joe Bonamassa. (I've actually bought albums by all of them but only out of curiosity - that's what I do). So many albums by so many great blues artists. Tom, Dick and Harry I love but that animal man still doesn't like buying music by black people, which goes from Glenn Miller to Eminem.

Sorry guv (got wrong). I know DG was a fan of the Doris Duke album; more than me. I'm sure when (if) he named it NS he didn't expect it to take in disco (which didn't exist), funk and jazz funk, much less pop music, theme tunes and novelty records. Going off his Treasures album, he had a different view of Deep Soul from me, and I know others are different again. Once you name something, it's in the public domain with a life of its own. He once named Rock your Baby one of his favourite albums, but things change; at the time I'd have agreed with him. Have nothing but admiration for him. Anybody see Jagger on the news? Kidding! Just kidding!

My goodness. Are people really defending one of the naffest groups ever on a soul site,; who influenced more naff groups. Does the media go on and on (and on and on and on) about these groups because people like them, or do people like them because the media goes on and on (and on and on) about them. Which comes first? As Soul Fans, I thought we all got this. We listen to the most obscure artists but still think these fake, lightwight, naff British pop groups are best.

Things are fantastic today. I'm just fighting the revolution to get the real music the recognition it deserves. If that's passive agressive that's me. It's not enough to say peace and tranquility when your words don't match it. I think you brought up the millions.

Can't tell a lie, I doubt very much that DG had any influence on any of them. His glory days/ time in the sun were a few years later. I believe he also named Deep Soul which I'm probably more impressed by, though he lost control of both, which is the way of things.

You said something about Jaggers millions!!! If something -music, book, film - is only relevant at a particular time, it can't have been very good. I listen to music from the 20s and 30s which still sounds relevant today, (I read books from even further back). I doubt very much if you've seen more live acts than me, and certainly not across genres, though I don't watch pop/rock/and roll. This despite you being a good bit older, something I'm not actually sad about I have to say. Fabs, Stones, Van, Who, Kinks, Rod, Elton, Bowie etc etc etc have all been forthright in acknowledging their influences and I'm not necessarily blaming them. It's the media who've turned all these black artists into the people, without whom, we'd never have had the Beatles and the Stones, like that's what they were for. Peace and tranquility, I think perhaps you have anger management issues.

Sorry I think I got muxed ip there. Computers are still really not my thing. Talented? Charismatic? The Fablon Four were charismatic; the Stones were just the naughty boy version, like Oasis to Take That.

Sorry, did this comment yesterday before yours but the computer got a bit scrambled. When I checked this afternoon it was still there so I just unscrambled it and sent it. It didn't make any reference to your comments. Were I to meet him, I wouldn't be rude to him but I wouldn't pretend his music had any merit, in 63 or at any point since. Are we saying that everybody who's made a fortune was good? Unfortunately racism was still rife in the early sixties and was even worse in America. It's better now but we still aren't there yet. Elvis, Fabs and Stones were the acceptable face of black music. Peace and tranquillity???

Why would anybody want to claim they inflicted the Stones, and particularly Jagger, on the world. They weren't a good teeny group like the beatles and weren't a proper rock group like Cream. Jagger has no national rhythm, can't sing and can't write songs. I can't get no (any) satisfaction. I can't get no (any) satisfaction. But I tried, and I tried, and I tried, and I tried. I can't get no (any). Like a song a five year old would write, and yes I know O sang it and I would never play that either. Muddy said there was no reason why whitey shouldn't play blues, as long as they don't try to sing them. Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) said that those British white boys want to play the blues real bad, and they play it real bad.

I once heard a story that the Stones turned up at the Twisted Wheel so the DJ played the entire contents of their first album, but the real versions by the real artists, the ones with talent. Don't know if it's true but it's a great story.

Sometimes people make statements which they consider ironic and assume everyone else will to, so apologies if I get this wrong. Were it not for pressings, NS would never have got passed the North West and bits of the Midlands, and never have got passed 1973. On a personal note, I'd have had one of the small singles boxes half empty without pressings, British reissues and the first half dozen compilation albums. Many of the artists who come over nowadays would never have been able to do so without pressings. And the best chance any of these people have ever or will ever have of actually making any money is CDs. Alan White's from Ferryhill ( home town of Tim Carr, Yvonne Middleton-Smith and Tracy Smith) and his family always turn up when Yes play Newcastle City Hall, though they're playing the Sage in a couple of weeks so we'll see if they make it there.

I presume that was aimed at me. I don't have an issue with him and liked him, as I stated earlier. He wasn't into the soul scene long enough to call it silly and, he's the same with progrock, he's drawn to the obscure and wouldn't know what to do with a Marvin Gaye album, a Curtis Mayfield album, a Yes album or a Genesis album. It's a position he adopts, though he probably doesn't realise it. Had he played Ridin High, or the Lamont Dozier version, or better records by Tyrone or Latimore, I may have been more impressed. He was too old when he got into Soul to really grasp its depth, hence his reason for going back to prog outlined above. All credit to him and better late than never, but his money alone wasn't enough to make him a major player. When he stayed in the hotel I was working in I tried to make contact with him because I would love to make a music programme with him and he may just have the clout to do it. He was into prog til it dipped when he made a slight switch to jazz-rock, which was a short stop to jazz-funk, which led to Robbie Vincent and he headed straight over to the obscure end which Vincent never went near so he headed to Hull? and Rod Dearlove. I was into prog and Jazz-rock but, like many others, switched to Soul in 74, returning to prog a little in the early eighties, having picked up Jazz Funk, Real Jazz, Reggae, Deep Soul and Blues along the way. I've studied culture to degree level to try to explain it all after helping run the Berwick, Fleetwood, Morecambe and early Southport Soul Rooms and have since taken on classical music, world music, hip-hop, folk, country and western and anything else that takes my fancy so I think we'd make a good team.

No, his preference was for the obscure end of Modern Soul and he was very much in thrall to Dearlove. Couple of blinders in that list but mostly just obscurity.

No, Steve Davis doesn't listen to Soul anymore and calls the scene silly, which I don't think his late arrival and short stint entitles him to. I know he does a radio show somewhere, playing prog and alt rock.

How can you tell? She always seems off her nut, which in the nineties substituted for talent. The Gallaghers!

I recall he once bought some records from Mike Charlton and Mike told him it was the amount of a maximum break. I found him friendly and interesting and a thoroughly decent chap. Having said that, in an issue of prog mag he referred to the silly rare soul scene, which I'm allowed to say, but he isn't, like Phil Collins reckons he's allowed to slag off prog rock but if other people do he'll defend it to the hilt.

I think there is a point to it. We seem to think that NS must be great because it's validated by these celebs, but most of them are a$$holes and it actually has the reverse affect. Last time I DJd I played Darling you're Wonderful and somebody asked me if I had Love Starved Heart and I confirmed it's on the same album. When s/he asked me why I didn't play IT I said because the record I was playing is better and s/he looked astonished. Why on earth would we think a DJ searching for NS appropriate records would have the last word on what is a great record by one of the greatest artists of all time, who should be ranked where Mozart and Beethoven are now. I wouldn't put Love Starved Heart in my top 50 Marvin Gaye. Have we still not learnt the lesson of Major Lance and JJ Barnes which we then carried through to the Modern Scene with Leroy Hutson and lots of people (Wilie Hutch, Leon Ware, JR Bailey, Lou Courtney, Bobby Wilson), with Anthony White and Randy Brown standing in for Teddy and even an Al Green impersonator. See there is a point to these threads; they lead to far more interesting discussions. I presume the Canal Tavern was Thorne! Steve Davis also went to Fleetwood but I don't recall if he was still around for Morecambe and Southport though I suspect he was at the latter for Garland Green. His preference in prog is also for the very obscure and he's famed as a devotee of French band Magma, who sang in a made up language.

Paul Ogrady always plays a NS record on his sunday night show on Radio 2. The rest of the show is terrible and the NS isn't generally much better. I was just thinking about playing Gerri Grainger at my next bash - one of the last traditional Northern records I really got into before heading off into New York Disco, Funk and Jazz-funk - and he played it. Can I still go ahead? I too am not preoccupied with celebrity culture and am not surprised that many of them dabbled in NS. Just look at the number of people who've come out of the woodwork as former northern soulies on a scene, at the time, I thought was quite exclusive. Sting recently played with a big band at Hoochie and, on the local jazz website somebody asked if anybody got a photo. I told them I was popping in the following sunday if anybody wanted to bring a camera. That stopped the conversation. Incidentally nobody took a photo of me. Swing out Sister made some great records and are excellent live, and she's a classy lady. Steve Davies recently stayed in a hotel I was working at, though I wasn't on shift. I met him a few times when he was on the soul scene but I knew he's done back to prog rock. I sent him a message asking him if he still listens to Soul but he doesn't. A few years back, Channel 4 did a Soul Night with a number of celebs playing their favourite Soul Records which were all the usual suspects ( Motown, Blues Brothers Commitments) and he came on last and played Sam Dees After All, admitting when he got into Soul, it was a type of music he really didn't know existed. Incidentally, he and I each had one of the first half dozen copies that arrived in the country. Did I tell you that Sam Dees arrived at Fleetwood and asked for me by name, which Alex was thrilled by. John Peel championed J Blackfoot Taxi but once said Soul Music (the usual suspects outlined above) was singles music, not like pop music which, as we know, is all about 40min works of art. I once saw Spiteri on the box enthusing about Marvin Gaye and Al Green before she blew it with the usual Beatles worship. Apparently Brian Tilsley once beat up Alex at MacMillans near Yarm but I missed it. A certain Radio 6 stalwart boasts that he was into NS between prog rock and punk rock. He was DJing at a ns bash and got mixed up trying to play the Night and ended up playing Grease because he thought they'd know it. When he was roundly criticised he said he doesn't like the politics in NS. But should he be playing the Night? A contributor said something similar in the last B + S I picked up, that we shouldn't criticise people who play just anything for people who want a bit of nostalgia and to say 'I was there'. The job of a DJ is to play the best music you can get away with, to try and keep this thing alive as a real live artform.

Bought tickets before the Sage even knew he was on. When we were looking for Soul acts for Fleetwood/ Morecambe/ Southport, Lamont was top of the list and, apart from the Dells, the only act we never got. Expect him to do not very good versions of the stuff he wrote for Tops/ Supremes and likely Why Cant We be Lovers, Fish aint Bitin and Back to my Roots. Having said that, it's impossible to overstate the significance of this, but I'd probably rather he walk on stage, allow us to pay homage for a few minutes and leave. Finally got to see Leroy Hutson in Dec (along with Al Green, the other greatest living Soul artist) after a PA 30 years ago and two cancelled gigs since, and it proved a little too much for me, so probably worth coming to the Sage to see me fall apart. I'm also hoping to get to Blackpool though currently down to work, but that's mostly Margie Joseph and a little bit Patti Austen, Eloise Laws and Ann Sexton.

I like the thrill of music, not searching for it which I always found frustrating and unaffordable. Somebody who's fanatical about music, and that means music, not myths, vinyls, rareity, obscurity,dancing or dance-floors.

Come to Bed and Here I am are a couple of my favourites. She became a really big deal to me when I started collecting Malaco at the start of the eighties. Saw her on a bill with Mosley and Johnson, Johnnie Taylor and Bobby Bland circa 87. You think these people will go on for ever but hopefully their music will.

When I was into northern in 74/75/76 I'd have probably said Dean Parish, Jimmy Radcliffe, California Montage and Tobi Legend in that order. Alex Lowes was our big DJ and he played all of these but sometimes an okay track called It's All Over by an artist I can't remember. Sometimes he'd play Go Now which was always disappointing. When I started going back to northern nights during the eighties, Tobi Legend became my favourite ns record and probably still is. I started playing it in the middle of the night and I'm pleased to say others in the area have followed. I couldn't listen to Jimmy Radcliffe, I don't mind Dean Parish though it's a bit of a Snake, and I still love Young Holt. I like the Drifter and love Timi Yuro. I've never heard Get Out played last but I think that's brilliant. I don't play any of the above but you'll have to come to Durhams Empty Shop, probably on the first Saturday in feb, to find out what I do play.

Dreamt last night I was DJing: Daylight, I can Understand it, Think you're lonely noe, woke up crying - haven't done that since Marvin; Curtis died around the time of my mother. Continued awake: How I Miss you Baby, More than I can Stand, Womans Gotta Have It, How could you break my heart Bobby. Not unexpected, he was ghastly at Glastonbury last year - saw him twice in early/ mid eighties but never think of them among the best gigs I've ever been to. Would have been nice to see him in the 70s but - hey - you do what you can. Still, first item on the Beeb as the whole damn world continues to go crazy. Not bad for an artist who, 40 years ago, when he was at the peak of his powers , we thought of as an obscure artist.

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