Epic

Go on then - somebody has to say it - FOOTSEE!!!!

Eternally - Charmaines Exodus - Biddu Orchestra Evil - Posse

Contact & Cathedrals (Earlier post) ??????????? Stretching it a bit to call these Northern Soul - especially DC Larue!!!

Cochise - Paul Humphrey Chained - Percy Stone

Brainstorm - Sweet Geraldine

Think the last one on the list may be by King Errison.

Rules ?????????? That would be Gil Blanding & we are not tound to the letter "R" yet.

Major Lance must have had a crap journey home - no coat & no sole left in his old shoes & nobody was prepared to investigate.

There is a Paul Metcalfe from Blackpool who is a bit of a celebrity in these parts Property Developer - Avertising Mogul - Festival Organiser - Comedy Club Promoter etc. etc.

Last record ever played at Blackpool Mecca by Colin Curtis (his last Saturday night there - not All Dayers that followed) was Celeste Hardie - "You're Gone"

Sometimes an early evening "warm-up" DJ happens to put a record on that happens to tick all the boxes & all of a sudden the night has started. The Sherrys is reckoned to be the 1st tune played at Wigan - sad thing is on the first night a cock up with memberships etc. meant that a lot of people were still outside when that tune hit the decks.

To be honest I really have no clue what you or anybody else buys - to give you an idea of what I buy my last two vinyl purchases have been one from 2008 & one from 1976. My point was more about the artists & producers of today having a lot in common with their counterparts from the sixties. BTW - I am much much younger than Pete Haigh - Fact!!

Current Modern scene, or the one that really plays new music, is probably actually getting further away from any Northern connection again, and probably appears to be the smallest it ever has. To be honest I think that is a good thing its getting seperated, as otherwise it will only be the most instant stuff that gains any favour.

It pays to shop around - think a re-issue of Daybreak's "Everything Man" went for over £80 on Ebay recently - yet if the buyer had done a bit of research he would have found copies available on the internet for £7.00. A few minutes digging could have saved him over £70 - buyers can sometimes be their own worst enemy too!!.

Problem is that Northern Soul - as I have said many times on here - ceased to be underground in 1975 - can't think that any film/documentary produced by the "outside world" in 2008 has really got anything interesting to say. I always cringe at the way the media portrays the scene - no piece of film or written word can ever put across our deep rooted love & passion for the music - it is a very personal thing which is beyond description. Should imagine the film will feature working class kids (played by middle class actors) - stuck in dead end jobs- living for the weekend - the music - the All Nighter - the drugs - giving them the release their mundane lives crave for.

Agree with many on here - we were young & all-niters were exciting places to be when you were aged between 16 & 20 - a time & a place & Wigan Casino for a short time in my life was fantastic - as was The Mecca - The Ritz - hearing new tunes - buying records - being with your mates - riding scooters - standing on football terraces - being young & enjoying yourself.

Maurice Williams - The finest piece of Northern Soul I have ever heard - Perfection!!!!

You mean Morecambe & Gisburn - the Fylde Coast has always been more discerning.

The modern scene as lost its way,full of boring people who wear cardy's and go to bed at 2am on fridays and saturdays and thats the nutters.

The biggest problem with an "across the board" policy is finding an "across the board" audience. Remember when The Ritz All Dayers in the seventies mixed Northern with Jazz Funk - very few records actually pleased both camps - the different "tribes" would swap dancefloor for sitting at tables depending which genre was being played.

Strange isn't it - two different tunes called "Have Love Will Travel" & they both stir up different & the same emotions. Now then when is my car insurance due?

Pete Haigh & myself have both attended & DJ'd many times at the Seaside Soul Club in Morecambe where they play everything from Jackie Wilson to Joi Cardwell all in one room.

There has always been a modern soul scene - people who bought Blues & Soul - Black Echoes - Black Music were into contemporary soul music - Northern Soul was only a small part of these publications. When Blackpool Mecca dropped rare sixties music a lot of the people coming to the Highland Room came because they wanted to listen to Jazz Funk & Modern Soul/Disco. The All Dayers with acts like Roy Ayers & Crown Heights Affair appearing were always packed to the rafters. The twice yearly Southport weekenders are always sell outs with many thousands of people attending. I would say less than five percent of these people have ever had any interest in Northern Soul.

It seems to me that many people on the Northern Scene would rather listen to bad sixties records than decent seventies records. BTW I do know there have been plenty of bad seventies records played as well. Somebody mentioned earlier in the thread about playing tunes that only got a few spins back in the day. The reason for this is if the DJ played something & got that "tumbleweed" moment even after 4 or 5 plays back in the box it went & that is where it stayed. Of course Northern Soul is predominantly sixties - my problem with the tunes being played now is generally they don't stand up in terms of quality of tunes played in the glory glory days. If you had played some of the records that have been played in recent years back in 73/74 you would have had a very short DJing career indeed. I cannot imagine any DJs back then would even contemplate playing Larry Trider, Richard Berry, Bill Bush etc. Seventies records have always been played & have always been popular on the scene - for example "The Bottle" is NOT a traditional Northern Soul record yet it has filled dancefloors up & down the country for nearly 35 years.

Often wondered about the "big ticket" tunes (ie - seriously rare - less than 10 known copies) do they just do the rounds with the world's top collectors or once they've got 'em they keep 'em?