Steve G

Thing is, I get all you older guys want to have a reunion, love him or loathe him he was part of the scene back then. Understand. Maybe have a night out down the pub with him, do it in London, bring Ian out, share some memories, joke about the lost cheques, his nights at the Casino,The Sharonettes etc?…. And those too young to have known him (myself included in that group), who come on saying "I wanna know the truth about northern soul bla bla" "I am sure the man has some great stories bla bla" - sorry to tell you that this is one guy you are never going to get the truth from. If he told you that "Afternoon of the rhino" was a tailor made, that he had Mike Post record especially for Russ, you'd believe him…..

No, more shite….but that was RW wasn't it?

I know it was "your time" Ian, and I have to be positive and give you a break etc….but that is SHITE….and a terrible slur on Golden World too.

Nonsense I have met plenty of northern / midland folk who were well into it in the 70s, then left it completely….."Oh yeh when I was young I loved NS, went to Wigan, got the sounds bla bla…..then I stopped going in 1976…". These days they're squabbling over tickets to see Cliff Richard at Wembley.

Manusf3a - "Rust"

You Cumbrians are soooooo impolite…. But the thought had crossed my mind

I am sure plenty on here will be willing to do that. But without sounding funny it might help if you say what your angle is for wanting to talk to British Record Guru - are you a journalist, collector, just curious, a film maker?

JM still has copies of the book, whether they are on his site or not, give him a call.

Why are you so interested in who owns the records? Loads of people have rare records. At least 5+ copies of Arthur Willis. Mello Souls is also more than a single copy too 4 and an acetate I think. The link is probably deleted because it is out of date.

Soul Bowl for one. JA's parents council flat was full of records by the end of the 60s, before IL and SS went over. Dave Box also told me he went in the 60s too, and there were plenty of others. As for discovering the sounds, I am sorry to burst people's bubble but most of those big finds from the early 70s aren't the true rarities. I know people like to say they are, but most of them are around in quantity compared with many of the later discoveries, and that's logical when you think about it. So yes those big sounds would have been discovered, just maybe a bit slower.

True enough, and it has taken Ian the last two decades trying to catch up with what's been discovered / played since he walked out in 76. There is an irony somewhere there. But must confess the Soussan letter was quite entertaining, the personal attacks were quite vicious, and Russ the hero etc.

Just think if he came back, we'd be subjected to loads of new discoveries that we've known about for years

Probably a studio job? But Ian who really cares? Theres been 40 years of soul scenes since then. Get with the groove man.

….and some got booted before they'd even taken off Nat T Jones Movin Forward springs to mind here.

Oh yeah, how silly of me

Certainly a hot bed of soul Texas….

He's a born again Christian now Chris, all is forgiven…...apparently….all we need another has been harping on about the glory days…. Aren't there enough DVDs, interviews, talking heads etc. about this period already?

This week's show https://www.mixcloud.com/steve-guarnori/soul-time-1742015/ 2015 Soul Luka - The way you move (February Soul) Gina Carey - Dance (The Blazing encore Late night rewind) Diplomats of Soul - Brighter tomorrow (Soul Life) The PB Underground feat Tony Momrelle - Taste of freedom (Stand up) Bobbye Doll Johnson - Mississippi Hideaway (True to you) Livin Out Loud feat Lisa Lashawn - Cuz I gotta know (Club mix) (Take it easy) Big Mel - Crazy about you (26) Will Downing - This song is for you (Chocolate Drops) Kenny Lattimore - Still good (Anatomy of a love song) (fade 1:38 from the end) Jerzeyshawn - Truth hurts Larry Bingo Marcus feat Grover Washington Jr James Lloyd & Rude Boys - Anything & Everything Farrell Newton featuring Jarrod Lawson & Tony Ozier -Peace and love Snuhgie - High definition love Daryl Carter - You bring out the best in me (And then I wrote) Hour 2 - 80s 70s 60s Dynamic Sounds Orchestra - Take me back Jackie Moore - What a man (the Complete Atlantic Recordings) Percy Sledge - Self preservation Percy Sledge - Sunshine Hill & Gibson - Stay with me Jokers Wylde - Very special love Edee Leatherwood - Make it last Rozetta Johnson - How can you lose something you never had Jimmy Bo Horne - Sweet love power Kittie Doswell - Just a face in the crowd Gypsy - Cuz it's you girl Thomas Lord Duckett - Open up your eyes Emmanuel Lasky - I'd rather leave on my feet Dee Edwards -Why can't there be love Shirley Johnson - Too big to cry Northern Soul 3 Buster & Eddie - Can't be still Patti Austin - A ticket a tasket E T White & His New Potential Band - Got to find a true love

Really pleased to see Club Caliente going from strength to strength. Radio commitments prevent me coming up these days, but it's good to see it still going strong.

Agree with Kev Roberts on the numbers. No way the place held 5,000. In fact 2,500 and it was jammed, and those numbers were only achieved in the early days and at anniversaries. Usual saturday nights by 77 had about 1500 in, a really good night 2,000 and by 1980, I can remember saturday nights where there were about 500 in - real quiet. Personally I never took drugs, the music was my fix, and I wasn't alone, loads didn't partake. But it's ridiculous to suggest that loads didn't either. We all knew it was going on, got offered 'em by strange coves in dark corners, got searched by Plod regularly etc. All this was part of the Wigan experience, along with being chased up Station Rd by unfriendly local people who disliked the soul fans with a passion and saw it as a bit of "Saturday night sport" to try and give us a kicking. I know Russ is a bit of a showman and likes to big up the Casino, and no doubt that will never change, but we're not going to have NS history to be re-written by someone who has such a basic challenge with numeracy. He can shout "rubbish" as much as he likes, it was nowhere near 4m and people regularly got prosecuted.

Goodness, it's like Groundhog Day…..the same stories over and over and over again. There is so much more to the scene than those same old tired stories. Sad really.

True. Knowing a bit about trains helped here. The Crewe to Wigan train, actually a Preston service was normally a loco hauled train with carriages with a gangway throughout the train meaning you could walk through the entire train. Sometimes they put on an electric unit where you couldn't walk between the carriages. Whenever that happened funnily enough we'd be greeted at Wigan NW by her majesty's finest and their alsatians spread along the platform. I worked it out pretty quick - electric unit (no corridor), we're gonna get busted when we arrive at WIgan. Now for the police to get the train type changed so that they could marshall / control the people getting off at WNW takes some doing….why would they bother if they weren't concerned about drugs? Just saying' like.

Bellingham isn't that in south east London? Bit of a rough place as I recall. What RW said in the interview was "Over 4m people went in eight years and not one of them was ever prosecuted". Now he is talking about showing that there were "arrests inside the Casino" - totally different thing.

The whole theory is flawed…."off duty police officers coming in because they enjoyed it so much" Perhaps they were still on duty …. "A major deterrent was if you got a conviction you couldn't get a visa to go to the USA" - in 1973? I am sure that was a "game changer" for the average Casino goer wanting to dance all night . I don't understand why he persists in this "No drugs on my watch" stuff. Ridiculous. I also don't feel sorry for Russ like some. He does very nicely out of trading on Wigan Casino's name, gets more bookings than the rest of us put together and all with about 25 records. I mean that's some feat if you think about it.

Certainly every time I got stopped and searched it was OUTSIDE Macca. Maybe some Freemason skullduggery going on here between Walker/Marshall/ Winstanley and Sir Malachi Jerrico (New Statesman). A cosy arrangement that saw the police do their business outside, and not a penny changing hands outside of the upstairs record bar. These stories just get taller and taller as time goes on. The attendance numbers, the best disco in the world award BS, no one busted for drugs….I am sure by 2020 there will have been 10m through the doors and we'll learn that Michael Foot was a regular attendee.