Steve G

Good to hear from you man!

Jo - The Medway School of Dancing on Tonbridge High Street - Kev Griffin and myself ran three / four nights there. The Scout Hut was the St Easwythes(?) Mission Hall on Priory Road, Tonbridge which Kim Styles ran. Medway was on Sats once a month, and had a great dance floor, St E's was fortnightly on a Friday evening and the floor was covered in dust - as were our baggies at the end of the night! But both immensely enjoyable at the time. Kim started St E's precisely in response to the lack of northern played in the local discos.

All this talk of discos / youth clubs etc.....Down in Kent our local ones, as far as northern is concerned, we had to take records along and try and badger the DJs to play them. This met with variable success, some would play 3 or 4 on the go, and others would have to be badgered into submission. Worst one I recall was one night at the Teen & Twenty Club in Tonbridge, and I had taken down Kim Tolliver "I don't know what foot to dance on". The "guest" DJ eventually played one verse of it, then announced "that's a load of crepe" and took it off. When I collected the record back to him I told him that I thought he was a solo practitioner when it came to sex (in one word), and never to darken our doors in Tonbridge again. I don't think he did either! My initial influence as far as northern was concerned was more radio orientated, and then mags like Black Music / Blues and Soul. I wanted to find out what all the fuss was about. As far as mainstream soul was concerned originally got into that via Radio Luxemburg / Radio North Sea International, and believe it or not Top of The Pops where groups like the 4 Tops were omni-present.

Fabulous 80s!!! Really surprised this hasn't been played more.

Not sure if I agree with you there Chalkmeister. Collecting and elitism are regular bedfollows. I think it depends on the record and the rarity of both versions. In support of your point I'd far rather have Randy Brown "Things ain't what they used to be" on it's first label, rather than IX Chains. But as far as the Ivories on Wand is concerned - this is on my holy grail and I'd far rather have it there on Nat release than on Despanza. And if Don Varner was genuinly on Veep wouldn't you rather have that rather than the Quinvy copy? I know I would. Another factor to throw into the mixing pot is that quite often the national releases are better recordings than the local efforts. So I don't think there's any hard and fast rules here.

This double header on RCA was c 1977 and something I think Richard Searling may have had a hand in getting out, as he was at RCA and these were both monsters at Wigan etc at the time. I thought Interplay was a type of crime / mystery TV show originally from Detroit. Mike McDonald was not issued in the UK on RCA prior to this (and yes I do like it). Interplay I seem to recall did come out in Europe in the 60's, but I cannot recall whether it was UK or not without checking my files Maybe one of the UK experts and either shoot me down in flames or verify. I should add that I cannot stand this piece of crapola hence a mental blind spot.

Hard to imagine now, but this was a "hottie" as a new release at venues like Rotherham in the early 80's. All the big boys were hammering it to packed dancefloors . Like a corked wine I guess it's one of those that hasen't aged at all well.

As far as I can tell 100 Club / Leicester / Peterborough very early 80's unless someone knows different.That's when I first heard it anyways.

The Tymes is a good version IMHO - crossover style.

This is correct. I have a vague recollection that John Manship championed something on UK CBS by her but the title evades my failing brain

Excellent - Let's hope the Falcons do their excellent 80's side "Got to make a move" as well

Agree excellent - Same label design - just different colours....

I like this too. Top sound. Whilst on Willkerr anyone know how the Ike Strong record "Your love keeps me dancing" got re-recorded by a group called True Image? That one has always puzzled me.....

does john mile's 'one minute every hour' count too? I recall it being bandied as northern soul at the youth club circa 1973. it was certainly big & really no worse than some of the more 'poppy' stuff mentioned on here... M

Yer, agree he should be shut down - can't believe he's naive in the slightest. What's worse though is the lack of self policing / regulation by e-bay. OK I accept they'll never be able to detect boots from legit originals etc....but any mauron can see this is blatant copyright infringement.

Yup, not that keen on it. Some of those 69 Sue releases are quite tricky to locate.

Not at all girl - you'd look very hip and trendy

Jon What happened to Mick Boland?

Janine - have you tried the "Magpie" bods - I think they can do "in transit" risks, but not sure about going to Oz. Keep them with you at all times in hand luggage - that's my advice.

It is an excellent read. There are only a couple of minor omissions - which I was going to email JM on - mainly around odd labels like Beacon, but nothing that would be of real concern to readers. It has also caused me to somewhet "re-appraise" the value of my own English collection.

That was one of the funniest tales on here......the bizarest justification for a reissue not being a reissue I ever heard....

Did you see him? Does he actually exist? If so I'd be prepared to make an offer on some of his garden "flora" that you can clearly see shining through that shiny old (ahem) 1960's Shrine release?

Yeah, probably a three week period during which I went twice, hence it's lasting memory for me. We never really did Yate (once or twice only) - due to difficulty of getting there - hence I remember it as a Wigan Record....anyway - glad you like it. Me too.

No we're not saying that Gavin. Another one for the list Kelly Garrett "Love is the only answer" - surely good black "pop"?

Dave - You got the bootleg right?