Steve G

OK thanks for confirming Ian. Try and have a good time....are there ANY records for sale? Says it all about the nostalgia scene really - 7,200 , but am going to close the thread before it becomes another "clown wear" / "Winstanleyfest" sesh.

I am hearing the attendance record has been smashed. Apparently 6,000 at Skeggy.....Can anyone confirm?

Ah that's where the records went then..... :lol: I only moved here in the 90's though...

It's alright for you country bumpkins with your village postman that's been doing the round for 30 years on the same bike : In all seriousness when I lived in Crewkerne the Post Office was excellent....Here it ain't.

I disagree. Round here Post office is mediocre and Fed Ex very good especially for high value items.....Horses for courses and depends on where you live I guess Dave.

Stuart is still there, and pretty high up at C4 too. But not sure he is up for that.....he loves his Scottish football tho.....

Yes Neil, I remember my Spencers came very quickly through the post, but you I know are a "repeat" customer from Halifax way weren't they?

Hey Sooty stop going on about the knickers! Had forgotten all about them until you posted again....

Yes there are so many dimensions - the artists, the record collecting and crate digging, the various "scenes" past and present, we get enough twaddle about mediocre rock bands so why not a series? Sounds like a plan.

No of course I am not. I know gear was an important part of it. But equally know not everyone did it. I could barely afford to get to the fookin place!

My recollection: 30-32" bags popular first, then later those Spencer 48" things. I got a pair c.77 loads of pockets, flaps etc.... and loads wore them at the time. But by 1980 they'd largely gone from Wigan. Striped shirts, straight / pegs, ordinary jeans etc....even trainers on the dancefloor! There must have been more than 3 of us more interested in records than gear surely?

According to Elaine viewing figures were estimated at 1m. That's the highest figure in the series, and for todays TV and BBC2 not too shabby at all.

Good midtempo records will hold their price. But the dross? I agree very out of fashion.

I didn't hear anything much cop on the album.....maybe I missed something?

Why are you selling up Lee?

Tongue in cheek. If you are going to appear on TV etc........Look if it really does offend them I'll edit it.....

I think we just have to accept that the "northern soul scene" is mostly a revival / social scene, and those that are trying to take anything forward today are a small minority, who also happen to be often fragmented and divided by genre, egos and sub-groups, often organised around individual venues or groups of DJs. Any chic, cool or hipness that was involved in digging black american music, dressing smart cas. and going to underground clubs - "this thing of ours" as it was - was abandoned by most on the scene many years ago. Commercialism, retro clothes, musical stagnation all played their part, and for most people today "northern soul" is like the old Teddy Boy scene of a couple of decades ago, a social craic, a chance to dress as you did when you were a teenager, and dance to the same records too. It's a real shame it went that way, but it did.

You know I wonder about this drugs thing, it's being over played. Yep know a lot of people did, but equally a lot of people didn't.....

Yeah and it was a programme on national TV too. Programme makers are always going to look for the "unusual" (non mainstream) people angle......So I guess we just have to deal with that element, it'll always be there, and let's be honest those two were hardly unique either - there are a lot of people that follow that life style. And judging by those flight cases behind them, he's probably a DJ too..... Thought Paul mason also covered some other rarely covered points - like how he stopped going to Wigan at the end of the 70's and moved onto jazz funk etc. Some of the non Wigan attendees in the late 70's might not realise that loads did that - fortunately we had 6T's starting down here in 78/9 with Randy & Ady for 60s soul music. PS: No Frank wilson??? :lol: Thank goodness!

I thought it was a pretty good summary of the oldies / revival scene. Better than most I've seen. Good comments from Elaine, Ian, Richard, Dave etc....and Paul Mason. Only downside that bird at the end from Notts spinning to reveal a pair of...... Big Daddy's old spotty underpants - Yikes! :hypo: X-Rated! Someone have a word with her tailor please!

Because when I went to Wigan nearly 40 years ago it was a cutting edge venue, playing a lot of new music to me. I've never changed my desire to hear new music. Simples....

I have as much in common with these Wigan revivalists as I do with the Druids on Salisbury Plain celebrating the equinox or the Flat earth society meeting to consider a new report suggsting that the earth may be round.... Well that's not quite true, we do share a love of some of the music and I did visit The Casino as a youngster. But that's it, I honestly wouldn't know if these "Wigan anniversary" nights are on in my town or not. Nor would I care, I am sure I could find a wall that needs painting....or failing that a neighbours wall.... Let em get on with it. On balance I'd probably rather they were in an 'enclosed place' enjoying themselves, than out and about pestering the rest of us with requests for Lorraine Silver and Judy Street!

I quite liked the fellas article. Not quite as I remember things, but we all had different perspectives on it. Looking forward to watching it tonight.

Interesting, I have another Vee Gees record on the same design as Talkin but a different colour, yellowish I think. Problem is it's in the garage so I can't find it in the dark.

Len DJs have always come from two "pools" - record collectors, or bods that have DJ'ed somewhere else, and got into (stumbled upon) soul and just transferred their "skills". I am struggling to see how many of the big names in the 70's would have made it without either considerable financial resources behind them, or access to the records via trips to the States or working in warehouses etc. Certainly I couldn't afford the sums being paid at Wigan for records.....and remember slavvering over copies of lou Pride and Candi Staton that I saw in boxes there - more than a weeks wages each! Yet all the "Top DJs" had 'em in no time...... Similarly a mate of mine found a copy of Queen of Fools UK for 10p in Bromley at a record fair. Sold it that night at Wigan to Minshull for £70 - an absolute fookin' fortune in the 1970's, in fact probably more than many DJ's get for an hours work even now! This one's never been a simple one.......I think all we can agree on (I am determined to find something we agree on) is that the scene has totally fragmented, and there is no central core venue like Wigan or Cleethorpes.