Tailormade Gaz B

On April 02, 2023 I wrote an introductory piece that gave a sense of what our new club night was all about. Entitled, The Glamour of Manchester, the article sought to set the scene for what we hoped to achieve. A roadmap of sorts, it spoke to the notion that the environment you host your event in and the people who attend, are as important as the music. It’s a triangulation of sorts. To get all three right is the key! Well, 15 months in, 5 nights in the bag (all with complimentary DJ mixes available here), we’re a matter of days off our first All-Dayer on Sept 7th. In anticipation of this we have been working in collaboration with a local brewery, Seven Brothers and Manchester based Creative-Studio, We Are Willow to create our own beer! The 'Golden Gooden' is a Home Run Soul Club X We Are Willow colab which celebrates the 1980's baseball legend Dwight 'The Doc' Gooden in the format of a 4.8% Golden Ale. Sound tracked by the Black Smoke Band – I’ll Keep Searching, licensed and distributed by our All-dayer guest, Yann Vastie’s own Epsilon Records, the promo video gives us all a sneak peak of the production and caning process. Wrapped in a bespoke Home Run Soul Club label, we’ll be giving 2 of these limited-edition cans to each of the first 100 guests who buy all-dayer passes, along with a sticker and limited edition ‘save the date’ flyer for our April 2025 event. Tickets are available here and only £10 for the full day, plus the goodie bag! In addition, we’ll be screening Dean Chalkey’s Young Souls film in the basement behind the decks on the night, complimented an exhibition of his photographic work upstairs (oh and he’ll be DJing too!) As I noted in my initial article last year, Manchester is alive with creative ideas and innovation. It is an environment that is also ripe for collaboration. Home Run Soul Club is built on this logic. As Manchester legend Tony Wilson (didn’t say), “We do things differently here”. Its true, we do.

As we continue to profile our guests at the Home Run Soul Club (more can be found HERE including Dave Ripolles, Pat Bleasdale and Chris Anderton) our aim is to build an archive of those we've had play whilst offering a little sense of who they are and what drives their passion for soul. For our first home run Soul club birthday we've picked another great character from the scene (with a great story) and a some of the records you might hear on the day. Phil Shields How long have you been collecting? I’ve always been in love with music from well, about aged 8/9. I remember my parents taking me to buy the top 30 singles of the time (oops best keep that bit quiet), then when I went to secondary school I started buying all Bowie’s LPs. Then in around 1977 I started hanging out with my older brother going to local discos, they called them soul nights even though there was no soul in Belfast but loads of disco and a bit of jazz funk. Anyway, I loved it and after a month or so I couldn’t stay off the dance floor and certainly wasn’t easy to live with if I didn’t manage to get out 3/4 nights a week. I was buying Black Echoes and was intrigued by the back pages, what were these records they were talking about? I didn’t know any of them. I think I was 15 when I persuaded one of my parents to write a cheque and voila my first soul pack arrived one damp grey Saturday morning and WOW, that was it for me I was hooked, late 1977 and I’ve been buying (and selling) ever since. Do you remember your first buy? To be honest, it’s over 45 years now so not sure. I know that first soul pack was all bootlegs and I remember Frankie & Johnny on Hickory and Johnny Bragg on Elbejay being there. I did start buying blind from Soul Bowl, them originals that came my way in those early days included Patrice Holloway – Stolen Hours on Capital, Steve Mancha on Wheelsville and The Blue Jays on Jay, all long since sold but one bought back years later but a lot more expensive. What’s your favourite record in your box? This is an impossible question, it depends on so many things but here goes but I couldn’t just have one, so here’s three that have been consistently my fave 45s and ones that I’m lucky enough to own – Johnny Gilliam – Room Full Of Tears on Cancer – Words fail me on this one, spine tingling soul of the very highest quality. I’m now on my 2nd copy after foolishly selling the 1st one Dusty Wilson – It’s Gonna Be A Tragedy on Mutt – Heard this in the 90’s when I started collecting again, my kinda tune! Maurice McAllister – Your Love Is Slipping Away – Well it’s Mr. Soul – What Happened To Yesterday on Genuine. A song I had on tape for a long time, I wore that tape out finally got a copy a few years ago Which record do you regret selling the most? Where do I start? sold too many over the years but there are two that I really do still miss – Soul Shakers You’re Turnin’ on Teri De Cal Green – I’ll Give You Just A Little More Time on Filmtown What’s your fave all time soul club? Sorry… three again from me – Rugby Soul Club – Just the perfect venue with a totally across the board music policy and run by two of the loveliest people… oh, and it’s two minutes from my door Middleton All-Niter – I was very lucky to be taken under Carl Willingham’s wing, absolutely loved this guy and I was over the moon when he called me up as joint resident in his room. And finally the amazing Belfast Soul Club – Never dreamt there would be a club in Belfast like the one me and Liam Quinn, some fantastic nights plus a couple of weekenders in the mix and the music was incredible! What’s your all time want? I give up on wants lists a long time ago, it would be a book by now and I’d need to win the euro millions to buy them! Ticket for the next event and all other info available HERE See you all on the 7th Sept

Yann Vatiste How long have you been collecting? I discovered a mixture Northern Soul, R&B, Latin, Ska, Jazz, Acid Jazz & Funk music on the Mod scene in the late 80s. I slowly started collecting records around the age of 15 as I had a very good friend called Spider who was a musician with an incredible collection of French EPs and thousands of soul, r&b and jazz records. I spent hours at his house, making tapes, taking notes and discovering black American music. During this time we would rummage through car boot sales and charity shops mainly, back then everything cost around 5 or 10 francs (50p/£1). Do you remember your first buy? To be honest, I don’t know which is the first record I bought but I do remember the one that changed my life, Kent Records The Magic Touch compilation LP , I used to play this on repeat in my room whilst teaching myself how to spin and kick. I was doing martial arts at that time which helped. A hugely influential album for me which made me not only want to learn more about soul music but eventually led me to move to London after visiting the 100 club. What’s your favourite record in your box? It will have to be Kenyatta – Kick It Off on NGUDU which is a funk monster 45, It simply has to be this one because of the story behind it… You can choose how you search for records and my method has always been to try to connect with the artists and musicians behind these incredible gems, so I decided to try and find the guy behind Kenyatta and soon realised I was the only one on the case. I first established who the owner of the label was, Ngudu Chandler, a famous drummer who worked with Michael Jackson. I found his daughter and she had a copy of the 45 but cracked in two, she was shocked that anyone remembered this 45! So I started researching for the songwriters Keith Rose and James Crabbe Robinson. I quickly realised that these guys were from New York and not Ohio like the label suggested. Despite sending hundreds of emails, phone calls and Facebook messages I was unable to make contact, so I started contacting their friends and family. I also noticed a really cool bass player called Paris Ford who had connections with them in different bands but he almost seemed to young for it to make sense, after contacting him though Paris responding… guess what? Paris was the Kenyatta’s bass player. I couldn’t believe my luck. Finally I was making progress! Paris told me he had an original copy of Kick It Off but it was completely scratched and it was the only copy he had. I still tried to buy from him but I didn’t push much because it was his only copy however, we started exchanging messages daily and became very good friends. Paris himself had a solo career and he told me he also had some unreleased material and that is how Epsilon Record Co. was born, with EPS001 Paris Ford- Boogie Down. At the same time Paris sent me 10 unreleased Kenyatta tracks. My heart almost stopped when I first listened to these tracks, these songs are simply incredible. Check them out – EPS005 A: Let Me Love You / B: Ain’t Doin Nothing EPS006 A: If We Only Had / B: Didn’t I Treat You Right Girl I remained very close to Paris after the release of these songs and I was also there to help him in his projects. When Paris realised that I also repaired records, he asked me if I wanted to try to repair his copy of Kenyatta – Kick It Off for him, I told him of course, I would do it for free and a week later I received his original copy. It repaired perfectly and sent it back to New York, Paris was really happy with the result and I was really proud to have a copy in my hands for a few days. Then out of the blue, several weeks later. I received a package from the USA with the name Paris on it. I was really surprised and didn’t know what to expect. To my surprise it was the same copy of Kick It Off that I was working on, Paris kindly decided to offer it to me and it was an incredible surprise. So how can it not be my favourite record, it’s not only an amazing record but one that has a special story behind it with a beautiful ending. I still have some superb unreleased material from Kenyatta, Paris and I will publish them one day for sure… watch this space! Which record do you regret selling the most? I don’t think I regret any particular record. I also sell records to improve my record collection. Buying/selling and trading are part of our record collecting journey. I think today everyone is too obsessed with the value of their collection. I love music, collecting and digging new sounds and master tapes and I always look forward, not back continuing to learn every day. What’s your fave all time soul club? Easy… the 100 club in London without any hesitation. The best club in the world with the mighty Butch! What’s your all time want? As a Shrine Records collector, it will have to be The Prophets – If I Had One Gold Piece. I would also love to own Patrinell Staten – Little Love Affair on Sepia. Archive of past DJ interviews can be found here