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I've just listened to this on youtube and it sounds like someone is spinning two 45s on the decks and left the volume on both decks on - a sort of poor mix. I didn't listen for long as it seems just a cheap way of cashing in on an incredible record (Dave and Ansell Collins). Nothing is new anymore is it? Why would anyone play this on the NS scene? I've listened to the live version now and that sounds a bit better (a bit less of a rip off) but playing it would justify those people at venues who insist on going up to the decks and saying "Have you got any northern mate?"

And it is a mediocre record at best, I got one off ebay for about 6 dollars VG+ a couple of years ago and moved it straight on for about 30 or so, there are tons of them just search for the b side (summat about a cottage). People are mad to pay 40 quid for it never mind 70 (how much!?!), not worth more than 20 IMHO. The Sonny Til is a good tune but again quite common (maybe not the issue) and was going for quite a lot a couple of years ago, saw it at up to a ton, sold my scratched copy quite well after replacing it with a cheap minter. It should be about 50 quid IMHO.

If he threw all those lovely paintings in too it would be a real bargain .....

I'm desperately trying to remember who had a record which had a stanley knife blade glued to the wrong side of a cracked record so they could play the top side. Seemed a bit of overkill but it worked.

I quite liked it, but he did say BITD which ruined it for me .....

Get us one for a ton or so please?

I thought the Jock Mitchell was cheap too, was tempted to bid even though I rarely buy these days. The sound file was the wrong side which might not have helped. I've always regretted putting my Delettes mint white demo on my sales site at a price I didn't think anyone would buy it for to make the site look better, only to see it bought after a week or so. Live and learn.

That's so good that I know I can't afford it without asking. Is it the same backing as the Sweets on Soultown? Sound like it to my cloth ears.

Cheers Paul Tough to get a mint one of those but I suppose it is a limited market for quality R&B

I hope I have still got one then! I've sold a lot of stuff though so it might have gone. I think the album mix on the double 12 is a slightly different version to the other two and at the time it was that which was deemed to be the one to have - it could all have been urban myth though. I've definitely still got the double, if I have the single I'll play them both and see if my cloth ears can discern any difference.

Records don't always revert to a lower price; a couple of examples are: Dottie and Millie which was regularly on lists for £30 to £50 (and I kept missing it!) then suddenly became a £100 then £150 tune. The Trends (TFOLL) was also on lists for £70 to £100 (which I also kept missing!!), then a man with red hair (allegedly) paid somebody £300 for one and that became the price and continued to go up as it became more difficult to get hold of. Somebody mentioned Jeanette on Ramsel which was evidently a really common and cheap record, but it rarely surfaces now, and I sold my Marva Lee because I couldn't believe people were paying a ton for it when it was in everyone's sales box when I bought it for 15 - it has never come down again. It is so difficult to price a record because of the "in demand" element - at any time a record can rocket in value. I'm going to cite my worst sale ever which was the Casualeers on Roulette demo which sat in my sales box for well over a year at .......£20 The person that eventually bought it (and couldn't get it out of the box quick enough) in the very early 2000's started playing it in his set, it quickly ballooned in price and it eventually appeared in JM's guide in 2008 at £200. What was it really worth at the time I sold it? Some things do drop down again though because they turn out to be not as rare as the "in demand" price suggests. Somebody mentioned Drizabone (as an example of played out sh*te - alongside Right Track! ) in another thread, I remember the buzz when this started getting played and also that there were a few versions. The double 12" with the album mix was deemed the one to have; there was a single 12" that had a slightly different version on it and a 7" pic sleeve that was the same as the single 12". I found three of the 7" singles which fitted in DJ boxes and sold one for £70 and one for £100 as it went up, I kept one too. I've still got the double 12 and I think I have a single, but what price is that now? £25 quid? How does anyone price records but on how they have sold before and what you think they might sell for? If something is "in demand" an auction is the probably the best way to determine the price - but at that time and to that buyer. After that the buyer has got one so maybe people will pay the same or maybe they won't. Funny old game.

My personal take is that sticking musical styles in different rooms has contributed to splitting the scene. If you didn't label it nobody would be any the wiser. Mind you, I suppose the pedantic could say this started at W*g*n. Playing to a floor whilst breaking new or playing lesser known/forgotten sounds used to be an admired skill. Having a venue with 3 plus rooms just means that the promoter has no idea what event they are putting on and no idea of what audience they want to attract. They probably just want as many people through the turnstiles as possible. Sort of "An oldies night will be packed but if I put in a rare/underplayed/insert label of choice room I might get some faces too" attitude. Personally I would be happy hearing a wide mix of stuff if I ventured out - oldies, newies, r&b (not rock and roll though!), 70's, modern (but no house, funk or any of that banging sh*te please), rare, unknown (but not home made), even a bit of motown. I would hate to have a night full of just one of these though. Also a record bar for when somebody is playing sh*te or you're being talked at (spittle flecks in the face stuff) is always good , please price respectably though. Just IMHO.

Can anyone remember what it went for please? Missed the end and was interested to see. Did a search but couldn't find results on here, apologies if they are - just point me to them. Ta Paul

Most people bring 200 to do an hour so I would say at least a thousand, maybe add 10% as contingency.

The thing is, if you get it shipped with a low value it can't be insured. I'd rather have the record than have it lost in the post after I've paid for it. You have no proof it was sent and the seller has no proof it was delivered. Also, from the seller's point of view sending an expensive record without it being tracked leaves him open to people claiming it hasn't arrived (and people do). Mind you my Troy Dodds demo was allegedly tracked and it still got stolen lost on the way, it left the US but never appeared in the UK, apparently. I got (most) of my money back but I'd rather have had the record.

Its not a case of stopping living, I still do that, I'm out racng my single hander dinghy every weekend and that is bloody hard work, but it gives me enjoyment, a buzz, an adrenalin rush when its windy, keeps me fit (ish) and fuels my competitive streak. I go out regularly just not NS. I'm afraid the Northern Soul scene, or that bit that I ventured into, didn't give me any of that and started to seem faintly ridiculous, partularly people dressing up. My wife had been telling me that for years though! As I said, the music is great and still gives me a buzz, I also still keep some records and buy the odd one now and again. I'd probably go out to an "old friends" night under duress but nothing else. Venturing out into what seems to be a real hotch potch of a scene where the chances of a decent night are slim (despite what it says in lookbacks ) isn't for me and my own experiences bore that out. Its never been the b-all and end-all for me though, but the analogy of Teddy Boys pretty much fits it IMHO. Each to their own.

At These Old Shoes we would often get odd people wandering in, one night this bloke asked me to play "something by The Doors" I said I couldn't as the decks are over here ..... We had one of those 10 second moments where we looked at each other in silence, both thinking "wierd tw*t"

I felt exactly the same the last time I went out (2 years ago), I had a moment of clarity when I looked round and saw a load of 50/60 plussers (with very few exceptions) shuffling around (with very few exceptions) and thought "what am I doing here?" Then I realised I was doing the same thing! It would be worse in a room full of youngsters, I'd look even dafter. I hope there is (or will be) an underground youth scene somewhere involving the music but I also hope the mainstream Northern Soul scene doesn't find out about it. I still enjoy the music and occasionally buy records but I'm not venturing out again.

Just watched a couple of the youtube films and they put the hairs on the back of my neck up! The dance floors in London must be a bit lively these days, would be tough for a 50plusser like me Well done to all involved, not just the film but getting kids to dance and hear the music.

No, I don't think I did say that and a quick check of my post will show that. I said that when americans started selling records based on the price guides they used dollars instead of the dollar equivalent of pounds. I didn't say that all americans are stupid but a lot of them are. If that is outrageous to you, then you need to meet some americans. In my experience some are really clever, some are really funny, some are even funny and clever, but an awful lot of them are stupid. Britain is much the same.

I've been on ebay since 1998; at first you could get records for nothing because hardly anybody knew about it - I had many lovely purchases of "6 soul records" for $1 and the US sellers used to apologise about the postage cost . Unfortunately I knew next to nothing so couldn't take real advantage of the situation. Later on you when ebay had opened up ebay UK and would push UK based search traffic to the UK site, you could buy from the US site and sell on the UK site at a profit. Luvverly jubbly! As more people in the UK became aware of ebay, US sellers started seeing the prices that Northern Soul records were fetching and there was a period where every record was listed as Northern Soul and started at $100. The price guides came out because UK dealers could not compete with ebay, once the US dealers knew what the price of a record was stated to be in the UK all the listings started at these prices. So the price guides ensured that UK dealers were not being undercut. Making a profit on records bought on US ebay by listing them on UK ebay became a thing of the past as record prices shot up on US ebay - due to US sellers knowing more and then UK buyers realising that buying on US ebay was a better thing to do. At first the prices were in dollars (if a record was guided at £100 the ebay listing was $100) proving americans are generally stupid. They weren't stupid for long and realised that people will pay anything for certain records and so worked out the dollar equivalent and added 25% for the hell of it. Even Moerer then started listing his rarer records on ebay at ludicrous (IMHO) Buy It Now prices. I've always been amazed at what prices JM auctions achieve and also what Pat Brady's achieve too - I always think; who are these people who will pay stupid prices for relatively common records? I understand the prices that are achieved for really rare records as people have to buy them when they occasionally surface, but there are loads of threads on here about common records going for 3 times their worth on auction. The other thing that always confuses me is how people are happy to sell a record that they think is cheap and common but as soon as two people bid it up to a stupid price nobody will then part with said record. I always try and sell mine now as soon as this has happened because the market for a stupid price is limited to one or two under bidders and once they have got one the price comes back down to a sane level where you can buy another copy. Record buying and selling has no logic and no sense. Buy them when you see them at a price you want and if you know you can get another sell them when someone wants to pay a stupid price. Rave on!

Not sure where I stand on this. I hate the number of boots listed on ebay; most without any indication that they are - dishonest really. But I also think that if people are dopey enough to spend nearly 80 quid on a record without doing a bit of research they deserve what they get. Tommy Navarro must be one of the best known boots there is and is really easy to spot. There were 4 people willing to pay over 40 for this when the boot is probably worth 20 quid max. I have difficulty having any sympathy with people who are quite happy to chuck money away on things that they know nothing about - there are enough people to ask.

I had a look at the link and one of the versions that came up in ebay's suggestions was [this one] from Danny Forrest which I hadn't heard before. I'd buy it and add it to my growing collection of weird records if it was $5 not £40 - Cha Cha Cha!

I don't agree with you on this. I do agree that at some venues the DJ is paid to play whatever the punters want to hear and that sort of makes them a bit of a Northern Soul Jukebox. But at other venues the DJ is booked because he/she plays the sort of sounds the promoter has decided his/her night wants to play in order to attract a certain crowd. There's a difference. I remember being told once that DJs were booked for a particular venue because what the promoters and attendees wanted from them was "a trip round their record collection". That's the sort of thing I would want too. When I helped run a club in London we generally booked people for the records they owned but we didn't know what they were going to play before their set. We wanted to be entertained but also surprised, educated, even amused by their sets. That's a bit different to just turning up with a box of popular sounds and when someone asks for Eddie Parker (or similar) playing it off a boot. To be honest, for the sort of night where the DJ is expected to be able to play anything he is asked for that the punters want to hear regardless of format, he would be better off taking along a big box of CDs and playing from them, or a laptop full of good quality mp3s. I'm not saying one thing is right and one thing is wrong - each to their own.