Driveller

You can try "This Heart Is Haunted" by either Lee Jones or Kelly Garrett, or virtually anything by Robert Johnson (Hell Hound On My Trail, etc) I've also always thought that the intro to this little cracker is tailor-made for Halloween: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czkz8VLz_sM Oh yeah, don't think anyone's mentioned ' anything by The Killers'. Have fun! Nick

60s Northern — Ten top tunes for today: JESSE SLAUGHTER: I Had A Dream (VG+)/How Does It Make You Feel (VG+)(LES STAN) £350 Storming Stafford dancer that’s become hot property of late with a stunning Deep ballad on the flip — check out both tracks on the soundfiles The VG+ grading is mainly for lightish surface marks and a few watery blotches on the playing surface — just doesn’t quite make it to VG++. Jesse Slaughter I Had A Dream.mp3 Jesse SlaughterHow Does It Make You Feel.mp3 TONY HESTOR: Watch Yourself (EX)/Just Can’t Leave You (VG++) (KARATE W/D) £225 Lovely copy —pure classic on the topside and pure class on the flip! Tony Hestor Watch Yourself.mp3 Tony Hestor Just Can't Leave You.mp3 MEL VENA ALLEN: The Bigger Your Heart (VG++) (SALVADOR) £90 Barely-played copy of this dark and moody Stafford dancer — isolated marks only. SHIRELLES: Look Away (EX) (SCEPTER W/D) £50 Big 100 club sound in the mid-80s and surprisingly hard to find. Near-perfect copy. Mel Vena Allen The Bigger Your Heart.mp3 Shirelles Look Away.mp3 SOULFUL TWINS: Can’t Let You Go (EX) (SABLE) £100 Same backing as the Magnetic’s ‘Count The Days’ on the same label but a great track in its own right regardless. DON & JUAN: All That’s Missing Is You (EX) (MALA DJ) £300 Truly lovely copy of this perennial in-demander. Soulful Twins Can't Let You Go.mp3 Don & Juan All That's Missing Is You.mp3 VERNON GARRETT: If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time (VG+) (MODERN) £40 Every home should have one! A fair few marks on the playing surface and mini-tears on the labels, but a good loud recording with the music coming through loud and clear. STRANGERS: Night Winds (VG++ number stamp ol) (WB W/D) £80 Cult dancer that got 100 Club spins in the 80s/90s. Full of charm, style and great strings! Vernon Garrett Hands Of Time.mp3 Strangers Night Winds.mp3 JOE SIMON: Long Hot Summer (EX) (SS7) £25 MAJOR LANCE: It Ain’t No Use (VG++ mini-tol) (OKEH) £15 Nice copies on two quality cheapies to finish — click on the soundfiles to remind yourself how good they are! Joe Simon Long Hot Summer.mp3 Major Lance It Ain't No Use.mp3 ‘Cash’ only, please on any of these — no vinyl trades, thanks. PM me via the site (best way) or e-mail me at nickpbrown1234@yahoo.co.uk to do the deal. Payment by Paypal (I won’t make you pay fees) or (preferably) cheque (UK sterling), cash (UK Sterling sent REGISTERED/Special Delivery ONLY!!!) or COD if you’re local to London(ish) and can meet up/collect/I deliver etc., or else want to meet up at a do somewhere or whatever. Basically, speak to me and we’ll sort out the best option. Postal stuff: First Class Recorded in UK: £3 Special Delivery in UK: £7 Registered airmail outside the UK: £12. 7 days return for refund if not as described.

Chalky, Fantastic stuff - thanks for sharing. Really glad you put these up, loads I'd not seen before and absolutely fascinating, not least where the graphics are concerned - loved the completely hand-drawn one for a church hall somewhere (if I remember right - bit like Brucie's Generation Game watching them all go past like that!). A real bit of history and I'm glad that even though we couldn't see them in the book, we could still see them here. Nice one. All the best, Nick

Probably only the ones that spell it 'Despenza', Russ - anything else I wouldn't trust! Actually, I do have a very soft spot for the 'script logo' version as opposed to the 'block print' one. Never had any version, but I do think one day I might try to find a little space in the box for one... All the best, Nick

Oddly enough, no - Citations turned up in the mid-late 80s. I remember Jim Wensiora playing it covered up as the Magnificent Men at the 100 Club in about 1987, maybe '86. What amazed us at the time was that a record that sounded like that with a title like that had escaped everyone's attention for that long. Doubtless someone somewhere will have chanced across it in, say, 1977, but it wasn't widely known on the scene until then. There - now you Know The Facts, I bet you're glad you asked! All the best, Nick

A couple of proper crackers from the Phonetics today: 1) Just A Boy’s Dream (VG+)/Don’t Let Love Get You Down (VG) TRUDEL 1007/1008 £1500 Absolute monster floorpacker and seriously rare - copies are few and far between so grab your chance before somebody else does! This copy of “Just A Boy’s Dream” is a great player, with the music coming across loud and clear — surface noise is pretty much limited to the run-in and run-out, and it sounds absolutely fantastic on a nice, big PA system! Flipside is quieter and has had a few more knocks and scrapes, so you get a few crackles, but I suspect nothing too intrusive. Check the soundfiles to see what you’re getting. Phonetics Boy's Dream.mp3Phonetics Don't Let Love 1007.mp3 2) What Good (Am I Without You) (VG++ xol)/ Don’t Let Love Get You Down (VG+) TRUDEL 1012 WD £300 ***SOLD*** Tough to find and a real classy piece — nice clean copy, with “What Good” sounding particularly crisp. Once again, the flipside is a grade below, but the sound is still pretty satisfactory. Check out the soundfiles to get the full picture. Phonetics What Good.mp3Phonetics Don't Let Love 1012.mp3 GRAB A DEAL ON THE DOUBLE!! Because they make such a lovely couple, if you fancy both of them and get in before one of them goes, you can take the pair for £1750 — Barg! ‘Cash’ only, please on these two — no vinyl trades, thanks. PM me via the site or e-mail me at nickpbrown1234@yahoo.co.uk to ask me stuff or do the deal. Payment by Paypal (I won’t make you pay fees) or (preferably) cheque (UK sterling), cash (UK Sterling sent REGISTERED/Special Delivery ONLY!!!) or COD if you’re local to London(ish) and can meet up/collect/I deliver etc., or else want to meet up at a do somewhere or whatever. Basically, speak to me and we’ll sort out the best option. If you want it posted, I’ll send it securely (well packed and registered/special delivery) for £5 UK, £10 elsewhere. 7 days return for refund if not as described.

Wasn't sure what I was expecting, but was pleasantly surprised. Pluses: a good sense of the atmosphere and excitement - what the 'pull' of the scene is; good, eloquent comments from lots of the contributors, especially Elaine, who really let her enthusiasm show; lots of focus on the music and a MUCH broader range of tunes than is normally included in this sort of programme; good pick of archive footage, even if a lot of it's been seen before, and it was nicely used; the journalist's own enthusiasm and personal involvement (and he can spin, too!). Minuses - bit too much of the circle skirt stuff, big gap over the 80s/90s/noughties - and right when I thought they were going to say ' but it didn't die when Wigan shut, blah blah blah Stafford/100 Club', instead they said 'no, there are now kids doing it in Wigan again' - not that I'm knocking the kids, good on them, but I'd like to have heard at least a sentence or two acknowledging the continuation and evolution of the scene. Still, a good documentary, done from a position of empathy and understanding with a good handle on what makes it tick. I gave it a 4. Nick

100 Club, December 1984 Tommy Navarro - I Cried My Life Away Sam Fletcher - I'd Think It Over Melba Moore - The Magic Touch First 'nighter I ever went to, and the first night "Magic Touch" ever got played. Ady had just got back from a US visit and there was a massive buzz about the unissued Scepter/Wand stuff he'd got. Top of the pile was "Magic Touch", but Maxine Brown's "Torture" was in there as well, plus a ton of other great bits. Fantastic night, and I had the bug good and proper after that. Nick

I think most people I meet have never heard of Northern Soul, though of course that may be more pronounced in London than the North, where it would have been hard to avoid completely. I always have to explain what it is, and I've now got it down to one or two sentences. I think this is what Russ did, only better than came out on the programme, because I think they edited off the first bit of his answer and made it slightly less illuminating in the process. Im also sure I heard Russ say 14,000 a week, but, again, I think that's down to the editing. I think he was answering a question about weekly attendances nationwide and they inserted it after a question that sounded like she meant how many people went to the Casino every week. I also think that the editing was a bit awry on the bit where the chap was teaching her how to dance, and made it look as if the footwork was off the beat. I'll have to have another look. That seems to be a typical problem with TV coverage of the scene, where the original soundtrack is overdubbed onto a dance sequence but out of time, possibly because the editor doesn't know how the dancing works. Makes it look like we can't dance for toffee, when actually the average standard of dancing on the scene is probably a lot higher than most other places. Anyway, the presenter can't have been paying attention to the dance class much, because she did everything different when she joined in at the end! As mentioned above, it would be nice to FINALLY see something covering Northern Soul after December 1981. She did say it carried on, but then said nothing more about it! Come on, BBC, get around to it! As for Christopher Eccleston, true, Chuck Wood does sit at the tip of the iceberg of Northern Soul awareness, and I would have been much more impressed had he mentioned something like the Ivories or the Young Brothers, but then he was being led by the presenters playing the record and they probably didn't have much else, so probably not his fault. What he did show, though, was an element of conviction in his explanation of Northern Soul's appeal, and he did explain it by reference to assumptions that he would not have held had he not experienced more than a fleeting flirtation with the scene. All in all, a firmish thumbs up to Mr Eccleston, thumbs at a slightly more wavering angle for the editing and thumbs edging rather more forcefully southwards for teasing us with a hint at a post-Wigan scene but doing nothing about it. All the best, Nick

Blimey! I hope if Tobi Lark ever walks in when I'm playing "Time Will Pass You By" that she hasn't been talking to you!!! :-) Seriously, I do understand your point about this. They'd like people to know it's them, granted, I totally understand. On the other hand, how many would say "how dare you compare me to that dreadful Otis Clay"? Artists often take comparison as a compliment (and that kind of thing sometimes even appears in their promotional material). And it gets even cloudier! Even at the time, records often came out under different names, sometimes dodgily (Tobi Legend), sometimes with the artists' full knowledge (Arthur & Mary on Modern is supposed to be Arthur Adams and Mary Love, but one side has Mary and the other - can't remember which - has Mary's mate Sandy Wynns, who stood in for her on the relevant session), and sometimes who knows how - look at all the names Arin Demain is supposed to have released records under - did he agree to all of them or not? Oh, and thank your lucky stars you never had to record anything for Major Bill Smith! It might have come out six times and be called anything from Soulman Cunnie And The Fabulous Brilliantnesses to Fifi Frumpernickel And The Suspicious Skidmarks. And if you were an experienced recording artist, you wouldn't have batted an eye at any of them. I admire your passion, and at the heart of what you say there is a truth I sympathise with, but I think there are more angles to this one that are worth considering. All the best, Nick PS Fascinating discussion, folks - keep it up!

Someone mentioned Ducky & The Glowlighters. For me, that's the one by a mile! They had to play it at about -8 and you'd still be getting carried out on a stretcher at the end of it! Also, don't think anyone's mentioned the Velvet Satins. You could also try Joe Simon: Just Like Yesterday (Irrall) if you like dancing on jelly instead of legs. All the best, Nick

For me, cover-ups have always been about record promotion, rather than DJs' selfishness. The Northern/Rare Soul scene has always had a bit of double thinking when it comes to stuff it doesn't know. On the one hand, it thrives on the new, the hidden, the stuff that 'normal' people don't know about. It is necessarily pioneering and exploratory and would not exist without the thirst for the new. On the other hand, it can be curiously conservative at times, sticking to the familiar once it has discovered it, and being slow to accept what it doesn't already know. This plays out in the enduring 'newies v oldies' debates and the ebb and flow of the dancefloor we all recognise when DJs are mixing lesser known things with established favourites. What cover-ups do is cater to both expectations in quite a set of subtle and clever ways, viz: They mark the record out as new, undiscovered, fresh, and therefore newsworthy - it must be something the DJ's expecting us not to know, therefore it excites those looking for the new; They stir up interest and speculation about the record's true identity, and therefore focus more attention on it than might have been the case if it had not been covered up; They delay the moment of identification until a pent-up demand and interest has been created. In this respect, it is much like the pre-release radio playlisting of new releases; They create a second wave of newsworthiness when the identity is revealed. All the above appeal to the sector of the audience looking for the new, but cover-ups cater in another way to those more comfortable with the familiar. When you cover a record up as another artist, you are drawing a subconscious (or sometimes more explicit) comparison with titles the audience has already accepted. Saying "this is the next big one from Mary Love", rather than "this is Bessie Mae Futtock on Shitshack", goes halfway to getting that record accepted by all the lovers of the old Mary Love records, particularly if there are echoes of those Mary Love records somewhere in the record you're trying to break. What you're really saying is, "give it a chance, it's just like those other ones you love - if you accepted them, you can accept this". Telling them it's Bessie Mae Futtock is not going to make anything like the same splash (except among people who've always wondered what that missing number on Shitshack sounds like), and is as likely to turn off the people waiting to hear more of those good old Mary Love records. Bessie Mae might get her due credit from day one if we announced it as her, but fewer people would care than would eventually do so if we started off by comparing it mentally with someone we already knew. We like to kid ourselves it's not like that, but it is. To me this is, ultimately, a way of accessing greater prominence for those artists in the long run, as it makes the newies fans prick up their ears and it smooths the acceptance of the new record among those who are more comfortable with the familiar. Then, when it does get uncovered (and it does need to be for this vision of the cover-up to work), there is more demand for the CD reissue than might otherwise have been the case and the artist gets their recognition (and who knows, maybe their money) from more people than might have otherwise been the case. The business of stirring up curiosity also speeds up the process by which the record can break - after all, everybody wants to know a secret, and when the secret is a really great record, we REALLY want to know, and the sooner the better! As I mentioned, this whole thing only works if the record DOES get uncovered sooner or later, and I think most people covering records up do it with an eventual uncovering in mind. It also applies to vintage records, where a few months (or even years, with the nature of the scene these days) won't make a vast amount of difference to a record that would take even longer to break to a wide audience if we didn't make a big secret of it. The thing about the new releases covered up when waiting unsold on a download site is, I think, a different matter. Anyway, see what you think of that perspective. All the best, Nick

Dawn and Nick Brown double-decking: First spot 11:15 - 12:00 N - Johnny Bartel: If This Isn't Love (Solid State) N - Kenny Smith: One More Day (Floe Roe) N - Margaret Mandolph: If You Ever Need Me (Planetary) D - Buster And James - Count The Tears (Cee Jam) D- Broadways - You Just Don't Know (MGM) N - Les Chansonettes: Don't Let Him Hurt You (Shrine) D -Carl Burnett: Jerk, Baby Jerk (Carmax) D - Carl & Gerri: How Can I Ever Find The Way (MGM) N - Billy Keene - Wishing And Hoping (Vault) N - Combinations - (Too Long) I've Been Waiting (Soul O Sonic) D - Herman Griffin: Dream Girl (Mercury) D - Matthew Barnett: If Your Love Is Real (Puff) N - Dee Clarke: She's My Baby (Constellation) N - Gospel Classics: More Love, That's What We Need (Checker) D - Sonny Daye: It's A Long Long Road to Happliness (Power) D - Patti Livingston: I've Got My Baby (Dimension) N - Seven Souls - I Still Love You (Okeh) N - Enjoyables: Push A Little Harder (Capitol) D - Joe Simon: Just Like Yesterday (Irral) D - Foxes - Mighty Good Sign (Fencoe) N - Miracles: If Your Mother Only Knew (Tamla) Second spot 03:30 - 04:15 D - Tempests: Someday (Smash LP) D - Citations: Keep the Faith (Ballad) N - Phonetics: Just A Boy's Dream (Trudel) N - Pic & Bill: What Does It Take (Charay) D - Timi Yuro: It'll Never Be Over For Me (Liberty UK) D - Joyce Harris: Baby, Baby, Baby (Fun) N - Houston Outlaws: Ain't No Telling (Westbound) N - Dynamite Singletary: The Same Way You Love Your Man (Dynamite) D - Dolls: The Reason Why (Toy) D - Sparkels: Try Love (One More Time) N - Rochelles: Tear Drops (Spacey) N - Anita Anderson: Little Bit Longer (Contact) D - Ray Pollard: This Time (Shrine) D - Tommy Ridgley: My Love Gets Stronger (International City) N - Mr Percolator: Burning Up For Your Love (Wax Wel) N - Jackie Lee: Wanted And Needed (C/U) D - Johnny Gilliam: Room Full Of Tears (Cancer) D - Clyde McPhatter: Lonely People Can Afford To Cry (Amy) Really enjoyed the night - big up to Ady!!! All the best, Nick

Just seen them - yowch! What a superb kick it is getting junkshop hauls like that! Nick

Admittedly Deep rather than Northern, but I think Big Maybelle's "Heaven Will Welcome You, Dr King" has to be one of the best Soul records to sum up the struggle. Nick

Blimey, never thought I'd be this relieved to be 4 ft 10! It is unfortunate that the DJ happened to be female, but it doesn't really matter - male or female, I personally find it disappointing. I think it is out of some old fashioned sense of 'fairness' and expectation of integrity. Like others have mentioned, I do think of many DJs as people who have worked at having a decent collection. Not to mention those who break their necks to find new discoveries, take risks on the dancefloor to break them, only to have some money grabbing arsehole to boot it and 'DJs' playing the boot when other DJs on the line up with the original don't then get to play it! However, it's not like we sign up to a 'code of conduct' to be on the scene, where there are unambiguous rules that we all have to follow. I don't really know who the DJ is and I haven't looked to see which club night it was, but if the promoter is putting in hard earned cash then it's his/ or her choice on policies. It may be that the promoter is mortified about this situation. If so, then they need to be a bit more careful about bookings and if not, then that's up to them. As long as they are up front about it, it misleads nobody, and those that part with their own hard earned cash to travel to and get into the venue, as well as other DJs there know the deal up front. One of the best soul nights I attended in the last couple of years was Warren's Boogaloo in Greenwich. He did a 'cheap as chips' night where all the DJs had to play records of around £10/£20. Not a boot in sight. Plenty of dancing etc. People can have amazing and relatively cheap collections by use of imagination and taste. Something, I suspect, that someone who relies on playing boots may lack. All The Best, Dawn Brown

Not sure if this is the Pheonix night that I was at, but assume so, as there was definitely an ear bitten off. A few strangers(?) had come in and one had bitten a bloke called Jamie's ear off in the bar area. I remember a real scuffle and seeing Keb, who was DJing at the time, literally jump over the decks to go towards it. I also remember a few of us going around with ice buckets, naively thinking if we found the ear it could get sewn back on. Never did find the ear so assumed it was swallowed! Roughly mid to late 80s I think. All The Best, Dawn Brown

All sorted!

Hello all, I've managed to leave my mobile at home and urgently need Val's home or mobile number please. If not Val's then Ady C or Jo Wallace details would be good so I can go through them. Thankyou for any help you can give - just pm if you have anything. Many Thanks, Dawn Brown

Blimey, lots of lovely tunes on here. I definitely must come back to this after some thinking time, but definitely have to agree with Jimmy Radcliffe - My Ship Is Coming In - it definitely gets the heart strings panging Ray Pollard - The Drifter The Winstons - Color Him Father - I suppose being white and having a black dad accounts for that one - very 'close to home'. Billy Miranda - Teardrops - I somehow 'psyched myself up' for my driving test with this one - haven't heard it in years and don't even have it on tape/ CD! And hope you had a really lovely birthday, Jo. Dawn Brown

Hi everyone, First of all, a million thanks for the e-mails offering support and advice that have flooded in, and I’m sorry if I can’t get back to you all individually straight away – It’s a bit overwhelming trying to deal with this at the moment. One thing that has been pointed out to me is that the original links I put up aren’t working properly, so here are the corrected versions. All the offending material can be viewed at: https://www.scenesville.info/threateningletter.htm https://www.scenesville.info/dealerletter.htm https://www.scenesville.info/defamatoryflyer.htm https://www.scenesville.info/creepyclipping.htm Once again, SO many thanks to all of you. Your support has been invaluable, and I’m really beginning to think we’re going to beat this thing. Thank you again. All the Best, Nick Brown

I know Nick managed to talk to him this morning - he said that he did not suspect Nick of it and that there were only 2 other people who he had mentioned Nick's name to in connection with it. One was the person who he originally suspected, and the other was a mutual friend. The person who he actually suspected, he apparently went through the process of accusing the original suspect. Naturally, he won't give out the person's name, and really, it could be anyone that the other two people had mentioned it to. I have never met Dave Conway, but I have only ever heard Nick speak of him in a high regard. I know Nick has asked him to come on here to say his piece too, so whatever said can come from 'the horse's mouth'. He too may well be a victim of this saddo, which I hope we got across in our original statement. Dawn