Frankie Crocker

Hi Janie. Thanks for this. Perhaps you’re a year younger than you thought you were? Great to be in the most iconic photo of the Casino regardless of the record in the picture sleeve. There are three lasses in patterned shirts - long hair, short hair and bunches...Which one are you? I’m in the Spotlight On Wigan Casino one but had moved for the Footsie one with just a bit of my patterned shirt showing at the top. I’m still kicking myself for moving

My recollection too. I travelled from Leeds to Cleethorpes with Caesar in 1975 so it was something we chatted about.

Was Kim Gethro’s girlfriend? Just going on a vague recollection from reading Gethro’s book...

Photos taken at the first anniversary - one graced the back of the Footsie/Seven Days Too Long picture sleeve.

Hi Janie. How sure of the dates are you? I recall Steve Caesar of Leeds winning at the first anniversary in 1974. I missed the 1975 anniversary - could this be the one you won? If so, maybe Angie won the third anniversary in 1976. I was at the 1976 and 1977 anniversaries but can’t recall who won - hazarding a wild guess, maybe Sandy Holt from Bolton won in 1977 QED.

Bingo. I was well pleased to have a line in last night’s auction. paid Kev Draper £25 for Thelma Lindsay back in the early 90’s. Similar deal for Bob Relf. Not often I have a line come up in John’s auctions. Johnny Robinson was big at The 100 Club at the turn of the century - wish I’d gone for this one now.

Thanks for the heads up Benji. I’ve only found this one twice in 75+ trips to The States. Some of her other records are as common as muck.

Usually a set-sale record but is scarce these days.

Johnny Robinson a big bargain. Usually goes for double this figure.

Thanks Trev. Wasn’t aware - good version despite audio-quality.

Big thanks to Chalky for the track list. Other cover-ups are Royal Esquires - Ain’t Gonna Run, The Q - That’s The Way and Sam Williams - Love Slipped Through My Fingers. Little Ann was an acetate, now issued on Kent. What an awesome set from Richard - surely a knighthood awaits him?

It’s those Wigan clips Chalky. A few camera-hungry kids turned up on the night that most of us skipped deliberately. The continual focus of the media on spinning and backdropping does no justice to the scene as we’d like to remember it.

Northern Soul Dance can’t be taught - you’ve got to watch then pick it up. The so-called ’dance teachers’ should go to a few soul do’s to see how it’s done - then they can go away and practise as they are generally pretty rubbish...

Really just a short and sweet segment built onto a prom rehearsal. The emphasis was on young people and their accessing the music. Russ has more than earned the right to be included in any Northern Soul TV feature. I’ve gone off the One Show lately but this was an okeh tit-bit to throw to the common people - the Coutts/Nat West censors should be reasonably content therefore the Spanish Inquisition need not be called upon on this occasion.

Well said Russ. This thread was simply about a BBC Prom concert a week ago. The thread was ultimately about the music, musicianship, performers and in the context of Northern Soul. To read more into it than that is not necessary. It was a couple of hours entertainment hugely enjoyed by those attended - it may have enlightened some of the uninitiated. I certainly had my money’s worth attending and want to commend the BBC for the innovation.

For the record, the tracks by Darrell Banks and Nolan Chance were not performed. That of course leaves an old-school playlist compiled by two people commissioned to derive a populist selection of catchy tunes - that the die-hard soul fans present, regular prom goers, tourists and assorted others seemed to engage with the music confirms Maconie did exceedingly well.

I didn’t notice what the stipulated bid increment was but it was evidently marginally lower than 5K - it would have made more sense for the underbidder to actually bid 5K or a tactical amount above 5K say £5,005-55. Perhaps the top two bidders both bid 5K and the earliest bidder won? However you look at it, it’s odd that a nice round figure beat another nice round figure by precisely the minimum incremental bid.

A great tune and one that sadly will sadly elude me. 5K is ridiculously high though, even though the disc was in immaculate condition. 5K is an odd figure too when you think about it, not a penny more, not a penny less, and unusual given the final figure is determined by what the underbidder actually bid? I wonder which millionaire acquired this particular record?

Wow, the Nomads went for a whopping sum. Very little of note otherwise but plenty of set-sale prices achieved at the low three-figure end.

There were no sound issues apparent to these well trained ears. From the first note of the MVP’s, the sound was loud and clear, fully authentic and recognisable in the first two bars. Same with Dobie Gray. I’ve got short-snatch video clips of all 31 songs but I can’t load them on Soul-Source and Facebook would not accept the 2min 37secs for Tobi Legend. The remainder of the review was OK but the author was incorrect to state there were sound issues.

No idea who the author is or his credentials, but as with all sorts of reviews, best to take what you want from them. His piece is now a matter of record for others to reflect on - he used the word ‘clunky’ but that was not appropriate as the orchestra handled several tricky tunes with panache. For the orchestra to achieve what they did, they must have listened to the original music in some format; to accommodate the vocalists, the rehearsals must have been endless. I thought the performance was brilliant - I own most of the tunes on original vinyl and all of them in some format or other; I have listened to some of the tunes hundreds of times over the last 50 years. I doubt Stephen Dalton can match that but he still felt he had to be sufficiently nit-picking to please his sub-editor.

Just informing our readers... The Times is a decent newspaper therefore worth flagging up. Always interesting to see what appears in the press just in case the writers become more objective.

Review in Times 2 of yesterday’s Times (17/07/23). Just glad to be one of those of pensionable age but the younger brigade might consider the last sentence a bit cheeky.

Jimmy Beaumont hit the crossbar methinks. Hardest song to recognise on the playlist! Other side of the record is a winner, top left corner, sent the keeper the wrong way...

Agreed - The Mike Post Orchestra would not have been out of place. Other instrumentals come to mind such as Double Cookin’ and Supertime but the predominance of vocals made for a much better show than the run of the mill classical concert.