Frankie Crocker

Shrewd observation fellas but can a 'Walk' actually be a dance? The Wigan Walk was, and still is, the nursery slopes for timid movers, a kind of Hokey Cokey for line dancers who have watched a YouTube dance class clip and are primed to dance the night away for the first time...

Richard - yes, agreed, if you've got soul, you react to the music consciously or subconsciously, usually tapping the feet... Tension though is not a common sensation experienced by Northern fans, the clappers and spinners: maybe the deep soul lover of shouters and screamers perhaps? Real Northern fans feel the 'build up' and respond by clapping - as already noted in other threads, spinning is too often disconnected from the music but spreads like a rash when there are cameras around... ATB

Good idea for a thread. I might have been on the train from Bangor via Llandudno Junction (hi Mike), Chester, Warrington Bank Quay then Wigan North Western - took half a day there and longer to get back on a Sunday. Did the Swansea, Cardiff, Crewe and Wigan journey a couple of times one summer, hooking up with Gloucester crew to break trip at Birmingham Locarno. At all the interchange stations there were soulies playing live cassette tapes nice and loud so you were up for it even when a 100 miles from Wigan. Best regular journey was the last train from Manchester Victoria to Wigan, all carriages packed with maybe 200 plus soulies in trenchcoats, often with two or three cassette players blairing away - possibly scope for a thread on this topic ...

Yes. Craig Moerer sold one a couple of years ago. The white demo is more common but still on the scarce side. Must be valued at £100 at least these days.

Sorry, mucked up the above quote but it's followable I think...

If we had had internet and social media "in those days" I'm sure this would never have been a topic Clapping was and is part of dancincing .. as you got into the scene you was swollowed up by an atmosphere that was awesome!! When you get on the dance floor and that record/sound becomes your own personal enjoyment.. and that enjoyment that starts in your ears .. makes its way to your brain ..from there sends signals to the hairs in your neck .. sends signals through your whole body including feet and hands ...makes your heart beat faster ... makes it feel like you never want it to end... subconciously connects you to other clappers... its AWESOME!!!!! Why an issue .. who cares .. if people are enjoying themselves and most of all enjoying the record, what difference does it make if you clap or dont clap. This was a topic back in the day... We were unique in that dancers applauded a DJ for spinning a vinyl track - this did not happen in clubs or discos, only at live performances. Moreover, we were pretty clever to be able to clap in unison during a track, lifting the atmosphere a few notches higher and heightening the whole experience. Strikes me that a lot of Soul Source members care about this sort of thing.

Spine tingling stuff Pete. I love this record but the live version with 'unison' clapping is 21 carat gold nostalgia...

Why not tell us who these old guards were and how old they were? Are you implying Hucknall went to the Casino? If so, how old was he? I gather Kevin Rowlands of Dexys Midnight Runners went to the Casino also but this thread is not about musicians that went to Wigan...

Dave, thanks for this I wasn't aware of this so will check it out later...

Dave, thanks for this tit- bit...probably stretching the truth then to cite she was an early fan! Running with the minor-celeb theme, in yesterday's Weekend Telegraph (page W4), Wayne Hemingway, the designer, pops up and states 'By the time I was 13 I was doing all-nighters at Wigan Casino': it would be interesting to know if anyone younger than this managed to attend the Casino?

Wardie, make sure you look after the P Funk capped t- shirt and leave the heirloom to someone who will pass it to the curator of the Wigan Casino Museum when it eventually gets built... ATB

Hi Dave. I know you too but not seen you for a while. Always used to chat to you around the gaffs, bought your magazine and we did a few record deals. We had the Culcheth conversation a few times. Went there on January 2nd for the first time since 1975 - much the same but more shops and restaurants: old schools demolished and new one sprouted up. I think there are soul events at the Sports Club from time to time so there are probably a good few soulies in the area.

Priceless Baz. Hailing from Warrington, I'm proud of you son. When I lived in Culcheth, I sometimes wondered why there was a Mental Hospital in Winwick...

As Mr Flood said at his party, 'Compared To What'?

Cheers Pete. This is the clip that turned many of us onto the song. It is a scintillating performance that encapsulates much of what is so good about the music we have a shared admiration for.

Good call. Any serious collector with records to trade is missing a trick if they attend an event without a small box. Bigger dealers with table-size boxes are always willing to consider part-exchange deals also. Sure, the internet has has had an impact on dealing at venues, but ultimately it's about the records in demand and whether the supply can meet this.

Beg to differ. It is a very good Northern record. Big 100 Club spin before the Millennium. Like most good records eventually have their day, this one arrived later than some and at a time the scene needed an infusion of good, fresh sounds.

Spot on Pete, getting my years muddled. I was not there, but remember the anti-camera stirrings prior to the event. Lots of regulars stayed away and many new faces turned up. At least the session yielded some colour footage if not a lot else...

Sam Williams...gobsmacked.

Barry is a major dealer with a decent stock of good records. I have found him accommodating when transactions have not been flawless. Postage amounts these days are a real bone of contention so the buyer is on really solid ground when expressing a preference. Postage from the US is relatively inexpensive for records costing three figures so it is baffling that an option costing $50 entered the equation.

Cheers Dave. I agree. She might have dropped in with a work contact so the book caption is misleading. Back in the mid to late 70's, Tony Wilson was never off the telly so he may well have taken her along. I was based in Manchester in 1978 and Anna Ford was a TV star in our house - pretty sure she did not go to the Casino then so it must have been earlier, perhaps 1976 when This England was being filmed?

Sticking with the old attenders theme, there is photo supposedly of Anna Ford the ex-news reader in Winstanley and Nowell's book 'Soul Survivors - Anna was born in 1943 so she would have been over 30 when she attended. The photo caption says 'Anna Ford (front left) was an early fan' but you can not see her face. Can anyone recall seeing the 30 year old Anna there in 1973 or the 31 year old Anna in 1974...? And Anna, if you're reading this, tell all.

There appears to be a lot more of the rarer take in circulation than the cheaper version IMO. A Soul Source member sold the bongo variant for a four figure sum last week sending me to You Tube to compare the two versions. I have the bongo-twin vocals version but only realised this a few months ago after several comparisons. The bongo-less version is also really good, particularly if you are familiar with Gerri singing on the Legends Of Rare Soul Volume 1 DVD. From the comments on this thread, there are plenty of copies around so the price for the 'rarer' version may be inflated as Pete suggests. So, could the bongo-less, single vocal version be the scarcest? The bongo version is marketed as the more desirable, but after this thread, I'm not convinced. Either way, the plainer version is now on the wants list scoring highly for simplicity.

Hi Dave. Simply saying that Young Folk/Miss Madeline is a greater record than the Blenders or Joseph Moore musically speaking; sure, both the latter are decent records and well worth having on musical grounds but their high price tags stem from extreme rarity. For me, Lonely Girl scores higher on the brilliance quotient, which for a cheap record makes a better buy, dollar per note. ATB

Never gave it any thought at the time. First went as a 17 year old in 1974 and everyone seemed young, even the top dancers who had evidently been on the scene a few years. By 1978, the issue was with 15 year old kids looking like 12 year olds in a room of mainly 20 year olds and over. We would sit on the stage and say how things weren't the same with all the kids...21 years of age and starting to sound like your dad. Don't recall any hassle there, just one slight scuffle; bag- thieving was a bigger issue. One of the nice things about the Casino was being in a friendly place even though there were plenty of hard cases and villains around.