Frankie Crocker

Not seen a mint one on eBay for a while but there's one for sale weekly from one dealer or another. Wilson Pickett continues to lead the way in terms of mint copies in quantity. Jason certainly offers one of the best auctions around at present and continues to bring a range of good sounds to market.

This record looks like a one-off...unless he's selling the worst copy first and has a stack of mint copies for the next dozen auctions...

What a dickhead. Why go into business to sell rare records and deny potential customers the opportunity to buy? Most decent dealers these days have a deck to sample unknown tracks but there are still a few without - these do not last long in the trade.

Big money, but in line with others shown on Popsike. Could finish at double the current bid despite condition. Great tune and perfect for cranking things up a notch at a 'Niter coming soon.

Maybe some novice pub-back room bootleg spinner but surely no self-respecting DJ would splash out on this trash. You can only listen to YouTube so much before wanting the records, so settling for what's available to spin at home seems the logical response (except paying hundreds for bootlegs is unbelievably stupid).

Makes you puke. Can't see a DJ buying this rubbish.Maybe someone who likes the tunes and is resigned to never owning them on original vinyl. Perhaps a dealer might want them as file copies to avoid the problems that will inevitably arise in future when other copies come to market. If you want to hear Arthur Willis and Soul Incorporated, best to attend a venue where top jocks spin the real thing...

Just SOOO bad it's excruciating. The lead singer just flops around. Eric Bristow bangs the drums like Animal on the Muppets. One of the guitarists is miming to another song altogether. The dancers have stumbled in from the Bay City Rollers Fan Club wearing clothes that defy belief - one even has a soul patch sewn on his back. After this, the movie is Oscar winning stuff.

Sadly, none of these falling into my hands. Did bid on a few but mostly out of my league. Not too many mint copies in this list but plenty of hot competition for them nevertheless. Thanks for posting - always an interesting read.

You COULD buy more records if postage was free as the savings would mount up. But, postage is not free so the question is hypothetical. A practical matter worth mentioning is should record dealers absorb postage charges abroad into their business costs to market their items more appealingly? A couple of top US dealers subsidise postage costs anyway. When possible, I try to offer free postage when selling records at home in the UK but generally charge extra when selling abroad.

Many of these are now scarce. A few are outright rare. Golden World Strings is a bootleg. Devotees have travelled far and wide to hear these records down the decades as they appreciate the fidelity of the original sound and the authenticity of the record. Any Tom, Dick or Harry could amass heaps of bootlegs, reissues etc and put together a catchy set for a pub night, but the punters would not be overly impressed as they might as well stay at home and listen to a CD. Truly rare records can make a good soul-nite extra special. Some DJ's will use a slow starting evening to experiment with unknown sounds to gauge crowd reaction but novices occasionally spin to please themselves which is not what it's all about really.

Very few people on Planet Earth own quantities of the sort of records being offered. Those who do own combinations of them, are highly unlikely to sell them at all, let alone simultaneously. OK, some long term collectors have been selling their treasures in recent years, but this kind of pitch should set the alarm bells ringing. From now on, Smell-A-Rat Records should be avoided at all costs.

You could sit on a draughty bench on Wigan Wallgate Station watching the gas lights flicker. Stand around on Wigan Northwestern platform and count the trains flying past before one stops. Get in touch with Russ and express thanks for the good times. Drive past the Trencherfield Mill and marvel at this cathedral of industry. Walk up a few terraced streets and note how little has changed in a hundred years. Like yourself, I'll be visiting Wigan for a day, on the family-tree trail with houses and headstones of deceased relatives on the agenda. My late grandmother worked at the mill and danced at the 'Emp' so I still get a lump in my throat walking down Station Road.

The examples you quote amount to shopping for a bargain. The Yum Yums record under discussion involves an attempt to defraud buyers by deliberately concealing information that would confirm it as an illegal bootleg. Bit like stealing from a blind beggar really - not cricket, jolly nasty and far from soulful.

Never trust a man who says 'trust me'... The current fad is set to grow and grow. It could breath new life into the turntable industry and hi-fi separates. In due course, seekers of good music may stumble across the soul scene which could result in more record collectors and long-term followers.

Very true but I would add a fifth factor, availability. Even rare records become impossible to acquire if they are locked up in collections. Some rare records continue to come to market as owners 'sell-on' to fund bigger wants. A small press-run with labels off-centre or reversed could have been pulped leaving only tiny numbers in circulation. A check on Popsike confirms that some records exist in single digits only, others in dozens and a few in the hundreds such as Jack Mongomery, Ruby Andrews, Dee Clarke etc. There's different degrees of rarity but past demand can hugely limit curent market availability.

Ellusions, Ruby Andrews, Otus Lee and Tranells in here also. Would need to have seen the records to know how many boots there were. Also plenty of records never actually booted in Lot 339. So many boots in the box, it's hard to accept there may have been good original vinyl also.

Probably a shiver bidder... get a mate to start the bidding then another to drive up the price. Multiple bids somehow authenticate the item for auction. The seller has set out to trap the unwary as his sales blurb indicates, 'buy at your peril and don't say I didn't warn you'.

Don't watch any YouTube tutorials whatever you do. Best to go to a Soul Nite and watch. Have a few pints of lager, not too many mind you, and when a good track drags you onto the dancefloor, go where the music takes you. A few years of this and you can take your L Plates off.

I think it was the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest entry from Gibraltar. Can't remember the group but it might have been The Flatulence Four. Seem to recall it was Tony Blackburn's Pick Of The Week but he turned down the offer of miming to it when he did a personal appearance at The Casino.

Cheap CD's probably the best way to identify tunes on common labels. YouTube for listening to rarities that are harder to come by, and often impossible to buy. Usually a local soul night not too distant every weekend to hear classics and latest discoveries. Sellers on Soul Source are a great bunch to deal with but take care if buying on eBay. Still plenty to be found for entry-level collectors in the USA if you're planning a holiday... Grab what you can on US or U.K. releases and you'll be surprised what grows on you many years down the line.

As suspected, far from a normal Saturday/Sunday 'Niter. Many regulars stayed away. The smaller-than-usual crowd numbered unfamiliar faces. The dancefloor was brightly lit and clusters of on-lookers were standing around. The cameras homed in on anyone spinning around then falling down. Such were the theatrics, the music at the time and later when dubbed, was irrelevant as the acrobats threw themselves to the floor when the camera approached rather than at a significant break in the track. The programme might have titillated some nostalgic Northerners but it was a travesty for the Casino and a slur on the Northern Soul scene that the media keep trying to match even today.

'The Lady In Red' perhaps?

Why stick at £150? Better to blow £1,500 on some all-time classics or £15,000 on a hot-box of current biggies. If you're short of funds, buy the records you like one at a time, saving up what it takes to fund the next purchase.

Yep, it's Wardie and he's on Soul Source. His spot in the limelight is him doing just that, being in front of the camera which until then had been focusing on Pete Ricketts. Credit where it's due, great bit of footwork... got to be a 70's shuffler.

Interesting question. Having seen the original programme and a video-tape of it many times, all the tracks were Wigan classics from the heyday. The soundtrack sounds loud and clear, rather than 'live' with all the crowd babble. The clips of the dancers are unlikely to be synchronised with a dub of the actual track fresh from a studio tape - that seems like a lot of extra work. So, I would guess the producer reached for obvious tracks by Judy Street, MVP's, Popcorn Wylie etc. Just an educated guess really but it would be good to hear the real story from a TV connection.