Frankie Crocker

Records made in the 60's should rate 75 cents on the paperwork. Finders fees agreed mutually should kept separate. Hard working crate diggers and dealers deserve their fees but there is no reason that they be factored into a customs ticket.

So, what were the shoes with strips of leather crossing over the toe called? There was also a shoe with a toe cap effect with a bit of piping going across the top. Both these shoes were leather soled and popular with dancers in the 70's. I'm in the brogues camp with a pair of Mc Afees strictly reserved for dancing only. Rockport did a lightweight wing-tip ie brogue about ten years ago and these are brilliant for dodgy floor conditions and a long walk home being made of something synthetic with a spongy feel to them.

Price Guide prices don't really apply to these sort of records. Much depends on who already has it, whether to ignore the label condition and whether it is for DJing. No serious collector would turn this record down at a price they could afford but how many of us have 3K spare this week? Should clear 2K and get close to 3K as availability continues to diminish.

Hiya Patto. You really must stop going to Jazz evenings at The 100 Club... Trainers are OK with cord trousers and baggy round neck pullovers, especially when the dance floor is soaked with beer and all the blokes dance like Mick Jagger on stage.

Trainers are for prancing. Shoes are for dancing.

Makes you wonder. Was the demand actually there? Did the auction manipulate bidders into overpaying? Are we now seeing a false market for this record? Common, staple tune, decent enough oldie and the price soars on the basis of an auction bid; most would say, this is never an auction record.

Manship auctioned a perfect copy about a year ago - went for £100 plus. This in itself creates interest, discussion and demand.

Manship mania. Plain tune finally has it's day and value spirals. Invest now in the Royalettes, the next big MGM sound. Sell April Stevens, it's had it's day. Hold Dotty Cambridge, it might go big (price wise) one day. Why buy stocks and shares when you can speculate on labels. MGM is the new Shrine so bid accordingly wannabe DJ's...Off to the footie now...

Polishing whole records is verboten in my books, especially when styrene, rare or common: worse still if passed off as 'clean' records. Using an abrasive to remove a major flaw such as a skip makes logical sense. Never tried it, but something like Duraglit, a fibrous metal polish, might dig down into vinyl imperfections. Normally, a really good swabbing with Mr Sheen cleans a record as good as it's gonna get. Usually it's best to wait for a better copy to come along rather than spend time attempting to fix scratches etc.

Top drawer. Great dancer. Grows on you. Another Butch special. One for the connoisseur.

Nowt. Unless you set up a Northern Soul Police to close down venues. Poor events won't survive but even if they linger on, it becomes no different to sitting in a quiet pub with better music in the background and a dance floor for those up for it. If someone wants to promote a venue, let them: we should be encouraging attendance not clamping down on minor events.

Better than Don Thomas...

Better to have too many venues than too few. They're mainly local and regional events catering to short distance travellers so transport costs aren't a big issue. I suspect it's the younger element that are DJing so that's a healthy aspect of the current renaissance. For sure the records could and should be more varied than the Brice Coefield-Nolan Porter-Marvin Gaye-Donna Colman-Al Wilson sequence played out time and time and time again. Maybe the real issue is the lack of top drawer national events like The 100 Club, Kings Hall, Keele?

Dohhhh..apologies for confusing matters but at least we've let a good tune out of the bag.

Check the run-out: does it read ZTSC007 with Simon Soussan etched in crooked hand written script with the initials PB?. There might be a sticker on it saying If Found Please Return To Ron Murphy...

Funtastic. Would make a great ender at a Christmas party, everyone off their tree and sliding around on a beer soaked floor...

Now, Millie Jackson's 'My Street' on Brit is worth a shot at auction. Rarely turns up, not in the price guides and most importantly, sounds pretty good. Probably overlooked as it's by a mainstream artist. It's on You Tube but I don't know how to post a link. Check it out.

Perhaps a property speculator thought he was actually buying a house and felt cheated because he didn't get a cheap house in the end, just a common record...

Perhaps you have the gift of working out what a long film might be like in 60 seconds. As soon as I heard Shirley Ellis I thought WOW. Then the MVP's and I'm totally hooked. Casino dance hall scenes are brilliantly authentic. The lads at the end confirm this is a northern film so the scene is set. The music alone will make it a great film. The dancing should elevate it beyond this level. Everything else will be a bonus, especially for the initiated. My experience is that most film trailers are crap - usually the ones I see in the cinema put me off seeing the film. This trailer piques the interest sufficiently for average film goers to consider it as an evening's entertainment. I just LOVE the title and can't wait until Northern Soul 2 is released.

A quiet night for John and his team. Morel like this and he'll be laying off staff and putting auction items in soul packs. Bill Bush has gone up considerably following a slight tumble 10 years ago but I doubt we'll see this price realised again in the near future.

Needs unscrambling...

Did anyone take note of Tim's guide? I bought the first two, but they were so inferior to Manship's guides, I hardly ever opened them. Sure, the Masqueraders cost less a decade or two ago, but didn't all records. The astonishing thing is that the top-end sounds are now going for near geometric progression prices. Can't even remember what I paid for mine at Keele in the 1990's, maybe £100, but it was the first time I had a sales- box specimen in my hands and it was going home with me regardless of the price. Al Williams had WOL which would have deterred bidders. What a time this is to be seeing two La Beat records of such calibre up for sale in the same list.

Manship edition 3 valued 'How' at £1,000 in 2004, presumably because that was what it sold for perhaps?

Fire exit through Mr M's... Fire extinguisher, roll on the floor of the gents bogs, or maybe not... The place was full of smoke all the time anyway but no one bothered. Anyone know the ID of the councillor who burned the place down to speed up planning approval for the Civic Centre extension?

'How' was a thousand pound sound before eBay took over. Prices dropped for a few years as odd copies surfaced. Now everyone wants this great track and supplies have dried up, the price has rocketed again. Expect hot competition for future copies, especially if they're in good shape as many are stained or have ring- wear