Sceneman

strange they cant find more venues than Folkstone harbour on Friday August 16 th ! last gig on their US tour

i forgot to add to my list Dance to Ska Delroy and Paulette and Skatalites from Paris with Love ,sensational ,anyone have a CD to sell me ?or know where theres a copy ?

and Tony Washingtons 'Surely' i spotted that on the deck and got me a copy .and pink dally roo ,boys from new york city ,romeo and juliet ..sure

the New Scene didnt last long , as Guy Stevens had left and taken the fantastic sound system with him .it had been painted white inside with garish lighting and was empty .The Original Scene club was matt black with tiny revolving uplighters . The area was now a heavy junkie area and was not a nice place to be late at night by then ,as some of the pill poppers had turned to heavier stuff and needed to mug people to get their junk money . I only went there once and that was enough as the old Scene club was not recognizable any more. the moment had passed ........

i like em hard so Goldfinger Tommy McCook ,(top play at the El Partido in the 60s ) Cleopatra Prince Buster Teenage Ska Baba Brooks softer Rude Boy Gone Jail Desmond Baker and the Claredonians Housewifes Choice Derrek and Patsy Chase the Devil Max Romeo Dont Call me daddy Derek Morgan Pressure Drop Toots and the maytals

one mans rubbish is another mans glory hole ok how about Shotgun wedding ,tripe

have a go at this selection or maybe just top 5 .can be UK or Jamaican issues . no dubb allowed !

i seem to remember reading that dread was a bouncer at the Scene club at some stage ,but its a blur from then so i cant be sure who was on the door

hey thats a hard call ,so many to leave out ,its heartbreaking mary wells - whats easy for 2 is SO hard for 1 jackie ross - New lover/jerk and twine chuck jackson - hand it over canniibal and the headhunters - land of 1000 dances willie Tee - up the 1 way street

trite as a hayley mills single ,even though its a black singer

that might have been Tobius who had a shop at Worlds End Chelsea before he moved to North End Road Fulham ,and then ended up with a stall at Portobello Road ,as soul was hard to shift and he had a lot of it on his hands

actually the Kiosk in shepherds bush market was still there when i popped by a few years back but they had a nondescript selection of dub CDs ,some TREASURE ISLE ,BUT they never have the songs you are after on them . it must have been there over 50 years in the same spot .i dont recall a record shop near the station but do recall another shop half way along the market that had a good back catalogue of London labels .

there was also the Black Swan label from Island and few other minor labels they used. in the late 60s soul prices crashed along with BB and ska ,there was a guy named Tobias who had a stall in Portobello road market who had demos and promo soul 45s for 20 pennies a piece and even though mates were ditching their soul record collections i was still in there buying ,but the rare 69 timi yuro was never to be seen ,so few must have sold at that time when soul was out of fashion in London.how many of those were issued ? we know now what was good on BB and Island as we have plenty of reference but then there was no way of knowing what was great and what was rubbish as a lot of that BB was not so good .

not surprising they sold so few as there was no way to get any airplay , only the BBC stick in the muds or Radio Luxemburg !and they were only playing popish stuff. i recall going round trying to get a copy of 'Lets Stick Together' (wilbert harrison) and they all replied 'we have it by Hayley Mills if thats any good 'HMV in Oxford street could be relied on to have plenty of back issues on London ,but they didnt stock any BlueBeat or Island stuff at the time. Plus there were so many records being issued every week of all descriptions and genres that even a large shop couldnt handle the weekly issues .I used to comb thru the list of weekly issues to see what was worth buying ,and even if you were well tuned in to the likely good possibles it was a daunting task and the shop owner was mighty peed off if i ordered something then didnt buy it .

the northern soul compilations at HMV in oxford street continue to grow by the month and the titles are so obscure you wonder where they find them .even Haynes the motor car manuals guys are in on the act .but few younger buyers are around the shelves, all mature buyers .so how long can the prices of the rarer records stay up ?

considering they had such a big catalogue it was a bitch to buy them as few dealers kept many in stock and you had to order them for collection at a later date .i used to hangout at a kiosk in shepherds bush market where the local black guys used to listen to the latest sounds ,but they seemed to like the calypso style records and i never heard anyone play baba brookes teenage ska otherwise i would have bought a copy .it was stuff like 'lady with the red dress on' and easy listening sounds .promotional copies i have never seen on bluebeat label .'madness' and 'housewifes choice' got plenty of play at clubs and 'shotgun wedding' and 'phoenix city' but the rarer stuff was little heard . dont know what the situation was around the rest of the country outside london .. ordinary record shops were unlikely to stock any Bluebeat or Island label as i recall .

popsike seem to be getting selective about what they show and some titles have been weeded of sales . possibly because prices are falling as buyers are hard up .its not as buoyant as it was

its possible there was a club there in that area ,but i dont recall any names .but early on sunday mornings huge numbers of mods used to head down to the station concourse to use a coffee bar there .it was really bizarre as back then it was a deserted area on sundays not busy like today .to suddenly see 100s of mods with pill popped eyeballs on the station concourse .by midday they had vanished but where to i dont know ,maybe there was other hangouts or they went home ,with a nasty comedown to handle . early on sunday mornings at chucking out time ,huge numbers of mods were all headed towards Leicester square and onto the station later. god knows where they all came from as you wouldnt expect the soho clubs to handle so many mods on their premises .

the Last Chance in oxford street , was a bit downmarket ,cheaper to get in and the MODS from the Scene used to go there early on sundays after chucking out at the the Scene club for an extra hour for a small fee to get in . Jimmy Radcliife used to be the last play there !is it that old now ?the last chance had not such a good selection of records and a scruffy mod clientel compared with the Scene which was considered a more upmarket venue and difficult to join in the early days .during the week members of the stones used to frequent the Scene club ,jagger and wyman were members and used to be on the floor !

the Last Chance in oxford street , was a bit downmarket ,cheaper to get in and the MODS from the Scene used to go there early on sundays after chucking out at the the Scene club for an extra hour for a small fee to get in . Jimmy Radcliife used to be the last play there !is it that old now ?the last chance had not such a good selection of records and a scruffy mod clientel compared with the Scene which was considered a more upmarket venue and difficult to join in the early days .during the week members of the stones used to frequent the Scene club ,jagger and wyman were members and used to be on the floor !

the Last Chance in oxford street , was a bit downmarket ,cheaper to get in and the MODS from the Scene used to go there early on sundays after chucking out at the the Scene club for an extra hour for a small fee to get in . Jimmy Radcliife used to be the last play there !is it that old now ?the last chance had not such a good selection of records and a scruffy mod clientel compared with the Scene which was considered a more upmarket venue and difficult to join in the early days .during the week members of the stones used to frequent the Scene club ,jagger and wyman were members and used to be on the floor !

the Last Chance in oxford street , was a bit downmarket ,cheaper to get in and the MODS from the Scene used to go there early on sundays after chucking out at the the Scene club for an extra hour for a small fee to get in . Jimmy Radcliife used to be the last play there !is it that old now ?the last chance had not such a good selection of records and a scruffy mod clientel compared with the Scene which was considered a more upmarket venue and difficult to join in the early days .during the week members of the stones used to frequent the Scene club ,jagger and wyman were members and used to be on the floor !

if you look at the online archives of the Marqee some amazing names appeared there in the 60s ,US and UK acts but in those times you just couldnt afford to go to so many nights at these places ,salaries were low then and you had to run a scooter ,clothes and disks on meagre wages ,... likewise the Flamingo had a glittering array of stars who appeared there and i used to go there quite a bit but the sound system and DJ were rubbish compared with the fabulous sound system at the Scene club. the mingo was the earliest of the clubs ,although James Hamilton once told me there was a jazz club before at the Scene club venue ,but i dont know the name of it . i missed sugar pie desanto at the marqee ,and screaming jay hawkins at the Flamingo ,no cash to get in ,,damn

so does the southern soul scene predate the northern soul scene ? the soho club scene started in 1963 and the northern around 67 ? i was too scared to venture into the Cue club ,heavy scene ,this was early period when black guys were efectivly banned from most other clubs . it had a reputation for being a violent place. very heavy guys on the door ,it was more a black enclave

i used to help him out back in the 60s when he was the DJ at the SOUL HOLE club in Balham High Road !that must have been 1966-67 period . very tall and smelled mightily of aftershave and MODs thought he was gay ! so if you were seen talking to James they thought you were gay too.!! he must have had a good source in the US because he always had piles of the latest releases . Denny Cordell was also a DJ as well alongside James. AFAIK i dont recall him DJ ing at the Scene Club in Ham Yard . Just Guy Stevens /Sandra/ and another small bloke who i cant identify .but he may have Dj d in the week as i didnt go there every night . in the week it was R&B and rockabilly stuff and assorted bands used to turn up like the Who and Bo diddley on 1 occasion . saturday nights were always packed out .. he was always recommending me to buy Lotsa Poppa records but i never did as i wasnt sure who the hell he was at the time