Very well thanks Nick, I hope you are well also.
86-89 does seem to be the forgotten period and perhaps we can feel the better for it. Genuinely underground, progressive musically, and perhaps the final chapter of the first volume of the northern soul story. After 1990 social and technological changes meant things would never be the same. Don't know of a top 5 from the period has been done on here but here are mine.
Ronnie Barnes - You got my heart
Bill 'Sugarbear' Jones - Step away
Jeff Floyd - Don't leave me
David Sea - Night after night
Nathan Bartell - Someone like you