Thinksmart

The first £100 record if I recall the anecdote correctly. RIP

For sale. Recently issued in February 2025, 4CD set 'There's No Stopping Us Now' on Edsel label in as new condition. Excellent sound quality. Used once. Sent promptly from Nottingham for UK buyers only. Contact via messaging at Forum. £25 + £4 postage and packaging (can add tracking and signed for at buyer cost). The set sells for £32 upwards when new. Payment via Paypal. I only have 1 set for sale, then this post will be closed. For details and tracklisting see link here: https://www.demonmusicgroup.co.uk/catalogue/releases/theres-no-stopping-us-now-the-female-mods-forgotten-story-4cd/ Thanks Mark

RIP. A very diverse musician, his music always has the 'feel good' factor. A lot more Soul over the years than his Jazz-Funk labelling would indicate.

There is a long history between France and Morocco, it used to be a French protectorate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France–Morocco_relations

Someone has to put up this Modern Soul classic. 'If It's Love That You Want' is great from the 1981 album, You're So Good, Just Can't Get Up Off Your Love, I'm Here, his version of Are You Lonely are all wonderful. There are lots of great choices in addition to the Welcome to my Room and Midnight Desire albums (which are essential and available together on a now deleted CD by Expansion that would be good to reissue). I put Randy Brown on random in my online music collection last night and the first track that played was Sweet, Sweet Darling I was looking at onscreen at the top of the thread. Curious!

It's not so much that AI rewrites history, it's that it doesn't have sufficient historical sources to work with in this area. The outcome though is the same, partial, often incorrect information based on incomplete, insufficient data sets. I recently did a speech explaining the opportunities and risks of AI in the energy sector. We got AI to do all the imagery working forward through the ages of humans into the future. It's interpretation when there isn't online content, is often wonky or speculative in a sci-fi way. For example AI understood that the industrial era had water wheels but not that they needed to be at a water source such as a river. Or that in the agricultural revolution preceding that, the farmers did not wear modern tweed flat caps. When talking about 'smart homes' it looked like product brocures in idealistic pictures we see in EV car adverts - because those are the sources it is working with. I used the recent AI assisted Northern Soul songs in the speech live as an illustration at one point - which became the hook that got people thinking afterwards (you can see it mentioned a lot at LinkedIn). Anything where the core knowledge is offline prior to the internet age or behind walls it cannot reach (old fora, chat groups, email groups such as the Keeping The Faith one some of us were in for example), then the AI results are often poor. Especially where this is outside official culture that has historians who have covered it. While we do have plenty of books, these likely haven't been ingested and a model trained on them. For Northern Soul, AI is picking up Wikipedia, news articles, social media, Youtube etc - but it doesn't have a context to refer back to that is extensive. Academic books often miss this as we know, a lot of the real knowledge in 'folk' culture isn't written or online. As such, in future we can envisage AI to produce shallow, often incorrect or partial information from pre-internet sources that do not have biographies/historical references to align to. What's written right now about these things at an online source that is accessible to AI, will likely become woven into the way it expresses its 'truth' in future. Getting writing folks!

Welcome all new joiners. Enjoy the forum. There's a lot of knowledge to be found searching in the archives here but don't be afraid to ask questions and dive in. It's great to read your experiences old and new.

Randy was brilliant. I play him a lot. RIP

Wow, that really is awful. Always enjoyed Modern Soul dancers such as 2 Bad Habits and Same Number, songs such as Visions and Dollar Bill in addition to the classic posted already. Far too soon. RIP

Very interesting to see, thanks

In addition to the ones with video links above there are others unmentioned. One example of course is (I'm Just Thinking About) Cooling Out - perhaps his last great song. The albums with Thelma Houston were great too - Find A Way, Let's Get Together, Don't Pity Me, Only The Beginning are all excellent, catchy Modern Soul dancers.

Two absolute classics by Jerry not mentioned so far: Plus of course... his version of Right Track unissued at the time

Chris Jasper has passed too at 73: https://metro.co.uk/2025/02/25/isley-brothers-legend-chris-jasper-dies-aged-73-22620753/?ito=article.mweb.share.floaty.whatsapp

Not mentioned so far...Feel Like Makin' Love. Duets with Peabo Bryson, her ace version of Compared To What but here's a Modern Soul gem from a soundtrack she did..

Sad to hear. RIP

Oh blimey, Henry Farnborough too. The Spinners are pivotal from 60s right up to decades later. RIP

One of the very best. RIP

Yes some interesting choices there. This release is of interest too of course: https://acerecords.co.uk/hit-run-more-motown-guys

One of the top class Soul singers across decades. Such a powerful, emotive and expressive voice but never too showy. I think of Tommy as a Classy Soul music artist from that marvellous Big City Soul era. I'll put a load of his music on during the next few days! RIP Tommy.

Great, thanks for uploading. This is an important source, as a springboard for the 6Ts, 100 Club and high quality Northern Soul finds that followed from that. I recently got the CD box set of his Mod 100, which I already had all the songs on, but it just felt right to get it curated that way. Of course, most Mods ignored it back then for the popular sounds of the time, including a very young me in the early 80s - but I found my way back to those truly Soulful sounds via Northern Soul plays, the Kent Records LPs then CDs which I treasure now as amongst the pinnacle of our music. Ady, please reissue the Club Soul complilation on an expanded CD/digital as you have with a couple. I have the nusic but will buy it again to keep. The compilation continued the foundation that Randy laid out with the 100 Sounds, it was such an important Kent release at the time. That and the Shoes compilation were instructive and wonderful (and Gems too and.... oh reissue the lot). Anyone interested in the 100 sounds CD set of Randy's choices, it is available from all good stockists: https://www.demonmusicgroup.co.uk/catalogue/releases/eddie-piller-presents-the-mod-top-100-4cd-deluxe-packaging/ Regardless of the Mod labelling, it's an comprehensive set of brilliant music from the very earliest days of the Soul scene.

Nottingham has always been my home and a wonderful place to appreciate Soul from. It's a thriving scene here, the Blackheart nighters, Festival Inn, Cotgrave Miner's Welfare, constant little things around the city, the Palais nights in early 1990s were incredible (and now back) with lots of the new Motown discoveries being played by Chris King right at the start of their being played out, less prominant local nighters at such as Trent Uni and Notts County ground, R&B nights at Bunker's Hill. Rock City as said a few decades ago now (time flies!). I have had and have great fun. The Boat club and Brit are ten minutes walk from me. Rob Smith's shop and Jonathan at Arcade Records (now long gone), Soulville Steakhouse. The old Hearty Good Fellow and Hand & Heart small events. Long Eaton Fridays for a long time, Ilkeston Co-op events. It's been great. For about a decade Sunday night here used to be buzzing with Soul in many of the pubs (it may still be). Then getting out across the county there are always things in each local town going on. Not far also out to wider Midlands and coastal events. Plus, Nottinghamshire people here in my orbit are passionate about Soul Music, it's wonderful. I will pop into this bar when in the city socially, but I don't get there much now. On Nottingham venues, it's lost to history now but apparently before Dungeon etc, the go-to venue in Nottingham was the Nottingham Polytechnic Social on a Friday, the Newton Building. It was where the Mods and Soul fans used to go at that time (my older friend used to go with his friend, the designer Paul Smith).

I mentioned classic Oldies in my first reply before and that's a good route in to the original sounds. Generally if the event mentions 'as played at' Twisted Wheel, The Golden Torch, Wigan Casino/Mr Ms, Va Vas, The Catacombs - you're going to find plenty to enjoy there. Blackpool Mecca went from 60s sounds into Modern then Disco and Jazz-Funk, so depends on context. The important Cleethorpes venues mixed up Northern Soul styles, so like Blackpool Mecca - events themed around them will balance styles you enjoy with some less so, but it is good to try more over time. At this early stage if an event says 'Top 500 sounds' that will be relevant for you, over the years these can become over familiar but you have the wonderful opportunity to appreciate them for the first time. Your choices are from the early days of the scene. I think you'd enjoy the 100 Club sounds too. Also look out for events that say 'Motown and Northern Soul' - they'll often be at the more popular-song end of the sounds you enjoy. There are lots of compilations about too, both on CD/vinyl or streaming. Dependent on how you listen to your music, type those songs you mention into the platform of your choice - and you'll find compilatons/playlists with those and similar era songs. Discogs can help with this, send meca direct message if I can help on it. It's worth saying, none of us like everything - it's a huge area of music you're exploring, so don't feel the need to like everything you hear. It's a wonderful adventure that can continue through your whole life and lead you to music you never knew you would like. In Nottingham you will enjoy the newly revived nights at the Palais. Local shop owner and DJ Rob Smith plays a lot of sounds you will enjoy, so look out for him on local events. The events at Festival Inn in Trowell will work well. Keep checking the Events section here. Work your way through Richard Searling's shows at Mixcloud - they will really help you find more music you like. When you see 'Across the Board' that event will have multiple substyles of Northern Soul. You may enjoy one DJ and not another, but that is part of the experience. Then over time your own taste may evolve too.

You want classic oldie events from your list, stay away from upfront, R&B, Crossover, Funk or Modern Soul events for now. Also 'nighter sounds' or 'Rare Soul' events can sometimes mean less obviously melodic, deeper cuts. Definitely avoid Jazz Funk events given your choices.

Indeed, I was thinking the same. It's not for the artist to say a song is 'Northern Soul' as it isn't a genre, it's a discovery or selection by its participants based on some features we all share (but even then there are outliers all the time). The media don't know what they are on about when writing about it and the artist while meaning well, is actually detracting from their chances of adoption by describing it as Northern Soul. Press it up on an old looking label for only a few copies and distirbute them to DJs and see how it goes is more likely than promoting yourself obviously that way. Adoption by 'the scene' can happen of course with more subtlety, remembering Diane Shaw for example. Of course no such issue exists in relation to such as Modern Soul as a related/parallel 'scene' but it does for some others such as Popcorn, you cannot just decide 'I'm Popcorn'...at least I don't think you can.

Headphones are to stop the noise in situations where it is not allowed. It can be either all listen to one DJ or a choice of channels. I have not seen one with everyone in their own individual choices.