Biggordy

I had "All I Want Is You" on a UK press on Page One a few years back but sold it as I wasn't into deep stuff at the time. I regret it now!

My fiancee and I are going to have "The Day I Laid Eyes On You" by Leon Haywood. Not a rare tune but a perfect one!

Yep, possibly the greatest singer ever to come from the Caribbean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90_emEnNnG0

John Holt covering the Isley Brothers:

Great instrumental Studio 1 version of the Wilson Pickett classic (actually released on Byron Lee's BRA label).

Lots of Curtis Mayfield covers of course, here's one of the best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyXcQq294zI

Nice Studio 1 rocksteady cut of the Miracles' classic.

B.B.Seaton's cut of the Persuaders' "Thin Line Between Love And Hate"

Alton's cut of It's A Shame

Alton Ellis' great cut of Can I Change My Mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EZzDdTs2VM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCtySZyxerM

Osteo-Arthritis in my back. I used to try to dance but stopped after some people laughed at me.

Move On Up - Curtis Mayfield I'm Going Home To Live With God - O.V.Wright and as my casket moves towards the furnace: Firestarter - The Prodigy

Once in a blue moon as I don't drive and rely on lifts plus my partner prefers soul nights to nighters as she likes to be tucked up in bed by about 1am!

Forgot to add that I play them every day but never the same album more than a few times to try and keep them in as excellent shape as I can.

Got around 1500 45s, consisting of around 1000 ska/rocksteady/reggae and 500 soul 45s. Around 7000 albums, of which around 4000 are ska/rocksteady/reggae, 1000 are soul and 2000 are 40s to 60s R&B, doo wop and blues. Out of my albums, around 2000 are on vinyl and 5000 CDs.

Very heavily influenced by Curtis Mayfield of course. He did a nice second cut for Bunny Lee circa 1973 titled "The Minstrel".

Surely there's a place though for nights that play a bit of everything? Oldies fans will go to oldies venues and so on. I like all soul, except for stuff made from the late 70s onwards made with synthesisers, computers, etc (with the exception of tunes and albums recorded in analog with real instruments such as the last couple of Candi Staton albums). I don't understand why there's so much debate on this at times - no one is forcing any of us to go to a venue that we don't like!

Fair enough but don't many venues have oldies/northern in the main room and a second or even third room for R&B or modern or even ska/reggae in some places these days?

I'll be 44 in a few months and across the board IS the way. Life would be boring if we just liked one style of music or even one style of soul. Soul is soul whether it be deep, crossover, oldies stompers, rare, underplayed, modern, whatever. For the record, I used to hate modern with a passion but although my preference is still rare soul, I am coming over to the dark (modern) side more frequently now and even have a few dozen modern tunes in my collection now! Also sometimes I feel as if us younger ones who never came onto the scene until the 80s or in my case the 90s are treated like we don't know a thing about the music and should bow down to our elders.....

Agreed. People seem to forget that when UB40 began they were a bonafide UK roots reggae band. Signing Off is one of the classic UK reggae albums of all time.

There's another son of Alton called Chris who is making some great records these days, this is one of them: