Timillustrator

Impressive how he manages to stay on his feet though!

Aaahhhhh the debate rages on!

Grosvenor rooms is great, amazing floor too - like a sheet of glass!

Looks good, not too pricey either: www.amazon.co.uk/Without-Fortune-Motown-Records-Cleveland/dp/1883283841

He was a product of his time and forged an enormously successful label against massive odds. If you look at the mid sixties output of a lot of Motown artists though, he reflected one thread of thinking - a lot of them were pushed towards recording "standards" in the belief that "pop" music only had a short life and the best way to ensure people would have a long term career was to make them into all round entertainers and establish them in the more lucrative and adult cabaret circuit. So you can understand that when people like Marvin and Stevie were leaning towards the opposite a few years later and started experimenting and becoming more progressive he wasn't massively in favour. You can see the same thinking in a lot of people at the same time though the Beach Boys were torn apart by Brian Wilson going into full experimental psychedelia and Mike Love wanting to stick with "the formula". A lot of British artists were given the Mickie Most treatment (Jeff Beck, Terry Reid, The Yardbirds) to try and produce pop hits when the artists themselves wanted to go psychedelic or hard rock route resulting in tension and sometimes pop singles and rock albums. The tension between going avant-garde and pop hits was exactly the same in Motown.

52 now. But at this rate - 3 every day, they'll only get to £3,898 of the £6,500 goal

Looking hopeful, they're nearly a third of the way there. At this rate they'll do it.

It's here? Already got 7 backers, still a long way to go though! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wigancasino/last-night-at-wigan-casino-0?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=last night at wigan

It certainly looks more realistic - he's reduced the total by about £4,000; but it still needs twice the backers he had last time though. £20 for a book ain't bad either.

A lot of people overestimate Kickstarter, if you just look at the number of failures on there. I think there's a specific combination of cult appeal and an age demographic that is likely to use Kickstarter before it gains critical mass. That plus the need to massively plug it once it's launched. Best of luck to him though!

Quite good programme on Sky Arts last night about the rise of cassette, CD, MP3 formats. Was anyone else suckered in by the changing formats? I know I was - started buying more cassettes late 80's for convenience so I could listen in the car then moved pretty much exclusively over to CD's in the early 90's. A friend of mine (as was mentioned in the programme being quite common) got rid of his entire record collection and bought the lot again on CD, at first he sold off his albums but when it got down to about the last 50 he gave them to me, still got them, but at that time (late 90's) you literally couldn't give LP's away. https://tv24.co.uk/b/qrb8s0-j87

Thought it was a pretty good list though, not totally obvious. Nice the see rare earth in there too - largely forgotten.

With you there I avoid them at all costs usually, after they delivered something to the wrong address and refused to refund me, insisting someone had signed for it who I had never heard of.

Looking on Amazon I see there's a "Special Edition" and the "Definitive" one is the 4th revised edition. They seem to go for a lot as well. I've got the black and white one but still a great book.

Were there only two previous versions? I've got the original and I know there was "the definitive" version some years later with different order and some changes.

Here it was

He's good, there was a thread about him on here a few years back, I'll see if I can find it.

Nu Soul / Rare Soul / Latin Soul / Philly Soul. Maybe promoters should be rationed to just 3 or 4 types each?

I sympathise but the phrase Northern Soul does now cover quite a broad spectrum. Depending on the venue it's not unusual to get maybe one DJ who does an hour of modern and crossover. There's something to do with geography too - round Birmingham and the Black Country it's pretty standard, up Nottingham and the East Midlands it tends to be a bit more pure "Northern", further south there's a bit more early R&B. As Len says you have to do your own research and DJs like birds tend to flock together so once you know a few names you can sort of tell what is going to be the style.

Hopefully, I am a bit dubious still. People are already putting on events for the 25th June but although the headline is "All legal limits on social contact will be removed" and "Nightclubs will be allowed to reopen" it's still No earlier than and if you read the small print there could still be limits in terms of mask wearing and temperature checks etc. I hope that's not the case but some people are talking like it's all over already.

Very true, if the study shows it's safe though it may be that smaller clubs can operate at capacity with some testing/temperatures/evidence of vaccination. I've seen a few events in the last year at 50% or less capacity, all seated, table service etc. but can't imagine they'd get much out of it above covering costs.

Yeah I saw that, very interesting 1,300 people! Only 1/10th of the venue's capacity though. This kind of study is essential if some of the big venue events will go ahead this year.

No. 14 already! By my reckoning I've missed 11, not that I was counting, until now.

This is the one nighter for 2021:

True enough, a bit of "natural wastage" wouldn't be a bad thing. The main problem round my way would be when there were up to half a dozen events on the same night within 20 miles, you have to pick one but when you got there it was half empty; don't think that'll happen now, not for a few months anyway.