OK Mate, to each his own I guess.
Neither one of us should be on a personal crusade for one school of thought or the other.
We should agree to disagee on this occasion. I just happen to come from the school of thought that a Soul DJ should actually 'Promote' Soul music. Its what I've always tried to do and am quite wedded to that cause.
This debate has emanated from Andy's original LP question. I think it would be totally unreasonable to exclude LP's from his sets, because of what other people might think. I'm pretty sure that the greater majority in any venue would much prefer to hear the record, in any format, rather than have it excluded because of some exclusive DJ pact (of sorts).
Early 80's, Richard Searling had his 'Sandy Linzer' cover up and Pat Brady had his "Brother Louis Brown' cover up. Both were on 45's. I was DJ'ing with these guys at the time and discerned that one was Reuben Howell and the other Wilson Pickett. I had both albums and played both tracks, as did other DJ's at the time (Poke, Steve Croft etc.).
Result... two of the biggest tunes on the scene for several months, nationwide... because they were promoted by more than one DJ. Of course the 45's weren't really that 'hard' either... but I'd picked up both LP's at Fox's Sale in Doncaster for only 50p each... so why not play 'em. It benefitted everyone... and never a cross word from eith Richard or Pat.
I think this "if I've got it, you can't play it' thing is a fairly recent phenomena (hence my 'Johhny Come Lately' comment earlier). I find it a particularly unattractive evolution as I feel it implies that the DJ is bigger than the music itself.
But we beg to differ.
Regarding venues, to be fair, no there's not much early 60's played at the places I mentioned. More mid to late 60's onwards. But they have been responsible for breaking some of the best and biggest tracks on the UK Soul scene in the past 15 years - from all eras (on all formats).
Sean