markmc

Just ordered mine too. Fantastic release and I hope Melvin pulls through these health issues.

My partner loves poker machine gambling Las Vegas. She loves the atmosphere, the characters and she usually comes out winning a bit. Thankfully she has no interest in online gambling when she gets home. Similarly I love record shops. I will walk miles in the burning heat from Encore to Record City to hunt through hundreds of old records, and I really look forward to it. The excitement of whats gonna be the next record in the pile! The tension of when you find a goodie and you slowly take it out the sleeve to check the condition! The low when its cracked. The high when you get a bit of a bargain (big Northern finds are long gone, but I like great Soul records). Back in Sunny Manchester I still love record shops. If I've a day off in the week I'll stay up silly late the night before listening to records and after a leisurely breakie I'll set off on my bike ride. Could be Rochdale, Heywood, Hyde, Stockport, Warrington, Alty, Chorlton (Kingbee, special treat!), Stretford, Wigan, Bolton, Prestwich (Beatin Rhythym, another special treat) or Northern Quarter. Sometimes I spend a lot (thats over 40 quid for me), other times literally nothing. But its a great hobby combining fresh air, exercise and late night drinking. Chris is correct in that you can get whatever you want on t'internet and if there is something I specifically want that's the place to go. Could take years to find in record shops what you can find in seconds on Discogs. But I dont really enjoy the online search or the faff of having to collect from the sorting office. Like many here I was enthralled by the early days of Ebay. At first it was lots of bargains with a low dollar rate, cheap shipping and no crazy bidders. Then it got to the stage of looking at a computer screen at work all day then rushing home to try and keep up with the never ending new entries on Ebay, and not really buying much anymore. And as the wise gamblers say "when the fun stops, stop". That said I've spend a bit of lockdown time trawling through a few disog sellers lists to find some bits to make the postage on the record I want worthwhile. So I guess pre or post I'd say post. Best of best worlds although record shops are now severely depleted, yet you never know .....

Hiya Isabella, The Northern Soul scene is a 'broad church' in terms of history and musical tastes. Heres a really brief history (my view may be well off the mark, I'm a relative newcomer since 1990!) Mid 60s-late 60's. Mods in the North still wanted to dance to uptempo Soul and Motown after the Southern mods moved towards psychedelic etc. Late 60s to 1974. Scene developed totally devoid of media attention with its own music and fashion. Astounding 60's and new release Soul records with the right beat discovered from the States by the crate. 1974 to 1979. Pop music was awful so teenagers started to discover this allnight underground cult. Crowds surged to Wigan Casino and many other niters in old fashion and run down venues. In a bid to keep the dancefloors full with new sounds many 1960's white pop records which had nothing to do with Soul gained prominence. The availability of mass manufactured amphetamines may have been a factor in the boom. At the same time the super cool Blackpool Mecca crowd digged new releases and started to split away to start the Disco, Rare Groove and Jazz Funk scenes in the North. 1979 to early 80's. Pop music gets fun again with Punk, New Wave, 2 tone and Mod revival and Northern Soul seems a bit flarey naff as the Johnny come latelies drift away and less teenagers take their place. Attendance fall but the music quality increases as Soul fans dig out fabulous records from the Sixties to 80's new releases. Mid to late 80's. Lots of the original 70's Northern Soulies have careers and start famillies etc. Younger generations from the Mod revival and scooter scenes come on board as the music policy goes more 60's Soul, but stays very underground. Late 80's. House music apocalypse. If you want to stay out all night dancing why go to a small decrepid venue with a cheap sound system and aging clientele when there are exciting new House events everywhere. Early 90's. Turns out House music wasnt that exciting. Techno and Gabba etc left real music fans still with a thirst for staying out late to search out the Northern scene. This very much includes London now with the 100 club etc. Venues have a new burst of energy with an enthusiastic twenty something crowd keen to discover all this authentic Soul music. Modern Soulful House/Garage enters , but usually gets pushed into its own room, geographically and politically. Mid 1990s. As the scene grows original Soul collectors return to the Niter scene eager to catch up on the music they've missed and bring on board records they've squirreled away over the past decade. 2000 onwards. The Northern Soul revival gets out of control. However many of the returning Soulies are the mid 70's Wiganite Johnnie come latelies who want to relive the past. Promotors old and new start up huge Niters, Weekenders and Soul nights to benefit from the demand. The scene effectively splits in two with the Oldies crowd just wanting a great night out with the fantictic sounds of their youth and the "progressive" or traditional scene still searching out new discoveries from an ever diminishing pot. 2010 (?) to Covid. Soul nights on every corner. There was only going to be one winner in the split. The Oldies scene still booms. However most punters are past all nighters and travelling long distances just for a night out. Local pubs on their knees financially seek salvation from a weekly Saturday Northern Soul and Motown disco. Everyone knows the records so anyone with a phone can DJ. Its a fun, safe and friendly night out. The over 40's precluded from todays clubbing scenes come along irrespective of historic Northern credentials. Meanwhile the tradtional Northen scene also hold pub nights and increasingly "all dayers" with a wide range of expertly scourced music from late 50's RnB, obscure ghetto and deep Funk and late 70's disco, all of which attacting a broad church of headonistic and geeky record collecting devotees. If there is a particular era or music sub-division you are interested in let us know! There are people on Soul-Source who have lived through the lot and amazingly can still remember bits! Hope this helps. Mark