Jaco

There's obviously thousands of tracks with evocative and emotive lyrics about relationships etc within the scene, and the thread in the Free Base forum about child custody matters etc made me think, has there ever been a more bitter and damning indictment of a failed relationship than the lyrics of "After all " by Sam Dees. It is absolute genius if he wrote this song without experiencing the pain that oozes from the grooves - to be honest he is a genius anyhow, but the lines "We can't even be strangers again" and "You won't ever find another sucker like me" must touch a chord with all those who have sadly experienced such events. So what other lyrics capture the sadness and poigniancy of lost love? Don't want to appear too depressing - I might be suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder.

You need to appreciate that KR's criteria in selecting this list is to do with being the "homes of large and dedicated groups of soul fans". Without that criteria Blackpool, Stafford, Yate, Cleethorpes would be included before some of those listed.

We'd have to have The Combinations - "I'm gonna make you love me" and Louis Paul "The change will do you good" for starters.

Nope! This guy has been in about 20 or so films - nothing spectacular and by the way he was born in 1969, so definitely not around to record "Too darn soulful"

Mark, You can get this and others from Amazon.

You could do it as a "Dummys guide to Northern soul" type thing and perhaps give some examples as to how the scene has developed over the past 5 decades. For example : From the Wheel era You've been cheating - The Impressions At the discotheque - Chubby Checker Whats wrong with me baby - The Invitations From the Mecca period Queen of Fools - Barbara Mills Tainted love - Gloria Jones If you ever walked out of my life - Dena Barnes From Wigan Get out - Harold Melvin Send him back - Pointer Sisters I'm coming home in the morning - Lou Pride From Stafford & the 100 Club I love her so much it hurts - The Majestics Lady in green - The Magnetics I'd think it over - Sam Fletcher From Keele and others You should o' held on - 7th Floor Aviators Packing up - Damon Fox Lonely for you baby - Sam Dees From the Ritz and others Gonna be a big thing - The Yum Yum Too late - Mandrill Man o man - Walter and the Admirations From Cleethorpes and others He who picks a rose - Jimmy Ruffin It's your voodoo working - Charles Sheffield This thing called love - Johnny Wyatt If your mate didn't get a feel for Northern after listening to this lot, then I don't know what would! Agree that a club would give him as good an idea as to what it's all about though!

No Northern intro compilation would be complete without the Steinways " You've been leading me on" amongst a zillion others!

Ladies and gentlemen I give you - Bobby Taylor, one of the most under-rated voices from the past. All most certainly overshadowed by the big guns at Motown, but definitely one of my favourite vocalists. "Does your mama know about me" has the most plaintive lyrics, you could almost cry! The web suggests he played a gig in the UK in 2006 - is this correct?

£7375 with one day to go. Who is going to get this for the price of a brand new Seat Ibiza 4door?

Winnie, I was using quality in it's broadest sense, whether it be by reference to oldies or any other genre. A night will be considered successful by the punters if it gives them what they want and keeps them coming back for more. But as you know repetition of "quality" sounds in some cases will be not be sufficient and therefore the quality issue becomes one of ingenuity on behalf of the promoter/DJ. No doubting Kev Roberts brings in large crowds, though I hesitate to believe that this would be sustainable over an extended period, as history has shown us. I would not knock the format as it's a vacuous argument to suggest it can play no part on the current scene, which it clearly does, but whether or not it provides any answers to the question of the direction of the scene, is another issue altogether and one which continues to be debated frequently, here.

With regard to the number of venues, it seems logical that eventually market forces will dictate how many are active at any one time in any given area, whether or not promoters speak to each in order to avoid clashes. Those that consistently get good numbers will survive, those that, for what ever reason, do not get the numbers in will simply fade away, and there will be a natural re-alignment of the dynamic that exists between punter and promoter.More of something is not always a good thing - quality will surely be the over-riding factor. And if anyone believes that it is difficult for DJ's to play a consistenly varied set, look at the playlist posted by me from this weekends Solar Radio show with Danny Everard. You tell me you wouldn't have been happy to hear that lot at a venue, and this from a man who hasn't DJ'ed for 15 years!

Full track listing as follows : Yvonne Baker - "I can't change" Monticellos - "Don't hold back" Big Dee Irwin - "You satisfy my needs" Jo Ann Garett - "A whole new plan" Majestics - "Strange world" Freddie Butler - "I told you so" Four Arts - "Who do you think you are" Patti Austin - "I wanna be loved" Timmi Yuro - "It'll never be over for me" Sherry and the Inverts - "I was made to love you" Star Treks - "Gonna need magic" Kurt Harris - "Emperor of my babys heart" Ameta Lattimore - "These memories" Milton Parker - "Women like it harder" Martha and the Vandellas - "No one there" Kittens - "Hey operator" Velvet Satins - "Nothing can compare to you" Eddie Wilson - "Toast to the lady" Gracie Darnell - "The bad guys" Fabulous Moonlighters - "For granted" Ivorys - "Please stay" Tommy Hunt - "New neighbourhood" Minnie Jones - "Shadows of a memory" Honey and the Bees - "Why do you hurt the one who loves you Zena Foster - "Make it up" Erma Franklin - Abracadabra" Towana and Total Destruction - "Wear your natural baby" Bobby McClure - "You bring out the love in me" Grover Mitchell - "What hurts" Carl Henderson - "That girl" Ellusions - "You don't have to leave" Inverts - "Time will change" Dena Barnes "Who am I" Almeta Lattimore, a truely momentous piece of music, for me was the stand out track amongst a superb set. Congrats all round to Danny and Mark.

So sad and so young. I have an LP somewhere of Levert with "Pop, pop, pop etc" on it and if I remember rightly a few other ballads. Favourite track is "I'm still" which when originally played by Richard Searling possibly from a tape, was referred to as being by the O'Jays presumably as Richard believed the lead vocal was that of Eddie Levert.

Stuff on Imperial does it for me but "I dig your act" has a perfect dance tempo in my opinion. 40 years or so of output is a testement to their greatness.So sad to hear of the death of Gerald Levert - will post something on the other post.

Mik, certainly not a ramble - very informative and interesting understanding of the different styles etc. Cheers.

I kinda guessed that these artists would feature as "classics" - Question is are these the type of artists that would be played at an R & B night - Hard as Nails etc

You know how we refer to a lot of Northern as "classics" - list would run into '000s but would generally include the usual suspects (often by reference to the heady days of the era's in which they were discovered) Do the R & B crowd refer to tracks from that genre in the same manner? Seems logical to believe that they would and if so what would be included? Curious as I would like to understand that which is specifically labelled as R & B within the scene as opposed to something else and then perhaps try to listen accordingly. As always, apologies if this has been done before.

--> QUOTE(mark.b @ Nov 10 2006, 11:29 AM) link hi jaco i think rod still has some back copies left check his site out voices from the shadows mark Cheers - should have thought of that in the first place - some are not available but will get those that are plus current mags,

Oops! Just thought - photo-copies would probably be a breach of some form or other. Ignore that part

Anybody got any copies they would like to part with. I used to have most of them, but you know how it goes, you get rid of stuff because you think you've lost interest, only to find out that the interest didn't take much to be re-kindled and now you regret finding space for those now unwanted "Q" magazines. Oh hum. Photo-copies ok?

Crusaders went for $225 in April of this year on ebay

$1542 for Master Four

Hows about : Soulville USA - The story of Stax Records by Rob Bowman Guitars, Bars and Motown Superstars by Dennis Coffey Chicago Soul (Music in American Life) by Robert Pruter A house on fire - The rise and fall of Philadelphia Soul by John Jackson. Certain that these are still available via Amazon

Tone, so difficult to go against DR as the main Temps voice, but undoubtedly Paul William's contribution should not be underestimated and you know, you are probably right in believing that he is overshadowed in some ways .We have certainly have been blessed in being able to enjoy their timeless classics, whoevers on lead.