Zed1

I'll more than agree with your agreement, however many of these tracks were happily played before and after at other venues yet you'd think Wigan invented all of them reading some of the stuff posted on here. It seems a popular point scoring exercise with some on this board that as soon as anyone mentions the 'W' word you have to immediately pounce and state "Wigan went crap after Footsee, This England, Casino Classics, Mod invasion" (insert relevent excuse). Yes!, there were some crap tracks played, but these were a few small flies in a very large jar of fantastic ointment - just because you continued to go to Wigan after 77 it doesn't mean you're some kind of knuckle dragging neanderthal who only went to Station Rd to dress up in comedy trousers and worship at the alter of Frank Wilson.

Agreed, it's all to easy to look back with hindsight and slag off these type tracks (which seems a popular passtime on this board) yet love them or loath them, they were part of the scene - and lets remember Wigan had no monopoly on crap records - it just makes an easier target, sadly.

Black Power To the People!....

And what "game" would that be, exactly?...

Richard 'Popcorn' Wylie

Some quality stuff on that list. DD Barnes for Eg was one of the best tracks played at Wigan IMHO Also loved the Pallbearers - proper 100mph dancer in it's day.

Agreed..... It's just 'Saturday Night Fever UK', ie Working class boy with shitty job goes to night club - meets girl - dances - takes drugs - gets beaten up.... I wonder if the real club goers of Brooklyn complained their scene was never like the film?.......

Wigan, circa late 76 early 77....... Think it was James Coit - Black Power.

CW was IMHO the best record ever to be played at Wigan, but are 'Definative' and 'Best' the same thing?..... Station Rd was about the 100mph track which always had the instro' break around 3/4's in for the acrobatics and spins, so lots more tracks which were arguably more popular could be said to be The definative record. Intersting thread though as FW never was/is the Wigan 'anthem' certain people would have you believe....

Always loved 'Let me stand next to your fire', would have made a fantastic 100mph track for the 70's nighters. https://www.youtube.c...h?v=EM-ubvZfEfo

Must have been al those slimming pills, eh?.........

.............and if it's a rare Soul nite (by way of balance) Set off for the venue in plenty of time in case your 5 speed racer gets a puncture en-route - not forgetting to pack your flask of bovril and egg&cress sandwiches in your satchel, remember to wear your bobble hat as mummy wouldn't want you to catch a chill now, would she. Upon arrival at said venue make sure your vinyl is available for inspection by the throbbing crowd of 23 in case they wish to check every record with their magnifying glasses. Always best to start with a cheap £100 record before working up to the big 4 figure number (don't forget to tell everyone what every track is worth - it's matrix number and the exact shade of the labels colour). always good to throw in an amusing tale about your latest buy from America and how you could sell it on ebay for £3.67 more than you paid for it - this will have 'em all in fits of laughter. Take no notice whatsoever of the large empty space in front of your decks and just play the records YOU want, remember you were chosen for the value of your vinyl collection - you are NOT a Jukebox!. After your spot, Pedal home, log onto SS event lookbacks and list your playlists for the evening, including the label, it's approx value on manships site and the exact colour of the Y-Fronts you were wearing when you bought it. Simples.

Nice picture, Mark - but whats John Terry got to do with this thread?.

YES!, I have an opinion, Russ...... I also have a sense of humour. I found Jaco's post (which I quoted) Funny as Fook, we've all (myself included) had a good laugh in the past at the expense of the baggies and handbagger crowd, so why not the rest of the scene?... And Yes, you're quite right Oldies only will kill the future of the scene, BUT they have their place along with the rare, underplayed and modern. To quote your own siggy, Russ "Lifes is short".....

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ here we go again, you're only allowed to take the piss out of handbaggers and the oldies crowd on here - anything else of course just isn't funny.. And who said I was an oldies only fan?....

Cont: ..........but remember nothing is as it seems, the ones wearing the long leather coats and jack boots this time are likely to be the baddies, they lurk unseen in the corner of half empty soul nights, huddled around their record boxes and flasks of bovril, carefully planning their next daring raid on 'Local Soul' to check for issues and vest tops. as we speak their black convertable 6 seater Mercedes staff car is winging it's way to a soul nite near you - it's wing mounted S/S flags fluttering in the breeze as Gruppenfuhrer Ovo and his officers sharpen their chins ready for the forthcoming raid. The doors of 'Local soul' burst open.... the music stops..... the lights go on... everyone turns to hear S/S Gruppenfuhrer Ovo anounce "WE ARE ZE VINYL POLICE, ZIS IZ A RAID..... FOR YOU ZE SOUL NITE IZ OVER - PLEASE PLACE ANY AND ALL NON ORIGINAL RECORDINGS ON ZE TABLE IN FRONT OF YOU!" as he says this his officers surround the club to prevent any DJ's escaping through the toilet window with their 2nd issue box under their arms. Further units of the VP turn up on their bicycles and arrest anyone in possession of a handbag or soul patch. The following months issue of 'Vinyl and Trainspotter monthly' contained the following report....... 'Officers of the Socialist Republic of Vinyl Police raided an illegal handbag and white sock venue last month and seized a large quantity of free CD's and several pressings..... sadly during this raid 2 Local DJ's were shot while trying to escape - next of kin have been informed.'

I don't think any of us need to be Werner Von Braun (The original 'Rocket scientist') to work out that for the music to continue after we're all tucked up in some home smelling of Germaline and urine, that it needs to be taken on by our 'Yoof' which means it needs to look a 'cool' scene to be involved in, ie an alternative to usual garbage that the MTV generation are subject too (exactly the same reasons that many of us got involved in the first place with the crap that we were fed on TOTP) The emphasis needs to be placed on a scene of like minded people going out and having a fookin good time listening and dancing to great music thats a little different than the norm', and not a scene thats solely inhabited by a bunch of chin stroking adanoid suffererers who's only interest is matrix numbers, Manships auction finishing prices and what format of plastic the music comes on........ After all, weren't we all young once?.

.................'till everyone's chin wears out.

They'd be mine as well...... Be nice to here Silvetti played out a little more, as well.

A tad ironic realy, as we could clearly learn a lot from them......

What about a sale of Modern soul nite memorabilla?. Genuine (blag) Prada handbag containing original (blag) Jimmy Choo 6" heels and an empty bottle of Blue WKD. Guaranteed to contain no dinosaur music ( all tracks guaranteed to be hugely over produced and no higher than 50bpm so as you won't spill your above bottle of blue WKD on the dancefloor. Caution, may contain traces of Channel No 5 (blag)

I'd go along with that, those that served their apprenticeship in the 70's niters tend to make the better dancers IMHO - although the acrobatitics should now be left to the 'yoof', frankly. having said that though it still amazes me the number of people who can't even perform the most basic of 2-step dances, I watch some people and think they must be listening to their ipod as they're clearly not dancing to the same track as the rest of us!. The above is also one of the reasons I've never been a fan of dance competitions down the years as invariably the winners are chosen on their gymnastic abilities and not on any substance or style to their basic dance. Must say though there are few finer sights than a GOOD NS dancer in full flow...... sadly though, I was never one of them!.

In many ways I envy you - you've got the chance to listen to circa 40 years of great music through fresh ears, ie unlike most of us you won't have all the ingrained prejudices that we all have about certain tracks, you can form your own opinion without some founder member of Saga telling you it's Old, new, overplayed, underplayed or 'shite', just because THEY think it is .... I can still remember being at Wigan the first time Sir Dickie played Cecil Washingtons 'I don't like to lose' and thinking 'what a fooking awesome track', these days however many tracks have me thinking 'On No, not again!'....... Enjoy the music, the dancing and the people, but whatever you do don't take any notice whatsoever of what the misserable old tw@ts on here, or the scene in general say when they start telling you whats good and whats not.... they're YOUR ears - you decide!.

More stuff along the lines of can't be a bad thing.....

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