Zed1

This is my point though, Spot - the above are not 'MY' definitions, but the 'scenes' definitions and it's insistance on putting a label on everything and everybody....... It could be argued that it's all R&B - indeed 'Northern' itself has been described (rightly IMHO) as "Uptempo R&B dance Music" so if I prefer uptempo 60's R&B isn't that just the same as someone who prefers 60's oldies as the only real difference is the amount of airtime these records get/got.......... I love listening to the classic oldies - just not 'all' night, I'd prefer to hear these played alongside some of the lesser known tracks from those great 70's venues - what you might call the 'Bread and Butter' tracks that tend to be regarded as not surefire floor-fillers today, add to this a sprinkling of rare stuff (both new and 'New-to-me') and you've got IMHO a great night out..... it's quite a simple formula - but one that to many 'Across the Board' venues get wrong, after all isn't that the meaning of "Across the Board"? but yet again another wrongly named 'Label' the scene insists on using. What I realy dont get though is this "Why can't you move on" statement thats 'oft used by so many, just what exactly am I/We supposed to 'move on too' exactly?... Because I now have a preferance for the more underplayed stuff does this mean I've 'moved on' from classic oldies?, even though I always prefered these tracks anyway and given these are mostly 60's then realy I've only moved 'sideways' at best, or should I take the term 'Moved On' literally and now just be listening to the latest 2008 R&B tracks only? - which given some of this stuff that I've heard contains precious little 'Rythem' and no 'Blues' whatsoever - then you can happily stick me in a museum and call me Barney tomorrow..

Dam!, another 'Stereotype' I forgot about..... 'The Neanderthal' Neanderthal = Slack jawed, knuckle dragging yocal in period costume who's 'oft used phrases include "I norr what I likes and I don't likes this bloody modern rubbish - tha Knows" Sodding hard work keeping up with all this 'Soul scene' terminology..

Much of the problem IMHO is these all sweeping Stereotypes that people on the scene insist on pigeonholing certain people with, ie........ 'Dinosaur' = Baggy trousered, White socks clad 50 year old who only wants to listen to classic oldies. 'Handbagger' = Vodka swilling piss head who just wants to dance around in a short skirt and highheels to DJ Genitals and Ruby Andrews (and thats just the blokes ).. Rare Soul Fan = Anorak wearing trainspotter with a serious superiority complex. Now I have a 'preferance' for uptempo 60's R&B, but not top 500, I don't wish to go out and talk about record prices and matrix numbers, but want to have a few drinks with people I know listening to some stuff I know - some stuff I sort of know - and some stuff I don't know at all........ Now going by the above stereotypes this makes me a anorak wearing - pissed up T-Rex in High heels.....

Seem to recall Searling and/or Sam playing Alfie Davidson back then to shouts of "WTF is this new Modern Shite?"..... Now the calls seem to be "WTF is this overplayed Oldie Shite"....... Who says we haven't 'Moved On'?....

Even Worse......... https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gcqlbgNoT28

Another interview with Keb thats well worth a listen..... https://www.ducktape.ca/chitchat/kebdarge/index.html

Bobby Bland - These Hands (Small but mighty) if you work at a Hospital sperm bank.. Any Jackie Beavers Track for a Gynaecolgist..

Got sent this the other day - massive circa 78/79.. https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QQnkGJevCzk# And this (covered as 'The Micheles' IIRC).... https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gTOtsyqzsC8 Talk about 'Long time - No hear'.....

Jades - Where it's at - On the first beat Sapphires - Gotta have your love - 1 1/2 seconds in Joe Tex - You better believe it Baby - 2 seconds

Thanks Malc........ I understand PO'G was a regular for very nearly a month so would have been surprised if he didn't have an opinion on this...

Did he mention what year Wigan "went crap" for him, Malc..

Forgotten just how good this is....... https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5TDcq5uuqZ8#

Did see your other thread TBH but didn't reply for similar reasons ...... Much depends on what your take (or indeed the promoters/DJ's take) on a "Nostalgia night" is?, ie the tracks you've listed are not excactly floor fillers at most Top 100 nights - they would proberbly fit in more with perhaps an 'Underplayed night' even though you could still call them "Nostalgia", which was sort of the point I was making, an overplayed oldie and an underplayed 60's track are still 'Nostalgia' as such, yet they are viewed VERY differently to many on here... Interestingly I went to my 'local' night last night which describes itself as 'Across the board' which does-to some smack of Top 100/Nostalgia etc, yet I heard Paul Newmans 'Ain't you got a Heart', The Shalamars 'Stop and Take a look at yourself', Florence Devore 'Kiss me Now' and even my fave Cecil Washington track (and No!, I didn't request it ) add to this a few of the tracks listed on this thread and of course the more 'popular' stuff ie DJ Genitals, Neo and the usual Classic oldies etc, and you've got perhaps a 'truely' Across the board night - yet if one of the Jocks listed the plays on here it would doubtless be deemed a Dinosaur/Handbag night by some...... hence perhaps why they don't bother.. I do think though that there would be scope for perhaps a quarterly night somewhere which concentrates on the lesser well know stuff from the above Wigan years - the problem of course is if it would get the support given the VERY crowded venue lists most weekends..

It's interesting, and perhaps a little sad that if I decided to put on my own 'soul-nite' and placed a post on here saying the theme would be tracks like the above (and listed them) I'm sure the response would on the whole be very positive, yet...... If I did the same post but only saying that the theme would be tracks from the latter years of Wigan - the response would doubtless solicit replies like "Do we realy need another top 500/classic oldies nite?" - followed by lots of the usual stereotype "Dinosaur" "Baggy Trousers" and "Why can't you move on?" type comments. Whatever anyone says about Ian Levine he got the title of SWONS spot on....... The Strange world Of Northern Soul

Speaking purely as a punter I would agree with that.... Unless Every DJ from the said night lists every play for the whole evening then there is always a danger that just having one jocks playlist to work from 'could' give a false impression of what that night is 'mainly' about - which can work BOTH ways depending on why you went to that night in the first place - ie across the board or underplayed etc, etc. The resposibility IMHO should be down to the promoter to clearly state on the flyer/advert the type of night and genre/s to be played - and book DJ's to suit.

Thats a very fair point TBH Pete - but it just bring me back to my original point that even in a VERY crowded market there could be scope for what you might call a 'proper' Wigan Nite concentrating on the lesser know stuff that perhaps arn't deemed 'safe' enough at these bigger venues..

TBH thats a very good example - I remember reading the recent reveiw of Blackpool where everyone was moaning about 'Sking in the Snow' and 'The Snake' being played every hour........ it's much the feeling I got at Blackburn. What does seem a little odd to me though is why employ all the 'big' name jocks if you're going to limit their scope for plays? - after all you don't need to be a Soul Sam or RS to play Frank Wilson, indeed the very reason these Jocks ARE such 'big' names is because they didn't just play the same old-same old in the past, but instead put the time,effort and money into finding and playing some of the great tracks listed on this thread. Seems to me it's a bit like employing Lewis Hamilton to deliver your newspapers on a push bike..

Can't argue with that Andy - the place was heaving, so much so it took around an hour to get served at the bar.. Perhaps because of the size of the venue the 'numbers' thing becomes more important hence perhaps trying to appeal to a wider audience as possible - hence keeping the playlist on the 'safe' side. it's just I was maybe expecting a little more from such a great DJ.

Only to well aware of RS's playlists from this period as 'I Don't Like To Lose' is proberbly my all time fave 'Northern' Track, sadly however he did Jock at an early Casino Anniversary night I went to at the King Georges Hall in Blackburn - and after waiting for most of the evening for his spot in anticipation of hearing some of the great tracks listed on this thread - you can understand my 'slight' disappointment when his first track was...... yep you've guessed it 'Frank Wilson' followed by Dana Vallery - BOTH of which had been played in the previous spot (both these tracks were played at least 5 times each over the evening). to be fair he did throw a couple of 'his' decent tracks in, but on the whole the spot was little better than what you can buy on any Wigan Montage type CD in the bargain bucket at the local Tesco. I can only imagine he was perhaps 'under orders' of the promoters of this event to keep it 'simple' as the rest of the evenings music was in a very similar vein, still it was rather sad though to see one of the greatest ever jocks on the scene open his spot with 'Do I Love You' Oh, and needless to say I've never been back since.

Hardly the best Soul record ever - but as said it was of it's time and like many 100's of others I was clapping away to it at Wigan.... TBH I've only heard it played out a few times in the last 10 or so years, which is a bit of a shame as I'd be more than happy for it to substitute that god awful DJ Genitals track that gets murdered every week...

Eh-Up Neil... No contact from Greeny sadly (other than the bit of info I PM'd you with last time) Out of interest do you remember a Kim S from over your way?...

Just having a little peruse of the tracks posted in this thread and I think it's pretty clear that some fantastic records are sadly these days long forgotten. despite being a regular for most of the period in question one or two of the tracks are completely new 'to me' and given the current very broad church of the scene today it's unlikely I'll get the chance to hear some/all of them again (in one place anyway).. At the risk of sounding somewhat Nostalgic and incurring the usual "Why can't you move on" type comments, would there not be the scope/demand for a 'Proper' Wigan revival night somewhere - ie one that doesn't involve Shopping Centres or some sad faxcimile of what people 'think' were the popular tracks at Wigan?... I've been to a few supposed Wigan revival/anniversary type nights down the years and TBH was VERY disappointed by all of them, all I got was the usual Frank Wilson, MVP's, Sandi Sheldon played on the hour-Every hour, and 95% of the above tracks remained in their boxes - Now OK I know it's next to impossible to cram 8 years of music into the average 4-5 hour 'Soul nite', but given the clear interest shown in this thread would it not be beyond the realms of possibility that someone could pick up the torch as it were (no pun intended) and put on a 'Proper' Wigan Casino nite?.. Or should I perhaps just crawl back into my Cave again and listen to DJ Genitals for the 3000th time?........

A few tenuous (very ) ones..... Jonny Taylor - 'Hoove's in the night' Barbara Rudolph - 'I got a feeling (I ain't gonna get down this chimney)' Dramatics - 'Inky Dinky wang dang do (Yes I've been at the sherry again)' Holly St-James - 'Thats not Love' Tree-Lights - 'Lover' Eddie Holman - 'This will be a flight to December' The Carstairs - 'My Christmas Sack realy hurts me girl - can I empty it into your Stockings?' Lou Johnson - 'Unsatisfied.... with my presents' Eloise Laws ' Toy Factory' Odds and Ends - 'Apple-Peaches Mincepie' The Devonnes - 'I'm not gonna pick up my toys..... so there!!' And my all time fave....... Charlie Chalky and the Blueys - 'You can fook right off if you think you're parking that contraption on MY roof - you fat twot'

....... sorry Fella, just my poor attempt at a bit of reverse Humour Many people subscribe to the stereotype that Wigan was inhabited by a bunch of knuckle dragging Neandertals in Fancy dress who only ever went to Station Rd to worship at the alter that was Frank Wilson, even though the Casino played a big part in the early Modern scene - as is evident in the above playlists

Careful now Guys..... We don't want to ruin everyones preconcieived stereotypes by talking about "Wigan" and "Modern" in the same sentence........