Seano

A very evocative article, what an amazing achievement. Sadly my superficial frustration with the dance floor and pillars meant I only went once or twice, despite getting hold of a 6Ts membership early on (I think via Demob on Beak St?). I definitely need to get out more. But, even as someone who did nothing to support the club over all these years, can I at least say a huge thank you to all of you who have kept it alive and have fed such fantastic music into our lives via the Kent releases. Hope you all have a brilliant and well-deserved night next weekend!

Good plan!

Thanks Mal - more incentive to try and go back some time......

Thanks for all that - helpful to get a local perspective on the area. If we ever go back I'll certainly look up Neptoon and revisit Beat Street.

OK, been over now, and sadly only had time for one record shop - bought a 45 on Volt by the Bar Kays (Son of Shaft) more for the token fact of bringing a record back than any chance of spending time really enjoying going through the boxes. Beat Street records on West Hastings - great shop, happy to put the record aside while I moved on with my wife as she searched for lululemon yoga clothes shops. We came back later and picked up the record and the guy serving me was kind enough to even give me a used 45 mailer to protect it while I took it around and travelled back with it. I posted a few photos here on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/seanosullivan/ There was another record shop just down the road but it wasn't open (I think it was just called Vinyl), and a few others a little further afield, but we only had one day so I wasn't going to be able to add those in. But - if you are wandering around the city in that area, you might want to avoid crossing over in the direction of Chinatown along where West Hastings becomes East Hastings. We're all familiar with homeless people being on the streets throughout the UK I'm sure, but this area felt like you were walking step by step deeper into a film set from a George Romero film. People who were maybe on Spice or similar just frozen in standing or slumped positions, others carrying all that they could in any bags they had wandering along but often struggling to walk. Groups hanging around together in the back alleys between main streets as well as in a small park area and a flea market. Virtually every shop recess had one or several people sleeping there with all they had piled up around them, guys touting packs of cigarettes on corners, and the stench of urine pretty much everywhere. Wasted people (in every sense of the word). Compared to my normal experience back here, the very unexpected complete absence of any one person whatsoever approaching us for help, asking for change etc just added to how intensely weird it all felt.

That's frustrating to miss the anniversary party! Are you part of the people behind it? Best of luck with getting the Kimberlite artists over, or any others of course. Thanks for the link to the scooter rally event. Happy to just mooch around a few of the areas we've looked into and enjoy the visit. My wife is a yoga teacher so she's looking forward to seeing Lululemon stores in the city......

Thanks for the reply and recommendation. We'll have all day Sat 31st Aug and the morning of Sunday. Arrive Friday evening. I've seen stuff about Burning Hearts Soul Club (or something like that) but it doesn't look like they have an event on that weekend, do you know of anything that might be worth a look? Or maybe if any of the Kimberlite artists might be performing?

Looking forward to a trip to Canada and we'll have a couple of nights staying in Vancouver. Does anyone know if there are any soul nights, venues promoting live soul, or good shops to try and find some interesting vinyl?

"In UK and Irish Cinemas September 30 - For One Night - Further details to follow " Got the date in my diary - thanks for posting this!

Any idea when - and do you need to order from Timmion or are there UK suppliers who'll have it?

Definitely 'Talk of the Town' for me; I like the B side but despite a great start, for me it gets a bit rocky as it progresses (especially the repeated break around 2 minutes in).

I've just had this from a guy who works in NYC: "Academy in Williamsburg moved to the next neighborhood, Greenpoint, about six years ago. Oak Street near Franklin Street., they still have Manhattan stores on West 18th Street and East 12th Street. Manhattan."

Like the idea of a cloth patch - I never used to sew mine on but they're nice in their own right.

Sorry to hear that Richard; here's a photo with it:

Cheers Fish (?) - I've now bookmarked that site. I don't know if it's all copies bought from any supplier, but mine came with a little sticker, as did the last release I bought from Kimberlite. I'll upload a photo in a mo. (I'm just Sean by the way, but when I joined the site it wouldn't let me just use that so I just added the O from my surname and that was ok).

I got this back from Jeff at the label the I asked the other day: "All international orders were shipped on July 8 to approximately arrive in time for the July 19 official release date. Canada Post is reliable, but not easy to precisely pin down. I'm surprised to hear that someone's already recieved their copy, but yours should be there by friday. Please let us know if it's not in your hands by end-of-day on Monday the 22nd because its officially late at that time."

Direct from Kimberlite; I couldn't see that it was available via a UK site.

I was getting worried after this post - mine finally arrived today! Talk of the Town is an excellent side.

I do agree that the Bowie start sounds very like the Chandlers; and good point re the Drifters intro being like a slow version of the same.

Picked it up earlier from the sorting office and very happy with this. Nice tribute to Dave Godin of course too.

Damn - I was out and now have to pick it up from the sorting office tomorrow!

I know the tune, I've got a record by Fred Hughes (Oo wee baby I love you), and I knew I had a record with the title "Don't let me down". I assumed it was this cracker by Fred Hughes, but I was mistaken, and as some of you will have guessed; it's the Sandra Richardson 45 on Inter-Soul Records: This video, and one posted by John Manship, show the red label copy. Mine was in a soul pack and is an orange label. The other side, "Stay here with me" is also very good.

Sounds like a strong record, I particularly like the b-side. As it happens, I've been searching Lee Fields as I'm partway through reading 'Long Slow Train' , the book about the soul music of Sharon Jones & the Dap-JKings by Donald Brackett. I thought people might like this screenshot from a comment on the YouTube posting for the excellent Lee Fields track, 'Just can't win': Just in case that doesn't load properly, the text is "In fact I don't trust people that don't listen to soul music."

Arrived today - great tracks. A-side (Got to get home) seems to have a tiny glitch or two towards the last third or so of the record - needle doesn't jump, can't see any imperfections, I think it's my ears playing tricks on me!

Thanks for this - got an issue on order now. Both sides sound really strong, though I can see why they chose to push 'Talk of the town' as the A-side. Quality.