Seano

Just happened to notice that the label title on the actual record has Yvonne Baker's track as "I Need Love" instead of "You Need Love". Oops.

This one arrived today from North Broad Street:

What a fantastic read Dave, really interesting and I love the idea of hitting on a 'seam' and digging through. Love the photos too. I'm sure 'Tom' will be really chuffed that his late brother, 'Mal', is acknowledged and appreciated here as the source of a pretty stunning collection that will now live on beyond its home in that cellar.

Here's the link to the HMRC guide on this: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/selling-online-and-paying-taxes/selling-online-and-paying-taxes-information-sheet?&utm_source=t.co_hmrcgovuk&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=online_sellers It's not really all that helpful I feel. Lots of "If this is you then you may / may not be likely to be liable for tax"; no real clarity. But I got involved with a broad thread on Twitter (yeah, I know, X) about this and I'd be interested if people feel this is a fair summary of what the guidance seems to say: 1. If you are selling your personal possessions, and doing it as a one off thing, you're 'probably' not liable for tax. 2. If you buy things for the purpose of selling them, then you are probably liable for tax. 3. If the income (not profit; income) that you turn over by selling online exceeds £1,000, you 'may' be liable for tax. 4. If your online selling income is below £1,000, then you 'may' not be liable for tax. To be honest, I think it's all going to become part of the huge data set the government seem bent on developing. Palantir are taking on all of our NHS data (whole different topic of course). The government are legislating to have access to all the bank details for anyone receiving benefits of any kind, including pensions. All the bank details; not just how much you get via a specific benefit. And all of this online selling platform financial data could well be yet another area they feel they can use huge tech companies and/or AI to dig into and find unexpected uses for in the future, tax being just one of them.

Got this one back in the Summer:

Seems it is the same copy that Kenny Burrell played when Banbury Soul Club was held at the North Newington sports clubhouse. @Eddie Hubbard holding it in the photo from November 2005.

Always good to get a few soul related books at Christmas. I'd not seen @Johnny Corsair's article before but it looks like I've got a good read ahead here! I did already get myself the Elaine Constantine photo book about a month ago, but nice to get all the same.

Actually watched it all through; too good to stop!

Loving this; I'll have to finish listening through later but great work and the balance of visuals and your actual interview edited through works so well.

It took me a long time to get into Curtis Mayfield, but so worth it. One of my favourites is 'Oh So Beautiful' from his 'New World Order' album, recorded painstakingly after his terrible accident on stage. Mayfield was paralyzed from the neck down after lighting equipment fell on him during a live performance at Wingate Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, on August 13, 1990. Despite this, he continued his career as a recording artist, releasing his final album New World Order in 1996. (thanks Wikipedia).

I only knew of this artist from this one single: There's a very informative review of his work in an article about his death in yesterday's Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/dec/18/amp-fiddler-funk-musician-with-all-star-collaborations-dies-aged-65?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Strange that when The Carstairs was playing, in a section talking about a significant gay scene around Fire Island, somewhere to do with Long Island, the record wasn't actually referred to nor any connection with Ian Levine and how it influenced the dance scene over here. Impressive pair of programmes though; looking forward to seeing part 3.

Found this on the Guardian website: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/nov/27/jean-knight-soul-funk-singer-mr-big-stuff-dies-80

Just heard on BBC news that Jean Knight has passed away.

Valentine’s Day 2013 I’d gone to London with my wife, Christine, to see an exhibition, do a few shops, and meet up with our niece later on. Time went pretty well so I managed to squeeze in a trip to Music Exchange (the old Record and Tape Exchange), over in Notting Hill. Unusually, Christine came along, and good job she did, as I ended up being blue-lighted to A&E! We made our way up to the top floor, where the soul singles I was after were to be found. I was happily leafing through, picking the odd one out and stacking them on top of the row beside the ones I was going through. I think I’d found about 15 or so, but Chris was bored to tears by then and urging me to finish up to head off to meet our niece for a meal. So I went through the stack filtering out a few that I thought were maybe a bit more than I’d normally pay, so ended up with maybe a dozen. Job done, just grab my bag that was on the floor, pay, and go. Reaching down for my bag I jabbed my finger straight down onto a broken wooden box, and cracked off a fat splinter right under the nail of my forefinger. The pain was intense, and I was completely disorientated. Christine could see something was wrong and as there was blood coming out of my finger she came over and tried to see what was up. I got very dizzy and she asked the guy on the counter to come and help, and at first he got me sat on the window ledge. Chris could see that the window wasn’t in great condition and with being a couple of floors up she got him to help get me down onto the floor instead. At that point it seems I passed out, and Chris directed the guy to call an ambulance (yeah I know, a splinter, what can I say, I’ve got a low pain threshold!). The ambulance was there really promptly. The paramedics came up and went through the basics with me, and due to family history they wanted to check stuff like heart function etc. So they got me to my feet to head down to the ambulance, at which point I suddenly said “what about the records?” The guy from the counter was really flustered and just said “That’s fine, just take them, it’s ok.” Damn! Why did I filter those other ones out before this happened?! So, down in the ambulance, they had me laid down, talking through various things while wiring me up to check stuff. The one question I remember was about how painful it was, which I thought was excruciating. The woman asking me gave a helpful scale for a 1-10 answer. “If giving birth is around an 8 out of 10, how bad is your finger?” I had to grit my teeth and came up with something like a 4, and even then it was obvious that she felt that was way too high. Like I said, low pain threshold! Anyway, as they wanted to get more detailed checks done, along with thinking the wedge of wood in my finger needs to come out, they got Chris sat down, blue lights and siren on, and off we went to St Mary’s A&E. Although I could walk, they kept me on the trolley, pushed me past rows of people looking seriously in need of help themselves, and I was seen by a doctor just a few minutes later. He assessed the issue and began to tug at the splinter, then reassessed things based on my reaction and injected my finger with anaesthetic, thankfully. After several goes he did get what seemed to be all of it out, and I was discharged. We were too late to meet up for a meal so just went to the station and got the train home, with my hard-won stash of singles safe in my bag. As the weeks passed, I was convinced there was still something left, as my finger was a bit swollen and pussy. After maybe as much as a month, the last stubborn bit of splinter finally worked its way to a position where I was able to squeeze it out at last. So, what were the records in the end? Charles Mann, I Can Feel It (Probe) Don Covay, Bad Mouthing (Mercury) The Intruders, Cowboys to Girls (Gamble) Jerry Butler, A Brand New Me (Mercury, DJ) Willie Hutch, What You Gonna Do After The Party (Motown, DJ) Mavis Staples, Love Gone Bad, (Phono Records) Marc Evans, Reach Out For Love (TSOD)

Absolute star Chalky. Amazing to have this set to read through. I knew virtually nothing at the time of Rod Dearlove and so many other diehard pioneers of the documentation of the scene. Friends like @Eddie Hubbard put me onto some that I treasure, but I do think it's fair to say that without the dedication of both the DJs and those documenting the paper trail this music would have slipped into a quaint history. What we have instead is an evolving and varied scene that both feeds and learns from the music around us.

Brilliant thanks Chalky. I never got the magazine had one cassette tape with a tremendous selection of records from the mag. I always assumed a tape was issued with each one as by then I was also getting Love Music Review. Was that correct? I don't even know where I got the cassette from!

Interesting observation about our preference for the physical over digital. That's definitely true for me, enjoying leafing through a physical book or flicking through a selection of records. Even my move into the digital world of music kind of stalled with CDs. I loved tape swapping, CDs made track selection so much simpler, but I just didn't get into the streaming world at all. With books, I've never taken to digital versions. A while ago several of us on here went to a lot of trouble to scan entire issues of the soul fanzine, Shades of Soul. I still think that was worthwhile, a small contribution towards your topic of preserving and accessing soul music history in the written word. Nevertheless, I've not actually found myself going to the scanned version and reading through or jumping to read certain articles. I treat books in a similar way to records, it's fairly rare that I'd sell, pass on or give one away, unless I bought it blind and just didn't like it. I suspect it's fair to say that the more committed purists would see the music and the information as the vital elements and wouldn't even perceive the artificial barrier between the physical and the digital that limits someone like me. I think it might be like a higher plane, where the physical object may still be valued and enjoyed, but, to paraphrase the old Gordy streamline, "It's what's on the page that counts."

I actually learnt (in around 1974) via Eddie, Ian, and their other friends who went to the Winter Gardens in Banbury. But the story, probably for all of us in one way or another, goes a little way back. My mum and dad had been into jazz in their day, and I remember Dave Brubeck's 'Take 5' being on repeat enough to drum it into my head. But my mum was also keen on Motown, and would always be very positive about anything that came on the radio, or might even pop up on the telly I think. So I was primed to be more attuned to this music, and my older sister's love of rock music sort of helped me to identify more with this too, just to make a different mark maybe. Then of course, at about 14, you'd start going to youth clubs, and hearing Ska, Motown, Pop etc. I gravitated towards the lads dancing to music I already liked, but at that stage I was still happy to bang out some moves to anything with a rhythm that appealed, or simply a popular tune. Back then, beyond the youth clubs, even a small market town like Banbury not only had a big venue like the Winter Gardens, but smaller dance halls just round the corner like Wincotts. It was at the Winter Gardens that I first actually came across Northern Soul. Seeing lads like Eddie and Ian dancing with such energy and focus just blew me away. The other thing that was hugely attractive to me, wanting to dance, and feeling that I needed to find a girl I could persuade to dance with me, was that you just ignore all that and get up and dance! On your own! I loved the music (though I didn't have a clue what the records were at that point), I liked to dance, and I could just get out there when I felt like it! I quickly learnt that the Northern Soul boys at the Winter Gardens had trigger records that they would all head into the dance floor for and after a week or two (the dance nights were every Saturday) I'd venture in there as well. It seemed to me that they were all male at that time, but that's probably completely wrong. There was the challenge of negotiating areas of the dance floor clogged up with groups of girls and women dancing around their handbags, the random spills of beer and the like. But we'd all more or less gravitate towards the same area of dancefloor and just get on with it. The DJ (Bob Boot) was very open to guys like Eddie bringing new finds along and he'd play them in short bursts before flipping back to Motown, pop, funk and so on. With no YouTube, nothing at all before the Footsee performance appearing on mainstream TV, and no such thing as the Internet, you learnt the style of dance visually by being there, watching people who'd been travelling around a bit, and beginning to copy the moves and style. Similarly, with no Spotify, virtually nothing like cassette tapes, and not a lot of money, you learnt the music, the sounds, by being there, hearing at least some tracks that night, and by buying whatever 45s you could in discount racks, junk shops and soul packs, and then trashing them on your budget self-contained record player while you burned them into your sub-conscious and rehearsed your moves as best you could. And then, with friends you'd made in Banbury's Winter Gardens, you went to Wigan. Things change, life gets in the way, but those early days count, they mould you. It doesn't have to be the Winter Gardens, it doesn't have to be Wigan. To be honest, it doesn't even have to be Northern soul. It's just what you get into, what moves you, and what you can't shake off.

Sorry Dave, the only one I know with that title is by Nolan Chance: Can't see anything on YouTube by Ernest & the Porters by the way.

Nice collection there, I was never a buyer from the lists of the time, just soul packs and junk shops, but such great sounds that are still such rich examples of great soul music.

Wish I'd got a copy of that in one of the soul packs I bought back in the day!

Great stuff thanks Mike.

I'm immensely grateful that several family members chipped in and got me this box set for my birthday. I've been savouring listening through each of the 7 CDs one by one, mostly with gaps of at least a week. The whole project is a stunning tour de force. A really impressive combination of sleeve notes and visuals The series of CDs are helpfully grouped as Stax writers with their tracks that did get a release on Stax (1-3), Stax writers with their tracks that got released on other labels (4), and then, perhaps most interesting of all, uncut tracks (5-7). Deanie Parker and the team who worked with her did a superb job rescuing all of these recordings. This is going to get a lot of re-listening to, and it will be interesting to see if the tracks that stood out first time round remain favourites or how things might change with a few more plays through.