Seano

Alfie Davison 'Love is a serious business' for $1 in a sadly long gone record store, Wowsville, on 2nd Avenue. It was my first visit to New York, staying with my cousin in East Village. At the time there were plenty of other good 2nd hand record stores in the vicinity, but didn't find anything to match that. This was 2002.

I think it may have been an echo back to her performing that track with William Bell a year or two back on Jools' Hootenanny. Loved seeing/hearing him performing 'Happy' this time round!

You might also want to see if there are any Soul Nights on while you're there. Subway Soul appears to still be putting some on now and again: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Subway-Soul-Club/144013184117 The guys from Big City Records, Jared and Chris, used to run Lost and Found with The Honeydripper also DJing, but I can't find anything except references to their nights at Savalas in Brooklyn having sadly closed, so not sure if they are still around. SoulWolf earlier mentioned Good Records - some photos from several years back - click here.

Fascinating store to visit; I'd recommend the thin gloves and face mask that several 'diggers' were using when I went. I had some of that hand gel which helped a lot afterwards, but it's seriously grimy. Some photos from several years ago here.

A guy I used to know, Andy Vaughan, who came from Ince just outside of Wigan was a big Wigan Athletics fan, and along with co-creating and contributing to The Mudhutter Latics fanzine/website, he's started writing books. One of his first that he co-authored was Pies and Prejudice in 2005, and he doesn't have many kind words to say about Stuart Maconie, who some of you will know had a book published with that same title in 2007. Just googled him to check back and I've seen he has a new book out called Faded Lois Dreams.

What an amazing flip side, thanks for posting that! Sadly mine's a DJ copy, although given how good the track is that's fine anyway. But must admit that I like the Mighty Pope version too, having posted this on YouTube a few months back: "I've never heard this version before, always loved Jesse James, but this guy has a great voice and love the choppy piano and overall rhythm" As mentioned in the thread by Dave L, would be great to hear Jesse's preferred original take....

Finally got this as a Christmas present - one very happy chap! Wonderful quality in all respects, and really good review here too thanks Chalky, adding to the Kent notes rather than just repeating them.

Love that thought. Surely there has to be at least one out there?? Or is what we're all into entirely normal, and the minor disputes aired on this thread are a bit of shock to us all? Have a lovely Christmas Day!

OVO stands for an approach where the playlist is Original Vinyl Only. The reason I mentioned it was just that it struck me that there have been several mentions on this thread that all that matters is the music itself, and buying a record like this Darrell Banks is just a vanity project and a massive waste of money. For most of us it's probably academic anyway, but surely most if not all of us here 'get' the attraction of having the actual record, and can understand why having one that has such history as this one does would give you goose pimples? I'm nowhere near this level, being more into Soul packs back in the day, junk shops and cheapo sections in any record shop I might find, but it's still a bit of an buzz to find that a record you got for around 10p and kept because you liked it now goes for £40 or £50.

A bit wary of dragging this into a fascinating discussion, but the differing views over what constitutes original and re-issue just begs to at least have a passing reference to the OVO debate. If the person who bought this Stock London copy was to play it out, would the floor empty? After all, it's not a bootleg, and it would appear to have the seal of approval on being ultra-rare, but does the Revilot version call trumps?

That'll be worth tuning in for - always had a fondness for this!

Yep mine was stolen too. I used to keep it in my wallet along with my 6T's membership card. No idea what number the Wigan card was, but it was light blue. My wife had bought the wallet for me at a Mulberry sample sale, and although I was pretty angry to lose that, it was way worse to lose the membership cards. I had a hell of a job proving to the insurance company that the wallet was Mulberry. Eventually they accepted that it was worth quite a bit in terms of replacing it, but they wouldn't shift on valuing the cards as worthless. Sad world eh?

Mine arrived on Tuesday - just playing them through now. Really good package, discs look flawless, excellent sleeves and labels and the booklet is very well presented and makes a good read. The first 5 of the 10 singles have tracks by the same artist(s) on both sides with matching labels, then when you reach disc 6 you get different groups on each side: Satisfaction Unlimited "Why" with the Hot Wax label on the A side and The Jones Girls "Don't be sorry be careful" with the Music Merchant label on the flip. Similar pairing on disc 7 with 100 Proof Aged in Soul "Since you've been gone" on the Hot Wax label, and Barrino Brothers "I want to give you all the love you've been giving me" on Invictus. The set ends with the last 3 records back to the matched style of same artist and label on both sides. I think the 100 Proof track is probably the strongest, but all of them are interesting and good to have them out to enjoy.

In my early years of being into Northern I was taken by Shack up by Banbarra, hearing it on holiday with a friend down in Bournemouth in 1976.

Sounds like a good day all round.

Yep, and a new one is always welcome.

Cheers for that. It lists both programmes as New re BBC4 so worth a look. The first one is a documentary about the history of funk, with the second being a compilation of BBC archive performances. There's also Prince at 11pm but I'll just be watching the first two.

The Story of Funk: One Nation a under a Groove at 9pm, followed by Genius of Funk at 10pm.

B sides and junk shop finds were my main way of expanding my very limited collecting in the start. I still love going back over records, giving the other side a listen and realising that after all this time the track I wasn't so bothered about sounds so much better now!

Maybe this bus? https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Northern-Soul-Coaster-Soul-coaster-Motown-coaster-Tommy-Hunt-Wigan-Casino-/191165429565

Steve, many thanks for posting those scans. I used to get Blackbeat and I'm maybe one of those oblivious to the politics in the day. I enjoyed going to Stafford but didn't go that much, and was equally happy listening to modern and got a stream of brilliant tapes through tape swapping with Dave Hitch over the period. It was all great to me. Must say, Pete's letters and some of the replies make their side of the argument well for a bit, but then do get heavily personal - as we all tend to when we're passionate!

Just read the article - excellent stuff, thanks for posting this!

I got this in a soul pack, I think from Soul Bowl or maybe Black Grape, and always liked this side and used to put it on tape swaps. But as is so often the case with changing tastes, give the flip side a listen "Hey Baby" - really nice track and one that I do think could get played out too. Sadly I can't help with dating it or linking it to who played it, but if it was one of those Soul packs I think I went for them in the early 80's rather than some of the different suppliers in the mid/late 70s when I tended to get more pressings in the packs.

Good album put out in 2005 by Motown of 15 tracks all remixed by various people. My favourite was another Marvin Gaye track that I've always liked as an original but feel this worked exceptionally well with the remix too: Let's get it on