Seano

It's got that secret quality that ticks the boxes for us, but I agree about the messy middle which makes me know that if it was on in the car and I was giving a work friend a lift or something, I'd just know they'd be listening and thinking "WTF??"! Northern Soul. The Marmite of the music world.

Finally downloaded the tracks yesterday evening despite getting email to confirm order and with links a few days earlier. Still definitely prefer the B sides on all of them, but all 6 tracks are great.

Nice link Mike

I didn't realise but I think this is the edited version of a longer show to be shown maybe Friday. They're doing Love Train right now.

They're going to perform Love Train towards the end of the show, and for some reason they've just done a short take on People Get Ready, with Jools on piano.

Yep, Jools has just announced them, but not playing just yet.

Thanks for that, just had a text from a mate about it too.

Just got my copy of the double CD from Amazon in today's post. Straight to Mel Britt to get going and now listening through to the rest of CD2. Package is good, 28 page booklet with a nice balance of text and stills. Must admit that I'm a sucker for the Kent style of interspersed record scans and artist photos, coupled with posters etc, but this package works well in this style with the focus being the film. Looking forward to watching the bonus DVD and reading the booklet.

Think I was lucky with going to Northside Records when over there in August. Found it via the Diggin Melbourne guide on the Record Store Day website. https://digginmelbourne.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/digginmelbourne-2014-web.pdf Got a couple of singles but nothing great, but while I was browsing my wife picked up a CD 'The Soul of Melbourne' from 2012, which has a very varied selection some of which grab you early on and others grow on you. Fitzroy area itself seems pretty cool, bit like Williamsburg in Brooklyn, but we didn't get much time there.

Fantastic Ian. Despite us ordering the DVD, I'd bet most of us want to see it at a cinema as well - we really need the list of where and when it's going to be screened ASAP!

Love all the 2nd sides, and it's not as if the top sides are dodgy. On order.

Great thread. It's a really interesting fine line between the examples here, and the finest productions, with superb vocals and backing, great lyrics etc. I suspect we all know the latter when we hear them, and many of them are stand-out top 500 type tracks, but at the same time, surely we all adore the straight-up honesty of some absolutely brilliant recordings that veer towards the ones posted here? I think the soul records we listen to have, at least mostly, the virtue of being the best the performers were able to provide, whereas I often despair at some of the current indie/pop singer/songwriters who may be appalling in both capacities yet reach the masses simply because they have the right 'look and feel'. I often find myself listening to stuff in the car that I'm loving and can't help thinking that there's barely 10% of it which I'd feel comfortable having non-soulie friends hearing, as I know they'd just think it was rubbish, and wouldn't perceive the soulful quality and content. But that's part of the attraction too, sharing that sense of 'getting something' that passes a lot of other people by. Not elitism for the sake of it, just that feeling that you and a bunch of like minded people get the point.

Fair point, just a shame that the wider public get fed the same diet of it all having stopped developing when Wigan closed.

Just watched it on YouTube. Don't recall a single mention of Stafford, Keele, 100 Club, or any of the numerous current and past modest soul clubs that have been running at various times throughout this last 30 years. I'm sure we could all add in plenty more honourable mentions, Lee Manor, Thorne etc, it would be great to have a programme that takes the best of the past (I'm perfectly happy with Wigan and feel very nostalgic about it), but that recognises the mix of past soulies and the new and hopefully growing young crowd and DJs.

Sounds really worthwhile and a project with clear appeal within the scene; hopefully the content and quality will also give it wider appeal just as a work that documents the continuing development of this genre for people who are simply interested in music in general and/or social history. Look forward to adding it to my Amazon wish list!

Look for Academy Recorfs in Brooklyn. Bedford-Stuyvesant. A1 in Rast Village may still be around,, and there was an interesting one called Tropicalia in Furs just off 2nd Avenue in East Village, round about 4th Street, maybe 5th, on the East side of the avenue.

The Prelude for "I'm so glad" on the album is well worth a listen too.

Sekonda - 'Sponsors the favourite Motown song' - I could hear a bit of music behind the short clip, but it didn't seem to be Edwin Starr.

Pretty disappointed to see a few celebs popping up - what's the point? And the initial blurb seemed to celebrate their absence! Still, good to see quite a few key people who were part of it being featured.

Write up in Radio Times "It's a popumentary as rewarding as anything you'll see on BBC4. The focus is on the people who made the records you love, and how they did it. Pointless celebs doling out fake memories are absent." Sounds good enough to me.

Got my copy in a soul pack , can't remember whether it was 70's or 80's but it came in a paper cover of IRDA, with the text in a strip over the lower right saying "Distributed by International Record Distributing Associates" based in Nashville. You can see in this photo that at the time I wasn't very precious about the pristine paper sleeve but I did like the record and used to put it on tape swops etc.

Hope the venues all get announced with ample notice, be good to get packed houses and great audience atmosphere. Well done Elaine and all involved to have stuck to this so doggedly.

His autobiography is a great read; that man had a life. https://youtu.be/INwaF8MwfVQ

When people ask "who" rather than "what" music you're into, Bobby's my man.