Seano

Fair comments both, I stand corrected! Reading Robb's correction I still thought it an off the wall lyric, but with Rodd's additional explanation of what a 'rash' meant then it's not so weird after all! Will dig out a few other lyrics if I can remember the tracks, and fingers crossed they'll be accurate! best Sean

And one I picked up today at the Record Fair in town, Sisters Love, 'Mr Fix-It Man' - "It's like being married to the meat man, and him only bringing home the balls"!

Contours, 'First I Look at the Purse' - "She can be quivering with a rash, long as she got some cash"(right at the end of the track).

Recorded it and hoping to watch it later. Great that documentaries of this sort get made and aired.

Thanks for the tip; watched Cadillac Records last week on BBC4, but from the comments above I think this will be much better.

Thanks for posting that Ady. Bridget used to edit our local paper in Banbury and was always supportive of the local soul scene. Good review. Personally I'm really looking forwards to seeing the film.

The only record I've got by him came in a soul pack "I'm at the Crossroad" - cracking southern flavour crossover:

It was a good film.

This bit is a quote from Ian, sorry but don't know why it changed: Whichever way you look at it, it's a very interesting phenomenon. The Brits thing was simply the cream on the top of a perfectly executed campaign which has resulted in the biggest selling international single of 2014. The exciting thing to me, is that there's still clearly a huge international audience for up-tempo Northern Soul-like music. Amy Winehouse, Duffy and now Pharrell Williams have all demonstrated that millions of people love this sound. So clearly there's a huge and enthusiastic international audience out there and hopefully from this a new fan-base will emerge and keep the music going. I've been listening, collecting and releasing this music for the last 50 years and, right now, I feel that this is one of those points where Northern Soul will catch the zeitgeist and attract a lot of new young fresh disciples at the very point when the scene needs a new generation to adopt it. In many ways this has simply proved the continuing appeal of the scene - genuine young Northern Soul dancers in the climax of the Brits, Pharrell Williams giving respect to Northern Soul to an audience of millions and a world-class film about Northern Soul about to launch. Arguably, for the first time in 38 years, Northern Soul will be setting the media agenda again and I think that's a good thing for the future of the scene. Ian D I agree Ian. There can't be many of us who got into it via the direct hit of seriously rare full on Soul 45s that you had to travel to hear. My route was everyday Motown and a thin stream of slightly more obscure tracks that our local dancehall (The Winter Gardens) played. A handful of older people (they must have been at least 17!) were already into the sound and sometimes brought records along that the DJ, Bob Boot, would play. Slowly but surely I got drawn in along with a few others. I've been into it ever since, and through some brilliant people, adventurous DJs and general record collecting I've widened my tastes and get great pleasure from the music. It may not have been the same route for everyone, but I think it's a fairly normal one and if Levanna's YouTube videos are anything to go by, she and a lot of the young people getting into the scene are already well on the way with that journey. Sean

Got this in a soul pack years back. Both sides are good. Can't recall if it was in the '70s or '80s, might have been a Soul Bowl pack, they tended to be the most interesting.

Long thread and I can't remember who said something about young people using modern tools and social media but good point. Lev and the other dancers were all taking an amazing opportunity to be involved in an event like this. I didn't watch it 'cos I wasn't interested but I can still appreciate the buzz of just being there and even being on stage. i think Lev's YouTube clips are a creative bit of fun and if we can't enjoy the fact that a younger generation are getting into Northern then god help us. Sure we can all be snobby and try to assert how many years we've been into the music but there's not going to be anyone who just appeared on the scene fully formed out of nowhere. We all began somewhere, we all learnt on the way, and hopefully we can all keep learning. For an event like The Brits it's not surprising that the dancers were styled with a fairly uniform set of clothes, and that they were choreographed as well. Would have been nice to see Lev and the others free to dress as they choose but then the show wasn't aimed at us was it?

Mine came from the same loft and the same friend.

Really atmospheric listening to that tape, many thanks for posting it! Along with the dancing, I remember that the synchronised patterns of clapping stunned me when I began to visit. I did take a tape recorder up twice. The only one I've still got was the 2nd Oldies Anniversary on 3.2.78. It's a C120 so dodgy quality, but at some point I'll try and copy it to digital and post it. Sadly the other tape, which was a normal nighter, got stolen back in the early 80's when I lived in a flat in Deptford. I'd left it in the music centre (remember them?), along with a Millie Jackson 'House for Sale' on the record deck, and the sods took the whole thing. I managed to talk up the value of the single but the insurance firm steadfastly refused to see the tape as having any value at all. Same thing happened in the late 90's when my wallet was stolen at work and the two things I most regretted losing were my Wigan membership card and one for the 6Ts Rhythm and Soul Club. Got the value of the wallet and cash that was in it, but nothing at all for the memories.

This was also put out on the Heavenly Jukebox label, as the B side to a track called 'Devilish': https://www.discogs.com/Various-Devilish/release/1389542 I picked up a fairly rough looking copy for 30p in Music and Video Exchange in 2010. It plays fine and seems to be the normal version (ie not the hand clapping). No idea if I've ever even heard the clapping version before, I certainly didn't notice that it was different if I have heard it somewhere. I was also visiting a friend in Epsom some years back and got a copy of the Expansion LP 'Jeffree, Love Don't Come No Stronger' that came out in 2003. Epsom Record Centre, £2. The cover adds 'The Best of Jeffree (aka Jeff Perry). Interesting sleeve notes excerpts of an article that came out in 'In The Basement'. Lots of good tracks on the album the version of 'Love Don't Come No Stronger' is again the non-handclap one. Interestingly to me, it has 'Mr Fix-It' on the album too, with a longer version (4.08) than the one I have on an MCA demo which runs for 3.09.

Impressive, people! Sorry I can't add anything to the thread other than Happy New Year!

Brilliant track. Really strong lyrics. I can't remember where I got hold of this but it was always one I'd put on the old tape swops in the 80's. One that got me interested in the Sussex label.

Try Music and Goods Exchange on the main road in Notting Hill, soul 45s upstairs. And several shops down in Berwick Street including another branch of Music Exchange and Selectadisc. There's also one between Oxford Street and Soho called something like Beyond the Universe with 45s downstairs. Flashback records on Essex Road in Islington isn't bad either.

Vinyl porn. It had to be out there.

Four Tops 'Clip my wings' , but also David Ruffin 'I can't be hurt anymore'. Can't decide between them. Really like most of the others too but had heard them in various forms already (not the Stevie Wonder, but not so keen on that).

As others have said, really interesting thread. Most people posting seem to be very comfortable with the buying and selling, but I suspect there's a fair few of us who've built our collections via the old soul packs, junk shops, hunting around for a record shop whenever visiting a new town or going abroad, and not spending big money at all. Then we hang on to all of them, so the current value becomes somewhat academic, as most of us are highly unlikely to get out there on eBay, take a box along to the soul nights, or find other routes to sell some of them off. For me it's a mixture of not being well enough versed on current prices to know what I'm doing (goes for buying as well as selling), but also just loving the records themselves as objects as well as sounds. That said, none of us could have the scene we have if it wasn't for you guys out there making the effort to turn up and sell records, push new discoveries, and add that special edge to what makes a northern event as opposed to just another disco. I think the way it sounds like the big ticket items are holding value but the much larger number of less well known or less commonly played records being a struggle to sell echoes the art world - with massive prices for works that are hyped up and where a buzz of rarity develops around the sale, whilst the majority of people making artworks can't sell them and find it hard to even get opportunities to show them.

Just playing some through again and so far very pleased that all have played fine, including Temptations, Spinners and Four Tops. As others have mentioned, the surface of the Four Tops looks more grainy than the others in the set, and all of them attract the tiny white paper bits as if they've been specially treated to have high static somehow. But.... Have you checked the runout groove? 112637H1/A and 112637H2/A (Marvin Gaye / Spinners) 112638H1/A and 112638H2/A (Frank Wilson / Originals) 112639H1/A and 112639H2/A (Diana Ross / Stevie Wonder - but this one has an 'A' stamped over a 'B' at the end) 112640H1/A and 112640H2/A (Four Tops / Tammi Terrell) 112641H1/A and 112641H2/A (Barbara McNair / David Ruffin) 112642H1/A and 112642H2/A (Temptations / Kim Weston) 112643H1/A and 112643H2/A (Chris Clark / Isley Brothers) So the numbering clearly follows the set as in Richard's sleeve notes. But opposite those stamps in the runout, you see another number stamp that replicates the number printed under the large 45 on the label, followed by an 'A' or 'B'. And here's the bit that may be useful after all that chinstroker bumph - on the 'a' side it also has 'www.gzvinyl.com' which I presume is the company who actually pressed these records. If you don't get any joy from Amazon, Universal etc, maybe worth looking at them? As they might have said if these had been pressed back when they were recorded : "It's what's in the grooves that counts."

Mine was 00843, also lucky enough to be the full set, and on first listen through all fine too. Good luck to all with returns and suppliers, and I liked the comment in an earlier post "Universal, the record company that stole Christmas"!

I did finish the book and enjoyed it, but totally agree that the emphasis on drugs really grates. I guess if I'd written the book then people who were mates with those into drugs would have exactly the same criticisms, feeling that it ignored the drugs side. Certainly keen to see the film anyway.

Yes I always thought the lyric was dodgy too!

And then of course, there's Clarence Carter's 'Backdoor Santa' for volume two as well!