Sweeney

What's to miss? One of the greatest Northern double-siders ever made in a super-rare format. If you think people are willing to pay the best part of a grand for the relatively common Timi Yuro on Liberty how much should this be worth?

Baby I'm Gonna Love You - phyllis hyman - desert moon 15490 refosoul

I bought 2 records on Jan 26th. Both sent airmail. Strangely enough both came from Oregon (not the same seller however). One arrived on 2nd Feb, other one 1st March. Both postmarked 26th Jan. Go figure!

We Live in the Ghetto - the four voices - voice 15204 refosoul

I love this! When I used to play it out I'd always get a couple of people sidling up to ask about it.

I quite like their version of "Boy from Crosstown"

I got mine off Ian in 1997 for about £15. I also find it hard to believe that in the interim he sold less than 75 copies. My copy's green and white, by the way.

You haven't stated where the record is located. I'll assume the USA. I recently bought a 45 from Craig Moerer via Ebay. He charged $5.50 for airmail. It came in a proper card 45 mailing envelope, so no excuses for adding on packaging costs as some do. If Craig can do it for that, then why can't others? I would have said no more than $6-7 tops. Maybe they're just ramping up postage costs because Ebay doesn't take a cut of postage, just the final auction price.

Lost Love - lee williams & the cymbals - carnival MORE Lee Williams!

Give it to Me - mike james kirkland - bryan

This Heart is Haunted - lee jones & the sounds of soul - amy

Speed Up - the impalas - capitol 14653 refosoul

Isn't listening to the record proof enough!

I'm not going to be an apologist for Ebay because a lot of what they do (Paypal for instance) is shocking, but if you were to ask a Record Dealer to sell stuff on your behalf I'm sure they would charge a higher percentage than Ebay. In terms of what you get it's not actually that bad compared to the likes of GEMM say, who charge (I believe) 15% and offer less exposure, and a far less slick operation. As a buyer, Ebay offers a pretty good user experience. As a seller, less so, but many would contend it's a necessary evil until something better comes along.

Just a personal opinion, but I'd tend to avoid sellers that did this. People tend to forget that Ebay is (or should be) an auction site, and that there's no 'fixed' price for goods, just what the market rightly or wrongly dictates. On the few items I've sold on Ebay I've fortunately managed to get more than market value, but I've subsequently seen the same records sell for less. Part of the fun in my opinion. And I would imagine that Ebay would wise up to this pretty sharpish, if they haven't already.

Is this Northern Soul? I'd say not. But if it's stupidly rare and costs an arm and a leg then I dare say there are those that would love to champion it as top Northern.

(1-2-3-4-5-6-7) Count the Days - inez & charlie foxx - dynamo 14523 refosoul

Unwanted Love - the montclairs - paula 14520 refosoul

I love the fact that artists like Kevin Rowland exist. Never predictable and certainly always controversial. Guaranteed to polarise opinion. I'm a massive Dexy's fan and personally believe that the three studio albums they did are among the finest of their period, if not the finest pop albums ever made. They were sensational live - I think their Old Vic shows in 1981 were the best live gigs I've ever seen. I'm still not sure about the man-dress period though...

Yes possibly I was being overly cynical - the musicians they interviewed seemed a pretty sincere bunch as it happens. Still no excuse for unleashing Elms though.

Not as bad as it could have been - some nice footage, but also some very lazy visual research. I expect more than stuff scanned/rostrumed straight out of books (the Terry Rawlings "Mod - A very British Phenomenon" for instance) Obviously having Elms pontificating about trouser circumference or other such twaddle ruins any programme, but hey, you can't have everything. Personally, although it was interesting to hear millionaire musicians talk about how they ripped off were influenced by Black musicians, I would have liked to have heard more from ordinary folk. All in all very watchable.

Can you imagine the Northern/Rare/Modern scene agreeing on the title let alone anything else? What is the 'real' story of soul music in Britain? Is there a definitive answer? I only know MY version of it which will be different to just about everyone else on this board. No more 'real' than for example, my mum who bought a Motown single in the late 60s because she heard it on the radio and liked it enough to buy it next time she was in Woolies. Maybe that's part of the attraction, it means so many different things to different people. It strikes me as slightly patronising (not you specifically Niall, this topic in general) that we believe that we have a divine right to 'Souliness' over others. Why is this? Is there some sort of scoring system based on miles travelled multiplied by the average cost of records owned divided by years on the scene? I think we should be told.

It Was a Very Good Year - frank sinatra - reprise 13995 refosoul Sebastian - Another Frank Sinatra track on Reprise that has a certain soulful quality.

If we're being perfectly honest, the Northern/Rare Soul scene is no more important than any of the other British-based scenes that have embraced Black American and Jamaican musical forms in the last 50 or so years. It could even be argued that a combination of the uncompromisingly insular and retrospective nature of the scene and the lack of a tangible musical legacy makes it less relevant to the development of the aforementioned musical forms in the UK than say, the British Reggae or Jazz Funk scenes. I looked at the Soul Britannia website and it certainly doesn't profess to be a definitive record of "our own history" in any case. It's more a UK-centric primer for people with an interest in music in the same way the sister series on Jazz and Folk were. I perceive it to be aimed at an "Observer Music Monthly" demographic - people who like the idea of obscure or interesting music, but aren't anal or daft enough to travel thousands of miles/pay ludicrous sums of money to listento/own the original artifacts in the same way that we might. Personally, I'll watch it with an open mind and will doubtless see things I haven't seen before and learn things I didn't know previously. Jazz Britannia and Folk Britannia opened my mind to things I'd previously discounted and I hope this will do the same. I suggest if you feel strongly about the alleged misrepresentation of the Northern/Rare Soul scene (which Soul Britannia doesn't profess to depict) you do what the enterprising people behind Soul Britannia did and pitch an idea to the BBC.

Little Girl Lost - the shepards - abc paramount 13680 refosoul I love this!