Sweeney

I've been to too many nights where the DJs use their set as an opportunity to enter into a pissing contest with other DJs. As someone said - I've even been to nights where the DJ has had a pre-defined set list and has stuck to it even in the face of empty floors and bored punters. They either didn't want to adapt, or couldn't adapt to the wants of the assembled crowd. Spinning stupidly rare but tedious records for your own entertainment isn't in my opinion what a progressive scene is about. By no means am I saying that boundaries shouldn't be pushed or that new things shouldn't be tried. Those are the sort of nights I'd be more interested in attending - not nights where the same old DJs spin essentially the same insanely in-demand and expensive discs. There's no fun in that as far as I'm concerned. All you need is deep pockets, a herd mentality and a healthy dose of self-obsession. I started out on the rare soul scene at a time where new and interesting things were being tried, and indeed new releases were still being actively played and it should never be about the DJ's ego - it should be about a DJ using the best music that's ever been made to entertain those who are good enough to come and support him or her.

Thanks Dan.

Was it an original 60s pressing? or a later pressing using original metalwork?

How are we perceived by our peers? I shudder to think and any further contemplation would drive me to drink!

Hi Rachel I posted this thread back in August last year - the link to the E-Bay auction has gone, but I recall that it had sold for about £110. Lunacy! /index.p...topic=14579&hl=

Big headline in next Sunday's Chipwrappers: "Paper Refuses Ink" Now that would be a turn-up!

Doesn't this just sum up all that is fantastic and beautiful about this thing of ours?

OK - winner gets a single copy of Fascinating Girl - loser gets a fifty count box of it I'll get my coat...

If you're taking requests - how about a Fascinating Girl?

It's not bad at all - but I'm of the opinion that once Darrell Banks did a song it stayed done! I think it's one of those songs that was so well written that it's difficult to do a bad version, but I guess I'll probably be proved wrong on this! Given the fact that this seems to sell for far more than DB's version on a value for money basis alone , I'll stick with DB.

"Sanity" is a very relative term in the context of Rare Soul . It's interesting to look at a site like Popsike to see the arbitrary pricing of certain popular items that have sold on E-Bay. Even looking at say, the prices realised over a period of time is an eye opener - there doesn't seem to be a fixed trend either way. Maybe it's down to imponderables like the finishing times of individual auctions etc. There's no definitive answer to the question – I seem to be able to get things I want for less than you see them listed for by dedicated online Record Dealers - but I tend to buy stuff that's not popular or in demand it would seem! On the other hand I'm constantly surprised at the prices that cheapies I bought years ago are selling for these days. The Deep Soul scene has definitely suffered in the last few years IMHO, but I think that was always destined to happen as it doesn't really have the same sort of support network the Rare/Northern Scene does in terms of turning up new and interesting stuff or even the reactivation of older favourites. Maybe all those involved realised they had everything they wanted and lost interest?

Please Take Me Back This Heart is Haunted

Lee Jones - The Masqueraders J Blackfoot - The Soul Children

E-Bay is becoming like a real Wild West Frontier town. There's too many conmen and charlatans. I had some surreal experiences when putting some things up for sale, and recently (last 18 months or so) the records I've been getting from the states have tended to be been seriously over-graded. Probably because more civilians are selling their dad's old records and don't understand grading properly. This isn't helped by the fact that there's no real universally agreed upon grading system. Maybe E-bay need to impose a system on sellers that leaves no doubt about condition? Obviously it wouldn't be foolproof, but it should cut out a lot of quibbling. Not sure how you'd resolve the "I tried to iron it flat" category. Add that to the general idiots who don't understand the concept of an auction, and the fact that both buyers and sellers are increasingly pissed off by Ebay's bizarre customer services and Paypal's ridiculously fascist and arbitrary policies. On top of ALL that - the last couple of things I've bought from the States have been jumped on by Customs - the only two occasions this has happened in 8 or so years - making it a less attractive proposition anyway. Bah Humbug!

The Soul Children - Friction - not a bad track on it. Otis Clay - The Only Way Is Up - likewise.

Brooks Brothers is an ultra-conservative brand favoured by the American Patrician classes who are not particularly known for being hip or groovy. It's unlikely that one would find much of interest, unless you were a 75 year old Rhode Island Judge! However their supima cotton oxford button-through shirts are a work of art. Sort of like a pair of British bench grade shoes - beautiful in their craftsmanship and restraint. Just right in their own sort of quiet way. Stuart. I believe M&S sold BB in 2001. Why they ever bought it in the first place is anyone's guess really. I'm not sure the new owners know what to do with it either.

Some of us like dull! Seriously, I was always in awe of Brooks Brothers clothing as a young lad. I used to have a very beautiful Brooks Brothers cashmere and wool overcoat that I wore to school. Cost about £12. When I finally went to New York it was one of the first places I went to. Couldn't believe it! It was like entering the promised land! I got a few of their button throughs that have lasted 12 years and still look like new - try that with a Sherman. Ben Sherman shirts are far worse than they were in the 70s/80s and believe me - it's some achievement as they were pretty poor then. You used to be able to get very beautiful second-hand American clothes from Flip in London. It was also far more stylish and cheaper than buying the mod-oriented rubbish that was about in the late 70s / early 80s.

Am I right in thinking that E-Bay takes commission on the final purchase price rather than the total price inc. postage? Therefore it's a slightly cheeky way of making some extra money. If the postage prices are clearly displayed, then it's really down to whether or not you are getting a good overall deal on the record, all factors taken into account. I bought a copy of Brown Sugar's Game is Over for $5.50 on GEMM and the guy actually apologized for charging $6 p&p! I obviously told him not to worry! I've sold a few things on E-Bay, but the overall effort involved in writing descriptions, answering tedious questions from idiots, packing, printing labels and taking the bloody things to the Post Office means that I'd be wary of doing it again. Especially when some of the morons think that it's a regular shop and you can return things simply because you don't like them (but that's another story).

Know what you mean Heikki - the amount of times I've played this and though the same!

Maybe it's one of those RCA records that's much harder on issue than demo? I sold a demo on E-bay last year for £110 and there was no shortage of bidders indicating that it's one of those records that people want. I agree, it's a relatively common record, but when did that ever stop people on the rare soul scene paying silly money?

But... it's Anita Bloody Harris!!! Am I missing something? Are people going to be on the lookout for unreleased John Noakes acetates, or Lesley Judd demos? Maybe Peter Purves is a secret soul man and cut some wicked modern sides? This is rank white British pop nonsense - surely it has no place on a (theoretically) Black American rare soul scene? Aren't there enough brilliant forgotten /semi-known SOUL records that need airing before artefacts such as this are regarded as being credible?

Dear mother of god! What fresh lunacy is this? Fascinating Girl is bad enough, but to take one of the finest records ever made and do this to it is a crime of the highest order. What WERE they thinking?

I love 'Heaven at Once' from the Wild and Peaceful LP

What Have I Done (to Make You Mad) - Linda Jones (Loma) Mirror Mirror on the Wall - The Saints (Revue) and strangely enough, John Edward's unreleased version of Danny Boy on the Kent CD.

It's a thin line, Baz. Possibly my main issue with George is that if it was a commonplace record no-one would be that bothered. It's obscurity has given it a veneer of respectability it doesn't really deserve in my humble opinion. At least it seems to be a record that people feel passionately about! You're right about singing from the heart, though, I'd rather hear an amateur soulful performance from someone giving it their all, like say, Shirley Edwards on 'Dream My Heart' or even Joanie Sommers on 'Don't Pity Me' than someone who is talented but couldn't give a damn. I'll put the cat among the pigeons here and say for example, someone like Aretha Franklin who is probably the finest technical singer I've ever heard, but you have to question her commitment on the secular stuff she's done. I've got a live gospel album she recorded when she was 14 and it would make you weep such is the raw power and emotion on display - the mass market stuff is (personally speaking) tame and non-commital by comparison. At least George gave it a shot, I suppose. Hopefully he never gave up the day job.