Lovemusic

"Have we gone full circle in northern soul"? how did it all start? With the music! Someone heard some amazing music as new releases back in the 60's (?) and told their friends about it, shared this discovery and began to look out for more music of this quality. Friend shared with friend and pretty soon there became an unofficial appreciation society that begat a scene. To distinguish themselves from the ordinary people they started to dress alike, talk alike and start their own soul nights because they weren't being catered for by anyone else. Over a period of time all this became cool and trendy, and a thing to aspire to. Not the music so much, but the scene, the lifestyle, the style of dancing, the dress and the slang together with the accessories:-badges, bags and boxes (record). What started out as the most important thing became less so, and what was less important became the dominant factor. So the clubs, the beat, the dress, the allnight dances and the collecting of records was now perhaps more important than the quality of the original ideal, the great music! I don't know if we have reached that cyclic point in time were we all can start afresh with the original reason for it's birth, the music, and throw out the bickering and hype, the them and us, the dinosaurs and modernists, the hip and the square, but i do feel that some have already started, just by asking these questions, and some have never lost sight of the importance of the music in the first place. So now more than ever let's "keep THE faith" and listen to all soul music with open ears, dance to all soul music with an open heart but only if it's geart soul music!

As a child of the early 70's i attended Wigan Casino because it was the only place to go to hear all these great records. I didn't really know about a scene as such until later. It was the music that drew me there. The earlier venues didn't mean anything to me either. I only found out about them from the older guys like Brian Rae. What drew me , like a moth to a lighthouse, was music that knocked spots off the top of the pops fodder, and stirred my soul with passion, and the like-minded people that would travel just to hear the music we loved. Fast forward 8yrs and, what was the Northern soul scene, had become the wigan casino scene, and i wanted to get back to the music, to rare soul and other great soul music. I remenber i was at an all nighter at maxims in between the last few casino final nights and mike shaft was interviewing various people about their thoughts on the inpending closure of the casino, and i piped up that i couldn't wait for it to close so we could get back to what really mattered, the music. Unsuprisingly, my comments were not broadcast, instead we had less than elequent, toothless and tattooed northern fans saying this was the end of life as we know it. As it happened the wigan faithfull all but disappeared, and only returned after divorce and kids growing up (yes i know i'm generalising here) brought them back out to the local soul nights expecting and demanding the same records they last heard all those years ago. Meanwhile the faithfull had stayed the course and were discovering more great old records and new releases and appreciating them. They were starting up new venues with the emphasis on the quality of the music, although the rise of the revival and oldies nights later on didn't help the image of the soul scene at times and perhaps dissuaded new blood from swelling our ranks. I am a lover of quality soul music, first and foremost, always looking out to hear great new sounds for the first time, but never forgetting all the gems from the past, whether it's from 1960 or 2009, if it moves me inside. There are Dj's out there that do try and educate and push the boundaries, and they tend to be the part timers with a full time passion for our music. I'll always love OUR music, it's in my blood and no other music can come close to the way it makes me feel and the bond i have with you guys, whether i know you or not. What i think i'm saying here is that we all need to keep an open mind on dates and tempo's and just love the music for what it is rather than what it represents.

i have most issues of Love Music Review 1995 to 2000.

sorry it was vg and £70 the one i saw on the funk list.

Saw a vg+ copy go for £75 on a funk list last year. I have an issue copy i cleaned up on Down East in better nick than that one for the same price.

do you want one baz? i have a copy for £40. Andy Love

Mr Howard, I was only thinking about you the other day while reading a LMR back issue. I'd put in the editorial you gave me the fastest article (with tape) from commision to putting it in my hand at a Stoke allnighter. Another guy i got a tape from was Mottie, one of your mates i recall. What happened to him? I lost touch, and recently came across an article that a Dave Motyka had died suddenly in 2007 aged 40 in Chorley. Now i'm sure he was from there and with a surname like his there couldn't have been many with the same first name in Chorley. I hope i've got it all wrong but suspect otherwise. Andy

Hi Dave, Steve and Mick it's good to talk. Used to keep in touch with Ricardo, and still bump into him from time to time, and he was always supportive of the mag. I remember he kept going off the air and swapping stations back in the day so really it's not unusual this has happened. I always used to tape his shows and do cassette compilations of my favourite tracks and later got so obsessed i was recording every show onto video tape (more space in long play and no deterioration in sound quality). They are still there in my loft gathering dust. There would be no chance of finding a particular track now but could be a project for my retirement?!? I suppose for me Richards mantle has been passed on to Mick O'Donnell and his Soul discovery show, with loads of new, unknown real soul tracks played each time.

Plumby did this but only got as far as promo's . I believe 100 were pressed and most ended up in Japan. I got one off steve in the 90's. I may sell but don't know the current value. Andy Love

I can't comment on his shows in recent years as i drifted away partly due to the change of day and partly the playlist that jazz fm/smooth imposed on all the presenters, but in his (long) heyday he was unsurpassed in the music he played, and he inspired me to find a lot of great soul music and dig a little deeper for other gems hidden away in albums etc. I met Richard back in the early 70's, at the Casino, and at the shop in Wigan while i was an art student in that town, and found him a passionate guy when it came to music. It's no secret that he put his own money into Sunset radio and, along with John A he started first Grapevine and then Expansion records giving the Uk a record label that put out some great new music that almost certainly would never have seen the light of day and made affordable a lot of the rarer tracks too. Couple that with running Parkers, The Halfway House, The Trafalgar, The Howard etc he gave us places to hear all this great music away from the oldies only venues. He, along with Chris Savory, Rod Dearlove and Stevie G ETC gave me the desire to publish my short lived magazine Love Music Review, to spread the word and open some pretty closed minds about great soul music whatever the date or style. So i can understand a lot of the comments here on both sides. I don't do heroes, but Richard does have my respect, and he'd probably thrive better on the internet, without the playlist philosophy of commercial radio, rubbing shoulders with Mick O'Donnell, Fraser, Jacko and Roger et al.