Ian Dewhirst

.......great idea especially if you could do a tour of Northern Soul Retirement Communities. Mmmm. I've already got a couple of lappy's with over 50,000 tunes on 'em, I regularly give lectures to music colleges and academies, I'm an ex Northern Soul DJ from the 70's with hours and hours worth of amusing anecdotes, I did Bingo calling @ Dewsbury Bingo Hall when I was a youngster and I'm quite partial to chicken.............. This job's got my name on it Gareth! When do I start? Ian D

I'd use a staple-gun. Might come in handy if you're still touting for some rough trade down at the docks y'know......... Ian D

:lol: Your mouth's still OK though innit? Ian D

It was coming in totally blasted on Thursday that got this thread started Mace! Ian D

Yep, it's about time we started applying some financial science to this scene. I've just started a Northern Soul hedge fund to back aspiring entrepreneurs like yourself Bearsy. Wanna borrow £50K at 5% above base rate mate? You can use the records as collateral for further funding too......... Ian D

That's a nifty game-plan. Ian D

Maybe we're at a point in the evolvement of the scene where the top DJ's should offer a choice in terms of the type of set they are booked to play? For instance, had I won that bloody Euromillions lottery last night and gone on the ultimate buying spree I'd probably produce an A4 piece of paper with loads of boxes in there and promoters would then be able to tick the boxes that they wanted for the gig. For instance, in terms of percentage of a 2 hour set, it could look something like this:- Box 1 : 25% or half an hour of £2K+ big ticket monsters Box 7: 10% or 12 minutes of exclusive unknowns Box 15: 25% or half an hour of established biggies Box 22: 5% or 6 minutes of exclusive acetates Box 32: 15% or 18 minutes of big ticket oldies Box 38: 5% or 6 minutes of exclusive cover-ups Box 42: 15% or 18 minutes of cheap as chips less than a tenner goodies Job done. It's called consumer choice. You could even charge a premium for genuine one-offs on the basis that every time you play a one-off it deteriorates in value massively. Sort of, "sorry mate. If you want me to play Junior McCants that'll be another £50 due to depreciation......" Ian D

LOL, you may have hit the nail on the head there Gareth. Everyone is a DJ these days. Northern Soul collectors especially. And specifically Northern Soul collectors that have built up a solid collection of great originals. In my office alone, there are 5 people who tell me they are 'DJ's' which kinda makes me chuckle. Basically who wouldn't want to be a DJ? You get paid for playing music to a generally willing crowd which isn't exactly like working down the mines. It's a glam gig for sure. But there's a wealth of difference between someone who merely plays records and a professional DJ who knows what he or she is doing IMO. I've seen the best DJ's in the world over the last 40 years and the top ones basically play what they want to an adoring audience whlst adding a bit of pzazz to the experience. That's why they're great. We shouldn't get blind-sided by rarity for rarity's sake. A great DJ plays what he or she wants but delivers it with passion and style. But it probably helps if you have a 50K back-up of killer originals...... But how many of us have £50K spare for back-ups then? Ian D

Nope. I hated the bloody record but carried it in my box just in case I did a gig in Humberside or Lincolnshire. Credit where credit's due. I seem to remember Raw Soul breaking via Rick Scott, Chris Dalton and Poke - the Cleethorpes axis. I think most of us got the record at the same time via Soul Bowl but the local Cleethorpes guys pummelled it into popular conciousness until it became a Pier anthem. Definitely an East Coast tune that's for sure........ Hope you're well Steve. I hear the Central reunion was a killer. I'll be up for the next one for sure unless I get sidelined by the realities of life........ Ian D

Now here's a guy who has his priorities bang on! Nice one Bearsy. Off the top of my head I can't think of many Northern collectors who are prepared to peddle their arse for new records, so hats off to you! If everyone else showed your level of commitment we'd be in a whole different scenario mate. Listen, whilst you're down at the docks you could try knocking out some of those Canadian Lime and Dennis LePage 12"ers to the same audience. Y'know, kill two birds with one stone............ Ian D

Hahaha. I'd love to see a situation where, say, Butch would lend his box to a total unknown doing his or her first gig and watch what the reaction is. Then Butch would go on and play nothing but great £10 cheapies. It'd be an interesting experiment for sure. We keep reading on here that there's literally 1000's of potentially popular records that are cheapies but they really need the catalyst of someone like Butch to actually champion them. In my view there are numerous potentially HUGE cheap records that aren't taken seriously until someone with the right reputation starts championing them seriously. Sometimes I wonder if we chase rarity too much? Some of those one-offs are just badly produced average records which wouldn't be played under most circumstances but for the fact that they're impossibly rare. So are the clubs attracting lots of chin-stroking blokes whose modus operandi is to gather around the decks to gawk at a mega-rarity or one-off acetate whilst surrepticiously wanking furiously? Meanwhile the rest of the club (ie 98% of the audience) just want to hear a GREAT floor-filling good-time tune so they can dance their hearts out. It's a delicate balancing act for sure but sometimes it's more delicious to break a £10 record that anyone could buy at the time and then watch it soar to huge heights and become massive against all the odds. Quite often, they're the best ones, ie, the ones that people actually remember. Ian D

I'm so glad I got a lot of this out of my system by the mid 70's LOL....... It's an OCD sickness Bearsy. I was similarly affected for 5 years in the early 70's until an L.A. hooker showed me the righteous path to redemption which was a lot cheaper than collecting Northern Soul records........... Ian D

The eternal dillemma of the passionate DJ Kris. If everybody put as much thought into their sets as you, then surely the quality threshold would rise overall. There may actually be a new marketing angle to potential up and coming Northern Soul DJ's. How about a guy who comes along who makes a virtue of not playing anything that's worth over a tenner for his or her whole set? Whilst keeping the floor full and the place buzzing obviously. Wouldn't it be interesting if someone like Butch, who probably has the widest choice of super-rarities at his disposal, suddenly decided to play a 2 hour set of records that anyone could buy on a normal budget? Butch could get away with doing that because everybody respects his taste and knows that he has multiple mega-rarities at his disposal anyway. So let's hypothetically say, that a promoter would book Butch on the basis of his reputation and his box of to-die-for rarities, expecting to attract an audience based on Butch's incredible records. So if Butch then turned up and did a mind-numbingly brilliant floor-filling set of £10 cheapies only, would anyone feel shortchanged or would the promoter feel miffed that Butch didn't roll out the one-offs? Questions, questions......... Ian D

Yep, holding up pretty well considering the ridiculous lifestyle I live. My game-plan was basically to live fast, die young and call it a day when I got to 40 but I overshot by 16 years which is just f*ckin' typical of my lousy planning....... Fantastic post Paul. Very eloquent and heartfelt and exactly the level of response I hoped for on this thread so many thanks for contributing. By the way, can you remember what I sold you? I seem to recall us exchanging memories of killer records we pulled out of Beanos. This would have been late 80's or thereabouts? Am I right? You must have got some goodies............. Ian D

No chance. Don't have £300K spare unless I win Euromillions tonight........ Ian D

Good choice sir! You won't be disappointed. Ian D

LOL. Good point. The price of a rare record has seldom fed through to the artist. The PPL thing is a different arena entirely but there's a remarkably similarity to the usual story, namely, that the artist generally ends up at the end of the food chain one way or the other. If I actually believed that PPL money would eventually wing it's way over to the rightful recipients, I'd be pretty gung-ho. But I lack that level of confidence which is a shame. Ian D

OK Bri, let's assume that I have impeccable taste and great instincts and I win the Euromillions lottery tomorrow and decide to buy EVERY killer rare record because I can. Money no object. Y'know leave Honky in the dust with his chump change LOL..... Surely the mere fact that I could acquire a £1,000,000 playbox very quickly would surely guarantee No.1 DJ status wouldn't it? The biggest dick on the block has always been an irresistible option to most people in my experience. Boy. If I win that lottery and get unlimited funds I'll buy out Moerer, Manship, Brown, Brady and Jeffries in one fell swoop and scoop up the rest of 'em in the next couple of days. I'll corner the market in rare soul vinyl and......................... Time for bed I think. God bless. Ian D

For sure Gary but that's not the same thing as hoping to fill a 500 capacity venue and then getting 'em all dancing to a frenzy before they all eventually succumb to mass total exhaustion. You don't get that with £10 records! To get that, kind of reaction you need at least 4 x £2.5K granders, 3 x £2K granders and 3 x £1.5K granders OK? £19.5K and that's just 10 records or 25 minutes. £40K for an hour minimum Get with the pros mate! Ian D

Mmmm. Interesting answer Steve. The weird thing is that whenever I previously had random influxes of cash throughout the 70's and 80's I immediately re-invested in originals of records I loved. However, that particular avenue became less and less appetising in the 90's and 00's as I realised I was being WAAAY, WAAAY, WAAAY priced out on stuff. Plus I had a massively expensive lifestyle and family to maintain etc, etc, so watching things like my old one-off copy of Si Hightower reach such exalted heights made collecting more of an spectator sport rather than an active interest for me. I couldn't afford it anymore dammit. No sweat though. I've always been tight. Whenever I've bought a record for an astronomical amount of money, I've always been paranoid about damaging it. Which is additional stress to someone like me. I get nightmare visions of Richard's Jades Nite-Life demo getting fried on a fish shop counter and who needs that.........? I have enough hassle in my life without that LOL.... Whereas, whenever I've bought a record for cents, pence, dollars or quids I seem to have a slightly more cavaliere attitude and just sling the bastard around and play it everywhere. And sometimes that brings a nice surprise. That's how "Send Him Back" started. I just don't know if that's possible anymore. There are plenty of DJ's with great taste out there who can put a decent set together with cheap tunes but do they have any widespread commercial audience or critical credibility? Probably not I reckon. Some guy with a £30K collection will wave at 'em as he flies past. It's the nature of the beast. And, of course, there are established DJ's with great taste who can and do play cheapies along with super rarities and we love 'em for it. But can anyone with less than a £20K box get in? Ian D

It's a question I'm curious about. I think the general concensus on here, is that generally the most-rated DJ's on the Northern Soul scene are the guys that play authentic original copies of highly rare records, both known and unknown. This applies to both current rare and popular oldies DJ's - in other words, right across the spectrum of the whole scene. So, accepting the philosophy that in order to become a top Northern Soul DJ these days in pretty much all areas of the scene, one needs to have a large box full of rare originals worth tens of thousands of pounds, then doesn't that suggest that the scene is pre-disposed to those with a huge amount of disposable income? I'm long, long gone from the cutting edge of rare record collecting these days but I keep an eye on things and occasionally get lucky every so often, so obviously I keep an eye on current prices and generally end up weeping LOL. If I were to re-create the same 200 count box that cost me less than £300 in 1975, it would cost me a minimum of £30K now and probably nearer £50K. If I , included my overall collection at the time into the equation, then we'd be talking circa £200K at todays prices (mainly 'cos I had all the 70's stuff that's now off the scale). So obviously I've thought about this and figured out that there's a massive amount of difference between the passionate Northern Soul DJ's of the 1970's and the passionate Northern Soul DJ's of today. Without a doubt, I personally 100% rode the route of enjoying and playing super-rare records that no one else had, and naturally, a certain amount of ego was involved. But records were relatively cheap back then and most aspiring DJ's were beavering away getting their own choices together well within most people's disposable income levels. So the path towards becoming a popular Northern Soul DJ back then somehow seemed a bit more organic in that virtually anyone could get within reach of the top guys providing they had the right taste and made smart buying choices. It didn't really start becoming a money-lead thing until '75/'76 in my view. In fact, when it started going that route, I got the hell out of dodge and started looking for records at the source. The economics made a bit more sense. So I guess the question is: do you need a £50K collection of originals to even get into the top-strata these days? And, as a result, has Northern Soul become a rich man's sport? Ian D

I think this is really quite a cynical way to hike PPL charges, probably suggested by an accountant who has no real idea of the long-term damage this will cause to music being played out in the UK. These charges will simply be usustainable in the current climate, where clubs and bars are closing at the fastest rate for decades. Believe you me, NONE of this money is ever likely to reach the artists whose records are played at Rare Soul venues but more likely to line the pockets of existing PPL members. So, yes, of course, Northern/Rare Soul has a cast-iron case for exemption. This should be fought at all costs IMO. Ian D

True. With a £3.99 CD you get "Hitchhiking To Heartbreak" and 25 other killers........ "I Get My Groove" - Crossover Soul From The Deep South BACKB019 Compiled By Sean Hampsey 1 Syl Johnson We Did It 2 Gloria Edwards Don't Mess With My Man 3 Fontella Bass Now That I've Found A Good Thing 4 Bobby McClure Was It Something I Said 5 Eddie Mcgee What Made You Change Your Mind? 6 Imported Moods What Have You Done With My Heart 7 The Montclairs I Need You More Than Ever 8 Oscar Perry Let Me Grow Old With You 9 Al Green I Tried To Tell Myself 10 Ronnie Lovejoy You Got To Know 11 The Patterson Twins Looking For A Lover 12 Little Johnny Taylor How Are You Fixed For Love 13 Bobby Patterson Everything Good To You (Don't Have To Be Good For You) 14 Jean Plum Here I Go Again 15 Ann Peebles I Didn't Take Your Man 16 Henry Shed Something's Drastically Wrong 17 Bobo Mr. Soul Hitch-Hike To Heartbreak Road 18 Pat Brown Love On Loan 19 Barbara Lynn Nice And Easy 20 Otis Clay Brand New Thing 21 Bobby Patterson I Get My Groove From You 22 Ted Taylor I Want To Be A Part Of You Girl 23 Phillip Mitchell Little Things 24 James Fry Still Around 25 Ann Peebles If This Is Heaven 26 Jean Plum Look At The Boy I Get My Groove - Backbeats CD Ian D

Totally correct. Records didn't hang around for long and there was always a demand for an 'instant' catchy memorable song that had that all important beat. Both Nosmo King/The Javells and Wayne Gibson both broke across the scene in a matter of weeks and virtually every venue played 'em 'cos they were huge records. The Javells was as big at the Mecca as it was at the Casino believe me. I still like 'em both from a nostalgia point of view. They remind me of a brilliant time and packed dancefloors full of 16-20 year olds which was what the scene was built on back then. Ian D