Ian Dewhirst

Well this time of year is really head down no nonsense slog for me and this show is kinda like the only time I get to actually relax and listen to music I actually want to listen to, so it's like therapy really. So I look forward to every show. It's the only time I get to actually relax lately. So as per usual, we'll be listening to what I've been listening to over the last couple of weeks which includes an affectionate look back to some undervalued soulful House beauties which are all fundamentally brilliant tunes, some absolutely wonderful creative new re-edits on tunes we love (some of which surprise some folk), some 60's gems that never get played enough, a slew of vintage Northern killers, some wonderfully atmospheric slabs of mellow soul brilliance and a trio of beauties to close the proceedings to round things off just nicely. Yep, looking forward to this. To think they pay me the big bucks to listen to my favourite music for 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon with a bunch of like-minded people around the world tuning in is just brilliant. Shit. I should be paying them! Hope you can join me LIVE tomorrow at 2.00pm UK time. Six Million Steps Presents The Original Mastercuts Show LIVE with Ian Dewhirst between 2.00-4.00pm on Sunday 14th November 2010 on everyone's favourite Soul station www.starpointradio.com. Enjoy! Gloria Scott * Ten City * DJ Fudge Presents The Cheli Project * Esther Phillips * Cherrelle feat Alexander O'Neal * Surface * Denise LaSalle * Detroit Emeralds * Dionne Warwick * Bobby Hebb * Young Holt Unlimited & Erma Franklin * Brenton Wood * The Funky Sisters * Stanley Mitchell * Aldora Britton * Danny Williams * Sam Dees * The Sons Of Champlin * J.R. Bailey * Bobby Byrd & Vickie Anderson * Seal * Sylvia * The Detroit Spinners See you @ 2.00pm. Laters.... Ian D

I'm constantly wading through stuff and every so often I get a great surprise when I re-listen to an old record that I'd either forgotten about or just ignored first time around. A few years ago I bumped into this one again - I probably hadn't heard it since 1973. Completely blew me away, like I'd heard it only for the first time! I just don't get it. The record has absolutely everything, fantastic vocalist, brfilliant Northern production and a song to die for. It's even got a perfect singalong chorus which peaks with the words, "Do It With Soul" for god's sake! An absolute loud, proud 100% Northern monster. That never was. How did it get away? Why wasn't it huge? Why didn't I play it???? "Do It With Soul" - Aldora Britton I have a few like this, but I thought it may be a nice idea to throw it open. What hidden gems do you have that you just love and would like to hear at a venue? How many times have you said, "if I was a DJ I'd bloody play this"! Whack up the ones you feel really passionate about. Just imagine that you have a massive audience in front of you who are all moaning about too many oldies, not enough different tunes etc and generally looking for inspiration. What gem would YOU pull out that that would blow 'em away? Let's hear 'em! Ian D

Well make sure you get the Soussan L.A. Warehouse skylight break-in/Casualeers story in there 'cos that's waaaaay up there plus some more info on that basement in Baltimore would be good.............. Ian D

You're welcome Nicola. I try to lure people out if I can 'cos there's some fantastic stories out there. Val Shively once told me a terrific story about a couple of the high-level Doo Wop collectors falling out with one of the guys pulling a gun after a deal was reneged upon. He obviously got the record. So talk to Val 'cos he'll probably also tell you about that crazy Black guy with an Afro from Canada who he kicked out of the shop whilst I was there and a zillion other tales. Great project. Must be fun to compile all this stuff. Best of luck! Ian D

OK, here's my contribution which is a Manifesto article I did mid last year............ Manifesto Article "Crate Digging In The U.S.A. – A Beginner's Guide" An area which will probably be of interest to Manifesto readers will undoubtedly be the subject of record hunting or 'crate-digging' as it's popularly known these days. When I first ventured to the States in 1976 it was pretty much untapped for the most part with only a handful of Northern Soul collectors and dealers taking that early trip across the Atlantic. Graham Warr from Birmingham was one of the first collectors to take the plunge – a bold move back in the days before cheap flights and the ease of travel which we enjoy these days. Graham was soon followed by Ian Levine who enjoyed regular holidays in Florida with his parents and thus the opportunity to boost his already sizeable collection even more. The notorious Simon Soussan moved from Leeds to Mexico City before making the jump to Los Angeles and establishing himself as the first U.S. based Northern Soul dealer, whilst John Anderson from Scotland was also making his initial forays to the U.S. establishing the then tiny Soul Bowl operation in the process. But America is a big place and, in the mid 1970's, was still a largely untapped goldmine for Northern Soul. In what we hope will become a regular feature in Manifesto, we decided to cover some of the stories of those halcyon days to give people a glimpse of the twists and turns that can happen in crate-digging which can turn a mundane day into a phenomenal one. Here's a few from me to kick the series off......... I was in east L.A. driving around looking for a Saturday morning 'swap-meet' (or flea market) and somehow I just couldn't find the place where the swap meet was meant to be. I was driving mile after mile along all these roads with heavy industrial complexes and factories as far as the eye could see but no sign of any swap meet. As I was driving along one of these bleak, endless roads I noticed a hamburger stall coming up on the roadside with quite a few people milling around, so I slowed down, figuring I could ask someone where the swap meet might be. It was then that I noticed that there was a sort of household goods market right next to the hamburger van. So I parked up, because I was sick of driving and fancied a coffee and there were a couple of coffee type stalls within the market. So I got a coffee and started to have a mooch around the market. It was all stepladders, dusters, cleaning fluids, tool kits, buckets, bowls and thousands of other household goods. I'd pretty much covered the whole market when I noticed a stall nearest the road which had a couple of boxes of 45's in amongst all the household goods.... I wandered over, set my coffee down and started flicking through the 45's. It really wasn't very promising - I expected lots of junk and some of the records looked beaten up.......but....... Bingo! I suddenly found a copy of "We Were Made For Each Other" by Terrible Tom on Maverick.......and then another one right after it! My heart started thudding. What else could be there........? A few more records later I found "You Don't Love Me Anymore" - Johnny Caswell on a pink Decca demo. Things were looking up suddenly. After I'd gone through both boxes I'd found a few more medium rare records - Candace Love, Fred Hughes and a couple of others. I asked the guy how much they were and he said, "Oh, just gimme 25 cents each man". So I gave him a couple of bucks and said, "Wow. I found a few things here. It's a shame you don't have any more." The guy looked at me and said "You want more 45's"? I said, "Yeah, that's what I'm looking for". And the guy said, "Yo, come around here" and waved me round to the back of his stall where there was a huge rain-soaked tarpaulin covering an area about 20' x 20'... He then grabbed hold of one side of the tarpaulin and threw it back to reveal...... about 20,000 45's! He laughed and said "Help yourself. Good luck." They were in a right state! Some of them were warped from the sun, others had been wet at some time and were water-damaged and most of the sleeves were falling apart or rotting. But everything away from the edges of the tarpaulin and in the middle of all this plastic was fine! I found 50 x "Love Factory" - Eloise Laws on Music Merchant, 50 x "Memories" by the Segments Of Time on Sussex and at least a couple of hundred other goodies which were all in decent nick considering the circumstances. I also found the rarest record ever on the Belgium scene at the time - "Heartless Lover" by the Dick Baker Combo which I sold a week later for £1500 - a huge amount of money in '76 - the guy even flew in from Belgium to collect it personally! So a shit day turned into a good one in the end. Thing's can work like that. Perhaps the best hit I had happened towards the end of a completely fruitless visit to Denver Colorado in late 1980's........ In 1988 I was stuck in a pretty boring job in between my more exciting jobs when I got a phone call from my ex boss who used to own the Warehouse in Leeds. He'd recently moved out to Denver, Colorado and was thinking about opening a club out there, so he invited me over for 10 days and offered to send the plane tickets! Which was perfect! Anything to get out of the MCPS in Streatham which was slowly killing me..... Also, at the back of my mind, I figured that Denver is in the middle of nowhere so the chances of any Northern collectors actually CHOOSING to go to Denver or even Colorado was remote - they'd have to go roughly 1000 miles from anywhere else to the middle of cowboy country to look for Northern. Unlikely..... So I got there, got settled in at my bosses pad and then began a week of trawling every store in Denver whilst looking at potential club premises. And.......nothing! A complete bust. Just crap. I couldn't believe it. Quite often there'd be promising situations, i.e., plenty of the right labels from the right era and cheap. But somehow there were never the right artists or smaller labels and WAAAY too much Country & Western for my liking..... It got to day 9 - the day before I was due to fly back and there was one store about 15 miles out of Denver which I hadn't tried yet. The only problem was that my ex-boss was busy that day and wouldn't be able to run me over there. I'd have to get there via about three buses which would be a pain in the ass. Anyway, I set off. It took me almost 2 hours to get there but when I got there my heart started pounding! The shop looked FANTASTIC with 100ft long racks of 45's from floor to ceiling. So I got digging.... And nothing! Tons of the right labels, lots of the right artists but NO NORTHERN!! The shop owner even let me in the back room to go through the unsorted stuff so I got covered in cobwebs, rat shit and dust going through hundred-count boxes of Luther Ingram, Staple Singers and Bar-Kays records but still NO NORTHERN! After a couple of hours and covered in shit from head-to-toe, I called it a day and headed back to the bus stop for the trek back. To add insult to injury, I'd just missed a bus and the next one was in an hour. So I had an hour to kill in the middle of Buttf*ck, Denver with no records! Great. So I went into a burger bar and got a burger and coffee and went to sit at the window booth. As I was chomping my burger I was casually looking out of the window looking across a parking lot and, beyond that a dual carriageway, when in the distance, at the other side of the dual carriageway, I saw a sign which said "1940 Jukebox Co". I wasn't that excited but I had a bit more time to kill and I like those early Wurlitzer jukeboxes anyway, so I thought I'd have a wander over there and have a look. Nothing better to do..... So I crossed the dual carriageway and walked up to a huge building which had a shop front with a couple of Wurlitzer jukeboxes in the window. I looked at them for a while and then casually wandered into the shop. As I went through the door into the shop, I noticed an alcove on the right-hand side which was roped-off but which was full of racks of records in what looked to be strict alphabetical order. I still wasn't that excited - I thought they'd all be ex-jukebox records, 'oldies but goodies' or the dreaded Ferlin Husky or Merle Haggard stuff which Denver seemed to be filled with. There was a long-haired bearded native Indian bloke at the counter, so I wandered up and said "Wow. Love these jukeboxes man. What do you play on 'em"? He said: "I've got over a million records in there (pointing at the alcove), so we ain't gonna run out anytime soon son". I said: "Wow. A million ay? Are they for sale"? He said: "Yep. As a matter of fact it's your lucky day son. I'm having a sale, so anything you want is 25 cents each." And with that, he walked around the counter, down to the alcove, unhooked the rope to the entrance and ushered me in. I took a deep breath. This actually looked promising. The alphabetizing of his stock was incredible with the 'A' section starting off with A, AA, AB, ABE, etc, etc which I thought was far too intricate for just ex-juke-box titles. But it could still all be Country and Western though so I still wasn't getting too excited.... So, I thought what record have I never managed to find in all my previous trips to the U.S.? One I really like preferably.....? And it had always bugged me that I'd never managed to find a Stanley Mitchell "Get It Baby" on Dynamo - one of my favourite records of all time. So I went to the 'M' section, scrolled along - M..., MA..., ME..., MI...., MIT..., MITCH......... And found 2 mint white promo copies of "Get It Baby" on Dynamo! That was when my heart started pounding like a demented sledgehammer! Everything was in there! All the major label stuff, lots of tiny indie labels, tons of New York, L.A., Detroit and Chicago goodies. I ended up staying there until 12.00pm that night. The owner even locked me up in the shop so he could get some dinner. I bought 2,800 records for $700 and made close to £30,000 and massively increased my Northern collection at the time. It was easily the best hit I've ever had in my entire life. The nearest to the 'Holy Grail' I'd ever experienced an I'd come close a few times! But only around 10-11 hours to cover a million records? I had to go back to the UK the next day, so the only thing I could do was target things I could remember and adopt a kind of 'scattergun' approach which is absolutely the worst way to clear a warehouse. And to this day, I wake up in a cold sweat every so often, dreaming of what I probably left behind at the 1940 Jukebox Company. A few months after my visit, Dave Raistrick from Skegness found the place and had a hell of a hit himself. But he couldn't understand why a lot of the obvious titles weren't there until he asked the guy whether anyone else from England had been there and the guy said. "Well there was this tall, dark-haired guy here a couple of months ago...........". I caught up with Dave a year or two later at a record fair and he said "Denver, Colorado. Was that you"? And I said "Yep"! Ian Dewhirst May 2009

I don't know about that - the binning of "Lady In Green" into the North Sea sounds like a winner to me. I'm surprised no one dived to recover it to be honest........... And that'd be Cleethorpes Billy. If it's a spelling thing, then send it to me and I'll edit accordingly. A Magnetics in the north sea after a session on the pier is a story that needs to be told. Were drugs involved by any chance....? Ian D

I forgot about that Ste. I'll post it up when I get home...... Ian D

Yep, there's some goodies in there for sure...... And probably a couple in here as well....... Ian D

I know of at least 3 people who have complete runs of Blues & Soul, Black Echoes and Black Music. Although accessing 'em can sometimes be an issue, they're definitely out there. Mind the British Library is a brilliance resource regardless..... Ian D

Billy Woods "Let Me Make You Happy" on Sussex for £3 from Soul Bowl in 1975. Turned it down because Bradford Market was knee-deep in Billy Woods Verve singles @ 25p each and everywhere else was knee-deep in TONS of Bill Withers, Creative Source and Gallery singles on Sussex which they couldn't give away. So stands to reason that a Billy Woods record on Sussex will be common as sh*t doesn't it? How many is it? 6 copies in 35 years or thereabouts? Ian D

Yep, I think they came through a UK telly talent show if I remember rightly. Corking tune which never even really dented the UK charts...... Here's another couple.... Jerry Bo Keno - Here Comes That Sound Again The Blue Angels - I Wonder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hso83EGlAwM&feature=related And just found this pretty cool version of "Niki Hoeky" by Ellie Greenwich..... Ellie Greenwich "Niki Hoeky" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OQHP3OyfXg&feature=related Ian D

Yeah, sorry Sebastian. My scanning skills leave a bit to be desired but I guess we can now confirm that the U.S. copies exist on both issue and promo......... Ian D

Later than you want Pete but try this for a stab at the Righteous Brothers/Walker Brothers/Wall Of Sound from the 80's.... White & Torch "Parade" White & Orch "Parade" Instrumental Spellbinding production for me. Ian D

OK, here is the U.S. promo of "The Bottle" A Side B Side Ian D

Yep. It is a good question. I have a U.S. Strata East 7" promo from 1974 - SES-19742-45A with "Back Home" on the B side which sure looks legit to me. I'll post a scan up tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I acquired this in the states in the mid 80's. Also I'm pretty sure it has the drunken intro but I'll check tomorrow. I've never seen another Strata East 7" promo so I have nothing to compare it to. However, this was a breakaway tune for this little New York indie and the hip New York clubs were featuring this at the same time as it was becoming a monster on the UK scene, so it kinda made sense that they would press some 7" promos to score some radio plays. But I reckon it's rare. I kept the French one for a while 'cos that was a nice pressing anyway but I let it go 'cos I couldn't justify 1 U.S. promo 45, I French 45, 1 UK 45 and 1 UK 12", 1 Winter In America album plus numerous comps. I mean, great record but how many copies can you actually use LOL........ Ian D

Nothing to write home about. I cleared him out in '77 when I swapped him some crap Blues 78's from the 30's for the Sillhouettes album on Goodway which he had by accident........... Ian D

Well, I keep thinking about it and I've had a couple of great offers to do one but I gotta tell ya, it would be a long book, so it'll be bastard to write. So what I've been doing over the last few years is banging down some personal anecdotes from different eras on different forums that relate to my own experience and life. For instance, the amount of material I've generated on my Northern Soul and collecting experiences via Soul Source has been great. The thread about Simon Soussan where I remembered my arrival in L.A. generated a lot of interest from all over the place and even resulted in an offer for a book. If it hadn't been for Soul Source I may never have written that particular piece. Which is why I'm very respectful and grateful that a forum like Soul Source exists. But any major writing undertaking from me is a way off just yet. Plus my thing will be a totally different beast anyway. But what I love about all these books is that I read 'em and start remembering stuff I'd completely forgotten about. So really these books are like instant memory packs for inherently lazy sods like me. I just start reading these books and the memories instantly come back loud and clear. Just looking at the scan of a red Dynamo copy of Stanley Mitchell on the sample pages immediately triggered a memory. And I suddenly remembered what is was to like to be envious........... Hats off to anyone who has the discipline and work ethic to write a book and then get it published. And that includes everyone. All experience is precious! Ian D

I actually just checked the sample pages on the link and I can't wait to get the book in my hands now. I'm a sucker for these type of books and I collect 'em all 'cos I collect music books anyway so I'm an easy target LOL.... Also I love the archival aspect. It's really handy that a lot of the perifial stuff like flyers, ads, photos and other paraphanalia has been preserved. I'd managed to preserve a couple of scrapbooks which have been raped a few times for scans and other books, so I'm relieved that other people were keeping stuff too. Some serious history here and Tim's the right guy to do it. Glen's done a great job on the design by the looks of it. So that annoying kid with a hole in his jumper who I used to get to lug my records up the stairs at Samanthas wasn't so daft after all........ Come to think of it, he got my Duke Browner for £8 after pestering me to death for months............ Mmm. The book better be f*ckin good, that's all I can say......... Ian D

Tim's book available from here for anyone wanting to buy. My copy should be arriving in the morning...... Outtasight Website Ian D

Weird. I just stumbled into a site that lists a load of purported Jimi Hendrix recordings which are in fact by some well-known names on the Soul scene. It seems there was a whole sub-industry in doing Hendrix soundalikes...... My link Ian D

Many thanks for all who joined me on Sunday afternoon for the LIVE party. And especially for the rest of you, here's the playlist and download link:- Six Million Steps Presents The Original Mastercuts Show LIVE with Ian Dewhirst between 2.00-4.00pm on Sunday 31st October 2010 on everyone's favourite Soul station www.starpointradio.com. Enjoy! 1st Hour Norma Jean Saturday Dimitri From Paris Remix Eddie Holman This Will Be A Night To Remember Black Ivory Mainline Butch Le Butch Re-Edit JD73 - Fantasy Fonzi Thornton I'll Change My Name Unreleased Full Version George Benson Love X Love Koko Southport Re-Edit The Rance Allen Group Reason To Survive Pied Piper Re-Edit Barbara Mason Yes, I'm Ready Handance Remix 2nd Hour Tavares & Freda Payne I Wanna See You Soon The Philly Devotions I Just Can't Say Goodbye Dionne Warwick Take It From Me Street People You're My One Weakness Girl David Ruffin I've Got Nothing But Time The Original Drifters Just Let Your Heart Be Your Guide Charles Drain Who's Gonna Love You Unreleased The Foundations Change My Life Sam Russell What's Usual Ain't Natural Sly & The Family Stone If You Want Me To Stay Paulette Reaves Let Me Wrap You In My Love Alton & Johnny Hang On In There Baby David Ruffin Everything's Coming Up Love Gladys Knight & The Pips Baby Don't Change Your Mind Lary Sanders Re-Edit https://www.sixmillionsteps.com/6MS-2010-10-31-Starpoint.mp3 Al and I will probably do a joint LIVE show this coming Sunday 7th Nov as it's his birthday, so we'll definitely be cracking a few open so come join us if ya can! Laters.... Ian D

Record hunting has gone on a long time. In the grand scheme of things, Northern is relatively recent. I haven't researched it yet but I'm willing to bet that music collecting started with the pianola and then every format and genre since. I'm acquainted with serious collectors of Blues 78's which probably go back to the late 20's, Jazz guys who go way back to the 30's and 40's and Doo-Wop collectors who go back to the 50's There's a guy at the end of my street who has a phenomenal collection of 40's and 50's crooners on all the original labels but, hey, there's only so much Mario Lanza a guy can take............... It's a good job there's people out there like us who are researching our international musical legacy throughout all genres and all decades. We're true historians and future generations will benefit from our knowledge. Music is like a time-capsule and a mini-soundbite of our history so it's important to preserve that slice of history 'cos it can say so much more than almost any other mass media medium. Ian D

"Dark Continent" perchance? Ian D

Hi Folks, Halloween already ay? Blimey this year has gone fast. Anyway following my interview on the Craig Charles Soul & Funk Show last week (https://www.sendspace.com/file/oyuqeq - open with i-tunes) and the fantastic plug we got for Starpoint and the show, it'll be great to be back behind the decks this Sunday between 2.00-4.00pm on www.starpointradio.com for another LIVE Original Mastercuts session. Open a bottle of wine, join the gang and kick back for a couple of hours! Plus this week we have a KILLER show, featuring a couple of cuts from the new Chic box-set including a stunning Dimitri From Paris remix and a brilliant unreleased Fonzi Thornton tune, some lovely new tasty re-edits on Black Ivory, George Benson and The Rance Allen Group, a classic remix on Soul chanteuse Barbara Mason, an exclusive unheard Charles Drain tune and an exclusive Gladys Knight remix that finally lets the tune breath properly as well as the usual brace of Soul Music gems throughout the eras. In short, a soundtrack for a perfect Sunday afternoon so hope ya can join me...... Featuring... Norma Jean * Eddie Holman * Black Ivory * JD73 * Fonzi Thornton * George Benson * The Rance Allen Group * Barbara Mason * Tavares & Freda Payne * The Philly Devotions * Dionne Warwick * Street People * David Ruffin * The Original Drifters * Charles Drain * The Foundations * Otis Williams * Sam Russell * Sly & The Family Stone * Paulette Reaves * Alton & Johnny * David Ruffin * Gladys Knight & The Pips See you @ 2.00pm! Laters... Ian D

Yep, will do. Hopefully I'll be able to nail Lamont down this week touch wood! I'll keep you informed..... Ian D