Ian Dewhirst

Now now boys....... Ian D

OK, so that's both the Wheel and the Scene that played it, so a bona-fide spin after all. Ian D

Coming up LIVE at 2.00pm. Hope you can join me for another Original Mastercuts musical odyssey between 2.00-4.00pm today on everyone's favourite Soul station www.starpointradio.com. See ya @ 2.00pm! Ian D

I've never heard a bad tune by her which is saying something. Confined to the dustbins of history and the canyons of Malc's mind. That's all Donna has to look forward to LOL....... Ian D

Well since I only seem to get up there in the depths of Winter, I'll bring a grab-bag up next time OK? Maybe we can flog 'em on Dewsbury Market? Ian D

Blimey. 4 weeks since the last show but that was a good 4 weeks. From a Russian oligarchs party overlooking the lush valleys and imposing mountains of St Paul in the South of France to Starpoint Towers in Crystal Palace on a rainy British Sunday afternoon. How the other half live ay? Many thanks to Al for keeping the show rolling throughout September great stuff mate! Now if you can just get the Underground moving again....... So it's now back to the reality of making Sunday afternoons a pleasurable listening experience. Get yourselves a nice glass of wine, whack the heating up and get comfy 'cos we're into another Original Mastercuts musical odyssey spanning 40 plus years .......... The Original Mastercuts Show with Ian Dewhirst LIVE this Sunday 3rd October 2010 between 2.00-4.00pm on everyone's favourite Soul station www.starpointradio.com. Featuring...... The Isley Brothers * Fat Larry's Band * Josh Milan feat Chinablac! * Al Olive * Sister Sledge * The Sylvers * Thelma Houston * The O'Jays * Derek Martin * The Hypnotics * Margie Joseph * Otis Williams * Lenny Williams * Terry Callier * Ronnie Dyson * The Stylistics * Dee Dee Sharp Gamble * The Spinners * Robert Upchurch * The Trammps * The Jacksons Catch you @ 2.00 hopefully! Ian D

Nah, it was the Tarrantino 'Grindhouse' double-bill he did with Robert Rodriguez. Tarrantino's just great with music isn't he? So inventive...... Anyway whatever happened to the Castaways then? I thought had they had a pretty unique sound..... Ian D

A beautiful, beautiful brilliant record Tony. In my top 3 80's tunes without a doubt. The harmonies are just incredible aren't they? First time on CD I think....... Ian D

Not as good as Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich's "Hold Tight" did in "Deathproof"! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIwiUXCA6W0 Ian D

You're 100% right Pete. I never considered it a Soul record but it was played at the Wheel and I can see why. Good floorfiller in it's day I reckon..... Ian D

This isn't one of those "Liar Liar Pants On Fire" situations is it? Isn't irony great? Ian D

Well, I'm deffo on a Derek Martin roll at the moment - I'm loving "Fallen Out Of Love" on Vibration too. It's all Jaffa's fault. These artwork types tend to get a bit obssessive and sometimes it rubs off LOL... "Baby What Changed Your Mind" and "Flashback" are both absolute killers for me. Derek Martin "Fallen Out Of Love" Ian D

Aah but it still had to be an authentic 60's U.S. jackhammer or a vintage Detroit car alarm. We had standards you know......... Ian D

Not a good idea Kev. After I'd got the record obsession thing out of my system in '77 I started collecting women but that turned out to be more expensive then the bloody record collecting! Ian D

Oh yeah, John Manship is very much part of the problem. In the distant future such blatant commercial targetting of disfunctional plastic freaks will be frowned upon by the general populace. It's really not that healthy when you look at the stats..... I totally have to agree on the i-tunes point though. How much emotional resonance can one get from a music file compared to holding the original 7" single? See! There I go again. We desperately need a 12 step vinyl rehab programme and we need it NOW! Ian D

You're all victims of some kind of compulsive disorder. I know. I used to suffer from this myself (and, to a certain extent, I still do) so I recognise the symptons. There's nothing quite as reassuring as a room full of vinyl. It somehow defines us as serious people with a passion for music , which we obviously are. But make no mistake. It's basically a psychological disorder. Most people would be happy enough to listen to the same tune a few times for 69p via I-Tunes. However, there's a curious breed of folk that insist on investing 1000's of pounds on owning a piece of original vinyl, which is obviously compulsive behaviour. Serious art collectors are exactly the same. Social misfits. It's difficult to try and explain the kind of passion that would happily pay £2000 for a piece of plastic to your next door neighbour for instance. They simply wouldn't get it. I think the mere act of being able to go online and be able to order up lots of records whenever you want, is simply the internet providing us with the perfect opportunity to pander to our whims, which is dangerous stuff to everyone reading this thread. Seek help. Quickly. Ian D

Great stuff Steve. It's a f*ckin' KILLER album and it seems to be selling around the world and on a number of different scenes. This is the album of choice for the guys in the office and it's been on constant rotation this week and I've gotta say it really holds up to repeated plays. I've listened to it a zillion times and still get elated every time I hear it. A work of art and I couldn't be happier that we've found a huge audience with this release. Great stuff! You'll be pleased to know that Volume 2 is already on the drawing board....... Ian D

Not strictly S.S. territory but thought it may be worth posting as there's some belters on here if you like Soul music in general and have fairly diverse tastes. The Nobles track is just brilliant plus Skip Mahoney usually hits the spot, so there's probably a few things of interest on here for S.S.ers. Harold Melvin & The Blue-Notes fans could do a lot worse then check out the two BRILLIANT mid 80's tracks on here which kinda slipped through the net but are just superlative and right up there in HM&TBN's best performances. And if you're into Modern Northern it doesn't get any better than "Let Her Feel It" by Simplicious - a pure Modern belter featuring Eugene Wilde on lead vocals. Has to be heard to be believed. Anyway, here's the spiel........... A long, long time ago, in the late 1990's Harmless released two definitive must-have albums of great Disco music - Jumpin' Vols 1 & 2. So, on the 15th anniversary of Harmless Records, we thought we'd knock out another one and try and fill a few gaps in the process...... We managed to track down a healthy dozen or so tunes that don't appear to be currently available on CD anywhere which is handy if you're a collector. So it was a massive relief to track down the current owners of the Philly World and Total Experience catalogues - filled a few more gaps right there for a start. What we wanted to do was track a particular vibe over a 10 year period from circa '76-'86 whilst keeping with the ethos of the original series. In many ways this particular volume snatches numerous pieces of genius right across that time-span. We did it chronologically 'cos it just made sense. Out in 3 weeks so go buy........ HURTCD102 Jumpin' - Harmless 15th Anniversary Crystal Edition CD 1 1 Salsoul Orchestra feat Loleatta Holloway Runaway 2 Donna McGhee Mr Blindman 3 Love Committee Just As Long As I Got You 4 Jean Carn Was That All It Was 5 Skyy First Time Around 6 The Nobles Jealousy 7 Skip Mahoney Janice (Don't Be So Blind To Love) 8 Logg I Know You Will 9 Rainbow Brown Till You Surrender 10 Salsoul Orchestra Take Some Time Out For Love 11 Fonda Rae Over Like a Fat Rat 12 Inner Life Moment Of My Life CD2 1 Barbara Mason Another Man 2 Leroy Burgess Heartbreaker 3 Loleatta Holloway Love Sensation 4 Cashmere Do It Anyway You Wanna 5 Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes Don't Give Me up 6 Switch Keeping Secrets 7 Yarborough & Peoples Don't Waste Your Time 8 Terri Wells I'll Be Around 9 Simplicious Let Her Feel It 10 Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes feat Nikko Today's Your Lucky Day 11 Penny Ford Dangerous 12 The Gap Band Big Fun Ian D

A great, great record which I eventually heard by accident. I always loved it but classed it as just a great pop record. I thought it was almost Northern Soul but always kept it in the pop section in my collection. It had a bit of a resurgence when it was used in "Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels" to great effect. It was only recently when I was doing some research that I found out that it used to be played at The Wheel, which kinda makes perfect sense really. Who were the Castaways? Does anyone know the history of this record? Ian D

Well, I don't think Dick was ever Shalamar's manager but he did run Soultrain and then Solar Records with Don Cornelius. I had my issues with Soultrain but may he rest in peace. Ian D

OK, now we're talking Soulgirl! Wanna share the knowledge LOL.....? With College Radio promos it always seems to me that there's a bias towards major label Pop & Rock, which is generally what I've experienced whenever I've hit Ivy League college towns. More Simon & Garfunkel rather than Stanley Mitchell if you get my drift. But having said that, I've stumbled into great records in a wide range of places so I'm a believer........ The best bet would surely be to target small Black local radio station DJ's from the 60's and early 70's and ex-employees from local independent record distributors in the 60's and 70's. You could probably narrow this right down with extensive research and locate people who grabbed the freebies at the time and then put 'em in the loft and forgot about 'em. Ex record company sales, marketing and promotion people from the 60's and 70's is another area which would surely have a better than average hit-rate. Likewise those personnel who worked in pressing plants or distribution hubs. The really interesting stuff is still out there. It's like whenever a U.S. dealer asks me what I'm looking for, I always tell 'em that I don't actually know, 'cos I really don't. I've found a few of the rarest records ever made by complete default. When I found a Primettes acetate one time, I kinda knew it was a goodie but I couldn't tell you why. It just looked special. Likewise the Dick Baker combo (the most wanted record in the world at one point). My heart missed a beat when I saw the first real copy of "The Duck"/"Love Runs Out" - Willie Hutch. I had no idea that this was "Let's Do The Duck" by Richard Temple. But I didn't really have to know. It instinctively FELT like a great record and struck me like a lightning bolt when I found it in a crate of radio station library 45's. There'll still be 100's of great Northern Soul 45's that probably never even got properly promoted or distributed. Maybe a couple of copies went to a local radio station and a couple of local shops and then the rest probably got put in the cellar, garage or loft and forgotten about. I mean, we KNOW all about rare records and some of these records are ridiculously rare. How many times have we been surprised at finding out that a major Northern Soul goodie was originally released via an even tinier local label? So still a way to go yet I reckon. Ever the optimist! Ian D

I was only in Upper Darby for a day in December 1976 so I called by Val's in the late afternoon and ended up staying over at his place 'cos he was good enough to put a complete stranger and fellow record hound up for the night. I never really got the chance to seriously dig through his shelves 'cos I knew they'd already been zapped by John Anderson previously, so I wasn't in hyper-intense digging mode. Fact is that Val never stopped talking about his experiences - especially in the field of rare Doo-Wop. Much more dangerous and expensive than the Northern scene at the time - "Stormy Weather" by the Five Sharps on Jubillee was the one to find right then. Ridiculously rare. So I had a BRILLIANT time and packed a LOT of knowledge and experience into my 24 hours in Philly. Despite having an attempted mugging on me (which failed miserably 'cos I chinned the twat and then the cops turned up immediately thank f*ck) and the CRAZY Canadian black guy who Val banned from the shop whilst I was there (and who stiffed me for cab fare on the way to the airport), I had a wild time in Philly thanks to Val. I even turned up at House Of Oldies at one point and spent around 2 hours digging through just one 20' x 20' pallet of 45's (out of 1000 pallets) and decided that I'd need at least a year to cover the place. Also it was a pallet that was heavily skewered towards Country & Western so I got bored. I had a drink with Keb Darge earlier this week and he showed me the kind of stuff he's playing at the moment - virtually all 50's and knowing Keb, rare as hell and EXACTLY the kind of stuff his audience wants to hear. He had a couple of one-offs too. If you think Northern's hard, then imagine trying to dig up rarities from the 50's. This is seriously rare stuff. So consider yourselves lucky. 60's Northern is EASY compared to some stuff! Ian D

There ya go Soulgirl. It'd be interesting to know where your mate's dad went to college in the 60's. My guess is that it would be a white upper middle class kinda community so he's probably got more Pop/Rock in there rather than obscure Soul as a random guess. I don't think Impact or Mary Jane woulda had the resources to mail to colleges somehow. But, as always, I'm dead curious as to what is in there. If I was doing this seriously these days, I'd probably talk to local barbers in Black areas who have been around for the last 50 years. They'd know the deal and who the players are locally. It'd probably be a ratio of a 95% crap waste of time but then that INCREDIBLE 5% random hit is what drives us all isn't it? Ian D

What's the capacity of the 100 Club then? Maybe it's bigger than I thought........ Ian D

Yep just invested in one myself. It's unbelievable that he made so much great unreleased material innit? Makes me wonder what else is in those Roulette vaults........? Apologies that it's taken me 2 years to stumble into this but what a find! Ian D