Ian Dewhirst

There's a red hot re-edit of Silvetti around at the moment which I played at a beach party in Ibiza in May and which blew 'em away. I reckon they heard me play it and now it's crossed over to Majorca! Ian D

Well Disco was alive and well before it ever got integrated into the Northern scene. In fact, it could be argued that the two were always interlinked anyway. The Northern scene adopted First Choice's "This Is The House Where Love Died" - their debut release and then they had the crossover Disco hit with "Armed And Extremely Dangerous" - their second release. Similarly Millie Jackson's "My Man Is A Sweet Man" was a mainstream 'Disco' record which sounded perfectly at home on Northern dancefloors. Really, when you think about it, the only difference between Northern and Disco is the difference in production techniques which was pretty much the difference between 60's recordings and 70's recordings really. The bpm's are the same and the subject matter in the lyrics was often the same. Some of the more twee Disco tracks from the 70's could be compared to some of the more twee Supremes recordings from the 60's, in which case neither would be played on Northern dancefloors for being too commercial. I can remember a time when Four Below Zero's "My Baby's Got ESP" was roundly denounced for being 'too Disco', yet it still went on to be a monster eventually. I'd say that the U.S. had very little influence on what was played in the Northern clubs for the most part. The Disco records which the Northern scene liked tended not to be the ones which crossed over and any that did get played got rapidly dropped as soon as they became crossover hits. For that reason I'd never class a record like Tavares' "Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel" as even remotely Northern despite it's brilliance. It was always a pure Disco record to my ears. I personally didn't like it when records like Esther Phillips "What A Difference Day Makes" and "Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel" were played in the Northern clubs. To me they didn't really sit properly with the older stuff and I could hear 'em in all the local clubs anyway. However, I did like the more obscure and obviously less Disco contemporary releases which were played at the time which would never have been played in the local clubs, if you see what I mean. I can remember happily going out to local clubs and hearing the likes of Van McCoy, George McRae, Tavares etc and loving 'em for what they were in that context but I was looking for something different on a weekend when I hit the nighters............ Who would have though that Imberboy would turn out to be a closet Disco freak? Patrick Hernandez was bad enough but he's now showing alarming signs that his musical education may have been better served had he been hanging out at the Saint in New York rather than hanging around the back streets of Wigan in the early hours. Have you checked "Savage Lover" by the Ring or Patrick Juvet's "I Love America" yet Simon? They should be right up your street mate! Ian D

Corectomundo. Ian D

Nope. Horrendous (sigh....).I cut and pasted the clip number but obviously no cigar........too clunky mate. There's easier ways to drive yourself mad on a Sunday night......Ian D

No I think I can handle a Refosoul search thanks Chalky and if it takes me a further ten clicks to post the bugger up then so be it. T'other sides not bad either...... There I did it! Still a pain in the arse though..... Ian D

Mmmm. Maybe I should start making my tropical island retirement plans early then.......? Ian D

Yep, credit where it's due Sean. It's a great advertisement for people who may not otherwise know about that kind of music and if they stumble into your channel and get off on Ann Peebles then great! Job done. And the next set of Backbeats should be in the shops in a couple of weeks. I'll post up track listings and info on a seperate thread shortly 'cos your albums should be dead certs for SS'ers. Also I'm getting some banner ads for these done so hopefully they'll be up on here shortly too! Best, Ian D

Which is pretty much the point I was trying to make. Never intended it to be a 'who has the bigger dick' battle between You Tube and Refosoul. They both have their uses...... Ian D

Yep. Also You Tube is an 'open' system which means it's accessible to hundreds of millions, that's why when you pump in a general search on a record it'll often be at the top of the page and instantly accessible to all. I'd class Refosoul as more of a connoisseurs tool and less as a general search reference.......... Ian D

Mike, With respect, I find Refosoul to be one of the clunkiest most user-unfriendly devices I've ever had to try and get my head around. Anything that's not easy to use and instantly workable I'm afraid just doesn't do it for me. This is no reflection on Soul Source or the fact that Refosoul is probably the best Northern Soul reference tool on the planet, it's just a shame that it feels like it was designed by a set of cluless programmers back in the early 90's who obviously delighted in making the system as inpenetrable as they possibly could. I've tried many many times to try and work with it but always ended up giving up because frankly, anything that's so clunky to use is a time-waster for me. Not just me either by the looks of it. I must read something on here every week from plenty of other people who can't use it either. Ease of use is a big thing with me just lately and it's not just Refosoul that hacks me off, it's tons of stuff that has been badly designed by people who don't understand the needs of the end user and the list is endless........ The other point is that when I'm searching for stuff I'm not necessarily just looking for input from the Northern Soul fraternity, as good as it may be. I like a wide palette and like searching for all kinds of stuff so when I highlighted You Tube it wasn't a personal attack on S.S. or Refosoul. It's a time issue Mike - I just find pumping a quick search into Google will take me to all sorts of places quickly and often take me on a tangent to other stuff which I'm interested in which I may otherwise never have found. In the same way, I wouldn't ever just go to one supplier for records because frankly I've found tons of stuff in the unlikliest of places, so it's pretty much the same on t'internet. But, in order to keep in harmony with everyone, I'll persevere with the dreaded Refosoul. I think the same people who designed the SAPS accounting system that I have to deal with every day at work and which is truly the worst designed system ever inflicted on the public must have designed Refosoul in their spare time. And whilst I'm at it, what's the deal with the random placement of emoticons that seems to be happening just lately? Hey, no one ever said it was going to be easy! Ian D

Good point Dante. I think it encourages like-minded people from around the world to explore music. The beauty of it is, if someone hears a record that really moves them and subesquently does a Google search on it, there's a good possibility that they'll bump into lots of other stuff which other people from around the world have posted. I'm constantly amazed at what's out there. I mean, I think I'm pretty damn knowledgeable across a number of areas but you never stop learning. That's the beauty of it really........... Ian D

Haha LOL. I saw that copy too Soulechoes! I was half-way tempted myself. You got the bargain of the century there mate. Great record and very obscure so well done. But good point you made about driving hundreds of miles to hear a record. This was something I did every weekend in my teens because I had no responsibilities, almost unlimited time and unstoppable energy. These days I'm loaded with responsibilities, have zero free time and I have to pace myself accordingly. However, what I can do, is zap the lappy up and then trawl the tens of thousands of forums, blogs and You Tube channels looking for stuff which rocks my boat and then track it down before a stampede starts. Much easier. Before it would have taken me several trips to the U.S. at massive expense, days and days of getting covered in cobwebs and rat shit to pull out a few killers and then try explaining to my loved ones why this was a good thing. Anyway gotta go. I just hit some guy's blog from South Carolina. He obviously collects Beach Music and I cannot believe what I've just heard..........! Ian D

Most Soul Sourcers do embrace new technology 'cos they're on here in the first place. But this is a scene which is governed by 7" pieces of plastic. So it makes me wonder if any Soul Sourcers actively use the Internet as a research tool to find new sounds? I haven't been in the business of discovering fresh Northern Soul since about 1977 mainly 'cos my career took over most of my free time and moved me in different directions. Plus I think most serious DJ's and serious collectors will agree that collecting or digging for Rare Soul is really a 24/7 obsession that doesn't leave much time for anything else. So, if the internet had been around back in the early 70's, I'm pretty sure that I'd have got even less sleep (which would be hard to believe) because my thirst (aka obsession) would have kept me up most nights in that constant search for new tunes. No doubt whatsoever. I use the internet all the time now simply because it's faster at getting me to what I want then going upstairs to the record room/library or across to the other half of the lounge which is my CD library. I spend a lot of time just researching stuff and looking for inspiration for new album ideas or new tunes for my radio show and, as a result, I constantly keep running into some FANTASTIC tunes from some weird sources. I'm amazed at where stuff springs up. It could be a French Boogie site or a Brazilian Disco Collectors site or more often than not, simply a general blog which is written by a serious music lover. I've discovered more utterly brilliant tunes which I'd never heard before via the internet then I ever did crate-digging. And I can do it all from my sofa, which, at the of 55 suits me better than spending 12 hours a day in damp, dusty basements sifting through tens of thousands of junk before the odd gem manifests itself. Yes folks, the internet arrived exactly at the right time for me. You Tube is rapidly becoming the No.1 key source for me. You key in an interesting record on Google and lo and behold, someone's posted it on You Tube. For instance, anyone into Deep or Southern Soul should check out Sean Hampsey's You Tube channel as a great example. When I was checking out some Hi/Cream/Paula/Ronn/Jewel/Soul Power stuff from the Demon catalogue I kept coming back to Sean's channel 'cos he'd posted some of the goodies up there and the Google searches kept bouncing me to either Sean's channel or zillions of threads on Soul Source. So I asked Sean if he fancied compiling a couple of KILLER albums for Demon as a direct result - I'll post the details shortly but rest assured, Sean was exactly the guy for this particular job. In my book, anyone who has the obvious knowledge, dedication and level of passion to spend time posting their thoughts or tastes on the internet should also be the people who should be entrusted with the job of compiling dedicated CD's in their areas of expertise. Check out Sean's You Tube channel:- https://www.youtube.c...JustSoulHampsey However, it can be frustrating too. I have a legion of like-minded mates around the world who know my tastes and if they bump into something they know that I'll like, then they call or e-mail me to see if I know it. One of these guys is my mate Jaffa who doesn't spend any time on forums but does obsessively collect all types of vinyl, so he's on the phone all the time. Because I've been around forever I know a good 70% of most of the stuff he flings at me, so when he rang last week and said he had a GREAT record by the Blade Family, I thought I already knew it. Their "Sweet Dream" had been on my shelves for 30 odd years before someone prised it out of me. I don't think I ever played the bloody 'B' side "My Baby's Gone". So I pumped into You Tube and had a nasty shock. It's f*ckin' GREAT. Her vocals are sublime....... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWe5kcOCPqA A great tool. Anyone else use it for finding stuff? Ian D

Well I was kinda disappointed with her as a vocalist so, like yourself and purely in the name of research, I checked out her porno CV. I mean, hell, there's no doubt about it, she was pretty supple and could sure hit some interesting angles but for some reason I kept focussing on her chin, so the overall effect was somehow diluted to be honest. A bit like the record in a way......... Ian D

Wow. You should be in PR mate. Great enthusiam. Damn. I'm beginning to want the record myself now.......... Ian D

There are always surprises and they can crop up anytime, anywhere and quite often by complete accident. Some of my best-ever hits were in places that had apparently already been hit. Yeah right LOL..... I remember telling everyone that had ever asked me, that trying to dig L.A. was pointless. Soussan had hit it first and then I went on and cleaned up better than him. So no chance. Forget it. Several years later, Arthur Fenn went into an L.A. distributor that both myself and Soussan had been to at least 20 times and where I found the original one-off Si Hightower 10" test-pressing. He managed to hit a room that I had never had access to and had one of the best hits of all time. It was embarassing. Those 100 Joe Hicks originals and the first John Hendley could have been mine godammit! So anything is possible. Some of the best hits are accidental. After several days of serious digging in the worst parts of L.A. my then partner put her foot down and insisted that we go to the beach for the weekend. The understanding was that there'd be no record digging. So we went to the beach and after a couple of hours I got bored and said I was going to buy an ice lolly. As I walked up the street to look for a place that sold ice lollies I got inexplicably drawn into a 2nd Hand Furniture store and found a goldmine of incredible Northern Soul. It turned out the guy had run a music store in New Jersey throughout the 60's and early 70's and then re-located to L.A. and got into furniture and just put his old record stock in there 'cos he didn't know what else to do with it. I got multiple copies of incredibly rare records but guess what? I left 1000's of other records because I didn't know 'em. So it doesn't surprise me that some guy that trawls different areas for different stuff for his e-bay sales could well run into a hundred copies of a Northern Soul goodie. That's his job and good luck to him. He got a result. I'm off out tomorrow, heading into areas I haven't checked before, looking for interesting stuff whilst on the way to have lunch with a mate who lives 30 miles away. I'll probably find something that's valuable and worth picking up along the line. I found £200 worth of Boogie rarities last Saturday locally, so maybe tomorrow I could hit an incredible collection that's just been dumped in a charity shop. I'll be disappointed if I don't........ Lofts and basements are the way to go. I mean, your name is deadwaxdetective so you must know about these things.......... Ian D

None whatsoever. Ian D

Nah Mike. I mean how many Soul singers do ya know called Patsy? And how many have surnames called Gallant? And a song called "Get That Ball"? It could only be kinda crappish couldn't it.......? Ian D

Yeah but Andrea True Connection was much better at porn than singing - it looked to me as if Disco was cashing in on the New York porno scene........ Ian D

Because shortly thereafter she had a Top 20 UK hit with a track called "New York To L.A." which kinda gave the game away.......... Ian D

Yep. Odd. Even if the name didn't give it away then the voice sure did. I don't even know the record and I'm not even curious......... Ian D

Course I've got a copy! Found 2 mint white demos in Denver for 25 cents each so many happy memories of both sides! Ian D

Not to my knowledge Blake. Mind you, it was awful enough for Ian to have played it when he was in his Disco phase......... Sorry about the 15 month gap in the reply LOL. Was doing some research and dug up this great thread again! Top research material! Ian D

Not on this one I'm afraid. I think was covered in a thread from a few years back though....... Funilly enough, I have a contact who deals with S.S.S. regularly so I'll do a bit of digging and see what I can glean...... Ian D

"Get It Baby" - Stanley Mitchell at full blast! 100% unadulterated Northern Soul with the most relentless Detroit Rhythm section of all time, a brilliant Wylie/Hestor production and vocalist who has no other purpose in life other than to whoop, holler and shout "C'mon and Get It Girl" every 10 seconds or so. That gets my blood circulating! Ian D