Ian Dewhirst

Wow. Thanks Simon. It's amazing how much information one can glean from a simple one syllable three letter answer so many thanks for the depth of your reply and the amount of detail contained within. Did you enjoy Cleethorpes? Feel free to just gimme a quick answer if ya like...... Ian D

Wow, just heard this stormer from '82 which ticks all the boxes - produced and arranged by Gene Redd on a tiny N.Y. label. Has it ever been played? Ian D

I'm gonna bootleg your bootleg guide and get mine out first LOL! Frank

Nothing much that I can find either apart from the Malaco site which has a list of distributed labels:- https://www.malaco.com/Catalog/list.php Ian D

Even worse was myself and a colleague bought the rights to distribute the P&P catalogue for 3 years off him for $10,000 a couple of years back. We got the first release out only to be informed by Unidisc that they'd bought the rights from him in 1999! Cue massive amounts of legal hassle, potential litigation etc, etc. At one point it was suggested that maybe I should fly over there, go to Harlem and get the cash back LOL.....(anyone who knows Peter would know that the chances of that were zero). It only got sorted in the end because the other parties documentation was less than complete and because I basically put the entire catalogue together properly and found most of the missing masters so an accomodation was reached and we eventually got our dosh back. But I had visions of getting over there and having to round-up King Sun, Just Ice and a few other NY heavyweights and apply a bit of pressure LOL. That would've been fun and another one for the book but luckily it never came to that.......... Funilly enough I still speak to Peter every so often. Now he's one person I'd love to do a proper interview with if only I could understand what the f*$k he was talking about! Ian D

Well we can all guess Ernie LOL! Even worse was the P&P DVD. Did you ever see/hear that? It had a Peter Brown interview on it with just abysmal sound quality so it was impossible to hear what he was actually saying even if you could understand the accent! Also it had a horrible looped version of "Atmosphere Strut" as the background music throughout the interview which made listening to the interview even more difficult. When I was putting out some of the stuff on the Deep Disco Culture series, I actually had a guy from New York come in to try and translate the interview but even he gave up in the end. The quality was about the same as most of the records LOL........ Ian D

Haha LOL! You're the don dude! I guess you'd better put Hollandale, Mississippi on the schedule for that road trip next year! Ian D

Also you have to tread veeeeeery carefully with any P&P related stuff. It's probably the most bootlegged label around these days. I can't believe how close the re-presses are to the originals. Peter Brown really is the original Harlem hustler - he's sold his catalogue to two different people and regularly boots his own stuff LOL.... Ian D

Me too Harry. It'd be daft if it were any other ruling methinks. What would they do? Appoint E-Bay Police to pounce on every promo seller? Ian D

A U.S. court has just ruled in favour of people being allowed to sell record company promos on E-Bay...... https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7450112.stm Ian D

Oh, NOW it all makes sense LOL! But typical of Ian, it's just not right for a Radio 2 popular vote. He's blown with that choice I'm afraid. Funnily enough both of his choices didn't really crack it in the decades they were released. The Charades didn't get played until the 70's and Gloria Gaynor didn't crack it 'til the 80's - great records though they are. He'll argue till he's blue in the face, but I still think there were a zillion better choices to better represent the 60's and 70's. I'll get earache over this LOL. He's already phoned up tonight and I'll be at another one of his launches shortly where I'll get him to publically apologise for losing the vote! Ian D

Nowt wrong with my ears youngster! Great record though it is, it's a lousy choice 'cos no none-Northern soul listener will vote for it. Just wait and see and then I'll remind everyone of this thread once the vote's come in! Ian D

Well gotta disagree Jules. This is for 'The Greatest Dance Record Of All Time' which will be chosen by a public vote. I hardly think "The Key To My Happiness" will garner many votes from the UK public LOL..... "Band Of Gold", "Tears Of A Clown", "There's A Ghost In My House" etc would maybe pull some healthy votes since the UK public has actually heard of 'em since they were all massive UK hit records unlike "The Key To My Happiness" which has never been released in the UK and is unknown outside of Northern Soul circles. Anyway, I'll guess we'll see when the votes come in. Anyone wanna take a bet on the Charades winning? Ian D

But the obvious question: Why did they bother booting it????? Ian D

Mmmm, might be better for 'em to just drop the 60's angle completely and concentrate on the 70's onwards methinks........ Doesn't do the 60's a good service at all which is ironic considering the word 'discotheque' was coined to describe 60's clubs......... Ian D

Yep, it just doesn't make any sense at all. Maybe "This Old Heart Of Mine", "Dancing In The Street", "Landslide", "Tainted Love" or "Blowing My Mind To Pieces" or, in fact, several thousand other more popular records which would be a better example of a 60's Dance Classic and would be better than "Key To My Happiness" which wasn't even played until the early 70's anyway, never released here and really wasn't a massive record on the Northern scene either compared to others. It's just nuts. It's probably the choice of a 25 year old researcher who doesn't have a clue! It's already got a massive beacon which is screaming 'not to be taken seriously' before it's even aired! You'd think the BBC would have a bit more bloody sense wouldn't you? This is just embarassing............ Ian D

"The Key To My Happiness" - The Charades???? As one of the Greatest Dance records of all time??? Someone's having a laugh aren't they? Who are the so-called experts? Surely it's patently ridiculous to have the Charades as the 60's example isn't it? For a start, it was never even released in the UK, no one outside of Northern Soul knows it and, good though it is, it wouldn't even be in the Top 500 Northern records would it? Just bizarre and incredibly stupid. It's put me off already............. Ian D

And funny that as I was writing that diatribe it came on the news that many people's loan/mortgage insurances are worthless - apparently two million of 'em because of 'the small print'. Do you think they print it small so that people can't read it LOL? One of the nastiest con-tricks of all time IMO.... Ian D

Just like everything these days, you have to read the small print on ANYTHING. There's a reason why they always put contentious things into small print in the first place and that's mainly because:- 1) People can't be arsed to read it because it's inherently boring and general written in obtuse English which only lawyers can seem to understand and argue about. 2) Many of the clauses are cheap con tricks designed to defraud with a piece of paper rather than a gun and are often immoral and bordering on the grey side of the law IMO. 3) KNOWING that most people aren't lawyers and hate anything boring like small print, most companies cram as much confusing, contentious stuff in there on the basis that 99% of the customers will have no idea what the small print means anyway. 4) Most people would prefer to spend their hard-earned money on something other than wealthy lawyers @ £250 per hour. I always remember that famous deal with Prelude in the 80's when CBS UK managed to get a zero royalty for UK 12" sales in the contract on the basis that the 12" format was a promotional tool LOL. In fact the majority of Prelude's UK sales were on 12" in the early 80's - maybe 80% of them in fact. Yet none of those sales were accounted for because of a slick contract insertion. In this instance, both the US record company and the artist got deprived of royalties on the vast majority of their sales (I think 12"'s were wholesaling @ £1.99 dealer back then as well). Really, if you're an artist you're generally at the bottom end of the food chain! Don't ask me how all this is possible in this enlightened day and age, but apparently it is. Weird ay? Ian D

Canna worms Cunnie! Ian D

Couldn't agree more with your last two posts Paul! Bang on mate! I had a Jeff Buckley white-label test-press of the "Grace" album on E-Bay a few years back and got forced to take it down after Jeff Buckley's estate's lawyer contacted E-Bay, Sony-BMG and me personally. I got forced to take it down and flogged it the next day to one of five private collectors who contacted me privately as a direct result of E-Bay removing the item! So a total waste of time, effort and money which had no real result except, strangely enough, for me. You'd think they'd have bigger fish to fry wouldn't you? Probably a lot of man hours wasted plus a large legal services retainer bill no doubt and all for what????? Just crass stupidity IMO. Ian D

I HATE these bloody modern formats like 7" vinyl records! How dare anyone consider these horrible modern attrocities to be worth anything when everyone knows that the original format is the best. Go play with your silly 7" records and leave the professionals to the real deal:- https://www.vcaauctions.com/show_images.php...p;auction_id=34 Bloody kids! Ian D

Twink used to have his own lathe to cut emidiscs in his garage and he used to order the blank acetates directly from EMI which came complete with blank EMI white labels I seem to remember....... Ian D

Haha LOL. Cheers Mel. Yep, my volume was far too loud. Many apologies - we had to use the guest mike and we haven't yet mastered the art of testing the levels as we have a new mixer in there. Hopefully all back to normal next week. On the other hand, 40 years of listening to music at excessive volumes had essentially made me deaf by normal standards, so my voice is basically louder than most. Oh and the TV volume seems to be creeping up too LOL! And Main Street, Leonard Lidell, Rojas, Mother Fox. Helen Baylor and Brainstorm are all killers aren't they? And the Sherrick version I actually downloaded from EMS 'cos I needed a digital file although I do have the 12" - I'll check but it sounds like a Latin type remix to these ears. Apparently the rest of the tracks on the Larry Hancock album are meant to be duff but I love "Sweet Persuasion". Maybe someone on here has the album and can comment further.......? Thanks again Mel - always a pleasure to hear from ya! Ian D

Great record - utterly brilliant! Sounds like the same session as "You'll Get Enough". Where did this crop up? Is it off the "La La I Love You" album...........? Ian D