Ian Dewhirst

I'm with your wife dude. I think she was pretty bang on. If you were attending soul clubs from 1971 and it took until Wigan closing in 1982 - some 11 years, before your 'ears were opened to real soul music', then how did you manage to miss out on the vibe and the incredible music that that happened throughout those previous 11 years despite being there? Youthful dementia, intensive treatment with psychotic drugs or aggravated deafness? There must be some reason..... for me it was the best era bar none. So I'm curious. I reckon you're a dark, dodgy, underground kinda guy who dislikes crowds. Ian D

Going To A Happening on UK Vocalion was in the first record collection I bought, circa 1971 or thereabouts off Lord Jim in Huddersfield. It was a big Twisted Wheel record by all accounts....... Ian D

I think they're at the bottom of a very long queue right now. My forthcoming Northern Soul: The Film 14 x 7" box set has booked the priority fast line and it'll still come out 4 weeks after the CD/Interview DVD version! We're lucky we're getting it out before the film! Ian D

Demon are locked into certain deals with certain plants, so whilst we generally get the quality we want at a price we want, it doesn't allow for much flexibility at times like this. As I point out most weeks, there are places where we can get a quicker turnaround but the production guys always tell me that the prices for those plants are beyond what they want to pay. It's a shame 'cos when I was running Simply Vinyl in the 90s it seemed we were spoilt for choice..... However I am getting the same story from other people about the vinyl turnarounds right now. In fact a fellow Soul Source member was lamenting today about how he's being messed around at the moment and another guy is talking about suing a plant because they can't deliver his vinyl in time for a tour, so it's deffo getting nasty out there..... Ian D

It's a bugger. The production deadlines for vinyl are getting crazy now. Everybody's manufacturing at the same facility and the plant is constantly revising the dates even when everything's been delivered on time to their original deadlines. Of course, the 1,000,000 Beatles LPs which are currently in manufacture elsewhere hasn't helped either since that plant is full up so people are desperately switching to other plants. It's a mess..... Ian D

We're wondering if we should edit out the bit where he insists that he hates Northern Soul..... Ian D

Yes, that's why we wanted to do it, so we could put everything into some sort of context. Glen's been away so I'm picking back up with him today touch wood... We're going to get that timeline drawn up so it's along the lines of a 'Family Tree' of clubs since 1968........ Ian D

John's pretty media-adverse so I'm not so sure he'd have done it to be fair. Watch out for Richard Searling's interview with John Anderson on the forthcoming box set "The Odyssey: A Northern Soul Time Capsule 1968-2014". The full interview was 2 hours and is currently being edited. It's great! Ian D

Hmmmm. Some incredibly interesting patterns are coming through now. Half the battle has been trying to convince people that this project is the real deal and not just a quick knock-off. Everything is beginning to punch through now. The next 8 weeks will be nuts I guarantee. All good from this end. Ian D

OK, news from the front-line folks. This is turning into an extraordinary soundtrack release based on pre-awareness and general market 'buzz'. With 4 weeks to go to the soundtrack release and 8 weeks to go to the theatrical release, we're in a pretty great place right now. Mainline PR is now about to kick in and Radio promo will start from the end of next week. All formats are performing out of their skin. Both the main 2 x CD/Interview DVD package and the 14 x 7" Special Vinyl edition + Film Stills book package have exploded and never been off the Amazon top pre-sellers in numerous charts for the last 3 months. The limited-edition all-singing, all-dancing package has now sold-out I believe. We've even taken the precaution of clearing and preparing a single CD format of just the soundtrack in case people ask for that too. The demand from all areas has been nothing short of astonishing. This is what it's all about for me. How many people will listen and fall in love with Towanda Barnes, Linda Jones, Lou Pride, The Tomangoes, Edward Hamilton & The Arabians, Eddie Parker etc, etc. purely as a result of listening to this package? Hopefully loads. It's about time this music got some national recognition. And just wait 'til they see the f*ckin' FILM! It's very weird. I've never known so much general mainstream interest in a release in my life. It's a good job I prepared for this. Ian D

'Festival Time' - San Remo Golden Strings beats the hell out of 'To Win Your Heart' - Laura Lee..... Ian D

Looking at late October Martin, providing we can edit down the days of footage we seem to be accumulating...... Ian D

Luke worked from a tower block on Canary Wharf because he wanted to film the whole lot being built over 5 years with a time-programmed camera. He was fantastic. I appointed him 'cos I couldn't afford the guys who did the Andrew Lloyd Webber artwork and Luke was the closest that I could find who could achieve the look that I wanted for the series. I liked the work he did for Creation especially with an album called "Keeping The Faith" of all things! He worked out just brilliant. Running Mastercuts was the best job in the world back then for me too! Ian D

Small world ay? Was this through Chromotome Design (Luke) by any chance? We were always meticulous about clearing those images. It's only boring to me 'cos it seems to take longer to trace and clear the bloody images, then it does to have the creative idea to use 'em in the first place, so add that to the numerous other things and I end up with 95% admin and 5% creative, which is horrible for someone like me........ Ian D

Only 33% aimed at you cover-up! I did get the joke by the way but I'm nervy at the amount of work still to on the Odyssey (an apt name if I ever I heard one). I've just spent the last few weeks completing the 'Northern Soul: The Film DVD' and I did nothing creative on that at all, just all the boring stuff and that took long enough in itself. I then agonised over the music clearances, so maybe I'm a tad sensitive about music in documentaries. Rest assured, we won't be going the route of re-recording all the backing tracks with 80s synths and crappy drum samples I promise, even though that would be a lot simpler and less expensive than clearing the original through both the owners AND the publishers as there are two separate entities to clear with for DVD releases. Twice the pain and commercially punitive plus establishing the correct rights-owners is a whole other ball-game. No wonder I'm sensitive...... Ian D

Those 60s and 70s U.S. (and to a lesser extent U.K.) promotion guys were the best in the business in my view and they're pretty much who I learnt from. You have to develop a thick skin in this game 'cos rejection happens all the time. I think a lot of it's about belief in a record or project. Some of those U.S. radio promotion guys sometimes couldn't get arrested with a record at first but they still continued to work it relentlessly city by city and state by state and sometimes those same records would go on to sell a million and become big hits. Anyway, off to Peterborough now to interview Colin. Toodle pip! Ian D

Right up your street Mark. A 2 hour Richard Searling interview with the mega enigmatic and media shy John Anderson? Pure gold! Ian D

This is what I love about the scene. People putting the boot in without having any idea of the amount of time and sacrifices that getting these projects together take. I'll wait to see whether any of these anonymous knockers behind the security of their keyboards can ever actually manage to create anything themselves instead of just knocking other people's efforts. Fat chance of that. We did Ady Croasdel and Ian Levine 10 days ago, Guy Hennigan on Wednesday evening, we've got Colin Curtis @ Peterborough tomorrow and Dave Thorley and Soul Sam next Wednesday and that's on top of the 30+ interviews we've done since March. Why anyone would have a go at a project that is attempting to document the scene from the very people who have influenced it massively throughout the last 47 years is just way beyond me. It's a strange old bitter and twisted world out there...... Ian D

A mine of information - I use it at least once every week. Plus I credited the site on the HDH box set! Thanks for your help Dave! Ian D

Yep, Harmless has a forthcoming monster of a box set coming later in the year called "The Odyssey: A Northern Soul Time Capsule 1968-2014". We are currently licensing the tracks as there'll be somewhere between 250-300 tracks, editing the accompanying book and including 2 x DVDs which will feature interviews with numerous DJs, record-dealers and people who are on the scene, both young and old. Probably circa 24 hours worth of interviews since March this year. Will be a bugger to edit but hopefully we'll be done by the end of this month. Will keep everyone posted as we near completion. Ian D

Well, now that I've thinned out some of the stuff in the house, I've started on the shed! I have boxes and boxes of stuff plus my wonderful top of the range Kenwood Hi-Fi system with a beautiful record deck to go so will list that too shortly. This is a real find but I have to be ruthless, so I'm looking for a good home for this. This is a 560 page typewritten list in a Lever Arch file of all the master tapes which were transferred to Abbey Road studios when EMI bought Roulette Records in 1991, including year of release, tape format and label of origin etc, etc. Since Roulette (owned by the infamous Morris Levy) had it's hands in many pies since the mid 50s, there are a wealth of labels included. For example, Roulette, Colpix, End, Gone, Jubilee, Fury, BT Puppy, Tiger Lily, Romar, Josie, Tico, Rama etc and all the TK labels and subsidiaries like T.K.,Marlin, Glades, Clouds, Weird World, Sunnyview, Contempo etc. There's also a large amount of 'unknown artist' tapes which list the titles and when they were recorded which looks pretty interesting if you're a vinyl hound. It should ideally go to a serious collector/archivist who can use it as a reference tool. It's kinda fascinating because of Morris Levy's involvement in New York record circles from the 1950s-80s, so it's a very interesting document to see exactly what EMI were buying from Roulette plus the advantage of knowing what physical masters are in the Abbey Road vault! Haven't got a clue on how to value something like this, so I'll do an auction via PM and the best off I receive by Thursday 8.00 pm gets it. Best, Ian D

Yep. Weird innit. But I don't really mind 'cos it keeps my feet on the ground in a bizarre kinda way. Don't forget that I spend my working week dealing with megalomaniac music biz types, sharp-tongued slippery lawyers, bitter and twisted artists, the BBC and Southern Rail, so I come on here to relax and wind-down a bit........ Ian D

Yep, it was around for a few weeks. Mecca/Cleethorpes era, so it had it's run in the sun...... Ian D

LOL, something's gone wrong with the quote system. I think we must have overloaded it with different coloured responses! I think we're sort of swinging from quite different perspectives really. I agree with you about many things - I'm no fan of the retro Northern look anyway. I was out of the oxford bags phase pretty sharp (by '74 I think) and did most of my clothes shopping in Manchester where I'd often bump into Richard - you could only get Kickers in one shop in the North back then, so we weren't even wearing any obvious Northern attire by circa '74/'75. In fact when the whole Wigan's Chosen Few/Wigan's Ovation stuff blew-up it just wasn't a cool look anymore anyway. So I empathise with your sentiments there for sure. I think the difference is that there is 'tat' which is made for a fast buck and quick turnover and there are quality products which are worth buying and will provide years of enjoyment. You can't really put all nostalgia in the tat catergory. I'm still listening to 60s and 70s recordings and re-reading 60s and 70s books and occasionally re-watching 60s and 70s films - all the good stuff obviously. I've mentioned the Museum idea several times before. I like to try and preserve culture while it's still preservable. I know how easy it is for stuff to just disappear and then be lost forever. So I'm thinking of something along the lines of a properly-run and funded institution that would do the job properly, not a knock-up marquee with a few mugs in. I just think it should be done but in a tasteful way. I find it amazing that the northern based Cultural Heritage people haven't taken the initiative already. However, there is one area that we're definitely poles apart on and that's this:- ".I've got pages of Traxsource releases to catch up on following my holiday and my time is far better spent there..........." This would be like a form of Chinese water torture for me and would absolutely lack the patience to do this as religiously as your good self. I tried it one Saturday a few years ago and listened to 16 hours of new releases and I'm damned if I can remember any of 'em now. However, I always check your chart, see what's near the top or what's been hanging in there for a while and give 'em a listen and see if they stick. So don't ever give that up. I estimate that you've saved me several months of enforced listening right there! See you on the road, for another beer no doubt! Ian D