Ian Dewhirst

Still speculative mate. The soundtrack will be out 4 weeks before the film's due so even that date's a guesstimate. We're hoping for an announcement of the film's release date from Universal imminently. Ian D

Blimey. This is swinging around a bit isn't it? Looks like Amazon are teaching us to bite whilst the iron is hot ay? Ian D

A massive shock and a massive loss to the Soul scene. Bob brought a refreshing U.S. perspective to Soul Source and helped put many things into a wider context and made many of us respect other areas of this music. The Soul world will miss him massively. R.I.P. Bob. I sincerely hope you're in Sweet Soul Heaven mate. Ian D

Blimey. That is a killer price. No wonder it went No.1 on 3 of their charts. To be able to get the ENTIRE 7" catalogue of Invictus/Hot Wax and Music Merchant plus all the unreleased stuff and the Moulton mixes for under £50 is the bargain of the century. And I'd say that even if I wasn't involved! I think Amazon use some algorithms which tell 'em what's going to work over the long term and the moment a release is looking good it kicks in a lower price automatically. This release is selling incredibly right across the board - export sales have also been exceptional. All good. It couldn't happen to a more deserving release and I'm over the moon for HDH! Ian D

LOL, glad I got the 5th Star re-instated! Ian D

Wow! A first for Harmless! No.1 on all 3 Amazon charts! Many thanks for everyone's support! Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 310 in Music (See Top 100 in Music) #1 in Music > Pop > Disco #1 in Music > R&B and Soul > Classic R&B #1 in Music > R&B and Soul > Motown Ian D

LOL, serves you right for being greedy! I never did work out exactly how many hours of music there is on there. Gotta be 16-18 hours at a guess....? Ian D

There aren't any. And before you pull me on it Johnn Billy West's name is spelt like that on the label! Ian D

Well you've been pretty quick of the mark old bean, but hopefully it will be up there as we completed all the ISRC codes. Fingers crossed 'cos tagging 14 x CDs would take an age. I know this 'cos I had to type it all up in the first place! Ian D

Nice one Steve. The first customer to report back! It should be on everyone's shelf! Ian

You won't be disappointed. Everyone who's seen it thus far has been blown away. It's a real work of art! Ian D

Details soon all. It's a monster of a project which will be at least 10 x CDs and 2 x DVDs compiled by myself and Tim Brown, packaging and visual content by Glen Gunton and sleeve notes by Simon White. Many many incredible interviews with key people plus a massive Richard Searling interview with Kenny Gamble and lots lots more. Covers the whole of the scene from 1968-2014. It's a time-capsule so we have to get it right! Ian D

Styrene though innit? Those white promo vinyls are just beautiful. Found two in Colorado and the record never sounded better! Ian D

Also it's currently holding the Harmless record for export pre-sales orders and is a buzz album on Amazon plus we have some amazing press and radio unfolding over the next few weeks so hopefully we'll get some decent coverage before the World Cup onslaught. I'd like to be a fly on the wall when Brian, Eddie and Lamont get to see the finished article! Hopefully they'll be as blown away as I am! Couldn'tbehappier.com. Massive thanks to Mike and all @ Soul Source for the quality of the membership! We've enjoyed huge support from the Soul Source fraternity and all contributors have been respectfully credited within the package. Seriously, this incredible package would have been impossible to assemble without the contributions of many key S.S. contributors so pat yourselves on the back fellas! This is one to be proud of! Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,859 in Music (See Top 100 in Music) #8 in Music > R&B and Soul > Motown #11 in Music > Pop > Disco #12 in Music > R&B and Soul > Classic R&B https://www.amazon.co...versary box set Oh, did I mention it's out on Monday? Thanks to all! Ian D

Wow! Finished copies arrived on Tuesday but I've only just had the chance to examine one. Result? Utterly fantastic to have the complete Invictus/Hot Wax and Music Merchant U.S. 45s, both A and B sides at your fingertips, thus releasing the pain-in-the-ass job of trying to find the stuff in your collection! A very very handy piece of kit whichever way you look at it. Plus the package just looks great and is really easy to navigate. Naturally this is my own view and I'm obviously completely biased but it certainly does the job for me. Pre-sales on this are simply incredible and I'm heartened by the fact that the export orders for this are really incredible for a box set of this size. So I'm delighted. Time to go on holiday whilst I'm still on a natural high. Out on Monday. Don't dick around. Just order it now! Will post some pics of the finished package when I get if I remember! Ian D

Hi Benji, on the info that went to Amazon for the CD track-listing, for CD2 it says "Plus more tracks to be confirmed shortly) but they didn't see fit to include that on the page Grrrrr...... It had to go up on Amazon before the track-listing was completely finalized due to pressure from the Sales and Marketing boys, as they are obsessed with getting projects up there as soon as possible! Apologies for the confusion (one reason why I HATE putting anything up there before it's ready). Ian D

No probs. Please bear in mind that this is totally Elaine's project and she's very hands-on with the music choices as anyone would expect her to be, so all the tracks are her own choices, which is fine. I'm certainly not gonna argue the toss with her (and woe betide anyone else who dares LOL). She's actually away on a foreign location at the moment but she still took 10 minutes this morning to feed some more tracks into the project. The whole licensing process can be very frustrating for everyone. We're currently waiting to hear if some 4 other tracks which have never been legally comped before can be used so I'll update as soon as we hear. Ian D

And lest I forget, the good Ady Croasdel was also the main source for contacts and was highly involved in the licensing clearances for the film. I think it's fair to say that for everyone involved in this, that it's been a true labour of love! As of this point it's already looking remarkable! Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 203 in Music (See Top 100 in Music) #3 in Music > R&B and Soul > Soul #8 in Music > Pop > Pop R&B #19 in Music > Box Sets Ian D

A couple of things on this. The soundtrack album needed to be loaded onto Amazon early because that's the way that things seem to work these days with the Sales and Marketing guys. We're still waiting for a release date for the film from Universal so the album date will certainly be linked to the release date for the film which means that the present release date is likely to be changed. I find some of the comments on the track listing a little mystifying. I think it's a great balance of the complete soundtrack on CD1, Elaine's personal choices on CD2 and a bonus DVD of a full interview with Elaine about the making of the film. Neither CD has been sequenced yet but the tracks have all been LEGALLY licensed, many for the very first time unlike some of the previous CD releases! In fact, the tracking down of some of the tracks has taken both the film licencor (Gary Welch) and the Demon licensing teams literally months of trying to locate the proper owners. Many tracks that were on Elaine's preferred list could not be cleared for legal reasons or the owners could not be verified to the lawyers satisfaction. This is becoming more and more difficult now with even the major's now turning down tracks that they've previously licensed for other compilations. Some tracks took literally months of hassle before the legal guys were happy to proceed and other tracks had to be reluctantly turned down because of the ridiculous rules that certain licencors tried to put into place. There are also problems with certain companies and stuff like i-tunes and single downloads etc which are far too tedious to get into here. But I can assure everybody that this is anything but an 'amateur' outing! There's been more professionals involved with this then most other albums I've ever worked on. We're lucky that we managed to even get an album like this together LEGALLY OK? The CD2 track-listing will also have some others added touch wood. Also there'll be a 14 x 7" disc vinyl edition of the soundtrack too for those who want 7" vinyl. Plus a separate and very tasty artwork book of some of Elaine's incredible photos along the way. It's a prestigious audio release for a prestigious film. Ian D

I don't think so. They quite obviously use out-of-date price guides instead of real-time sites like Discogs. I'm often staggered to see many run-of-the-mill things priced at sometimes 2-400% more than the average price on Discogs. I know it's for charity but I don't think paying waaay over the odds for stuff is the way to go..... Ian D

Great proper UK indie label. I like the cut of it's jib but I know very little about it. I'd love to know the story behind why this little indie ended up signing former hit-makers the Foundations and Limme. I think they sold jack-shit of any release but I'd love to know who was behind the label........ Ian D

It used to be but I haven't seen any around for years. Fantastic double-sider. The arrangement is out of this world..... Ian D

Yes. Ian D

Blimey. Where does it go wrong Arthur? Ian D

Yep, I heard that story and it makes sense because hardly any other copies have shown up from anywhere else since. Even Clarence Avant who ran Sussex couldn't remember the record....... Ian D