Ian Dewhirst

Unfortunately can't make it this Sunday so Al is covering and hopefully I'll be back next week! Ian D

It was on Friday night LOL..... Ian D

Damn. Another tortured soul. RIP Whitney. Ian D

There's no easy answers here. I totally empathise with Andy, Arthur, Butch and Steve. It must be infuriating when you've either discovered or revived a rare tune and when it finally reaches a level of acceptance then suddenly a legitimate reissue, or worse still, a boot appears. I've been there myself and there's a level of sadness in knowing that the lustre has disappeared for that particular tune and you won't be able to play it anymore 'cos every other Tom, Dick and Harry will be playing it. So I sympathise to a certain degree. However, I remember when I started putting out the Mastercuts albums in the 90's (albeit covering different scenes to Northern and Modern), I'd occasionally get a snidy comment from one or two record dealers when I dropped by record fairs and they'd be accusing me of killing the value of the originals. In actual fact the value of the originals increased because more people got to hear the tunes because of the albums and subsequently wanted to own the originals. Plus the added advantage that the repertoire owners, artists and songwriters all got paid properly and saw their songs reach a much wider audience (back in the good old days when you could sell 50K of an album). The real bile should be directed at the bootleggers as they're the one's who are just out to make a quick buck. I don't put John Anderson in that catergory at all. He's probably done more to increase the awareness of hordes of lesser-known artists and many people are thankful that he did. Leo's Sunship is still being licensed out regularly to this day and that's a record that would probably have just become a big money collectors item and maybe never found the audience that it subsequently did if it hadn't been for John. It still doesn't seem as bad as it was in the 70's though where some weeks half a dozen fresh bootlegs would appear. I remember Colin Curtis flogging his originals off for a couple of quid each every time they were booted and saying 'they're no use to me now'. And they weren't. On the other hand there's been some fantastic 7"ers released in the last few years that would never have seen the light of day at all if people hadn't have taken the time and effort to get them out there. As I said, there's no easy answers here, except avoid the bootleggers at all costs 'cos they don't benefit anybody. Ian D

Incredible. You couldn't give this record away in the 70's and 80's. The Ninandy copies used to be around in quantity..... Ian D

When I first came onto the scene, it's fair to say that the Invitations "Skiing In The Snow" was the No.1 record on the scene and also one of the rarest records ever - at the time there were only 2 known copies. I think it's an incredible record to this day and a brilliant example of perfect Northern Soul under the original term. Conversely, the Wigan's Ovation version was a complete piece of shit and a horrible Pop cash-in. Ian D

Some more of those wonderful Tom Moulton remixes here:- 1st Hour The O'Jays - Backstabbers - Tom Moulton Remix The Three Degrees - Year Of Decision - Tom Moulton Remix Jose Burgos feat Kenny Bobien - For Your Love - Tom Moulton 2011 Remix Luther Vandross - Never Too Much - Fingerman Re-Edit Marvin Gaye - Got To Give It Up - Elijah Collins Re-Edit Archie Bell & The Drells - Where Will You Go When The Party's Over - Tom Moulton Remix 2nd Hour The Casualeers - Dance Dance Dance The Idle Few - People That's Why Bobby Hebb - Love Love Love Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose - It's Too Late To Turn Back Now The Four Tops - If I Were A Carpenter - Apple Scruffs Re-Edit Brenda Holloway - All I Do Is Think About You Junior Walker & The All-Stars - Way Back Home Inst & Voc The Jones Girls - Nights Over Egypt - Tom Moulton Remix David Ruffin - Walk About From Love - Soho 808 Re-Edit Lou Rawls - You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine - Tom Moulton Remix https://www.sixmillionsteps.com/6MS-2012-01-29-Starpoint.mp3 Ian D

Many apologies for the late posting folks! Up to my neck in work at the moment so better late than never! We continued pretty much from where we left off last time with several more utterly brilliant new Tom Moulton remixes from the upcoming "Philadelphia International Classics: The Tom Moulton Remixes" now due in early March touch wood. Plus some cute new mixes and new re-edits and some stone Northern killers and a brace of beautiful Motown gems. As per usual the Starpoint chatroom was packed so many thanks to all for joining in with lovely Sunday afternoon banter. Six Million Steps Presents The Original Mastercuts Show LIVE with Ian Dewhirst between 2.00-4.00pm on Sunday 29th January 2012 on everyone's favourite Soul station www.starpointradio.com. Download link below. Featuring...... 1st Hour The O'Jays - Backstabbers - Tom Moulton Remix The Three Degrees - Year Of Decision - Tom Moulton Remix Jose Burgos feat Kenny Bobien - For Your Love - Tom Moulton 2011 Remix Luther Vandross - Never Too Much - Fingerman Re-Edit Marvin Gaye - Got To Give It Up - Elijah Collins Re-Edit Archie Bell & The Drells - Where Will You Go When The Party's Over - Tom Moulton Remix 2nd Hour The Casualeers - Dance Dance Dance The Idle Few - People That's Why Bobby Hebb - Love Love Love Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose - It's Too Late To Turn Back Now The Four Tops - If I Were A Carpenter - Apple Scruffs Re-Edit Brenda Holloway - All I Do Is Think About You Junior Walker & The All-Stars - Way Back Home Inst & Voc The Jones Girls - Nights Over Egypt - Tom Moulton Remix David Ruffin - Walk About From Love - Soho 808 Re-Edit Lou Rawls - You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine - Tom Moulton Remix https://www.sixmillionsteps.com/6MS-2012-01-29-Starpoint.mp3 Also I'll be up in Leeds for 'Heritage' @ Distrikt this coming Friday 10th February for a brand new city centre night with Paul Schofield & Liam Frisco just mere yards from the old Central club where we started some 35 years ago! Catch you next Sunday afternoon 12/02/12 between 2.00-4.00pm sharp! Ian D

I passed through Savannah in the late 80's and found a fantastic place on the edge of town, it was almost in the woods. The guy had bought a lot of stuff from when James Brown was made bankrupt so he had tons of James Brown related memorabilia, stage clothes etc and a mammoth stock of 45's. Typically I was with a U.S. girlfriend and her family at the time en route to Hilton Head island so I only had 20 minutes or so before they started agitating to leave and get to Hilton Head island! So I left with a couple of Lorraine Chandlers and an Ann Sexton and vowed to go back there by myself next time. Naturally I never did make it back but the place has haunted me ever since. It definitely would have been a bonanza. I'm pretty sure someone else must have found it since............ Ian D

Also, unless I'm mistaken, didn't John have something to do with those Swan re-issues that Global did in the early to mid 70's? Guys From U.N.C.L.E. and the Modern Redcaps etc.....? Once again I think Rick Cooper could shed some light on those....... Ian D

Yep, I guess you had to deal regularly with John simply in order to know which of the hundreds and hundreds of crates to look through! I reckon it would have taken years to go through the lot properly. If ever there were such a thing as too many records, then House Of Sounds was it LOL.... Ian D

Mmmm. 18 copies of Greg Perry "It Takes Heart" 12" listed on Discogs with the average price being somewhere between £5-10:- https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?release_id=439429&ev=rb And the winner @ approximately 1000% uplift on the normal price is: https://www.discogs.com/buy/Vinyl/Greg-Perry-It-Takes-Heart/48748077?ev=bp_rel_det $125 is surely overdoing it a bit isn't it? Ian D

Hi Dave, Well I was there in 1976 but I can't say I really dealt with them per se. It was the most amount of 45's I've ever seen under one roof in my life. A huge operation with hundreds of millions of cut-out 45's in a one block long and one block wide building with 5 stories and every story was filled with 20' x 20' wooden crates full of records. I think Rick Cooper and John Anderson would be the guys to speak to. There's a tremendous amount of information on John Lamonte and House Of Sounds in the book "Stiffed: The True Story Of MCA, The Music Business And The Mafia" by William Knoedelseder:- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stiffed-Story-Music-Business-Mafia/dp/0060924942 John got badly beaten up by Morris Levy's thugs and had to have a full facial reconstruction before he went into the witness protection programme in the 'cut-out' scandal that plagued MCA in the mid 80's. The above book documents the whole case and is a cracking read! Ian D

Reports just coming in that Don Cornelius has been found dead at his apartment from a gunshot wound. Early reports are suggesting suicide...... https://www.hollywood...ul-train-286390 Ian D

Don't buy 'em though. All bootlegs! Ian D

Ian D

I've just found a great Philadelphia International: The Re-Edits megamix on Soundcloud by Greg Womack:- https://soundcloud.com/womackreworks/philly-re-edits-megamix-womack Some lovely snippets in there..... Ian D

"Ode To Billy Jo" - Bobby Gentry "Wichita Lineman" - Glen Campbell Ian D

"Love Insurance"? Ian D

I concurr with Dean on this. The term Jazz-Funk sprang up around '76 and held pretty much until the end of the decade. This was a period when both Disco and Jazz-Funk dominated the UK dance-floors, with Jazz-Funk being the more 'credible' of the two terms. This was also the period when it wasn't unusual to see artists like Herbie Hancock, The Crusaders, Rodney Franklin in the UK Pop Top 30. Had you asked any of the regular club goers or all-dayer goers in the late 70's what they were into or what scene they were in, they would have said 'Jazz-Funk' without hesitation, much as a decade later they would have said 'Acid Jazz' or 'Rare Groove'. Ian D

Coming up LIVE @ 2.00pm! Ian D

In fact that's the exact track listing from Classic Jazz-Funk Mastercuts Vol 1. One of the few 'specialist' albums to sell over 100K copies (mind you it was re-licensed 4 times over 12 years)! Ian D

Well, I'll probably be recovering from the Starpoint Club Soul gig @ the Holiday Inn Heathrow tonight hence I thought I'd better post the show early! We'll be continuing pretty much where we left off last time with several more utterly brilliant new Tom Moulton remixes from the upcoming "Philadelphia International Classics: The Tom Moulton Remixes" due at the end of next month, some cute new mixes and new re-edits plus some stone Northern killers and a brace of beautiful Motown gems. All in all it'll be another wonderful way to while away a couple of hours on a cold Winter Sunday afternoon so hope you can join me in the Starpoint chatroom for some warm banter. Six Million Steps Presents The Original Mastercuts Show LIVE with Ian Dewhirst between 2.00-4.00pm on Sunday 29th January 2012 on everyone's favourite Soul station www.starpointradio.com. Featuring...... The O'Jays * The Three Degrees * Jose Burgos feat Kenny Bobien * Luther Vandross * Marvin Gaye * Archie Bell & The Drells * The Casualeers * The Idle Few * Bobby Hebb * Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose * The For Tops * Brenda Holloway * Junior Walker & The All-Stars * The Jones Girls * David Ruffin * Lou Rawls Hopefully I'll catch some of you tonight at Club Soul at the Heathrow Holiday Inn, Sipson Road, Heathrow on Saturday 28th January where I'll be spinning with Barry Stone and giving away some 'Philadelphia International: The Re-Edits' packages to some lucky people. Also I'll be up in Leeds for 'Heritage' @ Distrikt on Friday 10th February for a brand new city centre night with Paul Schofield & Liam Frisco just mere yards from the old Central club where we started some 35 years ago! Catch you Sunday afternoon between 2.00-4.00pm sharp! Ian D

Hi Bob, To get an idea of the different scenes that were going on the 70's and 80's it probably easier to check the track-listings on the various Mastercuts albums I did in the early 90's which cover areas like Rare Groove, 80's Groove, Jazz-Funk etc, etc. There's a listing here:- https://www.discogs.com/label/Mastercuts Look from CUTSCD1 TO CUTSCD44 and ignore everything else 'cos those others were nothing to do with me........ Ian D

Pretty much. It was really interesting for me when I moved to London in 1983 'cos I'd gone through the Northern, Modern, Disco and Jazz-Funk scenes whilst I was up North over the 70's and early 80's and then I got to London and suddenly I was hearing most of the records that were rejected up North for being too funky or sluggish etc, etc. But somehow they all made sense when hearing 'em in the Wag or the Africa Centre. It was a buzzzing scene at the time. My only regret is that I left thousands of Rare-Groove/2 Step stuff in stores in the 70's when they were like 10 cents each....... I think a lot of two-step stuff was played by Kev Edwards up in Warrington in the mid 80's. I seem to remember him telling me that the biggest record at one time was Arnold Blair "Trying To Get next To You" and it was going for a couple of hundred quid at the time.......which is kinda weird 'cos I left a 100 count box at a warehouse in Telford in the late 70's (along with Lew Kirton "Heaven In The Afternoon")..... Ian D