Amsterdam Russ

Interesting read about the environmental impact of producing vinyl for today’s record market. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/28/vinyl-record-revival-environmental-impact-music-industry-streaming

Thanks, Mike. I did have a look round to see if it had been posted already, but obviously missed it.

Just found this article published online by Mixmag. It covers the all-too familiar territory featured in the countless articles that have come before it. You know the drill... working class roots, Dave Godin, Twisted Wheel, Wigan, dancing, drugs, Ian Levine, etc, etc, etc. Your choice whether you decide to read it... https://mixmag.net/feature/northern-soul-and-the-birth-of-the-all-nighter

Too late. Keith Fletcher's been organising a twice yearly soul cruise from Hull to Rotterdam (and back again) for some years.

A very commonplace bird here in the Netherlands, but I thought this young heron worthy of a photo as it posed quite dramatically against a clear blue sky on the terracotta roof tiles of a house opposite. We've seen this particular heron on rooftops and street lamps several times in the last couple of weeks. It should be at ground level where it can catch food, so I think it must have had a recent scare. Possibly, as there's road and water side-by-side here, it was nearly hit by a car when hunting. Certainly it won't catch anything up there.

Perhaps unfortunate in the context of its vinyl events, but I believe the name relates to the bar's prohibition theme.

You're going to this? If so, with Lionel Earlysounds45s (better known as record collector/dealer Lionel Romano) among the DJs, you're in for a treat!

Thanks, guys. As far as I’m concerned, 7:30 in the morning isn’t just a different time, it’s a completely different dimension! should have stayed under the duvet.

Cold and misty in the Amsterdam woods at 7:30 in the morning!

Undoubtably played “first” by many, many radio stations stateside and wherever the track was issued around the world at the time of release in 1965. Oh, and don’t forget Cal would have performed it countless times on the innumerable jazz circuit venues he would have attended.

I've now posted up the flip side - Watermelon man - at the request of Steve Fuchs. Steve's also said that just 100 copies of the 45 were pressed as giveaways for friends and family. They did this because they were concerned about how they might have to pay royalties to the composers of both songs - Clarence Carter and Herbie Hancock – bearing in mind that the band had produced and pressed the 45 themselves. This meant that neither of the two tracks ever got any radio airplay. The band was together for about two years and split when John Draws and Steve Fuchs were drafted into the army. Steve stayed in the Marine Corps for 28 years before settling in Honolulu where he still lives today.

I'm guessing the now-dead link to the tune on YouTube was to my old channel, which I accidentally deleted some years back. I did re-upload all the tunes I'd posted, including this one. Just today, one of the band members – Steven Fuchs – commented on it as follows: I also received a comment from another member of the band – John Draws – four years ago: If anyone does have a copy for Steve Fuchs, let me know or get in touch with him via YouTube.

Thanks for that. From what I've read, it seems the UK is suffering the biggest decline of lapwings. Europe's population overall is in decline, and the most recent data I could find states: Source: https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/northern-lapwing-vanellus-vanellus/text

Any idea what categorises a species as "red listed"? Sounds a bit over dramatic to me at this point. Just because there might be less of them in a region due to changes in agricultural practices doesn't mean they're seriously endangered as a species does it? Or is the "red listing" purely a parochial "English landscape" thing for the sake of media attention? That wonderful - and ahead of its time - film, Tawny Pipit, somehow comes to mind...

Thank you for that. Very interesting. I had no idea that in recent times trademarks had become so easily and readily available. The possibilities are now endless. Ta very much.

Can I politely ask, in what way is "Dean Anderson's Sound of Soul" trademarked? Is it the "Sound of Soul" part, the whole phrase, or is using the trademark symbol just a novelty/gimmick? Thanks in advance...

Red listed? They're ridiculously common over here in the Netherlands. I see huge flocks of them every time I take a bus to the nearest train station (10 minutes away), and they've always been populous in all the time I've lived here. Similarly, house sparrows are very common, unlike in the UK. That perhaps points to something being very wrong with the natural environment in "good ol' Blighty"!

A very sad start to the New Year. RIP Lorraine. You live on in our hearts.

Thanks! A UK equivalent would be interesting, but it'd take a hell of a lot of doing!

More likely to be an early arrival then. Otherwise it would surely have been spotted prior to those March dates.

Thanks. As for Scotland, when it's no longer part of the UK, I might think about including it in the list.

I wonder - would that have been an overwintering swift or a very, very early summer arrival?

For five years now, I've run a Facebook group called the European Soul Club Network. It's a listing of soul events that are held in 'mainland' Europe (including Eire). For several of those years I've collated all the listings to give an annual summary of the number of events held by country, town and city. It's far from scientific and relates solely to events posted within the group, but it does provide an interesting snapshot of what happens where. One clear observation is that there were less events (297) in 2019 than in 2018 (325). Also, we see an increase in the number of events in some countries (Ireland, Germany and Spain, for example) and a notable falling away of events in others (for example, The Netherlands). In the country ranking, Germany is yet again the clear leader. And not only does it hold the most soul events annually, but it also has the most towns and cities that host soul events. Berlin continues to be the hottest spot for soul action with 39 events recorded there during 2019 as opposed to 25 the previous year. ESCN Soul Index 2019 Most soulful countries of 2019 by number of events recorded in the European Soul Club Network: (+ ranking & number of events for 2018, 2017 & 2016) 1 = Germany: 132 events (#1/119 + #1/85 + #1/65) 2 = Spain: 32 events (#5/25 + #4/23 + #5/16) 3 = Italy: 28 events (#2/32 + #2/33 + #3/23) 4 = Ireland: 22 events (#6/15 + #7/14) 5 = Sweden: 20 events (#4/27 + #5/22 + #4/19) 6 = The Netherlands: 15 events (#3/28 + #3/27 + #2/32) 7 = France: 13 events (#5/25 +7/14 + #6/10) 8 = Belgium: 11 events (#7/10 + #10/8 + #8/7) 9 = Denmark: 9 events (#6/15 + #8/11 + #7/8) 10 = Czech Republic: 4 events (#9/6 + #10/8 + #9/5) 10 = Greece: 4 events (#8/9 + #11/7 + #11/3) 11 = Switzerland: 3 events (#10/4 + #12/6 + #10/5) 12 = Portugal: 2 events (#10/4 + #13/5 + #12/2) 13 = Austria: 1 event (#11/2 + #14/2 + #13/1) 13 = Russia: 1 event (-/-) Total = 297 events (325/266/195 events) Most soulful cities/towns by number of events recorded in the European Soul Club Network, plus position in ranking 2018: (+ number of events for 2018, 2017 & 2016) 1 (1) = Berlin (DE): 39 events (25/18/13) 2 (3) = Hamburg (DE): 27 events (21/20/20) 3 (5) = Dublin (IE): 20 events (14/13/-) 4 (2) = Amsterdam (NL): 13 events (22/25/27) 5 (15) = Munich (DE): 10 events (2/2/-) 5 (6) = Stockholm (SE): 10 events (12/13/11) 6 (4) = Copenhagen (DK): 9 events (15/11/8) 7 (13) = Düsseldorf (DE): 7 events (4/2/-) 7 (9) = Milan (IT): 7 events (8/7/4) 7 (7) = Rome (IT): 7 events (10/4/-) 7 (16) = Valladolid (ES): 7 events (1/-/-) 8 (12) = Bilbao (ES): 5 events (5/4/-) 8 (11) = Brussels (BE): 5 events (6/3/3) 8 (8) = Cologne (DE): 5 events (9/2/1) 8 (14) = Dresden (DE): 5 events (3/3/-) 9 (11) = Barcelona (ES): 4 events (6/7/7) 9 (15) = Bologna (IT): 4 events (2/-/-) 9 (12) = Darmstadt (DE): 4 events (5/1/-) 9 (11) = Nice (FR): 4 events (6/4/1) 9 (10) = Tübingen (DE): 4 events (7/5/4) 10 (-) = Duisburg (DE): 3 events (-/-/-) 11 (9) = Gothenburg (SE): 3 events (8/7/6) 11 (-) = Leon (ES): 3 events (-/-/-) 11 (16) = Malmo (SE): 3 events (1/-/-) 11 (12) = Nüremberg (DE): 3 events (5/4/5) 11 (11) = Prague (CZ): 3 events (6/5/5) 12 (16) = Aachen (DE): 2 events (1/-/-) 12 (15) = Albufeira (PT): 2 events (2/2/-) 12 (15) = Antwerp (BE): 2 events (2/1/-) 12 (9) = Athens (GR): 2 events (8/7/-) 12 (15) = Bamberg (DE): 2 events (2/1/-) 12 (-) = Bruges (BE): 2 events (-/-/-) 12 (16) = Falun (SE): 2 events (1/-/-) 12 (-) = Leipzig (DE): 2 events (-/-/-) 12 (14) = Mönchengladbach (DE): 2 events (-/-/-) 12 (12) = Örebro (SE): 2 events (5/-/-) 12 (14) = Paderborn (DE): 2 events (3/-/-) 12 (14) = Saint Gallen (CH): 2 events (3/3/-) 12 (13) = Stuttgart (DE): 2 events (4/5/4) 12 (16) = Töging am Inn (DE): 2 events (1/-/-) 12 (13) = Villingen-Schwenningen (DE): 2 events (4/4/-) Locations with one recorded soul event: Benidorm (ES) I Bordeaux (FR) I Bremen (DE) I Calvia (ES) I Calvisson (FR) I Carpi (IT) I Collecchio (IT) I Corfu (GR) I Donostia (ES) I Dortmund (DE) I Eindhoven (NL) I Erfurt (DE) I Fontanafredda (IT) I Fucecchio (IT) I Galway (IE) I Genova (IT) I Hagen (DE) I Ibiza (ES) I Inchicore (IE) I Kassel (DE) I Lavarone (IT) I Leuven (BE) I Linz (DE) I Los Alazarez (ES) I Los Alcazares (ES) I Lucerne (CH) I Lyon (FR) I Madrid (ES) I Malaga (ES) I Marburg (DE) I Marseille (FR) I Mojacar (ES) I Monterotondo (IT) I Ninove (BE) I Oviedo (ES) I Pamplona (ES) I Passau (DE) I Plzen (CZ) I Rhodes (GR) I Rimini (IT) I St Petersburg (RU) I Tomelloso (ES) I Turin (IT) I Utrecht (NL) I Valencia (ES) I Vienna (AT) I Weissenhaeuser Strand (DE) I Wittmund (DE) I As mentioned, it's ultimately a bit of entertainment. At the same time it does show there's a thriving soul scene across Europe, and long may that continue!

No problem here. It's all relevant chat.

Thanks. That’s really quite amazing!