Mattbolton

Guys, I never implicated Richard. As much as his choice of music that night was way off from my personal tastes, I respect him and his endavours in progressing soul far too much. Not least he'd just sold Sam the Sag Warfare I danced to the night before..... ;) Jaco, the Circus WAS great and Woomble and Sam were superb.

Barry, as far as I can see, it's All About The Soul. which is what I always presumed Northern Soul weekenders should be about. I'm usually on the right track so to speak. Just never expected anyone to be riding wooden horses. Pete, I'd be naiive to be expecting rare newies or funky stuff in the main room. But on boots?! Seriously?

Dear Mr Roberts This weekend I finally completed a lifelong ambition of dancing to soul music in my childhood playground, the Blackpool Tower ballroom. However I must write to say how disappointed I am, not at the overall music policy but the fact that for two and a half hours, in the closing session of your weekender, two grown soul DJ's played close to 80% bootlegs in front of a crowd of many lifelong soul collectors. The Saturday night main room was peppered with underwhelming repeats and flogged dead oldies from a genre of music that spans over ten years from over 50 states. The fact that your events will never have the same quality of DJ's and music as the likes of Cleethorpes and Prestatyn is to be expected, but to endure a painful stream of bootlegs from the likes of Prince Phillip Mitchell, The Epitome Of Sound and The MVP's was nothing short of an insult. And in a world where punters pay hard earned money for original 45's, completely unacceptable. In stark contrast to this, the previous night saw one of the world's top rare soul spinners play perhaps the greatest hour of music I've heard in 15 years. In a corridor. On a carpet. To place this disparate quality of DJs on the same bill is an indignity to those who search long and hard to provide people with an original record. Never would I begrudge having to pander to the tastes of a largely 'classic soul' appreciating audience but to do this on a series of £5 reissues really is embarrassing. One of the DJs in question defended his case with the opening line, 'Some people use CD's, now we don't do that'. Before telling me to 'get a life'. As an aside he also reacted angrily to another woman who questioned the provenance of his records. With no alternative musical arrangements on the Sunday night we had no option but to leave early in disgust. Had I and my friends not made a 450 mile round trip perhaps we would have felt slightly less aggrieved, but I can assure you that we were far from the only ones who had travelled great distances and felt so short changed. Your claim that Blackpool is perhaps the greatest weekender in the world is due in whole to the grandeur of the venue rather than your commitment to providing an interesting offering to a knowledgable audience. Although we shall sadly never return, in future I think it only fair to other punters to ensure that the whole cast of main room DJs reflect in someway the level of skill, commitment and talent of those who crafted that beautiful ballroom. Yours Sincerely, Matt Bolton

What the f*ck is wrong with Cleethorpes?! It's been the go to for people with better taste for years......

Brad Lundy - I'm At The Breaking Point. Think it's got so much more soul than Deena Johnson's version.

My fave on the label.... George & Sonny Sands. Down By The Ocean...

It's all about Take A Stand and Rare So Rare on that for me. Two LP tracks of unquestionable quality.

We had The Royal Counts' 'I'll Always Love You' at the wedding cos it's simply amazing.... And incredibly better than the Tops' version.

"can whosoever... PLEEEEAAAAAASSSSSEEE pass... I'd be eternally grateful. Thanks." I couldn't be arsed to ask politely. I thought I'd publicly plead instead.

Cheers Chalky, I wondered where that'd gone! ;) Thanks for the constructive feedback Boba. With due respect it was hardly a secret. There was already a well established, explicit thread prior to mine. Not least, by the time I'd even shown any interest there was already $1000 on the clock so it had hardly gone under the radar. Also, I'm not interested in seeking eBay names, I've never really aligned myself to the buying habits of other collectors enough to know their real names from a bidding avatar. It's probably gone to one of four I can think of. I don't need to align the tracks in fancy software. They're perceptively different, just maybe not to your ears. ;) Think you're right Ady, same backing, different vocal takes on both sides.Â

Oh, and I'm aware that it's Freddie Waters, but the harmony mix is different (read 'better') on the acetate. ;)

In fact, I'd be surprised if a few deep/beach collectors aren't in for this. That 25 second clip is miiiiles better than the main track.

Someone on here is undoubtedly bidding on this. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Unknown-60s-Northern-Soul-Acetate-HEAR-/330714182575?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item4d0019f3af#ht_553wt_1101 It's a long shot, but can whosoever wins it PLEEEEAAAAAASSSSSEEE pass me an MP3 of the flipside. It's beautiful. I'd be eternally grateful. Thanks. M

Cheers for that guys. It's been bugging me for ages. Pete I was unaware they split the sides. That's ace, and weird. Though would likely make sense with a track like this. Now to find the other disc I guess! M

I know it's not the most sought after record in the world (though it IS one of the most exciting!) but thought I might find some joy on here. I've got this one sided, green, UK RCA 'Demonstration Copy' of The Isley Bros. Shout Pt 2. It's date stamped. As far as I can tell the 78 for this is pretty obscure, but I've never seen and can't find another. Any UK obsessive collectors out there help me? Cheers. M

Not really a plug, but MoveOnUp in Leeds must be one of the longest running weekly clubs. 14 years this year. 100 Club deffo longest running club night. And for good reason.

Hey ho. Getting rid of my copy of Freddie Houston's fabulous 'Softwalkin'' on Toto. A superb dramatic backing with Freddie's huge lungs extolling the virtues of having gotten his lass to the dance. Well done Freddie. It's got the nice picture sleeve too. Really good condition. £50 Ono. Cheers Matty

Granted it's more Jazz related, but I found Buddy Rich's Live at The Chez Hollywood LP with the killer version of The Beat Goes On in Saturn years back. I'd bought so many records I'd actually maxed my card and had to borrow the $6 for the LP. When I got it home I opened the gatefold to see Buddy's autograph bold as day. Well chuffed

We might as well all get together in a public lav then and start something revolutionary. And quick. People die like buildings and they only offer some kind of history as long as someone can be arsed to remember them. For my tuppenth I think it's disaster that something with such massive historical importance is facing near certain death. Not least because I was supposed to have my wedding reception there. But because every GREAT, truly GREAT entertainer performed here. From Jackie Wilson to The Pistols to Miles Davis. Can anyone of us think of anywhere that offers the same heritage over so many years and genres? Be sure that if it was the Groucho Club that was in such a perilous state it'd have a big grant pumped into it and a big blue plaque on it before you could say 'inherited wealth'. Perhaps this is one fight for which we should put up our dukes and say 'fuck you'. In a time when the country is slowly sliding into the sea, both metaphorically and literally, it's a shame that we can't be bothered to save the very few things we have left that define British culture. It's all well and good saying that this and that have disappeared in the past, but there's really, truly nowt left anymore and nothing to replace things in their wake. The Astoria was actually a worse loss because it showed how much influence the wankers at city hall have over things that offer the plebs so much enjoyment. Well done to them on building a starship sized terminus to ship people into a vibrant area they destroyed in the process. If we're not even prepared to fight for this it's time we all went to sleep and dreamed of better days when there were actually places to go to.

To be honest Steve many of my favourite films are British. From Mike Leigh's 'Secrets and Lies' to 'Quadrophenia'. Both of these are great examples of British film-making that exhibit that stark realism in the way they are presented. It's not meant to be a snobbish comment, I promise. It's the way most British producers work, in antithesis to the hyper-real gloss of Hollywood overproduction. And it can work wonders onscreen. But if you're gonna strip that slick visual element away you've gotta be certain there's a decent plot and strong dialogue. It's just like a soul record with terrible production that still shines because of the superlative efforts of the musicians playing on it. Soulboy teamed that unglossy visual style with really awkward shots and uncomfortable dialogue. And that's what I felt made it so cringeworthy. It was an simple (read, boring) plot hung very badly on an ill thought out framework of Northern Soul. Perhaps the film just wasn't for us. However, it was pointless for us to stay and watch it further merely for the sake of critical purposes. If it helps any, I really wanted to enjoy it and was eagerly looking forward to a film based even loosely on our chosen culture.

Absolutely. Good Choice. Though Jackie Wilson in my living room would be my preferred choice. I think the missus might object to having it in the bedroom.

You lucky swine. I'm a huge Jerry Butler fan and it's a joy to hear unreleased stuff like this. Thanks for sharing it. And I thought I was happy with my 'Make It Easy On Yourself' Bell Sound outtake! Would love to hear this cleaned up. He's got the greatest voice! Apart from Jackie of course.

Thanks for showing me the label for this. It's been a fave of mine for many years but there's very little about it. Probably cos very few people have one. Butch said it took him 25 to get a better copy than his previous one. Which only ended up being VG! Have begged him to see it ever since! A superbly rare record that got lost in the dusts of time. Thanks again for that!

Not sure how qualified I am to comment on this since we looked at each other in horror after 40 mins and walked out in shock. But i'll relate my experience with it as honestly as I can. This film has without doubt the worst script I've ever seen. The actors had no chance to shine against such dreadfully uncomfortable phrasing and Martin Compston's character seemed way overacted. I've seen homemade, no-budget, fanboy Sci-Fi films with more pizazz and attention. I really felt for the actors since there appeared to be so little room to add any realism in such a donkey of a script. It was painfully British looking. And not in a good way. This Is England is the right way to make a British film. Stark and crisp. Soulboy plumped instead for cheap shooting (from bizarre angles) with not even a glimmer of style or substance. It looked shallow, like no extras wanted to be part of it. I wasn't expecting Ben Hur, but I'm sure there were people on the streets in 1974. Whoever did the research needs to go back to Manship's Price guide. Was I the only one to see that cringingly inaccurate UK Cameo Parkway 'white label' get stomped on by the overzealous 'baddie'? It was shocking and even my girlfriend who has no interest in records looked at me with an expression of bewilderment. That's only a minor gripe but one that highlights the fact that using soul as a focus was just a cheap (and ill-advised) shot at trying to sell a bad plot. By someone with no interest in the subject matter whatsoever. I'm glad I didn't stay for the 'dance-off'. I'd have asked for my money back. And I got in for free! All money they were gifted appeared to have been spent on an admittedly breathtaking recreation of the front of the Casino. That and paying umpteen digital artists to hand ink the This England footage they bought after their inevitable fiasco with filming in Stoke. Terrible. This film simply didn't need to be made. There are better romantic comedies and much richer ways of interacting with our cultural heritage. As coming of age films go, it might as well have taken one look at Quad' and admitted defeat. I find it alarming that the Arts Council are funding rubbish like this. I'd rate it a 4. And I'm feeling generous. Soulboy 'Retro' hoodie anyone? Not even Plan B is interested........

Butch has been playing the acetate of this for years. I usually hound him for it at the 100 Club. First heard it on the boot in Goldmine in Manchester. Thought I'd discovered something amazing. Till Tom told me it was a cut from an acetate. Still one of my fave Butch spins.