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As part of the various features to mark the 18 years of Soul Source (click read about the 18 years landmark) here's a chance for members to get their hands on a mint (mint as in still sealed never opened) copy of the recent DVD/CD Box Set release titled The Odyssey: A Northern Soul Time Capsule Details of the box set follow below, to be in with a chance of winning this all you have to do is just give this article a positive reputation (to do this just look down and right and you will see a green arrow just hit that) Then next Monday the 8th September a name will be drawn out from the list of people who have given 'positive reputation ' and this member will be the winner of this DVD/CD box set Blurb: The Odyssey: A Northern Soul Time Capsule' is the single most comprehensive overview yet of a truly unique UK musical culture which has now lasted over 45 years and had spread across the world. The current popularity of the film "Northern Soul" and it's soundtrack plus the attendant publicity within the mainstream media - a UK Top 10 film smash, a UK Top 10 album smash and No.1 DVD smash have well and truly put Northern Soul at the forefront of people's interest again. This is a very, very exciting musical culture which now seems to be appealing to a younger generation of new fans in their teens who love the energy that Northern Soul provides and have the energy to burn off. Curated by well-known professional compiler, head of Harmess Records and 1970s Northern Soul DJ, Ian Dewhirst, 'The Odyssey: A Northern Soul Time Capsule' is very much a labour of love. The contributors to the project read like a who's who of Northern Soul's golden era. Ian Dewhirst and Anglo American's Tim Brown co-compiled the music and deliberated at length over the myriad of licensing issues. Mike Ritson, publisher of Manifesto magazine, kindly allowed us to use large swathes of his definitive book about Northern Soul, 'The In Crowd' to document the history of the scene. Simon White, journalist and broadcaster, interviewed, supervised and directed the collection of numerous interviews with most of the scene's best-known characters. Richard Searling interviews the world's longest-standing and most enigmatic record dealer, John Anderson, as well as squeezing in an interview with Philadelphia International's Kenny Gamble, who looks through Richard's collection of his own releases from the 1960's and sees many of these UK releases for the first time ever! Northern Soul history! Not one, but 2 DVDs. The 150 page book layout was designed by Glen Gunton and the overall package design by Jaffa - both long-serving Northern Soul stalwarts. The music follows the evolvement of Northern Soul, from its early beginnings at Manchester's Twisted Wheel club in 1968, through to The Golden Torch, Blackpool Mecca, Wigan Casino and Cleethorpes Pier in the 1970s, Stafford Top Of The World and The 100 Club in the 1980s and the huge dearth of Soul weekenders and the 100 Club again from the 1990's to the present day. Featuring a mind-numbing 222 tracks, all licensed from legitimate sources and all of which have been painstakingly re-mastered and documented within the sleeve-notes. The most comprehensive Northern Soul track-listing ever.'The Odyssey: A Northern Soul Time-Capsule' truly does what it says on the tin. This is the most exhaustive history of the Northern Soul scene ever released. Label: HarmlessFormat: CD+DVD Box SetDate: 02/03/2015Cat#: HURTBOX005Barcode: 5014797890350Genre: Soul8 x Cds and 2 X DVDs Amazon Link - Purchase and more info/listings etc http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Odyssey-Northern-Soul-Capsule/dp/B00JYDGJHM Thanks go to Harmless Records for the copy and the chance to offer members what must be the biggest prize yet in the 18 years that have been doing comps! http://www.demonmusicgroup.co.uk/catalogue/labels/harmless/ To be in with a chance of winning this all you have to do is just give this article a positive reputation (to do this just look down and right and you will see a green arrow just hit that) Then next Monday the 8th September a name will be drawn out from the list of people who have given 'positive reputation ' and this member will then be the winner of this DVD/CD box set

After a day of fun and games with the site here we go with news of yet another quality CD release from Kent Looking at one that was pushed out earlier this month, this Kent Cd release features an artist who you could say almost became synonymous to those early kent lps back in those far off days... Mary Love Lay This Burden Down - The Very Best Of Mary Love [Original Recording Remastered] CDKEND 414 Release date 3 Mar 2014 Competition After reading the track listing, Ady C's release notes and the quick lets have a look video, you may be pleased to know that this cd features as the members prize for this wees member comp. All you have to do is "like" this article using the Soul Source like system (the green one!) at the bottom right of this article. Then next week all those members who have 'liked' this article will be put in the soul source hat and a oh so lucky member will be drawn out. Information A quick clip of Kents release notes ... Mary Love’s music was the foundation of our Kent label. Her recordings opened and closed the first two vinyl LPs and various artists CD, as well as appearing on the A-side of the initial Kent 45. She headlined the bill at the premier Cleethorpes Northern and Rare Soul weekender and helped Ace and Kent mark their 25th anniversaries, appearing at the celebratory live gigs. Her death in 2013 was a very sad day for us and her many fans. This career overview CD features all Mary’s pivotal Modern sides, re-mastered from the original tapes. Nine of those 13 tracks are from the multi-track tapes and are therefore presented in their best sound quality ever. They are followed by both sides of Mary’s Josie hit, ‘The Hurt Is Just Beginning’ and ‘If You Change Your Mind’, and her wonderful Elco 45, ‘Born To Live With Heartache’, a major deep funk play in the last decade. The people involved with those recordings include Arthur Wright, Frank Wilson, Richard Parker, Miles Grayson, Ray Charles and Marc Gordon — as talented a bunch of Los Angeles musicians... Kent Records Page - visit for the full release notes and more images http://acerecords.co.uk/lay-this-burden-down-the-very-best-of-mary-love Track Listing 01 Preview You Turned My Bitter Into Sweet 02 Preview I'm In Your Hands 03 Preview Hey, Stoney Face 04 Preview I've Gotta Get You Back 05 Preview Let Me Know 06 Preview Move A Little Closer 07 Preview Think It Over Baby 08 Preview Lay This Burden Down 09 Preview Satisfied Feeling 10 Preview Baby, I'll Come 11 Preview Talkin' About My Man 12 Preview Dance, Children, Dance 13 Preview Is That You 14 Preview The Hurt Is Just Beginning 15 Preview If You Change Your Mind 16 Preview Born To Live With Heartache 17 Preview There's Someone For Me 18 Preview When We Start Making Love 19 Preview Power Of Your Love 20 Preview Joy 21 Preview Loving You 22 Preview I Can't Wait 23 Preview Because Of You 24 Preview Come Out Of The Sandbox 25 Preview The Price As you may guess the packaging is up to a high standard and the release includes a detailed booklet which includes career info and fresh never seen before photos The video below shows all these things http://youtu.be/8epJhEw52V8 Competition Recap See above for the competition details Like to win! all entries via the like as the time of this posting are listed as below 99 in all! to pick the winner a number was generated via this page (1-99) http://andrew.hedges...riments/random/ it was .. Result: 71 so the winner was the 71st person listed below... which was john siret so if John can pm me a postal address a copy of this fine cd will be winging its way on monday to him thanks to all who entered, keep an eye out for next weeks one mike JOBICUS Apr 03 2014 05:07 PM Yorkie Pud Apr 01 2014 12:48 PM forzaitalia Mar 31 2014 07:53 PM Alison H Mar 30 2014 10:30 PM Flynny Mar 30 2014 06:53 AM dunmiedin Mar 29 2014 05:56 PM trog Mar 29 2014 12:00 AM russoul1 Mar 28 2014 07:52 PM ShorterSoul Mar 28 2014 06:13 PM NUFCSOUL Mar 28 2014 02:34 PM daved Mar 28 2014 01:12 PM steve ss Mar 28 2014 12:52 PM Louis Mar 28 2014 12:39 PM Dave Rimmer Mar 28 2014 12:25 PM Benji Mar 28 2014 11:18 AM Mr Faye Mar 28 2014 10:55 AM Maxwell Mar 28 2014 07:18 AM mark tobin Mar 27 2014 10:45 PM Philly Mar 27 2014 10:08 PM 26:10:02 Mar 27 2014 09:49 PM 71 Steve Mar 27 2014 07:37 PM FickleFingers Mar 27 2014 06:44 PM soulpaul0 Mar 27 2014 06:21 PM s7oul Mar 27 2014 05:25 PM Steve L Mar 27 2014 05:21 PM DaveSwift Mar 27 2014 05:08 PM TOAD Mar 27 2014 04:50 PM Supercorsa Mar 27 2014 03:41 PM Winsford Soul Mar 27 2014 03:08 PM Andy Kempster Mar 27 2014 02:53 PM ric-tic Mar 27 2014 01:18 PM Andy Reynard Mar 27 2014 12:56 PM peter burke Mar 27 2014 12:52 PM Gogz Mar 27 2014 12:24 PM Soulman1953 Mar 27 2014 11:52 AM PhilReeves Mar 27 2014 10:54 AM soulboy-spain Mar 27 2014 10:47 AM trev thomas Mar 27 2014 10:46 AM garswood Mar 27 2014 10:09 AM cbond Mar 27 2014 07:31 AM neil olive Mar 27 2014 05:37 AM aintgotit Mar 27 2014 02:31 AM the yank Mar 27 2014 01:58 AM sunnysoul Mar 27 2014 01:34 AM Brav Mar 27 2014 12:55 AM wicked Mar 27 2014 12:30 AM jack7toes Mar 27 2014 12:10 AM jkidd Mar 26 2014 11:03 PM WheelCity45 Mar 26 2014 10:56 PM Mal C Mar 26 2014 10:53 PM soulwolf Mar 26 2014 10:33 PM Claire J Mar 26 2014 10:21 PM Steve S 60 Mar 26 2014 10:16 PM Premium Stuff Mar 26 2014 10:10 PM wolfie66 Mar 26 2014 10:08 PM Pete60 Mar 26 2014 10:04 PM cover-up Mar 26 2014 10:02 PM micksmix Mar 26 2014 09:49 PM back street blue Mar 26 2014 09:35 PM Twoshoes Mar 26 2014 09:34 PM jamesh Mar 26 2014 09:27 PM SoulStu Mar 26 2014 09:04 PM joe lakin Mar 26 2014 08:44 PM mark castle Mar 26 2014 08:20 PM bluemoonjack Mar 26 2014 08:20 PM Jim Cafferky Mar 26 2014 08:15 PM BrianM Mar 26 2014 08:11 PM LambrettaGP200 Mar 26 2014 08:03 PM DerekG Mar 26 2014 07:51 PM bob Mar 26 2014 07:40 PM John Siret Mar 26 2014 07:36 PM Nickg Mar 26 2014 07:32 PM FrostyJak Mar 26 2014 07:30 PM stewartfishcake Mar 26 2014 07:27 PM Tabs Mar 26 2014 07:10 PM KevinKent Mar 26 2014 06:55 PM gointoagogo Mar 26 2014 06:48 PM kevinsoulman Mar 26 2014 06:46 PM alanmandy Mar 26 2014 06:39 PM vynilhound Mar 26 2014 06:19 PM linda4me Mar 26 2014 06:19 PM Chris-od Mar 26 2014 06:10 PM Paddywack Mar 26 2014 06:03 PM ladybrooksoulboy Mar 26 2014 05:43 PM timthemod Mar 26 2014 05:40 PM Paul Franklin Mar 26 2014 05:33 PM SWIFTY Mar 26 2014 05:32 PM shinehead Mar 26 2014 05:31 PM chalky Mar 26 2014 05:31 PM Timid Tomas Mar 26 2014 05:27 PM jo law Mar 26 2014 05:24 PM bobt Mar 26 2014 05:24 PM SOUL INC Mar 26 2014 05:23 PM Godzilla Mar 26 2014 05:23 PM mickjay33 Mar 26 2014 05:22 PM tlscapital Mar 26 2014 05:20 PM Dave Moore Mar 26 2014 05:18 PM John Reed Mar 26 2014 05:10 PM jocko Mar 26 2014 05:08 PM

The first competition of 2019 and it's a good one.. We have up for grabs a still sealed copy of a recent Kent Lp. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning this fine lp is just follow the simple instructions that follow the lp info. The Goldwax Years - Spencer Wiggins - LP Kent 511 A vinyl album featuring 14 of the great southern soul singer’s finest Goldwax recordings. Listen while you read Blurb Although Spencer Wiggins first made the R&B charts with his Fame 45 ‘Double Lovin’’ in 1970, it is his eight Goldwax singles, released in the latter half of the 60s, for which he is most famous among soul fans. Veering from deep melancholic ballads to raucous uptempo groovers, those 45s epitomise southern soul. Southern soul is a close cousin of the blues, and ‘Lover’s Crime’, Spencer’s first single on Goldwax’s Bandstand USA subsidiary, was an early Isaac Hayes composition of that ilk. ‘Sweet Sixteen’, which was unreleased until 1977, is a full-on blues, presumably shelved by Goldwax as they wanted to keep Spencer known as a soul singer, even though he excels on the number. A strong country influence is apparent on ‘I Never Loved A Woman (The Way I Love You)’ which rivals Aretha Franklin’s Atlantic breakthrough single from a couple of years earlier. ‘Once In A While (Is Better Than Never At All)’, written by Goldwax boss Quinton Claunch, an ex-country singer, and songwriter George Jackson’s ‘Old Friend’ are also in the country bag. The dramatic ballad ‘Up Tight Good Woman’, penned by Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham and Jimmy Johnson, is probably Spencer’s best-known recording and remains a highlight of his live performances. Penn and Oldham also provided ‘Take Me Just As I Am’, another standout track. ‘He’s Too Old’ and ‘I’m A Poor Man’s Son’ are vibrant, warm-hearted numbers taken at a jaunty pace, although still very much southern soul, whereas ‘Lonely Man’ is the only song with hints of a Detroit influence, and has consequently cost collectors appreciably more than the norm. Spencer is primarily a preacher today but his 2010 appearance at the Cleethorpes rare soul weekender demonstrated he is still a great performer. More recently he completed a successful two-date visit to London and Manchester with his brother Percy. ADY CROASDELL @ady croasdell Above release notes from Ace Records website More info, images, purchase options etc via https://acerecords.co.uk/the-goldwax-years-2 Tracks Side 1 1. "I Never Loved A Woman (The Way I Love You)" (3:00) 2. "Old Friend (You Asked Me If I Miss Her)" (2:47) 3. "Up Tight Good Woman" (2:42) 4. "That's How Much I Love You" (2:53) 5. "Take Me Just As I Am" (2:44) 6. "I'm A Poor Man's Son" (2:08) 7. "Lonely Man" (2:11) Side 2 1. "He's Too Old" (2:09) 2. "Anything You Do Is Alright" (2:16) 3. "I'll Be True To You" (2:36) 4. "Sweet Sixteen" (2:41) 5. "The Power Of A Woman" (3:32) 6. "Lover's Crime" (2:10) 7. "Once In A While (Is Better Than Never At All)" (3:33) Soul Source Members Competition - Win a copy of Spencer Wiggins - The Goldwax Years! Still sealed and ready to ship, to be in with a chance of winning this fine lp, all you need to do is 'upvote' this article - look down and right and then hit the 'upvote' ... your name should then appear as one of the up voters One winner will be then drawn from the closed 'upvote' list on the morning of Friday 25th January

Here are, the return of our unregular competitions offering a chance to get your hands on a most recent released Vinyl lp from Kent Records New Breed R&B - Various Artists KENT 509 A fine 14 track R&B comp Lp that's almost guaranteed to make this summer even hotter, details of both the comp and the lp follow below Blurb We coined the term New Breed R&B in 2001 when our inspired selection from the original US Kent and Modern labels caught the musical zeitgeist. Six CDs on, these offerings are still eagerly anticipated and the highlights on vinyl, having been deemed a must, is now a reality. Preview Tracks Side 1 1 Oh Baby Don't You Weep - Luther Ingram 2 Why Oh Why - Austin Taylor 3 I Say, I Love You - Johnny "Guitar" Watson 4 Long Gone Baby - B.B. King 5 Burnt Toast And Black Coffee - Mike Pedicin 6 Hard Times (Every Dog's Got His Day) - Prince Conley 7 Double Locks - Johnny Gosey Side 2 1 I Idolize You - The Charmaines 2 I've Got a Feeling For You Baby - Gladys Bruce 3 A Man Is A Mean Thing - Barbara Perry 4 Where Did You Stay Last Night - The Phillips Sisters 5 Well, I Done Got Over It - Bobby Mitchell 6 You're Supreme - Sterling Magee 7 I'm The Man - Albert Washington & The Kings More info and purchase options can be had via Ace Records website https://www.acerecords.co.uk/new-breed-rb-2 Soul Source Members Competition - Win a copy! Still sealed and ready to ship, to be in with a chance of winning this fine lp, all you need to do is 'upvote' this article - look down and right and then hit the 'upvote' ... your name should then appear as one of the up voters Come 01 August one member from this list will be drawn out of the hat and a sealed copy of this fine lp will be heading for their doormat asp!

Time for a new Soul Source members competition Up for grabs is a fine viny lp from Kent records that was released just prior to xmas, not only recent but also still sealed! The Money Masters - Bettye Swann KENT 508 A vinyl album featuring 14 of her finest sides for Money Records of Los Angeles. ...Bettye wrote many of her own songs at Money. Among the few exceptions was an exquisite rendition of Sam Cooke’s ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ from her “Make Me Yours” LP. An earlier album had been scheduled after her first hit but was shelved when the follow-ups failed. That album would have contained ‘The Dance Is Over’ and a faster version of her later single ‘I Think I’m Falling In Love’, both included here.... To Enter/Win All you have to do this time to be in with a shout of this fine album landing on your doormat, is simply 'up vote' this article (new members look down and right - see the green arrow? hit that and your name should register as a up voter) A winner will be drawn out of the Soul Source hat next Friday (23rd feb) morning! Good luck now! More info on 'The Money Masters' here... https://acerecords.co.uk/the-money-masters Listen while you upvote Video Advert

Thanks to member @Drew3 , we have the return of our (very) irregular Soul Source competition. And we do have a great prize, a copy of Richard Gilbert member @Gilly much acclaimed book I Searched For Soul and Found The Stars by Richard Gilbert 'It tells of the 5 trips I made to the States (85-94) and along with others, what we got up to, record finds, and more importantly who we met and the quality time with those people 'The Stars' that we met along the way.' Full details of the book can be read here https://www.soul-source.co.uk/articles/news-soul/book-i-searched-for-soul-and-found-the-stars-gilly-r4270/ Background Drew recently got in touch with Soul Source and suggested this competition, after receiving a 'extra' copy of I Searched For Soul and Found The Stars as a gift. He cleared things with Gilly and will donate the equivalent cost of the book to a charity similar to the one some of the proceeds from the book went to. Have to say a great suggestion and hats off to both Drew and Gilly Competition As with previous competitions, its members only. To be in with a chance all you have to do is vote this article up To vote 'up', just look down and right, see that 'grey' arrow? hover over it and it will turn green as per image tap that and your name will be added to the list Come next Tuesday 13th April, a member's name will be drawn out of the hat, who will be the winner of the book. The members name will be passed onto Drew who will then send a copy of the book to the winner. There you go, easy as that and thanks again to @Drew3 for both the suggestion and the prize Good luck!

The return of our irregular Soul Source competition feature. Yep after a bit of a break the competitions are back with a chance for all members to get their ears and hands on a fine recent and decent quality cd release, from Kent Records. The highly rated 'Soul Voices - 60s Big Ballads' being the fine album on offer. Soul Voices - 60s Big Ballads - Kent Records Release Notes Preview Majestic male vocalists singing over subtly orchestrated arrangements of superb songs were the pinnacle of 1960s black music sophistication. Male soul balladeers from the 60s have always been particularly admired. Roy Hamilton, Walter Jackson, Lou Johnson and Ben E King – some of the A-listers featured here – epitomise the genre and have devoted followers. This grand sound evolved from the first soul records which emanated in the early 60s mainly in New York, where three quarters of the tracks here were recorded. Full Audio preview of 6 of the 24 tracks (sign in spotify (free) to listen to full versions) More info of this fine release can be had via our latest soul music news feature https://www.soul-source.co.uk/articles/news-soul/soul-voices-60s-big-ballads-kent-records-r4252/ To enter the current Soul Source 'Soul Voices' competition... All you have to do is... Look right and down and hit that green vote up arrow - its grey to start with - when you hover it goes green and your name shows once hit Come Monday the 10th August 2020 at 18:00hrs sharp a lucky lucky 'winner' will be drawn from the list of all the members who have 'upped' this article (via the green arrow as per the above) and a copy will be headed for their doormat asp. That's all, our competition is back and now open, all you need to do is just sit back read, listen and 'up',,,, Good luck now!

THE MOST SOUGHT AFTER RARE NORTHERN This list contains what I consider the most sought after and rare original release Northern soul 45s at this point in time. It contains some seriously rare 45s and includes many that have been deemed to be ‘the hot collectable to have’. Records that have eluded collectors over the many years of searching for them and the ones that keep you awake at night, brooding if you’ll ever own them. The records are not listed in any particular order, just as they came into my head. I checked with a few well-informed people on the Scene and it looks like such a list has not yet been compiled? The criteria used to assemble this list is loosely: 1. A proven rarity over a reasonable time span. 2. Are sought after by many collectors. 3. That it has a great sound. I suppose a few people will want to know, how do you know what are the most coveted records of this genre, as there is a lot of secrecy, fabrication and fake news within the collecting fraternity. Plus it must be difficult keeping track of the movement of all records over a fifty year period, especially these days where the majority of collectors constantly recycle and refresh their collections almost on a weekly basis. Yes, it is quite clearly impossible to know exactly, without implementing a Doomsday survey of some sort, but there are ways to collect relevant information, which help make informed judgements about rarity and what’s sought after: Rare soul bragging rights have always been a big part of the Scene; just remember the old flyers from the Blackpool Mecca and their exclusive playlists etc. Today, something similar happens on the Internet, where some individuals and their hot-boxes do some persistent boasting, telling others about their precious vinyl treasures. Sales lists over the decades have been a wonderful place to buy records, but also a great source for collectors to compile information. The lists have been numerous, but some were streets ahead of the others, selling unknown Northern that no one had heard before. Other information gathering comes in the form of numerous stories that abound on the Scene about missed chances to buy a record and not having a sniff of a copy since, ruing that time for not taking that opportunity. Or about owning a record and foolishly letting it go in a trade, or for a ‘not to be missed price’ and regretting that decision ever since. And tales of record digging trips to America, unearthing rare vinyl gems. This is where some invaluable information comes from to formulate such a list and having spent over 40 obsessive years, digging and collecting Northern and its numerous spin-offs, constantly immersed in the inner world of rare soul, I assumed that i could make a decent stab at compiling the list. I remember a time in the mid 70s when the Scene contained only a handful of record collectors, who had an interest in the obscure import. For the majority, Oldies, as they became to be known, were king and that suited us just fine, because we faced no competition when acquiring our next purchase. This was all to change in the early 80s as the Northern soul scene contracted and spawned a very much smaller scene that thrived on the esoteric. Ultimately, this had a seismic effect on the collecting habits of the rare soul scene and what was deemed collectable. Today, 40 years later, it is a standard default position for most rare soul collectors, to dig for the illusive and exclusive. By the 90s the expansion of the soul scene into Europe and then worldwide was underway, culminating today into a global collecting phenomenon. This has had a big impact on a dwindling resource, as ever more international collectors begin to build impressive collections. Not being able to acquire various records has been a major and vexed problem for most Northern buyers since the inception of this scene and that problem escalated with the expansion of the scene into Europe, Japan, Australia and America (plus the recent arrival of the millionaire collector) Ebay and the Internet initially did make an impression, throwing up some amazing finds and for a period, satisfying the collectors. But that didn’t last very long and now we see the result: scarcity and high prices. Who in the early days of collecting, could have imagined that sometime in the future, Northern soul 45s would regularly sell for £5000 plus. Some Northern soul folk may want to evaluate and compare this list with the Northern Soul top 500 list. They are in essence a similar thing and a number of records appear on both lists. However, the lists are two different entities; one appearing to represent the scenes majority Oldies crowd and the other a smaller, more dynamic, experimental and younger minority crowd. Virtually all of the 45s on the Northern Soul top 500 list, to put it mildly, have in the past 50 years been totally over-played, engendering an indifferent and weary attitude to them. Whereas, most of the records on the Sought after Rare Northern list have received less exposure in the clubs, have a vibrancy about them and are still relatively unknown to the greater bulk of the Northern Soul public. This list will probably appeal to the person who takes a sustained, time consuming and determined approach to rare record collecting and doesn't mind spending the majority of their income on rare vinyl. Not included on this list are 45s from the Modern side of the rare soul scene, concentrating on the bread and butter: Northern. Maybe the Modern list will come later, but I suspect for various reasons, that will prove to be a very difficult task. The list has an obvious relative aspect to it. Some of you will read the list and be asking where is such & such a record. The simple answer is that Ive compiled the list myself and somewhat reflects my own personal taste in what i consider good and not so good Northern. I may have missed the odd title and will probably after some nudging from fellow collectors will be including any omissions later. It is therefore a dynamic and fluid list and records will be added or deleted as time passes. I haven’t included any recent, new discoveries, or cover-ups, as they haven't yet had time to prove their rarity and longevity. No doubt many will reach their potential and move onto the list at some point in the future. No studio acetates either. NECKENDER 2020 THE MOST SOUGHT AFTER RARE NORTHERN Eddie Parker I'm gone Awake C.O.D.s She's fire Kellmac Combinations What cha gonna do Kellmac Del-larks job opening Queen city Don Gardner cheatin kind Sedgrick Larry Clinton She's wanted Dynamo Damon Fox Packing up Fairmount Salvadors stick by me baby Wise World Lester Tipton this wont change La beat Gwen Owens Just say you're wanted Velgo Admirations I want to be free Peaches Jimmy Burns I really love you Erica Bobby James I really love you Karol Yums Yums gonna be a big think ABC Mel Britt she’ll come running back Fip Classics so glad I found you Yan G Parliaments This is my rainy day Cabell Springers Nothings too good for my baby Wale Magnetics lady in green Bonnie Magnetics I have a girl Rahsel Ramona Collins you've been cheating Clarks Appointments I saw you there Delite Lou Pride Im com’un home in the morn’un Suemi Billy Woods Let me make you happy Sussex Young Brothers Whats your game Soul Power Junior McCants - Try Me For Your New Love - King John & the Wierdest Cant get over these memories Tie Johnny Hendley My baby came from out of nowhere Mutt & Jeff Prophets If I had -Shrine Counts Peaches baby Shrine Cairos Stop overlooking me Shrine JB Bryant I wont be coming back Shrine Eddie Daye & 4 Bars Guess who loves you Shrine Ray Pollard This time Shrine DC Blossoms Hey boy Shrine Les Chansonettes Dont let him hurt you Shrine Shirley Edwards Dream my heart Shrine Cavaliers Do what I want Shrine Tomangoes I really love you Washpan Jimmie Bo Horn I cant speak Dade Paris Sleepless nights Doc Sam Williams Love slipped through my fingers Tower Al Williams I am nothing La Beat Servicemen Sweet magic Chartmaker Servicemen Are you angry Wind Hit Vondells Hey girl you’ve changed Airtown Walter & Admerations Man Oh Man La Cindy Yvonne Vernee just like you did me SonBert Del-Tours Sweet and lovely Starville Bernie Williams Ever again Bell Chuck holiday Just cant trust nobody gloria Four Voices Our love is getting stronger Voice Richard Caiton I’d like to get near you Up Tight The Butlers with Frank Beverly Because of my heart Rouser/Fairmount Precisions Sugar aint sweet Drew The Poets Wrapped around your finger J2 Kell Osborne Law against a heartbreaker Highland Margaret Little Love finds a way Genebro Sandy Golden Your love is everything Masterpiece Delites Lover Cuppy Pat Lewis No one to love Solid Hit Jesse James Are you gonna leave me Shirley Mr. Soul what happened to yesterday Genuine Al Scott what happened to yesterday Genuine Mello Souls We can make it Mello Tommy Ridgley My love gets stronger International City Professionals Thats why i love you Groove City Cashmeres show stopper Hem Camaros We’re not too young Dar Cha Ray Agee im losing again Soultown Archie Hodge I really want to see you Narco Debonairs Loving you takes all my time Solid Hit Robbie Lawson Burning sensation Kyser Little Wille Faulk Look into my heart M&H Ree Flores Look into my heart M&H Empires You're on top girl Candi Arthur Willis The hurting is over Mars La Tour Lillie Bryant Meet me half way Tayster Little Stanley Out a sight loving Vance Inticers since you left Baby Luv Executive Four I got a good thing going Lumar George Blackwell Cant lose my head Smoke Johnny Hampton Not my girl Dottys Leonard Jewel Bettin’ on love Terri De Gaylettes heartaches i cant take Black jack The Proffs Look at me Curr Inspirations No one else can take your place Breakthrough Jackie Beavers I need my baby Revilot Adlibs You'll always be in style Blue Cat Ivories Please stay Wand/Despenza Arin Demain Silent treatment Blue Star Joe Matthews Aint nothing you can do Kool Kat Jimmy Gresham This feelin’ i have Terri De Esther Grant - Let's Make The Most Out Of Love - Wilstone Magnetics When Im with my baby Sable Lee McKinnney Ill keep holding on Sable Mac Staten There she goes Prelude Bobby Kline Say something nice to me MB Tommy & Derbys Dont play the roll Swing Tommy & Derbys Going back to Houston Kool The Trips There’s that mountain Soundville Precisions I wanna tell my baby D Town Colt 45s Lady lady Jerry Cody Black Its our time to fall in love Gig Timmie Williams - Competition - MaIa Bobby Wisdom Handwriting on the wall Out a Site Imperial Cs Someone tell her Phil LA Soul Willie Hutch The Duck Dunhill flouorescent Smogg all my life W.G. Little John Just wait and see Gogate Ernestine Eady Lets talk it over Phil LA Soul Rita & Tiaras Gone with the wind is my love Dore Milton James My lonely feeling Dore Little Johnny Hamilton Keep on moving Dore Superbs On a day when its raining Dore Nabay Believe it or not Impact Emanons Orchestra Bird Walkin’ All Brothers Freddie Chavez They'll never know why Look Chuck Cockerham Have I got a right Mala Don Varner Tear stained face Quinvey Fascinators In other words Bombay Sag War Fare Dont be so jive Libra New Wanderers Aint gonna do you no harm Ready Nurons All my life Nu-Ron True Image Im not over you yet Super Smash Connie Clark My sugar baby Joker Honey Bees Never in a million years Garrison William Powell Heartaches Souvenirs Powerhouse Robert Tanner Sweet Memories Magatone Checkerboard Squares Double Cookin Villa Earles Everybodys got somebody Tee-Ti Billy Arnell Tough girl Holly Buddy Smith When you lose the one you love Brute Tranells Blessed with a love Flo-Jo Emeralds Beware Vick Stanley Mitchell Get it baby Dynamo Caressors I cant stay away Ru-Jac Stewart Ames Angelina Oh Angelina J&W Sensations Demanding man Wayout Combinations Im gonna make you love me Kimtone Walter Wilson Love keeps me crying Wand Ty Karim You really made it good to me Senator Brooks Brothers Looking for a woman Tay Jimmy Raye Philly dog around the world KKC Frankie Karl You should o held on Philtown Utopias Girls are against me La Salle Danny Monday Baby without you Modern George Juke Byrd Im available Pay-Tons Fortson & Scott Sweet Lover Pzazz Lonnett Blue Jeans M-S Districts One lover Nile The Crow Your autumn of tomorrow Inner Ear Yvonne Daniels I dont want to get away from your love Sterling Carlettes Im getting tired BR Rufus Wood Before 2001 Espanola Dynamic Three You said yeah Del-Val Billy Floyd My oh my Arctic Precisions My sense of direction HenMar Kenny Gamble The jokes on you Arctic Four Andantes Hipper than me MoDo Blendels You need love Dontee Ruby Feminine ingenuity Gold Token Nolan Chance Just like the weather Bunky Soulettes Bring your fine self home Scope Sequins Try my love Detroit Sound Groovettes Think it over baby Reness Salt & Pepper A man of my word Heatwave William Cummings Make my love a hurting thing Bang Bang Jimmy Andrews Big city playboy Blue Jay Frank Wilson Do I love you Soul Cresa Watson Salvation Charay Martha Starr sweet temptation Charay Telma Laverne Baby dont you leave me Northern Del-La Four Dynamics Things that a lady aint Peachtree Eddie Billups Ask my heart Peachtree Anderson Brothers I can see him loving you GSF Ronnie McNeir Sitting in my class De-To Willie Tee You're gonna pay some dues Bonatemp Willie Tee I peeped your hole card Gatur Willie Tee Im having so much fun Gatur Willie Tee Please don't go Nola Anthony & Delsonics Every time Emerge Larry Wright Sweet sweet kissed Agogo Joseph Webster My love is so strong Crow Cecil Washington I dont like to lose Prophonics Vickie Labat Got to keep hanging on Shagg Eric Mercury Lonely girl Sac Hank Hodge Eye for an eye Eye Dennis Edwards Johnny on the spot International Soulville Donna King Take me home Hot Line Sonatas Going on down the road Hot Line Benny Harper My prayer Harper Soul King George I need you Audio Arts Volumes Aint gonna give you up Karen Sam Ward Sister lee Groove City Norma Jenkins Airplane song Maltese Roy Roberts So much in love Sugar Vanguards Good time bad times Lamp Lynn Vernado Wash & wear love Gator Lynn Vernado Second hand love Yumie Gene Toones What more do you want Simco The saints Ill let you slide Wigwam Tempos Ill never forget Diamond Jim Mini Stokes & Spyder Turner Get yourself together Sound of Soul Just Brothers Carlena Garrison Lonnie Russ Say girl Kerwood Joe Hicks I gotta be free AGC Phonetics Just a boys dream Trudel Brand New Faces Brand new faces Lujuna Melvin Davis Find a quiet place Wheel City Bob & Fred Ill be on my way Big Mack Jay Bee Praying for an answer Thunderbolt Johnny Barnes Nothing without your love Jab Flirtations Stronger than her love Festival Bernard Drake Ive been untrue La Louisianne George Hobson Let it be real Sound City Lil Lavair Ill be so happy Lenann Terri Goodnight They didnt know Phelectron Mr. Lucky Born to love you Stardom Patti Young Head and Shoulders Ernstrat Tamala Lewis You wont say nothing Marton Eddie Foster I never knew In Satans Breed Road runner Jenges Harry Moon Womans man Jenges/Sin Just Brothers Sliced tomatoes Lupine Differences Five minutes Mon’ca Masquaraders How La Beat Patrinell Staten Little love affair Sepia Joni Wilson Losers seat Volt Antellects Love slave Flodavieur Sweets satisfy me baby Soul Town Eddie Hughes Soul searcher Bard Out of Sights For the rest of my life Saru Milton Parker Women like it harder Closet Inspirations Your wish is my command Midas Ernie Johnson I cant stand the pain Artco Little Willie Johnson Loneliness Vandellas Candi Staton Now you've got the upper hand Unity Primers How does it grab you Hale Softiques Bashfull Sheldon Jokers Soul sound Skofield Billy Prophet What can I do Sue Joe Jama My life Optimum Herman Lewis Who's kissing you tonight Stone Blue Limelights Dont leave my baby Uncle Charles Mintz Running back Uplook Ron Baxter This is it Ole 9 Grey Imprint Do you get the message Clear Hill Silhouettes Not me baby Goodway Moments Baby I want you Hog Soul Incorporated My proposal Coconut Groove Montclairs Hey you Arch Six Pack Midnight brew Trip Universal Montiques Take another look Lamp The Contessa I need you baby Las Bar Joseph Moore I still cant get you Marvlus Little Al Lonely days of my life Shell Little Ron & Esquires I found someone Charade E Rodney Jones R&B time Charisma Hytones You dont even know my name Southern Artists Martha Starr Love is the only solution Thelma Ty Karim Lighten up baby Car-a-mel Ty Karim You just don't know Romark Intensions She needs somebody USA Voltaires Movin movin on Bacone Volumes Ive never been so in love Garu Nat T Jones Moving forward Wilshire/Goliath Oliver Joy Keep love growing Big Deal Ernest Mosley Stubborn Heart La Cindy Locations Mr diamond man Ron Paul Matt Lucas You better go go Karen Celebrities I choose you baby Boss Pamela Beaty Talking eyes Tip Soul Bros Inc Pyramid Golden Eye Thee Midnighters You're gonna make me cry Whittier Tiaras Foolish girl Opart Eddie Whitehead Just your fool Black Jack Lil Major Williams Girl Williams III Tut Sutton I can feel the tears USA Betty Wilson Im yours Dayco Patty Stokes Good girl Mir-a-don Gene Woodbury Ever again Del Val Fabulous Jades Come on and live Rika Jades Lucky fellow Mode Wendell Watts Kiss a good thing goodbye Reforee Webs Dont hurt me baby Dynamic Topics Have your fun Dream Keith Curtis I got to keep you baby Smoke Barbara Jean Why weren't you there Big Hit Noble & Uptights Dont worry about it Action Little Joe Romans When you're lonesome Tuff Royal Imperials This heart of mine Mellow Town Richard Caiton Reflections Up Tight Royal Robins Something about you TruGloTown Gail Nevels Taking my mind off love Star Track/Dottys Notations Trying my best to find her Tad Parisians Twinkle twinkle little star Demon Hot Antiques Go for yourself La Salle John Leach Put that woman down Lawn Prince Ella Baby sugar I love you Prince JoAnn Courcy I got the power Twirl Johnny Honeycutt Im coming over Triode Flash McKinley Ill rescue you Bombay Don & Ron Im so sorry White Cliff Minnie Jones Shadow of a memory Sugar Jimmy Mack My world is on fire Palmer Nat Hall Why Loop Willie Mason Why KaLaMa Dusty Wilson Its gonna be a tragedy Mutt TSU Tornadoes A thousand wonders Ovide Modern Soul Trio You're no good Youngstown Purple Mundi Stop hurting me baby Cat Eddie Rey Ive got something of value True Soul Johnny Rodgers Make a change Amon Charles Holiday Dont lie Playboy John Wesley Loves such a funny thing Melic Stormie Wynters Life saver Mercury Appreciations Its better to cry Sport Appreciations I cant hide it Aware Jades Im where its at Nite Life JT Rhythm All I want is you Palmer Troy Dodds Try my love El Camino Little Nicky Soul I wanted to tell you Shee Eddie Parker But if you must go Mico Sidney Barnes I hurt on the other side Blue Cat Eddie Daniels Is he better than me Boots Ster-phonics If you dont do right Enjoy Bobby Rich Theres a girl somewhere for you Sambea Clarence Reid Carry on Reid Kings of Soul Is your love for me Down to Earth Betty Lou & Bobby Adams Dr. True love Tar-x Lovers Without a doubt Frantic Universals Diamonds and pearls Cooking Jimmy Delphs Dancing a hole in the world Carla Eula Cooper Let our love grow higher Super Sound Paulette Love you baby Contact Charlene & Soul Serenaders Can you win Paradox/Volt Ascots Another day Mir A Don Charles brandy I cant get enough Blue Cat Capitals Cant deny that I love you Omen Lynn Terry I got a good thing goin’ La Salle Turbines We got to start over Cenco Fred & Turbins Bernadine Cenco Allison & Calvin Turner Everytime Im near you LuLu Two Plus Two Im sure Velgo Lou Ragland I travel alone Amy Venturas Heart of love Greenlight Vickie Baines Country girl Parkway Lou Pride Your love is fading Semi Paul Kelly Its my baby Lloyd Twans I cant see him again dade Pee Wee Shuck & Huey Beside myself Flagg Betty Fikes Prove it to me Southbound Scott Three Running wild March Vivian Carol Oh yeah yeah yeah Merben Soul Brothers Inc Teardrops Salem Masquaders Thats the same thing Soultown Soul Shakers You're turning Terri De Sandi Sheldon You’re gonna make me love you Okeh Carpets I just cant win ViJ Tony Hestor Watch yourself Giant Charles Smith Come and see me Music World Eddie Smith I didnt realise Mellotone Dave Charles Aint gonna cry no more Donnie Summits Ill be over United International Adams Apples Dont take it out on this world Brunswick Karmello Brooks Tell me baby Milestone Tiaras Loves made a connection Seton Grambling College Marching Band Harlem rumble Spontaneous Arts Frank Foster Harlem Rumble Top Level Nomads Somethings bad Mo-Groov Rotations Put a dime on D9 Frantic Moments Hey boy Deep Smith Brothers There can be a better way Soul Dimension Conquistadors Cant stop loving you Act IV Soul Communicators Those lonely nights Fee bee Precious Three I need a man Reforee Little Tony & Hawks Give me your sweet love Etah Superbs Wind in my sails Dore Al Gardner Sweet baby Sepia Trey Js I found it all in you Tee Gem Little Eddie Taylor I had a good time Peacock James Lately Love friends and money Temple Fabulous Performers One little kiss Blackjack Informers Baby set me free Blackjack Barbara Acklin Im not mad anymore Special Agent Appointments Keep away Redd Coach Chandlers Your love makes me lonely Col Soul Gerri Hall Who can i run to Hot Line Delreys Incorporated Destination unknown Tampete Carol Anderson Taking my mind off love Whip Oscar Perry Face reality Feron Ellusions You didnt have to leave Lamon Othello Robertson So in love Baby Luv Tobi Lark Sweep it out in the shed Topper Cal green Ill give you just a little more time Filmtown Sugar Boy Free man Shades Martells Where can my baby be A La Carte James Bell The love of my girl PRP Chuck Flamingo Whats my chances Rojac Gentlemen Four You cant keep a good man down Wand Chico Lamarr What do you think I am Fuller Underground Express A man’s temptation UGE Exits Another sundown in watts Kapp Tropics Hey you little girl Topic Virginia Blakly Let nobody love you MoJo Mamie P Galore No right to cry Sack Agents Trouble Liberty Bell Mal Adams Since man began Emerge Tootsie Rollers Give me love Me-o People’s Choice Savin my lovin for you Palmer Lenny Vestel Its paradise Sanla Celeste Hardie You're gone Reynolds Gambrells You better move Carla Sam Moore Give you plenty of lovin Atlantic Hank Hodge One way love Eye Otis Lee Hard road to hoe Quaint Reatha Reese Only lies Dot Johnny James Tell you about my girl Circle M Four Tracks Like my love for you Mandingo Edith Brown You did it 4 Brothers Billy Thompson Black eyed girl Columbus Sammy Lee What goes around Promco George Pepp The feeling is real Coleman El Corols Band Chick chick Tiny The Devils Love and understanding Cuca Benny Sigler Who you gonna turn to Phil La of Soul Penetrations Champagne Terri De Johnny Mae Mathews I have no choice Big Hit Oracles I aint got time OM Waymond Hall What will tomorrow bring Jamal King Sound Interpreters Hi note Talent of Music Calvin Grayson Love just begun In Inmates This is the day Kopit Stormy I wont stop to cry Twilight Clay Brown Everybodys talking Aljon Jackie Day Naughty boy Phelectron Tommy Turner Lazy Elbam Little Johnny Hamilton Oh how I love you Dore West Coast Distributors Girl Jam Cha Ritchie Adams I cant escape from you Congress Bob & Gene I really really love you MoDo Kell Osborne Small things Newbag Decisions Do I love her York Kenard What did you gain Dore Hyperions Why do you wanna treat me like you do Chattahoochee Kelly & Soul Explosions Talking about my baby’s love DynaMite Idols Check her out USA Sound Masters Lonely lonely Julet Inverts Time will change Broadway Duke Browner Crying over you Impact Herb Ward Strange Change Argo Gloria & T-Airas Im satisfied Betty Talmadge Armstrong Gigi Spindletop Freddie Butler Save your love for me Wheelsville Jock Mitchell Not a chance in a million Impact Clarence Townsend I found a love Clara Hopkins Bros. Shake Cheri Magnetik Buddy Conner When you’re alone Breakthrough Monique If you love me Maurci Carl Underwood Aint you lying Merging Honey & the Bees Be yourself Academy Sonny Parker What can I do Hitts Re-Vels I want a new love Trent Town Chryslers & Monarchs Band Im not gonna lose you JE Don Hart Turn back Mary Jane James Dockery My faith in you is all gone Soul Craft Rotations A changed man Frantic Passionettes I'm not in love with you anymore Soul Burst Belita Woods Magic corner Karen Startones Lovin’ you baby Billie Fran Four Sights Love is a hurting game Shy Soul Betty Lloyd Im catching on BSC Moses Dillard Ill pay the price Mark V Constellations I dont know about you Gemini Star Court Davis Try to think East Coast George Lemons Fascinating girl Gold Soul Limitations Im lonely Im troubled Bacone Shirley Johnson Too big to cry Lashawn Eddie Campbell Contagious love Artco Bernard Smith Gotta be a reason Groove Cleveland Robinson Jr. Love is a trap Nosnibor Cynthia & Imaginations Why weren't you there Blue Rock Traditions On fire Artco Big Bo & 4ms Ive got to go Gay Shel Chandlers Your love keeps drawing me closer Bleu Rose Bruce Cloud I wish Motif Mighty Lovers Aint gonna run no more Soulhawk Vivian Copeland Chaos D’Oro Rita Dacosta Dont bring me down Pandora Timmy Carr Workin’ Kee Andy Fisher My hearts beating stronger Fat Fish Prince Paul In the beginning Parker Elbie Parker Please keep away from me Veep Dynamics Im a lonely man Dyna Changing Scene You cant destroy my love Jo-Vee-Jo Fiery Spartans Talk about love Charay Wade Flemons Two of a kind Ramsel Trends Thanks for a little lovin' ABC Flint Emeralds Just like a baby Gateway Blue Jays Point of view Jay

My forthcoming book. I Searched For Soul and Found The Stars. Well at last I can announce that this much anticipated book will be available for your pleasure in November 2020. It tells of the 5 trips I made to the States (85-94) and along with others, what we got up to, record finds, and more importantly who we met and the quality time with those people 'The Stars' that we met along the way. In most cases a first for anyone outside the USA. From day one it has always been my intention to put into words these talented peoples legacy, and for their families going forward to know just what an impact they had on peoples lives here in the UK. Their musical creations, from singer, backing bands, label owners, and studio engineers, not only formed our lives but some could claim, gave us our lives. This music that was sadly ignored on the day of it's creation in the States has stood the test of time, interest has grown world wide, and in part has found it's way back to the States. Here are a few prominent features from each trip that I made Trip 1 in this myself, Guy Hennigan, and Chris King, spent time with "Popcorn" Wylie and his wife Gloria. Pat Lewis held a party for us three, and in attendance were George Clinton, George McGregor, Don Davis, Belita Woods, Sandra Richardson. (Dance Fever) In this trip we spent time with Lorraine Chandler, Gino Washington, Casablanca,(James Stanford) Edward Wolfrum, Artie Fields, Barbara Acklin. 2nd trip, on my own. I stopped with "Popcorn" Wylie and his wife for a week. He took me over to meet Dave Hamilton, which eventually led through ACE/KENT a massive amount of unreleased stuff. Spent a few hours with Barney "Duke" Browner. Met "Popcorn's" mother his brother, and his cousin who was in the Superlatives. Trip 3 myself and everyone' s favourite Andy Tats Taylor, on this trip we spent a week with Melvin Davis, found at the time the biggest mystery of Richard Searling's c/up the Rose Valentine and the Sisters Three song 'When He's Not Around' the now familiar name of Little Ann Bridgeforth 'What should I Do' spent quality time with Bettye Lavette, and meeting Tony Johnson of Tony and Tyrone. Trip 4 myself, Tats, and Rob Wigley, spending a day with Johnnie Mae Mathews, her daughter Audrey (Kaiya) and Chuck, Johnnies son, of the ADC Band and drummer on the Black Nasty 45s. (you must have seen the video footage of 'I Have No Choice' taken that day) Trip 5 myself and John Kingan, spending time with the owner of the SVR, Ranger, and FGS label, provisionally arranging the deal on Dave Hamilton's master tapes that eventually yielded up names such as James Lately, OC Tolbert, and so many more that got released through Ace. There are a few UK stories involving the stars, I tell. OK that's the run down on what to expect, it's an easy book to read (I know, I wrote it) Hoping to retail this at around £25-27 and from that I want to donate a modest amount to the Kettering General Hospital (stroke unit) something close to my heart, and something that might be a million years away from anyone's thoughts, right up until it happens. For now I have set up a dedicated email address; gillybook@btinternet.com I'm not looking for deposits, just a number indication for the final product which will be a hard back edition only. Containing about 60k + words and photos of which most won't have seen before.

The August Summer Bank Holiday Weekend is almost on us, and as good a time as any for a Soul Source members competition. This time around you members have the chance to win yourselves a copy of one of Kents latest releases Titled Mainstream Modern Soul 2 1969-1976 Kent Records CDKEND 468 You can view and read all about this fine release via the recent news article here ... https://www.soul-source.co.uk/articles/news-soul/new-mainstream-modern-soul-2-1969-1976-kent-records-r3642/ ...and/or listen via the below preview player Listen to Mainstream Modern Soul 2 1969-1976 Kent Records via Juno Records #1 Preview Player To enter the competition all you have to do is just vote up this article itself - look down and right and then hit the 'up vote' ... your name should then appear as one of the reactioners Then come the day after the Bank Holiday one member from this list will be drawn out of the hat and a cd will be heading for their doormat asp! Away you go...

Another day, another first of the month... August 2022 25 years ago, the summer of 1997, the Soul Source website was first published on the internet As always the plan around this time of year is to mark this anniversary occasion with some sort of event/post/happening But as always with this plan, the event kind of sneaks up on us and as just not enough hours in the day the plans never really come together. However, as this time it's a bit of major landmark, a few things will occur that will reflect/mark this 25 year landmark Anyway for now as it's the first of the month, just a quick initial note to mark this event, and pass on thanks to all who have helped us reach this landmark over the years. More later mike (source owner) Photo by Jeff Cooper on Unsplash

For those avid collectors of rare soul vinyl, the mail order list of SoulBowl (proprietor, John Anderson) should have a special place in their heart, because for the last 50 years it has been at the forefront of vinyl digging for those rare soul imports that we hold so deep in our hearts. Soul Bowl is to present a connoisseurs room at this forthcoming Prestatyn weekender and has lined up some of it's previous primary customers, including Colin Curtis, Richard Searling, Soul Sam etc. to play something engaging. To promote this room and also shed a little light on the Soul Bowl set up, I've managed to get a small introduction from John and then a few words about my experience as a collector, including finding records on the weekly list, or in person at the warehouse. For those who have never had the fortuity to have experienced Soul Bowl's mail order business, or for those who did, but would like a reminder of what went on in those early years of the rare soul scene, I've also posted up some old sales lists. I hope you find them as interesting and amazing as I did JA intro: Mark has asked me to write a few words about my 48 years or so of selling records.my first deal came about from my time trawling shops on glasgow. There was a camera shop that had tons of 50’s/60’s uk singles they had bought as a load. I was in there one day and they saidwe got a lot more in a room behind a false wall in the basement. There were four titles in quantity–miracles on fontana/both marvelettes on fontana/eddie holland-jamie. I bought them for 3 old pence and sold them to reddinton’s records in birmingham for 6 old pence-i was on my way! My second deal was a load of 10,000-us singles i bought blind-took out the soul and managed to offload the rest to an office supply shop in glasgow. My third bigger deal was going to the states and i hand picked 60,000-soul singles and shipped back sea freight and when my mum and dad saw the truck turning up at our second floor council house they thought the floor would collapse with all the weight! I didn’t have these records for long,word got out and that was the start of our time in the record business proper. I’ve been on the road in the states most years for 4 or 5 months so after close to 50 years you forget a lot of the deals you made.the only year we added up the invoices was 1977 and that year we shipped in one million singles.our major problem was space in king’slynn we had 4 places in town. An old church, a barn and a huge double garage, but we were always running out of places to put the next load. The great thing about those days was we learnt as we went along and there were no price guides which really mean nothing as prices change all the time, also collectors had very little money and we would end up with piles of bounced cheques! All very different from today. Mark has also asked me to mention a couple of record deals we made back in the day. two that come to mind are the time i went to cincinnati to buy a load of 200,000 singles. They were in the basement of a one stop that had closed down–ceiling to floor-they were mainly promo copies.the one stop would mail out a few and then through the rest in the basement from the late 50’s to ‘67. I couldn’t really see much as there was no power-so it was a gamble and we made the deal.i had them shipped but had no idea what we had until the truck’s turned up in king’s lynn. I opened the first box and inside were 50 copies of the invitations-ski-ing in the snow. We ended up with thousands of obscure mid west/west coast soul records as well as demos on major labels. I could write pages about these deals but the second one i’ll mention was in the uk. I used to swap loads with a friend of mine paul who ran stalls on bradford market.he had picked up a load from me and a few weeks later he called me up and said we’ve just got in a big load from the west coast. I went there with gary cape––it was mainly west coast labels in quantity–mirwood/pzazz/highland etc etc––they came from record merchandisers in los angeles. I just remembered that when i still lived in scotland i got the train down to bradford and went to paul’s house to look at the records in his garage––there was 50 copies of the salvadors on wise world in there–wish i had them today!!!!! From a collectors perspective: In the early 7ts I was already a devoted follower of Northern Soul, even at the tender age of 14yrs. The Torch allnighter was the place to go and my older brother, Ant, was a regular attendee. He had a reasonable collection of imports and gave me the go-ahead to play them when I wanted to. Becoming more interested in vinyl I would peruse a weekly list that my brother was receiving; the list was called Groove City and was basically a couple of A4 pages with about 200 records for sale, mainly Ric Tic, Motown and various Detroit labels on offer. Trying to remember what was on those lists 43 yrs ago is a real struggle, but i do remember that a regular record that you could buy, was Sam Ward 'sister lee' Groove City for 75p. This it turned out was the prototype soul list to SoulBowl. Eventually, i got signed up to the SoulBowl list in my own name and became a regular buyer, an addiction to this day that ive never been able to restrain. The mail order business was essentially run by husband and wife team, John and Marissa Anderson, with support from a Northern Soul dj, Poke. One of the real attractions of the list was the Pound Special page. Since there wasn't a great deal of money in a young person's pocket at that time, being able to buy a decent original Northern 45 for a Quid was just what us budding collectors needed. Most weeks, another excellent section of the list contained a record that had been hitherto 'big' at the major allnighters, which had now been discovered in some quantity and was now for sale at a fraction of the price it had been previously. This would usually be the talking point for many of the collectors in the Wigan record bar, or at our local 'soul pub' the Antelope. See if you can spot any of these records on the sample lists at the end of this article. Obviously, most of the records on the weekly list were rarities and therefore you needed to phone as early as possible to reserve. For most of us, that meant running down to the phone box at the end of the street and dialing the ten digit number, usually getting the engaged tone for at least the first twenty tries. When you finally got through, you heard the dulcet, Scottish inaugural greeting, 'SoulBowl' Pushing your coins into the phone box, hoping and praying that your most wanted records were still available, you were able to put in your order. Being able to secure any records from your wish list would set the tone for that day and sometimes for days after. I remember one day in particular, when i was able to reserve five top notch sounds and i ran back up the street, punching the air like I'd just scored in the cup final. As the years passed and my interest in the the obscure 45 became more intense, I began to send Soul Bowl my wants list, or casually ask about an particular record during a phone order. Eventually, John said those magic words: why don't you come down to the warehouse and have a look around for yourself. This was music to my ears and for the next few days I prepared for the visit, putting together my list of things to look for and simultaneously finding as much cash that i could muster. The visit was a record collectors dream, over a million soul 45s in one barn, racked out in label/alphabetical order. FInding so many great records in one place and at great prices. It was so good that i decided to stay for an extra day and make a weekend of it. Records that i bought included Montclairs hey you, Bob & Fred Ill be on my way, revells trent town, sonatas hotline, webs dynamic, paul sindab, voltaires bacone, willie mason kalama, four andantes modo, wendell watts kiss a good thing etc. etc. I came away with over 200 hand-picked records and i remember John saying to me, 'im glad you came, as nobody else wants these kind of records' At that period of the scene, he was right; there wasn't really many collectors looking for obscurities. On consecutive visits to the warehouse, like many of the djs that ive talked to who took trips there, John had a box of specially selected 45s just for my consideration. Inside those boxes there was always something significantly good, unknown and rare. Some of the titles that came from these visits were: Saints Wigwam, Sensations demanding man, Poets J2, George Pepp, Appointments Delite, Love is alright acetate, Hank Hodge eye for an eye. On one occasion i asked John about a record by the Imperial Cs on Phil la Soul, which has appeared on the main sales list the week before; "what's it like", I asked? John's reply was, "give it a play", as it didn't sell and was still in the sales box. Price was £8 and the rest is history! Countless other collectors will have similar memories to these that I've described and it would be great to hear about them too. It's hard to describe the impact Soul Bowl has had on the world of Soul collecting, but it is immense. I haven't even touched upon the stories of their UK wholesale operation, or their substantial sales overseas (including the legendary Japanese lists) and maybe someone else can expand upon these anecdotes following this article. For me, Soul Bowl was the lodestar in discovering the beauty and diversity of American Soul music. click thumbnails for full view

I first went to a rare soul all nighter in early 1969. It was in a solitary disused railway station about half a mile from the hamlet of Kelmarsh in north Northamptonshire, 5 miles from my home town of Market Harborough. I knew the big soul acts of the day whose records had made it to the UK - Otis, Wilson Picket, Carla Thomas, Temps, 4 Tops, Supremes, Fontella Bass, Brenton Wood Etta James - but the records I was hearing at the nighter were by the Esquires, Tony Clarke, Homer Banks and the American Poets who I had never heard of. The small function room soon filled up with 100 skinheads most of whom were dancing in groups or solo, so being on my own I felt comfortable to get up and move to the music. The crowd seemed intense but friendly despite my hair being longer than all the other blokes combined. I told my mod/skin mates in Harboro about it and soon there was a crew of us going over, getting the pills down our necks while dancing to this alternate type of soul which we referred to as Old Soul. Who knew Tamla singer Kim Weston had recorded an uptempo soul mastepiece in ´Helpless´ or the Velvelettes had cut one called ´These Things Will Keep Me Loving You´? We made friends and recognised some of the other attendees as characters from Kettering, Corby and Wellingborough whom we´d normally avoid but here in this secret meeting place it was all cool and we had a shared love of the music and the speed. It turned out there were outcrops of similarly minded youths around the country in Leeds, Wakefield, Manchester and Derby. Even handier for an impoverished student like me a bloke called Dave Godin wrote about it in the Blues & Soul magazine; complete with playlists and tips and recommendations of places to go to hear these secretive sounds. Eventually Dave would dub the scene Northern Soul in his Blues & Soul column and the name would stick. The clubs were keenly watched by the dedicated drugs squads of the local police. Northants was supposedly one of the most serious in the country and they were getting pissed off at the number of chemists that were getting broken into around the county. The raids they conducted eventually closed Kelmarsh and I mentioned it to Harboro´s local dance promoters who ran the Frollickin´ Kneecap nightclub. They started to run all nighters at our town centre venue, renaming it the Lantern for those dances and making it a dedicated members club to get around the restrictive licensing laws. The scene was so small yet dedicated that there would usually be only one or two nighters on in the country at any time and when the Twisted Wheel in Manchester was finally raided early one Saturday night, the blocked up youths made the 100 mile drive down to Harboro to dance their blues away; in all senses of the word. The Wheel had been the brand leader and the epitome of cool, style and sounds and its demise was a major blow to young go-getters across the country. Like the Lantern a handful of other nighters would spring up and be closed down as the drug taking soared and the squads clamped down. The next venue to become the undisputed Mecca for the nighter goers was the Torch in Tunstall, Stoke On Trent. It was bigger than the traditional 100-300 clubs that had previously been host to the scene but the 6-800 capacity old music-hall, complete with balconies and theatre boxes, was ideal for the rapidly expanding clientele. Also it was dark as hell, dripping with atmosphere and sweat and the DJs were moving away from the classic mid to up tempo Chicago and Tamla beat to seriously stomping sounds that could keep pace with the drinamyl-induced pumping hearts of the mainly teenage audience. DJs, collectors and record sellers were finding more and more ways of getting their hands on the vast number of mid 60s soul releases that had not reached our shores before. Johnny Sayles, The Younghearts, Mamie Galore, The Fuller Brothers and the Cooperettes seemed to be even more glamorous soul names, none of which had ever got close to an English release. The Torch lasted for little over a year but had accelerated the scene´s growth and demand so that when the next big all nighter started in 1973 it was more than big, it was massive. Wigan Casino was a similar ancient music hall / dance emporium but about four times the size and more of a complex than a venue; you could house a small town in its many rooms. Early attendances were adequate but the place was far from full and in fact seemed a bit too big for purpose when I went to one of the early nighters. A few months later on my next visit it was rammed to the rafters, using the Torch´s blueprint of non-stop stompers its reputation had spread across the country and youths across the whole breadth of Britain, disaffected with both the teeny bopper and pompous undeground of the UK’s pop scene had become die-hard soul fans overnight. It was admittedly a certain style of soul starting at 85 mph and going up to 140 in extreme cases, sometimes the soul quotient was forgotten about. What the hell, there were thousands of stunning sounds out there in good ole black America just waiting for jaw-grinding scruffy UK youths to hop on an aeroplane and rescue them for their own personal kudos and wealth and for the edification of 2,000 kids moving as one, hand-clapping in just the right places. The scene was so big it could accommodate other big all nighters at places like Cleethorpes and Yate near Bristol as well as the big and influential evening events at the Blackpool Mecca and elsewhere. The Northern Soul weekend experience was so intense it would incorporate big Sunday all dayers so that reprobates need never see their parents between Friday morning and Monday tea. It continued as a big noise throughout most of the 70s but the alternate punk, jazz funk and disco scenes creamed off many attendees and offered alternatives for potential new recruits: the scene was becoming jaded. In London in 1979 the mod revival was underway and a small club called the 6TS Rhythm ‘n’ Blues Society was showing those style converts what the original mod soul music was about. After 18 months of moving around the capital, the 6TS ended up at the 100 Club slap bang in the middle of Oxford Street where it still runs in that distinguished basement club today. In a way it was back to the roots as a venue as well as musically and the classic dingy, smoke-filled, basement club was ideal for the nutters and fanatics who have slunk down those famous stairs over the last four decades. Musically though it started out as classic club soul with a dash of R&B, it reverted to the more standard Northern Soul formula once the all nighters were established around 1981. There was even a period when the rare 70s soul scene made an equal contribution to the musical playlist but that was reduced drastically when the club took up the gauntlet handed down by the 60s Mafia DJs of Stafford’s Top Of The World All nighters around the mid1980s. DJs Keb Darge and Guy Hennigan in particular were fed up with the staleness of constantly played oldies and reckoned there were still a lot of records, hardly known by the public let alone collectors, that could turn the scene on its head. Keb had a devoted band of followers who he would give cassettes of his new finds to so they would know his playlist when it was debuted at Stafford. They would rush to the floor to dance to records that otherwise would only have had interested looks. Guy was similar and mixed up the tempos a bit more than stompy Keb. He was the prime mover in big beat ballad scheduling and records like Tommy Navarro’s ‘I Cried My Life Away’ and Romance Watson ‘Where Does That Leave Me’ became massive. Keb also DJed at the 100 Club and Leicester nighters and soon the word was spreading. I was converted by the Latin sound of Bobby Valentine and spun a few down the 100 Club as well as big beat ballads like Johnny Maestro, Kurt Harris and the Trends ‘Not Too Old To Cry’. However what really put the 100 Club on the map, and helped the newies revolution, was finding some magnificent previously unreleased 60s soul tracks from the record company vaults. Melba Moore ‘Magic Touch’, Maxine Brown ‘Torture’, Chuck Jackson ‘What’s With This Loneliness’ started it and the Pied Piper RCA finds of Kenny Carter ‘What’s That On Your finger’, Willie Kendrick ‘She’ll Be Leaving You’, Lorraine Chandler ‘You Only Live Twice’ and Sharon Scott ‘(Putting My Heart Under) Lock & Key’ took it to a new level. With the newies scene now established the super-rare scene started driven by one of Keb and Guy’s gurus the Stoke DJ Butch who had the best rare soul collection in the world and possessed records and later acetates so rare nobody could come close to him for 20 years (ongoing). It’s the territory of “how many of these are known in the world?”; the answer is usually less than five. Stafford closed but the 100 Club kept on and new venues like Lifeline, Rugby, Burnley, Prestwich, The Dome, and others had their deserved moments in the spotlight. The 90s saw many returnees to the scene but a lot of those were happy to dance to the tunes of their youth and the rare scene has struggled in recent years. However the 2010s has seen an influx of new young faces and they are as keen on the new as the old, so there are signs of a revival in all areas and attendances are on the up again. A great new film on Northern Soul has been made by a Bury lass who has been a 100 Club regular for twenty years and the impact of that is eagerly anticipated. site note this article submitted by Ady C has also just appeared in the latest issue of Nutsmag and also ties in with The Crossfire oldies allnighter in London on this Easter Bank Holiday Sunday further info via http://www.newuntouchables.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments below are from the original comments posted at the original time of publication Peter99 Apr 18 2014 06:54 PM Nice read Ady. Thanks for putting it together and sharing. Peter AGENTSMITH Apr 18 2014 09:45 PM compact yet concise in its many elements...does adey croasdell do it better than carlsberg.....probably! binsy Apr 18 2014 11:31 PM Great story, really well balanced.nice one Jim Elliott Apr 19 2014 12:28 AM Succinctly put Mr C. I'm biased being a home grown Northants boy, obviously. Jim, Earl of Irthlingborough. dthedrug Apr 19 2014 10:57 AM Well what can I say ADY them early years were something, I remember Chris G taking me to some of these places Earls Barton Bletsoe Kelmarsh, Black Horse Leighton Buzzard however I can recall those great nights at Wigan with Pete Wid & M ick Smith there is so much you should of written, I personally believe that the 100 Club original's kept the scene alive and your work with ACE RECORDS bought a few people back to the scene, I have always looked upon you & Mick as mentors, I think you should fill in the many gaps in your story. RESPECT KTF DAVE K Russ Vickers Apr 20 2014 01:11 PM Makes me proud to be part of a proper Rare Soul Scene....great article Ady, thank you... Russ arnie j Apr 20 2014 02:27 PM good stuff,i enjoyed reading that,cheers ady jason whereismy record Apr 20 2014 02:39 PM Really good read Ady enjoyed reading it now just to wait for the book... little-stevie Apr 20 2014 04:25 PM My regards to Ady, You still strive to " keep it real " and command the respect of so many... A respect that some others will never get come close to... No matter how much they blow their own trumpet.... You gave many of us some of the best times of our life and still life in the old dog yet... You made a lasting impresson on me with your events and taste in music...... Your fashion sense at times did not have the same effect but who in this world is perfect.. Hope to catch up sometime and its your round, i don't tend to send love letters and big up many blokes... Cheers... Byrney Apr 20 2014 05:39 PM Now that's history, cracking Ady. Jim Cafferky Apr 21 2014 07:24 PM Great article from a great guy So many tracks I have come to know via Ady and Kent - rare or just plain top quality Many thanks for all the contributions you have made and the great tracks I have managed to hear via Kent richo991 Apr 22 2014 07:31 PM Thank's Adie ,I enjoyed reading Your artical. which gives a fair account of the soul scene,With regards to the music, my only gripe is that a lot of the music that was played ,is rarely heard due to either its rarity, or where you were at the time.I have come across some guy's with fab collections,which you can come across now & again but due to the amount of clubs now running its rare unless you happen to be at a weekender when there on I find that some of the afternoon sessions are the best whats your oppinion on how the scene is musical. thanks Richo itsthebeat Apr 28 2014 07:59 AM An excellent read!! manusf3a Apr 29 2014 05:36 PM AS above excellent read,one of the very best on here thats for sure. ZootSuit May 09 2014 01:35 PM '69 Kellmarsh, my first nighter, great read, brought back ALL the memories....more like a floodgate !!!! alfranco Jun 06 2014 08:43 AM Brilliant read even though I only went my 1st all nighter at Wigan 77 I was hooked 4 years before with my older sister going to VaVa's in Bolton and other Soul nights still am

FOOTIE AND 45s WEEKENDS By Dave Moore As lifelong Burnley Football Club fans, I am so chuffed that Bev, my Grandkids, (who are also season ticket holders) and the club, play a central role in this tale. We left Burnley in 1985 but as a family we still attend most home games and quite a few away games which, when your grandson plays grass roots football on Saturday and Sundays, can be a challenging programme at the best of times, as even the home games result in a 300 mile round trip for us! However, for three weekends in December 2023 the trips couldn’t have been more worthwhile. Combining two interests that have dominated my life is a first for me and I’m still walking around with a big beaming smile on my face! To find out why, read on… As a town Burnley has punched above it’s weight in a number of ways during my lifetime, the football team being a good example of this. We’ve won the League, The FA Cup, played in Europe and are currently battling away against the mighty billionaires of the Premier League. The club is woven into the DNA of the townspeople as it always will. The other way it punched above it’s weight was in the world of rare soul collecting. East Lancs was a hotbed of rare soul collecting and back in the mid 70s soul clubs were in abundance in the town as were the sales boxes of many of the areas premier soul collectors/sellers. Back to our tale… At one of the home games in November (v West Ham), I was approached on the concourse by a good mate of mine ‘Bob’. He told me that his friend had told him of a record collection in town that may well be up for sale as the collector had passed a while back and his brother wanted shut of the 45s that were gathering dust. I asked the obvious questions of How Many? What Genre? Has anyone sifted it yet? Bob couldn’t answer any of the questions and confirmed he’d make some more enquiries. The following weekend I was up in my home town once again to watch the Mighty Clarets trounce relegation rivals Sheff Utd 5-0) and, having handed the grandkids over to their Dad on Sunday morning ended up in a post-match soul gig in Rishton, a small town a few miles away, that same afternoon. During a pretty good afternoon catching up with Chris Waterman, Ashley Fellows and Mick H, Bob turned up and relayed that he’d been told there were thousands of records and that they were primarily RnB and Jazz. He gave me the business card of the guy with his phone number on and we arranged to try and get there the following weekend. Burnley were away to Brighton the following Saturday but Bev and I had arranged to watch the match in Burnley at our good friends and fellow Clarets Bev and Kev Parker, before us all setting off to go to the Beamish Museum in Co Durham. So, it was gonna be a tight fit to get it all done on Saturday. Fortunately Sky TV, hadn’t messed about with the 3pm KO and would give me a few hours digging about. Unfortunately Bob remembered he had his works ‘do’ on that day and so I rang the guy and arranged to meet him at noon. I picked up my rather ‘fuzzy headed’ best mate Billy (LOL!) and off we went with a pocket full of cash and the belief that we’d probably be returning with it intact. The location was an old Mill type Building near the centre of the town. (1) Although the town’s cotton heritage is well known, many of the old buildings from the industrial revolution have been demolished but there is a will in the town to preserve what can still be utilised and improvements and renovations can be found in various areas of the town. As we approached I felt sinking feeling as Tom (2) met us at the roller door and explained the records were in the cellar! I experienced visions of dark, damp cellars full of mouldy old 45s similar to the ones encountered in Philadelphia, Miami, St Louis, Chicago, and New Orleans but was pleasantly surprised to find that once we entered the underground the space it opened up to reveal a large dry room with good electrics that housed a mountain of electrical music equipment. Turntables, speakers, moogs, keyboards, Amps, 2 complete band set ups and a whole host of recording kit, mixing boards and various guitars scanning 4 decades filled the room. A quick chat with Tom revealed that he was a sound engineer, DJ, from back in the day whose brother Mal had passed a while ago. He was in the process of selling off all the equipment on his retirement from the sound business. This included his joint record collection that he and his brother built up, many as new releases. After a quick tour of the place my attention was drawn to shelves and bags full of 45s and albums sat lurking on one side of a wall and with Billy, having left his specs at home and having a head like a pneumatic drill, deciding he was a little too under the weather to sift thousands of dusty ole’ 45s, I bailed in alone. After a few minutes it became apparent that the shelves were indeed primarily 60s UK labelled RnB, Soul albeit interspersed with hits of the day by the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the odd pop hit from the same era. The first seam of the day quickly showed itself as I picked out UK Tamla Motown copies of Barbara McNair, The Hit Pack, The Spinners (‘Sweet Thing’ AND ‘I’ll Always Love You’) amongst others. A few minutes later The Marvelettes on Fontana (‘Mr Postman’ AND ‘Twistin’ Postman’) made an appearance alongside a number of Oriole issues. There was also a copy of Paul Gayten’s ‘The Hunch’ on London which I’ve always suspected was the first ‘Motown’ orientated product released in UK. We were off and running! In the next handful was a slew of Garnet Mimms on UA and Howard Tate on Verve. Now on a normal days record hunting that would already be a great result for sure, especially in today’s climate where the days of finding untouched 45s of this calibre are almost a thing of the past. I moved to the next shelf and was greeted by what I thought may well be a whole run of UK SUE labelled rnb/soul. A quick confirmation that Ernestine Anderson, Jackie Day, Danny White, Fascinations etc were present amongst the Ike and Tina, John Lee Hooker and Elmore James 45s and the smile grew even wider on this Burnley lad’s face! Having started to stack the 45s into categorized piles I came across a seam of UK Black Chess 45s, probably around 30 of them and was puzzled as to why they were all RNB/Blues by Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Little Milton etc, until I moved onto the next shelf to find The Gospel Classics, Ramsey Lewis, Fontella Bass, The Dells, The Radiants, Cash McCall and Jackie Ross waiting for me. Speaking to Tom as I flicked through the 45s I learned a little bit more about his exploits and those of his brother Mal. They were both musicians who were in a local rock/rnb band in the 60s/70s. He relayed many of the places they played locally including The Imperial Ballroom in Nelson, The Birdtrap in Brierfield (which coincidentally runs a soul night there at which Bob is currently a regular DJ). As was the norm in these RnB/Soul clubs of the time, DJs would play in between the band appearances, (much like today) and Tom and his brother would take on that role in addition to Tom being the sound man and his brother a band member. Tom, it appears liked the rock side of things whilst his brother Mal leaned toward RnB/Blues and later slid into the fledgling Northern Soul sound. It was a thrill to listen to his tales of gigging around the North West and his memories of the bands and people of the time. I’d been around in the mid 70s in Burnley, even running soul nights until 1980 when I left and to think that this collection had remained unknown to me and my peers whilst we were DJing around the corner (In one case right across the road!) was fantastic. To be able to rescue it for future fan’s enjoyment was even better! One of the more prolific labels that eventually secured releases on it’s own logo in the UK was the STAX imprint from Memphis. And the history of it’s dealings as it strove to establish itself was all here on the shelves, told by the 45s themselves. The journey through their earlier releases on London giving way to the Atlantic logo before finally hitting the shops on their own blue label was captured on these shelves. What a shame that the familiar Blue Polydor distributed records didn’t get released in sleeves and that we would have to wait until EMI got hold of the distribution to see the now famous finger clicking logo! On investigating, the Blue Stax pile I had now built up revealed that there were 6 missing, something that I will rectify shortly. The yellow Polydor and later Pye distributed records were a little more thinner on the ground which I put down to the guys interest in DJing waning as the 70s progressed. No black record collection from this era could be regarded as fully representing the timeline without a fair slew of Motown and although I mentioned some choice bits earlier I now found myself opening a large canvas bag that revealed quite a portion of Motown but on the earlier Stateside logo. Happy days! As a stream of 45s passed smoothly from my hands to a new pile I’d added Earl Van Dyke, Carolyn Crawford, The Contours, The Miracles, The Temptations and a host of others to my ever growing piles of 45s. By now I’d amassed about 650 records and the Clarets v Brighton was calling so I decided to take a chance and arrange to come back the next weekend when Burnley were at home to Everton. Tom was more than happy with that and a price for the first haul was agreed, duly paid and we parted with the agreement that we would not tell anyone about the 45s remaining and return on Friday the day before The Match in order to have a full day searching the remaining 45s. I arrived at Bev and Kev’s just before kick off with what must have been the look of a Cheshire Cat! Needless to say the trip to the Beamish was informative and entertaining, especially The Dentist! but as my friend Bev commented… you’re a bit distracted aren’t you Dave? LOL! It was a nervous week as I hoped and prayed no one would find out about the collection until after I’d been through every 45 which was the plan on the Friday. I rang Tom on Thursday to confirm our appointment and that no one had been to see them in the meantime. Duly assured that no one had at 7:00am I set off alone on the 150 mile journey, Bev and Grandkids would come up on Saturday and we’d stay over after the game. By 11 am I’d picked up Billy, Bob and we were walking down those cellar steps to complete the task. Another Footie and 45 Weekend beckoned! On arrival the three of us took a section each and pulled anything of interest out, my first delve into yet another canvas bag yielded a whole slew of Pye International RnB Series 45s. This series was designed to release foreign outings in UK and although it’s early 60s outings contain many US RnB artists by 1963 the label released a mix of styles of black music including artists as diverse as Willie Dixon through to Dionne Warwick under its RnB Series banner. Blues, RnB and Soul artists of the era litter the catalogue and names as diverse as Chuck Berry, Billy Stewart, Bo Didley, Tommy Tucker, John Lee Hooker, Sugar Pie DeSanto and Tony Clarke sit alongside each other. It won’t have escaped the readers’ attention that many of these artists were signed to the Chess logo which up until 1965 had no output on its own now famous black logo This particular Pye Series lasted for just over a year before the Pink PYE logo was introduced and the label became even more diverse. For anyone interested in the development of RnB and how it laid some of the foundations for the soul explosion round the corner, the Pye International label is a great starting point. Most don’t cost a king’s ransom and there are one or two gems in there. As a bonus there was a pristine, sleeved blue PYE copy of Etta James – ‘At Last’ that I was particularly pleased to find. (3) In the corner up against the LP shelves were 3 or 4 old wooden DJ record cases and they were next on the search. On opening the first one I discovered a couple more handfuls of the Chess catalogue and as I flicked through the 200 or so 45s in this particular box I picked out a number of others. At the end of that box I had piled up almost 60 of them. The search was on for the remainder! The usual suspects of Ramsey Lewis, Fontella Bass, Billy Stewart, The Dells, Jackie Ross were all there as were the likes of Gene Chadler’s – ‘Such A Pretty Thing’ all Northern favourites but strangely no Tiffanies and not a single promo. On unzipping another canvas bag that had seen better days the first handful delivered a fistful of Bobby Bland 45s and as any collector/soulfan knows, if Bobby’s around it’s best to slow down and ensure you don’t miss a single 45! True to form, Bobby preceded a rather nice haul of Vocalion 45s. That included not just himself but also Tommy Neal, Bud Harper, Al TNT Braggs and Little Johnny Taylor amongst others. The second half of the bag revealed another slew of early TMG Motown 45s. and that particular ever growing pile was enhanced by 45s from Kim Weston, Brenda Holloway, Shorty Long, Chris Clark and Jr Walker and The All Stars amongst others. I wondered if the TMGs were finished or if some of the later releases were still to be found and on opening a battered 7inch cardboard box I got my answer. The Contours, Isley Brothers, Jr Walker, Marvin and Tammi, Rita Wright and The Undisputed Truth were amongst the haul from the early 70s. As the piles of 45s grew, I started taking a break from searching and concentrated my efforts on ‘sifting’ the piles we’d built for any real quality 45s in slow time. As I’d come across interesting bits I’d simply placed them on a separate pile and it was this particular pile that would now yield the ‘icing on the cake’. The pile had slowly grown to about 100 x 45s all of which were Northern Soul. In amongst this pile of vinyl treasures were copies of Chubby Checker – ‘You Just Don’t Know’ – Cameo Parkway Demo, Dee Dee Warwick – ‘Worth Every Tear I Cry’ – Mercury, Both Little Anthony’s big Northern outings on UA, Sapphires – ‘Got To Have Your Love’ – HMV, Poets – ‘She Blew A Good Thing’ – London, Jimmy Robbins – ‘I Just Can’t Please You’ – President, Skull Snaps – My Hang Up Is You – GSF, ke and Tina – Dust My Broom – HMV Demo. Gene McDaniels – ‘Walk With A Winner’ – Liberty. It was proving to be a good afternoon! Once I’d sorted that pile into 2 separate piles and made a mental note not to add any more but to start another ‘Northern’ pile I delved into the bottom shelves of the racks that held another approx. 500 x 45s. The first handfuls delivered a series of Beatles EPs that under normal circumstances I would have lifted but the condition proved too poor to make them worthwhile, disappointed I put them back and pulled out another handful. It was Action Time! 45s by Little Carl Carlton, The Showmen, Dee Dee Sharp, Clifford Curry, The Olympics, Minnie Epperson, Wilmer and The Dukes and Jeanette Williams were amongst that shelf’s wares. Whilst the next one gave up a handful of Dave Godin’s Soul City labelled 45s, Gene Chandler, Bessie Banks and Chris Jackson amongst them. As the afternoon drew to a close I once again turned my attention to the mounting stacks of 45s that we’d accumulated and checked each one again. Although none of the records were mint and unplayed they were in surprisingly good nick to say they’d been shelved down here for god knows how long and in amongst the piles we’d set aside we confirmed hauls of Atlantic, Polydor, Direction, Monument, Columbia, Capitol Mercury and Track that were confirmed as keepers. As I checked the Stateside pile that had also grown quite healthily, I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few there that would soon nestle in my own collection that I’d not owned since 1990 when I actioned off my then UK collection. The likes of Sammy Ambrose, The Incredibles, Mickey Lee Lane, The Sharpees The OJays and Bettye Lavette would be returning to ‘Casa Moore’ for sure! As we reached the end of the shelves and emptied the last couple of cardboard boxes from which we added to the now lopsided stacks of records. I turned my attention to number of promos that I’d stacked during the afternoon’s activities and these were duly transferred to the ‘we’re taking these’ stacks alongside the US 45 stack that had crept up on me as I’d simply placed anything familiar in to a pile and was quite pleased when I checked through the stack again. During the 2 days of hunting, I’d not really taken much notice of the US 45s we came across so it was something of a nice surprise to realise we had actually fared quite well on the US records too! It was now time to finalise a price that both Tom and I were happy with and once that was concluded and the cash exchanged we boxed another 650 up and transferred to the car upstairs. It had been a great couple of days, rooting through the records had taken me back to the mid 70s soul clubs around East Lancashire and reminded me of the fantastic times we had. Memories of record guys like Steve Bradley, Barrie Waddington, Dave Taylor, Guy Hennigan, Alan Hughes etc, all happy to educate a fledge-ling soul collector. The mad, cross country trips to hit the record bars of venues and the great trips home comparing what we’d managed to snag. That evening we sat around at Billy’s cherry picking the haul to everyone’s satisfaction, as Bob left with his particular bagful, Billy and I slowly sifted the 45s to decide which we would keep and which we might possibly move on. We both decided that apart from a few 45s that would be given to close friends, we would absorb them into our collections. The collection we’d stumbled over would stay together albeit in 2 locations. After a night on Billy’s settee surrounded by records it was ‘up and at ‘em for’ breakfast with my sister Julie and Billy before I picked up the Grandkids and Bev from their Dad who’d driven up from Malvern and after a chaotic lunch we hit Turf Moor. Despite a poor performance against our ex manager Sean Dyche’s team Everton, in which 3 ex Burnley players played a crucial role in our 0-2 defeat, I wasn’t quite as miserable as the kids! An overnight with the kids at our second home (Premier Inn - where the kids fall asleep watching Match Of The Day!) and next morning their Dad picked them up after a hearty breakfast and Bev and I made our way to Billys to pick up almost 1000 x 45s. The drive home was different than usual. Our Mighty Clarets been well beaten again but the chat was decidedly upbeat in our car! When I decided to write up the weekend’s activities I was a bit concerned that it would simply become a list of ‘I then found this’, ‘I then found that’, (which essentially is what it is) but decided that other collector’s might appreciate the tale. I was always enthralled when listening to other collectors’ tales of record hunting and in todays climate of internet, ebay, discogs, having changed the face of the hobby beyond recognition over the years, it felt particularly good to rely on old school skills for a change. I’d like to wish other record hunters a Very Happy and Fruitful New Year and hopefully look forward to more tales of record rescuing in 2024. Dave Moore Jan 2024 REFERENCES: 1. At the request of Tom I have not divulge the exact location of the building. 2. I have used a pseudonym for ‘TOM’ and for his brother ‘MAL’ as he wasn’t keen on his identity or that of his location being made public. However, if anyone is interested in buying any LPs or Speakers, Amps, Technics Turntables, Sound Gear etc I’d be happy to put you in contact with him. 3. Etta James – ‘At Last’ was my Son and Daughter In Law’s first dance at their wedding and I intend to frame the 45 alongside the sheet music and a picture of the happy couple on the dancefloor. PDF Version Complete article in PDF Format: footie-and-45s-by-dave-moore-jan-2024.pdf

The Post Wigan Years By Karl ‘Chalky’ White Much has been written about the Northern Soul scene up to the demise of The Wigan Casino, but very little has actually been written about what followed. For many, the scene died when Wigan Casino closed its doors for the final time. These same people would perversely discover that the scene was far from dead and that a hard-core crowd had continued to keep the flame burning and in the process, had taken the scene back underground with an aggressive upfront music policy. There are of course many misconceptions about the scene post Wigan, both from those who had left the scene and from those who were never there in the first place. These misconceptions were particularly rife in the decades following the closure of the Casino. The most common were that these were the ‘lost years’ (only lost to those who weren’t there), lean times and dark days, both musically and venue wise, when in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. It’s possibly true to say that for much of the 20 or 25 years following Wigan Casino, there were no mass-attended central all-nighters like for, instance, the Casino or, over on the East Coast, Cleethorpes, but the all-nighter scene during this period, nonetheless, had a plethora of venues championing the cause. The demise of the Casino was a slow painful one for many - many were disillusioned with what was happening musically and with the low attendances towards the end. Richard Searling was the saving grace for many but in truth DJs such as Gary Rushbrooke were also offering a taste of things to come. Flyer for the first Clifton Hall (1980) (Arthur Fenn & Derek Sheldon subsequently “replaced” after this night) On the other side of the Pennines, in Rotherham of all places, a renaissance was beginning. Tired of what was happening at Wigan and with the opinion that it had run its course, Alan Senior, Steve Croft and Adrian Guite under the guise of Soul Time Promotions began hosting all-nighters at The Clifton Hall in October 1980. With the likes of Richard Searling and Gary Rushbrooke from Wigan, Arthur Fenn, Derek Sheldon (both leaving after the first one I believe) Chris Brady and Brian Rae bolstered by the likes of Cleethorpes’ Blair Hayden better known as “Poke”, Pat Brady, Steve Mannion and Sean Hampsey joining the ranks, the venue promoted an aggressive and upfront music policy which included many 70s recordings and new releases. Clifton Hall, 1981. Black Echoes All-nighter. Alongside Clifton Hall, Soul Time Promotions also held events at The Fusion in Chesterfield, The KGB, Sheffield Samantha’s, Lincoln Drill Hall, Bradford Queens Hall and Cleethorpes. However things didn’t last between the promoters and a split was inevitable with eventually Alan Senior keeping Clifton Hall and Steve Croft and Adrian moving onto Cleethorpes Winter Gardens, Bradford for a short while and Loughborough. However the music policy at Clifton Hall wasn’t for everyone - too many 70s releases and too much Jazz-Funk, the Preston Street Dancers (complete with boiler suits and whistles and not to be confused by the Preston Cybermen), whilst well received by some were an irritation to others, were just some of the complaints. Other venues were beginning to making a name for themselves and proving more popular with for the more traditional all-nighter goer. One such venue was Nottingham Oddfellows, not in Nottingham oddly, but in Leicester. Under the Central England Soul Club banner and promoted by Tony “The Vicar” Clayton and Ally Mayer, the all-nighter began at this fantastic venue in 1982 and ended there with the 5th Anniversary in 1987, although the club continued at venues in Market Harborough and Loughborough Town Hall in the future. Again, an upfront and aggressive music policy was in order, with 60’s newies (a term that would become synonymous with the 80’s rare soul scene) from the likes of Gary Rushbrooke and Keb Darge, 70s and Modern Soul supplied by Adam Buchanan and Robin Salter, all alongside quality underplayed oldies and quality classics. The venue quickly made a name for itself seeing a full house eager to lap up what the DJs had to offer. The scene really was in a healthy state and much of the despair that came with the demise of Wigan Casino was now being replaced by a renewed optimism and enthusiasm. Another all-nighter that was popular during the early to mid 80’s was Morecambe. Promoted under the Soul-Promotions banner by Shaun Gibbons, the club began life in April 1983 and was initially located at the Central Pier. The original line up of DJ’s was Richard Searling, Pat Brady, John Vincent, Russ Winstanley, Brian Rae & Keith Minshull. In The Starlight Room Steve Whittle, Marc Farley, Steve Brackenbridge, Derek Smith And Keith Brady. Sometime after the third anniversary the Pier was closed due to holes in the decking, allegedly caused by Scooterists jumping up and down whilst queuing to enter the Pier. Weeks later the Pier was to burn down. The club relocated initially to another council building called the Dome for a few all-nighters before settling down at the Carlton Club. The Carlton also had a second room known as The Garage, which was essentially the Modern Soul Room. Gary Taylor, Mark Warmsley and Jason Conroy were added to the line up of DJ’s At The Carlton Club. Live acts to appear included Prince Philip Mitchell, Chuck Jackson, Gene Chandler, The Flirtations, Frances Nero and Singing Sam Ward. The venue proved very popular with Modern Soul lovers but the 60’s were too oldies orientated for those eager to progress and seek out new discoveriews. Some 60’s “newies” were pushed though especially by John Vincent who had an exceptional set at the time with many exclusives that would find their way into the collections of future top Dj’s and also by Pat Brady. April 1982 saw the birth of the one all-nighter above all others that epitomises the scene post Wigan. The Top Of The World club in Stafford would become the focal point for many and it would become the venue most talked about after Wigan Casino, The Twisted Wheel, Cleethorpes and the Torch. The venue had already held all-nighters under the promotion of Keith Minshull (and others) prior to April 1982, but when Dave Thorley teamed up with Keith and the Top Dog Soul Club was formed and a legendary venue was born. The promotion began with a team of DJs featuring the best of the Wigan Casino roster and, from over in the West Country, the Yate DJs. The line-up was Richard Searling, Gary Rushbrooke, Keith Minshull, Ian Clarke, Chris Plant, Ady Pountain, Dave Thorley and, especially with all the unissued Motown that came his way, probably the best 60s “newies” DJ of the early 1980s, Dave Withers. Once again the music was upfront and across the board with a fast turnover of fresh records all played within the main room - a far cry from today. As well as the main room a second room featured the likes of Pete Widdison, Nick Marshall, Esher, Dave Greet, Budgie, the late and much missed Dave Alcock, Mick Smith and Steve Smith. It was billed as the very best in oldies but in truth many future main room plays began life in there. As mentioned above, Dave Withers, together with Rod Shard, obtained a couple of tapes via U.S. collector and expert Robb Klein who had been working on a ‘From The Vault’s’ series for Motown U.S. and thus had access to the Motown tape library. Robb ended up recording many previously unheard tracks, which eventually ended up in the hands of Rod Shard. Knowing the content was Northern Soul dynamite, Rod made some acetates and the tracks were then unleashed upon an unsuspecting crowd. Marvin Gaye ‘It’s Killing Me’, the Originals ‘Suspicion’, the Temptations ‘Forever In My Heart’, the Velvelettes with ‘Let Love Live’ and ‘Love Is Good’, Gladys Knight & The Pips ‘Never Too Late’ and the Marvelettes with ‘Boy From Crosstown’ to name just some of the gems unleashed on the dance floor. Alongside records such as Soul Brothers Inc ‘Pyramid’, Kell Osborne “Law Against A Heartbreaker”, Johnny Gilliam, Bobby Sheen, Gino Washington, Sam Dees and The Ringleaders acetates, the scene was in a very, very healthy state musically. Many of the tracks still played and highly sought after by todays DJ’s – a testament to the quality of the tunes in question. (Stafford promoter with 6t’s Mafia Guy Hennigan, Keb Darge & Pat Brady) However this is just part of the Stafford Story. Come the summer of 1983, there were signs of growing discontent amongst many who thought that the 60’s were being neglected. Dave Withers was disillusioned with his treatment by some promoters who failed to recognise that he was probably top of the tree. This culminated in him being given the graveyard shift - the last hour of a nighter, by one promoter so he decided to call it a day on the DJ’ing front. Likewise Gary Rushbrooke. All was not lost to the lovers of 60’s music, as two upstarts pestered Dave Thorley into giving them slots and as a result the 6t’s Mafia was born and Guy Hennigan and Keb Darge were unleashed onto the unsuspecting Stafford crowd. If the music policy was aggressive before, it was even more so now with a relentless search for new discoveries with the term ‘6t’s newies’ becoming commonplace. If a record didn’t work almost immediately it was dropped in favour of the next in line, similar to the ‘three spins a night’ Mecca plays from the decade before. The pace was relentless and missing a week or two meant sometimes missing something new. In fact, often-brilliant records slipped through because of the sheer pace of the turnaround of new plays, although most would eventually have their day. Robin Salter also came on board replacing Adam and Robin was to further push the boundaries of Modern Soul with some brilliant discoveries alongside some classics and rarities. Dave Thorley was championing music from across the decades, brilliant 60’s alongside new discoveries, whilst Pat Brady had some of the best 60’s discoveries of anyone. Bradford’s George Sharp and Mansfield’s Jimmy Wensiora, both with amazing collections also came on board. All these ingredients added up to make Stafford a legend of the scene, giving Northern Soul a multitude of records, still played today, still highly sought after and many still incredibly rare. The whole period was more about ‘a couldn’t care less attitude’ (to put it politely) and you either got it or you didn’t. Many of the usual characters frequented Stafford, Oddfellows and other venues throughout the 80’s, epitomizing the attitude of the day which was staunchly defiant and there seemed to be these characters one at every turn, often up to no good and more often than not living the life to the max. (Popcorn Wylie at Stafford courtesy of Neil Salter) Stafford also featured many live acts. Eddie Parker and Lorraine Chandler ranks as one of the best all-nighters ever for those who were lucky enough to attend. Other acts included Harold Melvin and The Bluenotes, Popcorn Wylie, Eddie Holman, Gene Chandler, Major Lance and Dobie Gray. (Eddie Holman at Stafford courtesy of Neil Salter) Alongside Stafford, Chris King was running successful all-nighters under the Weekend Soul Club banner at places such as Hinckley. One such night featured the legendary Ric Tic Revue with artists from Detroit including Edwin Starr, Al Kent, J.J. Barnes, Laura Lee, Pat Lewis and Lou Ragland. Steve Croft with his After Dark Soul Club was having also having success at Warrington’s Parr Hall and Sean Gibbons doing likewise on the North West coast at Morecambe. Nottingham saw Dave Raistrick’s promotions at The Rock City with some of the midlands finest amongst the DJ line up including Jimmy Wensiora, Gary Rushbrooke, Dave himself, Steve Phillis, Jonathon Woodliffe, Rob Smith and all the great and good of the time appearing as guests. Mid to late 1985 saw three promoters have a sit down and come together for the good of the scene and agree to work together and not to clash with their respective promotions. The three being Dave Thorley, Chris King and Steve Croft giving rise to the Three Voices Soul Club. It would be nice to see some of that logic applied to todays over crowded calendar on the Northern/Rare Soul scene. Around 1979 Randy Cozens and Ady Croasdell formed the 6T’s Rhythm & Soul Society. A DJ line up consisting of Randy, Mick Smith, Tony Rounce, Tony Ellis, Terry Davis, Ian Clark and Pete Widdison – Ady maintains that he couldn’t be arsed at the time but nevertheless he was to go on to become a legend of the Northern/Rare Soul scene. After causing havoc (in the nicest possible way of course) at various pubs around London they finally settled at the 100 Club and all-nighters were soon to begin in 1981. The all-nighters continue to this day and, as of 2014, have now reached the milestone of their 35th anniversary and the longest running soul venue in the world - some achievement in the fickle world of Northern Soul. Like other clubs of the 80‘s and to this day, the club was and still is at the cutting edge of rare soul featuring the best of Northern Rarities, unknowns and recent discoveries, R&B and a smattering of quality oldies. Another important part of the mid 80’s was not a venue but a UK record label and, once again, Ady Croasdell was the driving force (initially under his alias of Harboro Horace) with his work with Ace/Kent. The early Kent LPs beginning with ‘For Dancers Only’ were an important way into the scene for many. With access to the vaults of many US labels, many unissued gems were introduced to the scene by the likes of Keb Darge and Ady Croasdell - Melba Moore with ‘The Magic Touch’, Maxine Brown with ‘Torture’, Peggy Woods ‘Love Is Gonna Get You’, Chuck Jackson ‘What’s With This Loneliness’, Carla Thomas with ‘I’ll Never Stop Loving You’, Tommy Hunt ‘The Pretty Part Of You’ and countless other unissued gems from the vaults of RCA, Dave Hamilton, the Pied Piper production team and many other long-forgotten labels. It has been an incredible source of new material for DJs and dancers that continues to this day and long may it continue to do so. Come 1986 the scene was to experience some changes. Stafford, Parr Hall, Hinckley, Oddfellows and other venues of the early 80s were to close, but the scene rose to the challenge with a multitude of venues ready to step in and fill the gaps. Gone were the few major venues that had provided focal points for the scene and gone were the central meeting places like The Torch, Wigan & Stafford - something the scene would never experience again. Now it was the turn of monthly all-nighters at various venues up and down the country. Around this time also saw the emergence of arguably one of the best DJ’s the scene has ever witnessed, or should that be heard? Mark “Butch’ Dobson. He alongside his good friend Tim Ashibende had supplied many DJs throughout the 80’s with top quality records but Mark had his own personal armoury, namely an incredible collection of impossibly rare records. His sets from those days in my opinion have never been bettered. The Mello Souls “We Can Make It’ then known as the Del-Larks, ‘Just You And I’, Diane Lewis ‘You Ain’t Got A Chance’, G. Davis & R. Tyler cover up which turned out to be Walter & The Admirations ‘Man Oh Man’, Jesse James ‘Are You Gonna Leave Me’, Tommy Ridgeley ‘My Love Gets Stronger’, the Just Brothers ‘Go On And Laugh’, the Devotions ‘Do Do De Dap‘ (I actually prefer the cover up name ‘The Magic Tones - A Lovers Plea”), Mac Staten & the Nomads ‘There She Goes’, Mr Lucky ‘I Was Born To Love You’, The Volcano’s ‘Love Is Alright’ which turned out to be a Jesse James Virtue acetate, The Sherry’s ‘World Of Happiness’, again a Virtue acetate and which eventually was discovered to be Shirley Turner. Alongside these, there is a multitude of other tracks like Martha Jean Love, Jean Carter “I Wanna Know’, Tommy & The Derbys ‘Don’t Play The Role’, Johnny Praye ‘Can’t Get Too Much Love’ and a plethora of other discoveries from the 60’s & 70’s throughout the years right up to today. To do this for so long, when pickings were not as plentiful as back in the 70s, is, for me, the one reason why I say he is arguably the scenes greatest DJ! Rob Marriott and with the Soul Power Promotions at The Swan Hotel in Mansfield featuring Rob himself who was one of the leading DJ’s of the late 80’s to the early 90’s with some incredible 45’s, initially from the collection of Jimmy Wensiora but soon to get together many of his own discoveries and biggies. Alongside Rob would be Butch, Jimmy, Andy Whitmore, Rich Broughton, Keb, Guy & Pete Shirley and again the very best guests. Rob also had a successful soul night in Mansfield at Trotters, popular with people prepared to travel from all over. Guy Hennigan would have two successful all-nighters at Tony’s Empress Ballroom in both Blackburn and Mexborough. Again featuring the very best cutting edge Rare Soul and Northern Soul DJs, Guy, Keb, Butch, Ion Tsakalis, Pat Brady & Dave Evison with quality oldies alongside the best guests from all over the UK - Kitch, Dean Anderson and Colin Law to name but a few. 1987 saw Bradford Queens Hall would be revived under the Hole In The Wall Soul Club run by Phil Dick with After Dark’s Steve Croft getting on board not too long after. The venue was I believe owned by the Student union and featured a fabulous sprung dance floor. Here saw the likes of Gary Spencer and Carl Fortnum pushing the boundaries with 60’s newies alongside Pat Brady, Steve and Phil, Darren Harden, Roger Banks and Nigel Parker. The club proved very popular and would run into the early 90’s continuing in 1991 under the After Dark banner until its eventual demise around late 1992/early 1993. 1987 also saw the rise of arguably the best and most talked about Soul Club in Scotland, The Ruff Cutt Crew and the Shotts all-nighters at the Allanton Miners Welfare Club. Scotland had given the scene its fair share of great all-nighters, namely Clouds, The Claremont and Glenrothes for example but the Shotts all-nighters seemed to capture the very essence of what the 80s Rare Soul Scene was all about. It had attitude by the bucket loads, open mindedness and enthusiasm. It was originally formed by Jim O’Hara, Barney (Brian Welsh R.I.P) and John Neilson with John leaving after a couple of months and Barney just a few months later, to leave it in the capable hands of Jim. Jim was one of a rare breed, a promoter who just promoted and didn’t DJ himself! Jim got together the very best Scottish lads to play the records throughout lifespan, Colin Law, Mark Linton, Acky Buchan, Jim Tennant, Alan & Steve Walls, Andy Dennison, Jock O’Connor, Keith Whitson with the Modern Soul supplied by Tom Jackson and Bob Jeffries. Alongside these it featured the best DJ’ from south of the border and Scotland, namely Guy, Keb, Andy Whitmore, Kitch, Dean Anderson, Graeme Ellis, Gilly, Ady Harley, Andy Whitmore, Gaz Kellet, Dave Molloy, Rob Wigley, Rob Marriot and more to feed the ever enthusiastic crowd of some top quality rare soul. Not all the records were exclusive to Allanton, many had been featured at venues from earlier years but with these mixed with the knowledge and taste of the collectors and with the discoveries of the time it had all the right ingredients to make it one special venue. It was a weekend away travelling, often on Guy’s coaches with various stops along the way, or on one of Dean Anderson’s mini buses, but it was all worth it. The atmosphere was like nowhere else really. The club ran successfully for 4 or 5 years before the end in around 1991/2. Another influential club of the mid to late 80’s was the RSG, promoted by Jon Buck. It ran all-nighters at Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard (The Unicorn) as well as promotions at Peterborough at the Fleet with Danny Everard. RSG would feature again the very best cutting edge DJ’s with quality oldies and a dash of Modern Soul. The venues would prove very popular with live acts such as Popcorn Wylie who came over and did a show in Dunstable and one in Manchester at The Apollo. Peterborough saw various clubs throughout the 80’s promote events at places like the Wirrina Stadium and The Fleet, Central England Soul Club being one in particular, D&S Promotions, East Anglian Soul Club and the RSG. Danny Everard would also co-promote the popular but short-lived all-nighter in 1987 alongside Dave Thorley under the Top Dog and Kool Kat Soul Club at Chesterfield’s The Winding Wheel. A fantastic venue, which at the time could have been the central venue the scene needed after Stafford. But the event suffered from some heavy duty oppressive policing by the local drug squad, with coaches stopped en route, travelers stopped and searched in the town’s car park despite little if nothing ever being found. The drug squad would probably have had more success down at the local Adam and Eve night club! Yet when the police began blocking applications for license extensions from the local colliery brass bands, the management (who were all for the all-nighters to continue) had no choice but to put an end to them. Such a shame as it had all the right ingredients to make it a huge success and become the next central venue for the scene. The Acts for the 1st Northern Soul & Motown Weekender at Yarmouth. 1989 saw the beginnings of the weekenders on the Rare/Northern Soul Scene. They began in Yarmouth at the Vauxhall Holiday Park under the promotion of TAC. It began life as ‘A Motown and Northern Soul Weekender’ with a strong emphasis on live acts and Motown rather than the DJs. Acts to appear at the first were George McCrae, Jimmy Ruffin, Lew Kirton, George Williams of the Tymes, Junior Walker, Clifford Jones, Rockie Robbins, Ray Lewis of the Drifters, Mary Wells, Martha Reeves and Edwin Starr. However it proved so popular with those from ‘Northern Soul’ scene that by 1990/1991 they were holding two per year with the second being predominately a Northern Soul Weekender with more emphasis on the DJs but also with a stellar list of artists, not just one or two, but four or five artists at each weekender each putting in a full set - Gene Chandler, J.J. Barnes, Eddie Holman, Ray Pollard, Eddie Parker, Lorraine Chandler, Chuck Jackson, H.B. Barnum, Garland Green, Popcorn Wylie and Johnny Bristol to name just a few. However these weekenders despite their success were short lived and by 1993 that man Ady Croasdell was to fill the breach with a new weekender at The Beachcombers Holiday Park in Cleethorpes - a venue where they are still held to this day. An array of acts have graced the stage at Cleethorpes. The first were Mary Love & Tony Middleton and, since then, Doris Troy, Tommy Hunt, Maxine Brown, Al Wilson, Bobby Hutton, Little Ann, Hoagy Lands, Sidney Barnes, The Velvelettes, Dennis Coffey, Willie Tee, Dean Parrish, The Diplomats/Skull Snaps, the Mirwood Revue, Carl Carlton and Darrow Fletcher, Derek Martin & Bettye Swann to name a few. Yarmouth and Cleethorpes paved the way for other weekenders in the future like Prestatyn, Cala Gran, Fleetwood, Blackpool & Dave Raistrick’s Skegness weekenders. On the more Modern and Soulful dance side of the scene you had Soul Essence in Yarmouth (still running to this day), Southport and Ralph Tee and Richard Searling’s Luxury Soul Weekenders in Blackpool. One Soul night worthy of a mention in the 80’s early 90’s is The Detroit Academicals in Northampton and the surrounding area. Hosted by Cliff Steele with local talent Neil Smith, Trev and Tony Parker ably assisted by the finest DJ’s and collectors of the time, this was one soul night that was worth the effort of travelling. Another soul night would be Gary Welsh’s Canal Tavern at Thorne. Whilst heavily featuring the Modern side of the scene, the venue played its fair share of Northern and also featured live acts not just at Thorne with Sam Dees but also in Hull at an all-dayer with Jesse James. Gary, Rod Dearlove and Tim Brown would take the reins and this saw the birth of the term “Crossover” which is having a big influence in today s scene (although, to be fair, “Crossover” had been played for years prior to the term becoming accepted). This brings us into the 90’s, a time of change for many on the Rare/Northern Soul Scene. The Okeh Soul Club all-nighters at Keele University run by Neil Clowes would become extremely popular. However they were seen as the beginning of the end for the upfront scene as it was in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. The venue was huge and full but the music took a huge step backwards for people like myself with a reliance on oldies and classics from Wigan Casino, The Torch and other such venues. Many other venues would also go down this route. But it was still a good craic and had an excellent record bar, essential for collectors like myself, this would be where I would get my kicks and satisfy my need for something new as the DJ’s were not fulfilling my thirst. Tony’s Empress Ballroom in Blackburn would also prove a very popular venue when revived by Mick Lyons in the early 90’s with the help of Little Scotty. A blend of DJs featuring the very best oldies with newer discoveries the venue ran throughout the 90s and into the 00s. Johnny Beggs and Duncan Pollett would run the Northern Cowboy nights at The Bear in Congleton and other venues in the area, totally upfront with the very best cutting edge DJ’s and collectors and hugely popular. Around the same time Pete Hollander, Mark Bicknell and Dennis Billingham would promote the Concord Suite in Droylsden, again very popular and also featuring live acts, like Barbara Acklin and Ruby Andrews in 1993. When Droylsden finished, Pete & Mark moved to Hyde Town Hall and The Bridgehall Hotel in Bury. About 1995 Pete teamed up with Barry Holland and this saw the birth of Winsford again with similar guests to Droylsden and Hyde, namely Butch Gary Spencer, Soul Sam, Bob Hinsley and Robbo. They also revived all-nighters at The Parr Hall and held others at Sandbach Town Hall. From 1991 up until 1995 would see another soul night have an influence on the scene at Bretby Country Club. Run by Chris Anderton the venue was nicknamed the Son Of Stafford because of the attitude of the DJs who were the best from across the UK in terms of an upfront playlist and featuring of course many sounds made popular at places like Stafford. The venue would later see successful all-nighters hosted by Dave Thorley and Chris King. A two roomed affair with the best DJ’s from the Rare/Northern and Modern Soul scenes playing the very best music. The Deepest South was very under represented at times post Wigan but Russ Vickers attempted to keep the torch burning with his Uptown Down South Promotions. Ably assisted by Keith and Maxine Woon they featured the very best in Rare Soul from the 60’s, current biggies of the time with a mix of quality oldies through to brand new releases. Kicking off in Abshot, with promotions held at the Royal Sailors Home Club before moving to The Colony Club (UDS) in October (11th) of 1997. The last Colony Club taking place on 27th February 1999. The Resident DJ's at both venues were Simon Preston who kicked off proceedings, Keith Woon, Maxine Woon, Ben Summers, Lloyd Attrill & Russ himself. The main influances at the time for Russ were the 100 Club & Soul Essence. The music policy was 6ts thru to new releases. Abshot was a Soul Night in Fareham, Hampshire, but much to his surprise, it took off & after a year we were struggling to get everyone in. A move to Newbury was made to accomadate the growing numbers and the Colony Club on what was RAF Greenham Common became the new home. Rob & Elaine Savage managed the club, the events were monthly, every second night at Newbury was an All Nighter. Guest DJ's included Gavin Page, Dave Thorley, Soul Sam, Bob Hinsley, Ian Clark, Dave Greet, Steve Guarnori, Terry Davis (Norfolk Village), Cliff Steele, Eddie Hubbard, Ady Croasdell, Chris Anderton and more. Live PA's from Sam Dees & Jeff Perry were both unforgettable nights. Maxine's UDS top 5: Melvin Moore - All of a sudden; Wizards of Ooze - Trippin'; Differences - Five Minutes; Promises - This love is real; Jeanie Tracy - Making new friends. Keith top 5: Sean Oliver - You and Me; True Image - I'm not over you; Bobby Kline - Say something nice to me; Mary Wells - Love letters; Almeta Lattimore - These memories. At the time Russ was playing Barbara Lynn - Moving on a Groove, which we made into massive record, Emmitt Long - Call Me, was only 3 known copies at the time, Bad Weather Inc, again 3 copies at the time which Dave Thorley bought back from NY, new release wise I was pushing Island Inspirational Allstars - Dont Give Up, amongst others.... Featured oldies included Martha Starr - Love is the Only Solution, Yvonne Carol - Oh Yea, Yea, Yea & Johnny Rogers, again amongst others. Life and Soul Promotions would promote hugely successful events at Albrighton. The venue really did feature the very best Rare and Modern Soul DJ’s. Promoted by Lynn Taylor, Tait and Martin Bradley, they employed the likes of Butch, Ted Massey, Soul Sam, Gavin Page, Dave Thorley, Roger Williams, Mark Simpson, Paul Sutton, Guy Hennigan, Neil Felton, Ginger Taylor, Chic, Johnny Weston and many more up until the last all-nighter in 2001. From its humble beginnings at the Carlton Working Men’s Club and The Civic Centre in Wakefield, Mouse, Chris Pelle and the likes of Stephen “Chuddy” Dudley ran very successful soul nights. So successful that in 1993 an all-nighter began at, what would become affectionately known as, The Wilton. Whilst it did feature top DJs, the emphasis was more on the collector and because of this the music was always fresh. Quality underplayed oldies would feature alongside new discoveries. Saus was one of the top DJs of the early 90’s with a varied mainly 60’s set of Northern and R&B, way ahead of his time with the R&B. Roger Banks, John Wilkinson, Bob Hinsley, Keith Money, Les Cockell, Guy Hennigan, John Kingan, George Hunt, Andy Dyson, John Britton, Arthur Fenn and many more would grace the decks over the next 20 years or so. Sadly the all-nighters ran into slow decline, mainly due to the fact it was on a Friday and 24/7 working weeks and family life meant many were unable to make it on a Friday. The Wilton still hosts a Soulful Session once a year with top quality live acts with Darrow Fletcher and Debbie Taylor having appeared recently. Towards the end of the 90’s, (1997 if my memory serves me correctly), Kev Roberts and Richard Searling would begin hosting all-nighters at the Kings Hall in Stoke. These are still going strong today and are now in their 17th year. The venue features the best the scene has had to offer throughout its history. The event has its knockers and isn’t known for its cutting edge but it has helped many get back into the scene and is packed to the rafters with around 1500 in attendance at every event. Come the 00s London was calling and making a noise on the scene. The 100 Club was still going strong with Alan “Shifty” Neale & Greg McIllinney, better known as Irish Greg making names for themselves and establishing themselves as residents. Irish Greg and Alan Handscombe would form the Capitol Soul Club in January 1999. This club began life at The Bar in Shoreditch but it was when they moved to the Dome in Tufnell Park that the club really came to the forefront of the London Soul Scene. Carl Fortnum joined the two co-founders along with David Flynn and Matt Jahans came on board as the promoter for the Club - another of the rare breed of promoters who didn’t DJ. The guests for the nights were the great and good of the time, far too many to list but just about every DJ who played something other than the same old same was brought in to guest. The music policy was cutting edge 60’s Rare, Northern and R&B and featured many tracks that were broken in the 80s at venues such as Stafford’s Top Of The World and The 100 Club, biggies of the day and many unissued rarities and acetates. The crowd travelled from all over the UK and the venue was packed, many youngsters were introduced to the music and they naturally lapped it up. Capitol Soul wasn’t the only club. Nick & Dawn Brown were promoting their Scenesville nights at various venues across the City like The Camden Centre, The Phoenix & Notre Dame. Nick was joined by Chris Dale, Alan “Kitch” Kitchener and Andy Rix and the music was probably as upfront as anywhere at the time with the emphasis on the rare and unreleased. They really were great nights and the flyers became collectable in their own right. Joe Wallace, Martin Thomson and Paul Peter Thomas were promoting Thursday night events in the cellar at the River Bar on Tower Bridge Road under the banner of “These Old Shoes” - another quality Soul night that set the weekend up perfectly if you could get along on a Thursday. Soul in the City began life in 2001 and co-promoted by Dave Greenhill, Paul McKay and Alistair McDonald. Martin Thomson was invited to join the trio after three nights. The nights, which ran until 2007, proved very popular and, like Capitol Soul and Scenesville, had some fantastic guests playing quality Rare Soul. November 2004 would see the Solid Hit Soul Club begin life as a club. Dave Greenhill, Martin Thomson, Stuart Tyler & Gene Robertson being the promoters. The Club is still going strong today but has since lost Martin and Gene but gained Des Parker and Shane Cox and still features quality Rare Soul from the residents and top guests alike. By the mid 90’s The Rocket was also causing a stir. The venue hosted all-nighters under the Metropolitan Soul Club banner. Co-promoted by Paul Clarke and Kevin Johansen, Ian Levine was asked to be the main DJ and given the task of booking the other DJs. The nights, whilst initially successful with well over a thousand in attendance at the first couple, the promotion began to suffer for various reasons - frequency, arguments between rival clubs and, not least, the inevitable fickleness of the summer months (which have always traditionally been very slow scene wise). Despite all this London was an exciting place to be in the early to mid 2000s with the clubs involved all playing their part in a vibrant exciting time packed with quality soul music. Come the mid 2000’s though, the all-nighter scene was suffering. Too many oldies were the norm, mainly as a result of those who returned to the scene in the late 90’s early 2000’s for the first time since the days of the Casino. This was until Andy Dyson & Mick Heffernan (or simply Mick H) felt it was time to do something about it and The Lifeline Soul Club was born. All-nighters were put on at Sheridans in Dewsbury with myself (Karl “Chalky” White) helping with the promotional side of things. A team of residents were assembled who, in the opinion of Andy and Mick, had collections to get away from the same old same old that was the diet of many other promotions of the day. Alongside Andy and Mick was Butch, Soul Sam, Cliff Steele and Nick Stevenson, with myself coming on board after the second or third all-nighter after Nick called it a day. With an upfront cutting edge policy the venues at Sheridan’s was packed to the rafters and only guests who they felt would complement the residents were employed. Since Sheridans, Lifeline has promoted at The Fox at Colsterworth on the A1, The Ye Olde Bell in Barnby Moor near Retford (where it also held hugely successful weekenders), The Stables at Shareshill, Wolverhampton and is now at Bidds in Longton, Stoke on Trent, where it co-promotes a two-roomed affair with the Pow Wow Club. Bidds previously held popular all-nighters hosted by Mace with the help of Johnny Beggs featuring the very best Rare Soul, Latin and R&B. Mace is now co-promoting Pow Wow alongside Mik Parry, Gav Arno and Callum Simpson in the two-roomed event at the venue alongside Lifeline. Sheridans in Dewsbury at the time in the mid 2000’s provided a central venue for the Scene with several clubs promoting a night there every week. Alongside Lifeline was Andy McCabe with Soultown and Joe Dutton with the Flip Side nights (R&B & Mod orientated nights). For a short time the scene had somewhere everyone could go every week for some special nights. Many didn’t want to leave and some stopped there for days following all-nighters!! As mentioned earlier Soultown really helped the successful nights at Sheridans, employing the best Rare Soul and Northern Soul DJ’s playing cutting edge and the best Northern Soul around. It later moved to The Middleton Civic Hall where extra rooms were added - an R&B room run by the Backbeat team and a rare and underplayed room hosted by Maria And Carl Willingham. Again a very successful all-nighter whilst it ran. The New Century Soul Club run by Chris Waterman and Marcelle began promoting in December 2003 at the CIS building in Manchester where it stayed for 2 years. Various other venues were utilized until landing at Radcliffe Civic Suite where it will celebrate its 11th Anniversary this year (2014). Alongside the main room it features a quality Modern Room and an alternative room featuring the best in underplayed Soul music. Another long running venue is Rugby with initially Sian Rare Soul nights and then all-nighters promoted at The Benn Hall in the centre of Rugby. Again, alongside the main room, a freestyle room is proving hugely popular with spinners playing the best in underplayed Soul Music. Burnley would see a very popular all-nighter at The Kestrel Suite, promoted initially by Philip Kowalczyk with Sean Haydon later taking over the reins. With an upfront and mainly up-tempo music policy the venue has a hardcore following and features the very best Rare Soul and Funk plus the harder-edged Soul music that seems very popular on today’s scene. Sean also co-promotes alongside Dave Abbott the very popular Soul-Funk-Tion all-nighters where the more hard-edged and funky soul is featured alongside the very best Rare Soul. This isn’t meant to be a definitive history of the Northern and Rare Soul Scene post Wigan Casino, which would be near-on impossible. It’s simply a reflection that the scene is and always has been very much alive and kicking, despite the misconceptions voiced by some. There are literally hundreds of events and many promotions and promoters I haven’t mentioned but simply couldn’t mention them all given the time and space constraints I was under. My apologies go to all who I haven’t managed to mention in this brief write-up. All have played their part in keeping the Northern Soul scene alive and all have contradicted many of the misconceptions about the scene post Wigan Casino. The scene has always had spells where times were on the quiet side but the scene has also remained extremely popular with a hardcore following for the various all-nighter promotions over the years to the extent that the scene as of today would appear to be every bit as popular as it has ever been, with a healthy influx of the younger generation enjoying the greatest dance scene the world has ever seen. And long may it continue! Karl ‘Chalky’ White November 2014. Amended August 2015.