i really like where this thread went, uk cats giving us a dose of the richard searling and blackpool mecca days.
wouldve loved to witness that 1st hand...along with norman jay in the early days.
what a scene to have developed.... around the more underground american releases...reaching way across the pond.
i love traveling & dropping tunes you dont think many are up on... then one may come up to you and show you love for playing it...like "ace set, havent heard that _________ in a years, big chune!"
something about the uk music scene and the championing of indie/underground records.not so much in the states.
last wmc in miami, i met the owner of a massive festival that is known for mostly techno...hes gotta be late 50s early 60s...tells me hes an old soulboy... was going nuts to carl craigs pure disco set... linda clifford came on he nearly cried.
i only say strings because almost every "modern" mix or "modern" songs i hear brits play or speak of... its usually a song like norman connors "once ive been there" or the flowers track posted.
boogie to me= roller skating music= rollerboogie.
prince's i wanna be your lover, zapp, rufus' do you love what you feel, al hudson's " you can do it" unlimited touch, bounce rock skate,chic, slave, d- train, etc... all were skated to when they first came out.
this sound.. snappy punchy drums, with heavy synth and basslines, and sometimes but not often....(chic) strings.
i personally dont like to label music genres, but understand the need to classify or define a certain sound within.
80s soul ior r&b s far to broad a term.
last week while spinning i had dude come up with a $20 asking for r&b while playing teddy p.....
tkeep your $, this is r&b jacksass... rhythm & blues.
think he meant rap & bullshit...im not playing drake at my party.
i think batmon should start a quiet storm thread. some killers bound to be up in that thread.....
could kool & the gangs summer madness have been monumental in setting that off ?
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
J i m s t e r said:
DocMcCoy said:
Richard Searling
My dude when it comes to Modern. I know he's been around since Northern was swimming around in it's dad's balls, but I only got into "Soul" (in it's widest sense) as a teenager in about 83 because I liked the stuff that had crossed over to mainstream where it was put under my nose. I speak of Luther, Freddie Jackson, Cameo, Chaka and dem. (unfortunately I was not born with fully-developed musical taste). It wasn't called "Modern" or even "R&B" back then, just "Soul".
I started listening to shows that were spinning this exclusively. Robbie Vincent on BBC R1 and Mike Shaft / Chad Jackson on Picadilly. I think Terry Linane had one on 194 Radio City in the 'Pool too. DocMc may confirm. I even started saving up for the weekend and getting to Berlin's a couple of times. Richard was on Red Rose radio - he played "Modern" in the first hour and "Northern" in the second. I didn't bite on the Northern.
I remember all those shows. If I remember rightly, Searling's Red Rose show was on a Sunday afternoon. I distinctly remember the superb tribute show he did the weekend after Marvin Gaye was murdered. It's strange but, despite being from Liverpool, I used to go out more in Manchester because, apart from the fact there were simply more clubs playing this stuff, I knew I'd hear the music I'd been hearing on Mike Shaft's show. I'd go to see bands in Liverpool, but apart from the occasional visit to Kirklands, where Terry Lennaine used to spin, I'd rarely go out dancing there. Liverpool always seemed much more segregated than Manchester, club-wise, although there weren't too many places in the city centre of Manchester that would welcome black crowds either. As for Terry Lennaine's show (Saturday evening, IIRC), I never really heard it because, for some odd reason, where I was living at that time we couldn't pick up the Merseyside ILR stations all that well. Later on, there was KFM, the pirate that operated out of Stockport, and which was taken off the air by a DTI bust in '84 - the very week I was supposed to do a pilot show for them...
I'm sure that if you speak to someone like Mike Shaft or Colin Curtis (probably Pete Haigh as well), they'd mention the other big schism around then, which was between the DJs who played electro - Greg Wilson, Chad Jackson (who started off as Wilson's box-boy) and Curtis - the DJs who tolerated it (Shaft), and the DJs who wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole (Kev Edwards and all the Spin Inn lads, who still sold shitloads of it in the shop). There used to be a running gag amongst certain DJs and collectros about not buying anything off Greg Wilson because "it'll probably be scratched".
Another thing I remember is going to an all-nighter at Legend, possibly Easter '86. I was living in Manchester by then, and on this occasion I went on my own because my girlfriend didn't fancy it. Now, the Legend all-nighters were a nailed-on good night, guaranteed. All the DJs knew their shit, and you'd get crowds coming from Leeds, Birmingham, Huddersfield, Nottingham, wherever, but the music policy never really deviated too far from soul and funk. On this night, though, apart from Mike Shaft doing his regular set and a few DJs spinning a handful of the big hip-hop tunes of the time (Go See The Doctor, Mr. Big Stuff, Just Buggin'), it was all house - Can You Feel It (the first time I ever heard it), Jack The Groove, Music Is The Key, No Way Back, Like This, Funkin' With The Drums, Donnie, all that early Trax/DJ International stuff as well as things like that cover of Set It Off by Harlequin Fours and Warrior Groove by DSM - and all the young black kids were bang into it. It was a real "scales falling from the eyes" moment - most of the night I just stood off at the side and took it all in, because I knew something was going on, even if I wasn't sure quite what it was at that point.
Not that any of the above has an awful lot to do with killer modern soul, but the topic just got me thinking about that whole early/mid-80s period in the North of England - the clubs, the music, the whole thing. Apart from a few interviews on DJ History, it's never really been documented.
Lately I've stumbled across more modern soul 45's than I normally do. Here are a couple cover songs that I would argue rival the originals. Any other killer modern soul covers should I be aware of??
Comments
That album was "jazzier" (read: deep/sophisticated) compared to the R&B at the time.
By 86/87 Hip Hop was seeping into R&B which leads into New jack Swing and the Rent-A-Rapper phase in R&B w/ Rakim and Jody Whatley.
Rapture is important..IMO.
wouldve loved to witness that 1st hand...along with norman jay in the early days.
what a scene to have developed.... around the more underground american releases...reaching way across the pond.
i love traveling & dropping tunes you dont think many are up on... then one may come up to you and show you love for playing it...like "ace set, havent heard that _________ in a years, big chune!"
something about the uk music scene and the championing of indie/underground records.not so much in the states.
last wmc in miami, i met the owner of a massive festival that is known for mostly techno...hes gotta be late 50s early 60s...tells me hes an old soulboy... was going nuts to carl craigs pure disco set... linda clifford came on he nearly cried.
i only say strings because almost every "modern" mix or "modern" songs i hear brits play or speak of... its usually a song like norman connors "once ive been there" or the flowers track posted.
boogie to me= roller skating music= rollerboogie.
prince's i wanna be your lover, zapp, rufus' do you love what you feel, al hudson's " you can do it" unlimited touch, bounce rock skate,chic, slave, d- train, etc... all were skated to when they first came out.
this sound.. snappy punchy drums, with heavy synth and basslines, and sometimes but not often....(chic) strings.
i personally dont like to label music genres, but understand the need to classify or define a certain sound within.
80s soul ior r&b s far to broad a term.
last week while spinning i had dude come up with a $20 asking for r&b while playing teddy p.....
tkeep your $, this is r&b jacksass... rhythm & blues.
think he meant rap & bullshit...im not playing drake at my party.
i think batmon should start a quiet storm thread. some killers bound to be up in that thread.....
could kool & the gangs summer madness have been monumental in setting that off ?
youll get pregnant
youll get pregnant
I remember all those shows. If I remember rightly, Searling's Red Rose show was on a Sunday afternoon. I distinctly remember the superb tribute show he did the weekend after Marvin Gaye was murdered. It's strange but, despite being from Liverpool, I used to go out more in Manchester because, apart from the fact there were simply more clubs playing this stuff, I knew I'd hear the music I'd been hearing on Mike Shaft's show. I'd go to see bands in Liverpool, but apart from the occasional visit to Kirklands, where Terry Lennaine used to spin, I'd rarely go out dancing there. Liverpool always seemed much more segregated than Manchester, club-wise, although there weren't too many places in the city centre of Manchester that would welcome black crowds either. As for Terry Lennaine's show (Saturday evening, IIRC), I never really heard it because, for some odd reason, where I was living at that time we couldn't pick up the Merseyside ILR stations all that well. Later on, there was KFM, the pirate that operated out of Stockport, and which was taken off the air by a DTI bust in '84 - the very week I was supposed to do a pilot show for them...
I'm sure that if you speak to someone like Mike Shaft or Colin Curtis (probably Pete Haigh as well), they'd mention the other big schism around then, which was between the DJs who played electro - Greg Wilson, Chad Jackson (who started off as Wilson's box-boy) and Curtis - the DJs who tolerated it (Shaft), and the DJs who wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole (Kev Edwards and all the Spin Inn lads, who still sold shitloads of it in the shop). There used to be a running gag amongst certain DJs and collectros about not buying anything off Greg Wilson because "it'll probably be scratched".
Another thing I remember is going to an all-nighter at Legend, possibly Easter '86. I was living in Manchester by then, and on this occasion I went on my own because my girlfriend didn't fancy it. Now, the Legend all-nighters were a nailed-on good night, guaranteed. All the DJs knew their shit, and you'd get crowds coming from Leeds, Birmingham, Huddersfield, Nottingham, wherever, but the music policy never really deviated too far from soul and funk. On this night, though, apart from Mike Shaft doing his regular set and a few DJs spinning a handful of the big hip-hop tunes of the time (Go See The Doctor, Mr. Big Stuff, Just Buggin'), it was all house - Can You Feel It (the first time I ever heard it), Jack The Groove, Music Is The Key, No Way Back, Like This, Funkin' With The Drums, Donnie, all that early Trax/DJ International stuff as well as things like that cover of Set It Off by Harlequin Fours and Warrior Groove by DSM - and all the young black kids were bang into it. It was a real "scales falling from the eyes" moment - most of the night I just stood off at the side and took it all in, because I knew something was going on, even if I wasn't sure quite what it was at that point.
Not that any of the above has an awful lot to do with killer modern soul, but the topic just got me thinking about that whole early/mid-80s period in the North of England - the clubs, the music, the whole thing. Apart from a few interviews on DJ History, it's never really been documented.