Northern Soul at the Proms.

[Chauncey]

I watched this show in the early hours whilst necking a third of a bottle of JD and felt as rough as f@ck this morning to I watched it again this morning

It was a decent show but it lacked just that little something that the originals songs had,most was recorded in back yard studios by unknown artists of the time and the BBC Orchestra was never,ever going to replicate those raw sounds of late 60’s America,it was entertaining as an introduction to the sounds of Northern Soul but it was safe and put on for BBC audiences,the label on the tin said it all,Northern Soul at the Proms,I can imagine Stefan and the UOGB followers liking it much the same way as they they liked Anarchy in the UK being played by middle aged musicians with ukuleles

Good shout though Pete but not for me,6/10

KTF

[crushalime]

Might give this a blast actually as I've been back tracking on music the last few years due to there being nothing new coming out and the music industry being knackered as a whole.

How can you judge a bands popularity by the most times you are watched on YouTube, ridiculous - going by this method someone like Fred West when he was alive could have just picked up a guitar and put out a single, the curiosity alone would have sauntered Fred into the top ten with ease with all of the streaming alone.

For example - Metallica went to number two in America with their last album even though it outsold the number one! Reason being that the number one had been streamed more, you can help a song to number one even if you wanted to check out how 'bad' the track is!!

[Chauncey]

I look at the charts every Sunday but that’s because I’ve done it since the 70’s when the 7” single was king but it’s no reflection on what’s being sold,it’s easy to get a quick new entry I’m the Top 5 in the album chart and a couple of weeks later it’s disappeared,the lower end of the charts are full of greatest hits with ABBA and Queen both having spent 1100+ weeks in the chart and still in the Top 30,the singles chart is all but finished,a few weeks ago there was several new entries in the Top 20 but non was singles in the traditional sense,they was all tracks from that Barbie film and kids was streaming the soundtrack,even bloody Ryan Gosling was in the Top 5 ffs

I miss extended remixes of the 12” singles,salad days indeed

[crushalime]

I'm another one of those chart watchers Chalky - just seen an article that one in four of the current top forty contains or is an old song which made me arf.

The charts were important as those like us aspiring to be on it actually made sure that they got on it to get onto Top Of The Pops in front of twenty odd million folk.

I heard the other day that long gone are the days of record companies scouring the pubs and clubs of the land trying to find the next Beatles, they now sign the bands/artist with the most hits on the streaming sites as they have an already existing fan base.

I love the term 'influencer' to describe some bod on YouTube who spouts sh ite

[crushalime]

And like you say Chalky - buying records like the twelve inch copies, marching down to the record store with your pals for the new release from your favourite band was almost tribal.

[Chauncey]

Absolutely right crusha,sitting on the bus on the way home and checking out the album cover from front to back,they don’t get that pleasure from streaming do they or even front a cd

You are right about music scouts looking for bands in pubs and clubs,they just don’t exist and hasn’t for years now,didn’t Artic Monkeys start that way among others,the first time that I can remember it happening was an erm… artist who put their song online and got a record deal solely on the feedback which went to No.1,I think they was called White Town or summa and that was way back,I will check in a minute coz I can’t remember the bleeders name now

[Chauncey]

Got the wrong song,I had it in my head that it was Your Woman by White Town but it’s not that,it’s gonna bug me now who it was 🤔

[Chauncey]

And like you say Chalky - buying records like the twelve inch copies, marching down to the record store with your pals for the new release from your favourite band was almost tribal.

I can remember buying Squeezes Cool for Cats on 7” and pulling out out the record to find it on pink vinyl,it was practically a religious experience for me as I didn’t even know such things existed… and then came my first picture disc 😮

[crushalime]

The first record fair I went to at the Carlisle Town Hall back in the mid-eighties was a special moment as I was faced with a wall of bootleg tapes from all the current bands recorded live from various places like Hamburg with a photocopied sleeve.

[Chauncey]

Aye,I bought bootlegs as well and you transported me back to buying those live gig tapes with photocopied black and white covers,Beatles live in Japan was the first one which had decent sound to it but there’s been some right crap brought in the past but you know what,to have something that your mates didn’t have made it all worthwhile,the advent of cds brought on bootleg boxsets which was expensive but worth it