Bobby Harden & The Soulful Saints

 “Feels so good” / “Wounded hearts” 

Label: DALA Records/BQE Records
Catalog: DALA-104-45
Format: Digital  / Vinyl 45*
Release Date: 3rd December 2021 / 7th January 2022*

Bobby Harden & The Soulful Saints are back with their new 45, “Feels So Good” b/w “Wounded Hearts,” the follow-up to their wildly popular debut single, “Runnin’ (To Get To Your Love).” The A-side, “Feels So Good,” is the song we all need right now – an upbeat soul groove perfectly suited to soundtrack the better days ahead. The B-side, “Wounded Hearts,” is a deep ballad layered with strings and fuzz guitar and could have been a lost Curtis Mayfield single.

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Micky Gynn

Mickey Gynn began his career with his hometown club, Peterborough United, where he scored 39 goals from 188 appearances in all competitions, before joining First Division club Coventry City for a fee of £60,000.He spent ten years and accumulated almost 300 appearances at the club, with whom he won the FA Cup in 1987. Mickey then moved on to Stoke City in August 1993 where he played in 29 matches in the 1993–94 season before retiring.He became a postman in the Coventry area, and works as a match statistician for the Press Association.In 2005, Gynn held his testimonial match at Coventry City’s former ground of Highfield Road, the penultimate game played there before its demolition.

Soulful Football Update: 23rd November 2021

Desire “Love toll” / “I’ve never turn my back on you” (Red Robin Records)  1977
Again the killer tune on this rare 45 is the flip side.This is my type of soul.Wonderful midtempo floater, with the female group Desire, sounding just so good.I never tire of playing this 45, it always sounds so fresh.A year I always cherish, 1977 the year I left school and started my soul collection,with records like this gem. Sadly their only release, on this Disco label.Would love to know why they never did anything else. Desert Island Disc for me !!

Essence “I’ll give you the sunshine” / “ Deep in my eyes” (Tac Town Records) 1983 A superb midtempo tune from 1983. Hard to believe it is on the A side, of this super rare solid center 45. Totally brilliant tune, with classy vocals. Flip it over and it is a very in demand 45 for the French & German collectors, who are more into the frantic soul tunes that came out in 1983. Well worth tracking down, as I was told that 500 copies were pressed at the time of the records release !!

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The first ever detailed look at a specific year in the life of Northern Soul focuses on its most important year. It was the year when seventies soul was embraced to sit alongside traditional sixties stompers in all dancehalls and venues such as Cleethorpes Pier and The Ritz ,Manchester as all-dayers took a hold on the scene. Wigan Casino and the Blackpool Mecca remained as twin towers of the nightlife however. Television, radio and newspapers were fascinated by the ultimate underground music scene and this book analyses their interest.

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The L. A. Propinquity

“That someone’s U (Vocal) / “That someone’s U (Inst)

Label: Aljoni Musico  
Catalog:SD60  
Release Date: Mid December 2021
Format: Vinyl 7’

In 1980 while listening to songs submitted for what would become the LP ‘Splash’ by Freddie Hubbard, several of those—including this one “That Someone’s U” did not make its way to the final album tracks. It was never mixed down and the vocal tracks were ‘work takes/scratch vox’. Written by Sydney Justin (aka ‘Steele’), Sanifu Al Hall, and the late David Shields, the song languished on an outtake reel for decades until it was a part of a group of tracks that were converted from analog to digital to be considered for release in association with the Super Disco Edits label.

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Lorraine Feather was born in Manhattan. Her parents named her Billie Jane Lee Lorraine after godmother Billie Holiday, her mother Jane formerly a big band singer, her mother’s ex room-mate Peggy Lee, and the song “Sweet Lorraine.” She is the daughter of the late jazz writer Leonard Feather. The Feathers moved to L.A. when Lorraine was 12 at 18, after two years as a theatre arts major at L.A. City College, she returned to New York to pursue an acting career.

Listen to  “Waiting Tables”
Some touring, off-Broadway work and the Broadway show Jesus Christ Superstar followed, interspersed with countless waitressing jobs up and down Manhattan’s West Side. Frequently out of work, and discouraged by more than one restaurateur from pursuing a career in the food service industry, Lorraine decided to try singing. She began working with various jazz and Top 40 bands in and around New York. She sang backup for Petula Clark and Grand Funk Railroad, and finally put her own act together, eventually moving back to L.A., where she sang at local jazz clubs. Soon after, she joined producer Richard Perry’s vocal trio Full Swing and recorded three albums with the group.

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PATTI LaBELLE & THE BLUEBELLES

“How can you throw my love away” / “When Joe touches me”

Label: Soul4Real
Catalog: S4R17
Release Date: 25th November 2021 
Format: Vinyl 7’

The Patti LaBelle and The Bluebelles period in Atlantic wasn’t a success story. According to Jerry Wexler, neither the material nor the promotion was right for Patti, Nona and Sarah, pigeon-holed into some sort of Supremes role which did them no good, especially after Cindy Birdsong, the fourth Bluebelle, left the group to replace Florence Ballard.

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Sir Joe

“Nobody beats my love”

 Label:  Soul Direction Records
Catalog: SD -1002
Release Date: November 2021  
Format: 7’ Vinyl 

Joseph Patrick Quarterman hailed from the Shaw neighbourhood in Washington D.C. He started writing songs at a young age and after graduating from Dunbar High School he met song writers Eddie Best and Don Downing and began singing lead vocals with a Washington. DC group called “The Knights”, where he adopted the name “Sir Joe.”

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The Combinations

“(Too Long) I’ve been Waiting”

Label:  Soul Direction Records
Catalog: SD -1001
Release Date:  November 2021  
Format: 7’ Vinyl 

The Combinations were a male vocal group whose line up included Willie C. Collins of Will Collins and Willpower “Anything You Can Do” fame, and three other guys all from British Honduras. Hubert Usher, Lenny Bailey and a guy only remembered as Gerald. Under the auspices of David Braithwaite and Ernest Kelley they recorded a solitary 45 release “(Too Long) I’ve Been Waiting/Please Don’t Leave Me” (Soul “O” Sonic), this being the earlier New York based version of Ernest Kelley’s label. 

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