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  • Emilia Sisco 

    Mick

    Emilia Sisco 

    With her powerhouse vocals and a remarkable ability to weave narratives in her songs, Emilia Sisco effortlessly fuses soul, jazz and blues into a mesmerizing tapestry of sound. 
    Her voice carries the weight of raw emotion, echoing the depths of the human experience.
    Released on Timmion Records, Emilia Sisco made waves with her previous single, “Don’t Believe You Like That,” which quickly gained her plenty of worldwide admirers. 

    Now, she unveils the next offering in collaboration with the acclaimed production house Cold Diamond & Mink – a grooving little vinyl double-sider entitled “Trouble” b/w “It’ll get better.” These deep tracks transport listeners to an intimate space where time stands still and you can hear your heart beat. Drawing inspiration from legendary icons like Aretha Franklin, Etta James, and Billie Holiday, Emilia infuses her music with a rich blend of influences. 

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  • William ‘Kooly’ Scott

    Mick

    William ‘Kooly’ Scott


    “I’m Satisfied,” William is bringing to you a touch of funk for your listening and dancing pleasure. This is somewhat of a different twist from his smooth jazz track “Twelve O Five,” which was reproduced by legendary bassist Brian Bromberg. William Kooly Scott is a vocalist, songwriter, producer, musician, recording artist, and entertainer. His incredible music career has sanctioned him to perform in several states across the United States, the Caribbean, and around the globe.

    Including Germany, Spain, and South Korea. Most notably, he performed annually in Norway for more than 10 years. He was also the lead vocalist for the Norwegian-American supergroup “Transatlantic Express,” which had very successful tours of multiple cities in Norway.

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  • Karl White

    Mick

    Karl White

    Soul Underground

    Northern Soul – The Post Wigan Years


    The following article was written for the sleeve note of the 10 CD Box Set The Odyssey: A Northern Soul Time Capsule compiled by Ian Dewhirst and released at the beginning of 2015.  It is a brief overview of the Northern/Rare Soul scene since the demise of Wigan Casino.  it is by no means a comprehensive and full overview of what was happening and has happened since 1980/1981.  It focuses only on the main all-nighters of the time.  There has been 100s off venues since Wigan that have held an all-nighter and it was impossible to mention all within the constraints of the word count I was held to.  It neither focuses on Soul Nights of which there was literally 1000s and even more today.  The majority held no influence on the scene in the way the likes of Blackpool Mecca did.  That isn’t to say there was none, some are featured but many are not as space didn’t allow .  Hopefully there will be a book to follow that will feature many of the venues and clubs omitted.

    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.

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  • Paul Tilman Smith

    Mick

    Paul Tilman Smith

    History of – Paul Tilman Smith……So Far

    The Norman Connors days.
    Me and Norman were the young Jazz drummer up-and-comers in the sixties in New York. Normans momma was in Philadelphia and mine was in California. Norman could run to his momma’s house to eat while I starved to death,lol. We were best friends but god obviously had different intentions for the both of us. Norman had no idea I had a love for writing silly little songs on the piano from the age of fifteen.

    After I left the Jazz Avant Garde John Coltrane era and came back to Oakland I kept playing but started writing again. In the mean time Norman became one of the best show-men Jazz drummers around and people started noticing him and the right record producer gave him a shot and making records and he then started making great records. We had made a pack that if either one of us could ever help the other we would so the band Vitamin E was born. His wife named the band and I at first hated that name but now ironically I use Vitamin E everyday, hahahahahahaha!


    This is a song I wrote for my very young wife in the seventies when we were just learning how to get along called “LISTEN”. The first lyrics start off like this, “Listen to Me, Your hearts Not Free”. Of course today I’m the one who’s discovered I ain’t free, she free! Norman Connors version  below features John Coltrane’s pianist McCoy Tyner’s sax man Gary Bartz who now lives in  Oakland. Good luck Gary!
    Norman had the bomb band in those days. Norman’s got a great new album coming soon and guess what, he say.  (Paul can I have 3 of your songs?, U got hits! ) No I don’t Norman, them Hip Hoppers &  Rappers got hits, all we got is, “Can’t Quit”. Uh Oh Norman I forgot! I like me and Freddie Hughes version of “Listen” better,lol. By the way, this is the song that Donny Hathaway was on the way to the studio to record for Norman when Donnie’s manager called and demanded twice as much money.

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  • Ady Croasdell

    Mick

    Ady Croasdell

    Finding The First Copy

    Gettin’ To Me

    In the mid-90s when I wandered into Vinyl Experience a second-hand collectors’ shop on Hanway Street in London’s West End, for the first time in a few weeks and while I was checking out the various specialist collectors boxes that they kept behind the counter, I noticed about 50 sealed cardboard boxes under the LP racks. On asking the shop owner what they were he said, “Oh that’s the remnants of the Carlin collection we got a few months ago”. “What’s that all about then?” I ventured. It turned out that this famous music publishing company had decided to throw out all its old demos and samples as surplus to requirements. Mark Hayward, the shop’s owner, had snapped up the massive collection which included demos and acetates from every major popular music act of the 50s, 60s and 70s, including Elvis, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie etc. etc. etc.

    After turning luminous green with envy, I realised that Mark knew which were the obviously rare soul records (as did everyone with the advent of Record Collector magazine), but, as he was sketchy on the more obscure items and ignorant of US labels altogether, a bit of damage limitation was in order.

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  • Andrew Dyson

    Mick

    Andrew Dyson

    Double O and his Demingos

    When the record bug grabs you, one has to be reminded at the very least daily if not hourly why we’re bugger…. This 45 has done so so many times from the embryonic horn sections that filter
    from the silent decks, pleading with the love scorned vocalist to hit the notes and vocalise his recent misfortune with his loved one, mild bass line gels rhythmatically with the second horn coming, inciting the somewhat custom made deep lyrics… “You’ve ruined a perfect love affair, way beyond repair” complement the funeral pace instrumentation that saturate your soul with a moving feel that leaves the likes of Ray Pollard“The Drifter” standing! (Ah a classic example of what most folk call deep soul..)

    “The Drifter” is a masterpiece but is Big City/Jamaican soul-NOT deep soul, a classification of style that many fail to grasp!. (Perhaps a few lines in a later review of what is and isn’t deep soul)…. Wonderful vocals, doo-wop throw back group harmony replies this has the lot, even the mandatory screams fade out this all the great. I reckon lead is James Bowens who wrote both sides with Bill Smith, James incidentally released a 45 on Rooevelt Lee another Rite press recording from around 1967/8 that basically has carbon copy writing and connection details.I checked the racks at home and found three records in 45 formats by these guys, info seems to be rather sparse to say the least so I’m pretty much working on supposition. All three 45’s were recorded and released within two years period circa 71/73, also the group/artists names differ slightly on each release ie. Double O Demingos “ Storm warning”, Double O and his Demingos “1000 tears too late” and finally Double O’s Demingo’s “Colour one tear black”.

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  • Sharon McMahan 

    Mick

    Sharon McMahan 

    Sharon Shares

    Sharon was born in Sevierville, Tennessee but raised and musically disciplined in Detroit, Michigan.

    Sharon began her career, as a teen in Detroit, Michigan. She wrote her first songs at the age of 12. After auditioning her, Ollie McLaughlin launched her writing career by publishing and producing and releasing several of her songs on his own record lables, KAREN, CARLA, MOIRA & RUTH Records. McLaughlin recorded Sharons songs on major artists, Barbara Lewis, Deon Jackson, Gracie Darnell and Johnnie Mae Matthews. He also secured a UK release for Sharon’s song, Someday We’re Gonna Love Again, recorded by the London based group, The Searchers. It charted to #11 in Billboard, in several countries and to #23 here in the United States, in 1964/65. Thus, Sharon has a tremendous fan base in the UK and Western Europe.

    SHARON MCMAHAN SONGWRITER / ARTIST / PUBLISHER / PRODUCER

    Later, another Detroit based publisher/producer became familiar with Sharons writing skills. He was Don Davis, producer of Johnnie Taylor, executive producer of The Dramatics and many more artists. He recorded Sharons songs on current Hall of Fame artists, Etta James and Mavis Staples. He was also responsible for Sharons song to be recorded and released on The Three Degrees.

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  • Rod Dearlove

    Mick

    Rod Dearlove

    Voices From The Shadows

    Some time in the future…

    I had give him his due; he was where he said he would be and he was on time. In fact, he’d been early. I’d staked out the meet a half-hour before and seen two other suckers approach him and make a purchase before scurrying away with that satisfied scuffle that fool who have only recently parted with their money make. He was leaning back again the old Piedmoor Bank building, his ankle length leather coat tails dancing in the cold midnight wind. Occasionally he lifted his head from within the depths of his upturned collar to see if any more prospective purchasers were braving the elements to make a hit. Then, like a praying mantis, he reteat back into his coat. Sheltering from the wind and a fine, misty rain that had given the city streets a slick, polished look, I witness proceeding from a disused shop doorway.

    Safe within its reclining darkness I was summoning up the courage to walk across Main Street and to the junction of Mall and Circular to join the illegal to and fro because this wasn’t a part of the city you wanted to spend too long hanging around after dark. Once it had been a bustling financial centre, but now its decaying offices and high rises were the haunt of the night people; pimps, prostitutes and pushers; much like the one opposite whose only signs of life was the slow but regular plumes of breath omitted into the cold night air. Another couple of degrees lower and the fine rain would turn to snow.

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  • Ady Croasdell

    Mick

    Ady Croasdell

    Finding The First Copy

    The 6Ts Rhythm and Soul Society was co-founded in August 1979 by Randy Cozens and Ady Croasdell. The first dance was held in a function room called Henri’s at the Bedford Head pub in Maiden Lane in London’s Covent Garden. The first night was a great success with soul records, dancing, carousing and debauchery.

    ​One more equally splendid night was held there before the management rebuilt the pub and kicked us out. ​By then we had a solid following and with the help of one of the first club mailing lists that we had established, sent out slightly amusing newsletters before each dance and got the crowd to follow us to our next venue. At this stage, Ian Clark’s graphics for the newsletter and membership card were very much a part of the set-up.

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  • Chelly “K”

    Mick

    Chelly “K”

    Michell Latrice Lewis, a.k.a. Chelly K is a native Detroiter who started her career at the age of five with her father (Joseph Norris) who was a Motown Personal sound technician for The Temptations. Chelly’s first performance was at Kennedy square in the Downtown Detroit Area. Her credits include: Background vocals for Melvin Van Peoples, and Luther Ingram. She has also opened hows for Marlena Shaw, Marion Meadows, The Temptations’ Review, and The Spinners. Chelly’s has also performed with Freestyle, The Gordon Camp Band, The V.I.P’s, he Teddy Harris Jr. Band, The Harold McKinney Band and the great Rudy Robinson. 

    A few of her numerous Detroit nightclub appearances include the Legendary Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, BoMacs Lounge and Bert’s Market Place,The Dirty Dog, The Aretha Franklin Jazz Cafe and many many more. Chelly writes most of her own lyrics and counts Phyllis Hyman/Nancy Wilson as her main musical influences.  She is currently working with the legendary, Grammy award winner/songwriter/ producer, John Glover, who’s accomplishments include, Grammy awarded Songs, “You Don’t Have To Be a Star”, “Memories Don’t Leave Like People Do”, “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted” and “Songs of The Key of Life”, just to name a few. 

    “How’z everything in your house” / “My funny valentine” / “Pinch me” / “Stick & stay” / “Thorough it all” /
    “Caught up”
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  • Eleanore Mills

    Mick

    Eleanore Mills

    Eleanore Mills is a versatile New York based recording artist known for her seductive sound, powerful performances, and the uncanny ability to manoeuvre musically through a myriad of genres, including Broadway and jingles. As a child, her exposure to Gospel, Soul, and Jazz fuelled and fostered her natural talent and performing skills. With the release of her album, This is Eleanore Mills, she gained the attention of Jazz/Soul impresario Norman Connors, who asked her to sing lead vocals on his albums, This Is Your Life and Romantic Journey. Mills was also chosen as a background vocalist for the Roberta Flack featuring Donny Hathaway album, which included the revered club staples “You Are My Heaven” and “Back Together Again”

    As she began to focus more on dance music, she began working with Next Plateau Records. It was there that she achieved her definitive recording, as the featured artist on “Get Wet,” the electro 12” single produced by John Robie. During this time she also was featured with Larry Woo on C-Bank’s “Good to the Last Drop”, produced by David Cole (C+C Music Factory) mixed by Bruce Forest. She went on to record “Nightmare of a Broken Heart”, produced and mixed by Bruce Forest with edits by Louie Vega. In addition, she scored a chart topping single “Tonite” with Those Guys at MCA Records, which hit #2 on the Billboard Dance Charts. In 2014,

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  • Chris Walls

    Mick

    Chris Walls

    A Marvel in Manchester

    Ok ok … Let’s do the Melissa Morgan, Whispers and Patti  Labelle gig we agreed over dinner one midweek evening, I will order the tickets now , after all Melissa and Patti were still on our ‘to see ‘ list.We arrived at a very tired Manchester Apollo, attendance was surprisingly light for these  world class artists.

    Melissa was first up and gave us a great set of the old favourites . This included a walk out into the audience performing Fools Paradise.It was great to meet her too in the lobby area after the performance, she was fab and very friendly and eager to chat about old times.

    Next up were the Whispers…They performed a very polished ‘Vagas’ type set lasting 30 minutes with many of the uptempo favesThe Whispers Orchestra truly awesum, they oozed quality and composure Warm , rich , professional harmonies the hallmark of the group rattled around the old concert venue on Manchester’s south side.

    At times we had to pinch ourselves we were in the UK and not some suburban theatre in the United States. Then it was time for Patti……. OMG we were treated to a truly outstanding performance, not only vocally, but a unique display of kicking off shoes! She was every bit the way imagined, a real diva , vocals were to die for, powerful, strong and sweet.

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