News — northern soul

E. Mark Windle  29 November 2020.   Just received some news via "Man from Soul" Alan Kitchener, regarding an exciting new vinyl release on his Soul-Direction imprint, planned for early 2021: Eddie Holman – “Ready Willing Able” B/W “Too Young for Love” (Soul-Direction SD002) "Until recently this unknown Virtue acetate was unearthed from the belongings of legendary Philly producer/musician/songwriter John Stiles, and recorded around the same time as "Stay Mine For Heaven Sake" at Virtue Studios in Philadelphia. Eddie's rendition of "Ready, Willing and Able" was something that was thought to have been written for another singer which was to...

OK folks, be sure to look out for some fantastic upcoming soul releases from the new Scotland-based North Broad St Records, launched this month. Project manager Colin Law and director John Buckley are familiar names on the soul scene. The aim of the label is to present an extensive catalogue of previously unreleased material, sourced from acetates and master-tape, alongside very selective reissues of rare or hard to find 45s from the soul arena. Let's be clear, there are strictly no pigeon-holing or restrictions on sub-genres here, just damn fine soul music. Whether deep, modern, sweet, northern, crossover, dancers or ballads are...

 In Memphis, there was a period when country and rockabilly prevailed at Hi records, before the label became synonymous with Willie Mitchell, and all things soulful and funky. Producers Quinton Claunch and Bill Cantrell had just left Sam Phillips’ Sun in 1957. They joined forces with country singer Ray Harris and some financial backers to set up Hi. Within a couple years, just before Claunch had left to set up Goldwax and prior to Willie Mitchell joining Hi (initially as a recording artist and then president), a young country / rockabilly singer called Tommy Ray Tucker appeared at the studio...

  “Looking back, I’m really proud of what we achieved in the 1960s” reflected the late Nelson Lemmond of The Tempests. “We made some great R&B. And played with some great talent too. We never performed with Otis or Wilson. But pretty much everybody else in between. At the end of the day though, things started to change. Otis had died, Martin Luther King had been assassinated. Civil unrest was everywhere and there was a militant atmosphere, even in the more progressive areas of the south. People ended up taking sides.” This feeling echoes previous comments made by various session...

The passing of Edwin James Balbier a couple of years ago went virtually unnoticed in UK northern scene circles: indeed few outside of the industry will recall his name. Yet, this individual would be the unwitting driving force behind one of the most popular soul re-issue (if brief) label imprints of the 1970s, even if it was the company’s younger soul music enthusiast employees who shaped the nature of the label arm of the operation. Balbier’s initial interests did not lie in soul music, but more generally in the oldies market. Born in 1930, the Philadelphian had an early career...