Sounds Of Soul chronicles and playlist (30.08.2013): Mecca

There’s rarely a Sounds Of Soul radio show that doesn’t feature one or more Rare Soul records discovered and made popular in the legendary Blackpool Mecca. It was in the ‘Highland Room’ of the large Mecca Complex in the seaside town of Blackpool, Lancashire in the North West of England, where in the mid-70s a minor musical revolution happened which led to much controversy at the time that still echoes in today’s Northern Soul scene. A bunch of DJs, most notably Ian Levine and Colin Curtis, had the boldness to introduce newly released US records to the Northern Soul crowd and brake up the dominance of the frantic up-tempo Motown orientated Soul of the mid- 60s with more contemporary sounds of Philly soul, early disco and funk. This triggered a kind of schism of the Mecca faithful from the orthodoxy of pure Northern Soul and thus the subgenre Modern Soul was born, a term still used for this particular style of 70s Soul and later similar releases, despite the fact that 40 years have passed since and the original Blackpool records are anything but modern today. In my humble opinion the resulting heated discussions and rivalries between the two factions kept the scene on their toes and forced them to dig deeper for evermore new gems of Rare Soul that otherwise would have ended buried in oblivion. That’s why the Northern Soul subculture was still alive and kicking when I was catching the bug as a young Mod in the mid-80s and my love to this very special kind of dance music never left me. Last week’s radio show featured two Mecca classics – Payback’s A Drag by The Smith Brothers and Let Me Down Easy by Rare Pleasure – amongst lots of more 70s goodies as you can see in the playlist below:

The Joneses/Hey Baby (Is The Gettin’ Still Good) Pt.I/7″ Mercury

The Smith Brothers/Payback’s A Drag/7″ Soul Dimension

Otis Clay /Turn Back The Hands Of Time/7″ Elka

Bobby Hutton/Lend A Hand/7″ abc

A Brother’s Guiding Light/Getting Together/7″ Mercury

The Mayberry Movement/Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right/7″ Kent

Dillard & Johnson/Here We Go, Loving Again/7″ Piedmont

Luther/Good For The Soul Pt.I/7″ Cotilion

Sweet Daddy FloydI Just can’t Help Myself   (Pt.I)/7″ Super Star

Sandra Feva/Just To Be Close To You/7″ Venture

Flakes/Miss Fine Lover/7″ Source

Rare Pleasure/Let Me Down Easy/7″ DJM Records

Eastside Connection/You’re So Right For Me/12″ Rampart

Jean Carn/Was That All It Was/12″ Philadelphia International Rec.

Willie Fisher/You Said Call Me/7″ Tigress

Jewel Bass/Let Your Love Rain Down On Me/7″ Malaco

Lenny Williams/Problem Solver/7″ abc

Phenomenons/Without Your Love/7″ AVI

Bobby Cutchins/I Did It Again/7″ Lasso

Earl Connelly/Please Make Up Your Mind/7″ Maycon

Coffee/Just Because/7″ Love Lite Records

Charles Mintz/Running Back/7″ Up Look

Brenda Mathis/Who Do You Want To Love/7″ ASG

If you want to hear the show back here is the link to the Sounds Of Soul page at Eastside radio:
https://eastsidefm.org/specialist/soundsofsoul/

DJ Burn Hard