The late great New York DJ, Shaun Buchanan, championed this record, "Close To Perfection",
The late great New York DJ, Shaun Buchanan, championed this record, "Close To Perfection", and made it one of the anthems at the legendary nightclub, The Saint, in New York in the 1980s. Miquel Brown's biggest hit, "So Many Men So Little Time", was the first pioneering record of the whole High Energy scene. Made after four years where I couldn't make a single recording simply because everyone said Disco was dead. Two million sales of that record proved them all wrong. But despite it being number one pop in France and Mexico, and number one in the US on Billboard's dance chart, it never even charted in England, despite selling fifty thousand copies here. Things have certainly changed since then.
Miquel came from Detroit, lived in England, had a small 1970s disco hit called "Symphony Of Love", and was the perfect artist to record my anthem. Her daughter, Sinitta, was Simon Cowell's first ever hit artist. Although "Close To Perfection", with it's lilting strings and smooth soulful laid back feel, was not as big as the two million selling "So Many Men So Little Time", this wonderful song became a "sleaze" anthem in New York, the word "sleaze" meaning slower cooler music which they played later on in the night, to cool things down after the peak of all the High Energy. And unlike its predecessor, this song was also picked up by Tony Blackburn and adored by the London Soul Fraternity
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"Disco 2008" is here. And I'm working again with Steve Brookstein, for my personal favouri
"Disco 2008" is here. And I'm working again with Steve Brookstein, for my personal favourite song on the entire album. This soulful and modern yet retro disco stomper is the eighth song for our brand new album "Disco 2008" to have a finished video here on YouTube. We have now finished recording all of the twenty four songs going on it, plus three more songs just for the DVD version. As for the videos, and there is a video for each and every track, we have nearly finished editing them all, to meet our December deadline. And here is a complete YouTube exclusive. The brand new Steve Brookstein video for "Disco 2008" - the first ever Disco album of twenty four all brand new tracks, all of which have a free DVD with them, to watch each artist perform them, and keep classic Disco alive for this millenium. The album is released on December 3rd 2007.
Steve was of course the lead singer with The Four Vandals, who were created in 1999. I had been working with Steve Brookstein for two years after seeing him come second on an ITV talent contest, hosted by Jonathan Ross. After trying a few solo records, plus a duet with Steve's then girlfriend Kate Jackson, who also recorded under the name Venicia Wilson, I decided to form a new Northern Soul band around Steve. This band was called All Points Bulletin, and Kate Jackson was also in the band. I was making a documentary about Northern Soul, called "The Strange World Of Northern Soul", and the idea was to create a new young fresh Northern Soul band to show that the scene didn't have to be just about thirty year old records. So All Points Bulletin made three songs, "I'm On My Way", "Lucky Number", and "You've Been Away", and filmed two of these songs in a rehearsal room in North Acton, but my partner in the documentary, Neil Rushton, got cold feet about All Points Bulletin, so in 1999, when the film reached its final edit, the footage was left on the cutting room floor at first. But I was still determined to prove to the moaners on the Northern Soul scene, those who claimed that no-one could make a new record these days that any people would listen to it and think it was a real old Northern Soul record, that it could ACTUALLY be done. The idea came of The Four Vandals, seeming to come out of New Jersey. It had the ring of truth about it, because one of the former Temptations, Damon Harris, had originally sang in a group called The Vandals, and their records were released by a company in New Jersey, so I figured that a group with the name of The Four Vandals would have the ring of truth about it. But the record not only had to sound authentic, but it had to look authentic too, plus sound like it was in mono, and have a late 1960s feel about it. So in 1999 they recorded "The Wrong Side Of Town" and we pressed it up in America, and let a record dealer in Carolina send just three copies over to England. The record was made to look thirty years old, even down to being soaked in a bucket of water, and having talcum powder rubbed into the grooves. It sort of backfired, because some greedy individuals started charging up to a thousand pounds each for them, after I had given them away free, and so much care went into making the record seem thirty years old, that no-one dare say a word, so the amusing little scam kept digging itself a deeper and deeper hole. But conversely, the record went on to become THE biggest record on the whole Northern Soul Scene for the last twenty years, even being pictured next to the Frank Wilson fifteen thousand pound rarity, on the front cover of Kev Robverts' book, "Northern Soul's Top 500". Once Steve Brookstein won the X-Factor, (for those of you in America, the X-Factor is Simon Cowell's TV show in England, and is exactly like your American Idol. After winning the show, Steve had a number one single and a number one album, on which I was one of the producers, but Steve then got dropped by Simon Cowell for no apparent earthly reason other than Steve wanted to do new songs, not just covers), the whole secret of The Four Vandals came out in the press, but I remained unrepentant. "The Wrong Side Of Town" is one of the highlights of my career", I publicly and defiantly claimed. And here we are, eight more years have passed, and "Head Over Heels" is Steve's best ever vocal, in my humble opinion, Well anyway, the exciting news is that "Disco 2008" is nearly here. 24 brand new Disco tracks in time for Christmas. All of them recorded since August 2007. 24 fabulous retro disco delights, with a DVD also, of the performances of all 24 songs that are on the CD plus three bonus tracks. I love it. PLEASE buy "Disco 2008" in December, available through Vital, and marketed by GoldSoul Records.
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A short television tribute to Lena, who died aged 35, from complications resulting from an
A short television tribute to Lena, who died aged 35, from complications resulting from an operation in an attempt to cure her of Anorexia Nervosa.
The feature dates from 2003, four years after her death in 1999.
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LOLO in 2001 at Brighton Pride with Phil Starr
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The original version of this song is quite simply the most sought-after Motown and Norther
The original version of this song is quite simply the most sought-after Motown and Northern Soul record of all time.The legendary Motown producer, Frank Wilson, made this solo record for Motown which was so rare, and so in demand, that someone paid fifteen thousand English pounds for a copy. He was a big help with the Motorcity project, in 1989 and 1990, and he and his wife Bunny always stay at my house every time they're visiting London. The Motown single "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)" became so huge that everyone wanted to see Frank perform it. For years he refused, but finally he gave in and did so at Fleetwood in 2000, in front of two and a half thousand people, the one and only time he said he would ever do this. But previously to that, we had visited him at his Los Angeles home, and filmed him at the piano, so people got to see, on The Strange World Of Northern Soul DVD, this legendary song being performed for the first ever time.
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When I go into the recording studio to make a new record, my greatest possible aspiration
When I go into the recording studio to make a new record, my greatest possible aspiration could only ever be to try to make a record as good as this. For me it is simple pure perfection. It encapsulates, in one three minute song, everything I have ever wanted to achieve musically my entire life, and I am truly satisfied with it. The track is absolutely brand new, less than three weeks old, and is coming out on my utterly fabulous exciting new album called "Northern Soul 2007", which will be released in September, on Centre City Records, distributed by Expansion Records and Passion Music. The new album, which I'm still frantically trying to finish, consists of over twenty brand new 2007 songs by soul and disco legends, including Leee John, Gee Morris, The Flirtations, Voices With Soul, Ebony Alleyne, Noel McKoy, and lots of others. Each song has an accompanying video of the artist basically performing it the studio and in outside locations. Because a lot of my fans on MySpace and YouTube have been begging me to do this, I decided to get up and make it happen, so there will be a giveaway DVD with the CD showing the same twenty-some songs, all being performed in the same running order as the CD. As long as it's ready, it'll be in the shops and online in September. Angelo is the brother of the late great Edwin Starr, is managed by Edwin's manager, Lillian Kyle, and is simply the epitome of a classic soul singer. He also leads "The Team", who used to be Edwin's backing group, and are constantly performing up and down the country. We are also doing a seven inch single of this, on vinyl.
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