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I wasn’t born into a particularly music loving family (Unless you count Tom Jones & Shirley Bassey blaring out on a Sunday morning. Mother & Fathers choice not mine)
In fact it was quite a dull upbringing, apart from being dragged to the Miss World Competition every year. Mother worked for Mecca you see & was quite well thought of. Free holidays to Bermuda & NY were a bonus but not for me, being carted off to the Grandparents was my holiday. Still I digress, seeing the Miss Worlds in all their finery has a surprising effect on a pre teenage boy. Being born in Hackney & growing up in Walthamstow I had to support Westham United I also did what most teenagers do when they get to 15. I rebelled & of course jumped on the first bandwagon that came along. Mod. Only it turned out to be more than a passing phase & this was where my first real brush with music came about..The Jam. Also seeing allsorts of Mod bands at the Bridge House in Canning Town, thankfully only a 58 Bus ride there & back. By the time I was 17 I had my own Scooter (Vespa Rally) & a now expanding circle of friends from all over East London with whom I travelled to Scooter runs & to a strange Mod club in Southend On Sea called Scamps, which didn’t play The Chords, Jam, Purple Hearts & all the other Mod bands we went to see but played real Rhythm & Blues & Motown style records. Spun by Dj’s Chad & Dell with an older bloke called Dick Coombes who went on to be a well respected Northern Soul Dj. I’ve no idea how, but we learnt of a club over in West Hampstead playing the same sort of music, so we went. It was run by Ady Croasdell & an old 60’s Mod from London called Randy Couzens. Ady decided to move this club nearer the West End of London to Tottenham Court Rd. They did one normal night then a month later they started what has gone on to be the longest running club night in the UK, The 100 Club allnighter. Have you ever noticed that certain people are always part of your life. They come & go & you might not see them for years & years, but for some inexplicable reason they always seem to drift back. Well it was at the 100 club 2 of those came into my life. Eddie Piller who now runs Acid Jazz records & Keb Darge. I can see him now doing the most amazing back flips I’d ever seen on that wobbly wooden floor of the 100 Club. I think it was going down those steps & hearing music I’d never heard in my life that I realised this is it. Northern Soul. I still carried on being a Mod but got more & more involved in the Soul scene. I still went to see The Jam in Paris, Amsterdam & every one of their last gigs. A few of us decided to run an alldayer. Me, Eddie P & a fella called Ray margetson managed with more than a little help from Eddies Dad to take over the Ilford Palais for a Sunday Mod alldayer. No mean feat for a few 18 year olds. It was packed & I Djed for the very first time. We went on to do a further 3 before the Whole Mod thing imploded but by then I’d started to listen to what was termed Modern Soul, which were more late 70’s early 80’s releases, tracks like Curtis How Can I tell Her, Larry Houston Lets spend some time together being spun by Keb & Ian Clark. So most of 80’s I spent travelling up the M1 to such awe-inspiring places as Stafford, Keele, Loughborough, Bradford etc. & buying records. Expensive records that were 7inches of raw emotion. :o) ..
I also moved to Canvey Island. Not far was a little club called the Goldmine where a certain Chris Hill played bigger records 12inch ones to be precise. So I started buying those to. I got hooked on JazzFunk & Boogie. London started to get good there were Warehouse parties springing up, all illegal. There was the Bas Clef where Norman Jay thought up the concept of Rare Groove (Eddie P took over the Bas Clef & turned it into the Blue Note about this time to) Kiss 100 was firing & a certain South London Mod started Djing on it with he’s Love Grooves. Yep Danny Rampling was an old A23 Crusader who we knew from Mod gigs in the early 80’s. By the turn of the 90’s I was travelling up North less & less & got talked into going to of all things a Rave. By 92 I’d started buying House records.. Shar’ron Got me Groovin one of the first. Thanks Mark :o). So it’s been House music ever since. I still buy & listen to everything else, I still even pop down the 100 club now & again for a stomp, but thanks to the Likes of Bobby & Steve,Paul 'Trouble' Anderson & Da Rude Bwoy Rupert,
For their shows on Kiss & for the excellent Garage City that kept the real sound of House going it’s my main influence.. Well that & the Hammers of course.
Thanks to Eddie P I managed to get a radio show on the now defunct soul24/7.com.
I met some real nice people & artists on there. Ledisi & Legerald, she’s an absolute stunner. The awesome Leon Ware. Shaun Escoffrey, Ilfords finest! I even managed a few interviews myself. Phuture Sole you’ll always be my No1 & the 24/7 listeners who have followed me to http://radio.gotsoul.co.uk/
Thanks to all the people I’ve met from going to the Southport Weekenders over the years & a special thanks to all the Artists, Dj’s, Producers, Labels etc who keep the music going..
TH
http://www.radiogotsoul.com/
Thursdays 8pm till 10pm UK time
3pm till 5pm EST
For archive shows go to http://www.radiogotsoul.com/audio/index.phphttp://www.myspac
e.com/thayzer
