A huge fan of the work of Little Richard "The Bronze Liberace" and true King Of Rock and Roll since he was four years old, discovering Richard's 60's recordings on 'Okeh' led Simon to the strange world of Northern Soul. A keen Disco bunny in the 70's with one eye on Jazz / Funk and Boogie, by 1982 Disco was fading and he realised that he wasn't going to make a living as a music journalist (after contributions including Blues and Soul, City Limits, Kicks, The Observer, Charmer, Black Echoes and an epic Disco breakdown article for Mister magazine) or as a glamour photographer (ah, the memories....) so he concentrated on his newsagent shop in Notting Hill Gate where customers could hear the likes of Buster and Eddie, Esquerita, John Davis and The Monster Orchestra, Mirwood, Motown, Debbie Taylor, Johnny Caswell, Jean Carne, The Charades and Pookie Hudson while they got their fags (which of course means "cigarettes" in the UK ....)
As one of the resident deejays at the legendary Wednesday night gigs at Crazy Larry's in London's King's Road in the mid eighties he introduced Soul, Motown, Stax and Northern Soul classics from Rufus Thomas, Little Richard and Bobby Wells into the playlist, something the trendy media based crowd lapped up. Whether it's co-incidence that tracks from 6o's Soul stars started to appear on TV ads around that time is open to debate...but Crazy Larry's led to further bookings at venues like the newly opened Groucho Club in Soho and a raft of parties for the same crowd followed until their taste for classic Soul music waned.
In 1991 Simon worked for a year with Ian Levine in the dying days of his mammoth "Motorcity" project, meeting and working with heroes and heroines like Saundra Edwards of The Elgins, Detroit Northern Soul legends J.J. Barnes and Pat Lewis, Billy Griffin, Gladys Horton of The Marvelettes, The Contours, Martha Reeves, Marv Johnson, Vermettya Royster of The Sisters Love, Brenda Reid of The Exciters, Edwin Starr, The Trammps and Harold Melvin amongst others. Levine was also working with iconic Boy Band "Take That" at the time.
The same period brought him into contact with Expansion Record label boss and Jazz F.M. deejay Ralph Tee and the two have remained firm friends since, often working together on projects, record buying trips (sometimes in six feet of St Louis snow) the "Togetherness" Soul weekenders, music seminars in Cape Town and Cannes and champagne appreciation evenings, mornings, afternoons, days........weekends .........mornings......
In 2001,Ian Levine invited Simon to deejay in the Northern Soul room at the "Metropolitan Soul" Rocket All Nighters and so he became part of the Metropolitan Soul team which was set up by Paul Clarke and Kevin Johansan and included deejays Chris King, the late great Derek Allen, Phil Dick, Pete French, Kev Roberts, Sean Livesey, Tim Brown and Levine. Appropriately, the very first Rocket record, played by Simon, was Joy Lovejoy's 'In Orbit'(just who IS she?). After a phenomenal first night The Rocket Metropolitan Soul All Nighters lasted for just over a year before finally collapsing in a heap of controversy. Running concurrently, 'The Metropolitan Soul Show' hosted alternately by Paul Clarke and Simon White was enjoying great success on internet radio station 'Soul 24/7' and the show ran up until the stations demise in 2004. It restarted on www.starpointradio.com in 2005 where it still runs currently on Friday evenings...check the website schedules for details.
Simon compiled Sanctuary/Castle Records successful collections "On The Real Side" and "Flying High" under the collective banner of "The Modern End Of Northern Soul" and the second volume quickly became a cult release. He compiled and wrote the sleevenotes for the long anticipated and now collectable Lee Moses CD "Time And Place".
Simon writes sleevenotes for various other CD releases and the monthly 'Metropolitan Soul' column (can you see the pattern here?) which still runs in Bee Cool Publishings 'manifesto' magazine aas well as articles and reviews for various publications including Blues & Soul, Soul Up North and on line for Spectropop as well as writing non-music articles for other publications.
The first result of a remix project with Phil Chapman at 'A Major' studios in West London was a brand new reconstruction/remix of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" The first ever time it has been remixed ) included on the Expansion album "The Ashford and Simpson Songbook. The Motown afficianados went mad for it. More info at http://www.expansionrecords.com
2005/6/7 was spent DJing at The Push Bar with 'Soul In Soho' alongside Northern Soul legends Mike Ritson and Neil Rushtons, the Northern room at the Bury Soul anniversary allnighter, the closing night of the New York/New Jersey Soul Trip, the Northern and Modern rooms at the Soulfixins and Soulvation Soul N' Surf Weekender in Newquay, 'Divas Of Motown' with Jack Ashford,The Supremes, Mable John, Brenda Holloway, Chris Clark and Thelma Houson at The Jazz Cafe London, sets in the now legendary lounges at The Birmingham and Blackpool Hilton Luxury Soul Weekenders, the Believers events in Vienna, and Soulvations Boogie Wonderland and the launches for the albums Northern Soul 2007,08 and 09, Yesterday and Tomorrow, Reaching For The Very Best and Running In Another Direction and Disco 2008
2009 saw the release of the compilation HOLY MACKEREL! PRETENDERS TO LITTLE RICHARD'S THRONE for Ace records http://www.acerecords.co.uk/content.php?page_id=59&relea
se=7878
MONDAY MARCH 3RD 2007 - THE LAUNCH PARTY FOR "YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW" Invites by private guest list only. For more details and guest list invites please send a message to this address
[email protected]
MARCH 7TH - STRUT ! Corks 28 Binney Street London W.1 DISCO DISCO DISCO ! The real stuff.. Salsoul, West End, PIR,Gold Mind, De Lite ..you get the picture. More info at www.discostrut.com
MARCH 22nd - BELIEVERS TENTH ANNIVERSARY PORGY & BESS, VIENNA with Terry Callier, Ralph Tee, Terry Jones
APRIL 4th/5th/6th The SOULVATION SOUL AND SURF WEEKENDER, NEWQUAY Great, Fun Soul weekender with Northern and Modern soul rooms and I'm doing 'em both ! More info http://www.soulvation.biz
Sunday May 4th SWANSONGFOUR at THE OLDE SWAN 27 Windsor St Chertsey Modern Soul, Crossover and a bit of Jazz !
more info http://www.starpointradio.com/forum.html
MAY 16th UPTIGHT at the CLUBKELLER, FRANKFURT. Northern & 60's Soul More info www.myspace.com/uptight_frankfurt
24/25/26th MAY LUXURY SOUL AT THE BIRMINGHAM HILTON
more info at http://www.myspace.com/luxurysoulweekender
I've mostly come away from the social side of the UK Soul Scene now. The hypocrites, egomaniacs and lunatics finally got too much. Any good new music is constantly being devalued by the swapping of CDR's and Mp.3's without any thought for how it effects the future, and at the same time the lack of any quality control means so much of it is dire beyond reason.
The Northern Soul scene has become totally about nostalgia for a social scene that was just a lads club, about beer and one upmanship and a strange kind of stuck in the past white, working class 'chip on the shoulder' elitism that I never understood anyway.I'd rather just listen to the music and dance at home. C'est la vie.
The radio show's page is still up though
http://www.myspace.com/metropolitansoulshow
...and there are some shows available as podcasts at
http://metropolitansoulshow.jellycast.com
