Soul Tight, Alright?

Side 2 of a mixtape, recorded sometime in February 2000. Time to get your wig on and get to Wigan Casino for some Northern Soul.

 

Whereas Side 1 was essentially an edited and re-sequenced selection from the 1998 budget price CD Soul Brother, Side 2 does the same with 1999 compilation This Is Northern Soul (volume 1, as it later transpired). Both were among many bought for a snip at Woolworths at the tail end of the 20th Century.

This selection packs 17 of the original 24 tracks onto one side of a C90 and contains classics either covered or sampled by the likes of The Clash, David Holmes/The Free Association, Soft Cell and Fatboy Slim, as well as Northern Soul takes on The Rolling Stones and The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

 

If you want to relive the Woolies bargain bin experience, you can pick up both volumes of This Is Northern Soul for a couple of quid on Discogs.

 

1) The Snake: Al Wilson (1967)

2) Better Use Your Head: Little Anthony & The Imperials (1965)

3) Sliced Tomatoes: Just Brothers (1972)

4) Out On The Floor: Dobie Gray (1966)

5) Time Is Tight: Booker T & The MG's (1969)

6) Blowing My Mind To Pieces: Bob E Relf (1968)

7) 24 Hours A Day: Barbara Pennington (1976)

8) Wrapped, Tied And Tangled: LaVern Baker (1968)

9) What: Judy Street (1965)

10) I've Lost You: Jackie Wilson (1967)

11) Under My Thumb (Cover of The Rolling Stones): Wayne Gibson (1966)

12) Dearly Beloved: Jack Montgomery (1966)

13) Bok To Bach: Father's Angels (1967)

14) Goodbye Nothing To Say: The Javells ft. Nosmo King (1974)

15) Purple Haze (Cover of The Jimi Hendrix Experience): Johnny Jones & The King Casuals (1968)

16) Girl I Need You: The Artistics (1968)

17) Long After Tonight Is All Over: Jimmy Radcliffe (1964)

Side Two (46:10)

Side One here

Everybody Knows It's True

For a brief period in 2002 to 2004, David Holmes had a real live band, The Free Association. Debuting on his 2002 mix CD Come Get It, I Got It, they followed up the same year with the full length original album David Holmes Presents The Free Association followed by a 2004 soundtrack album Music From The Film Code 46. In between, there were a few singles mainly inspired by tracks featured on Come Get It, I Got It. Everybody Knows heavily sampled Johnny Jones & The King Casuals' cover of Purple Haze by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. This was followed in September 2003 with a straight up cover of Sugar Man by Sixto Rodriguez, their biggest 'hit' peaking at 53 in the UK singles chart.  

I got to see The Free Association live at the Bristol Academy in November 2002, the opening of a 7-date UK tour. Interviewed by NME the previous month, David Holmes stated that "the whole point of the live show is that it has to be something to really look at. Like Parliament and the performance of OutKast – just this amazing energy on stage". It was a great show, but didn't quite live up to the hype. Singer Sean Reveron took sagging to an irritating new level, which was an unwelcome distraction from his vocal performance. Co-performer Petra Jean Phillipson, who strangely seems to have been edited from Discogs as a key member of the group, was perhaps the most compelling on-stage presence aside from Holmes himself. Yet, great though the music was and good though the band were, there was something missing from the performance. Maybe it was the Academy, which has rarely brought out the best of any acts that I've seen performing there. I'd seen David Holmes DJ at the Blue Mountain a short while before with his little box of 7" singles and the impact of playing Purple Haze there compared with the performance of Everybody Knows at the Academy was strongly in favour of the former. But none of that detracts from how bloody brilliant The Free Association were on record. 

I picked up a promo CD in around the time of the debut album, from the much-missed Replay Records in the piss-stinking underpass known as the Bear Pit in central Bristol, linking the main shopping area of Broadmead with Stokes Croft and the city's bus station. The shop is sadly long gone, but it was a go-to place to buy new and used records from the late 80s to early 00s. This promo CD was labelled (Mix) and "Mixed by Psycho Pab" but otherwise had no other info. Discogs be praised, it turned out to be a 19 minute megamix by Pablo Clements from Psychonauts, with cuts & scratching from DJ Ziggy, largely drawing from the debut Free Association album. It's a work of art and a mix CD that I regularly revisit.

With my usual ham-fisted dexterity, I've collated a 'tribute trawl' through The Free Assocation, mainly drawing from Come Get It, I Got It, the eponymous album and a couple of singles to give you just under an hour of damn fine psychedelic beats and rhymes, alongside Psycho Pab's far more professional mix.

 

1) Everybody Knows (Children Re-Mix) (2003) 

2) Don't Believe A Word (2002)

3) Le Baggage (2002)

4) Start Of Something (2002)

5) House Music (2002)

6) Everybody Knows (Album Version) (2002)

7) (I Wish I Had A) Wooden Heart (Space Hog Dub) (Remix By Roots Manuva) (2002)

8) Salut La Dolce Vita Pt.1 (2002)

9) Effectin' (Single Version) (2002)

10) Paper Underwear (2002)

11) This Could Be Your Sister (2002)

12) (I Wish I Had A) Wooden Heart (Radio Edit) (2002)

13) Pushin' A Broom (2002)

14) Everybody Knows (Edan Instrumental Re-Mix) (2003)

15) Don't Rhyme No Mo (2002)

16) La Dolce Vita (Album Version) (2002)

17) Free Ass O-C-8 (2002)

18) Somedays (2002)

 

Everybody Knows It's True (58:55)

Free Ass (Mix) Mixed By Psycho Pab (19:42)