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We were sad to learn of Music Machine lead singer Sean Bonniwell’s death from cancer just before Christmas 2011. An admiring Alec Palao pays his respects.

I listened to no new music between 1984 and 1987. Instead, an obsession with 60s soul and R&B led me down the path of dusty record stores, car boot sales and charity shops in an attempt to find some musical thrills. I made an exception for the Prisoners. The Medway-based garage rock four-piece were one of the most exciting live acts I have ever seen – in those days, as a callow youth, they were mind-blowing. A devastatingly good rhythm section consisting of Johnny Symons on drums, James Taylor on organ and Allan Crockford on bass, were fronted by guitarist-vocalist Graham Day, whose voice gave them a soulful edge and who wrote songs that were truly memorable.

The group had formed at school and made their debut album “A Taste Of Pink” as a document to their early days together, at a point when Taylor was supposed to be heading North to start university. It had a raw sound influenced by the Kinks, the Beatles, the Who and the Small Faces, but its inception was fuelled by the DIY ethos of punk. The sleeve was put together around Graham’s kitchen table and they took the resultant pressing to Rough Trade to see if they would distribute it. Taylor didn’t stay on at university, John Peel picked up on the album and the Prisoners suddenly found themselves with gigs in London.

Their presence in the capital saw them sign to Ace Records’ Big Beat label, where they recorded their second album, “The Wisermiserdemelza”, and the “Electric Fit” EP. This period saw the band record many of their best-loved songs, including ‘Last Thing On My Mind’, ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Melanie’, honing their influences and creating their distinctive sound.

A side effect of being with Ace was Graham’s access to the company’s latest Northern Soul LPs, which inspired him to write a new set of songs for their next album. That release, “The Last Fourfathers”, is probably their most satisfying recording. The group worked with Russell Wilkins of the Milkshakes and Graham’s vocals were captured to perfection on numbers such as ‘Nobody Wants My Love’, ‘The More I Teach You’ and ‘Take You For A Ride’, whilst on the electrifying ‘I Am A Fisherman’ you could properly hear Alan’s harmonies for the first time. Our CD version of the album contains a recording of the live highlight ‘Hush’, the Joe South song the Prisoners made their own, only to have their arrangement appropriated by the Charlatans on their hit ‘The One I Know’ and by Kula Shaker for their cover of ‘Hush’.

The group could never quite bring themselves to want success enough, but in 1986 they made one final attempt by signing to the Stiff Records subsidiary, Countdown, run by future Acid Jazz Records owner Ed Piller. The band didn’t like what producer Troy Tate was trying to turn them into and were on the verge of falling apart. The record that emerged, “In From The Cold”, contained impressive songs and performances, but the group advised their fans not to buy it. Stiff Records collapsed into bankruptcy at about the same time.

There was just enough time left for a swipe at the music industry with ‘Pop Star Party’, which was then partially wiped and lost, before the Prisoners called it a day. In the years since, all except Johnny have kept up a presence in music, making many great records in a variety of settings, whilst they have reformed intermittently to make triumphant returns to the stage. I am thrilled to have seen them at their peak. Big Beat have reissued their whole catalogue, with plenty of bonus material. If you don’t own every piece of music by the band, you’re losing out.

In the beginning came Ric Tic and Mirwood. Obviously Tamla and definitely Okeh were huge and vital, but I think the small indies with the big punch epitomised what was then known as Old Soul. That would be around late ’68 to early ’70 before the music was known as Northern Soul.

Run by Randy Wood, a savvy music businessman with years of experience at the black-owned Vee-Jay company, and having hit from the off with Jackie Lee’s ‘The Duck’, the signs were good for the new Mirwood label. The genius young arranger James Carmichael gave veteran Los Angeles producer Fred Smith the impetus of his youth and that vibes-laden rhythm of the dance craze hit laid the foundation for the next two years of soul dance perfection. The final piece of the jigsaw was Sherlie Matthews, a brilliant arranger of backing vocals whose knack for capturing the “Swinging Sound Of Young Hollywood” would result in some masterly compositions for the label.

Fred Smith not only brought Jackie Lee and Bob Relf (aka Bob & Earl) to the party, but threw in veteran vocal group the Olympics, all acts he had worked with previously. It took the company two goes to make the charts with the Olympics when ‘Mine Exclusively’ went to #25 R&B in mid-66. Their biggest hit for the label was the next one, ‘Baby Do The Philly Dog’, the epitome of the uptempo soul groove – too slick for the average English teenager but perfect for the breed who hung out in smoke-filled basement dives, powered by pills and a love of the music of black America. ‘Philly Dog’ was released at the time on UK Fontana; those cherished copies acted as the swansong for the soul mods but became the revered soundtrack to the Old Soul religion.

Sherlie Matthews tried to get in on the act performing with the Holloway sisters, Brenda and Patrice, on the Belles’ ‘Don’t Pretend’ and providing ‘He’s Alright With Me’ for her good friends the Mirettes (previously known as the Ikettes). She found she was too busy composing and writing backing vocal charts to concentrate on a career of her own and it was a fact that Mirwood’s best-sellers were recorded by the guys.

Jackie Lee came back strong with the storming ‘Your P-E-R-S-O-N-A-L-I-T-Y’ and ‘Do The Temptation Walk’ while his partner in Bob & Earl, Bob Relf (aka Bobby Garrett), joined in with ‘My Little Girl’, whose backing track was erroneously issued on a UK release and became a Northern monster. The Olympics hit back with the double-sider ‘The Same Old Thing’ / ‘I’ll Do A Little Bit More’, the latter title being sampled by DJ Fat Boy Slim and grooved to unknowingly by trendy young Brits decades later.

There were interesting one-offs from Jimmy Thomas, J.W. Alexander, Chicago group the Sheppards and a jazz/soul keyboard groove from session men the Hideaways as well as odd little pop pieces scattered throughout.

For me the company peaked with Jackie Lee’s magnificent ‘Oh My Darlin’’ which, although it still had the on-the-fours rhythm, was so much more than a dance record with a pleading vocal over the perfect backing track – a three-minute musical masterpiece. The adjacent release was Jackie’s duet with Dolores Hall, ‘Whether It’s Right Or Wrong’, a gorgeous, heartfelt soul ballad.

But these releases did not sell and Randy Wood tried outside sources for further success. The main one was Hank Graham’s Hangra stable which used Jimmy Conwell, Len Jewell Smith and Goodoy Colbert’s writing and producing talents. There were two releases on Jimmy Conwell, the second under the alias Richard Temple. The first was the instrumental ‘Cigarette Ashes’, which famously fetched the highest price ever for a 45 in the early 70s and was released in the UK within weeks; the vocal version, ‘That Beatin’ Rhythm’, grew into the epitome of Northern Soul. This production team also worked two excellent releases on Bay Area group the Performers.

That’s the American side of the story. The UK picture was possibly even more enthralling. Collectors knew the first releases from the early UK Fontana singles and the belated 1968 issue of “The Duck” LP on London. Odd Mirwood imports would slowly filter over to the UK and gradually a picture of the label built up in DJs’ and collectors’ minds. The releases weren’t super-scarce but hard enough to locate to become precious and beautiful to behold. The cachet of the vocal and instrumental versions of ‘My Little Girl’ and ‘That Beatin’ Rhythm’ added to the wonder and mythology of Mirwood. It became one of the first labels to be cherished but also one of the first to be exhausted, although the brand was kept alive by a series of dubious early 70s pressings made from the master tapes accessed by LA-based UK Northern Soul wheeler-dealer Simon Soussain. Those pioneering initial finds would also be among the first records spun in the hugely popular Wigan Casino oldies room Mr M’s and the later Friday Oldies All-Nighters.

Ace Records purchased the label in 2003 and we found unissued masters such as Bobby Garrett’s ‘Keep It Coming’, Jackie Lee’s soulful ‘Trust Me’ and the Belles’ cute ‘Cupid’s Got A Hold On Me’. We were able to unravel some of the mysteries that Soussain had initiated with his misinformation. The Belles ‘Let Me Do It’ was actually the Mirettes singing ‘I Wanna Do Everything For You Baby’ and Jackie Lee’s ‘I’ll Do Anything’ was really called ‘Anything You Want, Any Way You Wanna’. They were issued on the two volumes of the “Mirwood Soul Story” CDs and the correct writers credited at last. We found many relevant documents in the paperwork and were able to recount the history of the record company for the first time in any depth.

My Name is Tony Rounce and I am a Porrettaholic…

…Ace’s man on the spot gives you the lowdown on the 2013 edition of the greatest soul music festival in Europe and probably the world.

Midsummer is always a special month for European lovers of Southern Soul. For the past 25 years, in a small, friendly, picturesque ‘spa town’ in Northern Italy called Porretta Terme, Italian music promoter and Otis Redding obsessive Graziano Uliani has been curating and ‘creatively directing’ Porretta Soul, probably the longest running - and almost certainly the best – music festival of its kind anywhere in the world.