maxine nightingale right back where we started from

#MAXINE NIGHTINGALE RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM PLUS#

Before their relocation, they had some 60s chart success in the States, something they could not replicate in Blighty. The Flirtations, originally centred around the three Pearce sisters, started out in South Carolina, but settled in the UK. Moving on, session singers The Playthings excel on the feelgood dancer Stop What You’re Doing and Linda Rothwell, from Bury, cuts a very cool version of Tell Me. It still retains an engaging allure though, but you can see clearly how the producers were taking their cues direct from northern soul here.

To begin right back at the start, Nightingale’s title tune has a very clicky rhythm that on this listen took away a little from the song’s easy charm. Big names like Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark rubs shoulders with near complete obscurities of the ilk of Eleanor Keenan and Sweetcorn, as well as hi-energy stars to be such as Hazell Dean.

#MAXINE NIGHTINGALE RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM PLUS#

Taking its name from the Maxine Nightingale hit song, this set also takes in creamy disco and funk, plus some less easily classifiable items. Right Back Where We Started From seeks to look at (mainly) rare female sung soul/pop 45s from the 1970s, some of which were put together with that Wigan/Blackpool scene in mind. The bottom of the well would one day be reached, which meant to sustain itself there would eventually be a need to replenish from new. Also, the rare discs that were so prized on the NS circuit were a finite resource. Well, the sound did crossover into the popular music charts via some not very representative commercial cash-ins (Wigan Ovation/Wigan’s Chosen Few spring to mind), so there was obviously a thirst for a similar sort of thing with pop fans who would have never even thought about attending an event at the Wigan Casino or The Blackpool Mecca. But as northern soul thrived purely around the authenticity and rarity of the source material, one has to wonder who these modern waxings were exactly aimed at?

Kind of “you’ve gotta go backwards, to go onwards”, as the great NY punk band Kraut once sang. What I’ve always found odd and inspiring is the way something like northern soul, which was a 1970s phenomenon almost entirely based around obscure 1960s r&b singles that came with that essential stamping tempo for dancing, could permeate through to the mainstream to eventually influence new music. The idea being how these records tied in with the Northern Soul scene that was gaining traction at the same time…LTW’s Ian Canty goes back to the well again… This set, sequel to the Am I Dreaming? box of 2017, seeks to compile “Female Pop & Soul In Seventies Britain”, as the subtitle goes and features Dusty Springfield, Doris Troy and Dana Gillespie among many others. Various Artists – Right Back Where We Started From

Maxine nightingale right back where we started from