Record Collecting

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A brief explanation of record collecting on the 'Northern' scene.

This may be the CD or even Mini Disc era, but as far as Northern/Rare soul is concerned it is the original records which most of its devotees collect. In fairness the price of vinyl of any genre is becoming more and more expensive but this is particularly true of soul records. The reason for this is because chart/distribution patterns in the USA were very different from those in England. In England the national charts were always the benchmark for success. In America however charts were much more regionalised. If a group got a hit in Detroit or Chicago they had done pretty well. The rest of the country probably never had the opportunity to hear those records. In the wake of Motown's success many local artists tried to hit paydirt by emulating the sound. Inevitably that led to a plethora of releases which saturated the market. Many Soul releases failed to make the grade even locally, not because they were bad records, but there was far too much competition. Quite possibly only a few hundred of each record was ever made, but it is these massive flops of the sixties which form the central diet and and are relentlessly sought after by the Northern Soul collector today.

Because of their large Black populations Detroit, Chicago and Memphis were the main Soul centres throughout the sixties, but tiny local manufacturers operated from many other cities as well. One of the most obscure and most collectable is Washington DC's 'Shrine' label.This company only operated for three years 1963 to 1966, made limited numbers of copies of all its output, but finally had most of its stock destroyed when their premises were burnt down during the race riots. This label is rightly considered 'The rarest soul label in the world.

To date a Motown record 'Do I Love you' by Frank Wilson has changed hands for the highest price when Scottish DJ Kenny Burrell paid a staggering Ł15,000 for a copy. Only two copies of this record are currently known to exist. The price of other records can be gauged from Kev Roberts excellent book 'Northern Soul, the top 500' a review of which can be found in the books section of this website.