VV Brown – Samson and Delilah

It must be tough to be a soul singer from the cobbling capital of Great Britain, Northampton. And that’s in no way a derogatory view of the medium sized midlands town, as I’ve been to the Sixfields Stadium on several occasions and found the locals both friendly and enthusiastic. It’s just difficult to imagine Minnie Ripperton, Marie Wells or Aretha Franklin hailing from anywhere quite so unglamorous. Because of this, Vanessa  must have had to work even harder to become a moderately well known singer, record producer and model, and as such she’s not averse to taking the odd risk or two.

Samson and Delilah is certainly a risk. An album that harks back to eighties electronica and inspired by the likes of Annie Lennox, Alison Moyet and Erasure sounds great on paper but is so easy to get wrong. So was it a risk worth taking? Well at least partially it works.

If anything Vanessa leans to the Annie Lennox flavour of the eighties vibe when she would have been better advised to go for the more Yazoo flavoured vintage. Having said that a couple of the songs are absolute belters and worth the price of the LP on their own, and the rest are acceptable at worst. It sounds like feint praise, but the overall atmosphere and production of the album deserves better than that.

The two standout tracks are the pulsing, sophisticated Moyet-esque groove of ‘The Apple’, which incidentally sounded even better performed live on Jules Holland, and the rhythmic insistency of the Grace Jones inspired ‘Igneous’ and there’s even a cute little rap towards the end that I really enjoyed. The best of the rest is possibly the stark electro of ‘I can give you more’ but there’s not much between any of the also-rans.

It’s fun, different and classy. Possibly the best thing to come out of Northampton since Adebayo Akinfenwa, (although slightly more lightweight.) 

30. Larry Williams and Johnny Watson - Too Late

An all time northern soul classic and a song that I never get tired of hearing for a variety of reasons. For starters, Larry and Johnny go for the slightly 'sweet and sour' voice combination that works like a cheese and jam sandwich, with Larry's sugary sweet vocal contrasted perfectly by Johnny's rasping whine. The lyrics and conversational style of the song provides a unique piece of philosophical magic, although you've got to wince a little at the sexual politics on show. However, who can argue that 'you don't need no woman to help you starve to death' or 'you've gotta find a girl that will treat you right and give you plenty of loving every night.' It's like the Postal Service song but with all sense of political correctness obliterated. The absolute kicker, that turns the song from brilliant to absolute classic, is the generic northern soul 'Huh!' about eight seconds into the record. I defy you not do you own 'Huh!' as you listen along.

33. Bobby Womack - What is this?

Some singers have a strange power to transport you to another place and time. This happens very rarely and only when the singer possesses a talent above and beyond ordinary mortals. Beverley Knight for example, has the ability to go into overdrive and produce this sense of mild euphoria every now and then. No other singer does this as often for me as Bobby Womack.

Womack is a soul legend, but a second division soul legend next to Marvin, Stevie and Aretha. Personally, I'd put him at the top of the league table. He is without doubt a legend, just look at his fashion sense if you have any doubts. Bobby usually combines a certain pimpish 70's look with futuristic glasses and then the next thing you know he's wearing a cowboy hat, sitting on a horse and smoking a pipe.

'What is this?' is difficult to track down on Youtube, but it's well worth the effort. The bit where he produces the 'euphoria effect' for me is where he sings the line 'Oh what a feeling, this thing keeps me rocking and a-reeling'. Give it a go, it's pure magic. Also worth a mention are 'Across 110th Street' and 'Fly me to the Moon'.

37. Dean Parrish - Determination

If you wanted an introduction to northern soul in the early eighties, your options were severely limited in a particularly grimy South Yorkshire town. In Foxes Records they had about three vinyl compilation albums with the most instantly appealing; the legendary Floorshakers album on Kent Records. It was an essential purchase and would prove to be my only Northern Soul purchase until the advent of cheap CD compilations in the 2000's.

The cover said it all really; colourful, fun-packed classic soul. And the most colourful and fun-packed track on the album was 'Determination' by Dean Parrish. It sounded like nothing I'd ever heard before. It was undeniably soul music, but completely different to the Motown classics I was familiar with at the time. Dean had a deep, booming voice like a cross between Brian Blessed and Barry White, but backed with such a range of horns that it was like listening to the Brighouse and Rastrick brass band gone wild.

As a wet behind the ears teenager I had no idea at the time what made Northern Soul 'Northern', but I knew it was a good thing and it was much better than Southern Soul, which was probably a softer, less authentic version of its harder northern cousin. I could easily envisage Dean Parrish performing this track at some sleazy working men's club in Rotherham. I didn't know if he was black or white, came from New York or Pontefract, but I knew that in spirit he was Northern, working class and came from Doncaster. And that was enough for me to love this song to this day.