Northern Soul Top 500

Top 50 most collectable records

When it comes to modern collectables, sometimes you have to be quick or you're dead. On 15 March, Rough Trade shops tweeted that this collaboration between one of the great artists of the last 10 years - Keiren Hebden - Thom Yorke and Burial would go on pre-sale in 20 minutes' time. It sold out within 15 minutes and even though Rough Trade threw another 50 into the ring the following day, the limited nature of this 12" made it instantly collectable even before Rough Trade started to ship or sell them. Copies have already been sold on eBay for £35+.

49 DEAD KENNEDYS Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death (inc free flexi 7") 1987 Alternative Tentacles VIRUS 57 £15

The Dead Kennedys' Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (1981) remains the best-selling LP - and probably CD - Cherry Red have ever released, and original pressings remain collectable, but as with Hüsker Dü, UK pressings of their extensive back catalogue remain in demand among punk and hardcore collectors worldwide. Many singles, EPs and album covers in the 80s were illustrated by montage artist Winston Smith, whose work is now very collectable in its own right, making albums like Give Me Convenience. and other UK pressings a very live investment proposition. It also goes without saying that the music is highly recommended.

48 SUBWAY SECT Nobody's Scared/Don't Split It 1978 Braik BRS 01 £15

Vic Godard's Subway Sect were one of the punk/new wave bands with a reputation that always outstripped their sales and they were also the victims of a lack of decent label support - or even the opportunity to issue a debut LP for years. This 7" 45 on the Braik label, their debut release, is a gem, with the title track boasting a guitar figure that owed a hell of a lot to Love's 7 And 7 Is, while the B-side is also magnetically good. The 7" might only be worth £15 but it is one that we feel will steeply appreciate in value in the coming years. Both of the stellar Rough Trade singles by the group should also be acquired.

47 U2 Boy 1980 Island ILPS 9646 £15

Hardened collectors already pay a lot of care and attention to the matrix numbers of 60s and 70s albums to establish first pressings and this forensic attention to detail is going to carry over into classic 80s bands. Thus a wise investment would be a Mint copy of this debut U2 album and October (1981), War (1983), and The Joshua Tree (1987) should also be investigated. Although these albums sold by the million and crop up all the time in shops, fairs and online, get a first pressing with A1 matrixes with the sleeve, inner and vinyl in perfect condition.

Be Cool, Stay In School, Don't Be A Fool - X-Ray Soul Club

The Label formed in 1957 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Bernie Binnick, probably had it’s biggest US hit with the Beatles “She Loves You”, which they also released in German, the original single went to number one on January 1st 1964 and gave Swan a considerable cash injection when other American indies were struggling to get noticed as the “British Invasion” mounted it’s assault on the American charts.

The label was in turn home to such notable acts as The Showmen (featuring General Johnson), the Sapphires, the Persianettes, the Modern Redcaps, The Three Degrees, Sheila Ferguson – who also recorded as a solo artist, Tony Galla and Azie Mortimer. The song writing and production stable included Kenny Gamble, Jerry Ross, Joe Renzetti, Norman “General” Johnson and Richard Barrett and one of their featured keyboard players was Leon Huff, who would later team up with Gamble to create the orchestral sound that was to come to define the later Philly soul in the 70s.

However, as fabulous as some of these acts were, I want to talk about a handful of tunes that whilst not on Swan fit the inspiration that that label’s slogan has created in naming this club night. The slogan was a reaction to the number of kids quitting school in the states in the fifties and sixties and Swan was one of a number of record labels to get behind this message “Be Cool, Stay In School, Don’t Be A Fool”, which is probably as relevant today as it was 40 years ago.

Kicking off with the jazzy Hammond tinged soul of The Cals cleverly titled Another Plan for School Mix Up, which in which we hear a discussion between an “educationalist” and a lawyer, the former who is trying to concentrate on the business of running schools, whilst the later has come to inform him that “everybody’s got to learn to read and write”. The record came out in 1963 at a time when many parts of the States were trying to resist integrated education. The educationalist makes his protestations, insisting even that he’s going to see the president, but inevitably, times really were a changing and integrated schools became a more wide spread reality.

Philadelphians The Cooperettes on the other hand were a teenage girl quartet whose celebratory song Goodbye School, co-written by the lead vocalist Ethel Cooper and released in 1966, summarises the feeling that all students surely feel come the long warm summer holidays, a time of lighter, brighter evenings and going out dancing with friends. This track was one of three singles released on the Decca Records subsidiary, Brunswick. The girls are probably better known for their track Shing-a-Ling, which was also penned by Cooper and it features as number 316 in Kev Roberts’ Northern Soul Top 500 book published back in 2000.

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