Since its inception in 2013, Cherry Red’s Croydon Municipal label has reliably shed light on some of the least illuminated corners of the pre-Beatles pop world. Two recent releases - Such a Much: R&B Girls of the ‘50s and ‘60s and TV is the Thing: Fifties and Sixties Television Themes – continue in this tradition. Like many of Croydon’s releases, Such a Much features a blend of names both familiar (LaVern Baker, Little Esther, Etta James, Ruth Brown) and less familiar (Paula Grimes,
Though we've come to expect delightful and deeply soulful compilations from Ace's Kent label, one of Kent's latest is a particular trip: a trip, in fact, to the Cleethorpes Northern Soul Weekender. The 6Ts Rhythm and Soul Society has been throwing these bashes on a yearly basis since 1993, offering up plenty of dancing and some of the best names in soul music, among them Doris Troy, Barbara Lewis, Tommy Hunt, Bettye LaVette and Maxine Brown. Kent's The Cleethorpes Northern Soul Weekender,