When American soul great Tommy Hunt first approached the Wigan Casino in Wigan, England to celebrate the nightclub's second anniversary on September 27, 1975, his first reaction was decidedly mixed. He recalled in 2013, "When I got to Wigan, I refused to go in! It scared me because it looked so rough! I'd been playing these fabulous clubs. When I looked at the outside, I said to the driver, 'you must be at the wrong place.' He said, 'Tommy, wait 'til you get inside.' When I walked in
What is “femme mod soul,” you might ask? Cherry Red’s RPM imprint has the answer with a new 3-CD box set, Looking Good: 75 Femme Mod Soul Nuggets. This set aims to chronicle the girl group sound “from and for the underground.” As Lois Wilson points out in an introductory essay, the box doesn’t paint a full picture of the girl group era. Not only have there been countless compilations on the theme, but Rhino’s four-CD box set One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found