Jimmy James And The Vagabonds
This is one of the key songs from our album, "Northern Soul 2007", which we released last September on Centre City Records and is still available to buy. There are still some small minded people who call themselves fans of Northern Soul who refuse to accept that anybody can make a new record that sounds like the real thing. Well if this isn't Northern Soul, then I'm a country and western singer from Outer Mongolia. This to me is the real McCoy, and I am so proud and excited with it. On September 3rd 2007, we finally released my utterly fabulous exciting new album called "Northern Soul 2007", distributed by Expansion Records and Passion Music. This new album consisted of twenty four brand new 2007 songs by soul and disco legends, including Leee John, Gee Morris, The Flirtations, Voices With Soul, Ebony Alleyne, Noel McKoy, and lots of others. Each song has an accompanying video of the artist basically performing it the studio and in outside locations. Because a lot of my fans on MySpace and YouTube have been begging me to do this, I decided to get up and make it happen, so there is a giveaway DVD with the CD showing the same twenty-some songs, all being performed in the same running order as the CD. The work that we have all put into this project is quite staggering, and I hope it will break down the barriers between the older Northern Soul stalwarts and a new generation who need younger acts who still produce the same vibe we all witnessed forty years ago for Motown's glory years. Play the CD, watch the DVD, and give new Northern Soul a chance this time. I have known Jimmy James for thirty six years, since I DJ's at The Torch in Stoke on Trent. In 1974 I actually booked him to appear at Blackpool Mecca. During the mid- to late '60s, Jimmy James & the Vagabonds towered among the most popular soul acts on the British club and college circuit. Born Michael James on September 13, 1940, the U.S. native was raised in Jamaica, first tasting fame as a solo act with the Tip Top label single "Bewildered and Blue," which topped the Jamaican charts in 1959. After scoring a second number one with "Come to Me Softly," James was approached by the Vagabonds who were at the time the most popular live band in Jamaica behind Byron Lee & the Dragonaires. After installing James as lead vocalist, the Vagabonds enjoyed even greater popularity among locals and tourists alike, in 1964 issuing the Island label LP Presenting the Fabulous Vagabonds. After cutting "Shoo-Be-Doo You're Mine," a 1965 one-off for Columbia, James & the Vagabonds signed to the Pye imprint's Piccadilly subsidiary, in early 1966 issuing their label debut, "I Feel Alright," an exuberant stomper in the mold of their electric live appearances. For the follow-up, the group covered the Dells' "Hi-Diddly Dee Dum Dum." Their third Piccadilly single, "This Heart of Mine," also featured on James & the Vagabonds' first full-length effort, The New Religion. After a fourth Piccadilly 7", "Ain't Love Good, Ain't Love Proud," Pye shuttered the label and the group moved to the parent company in time for 1967's "I Can't Get Back Home to My Baby." With the release of the 1968 LP Open Up Your Soul, James & the Vagabonds finally scored a U.K. chart hit with their cover of Neil Diamond's "Red Red Wine," at the time one of the singer/songwriter's more middling hits -- James' cover spent two months on the British charts, peaking at number 36. In 1972 James teamed with producer Biddu to notch the minor hit, "A Man Like Me," before signing to Trojan for a series of little-heard singles that culminated in the 1971 cult classic "Help Yourself." In 1976 James re-signed with Pye, immediately scoring a pair of disco-inspired pop hits with "Now Is the Time" and "I'll Go Where the Music Takes Me." 1984's "Love Fire", which I mixed, was hotly tipped as a comeback contender but went sadly overlooked in 1984. And this song is the first new recording of the last twenty three years. The legend returns.