IMBER VILLAGE SOUL CLUB

"Seven miles from any town, There stands Imber on the Down"

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THE MUSIC

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Remember Imbers 3 B 4 8 Take me home country roads - Its a long way to Tipperary and the stormer  The wheels on the bus! Well Imbers music was to have an effect on the whole world! "The strange world of Imber Soul"

The Blues And Soul Of NS Music

(Reprinted from Blue hand Soul, Magazine)

Needless to say of the NS scene there were always the big money bootlegs. Simon Shoeshine in his height of power very cleverly cashed in on the NS, and in particular the Imber scene.

It was just before Christmas in 1972 when talk of a new stomping and hand clapping monster was about to make the dance floor. Played only once at Wigan, and only to a minor reaction a week earlier, Imber DJ's soon picked up the Simon Shoeshine monster pressing on his Soul Gafore label - String A-Yo-Yo, by Bob Wilson Sings. Shoeshine knowing the popularity of Arsenal goalkeeper cashed in on both the YoYo craze at the time (that Bob Wilson was genuinely promoting as everything was slipping through his fingers), and a monster instrumental he had inherited from Germany called Dopple Kuchen. Simon put words to that song and made a hand clapping monster hit from the Dopple Kuchen (literally translated as Cloned Cakes). It was recorded by an obscure Czechoslovakian (at the time) scratch RnB band trying to make it in Germany. The song was used to celebrate of the first real cloning experiment, in Wuppertal, Westphalia, West Germany (WWW.Germany.de for short), where scientists successfully grew two cakes from one spoon of yeast while trying with the idea of a community of people all connected together by adding machines. The latter idea failed as the numbers didn't add up, but the numbers racked up high sales for Shoeshine of course, who is rumored to have bought classic car collector Chris Lalors' Triumph Stag and shipped it to L.A. with the proceeds from that one record. WOW!

Of course, in time we were to learn that Bob Wilson never actually sang or even knew about the record either. Though he did drop a copy of it when shown to him saying "Sorry lads I dropped another one". Actually he had, and everyone had to leave the building at the time.

Now, the real singer, Simon had found in a Hells Angels' bar. He was none other than ex L.A. RAMS player Hubba Bubba (Hawaiian born and real name Bubba Hubba), , Aloha Ho in a HA in LA. He was drowning his sorrows in a "Hubble bubble" (an expensive local drink that ruins your eyesight and named after the Telescope Engineer Ray Hubble), and after his Hubble bubble man he was in toil and trouble! You see Bubba had been a quarter back with a failing career, and had a butter finger. He was sacked so many times that his uniform was made from burlap and had seen more potatoes than Idaho or Robey's (mostly the hot buttered soul variety). But, because Bubba could sing his blues with soul (he always sang at that bar - no music he just sang and at 350 lbs no one would argue with him), Simon gave him the chance to cash in on this and other knock-off sounds he was about to make after a sign on fee. But, Bubba claims, he never Put A Dime Or Number On Sime, and never saw a penny out of the deal either! So history was almost complete and true to NS form!

But, we were to learn, that there was indeed yet another original vocal, never before heard at the time, of this song. Recorded by an obscure local Imber group (who's lead singer came from Quinten Road, Harbourne, in Birmingham and was an ex Catacoobmes visitor), they hoped to cash in on the Shoeshine pressing too. The group he formed called themselves Dem Stains - and cut the legendary monster hit - You're A Liar, on the bootleg (Aston) Villa Label. The rest is History. Sorry, the rest is His Story!

Northern Soul and its musical mysteries. Will we ever get the truth? I doubt it!

Dave (Norman Soul) Gobin

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Do I love Ewe...well for £15.000 Benny Burrell did

The holy grail of Northern soul...only two known copies, Wank Frillson-Ewe i love you (indeed i do) on Soul is the rarest of the rare First found by Imbtown  researcher and historian Bill Dieperro while working for the label in the 70's, the disc was in unplayed condition when he received it as research material from the company for some future project, as such the record was put aside, that was until famous (infamous) Record dealer and producer Simon Shoeshine met up with Bill, Both having a love of Imber soul Bill gave a stack of obscure 45,s for Simon to listen to, well Simon was Blown away by "Ewe i love you" and in no time it was covered up as Eddie froster and acetates were soon winging their way to other UK  DJ's...well the rest is well known, it went massive becoming a Northern classic. the real identity only becoming know in 1978 when Simon sold his collection, Question did Bill ever give Simon the record or is it still on loan ?????? So how did Benny Burrell get it ? Simon sold his collection to Des McCutcheon (Sharkatack etc) including the Wank Frillson, at first when it became know what had happened and the news filtered through the scene it seems that the fact Des was not in the Imber inclowd the discovery was somehow ignored or given short shrift (nothings changed there then) anyway for unclear reasons Des sold the 45 to............. Jonathan Whitecliff a Imber DJ quite well known in his day, I think he has something going on in the Salisbury scene today, Nothing is known about the time Jonathan owned the disk, he sold the record to Trev Roberts who owned the record for 11 years until he sold it to his business partner Tim Green for £5000 a then world record.....but not for long...enter stage left Mr. Benny Burrell clutching his £15,000
	BIG IMBER RECORDS WITH BIG PRICE TAGS!
£500 WORTH OF VINYL		£2000 WORTH OF VINYL
ONLY THREE KNOWN COPIES OF THESE TWO DISCS ARE KNOWN! "You find em, you name you're price!"
This scan is of one of the true legendary tracks of the northern scene, this is the original acetate as first played by Ian Latrine at the Imber First Anniversary...at least that's what the guy selling it on F-Bay said, I just got the top bid in at £3001.99

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THE DJ's	GUESTBOOK	IMBER'S OVATION	THE BADGES