The Harold Thomas Band [2021] - Your Love Drives Me Crazy [JWE Group]

OK, I'm now convinced that airings on specialist soul radio shows influence the Amazon charts. Mark Merry and his 'soul scouts' (i.e. his 'Merry men') Paul Regan and Pete Ratcliffe over the last couple of weeks have unearthed some previously unreleased 80s recordings produced by Jim White released on his JWE Music Group logo. 

Along with a few others, this week's instalment included two tracks from The Harold Thomas Band "Your Love Drives Me Crazy" and "Can I Spend The Night" (which sounds, and probably is, identical to the Jim White & Motor City Orchestra track of the same name posted last week). 

Well, both of these tracks have 'miraculously' appeared in the Amazon Top 30 today from nowhere (along with another featured on the show which I posted on Sunday from Michelle Goulett)  ... except of course we now know better as, presumably, listeners to the show have bought the tracks and put them in the chart! It can't simply be a coincidence?

It wouldn't surprise me if the female vocalist on Jim White & Motor City Orchestra and The Harold Thomas Band is actually Michelle Goulett as the voice sounds similar! She is a blue-eyed soul session singer, with a great voice, who released a self-titled album in 1986 produced by Jim White and two of the tracks on her latest EP were featured on the album and were released as a single also in 1986. 

There are a number of other albums that have been released on JWE in the last few weeks e.g. Dee Dee Joseph & David, Detroit Sound Revue, Kyng Penn, Pete Dagdren, The All Ball Band, The Gosse Ile Band, The David Gunthner Band, Mel Shaker and Benevolent. There is also a compilation called JWE Music Collection Vol. 1 which I got excited about when I discovered it had a track by the legendary Levi Stubbs, but unfortunately it was a bit of a MOR style ballad, to my ears at least, but here it is if you want to check it out. However, there is another good track on it which I'll post separately.

Most, if not all, of the material is from the mid 80s (many having that crash, bang, wallop, electro dance music feel) but the ballads have stood the test of time, most of them have already been 'sniffed' out by the soul scouts above.

I think The Harold Thomas Band is probably the best of the bunch as it contains mostly ballads, so doesn't suffer the same 'aging' as the others.

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Details

Rating:	7.8
Genre/Style:	80s Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Year:	20/07/2021
Value:	£5.50