VA [2023] - Wigan Casino Three Before Eight [Outta Sight #OS230923]

On 23 Sep 2023, the now legendary, Wigan Casino will celebrate 50 years since opening it's doors at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning of 23 Sep 1973. Inevitably there will be many different events celebrating the occasion with the 'official' one taking place over the weekend of 22-24 Sep at The Winter Gardens in Blackpool. The two main stay DJs were founder Russ Winstanley and Richard Searling who had a parting of the way many years ago and never the twain shall meet so Richard is organising the Blackpool event and no doubt Russ will be doing his own, although I'm not up to speed on them all.

Anyway, also inevitably, Outta Sight has just reissued the famous "Three Before Eight" on 7" vinyl. They were originally all featured on a single back in 1978 on RK Records and the sleeve artwork has been duplicated. They were issued again by Goldmine Soul Supply, not dated but probably late 90s around 96/97.

For the uninitiated, the all-nighters ran every Sat/Sun night for eight years until 1981 and these three songs were played at the end of every all-nighter by Russ Winstanley and signalled the end of the event. They were played in order of Jimmy Radcliffe "Long After Tonight Is All Over" (1965), Tobi Legend "Time Will Pass You By" (1968) and Dean Parrish "I'm On My Way" (1967). Fifty years on and Tobi Legend is still one on my all time favourites. I recall buying the first reissue of it on Eric which had a jump in it and spent ages carefully trying to stop it jumping and ended up with a hiss where I'd held the stylus down on it, the inexperience of youth! By the way, dear old Kylie Minogue is about the only one I know of who's tried to cover the song, on her 1994 self-titled album.

Included below is the last time they were heard at the Casino on the final all-nighter in 20 Sep 1981, although there were a few false ends much to the miff of some all-nighter goers but a joy to others as there were additional nights to be enjoyed.

I'm not quite sure who the target buyer is for this one as anyone involved in Northern Soul who collects records must surely already have these in some format (vinyl and/or CD) but perhaps it's aimed at a new, younger, Northern Soul devotee as I suppose they haven't been available on vinyl since the late 90s but are relatively cheap and easy to pick up if anyone wanted one!

Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.

Details

Rating:	8.4
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Northern Soul
Format:	Single / Reissue
Media:	7"
Label:	Outta Sight
Cat No:	None
Date:	26/03/2023
Key/BPM:	9A/115 / 7B/133 / 4B/128
Price:	£15

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R.I.P. - Dean Parrish (1942 - 08/06/2021)

The Northern Soul world mourns yet another one of it's heroes. It was announced this evening (10 Jun) that Dean Parrish (Phil Anastasi) has died aged 79 (reportedly on 8 Jun). Tributes are flooding onto his facebook page.

He was immortalised when his 1967 Laurie recording of "I'm On My Way" was played at Wigan Casino as the last record of the "Three Before Eight" at the end of each all-nighter session. It was reissued in 1975 in the UK and reached #38 on the UK Pop chart. It was released again in 1978 on RK along with the other two "Three Before Eight" tracks on RK, which was reissued as the first release on Goldmine Soul Supply in the mid 90s.

He had other tunes played on the scene including "Bricks, Broken Bottles And Sticks", "Tell Her" (his only Billboard chart entry at #97) and "Determination" / "Turn On Your Lovelight". He only released a few more singles such as "Skate" and only this year released a new single "It's Time - Purple Mountain Majesty" (which he wrote in 1966/67) which I posted in Jan.

Some of the B sides were "I'm Over Eighteen" (Bricks, Broken Bottles And Sticks),  "Fall On Me" (Tell Her), "Watch Out" (I'm On My Way).

He released his first record as Dean Parrish in 1964 "Come On Down (To The World's Fair)" / "The Pavillion" co-written and produced by Teddy Van. Four singles were released prior to that in the early 60s, three as Anastasia and one as Phil Stacey which are mainly doo-wop tunes. 

In 1970 he released a single whilst with the group Steeplechase (which he co-wrote with Tony Radicello) "Never Coming Back" / "Lady Bright" on Polydor. They also released an album titled "Lady Bright" on which he co-wrote all of the tracks (mainly with Radicello).

In 1979 (as Phil Anastasi) he was drafted as lead singer into a disco band called The Wonder Band who released a single and an album ("Stairway To Love") of mainly disco versions (and a medley) of Led Zeppelin tracks! (e.g. "Whole Lotta Love" and "Stairway To Heaven")

Parrish was oblivious to the popularity of his records in the UK until the noughties when he was eventually tracked down by Wigan Casino DJ Russ Winstanley and has since been a regular and popular visitor to the UK over the years performing live at many weekender events.

As a fitting tribute here's possibly his last UK appearance in Sep 2018 at Skegness Weekender and as a bonus performing one of the other Three Before Eight tunes, Jimmy Radcliffe's "Long After Tonight Is All Over" with Tommy Hunt in 2010.

Sincere condolences to his family. He will be a true loss to the Northern Soul scene as literally anyone involved in NS will know his name and his immortal track and now sadly he is truly "On His Way".

Dean Parrish [2021] - It's Time - Purple Mountain Majesty [Acid Jazz]

Due on 5 Feb 2021 is a new single from the NS legend Dean Parrish.  I'm not sure if this is a diiferent mix to a track released last Jul (2020) which was titled 'It's Time (Wars Foreign and Domestic)' which I've posted below.

The other side 'Purple Mountain Majesty' is just an instrumental version of the top side.

It's a tough one to categorise ... Neo Northern Soul?   ... perhaps ... I'll let you decide.  I don't personally find it partcularly soulful - more of a 'pop/dance' record to my ears, but fair play and respect to him as he would be around 78 years old now!

You can read more about the release on BandCamp

Come On Back To Me

Whilst 'digging' I also found this which is an 'update/rework' on Chuck Woods - 'Seven Days Too Long' released in 2014

I Can't Take It No Longer

This is 'possibly' another reworking of an old tune - but I don't recognise it.