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The Highland Room, Blackpool Mecca. Location: Blackpool, Lancs. Date: 1971-1979. |
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| Contrary to popular belief, the founding DJ of the soul sessions at Blackpool Mecca was in fact a local DJ: Tony Jebb. Tony had been playing Motown and well-known soul when he was joined at the decks by a certain Les Cockell, who was at a loose end after the closure of the Twisted Wheel. Les had been playing records lent to him (for a fee, of course) by the son of a wealthy casino owner, who after several holidays in the US with his parents, had built up a formidable record collection. The lad with all the records was, of course, Ian Levine. One week, Les Cockell came down with the flu, and Levine was persuaded to step up to the decks, and was such a success that he and Les began to do alternate weeks. |
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At about this time, the Golden Torch in Stoke-On-Trent opened. Tony Jebb was
poached by the Torch, which left Les and Ian in control of the Mecca. However,
the massive success of the Torch began to have an effect on the Mecca, and
recommended by Tony Jebb, Ian Levine gained a spot at the Torch, his first
night coinciding with the now legendary appearance of Major Lance.
Unfortunately for the Torch, the pharmaceutical activities of the punters attracted the attention of the local authorities, and two significant DJs left to revive the soul sessions at the Mecca: Keith Minshull and Colin Curtis. Ian Levine remained at the Torch until the last night and returned to the Mecca when Keith Minshull left. |
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| Ian and Colin were a formidable partnership, with a joint mission to find and play the greatest Northern Soul records ever. Their phenomenal success, due mainly to Ian Levine's regular trips to the US, attracted the attention of a certain Simon Soussan, who once a record was identified, would track down a copy and press up bootlegs in huge quantities and sell them to the eager soulies. This obviously annoyed Levine and Curtis, and led to the first "cover-ups", the practice of obscuring the record label, and inventing spurious artists and titles to conceal the identity of the true recording. Frustrated by this, Soussan negotiated the purchase of the Mirwood and Keyman catalogue master tapes, and resorted to producing his own records, leading to disasters like the Soul Fox Strings... |
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The feud between Blackpool Mecca and Wigan Casino is well known. Whereas the Casino preferred a traditional music policy of soul stompers, the Mecca started to implement a newer, modern feel to it's playlist. This injected a breath of fresh air into the Northern scene, and even though it effectively split the scene from 1973 onwards, the sounds played at the Mecca then still sound fresh today. Levine was also upset by the Pye Disco Demand and Black Magic debacles, and decided to have a go himself. He took the Exciters, Barbara Pennington, Evelyn Thomas and L. J. Johnson into a recording studio and released records on his own "Tomorrow" label. Russ Winstanley immediately banned Levine's records from the Casino playlist, but in retrospect was himself responsible for playing many of Soussan's "home-made" records.... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As Colin Curtis got funkier, playing sounds by artists such as Roy Ayers and George Benson, Ian Levine started to introduce a disco flavour to his playlist, influenced by visits to gay clubs in New York. The Highland Room moved further and further away from the Northern scene and by the end of the seventies, had become the domain of Jazz-Funk. Levine moved away from the Mecca and concentrated on the high-energy disco scene. |
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Ian Levine's production projects had their ups and downs. While having a massive
hit with "High Energy" by Evelyn Thomas, the Motorcity project (an attempt to
re-vitalise ex-Motown artist's careers) was a distinct failure, the only ray of
light being "Footsteps Following Me" by Frances Nero in 1991. Success finally
arrived with Take That, and continued with Bad Boys Inc and Boyzone. Levine's
recent movement into film production with the video "The Strange World of
Northern Soul" can only attest to the fact that whether you love him or hate
him, Ian Levine is here to stay.
You may have noticed that Colin Curtis is only mentioned briefly. Read his views and watch an interview with Colin on the BBC website by clicking here. |
