New issue of Shindig! mag out now

The latest issue of Shindig! magazine is out now featuring a massive look at the 60s Texas Scene including the 13th Floor Elevators and other less well known but equally brilliant obscurities such as Zakary Thaks. Checkout exclusive archive footage of the Nuggets favourite courtesy of You Tube below. The third and final installment of the mammoth West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band story comes to a thrilling climax and hundereds of reviews will keep you abreast of all the latest soul, garage, beat and psych re-issues.

If you can't find Shindig! in the shops, why not take out a subscription? More details here.

Motown celebrates 50th birthday

Starting in December 2008 and running through 2009, Universal Music will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Motown Records.

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Motown Records, Universal Music is releasing the album Motown 50 on 1st December. With the British nation’s endless love for Motown, Universal Music are inviting the public to vote for their favourite Motown tracks and the album will be compiled purely from the top 50 tracks chosen by them.

Universal Motown are embracing social networking to create this unique compilation album by partnering with Poll The People - www.pollthepeople.com/motown50 the global online polling community - to launch the GREATEST MOTOWN SONGS poll. It will run for 4 weeks from Monday 15th September to determine the ultimate Motown Top 50. People can select their Top 5 Motown songs from the database and their votes are entered into the poll. They will also be connected to other members of the community who match some or all of their Top 5 choices so they can meet like minded people and discover new gems from the legendary Motown catalogue.

RSG has submitted our top 5 – why not vote for yours?

Rather than go for the obvious, we've dug a bit deeper into the Motown vaults and gone for five classic dancers that can still pack dancefloors today.

1. Kim Weston (pictured above) - Helpless
2. The Originals - Suspicion
3. Frances Nero - Keep on loving me
4. Eddie Holland - Leaving Here
5. Chris Clark - Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)

Whilst we are on a Motown theme, check out this rare footage, courtesy of YouTube, of the Isley Brothers performing on the TV show 'Ready Steady Go' back in the sixties.

RSG DJ support for The Farm

Ready Steady Go DJs Phil and Paul are back in action this December supporting Liverpool legends, The Farm as part of a three day event that includes three top scouse acts headlining across three Leeds venues.

The mini festival kicks off on Friday 12th December at the Spinning Wheel pub in Leeds with headliners the Drella's featuring ex-Space frontman Tommy Scott. Baggy heroes, The Farm headline at Leeds University on Friday 19th December and Shack headline at Rio's on Saturday 20th December alongside RSG faves, The Ladyboys. Andy Pye provides the DJ support on the 12th and 20th whilst, RSG! will be spinning the wheels of steel on the 19th.

A £36 ticket is available to cover all gigs or you can purchase tickets for each night seperately. Tickets are available from all the usual outlets. For more information check out www.myspace.com/n3mnorthernmusic.

Listen to the new Oasis album

The brand new Oasis album 'Dig Out Your Soul' is been previewed by Myspace. You can preview the album in full @ www.myspace.com/oasis

You can purchase the new album here.

Those of you in need of a bit of Oasis nostalgia should check out our archive for our exclusive interview with Liam and Noel back in 1993 just before the Oasis story blew up. You can also view exclusive pictures taken at one of their classic early gigs at the Duchess of York pub in Leeds.

My Favourite 45 by Steve Ellis (Love Affair)

Steve Ellis, legendary singer with the seventies blue eyed soul band The Love Affair, is back with a brand new album, ‘Best Of Days’ which includes a new version of the classic ‘Everlasting Love’ alongside a cover of Paul Weller’s, ‘Brand New Start’ and brand new compositions. Both, Roger Daltrey and Paul Weller also appear on the album.

The man behind such perennial Mod club spins such as, ‘Loot’s The Root’ and ‘So Sorry’ took time out from promoting his latest release to tell RSG! readers about one of his favourite 45s.

“There are numerous great 45`s of the sixties so many in fact it is impossible to actually make one of them favourite” say Steve, “So (I’ll go for) a random shot "Positively 4th Street" by Bob Dylan”.

“Ironic as my musical tastes lay deeply in Black Soul & Blues Music because to be honest they have just got soul, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, David Ruffin, SamCooke, Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, Memphis Slim, Lightning Hopkins, Snooks Eaglin, Ray Charles, Paul Robeson et al, Tamla Motown, Stax, Oriole, Chess, Sue. Indefinable but they and hundreds more translated so much passion and feeling”.

“So for me to pick Bob Dylan is strange I suppose because Bob is no James Carr or Otis Redding or Etta James. Bob Dylan is to some a bumbling old man past his best, to some he is the messiah. Well folks sorry to disappoint but he is a human being and a great one at that. He has written so many classics it is ridiculous. Sure The Beatles and The Stones and to some degree Pete Townsend and The Who and not forgetting the sadly missed Marriott and Lane or Ray Davies and The Kinks all major players in the songwriting dept, in the sixties but Dylan keeps on writing them even to this day”.

“So back to the plot "Positively" is a great lyric in that it curses all the people who smile in your face and stab you in the back so to speak. The world is full of them but Dylan just brushes them aside stating "I know just where you’re at, you just want to be on the side that’s winning". Quality. I can’t say "The Hurricane " because it is 70`s but what a lyric......”

“I had a look through my CD’s before I typed this and the funny thing was I found I owned more Dylan than any other artist although the rest of the music is a very mixed bag indeed”.

“So from an old soldier/mod, Dylan takes 1st Prize”.

Steve Ellis ‘Best of Days’ is out now and can be purchased here.

For more info on Steve’s past, present and future, check out www.steveellis.co.uk