Today is a proper ‘Waybackintheday Wednesday’ for sure. It’s 15 years exactly on this date that the very first edition of The Soul Survivors Magazine was distributed to the soul surviving attendees at The Soul Village Weekender 7th-9th July 2006. This small acorn has grown into a teenaged soul tree that has produced 92 issues as the ‘info provider for the soul survivor’.

I’ve tried to keep this brief as I have so much more memorabilia to share over the next few weeks and I will be personally thanking the subscribers contributors and advertisers in the forthcoming various posts. Happy 15th to The Soul Survivors and long may we continue to be the’ info provider for the soul survivor’

‘Give Me The Reason’ ..here’s an excuse to pay homage to the 16th anniversary of Luther Vandross joining his rightful place in the creator’s choir with a Blue Peter one I painted earlier in May 2021

Luther Vandross was born on the 20th April 1951 in New York. He grew up in a lower Manhattan housing project until his father passed away when he was 8 years old. After this tragic event, he moved to the Bronx. Influenced by his parents and older sister singing, he formed a vocal group, whilst at the William Howard Taft High School, called Shades Of Jade with friends, Carlos Alomar, Diane Sumler and Fonzi Thornton. As part of a musical theatre workshop, they recorded ‘Listen My Brother’ which Luther and his group sang on the children’s TV program, Sesame Street in 1969. By 1973 he’d written 2 songs recorded by Delores Hall, one being a very funky duet ‘Whose Gonna Make It Easier For Me’. A year later school friend Carlos Alomar became David Bowie’s guitarist. Luther was invited to a recording session at the famous Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia, and Bowie upon hearing Luther’s velvet tones, recruited him for backing vocals on the ‘Young American’ album. In 1975, Luther co-wrote Bowies ‘Fascination’ and did his own version of ‘Funky Music’ on this, his debut project. It’s rumoured that Luther sang backing vocals on Bowie’s ‘Golden Years’ a track Luther would sing with disco outfit Mascara a few years later. His composition ‘Brand New Day’ was featured in both the film and Broadway musical of ‘The Wiz’.

Luther has sung with many female vocalists including Gwen Guthrie, Patti Austin, Dionne Warwick, Janet Jackson & Patti Labelle. I was lucky enough to see him in the mid 80’s at Wembley when he travelled the world doing live concerts. Luther was undoubtedly instantly recognisable on a track even if he was doing background vocals. His film credit includes ‘The Meteor Man’ a Robert Townsend film where he played a villain within a gang. He provided vocals for the 70’s gang epic ‘The Warriors’ soundtrack and Roberta Flack covered his ‘You Stopped Loving Me’ for the film ‘Bustin’ Loose’, starring Cicely Tyson and Richard Prior. Luther has lent his voice to many musical styles, mostly gospel & soul based, but he was very versatile in other genres throughout the changing faces of R&B music from the 1970’s to the 2000’s up until he passed. He has been sampled in hip-hop and rap, by many including Heavy D sampling ‘Don’t You Know That’ in ‘Got Me Waiting’, Queen Pen sampled ‘Never Too Much’ in ‘All My Love’ and Busta Rhymes rapped on Luther’s version of Bill Wither’s ‘Lovely Day’. Master’s At Work mixed ‘Are You Losing Me?’ and there was a very soulful unreleased house mix of ‘Take You Out Tonight’. One of the last releases that became a classic was ‘Shine’ sampling Chic’s ‘My Forbidden Lover’. In my interview with Melba Moore in issue 13 from 2008 she urged me to listen to her album ‘Closer’ and when you hear Luther on ‘Something On Your Mind’ you’ll understand why. Vocalist, songwriter, producer and an all around gifted African American artist of huge proportion. Luther Vandross passed 16 years ago on July 1st 2005. So as I never got to speak with him I thought I would honour him in the Soul Survivor’s Roll Call Of Fame.

Greetings,today is 12 years ago when my virtual ‘Big Boy’ brother Michael Jackson went into his deepest sleep. The truth be known, MJ was my first iconic influence aged 8 years old and I wanted to be like him. Yes even back then although I was a happy child I felt that being black had some negative connotations. The first record I ever bought out of my pocket money in 1973 was ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’. I never heard Bill Wither’s original till a few years later. My first slow dance at our Perivale Jnrs/Middle School disco circa 1973 was to MJ’s ‘Ben’. I had a T Shirt with his image on, watched The J5 cartoon on TV and later circa 1979 rocked his Afro hairstyle. I remember going to an Ealing Green High School trip to France in the same year and in the hostel that we stayed in, they had a juke box. Now between us young black soul rebels we pumped that Spotify playlist of it’s time full of French franc coins to hear ‘Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough’ on repeat as that was the best we was gonna get. I remember in 1983 deliberately missing my regular Friday night fling foot session at Electric Ballroom’s Double Disco to stay at home and watch the unveiling of the Thriller movie short video being shown around 1am on TV. Fast forward like a TDK C90 tape to 1994 my son Jamal is one years old and he is mesmerised by MJ studying his videos so intensely, that he would assume position and anticipate the moves before MJ executed them. Jamal’s first dancing experience on stage was aged 4 when he lived in Portugal and an MJ impersonator Billy Proud would ask Jamal to come out of the audience to dance with him. Jamal went on to become a dancer flinging foot light years ahead and with more eloquence than his pops did in my era. So I guess you can say MJ had a profound affect on me and my mini me. For me aged 8 seeing someone in my own African Diaspora image handsome, cute, singing, dancing and having his own black TV cartoon show, that was inspiring. So yes I did shed tears watching TV 25th June 2009 the night he passed.. not gonna lie. For me MJ was as smooth as his moonwalk and 2nd to his main mentor JB was the ultimate singing ‘Dancin’ Machine’. Needless to say I will be doing a 2 hour MJ influenced show on www.oursalsasoul.com this Sunday 8pm-11pm. MJ thank you for your ‘Music & Me’ legacy 🙏🏿♥

Detention for me..this is a lil ‘Reet Petite’ late entry for Jackie Wilson’s 87th earthday. Here’s a Blue Peter one I drew earlier in Dec 2020. Man had a voice, could dance and had style!!