I predict that this is the video that is going to become my biggest ever hit on YouTube.
I think this is the best video we have ever made and I am so proud of it. It makes the perfect showpiece for the album, "Northern Soul 2008", and is this album's one and only slice of blue-eyed soul, on this gorgeous late-60s-London sounding stomper with a young, exciting new talent, Holly Harrison in front of the mike. This fabulous track, with its overtones of Petula Clark's "Downtown" (although quite different as a song) was originally cut for Venicia Wilson, who rescheduled six times before it became obvious that her problems meant she was not going to be doing a new track in the immediate future. Venicia (real name Kate Jackson) was the former girlfriend of Steve Brookstein, and it was he who recommended Holly for the track as being just the right look and voice for something Venicia Wilson would have recorded. Holly not only sounded the part, but turned up to film in a Sixties mini-dress and bobbed Mary Quant style hairdo, looking like she arrived to film "Ready Steady Go" in 1965, complete with two inch eyelashes! This could be Centre City's most popular video of all time. Holly's manager, Alan Sheppard, has been a miracle worker, and delivered to us the consummate artist, who could knock Duffy and Amy straight off their perch. This is the absolute first time premiere of another track which I am exclusively unveiling here on YouTube, from album, "Northern Soul 2008", which was released on June 30th, 2008. Holly Harrison sings "Bright Lights Of The City". It is true to say that I have tried many times in my life to capture that quintessence of what makes a Northern Soul record actually work on the dancefloor, and with records like Sidney Barnes "Standing On Solid Ground" and Chuck Jackson "All Over The World", I certainly hit a popular chord. But this time I have never been more artistically satisfied. Everything about this wonderful new song suggests the magic and energy of the era that I fell in love with as a teenager. Forget the purists - this one has it all. If you can keep your feet still while listening to this, then you must be a country and western fan or something. Holly Harrison, along with The Concentrations, Jennifer Dee, Verna Francis, Tahira Jumah, Fay Jones, Shenton Dixon and Winston Ward, represents the new generation of Centre City artists. This a sequel to our album, "Northern Soul 2007" which was the very first release on Centre City Records. I have spent thirty two years honing my craft to the point when I am able to produce authentic records like this. There are some small minded people who call themselves fans of Northern Soul who refuse to accept that anybody can make a new record that sounds like the real thing. But with well over two million YouTube hits, they seem to be thankfully a very small minority. The album consists of twenty four brand new 2008 songs by soul and disco legends. Each song has an accompanying video of the artist basically performing it the studio and in outside locations, and the DVD will have four extra bonus tracks too. The work that we have all put into this project is quite staggering, and I hope it will break down the barriers between the older Northern Soul stalwarts and a new generation who need younger acts who still produce the same vibe we all witnessed forty years ago for Motown's glory years. Play the CD, watch the DVD, and give new Northern Soul a chance this time. Holly and I co-wrote this wonderful song, "Bright Lights Of The City", which sounds like a classic 1960s Dusty Springfield masterpiece.
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