By Lonnie Cook (198.81.26.170) on Thursday, July 31, 2003 - 09:44 am:

Everyone with even a hint of appreciation for Soul should know about this guy,here are a few reasons why.

1. He, not Dick Griffey, started Shalamar and he owns the name to this day.

2. He was one of the major forces in Disco, being responsible for Shalamar's Motown disco start, Arpeggio's "Love and Desire" (I was meant to be the male lead, sent Sam Strain in my place and Simon refused to use him), and "Panic" by French Kiss. He started them all from scratch.

3. Simon picked up the Northern Soul ball and carried it all around the world, literally. His practices or another subject altogether but he did it.

4. He remains one of the most controversially sought after figures in modern music.

5. Nobody knows where to find him.

I, for one, would love to hear your comments on him. I will throw out that he was a customer of mine (I've owned 17 differently located record shops) and I used to throw him out because of smoking in my stores and leaving ashes all over. He was big on buying 45's and I had 100,000 along one wall in my store at 10th Ave & Washington in 1974. It truly amazed me when he asked me to sing the lead on his up and coming lp for the group he eventually named Arpeggio because I thought he was uptight about the oustings.

By MEL&THEN SOME (217.14.178.58) on Thursday, July 31, 2003 - 01:53 pm:

I Wouldnt call him a northern soul ambassador
thats for sure.
mel.

By Ritchie (62.254.0.34) on Thursday, July 31, 2003 - 04:43 pm:

The deafening silence on this thread speaks volumes - to me at least :o)

By SisDetroit (68.42.209.170) on Thursday, July 31, 2003 - 07:09 pm:

Lonnie - Let's give it one more day, maybe someone will post something. :o)

By Ralph (209.240.198.62) on Thursday, July 31, 2003 - 07:54 pm:

Hmmmmmm Sis, I'm suspecting Ritchie and Mel know things we don't. And I'll leave it at that.

By SisDetroit (68.42.209.170) on Thursday, July 31, 2003 - 07:58 pm:

Yep!

By Lonnie Cook (198.81.26.170) on Thursday, July 31, 2003 - 11:02 pm:

I am well aware of the things that many may think of Simon but I was not trying to focus on his notorious dealings only on his Soul contributions.

I referred to him as an Ambassador because of the extent of his activity (worldwide) that furthered the genre. He called attention to it by his zeal and dedication (albeit 94% avarice).

I personally witnessed at leat ten instances where he bilked or hoodwinked someone out of something, but I will not discuss them during his mortal tenure.

I am soliciting positive comments about him, if possible.

By Ron Murphy (68.42.89.162) on Friday, August 01, 2003 - 02:39 pm:

well I'm positive that Simon is #1 on my S**T list ,90% of the photos in his rare label book or whatever he called it were from my collection which i photoed and cleaned up for that book at my expense. not only did I notget the $1 a book that I was promised, I never even got a copy of the book. good old Simon, I sure hope I can catch up with him again in Detroit again some day - HA HA

By Mark Speck (205.185.126.130) on Friday, August 01, 2003 - 08:33 pm:

I'm certain that a lot of Northern soul performers would also love to meet up with Mr. Soussan in person...and not to thank him!

Best,

Mark

By Lonnie Cook (198.81.26.170) on Sunday, August 03, 2003 - 11:03 am:

I hope you guys can agree that some good can come from this thread. Mark's post should alert a lot of Soul artists to their need to avoid any business dealings with Simon.

You will all get a good laugh out of this and maybe not be so uptight. Let your past not ruin your present or future.

http://www.tafsc.com/Imbersoul7.htm

Here is a portion of the page at the url above.

IMBER VILLAGE SOUL CLUB

"Seven miles from any town, There stands Imber on the Down"

THE MUSIC

Remember Imbers 3 B 4 8 Take me home country roads - Its a long way to Tipperary and the stormer The wheels on the bus! Well Imbers music was to have an effect on the whole world! "The strange world of Imber Soul"

The Blues And Soul Of NS Music

(Reprinted from Blue hand Soul, Magazine)

Needless to say of the NS scene there were always the big money bootlegs. Simon Shoeshine in his height of power very cleverly cashed in on the NS, and in particular the Imber scene.

It was just before Christmas in 1972 when talk of a new stomping and hand clapping monster was about to make the dance floor. Played only once at Wigan, and only to a minor reaction a week earlier, Imber DJ's soon picked up the Simon Shoeshine monster pressing on his Soul Gafore label - String A-Yo-Yo, by Bob Wilson Sings. Shoeshine knowing the popularity of Arsenal goalkeeper cashed in on both the YoYo craze at the time (that Bob Wilson was genuinely promoting as everything was slipping through his fingers), and a monster instrumental he had inherited from Germany called Dopple Kuchen. Simon put words to that song and made a hand clapping monster hit from the Dopple Kuchen (literally translated as Cloned Cakes). It was recorded by an obscure Czechoslovakian (at the time) scratch RnB band trying to make it in Germany. The song was used to celebrate of the first real cloning experiment, in Wuppertal, Westphalia, West Germany (WWW.Germany.de for short), where scientists successfully grew two cakes from one spoon of yeast while trying with the idea of a community of people all connected together by adding machines. The latter idea failed as the numbers didn't add up, but the numbers racked up high sales for Shoeshine of course, who is rumored to have bought classic car collector Chris Lalors' Triumph Stag and shipped it to L.A. with the proceeds from that one record. WOW!

Of course, in time we were to learn that Bob Wilson never actually sang or even knew about the record either. Though he did drop a copy of it when shown to him saying "Sorry lads I dropped another one". Actually he had, and everyone had to leave the building at the time.

Now, the real singer, Simon had found in a Hells Angels' bar. He was none other than ex L.A. RAMS player Hubba Bubba (Hawaiian born and real name Bubba Hubba), , Aloha Ho in a HA in LA. He was drowning his sorrows in a "Hubble bubble" (an expensive local drink that ruins your eyesight and named after the Telescope Engineer Ray Hubble), and after his Hubble bubble man he was in toil and trouble! You see Bubba had been a quarter back with a failing career, and had a butter finger. He was sacked so many times that his uniform was made from burlap and had seen more potatoes than Idaho or Robey's (mostly the hot buttered soul variety). But, because Bubba could sing his blues with soul (he always sang at that bar - no music he just sang and at 350 lbs no one would argue with him), Simon gave him the chance to cash in on this and other knock-off sounds he was about to make after a sign on fee. But, Bubba claims, he never Put A Dime Or Number On Sime, and never saw a penny out of the deal either! So history was almost complete and true to NS form!

VERY FUNNY STUFF

By Ian W (194.75.129.2) on Tuesday, August 05, 2003 - 08:00 am:

He'll always keep us entertained with the Soul Fox stuff. Remember those synthesiser 'instrumentals' of the top Northern vocals? I can't recall any specific ones but then I'm not going to try!

By Lonnie Cook (198.81.26.170) on Sunday, August 10, 2003 - 06:56 am:

Simon was a loyal music fan as well as whatever else he was. When he began to produce bigtime he sought out the guys that had impressed him. Did anyone take note of who played bass guitar on the Arpeggio lp?