I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with former Wigan Athletic manager Ray Mathias on Tuesday night. Ray was back in Wigan as guest of honour at The Joseph’s Goal ‘Party Like It’s 1999′ event commemorating the last time Wigan Athletic faced Millwall at Wembley in the final of the Football League Trophy.
Ray was as ever an absolute gentlemen and had some interesting observations about the current Wigan Athletic side. Simply click on the link to listen.
As 2012 comes to an end thoughts turn to the standout Modern Soul event of the year as the next installment of the Luxury Soul Weekender series takes place at the Blackpool Hilton over the first weekend of the New Year and features an exclusive live performance from 80′s Soul legends Atlantic Starr.
Original lead singer Sharon Bryant reunites with Atlantic Starr for their first performance together in nearly 30 years. Add to that four rooms of the best in New and Classic Modern Soul and Blackpool is once again shaping up to be the place to be this new year. The schedule for the weekend has now been announced and as usual features the cream of Modern Soul across four rooms.
Accommodation packages at The Hilton are completely sold out whilst a limited number of all weekend passes and accommodation packages remain. To book an all weekend pass go to: Ticket Line
Frustration reached boiling point for Wigan Athletic on Saturday afternoon at a Sodden DW Stadium, frustration that spread from all sections. It came from the crowd to the players to the coaching staff to the usually calm and assured Roberto Martinez.
Frustration that had been building up for the last few weeks, the frustration reached boiling point after the ridiculous events orchestrated by referee Jon Moss. A penalty was handed to Arsenal after a theatrical fall from Theo Walcott, this was further compounded a few minutes later as Franco Di Santo was ordered from the pitch for a total of four minutes and 30 seconds due to a non-existent ear ring.
The boos and anger rained down on the laughable Moss at that point, if the referee thought he had angered the Wigan support the reaction to the events with Di Santo were nothing compared to the reaction towards the referee when he turned down not one but two clear penalties for handball in the dying moments of the game.
Soft, soft penalty
The frustration needs to be harnessed tomorrow as the Latics travel the short distance to Liverpool on Boxing Day for another of those must win games that are quickly making up the whole of December. What can Latics do differently to what they did against Arsenal? The answer is actually not that much, Wigan dominated a very decent Arsenal side for long spells on Saturday and the midfield dominated possession, whilst David Jones had possibly his best game in a Wigan shirt. The amount of chances created by the team were also a positive a negative is the lack of form shown by the forward line and primarily Arouna Kone who spurned two gilt edged chances in the first half.
Wigan need to match their performance against Arsenal whilst staying composed in front of goal, at a hostile Goodison Park where Everton are so far unbeaten this season that’s easier said than done. Latics should be boosted with the return of fitness of at least one of Gary Caldwell and Ivan Ramis who have been sorely missed over recent weeks.
Latics need to harness the anger that rose to the fore on Saturday and use that to get a result at Goodison if we can do that it will be a wonderful late Christmas present for all Wigan Athletic fans.
It’s been a nightmare few weeks for Wigan Athletic, the fantastic win over Spurs at the start of November was followed by back to back defeats against West Brom and Liverpool and the beginning of a series of injuries to senior players which could have a serious impact on the rest of Latics season.
At one time or another this season Latics have been without Ryo Miyachi, Albert Crusat, Ben Watson, Shaun Maloney, Antolin Alcaraz, Franco Disanto, Gary Caldwell, Ivan Ramis, James McArthur, Jean Beausejour and also had suspensions for Maynor Figuorea and Gary Caldwell to contend with. Add to that a serious injury to Adrian Lopez and James McCarthy following last weekend’s defeat at Norwich and the Latics are really down to the bare bones.
After falling in to the bottom three last week Wigan face an Arsenal side who seem to have overcome their mini crisis by beating Reading 5-2 on Monday night. There is no doubt Wigan need a result this weekend, performances bar a handful of games have been largely decent this season and injuries to key players have prevented Roberto Martinez from naming a settled side throughout the season. Those who have deputised have done well and although from an attacking perspective we always look likely to score its defensively where we are suffering the most, Roberto’s Thursday press conference revealed that we could welcome back any of the injured trio of Ramis, Caldwell and Alcaraz on Saturday.
To have one of three back on Saturday would be a boost to have all three available again would be a miracle, the Latics defence has looked decidedly shaky since the Spurs game and it’s no irony that our worst period of the season has coincided with the series of injuries inflicted on us.
This has also gone hand in hand with a run of form for Ali Al Habsi that can only be described as patchy, high profile errors in the games against Reading, Manchester City and Newcastle where uncharacteristic in their nature but as the Omani number one gets set to make his 100th appearance for Wigan Athletic this weekend the hope will be that he has recovered from that period.
Jordi Gomez celebrates after scoring against Arsenal at The Emirates
Arsenal looked lethal in attack on Monday night but were easily exposed by Reading at the back, the key to getting anything out of Saturday’s game is a clean sheet and the hope has to be that our three senior centre back’s will be ready to return to action again.
Looking further ahead to January Roberto has revealed he will be making signings in January due to the injuries at the club “We are having a few difficulties, especially with injuries. So we have to find a solution. We need to make it difficult to get into our starting 11. So we want to do some business in January. I think it’s important that every transfer window works in your favour and you finish with a stronger squad.”
Honduran international Roger Espinoza has joined from Kansas City after being tracked by the club, he was arguably Honduras best player of The Olympics and should bring some much needed steel and energy to the side, other targets will no doubt include defensive cover and a new striker to complement Franco Di Santo and Mauro Boselli whilst Aurona Kone is at the African Nations Cup.
There’s a lot of doom and gloom around at the minute and rightly so as not many people would have expected us to be back in the bottom three after the end to last season and indeed the start to this season, but injuries and poor form have transpired against us. We need to begin picking up points throughout a difficult festive period if we can emerge from the next four games with six points we will have done extremely well and look in a much healthier state than we do currently. I don’t mind how we get them the key is that we do get them.
Anybody for another Jordi Gomez inspired win?
Barcelona were riding on the crest of a wave earlier this week, they had opened up a nine point lead over closest challengers Atheltico Madrid in La Liga after Sunday night’s 4-1 victory. Three of the side’s biggest stars Carlos Puyol, Xavi and Lionel Messi had signed new long term contracts and Real Madrid had slipped further behind in the league.
Barca’s earth was shattered on Wednesday afternoon when a pre-planned media day was cancelled, nothing sinister about that you may think until it was leaked that Tito Villanova had suffered a relapse in his battle against cancer.
Not much was known of Tito Villanova when he took over from his long term friend and colleague Pep Guardiola apart from he had spent six months of last season away from the Camp Nou and his role as Pep’s assistant due to treatment for throat cancer. He had a tumour removed from his parotid gland and returned to work towards the back end of last season.
Tito had seemingly beat the disease and accepted the clubs offer to take over from Guardiola in the summer as the legendary manager left Catalonia for pastures new. Tito had over seen the club’s most successful start to a season, unbeaten in the league with fifteen wins out of sixteen and only once have the club dropped points against Real Madrid in El Clasico during October. Since then Barca have broken records left right and whilst the mercurial Lionel Messi has managed to hit 90 goals in a calendar year.
So what now for Barca? After a press conference with club president Sandro Rosell it was announced that Tito’s assistant Jordi Roura would take over on a short term basis. Whether Barcelona continue with Jordi in the hope of Tito returning soon is as yet unknown, numerous outlets have reported that Pep Guardiola had been approached for a return to the Camp Nou, a return that would rank amongst the most unexpected of recent football history. But that now seems wide of the mark, with initial medical reports proving positive and offering the prospect that Tito could return to work in the new year whilst under going a course of Chemotherapy, if he can’t return to work and the club decide they want a more permanent solution they may well turn to Pep for that unlikely return.
I missed last years trip to Anfield, I was indulging in my other love of playing Soul music and was in Germany. Though I did manage to watch the game in a bar in Frankfurt city centre, with one half of the bar screaming for Bayern Munich and a few lonely Brits and one lonesome German watching Liverpool.
The bizarre experience of watching the game in down town Frankfurt was quickly made that bit more bizarre as Latics took the lead at Anfield, that lead had come on the back of a dominating first half performance. Roberto Martinez’s side continued in the same vain during the second half and despite being drawn level Gary Caldwell’s wonder goal ensured all three points travelled back down the East Lancs, the win did wonders for confidence last season and ensured that our mini revival had a real shot in the arm.
We travel to Anfield in the middle of a run of form that can only be described as patchy, well earned wins over West Ham and Spurs have been sandwiched between defeats against Bradford and West Brom.
The Liverpool faithful get ready for Saturday’s game
Saturday’s match gives us the opportunity to get back on track, it wasn’t that long ago that a lot of the Latics faithful expected Roberto Martinez to be the man in charge at Anfield as the Latics travelled to Merseyside this season but luckily for us he decided to stay and start what he calls phase two of his project after receiving backing from this week’s lifetime achievement award winner Dave Whelan.
Liverpool decided to appoint Brendan Rodgers a man with less Premier League experience than Roberto much to the relief of the Liverpool fans who had threatened to boycott Anfield and protest until Roberto had been relieved of the job he hadn’t yet been appointed to.
Latics now sit a point below Liverpool in the league and have the chance to overtake the Merseyside club with a win tomorrow.
The game against West Brom showed in a lot of ways how far we have progressed in recent years but also managed to highlight how far we have to go, we dominated all areas of the game against the baggies from possession, and shots on targets to corners and passes but we couldn’t convert that dominance to a win.
Roberto has a few minor injury concerns to deal with, Ali Al Habsi picked up a knock in the warm up before last weekends game, whilst James McArthur is set to miss out once again with the dead leg that kept him out of the last two games, Albert Crusat misses out once again but there is more positive news where Ryo Myiachi is concerned and he could return to the bench for the first time since September.
At Anfield we need a performance like the one at White Hart Lane a couple of weeks ago where we are as strong and comfortable in defence as we are in attack, if we can keep out in the inform Luis Suarez we may well have a chance, of course there is no reason why we should fear going to Anfield. We’re unbeaten in five games against Liverpool and gained our first win on that glorious march afternoon earlier this year.
Let’s hope for the same again this weekend.
How do? It’s been a while hasn’t it? A combination of work and foreign climbs has gotten in the way of updating the blog recently but we’re back with a bang tonight including the latest installment of our Retro Double.
Turning full circle and bringing it right up to date with the modern day incarnation of the Motown legends The Isley Brothers featuring Ronald Isley aka Mr Biggs on lead vocals. ‘Superstar’ was released as part of the group’s 2003 ‘Body Kiss’ album which was written and produced by R Kelly. It also became the first album to hit number one since the group’s 1975 album the heat is on.
Sit back and enjoy one of the finest Modern Soul tracks of the last decade – ‘Superstar’
Secondly from 1967 a single from Chicago that reached number nine on the R&B charts. Ruby Andrews was born in 1947 in Hollande, Mississippi and spent most of her career signed to the Zodiac label. Well known for heart rendering ballads and deep Soul gems one of her biggest hits was this late 60′s gem ‘Casanova’
Tuesday sees my second trip to Upton Park to watch Latics take on West Ham United, the first trip took place nine years ago in our first season in what was then Division One.
We were totally outclassed by a Marlon Harewood inspired Hammers side and our coach broke down on the way home, in terms of decent away days I’ve had better. Hopefully Tuesday’s trip in the Capital One Cup will bring more joy.
We certainly need it after two straight defeats against Manchester United and Fulham, the defeat at Old Trafford always has an inevitable feel to it but I’m sure Roberto and the team would have hoped to have picked at least a point up in a game which could have been considered a must win before Saturday.
Last season around this time we embarked on a disastrous run of consecutive defeats which saw us go a startling nine games without a solitary victory, not even a draw to speak of. We can’t let that happen again and need to pick up points in the league and indeed progress in the cup.
West Ham top boy and top geezer Danny Dyer
A trip to East London is never the easiest and with Big Sam’s side seeming to gain momentum over the last few weeks it will be that much harder tomorrow night. With a partisan home crowd and a near full strength Hammers side Latics will have to be close to their best to get a result.
After the lackluster performance last time out I would expect Roberto to shake the pack up with starts for the likes of Callum McManaman, Ryo Myiachi and candidate for miss of the season Mauro Bosselli.
If the side selected put in a similar performance to the one that we witnessed in Nottingham we may have a chance of progressing, anything less and there will be gloating a plenty from Green Street.
If you’re one of the hardy band of followers heading down to East London tomorrow I’ll see you there, if you’ve been sensible enough to stay at home I hope you enjoy the dry and warmth.
Slightly later this week but here is this week’s Retro Double, and what a double it is.
First up from 1971 and taken from their album ‘Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get’ The Dramatics with the stunning ‘ In The Rain ‘. The Dramatics were formed in Detroit in 1962 featuring members Ron Banks, L J Reynolds, Leonard Mayes and Elbert Wilkins.
‘In The Rain’ released on Stax records became one of The Dramatics best selling singles as it reached number one on the R&B charts and number five on the mainstream chart.
Secondly and our second selection from the 70′s this week features another iconic Soul group from New Jersey, The Manhattans. The Manhattans formed in 1962 comprising of members George Smith, Edward Bivins, Winfred ‘blue’ Lovett, Richard Taylor and Kenny Kelley.
The single ‘I Don’t Want To Pay The Price Of Losing You’ was released on the little known album ‘That’s How Much I Love you’ featuring new lead singer Gerald Alston on lead vocals, it was re-released in 2000 as part of the Expansion Soul Togetherness series.
G.C Cameron
Artist Profile
When discussing Soul music greats the common names always crop up, David Ruffin, Levi Stubbs, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Luther Vandross and so forth. But what about a man who has been lead singer of two of the most successful black groups of all time, has carved out a successful solo career and stayed at the top of his game for over forty years?
George Curtis Cameron was born in Jackson Mississippi on September 21st 1945, although he and his family moved North to Detroit at a young age. The Cameron family consisted of nine siblings for G.C alongside growing up with his cousin a certain Philippe Wynne. G.C spent his youth running the streets of Detroit like a lot of other Motown artists at the time unaware of the exposure that he and the rest of the prospective artists would soon be subject to.
Harvey Fuqua plays an important part in the the G.C Cameron story, Fuqua sold his Tri-Phi label to Berry Gordy in 1963, in the package were The Spinners. The Spinners became part of the background at Motown, often over looked for material and when finally given material it was of poor quality compared to the other male Motown groups at the time. In 1969 The Spinners were looking for a new direction and indeed a new lead singer following the departure of long time lead Chico Edwards. G.C Cameron had spent the last few years of his life fighting in Vietnam and on his return in 1969 was recommended by none other than Dennis Edwards then of the Contours soon to be of The Temptations as a replacement for the departing Chico Edwards. G.C takes up the story “”My brother Dave had told Dennis that I was back from Vietnam and Dennis, in turn, called me and got me hooked-up … and Marvin Gaye auditioned me.” This chance call from Dennis Edwards had resulted in an audition with Marvin Gaye which G.C Cameron was successful in and Cameron along with The Spinners spent the next 12 months rehearsing and fine tuning their new look.
During this time both G.C Cameron and Marvin Gaye had entered into marriage with two of Berry Gordy’s sisters G.C Cameron married Gwen Gordy the ex wife Harvey Fuqua whilst Marvin Gaye married Anna Gordy resulting in G.C and Marvin having stronger links than simple label mates.
In 1970 The Spinners were transferred from Motown to the Motown subsidiary label V.I.P and the song that would transform the fortunes of The Spinners was released ‘It’s A Shame’.
‘It’s A Shame’ was a top 20 hit on both sides of the Atlantic with Motown fans in both the US and Britain taking a liking to the new line up of The Spinners with G.C Cameron as front man. After the success of ‘it’s A Shame’, the Spinners were offered a deal with Atlantic which the group decided to take eager to dispel the myth that they were failures at Motown. Going out on a high with ‘It’s A Shame’ gave The Spinners the early push they needed to break at Atlantic.
Due to a number of issues including contractual commitments and the fact that G.C was now a part of the Gordy family due to his marriage to Gwen saw Cameron stay with Motown and as a result end his short stint with The Spinners in favour of a solo career. Replacing G.C Cameron in The Spinners was one Philippe Wynne who we mentioned earlier, he had been rehearsing with the group in readiness for the departure of Cameron which was seen as imminent. As The Spinners battled their way up the charts with a new found support for their work at Atlantic along with the production talent of Thom Bell, Cameron started the moves to develop his solo career.
As Motown moved west to California so did Cameron and whilst The Spinners were enjoying a string of major hits at Atlantic he released his first solo work for Motown transferring to the short lived Mowest label Cameron released the tracks ‘Act Like A Shotgun’ and 1972’s ‘What It Is, What It Is’ which both received lukewarm support due to a number of factors including poor promotion on Motown’s part and simply a lack of credible material meaning both these releases didn’t even begin to showcase the talents of G.C Cameron.
Further tracks were recorded by Cameron but were shelved at the last minute, this led to a frustrated Cameron being placed in a difficult position, he had shown his loyalty to the Motown cause and indeed his loyalty to the Gordy family but he wasn’t being given the support his talent deserved or in fact the assurances he had been offered when staying at Motown, namely that Motown would do everything in their power to make his solo career a success.
One of his final releases with Mowest was the Smokey Robinson produced ‘Don’t Wanna Play Pyjama Games’ in which Cameron once again showcased his talent and versatility by delivering his vocal in a high tenor style not dissimilar to Smokey’s vocal style. A promised album under the tutelage of Smokey Robinson namely ‘7th Son’ didn’t come to fruition and Cameron was transferred back to the parent label Motown.
In 1974 after a near three year wait and with a string of unsuccessful singles behind him G.C Cameron finally released his first solo album at Motown namely the collectable ‘Love Songs and Other Tragedies’. His second album at Motown was the self titled ‘G.C Cameron’ released in 1976 and in 1977 his third and final solo album for Motown was released namely ‘You’re What’s Missing In My Life’. Sadly for G.C both these releases followed a similar path of poor promotion, bad management and led to his solo career struggling to get started whilst The Spinners had had a number of highly successful years at Atlantic hitting the charts on a regular basis.
There was to be one final release for Cameron at Motown the duet album ‘Rich Love, Poor Love’ with Syreeta but by the time of its release he was long gone after entering into divorce proceedings with his wife Gwen and negotiating a release from his contract at Motown.
Despite his time at Motown turning sour Cameron was still determined to make a success of the solo career he had carved out for himself and joined a number of small independent labels. During this transitional period Cameron decided to leave California and head back South to his roots, he resided in Franklin Mississippi and joined the infamous blues label Malaco.
One album was released on the Malaco label the highly under – rated ‘Give Me Your Love’ In 1983, for the most part of this period Cameron recorded sporadically and it wasn’t until he was approached by Ian Levine to become part of his Motor City project that Cameron began to record and perform on a regular basis again. He spent time working on the Motor City project as a writer, producer and of course singer. His Motor City productions were released as part of two albums ‘Right Or Wrong’ in 1991 and ‘The Very Best of G.C Cameron’ in 1996.
A further four years passed and the dawn of a new decade until G.C Cameron was involved in any projects of note again. In 2000 following the hospitalisation of The Spinners lead singer at the time John Edwards the group contacted Cameron with a view to coming on board until Edwards was well again. So after virtually thirty years away from the group G.C Cameron returned as lead singer of The Spinners he toured with the group in 2000 and again in 2002 when Edwards’ illness became more serious. Although he had never performed the Atlantic material that now made up the bulk of The Spinners set’s he performed admirably and was thrust back into the spotlight.
At this time his solo career which had been so badly managed at Motown in the 70’s was gathering pace once again with his first solo material in over ten years being given its release. ’Shadows’ produced by G.C himself and Ben Obi the album was a big success in the UK so well received that the album was licensed for release this side of the Atlantic and a 12 inch double a-side of the two biggest Modern Soul tracks from the album were released by Paul Mooney on the re-activated Grapevine label.
G.C Cameron left The Spinners once more in 2002 and a year later was back with arguably his biggest role to date, as he was recruited by The Temptations as their new lead singer replacing Barrington Bo Henderson. The Temptations had enjoyed a new lease of life following the release of 1998’s Phoenix Rising and with Barrington Henderson at the helm had won a Grammy award for their 2000 album ’Ear – Resistible’ and had been nominated for another Grammy with the 2001 release of ’Awesome’.
G.C Cameron was recruited as a replacement for the out going Henderson and immediately launched himself into the role singing lead on the group’s 2003 performance for the TV special Motown 45 whilst also settling into the studio to record ‘Legacy’ which would be The Temptations final studio album for Motown. Whilst recording Legacy Cameron would become the firmly established lead singer for the Tempts, taking lead on tracks such as ‘50 – 50 Love’, ‘Sumthin Special’, ‘Round Here’, ‘Still Temptin’ and ‘You Are Necessary In My Life’.
The album was well received despite a distinct lack of promotion from a Motown label going through yet another leadership change both internally and externally and with Universal the umbrella group under which Motown is kept struggling to see a direction for the label the album suffered heavily.
The Temptations went back on the road and two UK tours saw G.C Cameron produce some of his finest displays with the group. In 2006 a second Cameron led album was produced the groups first away from Motown for over 28 years since they were signed to Atlantic. ‘Reflections’ was described as “an album that allows The Temptations to perform the songs that they didn’t have chance to record first time around” and as such features a string of Motown covers. The album is badly let down from the over use of Electronic aspects to the production but once again featured some fine moments from G.C Cameron. After four years with the group he decided to depart from The Temptations and try his hand at a solo career once again. In 2009 he was featured on the popular Modern Soul album from Serieux ‘I Can Give You Love’ singing leads on the tracks ‘You Keep Running Back’ and ‘So Close To You’. After the release of these tracks his solo career was back up and running and with the soon to be released ‘Enticed Ecstasy’ (his first solo album post Temptations ) making big sounds on the Modern Soul scene all is looking well for one of the most distinctive voices of American Soul music.
G.C Cameron may not have the glamour appeal of a Marvin Gaye or a David Ruffin but his talent is without doubt and he certainly deserves his place amongst the greats of Soul Music. The fact that he has managed to spend time as lead singer for two of the most celebrated soul groups of all time once again displays how strong his credentials are. Under rated he may be without talent he is not.
* This article was first published in Manifesto magazine July 2010
SEAN LIVESEY
