Dave Godin


David Edward Godin was an English fan of American soul music, who made a major contribution internationally in spreading awareness and understanding of the genre, and by extension African-American culture.

Biography

Born in Peckham, London, the son of a milkman, Dave Godin spent his early childhood in Peckham before bombing forced the family to move to Bexleyheath, Kent, where he won a scholarship to Dartford Grammar School. Godin began collecting American R&B records when at school, where he encouraged the younger Mick Jagger's interest in black American music. He said: "..It was at Dartford Grammar School that I met Mick Jagger and introduced him to black music, I'm ashamed to say. It's ironic that as a result of meeting me he's where he is today." Godin played a minor role in the early jam sessions out of which the Rolling Stones emerged, but resented Jagger for what he saw as the Stones' exploitation of black music.
After working at an advertising agency, and as a hospital porter in place of National Service, Godin founded the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society, and in time was recruited by Berry Gordy to become Motown's consultant in the UK, setting up its distribution through EMI. At a recording of Ready Steady Go! in 1964, Jagger asked Godin to introduce him to Marvin Gaye. "I told him to fuck off and introduce himself", Godin recalled.
In 1967 he founded Soul City, a record shop which in 1967 developed into a record label on which he released such then-obscure soul classics as "Go Now" by Bessie Banks, with colleague David Nathan and friend Robert Blackmore. It was in their shop that Godin coined the term 'northern soul', a description that he would popularise through his work as a music journalist. In a 2002 interview with Chris Hunt of Mojo, he explained that he had first come up with the term in 1968 as a sales reference to help staff in his shop differentiate the more modern funkier sounds from the smoother, Motown-influenced soul of a few years earlier:

"I had started to notice that northern football fans who were in London to follow their team were coming into the store to buy records, but they weren't interested in the latest developments in the black American chart. I devised the name as a shorthand sales term. It was just to say ‘if you’ve got customers from the north, don't waste time playing them records currently in the US black chart, just play them what they like – ‘Northern Soul’."

In his career he also coined the term Deep Soul and he promoted the interests of a large number of American musicians whose work had fallen out of favour in their home country.
His second career was in cinema exhibition. Having studied art, design and film course at Sheffield Polytechnic, he became a senior film officer for the British Film Institute and helped found and was the manager of the Anvil Cinema, Sheffield, the only cinema in the UK to be funded by a local authority.
In the mid 1990s he started to compile a series of CDs of rare recordings – Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures – for Ace Records, which featured such artists as Loretta Williams, Eddie and Ernie, Jaibi, Ruby Johnson and Jimmy and Louise Tig. The albums were greeted with universal critical acclaim, and Godin described the series as the proudest achievement of his life.
Godin, a vegan, was an advocate of animal rights and Esperanto. He was also known for his involvement in anarchist and anti-capitalist organisations, including Freedom Newspaper and Class War. He was the only atheist in his local pro-life organisation. Towards the end of his life he developed an interest in Jainism. He died in Rotherham in 2004, aged 68.

Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures : Taken from the Vaults

Volume 1

1.The Knight Brothers – I'm Never Gonna Live It Down
2.Timmy Willis – Easy As Saying 1 2 3
3.Zerben R Hicks & the Dynamics – Lights Out
4.Irma Thomas – Anyone Who Knows What Love Is
5.Jean Wells – Have A Little Mercy
6.Dori Grayson – Try Love
7.Brendetta Davis – I Can't Make It Without Him
8.Kenny Carter – Showdown
9.Larry Banks – I'm Not The One
10.Jimmy Holiday – The Turning Point
11.The Incredibles – Standing Here Crying
12.The Just Brothers – She Broke His Heart
13.The Untouchables – You're On Top
14.Reuben Bell & the Casanovas – It's Not That Easy
15.Van & Titus – Cry Baby Cry
16.Jean Stanback – I Still Love You
17.Bessie Banks – Try To Leave Me If You Can
18.Raw Spitt – Songs To Sing
19.Lee Moses – How Much Longer
20.Billy Young – Nothing's Too Much
21.Sam & Bill – I Feel Like Crying
22.Eddie & Ernie – I'm Goin' For Myself
23.The Knight Brothers – Tried So Hard To Please Her
24.Pearlean Gray & the Passengers – Love of My Man
25.Jaibi – You Got Me

Volume 2

1.Doris Duke – How Was I To Know You Cared
2.Eddie Holman – I'm Not Going To Give Up
3.The Soul Children – The Sweeter He Is
4.Tony Owens – I Don't Want Nobody But My Baby
5.Bobby Moore & the Formosts – It Was A Lie
6.Jimmy & Louise Tig and Company – A Love That Never Grows Cold
7.Ben E. King – It's All Over
8.Nat Phillips – I'm Sorry I Hurt You
9.Wendy Rene – What Will Tomorrow Bring
10.Arthur Conley – Let Nothing Separate Us
11.Irma Thomas – These Four Walls
12.Johnny Adams – If I Could See You One More Time
13.Ruby Johnson – I'll Run Your Hurt Away
14.The Premiers – Make It Me
15.Eddie Giles – Losing Boy
16.Doris Allen – A Shell of a Woman
17.Otis Redding – Just One More Day
18.Bessie Banks – Go Now
19.George Perkins & the Silver Stars – Cryin' In The Streets
20.Big John Hamilton – How Much Can A Man Take
21.Barbara West – Anyone But You
22.Carla Thomas – Stop! Look What You're Doing
23.Toussaint McCall – Nothing Takes The Place Of You
24.Eddie & Ernie – Hiding in Shadows
25.Lisa Richards – Let's Take A Chance

Volume 3

1.Toussaint McCall – I'm Undecided
2.Baby Washington – Breakfast in Bed
3.Dee Clark – In These Very Tender Moments
4.Jean Plum – Look at the Boy
5.James Brown – Lost Someone
6.Eddie & Ernie – Thanks For Yesterday
7.Bessie Banks – It Sounds Like My Baby
8.Bobby Womack – Baby I Can't Stand It
9.Etta James – I'd Rather Go Blind
10.Syl Johnson – Is It Because I'm Black
11.Maxine Brown – All in My Mind
12.Robert Ramsey – Like It Stands
13.Irma Thomas – Wish Someone Would Care
14.Ray Gant & the Arabian Knights – Don't Leave Me Baby
15.Carla Thomas – I Can't Take It
16.J R Bailey – Too Far Gone To Turn Around
17.Bettye LaVette – Let Me Down Easy
18.Bobby Bland – I'm Too Far Gone To Turn Around
19.Barbara & the Browns – I Don't Want To Have To Wait
20.The Enchanters – I Paid for the Party
21.Rozetta Johnson – Who Are You Gonna Love
22.Rick James & Friend – Ebony Eyes
23.Doris Duke- He's Gone
24.The Impressions – My Deceiving Heart
25.Loretta Williams – I'm Missing You

Volume 4

1.The Knight Brothers – Temptation 'Bout To Get Me
2.Eddie & Ernie – I Believe She Will
3.Matilda Jones – I've Been Wrong Too Long
4.Bobby Bland – I Pity The Fool
5.Chuck Edwards – I Need You
6.Ruby Andrews – Just Loving You
7.Clarence Carter – Slip Away
8.Black Velvet – Is It Me You Really Love
9.Paul Kelly – The Day After Forever
10.Gladys Knight & the Pips – Giving Up
11.Arthur Conley – I'm A Lonely Stranger
12.Jackie Lee – I Love You
13.The Miracles – The Tracks of My Tears
14.Roosevelt Matthews – You Got Me Diggin' You
15.Doris Duke – I Don't Care Anymore
16.Lawrence & Jaibi – You Make Me Feel Good
17.Barbara Brown – Can't Find No Happiness
18.Garnet Mimms – My Baby
19.The Webs – It's So Hard To Break A Habit
20.Irma Thomas – Time Is on My Side
21.Tony Owens – This Heart Can't Take No More
22.Jaibi – It Was Like A Nightmare
23.Roy Hamilton – The Dark End of the Street
24.Jimmy Robins – I Made It Over
25.Bob & Earl – Don't Ever Leave Me

Volume 5

1. The Soul City – "Who Knows"
2. Ronnie Taylor – "Without Love"
3. Big Maybelle – "Don't Pass Me By"
4. Helena Ferguson – "Where Is The Party"
5. Carolyn Sullivan – "Dead!"
6. Esther Phillips – "Home Is Where The Hatred Is"
7.The Masqueraders – "I Ain't Got To Love Nobody Else"
8.Mark IV – "I'll Be Right There "
9.Kenny Carter – "I'm Not The One"
10.The Emotions – "Somebody New"
11.Barbara Lynn – " I'll Suffer"
12.Dee Dee Warwick – "Foolish Fool"
13.George Jackson – "My Desires Are Getting The Best Of Me"
14.James Carr – "These Ain't Raindrops"
15.Eddie & Ernie – "Standing at the Crossroads"
16.Betty Harris – "Can't Last Much Longer"
17.Gladys Knight & The Pips – "Lovers Always Forgive"
18.The Chantels – "Every Night "
19.Judy White – "Satisfaction Guaranteed"
20.Jerry Washington – "Right Here Is Where You Belong"
21.Lattimore Brown – "I Will"
22.René Bailey – "It's Too Late "
23.Zilla Mayes – "All I Want Is You"
24.Linda Jones – "What Can I Do "
25.Z.Z. Hill – "Nothing Can Change The Love I Have For You"