Northern Edition

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"Madam Butterfly" is the 7th album by American soul/R&B group Tavares, produced by Bobby Martin and released in 1979 on the Capitol label. By this stage in the group's career, they had become known as a disco act due to successful singles such as "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel", "Whodunit" and "More Than a Woman." However, Madam Butterfly is noted for its lack of anything approaching disco material, and, as such, is considered to be more akin in style to the group's 1973-'75 albums than to their '76-'78 Freddie Perren-produced output.

Loleatta Holloway was a dance music legend. Her amazing vocal talents gained her the reputation as one of the premier vocalists of soul and dance music during the 70's and 80's. Holloway started her singing career with Queen of Gospel, Albertina Walker (and her Caravans) before striking out on her own. She released her first single Rainbow 71 on the fledgling Apache label before moving to Aware to record her first two albums prior to her work with Gold Mind/Salsoul. Loleatta Holloway, released in 1979, was the singer's third album on Gold Mind/Salsoul Records and was the follow up to Queen Of The Night. For this self-titled LP Holloway was teamed with producers Floyd Smith (who took on the majority of tracks) Bobby Womack and Bunny Sigler.

Platinum Hook was a slick R&B/Funk combo who released three albums on Motown between 1978 and 1983. Having signed to the label for their debut eponymous release in 1978, Platinum Hook offered up a smooth and engaging R&B/Funk sound that more than matched their label mates and other rivals of the time. Platinum Hook opens with the tight club groove Bittersweet, a horn and synth led track that introduces the groups lead vocalists Tina Renee Stanford and Stephen Daniels to blistering effect. Track 2 is an excellent cover of Shotgun's mid-tempo funk jam from the previous year, Hotline. ''Til I Met You and Lover What You've Done (To Me) are both smooth soul ballads that still bring the funk into the rhythms and help round out the albums overall sound. Standing On The Verge (Of Getting It On), a cover of the Funkadelic classic, can hold its head up high to the original.

Fern Kinney’s 1979 debut album “Groove Me” did not produce any across the board smashes like Anita Ward or Stephanie Mills did. But it did produce two club classics that set dance floors on fire and that was no easy feat during Disco obsessed 1979. Both the title track and “Baby Let Me Kiss You” became regulars at clubs across the country. A closer listen to Fern Kinney’s full length album shows the Northern Soul vocalist at home with Disco, R&B, Quiet Storm ballads and Pop Music. An accomplished vocalist, Kinney at times sounds like Deniece Williams. “Under Fire”, “Angel On The Ground”, “Pillow Talk”, and “Together We Are Beautiful” are all lush mid-tempo R&B songs with a driving Disco beat. “Sun, Moon, Rain” is the sole ballad on the set and Kinney handles it well.

"A Head Full of Ideas" is a career spanning best of that sums up their remarkable progress from 1990 Manchester scene hopefuls to one of the UK’s most enduring and best-loved bands.
The band have notched up 13 Top 40 studio albums - three of them number ones - alongside 22 hit singles, four of them top 10. The rollercoaster highs have been accompanied by some shattering lows, any which one of them could have felled a less resilient band, from nervous breakdowns to near bankruptcy and the deaths of two founder members.