Northern Soul
Doctor Who
Motown
Disco
High Energy
The Philly Sound
DC Comics
Disney Films
Samoyed Dogs
The history of my family, The Cooklins
Babylon 5
Blakes Seven
Preserving rare archive TV programs
Gourmet Food
Sticking up for civil liberties, especially against American right wing bigots
Being able to drive without Ken Livingston's interference
Music
Soul
Motown
Northern Soul
Philly
Disco
High Energy
Fingersnappers
Chicago Soul
Detroit Soul
New Jersey Soul
Sixties Soul
Seventies Soul
Movies
The Five Heartbeats,
Fantasia,
Sleeping Beauty,
An Affair To Remember,
Barbarella
Dream Girls
Irreconcilable Differences
Henry VIII and his Six Wives
Elizabeth
Dreamchild
Artificial Intelligence
Flesh Gordon
Saturday Night At The Baths
If
The Lion In Winter
Plunkett And Maclaine
Sparkle
Last Exit To Brooklyn
Television
Doctor Who,
Babylon 5
I Claudius,
The Six Wives of Henry VIII,
Out Of The Unknown,
Knots Landing
Doomwatch,
Agony,
The New Statesman,
Up Pompeii
Blakes Seven
The Charmings
Elizabeth R
Boston Legal
The Caesars
War And Remembrance
The Tudors
Desperate Housewives
Survivors
Steptoe And Son
Dynasty
Falcon Crest
Torchwood
Will And Grace
Frasier
Murphy Brown
Moonlighting
Books
Dancer From The Dance
Number One With A Bullet,
Last Exit To Brooklyn
Tales Of The City
Nights In Aruba
Call Her Miss Ross
Heroes
Berry Gordy,
Marvin Gaye,
Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff,
William Hartnell,
Patrick Troughton,
Walt Disney,
Mike Sekowsky And Gardner Fox
Ian Levine's Details
Status:
Single
Here for:
Networking
Orientation:
Gay
Hometown:
London
Body type:
3' 0"
Ethnicity:
White / Caucasian
Religion:
Jewish
Zodiac Sign:
Cancer
Smoke / Drink:
No / No
Children:
Someday
Education:
Some college
Occupation:
Record Producer, Songwriter, Video Producer
Ian Levine's Schools
The University of Manchester
Manchester, United Kingdom
Graduated: N/A
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Professional
Major: Drama
Minor: English Literature
1971 to 1972
Arnold School
Blackpool, United Kingdom
Graduated: N/A
Student status: Alumni
Major: English
Minor: British Constitution
I have produced records for the last thirty two years, starting out when I was too young to really understand it and learning the hard way through years of experience
About me: It is with a painfully heavy heart, and with the deepest of sadness burdening my soul, that I have to tell you all that my wonderful and brilliant and irreplaceable songwriting partner of the last sixteen years, Clive Scott, passed away last night, after suffering a massive stroke as a complication of him falling off a ladder onto concrete two weeks ago. The world will never be the same.
This is the blog I have tried to post on YouTube but it simply won't allow me to. I POST THIS IN ABJECT DISTRESS AND FURY.
--------------------
I'm not sure how long I can continue to do this when I feel so badly treated here on YouTube. It's becoming painful and too demoralising. YouTube have done it yet again.This time they have removed my video of Erma Franklin singing "I Get The Sweetest Feeling", a video which has been up for nearly two years and had an enormous amount of hits. This is the fifth video of mine that YouTube have removed.They reinstated the other four without even an apology. They also gave me a community warning and accused me of spamming, and refuse to answer me when I ask for an explanation, so as you can imagine, this latest interference with my work, work which I shot and paid for, has really pushed me over the edge. They say Alley Music claim it's a copyright infringement. From what I can ascertain, having spoken to the UK office who handles Alley Music Corp, they are objecting not as a copyright issue but as a music publishing issue. Unfortunately YouTube's ghastly "shoot first ask questions later" policy means that yet again they have monstrously and unfairly removed yet another of my videos without cause. All my videos on YouTube are my own productions, my own filming, my own videos, and my own property. It's outrageous. I have brought them FOUR MILLION HITS. Because that can't compete with companies like Universal, does that nullify my worth ??? The point is when I legally own them, and I shot them myself, and they are MY property, HOW DARE YouTube remove them at the slightest provocation, and yet they do so over and over again, as if I were some pirater, so I argue back and try to reason with them, but can't get a reply, and then they don't even listen to my arguments, and now I find out Poppy Priya and her team, the ones who delete the videos, are in India, like those credit card teams you speak to who can barely speak English. You can't reason with them because they give you no way of contacting them, and believe me I have tried.
NORTHERN SOUL 2008 - THE OFFICIAL TRAILER
June 30th 2008
Centre City Records
THIS IS "YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW" THE OFFICIAL TRAILER
Released on March 3rd on Centre City Records
Available from http://www.ianlevine.co.uk
------------
Now that we're up to the milestone of two million hits on YouTube, Soren Jensen and I are launching the new website
http://www.ianlevine.co.uk
This will feature Centre City Records, plus all my old productions, and will be the only place you can buy new upcoming albums from initially, starting with my long awaited "Yesterday And Tomorrow" album in early March, with hopefully another launch party in June too, for the release of "Northern Soul 2008".
I want to thank all of you for supporting my music. Two million hits proves to me that not everyone's musical taste begins and ends with the X-Factor, and not everyone only wants to hear rap and hip-hop from black artists.
There is great talent in England, and I'm doing my bit to showcase it.
Any talented and real true soul singers here in the UK, if you feel like working with me on a new track, just get in touch. I'm trying to build a sort of British Motown here with Centre City Records, and I want to make this work in a climate where less and less people are even able to release records at all. I'm determined for us to be the ones to buck the trend, to stand out as a shining beacon of music that reflects Northern Soul, Disco, High Energy, and Motown.
where you will hear songs, see videos, and find out about my career.
This is the first, and main page, of my several MySpace pages.
Why do you need several pages, I can hear you saying....
Well, with the vast amount of pics and videos I have been putting up, covering my thirty two year career of producing records, it seems to make more sense to spread them over four different sites. I already discovered over on the Record Shack page, where I was putting up pics of all the classic album covers, that I could only put up 120 pics, and then it stopped. Well with all the classic vintage album and twelve inch sleeves I wanted to post up, I ended up needing several pages. I've discovered fans I never knew I had, old artists and co-producers I'd lost contact with, and most importantly, after digging out and editing some wonderful footage, I'm giving some of the artists I've worked with in the past, a chance to see their own performances that they've never had a chance to see before.
Plus artists like The Four Vandals and Ebony Alleyne are now reaching the audience they deserve to, with literally thousands of views of their videos in just a couple of weeks.
I'm really really enjoying my MySpace experience with all four of these pages, and I hope you do too. If you like Soul or Disco or Motown, I promise you a rare treat that you won't find anywhere else on the web.
All you have to do is keep visiting all the pages, Ian Levine, Record Shack, Tropicana, and Motorcity, and keep clicking on the "View My Videos" icon, below the main pic on each page.
You never know what you might get to see there.
But before you do head over there to take a look, please stay here on this personal Ian Levine page for a moment, and look at what's on here. If you look at the pics on the other three pages, they just have the record sleeves, but here on this main page, there are some fantastic and rare pics waiting for you, if you click on the highlighted "View My Pics" words, just below the main picture of me. Many people have missed seeing them, and they cover Northern Soul, Doctor Who, DC Comics, High Energy, Disco, DJing at Heaven, and my family The Cooklins. And they took a long long time to locate after so many years. If any of these few subjects interest you, then trust me, the pics are worth a look.
Now as for the videos on this site
Firstly, I have recorded a special five minute video introduction to me and my career. If you'd like to see it, then click on the "View My Videos" words, which are once again located just below the main picture of me. I've tried to be honest, fully expecting to get some stick over it, but hoping that people will just accept me for who I am.
And now I've loaded in over thirty videos of my productions, over thirty songs which are particularly dear to my heart. Once again if you click on the highlighted "View My Videos" words, just below the main picture of me, you'll get the choice to play my intro video and all thirty something of these songs
THE FOUR VANDALS - THE WRONG SIDE OF TOWN
FRANCES NERO - FOOTSTEPS FOLLOWING ME
WILLIE HUTCH - LOVE RUNS OUT
EVELYN THOMAS - HIGH ENERGY
MIQUEL BROWN - SO MANY MEN SO LITTLE TIME
C.P. SPENCER - THIS MAN NEEDS YOU
THE CARSTAIRS - IT REALLY HURTS ME GIRL
VENICIA WILSON - FURTHER DOWN THE ROAD
CHUCK JACKSON - ALL OVER THE WORLD
CAROLYN CRAWFORD - TIMELESS
J.J. BARNES - TALK OF THE GRAPEVINE
BARBARA PENNINGTON - ON A CROWDED STREET
PAT LEWIS - SOMETHING NEW TO DO
FRANK WILSON - JANICE DON'T BE SO BLIND TO LOVE
IMPACT - ONE STEP AWAY
EVELYN THOMAS - STANDING AT THE CROSSROADS
EDWIN STARR - DARLING DARLING BABY
L.J. JOHNSON - YOUR MAGIC PUT A SPELL ON ME
THE VELVELETTES - IT KEEPS REMINDING ME (Of Happy Memories)
EDDIE HOLMAN - WHATEVER HAPPENED TO OUR MELODY
MARY WELLS - YOU'RE THE ANSWER TO MY DREAMS
J.J. BARNES - I'VE SEEN THE LIGHT
MARY WILSON - OOOH CHILD
TAMMI LAVETTE - SEVEN DAYS
THE MARVELETTES - HOLDING ON WITH BOTH HANDS
EBONY ALLEYNE - MY MAN
THE SUPREMES - CRAZY BOUT THE GUY
SEVENTH AVENUE - THE LOVE I LOST
KIM WESTON - SIGNAL YOUR INTENTION
MIQUEL BROWN - HE'S A SAINT HE'S A SINNER
MARC DILLON - WITHOUT THE MUSIC
JIMMY THOMAS - SECRET DOORS TO SECRET PLACES
RAY POLLARD - THE DRIFTER
SHARON DEE CLARKE - AWESOME
TOBI LEGEND - TIME WILL PASS YOU BY
SANDI SHELDON - YOU'RE GONNA MAKE ME LOVE YOU
THE THREE DEGREES - CONTACT
NOEL McKOY - DETERMINED MAN
THE ARTISTICS - HOPE WE HAVE
ALL POINTS BULLETIN - LUCKY NUMBER
MARY LOVE - LAY THIS BURDEN DOWN
VOICES WITH SOUL - LIKE A LADY
CORINE ARMSTRONG - I CAN FEEL THE LIGHTNING STRIKE
MARSHA RAVEN - SEEK AND YOU SHALL FIND
Some of these videos are really rare and have never been seen before, so I hope you watch and enjoy them.
So, now that I've made sure everyone gets to look at my rare pics and see my rare videos,and now that's all clear, lets get down to business, shall we.
For thirty two years I have been producing records. I have had my name on over eighty UK hits, over forty produced by me and forty mixed by me.
I started out as a Northern Soul DJ and was starring at Blackpool Mecca's legendary Highland Room at the tender age of seventeen, and I made my first record, "Reaching For The Best" by The Exciters (although in the end, it was the second to be released, as "Love You Baby" ended up being released first) because I was frustrated at the lack of new releases containing the sound I loved, and the lack of Northern Soul in the pop charts.
I have always been controversial, and, to my sorrow, have attracted as much venom as I have praise.
My life has been shaped by my three loves, Doctor Who, Soul and Motown music, and D.C. Comics. I have become notorious and controversial in all three.
I saved many Doctor Who episodes from destruction, located missing episodes all over the world, was the script consultant to the BBC Production Office for six years from 1980 to 1986, co-wrote a story with Eric Saward under a pseudonym, and today run the fastest growing Doctor Who forum on the internet.
I like to think that I mean well, but have little patience for people with whom I have nothing in common. If I ever appear rude it's simply because time is so precious and I never seem to have enough to achieve all I want to achieve.
I am openly Gay, but it doesn't shape my life or what makes me tick, other than simply being one aspect of my personality. I have only ever had three proper relationships, being truthfully impossible to live with, and enjoying my freedom too much. I have also spent my life varying between being slim, muscular, and physically fit, to being ridiculously overweight - my love affair with food has waxed and waned periodically.
I often feel frustration that, despite so many hits and winning a BRIT award, that old friends and work colleagues, like Simon Cowell, Robbie Williams, Take That, Boyzone, Hans Zimmer, John Reid, and my protege and cousin, Daniel Glatman, have all gone on to be far richer than I have. I put it down to my unbridled passion about what I do, and an unwillingness to be as flexible as some people might have liked.
I owe much of my musical taste to my late lamented friend, Les Cokell, and undying thanks to certain mentors who have shaped my life - Chris Hill, Nigel Grainge, the late Dave Godin, Tony Cummings, J.P. Iliesco, and most of all my two best friends Ralph Tee and Paul Savory. But even more so to my Mother, Ruth, who has financially rescued me through the darkest of times, and always supported me through thick and thin.
I started collecting every British Motown release at fourteen years old, I started collecting every D.C. Comic at ten years old, and was hooked on Doctor Who from the first episode, and was even recording the audio and transcribing the plots within the first year of the show. I think it fair to say I have always been a collector and had a collector's mentality.
The pop hits that I have enjoyed, including Take That, The Pasadenas, Boyzone, Blue, etc etc, have all still been influenced by my own personal musical tastes. It is my belief that great music never goes away, it merely cycles around. The magic of Motown and Philly and Northern Soul, those spectacular rich jazz chords laid out across a sledgehammer beat, bring a wistfulness and poignancy to a life that wouldn't be worth living without music.
As the words of my all time favourite song that I ever wrote, "Without The Music" - "I won't last a day without the music, Nothing left to say without the music, how can I ever go on".
I like to write songs and create music that make you feel good. That make you smile. Music that reminds you of a summer day and a trip down to the beach, with the sun roof down, and suddenly everything feels great in the world, and for a temporary moment in time, all your worries are forgotten
While recently browsing the web, I came across an mp3 of Barbara Mason singing "Yes I'm Ready", and it reaffirmed my faith of everything I believe in
ALL I ASK IS FOR THE CHANCE TO MAKE THE MUSIC I LOVE.
Right - so I am creating a separate page here for each aspect of my life.
If you click on the words highlighted in blue, you can read about my entire career, year by year, from starting DJing in 1971 right up to 2007 and mixing Right Said Fred's brand new remix of "I'm Too Sexy". The total complete unadulterated history of my profesional career.
SOUL MUSIC
The effect Soul Music has had on my life, from writing for Collectors Soul Magazine in 1969, interviewing all the Miami artists in 1973 for a ten page feature for Black Music Magazine, to the present day.
MOTOWN
From collecting Motown seriously at the age of fourteen, to creating the Motorcity reuinon between 1987 and 1992, and the glorious day on March 14th 1989 when we all gathered outside the original Motown building, Hitsville USA in Detroit and appeared on every major news report across America.
My love of Motown grew into trips to America, aged sixteen, to find obscure records with a Motown-ish sound but ..s of obscure labels. A DJ ing career of notoriety from 1971 to 2003, and still making new Northern Soul albums and singles to this present day, with the 2007 launch of Centre City Records
HIGH ENERGY
From becoming the main DJ at Heaven, in London, from its opening on December 6th 1979 for ten whole years up till 1989, and pioneering the whole High Energy music scene, and writing and producing the two million selling "So Many Men So Little Time" and the seven million selling "High Energy".
DOCTOR WHO
Hooked from the very first episode, "An Unearthly Child", I spent my teenage years longing for them to be repeated one day, never knowing the BBC were busy destroying them. In 1978, when I finally got permission to buy them, there were 153 missing, and the first Dalek story was one day away from being destroyed forever. Over the years we have reduced the missing number down to 108 by searching around the world. I turned up episodes in Cyprus, Nigeria, Australia, and eventually a great classic came back from Hong Kong. I was the script consultant for six years, wrote all the Radio Times articles, organised the Longleat celebration, and am currently running the Ian Levine Doctor Who Forum, and organising teams to colour the remaining thirteen Jon Pertwee episodes which have only survived in black and white, and to do animation tests on the Hartnell and Troughton missing episodes.
BOYBANDS
All my life I'd been a soul boy, and after producing The Pasadenas, and being in the top five for seven consecutive weeks with them, the head of A&R at BMG, Korda Marshall, was discussing me producing Londonbeat, when suddenly, out of the blue. he discussed me producing Take That, and the rest is history.
So I went on to produce not only Take That, but Boyzone, Blue, EYC, Bad Boys Inc, Optimystic, Gemini, Upside Down, Over The Top, D-Side, and loads of others, and made a bit of a name for myself as the premier producer of Boybands in the UK.
D.C. COMICS.
I started collecting Superman, Batman, and the Justice League of America at the age of ten. It took over forty years but in 2005 I finally completed the entire set of every DC comic ever released from 1935 to the present day, and still keep up with the new releases every week.
DISNEY FILMS
My Mother took me to see "Fantasia" at four years old. I was hooked, and spent the next four years fascinated by Dinosaurs. Before the advent of DVD I amassed the world's largest collection of Walt Disney laserdiscs, and rare editions of rental only Disney VHS tapes. Many of the laserdiscs were released limited edition in Japan only. I find it tragic what has happened to such a wonderful company, and the lack of any more true animation.
THE COOKLINS
My Grandma Golda, who I adored, died at ninety two, in 1995. I started researching her family, the Cooklins, after her death, and traced every descendant of my Great Great Grandfather, Hatskell Cooklin, and in July 1996 we had a huge family reunion of four hundred people from all over the world, meeting in Kensington, which was shown on the BBC News. In 1998, I made a four hour ..ary of the family history, interviewing all the cousins of my Grandmother, most of whom have since passed away. But their experiences and memories are committed to videotape forever.
ARNOLD SCHOOL
On March 6th 2000, I organised a school reunion of all thirty members of my class from 1967, from Arnold School in Blackpool, which used to be a strict all-boys school, using, for reference, a picture taken at the time by our Form Master. All thirty attended, plus hundreds more from other classes, with an amzing day of lessons in school uniform, P.T. in the gymnasium, a rugger match, and a cricket match, all captured and transmitted by BBC North West.
I filmed and interviewed over three hundred people and 131 artists performing their Northern Soul classic songs, for a six disc DVD box set extravaganza, with twenty four hours of footage,, including some rare footage of the Motorcity reunion. The project started in 1997, was released on VHS tape and premiered to 1300 people at the King George's Hall in Blackburn in July 1999, then took four more years to refine and re-edit into its DVD release in 2003. A life's labour of love
SAMOYEDS
I have kept and bred Samoyed dogs since 1987, and have bred a line descended from champions, with three winners of Crufts Best Of Breed within my pedigree line. The line is called Saskovitch, so any dog with Saskovitch in its name came originally from me. I appeared on TV in 1994 with all four of my dogs, including Madison, my favourite, who also appeared ..s and loads of record sleeves at the time. And she even starred with me on Damon Rochfort's BBC TV show. These original four have sadly passed on since then, as it was thirteen years ago, but their descendants remain.
THE CATALOGUES
This list is of all the Master recordings that I control through my family's company, comprising three catalogues - Motorcity, High Energy, and Northern Soul. These are available for worldwide licensing and for sample use.
MORE ASSORTED LINKS TO MY PRODUCTIONS
And finally, the world's greatest expert on Ian Levine Productions, Soren from Denmark, who knows more about what I've produced over the years than I do myself, has provided some interesting links
He says that for now, until we find time to organize my enormous discography, that he figured out something that should be useful in the meantime -
Over the past year, he has contributed tons of my stuff to the site http://www.rateyourmusic.com
and here are some links to add on to the myspace site:
Thank you so much for accepting our friend request.
Check out the Made Men (Bizzle Boy Affiliates) performing on Potluck TV Sept. 2009. Saint Anger, Syn, E. Bizzle & J D'wayne are the Made Men (Bizzle Boy Affiliates) based out of Northern, Virginia.
Thank you so much for accepting our friend request.
Check out the Made Men (Bizzle Boy Affiliates) performing on Potluck TV Sept. 2009. Saint Anger, Syn, E. Bizzle & J D'wayne are the Made Men (Bizzle Boy Affiliates) based out of Northern, Virginia.
I would love to have been a "fly on the wall" when you were in the studio producing "So Many Men So Little Time." Your sound on that record holds up very well to today's club/dance music although I'm sure you would agree, songs had more substance back then! Thanks for doing all you do to keep the magic alive! America loves you!!!
I just pre-recorded my radio show for SixMix, on BBC Six Music, to be transmitted on Bank Holiday Saturday, 23rd May 2009. I did a full two hour show, the first hour of very rare Northern Soul, the second hour a retrospective of my entire career, from Reaching For The Best to Waterfalls. I'm so proud of it and hope you will all listen. It will be available on the net for a full seven days after transmission worldwide.
CLIVE IS AT PEACE NOW, HE WAS A KIND, NEVER SELFISH, FUNNY, TALENTED MAN, WHOS MUSIC WILL LIVE ON FOREVER. THANKS FOR SOME GREAT MOMENTS CLIVE, AND STAY STRONG IAN. I HAVE A FEW STORYS I CAN SHARE WITH YOU IAN WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT. GOD BLESS CHRIS. X
Our prayers are with the Family and you Ian. I know this is a diffucult time, but God is in controll and Clive will always be with us in spirit. His work on this earth speaks for it's self. We will remember Clive and his beautiful music for many years. May God give his wife and family and all his fans peace that's beyond our understanding knowing he is in a better place. WE LOVE YOU CLIVE SCOTT.
It is with a painfully heavy heart, and with the deepest of sadness burdening my soul, that I have to tell you all that my wonderful and brilliant and irreplaceable songwriting partner of the last sixteen years, Clive Scott, passed away last night, after suffering a massive stroke as a complication of him falling off a ladder onto concrete two weeks ago. The world will never be the same.
Wishing you a blessed weekend Ian. Keeping Clive in prayer. God can do all things. Ease your mind and put your faith and trust in him ! I am a witness.
IAN I AM DEVASTATED ABOUT CLIVE AND I AM PRAYING FOR HIM.THIS IS NOW SHOWING US HOW IMPORTANT WE ALL ARE AND MUST NEVER TAKE EACH OTHER FOR GRANTED. HE IS PRIORITY AT THE MOMENT SO I JOIN IN PRAYER IAN. CAROL JIANI
Online Now!
