A Touch Of Classic Soul

Marc Taylor was one the many people I met on the 2nd US Soul Trip in New Jersey. Marc is best known for his 3 books; "Touch Of Classic Soul" 1 & 2 and "The Marvelettes: Motown's Mystery Girl Group".Marc is now the editor of a new US based monthly newspaper called "A Touch of Classic Soul" which was first published in January of this year.

Marc has featured an array of artists in the first 4 issues including Phyllis Hyman, Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes, Charimen of The Board, Honeycone, The Toys, The Moments, Bloodstone, New Birth, The Exciters, The Emotions, The Main Ingredient, Maxine Brown, The Tymes, The Friends of Distinction, Temptations, Brenda Holloway, The Temprees and others. All the articles and features are based on extensive interviews with the artists or members of the groups.

I caught up with Marc after the Soul Trip and I was keen to find out what he thought of the event; "I cannot say enough about it! One day last week and got a bit emotional about it - tears came into my eyes and I am not usually like that!" Marc was overcome with the love demonstrated by the participants at the event for the music and the artists who appeared; "It was something that I had not experienced before with people coming from all over the globe to one place to hear good music and to enjoy themselves."

When Marc first heard about the trip he decide to go but as the event drew near he had doubts about going because he invisaged some kind of boring record convention. He was so glad he decided to go because of the pleasure he had from meeting the artists who came for the "meet and greet" and who also performed. Marc told me; " I knew artists such as Laura Lee and Archie Bell but I was introduced to artists new to me such as the Spellbinders and the Invitations." Marc was thankful to every artist who turned up and shared their time with us and sang the songs we have come to love; "I just can't say enough!"

I was also interested to know what plans Marc had for his newspaper "Touch Of Classic Soul". He originally had an idea to re-write his first book and update it especially since some of the artists had died and other groups had changed or had released new material etc. He also thought that he was now a better writer and hit on the idea of using all his material to publish a monthly newspaper rather than re-write his book. Part of the reason for this was the restrictions books bring with size of chapters and the overall size of the book and resulting costs. Instead he opted for the newspaper format which allowed him more space and the fact he could publish it monthly which meant that it was something which could grow and develop unlike a book.

Marc plans at some stage to bring in other writers to help ease the burden of writing the whole newspaper himself. He explained that writing quality articles means you need to make contacts, do the research, sometimes access the music, conduct the interviews and transcribe the interviews all before the finished article is produced and all of which is time consuming.

Marc wants the newspaper to grow by extending the reviews of CDs and DVDs but his first aim is to tell the stories behind the music and give exposure to the artists; "They have given us some great music and I want to document this great history".

I can only wish him every success and if you want to obtain a copy of the newspaper then please contact Marc Taylor