Max's Page

DJ, record dealer and collector. Rarely without opinion, but always positive about soul music, he’s been involved in the soul scene for over 30 years. True and loyal friend to many, great company out at a soul night and he can still out dance anyone - with the possible exception of Keb Darge.

From the early days of northern / sixties soul at legendary clubs like The Twisted Wheel, The Torch and Wigan Casino through Crossover, Funk, Disco, Rap, House and Hip Hop - he’s one of the most knowledgeable people on soul music in all it‘s genres. We caught up with him to natter through his soul memories and go through some of his old photos and memorabilia.

You might want to get yourself a cuppa for this one!        And Click Here For Music

How long have you been interested in soul music?

It all began when I was twelve years old and I inherited my sister’s record collection. There were about fifty singles by artists like Elvis and Little Richard plus a Dansette record player. That started my early love of records, the whole thing - the feel of them, cleaning and playing them.

"I soon built up a huge collection"

My parents ran a pub and there were several advantages to me, not least, when the woman came to change the records in the jukebox, she used to give me the old ones. You can imagine I soon built up a huge collection, mostly without centres of course!

Another big advantage of living in a pub was that I could watch whatever I liked up stairs while mum and dad were working downstairs in the bar. Eamon Andrews and Tom Jones had great R&B guests on their shows and I preferred that to Z Cars and all that Emergency Ward Ten stuff.

We had a lodger who was much older than me and I asked him if he liked the new Rolling Stones album. He said “Yeah it’s OK, but I prefer the original versions“. When I asked him what he meant, he told me that Can I Get A Witness was by Marvin Gaye, Route 66 by Nat King Cole and Carole by Chuck Berry.

That got me started listening to these original versions and I soon discovered that The Stones first and second albums were all cover versions of songs by artists like Irma Thomas, The Drifters and Otis Redding etc.

Have you always lived in Cambridge ?

No, I was born in Birmingham in 1954 and moved to Cambridge in 1960, so I grew up here during the swinging sixties.

I didn’t enjoy school and got into music and the whole mod culture thing with TV programmes like Ready Steady Go. I spent a lot of time reading Record Mirror, Disc & Music Echo and Rave, which was a mod magazine with fashion and music reviews and of course most of my pocket money went in Record shops.

“It Was A Great Time – Loads of Girls And Lots Of Dancing”

I left school at fourteen and got a job in a wood yard and then as a garage hand and Postman before getting the best job selling records at Jays, then in my own shop Hot Numbers from 1980 onwards.

As a young teenager I went to The Coleridge School youth club, the DJ’s were Dave Atkins and Herb Anstey. They had all the Blue Stax, Red Atlantic and Tamla Motown records. I remember taking Boogaloo Party by The Flamingos down there one night and it really tore the place down. It was a great time – Loads of girls and lots of dancing.

You’ve got some interesting background on The Howard Mallet Club and a guy called Spangles Muldoon…

Yes, The Howard Mallet as most people know, was a youth centre for over seventeen year olds, famous for it’s boxing. Boxing is a killer exercise - I know, I’ve done it! Anyhow, it was a really cool venue with flipper machines and a TV room.

It was a big thing when it opened as a disco on Sunday nights. One of the most popular DJ’s was Spangles Muldoon, his real name was Chris Carey and he was a veteran of the famous off shore pirate radio station Radio Caroline.

The Spangles thing came from the sweets he liked, and Muldoon from Spotty Muldoon in the goon show. It was quite a cool name and Spangles had previously DJ’d at The Dorothy so he was a well regarded geezer in and around Cambridge.

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