DESCRIPTION:
This song was originally one that Clive and I wrote for Steve Brookstein in 2005 for his album on Sony. However, as it was then decided by Simon Cowell that the whole album was to be only covers there were no new songs used at all. And therefore, after Clive's untimely death, this was the third great and unused song co-written with Steve Brookstein to be recorded all over again. Steve was of course the lead singer with The Four Vandals, who were created in 1999. After trying a few solo records, plus a duet with Steve's then girlfriend Kate Jackson, who also recorded under the name Venicia Wilson, I decided to form a new Northern Soul band around Steve. This band was called All Points Bulletin, and Kate Jackson was also in the band. I was making a documentary about Northern Soul, called "The Strange World Of Northern Soul", and the idea was to create a new young fresh Northern Soul band to show that the scene didn't have to be just about thirty year old records. So All Points Bulletin made three songs, "I'm On My Way", "Lucky Number", and "You've Been Away", and filmed two of these songs in a rehearsal room in North Acton, but my partner in the documentary, Neil Rushton, got cold feet about All Points Bulletin, so in 1999, when the film reached its final edit, the footage was left on the cutting room floor at first. But I was still determined to prove to the moaners on the Northern Soul scene, those who claimed that no-one could make a new record these days that any people would listen to it and think it was a real old Northern Soul record, that it could actually be done. The idea came of The Four Vandals, seeming to come out of New Jersey. It had the ring of truth about it, because one of the former Temptations, Damon Harris, had originally sang in a group called The Vandals, and their records were released by a company in New Jersey, so I figured that a group with the name of The Four Vandals would have the ring of truth about it. But the record not only had to sound authentic, but it had to look authentic too, plus sound like it was in mono, and have a late 1960's feel about it. So in 1999 they recorded "The Wrong Side Of Town" and we pressed it up in America, and let a record dealer in Carolina send just three copies over to England. The record was made to look thirty years old, even down to being soaked in a bucket of water, and having talcum powder rubbed into the grooves. It sort of backfired, because some greedy individuals started charging up to a thousand pounds each for them, after I had given them away free, and so much care went into making the record seem thirty years old, that no-one dare say a word, so the amusing little scam kept digging itself a deeper and deeper hole. But conversely, the record went on to become THE biggest record on the whole Northern Soul Scene. It was even pictured next to the Frank Wilson fifteen thousand pound rarity, on the front cover of Kev Robverts' book, "Northern Soul's Top 500". Once Steve Brookstein won the X-Factor, he had a number one single and a number one album, on which I was one of the producers, but Steve then got dropped by Simon Cowell for no apparent earthly reason other than Steve wanted to do new songs, not just covers. The whole secret of The Four Vandals came out in the press, but I remained unrepentant. "The Wrong Side Of Town" is one of the highlights of my career", I publicly and defiantly claimed.