J.J. Barnes - Build A Foundation

This was our very first single with my hero J.J. Barnes on the Motorcity label. Sylvia Moy, the legendary Motown writer, and I wrote a song together that was designed to be a homage of every great Northern Soul record all rolled into one. Boy did she go to town on the lyrics..."Building a strong foundation, building up from the ground". J.J. Barnes was my lifelong soul hero. He started out on several small Detroit labels before being picked up by Scepter. Then J.J. got his career into full swing, by the mid Sixties, when he and Edwin Starr both started out on the same label, Ric-Tic Records in Detroit. I first met J.J. Barnes in 1971 when my first business venture with my Father, was to put him on at Blackpool Mecca. I had written an article about him when I was fifteen for Collectors Soul Magazine called "J.J. Barnes The Uncrowned King Of Soul" Eighteen years later he signed to Motorcity and recorded about twenty five songs, this being one of the stand out ones. This footage was filmed at three totally different live shows where he sang this song, firstly at a Torquay Soul Weekender, and then at Dudley, and finally at Widnes, all in 1990 and 1991.