An original copy of Bobby Reed's soul masterpiece "The Time Is Right For Love" (Bell Records) has been sitting on ebay at around the £300 mark for a while now. As Soul/Northern Soul prices go, £300 isn't silly money but it's certainly way outside my price range. I expected an original to be outta my price league but I didn't expect that the 2004 Expansion reissue would now be, too! Since hearing Gerry Love spinning it in Cafe Rio a couple of years ago, I must've bid on a dozen, probably more, copies and always been outbid. When a VG+ copy went for £52.00 (eek!) the other week I resigned myself to never owning it so scouted about once more for a compilation cd which included it. Unfortunately these proved elusive, too; Goldmine Soul Supply's "Modern Soul Volume 4" cd is out of print and at that time there weren't any second hand copies kicking about. Ditto the "Soul Spectrum II" (BBE) cd. When a Mint/unplayed copy of the 7" reissue popped up, I automatically added it to my watchlist, more to track the price than in the hope of actually buying it. Strangely, with only a couple of hours to go, nobody had bid on it so I speculatively ventured the starting price which was £6 more than the upper limit I'd previously agreed with myself. Surprisingly (what happened to the person who lost out on the 52.00 quid copy?), no further bids followed so the chase was over. Score! Does it matter that it's not an original? Not to me. What does matter, is that I can now luxuriate in its rich delights through my stereo instead of via my computer's inferior wee speakers. "The Time Is Right For Love" is not only a testament to Van McCoy's (it should've been on this!) considerable (co-)songwriting skills, but also Saint Etienne's ear for a classy sample.
Great Record that
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