Ian Levine's Top 40 - No. 9 - The Four Vandals - The Wrong Side Of Town

The Four Vandals - The Wrong Side Of Town.

The Four Vandals were created in 1999 and feature former X factor winner Steve Brookstein. Ian Levine had been working with Steve Brookstein for two years after seeing him come second on an ITV talent contest, hosted by Jonathan Ross. After trying a few solo records, Ian was 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. Plus he was determined to find the right project for Steve Brookstein and his amazing voice. The idea came to him 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 Ian 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 1960s feel about it. So in 1999 they recorded "The Wrong Side Of Town" and 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 Ian 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 for the last twenty years, even being 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 Ian Levine 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, and the Northern Soul Scene almost hounded out Levine, like the villagers forming a lynch mob in the Frankenstein films.

But Levine remained unrepentant. "The Wrong Side Of Town" is one of the highlights of my career", claimed Levine, publicly.