SHEFFIELD soul music champion Dave Godin - the man credited with bringing Tamla Motown to Britain - has died after a long battle against lung cancer. He was 68.
Dave, best known in the city for his time as manager of the Anvil Cinema in the 1980s, died at the home of a friend in Clifton, Rotherham. He had moved there in recent months from his home in Norwood after falling ill.
A Londoner, Dave moved to Shef
field in 1978, enrolling at the city Polytechnic on an art, design and film course.
This led to his later appointment in 1983 as film officer at the new Anvil in Charter Square, the only cinema in the country to be run and owned by a local authority.
After its closure in 1990 he went on to work in the council's recreation department.
He was also well known in the city for his commitment to vegetarianism and veganism, animal rights, Esperanto, fighting censorship and his regular contributions to The Star's letters columns.
But Dave's international reputation centred around his status as one of the world's leading authorities on soul music. His influence on the music world started early.
Bombing took his family to Kent, where at Dartford Grammar School he introduced a fellow pupil to the excitement of black American r'n'b music - Mick Jagger.
Soon he was starting his legendary record collection - which was later to run to thousands of singles - and in 1963 founded the Tamla-Motown Appreciation Society.
Dave was so frustrated by the lack of support given to groups like the Miracles and Marvelettes that he wrote directly to label boss Berry Gordy in Detroit.
The result was a paid trip to the USA and a job on his return home as a promotional consultant for the fledgling company.
He worked with Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, getting them slots on TV shows like Ready Steady Go.
Dave's later regular column in Blues and Soul magazine coined the terms 'Northern Soul' and 'Deep Soul,' which became accepted throughout the music industry.
His expert knowledge led in 1997 to the compilation of the first of four CDs of classic soul rarities which were acclaimed by both critics and fans.
Dave's funeral will be at 3.40pm at Rotherham Crematorium, East Herringthorpe on October 28.
A soul dance and celebration of Dave's life will follow at Hellaby Hall.
