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Big Arctic Records Package Coming

By Roburt in News Archives
Published 29 Jul 2012

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Big Arctic Records Package Coming magazine cover

About to escape into the CD / record buying world (well in October) .....

....

Cooler Than Ice - The Arctic Records Story (6 CDs & 6 7" singles)

http://www.dustygroo...oos=1&incl_cs=1

I was told about this package a while ago & have had brief discussions with Frank 'Phi-La of Soul' who is behind it.

Seems that none of the 'bits' (the 45's) will be available separately, however it will feature some previously unissued tracks.

There was talk of a big live show package being brought together (Della Humphrey, Barbara Mason, the Ambassadors, Volcanoes, Kenny Hamber, etc) for a number of shows (in Philly & possibly elsewhere) to promote the release. But things on that front have gone very quiet over the last couple of months (I believe backers to fund the live show package haven't been forthcoming though detailed talks were underway a while back).

Anyway, no doubt the track listing will make interesting reading when it becomes available.



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Dave Moore

Is there a link to any promo site for this package? Or a place where we can view the item in it's entirety and see exactly what it contains John?

I can only find the Amazon pre-order page. If someone wants 85 squidleys off me they'd better show me what I'll be getting.

Regards,

Dave

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Roburt

Clues ............ top left is by Barbara Mason ...........

.... bottom centre is by a male group ...................

............ rest are by other artists !!!!

.... with one 45 cut being a tribute to a Baltimore radio DJ

Now you all know just about everything there is to know.

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Roburt

I believe the big New York launch party (for the box CD / 45's set was yesterday ..........

I know lots of the old artists were being bused up from Philly to attend ...........

..........& Kenny Hamber was driving down from New England to be there ......

anyone on here attend or heard how it went (they were after publicity to help launch sales of the set).

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Pomonkey

Was lucky enough to be there at the launch party last night, stacks of the artists on hand, including members of the Volcano's, Royal Five, Honey & the Bees, Soul Brothers 6, Kenny Hamber, Winfield Parker, and musicians/studio guys too, Bobby Eli and Tom Moulton (finally got to thank him for the Carstairs!) in particular. Frank is a wonderful, genuine guy, and rightfully proud of the box set they've bought together, almost all of the artists took time to emphasise how he's always looked after them properly, that's a rare thing to hear in the industry as you definitely all know. Was great catching up with a lot of them that hadn't seen for a good many years, even better to hear them then perform, not a live band but taking it in turns to sing over the cd's, first up were the Volcano's doing A Lady's Man then Storm Warning, the latter coming out much better, then Kenny Hamber stepped in and was masterful, no surprise there he's a true pro and sounds great still, followed by John Ellison of the SB6 who was truly a force of nature, wow that man has a voice and then some, Some Kind Of Wonderful was an understatement, closed with our old friend Winfield Parker, no surprises he just captivated the crowd, since he blew the crowd away headlining a Dig Deeper last year have realised how under-rated he is, somebody in Europe wake up and book him please, pure soul.

The box set itself was a day late in production but got to hold the proofs and it looks great, really classy job, very much hope it sells well like it deserves to.

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Roburt

Has anyone ordered this package yet? When is it due anyone know?

Regards,

Dave

Due out (in the US) this week ... but may again have a day or two's delay ...

....... hope it makes it before Xmas to catch the 'pressie market'.

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Guest

first up were the Volcano's doing A Lady's Man...

Don't s'pose there is a video floating around of this epic moment, is there...that's one of my all time fave storming Northern classics!

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Pomonkey

Sadly the lead singer on this one last night forgot most of the lyrics and lost his way somewhat so stick with the record Flynny :ohmy: Plenty of people were recording including a professional looking outfit at the back so some footage is out there, hope you get to see some :thumbsup:

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Pomonkey

You can try ask Frank directly - jamguy@gmail.com - they haven't found all of the backing tracks in the archives yet he did definitely say last night but do have a fair # of them so just maybe!

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Roburt

A similar project -- the Rojac 45's box set (8 x 45's + record box) sells for £40 (Juno).

So I'd guess that makes the Arctic Package overpriced in comparison.

Mind you, it's (Rojac box) supposed to retail for £69, so that would work out at about the same price equivalent (about £9 per 45)

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Pete S

This is copied word for word from the official Jamie website.

My goodness is this unprofessional or what?

Frantic Records was a subsidary of Arctic Records. It might seem strange for a label as small as Arctic to have a subsidary label. The phenomenon reflected the industry's makeup of competitie distributors in most markets. So while a large label would command the resources of the distribuotor, little labels had to rely on the threat of "puuling the ine" and going to another distribuor to get the most commperation from a distribuor. A second label was a constant trat of to a distirbuor that the label could alsys go oto the other distribuor if the label perceived a difference in teir promoton or sae abilities.

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Gointoagogo

See this is now back down to £86 on Amazon - I guess that someone must have got mixed up with their currency conversions.

It's still a high price for a cd set but I've splashed out cos it was the only label I ever got close to completing (all of which have long gone) and it will let me see if the Cindy Gibson tracks (which i last heard in early 80's) are as good now as they were then.

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Chalky

See this is now back down to £86 on Amazon - I guess that someone must have got mixed up with their currency conversions.

It's still a high price for a cd set but I've splashed out cos it was the only label I ever got close to completing (all of which have long gone) and it will let me see if the Cindy Gibson tracks (which i last heard in early 80's) are as good now as they were then.

It was only £85 in November on amazon so it's gone up a quid :)

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Sebastian

For some reason a certain era of American collector is obsessed with stereo mixes, even for stuff that was originally meant to be mono.

It's such a pity and a real lost opportunity to do things properly.

Ever since the Arctic/Jamie/Guyden stuff first started to appear on CD it's been the same. I remember buying the "Storm Warning" CD with "all new stereo mixes by Tom Moulton"... I don't care who re-mixed them, they sound like shit compared to the original 45s.

For example, listen to "Love Addict" on the box-set, one of the most in-your-face sounding 45s I have in my collection. This new stereo mix makes it sound mellow and disjointed in comparison.

It's as if the people doing the re-mixing/mastering have got no idea what the song was originally supposed to sound like.

Just becuase you have the multi-track tapes and can make a stereo mix, you don't have to do it. :facepalm:

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jamguy

Finally did get that Arctic 127, thanks John and Andy, and the Arctic box set "Cooler Than Ice" is out and available on our newly restarted website, jamguy.com; also through dusty groove and, one of these days, amazon.com. The track listing and layout of the 6 CDs and 6 45s are on the attached 4-page sales sheet and a separate image of the cover.

Jamguy.com's got the background on the Combo Kings, which I've fielded a lot of questions on since they're one of the 6 45s in the boxset but not otherwise on Arctic. Their "I'm At My Best When I'm Down" b/w "The Rock," were slated to be a Frantic release that never came out. They are also noted on track sheets for numerous Barbara Mason recordings.

To answer a question I saw on this thread, the Phil-LA of Soul-Miami connection came through Joey Stanzione, who headed Campus Distributors, which handled Jamie's labels in South Florida. Della Humphrey also notes in the Arctic book by Bill Dahl in "Cooler Than Ice" how she, a Miami teenager, got to Arctic from her manager's canvassing a deal during a music convention down there. And, yes, I am Harold Lipsius's son and run the label with my sister Julie, who's involved in international music publishing.

Frank Lipsius

ArcticCollectionSheet_AvailableNow_Email.pdf

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jamguy

As for mono-stereo:

One of the big delays in getting the box set done was to make sure they were all mono (a first for Tom Moulton, who did it with increasing enthusiasm) and original mix-down tapes where possible. Services like spotify require stereo, according to our distributor, so may not be what's on the actual CDs.

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Mal C

One of the singles is interesting, somebody said Unissued, or unreleased? Well, this did come out in fast and slow versions, the later on Ru Jac from Baltimore, so is this a third recording of this song by Winfield, or was the Fast version always an unreleased one?

Winfield Parker - I Love You Just The Same

Mal.C

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Sebastian

As for mono-stereo:

One of the big delays in getting the box set done was to make sure they were all mono (a first for Tom Moulton, who did it with increasing enthusiasm) and original mix-down tapes where possible. Services like spotify require stereo, according to our distributor, so may not be what's on the actual CDs.

OK... I guess I'll have to give the actual box-set a go then. :thumbsup:

It doesn't make any sense though that Spotify requires that the music is in stereo, they don't, there's lots of mono stuff on there.

So were two sets of mixes/masters done? Stereo for downloads and mono for the CDs?

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jamguy

We don't know how they work. It seemed they objected only when the file said "mono Mix" or referred to mono, and those were for the 6 45s. We didn't hear anything back about the CDs, though a great deal of time and effort went into making mono mixes or finding the mix downs, both by Tom Moulton and Peter Humphreys at Masterworks, our mastering studio. We told our distributor they were only in mono--what happened from there we don't know.

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Phild

Got the box set. Pretty good IMO. A couple of gripes though.

1. The labels on the 45's don't look just like the 60's releases - no writer, publisher credits, no timings and no J/G logo

2. The sound quality on the 45's leaves a little to be desired in that they are very quiet. They appear to be very compressed on the vinyl only using. in a couple of cases, half the available space

3. One side of the "unreleased" Barbara Mason 45 is actually "Ain't Got Nobody" (exactly same mix) with a different title on the box set 45 label

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Britmusicsoulfan

For some reason a certain era of American collector is obsessed with stereo mixes, even for stuff that was originally meant to be mono.

I only want to hear records in the manner recorded, i.e., stereo or mono. Something "processed" to be something it isn't is like drum machines and fake synths on soul music. (I like synths and drum machines, just not on soul music.)

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Dave Moore

I'm not sure Ted .. if it was it's certainly done the rounds .. I thought there was at least one other

As an aside does anybody have Honey & The Bees - One Time Is Forever - Arctic 118

It's listed in discographies but I've never seen it. I was playing this out 9 or so years ago and always believed it was unreleased so I'm a little confused

Andy

 

Here's my stocker Andy:

 

Regards,

 

Dave

 

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