Purist Blog - Rugby's Freestyle Room

Rugby's Freestyle Room, A 40 Year Journey

Posted by purist, 26 November 2010 ·

These days with my memory failing a little I'm not exactly sure when it was that I started collecting records, I'm fairly sure it was '67, or '68? Why I was drawn to records of a certain style is a mystery to me, the area I grew up in had it's share of West Indian families, so music best described as 'non pop chart black music' was always around. Why records at all I dunno, perhaps my mom's obsession with Tom Jones, or more likely my mates Mom, who was mad on Tamla type tunes?

Most of my early successes came from local junk shops and second hand outlets of which there were lots within my walking area, and my favourites were full of reggae and soul. All I really remember was that there were these great looking labels with artists like Laurel Aitkin (which almost always disappointed me when I heard the songs) and boring looking plain labels with great songs by names I'd equally never heard of. Never judge a book by it's cover became my watchword when buying, and my tastes grew as my senior school life blossomed and I met like minded kids.

My other fascination as a kid became speakers, and because most of my early record buying was from one of the local second hand shops which had loads of old stripped down radiograms scattered around, I'd come home with a new speaker almost every Saturday (to go with my "new" vinyl, Black Atlantics & TMG's, from three for a florin!)

I'd string these new speakers all around my bedroom, wiring them with any old bit of wire I could find. Looking back now it seems so obvious, but in my defence I was only a kid, and I hadn't yet worked out that more speakers didn't mean more volume

With advice from the various shop owners (several of whom were DJ's) I slowly learned how to get the sound levels I was looking for, if not the exact quality. This proved to be a turning point for me. With this large increase in volume my parents kindly decided I should go share my music with the world, rather than just them and our immediate (complaining) neighbours in a half mile radius!

I'd already got quite a few record decks which I'd experimented with, (all acquired from old 'grams, except one battery operated record player with really poor sound) None of my equipment had been put together for moving around, just for my bedroom, so early excursions to share my tunes with others relied on me taking my records to mates houses and being allowed to use their parents 'gram. As you can imagine this wasn't an ideal situation, but it gave me a taste of something...

My luck changed when my Mom gave me a chore and sent me to her wealthy young friend's shop. This shopkeeper friend of my mom was the very epitome of 60's style, complete with up-to-the-minute hairstyles and fashions, and I was quite in awe of her. She was always covered in gold jewellery ("blinging" decades before rappers ever thought about it) Although probably only in her early 20's, she seemed to have everything, including if memory serves a brand new Rover 3500 and a Spitfire Roadster.

Maybe I was asked to go make her a cup of tea or something, but somehow I ended up in the rear of her cake shop. Whilst there I noticed this red leather cased portable radiogram sat in the back of the shop. I was filled with an incredible lust, for this was a thing of beauty to behold, and when I touched the leather, well that's a different story !

When I asked about it, the lady told me it was only being used for the radio as the deck had stopped working. It took a while but I persuaded her to let me take it home to have a look at it, to see if it could be fixed. I remember it was extremely difficult to get into, but once I got it open the problem was obvious. The drive from the motor wasn't so much a belt as a cord, and it had simply come off the pulley. It took seconds to fix, but that created it's own quandary. Although I'd had a 'girlfriend' or several by then, this was definitely my first real love, and I didn't want to give it back. Unlike my existing portable player this had superb sound, and to top it off it had a connection to connect it to an amp and speakers.

Time went by and I still hadn't given it back. Whenever my mom asked me if I'd fixed her friends machine I'd tell her I still hadn't found out how to get it going. I managed to keep this ruse going for quite a while.

As you've probably guessed by now, I was sneaking this machine, plus speakers, amp and records, out of the house to wherever my mates would gather. My Dad's old Navy kitbag was perfect, big enough and strong enough to transport my early attempt at what the world came to know as a mobile disco. These impromptu discos accompanied virtually every activity that young lads (and lasses) get up to, and every location from park to pub back room. Often if an adult saw it they'd offer to buy it from me, such was it's desirability.

I obviously didn't realise it at the time but my desire to share my music choices with the world at large had been well and truly born. As my collection of records grew I had to stop lugging the extra large speakers, but I still took the lady's portable with me everywhere, including school for lunchtime record sessions.

In the end I had to give it back. I think she probably guessed that I'd been using it all these months but she still gave me money for fixing it (which I immediately converted into more vinyl. "While You're Out Looking For Sugar" was the hot import everybody was after at my school, and I got one, yay !) Years later I got roped into helping her family pack as they were moving house. Even though I'd got several joined together Discatron's by then, I still lusted after the red leather beauty, and her Dad sold it me for exactly the same as he paid me for 3 days hard graft helping them pack and move. I discovered that it had been a 21st birthday gift for her and had cost a fortune, brought over from abroad (Switzerland possibly) - no wonder I'd never seen anything like it.

The Discatron portables played in sequence lasted okay for a short while, but eventually I got my own decks. Funnily enough they were housed in red also, except this time it was Formica (and my Dad's electrician mate called the wiring of these first decks " a death trap waiting for a fool to switch them on") and I loved them also, just not quite as much as "my" red leather portable (** see end)

If you're wondering how any of this relates to last Saturday at Rugby then let me enlighten you. People, especially but not exclusively men, often ask you questions relating to numbers. "How many records have you got?", "How long have you been collecting?" and the one that's relevant here " How long have you been DJ'ing?". This question had been on my mind ever since it came up around the time of the Stafford reunion. These days rather than try to remember years I relate it to events, and I came up with 1970 when I first took my portable set up to a local pub back room (The Squirrel) which allowed us kids in (it helped that my then best mates Dad ran it at the time) So now my answer snappily comes back "40 years" (with a wink and a grin) whenever I'm asked this question.

Now I'd been looking forward to playing in the freestyle room at Rugby for ages because much as we all like to play big rooms full of dancers, it does mean compromising our wilder tastes. A large percentage of my record buying tends to be of the 'new to me' variety, rather than only buying the 'well known/super rare/ in demand/classics'. so having somewhere to share them like the freestyle room is fantastic for us vinyl nuts. The issue in my head became should I just go to freestyle and play my usual eclectic mix of semi known's and forgotten Stafford tracks, or should I do something to mark my "40 years". The more I thought about it the more I leaned in the direction of trying to do something special, or at least out of the ordinary. After all I'd got two sets to fill, so why not? If I did something celebratory in one set, I could do my usual in the other, right?

A few ideas came, most were quite confusing and unworkable like "I'll play one tune that broke big from every year", or "nothing but B-sides of tunes that were originally huge hits on the scene for their A-side". Once you start with these ideas, lots more come along, "Only records with Green labels" or "Tunes recorded in 1965 or 1969" ( two of my favourite years btw) One mad idea, only records with a Bell Sound Stamp, especially for the members of R.O.G.(e)R., a semi secret society of "Run Out Groove Readers, {European branch}"

From somewhere in the back of my brain I remembered going to some random Oldies nite years ago when one of the old early years guys had been asked to come do a guest spot, and as I sat listening I realised he'd played about eight records on the trot from the same label. I asked the folk I was near to, and no-one else seemed in the slightest bit interested, so I wandered up to the decks. My rare soul radar had been right, he'd played exactly what I'd thought, and when I asked him about it he said he'd taken the booking before knowing it was Oldies only, and the only Oldies he owned anymore were in his label collections, hence his deck choices. As I stood and watched for a while I think he only played three different labels in total all the way through his hour set. Talking afterwards in the bar/record bar area it was obvious that nobody had noticed, and even the DJ himself was surprised that I had - I put it down to anorakitis (which comes on whenever I'm so bored with "same old same old" nites) and filed it away in a dark corner of my brain.

Now I've a confession to make, like some other collectors I could name, I suffer with a type of label collecting O.C.D., inasmuch as I want to have all of each type on similar styled labels. What this means in practice for example, is that because my first Loma was a white demo, all subsequent ones have to be white demo's (yes, except the good dancer which is issue only - I wouldn't go so far as to miss out a great tune because of my O.C.D., but I do hide put it at the back of the box) If my first purchase on label is an issue then all following ones have to be issues, etc.

So my current wave of thinking was to play a set with just, let's say for arguments sake, only white Loma demo's on the right hand deck and another label set on the left hand deck. Problem though was I'd got too wide a choice, so I needed to bring it down to a manageable size.

In the end I settled on another of my favourite labels - RCA Victor (and my reasons were based on sound principles, or so I thought. It's a vast label so there's something for everybody, whichever type of northern they prefer, possibly..)

I'm not the best at filing stuff away after I've had them out, so my RCA box looked decidedly empty and it took a while to get them all back together. My first thought was "I should be able to get 20 mins of good 70's, 20 mins of good 60's and 20 mins of good early R'n'B/Popcorn out of my humble label collection". I got a large mug of coffee, dived into the box and started to put a few on the kitchen turntable, building a pile of possible's and probable's as I went.

All was going well and ideas flooded my brain. Instead of 3 lots of 20 minutes each based on style, how about splitting them up into tempo, and have so many stompers, so many mid-tempo, and a few Big City Beat Ballads.

I decided the easiest way was to pull out my favourites onto the table and leave the remainder in the box and shut the lid. Then next was to put back any tunes I would, or have, played in the main room (I dunno if this is correct, but my idea of the freestyle room is that you should only play tunes in there which you normally wouldn't play in the main room?)

Having sorted out a few off the table, they went back into the box. My table pile was still too large, so I left it for a few days to see if it got any easier with time - and also to see which tunes kept coming back to me in the following days, always a good sign if you catch yourself whistling some lesser known days after you played it in the kitchen !

So there I was, basically I'd got my head around playing one hour of forgotten Stafford era 'faves' and lesser-known's, and one hour of RCA's of mixed style and tempo. Much as I fancied playing both sets of just RCA's I thought two hours was too big a risk if folk didn't go along with the idea.

Then Sian shouts up to say she's had to reorganise the set times, and would I like todo an early hour, plus a later hour and a half set. Was this a sign Immediately I knew this made my oddball idea easier, if one hour was a bit too short to fit in all my choices, and I was worried about playing two hours of just one label, then a 90 minute set might be just perfect. And of course it meant I could do the early set with my 'Stafford and friends' types.

As each day went by I grew to really like the idea, but I decided to keep it to myself, just in case it fell flat and I had to change it part way through. I did discuss it with my mate Ken, but other than him no one else knew. I've developed a theory that when I join in with a thread saying "yes I'll definitely be there " something crops up and forces me to miss out, which in a way fed into my decision to keep the RCA idea off the forums and F/B.

It got to a few days before, and I knew I had to make a decision on which to take, so having cleared out my small two lane box I filled one side with the Stafford stuff, and just started almost blindly putting RCA's into the other lane. I'd drawn up a list of things I personally like but it was over heavy with Newies, especially in the R'n'B and 70's areas, so I had to balance them out with some more classic styled dancers and soon the lane was full. I looked at what I was leaving at home and considered getting one of the bigger boxes out, but decided against that (my theory is that if you can't play a decent set out of a 150 box then taking a 600 size box is gonna make it four times worse, not better - plus carrying a great big box looks foolish these days imho)

I must confess to changing a couple of the RCA's, well maybe five, on the Friday, but pretty much that was that, the punters would decide if it was a stupid idea. Onward and Upward, or something like that.

Arriving at Rugby Niter without much time to spare, Kyp was creating a good buzz in the F/S room, and I'd have happily left him at it if it were my venue, but needs must and all that. Fortunately for me, he ended his set with an old Stafford fave The Ad-libs "Johnny My Boy" (covered by Guy as The Magnetics " Maybe Baby") so it worked perfectly for me to start with a couple of similar TOTW era tunes. My standout tracks would have to be Marv Johnson's "With All That's In Me" which sounded brilliant played loud, plus the Johnny Preston which I've been plugging away with. As usual I wandered off the plot a little but managed to keep it roughly where I wanted it to go. I think my mind was already on my decision to stick to the RCA's only, and wondering if I'd bottle it and end up playing from the Stafford & Rare side of the box instead. Perhaps this was why the first set seemed to be over in a matter of minutes?

Catriona followed me with a cracking set, very reminiscent of happier times for me personally, when we might have had less folk on the scene, but boy did the scene dig out and break a few great tunes (virtually every week I might add) There was something very nice she played which I didn't recognise, an album track I think, which I meant to ask her about but forgot - until now. Like a few others, she really should DJ out more often, quality tunes played properly. I hope a play list appears (hint)

Anyway, I'd promised my lad his supper up the road at Mickey Dee's as he'd volunteered to help me and had missed his tea, so we snuck out for a while (actually ended up with KFC instead) but returned in time to hear most of Phil's first set. Phil's sets are always my sort of soul, first rate rare soul, top man Mr Shields!

With a full looking record bar I desperately wanted to spend time mooching through the sales boxes but I don't like to spend long out of a room where I'm gonna play later, just in case you get that "Oi, that tunes already been played mate" complaint, so I had a quick look and scampered back to the Freestyle Room, via the Main room for a brief listen.

By now Kyp was giving it plenty, I don't think I've had the pleasure of listening to him before tonight's two sets, but I certainly would make the effort again if I see his name on a flyer in a room near me. I love enthusiastic DJ's who don't follow every other bugger and think for themselves. Well done Kyp !

Not sure if it was his last record, but near the end of his set he dropped on a lovely white Ric-Tic demo Laura Lee, which made me smile. The reason for my mirth was that amongst the five I'd changed at the last minute for "more obvious, so presumably more popular" RCA's, was a Canadian green RCA copy of Laura Lee ! Great minds obviously, but even if I'd have asked the other DJ's to leave their RCA's alone so I could have a free run at them no-one would have expected me to want to play Laura's Detroit bomb.

I'd originally thought to start my sojourn in the land of RCA Victor with some 70's, kinda get them out of the way, then everything else pretty much flows together be they 60's, classics or R'n'B, being my thinking. I looked at the dancers enjoying Kyp's last couple and I thought 'this ain't the time to go jumping from his strident 60's stuff into 70's mid-pacers, so I changed my mind and went with one of my all time favourites, Dynamics " I Need Your Love". Over the years I've always thought of this tune as not just a truly great record, but a gateway record, an equal opportunity winner, which goes down equally well with the rare fans as the oldies only crowd, but at the same time doesn't lock you into playing one particular style as it allows you to come out of it in any direction you like, up-tempo, mid-tempo, classic, etc.

I won't bore you with all the details track by track, for those interested I'll add a play list, but I'd just like to mention several tunes in particular. For many years I've always wanted to air The Metros version of "Let's Groove". Yes it is as mental as a boxful of frogs, but if you can ignore the barmy parts it's a fantastic slab of soul, northern style. If ever there was a 60's side that would have benefited with a remix this has got to be it, perfect F/S fodder. The difficult Bobbettes "Having Fun", sounded perfect northern to my ears. Roger Troy staked a claim for more regular spins (please DJ's) and while Freddie Paris probably won dance floor winner of the night, it was Judy Freeman's pleading heartfelt classic which resonated with everybody present. As true today as when she made it, when the world is in trouble we all need to hark to Judy's tune.

Now if I'd not said I was gonna do something different would anybody have noticed? Who can say, but from my perspective it worked. I dug out and dusted off some of my favourites that have not seen daylight in many a year, and played them as they were intended, LOUD and to a dance floor ! From my original list of choices I missed out on playing fifteen tracks, but I did include my first two black RCA's which started me off down this road many years back. Aah well there's always next time for the ones I missed !

Thanks Sian & Co for the opportunity to do something a little bit different. Thanks too for the kind compliments, both on the night and later. One of the things which persuaded me to do this daft idea was the fact that the decks are low and can easily be seen in the F/S room, which meant folk could if they so wanted, take advantage and have a little peak at one of my O.C.D. obsessions, Black RCA's in all their finery. Deck Clocker's of the World, I salute you ! Hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed sharing with you.

Final congrats to Taff who sussed out what I was doing, it showed somebody had their brain switched on, you are a top man !

We only managed a little while longer before we had to leave but by then Phil Shields was treating the dancers and the listeners alike to some fine rare soul Free Style, style Despite being completely knackered afterwards I think I enjoyed this set more than 90% of those in my 40 years. I'm still buzzing now !

For those who enjoy play lists, here goes -

Black RCA's set - (not quite in order, and not all there, a bit like me)

DYNAMICS - I NEED YOUR LOVE

LORRAINE CHANDLER - SHE DON'T WANT YOU

SUSAN BARRETT - WHAT'S IT GONNA BE

BOBBETTES - HAVING FUN

LUCY CAMPO - EVIL EYE

VARETTA DILLARD - THAT'S WHY I CRY

JIMMY WITHERSPOON - WHO BABY WHO

JESSE PEARSON - I GOT A FEELING I'M FALLIN'

CLEO JOHNS - WHY DON'T YOU DO RIGHT

TONI HARPER - HEAVENLY LOVE

ROY HAMILTON - YOU SHOOK ME UP

LORRAINE CHANDLER - WHAT CAN I DO

LORRAINE CHANDLER - I CAN'T HOLD ON

RAY PAIGE - AIN'T NO SOUL

WILLIE KENDRICK - WHAT'S THAT ON YOUR FINGER

WILLIE KENDRICK - GIVE ME LOTS OF LOVIN'

WILLIE KENDRICK - CHANGE YOUR WAYS

JUDY FREEMAN - HOLD ON ( a cheeky yellow 'un)

ROGER TROY - DON'T PUT THE BLAME ON ME BABY

MIDNIGHT - KEEP ON WALKING BY (a cheeky Australian)

KENI BURKE - LET SOMEBODY LOVE YOU

LEE ANDREWS - QUIET AS IT'S KEPT

BOBBY DAY - PRETTY LITTLE GIRL NEXT DOOR

DELLA REESE - A CLOCK THAT'S GOT NO HANDS

GALE GARNETT - I'LL CRY ALONE

H. B. BARNUM - IT HURTS TOO MUCH TO CRY

DON RAY - BORN A LOSER

ROBERT WALKER - STICK TO ME

PAUL ANKA - WHEN WE GET THERE

METROS - LET'S GROOVE

METROS - SINCE I FOUND MY BABY

CAVALIERS - I REALLY LOVE YOU

WILLIE KENDRICK - YOU CAN'T BY PASS LOVE

ROY HAMILTON - CRACKING UP OVER YOU

LAURA GREENE - MOONLIGHT MUSIC IN YOU

FREDDIE PARIS - THERE SHE GOES

TONY MASON - TAKE GOOD CARE

The first set : Stafford & friends -

SONNY CHILDE - LOVE IS IN THE AIR (MUSIC FACTORY DJ)

LITTLE JOHN - HEARTBREAKING TIME (MARTAY)

EDDIE HOLLAND - ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN (MOTOWN)

SKYLINERS - EVERYTHING IS FINE (JUBILEE)

JOHNNY APPALACHIAN - UP IN SMOKE (GOLDIE)

MARV JOHNSON - WITH ALL THAT'S IN ME (UNITED ARTISTS)

GENE HOLIDAY - SCRATCH MY NAME OFF THE MAILBOX (JOHNSON)

FREDDIE HOUSTON - SOFT WALKING (TOTO WDJ)

JOHNNY PRESTON - IVE GOT MY EYES ON YOU (HALLWAY WDJ)

GARLON DAVIS - DON'T WORRY ABOUT DANCING FOR ME (KICK OFF)

J.C. DAVIS -THE SPLIB PART 2 (ARGO WDJ)

JAMES BROWN - OUT OF THE BLUE (SMASH WDJ)

JOHNNIE TAYLOR - STRANGE THINGS (STAX WDJ)

DONALD HEIGHT - YOU CANT TRUST YOUR BEST FRIEND (OLDTOWN)

SUE ROSE - LUCKIEST DAY OF MY LIFE (BRENT WDJ)

ILA VANN - I GOT THAT FEELING (ROULETTE WDJ)

SOUL SET FEAT NORMAN SELDIN - I DON'T WANT HER BUT I NEED HER (JOHNSON WDJ)

RAYFORD TUCKER - IF YOU NEED MORE TIME (SANDPIPER)

LARRY BROWN - BREAKING TRAINING (FIREWORKS)

MESSIAHS OF GLORY - THANK YOU (SKY HERO- played at minus 4)

RAY J & NORMA JEAN - THIS IS OUR SONG OF LOVE (HEP'ME)

HOLLYWOOD SAXONS - LOVING YOU (ACTION PAC)

BROOKS O'DELL - WATCH YOUR STEP (GOLD RECORDS)

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**A sad footnote to this tale is that last year I had to scrap the red leather portable player, it was beyone saving after I'd repaired it many times over the years - and within a week I heard my mom's friend passed away from Cancer.

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comments made when the blog entry was made

phil shields

Getting spins again

Posted:Nov 26 2010 11:54 AM

A brilliant read John

Rugby Soul Club

Offers

Posted:Nov 26 2010 12:15 PM

John, after reading this, I think everyone else will realise why I have the utmost respect for you as a DJ.

I would have gone for yellow labels instead for the green that was thought about, something myself and another chin stroker (Phil Shields) were talking about at Hellfire...

Loved reading every word of this blog and I usually get bored after the first sentence.

Thank you...

Carms

Carmen McCullough

Posted:Nov 26 2010 12:36 PM

What a great read , I would have kept the player even if it didn't work I love your fonts by the way , easy on my eyes

Carms

arnie j

Getting spins again

Posted:Nov 26 2010 02:48 PM

great read mate,u really can write a good story and keep the reader interested,nice one

jason

Tony Foster

"Listen, mate, 'life' has surface noise."

Posted:Nov 26 2010 04:52 PM

Excellent John, superb playlist as well. See you soon my good friend, take care

Tabs

In-Demander

Posted:Nov 26 2010 04:55 PM

That was superb.

Like This

Soulgrit

Soul Music..... it's in the blood.

Great read John, Phil mentioned that you was gonna play a full hour n' a half set of RCA, so I stayed in the likkle room and it was superb,

In time when folks mention your all RCA set at Rugby I can say "I was there", well done .

Illya

Tape swappers fav

Posted:Nov 27 2010 01:26 PM

Great read, I wish I had shared the experience, I just love RCA production and the memories some of the tunes you played. I was 15 year old joined the Junior Marines in 1975 and in 1976 I bought a copy of Jumping at the Go Go in Exeter which I still have to day. I have taken this record all over the place, may be in cassette format later but when I play or here different tune I see faces and different places. I've been trying over the years collecting the the above LP on 45 but on RCA Wdj copies which seem easier to find than the black copies

Supercorsa

Ian Burse

Posted:Nov 30 2010 02:46 PM

Thanks for a great read.

MAK

In-Demander

Posted:Dec 01 2010 08:21 PM

Loved that , thanks.

purist

Semi known gem

Posted:Dec 02 2010 12:51 AM

Thanks for all the kind comments, it means a lot to me.

RCA, blimey, it was nearly an hour and a half of Pye Disco Demands !