The Greatest Record Finds Of All Time 2008

Saw Steve Glover a couple of weeks ago i bought some tiles of him for me bathroom he was going mad cause he cant find his Rufus Lumley red and white demo in among all the 1000's hes got.

Joe Matthews takes me back to 1986 when me and Andy Spencer went to Manships shop in King Street MM and got an issue each on Kool Kat £20 each

Thanks so much for a great thread: it's what a forum like this should be all about.

I agree completely and absolutely.

I agree completely and absolutely.

Same here. But what i find fascinating is that a lot of the 'classics' were found initially in the UK.

Just surreal to my mind.

Same here. But what i find fascinating is that a lot of the 'classics' were found initially in the UK.

Just surreal to my mind.

Completely surreal Tabs!

The stuff was everywhere! Sometimes a couple of us would just set off to different places, get there and just start hunting around - junk shops, record shops, wholesalers etc. You could almost certainly find U.S. imports throughout the country virtually anywhere in the early to mid 70's. Great hotspots were Nottingham - there used to be one road with loads of second-hand record shops and you could easily spend a day on just that one road. As covered in the Bradford Market thread, Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield & Huddersfield were ridiculously good because of the proximity of Bostocks - TONS of stuff came out of there and got wholesaled around the country as well, so you'd quite often bump into a Bradford Market load in Exeter or Southhampton or a loads of other unlikely places. Newcastle quite often had different stuff to anywhere else - there used to be a department store there which ordered from several different U.S. wholesalers so oddball stuff would end up there. Manchester had Global, so naturally tons of stuff around there. London had Record Corner, Contempo and Berwick St Market so EVERY trip to London would reap dividends. Brighton was phenomenal - lots of radio DJ's stuff because of the proximity to London. Birmingham had Reddington's and even Telford had a huge importer.

Bear in mind that the U.S. rightfully saw the U.K. as being a springboard to Europe so the UK would be the recipient of more stock then most European countries. The UK also had quite a sophisticated audience for U.S. Soul/RnB acts right from the 60's, so I guess it was natural that much of the stuff would flow to these shores.

Made for a happy time I gotta tell ya. I can even remember finding a junk shop in Batley, Yorkshire with literally tens of thousands of early 60's small U.S. labels which I never really bothered with because the stuff was too slow at the time. When the Stafford stuff started coming through I realised the wealth of stuff in that shop in Batley was sheer gold! But I was 200 miles away by then and the shop was probably long gone by then. But where did the records go????

I even stopped by a dodgy junk shop in Moss Side, Manchester and found a Dee & Joe on De-To and a Jo Ann Courcy on Twirl in a brown cardboard box!

They even used to have import 45's being given away as prizes at fun-fairs - probably from Bradford Market! Even Beanos in Croydon and Record & Tape Exchange in London were goldmines at one time. and packed with oddball U.S. 45's. Can't tell you the amount of We The People's I found in London in the 80's, when it was worth nowt LOL.....

Great UK hits are also worth talking about. Anyone remember the story about the guy who stumbled into John Abbey's (Blues & Soul's editor in the 70's) collection in the mid 70's after he's absconded to the U.S. with Tamiko Jones? Apparently his very pissed-off ex wife sold his entire collection to a second-hand record shop in Southport (?) and a driver from up North was making a delivery in Southport and popped into the shop.....

The story goes that he took one look at what was in the shop and immediately went to a branch of his bank in Southend, took out a loan on the spot and went back and bought EVERYTHING!

The best UK hit of all time apparently. John Abbey had UK promos of everything since the 60's AND all the U.S. record companies sent him stuff because of Blues & Soul. He'd already done the hard bit of collecting everything and then, by pure luck, a guy wanders into a shop and get's this phenomenal collection for circa 25p a record.

Can you imagine THAT hit? Mind boggling.

Pleasant Dreams!

Ian D

Not a US one but a short story on hunting for sounds in the UK following on from my earlier first visit to London story.

From early 1967 I become addicted to building up the best collection but with only earning £4/11s a week , wanting to club it most nights ,get to work etc.and I was suppose to give my parents 25/-it wasn't going to be easy.

I was lucky enough to work in a office in Manchester City Centre which put me within striking distance of all the record shops ,stalls or any other place selling records.I managed to wangle my job (without the bosses knowledge)so I could do the rounds of every shop apart from the new record shops mid morning ,mid afternoon and on my way home,so I had the best chance when they were putting new stuff out.

First call was Tony's record stall Shudehill he use to have recently released and older surplus stock next to him were book stalls who from time to time got records then onto another 7 or 8 outlets at full sprinting pace.

Saturdays took me all over the surrounding towns and eventually from !968 all over the country by bus train or whatever and in the evening doing trades etc. With the Wheel lads and can honestly say at that time 1967-71 I'd be surprised if anyone was putting in that effort.

one morning I found a full collection in Mazels a Manchester second hand music shop of about 150 sounds including a lot of the wheel classics Invitations ,Alexandra Patten,Incredibles Marvin Smith etc.managed to agree £12 for the lot.The same afternoon found a few demos such as Everybody Loves a goodtime,I'm Standing,Sweet thing etc. on a book stall and took a flyer on a handful of sounds that looked promising in Tibb Street records .

The problem was I'd left £2 deposit on the Mazels find and had to come up with the other tenner by close of business or he would put them back out ,at the time I was already a couple of hundred quid in debt but managed to blag it off a girlfriend who was looking after the office holiday club money.The icing on the cake that day was 2 of the records I took a flyer on was Mary Love on King and looking for you Garnett Mimms.

I use to have to beg steal borrow to fund a record junky lifestyle some of the results were my Dad finished up in court for not paying his Burtons account what I told him I was paying for him,half of the office had no holiday money when they come to draw it out, my Brothers programme and half his record collection disappeared without his permission my workmates scooter went missing ( mind you it was a vespa, I can't understand why he was so annoyed!) he did eventually get it back and I owed money to everyone else who knew me.

Then I started record lists,started DJ'ing at the Wheel got a part time window cleaning round and also had a part time number sorting thousands of records out upstairs in Ralphs Records but thats another story.

You bastard Ian this is hard work remembering and writing this down.

Regards Brian Phillips

I'd love to read Jon Andersons greatest three hits..

..........

I love talking to John about his finds, and have passed many a happy and pissed up hour with the great man.

I could write a book on my experiences but John could write a whole encyclapedia and he has such a great way of telling the tale too...

Chris.

Not a US one but a short story on hunting for sounds in the UK following on from my earlier first visit to London story.

From early 1967 I become addicted to building up the best collection but with only earning £4/11s a week , wanting to club it most nights ,get to work etc.and I was suppose to give my parents 25/-it wasn't going to be easy.

I was lucky enough to work in a office in Manchester City Centre which put me within striking distance of all the record shops ,stalls or any other place selling records.I managed to wangle my job (without the bosses knowledge)so I could do the rounds of every shop apart from the new record shops mid morning ,mid afternoon and on my way home,so I had the best chance when they were putting new stuff out.

First call was Tony's record stall Shudehill he use to have recently released and older surplus stock next to him were book stalls who from time to time got records then onto another 7 or 8 outlets at full sprinting pace.

Saturdays took me all over the surrounding towns and eventually from !968 all over the country by bus train or whatever and in the evening doing trades etc. With the Wheel lads and can honestly say at that time 1967-71 I'd be surprised if anyone was putting in that effort.

one morning I found a full collection in Mazels a Manchester second hand music shop of about 150 sounds including a lot of the wheel classics Invitations ,Alexandra Patten,Incredibles Marvin Smith etc.managed to agree £12 for the lot.The same afternoon found a few demos such as Everybody Loves a goodtime,I'm Standing,Sweet thing etc. on a book stall and took a flyer on a handful of sounds that looked promising in Tibb Street records .

The problem was I'd left £2 deposit on the Mazels find and had to come up with the other tenner by close of business or he would put them back out ,at the time I was already a couple of hundred quid in debt but managed to blag it off a girlfriend who was looking after the office holiday club money.The icing on the cake that day was 2 of the records I took a flyer on was Mary Love on King and looking for you Garnett Mimms.

I use to have to beg steal borrow to fund a record junky lifestyle some of the results were my Dad finished up in court for not paying his Burtons account what I told him I was paying for him,half of the office had no holiday money when they come to draw it out, my Brothers programme and half his record collection disappeared without his permission my workmates scooter went missing ( mind you it was a vespa, I can't understand why he was so annoyed!) he did eventually get it back and I owed money to everyone else who knew me.

Then I started record lists,started DJ'ing at the Wheel got a part time window cleaning round and also had a part time number sorting thousands of records out upstairs in Ralphs Records but thats another story.

You bastard Ian this is hard work remembering and writing this down.

Regards Brian Phillips

No mate, it's great!

I've done about 10K words so far in this thread alone, so don't start moaning!

Actually, if you're anything like me, some of these stories really get you thinking and you start remembering stuff you'd forgotten about years ago, so let's just call it "Vinyl Therapy" LOL....

Funny how we always remember the good hits though innit?

Lovely description of your financial woes at the time though. No wonder you were so careful when you did your list. Actually, I just remembered, I think you used to extend me a bit of credit from time to time if I remember rightly didn't you?

Always a pleasure to deal with you Mr Phillips! Many thanks and keep 'em coming dude.....

Ian D

I'd love to read Jon Andersons greatest three hits..

..........

I love talking to John about his finds, and have passed many a happy and pissed up hour with the great man.

I could write a book on my experiences but John could write a whole encyclapedia and he has such a great way of telling the tale too...

Chris.

Well, we need the bugger on here Chris! Can you give him a nudge?

I'd like to know when he started going to the U.S. and what stuff he had when he was running the list from Scotland. Also, he knows the infamous John Lamont quite well I think, so he's bound to have some great stories about hunting in Philly..........

Now THAT would be worth reading!

Ian D

No mate, it's great!

I've done about 10K words so far in this thread alone, so don't start moaning!

Actually, if you're anything like me, some of these stories really get you thinking and you start remembering stuff you'd forgotten about years ago, so let's just call it "Vinyl Therapy" LOL....

Funny how we always remember the good hits though innit?

Lovely description of your financial woes at the time though. No wonder you were so careful when you did your list. Actually, I just remembered, I think you used to extend me a bit of credit from time to time if I remember rightly didn't you?

Always a pleasure to deal with you Mr Phillips! Many thanks and keep 'em coming dude.....

Ian D

Ian,that day I described seem like being in heaven at the time,I could flog my guts out all wek and find nothing but the common club sounds what I struggled to get 5/- for but I couln't leave them for someone else to find could I?Then another week I could find boxes of stuff in the Co-ops around Manchester they had litteraly thousands of sounds over a period of time.

The real excitement for me was putting stuff you have never heard on the decks and it being a winner either after taking a flyer on stuff in the uk or when I use to get shipments from the US.

cheers Brian

Ian,that day I described seem like being in heaven at the time,I could flog my guts out all wek and find nothing but the common club sounds what I struggled to get 5/- for but I couln't leave them for someone else to find could I?Then another week I could find boxes of stuff in the Co-ops around Manchester they had litteraly thousands of sounds over a period of time.

The real excitement for me was putting stuff you have never heard on the decks and it being a winner either after taking a flyer on stuff in the uk or when I use to get shipments from the US.

cheers Brian

Well, that's the drug innit Bri?

It's that finding of the complete unknown that get's the brain's synapses popping. First it starts with the SMELL of old vinyl, then you get a weird feeling in your stomach - that gut feeling you have when you feel you're about to hit something good and then....

What the f&*k is THIS!!!!!

The Soul Connection featuring Angelo Bond? On Romark? "Don't Walk Away Baby"? Produced by James Gresham? Arranged by Miles Grayson?

A light sweat breaks out across your head and your heart starts pounding as you squint at the label credits......

Song written by Leonard Jewell Smith........

Bingo!

Ian D

Not a US one but a short story on hunting for sounds in the UK following on from my earlier first visit to London story.

Regards Brian Phillips

That was trific Brian, so glad you put the effort in.

Had my fair share of UK hits too.

Three that immediately spring to mind...

First was in the mid 70's, I got talking to a Rock & Roll dealer on a market stall in Nottinghamshire. Picked up a few bits off him, nothing too exciting, couple of bits on London (Ruby & Romantics etc. and a Charlie Rich "Love is after Me") for about 50pence each.

I told him I collected R&B, left him my phone number and asked him if he'd ever got anything else to let me know.

Less than two weeks later, he called me and said he'd acquired a 'Record Reviewers' collection and that there might be some things I'd be interested in. He'd taken out all the Rock asnd pop for his stall, but said I was welcome to take some of the 'Soul'ier' stuff of his hands.

I met him at his place in Sheffield. It was truly breathtaking. He'd over 10,000 UK 45's, in boxes all over the place. apparantley the 'Reviewer' had passed away and his Widow had sold my guy the entire collection.

Everything was stone Mint... all in original covers... and 99% of them were DEMO's.... Stateside, TMG's, Capitol, the whole nine yards...!

Needless to say, he wanted a reasonable price for them (he was a record dealer afer all) but I left with a pile of Stateside Red & Whites and Green & Whites .... Incredibles "Nothing Else To Say", O'Jays, "I Dig Your Act" "That's What I Want To Know" "What's Wrong With Me Baby" "Breakout" etc. piles of TMG's "Why When Love Is Gone" "My Weakness Is You" "Lonely Lonely Girl am I" "Little Darling" etc and stacks of other 'random' label things... PP Arnold "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" Jerry Jackson "It's Rough Out There" and about a dozen more choice pieces... for less than fifty quid!

Around the same time, I regularly used to visit a guy on a Market stall in Bawtry, picking up whatever Soul bits and pieces he had. Again, I made sure he had my telephone number to "call me first" if ever he dropped on any decent soul stuff.

Lo and behold, the call came one afternoon and he told me that he'd just bought a "Girlie / Group" collection off a guy and that I might be interested in some of what was in there, and I was getting 'first pick'.

I caught the train up to Leeds to see him the very next day. Can't begin to list the entire 50 - 60 pieces I came home with that day (all issues) but for starters:-

Mary Love - Bitter Into Sweet - King

Fascinations - Girls Are out To Get You - Stateside

Sapphires - Gotta Have your love - HMV

Barbara Mason - Keep Him - London

Bettye Swann - Make Me Yours - CBS

Chiffons - Nobody Knows - Stateside

Reperata & Delrons - Panic - Bell

Barbara Lynn - Water Running - London

Barbara Lewis - Hello Stranger - London

Kim Weston - I'm Still Loving You - TMG

Mary Wells (several) on Oriole

etc.

Next was a bit more recent... and probably the best.... about 6-7 years ago, I was at the office and on the phone to Steve Mannion... talking music... instead of working... as you do.

While we were chatting, I was also scouring eBay... (sorry Steve).... at which point Steve started asking me which I thought was the rarer... the UK or the US Alexander Patton "A Lil Lovin Sometimes".

Simultaneously, as we talked it over, without giving it much thought, I typed "Alexander Patton" into eBay...

... and found a Mint UK Demo sat in the Pop section for £12:00 on a "Buy It Now"...

...which of course I did, in a heartbeat.... without letting on to my buddy on the end of the phone.

Turned out the seller lived near Mansfield - about half an hour from my office - so I arranged, via email, to call and pick it up the next night!

En route, I phoned the guy and told him I was on my way. T'was then I asked him if he'd any other records for sale.

OMG. The young fella had an older sister... who, back in the mid 60's, used to date an EMI Rep.

Needless to say... he was a very generous bloke... as he'd given 'big sis' hundreds of records (in exchange for sweet kisses I guess) over the year or two they'd courted.

All I can say is she must have been very, very good at it! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Around midnight, I left the young guys house with the Biggest pile of UK Red & White demo's (HMV - Capitol - Stateside - TMG's) I'd seen since the '75 hit in Sheffield - MINT Red & White Motown - loads of early numbers, ("I Can't Help Myself" "How Sweet It Is" "Road Runner") "Can't Satisfy" on HMV "Lovers Reward" on Columbia and a few dozen other gorgeous Mint Statesides, Capitol 66, and, of course, the stunning Alexander Patton.

Which all goes to show, that when you're scouring those racks and boxes, it pays to push a little bit harder and ask to see more.

For years I made a habit of telling new acquaintances "I'm a Vinyl Archaeologist"

...and there's Gold in them there hills!

Sean

Ian,that day I described seem like being in heaven at the time,I could flog my guts out all wek and find nothing but the common club sounds what I struggled to get 5/- for but I couln't leave them for someone else to find could I?Then another week I could find boxes of stuff in the Co-ops around Manchester they had litteraly thousands of sounds over a period of time.

The real excitement for me was putting stuff you have never heard on the decks and it being a winner either after taking a flyer on stuff in the uk or when I use to get shipments from the US.

cheers Brian

Yeah can vaguely remember a few Co-ops stocking a few sounds. What does come to mind though was Woolworths! Not so much on the singles front but can remember circa 1971ish they stocked a Soul city lp with Gene chandler, Chris jackson etc on. Very strange it just seemed to be a one off run mixed in with Top of the pops albums and the like. Think it was before they even bothered to put albums in categories.then about 6 months later they sneaked in a couple more ,this time 'Motown' lp's one had ghost in my house on and the other(think it was motown although it was blue i think!) had tell me its just a rumour baby on. Again these appeared out of the blue in between rows of middle of the road stuff (literally!).Was the record buyer for Woolworths a secret Northern fan. Maybe this was the start of the cashing in on Northen soul for the masses . I don't know but Woolworths was always 'safe' and this seemed pretty radical at the time. remember lads just going on Woolworth 'hunts' in different towns and snapping up these albums. Not sure if they if they had their own Album charts at the time based on sales but these could have been up there challenging with Zappa and Beefheart that was popular with some folks at the time. Do you think Woolworths actually knew what they were and were they testing the market? Just an idle thought lads

This thread has been fantastic reading and is getting addictive like looking for the bloody sounds itself SOME GREAT UK ONES THERE SEAN.

What people may not realise about a lot of the clasic UK Northern tracks was that the older guys like Roger Eagle and Guy Stevens would have played these when they were new releases but by 1968 -69 they had got forgotten.A lot of the older guys had moved on from clubs like the Wheel to more upmarket nightclubs which sold booze,so we were rediscovering a lot of the sounds many of the classic of the day I bought without hearing them first but you'd heard of them in conversation with older guys.

Anyway talking of demos I remember getting a load from the Daily Express what their reviewers were dumping mainly loads of EMI stuff circa 1968-69 my brother worked there and told me they had a load of stuff got it all for treating him to a few drinks in Yates accross the road.

It was funny back then some people didn't like demos and didn't place the same value on them I couldn't get enough of 'em.

Regards Brian

Yeah can vaguely remember a few Co-ops stocking a few sounds. What does come to mind though was Woolworths! Not so much on the singles front but can remember circa 1971ish they stocked a Soul city lp with Gene chandler, Chris jackson etc on. Very strange it just seemed to be a one off run mixed in with Top of the pops albums and the like. Think it was before they even bothered to put albums in categories.then about 6 months later they sneaked in a couple more ,this time 'Motown' lp's one had ghost in my house on and the other(think it was motown although it was blue i think!) had tell me its just a rumour baby on. Again these appeared out of the blue in between rows of middle of the road stuff (literally!).Was the record buyer for Woolworths a secret Northern fan. Maybe this was the start of the cashing in on Northen soul for the masses . I don't know but Woolworths was always 'safe' and this seemed pretty radical at the time. remember lads just going on Woolworth 'hunts' in different towns and snapping up these albums. Not sure if they if they had their own Album charts at the time based on sales but these could have been up there challenging with Zappa and Beefheart that was popular with some folks at the time. Do you think Woolworths actually knew what they were and were they testing the market? Just an idle thought lads

At the start of 1971 , I moved to South Yorkshire , and was working in the centre of Sheffield . The local branch of Boots near to me , had a small record section , which was crammed with UK released Motown albums in the sale racks .......

Needless to say , I did my duty as a consumer , and bought them ..........

Malc Burton

That was trific Brian, so glad you put the effort in.

Had my fair share of UK hits too.

Three that immediately spring to mind...

First was in the mid 70's, I got talking to a Rock & Roll dealer on a market stall in Nottinghamshire. Picked up a few bits off him, nothing too exciting, couple of bits on London (Ruby & Romantics etc. and a Charlie Rich "Love is after Me") for about 50pence each.

I told him I collected R&B, left him my phone number and asked him if he'd ever got anything else to let me know.

Less than two weeks later, he called me and said he'd acquired a 'Record Reviewers' collection and that there might be some things I'd be interested in. He'd taken out all the Rock asnd pop for his stall, but said I was welcome to take some of the 'Soul'ier' stuff of his hands.

I met him at his place in Sheffield. It was truly breathtaking. He'd over 10,000 UK 45's, in boxes all over the place. apparantley the 'Reviewer' had passed away and his Widow had sold my guy the entire collection.

Everything was stone Mint... all in original covers... and 99% of them were DEMO's.... Stateside, TMG's, Capitol, the whole nine yards...!

Needless to say, he wanted a reasonable price for them (he was a record dealer afer all) but I left with a pile of Stateside Red & Whites and Green & Whites .... Incredibles "Nothing Else To Say", O'Jays, "I Dig Your Act" "That's What I Want To Know" "What's Wrong With Me Baby" "Breakout" etc. piles of TMG's "Why When Love Is Gone" "My Weakness Is You" "Lonely Lonely Girl am I" "Little Darling" etc and stacks of other 'random' label things... PP Arnold "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" Jerry Jackson "It's Rough Out There" and about a dozen more choice pieces... for less than fifty quid!

Around the same time, I regularly used to visit a guy on a Market stall in Bawtry, picking up whatever Soul bits and pieces he had. Again, I made sure he had my telephone number to "call me first" if ever he dropped on any decent soul stuff.

Lo and behold, the call came one afternoon and he told me that he'd just bought a "Girlie / Group" collection off a guy and that I might be interested in some of what was in there, and I was getting 'first pick'.

I caught the train up to Leeds to see him the very next day. Can't begin to list the entire 50 - 60 pieces I came home with that day (all issues) but for starters:-

Mary Love - Bitter Into Sweet - King

Fascinations - Girls Are out To Get You - Stateside

Sapphires - Gotta Have your love - HMV

Barbara Mason - Keep Him - London

Bettye Swann - Make Me Yours - CBS

Chiffons - Nobody Knows - Stateside

Reperata & Delrons - Panic - Bell

Barbara Lynn - Water Running - London

Barbara Lewis - Hello Stranger - London

Kim Weston - I'm Still Loving You - TMG

Mary Wells (several) on Oriole

etc.

Next was a bit more recent... and probably the best.... about 6-7 years ago, I was at the office and on the phone to Steve Mannion... talking music... instead of working... as you do.

While we were chatting, I was also scouring eBay... (sorry Steve).... at which point Steve started asking me which I thought was the rarer... the UK or the US Alexander Patton "A Lil Lovin Sometimes".

Simultaneously, as we talked it over, without giving it much thought, I typed "Alexander Patton" into eBay...

... and found a Mint UK Demo sat in the Pop section for £12:00 on a "Buy It Now"...

...which of course I did, in a heartbeat.... without letting on to my buddy on the end of the phone.

Turned out the seller lived near Mansfield - about half an hour from my office - so I arranged, via email, to call and pick it up the next night!

En route, I phoned the guy and told him I was on my way. T'was then I asked him if he'd any other records for sale.

OMG. The young fella had an older sister... who, back in the mid 60's, used to date an EMI Rep.

Needless to say... he was a very generous bloke... as he'd given 'big sis' hundreds of records (in exchange for sweet kisses I guess) over the year or two they'd courted.

All I can say is she must have been very, very good at it! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Around midnight, I left the young guys house with the Biggest pile of UK Red & White demo's (HMV - Capitol - Stateside - TMG's) I'd seen since the '75 hit in Sheffield - MINT Red & White Motown - loads of early numbers, ("I Can't Help Myself" "How Sweet It Is" "Road Runner") "Can't Satisfy" on HMV "Lovers Reward" on Columbia and a few dozen other gorgeous Mint Statesides, Capitol 66, and, of course, the stunning Alexander Patton.

Which all goes to show, that when you're scouring those racks and boxes, it pays to push a little bit harder and ask to see more.

For years I made a habit of telling new acquaintances "I'm a Vinyl Archaeologist"

...and there's Gold in them there hills!

Sean

"Needless to say, he wanted a reasonable price for them (he was a record dealer afer all) but I left with a pile of Stateside Red & Whites and Green & Whites .... Incredibles "Nothing Else To Say", O'Jays, "I Dig Your Act" "That's What I Want To Know" "What's Wrong With Me Baby" "Breakout" etc. piles of TMG's "Why When Love Is Gone" "My Weakness Is You" "Lonely Lonely Girl am I" "Little Darling" etc and stacks of other 'random' label things... PP Arnold "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" Jerry Jackson "It's Rough Out There" and about a dozen more choice pieces... for less than fifty quid"!

'Vinyl Archaeologist'! Brilliant Sean. Great stuff - the kind of hits which make it all worthwhile

These stories actually reminded me of a few UK hits around '77/'78. At this time I was a promotion guy for Decca and Richard Searling was a promotion guy for RCA, so we'd quite often see each other on the road in our daytime jobs and we'd (very cautiously) exchange stories about our latest finds. Richard had a couple of great hits via BBC Radio Sheffield and BBC Radio Leeds - the BBC Radio Stations in those days got mailed everything and had been on mailing lists since the early 60's, so you just never knew what would be in their libraries. Richard had great relationships with Liz from Radio Sheffield and Simon from Radio Leeds and consequently managed to be there when they were both 'having a clearout'. I think he cleaned up on both occasions!

I also seem to remember Richard getting the 'first' copy Frankie & Johnny's "I'll Hold You" on UK Decca from Billy Butler @ Radio Merseyside when it was completely unknown. Jammy bugger.

I managed to have a hit via Rick from the old Phonogram office in Leeds when he had a clearout and I got some killer mint promos - not quite up to Sean's standard but still OK - a Levi Jackson on Capital and Baltimore & Ohio Marching Band on Stateside promo spring to mind.

There is more of this stuff still around I'm sure. Bear in mind that a few hundred promos were pressed of everything in the 60's and then distributed to all the BBC stations and the main DJ's at the time and most of BBC worldwide stations as well. Which means that there's a pretty good chance of rare UK records turning up in former colonial countries which had a BBC station! That next hit could well be in India, Australia or even Gibralter. Food for thought.

I think that there is a great likelihood of some great stuff still being in lofts and garages from former record company promotion men, DJ's and record reviewers.

Does anyone remember the Alexandria Palais Charity record fair in the late 70's? The place was packed with 100's of 1000's of records which had been donated from record companies and other donators. A absolute paradise! Everyone I know cleaned up there. There were literally so many records that everybody found something!

Great stories Sean! That's EXACTLY the action of a true vinyl hound.

Gotta admit that Vinyl Archaoelogist has a lovely ring to it!

Keep 'em coming lads....

Ian D

Yeah can vaguely remember a few Co-ops stocking a few sounds. What does come to mind though was Woolworths! Not so much on the singles front but can remember circa 1971ish they stocked a Soul city lp with Gene chandler, Chris jackson etc on. Very strange it just seemed to be a one off run mixed in with Top of the pops albums and the like. Think it was before they even bothered to put albums in categories.then about 6 months later they sneaked in a couple more ,this time 'Motown' lp's one had ghost in my house on and the other(think it was motown although it was blue i think!) had tell me its just a rumour baby on. Again these appeared out of the blue in between rows of middle of the road stuff (literally!).Was the record buyer for Woolworths a secret Northern fan. Maybe this was the start of the cashing in on Northen soul for the masses . I don't know but Woolworths was always 'safe' and this seemed pretty radical at the time. remember lads just going on Woolworth 'hunts' in different towns and snapping up these albums. Not sure if they if they had their own Album charts at the time based on sales but these could have been up there challenging with Zappa and Beefheart that was popular with some folks at the time. Do you think Woolworths actually knew what they were and were they testing the market? Just an idle thought lads

Brilliant Jez!

Your mention of the R. Dean Taylor album reminded me of another great story which has been printed elsewhere but I'll repeat it for this thread.

When Levine came back from of his frequent U.S. trips we all used to get on the phone to him to see what he'd found. On this particular trip the buzz was that he's found a Holland-Dozier-Holland written Northern stomper by R. Dean Taylor, so I rang him to get the lowdown. Ian was predictably bullish - "it's vintage Motown, written by Holland-Dozier-Holland by R. Dean Taylor on V.I.P. and it's called "There's A Ghost In My House" and it's the greatest Northern Soul record of all time! I found just the one copy and I've never seen it before in my life, so it must be ultra-rare".

The buzz without anyone even hearing it was massive, so EVERYONE went to the Mecca that Saturday, just to hear this new R.Dean Taylor record.

And it was just indescribably brilliant. The demand for the track on the first night it was ever played was so huge that Levine had to play it 6 times!

Overnight it became the most-wanted record in the country and all of us were chasing up any U.S. leads we had to try and track another copy down.

And...........nothing.

No one could turn up a copy - not even the key dealers at the time. It was exactly the same as the demand for Frank Wilson several years later!

This went on for weeks and weeks and the buzz just grew and grew. The Mecca's audience went right up just from people travelling numerous miles just to hear this one record!

Very frustrating for us DJ's. The No.1 Northern Soul record in the country could only be heard at the Mecca and we were all desperate to get a copy.

Anyway, a couple of weeks later I'd spent a night @ the Mecca, then the Casino and the talk in the downstairs bar was almost exclusively about "There's A Ghost In My House". "It CAN'T be rare, 'cos it's a Motown label", "there must be hundreds of 'em somewhere", "I bet Levine found loads and destroyed the rest" etc, etc, etc.

Anyway, on the trek home from Wigan we stopped @ Woolley Edge Services on the M62 for a coffee. I wandered into the shop to get a Sunday newspaper and as I bent down to get one I almost collided with a free-standing swivel rack of Music For Pleasure budget-price albums. We usually ignored these racks since they were often full of "Top Of The Pops" albums, Classical and Easy Listening stuff etc, so nothing for a soul hound.

But something caught my eye and in the periphery of my vision I caught an album sleeve which reminded me of the U.S. Motown label because it had a map on the front, which was weird in itself....

It was a budget-price compilation of R. Dean Taylor called "Indiana Wants Me" on a label called Music For Pleasure - the sleeve had a map of Indiana on the front and obviously was cashing in on his early 70's UK hits with "Indiana Wants Me" and "Gotta See Jane".....

I flipped the album over out of curiosity and had a glance at the track listing.........

And there, buried away on side two, was "There's A Ghost In My House".

The No.1 record in the country, of which there was only one known copy, turned out to be in every newsagent and service station in the UK!

The strange world of Northern Soul.

Ian D

Just like to add my thanks for all who have taken the time to share these great stories, so well coordinated (and cajoled) by Ian. I've never even been stateside, so can only admire the drive of these pioneers bringing back such fantastic pieces of history to indulge in. I used to wait for my mate to come back from Wigan with all the top sounds, played on his old record player. Then I went myself when I was a bit older (around 1976), just amazing.

The thrills must have been something else, the only buzz I've had is getting a great deal on ebay, finding something (rarely) that many have missed down to seller ignorance usually. like my great copy of Dee Clark - That's My Girl - $6.60 etc. A great feeeling when it was in the bag, nothing though . . .

Keep 'em coming Soul Pimps, cos this has something I've been reading in a little corner of my office PC and has brought many a chuckle and smile to some pretty dull days of late. Ian, put me down for the book please

Best

Dave.

Brilliant Jez!

Your mention of the R. Dean Taylor album reminded me of another great story which has been printed elsewhere but I'll repeat it for this thread.

When Levine came back from of his frequent U.S. trips we all used to get on the phone to him to see what he'd found. On this particular trip the buzz was that he's found a Holland-Dozier-Holland written Northern stomper by R. Dean Taylor, so I rang him to get the lowdown. Ian was predictably bullish - "it's vintage Motown, written by Holland-Dozier-Holland by R. Dean Taylor on V.I.P. and it's called "There's A Ghost In My House" and it's the greatest Northern Soul record of all time! I found just the one copy and I've never seen it before in my life, so it must be ultra-rare".

The buzz without anyone even hearing it was massive, so EVERYONE went to the Mecca that Saturday, just to hear this new R.Dean Taylor record.

And it was just indescribably brilliant. The demand for the track on the first night it was ever played was so huge that Levine had to play it 6 times!

Overnight it became the most-wanted record in the country and all of us were chasing up any U.S. leads we had to try and track another copy down.

And...........nothing.

No one could turn up a copy - not even the key dealers at the time. It was exactly the same as the demand for Frank Wilson several years later!

This went on for weeks and weeks and the buzz just grew and grew. The Mecca's audience went right up just from people travelling numerous miles just to hear this one record!

Very frustrating for us DJ's. The No.1 Northern Soul record in the country could only be heard at the Mecca and we were all desperate to get a copy.

Anyway, a couple of weeks later I'd spent a night @ the Mecca, then the Casino and the talk in the downstairs bar was almost exclusively about "There's A Ghost In My House". "It CAN'T be rare, 'cos it's a Motown label", "there must be hundreds of 'em somewhere", "I bet Levine found loads and destroyed the rest" etc, etc, etc.

Anyway, on the trek home from Wigan we stopped @ Woolley Edge Services on the M62 for a coffee. I wandered into the shop to get a Sunday newspaper and as I bent down to get one I almost collided with a free-standing swivel rack of Music For Pleasure budget-price albums. We usually ignored these racks since they were often full of "Top Of The Pops" albums, Classical and Easy Listening stuff etc, so nothing for a soul hound.

But something caught my eye and in the periphery of my vision I caught an album sleeve which reminded me of the U.S. Motown label because it had a map on the front, which was weird in itself....

It was a budget-price compilation of R. Dean Taylor called "Indiana Wants Me" on a label called Music For Pleasure - the sleeve had a map of Indiana on the front and obviously was cashing in on his early 70's UK hits with "Indiana Wants Me" and "Gotta See Jane".....

I flipped the album over out of curiosity and had a glance at the track listing.........

And there, buried away on side two, was "There's A Ghost In My House".

The No.1 record in the country, of which there was only one known copy, turned out to be in every newsagent and service station in the UK!

The strange world of Northern Soul.

Ian D

Ah yes Ian, that jogs the memory a bit. It was An MFP label and I think thats where I got the blue in colour from.

Yes i heard it first at the Mecca and you are right the place was electric around that period and like you said attendances were up probably because of that.

Just to digress a touch. Around the time of discovering the album a few lads down our way who ran mobile discos and put on soul nights in village halls ,youth clubs (and wherever people would listen ) cottoned on to this and I can remember one of the lads saying since I got this(the R.Dean Taylor MFP) its been bloody heaving cos I was going to pack it in ' its too much hassle this DJ lark . have you got any more like this in yer box. Well it just so happens..................

Allow me a further digression for amusement purposes if you will(R Dean Taylor related). A mate of our crowd who was a cracking lad but rather eccentric was convinced that blue eyed soul as we know was the next big thing. He always said 'Its got that beat Jez ,i'ts got that beat. White men have got that beat as well'

Anyway we never argued too much with him and let him carry on his merry way,then one day he come round our house buzzing like f**k. Have you heard this mate. The f**ker put on me record player Cracklin rose by Neil Diamond ' 'Tip top this is brother' ! and i couldn't convince him otherwise. Anyway that Saturday about 3.00am(place was jumping as you can imagine) at the Torch he went up on the stage to Keith Minshull before I could stop him and asked for f**king Neil diamond.!!!!!!!! Oh did we cringe (and no he didn't have it!)

anyway undeterred he came round our house the following week with a brand spanking copy on Decca of the Dr Who theme and said check this out 'It's got that beat '. Anyway I couldn't deny it had something!

Gradually he sort of left the scene and moved out of town only 'bout 20 miles or so away and guess what....... he had caught 3 different buses to my house knocked on my door proudly proclaiming' I f**king told yer so. I knew I was right. I knew it had summat brother. Guess what he shoved in front of my face with his sweaty mitts ............................Yes you guessed it bloody R .Dean Taylor on MFP.

Strange world of northern soul indeed Ian

Apologies for that little aside lads(thought it might lighten a Fri pm at work

Yeah can vaguely remember a few Co-ops stocking a few sounds. What does come to mind though was Woolworths! Not so much on the singles front but can remember circa 1971ish they stocked a Soul city lp with Gene chandler, Chris jackson etc on. Very strange it just seemed to be a one off run mixed in with Top of the pops albums and the like. Think it was before they even bothered to put albums in categories.then about 6 months later they sneaked in a couple more ,this time 'Motown' lp's one had ghost in my house on and the other(think it was motown although it was blue i think!) had tell me its just a rumour baby on. Again these appeared out of the blue in between rows of middle of the road stuff (literally!).Was the record buyer for Woolworths a secret Northern fan. Maybe this was the start of the cashing in on Northen soul for the masses . I don't know but Woolworths was always 'safe' and this seemed pretty radical at the time. remember lads just going on Woolworth 'hunts' in different towns and snapping up these albums. Not sure if they if they had their own Album charts at the time based on sales but these could have been up there challenging with Zappa and Beefheart that was popular with some folks at the time. Do you think Woolworths actually knew what they were and were they testing the market? Just an idle thought lads

Talking of Woolworths, when I moved to Dudley, about 25 years ago, I was staggered to find the local Woolworths had multiple copies of the 'This Is Loma' series of albums. Of the seven albums in the series they had them all except Vol 2, and they were only £1 each. I bought quite a few albums that day

It was a budget-price compilation of R. Dean Taylor called "Indiana Wants Me" on a label called Music For Pleasure - the sleeve had a map of Indiana on the front

it's actually a drawing of him. had the LP for months (years?) before i noticed...

BTW.... Apart from that particular trip, I reckon You and Tats would be able to make some pretty awesome contributions to this thread... don't you?

As tats has now retired, it looks like he'll be putting it all down on paper at some point and using that English A level grade1 he always talks about, I think he paid Roose to sit the exam for him

Bully, Sean and Tats--I've got photos from the trip when I can find them in the basement in Washington, now i'd like to get all the copies of Nolan Porter that bully left down there !

Rob

"Bully, Sean and Tats--I've got photos from the trip when I can find them in the basement in Washington, now i'd like to get all the copies of Nolan Porter that bully left down there !"

Rob

FAMOUS QUOTES ROB !

"Bully don't carry all them back mate, you'll never fookin' Get Rid O THEM" (even at 25 cents each)

Top Advice That Tats!

Mind You, between you lot, You ain't Steered Me Wrong Wi' Much Else

...there's a pretty good chance of rare UK records turning up in former colonial countries which had a BBC station! That next hit could well be in India, Australia or even Gibralter. Food for thought.

Queue the stories I could spin about the last four years of living and serious disc-digging...in Japan...the final frontier for Rare Soul collecting?!

Totemo sugoi ne?!

OK Mel 'Black County' Brat. Point taken LOL...

Interesting point about the Tuff stuff reaching the Black Country first. Why was that? And where did Max get that Little Joe Roman from?

Questions, questions.....

And I'm gonna take the credit for Lou Pride early plays. I bought it from Bob from Louth on a very foggy night back in '74 I think - maybe Bob can confirm the date - it was a Thursday night Northern do in Lincolnshire and there weren't many of them back then. I think I paid Bob £4 for it. I knew it would be a monster from the second I heard it but the title threw me slightly. What the hell was that all about? "I'm Com'un Home In The Morn'un"? Weird.

I remember the night well - especially coming back from the gig. I'd set off with my then flatemate, Kelly, from Hudderfield and it was a LONG journey in those days. Getting there wasn't too bad but I wasn't looking forward to driving back in the middle of the night - too much room for error in my opinion. We got about 30 miles into some serious country 'b' roads and actually passed a hitch-hiker at around 2.30am, literally in the middle of nowhere. We didn't stop 'cos he must have been a weirdo!

Driving along those long straight country roads @ 60mph @ 2.00am in the morning in deep fog meant that I missed a blind 90 degree left turn and went literally flying into a freshly ploughed field. Kelly and I got out and started trying to move the car but it was up to it's hubs in deep, sticky, freshly-ploughed mud and no matter how much I revved, the wheels just kept on spinning and only managed to send a huge wave of mud over Kelly. About 20 minutes later, the 'weirdo' hitch-hiker suddenly appeared out of the fog and offered to give us a hand in return for a lift. Turns out he wasn't a weirdo after all but just a guy who'd missed his last bus and decided to walk 25 miles. We used to do things like that in those days LOL...

Between the three of us we eventually managed to get the car back on the road. There was little collateral damage apart from wounded pride and a carful of mud. We dropped the hitch-hiker off and continued through the night eventually getting back to Huddersfield at 4.30am on Friday morning. Just time to have a cuppa, scrape the mud off our shoes, whack our clothes in the washer, get a bath, clean down the car both inside and out and.....leave for work!

So, with the best will in the world Mel, there is no way I'd ever forget the night I bought "I'm Com'un Home In The Morn'un".

Never has a title seemed so apt.

Ian D

Ian , I was with Rob that night and I'm sure it was at a place called 'THE GABLES' Theddlethorpe (Nr.Mablethorpe) , were you

doing the 'NORTHERN SOUL ROADSHOW' or was that a different time ? (If you were I nicked a big F-Off poster which I still have somewhere)

It must have been 74 ish , anyway great thread , I'll shut up and carry on being as jealous as f**k ( How come I can't remember what

I did yesterday !!!! Who am I?)

SWIFTY

Yep, I remember him well. Very shy and he think he had a stammer which obviously inhibited him but, boy, he knew his records and always had great spares, most likely from Global.

He was also the first person I heard play Al Kent's "The Way You've Been Acting Lately" - a giant of a record by any standards.

Wonder if he's still about?

Ian D

Hi Ian, Rick Cooper is still around, I see him quite often he is a good friend of mine, he lives in Stockport which is where I used to live, I now live in Denbigh, North Wales so I don't see him quite as often as I used too. Like you say Rick is very shy and if you didn't know better you wouldn't have a clue of his contribution.

Anyway it has been said many times on this thread but this is seriously the best thread I have ever read on Soul Source and great repsect to everyone who has contributed with their great stories about record hunting, my hunting has been restricted to the UK so is nowhere near as interesting as the USA trips that have featured. My finds in the UK have been The Chants "Baby I don't need your love" nice RCA issue plus lots of other RCA stuff but none of the major stuff from Mazels in Manchester, I also found 20 copies each of Eric & The Vikings "I'm truly yours" Gordy demo's, 10 copies of "Hurt" by The Victors on Philips Issue's and 20 copies of "The Penguin Breakdown" L.J.Reynolds on Avco all from the same junk shop in Ardwick, Manchester all for 5p each. I also found a Chuck Cockerham "Have I got the right" on Mala on Ashton market for 20p. I also had a fairly nice find whilst on holiday in Axminster a few years back, I found this music instrument shop whilst I was doing the usual good husband routine of waiting outside the shop that my wife was looking in,anyway I popped in to have a look at the guitars which I have always been fond of being the only instrument I could play a few chords on anyway while in the shop I noticed some racks of LP's and next to them singles, there was some great UK Tamla Motown issues all in pristine condition for £1 each, stuff like "You" Marvin Gaye, "Why when love is gone" The Isley Brothers, "Some things you never get used to" Diana Ross & The Supremes, "One way out" Martha & The Vandellas, "My weakness is you" Edwin Starr and many more including some nice Reggae which is still a major love of mine, infact in my apprentice collecting days I used to spend my school dinner money on reggae tunes that where in massive skips in the main Co-op store in Mersey square Stockport, there was very little soul in there except for the some of the obvious soul records that came out on regaae labels such as Jimmy James "Help yourself" on Trojan, Jackie Edwards "I must go back", Glenn Miller "Where is the love" on Doctor Bird and Laurel Aitken stuff on Nu Beat. Finally I wish I had the contacts and spare cash I have now 30 years ago I would loved to have a crack at trying to find stuff in the states.

Krep this thread going I love it, there must plenty more stories to come yet, your own stories Ian are amazing you certainly have had some fun and some hair raising moments but i suppose you have get into the dangerous areas to find the shops or bizaars that have the records.

Regards

Alan

it's actually a drawing of him. had the LP for months (years?) before i noticed...

Blimey!

Dementia is finally creaping in on me by the looks of it Michael.

It's all downhill from here mate.

But did the drawing of his face look a little like a map?

Does R. Dean Taylor's face look like a map of Indiana, or was it just creative revision on my part?

You're right mate! It was a map-like characature of R. Dean Taylor's face wasn't it?

Anyone got a scan to put me out of my misery?

Rockin' thread. Thanks to all!

Ian D

Blimey!

Dementia is finally creaping in on me by the looks of it Michael.

It's all downhill from here mate.

But did the drawing of his face look a little like a map?

Does R. Dean Taylor's face look like a map of Indiana, or was it just creative revision on my part?

You're right mate! It was a map-like characature of R. Dean Taylor's face wasn't it?

Anyone got a scan to put me out of my misery?

Rockin' thread. Thanks to all!

Ian D

On the 'Ghost' front, lets not forget the flipside of the 45 became MASSIVE too!

1st off.....please keep this thread going.It is compulsive reading.Better than any novel you take on holiday......

Dont know if this applies coz its not staeside......but Holland,anyway.

2 years ago I had to very quickly visit Dordrecht,lovely place,all canals,cute alleyways,and parks.On my second day i said to my nephew(he who lived there) if he knew of any shops selling 45s,LPs etc."i will ask in college tomorrow" says he.....next day he says "yes there is,i,ll take you"........So you go along not expecting owt,but thinking it will pass an hour or two.

The shop was actually an antique store,old,musty,cobwebs every where,you get the picture.The old guy running the shop led me to an annexe with two pasting tables (well thats what they looked like) with boxes of 45s lined up on them..............After 45 minutes of looking through evry European country artist ever i started to think this is a waste of time,and the smell of the place was starting to get to me,i kid you not.

At this my nephew comes back for me to go home,when he says "have you looked at that box under there"......lo and behold under the table is one shoe box with 45s in.Now this box was actuallly sitting in cat shit.......so that was the smell...inside the box (untouched by the cat shit) was over 40 Dutch picture bags,all mint,of 4 Tops,Temptations,Supremes,chuck Jackson,Impressions,Tammi Lynn.....the list goes on.

Now the blood is pumping a little and i,m thinking how much are these going to cost me.So i asked my nephew to have a word with the shop owner (he didnt speak a word of English) and he comes back to me and says 25 Euros........Bingo......result.

And thats my only ever find after 30yrs..........and twice a year my nephew pops into the shop..just to make sure.

On the 'Ghost' front, lets not forget the flipside of the 45 became MASSIVE too!

Tell you what's weird though Sean.

The first U.S. V.I.P promos of "Ghost" were white label promos with "Ghost" on both sides weren't they?

Yet the scan shows a normal V.I.P. issue but with promo label copy on it.

Were there two lots of promos on "Ghost" then?

Bit of a mystery to me. Can someone explain?

Also whilst checking on this I just found a copy on Rare Earth!!!!???? See attached scan. Where's this one from then?

Boy, it just never stops does it........? Such fascination with a record.

I seem to be coming down with CVD - 'Compulsive Vinyl Disorder' again. Took me 30 bloody years to kick it, then a few months of Soul Source and I'm infected again!

Ian D

This thread has got me thinking about communication problems and the anticipation of a great find.

I can remember often being woken in the middle of the night by the sound of my fax going off and in anticipation of another find in the US and would have to get up and see what was going on. I would sit there and watch as page after page would slowly roll out. I can also recall being phoned very late one night from a contact in the US who was so exited about a haul he had purchased. "I have so much stuff you had better come over he said, there is way too much to list". Now my memory is shot as far as titles are concerned but I do remember him saying that it was nearly all soul and there was some great Madonna in there. I said "forget the Madonna stuff and tell me about the soul", he started of with titles that were known to him like Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye ect and kept going off beam and waffling on about Madonna and Elvis, very frustrating, it took me ages to get him back on track. I remember sitting there as if I was listening for my lottery winning numbers to come up as each title was read out, every now and then he would say who is J.R Bailey and there's one here by a Mike James Kirkland and then back on to farkin Elvis. Took me hours to go through it all, I was obviously concerned that he may not bother telling me about the lesser-known artists. I did not make a specific trip to see the load but when I did go over there I went to see him and there was still plenty of stuff that he had never bothered to read out, after all it these were just $1 records to him.

The problem was that in those days most of this stuff was junk to US dealers therefore it was always tucked out of the way in a basement or in a garage. In trying to think of an equivalent and I can only think that it must be like people coming to the UK and looking for Teletubbies records.

If you went to a record fair hardly any of the dealers would have any soul with them so you had to enquire if they had any soul at home? Everyone would say yes and give you a great tale about how much stuff they had, again communication problems about when they were going to be in ect would more often than not lead to just having to give it a miss.

I remember one guy said he had a store in Passaic NJ with all soul, LPs, 12" and 45s, he said he used to be a DJ and there were loads of promos. He told us where it was and when he would be there, the first trip I made to the store it was closed. The windows were frosted to about half way up so if you stood on tiptoe you could see inside and it looked a mess with records everywhere but it looked good as far as pickings were concerned. After about 4 trips there I gave up as he was never there nor did he answer his phone.

There were plenty of impromptu finds like when I took a walk down Canal Street in New York, there were plenty of stores that looked like £1 shops just packed with a bit of everything, all of them had music in one form or another. Some goods finds but again communication problem would bring proceedings to a halt as most store owners were Korean and asking if they had any more at home or in the basement, well forget it.

Following on from finding stuff in this country. I live in Beckenham in SE London and in the 70s there was this small second hand record shop that sold all cut outs, they were, if I remember between .75p - £1. I was not into selling then, shame.

Get working on that book Ian.

Would love to see some photos of the finds.

1st off.....please keep this thread going.It is compulsive reading.Better than any novel you take on holiday......

Dont know if this applies coz its not staeside......but Holland,anyway.

2 years ago I had to very quickly visit Dordrecht,lovely place,all canals,cute alleyways,and parks.On my second day i said to my nephew(he who lived there) if he knew of any shops selling 45s,LPs etc."i will ask in college tomorrow" says he.....next day he says "yes there is,i,ll take you"........So you go along not expecting owt,but thinking it will pass an hour or two.

The shop was actually an antique store,old,musty,cobwebs every where,you get the picture.The old guy running the shop led me to an annexe with two pasting tables (well thats what they looked like) with boxes of 45s lined up on them..............After 45 minutes of looking through evry European country artist ever i started to think this is a waste of time,and the smell of the place was starting to get to me,i kid you not.

At this my nephew comes back for me to go home,when he says "have you looked at that box under there"......lo and behold under the table is one shoe box with 45s in.Now this box was actuallly sitting in cat shit.......so that was the smell...inside the box (untouched by the cat shit) was over 40 Dutch picture bags,all mint,of 4 Tops,Temptations,Supremes,chuck Jackson,Impressions,Tammi Lynn.....the list goes on.

Now the blood is pumping a little and i,m thinking how much are these going to cost me.So i asked my nephew to have a word with the shop owner (he didnt speak a word of English) and he comes back to me and says 25 Euros........Bingo......result.

And thats my only ever find after 30yrs..........and twice a year my nephew pops into the shop..just to make sure.

LOL. Nice one Welshruss!

It just shows you it can happen anyplace, anytime mate. And holidays can be the real surprises. You're relaxed, beginning to unwind from the stresses of life and you're in a new place with lots of leisure time on your hands. Perfect conditions for an easy going vinyl hunt.

So, as per usual, here's another example since you've now bounced me into holiday mode. Last July when it was pissing down in torrents in the UK as it had all Summer, I got incredibly depressed and just wanted to go somewhere else. Anywhere would do as long as there was some sun knocking around. Just then, Mike Ritson from Manifesto rang and he was feeling exactly the same way. So we both thought f*&k it, let's go down to the South of France for 10 days....

So we got down there, dumped our bags, unpacked and decided to head into Antibbes and get some lunch. Mike knew the turf, so he said let's head down to the harbour area 'cos there's plenty of restaurants down there. So we wondered down to the harbour area, had a look at a few boats and then headed along the harbour towards the restaurants....

As we were walking, I took a huge breath of sea air and said something like "it's good to get some fresh air innit" and then I stopped and looked at Mike...

I said, "can you smell that"?

And he looked at me and said, "smell what"?

And I said, "I can smell vinyl".

He laughed and said, "you're a head case"

I said, "No, I'm serious mate. I can actually smell vinyl".

Just to make sure, I took another huge sniff of seaside air and smelt it again. No doubt.

I said to Mike, "I really not shitting you mate, I can really smell vinyl. And there tons of it".

Just then we rounded a corner, and came to an outside record fair which was on Antibbes harbour outside in 100 degree sunshine!

I turned to Mike and said "I TOLD ya! I TOLD ya"!

I went to the first stall started flicking a through a rack of French pic cover 45's @ 2 euros each and within 10 seconds had a French pic cover copy Billy Sha-Raes "Do It" in my hand.

I said to Mike "f*&k lunch mate! Let's dig."

Ian D

This thread has got me thinking about communication problems and the anticipation of a great find.

I can remember often being woken in the middle of the night by the sound of my fax going off and in anticipation of another find in the US and would have to get up and see what was going on. I would sit there and watch as page after page would slowly roll out. I can also recall being phoned very late one night from a contact in the US who was so exited about a haul he had purchased. "I have so much stuff you had better come over he said, there is way too much to list". Now my memory is shot as far as titles are concerned but I do remember him saying that it was nearly all soul and there was some great Madonna in there. I said "forget the Madonna stuff and tell me about the soul", he started of with titles that were known to him like Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye ect and kept going off beam and waffling on about Madonna and Elvis, very frustrating, it took me ages to get him back on track. I remember sitting there as if I was listening for my lottery winning numbers to come up as each title was read out, every now and then he would say who is J.R Bailey and there's one here by a Mike James Kirkland and then back on to farkin Elvis. Took me hours to go through it all, I was obviously concerned that he may not bother telling me about the lesser-known artists. I did not make a specific trip to see the load but when I did go over there I went to see him and there was still plenty of stuff that he had never bothered to read out, after all it these were just $1 records to him.

The problem was that in those days most of this stuff was junk to US dealers therefore it was always tucked out of the way in a basement or in a garage. In trying to think of an equivalent and I can only think that it must be like people coming to the UK and looking for Teletubbies records.

If you went to a record fair hardly any of the dealers would have any soul with them so you had to enquire if they had any soul at home? Everyone would say yes and give you a great tale about how much stuff they had, again communication problems about when they were going to be in ect would more often than not lead to just having to give it a miss.

I remember one guy said he had a store in Passaic NJ with all soul, LPs, 12" and 45s, he said he used to be a DJ and there were loads of promos. He told us where it was and when he would be there, the first trip I made to the store it was closed. The windows were frosted to about half way up so if you stood on tiptoe you could see inside and it looked a mess with records everywhere but it looked good as far as pickings were concerned. After about 4 trips there I gave up as he was never there nor did he answer his phone.

There were plenty of impromptu finds like when I took a walk down Canal Street in New York, there were plenty of stores that looked like £1 shops just packed with a bit of everything, all of them had music in one form or another. Some goods finds but again communication problem would bring proceedings to a halt as most store owners were Korean and asking if they had any more at home or in the basement, well forget it.

Following on from finding stuff in this country. I live in Beckenham in SE London and in the 70s there was this small second hand record shop that sold all cut outs, they were, if I remember between .75p - £1. I was not into selling then, shame.

Get working on that book Ian.

Would love to see some photos of the finds.

Cheers mcleanmuir,

The book is kind of writing itself mate. I'm merely the conduit LOL!

There's so many untouched hauls still in lock-ups in the U.S. that it's frightening. I can't tell you the amount of times that similar situations to yours have happened to me.

That place in Brooklyn with the Rock Candy on the floor that I never got into still haunts me even though it almost got me killed three nights running! Likewise a few garages in L.A. which were packed to the brim with great stuff but I could never seem to get the guys to take the time to let me go through 'em. There always seemed to be a multitude of reasons why it wasn't "convenient" - problems with access, ex-wives, distance, drugs, mother-in-laws, keys, storage charges etc, etc. Or maybe they just did it to torment us LOL.....

Similarly at some U.S. record fairs I've found several great records and asked if there were any more where these came from only to have the guy say something like, "oh, you want THAT shit? Yeah, I've got a couple of hundred thousand of them but they're in storage in Phoenix right now" or something similar.

I'm sure everyone's got stories like the above.

Talking of record-hunting stress, has anyone ever been to Ray's Records (?) in the village in New York? I've been in and out of that place for 30 years now and the conversation has never changed. Ray even recognises me these days and expects the arguement as soon as I walk in. It goes something like this:-

I walk into the shop and see circa 200,000 45's BEHIND the counter. So, I just casually casually browse through the albums and 12"'s which are on the customer side of the counter and Ray will say;

Ray: "Are you looking for anything in particular"?

Me: "Not really. A little bit of everything really"

Ray: "Ah English ay? You must be looking for that Northern Soul stuff"?

Me: (somewhat enigmaticly) "I look for a lot of stuff...."

Ray: "Well, OK, whaddaya want then"?

Me: "Well I'm really looking for stuff I don't already know, if you see what I mean. Y'know interesting looking 45's."

Ray: "Like what"?

Me: "Well, I don't really know until I see it. For instance, if I could just, like, flick through the 45's some stuff would probably jump out.."

Ray: "No. The 45's you have to gimme a title 'cos they're behind the counter."

Me: "But I don't actually know what I'm looking for unless I, like, SEE it".

Ray: "Then tough shit buddy. NO ONE looks at my 45's. You gotta have a list".

Me: "But how can I have a list when I don't know what I'm looking for.............."?

Etc, etc, etc, yada, yada, yada, blah, blah' blah.

It's like one of those chinese-torture like phone systems that keeps going round in circles and you never actually get through to anyone. It's just a constant loop............

U.S. record dealers can be a tough bunch, as many of the above stories have demonstrated.

But YO! Most of 'em will be shutting up shop soon. And a number will be dillusioned with selling records from commercial premises to a declining market. Plus a lot of the older guys will be retiring and a lot of old-time record dealers will be calling it a day or passing away, so there could be some good hits coming up again.

I can feel it in my blood!

Someone, somewhere as a result of this thread, will be inspired to go digging or checking out a previously unexploited lead and find a brilliant haul.

It may even be me LOL. Maybe I should give that guy Mick a ring that used to have that shop in the mid 80's......? Or whatever happened to that guy Darren who had a shop in Morden filled to overflow with British stuff......? Is that local car-boot sale on tomorrow........?

For we are not professional vinyl hounds for nothing. No sirree.

"I believe that the soul consists of its sufferings. For the soul that cures its own sufferings dies". - Antonio Porchia

Who dares wins.

Res Ipsa Loquitur.

Ian D

As tats has now retired, it looks like he'll be putting it all down on paper at some point and using that English A level grade1 he always talks about, I think he paid Roose to sit the exam for him

Bully, Sean and Tats--I've got photos from the trip when I can find them in the basement in Washington, now i'd like to get all the copies of Nolan Porter that bully left down there !

Rob

Go get 'em Rob! Who knows what else may be there?

You KNOW it makes sense!

Ian D

Ian,

I was looking in a shop state side 5 or 6 years ago, owner says you like soul then,we had a tall feller in here from Stoke, England last week he bought a few things.

I gave up there and then,Taxi for Kev

Kev

Go get 'em Rob! Who knows what else may be there?

You KNOW it makes sense!

Ian D

Ones that got away...

Sometime in the late 80s, myself and rob wigley were driving thru Georgia on the vinyl hunt listening to coloured music on the radio. When the DJ announced that from next week they would be switching to CD only ...not being aficionados of this format, we decided to contact the radio station and voice our disapproval and help relieve them of the unwanted records . The next gas stop provided the yellow page we needed with the stations address (I wonder how many yellow pages have had the record store listings torn out over the years) . 2hrs later we arrived at w.a.n.k or something like that in the middle of nowhere, only to find it was closed at the weekend and the shows are pre recorded.

Undeterred we decided to have a look around the back of the building, as we were about to jemmy the window (joke...honest) this old black caretaker appeared (think turkle from "one flew over the cuckoos nest") who gently informed us that 3 trucks had taken the vinyl to the incinerator 2 days ago.

As we dejectedly walked away "wait a minute, you might want these" shouted turkle, and he produced 3 old paint buckets with about 100 singles in each one. " I scooped a few handfuls up for the grandkids" he said "but you can have them if you want". 1^st record on the top was Bobby Adams "that's the kind of man", we found about 40 nice northern things in those 3 buckets, but I am still haunted by Images of those wagons with 30-50 thousand 45s destined for the incinerator.

Tats

+spellchecker and roose

Ian,

I was looking in a shop state side 5 or 6 years ago, owner says you like soul then,we had a tall feller in here from Stoke, England last week he bought a few things.

I gave up there and then,Taxi for Kev

Nah, you gave up too early! No one's infallible and I've made loads of mistakes. I've left stuff in a place many a time because I was maybe going out later and couldn't be arsed lugging records with me. And then I'd promptly get waylaid or chased out of town and end up forgetting about 'em completely LOL.....

Shifty looking English guys carrying a bunch of records @ 11.00pm at night in the middle of Buttfuck, Tenessee can get you arrested mate.

So there's always a chance of copping someone else's mistakes or leftovers. How many times have you maybe run out of dosh and stashed some goodies away in a corner of store where maybe no one will find 'em?

I found the Sweet Things on Columbia and the Sweets on Soultown in a Kid's section!

A serious vinyl hound never gives up Good Angel. Get your arse back there and do the job properly LOL!

Ian D

Ones that got away...

Sometime in the late 80s, myself and rob wigley were driving thru Georgia on the vinyl hunt listening to coloured music on the radio. When the DJ announced that from next week they would be switching to CD only ...not being aficionados of this format, we decided to contact the radio station and voice our disapproval and help relieve them of the unwanted records . The next gas stop provided the yellow page we needed with the stations address (I wonder how many yellow pages have had the record store listings torn out over the years) . 2hrs later we arrived at w.a.n.k or something like that in the middle of nowhere, only to find it was closed at the weekend and the shows are pre recorded.

Undeterred we decided to have a look around the back of the building, as we were about to jemmy the window (joke...honest) this old black caretaker appeared (think turkle from "one flew over the cuckoos nest") who gently informed us that 3 trucks had taken the vinyl to the incinerator 2 days ago.

As we dejectedly walked away "wait a minute, you might want these" shouted turkle, and he produced 3 old paint buckets with about 100 singles in each one. " I scooped a few handfuls up for the grandkids" he said "but you can have them if you want". 1^st record on the top was Bobby Adams "that's the kind of man", we found about 40 nice northern things in those 3 buckets, but I am still haunted by Images of those wagons with 30-50 thousand 45s destined for the incinerator.

Tats

+spellchecker and roose

You see that's the difference between you and me Tats!

I'd have burnt rubber to get over to that incinerator double-quick to maybe catch the vinyl before it went up in smoke. Plus you never know do ya? One of the incinerator guys may have thought they were worth holding onto or worth trying to flog to someone......

Mind you, it doesn't make much of a holiday, hanging around incinerators does it? Try explaining that to the missus LOL....

Ian D

Cheers mcleanmuir,

That place in Brooklyn with the Rock Candy on the floor that I never got into still haunts me even though it almost got me killed three nights running! Likewise a few garages in L.A. which were packed to the brim with great stuff but I could never seem to get the guys to take the time to let me go through 'em. There always seemed to be a multitude of reasons why it wasn't "convenient" - problems with access, ex-wives, distance, drugs, mother-in-laws, keys, storage charges etc, etc. Or maybe they just did it to torment us LOL.....

Ian D

My memory is good but it is very short and I have a feeling I know the guy in Brooklyn. I will have to look at my old diary's to check it out. His name could be Grover, I remember calling him after his number had been passed on to me. He was softly spoken and very knowledgeable. When I spoke to him and he said he had a Jackson Sisters LP, my heart started pumping. I went to his store and I can picture the place was on or near a corner with a bridge nearby, very busy area. It was one of the places where I had to run to the store from the car. He was not there and I never touched base with him ever.

There were a lot of stores in NY that I never bothered to go into because of the reputation of the owners. Sundays in Manhattan were good with the Flea Markets, some open air, good places to establish contacts.

There was another store in NJ (could be anywhere, I will try and find out) that was owned by a couple of guys in their late 50s early 60s. It was all very neatly stacked with thousands of 45s, all in plastic bags and all in perfect racks. But these blokes did not like you looking through it. "If your looking for soul your two years to late" one of them grumped without raising his head from looking at some papers on the counter. We were not allowed to look in the racks at the far end of the store. I had a pretty short fuse with attitudes like that but I was always told my mate in NJ not to get into rows with storeowners, as they would just pull a gun and shoot you and then say you were trying to rob the place. I did however pull a couple of decent 45s from the nearest rack, paid and walked out mumbling something to them as I went.

My brother had lived in LA since 1980 and his first wife was black and I was always trying to get records out of her family, they would make me some great tapes for me but never come up with the dusties as they called them. One of her brothers was a DJ and thought I was in the music business, kept sending me all these demo tapes about "songs in the hood". I let it go because I did not want to cause any problems. Stupid really because if I had gone to LA at that time I would have been taken round to all the dodgy areas and would have made some good hits and contacts.

I had some very good hits in my time and regret none of it both good and bad.

Ian,

I was looking in a shop state side 5 or 6 years ago, owner says you like soul then,we had a tall feller in here from Stoke, England last week he bought a few things.

I gave up there and then,Taxi for Kev

Kev

Hi Kev ,I had the tall feller from Stoke experiance in 1980 , during a trip to Seattle with Rob Moss .I knew Tim Ashibende was going 2 weeks before me [ with Nogger ] , and his image haunted me in every shop I went it in " Hey you from England ? We had 2 guys in just last week !! " Anyway in this particular shop we got the same old story , but while Rob was chatting to the owner ,I had a browse through some ' 45's on the counter .Half way through I found a Steinways on Oliver for about $ 2 , this was my top want at the time and I'd already found another copy in Vancouver , so we thought it might still be worth having a dig . A few hours later we'd bagged around 150 ' 45's including Ray Pollard " Drifter " issue , Checkmates Ltd " Kissin ' her - Capitol ,Lee Andrews - I've had it - Crimson issue , 2 Dan Folgers - Way of the crowd , Ernie Andrews Fine young girl , Star Treks - Gonna need magic , Attractions That girl is mine , Kenny Carter all his RCA sides , and many more .... On the same trip I found Paul Anka Can't help loving on Canadian Red RCA ,Deena Johnson I'm a sad girl Simpson Black issue [ only one I've ever seen !! ] Claudia Greene on ABC , plus loads of 70's albums [ still sealed ] Bobby Womack , Lamont Dozier etc from an electrical shop for around 30p each .Best Wishes ,Eddie

Oh my God. How weird.

I just opened the window to get a bit a fresh air in the room and I swear I can smell vinyl!

Now, lemme think.....

If I have a flutter on the Grand National, then I'll hit the bookies about about 2.00pm ish, get my bets on, drop some stuff off @ the recycling bins and get a bit of shopping and I can also hit around 6 charity shops en route.....

And today I'm smelling vinyl and feeling lucky...

Last time I did this I got a Light Of The World "No.1 Girl" pic sleeve UK 7" for 50p - a nice little rare-groove rarity.

And it's about time I found another Alexander Patton Capital '66 UK promo.

So full report later all. Football, racing and vinyl-hunting are competing for my time LOL......

Ian D

Hi Kev ,I had the tall feller from Stoke experiance in 1980 , during a trip to Seattle with Rob Moss .I knew Tim Ashibende was going 2 weeks before me [ with Nogger ] , and his image haunted me in every shop I went it in " Hey you from England ? We had 2 guys in just last week !! " Anyway in this particular shop we got the same old story , but while Rob was chatting to the owner ,I had a browse through some ' 45's on the counter .Half way through I found a Steinways on Oliver for about $ 2 , this was my top want at the time and I'd already found another copy in Vancouver , so we thought it might still be worth having a dig . A few hours later we'd bagged around 150 ' 45's including Ray Pollard " Drifter " issue , Checkmates Ltd " Kissin ' her - Capitol ,Lee Andrews - I've had it - Crimson issue , 2 Dan Folgers - Way of the crowd , Ernie Andrews Fine young girl , Star Treks - Gonna need magic , Attractions That girl is mine , Kenny Carter all his RCA sides , and many more .... On the same trip I found Paul Anka Can't help loving on Canadian Red RCA ,Deena Johnson I'm a sad girl Simpson Black issue [ only one I've ever seen !! ] Claudia Greene on ABC , plus loads of 70's albums [ still sealed ] Bobby Womack , Lamont Dozier etc from an electrical shop for around 30p each .Best Wishes ,Eddie

Now, that's a hit by any standards Eddie!

I've never found a Lee Andrews ever and it's one of my faves of all time. And the Steinways is RARE and maybe the best double-sider of all time! I always remember Snowy from Doncaster having one in his box years before it got played.....

Great stuff mate. Is Tim Ashibende still around? I remember him well from Wigan and he always had decent records on him......

Ian D

Now, that's a hit by any standards Eddie!

I've never found a Lee Andrews ever and it's one of my faves of all time. And the Steinways is RARE and maybe the best double-sider of all time! I always remember Snowy from Doncaster having one in his box years before it got played.....

Great stuff mate. Is Tim Ashibende still around? I remember him well from Wigan and he always had decent records on him......

Ian D

He sure is.

Still peddling his wares.

He will probably be at Middleton tonight.

My memory is good but it is very short and I have a feeling I know the guy in Brooklyn. I will have to look at my old diary's to check it out. His name could be Grover, I remember calling him after his number had been passed on to me. He was softly spoken and very knowledgeable. When I spoke to him and he said he had a Jackson Sisters LP, my heart started pumping. I went to his store and I can picture the place was on or near a corner with a bridge nearby, very busy area. It was one of the places where I had to run to the store from the car. He was not there and I never touched base with him ever.

There were a lot of stores in NY that I never bothered to go into because of the reputation of the owners. Sundays in Manhattan were good with the Flea Markets, some open air, good places to establish contacts.

There was another store in NJ (could be anywhere, I will try and find out) that was owned by a couple of guys in their late 50s early 60s. It was all very neatly stacked with thousands of 45s, all in plastic bags and all in perfect racks. But these blokes did not like you looking through it. "If your looking for soul your two years to late" one of them grumped without raising his head from looking at some papers on the counter. We were not allowed to look in the racks at the far end of the store. I had a pretty short fuse with attitudes like that but I was always told my mate in NJ not to get into rows with storeowners, as they would just pull a gun and shoot you and then say you were trying to rob the place. I did however pull a couple of decent 45s from the nearest rack, paid and walked out mumbling something to them as I went.

My brother had lived in LA since 1980 and his first wife was black and I was always trying to get records out of her family, they would make me some great tapes for me but never come up with the dusties as they called them. One of her brothers was a DJ and thought I was in the music business, kept sending me all these demo tapes about "songs in the hood". I let it go because I did not want to cause any problems. Stupid really because if I had gone to LA at that time I would have been taken round to all the dodgy areas and would have made some good hits and contacts.

I had some very good hits in my time and regret none of it both good and bad.

Me neither, mcleanmuir, me neither!

And I think you're right about Grover. I'll need to check names again with my fellow vinyl hound Steve Rumney (collector of 'Slow Groove' obscurities).

There were a few fairly untapped places in Brooklyn and the Bronx. One was almost a basement which you could enter down the steps from the street which was jammed with stuff but we could never find the guy. Of course, everytime we went there, it was always "oh, you've just missed him dog" or "he's around. He was here 5 minutes ago....".

Cue a three hour wait and several chats with the local gangsters. The last time I was there I had to get friendly with the dope dealer on that side of the street and bought $10 worth just to keep him sweet LOL.....

Ian D

You see that's the difference between you and me Tats!

I'd have burnt rubber to get over to that incinerator double-quick to maybe catch the vinyl before it went up in smoke. Plus you never know do ya? One of the incinerator guys may have thought they were worth holding onto or worth trying to flog to someone......

Mind you, it doesn't make much of a holiday, hanging around incinerators does it? Try explaining that to the missus LOL....

Ian D

Ian

good c/u name The Incinerators.

twas easier to explain than the Kenyan massage i had last year!!

Tats

Ian

good c/u name The Incinerators.

twas easier to explain than the Kenyan massage i had last year!!

Tats

That's another tale Tats. I think we should be told......

Don't get me into a Massage Parlour spin on this thread otherwise I'll be dead meat.........!

It got me wondering whether when houses get cleared can records sometimes get dumped in rubbish tips?

There must be some tales of records being found in a tip maybe? The nearest I came to something like that is when a guy turned up at the Hollywood record fair (which used to be held in the car park of the Capital Records building in L.A.) with a truckfull of 45's he was giving away back in '76.

I'd have gladly taken 'em but I didn't have a truck godammit! Or anywhere to store 'em. 20,000 mint promo 45's and the guy wouldn't let me take any unless I took the lot.

Now where's the local tip......?

Ian D

He sure is.

Still peddling his wares.

He will probably be at Middleton tonight.

Oh cool Tabs. Tell 'im Frank says hello.

And better still, tell 'im to get his arse on here and spit out a story or two!

Ian D

Talking of record finds at tips. When I first got to Canada I had no job so got employment through an agency an ended up doing service for a company that sold electric beds. Once a week I had to go to the local dump to get rid of old motors, bits and pieces, packaging.

On the third or fourth trip, as I was throwing stuff I noticed a couple of albums sticking out. I asked the old guy if I could have them and he said sure but he wasnt allowed to give them to me. I jumped down and picked up a couple of Barbara Streisand albums!!!

I asked him if he could put them aside for me and he said sure, so next week there was a box of 30 odd albums, then next week the same, then again and this lasted for probably 12 months and in this time I must have got 1000's of albums but never many 45's and what there were was Pop, Rock etc? Got some great Blues, Psych, Garage, Reggae, Rock, Jazz albums, plus tons of Beatles, Elvis, Hendrix etc which I used to trade at record shows and also sold out of my basement through the local free papers.

Being out on the road all over the Toronto area I also got to know the shops, Goodwill's and Flea Markets, great, lasted for 18 months before I moved on.

By the way, I bet Martin Koppell, Richard Pack and Kevin Cox could add some good Canadian stories?

My memory is good but it is very short and I have a feeling I know the guy in Brooklyn. I will have to look at my old diary’s to check it out. His name could be Grover, I remember calling him after his number had been passed on to me. He was softly spoken and very knowledgeable. When I spoke to him and he said he had a Jackson Sisters LP, my heart started pumping. I went to his store and I can picture the place was on or near a corner with a bridge nearby, very busy area. It was one of the places where I had to run to the store from the car. He was not there and I never touched base with him ever.

In looking at my old address book trying to find our man (above) in Brooklyn I found a massive list of names with just phone numbers plus the following stores that I must have been going into in and around NY and NJ. I wonder how many are still around today?

Street Beat, Bronx, NY

Underground Discs (Des and Mike), PA,

Music village Bloomfield Ave, Newark (could have been Hackensack)

Album Hunter Mike, NJ

Howie Farber, NY

C Note Record Museum, NJ

BTA (Lester) Lodi, NJ

Hit Parade, Red Bank, NJ

Rare Records (Jack) Teaneck, NJ

Record Menagerie, Bound Book, NJ

Record Collector, Trenton, NJ

Forever Records (Mike), Levittown. PA

Kingston International (Bob), NY

Scott Neumans, NJ

Arts Records, NJ

Trading Post, Pennsauken

Moose Track’s Port Jervis NY (I think this was over a grocery store)

Record Cellar, Philly (I think this was John Moore, not 100% sure on that)

Okey Dokey.

I TOLD ya I smelt vinyl LOL!

Two fantastic hits today both within 10 minutes of my house.

The first one is unbelievable considering this thread.

I UK Tamla Motown promo of Frank Wilson "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)" in the local Heart Foundation shop!!!! The ONLY decent record in there amongst tons of crap. Just unbelievable. Sitting there by itself, minding it's own business, mingled in with Cliff Richard, Bananarama, Level 42, Marti Webb and some oddball EMI, CBS and Epic promos. Truly unbelievable.

I'm still buzzing! How weird is that?

Dunno what it's worth these days. Black Tamla Motown promo - anyone any idea?

And then I had 2 bust-outs at the next two places.

I then nipped into the next suburban village and struck out in the first two places and rushed into the Cancer Charity shop in a real hurry 'cos I had to get some bets on for the Grand National. I struck out and was about to leave the shop when I noticed another crate near the books with some Classical Box sets. I went quickly past the Classical Boxes and then waded through a load of the usual CRAP Richard Clayderman, James Last and Maz Bygraves albums and right at the back was....

The House Sound Of Chicago 12 x Vinyl Box Set. Mint with the orginal booklet - all the 12" mixes. Not one for S.S. but highly collectible elsewhere. £10. Probably worth £150. https://www.discogs.com/release/57624

So not bad for a quick dig in the local gaffs ay?

The bad news is that I crashed badly on the Grand National. I felt lucky so I backed all the horses with Northern related titles - Backbeat (as in the label), Vodka Bleu (Nikki Blu/Blue Sharks) and Idle Talk (Idle Few) but they crashed and burned. C'est la vie.....

But can't complain. I dug for 20 minutes and found these two beauts so a good day overall!

Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Ian D

Okey Dokey.

I TOLD ya I smelt vinyl LOL!

Two fantastic hits today both within 10 minutes of my house.

The first one is unbelievable considering this thread.

I UK Tamla Motown promo of Frank Wilson "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)" in the local Heart Foundation shop!!!! The ONLY decent record in there amongst tons of crap. Just unbelievable. Sitting there by itself, minding it's own business, mingled in with Cliff Richard, Bananarama, Level 42, Marti Webb and some oddball EMI, CBS and Epic promos. Truly unbelievable.

I'm still buzzing! How weird is that?

Dunno what it's worth these days. Black Tamla Motown promo - anyone any idea?

And then I had 2 bust-outs at the next two places.

I then nipped into the next suburban village and struck out in the first two places and rushed into the Cancer Charity shop in a real hurry 'cos I had to get some bets on for the Grand National. I struck out and was about to leave the shop when I noticed another crate near the books with some Classical Box sets. I went quickly past the Classical Boxes and then waded through a load of the usual CRAP Richard Clayderman, James Last and Maz Bygraves albums and right at the back was....

The House Sound Of Chicago 12 x Vinyl Box Set. Mint with the orginal booklet - all the 12" mixes. Not one for S.S. but highly collectible elsewhere. £10. Probably worth £150. https://www.discogs.com/release/57624

So not bad for a quick dig in the local gaffs ay?

The bad news is that I crashed badly on the Grand National. I felt lucky so I backed all the horses with Northern related titles - Backbeat (as in the label), Vodka Bleu (Nikki Blu/Blue Sharks) and Idle Talk (Idle Few) but they crashed and burned. C'est la vie.....

But can't complain. I dug for 20 minutes and found these two beauts so a good day overall!

Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Ian D

Blimey well done that man . What the odds on that happening a lot bigger than Backbeat I guess