The Greatest Record Finds Of All Time 2008

I first used to buy records of A.J ( Anthony)Lewis) when he was based down South,in St. Leonards On Sea I think.

In 1970 I was 16 and used to sneak into the George Hotel In Walsall. Carl Dene was the god like DJ there and everyone wanted Bobby Sheen, Little Anthony, Mitch Ryder etc..spotted an ad from Anthony is music paper and sent him wants list and unbelievably he had lots of the records, some more than one copy. The in crowd at The George couldn't belive it when I turned up with some of the spares to swop/sell.

I kept in touch and I was the first person some years later to go to his place in St. George's near Telford before it officially opened, remember meeting his Mum.I went over one Friday afternoon and had memorised Brian Philips sales list and came out with loads of stuff, most of which got flogged at Va Va's that night.

Pulled loads of stuff out there right through the seventies in quantity for my wholesaling business, so much so that some years later, I junked 200 copies of "Streets Got My Lady" - Bill Brandon I had pulled out of there and which were taking up space in my garage....I know, I know, not the smartest move..........

And I went back to buying quantity from him when selling at the Scooter runs in the 80's..

Funniest story was going there in 70's (probably with Bill Baker) and Anthony and his Dad Jack (who used to work at British Embassy in Washington hence the stories about them having Shrine 45's) had got to know us and said we could go and spend the afternoon in an old chapel they had converted to store vinyl and which normally was closed and just used for storage. Piles of records everywhere, I climbed up for something and fell on to a carpet of records and (as you do) even though I was in a bit of pain, before I got up I put an arm down into this pile of vinyl on the floor and my hand came back with a mint "I Travel Alone" - Lou Ragland. Told Clive Jones the story at Birmignham Locarno All-Dayer on following Sunday and he persuaded me his life would end if I didn't sell it him on the spot..

Anthony was very brusque and impatient, that was just his way, but very funny with it,if you were buying a record in quantity he would not count them, he would say there's x records to an inch and you have had 5 inches worth which is equivalent of whatever. When I said can't we just count them he would say no, he wasn't out to fiddle you, that was way he was.

At the height time of Oldies Unlimited success, if you were a candidate in the General Election you got free posting to everyone in the constituency. Anthony cottoned on to this and either he or some Oldies Unlimited person would put themselves up in loads of constiituences to get the free post. You couldn't make it up could you?

Last saw him on the Cannes sea front during Midem some years ago. Asked what he was up to and he said he was writer and publisher for a good to UK Massage Parlours and lo and behold he turned on up on a telly programme about Massage Parlours some months later!!!!

Definitely a one off.

Damn. You kept that quiet Neil!

Almost sounds like the Midlands equivalent to Bradford Market. It's really unbelievable how much U.S. stuff was over here in the mid 70's and brought over by people who had no connections with the Northern scene at all. Funny the way that loads of Northern stuff managed to gravitate to the North of the UK, as if by osmosis or something.

Great story Neil! How's Joi Cardwell going?

Ian D

It was House of Sounds definately! Cream coloured warehouse about 6 floors high! I have a photo of it somewhere I'll try dig it out! Steak dinner was just the best matey!

Andy.

Yep, that's the bugger. I never got above the ground floor but people told me that all 6 floors were the same as the ground floor. There must have been 100,000,000 records there minimum I'd have thought.

I seem to remember the metal crates holding the 45's being about 10 feet high and you had to go up a ladder to get into 'em. Does that make sense? I reckon you could have spent years in there digging every day and still not cover the lot. Am I hallucinating or was it really the biggest record warehouse of all time?

Ian D

No Ian you are right! I started mid floors, and the ladders were there, as you say it was a case of getting in the case and rummageing through C&W, Doo-Wop etc. Spent a day on each floor, Thinking something would turn up, But it was just so Frustrating! There were a load of Japanese there daily doing the Doo-Wop haul!

I reckon if you were ever gonna turn up a Frank Wilson, or Inspirations, then that would have been the place!

I have NEVER! seen as many 45's in my life! I did score some nice albums on the Black Jazz label, Including a Jean Carne one! But apart from the Frank Beverley, (May I add on Day 3!) It was a ball ache.

It was a case of Vinyl Overload!

Andy.

No Ian you are right! I started mid floors, and the ladders were there, as you say it was a case of getting in the case and rummageing through C&W, Doo-Wop etc. Spent a day on each floor, Thinking something would turn up, But it was just so Frustrating! There were a load of Japanese there daily doing the Doo-Wop haul!

I reckon if you were ever gonna turn up a Frank Wilson, or Inspirations, then that would have been the place!

I have NEVER! seen as many 45's in my life! I did score some nice albums on the Black Jazz label, Including a Jean Carne one! But apart from the Frank Beverley, (May I add on Day 3!) It was a ball ache.

It was a case of Vinyl Overload!

Andy.

Yeah it sounds crazy saying that there were just too many records but often it boils down to the simple percentage of how long you have to dig to find something worthwhile. At House Of Sounds you could spend days just going through 100's of 1000's of Pop, C&W, Jazz and Novelty records and if you were lucky you may hit a seam of small label Soul but that could just be in one crate out of hundreds.

Whereas you could hit an independent store in the Black part of town which may only have a few thousand records but the hit rate would be fantastic compared to House Of Sounds.....

Actually whilst you're on Andy, do you you remember that place in Bradford that was packed out with UK MGM, Verve stuff and 1000's of English labels? It was in one of those old buildings at the bottom end of town I think - up a couple of floors and a room full of English. I got there too late but I suspect you boys found the gaff.....

Ian D

Yeah it sounds crazy saying that there were just too many records but often it boils down to the simple percentage of how long you have to dig to find something worthwhile. At House Of Sounds you could spend days just going through 100's of 1000's of Pop, C&W, Jazz and Novelty records and if you were lucky you may hit a seam of small label Soul but that could just be in one crate out of hundreds.

Whereas you could hit an independent store in the Black part of town which may only have a few thousand records but the hit rate would be fantastic compared to House Of Sounds.....

Actually whilst you're on Andy, do you you remember that place in Bradford that was packed out with UK MGM, Verve stuff and 1000's of English labels? It was in one of those old buildings at the bottom end of town I think - up a couple of floors and a room full of English. I got there too late but I suspect you boys found the gaff.....

Ian D

I do but I can't recall the name of it?

Vallance's I believe it was near. I got a lot of stuff out of there also. I can also remember going downstairs in Woods, around 71, Buying, Love and Desire, Doctor Love,Slipping Around, Looking for You, There's nothing else to say and Humphreys Stomp, all on UK originals! Still there sat on the shelves! My mate got two Alexander Patton's from there a Demo for Nothing! and an issue for 5 bob!

Amazing !

Andy.

Hi all went on K Roberts stateside trip to new jersey First day ther me and my mate booked a taxi to go down the local shopping mal on the way to the mal we passed a shop selling second hand stuff including vinyl so we turned the taxi round and jumped out went in and found this guy sat there watching old movies we asked if we could look at the vinyl he pointed in the direction and we started diggin he let us no that he had J M`s book and anythin we found we could have for $15 we found mostley cheap 45s apart from I found in the same box Billy Exstine I wonder why and a Lee David Temtation keeps calling my name both in mint nick he charged me $15 dollars each but this just shows you can still find 45s found out later that just about every collector went through this shop but we got there first so be on your toes guys if your goin on the trip to Chicargo

wow this thread is still going strong. I found a photo from 1990 after returning from a trip to the US, sorting everything out was a buzz.

Lets hope the upload works.

wow this thread is still going strong. I found a photo from 1990 after returning from a trip to the US, sorting everything out was a buzz.

Lets hope the upload works.

Is that you , or a young Diego Maradonna in the photograph ?

Malc Burton

Is that you , or a young Diego Maradonna in the photograph ?

Malc Burton

Lol, yep that is me. Maradonna is into Latin.

Lol, yep that is me. Maradonna is into Latin.

Yep, double-confirmed - no suspicious white track-marks on desk so Mcleanmuir would appear to be the real deal. Interesting choice of hair-style though.......

Ian D

What a fantastic read. BUMP.

Yep, one of those threads you can really get your teeth into.

I just re-read the last page and had completely forgotten some of these stories. Hopefully Andy Dyson will scour the thread again and see if there's anything there for the forthcoming book.

I'm actually gonna re-read it over the holidays. A l'il Xmas treat for sure and I'd implore anyone who's new to Soul Source to give it a read 'cos a lot of this is really the essence of what rare Soul collecting is all about.

Priceless stuff in here so many thanks to everyone who's contributed thus far. Compliments of the season to all!

Ian D

Yep, one of those threads you can really get your teeth into.

I just re-read the last page and had completely forgotten some of these stories. Hopefully Andy Dyson will scour the thread again and see if there's anything there for the forthcoming book.

I'm actually gonna re-read it over the holidays. A l'il Xmas treat for sure and I'd implore anyone who's new to Soul Source to give it a read 'cos a lot of this is really the essence of what rare Soul collecting is all about.

Priceless stuff in here so many thanks to everyone who's contributed thus far. Compliments of the season to all!

Ian D

Thank you for pulling this thread up Ian. I shall print it off and have a proper read when I sit down later.

Andy will probably be doing the same thing but I will let him know when I contact him later.

Cheers this will be very helpful.

On 12/12/2010 at 10:40, Ian Dewhirst said:

Yep, one of those threads you can really get your teeth into.

 

I just re-read the last page and had completely forgotten some of these stories. Hopefully Andy Dyson will scour the thread again and see if there's anything there for the forthcoming book.

 

I'm actually gonna re-read it over the holidays. A l'il Xmas treat for sure and I'd implore anyone who's new to Soul Source to give it a read 'cos a lot of this is really the essence of what rare Soul collecting is all about.

 

Priceless stuff in here so many thanks to everyone who's contributed thus far. Compliments of the season to all!

 

Ian D

think 5 years is long enough gap for another bump

23 minutes ago, mike said:

 

think 5 years is long enough gap for another bump

Good timing Mike! I've probably forgotten most of the stuff in this thread so I'll re-acquaint myself with it....

Happy Xmas etc, etc

Ian D

Best ever thread IMHO and many hours of reading and being jealous as F*** lol

Page 1 here I come...

2 hours ago, Steve L said:

Page 1 here I come...

Good choice Steve. I just did that too. I'm amazed to read it all again. A real treat and EXACTLY what Soul Source is all about when you read those stories. Blimey, we were so productive weren't we? Northern Soul diggers really set the pace didn't we? And we continue to do so. We invented obsessive compulsives really.......:)

Ian D

On 12/12/2010 at 10:40, Ian Dewhirst said:

Yep, one of those threads you can really get your teeth into.

 

I just re-read the last page and had completely forgotten some of these stories. Hopefully Andy Dyson will scour the thread again and see if there's anything there for the forthcoming book.

 

I'm actually gonna re-read it over the holidays. A l'il Xmas treat for sure and I'd implore anyone who's new to Soul Source to give it a read 'cos a lot of this is really the essence of what rare Soul collecting is all about.

 

Priceless stuff in here so many thanks to everyone who's contributed thus far. Compliments of the season to all!

 

Ian D

Blimey. The above comment was 5 years ago when I was a relatively sprightly 55 years old. Time flies when you're having fun ay?

Ian D

On 3/22/2008 at 11:08, Ian Dewhirst said:

Mind you it didn't help when I asked the freak, "where can I get a fag round here mate?"

Ian D

  I'd like to have seen the look on that guy's face.  You're lucky he wasn't a gay pimp!  He might have hooked you up with a few "dates"! 

8 minutes ago, RobbK said:

  I'd like to have seen the look on that guy's face.  You're lucky he wasn't a gay pimp!  He might have hooked you up with a few "dates"! 

Don't even get me started on the stories Robb. I was hanging out in Highland Records in '76. The weird English guy who seems to like Disco.....:)

I can't believe I didn't bump into you back then.......

Ian D

59 minutes ago, Ian Dewhirst said:

Don't even get me started on the stories Robb. I was hanging out in Highland Records in '76. The weird English guy who seems to like Disco.....:)

I can't believe I didn't bump into you back then.......

Ian D

Yes, it is a bit surprising that we didn't meet.  I HAD heard of you.  But, during those years, I was also spending more than half the year in The Middle East, Africa or The Far East, working on UN development projects, as well as spending a fair amount of time in Holland.  So, my time in L.A. was concentrated from late November through end of February.  And then, I was hanging out at Motown.  I wasn't really looking for records much after 1972 (when I started living part time in Holland and started working for The UN.  I might make a visit twice a year to John Hillyard's, and duck into Jane's House of Records, and the odd visit to Ray Avery's or that record's warehouse on Beverly Blvd. near Larchmont, but that was only a handful of days per year.  I DO remember seeing some British NS fans buying records at those places.  But most times, I never said a word to them.  I was too busy trying to find things before they found them.  You may have been one of them, as you were one of the earliest NS collectors to frequent L.A.  But, I'm very surprised someone didn't refer you to me.  Only Martin Koppel, Tim Ashibende and Rod Shard were given my name and contacted me.    I met Bob Wagner and Nev Wherry and Simon Soussan on my own in record stores, warehouses or swap meets/record fairs, as they lived in L.A., so we were bound to meet eventually.

I've not seen this thread before, great read, such dedication and disregard for personal safety.

A few posts have mentioned me so maybe I should tell a few stories of mine. These may repeat stuff I've posted before but newcomers and casual readers may find something new.

Global Records was mentioned a few times. This was one of the first companies to import records in to the UK. Based in Manchester, it was owned by Ed Balbier from Philadelphia. He seems to have owned a couple of record shops in Philly in the early 60s as I found a couple of quotes from him in the Billboard archives. By the mid 60s he was a distributor of indie labels and then moving into the oldies and deletions business. Somehow he must have found out that his warehouse full of old records was worth more in the UK than the US. Maybe UK collectors started turning up at his warehouse. By the early 70s he had relocated to Manchester with his large family and set up Global in a small basement on Corporation Street. His eldest son Eddie Jr stayed in Philly keeping the house going and the warehouse operating.

He never set out to specialise in northern soul, the main business was in Country, Rock  and Pop albums and oldies singles. However he knew it was worth employing someone who could pick the titles that were in demand. Derek Howe was one of the first to work there, then Barry Tasker and Richard Searling. Barry was one of the best DJs in the early days and gave Richard Searling his big break at Manchester's Pendulum Club. I got a part time job at Global in 72 ish then full time around 73. By then Balbier had moved to larger premises on Princess St and then to the whole basement of an office block off Oxford St. This was about the size of a football pitch so could hold a huge number of records. 

The titles in large quantities were listed for wholesaling to shops and northern titles listed on a "specials" list. There was also loads of other stock that was lying around. Some of this had been roughly sorted by artist for a unlisted collectors stock. The idea was that if someone asked what they had by ,say James Brown, it was easy to find a large selection. This proved handy when something started getting played by a known artist. I got Landslide as soon as Ian Levine played it by simply going to the Tony Clarke section. Same for such as The Coasters, Crazy Baby, Mr Big Shot and The Van Dykes. Obviously Barry and Richard had got plenty of good stuff before me so it was when new stock arrived that I got the best records.

Balbier would go to the States every five or six weeks, staying in Philly and using the warehouse as a collection and packing facility. Two or three times a year he would  send a container by sea freight instead of the usual air freight. He would tend to fill these with anything he picked up cheap, both singles and albums. I don't know where he bought them from but was probably smart enough not to buy anything that had already been picked clean. The singles always had some great stuff but not massive quantities. I wouldn't have time to play every unknown title so probably missed some good stuff. Also northern was still a fairly narrow genre so even playing everything I couldn't have predicted the move to mid tempo, beat ballads, RnB or funky over the last thirty years. The best container had multiple copies of Eddie Spencer, Tobi Lark, Mikki Farrow, Jimmie Soul Clarke and most of the Miracle label. Other one offs I remember were International GTOs , Gwen And Ray and Michael and Raymond. I got quite a few unknowns but just kept them rather than selling them to DJs, many eventually got plays at Stafford and later.

I got to go to the States with Balbier a couple of times. This should have been a dream come true but was very disappointing.I would have to get up very early, be driven 40 to 80 miles to huge warehouses full of albums, spend eight hours sorting boxes looking for Country and Rock music, getting back late at night exhausted.We went to The House of Sounds one day but as others have said there were too many records to have any chance of finding anything. I did get a copy of Please Operator just as Levine started playing it but this was the top record of an open box I just happened to walk past on the way out.

On one trip I was sent to Boston as Balbier had a tip that a shop had a load of soul singles. I got there only to find a few thousand average records , the only good find was the then unknown Marsha Gee on Uptown.

My last trip with Global I was sent on my own. Another employee, Will, was already there, living in the warehouse, sleeping in a tiny little room with instructions to never leave after dark. I flew in and was met by Eddie Jr and as it was late I stayed with him that night at the family house in the suburbs. Next day , Sunday, I got the train to inner city Philly to meet Will. As I was leaving the train station a young man approached me ,asking the time. Being a young naive Brit I stopped to tell him. He then grabbed my jacket, pulled out my wallet, took the contents and calmly walked off.No guns, knives or any violence so I wasn't too bothered especially as it wasn't my money he took. I got to look through books of mug shots at the police station and ride around in a cop car looking for the scoundrel. I think this is the incident Steve(Ernie Andrews) refers to earlier on but I was definitely not hospitalised. Again the work involved a 10 or 11 hour day sorting albums with hardly any time to look for singles. The warehouse still had loads of singles but as it was February and -15C at night all I wanted to do was keep warm with a beer in the tiny office. Looking back I should have spent time going through some of paperwork and files . This may have been useful and would have been interesting.

I left Global in 76 and sold most of my collection to fund a trip to the States with Terry (Francis)Thomas- Mr Tee of Kidderminster, but that's another story

Rick

P.S.   Ian, compared to you most people are sh- sh- shy

12 hours ago, Rick Cooper said:

I've not seen this thread before, great read, such dedication and disregard for personal safety.

A few posts have mentioned me so maybe I should tell a few stories of mine. These may repeat stuff I've posted before but newcomers and casual readers may find something new.

Global Records was mentioned a few times. This was one of the first companies to import records in to the UK. Based in Manchester, it was owned by Ed Balbier from Philadelphia. He seems to have owned a couple of record shops in Philly in the early 60s as I found a couple of quotes from him in the Billboard archives. By the mid 60s he was a distributor of indie labels and then moving into the oldies and deletions business. Somehow he must have found out that his warehouse full of old records was worth more in the UK than the US. Maybe UK collectors started turning up at his warehouse. By the early 70s he had relocated to Manchester with his large family and set up Global in a small basement on Corporation Street. His eldest son Eddie Jr stayed in Philly keeping the house going and the warehouse operating.

He never set out to specialise in northern soul, the main business was in Country, Rock  and Pop albums and oldies singles. However he knew it was worth employing someone who could pick the titles that were in demand. Derek Howe was one of the first to work there, then Barry Tasker and Richard Searling. Barry was one of the best DJs in the early days and gave Richard Searling his big break at Manchester's Pendulum Club. I got a part time job at Global in 72 ish then full time around 73. By then Balbier had moved to larger premises on Princess St and then to the whole basement of an office block off Oxford St. This was about the size of a football pitch so could hold a huge number of records. 

The titles in large quantities were listed for wholesaling to shops and northern titles listed on a "specials" list. There was also loads of other stock that was lying around. Some of this had been roughly sorted by artist for a unlisted collectors stock. The idea was that if someone asked what they had by ,say James Brown, it was easy to find a large selection. This proved handy when something started getting played by a known artist. I got Landslide as soon as Ian Levine played it by simply going to the Tony Clarke section. Same for such as The Coasters, Crazy Baby, Mr Big Shot and The Van Dykes. Obviously Barry and Richard had got plenty of good stuff before me so it was when new stock arrived that I got the best records.

Balbier would go to the States every five or six weeks, staying in Philly and using the warehouse as a collection and packing facility. Two or three times a year he would  send a container by sea freight instead of the usual air freight. He would tend to fill these with anything he picked up cheap, both singles and albums. I don't know where he bought them from but was probably smart enough not to buy anything that had already been picked clean. The singles always had some great stuff but not massive quantities. I wouldn't have time to play every unknown title so probably missed some good stuff. Also northern was still a fairly narrow genre so even playing everything I couldn't have predicted the move to mid tempo, beat ballads, RnB or funky over the last thirty years. The best container had multiple copies of Eddie Spencer, Tobi Lark, Mikki Farrow, Jimmie Soul Clarke and most of the Miracle label. Other one offs I remember were International GTOs , Gwen And Ray and Michael and Raymond. I got quite a few unknowns but just kept them rather than selling them to DJs, many eventually got plays at Stafford and later.

I got to go to the States with Balbier a couple of times. This should have been a dream come true but was very disappointing.I would have to get up very early, be driven 40 to 80 miles to huge warehouses full of albums, spend eight hours sorting boxes looking for Country and Rock music, getting back late at night exhausted.We went to The House of Sounds one day but as others have said there were too many records to have any chance of finding anything. I did get a copy of Please Operator just as Levine started playing it but this was the top record of an open box I just happened to walk past on the way out.

On one trip I was sent to Boston as Balbier had a tip that a shop had a load of soul singles. I got there only to find a few thousand average records , the only good find was the then unknown Marsha Gee on Uptown.

My last trip with Global I was sent on my own. Another employee, Will, was already there, living in the warehouse, sleeping in a tiny little room with instructions to never leave after dark. I flew in and was met by Eddie Jr and as it was late I stayed with him that night at the family house in the suburbs. Next day , Sunday, I got the train to inner city Philly to meet Will. As I was leaving the train station a young man approached me ,asking the time. Being a young naive Brit I stopped to tell him. He then grabbed my jacket, pulled out my wallet, took the contents and calmly walked off.No guns, knives or any violence so I wasn't too bothered especially as it wasn't my money he took. I got to look through books of mug shots at the police station and ride around in a cop car looking for the scoundrel. I think this is the incident Steve(Ernie Andrews) refers to earlier on but I was definitely not hospitalised. Again the work involved a 10 or 11 day sorting albums with hardly any time to look for singles. The warehouse still had loads of singles but as it was February and -15C at night all I wanted to do was keep warm with a beer in the tiny office. Looking back I should have spent time going through some of paperwork and files . This may have been useful and would have been interesting.

I left Global in 76 and sold most of my collection to fund a trip to the States with Terry (Francis)Thomas- Mr Tee of Kidderminster, but that's another story

Rick

P.S.   Ian, compared to you most people are sh- sh- shy

Hi Rick,

Hope you're well and all is good!

Brilliant story and thanks for contributing! Just wanted to clarify one thing. I always remember Kev telling me that you'd discovered a killer Gene Chandler record on Constellation called "Mr Big Shot" and there was a big buzz about it the week it emerged. Was that how it happened?

And yes. I make most people nervous because of my overwhelming confidence....

Ian D

7 hours ago, Ian Dewhirst said:

Hi Rick,

Hope you're well and all is good!

Brilliant story and thanks for contributing! Just wanted to clarify one thing. I always remember Kev telling me that you'd discovered a killer Gene Chandler record on Constellation called "Mr Big Shot" and there was a big buzz about it the week it emerged. Was that how it happened?

And yes. I make most people nervous because of my overwhelming confidence....

Ian D

 

Hi Ian

Yeh ,fine thanks.

I don't know how I got credited with Mr Big Shot (Malc Burton  also mentioned it earlier). My recollection is that I first it heard at The Blue Room in Sale when Ian Levine DJ'd there on a weekday night. Next morning at Global I checked the Gene Chandler section in the collector's odd and ends rack and found one copy. It must have been there years. I may have taken it somewhere that Friday and people assumed I had discovered it but Levine should take the credit.

Another Constellation record I found in the same way was Dee Clarke- Hot Potato, one copy on the shelf for years. That's My Girl was probably there as well, but if someone had played it in 75/76 would it have taken off.

Rick

5 hours ago, Rick Cooper said:

Hi Ian

Yeh ,fine thanks.

I don't know how I got credited with Mr Big Shot (Malc Burton  also mentioned it earlier). My recollection is that I first it heard at The Blue Room in Sale when Ian Levine DJ'd there on a weekday night. Next morning at Global I checked the Gene Chandler section in the collector's odd and ends rack and found one copy. It must have been there years. I may have taken it somewhere that Friday and people assumed I had discovered it but Levine should take the credit.

Another Constellation record I found in the same way was Dee Clarke- Hot Potato, one copy on the shelf for years. That's My Girl was probably there as well, but if someone had played it in 75/76 would it have taken off.

Rick

Damn. Levine again. Another myth blown. But credit where credit is due. An incredible find.

Very gracious of you Rick. Thanks for clearing that up.

Ian D

On 28/01/2009 at 13:32, modernsoulsucks said:

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

 

 

Terry Thomas [Francis T] who is on here may have an answer. Him and Rick Cooper went off to I think Telford [Oldies Unltd?] one day and came back with loads of US imports inc Joe Romans DJ. Maybe around 73/74. He'll probably remember. I think I bought it off them for £40. I had a copy but long time ago now so I can't recall if it was off them. Think i also bought "Landslide" DJ off them at the same time from the same load. Telford ain't that far from Midlands.

 

 

 

 

ROD

Hi Rod

Better late than never.

Terry and I got Little Joe Romans and Landslide demo from Florida in 75/76 . The stuff we got from Oldies Unlimited in 74 was mainly early 70s Philly records including Andre Maurice- Cream of the Crop, which was just getting played at the Mecca. I suppose Richard Searling did that swap with you as Get it Baby and Sister Lee were played out oldies for him and Andre Maurice was a new spin. Anyway I think you owe me a drink for that deal.

Apart from the Philly records from Oldies Unlimited we also got quite a few 60s Canadian issues. The best was a Ben Aitken -Satisfied on Warner Bros but also got most of the Stone label Detroit records, Eddie Parker -Love You Baby, Timmy Willis- Mr Soul Satisfaction and The Precisions releases, at least 5 copies of each title.

When we paid for the records in his office there was a few shelves of singles that looked like runs of UK labels such as Stateside and London. We asked if they were for sale or could we have a look. The answer to both questions was a firm NO. If they were his own collection I'd assume they would be Rock n Roll or pop as I don't think he had any interest in soul.As other people have said he was quite a character and a shrewd business man.

Incidentally, we only got the stuff in Florida because your contact there, Jose? failed to turn up when we had arranged to meet him. It's a long story.

Rick

From 2008 to 2011 I religiously bought Record Collector magazine every month intending to read it from cover to cover. But I never did, the pile of mags next to the tele got bigger and bigger as I read less and less of it. In the end I stopped buying it every month as I simply couldn't keep up with it. Frustration started to creep in as I was only reading about half of the actual third I wanted to......oh well.

So how great was it when last week on going to get my hair cut (religiously every month) I spotted an old copy of RC ** on the table. I was third in the queue to get a trim so had plenty of time to work my way through it page by page. I remember an old mate of mine Matthew Simpson once told me he used to devour every copy of RC he could get his hands on.

Then lo and behold tucked away on the letters page I spots this from the legendary Ian Clark down there in deepest Norfolk.

Looking for records at armed forces radio stations - wow you learn summat new every day eh!?

Derek

** #401 May 2012

Danny Huff (he was my landlord at the time) coming back from New Orleans with two copies of the Cairos on his first trip in 1990 (amongst a heap of other stuff).

Dx

Global was amazing.  Looking back, what you could get there for 10 or 25 pence was astonishing, but if you were lucky enough to dive into the specials, well... on one visit to Princess Street I came back with a Jock Mitchell and a Tony Hester for £1.50 each.  Both were much too slow for the scene at the time, but, well, we know what happened.

On ‎20‎/‎12‎/‎2015 at 02:03, Derek Pearson said:

From 2008 to 2011 I religiously bought Record Collector magazine every month intending to read it from cover to cover. But I never did, the pile of mags next to the tele got bigger and bigger as I read less and less of it. In the end I stopped buying it every month as I simply couldn't keep up with it. Frustration started to creep in as I was only reading about half of the actual third I wanted to......oh well.

So how great was it when last week on going to get my hair cut (religiously every month) I spotted an old copy of RC ** on the table. I was third in the queue to get a trim so had plenty of time to work my way through it page by page. I remember an old mate of mine Matthew Simpson once told me he used to devour every copy of RC he could get his hands on.

Then lo and behold tucked away on the letters page I spots this from the legendary Ian Clark down there in deepest Norfolk.

Looking for records at armed forces radio stations - wow you learn summat new every day eh!?

Derek

** #401 May 2012

 

Hi Derek

It wasn't a British Armed Forces Station that John and Mick hit, it was a Rediffusion TV Station

Dave

Great stories and i got a few myself but i'll be a bit more upto date.  What you got through the computer :-) records wise lol.

About 12 years ago i was sitting at work and bored sh*tless, i decided to search a few writers/artists names on google and see what i find. After about an hour i tracked a backing singer of a certain detroit 6ts soul act, sent an email and over the next few weeks of banter i secured the following. Utopias (5 copies), Camero's, Gwen Owens (wanted and needed), Pat lewis (no one to love), Magictones (solid hit missing number) etc. Its was unreal but deffo my greatest hit and i didn't even have to leave my desk lol. Happy days indeed.

Greg

On 21 December 2015 at 08:32, DaveNPete said:

Danny Huff (he was my landlord at the time) coming back from New Orleans with two copies of the Cairos on his first trip in 1990 (amongst a heap of other stuff).

Dx

George Pepp, Tommy ridgley x 2 and a box of the Q.

Greg

On 12/21/2015 at 08:32, DaveNPete said:

Danny Huff (he was my landlord at the time) coming back from New Orleans with two copies of the Cairos on his first trip in 1990 (amongst a heap of other stuff).

Dx

it was 3 copies of TR

2 hours ago, Ted Massey said:

it was 3 copies of TR

I think Danny paid for TR's cab (taxi) to be fixed at the garage :-). i remeber him calling me fron New Orleans and wanting a few record dealers phone numbers. He found the shrine 45's in a cabinet at the back of book shop while in looking for a book to read for the flight home. Seem to remember one of cairos was cracked the good one went to gary spencer.

Those were the days alright!

Some great stories on here and so glad it has reactivated.

My story doesn't concern any great finds but just a lesson in stupidity:-

In  2001 I decided to go 'crate digging' around Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis and was picking up a few minor items but one visit to a shop in Detroit stands out that a friend had told me about : The Record Graveyard, Hamtamck ( I think the guy who owns it, is a seller on ebay - Recordmanx?) Anyhow when I arrived and asked if it was Ok to browse his 'stacks' of 45 the 'hippie' looking guy in charge didn't enthuse me with confidence, If you're looking for soul records there's loads in the back room $1 each, a sure sign to me he had picked up my English accent and the store had already been gutted.

I spent about 6 hours there and got some good finds, many Okehs, lots of Edwin Starr, Motown Demos, etc etc and overall I picked out about 150  in total. So on closing time I presented my finds to the Hippie to pay, offering up $150 in cash. The first record was Etta James - Seven day fool and the hippie rings up $5 !!!!!! whoa hang on a minute pal you said the records were $1 I spurted. He looked at me with distain and said 'this is a $10 record on the internet'. So what I replied you said $1 I haven't spent the last 6 hours searching through boxes of dusty records, activating my dust allergy, for your benefit at which point he just smirked and said $5 is the price. Well my Yorkshire roots took over at this point and I basically said ' f&ck you, you cheating runt' I'm only taking the ones that are $1. He looked around and must have thought this guys a bit annoyed and theres only us in the store so  he scimmed through the rest  and I ended up with about 60, which I paid for and stormed out leaving him to shut up and me with a smug feeling of you're not ripping me off pal!!!!! On returning to my hotel the reality hit me, what an absolute and total idiot I was, whatever he would have charged me I would have at least trembled my money on just about every one. Pride it's a strange, stupid emotion.

The best of the ones I did take were 4 copies of the Montclairs, a Ruby Andrews demo, Coasters -crazy baby, Harold Melvin -get out, and many other low/mid range items (at the time) including what I thought for years was an original Yum Yums which turned out to be a reissue (how did that get there?) still got £250 for it though in 2012 via ebay.  

27 minutes ago, Crosskid said:

Some great stories on here and so glad it has reactivated.

My story doesn't concern any great finds but just a lesson in stupidity:-

In  2001 I decided to go 'crate digging' around Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis and was picking up a few minor items but one visit to a shop in Detroit stands out that a friend had told me about : The Record Graveyard, Hamtamck ( I think the guy who owns it, is a seller on ebay - Recordmanx?) Anyhow when I arrived and asked if it was Ok to browse his 'stacks' of 45 the 'hippie' looking guy in charge didn't enthuse me with confidence, If you're looking for soul records there's loads in the back room $1 each, a sure sign to me he had picked up my English accent and the store had already been gutted.

I spent about 6 hours there and got some good finds, many Okehs, lots of Edwin Starr, Motown Demos, etc etc and overall I picked out about 150  in total. So on closing time I presented my finds to the Hippie to pay, offering up $150 in cash. The first record was Etta James - Seven day fool and the hippie rings up $5 !!!!!! whoa hang on a minute pal you said the records were $1 I spurted. He looked at me with distain and said 'this is a $10 record on the internet'. So what I replied you said $1 I haven't spent the last 6 hours searching through boxes of dusty records, activating my dust allergy, for your benefit at which point he just smirked and said $5 is the price. Well my Yorkshire roots took over at this point and I basically said ' f&ck you, you cheating runt' I'm only taking the ones that are $1. He looked around and must have thought this guys a bit annoyed and theres only us in the store so  he scimmed through the rest  and I ended up with about 60, which I paid for and stormed out leaving him to shut up and me with a smug feeling of you're not ripping me off pal!!!!! On returning to my hotel the reality hit me, what an absolute and total idiot I was, whatever he would have charged me I would have at least trembled my money on just about every one. Pride it's a strange, stupid emotion.

The best of the ones I did take were 4 copies of the Montclairs, a Ruby Andrews demo, Coasters -crazy baby, Harold Melvin -get out, and many other low/mid range items (at the time) including what I thought for years was an original Yum Yums which turned out to be a reissue (how did that get there?) still got £250 for it though in 2012 via ebay.  

Great story! I had that happen a few times in 2006 when I last went digging there. I think a combination of the Brit accent and the internet killed a lot of it stone dead for me. In effect I felt like I was being used as a record selector who then gets hijacked at the end of several hours of hard-digging. Plus a lot of the stuff I pick up is varied and not particularly worth much so I wouldn't be looking to to pay top prices on those anyway.  Digging on the internet is more my thing these days 'cos at least you know what the prices are and you know you'll turn up something.

I bet that last sentence will come back and bite you in the ass though!

Ian D

yeah Ian know what you mean, regretted it the day after, rarely ever see it for sale.

The record warehouse ,House of Sounds in Upper Darby Pa, gets a few mentions in the stories of finds so I thought I'd see if the building looked like I and others remember it. Searching the online Billboard magazine archive I found this ad from 1971

The address in this advert is a small low building so not the later warehouse. The only other place I could find was a tiny advert for BB Records, knocking out packs of 100 Country and Western singles. The address for this is Quarry St and Hamilton Ave, Darby Pa 19023. The only building that looks a possible for House of Sounds is this one

Anyone recognise this as the right building. I thought it had windows but it looks as though they have been bricked in. 

Rick

Merry christmas,everyone.I am sure there are lots of stories,still untold.I can add my pennyworth for now.I took over from Rick Cooper at global, and believe me, there were still plenty of sounds to be had.Harry starr,bobby guitar woods,magnetics-i have a girl,terry callier-look at me now,george kirkby-what can I do,eddie holman-I surrender(how many do you want), and countless other titles as one offs or handfuls.Whilst working there I had a welcoming phone call,off Rob Lythall.My boss, Ed Balbier,guessed what the phone call was about.time off granted and trip planned,and we were away.Back to House of Sounds, a visit was made, and to my knowledge,had been well scoured as stated.Large crates,and mainly c/w,pop.we used the lift to cover all the floors.Still it was an experience.All the best,Nigel.A.

21 hours ago, Rick Cooper said:

The record warehouse ,House of Sounds in Upper Darby Pa, gets a few mentions in the stories of finds so I thought I'd see if the building looked like I and others remember it. Searching the online Billboard magazine archive I found this ad from 1971

The address in this advert is a small low building so not the later warehouse. The only other place I could find was a tiny advert for BB Records, knocking out packs of 100 Country and Western singles. The address for this is Quarry St and Hamilton Ave, Darby Pa 19023. The only building that looks a possible for House of Sounds is this one

 

Anyone recognise this as the right building. I thought it had windows but it looks as though they have been bricked in. 

Rick

 

Well, it's been 40 years since I went but, yeah, that looks about right.......

Ian D

Actually, talking of House Of Sounds, it's about time I pulled out "Stiffed" again for another read. There's a particularly gruesome picture of a badly beaten-up John La Monte in there when the mob moved in on him......

https://www.amazon.com/Stiffed-Story-Music-Business-Mafia/dp/0060924942

Ian D

good read this book, funny how John La Monte is described as a "bit player" i mean he only had 40million 45's 

John Lamonte, taken out by Morris Levy and his goons if I remember correctly. There is another great story of Levy and his enforcer Nate McCalla (owner of Calla Records) going out to Brooklyn with the intent of baseball batting a bootlegger they had discovered. When they got there they were going to give him a new body, but relented when the guy said he was only doing it to raise money for an operation for his sick child, and promised that he wouldn't bootleg any more records on Roulette. I think that story was in Tommy James's book.   

On 22 December 2015 at 12:14, liam2005 said:

George Pepp, Tommy ridgley x 2 and a box of the Q.

Greg

Shall we say, much as I loved it, I wasn't 'tempted' by the copies of the Q (he had about 100 on a rather dubious orange Hound rather than grey label) - I'm sure you guys remember what an extremely slippery bugger he was and I know he was in direct contact with the group at the time... Take your own inference from that. I also remember you Ted ringing up Salisbury Road frantically before the boy Huff had even got home!

Dx

Following on from my previous post, here's another tale from my time at Global in the 70s. 

The first time I went to the US with Ed Balbier I stayed at his family home in Abington. This is a typical US suburb of average to large detached houses about 25 minutes drive from the centre of Philadelphia. After we had been there a few days he mentioned that there were a few boxes of singles in the basement that I should take a look at. Balbier also mentioned that he had asked Richard Searling to have a look at them when he was there a few years before me. For some reason Richard hadn't had a look, probably ran out of time or forgot.

In the basement I found about ten or twelve 100 count singles boxes lurking in a corner. The first three or four boxes had quite a few titles on the Swan label, not surprising as it was a Philly label that Balbier had bought some of the tapes when it closed down. The best titles were Are You Satisfied by The Three Degrees and the other version by Sheila Ferguson* , Heartbroken Memories by Sheila Ferguson and Gonna Find the Right Boy by Audrey Slo. These were fetching up to £5.00 with the Audrey Slo record tipped as one to watch. I think Richard Searling had it in his DJ box but never quite got round to playing it. All the titles were in quantities of between twenty and forty copies.

The next few boxes were OK but then in one box I struck gold. Around seventy mint, unblemished copies of Lenis Guess- Just Ask Me in, as John Manship would say,  their birth sleeves and probably box too. For some people this is just another oldie but in its day it was absolutely massive. Perhaps a bit too frantic for today but it was perfect for "energetic" twenty year olds in the Torch. It was just right for the style of dancing that seemed to be popular then. Any DJ that had a copy would list it in their Blues and Soul advert.

What a find, but not quite. This was 1975 and the record had had its heyday in 1972. It had been pressed, issued on a UK label and even had that female version by Elsie Strong done . So everyone who wanted a copy already had one and the idea of only wanting an original copy had not really taken hold. The records were sent over to Manchester and offered to the wholesale customers on the phone out of new stock. I think the price was 75p . Most shops took a few copies and I bought one . I don't recall any shops frantically phoning for more copies so I suppose they didn't sell well.

I don't know why the records were in the basement or how long they had been there but probably many years. So whilst the record was huge in the UK and fetching big money Balbier had been about ten feet from them every time he went back home , so near, yet they lay neglected and forgotten until it was too late.

I had a photo of the Global US warehouse from 1975 but it disappeared some years ago. However this is the building as it looks today. It goes back a long way so is bigger than it looks . It is now a Baptist Church.

Rick

* next day correction, not Helen Ferguson as first typed, should be Sheila Ferguson. oops...

10 minutes ago, Rick Cooper said:

Following on from my previous post, here's another tale from my time at Global in the 70s. 

The first time I went to the US with Ed Balbier I stayed at his family home in Abington. This is a typical US suburb of average to large detached houses about 25 minutes drive from the centre of Philadelphia. After we had been there a few days he mentioned that there were a few boxes of singles in the basement that I should take a look at. Balbier also mentioned that he had asked Richard Searling to have a look at them when he was there a few years before me. For some reason Richard hadn't had a look, probably ran out of time or forgot.

In the basement I found about ten or twelve 100 count singles boxes lurking in a corner. The first three or four boxes had quite a few titles on the Swan label, not surprising as it was a Philly label that Balbier had bought some of the tapes when it closed down. The best titles were Are You Satisfied by The Three Degrees and the other version by Helen Ferguson , Heartbroken Memories by Helen Ferguson and Gonna Find the Right Boy by Audrey Slo. These were fetching up to £5.00 with the Audrey Slo record tipped as one to watch. I think Richard Searling had it in his DJ box but never quite got round to playing it. All the titles were in quantities of between twenty and forty copies.

The next few boxes were OK but then in one box I struck gold. Around seventy mint, unblemished copies of Lenis Guess- Just Ask Me in, as John Manship would say,  their birth sleeves and probably box too. For some people this is just another oldie but in its day it was absolutely massive. Perhaps a bit too frantic for today but it was perfect for "energetic" twenty year olds in the Torch. It was just right for the style of dancing that seemed to be popular then. Any DJ that had a copy would list it in their Blues and Soul advert.

What a find, but not quite. This was 1975 and the record had had its heyday in 1972. It had been pressed, issued on a UK label and even had that female version by Elsie Strong done . So everyone who wanted a copy already had one and the idea of only wanting an original copy had not really taken hold. The records were sent over to Manchester and offered to the wholesale customers on the phone out of new stock. I think the price was 75p . Most shops took a few copies and I bought one . I don't recall any shops frantically phoning for more copies so I suppose they didn't sell well.

I don't know why the records were in the basement or how long they had been there but probably many years. So whilst the record was huge in the UK and fetching big money Balbier had been about ten feet from them every time he went back home , so near, yet they lay neglected and forgotten until it was too late.

I had a photo of the Global US warehouse from 1975 but it disappeared some years ago. However this is the building as it looks today. It goes back a long way so is bigger than it looks . It is now a Baptist Church.

Rick

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great stuff Rick.

Just working my way through this thread.

Thanks

peter

On 3/21/2008 at 15:17, Ian Dewhirst said:

Following on from the Graham Warr thread, I figured that this is the time to start collating some of those UNBELIEVABLE U.S. Northern finds. Or unbelievable disappointments too.

 

From experience, it's quite often the unexpected ones which turn out to be killers!

 

So here's an example from me, just to kick things off....

 

In 1988 I was stuck in a pretty boring job in between my more exciting jobs when I got a phone call from my ex boss who used to own the Warehouse in Leeds. He'd recently moved out to Denver, Colorado and was thinking about opening a club out there, so he invited me over for 10 days and offered to send the plane tickets!

 

Which was perfect! Anything to get out of the MCPS in Streatham which was slowly killing me.....

 

Also, at the back of my mind, I figured that Denver is in the middle of nowhere so the chances of any Northern collectors actually CHOOSING to go to Denver or even Colorado was remote - they'd have to go roughly 1000 miles from anywhere else to the middle of cowboy country to look for Northern. Unlikely.....

 

So I got there, got settled in at my bosses pad and then began a week of trawling every store in Denver whilst looking at potential club premises.

 

And.......nothing!

 

A complete bust.

 

Crap.

 

I couldn't believe it. Quite often there'd be promising situations, i.e., plenty of the right labels from the right era and cheap. But somehow there were never the right artists or smaller labels and WAAAY too much Country & Western for my liking.....

 

It got to day 9 - the day before I was due to fly back and there was one store about 15 miles out of Denver which I hadn't tried yet. The only problem was that my ex-boss was busy that day and wouldn't be able to run me over there. I'd have to get there via about three buses which would be a pain in the ass.

 

Anyway, I set off. It took me almost 2 hours to get there but when I got there my heart started pounding! The shop looked FANTASTIC with 100ft long racks of 45's from floor to ceiling. So I got digging....

 

And nothing! Tons of the right labels, lots of the right artists but NO NORTHERN!!

 

The shop owner even let me in the back room to go through the unsorted stuff so I got covered in cobwebs, rat shit and dust going through hundred-count boxes of Luther Ingram, Staple Singers and Bar-Kays records but still NO NORTHERN!

 

After a couple of hours and covered in shit from head-to-toe, I called it a day and headed back to the bus stop for the trek back. And dammit, I just missed a bus and the next one was in an hour. So I had an hour to kill in the middle of Buttfuck, Denver with no records!

 

Great.

 

So I went into a burger bar and got a burger and coffee and went to sit at the window booth. As I was chomping my burger I was casually looking out of the window looking across a parking lot and, beyond that a dual carriageway, when in the distance, at the other side of the dual carriageway, I saw a sign which said "1940 Jukebox Co".

 

I wasn't that excited but I had a bit more time to kill and I like those early Wurlitzer jukeboxes anyway, so I thought I'd have a wander over there and have a look. Nothing better to do.....

 

So I crossed the dual carriageway and walked up to a huge building which had a shop front with a couple of Wurlitzer jukeboxes in the window. I looked at 'em for a while and then casually wandered into the shop.

 

As I went through the door into the shop, I noticed an alcove on the right-hand side which was roped-off but which was full of racks of records in what looked to be strict alphabetical order.

 

I still wasn't that excited - I thought they'd all be ex-jukebox records, 'oldies but goodies' or the dreaded Ferlin Husky or Merle Haggard stuff which Denver was filled with.

 

There was a long-haired bearded native Indian bloke at the counter, so I wandered up and said "Wow. Love these jukeboxes man. What do you play on 'em"?

 

He said: "I've got over a million records in there (pointing at the alcove), so we ain't gonna run out anytime soon son".

 

I said: "Wow. A million ay? Are they for sale"?

 

He said: "Yep. As a matter of fact it's your lucky day son. I'm having a sale, so anything you want is 25 cents each."

 

And with that, he walked around the counter, down to the alcove, unhooked the rope to the entrance and ushered me in.

 

I took a deep breath. This actually looked promising. The alphabetizing of his stock was incredible with the 'A' section starting off with A, AA, AB, ABE, etc, etc. Far too intricate for just ex-juke-box titles. But it could still all be Country and Western though so I still wasn't getting too excited....

 

So, I thought what record have I never managed to find in all my previous trips to the U.S.? One I really like preferably.....? And it had always bugged me that I'd never managed to find a Stanley Mitchell "Get It Baby" one of my favourite records of all time.

 

So I went to the 'M' section, scrolled along - M..., MA..., ME..., MI...., MIT..., MITCH.........

 

And found 2 mint white promo copies of "Get It Baby" on Dynamo!

 

That was when my heart started pounding!

 

Everything was in there! All the major label stuff, lots of tiny indie labels, tons of New York, L.A., Detroit and Chicago goodies.

 

I ended up staying there until 12.00pm that night. The owner even locked me up in the shop so he could get some dinner. I bought 2,800 records for $700 and made close to £30,000 and massively increased my Northern collection at the time. It was easily the best hit I've ever had in my entire life. The 'Holy Grail' in fact.

 

But only around 10-11 hours to cover a million records? I had to go back to the UK the next day, so the only thing I could do was target things I could remember and adopt a kind of 'scattergun' approach which is absolutely the worst way to clear a warehouse.

 

And to this day, I wake up in a cold sweat every so often, dreaming of what I left behind at the 1940 Jukebox Company.

 

A few months after my visit, Dave Raistrick found the place and had a hell of a hit himself. But he couldn't understand why a lot of the obvious titles weren't there until he asked the guy whether anyone else from England had been there and the guy said. "Well there was this tall, dark-haired guy here a couple of months ago...........".

 

I caught up with Dave a year or two later at a record fair and he said "Denver, Colorado. Was that you"?

 

And I said "Yep"!

 

 

Got loads more but I thought I'd kick off with a monster. I know Tim, Johnny, Ady, Kev and most U.S. crate-diggers have their own great tales, so let's hear 'em. It doesn't have to be a successful story. I've had some monumental disappointments too. But it's always good to share the tales LOL.....

 

Ian D

I have some really fond memories of ferreting in record shops and second hand shops while living in Australia. The best find was the unplayed copy of Nolan Chance on Bunky. Spent 12 weeks over there recently and every weekend i traveled back to those old haunts to see just what i missed the last time around. It was amazing to find all the records were still there in the boxes as i left them.....untouched and unsorted for over 35 years. There were over 20,000 singles to go through in the upstairs attic of one shop alone, most of them in mint nick. The owner said spend as much time as you want so  weekends later i came away with over 300 real beauties.  Here are a few, San Remo Strings, I'm satisfied, ric tic, Barbara Mason, if you knew him like i do, NGC, Ronnie Williams, no sin to lie, roxbury, Willie Hightower, because i love you, capitol, Cliff Nobles, the horse, direction, Bobby Bland, if i don't get involved, mala, Triumphs, joust about, swan promo (with "reversion clause") stamped on label, Frederick Knight, lean on me, stax, The Seeds, try to understand, crescendo, Lillian Briggs, boogie blues, epic promo, Bill Black, closin' time, hi, Four Tops, yesterdays dreams, pink motown new Zealand, Deon Jackson, love takes a long time growing, atlantic, Len Barry, like a baby, brunswick, Mel Torme, comin' home, London, April Stevens, wanting you, mgm, Bill Cosby, little ole'man, warner bros, Lynne Randell, thats a hoe down, cbs, Bobby Hebb, bread/sunny, phillips, Jerry Butler, aware of love, top rank, Freda Payne, he's in my life, invictus promo ( never heard this one before i found it), Inez Foxx, Mockingbird, peak, Dooley Silverspoon, let me be the number one, seville, Len Barry, it's that time of year, festival, Len Barry, it's a crying shame, festival, Doug Parkinson, soon as your thing is done, SRS (still only a handful of copies known to still exist), Flirtations, little darling i need you. Plus a whole load of Motown all in mint nick, and many many more too many to list all of them. We stopped in Athens on the way back to Kefalonia and visited a couple of record shops. There are literally hundreds of thousands of records there, many of them on the flea markets and all nice and cheap too. One shop had a basement dedicated to soul albums only and there were some amazing rare things down there. Greece is an untouched area as far as records go and we will be back there asap to do some more ferreting around. Picked up a mint Carla Thomas, the puppet on Atlantic among others. They are still out there, it's just a matter of time if you have it to spare.  Happy hunting!!!  T Bone.

On ‎21‎/‎03‎/‎2008 at 13:17, Ian Dewhirst said:

Following on from the Graham Warr thread, I figured that this is the time to start collating some of those UNBELIEVABLE U.S. Northern finds. Or unbelievable disappointments too.

 

From experience, it's quite often the unexpected ones which turn out to be killers!

 

So here's an example from me, just to kick things off....

 

In 1988 I was stuck in a pretty boring job in between my more exciting jobs when I got a phone call from my ex boss who used to own the Warehouse in Leeds. He'd recently moved out to Denver, Colorado and was thinking about opening a club out there, so he invited me over for 10 days and offered to send the plane tickets!

 

Which was perfect! Anything to get out of the MCPS in Streatham which was slowly killing me.....

 

Also, at the back of my mind, I figured that Denver is in the middle of nowhere so the chances of any Northern collectors actually CHOOSING to go to Denver or even Colorado was remote - they'd have to go roughly 1000 miles from anywhere else to the middle of cowboy country to look for Northern. Unlikely.....

 

So I got there, got settled in at my bosses pad and then began a week of trawling every store in Denver whilst looking at potential club premises.

 

And.......nothing!

 

A complete bust.

 

Crap.

 

I couldn't believe it. Quite often there'd be promising situations, i.e., plenty of the right labels from the right era and cheap. But somehow there were never the right artists or smaller labels and WAAAY too much Country & Western for my liking.....

 

It got to day 9 - the day before I was due to fly back and there was one store about 15 miles out of Denver which I hadn't tried yet. The only problem was that my ex-boss was busy that day and wouldn't be able to run me over there. I'd have to get there via about three buses which would be a pain in the ass.

 

Anyway, I set off. It took me almost 2 hours to get there but when I got there my heart started pounding! The shop looked FANTASTIC with 100ft long racks of 45's from floor to ceiling. So I got digging....

 

And nothing! Tons of the right labels, lots of the right artists but NO NORTHERN!!

 

The shop owner even let me in the back room to go through the unsorted stuff so I got covered in cobwebs, rat shit and dust going through hundred-count boxes of Luther Ingram, Staple Singers and Bar-Kays records but still NO NORTHERN!

 

After a couple of hours and covered in shit from head-to-toe, I called it a day and headed back to the bus stop for the trek back. And dammit, I just missed a bus and the next one was in an hour. So I had an hour to kill in the middle of Buttfuck, Denver with no records!

 

Great.

 

So I went into a burger bar and got a burger and coffee and went to sit at the window booth. As I was chomping my burger I was casually looking out of the window looking across a parking lot and, beyond that a dual carriageway, when in the distance, at the other side of the dual carriageway, I saw a sign which said "1940 Jukebox Co".

 

I wasn't that excited but I had a bit more time to kill and I like those early Wurlitzer jukeboxes anyway, so I thought I'd have a wander over there and have a look. Nothing better to do.....

 

So I crossed the dual carriageway and walked up to a huge building which had a shop front with a couple of Wurlitzer jukeboxes in the window. I looked at 'em for a while and then casually wandered into the shop.

 

As I went through the door into the shop, I noticed an alcove on the right-hand side which was roped-off but which was full of racks of records in what looked to be strict alphabetical order.

 

I still wasn't that excited - I thought they'd all be ex-jukebox records, 'oldies but goodies' or the dreaded Ferlin Husky or Merle Haggard stuff which Denver was filled with.

 

There was a long-haired bearded native Indian bloke at the counter, so I wandered up and said "Wow. Love these jukeboxes man. What do you play on 'em"?

 

He said: "I've got over a million records in there (pointing at the alcove), so we ain't gonna run out anytime soon son".

 

I said: "Wow. A million ay? Are they for sale"?

 

He said: "Yep. As a matter of fact it's your lucky day son. I'm having a sale, so anything you want is 25 cents each."

 

And with that, he walked around the counter, down to the alcove, unhooked the rope to the entrance and ushered me in.

 

I took a deep breath. This actually looked promising. The alphabetizing of his stock was incredible with the 'A' section starting off with A, AA, AB, ABE, etc, etc. Far too intricate for just ex-juke-box titles. But it could still all be Country and Western though so I still wasn't getting too excited....

 

So, I thought what record have I never managed to find in all my previous trips to the U.S.? One I really like preferably.....? And it had always bugged me that I'd never managed to find a Stanley Mitchell "Get It Baby" one of my favourite records of all time.

 

So I went to the 'M' section, scrolled along - M..., MA..., ME..., MI...., MIT..., MITCH.........

 

And found 2 mint white promo copies of "Get It Baby" on Dynamo!

 

That was when my heart started pounding!

 

Everything was in there! All the major label stuff, lots of tiny indie labels, tons of New York, L.A., Detroit and Chicago goodies.

 

I ended up staying there until 12.00pm that night. The owner even locked me up in the shop so he could get some dinner. I bought 2,800 records for $700 and made close to £30,000 and massively increased my Northern collection at the time. It was easily the best hit I've ever had in my entire life. The 'Holy Grail' in fact.

 

But only around 10-11 hours to cover a million records? I had to go back to the UK the next day, so the only thing I could do was target things I could remember and adopt a kind of 'scattergun' approach which is absolutely the worst way to clear a warehouse.

 

And to this day, I wake up in a cold sweat every so often, dreaming of what I left behind at the 1940 Jukebox Company.

 

A few months after my visit, Dave Raistrick found the place and had a hell of a hit himself. But he couldn't understand why a lot of the obvious titles weren't there until he asked the guy whether anyone else from England had been there and the guy said. "Well there was this tall, dark-haired guy here a couple of months ago...........".

 

I caught up with Dave a year or two later at a record fair and he said "Denver, Colorado. Was that you"?

 

And I said "Yep"!

 

 

Got loads more but I thought I'd kick off with a monster. I know Tim, Johnny, Ady, Kev and most U.S. crate-diggers have their own great tales, so let's hear 'em. It doesn't have to be a successful story. I've had some monumental disappointments too. But it's always good to share the tales LOL.....

 

Ian D

fantastic ian 

Wow...what a brilliant thread !

The  stories here are truly entertaining and an absolute joy to read.