I Bought loads.......Ten Bob for as many as you could carry..

No wonder they were 'Dirt Cheap' they were all crap!!

l did however get a copy of 'Tell Me Why' by Life on Reprise that to this day is one of my favourite tunes of all time

How about you?

Edited February 24, 201114 yr by webbydublin

Wasn't the Soulful Twins on Sable a Soul Pack record in the early 80's?

  On 24/02/2011 at 12:54, newer said:

Wasn't the Soulful Twins on Sable a Soul Pack record in the early 80's?

Yes i got one ,cant remember who from possibly Niel Rushton.

I am sure my came in a Soul Bowl pack.

  On 24/02/2011 at 12:51, webbydublin said:

I Bought loads.......Ten Bob for as many as you could carry..

No wonder they were 'Dirt Cheap' they were all crap!!

l did however get a copy of 'Tell Me Why' by Life on Reprise that to this day is one of my favourite tunes of all time

How about you?

Hiya Webby, I HAD A FEW FROM SOUL BOWL,I HAD SOME QUALITY TUNES FROM THEM, WADE FLEMMONS - JEANETTE. DARROW FLETCHER- WHAT GOOD AM I WITHOUT YOU. LOU KIRTON - HEAVEN IN THE AFTERNOON. JIMMY ROBBINS. - I JUST CANT PLEASE YOU TO NAME JUST A FEW.

WRIGHTY.

  On 24/02/2011 at 13:20, newer said:

I am sure my came in a Soul Bowl pack.

MAYBE YOUR RIGHT,I WILL SAY I WAS NEVER DISSAPOINTED. WRIGHTY.

a few from a soul bowl pack

tobi lark chalange my love topper

barbara jean why wernt you there big hit

carlena weaver jelousy audel

plus lots of X1 chains

Had a couple of packs from Soul Bowl , cant bloody remember what was in them or where the

'kin records went? If only you could go back in time eh!.

Actually I remember one was Innersection - let me love you/Im in debt to you - Innersection W/D

Also got a couple from Blues & Soul and the one I remeber from them was The Falcons - I'm a Fool

I must Love you , which i just bought again a couple of weeks ago.

Happy days

Swifty

Too Good To Be True-Harvey Scales ,an exclusive at the Apollo,Longton `75/`76`/77.My memory is crap.

Len Jewell on Pzazz.

Apple and the Three Oranges on Sagittarius and 97 other pieces of landfill!

Soul packs make up a lot of the playlists of "underplayed" soul nights-True or False?

I got Connie laverne on GSF in a Soul Bowl pack. Sold it at Wigan for £1.25 it was too Modern for me then!

Bought loads in Rotherham, across the road from the tailors, £5 for a random pack of 10. Easily worth it with the occasional hard gem.

Most notable find: JACK MONTGOMERY-DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON ME-BARRACUDA

Edited February 24, 201114 yr by Stuart Bower

Nice to remember the gems but how many crap records did you have to put up with in return?

What would you estimate the % of decent records in them?

The last one I had was a 50 pack from Pat Brady in the mid 90s, the number of good records wa probably about 8-10 - still got Buckner Brothers on Sanla, Betty Everett Too Hot To hold and a few decent Ric-Tic bits out of it. The crap included Detroit Wheels - Linda Sue Dixon, Jimmy Hughes- Midnight Affair and other such tosh

(still got those as well )

has anyone tried the anglo american soul packs as advertised in record collector?

i get the odd one or 2 packs from john powney now and again and you can specify 70s r&b funk crossover northern etc and have got a few nice bits from there

Got carl holmes-- soul dance no.3 from a soul pack

i think that was one of john manships packs .1980s

Only brought a couple in the 70's, mainly crap but did get some nice Dells tunes & Gloria Lynn - Tower of Strength -Everest, um like i said mainly crap

Edited February 25, 201114 yr by FrostyJak

Every other week a brown package arrived from................Blues&Soul

The wife(girlfriend at the time) ordered one week then I the following week.

Would be 70-73 I reckon and we got some beauties as well.

"Incense" Anglos on Fontana

Jerry Jackson "Rough Out There" on Cameo Parkway(demo)

Formations "Stairs" MGM (demo)

and then loads of easy to find but personal gems as well.

Happy daze indeed

  On 24/02/2011 at 12:51, webbydublin said:

I Bought loads.......Ten Bob for as many as you could carry..

No wonder they were 'Dirt Cheap' they were all crap!!

l did however get a copy of 'Tell Me Why' by Life on Reprise that to this day is one of my favourite tunes of all time

How about you?

I will refute your statement somewhat Phil .

Depending on your point of view , and your wish / requirement / expectation for something " extra " special in them , the enigma that was the " Soul Pack " could and would , fail to deliver the goods , leaving you disappointed .

During their heyday , I bought countless ones ( even at one period buying " family size " soul packs , which were tea chests full of US imports from a dealer in the south of England ) . I will admit that some of them were below par , but these were matched with numerous ones containing records that gave me pleasure , and more so - my monies worth , for example I compiled a Dells' collection from Soul Packs .

I would be hard pressed to list what notable records came from the packs or the chests , and several of them have been listed in previous replies . Two creditable inclusions / finds in sepearate tea chests , were five copies of Dottie and Millie " Talking About My Baby " , and two copies of Tobi Lark " Sweep It Out In The Shed "

The duplicates I had - for which as we all know , there were countless - used to go into my sales boxes that I took on my

travels , and sold them for 30P - 50P each .

Malc

  On 24/02/2011 at 12:51, webbydublin said:

I Bought loads.......Ten Bob for as many as you could carry..

No wonder they were 'Dirt Cheap' they were all crap!!

l did however get a copy of 'Tell Me Why' by Life on Reprise that to this day is one of my favourite tunes of all time

How about you?

I will refute your statement somewhat Phil .

Depending on your point of view , and your wish / requirement / expectation for something " extra " special in them , the enigma that was the " Soul Pack " could and would , fail to deliver the goods , leaving you disappointed .

During their heyday , I bought countless ones ( even at one period buying " family size " soul packs , which were tea chests full of US imports from a dealer in the south of England ) . I will admit that some of them were below par , but these were matched with numerous ones containing records that gave me pleasure , and more so - my monies worth , for example I compiled a Dells' collection from Soul Packs .

I would be hard pressed to list what notable records came from the packs or the chests , and several of them have been listed in previous replies . Two creditable inclusions / finds in sepearate tea chests , were five copies of Dottie and Millie

" Talking About My Baby " , and two copies of Tobi Lark " Sweep It Out In The Shed "

The duplicates I had - which as we all know , there were countless - used to go into my sales boxes that I took on my

travels , and were sold for 30P - 50P each . I hate to think now what these are now fetching

Malc

Edited February 25, 201114 yr by Malc Burton

Bit off thread here

but what was the purpose of the small 3mm 1/8in hole found in some imports!!????? Seem to remember them in the ones from soul packs ??

(or is my memory playing tricks??)

  On 25/02/2011 at 07:24, spike1 said:

Bit off thread here

but what was the purpose of the small 3mm 1/8in hole found in some imports!!????? Seem to remember them in the ones from soul packs ??

(or is my memory playing tricks??)

My take on / assumption for the drill holes in records , was because they were surplus / cut out stock sold of cheap in the States .

Malc

Ringleaders ''baby what has happened'' was another one in the packs, they werent all crap,just a lot of them,

it was a long long time ago mind, 35 years.....

  Quote

has anyone tried the anglo american soul packs as advertised in record collector?

I made the mistake of buying one of their soul packs half a dozen years ago. What a waste of money. First off, it was a general soul pack and not a Northern one. At the time of buying there was nothing to indicate that this was the case. As I recall, condition was supposed to be vg+ to ex. What turned up was crumpled box of the cheapest, softest cardboard. Worse, it was too big for the contents and there was no packing materials stuffed inside. This meant that 100 45s, many without sleeves, were unprotected and rattling around freely.

Whether this lessened the condition of any of the 45s, I could not guess, for I'd say they were vg at best. Many looked as if they'd been under a steam roller or had been picked up from the fast lane of the motorway.

I still have them, forgotten and neglected in a box. I look at them every now and then and wonder what to do with them. The lot included seven crackly 45s from Joe Simon as I recall, and many duplicates. Even at 50p each (or was it a quid a piece?) I felt as if I'd been had. I've never bought from Anglo American again.

Looking at the shear numbers of 45s out there now, and the decreasing desire for anything but mid-to-top end items, I think that soul packs are just about to make a come back. The 'job lot' is a regular feature in the sales section nowadays and these will increase as demand continues to fall away.

Bostock records were the best soul packs i bought, 10 records for £1 in the 70`s, loads of stuff came out of there.

  On 25/02/2011 at 00:46, soulmanash said:

Every other week a brown package arrived from................Blues&Soul

The wife(girlfriend at the time) ordered one week then I the following week.

Would be 70-73 I reckon and we got some beauties as well.

"Incense" Anglos on Fontana

Jerry Jackson "Rough Out There" on Cameo Parkway(demo)

Formations "Stairs" MGM (demo)

and then loads of easy to find but personal gems as well.

Happy daze indeed

Bought a couple of packs from Blues and Soul around 1972 and only got one decent record, "Breakaway" - The Valentines (Sound Stage 7),

rumour had it that Dave Godin was picking off the best stuff first.

I had bought loads of gems from Soul Bowl (also when they were called Groove City) from '73 onwards, things like Donna Coleman (£3), Mickie champion (£3) etc.. when "Baby dont you weep" was a quid, month in month out and no-one would play it at a nighter because it was too cheap and common!

So I sent for the Soulpack (seem to remember it was £10 all in).

I remember half of it was 70's crap ,apart from Diane Jenkins - I need you , but the rest were good ,

Dean Parrish-Bricks, broken bottles & sticks

Tina Britt-You're absolutely right,

Sandra Phillips-You succeeded

Tony Lamarr-Just in the nick of time

Four sonics-Tell me you're mine

Jackie Shane-In my tenement

Junior Wells-Cramp my style

Ethics-Standing in the darkness

Players-Get right,

Billy Davis - Stanky

plus many,many more

not bad for 10p each eh?

regarding drill holes I have been told that by putting a hole in the record at the time the record is sold as damaged and didn't require tax to be put on at purchase.There was some sort of scandle/fiddle involving organised crime in America at some stage to do with this and I think some heavy people copped a bit of bird for tax evasion.

Regarding soul packs me and my mate used to buy soul packs from soulbowl with our paper round money I also had the ringleaders , Jimmy Robbins (2 titles),bobby Valentine,Billy Davis (stamky),and loads of great cheapies.

All the best Sy.

  On 25/02/2011 at 13:21, sharmo 1 said:

regarding drill holes I have been told that by putting a hole in the record at the time the record is sold as damaged and didn't require tax to be put on at purchase.There was some sort of scandle/fiddle involving organised crime in America at some stage to do with this and I think some heavy people copped a bit of bird for tax evasion.

Regarding soul packs me and my mate used to buy soul packs from soulbowl with our paper round money I also had the ringleaders , Jimmy Robbins (2 titles),bobby Valentine,Billy Davis (stamky),and loads of great cheapies.

All the best Sy.

Not deletion holes Simon?

Kev that is the first time I've heared the drill holes refered to as deletion holes seems to be a fair explaination to a question at the back of my mind for years thank's kev you've cleared a space in the back of my mind to fill with new fancies.All the best Sy.

I bought quite a few soul packs via blues and soul.in one i got 3 copies of the same record you didnt know how to -the constallations on gemini star and gave jthem away

HI ALL THIS LIST FROM GLOBEL (RICHARD S) ONLY SOLD LEGIT RECORDS, IT IS #2, HAS SOMEONE GOT #1?

ANY WAY.£36 GOT YOU 1000 SOUL RECORDS, DAE KIL/

My opinion of soul packs has always been the same unless the dealer selling them was/is totally clueless then 99 times out of a 100 the contents of a soul pack in most instances will be crap having said that record prices in general of the early 70's were in most cases only a few pounds so perhaps it was more common for the odd decent record to find it's way into a soul pack and peoples comments here confirm that also people dealing in records then like John Anderson had access to many titles in quantity for example I remember John telling me a story when we met up in Chicago a few years ago when he had a major hit with all the One-Derful,M-Pac, Mar-V-Lus labels which included about 800 copies of The Ringleaders so the chances are that a few soul packs around that time would have included a copy?, general rule being if it's too good to be true or a bargain then it was possibly due to error on the dealers part luck or the fact being that no one had a crystal ball to see into the future that a Donna Coleman, Dottie And Millie or Tobi Lark etc. would become £200/300/400 rarities thirty years down the line.

Regards - Mark Bicknell.

  On 26/02/2011 at 08:00, Mark Bicknell said:

My opinion of soul packs has always been the same unless the dealer selling them was/is totally clueless then 99 times out of a 100 the contents of a soul pack in most instances will be crap having said that record prices in general of the early 70's were in most cases only a few pounds so perhaps it was more common for the odd decent record to find it's way into a soul pack and peoples comments here confirm that also people dealing in records then like John Anderson had access to many titles in quantity for example I remember John telling me a story when we met up in Chicago a few years ago when he had a major hit with all the One-Derful,M-Pac, Mar-V-Lus labels which included about 800 copies of The Ringleaders so the chances are that a few soul packs around that time would have included a copy?, general rule being if it's too good to be true or a bargain then it was possibly due to error on the dealers part luck or the fact being that no one had a crystal ball to see into the future that a Donna Coleman, Dottie And Millie or Tobi Lark etc. would become £200/300/400 rarities thirty years down the line.

Regards - Mark Bicknell.

Exactly : you have hit the nail on the head Mark ........ definately a case for many of " if I knew then what I know now "

Malc

HI ALL,

THE BEST PACKS WERE FROM CONTEMPOS! ,AS MOST HAD A FEW MINOR HITS IN THEM, AT LEAST 1 MOTOWN,RECORD IN EVERY BOX, THEY ALSO DID AN EXCELLENT CHESS PACK IT HAD ALL GOODY'S, I HAVE HAD RUBY WINTERS, SANDRA PHILLIPS, JAMES BOUNTY,

ALL FROM PACKS, THE BEST PACK WAS ABOUT 15 YEARS AGO, FROM NIEL RUSHTON , HIS RIC-TIC PACK 2 DIFFERENT PACKS OF 10, AND ALL MINT DAVE KIL

Got mine from Bostock records in Huddersfield Market..

Seem to remember Bettye Swan in most of them plus the mirwood stuff...

I'd be very interested to know if anybody has anything decent in a soul pack in the last say 5 or 10 years.

I don't mean a good cheap record that is common I mean something that has gone on to end up being quite obscure and / or valuable.

I wouldn';t buy a soul pack in 2011 but thats just me.

  On 26/02/2011 at 08:59, dthedrug said:

HI ALL,

THE BEST PACKS WERE FROM CONTEMPOS! ,AS MOST HAD A FEW MINOR HITS IN THEM, AT LEAST 1 MOTOWN,RECORD IN EVERY BOX, THEY ALSO DID AN EXCELLENT CHESS PACK IT HAD ALL GOODY'S, I HAVE HAD RUBY WINTERS, SANDRA PHILLIPS, JAMES BOUNTY,

ALL FROM PACKS, THE BEST PACK WAS ABOUT 15 YEARS AGO, FROM NIEL RUSHTON , HIS RIC-TIC PACK 2 DIFFERENT PACKS OF 10, AND ALL MINT DAVE KIL

Glenn Bellamy also did decent packs .

Malc

For Northern I suppose some packs from certain sellers were better than others. I only ever got the Soul Bowl packs and obviously JA was well clued up on what was what at the time. However, tastes have changed dramatically over the years. A lot of crossover, R&B, deep and ballads couldn't hardly be given away in the 70's and ended up in packs. Ok, quite a lot of shite (musically) but quite a few that nowadays would be interesting to collectors of the above genres and also fillers for logo collectors.

Also back then there was no Ebay so one couldn't just cherry pick and Ebay the rest to get some return on the cost.

I know one thing, I'd like to have a 100 (100 count) Soul Bowl, or any other 1970's period packs for £9 each, unopened in my attic right now.

Edited February 26, 201114 yr by Dave Turner

  On 26/02/2011 at 08:59, little-stevie said:

Got mine from Bostock records in Huddersfield Market..

Seem to remember Bettye Swan in most of them plus the mirwood stuff.

Got mine from bostocks in york steve, yep everyone had a Bettye swann in & a Spyder turner if memory serves me right..

Not soul pack this but in the late 70ts Dave Stubbs in Hyde market used to knock out singles, all sorts pop. rock, soul etc at 30, yes thirty, records for a quid! i picked up loads of seventies soul. now collectible tracks, one that springs to mind is Choice of Colour, which goes for upwards of 100 quid now. (I binned a load of C&W as i took a punt on unknowns!!)

I am sure others in the area got just as much as me, I used to go home with carrier bags full. also at the time John Hillel was doing "job lots" in his shop in Ashton Under Lyne dirt cheap but not in Dave's league, picked up loads there and John hates it when i remind him and show him a disc's i bought for peanuts from his store.

Cheers John

Has anyone ever had a soul pack padded out with the likes of these? (all original US demos and no boots (OVO), take note!)

Steve Grimshaw and myself were down Bostocks one Saturday and I like to think that I pulled out Dottie Cambridge, anyway Steve took it down to the Torch that night and the rest as they say is history, loads of stuff from Bostocks. As a side note in the morning a couple of guys from Preston asked me what the sound was and I could not have told them my own name, good times!

Richard Domar packs..........loads of the One Derful 45's,Ernie Marbray-Aint Nobodys business (multiple copies),Gene Woodbury- Thats Not Half Bad (multiple copies),Sugar Billy-Sugar Pie,Boss 4-Walkin By, Contenders-You Gotta Do,loads of Ric Tic stuff,loads of the Destiny reissue stuff and loads of what people now call "rare soul". Southern bluesy things ....and loads of copies of Otis Clay-Showplace along with the entire Alvin Cash and The Registers output . There were also loads of records with the name Hicky written on them in biro.

Edited February 27, 201114 yr by wiggyflat

Made my night. Bought a lot of big sounds from J.A. early 80s, sent me a box 100 singles by mistake. being the honest person that i am sent them back to John, always wondered if ther was any hidden jems in there. Dont think there was any James Last demos in the pack.

Mr Anderson put an Yvonne Baker demo in my 100 record soulbowl pack back in '84 for £14....was p*ssed off as 2 weeks earlier 100 records were £11!

Edited February 28, 201114 yr by soulechoes

Spot on Dave, the Contempo/B&S Soul packs were the dogs danglys, I bought enough of them

As above, the only decent sounds I remember getting was Breakaway -the Valentines and a Cameo Parkway release SOS Heart in Distress, which I no longer have and cant remember the artiste, although it was a female singer.

Edited February 28, 201114 yr by DanDare

On a simlar note what about fairground records,you could end up with Carlena Weaver Jealousy Audel

  On 28/02/2011 at 19:45, DanDare said:

...and a Cameo Parkway release SOS Heart in Distress, which I no longer have and cant remember the artiste, although it was a female singer.

Christine Cooper on Parkway - found one in a junk shop in Newport around 1975 for 10p, got quite moist thinking I'd found Heartaches away until I turned it over, should have known better as Wilxy had those shops well covered!

  On 26/02/2011 at 08:59, dthedrug said:

HI ALL,

THE BEST PACKS WERE FROM CONTEMPOS! ,AS MOST HAD A FEW MINOR HITS IN THEM, AT LEAST 1 MOTOWN,RECORD IN EVERY BOX, THEY ALSO DID AN EXCELLENT CHESS PACK IT HAD ALL GOODY'S, I HAVE HAD RUBY WINTERS, SANDRA PHILLIPS, JAMES BOUNTY,

ALL FROM PACKS, THE BEST PACK WAS ABOUT 15 YEARS AGO, FROM NIEL RUSHTON , HIS RIC-TIC PACK 2 DIFFERENT PACKS OF 10, AND ALL MINT DAVE KIL

Never ever got anything,

And I know I've mentioned it before but, a good friend of mine got a Contempo/ Blues& Soul one with the Del Larks in it, just as Levine was telling everybody he had the only copy

Tony

I remember soul packs from years ago, 10 for £1 from contempo's record shop at 42 Hanway street

which was the very last street off Oxford street on the left hand side towards tottenham court road.

It wasn't so much a shop, it was a very, very tiny room about 8x8 ft with a counter and millions of

title lists on every square inch of wall space, every so often John Abbey would appear to greet

customers in between scoffing bacon sanwiches that one of the girls working there would cook and

then throw across the room for him. The soul packs consisted of 10 records by well known artists

that somehow missed the container saying RUBBISH!! there was always a couple of motown items

from artists you'd never associate with motown such as Bobby Darin, Soupy Sales, to name just two.

But having said that, I've had the PARLIAMENTS This is my rainy day, PURPLE MUNDI Stop

hurting me baby, TERRY CALLIER Look at me now and BILLY ECKSTEIN, I wonder why

(nobody loves me) and guess what l did with them. . . yes, l binned them because l was scared

to tell people what l'd got for less than 10p each !!! still four biggies in 40 years ain't bad, l wish

l'd kept them, but christ, l was only 17 years old when l bought my first pack, be reasonable

Tony Warot

Remember going in there one day, Contempo in Hanway St that is, I'd been dragged up to London by Jackie Stringer, who I was courting at the time, to do her shopping Oxford street, While I'm in there in walks John Tappenden and his lady, anyway, I remember we both walked out with copies of She looking good - Roger Collins....two dodgy Bletsoe Geezers, actually I think this was well before Bletsoe, would have been the Wilby/Kellmarsh/Earls Barton period.

SOS Heart in Distrss - Christine Cooper were only 1/2 way decent track I picked up from a soul pack.

  On 25/02/2011 at 16:41, sharmo 1 said:

Kev that is the first time I've heared the drill holes refered to as deletion holes seems to be a fair explaination to a question at the back of my mind for years thank's kev you've cleared a space in the back of my mind to fill with new fancies.All the best Sy.

The drill holes were deliberately put through the records so when they came into the uk, they had to be sold as damaged

goods therefore could not be sold at the full price. hope that clears up problem for you kev.

Tony Warot.

  On 30/07/2011 at 11:29, westrex said:

The drill holes were deliberately put through the records so when they came into the uk, they had to be sold as damaged

goods therefore could not be sold at the full price. hope that clears up problem for you kev.

Tony Warot.

I'd dispute that.

They were put into records in the States to prevent a scam with 'Sale Or Return' deals with One Stop record dealers.

A lot of styrene 45s cracked when drilled, so they were stamped with gold paint - check out ABC/Tangerine 45s of the period.