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Uk 'little Label' Soul

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With the thread about Inferno / Destiny 45's, thought I would ask which are the 'little' UK labels that put out the best soul 45's ......

A few that instantly spring to mind with me are .........

BUFFALO: the Justin (issued as by Justine) and a Betty Harris & Lee Dorsey duet if I'm not mistaken.

CARNIVAL: The UK version of the (NY) label that the Manhattans early cuts were on. Run & put out by a London based reggae label if I'm not mistaken. My fave on this label is the Manhattans "That New Girl" ...... in the 80's there was also the Nite Life label that had the Carnival logo on it as they issued the New Jersey Conn's "Love Don't Come Easy" in 1982.

PAGE ONE: Some nice items that look especially good on red & white demos. The Pic & Bill 45's are among the best on the label in my opinion.

Lots of 60's & early 70's releases (Fab, Rainbow,etc) but the labels kept going well after that .... the later releases not being of too much interest to the NS crowd though.

There was the Mojem label which I believe was owned / run by Jimmy James (label name probably derived from Mojo & gem). Have an EP from Jimmy James on the label but its a bit strange as 2 of the tracks seem to be re-recorded versions of tracks he had out on Pye just before the label dropped him.

Others include Ardent, Barak & Tammi plus some nice items on bigger labels such as Ember (Mickey Stevenson 45's, etc).

Lots more UK groups on London based little labels, especially after Soul to Soul went massive but as these increase in number its hard to keep track of all the arists / labels out there (some are The Brothers Org; Rugged Ram; Heaven Sent; A & W; Soultown; TPL; Kongo, etc).

Edited by Roburt

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Oh God don't me started on this subject. I've been writing about it for 25 years :lol:

The Carnival label that The Manhattans came out on is not the same as other Carnival label which released records by Sugar & Dandy etc. The latter was a London based indie. I think the Manhattans Carnival label came via Philips/Polydor and only had 2 releases.

People can find that single and 250 others featured on my website

https://lostvinylgemsofthe60s.blogspot.co.uk/

Some other interesting UK indies worth looking at:

React, a striking looking label with a couple of decent Mod releases

Strike, ran for 2 years, couple of biggish hits, 3 or 4 good soul/northern tracks to look for

Venus - a very interesting label distributed by Rio Records which only released Jamaican soul / r&b, I've found 4 or 5 releases

Go - couple of Carl Douglas releases, Samantha Juste pop stomper, some good freakbeat/psych

Salvo - super obscure label can't even work out what their speciality was despite having a discography, only released 99 copies of each single, distributed by "Emperor Records" never heard of them!

SnB - Simon Napier Bell's label, one Northern 45 several good pop and psych things

Plexium - one big Northern rarity and a couple of very rare psych things

Alp - mainly Scottish beat via Polydor, one Northern dancer

Airborne - couple of interesting singles, Joyce Bond and Johnny McBee

Purdah - Mike Vernon blues label pre-Blue Horizon issuing just 99 copies of each single

actually best not linger on this or I will be here all year, ought to do some work!

  On 17/05/2012 at 11:00, KevH said:

Big T?

Yeah good label, three or four decent releases, part of Transatlantic Records

  On 17/05/2012 at 11:12, Kegsy said:

Toast ?

I like the fact that Toast's sister label was called Marmalade :lol:

(no, it really was...)

  On 17/05/2012 at 12:03, SteveSmith said:

Upc-Tikki Takki Suzy & lies...... Dream Stealer Ex Gloucester "secret" sound from ´72

Steve

Also played at The Cats....apparently.

  On 17/05/2012 at 11:00, KevH said:

Big T?

That was a loaf of bread Kev. :lol:

Big T, big T in a bag.

  • Author

I thought the Marmalade label was part of the Polydor group -- Julie Driscoll & Brian Auger Trinity's "Open" LP was on the label (one side vocals, tuva organ instros -- some good mod type stuff on it).

  On 17/05/2012 at 12:33, KevH said:

Stop mucking abaht.!!! What was the UK label William Hunt was on? Streamside?

Camp

  On 17/05/2012 at 12:34, Roburt said:

I thought the Marmalade label was part of the Polydor group -- Julie Driscoll & Brian Auger Trinity's "Open" LP was on the label (one side vocals, tuva organ instros -- some good mod type stuff on it).

It was, well it was manufactured and distributed by them.

I've got the rare Blossom Toes album on Marmalade. Shame it's knackered.

Not that much to get excited about though really, one or two things on Toast though.

BUFFALO: the Justin (issued as by Justine) and a Betty Harris & Lee Dorsey duet if I'm not mistaken.

Love lot's of loving and a great Toussaint track it is too.

Justin Right Now

Edited by smudger

page one

ricky.

Now ! O jays issue ?? Yellow and white label given to big Bro. years ago

Crewe double sided green label girl crossover type first heard it on Mike Raven show and bought it

wish i could remember titles and names. Alzhiemers Eh!

  • Author

Was it Faith, Hope & Charity (+ Ben E King) 45's that came out on Crewe (the UK version of Bob Crewe's label I think).

With regard to the 1960's UK Carnival label, there were dozens of copies of those Manhattans UK 45's all together in a box of 45's a Dony 2nd hand shop (on Copley Rd) had back in the late 60's. Every other 45 in the same box (all bought together by the shop owner) were UK reggae label things.

That's why I always assumed it was a UK reggae label that had put these 45's out (maybe they were distributed by Phillips back when new, however the singles label gives no clues at all to which company issued or distributed these 45's).

CARNIVAL: The UK version of the (NY) label that the Manhattans early cuts were on. Run & put out by a London based reggae label if I'm not mistaken. My fave on this label is the Manhattans "That New Girl" ...... in the 80's there was also the Nite Life label that had the Carnival logo on it as they issued the New Jersey Conn's "Love Don't Come Easy" in 1982.

Yeah found em in a small second hand shop half way up Copley Rd in Donny bought Dandy Rudy a message to you on purple Ska beat and a few other ska beat 7" 's in late sixties.

  On 17/05/2012 at 12:53, Roburt said:

Was it Faith, Hope & Charity (+ Ben E King) 45's that came out on Crewe (the UK version of Bob Crewe's label I think).

With regard to the 1960's UK Carnival label, there were dozens of copies of those Manhattans UK 45's all together in a box of 45's a Dony 2nd hand shop (on Copley Rd) had back in the late 60's. Every other 45 in the same box (all bought together by the shop owner) were UK reggae label things.

That's why I always assumed it was a UK reggae label that had put these 45's out (maybe they were distributed by Phillips back when new, however the singles label gives no clues at all to which company issued or distributed these 45's).

It does if you're familiar with record centres!

The first Carnival label only released UK recorded product and was based in Dean Street, London, it ceased trading in 1965.

The second one started up in 1966, released two records by The Manhattans, then disappeared. It was definitely pressed up at the same factory that did Philips, Fontana, Polydor, Ska Beat...but general consensus (i.e. Tony Rounce, and me) thinks it was run by R & B Records of Stamford Hill. So yes, possibly a reggae connection but definitely not to the first Carnival label.

  • Author

Other labels with decent soul stuff:

Major Minor (Isleys & Maxine Brown LP)

B&C (home company for Action as well)

SrB or SnB (a girl group with a strange name soulie thing)

Quality (the Canadian label: distrib by Private Stock) -- a Sweet Blindness 45

Orbitone -- a few London soul things mixed in with the reggae 45's

Jungle (a Nina Simone 45)

Lovebeat (James Cobbin & Prime Cut 45)

World Dance Records (Hannah Jones, etc)

Edited by Roburt

  On 17/05/2012 at 13:15, Roburt said:

Other labels with decent soul stuff:

Major Minor (Isleys & Maxine Brown LP)

B&C (home company for Action as well)

SrB or SnB (a girl group with a strange name soulie thing)

Quality (the Canadian label: distrib by Private Stock) -- a Sweet Blindness 45

Orbitone -- a few London soul things mixed in with the reggae 45's

Jungle (a Nina Simone 45)

Lovebeat (James Cobbin & Prime Cut 45)

World Dance Records (Hannah Jones, etc)

SNB - mentioned it above. Stands for Simon Napier Bell, managed Marc Bolan, Wham...the record you're thinking of is probably Flamma Sherman

  On 17/05/2012 at 13:15, Roburt said:

Other labels with decent soul stuff:

Major Minor (Isleys & Maxine Brown LP)

Also the Cissy Houston Lp with " I just dont know what to do with myself" on.

B&C (home company for Action as well)

SrB or SnB (a girl group with a strange name soulie thing)

Quality (the Canadian label: distrib by Private Stock) -- a Sweet Blindness 45

Orbitone -- a few London soul things mixed in with the reggae 45's

Jungle (a Nina Simone 45)

Lovebeat (James Cobbin & Prime Cut 45)

World Dance Records (Hannah Jones, etc)

  • Author

Another B&C label in the UK > People (Brothers, Doris Troy, Don Gardner & Baby Washington etc)

Satril (by Spartan) -- Amusement Park + Dunn & Bruce Street in 80's

Demon -- some 45's (& 12's) on their own label (Lamont Dozier, Persuasions, etc).

Big Wave (the Waters)

The famous specialist soul labels -- Soul City; Deep Soul; Move, Expansion & many more

... and numerous NS related labels (Absoulute, Joe Boy, etc).

  • Author

The Maxine Brown 45 on Major Minor ........

There were a few other Detroit connected 45's on Ember (Jones Girls, Ed Robinson, etc)

PLUS a few nice items on King Records (Mary Love).

post-22122-0-23038800-1337263987_thumb.j

Major Minor also had Kim Weston And Johnny Nash and Kim Weston Danger heartbreak dead ahead(somewhere in a box in the house) must have a dig around.

As an aside to this bought a white Demo UK by the Blackbirds (assume british group quite a nice record if i remember right) do you know anything re the group Pete

  On 17/05/2012 at 12:33, KevH said:

Stop mucking abaht.!!! What was the UK label William Hunt was on? Streamside?

Got this on UK Camp - never seen another copy.

Any idea of value?

Cheers

JB

Also on Major Minor, Coloured Raisins, Isabel Bond, Karen Young (one stomper), Isley Brothers, Cissy Houston.

Smudger - I've got nothing on a group called The Blackbirds, sorry, apart from a single and album on the budget label Saga.

  On 17/05/2012 at 15:08, JulianB said:

Got this on UK Camp - never seen another copy.

Any idea of value?

Cheers

JB

Had three or four of those, used to be a standard £25, would have thought £40 now. Rare, but not a great demand. It's a different version to the American release as well.

  On 17/05/2012 at 15:12, Pete S said:

Had three or four of those, used to be a standard £25, would have thought £40 now. Rare, but not a great demand. It's a different version to the American release as well.

Cheers Pete

I'll have to give it a listen!

How about Lena Junoff "Yesterday Is Gone" on Olga. Heard it get a few plays years ago. Can't remember if it was a good version.

Paul

Edited by Paul r

  On 17/05/2012 at 19:19, Paul r said:

How about Lena Junoff "Yesterday Is Gone" on Olga. Heard it get a few plays years ago. Can't remember if it was a good version.

Paul

It's not bad but it's not as good as Cupid's Inspiration. There's a great German picture sleeve of this featuring the only photo I've ever seen of her. I've had a few records on Olga, remember a rare Shocking Blue 45 (Send Me A Postcard) and I've got a good pop stomper by the glamourously named Tom & Mick.

  On 17/05/2012 at 12:37, Pete S said:

one or two things on Toast though.

Anyone got an idea what the Rosetta Hightower - Pretty Red Balloons/How Can You Mistreat 45 on Toast fetches these days?

  On 17/05/2012 at 19:30, Pete S said:
I've had a few records on Olga, [...] and I've got a good pop stomper by the glamourously named Tom & Mick.

"Somebody's Taken Maria Away"?

Anyone got an idea what the Rosetta Hightower - Pretty Red Balloons/How Can You Mistreat 45 on Toast fetches these days?

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Rosetta Hightower Northern soul mod in-demand!!!!

End price:

USD

60

End date:

2006-05-16

Start price:

USD

20

Start date:

2006-05-09 spacer.gif

Number of bids:

7

Auctioned at:

ebay

Country:

Spain spacer.gifin-top3hdiv.gifspacer.gif4878093320.jpg spacer.gifspacer.gifin-top3hdiv.gifspacer.gifspacer.gif

Title: Rosetta Hightower

Songs: Pretty Red Ballons - Ultra cool northern soul dancer!!!!

How can you mistreat the one you love - Soul funk Xover.

Label: Toast/ Sonoplay

CONDITION: PICTURE SLEEVE IN VG+++

RECORD IS IN MINT CONDITION

that was some time ago,seems to be rare

only one i found.

ricky.

  On 18/05/2012 at 06:48, Sebastian said:

"Somebody's Taken Maria Away"?

Correct.

I've got this suspicion that they were also the group "State of Micky & Tommy" on Mercury who have two collectable psych singles.

  On 18/05/2012 at 08:25, Pete S said:

Correct.

I've got this suspicion that they were also the group "State of Micky & Tommy" on Mercury who have two collectable psych singles.

Tom & Mick were a swedish duo consisting of Tommy Korberg and Michael Johansson. Their earlier releases were released as The Maniacs or Tom & Mick Maniacs (!). "Somebody's Taken Maria Away" was their biggest hit here in Sweden and can over here still be heard daily on the radio on "oldies" stations. A fantastic tune in my opinion! There are inferior versions by Adam Faith (the original) and Albert Stone as well.

The State Of Micky & Tommy were Mick Jones (pre-Spooky Tooth and pre-Foreigner) along with Thomas F. Browne.

Edited by Sebastian

  On 18/05/2012 at 08:52, Sebastian said:

Tom & Mick were a swedish duo consisting of Tommy Korberg and Michael Johansson. Their earlier releases were released as The Maniacs or Tom & Mick Maniacs (!). "Somebody's Taken Maria Away" was their biggest hit here in Sweden and can over here still be heard daily on the radio on "oldies" stations. A fantastic tune in my opinion! There are inferior versions by Adam Faith (the original) and Albert Stone as well.

The State Of Micky & Tommy were Mick Jones (pre-Spooky Tooth and pre-Foreigner) along with Thomas F. Browne.

Nice one, thanks Sebastian. I had a picture sleeve for "Maria" and it actually credited them as Tom & Mick (Maniacs).

I really like the track as well.

  On 18/05/2012 at 09:02, Pete S said:

Nice one, thanks Sebastian. I had a picture sleeve for "Maria" and it actually credited them as Tom & Mick (Maniacs).

I really like the track as well.

Just listened to it for the first time in a while. It's a fantastic arrangement! :thumbsup:

If it's of any interest... the UK Olga 45 by Lena Junoff was released with a picture sleeve in Sweden but had the UK issued 45 inside. There are no swedish pressed copies of that 45. She had 7 or 8 other 45s released over here as well.

The Shocking Blue 45 probably appeared on UK Olga because the swedish company released it here in Sweden on an Olga distributed label called I.M.A.

Just as a bit of additional trivia, the Buffalo label was run by John Curd, who roadied for The Action, set up prog label Head and was quite a notorious punk promoter in the late 70s.

  On 17/05/2012 at 14:57, smudger said:

Major Minor also had Kim Weston And Johnny Nash and Kim Weston Danger heartbreak dead ahead(somewhere in a box in the house) must have a dig around.

As an aside to this bought a white Demo UK by the Blackbirds (assume british group quite a nice record if i remember right) do you know anything re the group Pete

I've got an old 60s record catalogue that lists a title by Sam Dees on Major Minor. I'm fairly sure this is a mistake - unless anyone know different.

Nick

  On 17/05/2012 at 13:10, Pete S said:

It does if you're familiar with record centres!

The first Carnival label only released UK recorded product and was based in Dean Street, London, it ceased trading in 1965.

The second one started up in 1966, released two records by The Manhattans, then disappeared. It was definitely pressed up at the same factory that did Philips, Fontana, Polydor, Ska Beat...but general consensus (i.e. Tony Rounce, and me) thinks it was run by R & B Records of Stamford Hill. So yes, possibly a reggae connection but definitely not to the first Carnival label.

It was a Rita and Benny Isen owned label, hence R&B. They licensed it directly from Joe Evans and were mainly ska/reggae and definitely aiming it at their clientelle.

Ady

And let's not forget Horaces! All legally licensed UK originals of US soul sounds, though a couple of decades after their first release apart from the previously unissued ones of course. Those fetch a few bob at the moment.

  On 17/05/2012 at 11:03, Pete S said:

Airborne - couple of interesting singles, Joyce Bond and Johnny McBee

And a few dog-rare and very expensive UK jazz releases!

Domain - Roy Docker, Jason Simms, Tamara Koran (rare mod 45), not sure what else...

Audio Fidelity. Peels - time marches on.

Is the UK King label small enough ? A few good ones on this; I'm sure you know them ?

UK Atco. Otis Redding - look at the girl. This sounds very good in respect of today's taste.

Beacon. Chi-lites.

Planet. Orlons / J.L.G's

Cheers........... Tom.

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