Power Records (Toronto) - La'shell & The Shelletts

[Roburt]

What's known about this Toronto based Canadian record label & the group they recorded; La'Shell & the Shelletts.

From trade ads I know that the label used / or owned Studio 22 - 23 on Don Mills Road in Toronto and that was Power Records address too. 

For a while in 67 they also had a New York office .... that must have been while they were trying to get a US licensing deal for their recordings.

Little New York based indie label Eagle Records took the plunge & signed up their group for US releases.

 

Seems that the Canadian pressed copies of the 45 ("My Soldier Boy Over There") are quite rare even though they went to the trouble of having a picture sleeve made for the 45. 

Was anything else released on Canadian Power (was "You Better Check Yourself" for instance released on a Canadian pressed 45) ??

Seems that as Richard Tee had a hand in arranging their tracks that they were (at least) finished off / mixed in a New York area studio.

Did either of their 45's sell in any numbers in either country ?

Did the group have any more releases ?

.......... questions, questions, nothing but questions.

 

 

[Roburt]

BTW, I did a check on the address of that Toronto recording studio & today a newish commercial building alongside a busy freeway & near a railway line occupies the site.

I guess the old studio building was demolished years ago. Little left then to remind local folks of what went on there in the 60's.

[Tiberius]

I've seen the Power 45 go through ebay a few times, usually cheaply, but rarely with the sleeve. I remembered a really nice copy on ebay some time ago and sure enough, when I went onto popsike, there it was so grabbed the attached image of the best example I've seen.

 

The copy in the video is my own, credited just to "The Shellets", not sure why.  EC102 as opposed to E-102.  I assumed it was a 2nd, although period, release. There are several stock label variations along with the white promo? copies which appear in the advert.

[Roburt]

Some background on the Toronto music scene back then .........

 

....  tourists came to 'the Village' area to catch a glimpse of Toronto’s newest pariah group, the elusive 'draft dodgers'. As war resistors — the fallout from America's unpopular war in Vietnam — began to stream into Canada after 1965, Yorkville was among the first places many would settle. As the Yorkville scene expanded, so did the number of concerned Torontonians who felt that social alienation needed to be dealt with before the hippies spread their disillusionment, indolence, and ignorance. An attempt to change their attitudes was made by a group of concerned (middle-class) Toronto businessmen who operated under the name of the 'Project Committee' (summer 1966). They concluded that something needed to be done about this community of middle-class drop outs. Another, less surreptitious attempt to save Village youth 'from themselves' was carried out by a Reverend James Smith at his Church. He had a Drop-In Centre and there organised a move away from helping greaser youth toward touching base with the developing hippie scene ...... Back then Toronto was devoid of hip bars and hangouts so Yorkville’s cachet was exaggerated. Drinking was not a big deal on the Toronto scene. Hardly any places were licensed to sell booze. You didn’t have places to go out to, a pub culture, cafés or licensed restaurants. The whole Yorkville scene was not licensed, it was all coffee!  .... contact between the Vagabonds, the greasers, and the suburban teens that filled the streets in ever greater numbers led to a riot. It was a symptom of identity, kids in their different uniforms which exaggerated the differences, They were trying in their respective ways to be cool. Yorkville was their stage, and their performance was to make the scene. The racial, ethnic and class-based anxieties at work then was reflected by the youth cultures inhabiting the Yorkville scene. Ultimately, although the scene was perceived in different ways by all the participants, the Village was seen by locals as a “foreign territory taken over by teenagers ........ Toronto’s anxiety over Yorkville’s violent youth scene was mainly based upon misinformation and exaggeration by early summer 1965. But by the end of that summer there was mounting evidence that such a condition was however developing in the district.

 

Toronto had a folk club scene up to around 1965, Their music was changing as they emphasised with the US civil rights movement. Yonge Street, with its Ronnie Hawkins-inspired beerhouses, was Toronto’s rock’n’roll scene. There were a few traditional jazz clubs. Many locals got into blues and this resulted in the music scene opening up to include R&B plus rock. The Village community in 64-66 was designed around the notion that sharing, camaraderie and collaboration were paramount to survival ..... David Clayton-Thomas, then known as a blues singer would soon lead his Bossmen and cut a hit single (“Brainwashed”) was holding court all night long on the steps of St-Paul’s Church. Such diversity bred innovation and the 'Brit Invasion' was also changing the local music scene. Teenagers started growing their hair long and groups such as Jack London and the Sparrows (who became Steppenwolf) could be caught practicing at the Avenue Road Club .......

... Rock’n’roll music had been played on Toronto’s famous 1050 CHUM AM station since 1958 but that initially neither inspired nor moved Toronto’s Beats and bohemians the way that jazz or folk music did ..... By 1967, local bands were being inspired by a variety of new recording groups. The local music industry ,woke up and such performers started to get bookings at clubs such as the Purple Onion, the El Patio and the Mynah Bird. One such outfit was Grant Smith & the Power who's lead vocalist was Eddie Spencer.

Rick James, Eric Mercury and Jackie Shane were based there and Jackie Shane's music and showmanship made a big impression. The strangeness of Jackie was quite different for Toronto, many nights he went on stage dressed as a woman. Guys like Duke Edwards, who was up from New Orleans managing the Checkmates, Mouse Johnson and the like resulted in a black American influence that became very strong, A lot of the local white R&B and soul groups took their lead from those artists.

The 1960s was the decade in which Toronto’s music scene took shape. With twin focal points in Yorkville and along the Yonge Street strip, the city produced highly regarded folk, rock, and R&B-influenced sounds. Though many of the venues from the decade are long gone .....

.....  RCA Studios (225 Mutual Street)  -- Once home to CHUM radio, 225 Mutual Street became one of the city’s busiest recording studios. Operated by RCA during the 1960s and 1970s, then McClear Place, the studios saw many acts use its facilities over half a century of sound recording. The building was demolished in 2010.

 

So it seems the time was right for groups such as La'Shell & the Shelletts to break through on the Toronto music scene back then. With all the US draft dodgers around and the music of James Brown, Motown, Stax & Atlantic being played in the clubs. However, the group quickly disappeared without trace, mores the pity.

Edited July 20, 2013 by Roburt

[Roburt]

The Eric Mercury & the Soul Searchers SAC 45 .... PLUS .... the Grant Smith & the Power 45 cuts on Boo were almost certainly recorded in the same studio (on Don Mills Rd, Toronto) as the La'Shell & the Shelletts tracks.

Seems the studio was owned / run by Art Snider & he cut all sorts of stuff there (folk, blues, soul, pop, rock, reggae, novelty items, etc). 

 

Two members of the Soul Searchers went on to join the Power around mid 1968 (incidentally the Power's 1st lead singer had been Eddie Spencer).

Those two guys were Steve Kennedy (see pic of Grant Smith & the Power below -- he's stood up 3rd from the right) & William Smith (sat on far right).

 

Lots of Grant Smith & the POWER's gigs were advertised as being POWER dances.

Also their Boo 45 ads contained the motto 'We Got The POWER'.

So I guess members of the outfit could well have been involved with the POWER label that put out the Shelletts cuts in Canada. 

Edited July 20, 2013 by Roburt