Gas 171 Pat Kelly

[dthedrug]

 HI ALL.....Before I got the bug for collecting RARE SOUL, I collected JA music, on leaving school in 67 the in music was Soul Motown Stax  Atlantic & Bluebeat. However it was the latter that hooked me in, the whole JA scene was cool and it was not long before I went to the knock at the door clubs with my mates, it was at a time when the JA music scene was changing from the Ska Rock steady beat into Reggae.

Back then the records you liked and the ones you bought depended on 2 things where you heard them & who stocked them, in my area it was the PAMA label that were stocked, and in others it would be B&C Island group of labels,

As labels go I loved all aspects of the PAMA label, and by 1970 had many of the labels records. one of the more well known PAMA labels was GAS, and it sold  one of the biggest reggae records of all time with PAT KELLY - "HOW LONG" "TRY TO REMEMBER", it also sold another of PAT KELLY songs "L0VE" - "WITH ALL YOUR HEART". this hardly sold and was well out of the knowledge of the youth sub culture that had made "how long" so huge. the point of this posting is I noticed that Pete Smith had a copy for sale on his Planet record shop for £40 vg noc. and I write this to urge someone to buy it, as it hardly ever comes up for sale and the term rare means rare in this case, Why? well it is the last record to be released on the GAS label, in fact it was pressed up & that's it, never got a distribution to any PAMA outlet, So if you want a investment for the new year, I recommend you get it before it goes?  DAVE K

[Pete S]

One of those sides is actually He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother - I think - I'll have to play it again

[dthedrug]

 HI ALL....PETE if only this record had got picked up by the SMOOTH CROWD rather than the stuff TROJAN were pushing onto the gangs with all them strings & twee lyrics, maybe the music would have not gone to political, and almost push many white kids away, which it did, I for one become uncomfortable in the clubs I had gone to since I was 16, thank god I met MICK SMITH  DAVE K