My Radio Jackie Finds As A Teenager

[Guest Soulskate70]

Hi to all SoulSource members. I joined the site a few weeks back, however this is my first post. I'm new to collecting vinyl and have only been really purchasing records since Christmas. My introduction to Northern Soul was through the Kent compilation "Right Back Where We Started From" which I purchased as a very young teenager, purely because I had heard and liked the title song, not knowing anything about Northern Soul. My second purchase was the terrible Casino Classics LP, which to this day I still haven't played all the way through...  Anyway I have a small story from back when I was a young 14 year old teenager….
My mother knew a lady that worked for a South London Radio Station called Radio Jackie which had closed in the mid eighties. My mother had mentioned that I liked "old records" and I was offered the chance to look through a large wooden box of old 45's for whatever money I was prepared to give before the box went to a Scouts Jumble Sale. I jumped at the chance and a few days later this box arrived at our house and I spend some time going through all the records. I should have really just purchased the whole box, but at the time I was young and naive. My knowledge of Northern Soul was limited to two Kent compilations I owned and a crappy Casino Classics album. Nearly all were in mint condition and with at least 50% being promo-copies.  All were UK releases from around 1966-1972 and a few later  - a mixture of Rock & Pop, Soul and Reggae, with a large amount being on the Columbia and CBS record labels - Around 50% of the 45’s in the box were well known commercial music but there were a lot of titles I had never heard of - partly due to my age and lack of musical knowledge…… Looking back the way I selected the 45’s that looked interesting wasn’t very scientific.. basically anything with a large “A” on the label or looked interesting!
The first 45’s I removed from the box were anything on the Trojan record label as I knew I would probably like these, followed by a lot of MOJO releases like The Fuzz and Doris Troy. There were also quite a lot of commercial Atlantic sounds and few re-releases like The Platters - With This Ring etc. I found few records on another UK label called “REGGAE” (747 the Message, Pama-Dice etc) which I actually only realised were very collectable last year! The first “Northern” 45 I found worth few pounds was an unplayed promo copy of This Beautiful Day by Levi Jackson. which I knew from one of my Kent compilation albums. I then found the same record as a promo, but by Solomon King. At the time I was a bit puzzled by this and thought it was some kind of label mix up! The next was a promo of Carl Douglas - Lean on Me… purely selected because I knew the artist. I also found a promo copy of You Don’t mean it - Chapter 5.
The sad part about the story is about 2 years after obtaining these 45’s I sold LevI Jackson, Solomon Burke and Channel 5…. at the time I had no real interest in collecting rare records and put the money towards a mountain bike. I knew they were collectable and a guy offered me £180 for all three…. This was 1988… I have no idea if at the time the guy underpaid me, but I was very happy with the money…
I still have most of the other Soul 45’s I discovered, and recently sold a lot of my Reggae 45’s to fund the purchase of more Soul records…..

Edited June 29, 2014 by Soulskate70

[Guest jkidd]

Nice story, but i think you mean Chapter 5, not channel, think they came from the Cumbria area ?

[Steve S 60]

Nice story, but i think you mean Chapter 5, not channel, think they came from the Cumbria area ?

 

Barrovians, so still part of Lancashire when they formed.

[Guest Soulskate70]

You are very correct! It was Chapter 5!  I've edited the text to give the band their correct name.