How I Spent 21 Years Looking For A Record

[ImberBoy]

Nice story Pete and I have copied and pasted the Youtube link into my AFSC website: https://www.tafsc.com/menu.htm

The track that eluded me was from distant memories of my dear old mum singing a song to me in 1972; I couldn't remember any of the lyrics but needed for years to find this missing jigsaw piece.

I found it a few years back and for purely personal and sentimental reasons it drove me to sob like a chills, the track was The Carpenters - For All We Know.

Fookin hate the Carpenters but this was, and is so special as my mum sang it to me. She was so young and full of joy and I remember her beautiful face and her angelic voice.

[Guest mel brat]

Laurel Aitken was something a god to the skinhead generation! I'd clean forgotten about "Rise And Fall" (He had an album called "The Rise And Fall of Laurel Aitken" if I remember correctly) I've still got his version of "Why Can't I Touch You" on Pama Supreme and recently played the B-Side, which sounded pretty soulful.

I still like some of the early Reggae between C.1968 - 1971, but can't afford to chase them down. However I still have a few things left such as Cynthia Richards' version of "Foolish Fool" and the odd record by The Upsetters, Maytals, Pioneers, Tony Tribe, Derek Harriot & The Crystalites etc. Also have an original PAMA catalogue that I sent for in 1970, complete with the letter it arrived with, and a 1970 Trojan catalogue they used to leave on top of record shop counters at that time.

I was attending Dudley Technical College in 1969 and along with the rows of scooters parked outside the college, I vividly remember huge cardboard cutouts of the Trojan logo hanging in the windows of Stanton's record shop. Anyone remember that promotional campaign?

Meanwhile, Tamla Motown was running a similar campaign to celebrate it's 10th anniversary.

Happy days...

Edited October 12, 2008 by mel brat

[Pete S]

Nice story Pete and I have copied and pasted the Youtube link into my AFSC website: https://www.tafsc.com/menu.htm

The track that eluded me was from distant memories of my dear old mum singing a song to me in 1972; I couldn't remember any of the lyrics but needed for years to find this missing jigsaw piece.

I found it a few years back and for purely personal and sentimental reasons it drove me to sob like a chills, the track was The Carpenters - For All We Know.

Fookin hate the Carpenters but this was, and is so special as my mum sang it to me. She was so young and full of joy and I remember her beautiful face and her angelic voice.

I love the Carpenters!

[Pete S]

Laurel Aitken was something a god to the skinhead generation! I'd clean forgotten about "Rise And Fall" (He had an album called "The Rise And Fall of Laurel Aitken" if I remember correctly) I've still got his version of "Why Can't I Touch You" on Pama Supreme and recently played the B-Side, which sounded pretty soulful.

I still like some of the early Reggae between C.1968 - 1971, but can't afford to chase them down. However I still have a few things left such as Cynthia Richards' version of "Foolish Fool" and the odd record by The Upsetters, Maytals, Pioneers, Tony Tribe, Derek Harriot & The Crystalites etc. Also have an original PAMA catalogue that I sent for in 1970, complete with the letter it arrived with, and a 1970 Trojan catalogue they used to leave on top of record shop counters at that time.

I was attending Dudley Technical College in 1969 and along with the rows of scooters parked outside the college, I vividly remember huge cardboard cutouts of the Trojan logo hanging in the windows of Stanton's record shop. Anyone remember that promotional campaign?

(Tamla Motown was running a similar campaign to celebrate it's 10th anniversary.)

Happy days...

You might be surprised how easy it is to find a lot of the records still - not locally I mean, but on Ebay. Obviously many are now very rare but a lot of the big records from back then can still be bought for a fiver or a tenner.

The catalogue sounds most intriguing, I bet they've listed The Volumes - I just can't help myself in there!

[Guest mel brat]

You might be surprised how easy it is to find a lot of the records still - not locally I mean, but on Ebay. Obviously many are now very rare but a lot of the big records from back then can still be bought for a fiver or a tenner.

The catalogue sounds most intriguing, I bet they've listed The Volumes - I just can't help myself in there!

Yes, I think that's listed. Not only does it have the original PAMA letter, but it's still in the original brown envelope! Needless to say it's in good condition. they also included the current Pama Reggae chart.

Around that time I also "discovered" a shop that stocked much of the Trojan back catalogue! It was situated right in the middle of Handsworth, halfway down Soho Road, and, like many shops in those days, it was situated at the rear of an electrical shop! I used to take the Trojan catalogue along and ask for 'em by number, (much to the girl's bemusement!)

I begged Tony Scott's "What Am I To Do" on ESCORT - the one with the same intro as "Liquidator" - from the same pub DJ I eventually persuaded to sell me Tommy Neal on Vocalion. That would be around mid-late 1970 too (I think!) and I got my Two-Tone suit from a tailor's shop in West Bromwich High Street (now an Asian photography shop!) - I even used to buy 'The Jamaican Weekly Gleaner' just for their Reggae chart!

Edited October 12, 2008 by mel brat

[Guest john s]

Nice catalogue!

[Pete S]

Yes, I think that's listed. Not only does it have the original PAMA letter, but it's still in the original brown envelope! Needless to say it's in good condition. they also included the current Pama Reggae chart.

Around that time I also "discovered" a shop that stocked much of the Trojan back catalogue! It was situated right in the middle of Handsworth, halfway down Soho Road, and, like many shops in those days, it was situated at the rear of an electrical shop! I used to take the Trojan catalogue along and ask for 'em by number, (much to the girl's bemusement!)

I begged Tony Scott's "What Am I To Do" on ESCORT - the one with the same intro as "Liquidator" - from the same pub DJ I eventually persuaded to sell me Tommy Neal on Vocalion. That would be around mid-late 1970 too (I think!) and I got my Two-Tone suit from a tailor's shop in West Bromwich High Street (now an Asian photography shop!) - I even used to buy 'The Jamaican Weekly Gleaner' just for their Reggae chart!

By strange coincidence - I actually posted up the Tony Scott track on wednesday!

[Guest mel brat]

By strange coincidence - I actually posted up the Tony Scott track on wednesday!

Haha!, really? I didn't know that, but it remains a seminal record for me, obviously. (I've still got it) Anyway, shortly after buying one of these in 1970...

...I began to read Blues & Soul more regularly, had read Dave Godin's column and found shops like the Diskery in Birmingham (where Carl Dene had bought many of his records several years earlier!), but by then I was only buying Soul music. I was never into "roots" Reggae at all.

Strangely - though of course I was only one of thousands who followed a similar path - I never actually met anyone who was even half as besotted with Soul music as I was until years later - none of my (then) friends were the slightest bit interested - so I remember it all as a wonderful and exciting personal journey of discovery. Bit like life really!

Edited October 12, 2008 by mel brat

[The Tempest]

Silhouettes 45 - Not Me Baby - Goodway - value £ 800 - £ 900

Bought album with track on £50 ! ,same label / record !

Happy days !

[Pete S]

I was never into "roots" Reggae at all.

Nor me - can't stand it - means absolutely nothing to me and it all sounds the same

[leev]

LAUREL AITKEN - RISE AND FALL - J.J. 1197

Okay gather round because it's story time again. And this is one long long story. It's about a young lad and a record.

Between the ages of 12 and 15, the highlight of the year was when the travelling fairground came to our village for a week every summer. It was a pretty crap fair, with only bumping cars and waltzers, but we loved it. I especially loved it because I was the only kid in school who liked reggae (I liked soul as well but that came after reggae) and all the music that was played on the waltzers was...reggae. But reggae after a fashion. The waltzers' turntable only played on 33 for a couple of visits! So I distinctly remember hearing Big Six for the first time at 33rpm! Okay well one of the records that they used to play on the waltzers began with the intro to the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice and the only lyrics I could make out were "Push it up, push it up". This sounds great thought I, so on the last day of the fair I plucked up the courage to walk across the waltzer to the booth were this pikey operated the machine. I'm 13 at the time remember, it was a big deal. I asked him what the record was, he tells me it's Laurel Aitken - Rise And Fall. He holds the record up and says "Do you want to buy it?". Shocked, I quickly uttered the immortal words "No thanks mate, I'll order it from Beatties in town".

What a nobhead.

So the following Saturday, I went into Wolverhampton, off to Beatties department store, ordered the record and of course they told me "Sorry, it's been deleted". The fair had gone, so I couldn't get it from there, what the hell was I going to do now?

The next thing that happened was that in around 1973, a reggae-only shop opened in Cleveland Street in town. It was called Sir Christopher Musicland and it had this like entrance hall where they showed album sleeves (I remember several Prince Buster sleeves being on display) but then you had to go up a flight of stairs. Who knows what lay at the top of those stairs. Well, I did, because one day this 5 foot nothing 13 year old marched up the stairs into a room full of dreads and rude boys and in a high pitched voice asked the immortal question...

(Now here I have to tell you that all the black guys in the room had stopped what they were doing just to stare at me, preparing for a good old laugh I suspect when I asked for the latest Slade record..it was like a scene from a film and I SWEAR every word of this is true)

"Have you got Rise And Fall by Laurel Aitken please"?

The astounded customers looked at each other in amazement.

The guy behind the counter almost passed out, then he cracked a smile and went to the shelves which groaned under the weight of thousands of singles.

"No sorry mate, it's deleted"

f***!

Fast forward, what, four years now. It's now early 1977, I'd forgotten Rise And Fall, I was massively into Northern Soul but still liked the reggae, as you do. I took the two buses to Max Millward's at Wednesfield and had a browse through his second hand singles. What should I find, for 25p - yes, f*cking Laurel Aitken - Rise And Fall. I looked at it, picked it up, asked Max to play it and I heard it at THE CORRECT SPEED for the first time ever. So I said to Max, I've been looking for this record since 1972...except I couldn't buy it because the latest lot of pressings had come in and I really needed that latest emidisc, so like a twat I left it there.

Go forward now to 1981, and it was my 21st birthday. Me and my then girlfriend Debbie decided to go to Birmingham for a day to do a bit of shopping. Now I don't know Birmingham at all, in fact apart from visiting the Locarno and the old Birmingham Odeon, I've only ever been to the shops there twice in my life. But I somehow managed to find Reddingtons Rare Records. Guess what I found in there then? Yes, it was Rise And Fall and I thought "right you bastard, you've eluded me for almost 10 years, I'm having you this time".

Then the bloke behind the counter told me the price.

"That's £5 please mate"

"£5??? Are you joking? It's only worth a quid"

"Well go and find one somewhere else for a quid then"

"I f*cking will, it's all overpriced in here anyway"

So I stormed out of the shop due to this appalling customer service and left the record in there.

Ok well the 80's came and went, I never did see another copy of Rise And Fall until one day, in 1993, I was in Rye, a small town near Hastings, in Grammar School Records.

"Got a few reggae bits in there Pete" says Fat Andy, sales assistant and friend.

So I had a look. Boring. Boring. Boring. Got it. Crap. Boring. RISE AND FALL!

HOLY SHIT! (I think I said all this out loud. I distinctly remember shouting out "woo-hoo" a la Homer Simpson when I found a Frankie & Johnny on Decca at a boot sale 2 years later).

So after all this time, 21 long years, I had finally found my copy of Rise And Fall. It didn't have a centre, and it was only £5 but it was mine!

The copy I have now does have a centre but I can't for the life of me remember where I got it from - I know I don't have the no centre copy anymore. So for half of my entire life I was looking for a record, and when I got it, I took it home and played it and...erm, well it wasn't that great after all!

Well onto the actual record now and let's leave the past behind. It does indeed kick off with a cheesy three blind mice played on what sounds like a Bontempi organ, before the drums crash in and a riff begins, played ostensibly by the electric organ and guitar, and with a good solid bassline..."Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this one is called The Rise And Fall Of Laurel Aitken - Laurel Aitken rides again - sock it to me sock it to sock it to me sock it to me". Laurel then goes on to say "You feel it - you touch it - you love it - you push it up you push it up " and so on, until near the end where he instructs "Don't bite it, don't bite it". The tune is the same throughout the whole song with only very minor chord changes and some more intricate organ playing at the end, and it really is a bit of a nothing record, except I can imagine what it would sound like played loud and it really does have something about it. Oh, and did I tell you it took me 21 years to find a copy?

eeh brings atear to me eye, great when you get a record you've been hunting for 'innit.

funny i remember getting a copy off of a fella a bit older than me, ashy(ashworth dublin) the footballer dion dublins older brother, i was mates with clem dublin, another brother.

ashy used to bring records to hazel steet youth club, i went nuts over rise and fall, i swapped it with him for something, cant rememember what, i remember playing it at home and chuckling at the risque lyrics, my mam and dad heard it and loved it bless 'em.

he settled in leicester in the early 70s, infact we went out one night about 1976 for a birthday meal for my mam to a spanish restaurant, which back in 76 was fecking groundbreaking stuff in leicester, i remember chomping away on my steak and chips listening to the in house organist.

you know the type, like a bontempi organ with built in latin beats and percussion, i gazed across the dimly lit room at the organ, focused a bit then blurted f*** me it's laurel aitken.

it was him, pissed on cinzano and sangria i waxed lyrical about how much i loved him etc. was thrilled a couple of years later when the two tone explosion came a long and gave blokes like him and rico etc. a new lease of life.

i think laurel stayed in leicester 'til he died about five ir six years ago. bless him.

[Guest mel brat]

Have to admit I was rather pissed off when Boney M covered "Rivers Of Babylon" as well... I remembered it by the Melodians on the Summit label! - ditto UB40 and "Kingston Town" (Lord Creator) and the flip side "Holly Holy" (Fabulous Flames), "Red Red Wine" (Tony Tribe) etc. I'd regarded them all as classic Reggae tunes, now all the divs were singing them!

https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XVEKKJOLRww

https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3x2e09XXDzg

https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rL0uOd3dpoM

"Return Of Django" and "54-46 Was My Number" still sound great I reckon.

Another anecdote. In 1969, at the tender age of 15 I went with two of my friends from work to sign on at Dudley Technical College (day release), and on the way back we stopped off at a transport cafe at the bottom of Castle Hill, by the Zoo. I went straight over to the jukebox and put on "Elizabethan Reggae" and "Liquidator".... then turned around to find the place was chock full of greasy Hell's Angels all glowering in our direction! (We made our excuses and left!)

https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-PVmp6v6J_o&...feature=related

Halfway home we were stopped by a police constable who demanded to know "why we weren't at school"!

Edited October 13, 2008 by mel brat

[Pete S]

If anyone wants to go back to page one of this thread and read the first post, I actually have a spare copy of this now on a blank JJ UK prerelease for £15 if anyone wants it! VG+

[Steve Foran]

Remember buying the Reggae Chartbusters with Return to Django, Red Red Wine etc. First ever vinyl I bought. Great tale Pete

[Pete S]

Remember buying the Reggae Chartbusters with Return to Django, Red Red Wine etc. First ever vinyl I bought. Great tale Pete

That was also the first LP I ever bought Steve - and I've still got a copy (not the original one, that literally wore out).

One of the greatest lp's ever.

[Steve Foran]

Ha thats it. My uncle jack asked me to put a bet on a horse called Steel Pulse, but dont tell auntie una. Never having been in a bookies at the time before that day I was strangely nervous. But I did buy that LP that day. Why I remember the horse I have no idea. Cant remember most things at the best of times.

[Denbo]

Nice story Pete. Did you ever play it again to yourself at 33.1/3rd?

[Pete S]

Nice story Pete. Did you ever play it again to yourself at 33.1/3rd?

I did, in fact I couldn't get used to hearing Big Six by Judge Dread at 45!

[Guest MrC]

So, you braved the infamous 'bummer' on the waltzers just to find out what the record was - I'm impressed!

Edited November 29, 2012 by MrC

[Pete S]

So, you braved the infamous 'bummer' on the waltzers just to find out what the record was - I'm impressed!

You mean "Dan the Bummer"!

I did, he only came down to do the cheap wednesday nights when everything was 5p a ride

[paultp]

What a great thread, we don't have threads like this anymore.

It even had the w*nker smiley

Here it is (be quick and save it to your PC for future use!)

Edited November 29, 2012 by paultp

[Gogger]

Tell you what though Tubbs, Wimpy's are so rare round here now I think I would swap a Ray Pollard for a good old slap up Wimpy quaterpounder with cheese meal...I only know of 2 Wimpys left, both are in bowling alleys and are crap. They have completely disappeared from the High Streets round here.

used to take me young un to wimpys for his birthday with all his mates , mr wimpy used to come out at the end all the kids screaming and jumping on him , twenty plus years ago now , long gone always wondered what happened to wimpys

[Bigsoulman]

Another Pete Smith bloody good read, you really should think about writing a book Pete, would be much more interesting than some of the rubbish that's been printed in recent years..

Lenny