Setting the record straight - Four Larks / Four Seasons

[Vadnochka]

Just got another bee set off in my bonnet from a youtube post from ages ago that I read ref the above 2 sounds today - 21/01/23

1) - Four Larks - Dave Rivers rocked up at the Cats one Saturday in mid/autumn '72 - 3 mint copies - got Max to play it - I immediately dived for the decks - result me and Max bought a copy each £5 -and It made it's debut the next night (Sunday) at the Fantasia to become an immediate massive sound for me and Max. Nobody else was playing it for quite some time but was never covered up and became a semi exclusive for ages - certainly into '73. Incidently both Max and I were both playing the Professionals - Groove City at the same time.

2) Four seasons - I'm gonna change - played 1st as so many were off the albumn at the Mecca before the youth club that was Wigan even opened - End of story

Edited January 21, 2023 by Vadnochka

[Solidsoul]

On 21/01/2023 at 12:06, Vadnochka said:

Just got another bee set off in my bonnet from a youtube post from ages ago that I read ref the above 2 sounds today - 21/01/23

1) - Four Larks - Dave Rivers rocked up at the Cats one Saturday in mid/autumn '72 - 3 mint copies - got Max to play it - I immediately dived for the decks - result me and Max bought a copy each £5 -and It made it's debut the next night (Sunday) at the Fantasia to become an immediate massive sound for me and Max. Nobody else was playing it for quite some time but was never covered up and became a semi exclusive for ages - certainly into '73. Incidently both Max and I were both playing the Professionals - Groove City at the same time.

2) Four seasons - I'm gonna change - played 1st as so many were off the albumn at the Mecca before the youth club that was Wigan even opened - End of story

Just because a record was played somewhere first, doesn't mean that it can never ever be a big record anywhere else! It's not your exclusive forever!

Also at my age, the photo's of the punters/revelers in the late 1960's at the Twisted Wheel look like a youth club, if you are bringing up things like that!

Edited January 24, 2023 by Solidsoul

[Rick Cooper]

On 21/01/2023 at 12:06, Vadnochka said:

Just got another bee set off in my bonnet from a youtube post from ages ago that I read ref the above 2 sounds today - 21/01/23

1) - Four Larks - Dave Rivers rocked up at the Cats one Saturday in mid/autumn '72 - 3 mint copies - got Max to play it - I immediately dived for the decks - result me and Max bought a copy each £5 -and It made it's debut the next night (Sunday) at the Fantasia to become an immediate massive sound for me and Max. Nobody else was playing it for quite some time but was never covered up and became a semi exclusive for ages - certainly into '73. Incidently both Max and I were both playing the Professionals - Groove City at the same time.

2) Four seasons - I'm gonna change - played 1st as so many were off the albumn at the Mecca before the youth club that was Wigan even opened - End of story

I suppose it would have been around the same time (Autumn 73) that I have a fairly clear memory of three or four older guys turning up at Pendulum in Manchester with some boxes of singles. This wouldn't be unusual but what stood out was they were from London, the records they had were unbelievable and they weren't for sale. I'm fairly sure there was a Four Larks - Groovin' at the Go Go as well as a Cooperettes Shing a Ling with the larger print title and artist as well as many others. Some of these got played that night. I think someone mentioned that one guy was Dave Rivers. Since then I've often wondered how and where they got the records. Did they get them from the US or were there imports knocking about in London? Would the UK record companies get sent every release from their US counterpart and they eventually cleared them to shops or collectors, or did shops like Soul City import titles in the late sixties. I remember a few people( @Modernsoulsucks) from Manchester would go to London record hunting in the early 70s although when I went later on there wasn't much around. 

 

[Modernsoulsucks]

I lived there, Rick, from Sept '72 to March '73.

Tons of 45s lying around then but mostly UK.

There was a shop called Moondogs that had a lot of US 45s. I think the guys there were more into rockabilly/rock'n'roll and I assume they actively bought loads from the US which included soul stuff they weren't interested in as just part of the deal.

Obviously there may have been other similar places in London I never stumbled upon.

NRS in Manchester and Blackpool had loads of US 45s back then albeit mainly Chess and Philips and the odd Blue Rock 45 like Keanya Collins. And there was the Record Bar [?] on Tibb St with the monkey in the cage if I remember correctly. They had some oddball imports for sale but what I didn't know then was that they had a lot more in a "warehouse" in Ashton.

Sometime in 70's [Carolines in Manchester ran a Northern night at the time -'75 maybe ?] myself, Withers and McCadden got in there. Owner said they'd had 'em, years. Multiple copies of Lenny Curtis and I recall pulling out Velvet Satins.

Then there was Bostocks with the Verve and MGM 45s, and of course Global.

Makes you wonder how these places got hold of these 45s and why really. It wasn't as if they were responding to Northern demand but more that we fed off those places to find records as the scene developed.

 

Edited January 23, 2023 by Modernsoulsucks

[Vadnochka]

Yeh - Blackpool - Ronnie Walker etc in some place on or near the front - Second hand shops in Leicester - in the back streets around Melton Turn as we knew it - Multi copies of numerous titles - My brother bought a stack of Shakers One wonderful moment - I was amazed to hear it played by Colin at the Torch a couple of weeks later - I went to my car and started banging them out at £3 - £5 on the strength of that - El Cids in cross keys yard Loughborough Nancy Ames - Epic 10p. - Chris had found a British mint issue the week after in Brees Leicester - Colins face when we rocked up with the pair at the Mecca as he had just started playing it. 

Ex Twisted Wheel 45's from Blakey in Discland Belvoir St. Leicester - Earl Jackson, Patrice Holloway, Sam Nesbit BMGoose and numerous others - This was mid 72. - Remember - Professionals / Nabay /  - virtual one offs & Valentinos - Sweeter /  Parliaments on Gworld / Edwin Starr RicTic You're my mellow - all stock items at Selectadisc - Arkwright St. for less than £2.

Sounds turned up everywhere -  Luton / Mansfield - A fiver got you just about anything and you could haggle down from that. You just had to be relentless or damn right cheeky.

Great days - Still out there you know - Scooped a 1/2 price mint Four Coins - Lanco this morning never had one - - chuffed to bits - just plain fluke - right place /right time

Edited January 24, 2023 by Vadnochka

[Ady Croasdell]

On 22/01/2023 at 18:28, Rick Cooper said:

I suppose it would have been around the same time (Autumn 73) that I have a fairly clear memory of three or four older guys turning up at Pendulum in Manchester with some boxes of singles. This wouldn't be unusual but what stood out was they were from London, the records they had were unbelievable and they weren't for sale. I'm fairly sure there was a Four Larks - Groovin' at the Go Go as well as a Cooperettes Shing a Ling with the larger print title and artist as well as many others. Some of these got played that night. I think someone mentioned that one guy was Dave Rivers. Since then I've often wondered how and where they got the records. Did they get them from the US or were there imports knocking about in London? Would the UK record companies get sent every release from their US counterpart and they eventually cleared them to shops or collectors, or did shops like Soul City import titles in the late sixties. I remember a few people( @Modernsoulsucks) from Manchester would go to London record hunting in the early 70s although when I went later on there wasn't much around. 

 

Sounds like Dave Burton who had a terrific haul from a guy who worked for Warners. He brought a chest of promos to Dave’s Harlequin record shop in Berwick St. sold Fuller Brothers to Minsh and let me have Bolan Chance on Bunky. There was a Cooperettes and many others 

[Vadnochka]

Returning to my bee in my bonnet - I never said anything couldn't be a big sound or re-activated or anything - What I said was the post i was referring to as saying these other venues were the originators and I was contradicting that assertion. 

Referring to Wigan looking like a youth club - I was making a comment about my view of the mob trying to get in on that 1st night when we arrived outside, having driven down from the Mecca, admitting that we gave up and drove home to Loughborough. - A point I have made before also tempering it with the observation that - it was a bit of a liberty as I was only 19 at the time and didn't recognise anyone from other venues outside the Casino.

[Okehdownsouth]

On 22/01/2023 at 18:28, Rick Cooper said:

I suppose it would have been around the same time (Autumn 73) that I have a fairly clear memory of three or four older guys turning up at Pendulum in Manchester with some boxes of singles. This wouldn't be unusual but what stood out was they were from London, the records they had were unbelievable and they weren't for sale. I'm fairly sure there was a Four Larks - Groovin' at the Go Go as well as a Cooperettes Shing a Ling with the larger print title and artist as well as many others. Some of these got played that night. I think someone mentioned that one guy was Dave Rivers. Since then I've often wondered how and where they got the records. Did they get them from the US or were there imports knocking about in London? Would the UK record companies get sent every release from their US counterpart and they eventually cleared them to shops or collectors, or did shops like Soul City import titles in the late sixties. I remember a few people( @Modernsoulsucks) from Manchester would go to London record hunting in the early 70s although when I went later on there wasn't much around. 

 

I don't understand why anyone would be surprised about 'Northern Soul' records existing south of Birmingham or anyone having an interest in them. I come from Bournemouth and my mates and I grew up visiting the Hive on the beach front and the Sunday Beat Club at the Pavilion. These is where the mods and skin heads went so there was always loads of rare soul music. This was 1969-1971 and the older lads used to ride their scooters up to London and do the clubs there and bring back loads of stuff on Ric Tic, Golden World and other records we had never seen. Also being a town full on old people junk shop hunting was quite fruitful and that was where I started collecting what I thought then was just rare and unusual soul. It was not until I started buying Black Music and Blues and Soul and a couple of lads moved south and started doing Northern Soul nights in a room above a burger bar in 1971 that I got to know that this was a big thing up north. I was still only 13-14 and we were talking about going to The wheel, then it closed and a deep depression set about us as we thought that it would all come to an end. Then Wigan opened and in the October of 1973 at the age of 15, off we went. 10 of us in knackered rented Comer van sitting on a many mattress for around 7 hours there and 7 hours back. After that we were hooked and went as often as we could afford to scrape together the money for a van and the fuel. The other kids at school were all into Queen and rock music and when we told them where we had been they thought we were nuts! We knew better and the following year when we left school at 16, three of us went to Blackpool for 10 days so that we could do the Mecca and Wigan on the same nights. How lucky we were to live in such simple times, we had sod all money but we enjoyed life and made the most of it.