Lynne Randell / Record Collector

[Soul-slider]

Looking through 'Record Collector' in W H Smiths today, noticed a piece on Lynne Randell that say's she died 8th June by an addiction to slimming pills.

Mentions her records in the write up but fails to mention 'Stranger In Your Arms'.....!!!! Unbelieveable! Surely that's the one she's most known for over here?

Anyway, haven't bought a RC for ages....there's just no Soul in it anymore! It's been a long time since they've done anything worthwhile soul wise. Oh, guess what, Elvis is on the front cover and a nice big article on his top 50 collectables!!!! (again).

Edited August 5, 2007 by Soul-Slider

[Guest mel brat]

Just when you think that the (Northern) Soul scene must have reached every nook and cranny of the planet, an omission like that shows that it's still essentially a minority passion. Maybe that's a good thing, as perhaps it's only the North that will remember Lynne with any genuine affection, and for generations to come. RIP.

Edited August 4, 2007 by mel brat

[AlanB]

They have a list of the top eBay sales over the last month, which included the Billy Harner - What About the Music instrumental. They then added an idiotic comment that the flip, Please Spare Me This Time, was an in-demand Northern side.

It's not worth buying nowadays. I only read it in Borders when I've time to kill and have already read B&S and Black Echoes..

Alan

[Guest TONY ROUNCE]

Maybe that's a good thing, as perhaps it's only the North that will remember Lynne with any genuine affection

Not true, Mel - girl group fans think highly of Lynne's records, and she's still quite highly regarded in her native Australia as being one of their first 'international' pop stars.

Of course, most Aussies probably don't remember "Stranger In My Arms" either, as it was a 'B' side...

[Soul-slider]

Not true, Mel - girl group fans think highly of Lynne's records, and she's still quite highly regarded in her native Australia as being one of their first 'international' pop stars.

Of course, most Aussies probably don't remember "Stranger In My Arms" either, as it was a 'B' side...

What puzzles me the most is that RC is a British publication about 'RECORD COLLECTING'....

Lynne's 'Stranger....' is her MOST collectable and most expensive 45!! And a Northern soul classic. Maybe the Aussies don't realise this, but a publication like RC definitely should!

I thought RC had a guy working for them who was into Northern/soul....??? (mind you, if they do, he's been gone AWOL for months!)

Northern Soul and its affiliates is surely one of, if not THE, most collectable and revered vinyl in the UK.....the records are what record collecting is all about, yet this publication seems to snub it! Don't get me wrong, when RC do a Northern /Soul piece they really do a great job (the Shrine article several years back and the Motown labels from donkey's years back, not forgetting the brilliant UK ska/reggae series they ran many moons ago). It's so obvious the publishing team are made up of Queen, Beatles, Elvis fans.

If anyone is reading this who knows somebody working for RC...."More Soul Please!"

Edited August 5, 2007 by Soul-Slider

[Guest]

What puzzles me the most is that RC is a British publication about 'RECORD COLLECTING'....

Lynne's 'Stranger....' is her MOST collectable and most expensive 45!! And a Northern soul classic. Maybe the Aussies don't realise this, but a publication like RC definitely should!

I thought RC had a guy working for them who was into Northern/soul....??? (mind you, if they do, he's been gone AWOL for months!)

Northern Soul and its affiliates is surely one of, if not THE, most collectable and revered vinyl in the UK.....the records are what record collecting is all about, yet this publication seems to snub it! Don't get me wrong, when RC do a Northern /Soul piece they really do a great job (the Shrine article several years back and the Motown labels from donkey's years back, not forgetting the brilliant UK ska/reggae series they ran many moons ago). It's so obvious the publishing team are made up of Queen, Beatles, Elvis fans.

If anyone is reading this who knows somebody working for RC...."More Soul Please!"

We sell every form of collectable vinyl. From our experience RARE & NORTHERN SOUL is by far the biggest, most vibrant form of vinyl collecting on the planet, and it's growing too. Perhaps,more money changes hands on this area of collectable music than perhaps any other, is our guess.

Yes, Record Collector have no idea of the strength of this market, to be honest i think they are ignoring it because they don't have the knowledge to comment on it accuratly.

PS Lynne Randell was born in England.

[Guest TONY ROUNCE]

We sell every form of collectable vinyl. From our experience RARE & NORTHERN SOUL is by far the biggest, most vibrant form of vinyl collecting on the planet, and it's growing too. Perhaps,more money changes hands on this area of collectable music than perhaps any other, is our guess.

Yes, Record Collector have no idea of the strength of this market, to be honest i think they are ignoring it because they don't have the knowledge to comment on it accuratly.

PS Lynne Randell was born in England.

Indeed she was born in England, John - but as her parents migrated to Australia when she was 5, I wouldn't think that she ever had much memory of England, or ever regarded herself as English other than by birth.

And I don't think that her Australian fans would ever have regarded her as English, either!

[Guest]

Indeed she was born in England, John - but as her parents migrated to Australia when she was 5, I wouldn't think that she ever had much memory of England, or ever regarded herself as English other than by birth.

And I don't think that her Australian fans would ever have regarded her as English, either!

Can't we say she's English?

Those Ozzie's can't beat us at everything..

[Guest enchantedrythm]

We sell every form of collectable vinyl. From our experience RARE & NORTHERN SOUL is by far the biggest, most vibrant form of vinyl collecting on the planet, and it's growing too. Perhaps,more money changes hands on this area of collectable music than perhaps any other, is our guess.

Yes, Record Collector have no idea of the strength of this market, to be honest i think they are ignoring it because they don't have the knowledge to comment on it accuratly.

PS Lynne Randell was born in England.

John thats interesting, how do they work then?

noting that you are one of the Consultants in the price guide they must be in touch on a fairly regular basis re current prices, and cant they see by the enormity of the price differences over other genres included in thier publication, that this phenomonem is not halting in any way shape or form.

Do you think they dont like the fact, bearing in mind their music roots on the whole are R&R, brit pop, rock and the beatles, that our music has come up on the rail and blasted their's into minor places?

[Sebastian]

Just out of interest I did a search on eBay for all records listed in the "records" category that has ended during the past 14 days, and then I sorted them by highest price. Check it out, quite interesting:

https://search-completed.ebay.com/_Records_...slcZ2QQsbrsrtZd

[Soul-slider]

Just out of interest I did a search on eBay for all records listed in the "records" category that has ended during the past 14 days, and then I sorted them by highest price. Check it out, quite interesting:

https://search-completed.ebay.com/_Records_...slcZ2QQsbrsrtZd

Of the ones that actually sold , Northern Soul comes in at eigth place with Gene Toones!!!

[Pete S]

What puzzles me the most is that RC is a British publication about 'RECORD COLLECTING'....

Lynne's 'Stranger....' is her MOST collectable and most expensive 45!! And a Northern soul classic. Maybe the Aussies don't realise this, but a publication like RC definitely should!

I thought RC had a guy working for them who was into Northern/soul....??? (mind you, if they do, he's been gone AWOL for months!)

Northern Soul and its affiliates is surely one of, if not THE, most collectable and revered vinyl in the UK.....the records are what record collecting is all about, yet this publication seems to snub it! Don't get me wrong, when RC do a Northern /Soul piece they really do a great job (the Shrine article several years back and the Motown labels from donkey's years back, not forgetting the brilliant UK ska/reggae series they ran many moons ago). It's so obvious the publishing team are made up of Queen, Beatles, Elvis fans.

If anyone is reading this who knows somebody working for RC...."More Soul Please!"

Yeah it's been sh*t since I stopped doing their Northern articles for them! The UK soul one, the UK Motown one, the Grapevine one, the Northern compilations one - all classics in their own right (I'm only joking but at least it got NS into the mag - I supplied them with most of the labels too. Then Nick Brown did a tremendous in depth Motown article which was superb)

They featured the Lynne Randell record in the Digging For Gold section about a year ago and again they pictured and wrote about the wrong side.

Ever since John Reed left to run Sanctuary Records, and because of the devastating effect of Ebay on their advertising, they've had to change tack and they've turned it into a kind of "Q" magazine for collectors.

It's poor but I admire them for keeping at it.

[Bigsoulman]

What puzzles me the most is that RC is a British publication about 'RECORD COLLECTING'....

Lynne's 'Stranger....' is her MOST collectable and most expensive 45!! And a Northern soul classic. Maybe the Aussies don't realise this, but a publication like RC definitely should!

I thought RC had a guy working for them who was into Northern/soul....??? (mind you, if they do, he's been gone AWOL for months!)

Northern Soul and its affiliates is surely one of, if not THE, most collectable and revered vinyl in the UK.....the records are what record collecting is all about, yet this publication seems to snub it! Don't get me wrong, when RC do a Northern /Soul piece they really do a great job (the Shrine article several years back and the Motown labels from donkey's years back, not forgetting the brilliant UK ska/reggae series they ran many moons ago). It's so obvious the publishing team are made up of Queen, Beatles, Elvis fans.

If anyone is reading this who knows somebody working for RC...."More Soul Please!"

I've emailed them on numerous occasions regarding the total lack of soul, they never answer and I get the impression that they are a bunch of crashed out acid heads, there's far too much emphasis on prog rock/psych and punk but to be fair to them they did a Motown picture cover peice a year or so back which was brilliant, I don't really think any of their jurnos are soul fans, or even know anything about it, I still buy it though as there is still some good reading in it and bargains can be had soul wise in items for sale ads, but they really need to give themselves a shake or take someone on board that knows their soul

Lenny

Edited August 5, 2007 by BIGSOULMAN

[Guest WPaulVanDyk]

This is un-true i always read record collector and they have Soul in it. Might not seem a lot they but do they do reviews on albums and James Brown piece when he died and every so oftern will have articles on certain soul acts and even Northern it's self but i guess sometimes

People pick it up at wrong times to see Queen, Beatles, Oasis, modern collectables etc inside it. Plus if they didn't like or wanted to include Northern there would be no articles on digging for gold (Northern records), most wanted that has some Northern sutff and certainly ebay part.

They also have and included pop music weather it be Spice Girls, or older acts like Mark Wynter.

The funny thing i like is when they did a feature on top pop for say 1998 and they had Hanson and so on and beside at the time there rarest collectable some fetching up to £40.

[Soul-slider]

I've emailed them on numerous occasions regarding the total lack of soul, they never answer and I get the impression that they are a bunch of crashed out acid heads, there's far too much emphasis on prog rock/psych and punk but to be fair to them they did a Motown picture cover peice a year or so back which was brilliant, I don't really think any of their jurnos are soul fans, or even know anything about it, I still buy it though as there is still some good reading in it and bargains can be had soul wise in items for sale ads, but they really need to give themselves a shake or take someone on board that knows their soul

Lenny

The Motown thing was good, and one issue was almost dedicated to the genre with a great pic of Stevie Wonder (circa 1960's) on the front cover.

I did e-mail them a great piece on the Kent Anniversary 100 club singles (with high quality scans) on the back of the fact that none, except one (carla Thomas) are in their latest RC Price Guide.

Anyone see it in there? Thought not....

I've a feeling we're in for something good soon though, they do have some good stuff when they pull their fingers out of the prog rock pie and get down with some Soul. Here's hoping....

Edited August 5, 2007 by Soul-Slider

[Tony Smith]

Have Record Collector done an article on Billy Woods yet?

[Guest]

John thats interesting, how do they work then?

noting that you are one of the Consultants in the price guide they must be in touch on a fairly regular basis re current prices, and cant they see by the enormity of the price differences over other genres included in thier publication, that this phenomonem is not halting in any way shape or form.

Do you think they dont like the fact, bearing in mind their music roots on the whole are R&R, brit pop, rock and the beatles, that our music has come up on the rail and blasted their's into minor places?

Interesting point: There's a real nice guy there, who works very hard on the Price Guide and i think it's a damn good publication.

I consult Record Collector PG almost by the hour on other genres. But not for Ska or Reggae, and there lies the clue to their thinking. The editor perhaps doesn't really understand the massive following a music style has, because of the artists involved, they haven't heard of and consequently think the general public haven't either.

Rock & pop major artist collectables pale in comparison to music genre like Soul, Reggae, Punk etc. Even Rock have areas of rarity NWOBHR collecting which seems to be healthy.

They just do what they think will sell the mag. I consider Northern Soul as by far the strongest area in collecting vinyl in the world today. They are RECORD COLLECTOR, and Britain is the home of Northern Soul..so yes they should be covering it every month. They are missing out of an estimated 30,000+ collectors of the music worldwide.

As for Queen vinyl ..... it's easier to sell footballers nobody's heard of, to Sven.

[Gene-r]

Don't get me wrong, when RC do a Northern /Soul piece they really do a great job (the Shrine article several years back and the Motown labels from donkey's years back, not forgetting the brilliant UK ska/reggae series they ran many moons ago).

Thanks should be given to the freelancers who provide these articles (without name dropping Nick Brown ) - not necessarily RC themselves!

Edited August 6, 2007 by Gene-R

[Sunnysoul]

What is also interesting is that Mojo Magazine, whose musical agenda is one that several generations of Northern Soul enthusiasts could relate to in a broad musical sense, has never attempted to cover the Northern Soul phenomenon ...

[funkyfeet]

Part of the problem with covering northern soul is that quite often the 45 or artists are one offs, so there's no milage in an article, while with an obscure pop/rock record quite often the artist/producer/writer has gone on to greater things, so it's easier to construct an article around it that the general public can relate to. Also it is trying to appeal to the masses for a commercial reason, so the Beatles, Elvis and Queen are obvious article material, the number of people who think they have a gold mine with old Beatle, Elvis etc 45's is unbelievable and when you try to tell them that 99.9% are worthless they immediately think that you are trying to con them as they read/heard it in the mass media that they are highly collectable. With regards the ebay listing in RC this is never correct, if it was it would be dominated by NS 45's, perhaps JM should send a monthly list of his end auction prices to RC, they might take notice then.

[timthemod]

Back to Lyn Randell, here she is covering Aretha on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkdW4yhYfc0

[Cover-up]

Just out of interest I did a search on eBay for all records listed in the "records" category that has ended during the past 14 days, and then I sorted them by highest price.

It *IS* interesting, but if you sort it by records which actually have bids then the top price list goes like:

U2

Beatles

Iron Maiden

Celebrities (soul)

Bob Dylan

Beatles

Gene Toones (soul)

Elvis

Roland Kirk

Little Willie Johnson

Beatles

LP collection

Beatles

Which suggests that maybe Record Collector are more tuned in than you might think. Obviously you can't write a 6-page feature on Gene Toones, but a round-up of the soul sales and a WEE bit of history each month would be interesting.

[Sebastian]

It *IS* interesting, but if you sort it by records which actually have bids then the top price list goes like:

U2

Beatles

Iron Maiden

Celebrities (soul)

Bob Dylan

Beatles

Gene Toones (soul)

Elvis

Roland Kirk

Little Willie Johnson

Beatles

LP collection

Beatles

Which suggests that maybe Record Collector are more tuned in than you might think.

That was my point. I never have problems selling rare pop/rock stuff. But it's only the rare and collectable stuff that goes for money with these artists. Pop/rock collecting is (and especially concerning the artists listed above), in my experience, primarily driven by a wish to own genuinely RARE and collectable releases by an artist (whose material is already familiar to you). There is no dancefloor/DJ demand and a fairly common £10 record by U2 will NOT be worth £100 next month - a thing which can easily happen with soul/funk/r&b records. Another thing is that a lot of pop/rock collectors collect strange picture sleeve issues and mis-print pressings of music they probably already have on 20 other records at home. It's much easier to write (and dare I say, more interesting to read) articles about this kind of behaviour and it's very profitable for sellers because you can sell THE SAME RECORDINGS over and over and over to the same pool of buyers simply because it's a rarer or more unusual pressing/picture sleeve/lower-limited-edition-number etc.

Obviously you can't write a 6-page feature on Gene Toones, but a round-up of the soul sales and a WEE bit of history each month would be interesting.

I agree. They really should give soul/r&b/funk more space, and most importantly have someone taking care of it who KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE DOING, can recommend "upcoming pieces" and preferably are ahead of their game and don't only report about what records have sold for.

Etc. etc. etc.

[Mal C]

Lynn's very well remembered in Australia, I spoke to many people young and old about Australian music and all sorts remembered her as they do Marcia Hines who of course is a panelist on Australian Pop Idols, loads of Aussies have the LP with 'Cant let go' on, the 7inch release as you all know is a little trickier..

Mal

[Mal C]

It *IS* interesting, but if you sort it by records which actually have bids then the top price list goes like:

U2

Beatles

Iron Maiden

Celebrities (soul)

Bob Dylan

Beatles

Gene Toones (soul)

Elvis

Roland Kirk

Little Willie Johnson

Beatles

LP collection

Beatles

Which suggests that maybe Record Collector are more tuned in than you might think. Obviously you can't write a 6-page feature on Gene Toones, but a round-up of the soul sales and a WEE bit of history each month would be interesting.

Record collector is very tuned in, Remember they listed that 3rd copy of Combinations - what cha gonna do when it sold last year, found in a yard sale in Tennessee no less..£4774 was the sale price on that one.. that said the blurb and I suppose scan were supplied by guess who? Raresoulman...

M

[Maria O]

Of course, most Aussies probably don't remember "Stranger In My Arms" either, as it was a 'B' side...

Most of us Aussies don't remember ANYTHING after a few beers

I went to soul nights in my home Oz city from 1985 til I left 3 years ago, and our lot all know of her and that track. It got plays - think I even may have this somewhere in my boxes back there. Thing is, there's far better sounds from other artists (IMHO) that one may rather chase and play.

It's nice to have national pride - like when we win the cricket - but it's not like I ever wanna watch that boring game.

Those that were teenagers in the 60s were the only 'normal' people who I recall had heard of her and loved her, but it's been a very long time since I asked.

m

[Guest]

Record collector is very tuned in, Remember they listed that 3rd copy of Combinations - what cha gonna do when it sold last year, found in a yard sale in Tennessee no less..£4774 was the sale price on that one.. that said the blurb and I suppose scan were supplied by guess who? Raresoulman...

M

That contribution comes from a freelance guy who asks us to submit a few interesting pieces from the auction each month. Not sure about RC being "tuned in" cause if we didn't send it to him, and he didn't send it to them, then no one would be any the wiser.

It'll be interesting to see the blurb we submitted to him, on the Len Barry - It's that Time Of TheYear - UK LP which has never ever been mention in RC (to my knowledge) or listed in RC Price guide. That will surely have a few long-term pop collectors franticly searching through their LPs.

I think they could do more on Northern/soul/ska/reggae/funk, and i think they would, if only they appreciated how huge collector base for each genre was.

Edited August 7, 2007 by john manship

[Mal C]

That contribution comes from a freelance guy who asks us to submit a few interesting pieces from the auction each month. Not sure about RC being "tuned in" cause if we didn't send it to him, and he didn't send it to them, then no one would be any the wiser.

It'll be interesting to see the blurb we submitted to him, on the Len Barry - It's that Time Of TheYear - UK LP which has never ever been mention in RC (to my knowledge) or listed in RC Price guide. That will surely have a few long-term pop collectors franticly searching through their LPs.

I think they could do more on Northern/soul/ska/reggae/funk, and i think they would, if only they appreciated how huge collector base for each genre was.

Agree John they could do allot more, it's been an age since Pete Smiths northern soul special back in the 9ts... there has of course been related features since but a reappraisal on the northern soul collecting scene would give them a great inside spread.

Mojo are the same, I love the magazine but I feel they are kind of frightened to cover the subject in depth leaving it to bods like us I suppose...

Will look out for Len Barry..

Mal>C

[Steve G]

Agree John they could do allot more, it's been an age since Pete Smiths northern soul special back in the 9ts... there has of course been related features since but a reappraisal on the northern soul collecting scene would give them a great inside spread.

Mojo are the same, I love the magazine but I feel they are kind of frightened to cover the subject in depth leaving it to bods like us I suppose...

Will look out for Len Barry..

Mal>C

I don't think they are so much frightened by us - just plain lazy. They could easily commision a sensible person to write them a regular feature - and on the basis that no one knows everything in the old days they used to give credits to those that helped with prices etc. I always remember seeing Dick and Pete Sniff's names in there as credits. Also old Clarkie etc. "Thanks to Ian" etc.

These days they seem to take more delight in waxing lyrical about a Queen Uzbekistan promotional flexidisc, and I am sure that there's not much interest in that type of thing beyond half a dozen Freddie Mercury anoraks.

A reappraisal of some of the UK's finest rare soul records would be a good start, followed by "blue eyed" stuff that crossed over, and some label features. I know Chris Savory had a go at this back in the 70s but who can remember that? Anyway tastes change, Chris didn't know it all, and prices have certainly changed. When's the last time you saw a decent write up about the Action label, or even Warner Brothers soul releases? And then they could also give somecoverage to the US side of things where there is an endless supply of topics to cover.

They COULD do so much more. If they did I for one would buy it (I often browse through it to see if there's anythoing of interest and find myself putting it back on the shelf).