Manny Campbell & Wilson Meadows-interviews

[Dave Thorley]

Just Outside Of Memphis

Dave Thorley

Somewhere across the eastern side of the U.S. is an invisible line, which marks notionally what is called the deep south. In 1800's the point that slaves fleeing the south felt safe was the Ohio river, but today it's more flexible. Infact the deep south is more something of an attitude than a defined place. In many of the mid west cities you can meet people and without them saying so you can guess that life started for them somewhere else. It's that laid back, happy view of life; things will work out if you give them time and that time itself is it's own master, so why rush it. Two people that Malayka & I met last time we were over there; choose many years ago to make the journey, in different directions to find new oppertunities. Producer Manny Campbell, who travelled south and Wilson Meadows opting for the north.

Manny Campbell-The Musically JourneymanManny and I have known each other for a while, but this was the first time I had time to sit down with him and discuss his creative past. In the UK his production work with artists such as The Nu-Rons, Rotations, Lazzistics, Tearra and Ebony Evans to name only a few, is well known.

But his journey started back in the 60's; firstly working for a newspaper in the Philadelphia suberbs. Not long after starting at the paper he got called up and joined the army (he was stationed in Bamberg, Germany). The time he had in the forces made him reconsider his path and on his return to Philly he started down the track of a musical career.

At first Manny focused his skills on vibes, playing with east coast jazz organist John D Francis. But like many talented people in the cityhe also worked round the various studio's, like Sigma, Mercury and Soulville. His first attempt at production was in 1964 for Carol Porter on her track 'You are the reason that my heart beats'. Following this he got contracted to United Artists for 2 years.

"But corporate life wasn't for me" Manny says with a big smile on his face. We are sitting in the office of Coastal Records in Atlanta. A hive of activity with recording and record promotion people spread over a number of offices. Manny sits behind his desk with tapes stacked high to one side, looking across the office to a wall with pictures and discs of his current bunch of proteges. "I spent too much time scouting for the label or auditioning groups and not enough time in the studio. The only work I really enjoyed away from the studio for them was working with Murray and Dorsey, the publishing and marketing arm."

So when his contract was up he headed out on his own as an independant producer, working with Thom Bell, Norman Harris and Earl Young. By the late 60's he was building a reputation as a hit producer. "Yeah, about this time I was given The Rotations to work with. They had, had some local sucess with Frantic amd Mala records and were looking for their next hit. "So we started working with them on some sessions. We produced four tracks, 'Don't ever hurt me/I could be like columbus/ Whatcha gonna do', and 'We want freedom'. The first two came out on Lawton, but after contractual problems the second two were never released. I did release one of them many years later in partnership with Dave Halsall from the UK, but 'Whatcha gonna do' was never put out." He plays the two tracks to us, whilst these are playing Malayka wisphers "we've got to get these they're stunning" After some discussion we argree with Manny a deal that will lets us release them in the U.K.

Not long after working with The Rotations he met up with a bunch of guys from New Jersey, called The Nu-Rons.

Manny was in a club and heard the guys playing. "I thought I can do something with these guys" In 1973 he got them in the studio and recorded 'All of my life' and 'I'm a loser', along with two more tracks 'I can see the love' and 'You are my heaven' again the second two never saw the light of day. "The trouble was they were all married, had kids and couldn't commit the time, so things never really went anywhere, although we did put out two more disco tracks a couple of years later."

By the mid 70's he had become disillusioned with Philly; "drugs had taken hold of the streets and you could see the start of the gang thing. I thought this wasn't a good place to bring up my kids." In 1977 Manny packed his bags and moved down to Atlanta and set up Coastal Records. He had no doubts about getting involved in the music industry again. This was the start of one of his most productive periods. As well as his own productions he worked with GRC and August Moon. "I worked on some pretty aweful records like Ripple, but they paid good money". Throughout the late 70's, 80's and 90's Coastal had a string of releases with Tearra, Lazzistics, Thea-Luise and Vari. "Vari did really well in Europe, while they were on tour one year we rented a house on the Isle Of Wight, that was fun".

Athough everything was going well for him down in the south he didn't lose touch with his old buddies back in New Jersey and even went out on tour with The Sugarhill Gang through his booking agency.

Not everything he worked on, went well though, "we had this great tune with Tony Troutman, it was getting plays everywhere, I thought I have a big hit on my hands. Next thing I know is I'm getting calls from distributors telling me that Tony has pressed the record on his own label and is trying to sell it behind my back. Sadly we had to go to court to sort that one out and of course no one really won."

Coastal today is still a vibrant place and a sucessful record label. "You have to stay in touch with changing musical tastes and recording technics. The trouble with many older artists down here is that they still try to do business like it was in the old days and then they wonder why they don't have hits. Also the money is not in pure black music, but in tunes which cross over."

Coastal demonstrates that, with their current artist roster which includes Hip Hop, Gospel, Jazz, Blues and R&B. The artist who captures currently everything about Manny's aproach to the business is Ebony Evans and her hot soulful CD 'Luv's fire'. "The buzz on this is great, it's selling well over here and in Europe, she's been doing radio interviews over there every few weeks, it's great."

Manny is a real journeyman who left the north to find sucess in the south. But his real skill has been the ability to write and produce music that has - in my opinion a timeless quality, while he keeps himself abreast of an ever changing music industry.

Wilson Meadows-Long way home

Hometown for Wilson is Chattanooga, Tennessee. Born in 1944, he is one of five brothers, two of which, Wallace and Eugene, were to join him on his musical journey north in search of sucess. "We were inspired by The Impressions as we had grown up with Fred and the boys here in town."

We have come to meet Wilson at his house in Chattanooga, when we knocked at the door a tall handsome, lean looking man opens the door, Wilson physic belies his 63 of age. With good old southern hospitality we are welcomed into his home and soon sat down and chatting about people from the business we have meet on our trip. He smiles when we mention some of them; "I haven't seen 'em in years. Do you know Brad Shapiro ?- we did some great stuff with him back in the 70's" I tell him that I've never met him, he kindly lets me have his phone number that I can contact him later. Again the conversation goes back to the early days in the business.

Like so many young kids back then his idols were Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and groups like The Drifters and Isley Brothers.

"We used to see Fred Cash and his group performing locally", back then they were called '4 Roosters and A Chick', in the early 60's they headed off to Chicago and changed their name to The Impressions. Not long after that my brothers and I headed north too and signed for King records in Cincinnati." Wilson's first group is well known to collectors of 60's soul, The Zircons. The line up included brothers Wallace and Eugene along with Emanual Thompson and Robert Eppinger. Wilson tells us that the name for the group came from the owner of King records who gave it to them when they arrived. It has caused some confusion over the years as it seems that the name had been used in the late 50's early 60's on several other groups recording for Winston, Dot and a number of other small labels. But the name was soon to become firmly theirs when their first release 'No twisting on sunday/Mama wants to drive' came out on the King subsidiary Federal; the group started to create a stir.

After one more release for the label the group headed further north to New York. Here over the next five years they learned their craft the hard way, working one and two clubs a night, while trying to cut the odd disc here and there. Wilson muses how the industry was very much rooted in the streets, many guys in the business had other less legal activities. "We had a manager with connections all over town. One night he came into our dressing room when after we finished our show. He congratulated us on a good performance and he told us that he has got another booking for us that night on the other side of town. We told him we were all in, but he made it very clear that there was no option. He had promised that we would appear because he owed some guy and that we were not going to let him down."

Whilst in New York the group cut three singles for the Heigh-Ho label, one of which has the much sought after soul dancers 'Go on and cry, cry/Was it meant to be this way'. In the early 70's they also cut one release with Capitol records 'Finders Keepers', but as success was little for the group they decided to head home again. "We had had a great time in the north. When we started out you needed to travel up there if you wanted sucess, but by the 70's lots was happening down south"

On returning home the group changed their name to The Meadows Brothers and cut one release on Hip Spin, the very catchy uptempo dancer 'Get on down like soul folks do'. Soon after this they hooked up with Brad Shapiro and cut two singles and later a great album, which saw a lot of club plays in Europe in the 80's. Throughout this time the group toured, but by the end of the 80's they sort of burned out.

In the 90's Wilson released his solo album 'Memories' on Bob Grady records. "I had been going into a studio owned by Mike Headrick to cut some demos. He liked what he heard and said lets cut some tracks. So we recorded three, which Mike gave Bob to listen to. Bob then played these to some guys in England and they just flipped. Thats how the album got done, it was at first a european release only and did real good over there." Wilson's wife Jeanette, a talented singer in her own right came in and did backing vocals on this album.

We have been sitting around at Wilson's house for about three hours chewing the fat, when Jeanette comes home and joins us. She couldn't believe that in all that time we were sitting there Wilson hadn't offered us anything to drink, we explained to her that the conversation was so much fun that we just got lost in time. They both told us that they feel blessed with how things have turned out over the years. Wilson makes a point of telling us how important he feels the european fans were for him throughout his career. He also talked about his work and progress on the new cd, which by the time this article appears should be out, 'Go on and cry' on Shout Records. At that, it's time for us to make my goodbyes and as I often feel on these occassions, it's be a privilage to meet and talk to a real soul man.

CD Reviews

Whilst on my travels, we came across a few new albums worth telling you about, first up is one that has been getting a fair bit of airplay over here.

Butch Williams-Introducing Butch Williams-Stargazer Records

Butch was leadsinger of 70's Louisville soul group The Heartbreakers, which did the northern soul favourite 'I've got to face it' on Derby City. He is a passionate advocate of Louisville music and this album has been a labour of love, using many local musicians on each track. The album is a nice mixture of Soul, Blues and jazz styles. The track that has generated a great buzz is the Memphis styled mid tempo soul number 'Keep on lovin' me the way you do'. I say Memphis styled as it has great horns, that remind you of 70's Willie Mitchell productions supported by the southern style guitar of local man Michael Wells. I also love the Besonesq ballad 'Forever more' and the 60's jazzy style dancer 'Mary Ann', a tribute to the late local singer Mary Ann Fisher. The album is a must buy that nis now availble from www.cdbaby.com

Also from Louisville comes the re-issue on cd of what has been one of the hardest boogie LPs to find on the planet. Snap, not the 80's dance group. But a soulful outfit that had just one release on a local Louisville label in 87. Re-issued by Louisville musician and impresario Ron 'Mr Wonderful' Lewis.

S.N.A.P.-Snap-Dynamic Imperial Records

The album is a great mix of uptempo and midtempo boogie dancer, supported by a couple of cool ballads. Lead vocals are shared between Russell Carver and Paula Yarbrough. This will please lovers of soulful 80's boogie like SideEffect, Lakeside and G.Q. and is also availble on www.cdbaby.com

Last but not least - a new release from Atlanta based Haywood Tucker. It is his first album in over 10 years. Haywood is well known for his outings on his own Heywood records and the 12"/.45 'I'm yours', that appeared on the short lived Budwiser talent search series of releases. Haywood has been working on this for over 15 years. "I just wanted to get it right" he told us

Haywood-Fancy blue-Analog Records

He delivers smooth sweet vocals over well produced instrumentation, led on many tracks by piano. He layers his vocals as lead and backing oh so well. This set delivers a well rounded collections of dancers and ballads that show that Atlanta soul is alive and well. Stand out track for me is possibly the first ever soul dance side about tennis!!!-'Let's play tennis', is a great midtempo dancefloor winner with a real feel good groove. It has been getting a fair bit of club and airplay of late. Put this album on your shopping list, again available on CD Baby.

[Steve Plumb]

This posting deserved a reply Dave!

Really enjoyed reading it mate - many thanks for posting it

Cheers

Steve

[Dave Fleming]

Dave, thanks for the background info on the "Rotations"

Here`s a scan of one of the 45s Manny C let Dave H have,as you can see the

"When he slowly moves away from you"AKA "Whatcha gonna do" side was miss pressed with "Don`t ever hurt me" on instead of "WHSMAFY", with the flip being "We want freedom" AKA "Soul freedom".

Dave f..........

[Dave Thorley]

Dave, thanks for the background info on the "Rotations"

Here`s a scan of one of the 45s Manny C let Dave H have,as you can see the

"When he slowly moves away from you"AKA "Whatcha gonna do" side was miss pressed with "Don`t ever hurt me" on instead of "WHSMAFY", with the flip being "We want freedom" AKA "Soul freedom".

Dave f..........

Has to be one of the all time Fcuk up's. But am confident that we have more luck next time

Has to be one of the all time Fcuk up's. But am confident that we have more luck next time

Edited December 12, 2007 by Dave Thorley