Neil Rushton Posted February 12, 2008 Posted February 12, 2008 The Joe Boy and Inferno labels are being revived to jointly issue an EP and CD album by The Precisions to tie up with their appearance at Prestatyn. The album tracks the complete Drew label single releases incluidng the withdrawn "Sugar Ain't Sweet". 1 - Such Misery 2 - A Lover's Plea 3 - Sugar Ain't Sweet 4 - Why Girl 5 - What I Want 6 - If This is Love (I'd Rather Be Lonely) 7 - You'll Soon be Gone 8 - Instant Heartbreak (Just Add Tears) 9 - Dream Girl 10 - A Place 11 - Never Let Go plus bonus tracks 12 - I Do, Don't You 13 - Such Misery (unreleased Ist version, featuring Paul Merritt) 14 - Send Me A Sign - Roger Fluker 15 - Baby You're Mine - Lou Ragland George McGregor (Rose Battiste,Terri Bryant, Barbara Mercer, Timmy Willis etc) was A&R director at Sidra/Drew. He has written a foreword to the album in which he says The Precisions on stage dance routnes were so amazing they put everyone else, including The Temptations, in the shade. He says that if the group had been on Motown they would have been major stars. Turns out that George recorded "Mr Soul Satisfaction" - Timmy Willis at his own cost. He did it at Muscle Shoals to get the Southern Soul horns sound and then took the master to Sidra and did a deal with them for it. They subsequently licenced it on to Veep and the success of this meant George got the job as A&R director. He knew The Precisions from when they were on D-Town and he joined Sidra after "Such Miisery" had been released. He decided to base the sound of the group around Billy Prince as lead vocalist and co-wrote "Why Girl" to capture the sound he envisaged. At the time copies of "Sugar Ain't Sweet" c/w "What I Want" had been pressed as promos to be the second Drew single but were off centre. Rather than remaster them George took the chance to get rid of "Sugar Ain't Sweet" which had been put together by Dale Warren as the A side of the single and replace it with "Why Girl". I imagine any spare copies of "Sugar Ain't Sweet" were junked and this is why it is so rare. George was partners with Mike Terry at the time and got him in to arrange the recordings, most of which were done at Terra Shirma except for "If This Is Love" which was laid down at United Sound. He has revealed that the female intro to "A Place" was done by Sandra Neal, who was a secretary at Sidra, because no female vocalists were around at the time! The bonus tracks are recordings that never got released by Drew. "I Do, Don't You" was a massive tune at the Trentham Gardens al-nighters and has been the cause of speculation as to whether it is The Precisions or not. George still has the master tape and says it definitely is the group, he wrote the song and produced the track, with Mike Terry doing the arranging. Track 13 is the first version recorded of "Such Misery" and was tried using Paul Merritt on lead vocals. He left the group shortly afterwards and his version was not used for the first Drew 45.This version wes previously released on a Joe Boy single credited to Timmy Willis due to duff info. "Send Me A Sign" was thought to be The Precisions in the past but is in fact the group's choreographer Roger Fluker. His dance routine inventions were so important to The Precisions that Drew let him make a record! "Baby You're Mine" is another Drew recording credited to The Precisions in the past. It is in fact Lou Ragland. There is also an EP coming out Why Girl Instant Heartbreak I Do, Don't You Such Misery (Paul Merritt version) Both the EP and album will be on sale at Prestatyn. Any record dealers interested in buying stock at Prestatyn should PM me. All the Best, Neil
Guest nusha Posted February 12, 2008 Posted February 12, 2008 Sounds like a great project Neil.Best of luck to you on that and welcome back INFERNO
ajb Posted February 12, 2008 Posted February 12, 2008 The Joe Boy and Inferno labels are being revived to jointly issue an EP and CD album by The Precisions to tie up with their appearance at Prestatyn. The album tracks the complete Drew label single releases incluidng the withdrawn "Sugar Ain't Sweet". 1 - Such Misery 2 - A Lover's Plea 3 - Sugar Ain't Sweet 4 - Why Girl 5 - What I Want 6 - If This is Love (I'd Rather Be Lonely) 7 - You'll Soon be Gone 8 - Instant Heartbreak (Just Add Tears) 9 - Dream Girl 10 - A Place 11 - Never Let Go plus bonus tracks 12 - I Do, Don't You 13 - Such Misery (unreleased Ist version, featuring Paul Merritt) 14 - Send Me A Sign - Roger Fluker 15 - Baby You're Mine - Lou Ragland George McGregor (Rose Battiste,Terri Bryant, Barbara Mercer, Timmy Willis etc) was A&R director at Sidra/Drew. He has written a foreword to the album in which he says The Precisions on stage dance routnes were so amazing they put everyone else, including The Temptations, in the shade. He says that if the group had been on Motown they would have been major stars. Turns out that George recorded "Mr Soul Satisfaction" - Timmy Willis at his own cost. He did it at Muscle Shoals to get the Southern Soul horns sound and then took the master to Sidra and did a deal with them for it. They subsequently licenced it on to Veep and the success of this meant George got the job as A&R director. He knew The Precisions from when they were on D-Town and he joined Sidra after "Such Miisery" had been released. He decided to base the sound of the group around Billy Prince as lead vocalist and co-wrote "Why Girl" to capture the sound he envisaged. At the time copies of "Sugar Ain't Sweet" c/w "What I Want" had been pressed as promos to be the second Drew single but were off centre. Rather than remaster them George took the chance to get rid of "Sugar Ain't Sweet" which had been put together by Dale Warren as the A side of the single and replace it with "Why Girl". I imagine any spare copies of "Sugar Ain't Sweet" were junked and this is why it is so rare. George was partners with Mike Terry at the time and got him in to arrange the recordings, most of which were done at Terra Shirma except for "If This Is Love" which was laid down at United Sound. He has revealed that the female intro to "A Place" was done by Sandra Neal, who was a secretary at Sidra, because no female vocalists were around at the time! The bonus tracks are recordings that never got released by Drew. "I Do, Don't You" was a massive tune at the Trentham Gardens al-nighters and has been the cause of speculation as to whether it is The Precisions or not. George still has the master tape and says it definitely is the group, he wrote the song and produced the track, with Mike Terry doing the arranging. Track 13 is the first version recorded of "Such Misery" and was tried using Paul Merritt on lead vocals. He left the group shortly afterwards and his version was not used for the first Drew 45.This version wes previously released on a Joe Boy single credited to Timmy Willis due to duff info. "Send Me A Sign" was thought to be The Precisions in the past but is in fact the group's choreographer Roger Fluker. His dance routine inventions were so important to The Precisions that Drew let him make a record! "Baby You're Mine" is another Drew recording credited to The Precisions in the past. It is in fact Lou Ragland. There is also an EP coming out Why Girl Instant Heartbreak I Do, Don't You Such Misery (Paul Merritt version) Both the EP and album will be on sale at Prestatyn. Any record dealers interested in buying stock at Prestatyn should PM me. All the Best, Neil will it be available elsewhere? thank you alan
Neil Rushton Posted February 12, 2008 Author Posted February 12, 2008 will it be available elsewhere? thank you alan Yes, we will get it distributed wherever we can and will also be able to supply mail order via Pay Pal. I will get those details up tomorrow. Glenn Gunton has done a fantastic job with the graphics and getting Geroge McGregor to come up the foreword has worked really well....the man is a legend, as well as being a producer ad writer he was of the leading Detroit drummers in the 60's...it's him druming on "Agent O0 Soul" - Edwin Starr and he remembers it took him over 40 takes! He played on all Ollie McLaughlin labels sessions at Terri Shirma,and is co-writer and producer on one of the best records ever made - "Hit & Run" - Rose Battiste. He is behind "Happiness Is Here" - Tobi Lark and the other version by Barbara Mercer who he is married to. Cheers, Neil
Hitsville Chalky Posted February 13, 2008 Posted February 13, 2008 This is a must Buy , Fantastic cd with wonderful Booklet with loads of pictures and Bio and scans of The Precisions which I've seen. Well Done to Neil for this. once again a must buy !
Neil Rushton Posted February 16, 2008 Author Posted February 16, 2008 Have just been told that John Smith from the UK has gone on to the Soulful Detroit site and claimed that our Precisions album is not a legitimate release. He is talking utter nonsense. Our release (which has been 6 months in the making) is licenced from the UK agent for Jet Eye Music from Detroit. Jet Eye is the owner of the Sidra/Drew masters and is owned by Johnny Powers, who was one of the original founders of Sidra. To be clear we have a licensing contract which gives us the right to release the new album and new Precisions EP in return for paying an advance against royalties. We also pay publishing royalties for the use of the songs. The Precisions and I believe Jerry Williams are putting out their own Precisions album which includes some (but not all) of the Drew masters, plus Precisions material from D-Town and Atlantic.To be clear,Jet Eye Music are 100% the owners of the Drew masters and the only deal they have done is with us. Our album includes a foreword by George McGregor, the famed Detroit songwriter, producer and musican, and he has helped us out with all kinds of information for this release. George was A&R man for Sidra/Drew, oversaw The Precisions career at the label and was involved in writing and producing some of their Drew masters (eg "Why Girl") He has seen our atwork and said he is thrilled by the way we have gone about things. Our sleevenotes could not be more respectful towards The Precisions and it is a real pity this situation has blown up. We also released a Precisions EP 2 years ago to tie in with their first appearance at Prestatyn and got in touch with the group - via Jet Eye Music - and they said they were happy to sign copies of the record at Prestatyn and they did so.I paid them for copies that were sold why they were signing autographs after their marvellous show and they confirmed that they were aware that Jet Eye had done the deal for the EP with us, and that they were happy with the release and that they understood a mistake crediting a Lou Ragland track (owned by Drew) to The Precisions was due to an innocent mix up in communications from Detroit to the UK. We have corrected that mistake on the new album. I understand the group are saying they own the songs and have not given permission for the tracks to be released. Not many of the song are written by the group and the ownership of the masters is a completely different copyright situation than the owner of compositions.Jet Eye Music's publishing arm owns some copyrights on the compositions anyway. Dave Rimmer has been on the Soulful Detroit site and defended Glenn Gunton and myself and we thank him for that. The last thing we want to do is crfiticise The Precisions or do something they find offensive, but we have acted 100% properly and with respect to one of our favourite artists. The Northern scene is so full of back biting that Glenn and myself thought it best to post this so anyone hearing rumours can hear direct from us what has really gone on. Neil Rushton
Neil Rushton Posted February 18, 2008 Author Posted February 18, 2008 Precisions vinyl EP and CD album are £10 each. If anyone wants to reserve copies to collect from me at Prestatyn can they please PM me? If you are not going to Prestatyn and want copies mail order, again PM me. Thanks a lot, Neil
Neil Rushton Posted February 18, 2008 Author Posted February 18, 2008 Here's some of the artwork for the album. All the Best, Neil
Neil Rushton Posted February 20, 2008 Author Posted February 20, 2008 Copies available at end of next week. £10 each for CD and EP. Postage and packing free. Pay Pal - bitsnpieces@btinternet.com PM me if you want to pay by cheque. Thanks, Neil
max millward Posted February 28, 2008 Posted February 28, 2008 Here's some of the artwork for the album. All the Best, Neil JUST TAKEN DELIVERY OF THE PRECISIONS CD!! MUST SAY WHAT A LOVELY PACKAGE! WELL WORTH THE ABSOLUTE BARGAIN PRICE OF A TENNER!! TOP MARKS NEIL!! DON'T THINK IT WILL BE TOO LONG BEFORE I HAVE TO RE-ORDER!! MUST ALSO MENTION THE 4 TRACK SINGLE WITH THE DIFFERENT MIX OF MISERY! A MUST BUY!! MAX....
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