Roger Williams

What a drama queen!!!

I'm chipper, Julian, thanks mate, long time no see, hope both your good self and your lovely lady are also keeping fine fettle. Roger

It hadn't 'gone big' Mark, it was already well known amongst the 'moddens', but what was happening at that time was a shift of people who were always primarily into northern soul and for the most part disregarded tracks like Betty Swann, started to pay attention to these records and transferred the high price mentality into the buying of what were always were merely just good records and reasonably priced collection-builders and for me that's when the rot set in and it all became too frustrating because I didn't just want 'the possession' at any cost, I actually wanted the record primarily for the music - I enjoyed collecting the sevens as a format but there was no way I was going to start having to pay £200/£300 for ONE tune when that kind of money would have bought me about 50 LPs, it just didn't make any sense to me, hence me eventually cashing in what I had (at the 'going rate' like a massive hypocrite) and spending that money on literally hundreds upon hundred off LPs and CDs. As I say, it's a funny old game. Roger

This scenario is why I stopped collecting sevens around 8 years ago. I'd never really been a sevens person up until the mid/late 90s when I hooked up with Flanny and the Orwell boys for the first time, and I was never really one to pay stupid money for sevens, the most I ever forked out was £150 for Archie Bell '1000 Wonders' Spanish picture sleeve issue, but I was happily toddling along forking out £40/£50 for ones I really wanted at that time, such as Innersection, Rhonda Davis, Pretenders, Raj, Walter Jackson, Pure Pleasure etc, all reasonable prices back then, but for the most part I wasn't really arsed about 'big ticket' records, the majority of what I was buying were all cheap in general terms and all just great records, but in 2002 I think it was, one night at Lowton, I was talking to somebody about Betty Swann Kiss My Love Goodbye, which at the time was a £25 record that I'd never picked up so I decided to try and get one, and I was told that now I'd have to fork out £200 for one because that's what somebody had just paid for a copy and that would set the price of it from now on??? WTF!?!?! That was the beginning of the end for me as far as sevens were concerned because I couldn't handle the frustration of having to fork out 10/20 times the actual worth of a record just because one individual with more money than sense decided it was worth that amount to them. But in response to your last point Pete, it's all good and well in theory talking about 'integrity', but let's face it mate, in reality, there are very very few of us who would sell a record for less than the generally accepted 'going' rate, whether it was actually worth that or not, we all want top whack when we sell. What this does highlight though, is the hypocrisy within the vast majority of us when it comes to buying and selling records - we all moan like stink about prices and how disgraceful it is blah blah, but when it comes to selling, we will all gladly rip people off in trying the get the most we can for any given record under the excuse 'that's what it goes for now'. It's a funny old game eh? Roger

I've still got all my copies for the last one I didn't do!

I've just sussed who you are, sorry mate, didn't recognise your 'handle' at first! LOL Roger

Welcome to the real world. Roger

Has to be 'Walk In The Night' for me. Roger

If one of them is 'It's All Over' then you'll have at least one Roger

Ha haaa, a man after my own heart, love it!!

Agreed, Nev, and actually, as a footnote to this, I fully understand why somebody might be miffed that what they thought was an exclusive turned out not to be, but that doesn't give them the right to accuse a company of underlying business malpractice in order to fool their customers, sorry but that's just wrong. But if you think about it, the first numbered issue of this record is always going to be the one any future collectors will want, so really I don't think anyone who bought one of the first 500 has been badly done to, certainly not for a tenner, do you? This thread brought to you by Soul Source 'Storm In A Teacup' Productions. Roger

No mate, I was touchy because of the slanderous rubbish some of you rare soul zealots come out with because a record label in the business of selling records has hurt your little ego and given others the chance to own something you do, not because of petulant criticism of basic label artwork.

I like piss-taking being referred to as 'work' Not Edited Yet by Roger Williams, 0 mins ago, but he might do if he fancies changing it.

Ask that bloke who drags his kids around with him on buying trips to knock one up in 5 minutes to save that criminal mastermind Tee bothering me to do it for him. Roger

Spot on Ian, nobody who bought the original release is going to have missed out, they're simply miffed because they don't want others to have what they have, as usual. What a thread like this highlights is the inherent selfishness and self-absorbed unreasonable nature of the rare soul record collector, always unwilling to take in a different viewpoint to their own and when faced with overwhelming sensible explanations as to why they might be wrong, simply ignore what's been explained in the clearest terms, and simply reiterate their initial weak argument over and over again. The best bit of this thread for me though has been the "I sat for four hours in a car with my kids so Expansion are a bunch of bastards". Priceless comedy, you couldn't make it up!! Roger

:sleep3: :sleep3:

The main one being never expect a rare soul record collector to see some actual sense.

Just as it's overly harsh to publicly make baseless accusations of cheating and lying and calling the company low and dishonourable, Pete. I work for the company so I'm going to defend them. OK then, you find a box of 20 of a rare record and you sell the first one and the person to whom you sell it wants to the be only one with it. Do you pander to their wishes and not sell the other 19 because it would upset them? Or do you sell them because it's your business to sell records?

I'm afraid in the real world you'll find it's yourself and the other complainants who are the laughable ones. Roger

Harsh words because Expansion have been wrongly accused of lying and cheating, Pete. Roger

The year and some of the tunes where soul music really started for me, bloody great. Roger

No Martin, it's you who's missing the point, by a considerable way. Expansion are a record company and pandering to tiny minded self-absorbed crying-arse collectors doesn't keep the business running Martin, I thought you of all people would have the intelligence to realise that. It's the ridiculous public accusations of Ralph Tee and Expansion 'cheating', 'misleading', 'selling under false pretences' that has really got my back up, because that is just stupid beyond my comprehension not to mention offensive on Ralph Tee's character - the release was initially limited to coincide with Record Store Day and that was all it set out as, nothing more, nothing less, but the demand for the record was unexpected and unprecedented so they took the business decision, 100% right in the real world, to press up more to satisfy that demand worldwide and take the opportunity to capitalise on the demand for one of their releases, which is exactly what any RECORD COMPANY would do, even more so in this day and age. I can just imagine the Expansion receptionist picking up the phone in response to a customer ringing in for a copy saying 'No, I'm sorry, we've sold out and two people on Soul Source will be upset if we press some more so you'll have to do without and we'll lose out on sales in these times of recession', it'd be like a Two Ronnies out-take. A silly and utterly pointless thread started by one of the forum's moderators with the intention of doing down one of the UK's premier soul music labels who've been in business for over 25 years. Good work mate, give yourself a pat on the back. Roger

Needless and unjustified Martin, dear me. Roger

Jocko, calm down calm down. Oh dear, I must be one after all.

No mate I'm from Kendal originally but I married a Scouser, lived in Fazakerley for 3 years and then moved to the Wirral in 1996 where I've lived ever since. These Scotch people have no sense of geography, they probably call everyone south of Watford a cockney. Roger