Garethx

Is there an actual commercial release of this record? All the copies I've ever seen are WDJs. Have to say I think the other, cheaper 45 by them on Westbound is really nice too.

Great site, Christian. Nice to see reviews of some fantastic and fascinating 45s. And also nice to hear Real Audios of some different tracks on a website, not The Northern Soul Top 500, for a change. I'd heard a lot about the Tonny Hymes, so it was good to finally hear it. Excellent stuff, I must say. I notice that the Cal Brandon 45 on Hitman shown on the site is yellow with black type. I have it on a yellow label with red type. Is this a different pressing of the record?

Brett, re. The Look On Your Face: John Edwards always wins this one for me. But the other side of James Phelps - "You Were Made For Love" has got to be one of the most incredible deep soul records ever, and make it an essential purchase. John Edwards did that too in pretty fine syle, but few things in the whole world of black music can match James Phelps' singing on the YWMFL. It's strange that his vocals on TLOYF are so lacklustre by comparison.

Anyone got any idea how much this goes for? Albert Jones "Up To The Sun" / "Reflections" on Bumpshop I know it came out on Tri City first with a different b-side, if anyone's got a copy I'd be interested to know what that other flip is.

A few more cover versions that are better than the originals: Roy Hamilton "Reach Out For Me" RCA Victor The Continental Showstoppers "Never Set Me Free" / "We're Not Too Young" Seventy Seven The Electrifying Cashmeres "What Does It Take" Seventy Seven Carl Hall "Teardrops and Heartaches" unissued Mercury ZZ Hill "Make Me Yours" Kent Bobby Shannon "I Get My Groove From You" Tomar The Whispers "My Illusions" Janus Larry Marks "Looking Through The Eyes Of Love" Pala The Impalas "Speed Up" Capitol

I was pretty non-commital too about this subject, but James, you've swayed me. Chris's enthusiasm deserves to be recognised. At least he's getting off his arse and doing something about a subject he firmly believes in. More power to him.

A couple of things I can hardly get off the record player at the moment, both cover versions of established classics by superstars of soul: Aretha Franklin "I'm In Love" Atlantic Not usually keen on Aretha's versions of other people's staples ("I Say A Little Prayer" honourably excepted), but this is brilliant, better than Wilson Pickett and just as good as Bobby Womack. Would sound brilliant out loud, compares favourably with things like Sandra Wright "I'll Come Running Back." Marvin Gaye "There Goes My Baby" Tamla lp From "In The Groove" comes this: a simply amazing and really exciting cover of The Drifters classic. Probably recorded much earlier than most of the remainder of the album and presumably included as filler, this really is the business. If you like Marvin's version of "Sunny" (and I know loads do) this is even better. I'd love to hear other peoples ideas about top notch cover versions.

What about Trotover?

Mmmm... Don't know how successful "wanna come back to mine and see my Little Willie Faulk?" would be as a chat up line.

Might be throwing a spanner in the works here, but I distinctly remember someone telling me this girl was Mary Love. Either one of my deep soul buddies, or one of the experts on Californian Northern, but either way it was someone whose knowledge I really respected. On aural evidence I think it could be her. Remember that the Mary Love persona that she exhibited on her Modern sides was a long way off her truly gritty gospel singing of latter years. On the Modern sides her edges are definitely smoothed off for the mock Motown productions (and no, I'm not slagging off those records, they're all classics). Play Helpless Girl next to say, The Hurt Is Just Beginning on Hill or Josie, and I think there's a marked similarity vocally. She wouldn't be the first fairly big name artist to moonlight on a tiny independent label under an assumed name, whether she knew about it or not.

Beautifully put. Respect to you.

Ujima on Epic? Quite an expensive 45, but i think it's been re-issued on at least 2 compilations over the years. Soul Souvenirs on Columbia and Soul Time on Goldmine.

At George Jackson the glidey midtempo stuff is as fast as we get... Some personal favourites from all eras and styles of smoothie that you might hear there... Johnny Gilliam "Won't Someone Help Me" Cancer The Charades "Never Set Me Free" MGM King Floyd "I'm For Real" Chimneyville Arthur Alexander "I Need You Baby" Monument The Masqueraders "How Big Is Big" Bell Delilah Moore "It Takes Love" Middle Earth Al Johnson "Love Waits For No Man" South Camp Skip Jackson & the Shantons "Promise That You'll Wait" Dot-Mar Willie Tee "My Heart Remembers" Nola Wilson Love "Funny Money" NS Deena Johnson "The Breaking Point" Wild Deuce Roosevelt Matthews etc. "You Got Me Diggin' You" King Maxine Brown "Don't Leave Me Baby" Epic Baby Washington "It Hurts So Bad" Veep

Yes Steve, 'tis me. Sir, I am honoured by your respect. Backatcha.

The more things change the more they remain the same... I might be sticking my neck out, but I think the scene today is just about as good as it can possibly be. Yes, it's not a youth scene any more, but with modern youth the way they are today, that can only be a good thing. (Anyone see that documentary last night about alcohol-fuelled hi-jinx in Plymouth, Hartlepool and Swansea... frightening.) The young people who gravitate towards the rare soul scene today do so because they are transfixed by the music, dancing and atmosphere at the clubs, not because it's fashionable or because of peer pressure. How many of the thousands who regularly attended venues in the 70s have lasted the course? Answer: only those who really cared about it, the others were obviously just into it because that's what their mates were doing. I shared a caravan at Cleethorpes with a couple barely out of their teens who had been to just a couple of nighters prior to the weekender. They loved it and remarked how civillised yet exciting it all was compared to the normal night club scene. Brilliant records are still being unearthed. I genuinely believe this. Not anything like to the extent they once were, admittedly, but still in enough quantity to keep it more than interesting. The dedication of deejays like Butch, Arthur Fenn, Keith Money, Andy Dyson, Soul Sam and others means that at least at the clubs where they play you're gonna hear something pretty amazing. Dayo, you must acknowledge that at places like The Torch, Mecca and Wigan people were literally falling over the new discoveries of the day. The scene made its own rules as to what to play. Finding records then was like shooting fish in a barrell. To find records today of the quality of The Masqueraders cover-up, Jerry Washington, Martha Jean Love cover-up, Daniel Madison, The Tiaras on Op Art, Benny Harper, Joseph Webster, Soul Bros. Inc "Teardrops" etc. is amazing and a testament to those record hunters who believe in the true spirit of the scene. All those records named above are in the same league if not far better than "This Heart of Mine". I'll assume the reference to women was tongue in cheek, but on a wider note, socially the scene is just as vibrant today as it can be, bearing in mind the average age of the punters. I've made friends with people from literally the four corners of the earth because they love soul music, from 19 to nearly 70. As Carl Hooper would say, "That's Amazing". Yes, people of my age (i'm 37) will never experience the pure adrenalin rush of something like a packed Casino, full to the rafters with young people dancing to amazing new records. I really do envy you that, but the scene has matured, and, all things considered, ain't such a bad place to be.

Am I alone in finding Jools Holland a smug git? That terrible band of his (Hugh Laurie for christs' sake), those awful album covers. That bleedin' advert for whisky. Pass the sick bag. I think the worst aspect about it is that far from holding up people like Ray Charles, Al Green, Sam Moore and Bobby Womack as idols, he sees himself as some kind of equal.

Yes. Ronnie McNeir wrote a few songs with Obie Benson over quite a long period of time, well into the 1980s in fact. A lot of them are pretty good.

Yeah. Sorry Paulie, that wasn't a personal dig at you, just this general topic. yours in soul, gareth.

Am I missing something in all of this? Are we all like junkies who are so enslaved by our habit that we have no free will left? If someone's charging too much for a particular record, then simply wait for one at what you consider a reasonable price. Bellyaching about dealers ripping people off is bizzarre. No-one's forcing us to buy any records, it's our own free will and choice surely.

We're not going to get a revival of this one, are we? It fits in with the "can't get you out of my head" topic, in that it's darned catchy. Doesn't, IMVHO, have very much to do with soul music.

Adey Potts also sold a real issue of Tommy Tate "If You've Got To Love Somebody" on Ko Ko to a very well known soul collector. It is a slightly different mix as noted above. Think it went for four figures... On the subject of Tommy Tate, I'd just like to say that his "I Can't Do Enough For You Baby" on the Japanese Malaco LP "Hold On" is, to me, probably the best soul record ever made.

Couldn't agree more with you Mick. Danny Moore lost it's value not only because loads turned up, but also because the majority of punters realised it wasn't actually that hot.

did I hear you say Wait for the beat ?

Rosemary's Baby?

Some good and valid points made by everyone on this topic. To me it's interesting how this discussion knits together with the one about Danny Moore's "Somebody New" in the Sales section. That was a super rare disc for over a decade. When Pat Brady or Rob Marriot played it up and down the country during that time it was always something of an event. Now the record is so commonplace that it's a tough one to actually shift. I remember going to Rod Shard's in about 2000 and seeing a mint one in amongst his cheaper stock for £100 and being amazed. He just said "a load have turned up..." and from that moment I didn't really want one any more. I think that's something we can all relate to, to an extent. On this scene it's interesting how a records' monetary value ties in with its desireability. Just because there are seemingly huge quantities of a record around, it doesn't necessarily follow that there always will be. Like Jordi said it's a general truism that the smaller the label the greater the likeliehood of all the stock being found together. When Craig Moerer found a decent amount of copies of "Pyramid" the price fell quite sharply, but all those copies were snapped up, and now it's relatively expensive again, and has been for over a decade. No legitimately released record is actually pressed in ones and twos, so there's always a chance that a quantity of anything might be found. A problem arises when a record is being newly pressed on spurious demand and passed off as something it's not, like a couple of notorious recent "discoveries". I really don't think The Royal Esquires is in the same category as those. People don't seem to mind paying prices in the hundreds for records like "The Panic Is On" on MGM issue, and there must have been literally tens of thousands of those manufactured by the record company at the time. I suppose the lesson is that over time all records will find their equilibrium value. What price The Royal Esquires in five years time? Who knows, but surely that's the fun and challenge of collecting. We all have our hunches, intuitions and opinions, make our own choices based on those criteria and buy our records accordingly. The scene would be a sadder place if all prices were fixed centrally and everybody bought exactly the same tunes. Then it would just be the same as the mainstream Music Industry. And if there's one thing we all share, I think it's a sense that what we are doing is in some way the antithesis of the mainstream.