Garethx

Far more than seven copies of this knocking about. The information about Ron Trombley being the drummer and vocalist in the band is taken from a youtube clip and is apparently from Ron's son. Mr Trombley is still about and still heavily involved with music in Flint (primarily country these days). It shouldn't be beyond the collective wit of the scene to get in touch with him and get some concrete answers surely?

Twenty quid is a fair price I think. Great double sider.

Great info posted above which really helps to join a lot of the dots. In pre Youtube days when the only way of hearing this was pretty much at a venue I doubted if this was in fact the Del Larks, but listening again it's clearly Sammy Campbell on the higher vocal part.

The lead singer is Ron Trombley, also the drummer in the band. No connection whatsoever to Soul Inc. from the Carolinas pictured above.

The singer on the second song is naggingly familiar. He sounds a bit like Clark Sullivan whom Ollie McLaughlin produced solo on Enterprise and later as part of Liberty on BASF. Not saying it is him though. Any info at all on the acetate's label? Also worth searching the BMI online archive for titles which might fit.

Also bear in mind Wayne Wadham's other brush with Northern Soul immortality as writer of Carol & Gerri's "How Can I Ever Find A Way".

Canadian Quality copies are on vinyl. Never heard one in the flesh so cannot comment on sound quality.

The typefaces used for the credits on the original copies are Tempo Bold Condensed and Tempo Black. Basically a version of Futura designed specifically for the Ludlow typesetting system. The repress/bootleg more than likely uses a conventional version of Futura.

Those two brown logo copies are indeed represses. The best way to tell without seeing the deadwax info is the weight of the type used on the credits. Both the ebay copies have the title / artist info in a light weight font. The originals (both with black and brown logos) have the title and artist in much heavier weight of type. I'm calling these later copies 're-presses' but they might well be bootlegs for the UK scene. I don't know, but it's worth bearing in mind that Spector still to this day retains a presence in the music business with a relaunched or continuing Tuff: https://www.tuffrecords.com/

Is there another use of the "Peace Of Mind" backing track by any other release?

Hemisphere styrene (pressed at Shelley) sounds great. West coast Fairmount (pressed at Monarch) sounds quieter and less dynamic. The Fairmount vinyl copies (striped labels) also sound pretty good. Don't discount the Hemisphere copy just 'cos it's styrene.

Regarding the typeface for the word "Charisma": that would have been around at least since before WWII as a commercially available font, so trying to date the release by this method is an inexact science. Chess owned the Midwest pressing plant and possibly even the printshops / typesetters who produced the artwork for this release. The fact that the typesetters used a face not normally utilised on other Chess product for the 'Charisma logo' was probably to emphasise the 'one-off' nature of the release. I'm leaning towards the theory it was a vanity / favour project for Jones, much like the 'Bunky' release of Nolan Chance discussed in detail months ago. Spector (the owner of Tuff) had a relationship with Chess as A&R head of Argo (their Jazz label) before it became known as Cadet. It was where he met saxophonist Benny Golson, who gets the arranger credit on the various Bobby Treetop uses of the backing track.

Pressed at one of the Chess factories by the look of the typefaces for artist / title / credits. Chess manufactured and distributed Tuff records at this point. If it has a TM scratched in the runout it means it was mastered at Chesses' Ter-Mar Studios. E. Rodney Jones was employed at WVON at the time, a radio station owned by the Chess brothers. Maybe they pressed a small run of this for Jones to hand out as a promotional tool, with the label name being a reference to his on-air style.

There is a US 4 track EP of Jon Lucien with picture sleeve. I've only ever seen promo copies and don't know if it was ever issued as such. Catalogue number is DJE0-0038.

I think the guitar playing on that record is absolutely beautiful and a long way away from being intrusive. As you say Pete: different strokes!

This topic is supposed to be about 'unknowns'. The JT Cater is a known record. Your assertion that "your average northern souler who went to Wigan or Stafford would not know it" is bonkers. Who in their right mind would flag up a genuinely unknown 'scene-worthy' record on this thread?

Your post is incorrect, I'm afraid. The Willie & West album is not IN ANY SENSE a reissue. The alternate version of "Get Away" does indeed feature on the rare Wille & Magnificents album "Very Soulful" but that was released on All Platinum AFTER the Willie & West album.

Again, the JT Carter record has been collected for about twenty five years. This is the b-side of Closer To Your Heart and is probably even worse.

The Willie & West hardly falls into the unknown category. Played by Levine at the Mecca and been a collected album ever since. I'm speculating but guess that dozens if not hundreds of copies have passed through the UK soul scene in the last couple of decades. I'm also not sure that the Willie & Mighty Magnificents version is the original one as you claim. Some Willie and West tracks were re-issued with some Mighty Magnificents tracks on a Japanese P-Vine album in about 1980. The version of GAFMG is, if I remember, slightly different.

I have a nice copy if you still need this and want to make an offer.

Some interesting background here courtesy of John Ridley. https://www.sirshambling.com/artists_2012/J/eddie_jones/index.php

Mr Soul is a nice enough record. I don't know if I'd pay the money for one today but it definitely had allnighter magic sprinkled over it for a long time. The other two records are titans and among the best and most soulful sides ever played if you ask me. What aspect of the Masqueraders turns you off so much? It's got everything and is one of the Northern records with the most absolutely mind-blowing vocal performances from lead and group. The arrangement is pin sharp, dynamic, there are breaks and the song is a good one, self-penned by a great group. I've said on here before that if Lou Pride were discovered today people would be fighting each other in the streets to own a copy. A powerful, truly soulful and unique sounding record by a great artist.

I used to think badly of George Lemons but my opinion of the record has changed, funnily enough it may be down to membership on here. Everything Dave Moore says about it is probably technically true, yet its very faults conspire to create something beyond the simple sum of its parts. The key change in the middle of the record (accompanied by the line "You have heard me talk about... about the distant skies") is actually very musical: far away and above a run of the mill, generic R&B (in the widest sense of the word) record. Yes, George Lemons was not the greatest singer in the world, but if vocal quality were the sole qualifying criteria for a Northern Soul smash we wouldn't have too much to talk about. Gordon Russell is correct in identifying the rough, raw street level appeal of much of this music as a major part of its attraction. What's the antidote: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" twelve times a night?

To my ears it is a better record than "Love You Baby" in practically every department. That's not to say LYB is a poor disc, it's great too. The only thing that's ever held "Gone" back is a shortage of copies.

If the thread on over-rated records is to be believed this is no worse than Eddie Parker, The Del Larks or The Professionals.