Tiberius

No, not quite. As I see it you will pay import vat on "commercial items", ie goods you've bought, above £15 in value, and on "gifts" above £40 in value. In addition you will be laible to pay customs duty for goods valued above £135.01 if the duty is calculated above £9 (less than £9 customs duty is waived). All the above the information is in the same link I posted. Section 2.3 lists the limits for imports other than gifts along with exceptions such as alcohol, tobacco etc.

Do you have a link to that? HMRC site still says £40 for a gift (in section 2.4) here - https://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&propertyType=document&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014#P56_5044 I think the old level for import duty was £18, since reduced to £15.

Worth pointing out that on the HMRC website it states as one of the provisos that "To qualify as a gift" - "There is no commercial or trade element and the gift has not been paid for either directly or indirectly by anyone in the UK". Therefore, if you decided to pursue it, you could possibly be asked to prove you didn't buy the item, which may or may not prove tricky. Clearly, doing the maths, the vat was levied on the stated $30 value. You could always get in touch with HMRC either by phone or the online form and see where it leads. For all our sakes hope it's not a new trend.

One from me would be The Honey Bees - She Don't Deserve You. Goffin / King involved = quality.

Can't imagine this one hasn't been posted before but just saw it go through ebay for $15, which seemed a good price. Great 2 sider but I'm going to post just the one. Johnny Moore - That's What You Said

My starter for ten (no order of preference) - Tony Galla - In Love Larry Allen - Can't We Talk It Over Herbert Hunter - I Was Born To Love You Seven Souls - I Still Love You Soulville Allstars - I'm Gonna Get To You Frankie Beverly & the Butlers - If That's What You Wanted Billy Keene - Wishing And Hoping Tony Middleton - To The Ends Of The Earth Thelma Lindsey - Prepared To Love You Billy Hambric - She Said Goodbye Linda Jones - Just Can't Live My Life Damn, that's 11.

Scan of the reissue. - https://www.northernsoul45s.co.uk/product_detail.asp?id=9827

Here's a yellow label scan - https://www.popsike.c...0106699814.html EDIT: Note, this is different to the repro label.

Big Maybelle - Quittin Time has the same backing as Curtis Lee & the KCP's - Everybody's Going Wild, which is worth posting.

Is it just a scan you're after? Without looking too far there's 2 more (different) scans of the promo on youtube, plus this - https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/kennard-gardner-dore-793-skin-promo-73622576 Price will be broadly the same as for the original issue imo. Circa £30ish?

Here's a rough promo copy - https://www.ebay.com/itm/Kennard-Gardner-NORTHERN-SOUL-DJ-45-Do-the-Skin-Do-the-Bounce-/190706956600?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item2c67053938

It's about opinions, and admittedly Bobby Valentin fits more obviously into the Latin genre than The Majestics, but for me the vocal delivery and backbeat of "....It Hurts Me" are pure latin in influence and you won't hear horns played like that on anything outside of hispanic music. Not to mention the hand clapping. If you listen to George Guzman - Misery on Fania it has a very similar salsa type back beat, if different tempo. Eddie Davis recruited artists from the Chicano community for his family of labels in LA. The Majestics song is another example of that "Eastside" sound he developed to appeal to a wider market...I guess the string section makes a difference to the overall feel in this case. You also have to allow for regional differences, Fania being New York based, like the different sound compared with the San Antonio, Texas soul scene. Despite differences if you listen to the horn section of the Sunliners Band for example it's never going to be anything other than hispanic musicians but their music sounds different to Fania material. Having said the above, if I was to attend a purely Latin event I probably wouldn't expect to hear The Majestics! Just my opinion and I certainly don't want to impose.......it's all down to where you want to draw the line with these genre things.

That's a great tune. I always liked Sunny and the Sunliners version of I'm No Stranger.

Here's a couple more which should be pretty well known. HELP TRUTH AND THE PORTRAITS - EMOTIONS MONGO SANTAMARIA - WE GOT LATIN SOUL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4mI0nGV6qs

Surely there are others that stuck, what about The Majestics/David and Ruben?

Google maps street view is a tremendous feat however it's worth noting the search facility isn't 100% accurate. If you enter an address you don't necessarily find yourself at the correct door number, so can often be looking at the wrong building. If a record label has an address printed on very often I'll have a look at google maps, but plenty of times I've had to go up and down streets in street view zooming in on anything that looks remotely like a number on a building in an effort to find the right one.

You can't go wrong with Sheryl Swope so I'll suggest a couple from her. One Moment - Can't Get Him Off My Mind -

A bit left field this one, more of a jazz flavour than latin, but the artist is hispanic. I posted it on my youtube channel recently. I guess will divide opinion so feel free to dissect.

If we're throwing examples into the mix I would like to suggest Ron & The Embracers You Came Into My Heart / Latin Blood. Both sides. They were reportedly an East L.A. group......like so many others. Obviously East L.A. throws up the usual familiar groups linked to the Faro/Rampart family of labels.

OK, you've answered my question. I played my copy of Keep On Running on Wirl, and whilst I wouldn't say it played fantastic it's a damn sight better than the Blues Busters on the label, which always seems to play poorly in my experience, so much so that I gave up trying over the last few years to get a decent sounding copy, after buying several which sounded rough. ( I ended up with a nice looking M- copy which sounds no better than any of the others I owned, which made me wonder if Wirl mastered this one from a poor (vinyl?) source rather than og mastertapes.) I sold a copy of Keep On Running on ebay last year......that one did have a little more background noise thoughout, although not in bad shape it's fair to say it wasn't close to mint. Anyway, " a bit harsh" could suggest you don't completely disagree. The SOUL label 45 is also pressed in blue vinyl.

You're right, they are often pretty wiped out........still likely to sound better than the Wirl copy tho! (Does anything play clean on Wirl?) At least on the Wirl 45 you have Behold on the flip, which I always prefered to the alternative flip sides on the other labels.

Also Wirl WLS-1032 as Blues Busters - Wide Awake In A Dream / Behold...........sound quality is usually abysmal on this one. SOUL 2001? The Blues Busters - Wide Awake In A Dream / Wings Of A Dove. As I remember the SOUL releases have decent sound quality.

From a purely logical point of view, if "their art" refers to their ability as a "soul singer" the answer must be a resounding yes, white vocalists are inferior. If you look at the numbers there are nowhere near as many top drawer white soul vocalists compared with a huge volume of black artists one could name. If, however, "their art" refers to their ability as a vocalist in another genre then I guess the opposite could well be true eg. country music etc. It's mostly historical given the roots of the blues/soul/jazz genres. Having said the above, logic and ethnicity go out the window when you hear a great song, and I for one, have absolutely no bias either way. I buy anything I damn well like....................er, as long as it falls within my meagre budget.

Got my copy off Tim at the time when he found a few & can only echo what JM has said about him, unassuming and very modest. There were some great interviews with Tim on soul guy radio but I'm not sure if they're still available online.

I use soundswholesale and am happy with their card sleeves, although I can't say if they're any better than the suppliers you mention having never tried sleeves from those stores.