Rick Cooper

From John's description of the shop it is almost certainly the same one that me and Terry (Francis "Mr Tee) found in 77. We had spent two weeks travelling by bus from New York to Miami as a sort of holiday/sight seeing trip with frequent diversions to record shops and distributors. We were staying at a Holiday Inn in Miami Beach and one evening went looking for somewhere to eat. On the way we came across a large record shop which had all LPs on display but a small glass counter at the back with singles stacked up. From these we found about a hundred great titles. The owner said there were more in the back but they were $1 each and we had to buy at least 100. The first room had shelves on three sides but loads of stuff piled up exactly how John described it. The owner kicked us out as he was closing but we went back next day to go through the first back room. The records we found were the same as John said- St Lawrence, Chess, Constellation, Tuff, Special Agent and Champion. Some other labels but none of the majors, indie West Coast or Motown. Even after a whole day we hadn't gone through everything in this room as there was so much stuff in the way. We could see another room off this one but to get in you'd have to squeeze on top of a big fridge through the door frame. We had to get back to New York by bus in three days so couldn't wait. In the end we hired a car to take us and the records back to a shipper in New Jersey and then to the airport. I'd think the Sam Fletcher records must have been in the room we couldn't get in. There weren't any in the stuff we looked through as I'd have taken at least 25. The record "I'd Think It Over" had been a huge record in the Belgian Popcorn scene from the early 70s ( getting a re-press in Belgium). Also it's the type of record and artist that the Japanese collectors would have bought. Our visit was in 77 , June to be exact as I still have my travel docs and see that on the 24th I paid the shop owner ,Jack Howard $300, and car rental on the 27th. John says the owner died in 76 but either he got this wrong or someone else was looking after the shop. I'd think the owner , Howard, recovered but died sometime after our visit. He was a right grumpy old man with a foul mouth and bad temper, so a heart attack is quite likely. I've no idea what happened to the stock and thousands of Sam Fletcher. I'd heard that @Dave Raistrick found the shop after us but perhaps Dave or Rod would let us know. I vaguely remember the shop owner told us someone else from the UK had been there before us but wouldn't pay a dollar each, (50 cents or less was the norm back then). Was this John?

I don't remember hearing it at The Torch, Blackpool Mecca, Wigan or anywhere else. Perhaps I've blocked the memory as a coping mechanism for such a terrible record.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned, or watched, this BBC 2 programme shown last Saturday (21st Sept). It's a three part documentary exploring the racism faced by black music artists. The first show was looking at the 1920s to 50s and mentioned early blues, R'n'B and jazz artists. Parts two and three on next Saturday or on I Player now. Probably most on here will be familiar with the injustice done to many black musicians but worth a watch. Episode two looks at black owned record labels including Motown, cue Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0021zf0

There is an advert from The House of Sounds in Billboard magazine around 72 to 74 wanting to buy ex juke box singles (can't find it now as a search has 7000+ results) At the time I couldn't understand why they would need these as they had a warehouse full of records and juke box records would be worn out and unsellable. Would this have just been for the vinyl? House of Sounds pressed up quite a few old singles and some LPs. I remember the singles were all quite thin and had very fine short scuff marks on the surface. I suspect Ed Balbier of Global Records used House of Sounds to press up some northern titles for the UK as the quality was terrible. When I was at Global we used to import a lot of the US labels golden oldies issues. All the major labels had a comprehensive catalogue of past hits, often as back to back titles. Some had OK northern titles- Willie Tee, Major Lance, James Carr and the Motown Yesteryear series plus the pop hits by the likes of Brian Hyland, Bobby Goldsborough, etc were issued as oldies. Orders were placed about every two or three weeks and I think the number of titles out of stock was very low and titles were rarely deleted. So it seems that the majors could still find vinyl for oldies. Could it be that there was no risk of unsold stock and costs had been recouped years ago. The exception to this was a few smaller labels whose oldies seemed to be out of stock for months and months. These were Specialty, Laurie , Brunswick and a couple of others, could they have found the vinyl shortage meant they had to wait for their orders?

One of Global Record's owner Ed Balbier job lot purchase that he sent back here in a shipping container was a few hundred large boxes of 10 singles in a sealed plastic bag much like the top one in the above photo. Over a month or so when all the shop orders had been dealt with I was given the job of opening each bag and sorting the records by title. A pattern soon became obvious, every bag had a couple of Tommy James and the Shondels titles and a copy of Peggy Scott and Jo Jo Benson - Pickin' Wild Mountain Berries. The other records were not that great, the only ones I remember were about a dozen copies of Shane Martin- I Need You, about fifty of Esther Philipps -Nobody But You and one copy of Herb Ward- Honest to Goodness. All the records were major labels and I don't think they were drilled. I can see why Robb and The Yank didn't pay any attention to these bags.

Like others I've had a few knee issues this year. Could hardly walk in May but the X-ray was clear, physio diagnosed damaged meniscus (never heard of this but apparently it's something between the bones). Slowly recovered and managed a few runs recently. Unfortunately, the dog has decided she can't be bothered to come as well, after initial enthusiasm she turns back. Did a bit of swimming and cycling as I was told this was less strain on the knee. I've never fancied a gym, looks too competitive and judgemental plus all the expensive fancy stuff that seems necessary puts me off. Agree with others that getting out and moving is well worth it, both physically and mentally.

Hard to pick one track as a favourite as all his lead vocal tracks are superb. As a showcase for Paul's talent I'd go for Last One Out Is Brokenhearted issued on the Lost and Found CD of unissued recordings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhe2j8e8lLM The YT video gives some info on the track. Also worth a listen is the extended version someone has made. For more of Paul watch the live video of For Once In My Life from T.C.B TV special on YT.

Some other Canadian singles I had in the mid 70s came from Oldies Unlimited in Telford. This was a place that sold packs of singles as well as pop oldies, there are some previous discussions on here that give more info. With Terry (Mr Tee from Kidderminster) we managed to get access to the stock rooms, not easy as the owner was reluctant to let anybody go through the boxes. Most records we found were multiples of early 70s Philly and New York labels. Terry was selling at the Mecca as well as his shop so took quantities of lots of titles, the best one was Andre Maurice- Cream of the Crop. Scattered through the boxes we started finding small quantities of Canadian singles. In the end we got, Eddie Parker -Love You Baby, Timmy Willis- Mr Soul Satisfaction and two Precisions titles on Stone, Billy Butler -I'll Bet You on Brunswick and Ben Aiken - Satisfied on Warners. The Stone singles were around 4 to 8 copies of each and the other two one offs. There were no other Canadian singles so how and why these got in to the 70s US lot is a mystery. Canada was also the base for the ex Yorkshireman Martin Koppel, who was one of the earliest dealers to send loads of US singles to the UK. I dug out some of his first lists from 1972/3 to see if he offered any Canadian records. From the ones I've still got all his stock was from the US. Lots of Detroit labels such as D-Town, Premium Stuff, Revilot, Golden World, Groovesville, Soulhawk, Thelma, Moira etc but only one Motown disc (Earl Van Dyke -The Flick). Other labels included Okeh, Brunswick, ABC and Giant. It appears that Canadian soul singles weren't around in enough quantity to make it worth looking for, also Detroit had loads of old singles in large quantities and very cheap. Looking at his lists you can see how quickly he picked up on the in demand titles and putting up his prices and asking for bids on the big records. If anyone who knows Martin it would be interesting to know if he ever talked about finding singles in his home town of Toronto. As a "by the way" he had The Constellations -I Didn't How To for £1 in Sept 72.

The story of how Can I Change My Mind became a big hit is detailed in Robert Pruter's book Chicago Soul. A brief version is in the liner notes for Edsel's CD The Soul Of Tyrone Davis. (last two paragraphs image one then first column image two) A Another strange fact about A Woman Needs To Be Loved is that a very well known radio and TV celebrity cites it as one of his all time favourite records, unfortunately I've forgotten who it is. Anyone know who this could be?

Ian Levine had been playing If This is Love for a couple of months before copies turned up at Global. I remember Colin Curtis phoning to buy a copy. I think it was priced at £5, quite a sum in those days. If Ian hadn't already featured it I'd probably have just put it at £1 as an interesting alternative of The Precisions, which Global had thousands of copies of at 50p.

The Eddie Spencer- If This is Love, turned up in a job lot of singles that Ed Balbier got for Global Records when I worked there in 74. Ed never told me where he bought the records from but he usually went to New Jersey and Philly. Dealers there would sometimes offer him a deal on a container full of records. This shipment had a fair amount of Detroit labels such as Topper, Soulhawk and Miracle but no other Canadian labels. As Eddie Spencer was getting radio play in Detroit and Cleveland (from the info above) and Arc had a US office the Canadian copies must have been shipped to the US rather than get US pressings made, unless they just used the same label for a US pressing. There was around forty to fifty copies of If This is Love in the shipment but about twenty were cracked. The records had been packed in 50 LP size boxes so the top ones were squashed in the centre and some cracked from the edge and then round the label. I took one home and made a drinks coaster from it.

I thought I had a copy of Keep On but don't remember when so had a look through some old lists when I sold up in the 70s (seemed like a good idea at the time). On this page it's listed in the £1.00 each or any 5 for £4.00. It's not crossed out so looks like it didn't sell. This would have been late 1976 and I probably had bought a copy 2 or 3 years before. I don't remember hearing it in a club but could have had some play at Manchester's Pendulum. As it's on the same label as Joan Moody's We Must Be Doing Something Right it got a bit of reflected interest. I think Soul Bowl found quantities of Joan Moody around 74 so Sterling Magee may have been in the same haul. I got a copy of Joan Moody from HMV in Manchester for £1.25 so Soul Bowl must have had so many they sold it shops as well. At the time there were so many records turning up that Keep On didn't get a chance then but seems like it had it had more luck around 77-78 onwards.

From the hits Back In My Arms Again is one of the best , although a big US hit didn't do much in the UK so probably not on the public radar. However, possibly this, and most of the Supremes 60s records would have been much improved by having any other Motown female artist sing instead of Miss Ross. "Stormy" should be in the top picks on here but unknown by the general public.

Some memories of Blue Max by Neil Rushton taken from The Catacombs CD on Charly. Today (30th May) marks the anniversary of his sad death in 2010.

That makes sense as Brad discovered plenty of records and sold them to Ian when he DJ'd at the early days of the Mecca. It must have been Ian that first played it at The Torch. The Mecca started before 1973 playing all 60s records. "Mecca" style came later. Thanks for clearing that up. I think you're right about Keith getting it wrong about finding The Salvadors at Bradford market. From what I remember all the titles there were on major labels or distributed by the majors. It seems unlikely that small indie labels would be in the stock but nothings impossible.