Rick Cooper

Pete The Beacon release doesn't have the instrumental flip (Psychedelic Theme) which was the side played in the early 70's , so could have been booted for this .I've never seen a demo boot but used to have an issue bought from Bradford market. Rick

Heard this on an old CD today- Timmy Thomas- What's Bothering Me "a two fingered sign don't mean we dig crime, it means peace" then stops dead. Old Mecca spin that caught a few out. Rick

Quite like "Gonna Find The Right Boy" from way back but never imagined her as a young white teenager, another revelation. The instrumental flip had a few plays as it is quite similar to "The Spy". Could be the same musicians. In 1974 I was staying in Philadelphia with my boss, Ed Balbier who had a record warehouse there . One day he said there were some boxes of records in his house cellar and I should have a look. In a corner were about 15 boxes of records and in one of these were about 60 copies of the Audry Slo record on Swan which ended up back in the UK.If Rob said he never saw them around in the 60s maybe it didn't make it out of Philly and around Baltimore/Pittsburgh. In some of the other boxes in the cellar I found about 90 copies of Lenis Guess "Just Ask Me" six months after it had been pressed and issued on Route so was worth hardly anything then. Rick

The styrene copies are 100% legitimate copies ,not illegal bootlegs, done by Laurie in the 70s .Laurie had a lot of their old titles such as The Chiffons and Dion and the Belmonts still available for US shops. Hoagy Lands and Dean Parrish were done for the UK. These should be fairly common compared to the original 60s vinyl copies. Rick

Ian Levine did a tape for me around 73 or 74 with this on but I don't remember him playing it much at the Mecca. I think he was moving away from 60's stuff. As Arthur said (post 31)Ian sold it to Sam who then made it popular. Rick

Roburt Not sure if your reply agreed with me or not. I was saying that it was not a standard record company process to manufacture issue copies for lesser artists only after the record had got good radio plays from the demo copies. I think your first paragraph agrees with this. But are you saying that Way Out or other small labels never pressed issue copies unless radio stations played the record,as was stated in the first post and is the "fact" that explains lack of issue copies for some records. As you say, small companies had limited finance but from my experience of issuing singles in the 70s the cost of having 1000 copies pressed was not much more than a few hundred. The upfront cost of paying an advance to the owner then having the record mastered and stampers made was a considerable amount. From memory I think mastering alone was about £65 which for 500 copies was 13p each , which meant that a profit for a run of less than 500 was just about impossible. Maybe cost structures in the US were different, do you have any figures? Has any of the unissued Way Out recordings come out on CD or have the tapes been lost? Rick

Great record that seems to be seriously undervalued. Picked up a very good UK HMV copy a few years ago for around a fiver. Another version of this by The Exception was tipped in the 70s but seems to be forgotten now as a demo went through ebay at £4.99 with no takers . Maybe if a name DJ played it the value would rocket. Rick

Rod It had it's good points but spent most of the working day picking and packing LP orders. When a container shipment of singles arrived that was a "sweet shop" day. Richard Searling worked there before me. Many others worked at Global during the 1970s, a re-union of ex employees would fill a fair sized venue. Interesting info on the Itzy label and the Pittsburgh scene. Ed Balbier (the owner of Global) mentioned that a certain record was popular in Baltimore and Pittsburgh now and again but at the time I assumed he meant that it was popular as a new release i.e. a regional hit. It looks that it was an oldies scene as the Itzy releases were done some years after the original issues. I should have asked him more about it but being a young kid at the time I thought I knew it all, how wrong can you be. The Feathers record "Trying to Get To You" was one I remember he said was popular in Pittsburgh , so seems they liked the fast pop/ soul stuff. Has there been any discussion on the Pittsburgh scene? Rick

Never seen this Freddie Cannon/ Mickey Lee Lane record before but almost certain that it was done by John La Mont at his House of Sounds business in Philadelphia with possibly some input from Bernie Binnick and Ed Balbier. House of Sounds had a list of early Rock and Roll hits available to US shops which included all the Freddie Cannon hits. They may have been legit as someone in Philly could have a claim on the Freddie Cannon titles in the early 70s. Mickey Lee Lane would probably have been done for the UK,although some Northern type records were popular in the Baltimore and Pittsburgh areas so may have been for US buyers. As quality control at House of Sounds was not up to much they probably pressed them without checking and sold them with a correct label to stick on . The records were usually a bit thin and often warped the labels were usually quite good. Record Supermarket probably got the record from Global Records in Manchester as I remember them as a customer when I worked there in the mid 1970s. The list the shop had would have been about 7 or 8 sheets with titles listed alphabetically and each title having a price code from A to E. I quite liked " Hey Sah Lo Ney" as a record that reminds me of the early emergence of Northern. Les Cockell when he was DJ at the Wheel had it as his one to watch out for in a Dave Godin B&S column .Prefer the instrumental (Tracks to Your Mind) and always wondered how it turned up as a B side on the Cobblestone label. Rick

Fell for Tim Brown's "limited edition" hype so bought them all on release. Also got "For Modern Millionaires-volume 1" GSCD139. Is this common and was there a Volume 2? I was told Unknown Female on "You'll Always be in Style" (post 7 above) was the Ad Libs . Seems likely but was it confirmed or is it another myth. Rick

A contestant on Mastermind tonight has chosen Philly soul as their specialist topic. Expect Dave Moore to get them all right but what about you? Rick

Hi Pete I think Junior Walker was on at Placemate (the old Wheel site) sometime in the late 70's or could have been early 80's, not sure if this was the one you went to as I don't remember him appearing at the Oxford Rd club (not Pips), whatever it was called. Didn't go to the Hardrock as I thought it was a heavy metal venue, the clue in the name, but that show looked good. Rick

Not seen this before, drill hole in CD The CD was a 2001 US full price issue but must have had the unsold copies sold off cheap. Here is a bar code with over print to stop re selling. It is a US promo so must have been done at the time of release. Iv'e got a UK Capitol promo but this hasn't had the bar code crossed through, anyway ebayers and car booters don't bother about bar codes or promo "not for sale"

Clockwise from left top:- Pendulum moved to Bavarian Bier Keller. Pips 1976. Sgt Peppers Sunday Club Stockport 1976 Cheadle Hulme Disco Club Placemate 6 Whitworth St "What's On" and card 1977 and finally Pips card members photo ah hair......long time no see

Thanks for that Glyn, never knew that before. I thought Innocent Bystanders were a Popcorn Wylie/Mike Terry studio group.Never played the other side of Frantic Escape so is that the side with Cleaveland Horne on? Rick

Oops, sorry bout that , just got Darrell Banks and Volumes in before your post, but I'm sure JM would love to sell both these. Rick

Darrell Banks- Open the Door c/w Our Love on mint unplayed UK London issue or Volumes on Pama Surely Sandy Golden has been booted by Soussan or did I fall asleep after 2 pages of the recent and ongoing postings.

soul_bowl.pdf Hi Paul That seems likely. The reason I asked was that it was stated on a Soul Bowl list from way back , not the usual source for wild speculation. Rick

When Something Fishy Going On by Universal Mind on Red Coach came out it was said that they were the same group as The Carstairs. Is this correct as I've never heard it mentioned since then. Rick

Louis Well done on getting a great bargain. I should think the price soon went up as Ed Balbier noticed the record was flying out. When I was there I think there were about 25 -30 originals left. Any chance of posting a scan of the list up. Rick

Previous thread here on Total Eclipses has some info on 444

Picture on the link shows about a quarter of the interior so a head count may give a rough estimate of the crowd about ten minutes after the doors opened. Rick.

Not posed, it just jumped on....

Ady I think I read somewhere that in the 50's and 60's a record would have to sell at least 30,000 before the artist(s) were due any money as the advance, recording costs and other charges had to be recouped before royalties were payable. Is this true? As for live appearances , tales of guns and threats are common but it can't have been everywhere can it ? Don Varner when interviewed said that he didn't expect to make any money from record sales but made his living from live shows. Rick