georgeblackwell

I have to say I know that look, I have been cultivating it for years, I take it with me to every soul night. Frosty

I was deejaying on Saturday night at one of our regular venues in Jersey when this lovely young lady (I say young, she was under 50, so that qualifies these days) complained about what I was playing ( The Montereys on Arwin) and asked me to play something good. I said "like what?" and she says "oh you know - i'm just a pebble on the beach something good like that. My initial thought was what the f**k and then I twigged it. I told my dj accomplice and we pissed ourselves. It reminded me of an incident many years ago when I was in the UK and deejayed for Rudzi at the Leicester soul club. This chap (he was drunk at the time) asked me to play The Beetroot Song. I naturally told him to F**k off but he persisted and started singing it to me. I eventually sussed that he was singing The Dalton Boys - I've been Cheated - V.I.P. (you need to listen to it again). Anyone else had similar bizarre record titles thrown at them??? Frosty

There are so many records that are in this vein but my two favourites are 1. General Johnson - let's fool around - Arista where at 1:57 he sings - "Open the gates to your love and let me come inside" said that to the wife once - slept in the spare room that night. 2. The daddy of them all - Clarence Carter - Strokin' - Ichiban - the whole song is an opus to Shagging (in the British sense), no innuendo here just Clarence going for it. Contains the memorable verse at 3:20 - The other night I was strokin' my woman And it got so good to her, you know what she told me Let me tell you what she told me, she said: 'Stroke it Clarence Carter, but don't stroke so fast If my stuff ain't tight enough, you can stick it up my................ I be strokin' Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! I be strokin' Played that to the wife once - been sleeping in garage ever since !!! Frosty

I am with Brooky on this one, but lets face it lads what with all the Detroit, Terra Shirma Studios, Mike Terry, Denis Coffey, Clay McCmurray stuff going on with this record it is tantamount to being a holocaust denier to say it is a decidedly average record (there, I've said it, call the motor city soul police). Incidently reference G Lightfoot - the writer of the song I found this info. Frosty The title of a Gordon Lightfoot-composed song that he never recorded!(according to him when I spoke with him back stage at a concert in Cleveland a few years ago)...it was recorded by Ritchie Havens (on Verve-Forecast "Mixed Bag" LP and on 45) and by Spyder Turner on an M-G-M 45...if you don't know this song you MUST locate...is GREAT and I wish GL had recorded himself...he said he "never got around to it"...but I neglected to ask him how he thought Havens had heard it to know he wanted to record it?!?

I know I started this topic but I am having doubts now. To be honest I always thought the Ripple Blast was a male vocal and also thought SF TKO's was male as well until I saw an old thread on here. Like Sebastian I have checked out other female versions of this and both Streisand and Diana Ross sing this in the first person, i.e. they are Sadie and they are the ones that got married, stayed in bed and procrastinated over Orange juice or prune. The Ripple Blast singer talks about Her having a silver wedding band and then we got married. So for my money female on SF TKO's (unless Jane is a bloke) and Male on Ripples - nuff said. I have got 4 different LP's by the Ripple Blast singers - on my way to the record room now to check out what they sound like - it's been a while since I last played them. frosty

On a slightly different tack, the cover of the Ripple Blast LP would surely qualify as one of the worst designs ever, but could the gal with orange dreds be the singer in question ??? Frosty

Having just listened to SAN FRANCISCO TKO'S - MAKE UP YOUR MIND is the singer (I believe her name is Penny Lewis) the same vocalist as the one on RIPPLE BLAST SINGERS - SADIE SADIE. Sounds pretty close to me and even the arrangement and instrumentation of the backing has a few similarities. Whadya think whadya know ?

already been offered £175 for it

Loads of rare and collectable stuff on Ric-Tic but surely the rarest record on the label is the humble yet fabulous SAN REMO GOLDEN STRINGS - INTERNATIONAL LOVE THEME / QUANTO SEI BELLA (you are so beautiful) - RT 116 RED ISSUE. You see copies of the other rare stuff - Rose Batiste - Holding Hands, Edwin Starr - You`re My Mellow, Scotts on Swingers etc quite regularly but when do you see the aforementioned beauty? Not often methinks. So what is it worth? Since I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had a really nice copy of this there has been a lot of interest. What do the experts out here in soul source land think? Frosty

Are we buying and selling used/old records here or is this the returns department at M&S. Now with them you have the right to buy an item, take it home, try it on, look in the mirror, decide it makes you look fat and take it back for a refund. I personally do not think buying and selling old vinyl falls into the same category from a customer service perspective. I sold an LP record on Ebay some time back with detailed pictures and a complete description. The buyer contacted me to say it was not the record that he thought it was and could he get a refund. My answer was no and I got Negative feedback. Whatever happened to Caveat Emptor. Like Boba I have bought 1000's of unknown records blind in the USA over the years on the off chance they may be decent soul stuff. It is only with the advent of Ebay that sellers stateside have attached the words Northern Soul to their listings in the knowledge that they will get more views with that in the description. Any record by any artist from the early 50's to 90's and beyond may be described as soul or northern and as we all know a record does not have to be soul to be northern. Like beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder. I well remember many years ago (before google, ebay and internet) selling the contents of what I called my "duds box" to Johnny Manship for next to nothing, only to find out several years later that some of the records were worth hundreds of pounds on the Funk and Popcorn scenes. They were still crap to me though. Frosty

No question that this is the rarest Soul LP on Brunswick and I have got the complete catalogue. Been playing "She'll never say it" and "I want to be your special man" occasionally at Soul nights in Jersey for about 12 years but alas the punters have never taken to it. Maybe I will dig it out again and spin it at Fitzy's Big Weekender over here in February (15th to 18th). I also think the promo is more common than the issue of this. Definitely deserves wider exposure but as in all things the rarity of the disc means most people have never even heard of it. Cheers Frosty

Well you could never accuse Johnny M of being cheap could you.

Hi Steve, No worries, thanks for clearing that up. Maybe I am getting over sensitive in my old age !! Incidently about 1500 of the 3000 that I listed on ebay came from my swap with Ian Levine, I know you did a similar deal with Ian so you will know what sort of thing would be included in these lots. Chris

Thanks Kev, your comments are appreciated, i am not out to rip anyone off. Just trying to shift a load of old records. Got another couple of thousand to get through as well.

Thought I would post my letter of response to TOMMYMAC's post about the records he bought of me, and what the hell it has got to do with Steve Plumb who, as he says "saw them" but had no knowledge of what they were. Hello Tom, Got the records back today and spent the afternoon going through them all, playing everyone. Clearly from your "skip them" comment you were disappointed with what you got, but having been through them all I fear this was more to do with content than quality. I have been buying and selling soul records since the late 60's and have always used a standard grading system :- RECORD GRADING: NM (Near Mint): Like new, looks unplayed. VG++: A few very faint surface marks, nothing that will affect play VG+: A few more marks than a VG++. Used but not abused. VG: Light scuffs and light scratches, there will be light surface wear to the record. Expect some light surface noise in parts or a few clicks or pops here and there. VG-: The record may have some scratches that will be deep enough to feel. Audible clicks and pops may be consistently present, but no skips. G: A record that has been played and not taken care of. Constant background noise will be present. Buyer should view records with this grade as filler copies. The records when listed were described as follows - Approximately 50% of these are new - old store stock that have not been played. The rest vary from vg++ to g+. Some will have water damage or wear on the labels. I have not play tested these as there are too many and they are sold as is. Of the records in your pack having played and inspected everyone carefully I would grade them as follows:- 41 NM 10 VG+ 15 VG 21 VG- 13 G All of the records played through without any skips, The low grade records do sound bad and I apologise for that, but the rest played ok with varying degrees of back ground noise. Some had dust and debris on them that just needed a wipe with a damp cloth. Comments by you like "the so called new old store stock" are not very helpful as one look at any of them will tell you that they are exactly that, and everyone played through perfectly. A couple of the unplayed records were poor quality pressings but looked fine until played. I also did not appreciate your comments on Soul Source " didnt expect them to be brilliant but couldnt even pull one half decent single out of them" Not sure what you were expecting to get for £0.50p a pop - Joseph Webster, George Pepp? The idea that every time you buy lots of records you should be able to make a profit out of them is flawed in the extreme. At this level and at this price it is always going to be a lucky dip. Although by no means definitive I priced up a number of the NM records on John Manships site and 23 of them that were listed totalled a value of £275. These included - THE ULTIMATE CHOICE - MY BODY'S HOT - HEAT at £40 and LU,PAUL & BRIAN - MAMA SAID PAPA SAID - JANUS at £50. So if you had kept them you would have had yourself a bargain. You have probably done me a favour sending them back because I can probably get more for them, also one of the GOLDEN WORLD records was in a RIC-TIC sleeve and I already have people interested in that. After all is said and done I agreed to give you a refund which I will do, with the spectre of negative feedback hanging over any EBAY sale it pointless trying to do anything else. I genuinely feel that overall you are losing out here because the value of the pack far exceeds what you paid for it. Chris Frost

I have a copy of the Fairmount issue of this and have never seen or heard the Rouser version so I was interested in this copy of THE BUTLERS with FRANK BEVERLY - BECAUSE OF MY HEART - ROUSER 1017 because it had attached to it, what I assume were, 2 complete sound clips. The sound clip for BECAUSE OF MY HEART differs from my Fairmount copy in that the sax break is much shorter. It does not sound as though it skips at that point and the edit of the sax break sounds clean. So the question is - Does the Rouser version have a shorter sax break or is it just a fault with the sound clip that was attached to the listing. If you get a chance to listen to the sound clip and you know the Fairmount version well you will immediately hear what I am talking about. Anyone shed some light on this or am I going off my head !!!

That doyen of British Soul Brothers and inventor of the term Northern Soul, Dave Godin habitually covered up the labels of some of his discoveries back in the early 70`s. He justified this by saying that when he went up north to venues like The Wheel, The Pendulum, The Mecca etc he was expected to take along some great sounds that were new to the scene and if everyone knew what they were he would soon run out of exclusives. Records like James Bounty - Prove yourself a lady - Compass and The Ad-Libs - Nothings worse than being alone - Share spring to mind. Having said that he could never keep a secret for very long and soon told people what they were.

Over the years I have bought more records blind than I have knowing what they are. The constant search for something new leads most vinyl fanatics to chance their arm from time to time with a title that looks like it might just be something. For every great northern record that I have discovered (George Blackwell) I have ended up with hundreds of "Ok wheeler the used car dealer" types. The thrill of putting on an unknown record not knowing if it is going to be a classic or a lemon is one of lifes little pleasures. I bought about 15000 unlisted 45`s from a dispersal sale in Detroit last year and waiting for the shipment to arrive and tearing open the first few boxes was great fun. It cost me more to ship them than I had to pay for the vinyl but one record out of the whole lot was worth considerably more than I paid for the whole consignment. Buying blind, you just gotta try it you know it makes sense !!! Chris Frost

Just joined this website and the memories came flooding back when I saw Dalton, James & Sutton featured here. I thought you chaps might like to hear the story behind it`s appearance on the Northern scene. I went to New York in the Summer of `72 with my brother (Steve Frost) We travelled all over the city searching for records from Harlem and the Bronx to Bleeker St in Greenwich Village (anyone remember House of Oldies ?) We came back with hundreds of records many of which were unknown at the time (Steinways on Oliver springs to mind). Well Dalton James and Sutton on National General was one that I bought blind in a pile of about 100 demos for 5 cents each from a junk store in Middletown. It was obviously white and rock when I played it but I thought it had a bit of Northern potential, so when I got it home I peeled the labels off it and made up a label using coloured gummed paper and letraset and renamed it Run Baby by The Marshall Brothers on the DELMAR Label. Steve was DJ at the Fantasia in Quorn Leicestershire at the time and I think he played it once. A few weeks later we went to The Torch and I took the bogus Marshall Brothers in my sales box. One of the London guys (May have been Dave Rivers or Mick Smith) had a copy of Nolan Chance -Just Like The Weather on an Emidisc and i wanted to do a trade for it. I told him The Marshall Brothers was a stomping northern track and we got Martyn Ellis to play it. It sounded awful on the crap sound system they had at the Torch but because the bass was so distorted it almost drowned out the vocal and the dancers seemed to like it. Anyway the trade was done I got my Emidisc of Nolan Chance and The Marshall Brothers embarked upon their strange and eventful Journey on the Northern Scene. Not sure how long it took for the real artists to be revealed but Neither Steve or myself ever owned up to the scam until now !!! Keep the faith Chris Frost