Rob Moss

Leonard Jones and FAST TRACK STUDIOS. When the Motown Corporation packed up and left town in 1972 a giant void was left in Detroit's musical landscape. A company that had dominated the city for over 20 years, generating millions of dollars for the local economy and employing hundreds of people over the decades, had suddenly gone. Some members of the famed 'Funk Brothers', Motown's legendary studio band, as well as various other employees, followed Berry Gordy to Los Angeles, some stayed in Detroit. The Holland brothers and Lamont Dozier continued to record material for their Invictus/Hot Wax/Music Merchant labels well into the late 1970s, out of their studio on Grand River, with some success, and Don Davis took over at United Sound Studios, where he enjoyed commercial hits on artists like Johnnie Taylor, The Dramatics, and David Ruffin amongst others. note from the soul source team - sorry but all Robs non-current articles are now clipped due to a future book release - watch out for news of that! Rob Moss http://www,hayleyrecords.co.uk. http://youtu.be/VMgyWbe2VRA

BROTHERS of SOUL in concert. Caribbean Centre, Coventry - 22nd October, 2011. I'd like to nominate this performance as one of the '50 key landmarks in Northern Soul history' for a number of reasons, the least of which is my own involvement as a humble organiser. The outstanding contribution to our scene, as writers, producers and performers by the individual members of this group is reason enough. These are the people who created 'Just loving you', 'Baby don't you weep' 'I am nothing' 'I got the power' 'Gone but not forgotten' 'Wish I had known' 'Don't turn your back on me' 'Wonderful nite' 'Never in a million years' plus scores of other songs for artists like Carl Carlton, The Devotions, The Two Fellows, Shirley Lawson, Maxine Brown, The Precisions, Chuck Bernard, The Masqueraders and many others - a veritable lexicon of top-flight material that has nourished and nurtured our scene for decades. And then there is their own material - 14 solitary, yet significant, sides that stand up to scrutiny or surveillance against any other self supplying group in any and all modern decades. The original trio of Bridges (Fred), Knight (Robert and/or Ben) and Eaton (Bobby) became a duo of Bridges and Eaton, through an unexpected combination of bureaucratic bungling and medical necessity on the other side of the pond, yet this adversity could not prevent a performance of legendary proportions. For the first time at a 'live' Northern event, a four-piece string section augmented the horn led rhythm section ('The Funk 'n Soul Band') and, by a small miracle, a local professional singer, Johnny St. John, was recruited at the eleventh hour to assist with the vocals. The result was as close to an exact reproduction of the original recordings that has probably ever been heard on these shores, combined with a spine tingling delivery that brought many tears to many eyes. The evening was made even more memorable by the glittering line up of top DJs that graced the decks - Eddie Hubbard, Cliff Steele, John McClure, Neil Rushton, John Manship and Mark Speakman delivered a voluptuous volley of Detroit dancers that set the perfect backdrop to the main event. a few quotes just wanted to say a BIG WELL DONE and Congratulations to everyone connected with bringing the guys over to UK. I had a great night, culminating in a fantastic 15 mins with Fred and Bobby after the show. Like Eddie H said, we were like kids in a candy shop. There's not many would have the balls to bring over an act like BOS. And to add the string section and then have the band play Bari Track in their opening salvo was a real ballsy decision by Rob. can only echo the sentiments of others, great emotional night for everyone. Privileged to be in the company of two of the greatest singer/songwriting teams the Northern Soul scene has known When I was given a copy of 'Come on Back' by the Brothers of Soul about 20 years ago as a present, I was really pleased, and it's always been one of my favourite records. But back then if someone had said, 'how about you get to see them perform live, but not only that, you get to rehearse and play in the band with them', I would have politely said 'haha, pull the other one'! But it happened! can view all comments made (and can add your own if there) via the event guide entry More images can be viewed at Chris Watermans Soul Source Album videos from Munchkin (Kev S) More images from Flickr from Chalky http://www.flickr.com/photos/crosseyedbear/sets/72157627958150060/ More images from Flickr by Seano http://www.flickr.com/photos/seanosullivan/sets/72157627969283662/

As the title suggests, ‘Billboard’ magazine began life as a trade paper for the bill posting industry at a time when slapping posters on blank walls was viewed as a helpful and constructive pursuit, not an act of anti social vandalism. It was started in 1894 by two American visionaries called William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a ‘paper of record’ for circuses, carnivals, amusement parks, fairs, minstrel shows, whale displays and whatever else appealed to the public taste of the day, and evolved into a publication that covered motion pictures in 1909, radio in 1920 and music charts by the early 1930s. By 1961 Billboard Music Week concentrated solely on the music business, publishing three weekly sales charts – Pop, Country & Western and Rhythm & Blues. Along with Cashbox magazine, it became one of the leading trade publications for the music industry, providing news, domestically and internationally, advertisements, updates, technical developments and many other issues pertinent to industry professionals. The recent posting of almost every issue dating back to the 1940s and extending to modern times, provides a fascinating insight into various periods of music history. Every issue published between January 1963 and December 1973 was carefully perused in an attempt to capture the mood, spirit and psychology of the most important decade in the introduction and development of rhythm & blues and soul music in America, and around the world. In the earlier 1960s magazines the placement, prominence and priority of R&B adverts tended to reflect the social standing, budgetary restraints and artistic perceptions of the music. The Pop charts assumed the greatest visibility and positioning, followed by C&W and then R&B. Most full-page ads featured white artists, usually accompanied by a photograph, in both Pop and C&W contexts, while most ‘black’ ads, including many of the early Motown singles, did not identify the singers pictorially. This is in stark contrast to C&W artists who, on almost every occasion, have an accompanying photograph within the ad. This did change however, as the decade proceeded, quite probably due to the popularity, and economic success, of black music in the greater commercial arena. Inevitably, the most successful companies tended to advertise the most and with the greatest prominence. Companies like Atlantic, Motown, RCA regularly placed full page ads, (although Motown retained a reticence to publish photographs, choosing, instead, to use drawn art depictions) and smaller companies like Jewell/Paula, Okeh, Date, Loma and many others advertised on a regular basis, including photographs of their artists. Of particular interest to soul fans are the ads for records that did not achieve commercial success, and that would subsequently become collectors’ items with inflated price tags. Full page ads were taken out for white artists like Paul Anka , Frankie Valli, Dana Valery, The Tempests, Nancy Ames, Lada Edmund Jnr., who, it transpired was the ‘Girl in the cage’ from hit television show ‘Hullabaloo’, Dusty Springfield, Evie Sands, Susan Rewis and David and the Giants, most with photos. In stark contrast, obscure black artists that merited full page status, were rarely visually identified. Yet, full colour ads were placed for the Jelly Beans, the Younghearts, Nikki Blu and the Bronzettes, Donald Height, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Edwin Starr, to name but a few, with black and whites published for people like Dobie Gray, Candy and the Kisses, Barbara Acklin, Jackie Wilson, Homer Banks, Willie Mitchell, Steve Karmen Big Band (!) and Emanuel Laskey . The hope, confidence and expectation record executives must have shown, as promotion expenses were decided and cheques made out to ‘Billboard’ were written! When asked about the failure of their record(s) to become a hit, many artists will cite a lack of promotion by the record company. While this may be true in many cases, the pages of Billboard clearly show that many small, independent record labels attempted to compete with their much larger counterparts in the chase for that elusive success. Promotional campaigns ranged from the insertion of one small ad., in a single issue; to a regular spot espousing several different releases, or a full page with photographs and details of radio play. It is fascinating to discover which obscure artists and/or labels appeared, especially when, with the benefit of hindsight, the eventual failure is considered. Ironic too, that many of them have soared in value as collectors realised their true worthiness and worth. Artists like the Hytones, the Volcanoes, Sam Fletcher, Bobbie Smith, the Aubrey Twins, Bobby Paris, Rhetta Hughes, Barbara Mills, the Volumes, Tommy Navarro, Jimmy Robbins, Cindy Scott, Bunny Sigler, George Smith, Kenny Gamble, plus others, are advertised while labels like 123, Musicor, Excello, Blue Rock, Zea, Soul City, Arctic, Huff Puff, Joda, Dynamo, Scepter, SSS International, Jamie-Guyden, Sidra, Quinvy, Jubilee and many more are featured. Of even more interest are the adverts that contain photographs of artists, many of whom have been previously unidentified or anonymous. Roy Redmond, J. B. Troy, Don Ray Sampson, Porgy & Monarchs, the Justifiers, Bobby Patterson & Mustangs, Jimmy Robbins, Sisters Love, Tony & Tyrone, Spellbinders, Roger Hatcher, Maskman & Agents, Preston Foster, Ruth McFadden, Barbara & Brenda, Sam & Bill, Timothy Carr, Toni & Hearts, Debbie Rollins and Chuck Edwards are just a few of the artists identified. Perhaps the most amazing advert on show was commissioned by Golden World / Ric Tic and published on 23rd October 1965. Under the banner ‘Hits A’ Go-Go’ are five new Ric Tic/Volkano/Wingate releases including Wingate 009, Jimmy Randazzo ‘Hungry for love’ which was never ever released! One can only surmise that it was a vocal to the San Remo Strings release but, as it has never surfaced in any form, this is open to speculation. Almost as interesting as the advertising are the reviews of records and the related news items. The language used in both areas displays a dated naivety and innocence that captures the spirit of the age. Words like ‘wail’, ‘driving’, ‘powerhouse’ ‘rocker’, ‘beat’, and many other equally quaint phrases and terms, appear frequently. A Billboard critique of the Younghearts ‘A little togetherness’, for instance, describes it as “Powerhouse teen dance beat and good group sound”, Major Lance’s ‘Investigate’ is “An exciting vocal performance on this wailing rocker.” ‘Help me’ by the Spellbinders “Hard driving beat backs an exceptional vocal performance”, Barbara Banks’ ‘River of tears’ receives “This rocker should be a sales monster. Wild wailing vocal work with strong support from the driving Herb Bernstein arrangement” and Kurt Harris’ “Emperor of my baby’s heart” is portrayed as “An impressive ballad and the artist has a good new sound used to great effect on this budding side” Jackie Ross’ Chicago recording ‘I’ve got the skill’ is called “A high pitched ‘chi chi’ vocal coupled with a Detroit beat” whatever a ‘chi chi’ vocal is! Marie Knight’s ‘That’s no way to treat a girl’ is a “Powerhouse wailing performance on pop hit material. Strong dance beat. The Devonaires (sic) ‘Please don’t say we’re through’ merits “Zippy beat and catchy arrangement. Gals are in the groove.” The best, and most creative, narrative however belongs to this gem from October 17th 1964 in a review describing Earl Van Dyke’s ‘Soul stomp’. “Socko instrumental spotlighting swinging organ with pow pow beat supplied by big brass. Really moves out.” Most reviews were only two or three lines long and followed a similar pattern. The ‘wrong’ sides were sometimes reviewed, as was the case with Nancy Ames’ ‘Cry softly’ instead of ‘I don’t want to talk about it’, Little Richard ‘Hurry sundown’ instead of ‘I don’t want to discuss it’ and Ben E King ‘Goodnight my love’ instead of ‘I can’t break the news to myself’ to name but a few, notwithstanding the preponderance of many rare soul favourites actually beginning life as ‘B’ sides. By 1967 a regular weekly R&B news update column, called ‘Soul Sauce’, began featuring snippets of news, tour details, future releases, ‘live’ appearances plus much more under the sub heading ‘Soul slices’. It was written by a white journalist, Ed Ochs, who also launched a weekly element called ‘Best new record of the week’. His judgement appears to have predated future rare soul tastes, if his choices are anything to go by! Accompanied by photographs, the following artists received this accolade – the Constellations, Big Ella, the Vibrations, Billy Guy, the Esquires, the Invitations, Maxine Brown, Diane Lewis, the Hesitations and Ruby Winters with songs that, in every case, failed to achieve significant chart success. His use of the term ‘soul’, while in common usage throughout wider society at the time, wasn’t adopted by Billboard, officially, until August 1969 when it announced that “ The change in terminology will be reflected in chart headings as well as regular editorial text.” adding “ …this change is motivated by the fact that the term ‘soul’ more properly embraces the broad range of song and instrumental material which derives from the musical genius of the black American.” as if ‘the black American’ was some kind of separate species. Or perhaps that was the intent? Amazing that it took the editorial staff over two years to make the change. Draw your own conclusions. Although the number of the more significant stories and reports relating to R&B/Soul matters were sparing, at best, those that made it through make interesting reading. In the October 28th, 1967 edition under the bi-line ‘STAX REDESIGNS LOGO TO FOIL COUNTERFEITERS’ Jim Stewart complained that Stax material had been “…run off by the thousands” and that the company would be ‘…shortly coming out with a complex multi-colored (sic) label that will be more difficult to counterfeit.’ He complained, “ …penalties for bootleggers are not stiff enough. We can’t seem to convince anyone that this is a major crime.” How many collectors will be checking their light blue U.S. Stax issues now? The legendary Loma label was mentioned on October 3rd, 1964 when the first release, ‘Baby don’t look down’ by Billy Storm ‘ has passed 6000 in sales. An executive revealed that the label is on a major recruitment drive and will have the top two artists in the R&B field on the label by the end of the year.’ Another label that received an initial mention was Turntable Records on August 14th 1965. ‘Turntable’s first product is George Smith, the current lead singer of the ‘new’ Ink Spots, singing ‘I’ve had it’. Major shareholder is Sam Goody owner of a national chain of record stores.’ An accompanying review announced ‘Dramatic, soulful performance serves as an exciting debut of artist and label.’ In the same issue, in bold type, the following bi-line appeared - ‘JOHNNY BRAGG DENIED PAROLE’ and a detailed account of the circumstances surrounding his previous convictions, the reasons for the denial and the disclosure that he ‘…is not ready for civilian life again.’ Seems excessive, considering that the only reason given for such a detailed and lurid story was the fact that he had written the 1956 hit ‘Just walkin’ in the rain’ while in prison. Wonder if a white songwriter would have received the same coverage. Of previously unknown provenance was a story involving Shelley Haims, the executive who brokered the deal to connect Pied Piper productions in Detroit with RCA in 1967. In the July 24th 1965 edition of Billboard it was announced that ‘Shelley Haims named as Vice President and General Manager of Golden World, Ric Tic and Wingate Records in charge of marketing, promotion and product control. He will report to Joanne Bratton (President)’ Remarkable how his name has never been mentioned in any previous histories of the label, the studio or other business dealings. There are some interesting photographs within the pages though they are usually extremely small. Shots of Scott Reagan with Martha & Vandellas, Susan Rewis with Ronnie Savoy, Eddie Anderson with the Four Tops, Aretha being signed by Atlantic vice president Jerry Wexler are probably the best. The musical rivalry between Motown and Stax during the 1960s and 1970s highlighted the vastly different styles of delivery and expression each company portrayed. The approach to advertising their products varied greatly too. Motown tended to place more emphasis on artistic display type ads, with few photographs of artists, whereas Stax, under the Atlantic banner, stuck to a similar, relatively simple lay outs with photographs included. Atlantic’s promotional material tended to stick to the same formula throughout the sixties and early seventies, whereas Motown’s changed quite dramatically as the decade progressed. Early Motown ads tended to feature several releases at a time, usually encased in a separate and unique theme design. As the company grew in stature and wealth, more sophistication was employed on their publicity campaigns. The innovation and creativity of Motown’s promotion reached it’s peak in the late 1960s when classical references were used in the images that accompanied songs like ‘I love you madly’ ‘I want my baby back’, ‘Ain’t no mountain high enough’ ‘Love child’ and many more. Both companies used the pages of Billboard to promote or announce matters not directly associated with record promotion. In early 1965 Motown published a double page colour ad promoting the upcoming tour of Britain and France (one show in Paris) with photographs of the artists and the full itinerary. Interesting to note that Goergie Fame opened the shows. Following the tragic deaths of Otis Redding and most members of the Bar Kays in a plane crash in 1967, Atlantic commissioned full page ads commemorating their passing. Not long after this Calla Records produced a similar tribute on the death of Martin Luther King and later still London Records posted a salute to the passing of Hi Records founder Joe Coughi. Motown’s publishing arm, Jobete was featured on several occasions, as was a tribute to Berry Gordy Jr. by his staff on the announcement of his winning a prestigious business award , and a bizarre exchange between Gordy and Bill Cosby appeared discussing the release of his interpretation of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Uptight’, ‘Little old man’. In 1968 an appeal to help boxer Joe Louis was published listing Berry Gordy Jr.as Honorary Chairman of the ‘Salute to the Champ Joe Louis’ appeal. By the early 1970s full page ads began to appear detailing the availability of recording facilities, list of artists operating out of a particular city or on a group of labels, and the launch of ‘new’ labels. Enterprise Records and Music Merchant Records were announced this way. For the first time in print, Motown produced ads for The Undisputed Truth that gave equal billing to the songwriters/producers, Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, and featured photographs of the entire ensemble. Generally, the artistic quality and creativity of ads during this period declined markedly. Stax provided two full colour pages of their artist roster and studio facilities and Sam Phillips published a tribute to the soulful music being produced in Memphis Rob Moss

The BROTHERS OF SOUL (Fred Bridges, Richard Knight, Ben Knight and Bobby Eaton) will be performing in Britain, for the first time ever, on October 22nd 2011 at the Caribbean Centre in Coventry with full orchestral accompaniment. This is their only UK concert. The group will be performing many of their own recordings as well as songs they wrote for other artists. The evening will be a celebration of Detroit’s important contribution to the rare soul scene and will only feature music recorded in the Motor City. In recognition of this essential event, we are proud to resurrect this 2008 article about the group, highlighting the early careers of group members, the vast catalogue of songs they wrote and the important contribution they made to the music scene. Harmony singing has been an important aspect of black expression and communication since the primeval days in Africa prior to the introduction of the slave trade. Communal choral involvement accompanied the misery and suffering experienced by slaves throughout the entire despicable process of enforced labour and identity assassination. Yet, the practice of mass participation in vocalizing, as practiced in churches by choirs and congregations or through a cappella entertainment by smaller groups, in the 19th century, became a pre curser for many of the established art forms we recognize today. Barber shop quartets, impromptu so called ‘street corner’ singing, gospel groups and family gatherings are all examples of situations that contributed to the veritable explosion of group harmony singing that evolved during the 1950s. The phenomenon known as ‘Doo Wop’ began to dominate popular tastes throughout America, during most of the decade. It created a musical template of intricate four and five part harmonies, often with falsetto leads and bass voice histrionics, performed by slickly suited groups of males, who blended the charisma and raw power of rhythm and blues with the urbane sophistication of collective crooning. By the early 1960s the format had evolved into a less restrictive style as groups like The Impressions, The Temptations, The Dells (who had been a part of the ‘Doo Wop’ era) and The Drifters, and many others, delivered more melodic expressions of musical syncopation, retaining the harmonization of the past, but with a greater emphasis on lyrical and emotional content. In most cases, groups were dependent on songwriters providing material for them. They tended to concentrate on the delivery and performance of a repertoire of songs, whereas the songwriters focused on the lyrical and melodic components – and rarely did the twain ever meet. Until a talented vocalist named Fred Bridges met Robert Eaton and Richard Knight, and began songwriting collaboration in Detroit during the mid 1960s that ultimately resulted in the creation of a singing group of their own – The Brothers of Soul. Fred Bridges completed a stint in the military in 1960. “I was part of a group called The Crystals. We won all the Air Force talent shows but when I left the service, the group folded. I’d always been into music – I could sing and play piano too. And I grew up with Marv Johnson and Lawrence Payton of the Four Tops so I had some connections.” His friendship with Johnson resulted in an introduction to producer Robert (Bob) Bateman in 1961, who took him to the local Speciality in Detroit to record the self-penned ‘Baby don’t you weep’ b/w ‘It must be love’ for Versatile Records. With little promotion, the record was unsuccessful. Bridges was undeterred however. “It was a good learning experience for me. I recorded again a couple of years later as Lavon Bridges on a tune called ‘With a smile on my face’ for Gloreco, which I wrote, but that didn’t do too well either. I was trying to get into the recording scene here in Detroit and I did a couple of things. I remember doing backbeats on Edwin Starr’s ‘Agent double O soul’ over at Golden World with this clapper device that we made by attaching a hinge between two pieces of wood. I was over at Motown too when they needed some voices on a Martin Luther King song they were doing.” But it was his songwriting that drew most attention - and some controversy. “ Johnny Terry used a song I had written with Richard Beasley called ‘She broke his heart’ on one of his artists (Just Brothers) but when it was released he had the writer as Freddie Pride. He never told me he was gonna do it or why!” The song was included by noted UK scribe Dave Godin on his album of the best 20 ‘Deep Soul’ sides ever written and recorded. By 1964 Bridges began working at the Chrysler assembly plant but continued his interest in the music business. He met Richard Knight at the plant and soon realized that they shared a passion for songwriting. Knight’s career path to this point couldn’t have been more different to Bridges’. He recalled his tempestuous late teenage years. “I guess you would have called me a street hoodlum at that time -17 or 18 years of age. I moved to New York City when I was 18 and got a job there. One of my co-workers’ uncles died and left him a nightclub and he invited me to help him run it. I didn’t know too much about organising things but he had heard me sing and hired me to sing with the band. I did that for four years.” The success of Motown Records, and the frenzy of related activity that accompanied it, back in Detroit, soon lured him back home though. “My buddies kept calling me and telling me what was going on and that if I wanted to get into the business, Detroit was the place to be. I came back around ’64 and got a job at Chrysler. I met Fred not long after that.” Bridges was to be the catalyst in the inclusion of Robert (Bobby) Eaton into the eventual writing triumvirate too, as Eaton himself remembered. “I’d been into music since I was a kid. I was in a group called The Tornadoes with Stanley Mitchell back in ’58. We recorded a couple of sides in Chicago for Chess Records but nothing came of it. I got a break in early ’64 when Tri Sound Records used a couple of my songs on a group called The Devotions (‘Same old sweet feelin’ b/w ‘Devil’s gotten into my baby’) It was around that time I met Fred and Richard and we started writing together.” Fred Bridges and engineer Ed Wolfrum mixing 'Candy' at Tera Shirma Bridges recalled how the creative process worked between them “Richard was really good with words. Bobby was an accomplished songwriter in his own right but was really great at arranging voices and doing the background parts. I would usually start things off on the piano with a hook or some kind of a groove and we would go from there.” Their first collaborations took place in a small studio not far from Motown’s Hitsville site. “It was around the same time that we got hooked up with Lou Beatty at La Beat Records. I was walking past their studio. It had these really big windows at the front and I could see right in. They were working on something, playing piano and such, so I went in and met the engineer. I played him and Lou Beatty some songs I’d got on the piano, and they liked them. Richard and I went back and they hired us as songwriters. Bobby came too. We did six songs on a guy called Al Williams, though only one single got released.” ‘I am nothing’ didn’t sell well when it was released on LaBeat but achieved legendary status and popularity on the British rare soul scene and is a prized possession among collectors, who will pay well into four figures to acquire a copy. Bridges acted as a talent scout for LaBeat on occasion too. “Yeah, I was going into LaBeat and heard this group of guys singing nearby. They called themselves The Masqueraders. They had come up from Dallas to audition for Motown but had been turned down. I took them in to Lou who really liked their style. He signed them and put them up in a motel he owned down the street too. We cut several sides on The Masqueraders including ‘I got the power’ and ‘One more chance’.” Bridges, Knight and Eaton also wrote songs for Mutt Records, which operated out of Inkster, a western suburb of Detroit, around the same time. “We wrote a couple of tunes for The Two Fellows and The Majjestees. There was a guy called Nate Dorr who owned the label. He was a bond bailsman. He put us in touch with Bill Craig who was well connected in the music business. He liked our material and took us to Sidra Records ‘cause they wanted some songs for The Precisions That would have been around 1967.” Erstwhile session drummer George McGregor had been hired as musical director at Sidra and wasted no time in bringing in Jo Armstead and arranger Mike Terry to work on various projects. “We met Mike and Joshie at that time and wrote some songs with them that were later recorded by Carl Carlton with Terry producing. ‘Drop by my place’ and ‘Two timer’ were two of our songs I recall. Mike had been a session sax player at Motown, Golden World and other studios around town for years, but he had moved into arranging and he was the best around. We used him on most of our sessions because he could transform and enhance our ideas so brilliantly.” http://youtu.be/h-KG3eP8ik8 Yet it was a chance meeting with a visiting label owner that determined the immediate future of the trio. Bridges remembers it clearly. “ Ric Williams was visiting Detroit from Chicago. He had made his money in other areas but wanted to get into the record business. He had started several labels ( Boo, Zodiac, Shock and Aquarius ) and had his own artists, - people like Candace Love, Chuck Bernard and Ruby Andrews but he needed songs. He came into Sidra and heard a couple of the songs we had written for the Precisions. He was really impressed and asked us to write for his artists.” Their first assignment was with Ruby Andrews, who recorded numerous Bridges/Knight/Eaton compositions including the sublime ‘Just loving you’, a perennial favourite on Britain’s soul scene, and her first hit ‘You made a believer out of me’. Candace Love and Chuck Bernard were the beneficiaries of their songs too, but it was their working style that caught the attention of Ric Williams and led to a significant change in their fortunes. Fred Bridges, “Things started to move pretty fast at that point. Ric heard us rehearsing and teaching our songs to his artists and really liked our singing style. He convinced us to record as a trio, but we didn’t really have a name so he released us doing two of our own songs ‘Footsteps’ and ‘A dream’ as The Creations on the Zodiac label. Later on we named ourselves The Brothers of Soul and recorded for the Boo label.” The group was augmented, on occasion, by Ben Knight (no relation to Richard) who would replace any member indisposed or unavailable. In early 1968 ‘Hurry don’t linger’ was released by The Brothers of Soul, followed by their only national hit ‘I guess that don’t make me a loser.’ For the next two years the group wrote and produced themselves on a string of beautifully delivered songs, masterfully arranged by Mike Terry, yet also found the time to create for others, as Bridges explained. “Mike was recruited by Epic Records and came to us for songs when he worked with certain artists. We gave him ‘Wish I had known’ for Sandra Phillips, ‘Gone but not forgotten’ for Johnny Robinson and helped him with the Maxine Brown and Rhetta Hughes albums.” Two of their songs, ‘Plum outta sight’ and ‘Seems you’ve forsaken my love’ appeared on Maxine Brown’s solitary Epic album but created some friction at the time of their original introduction to the artist. Richard Knight recalled what happened. “Before an artist recorded any of our songs I always made sure that they would sing it the way we had written it. We didn’t mind some changes or improvements, as long as we approved them. Let’s just say that things were going in a direction on this session that I didn’t like so I made sure the songs were sung to our satisfaction.” The Brothers of Soul created a body of work that has stood the passage of time and sounds as fresh, vibrant and original as the moment it was recorded. Ironically though, the smooth harmonies and heartfelt romanticism of their material was born in a turbulent time in Detroit, as Bridges recalled, “ Our first records were cut during the riots. There were looters and rioters around and shooting going on. We had to dodge and duck around the streets to get our tape recorders to the studio so that we could record. There was a curfew too, which it made it tough to get back home at night. We actually came up with our group name around that time. People would write ‘Soul brother’ on their windows of their houses and businesses to protect them from being burned down by rioters, and we just adapted it.” The group produced a variety of soulful recordings ranging from up-tempo tunes like ‘I’d be grateful’ and ‘Come on back’, which still pack dance floors at soul music gatherings around the world, along with poignant ballads like ‘Try it baby’, ‘You better believe it’, ‘Hurry don’t linger’, ‘One minute baby’ and ‘A dream’ which retain the emotional vulnerability and sensitivity of true musical communication. The harmony found in their singing extended to the personal interaction that has now lasted, between group members, for over forty years. They truly are - The Brothers of Soul. Rob Moss