Pete S

Still not heard this - has anyone?

Playing the Grapevine / RCA acetates: don't forget that when JM auctioned these, some went for over £500! No wonder people want to play them out / show them off. I personally think they're just showing they've got more money than sense, I'd rate them at £50 apiece.

Those 'British demos" of the Del Larks etc are bootlegs as far as I know. The green and white ones?

Yes, 1977

Never heard the rain story John but they did come from Ruby Red via a mutual friend, they also did the Cool Off b/w All Of My Life boot.

That's the Grapevine release - an acetate of the Grapevine release I mean

No I mean it will never be on their site - they've lost it - if it doesn't show up immediately, they don't know where it is

Wow, awesome stuff Steve, the man is a genius...I'll repost that

This is the boot

I sold the boot this week and the original is a thinner, more flexible press with tapered edge, as said above

If you get the message that it's in process or progressing through the system, on track and trace, this means they haven't any idea where it is. Trust me.

Well it kind of was and wasn't a job lot, I put them all on a spreadsheet, priced them individually, and the sum total was what I charged the buyer. I was owed £2000 commission but under the circumstances I just took £500 so he had more money for his son. Which is why I'll never make a businessman as long as I live (but I can sleep at night!) Last thing I heard, the lad had the operation on his brain, was recovering and they were hoping to have him back in the UK round about now I think. The only regret about selling two collections like that is I lost out on the publicity of having some truly brilliant records, nobody knew I had them so couldn't say 'did you see that list this week' but as mentioned before, they would all have had to be sold whether over a three month period or in one day.

I'm happy to be known as a Northern Soulie, why wouldn't I, I'm not a soul person, just a Northern Soul person.

350 NORTHERN SOUL 45's ADDED TO MY DISCOGS SITE NOW!!!! Honest. 350 of them. https://www.discogs.com/seller/pete.smith/profile

Just listened to that Traditions version of Twinkle...not a patch on the other one is it?

They probably played it Mr. M's, they played anything in there

No not a dealer, and I sold them for maximum price. I could have spread them out over four or five months, or sold them in one go (well two) for exactly the same price. It's a shame nobody got to see them, nothing mega but more or less every RCA demo, Tommy Bush, Syng McGowan, Frankie Crocker, Natural Four that sort of stuff. I was asked that if I got any collections would I sell them to this person, no favours, so I did. Probably appearing at a venue in Scotland soon. p.s. if anyone would like to check this, first collection was from Rich Simner from Oxford, formerly from Wombourne, second was from Kev Preston of Telford, his son was seriously injured in an accident in Thailand so he asked me to sell his records to finance his trip out there and for medical care for his son, which I did, in 2 days.

Well I can put your mind at rest about GSL being played in the main room, Russ played it after Alan Rhodes set saying that it was the original of the then very popular Taj Mahal "A lot of love", I've got it on tape.

Well it didn't hang around because it wasn't offered to anyone else - I sold two huge collections to one guy - but I promise, if it was worth £300 I'd have asked £300. John Manships auction copy went for over £400 - before that, it was a standard£150 to £250. Thats why I mentioned it.

I remember doing a Brighton record fair with Mick Smith, around the year 2000, and this local Brighton lad came up with a Parisians and said to Mick, do you want this for £125, Mick looks at me and says "Is this any good" and I said yeah, pretty good, so he looks at it and says...nah, not interested, so I said I'll have it - I think I sold it to Warren, might be wrong, £300 or something like that. Never, ever back then thought it would go higher than that.

I know exactly what you're talking about.

You often find this in Northern collections of 'older' guys, it was played just before it charted so I was told, Chateau Impney etc

That was the guy who originally had it Steve, Ian I think it is, from Yorkshire, been a long time since I dealt with him but remember him sending the scan to me

I didn't think it existed until I someone sent me a scan about 12 years back, I think Tim Brown has it....got to be 2 to 3 grand?

For a start, it's on vinyl, there may be original vinyl demos but every copy I've had has been styrene, the counterfeit has some light bubbling in the run off, kind of pitted marks, also the print definition isn't as sharp as it should be on the counterfeit.