Hammie

Hi all I was also one of the bidders, I was very tempted as I would like to replace my Vg copy. The condition of the scanned label looks superb. I have checked Popsike and this scan is not there so seemed genuine enough. However I have also had a second chance offer at $700 !! What do you do? I would only hope If genuine that Its not another Clara Hardy situation, do you go for It or wait. The only thing that seems strange is that the winner, who we all know is a dealer, had a winning bid of $1100 approx, Marks been offered a copy or two for $1000 and I have been offered a couple at $700. So how many are there cos' I know If I payed $1100 for a copy and lived near the seller I might be pi**ed off If others were being offered them a lot cheaper.

Got this fantastic list sent thro the post from the States in the late 70's The list came from a certain Simon Soussan The list boasted some really rare soul on 'Original Labels' I bought a Mel Britt, Salvadors and a Danny Monday When they arrived it was obvious they were all boots but on 'original Labels' The Mel Britt was the boot that is vinyl with the ZTSC matrix 'around' the deadwax with a moulded label. The Salvadors was good though, and very hard to distinguish from a real one in colour and label text but dead wax lettering was wrong. The Danny Monday WAS a red label but had the Small Modern logo as the one shown above. All of these records were made of good quality vinyl much more akin to a 70's pressing plant... probably where Soussan got them made.

This is a 70's boot alright.... Another punter who's going to show his collector mates his 'rare' ebay acquisition only for there to be embarrasing silence and the nodding of heads. What p*sses me off mostly about this is the fact that some of these ebay sellers believe they are selling the real article or have they also been conned in the past when they bought these 'originals'. I have sometimes contacted sellers like this in similar situations and giving them the benefit of the doubt, have informed them as to wether they were aware that the record they were selling was a boot and sadly a majority of the time I've been told to mind my own business. This is really frustrating because you know some unfortunate is eventually going to be very dissapointed as in this case. Records I've seen for sale as 'originals' like this that I can remember :- John & the Wierdest (not correct deadwax markings) Gloria Jones - Tainted Love WDJ Styrene copy (but did not have promotion copy not for sale on label) The Ellingtons (Castle label silver with blue text) Judy street (styrene) Luther Ingram (HIB orange 70's re-release) Connie Clark (Styrene but with a lighter yellow paper label and much wider deadwax runout area) Candi Staton (Unity not correct deadwax markings) Tomangoes (Styrene) and (70's Vinyl with no nashville matrix) Trips (Soulville not correct deadwax markings) and the list goes on... You can even see some of these blunders if you look in 'Popsike'

Yes and sad to say some silly so and so has to date put a £51-00 bid on ebay on a bootleg as the left scan shown.

Hi there Beware!!! This record was bootlegged on a look-a-like The same royal blue and silver looking label. BUT the original only has a Frankford Wayne master stamp in the deadwax I agree with Mark he's right on price.

Sorry Russ just thought of another.... TURNPIKES - CAST A SPELL

Hi there Russ give these a try.... The ENJOYABLES - PUSH A LITTLE HARDER & The Carletts(or mis-spelt group name CORLETTS) - IM GETTING TIRED also Nice if you collect the label, get a BARBARA MERCER - CALL ON ME

Lydia Marcelle - Its not like you - Manhattan Precisions - sugar aint sweet - Drew Roger Hatcher - Sweetest girl In the world - Excello Detroit Executives - Cool off - Pameline Johnny Rodgers - Make a change - Amon Poets (as previously mentioned) - J2 Inspirations - gonna find a true love - Bennex (previously unreleased) J T Rhythm - All I want is you - Palmer New Wanderers - Aint gonna do you no harm - Ready Skyliners - Everything is fine - Jubilee Springers - Nothings to good for my baby - Wales and so on........

Demures - £250 I reckon someone will get a bargain here, unless its a quick sale your after. This never turns up on ANY lists, should really add on another 100 - 150 now. I bought a copy off Shifty about 5 years ago for £250 and stuff on his lists tends to be at reasonable prices.

John, I knew about Winfield Parker but Im sure It was a Caressors I saw on a blue label !!!! Good thing I was'nt driving home from yours after all the wine and beer.

Earlier Quote - ''whats the difference in the two labels design/colour first and second release or just diff pressing plants?? or am I dreaming and did not see another on a diff colour label..??? and its the grey matter dissolving'' You are quite right my man. This record came out on a Yellow label and a BLUE label, I have seen several Yellow copies but only ever seen one blue copy when I was once around John Manships house. Unfortunately I dont know which one came first. Should have bought it when I had the oppportunity, seem to remember at the time he wanted £200 for it, but then this was around 10 years ago. 2 yellow copies I have been offered more recently have been around £500 a bit out of range for me at present.

Earlier Quote - ''It was bootlegged on both the white demo & the black issue. I think you tell the difference buy the matix stamp that is only on the originals.'' An original issue of this record is NOT black, the label is infact a light beige colour and the label title INTERNATIONAL SOULVILLE is in red - also very, very rare I know of only 2 copies in the country unless anyone else knows otherwise. I would rate the commoner demo's at £2000 ish (see popsike website) add on perhaps a £1000 for an issue.

Got a mint demo for sale if youre interested at Chalkies valuation let me know Hammie

Had the Sweets, Glories, and the Sweet things on Soultown in the early 70's Dave but they deffinately didnt have a matrix stamp on them. I dont know the originator/manufacturer of these boots/pressings, If we knew maybe they could shed light on the different b side recordings. The one with 'additional' vocals on Soultown may have come from a master tape? Because as is with the Sweets the INSTRUMENTAL version of SATISFY ME BABY was put on the Soultown BOOT where did that track come from? Again was that from a master tape? Love cant be modernized on the SOUNVILLE copy was obviously taken from the Soundville original.

No Terry, the TRIPS was pressed on red & black Soultown. The TRIPPS came out on Victoria. Johnny Moore - Walk LIKE A MAN - Light yellow/black Soultown PRESSING not BOOT(Which is the definition of a look a like) as obviously the real thing was on DATE. The Sweets - SATISFY ME BABY (voc/inst) - Light yellow/black BOOT(because of course the Sweets really DID come out on Soultown on a darker yellow/black label which had a matrix stamp like a real Joe Hicks). Incidentally its easy to tell the boot of this anyway as it has the INSTRUMENTAL on the B side and not as a real one which has the highly desirable vocal B side - SOMETHING ABOUT MY BABY. The Trips - THERE'S THAT MOUNTAIN - red/black Soultown PRESSING as the real one is on SOUNDVILLE but I dont know wether the real Soundville copy has a matrix, but the lookalike BOOT definately does'nt. The Sweet things - IM IN A WORLD OF TROUBLE - Light yellow/black Soultown PRESSING as the real one is on DATE. The Glories - I WORSHIP YOU BABY - think I remember seeing this on red/black & Light yellow/black Soultown PRESSINGS as real one is on DATE. cant think of any more can anyone else? The fantastic RAY AGEE is on PINK & BLACK Soultown (with matrix stamp) Sweets as mentioned earlier. The YOUNGHEARTS - A LITTLE TOGETHERNESS - darker yellow/black Soultown, (with matrix stamp) but I dont know which came first Soultown or Canterbury? There are obviously a few other real records on Soultown but nothing of any note to my Knowledge. Hope this helps.

Mark you are undoubtably right about comparing rareity of the two records, but unfortunately the 'popular demand' factor annoyingly gets involved for us collectors here. ( * see below ) I would say your doing well if you can get a voc/inst copy for about £200 without competition from other buyers say on ebay, the Fast Eddie 102 copy add on £100 as it is a lot rarer and come to think of it you dont see many copies in good nick. * When you look on ebay there are loads of examples of this, how often do you see Jack Montgomery, Ruby Andrews etc.. for sale but amazingly high demand keeps the price at a higher level, we should be getting records like these for £25 a time. I've had at least a dozen attempts to get a copy of Clara Hardy on Tuna but every time they finish there selling for $450. I dont know how many were found but surely if collectors didnt panic we could be getting em cheaper....sorry I've gone off on one here. I know this is a great record and was until a couple of years ago very rare and worth £1500, but again if every one was cool we could be getting copies for around $200 (£100) Does anyone else have an opinion about overpaying for not really rare records (even on Ebay)?

A real copy of Betty Fikes & the Passions looks basically as the boot but the main colour of the label is light blue instead of red. The record is also made from good quality vinyl with a sharpish edge to the record at the run in. The boots I believe are from styrene only. I bought my copy of Butch at Cleethorpes in 2000 for a bargain price of £200, when I Bought it I new I had a deal as I had'nt seen a real one since I was Dj'ing with Soul Sam in the late 70,s. Half an hour after I got it Cliff Steele wanted it off me and was willing to consider a swapping the Capitals on Omen (then worth around £500) as he had never seen a real one. Anyway I decided to keep it as it has got future potential for revival methinks. I was tempted at one time to let Johnny (Manship) sell it for me on his rare auction, but I bet looking at some of the ending prices it might fetch more than £500 now.

Got my first TOBI LARK - HAPINESS... For £3-00 in 1972 or 3 from my local electrical store in Bedford which had a record bar/sound booths. at the time I was earning about a fiver a week on an apprenticeship so had to pay my mum the board and lodgings the next week. My local record shop was a big influence on the start of my collectng, they used to get in imported soul records from Selecta, Contempo, and Global in Manchester every week to order.WE had a list of about a hundred records you could order. In those early days I got myself copies of Thelma Lyndsay-Magic City, Jackie Lee -Darkest Days, Superlatives-Uptite, Vibrations-Epic etc etc.. all originals for 75p each !! First serious purchase in the mid 70's... an issue of Yvonne Baker of Richard Searling at the Casino, he only sold it because he knew it had just been Bootlegged, unfortunately he dropped a clanger as it was the West Coast demo which got bootlegged that was the copy he kept, he asked if I would swap it back for the issue, no chance I said. First £100 record I bought was a Demo of Lada Edmund when I got back on the scene in the early 90's First £1000 record was the Cashmeres on Hem in 2001 thats when I knew I HAD IT BAD

I GOT IT .... AND YES I KNOW ITS A SECOND ISSUE BUT I CANT FIT A 12" IN MY BOX VICAR!!! ONLY JOKING. AND YES I WAS PLEASED WITH THE WINNING BID, AND OF JOHNNY'S AUCTION TOO ! NEARLY WENT FOR A COPY ANDY DYSON WAS SELLING RECENTLY FOR £500, BUT IM GUESSING HE SOLD IT AT PRESTATYN ? I KNOW ITS WHATS IN GROOVES THAT COUNTS BUT I HAVE NEVER SEEN SUCH AN AWFUL RECORD LABEL, YOU NEED TO HOLD IT UP IN GOOD LIGHT TO EVEN READ WHICH SIDE 'GOOD LOVIN' IS ON NEVER MIND THE CREDITS. ANYBODY ELSE THINK OF SOME HORRIBLE RECORD LABELS ? SEEMS MORE COMMON WITH 70'S AND 80'S RECORDS WHAT DO YOU THINK, ADD YOURS

ARABIANS - £200 - £250 (ISSUE UP TO £300) AMBERS - £80 - £100 (ISSUE UP TO £60) GENE CHANDLER - £60 - £80 (DEMO UP TO £100) ARTISTICS - £40 - £60 (DEMO PURPLE VINYL UP TO £100 OR BLACK STYRENE £100) APOLLAS - £60 - £90 (SAME FOR DEMO) ACE SPECTRUM - £100 - £150 (ORD ISSUE £60 OR DEMO £80) DEE EDWARDS - £60 - £80 KIM WESTON - £50 - £75 (ISSUE UP TO £30) BETTYE SWANN - £80 - £100 (DEMO UP TO £120) DEE DEE SHARP - £40 - £50 (THIS PLAYING CARD LABEL) (DEMO UP TO £75) HAVENT SEEN AN ILA VANN FOR SALE FOR AGES EVEN THO I HAVE ONE, HAVE A LOOK ON POPSIKE MAYBE ?

Around £400 for a green issue me thinks. White demo obviously exists but i've never seen one for sale so cant help you there.

Anybody know where I can get me mits on one of these ? Contact me on hamilton_ian@hotmail.com Cheers m,dears

Jackie Lee & Delores Hall werent bootlegged The Furys was

Fantastics on IMPRESARIO 124 - ANYTHING BETWEEN £300- £500 Nice one... l the cheaper stuff on SS7 is good too methinks.

JUST TO PUT THE RECORD RIGHT ON ALL THESE RAMBLINGS.... Marge Dodson is a BLACK jazz artiste Be your baby came out on a Decca jazz album entitled 'A lonely way to live' I dont think its a bad effort as a northern uptempo dancer rarity aside, better than some of the crappy r'n b the scene has suffered in the last few years Johnny Caswell is a northern classic as we all know, oh and incidentally Johnny is a white man and had long black hippy hair at one stage in his music career Freddie Chavez is a mexican The Martells were a white hippy outfit The Embers were a white Beach music band Conny van Dyke is a white country singer Paul Anka was a white crooner Danny Wagner is a Len Barry lookalike Whats rarity or colour of the skin has got to do with wether its a good northern dancer we allbeg to differ