Steve G

As promised I have looked again and Roburt's original post, and to be honest it makes even less sense than it did the first time I read it! Emeralds group 1: per Roburt Luther Bond Willis Miller Charles Godfrey / Wardell Fallon Cedirc Cox Clyde Giles John McGue The Victorials per Uncle Marv's R&B notes Willis Miller Clyde Giles Cedric Fox Charles Godfrey Harold Davis Emeralds group 2 per Roburt Luther Bond Robert Trice Willie King John Johnson Jerry Rembert Drivers (RCA) Doo wopp blog Leroy Smith Carl Rogers Paul McCoy James Pate Charlie Harris Edison Thompson Drivers (King / Federal) Doo wopp blog Charlie Harris Leroy Harmshaw Carl Rogers Leroy Smith Willie Price Leroy & Drivers (Duo) Leroy Jones (leader), Randy 'Butch' Yates (sax), Reggie Cavinaugh (drums), Jimmy Welch (guitar), (who wrote a song for Lou Bond & The Emeralds in the 50s) Mike Chappell (bass). Cannot see any real connection between the Emeralds (Lou Bond) and Leroy & the Drivers. Clearly the Drivers on King / Federal share some members who also wrote Leroy & The Drivers Coral sides in the 60s (notably Willie Price and Leroy Smith). The Coral 45s are harmony / soul records whilst the Duo 45 is an instrumental. The matter is compounded by the two Leroy's Smith & Jones. This tends to point to that Leroy (Jones) & The Drivers band (as opposed to the vocal group members Leroy Smith & Co) were the only ones involved in the Duo 45. It was very common for groups to have their own band, and that would explain the complete difference in line ups between The Drivers personnel and Leroy & The Drivers (Duo) personnel. If that is right, the bit of the jigsaw that is missing is who were the remaining members of the singing group (i.e. on Coral) beyond Willie Price and Leroy Smith? In other words were Harris, Harmshaw and Rogers still in the group by 1966-67 when the Coral sides were made.

Exactly right, there is so much good ignored and affordable soul music out there. To me buying boots just shows a lack of imagination.

I see the guy in the 50th and 3rd link uses the same photo again!!! I shall put together some further thoughts later.

Thanks and not a single mention of Leroy & / or The Drivers in Uncle Marv's notes either, which confirms what I've have been saying. Cheers.

If you can afford £10-30 boots, you can afford originals.

I understand what you are saying Rod, I am afraid I see a lot of people playing boots out.

Timbo the knowledge and the passion are not there, believe me. You see people that go to gigs who just want to have the sounds to play at home and their own gigs, and will buy them on whatever format is cheapest. No different to the 70s really when "Colin Bee" and others were pushing out everything possible at £1.25 and the casuals were lapping them all up.

I am not sure of the original source of the above, but I am not convinced it is right. Leroy Jones was in the original Drivers doo wop group and they seem to have disbanded in 1962-ish. He seems to have reformed The Drivers with new members in 1966 and that is when the Coral sides were released and later in 1970 "The Sad chicken". The normally reliable doo-wopp blog lists the original Drivers as Charlie Harris, Leroy Harmshaw, Carl Rogers, Leroy Smith, Willie Price. the only common member with Leroy & The Drivers appears to have been Leroy Smith. I haven't seen any evidence that Lee Roye of The Emeralds is connected in any way to the Drivers?

I agree Rod. From what I see, they just don't care, as long as they can DJ or play it at home.

The point is they are not. They go to gigs, hear tunes they like and pick them up for £10-20. Ignorance is bliss in this case.

Since moving 'south of the river' a few years ago, I have noticed that a lot of people do not seem to know or really care about whether something is on original vinyl or a boot. We even had a bootlegger selling stuff from his mums bungalow in West Sussex, which several people reported. For most these days, it seems all it is about is having the tune at an affordable price, rather than any quest for authenticity / legacy. A bit like the 70s really. And that in a nutshell creates the demand for the pirates to do more and more. I am sure it is probably the same everywhere.

And probably the last!

Def. Sam Gooden on lead vocals.

I didn't know that. Interesting.

I had always thought the Inspirations on Wand were one of Chavis's groups so was a bit surprised when I read that on the Arctic box set. Yes Dave, do you have a complete line up of the group?

Time to revisit this old thread with what we now know. Which is more than we used to.... Rotations 1) on Frantic from NJ per Cooler than Ice Arctic box set. Discogs suggests these were also The Inspirations on Wand. Rotations 2) Mala Records group - any ideas who these dudes may have been? Miles Grayson production so implies a West coast connection. Rotations 3) Chicago, short lived and changed their name Rotations 4) From Cleveland, recorded on deBroussard, then recorded for Manny Campbell's set up with a record released on Law-Ton. Not sure when the Emandolyn record came out first ("We want freedom"), but copies surfaced in the late 80s / early 90s. Also there is a theory that this group started life as The Ambassadors on Uptown. Not sure about that either? Can anyone add to the above? Steve

Looking for these if anyone has available please: Imperial Wonders "Mean ol Miss treater (still!) Daywood 706 Ice Cold Energy - Never go looking for love Coldfire 101 Sheryl Swope - Can't get him off my mind Duo 7451 Thanks Steve

Mine is an issue.

Joseph Moore - POW!

That just appears to be his "shock jock" shows, all his pro Trump stuff. I spoke to Tom quite extensively when I did my book, he was working every day in that glorious period, a bit like Bacharach was in the mid - late 60s, and so like any day job, you just can't remember it all.

Yes an old "Essence" spin of mine in the mid 90s, it never really took off. ATB Dave. Steve

.....and the white and red socks, I think the white one was on his left foot, the red one on the right foot. A lovely man and always great to talk to. He helped a lot with Blackbeat on the art side with what he called "Crappographics" - so Ian that - when he was at Imperial College, a long time ago. I hear he has retired from the B&B business a few years ago.

I still like it, but I haven't played it for over 10 years now and it is gathering dust on my acetates shelf (a lot of records like that ). It's repetitiveness is part of its charm I think - reminds me a bit of a Patrick Adams Myopic Music production. That's my take anyway.

Hello sourcey people..... got an acetate of this from part of a haul off of Pat Brady c 1991 at £15 each which contained a number of good acetates. It is indeed Tom Moulton at the controls. I used to play it at Soul Essence in the 90s. It's a good record but never really garnered that much interest. Yes JM did auction one for c £400 a few years ago, I was curious as to how much it would fetch on OV. I always got the feeling this was an old group with a new name.

Yes, thanks, and good luck with yours Gilly. I've got my money back on my book, not that that was ever the reason for doing it. Took over 2 years of my spare time, umpteen phone bills to the USA, umpteen record purchases I would not have otherwise got - B J Thomas etc., that awful pop on Scepter etc. and of course printing. Did 750 copies, got about 250 left. Some of those that brought it have now gone to the music library in the sky. I know promotion is a problem (getting it out there) - a bit like our old records faced back in the day - Will probably have an "Alan Partridge" moment at some point and skip what is left.