Steve G

You need to get on with it Roburt, none of us know what its around the next corner. Something as simple as little stickers on the covers of the rarer ones. When someone does come to look and says that Larry Clinton is a £40 record, she'll know that is bs. The non rare ones can go in the skip.

It will eventually die out and we're already seeing a loss of value of certain other types of soul music. But I'll be gone by then, so cannot see my remains caring too much to be honest. Enjoy it while you can.

Is this thread limited to northern oldies?

Good news for North American Soul Sourcers who are interested in a copy..... Dusty Groove should have some copies of this book in next week. Postage will obviously be a lot cheaper than shipping from the UK..

A week ago I started shipping my All Platinum book “All Platinum - The Making of a Sound”. After one week I have seen sales of approx 35% of the print run (there will not be a re-print by the way). I am delighted with the level of response so far. I am also delighted with the feedback received. So a big thank you to everyone for their support and kind words. Although I will happily sell individual copies worldwide, I also realise that the cost of shipping such a big book overseas are not cheap and I am currently talking with potential distributors in Europe, Japan and the USA. Nothing concrete yet on that front and if anything gets sorted, I’ll update everyone. UK copies are £45 + £5.50 P&P for a total of £50.50. Paypal to allplatinumbook@gmail.com. That is also the email address for wholesale enquiries.

I'll echo the PP process. If you don't hear back, yes raise a ticket (on the PP site). They will then "reach out" (and no I am not a member of the 4 Tops ), and if the seller does not give an adequate explanation for goods not received, you should get a refund. Good luck, that is a lot to lose just before Xmas especially.

Mobile, Alabama. Dropped my then gf off at the beach for a bit of sun and headed to this store run by an old red neck type. Sign on door "Thieves will be shot" etc. Anyway, LPs were all on displays but the 45s were not. Rather than let me wander and root around his store, he insisted I go through these four books of catalogued 45 soul records. I did this for about 45 mins, but it was all common stuff and there was nothing I wanted in the books. When I told him, this really made him a little pissed, he couldn't believe I had not found anything. Then he says "I have a store next door, you can go in there and look". That's more like it I thought. "Just bang on the wall when you're done and I'll come round and unlock the door and let you out" he told me as he proceeded to lock me in this dusty store. Within about five minutes I realised that I had been transported to "Val Doonican Central". The store had loads of records, but they were the sort of thing you see wheeled out at UK boot fairs every week. Utter crapola. Anyway I started banging on the wall, but no one came. So I repeated my banging several times, but to no avail. Now realising that I was effectively abandoned in this old shop, short of smashing the front window, I went out to the back room. There was no back door and only a small window high up above an old toilet, but it was too narrow for me to crawl out of. So I resorted to banging on the walls again, harder and harder but getting increasingly less comfortable with the predicament I was now in. Eventually he turned up and opened the door, but he was just as pissed that I wasn't carrying any records with me. "Nothing there either for you eh?" he astutely observed. We parted company with him thinking I was a time wasting idiot, and me thinking of how much crap this Colonel Sanders character had managed to accumulate. I was now late to pick up my gf from the beach, and to cap things off as I was driving in the car and heading back to the beach, bells started ringing, red lights started flashing and the railroad crossing gates came down. Nothing happened for ages, but eventually four or five diesels came past, quite slowly. When at a crossing, a train with four or five diesels is never going to be good news for someone in a hurry. After what seemed like an age, the end of the train eventually passed through and the gates went up. When I got to the beach it was raining and there was no sign of my gf anywhere. She had disappeared and was nowhere to be found, despite several drives up and down the beach front road. So, here I am in Biloxi, a wasted day, no records and now no gf either!! In the end, I decided to turn into a gas station to see if anyone there had seen her. Inside and sitting in the corner on a small chair, there she was! To make matters worse, what had happened shortly after I had dropped her off was that she had started getting unwelcome attention from some "roustabout" and had left the beach and taken refuge in the garage to get away from him and stayed there for hours! Not a good day. Thank heavens we now have mobile phones and global connectivity!

Let me know when you are ready. Steve

Out now: It’s here……All Platinum - The Making of a Sound. 530 pages A4 size printed in full colour. As well as the fascinating history of the label from 1967 through to 1979, and the stories of those artists who signed with the label, the book also includes the most comprehensive discography of every All Platium record, including those labels who turned to All Platinum to help distribute their product nationally. An essential read and reference book. Also an ideal Christmas present. UK Price £45 + £5.50 for 2nd Signed for P&P - total £50.50. Payment via paypal to allplatinumbook@gmail.com (F&F preferred if you know me). Outside of the U.K: PM me for P&P details.

Does anyone do a World Northern Soul Darts Championship? Just out of interest what are the prizes for dance championshps like these days?

That has been out on a 45 already though I thought Dave.

Less than a month now before this goes on sale. Thank you for all of the supportive comments. allplatinumbook@gmail.com to reserve a copy.

Just to clarify Robb, Pete Garris, although working at Scepter in promotions, was co-owner of Garrison with Sam Goff, another Scepter employee (married to Florence Greenberg's daughter), and the records on Garrison were (in theory) distributed by Scepter as you say, although clearly not very well after "Humphrey Stomp". The label was not owned by Scepter. As we all know a number of Garrison 45s never got beyond the promo stage. The label was designed primarily for licensing what was described at the time as "independently produced masters". We will never know for sure whether The Ivories 45 (as it appeared on Wand) was destined for Wand or whether Garris had originally thought about it as a release for Garrison. We just cannot say for sure as we don't know what was in his mind. Garris used the Scepter promo staff for distributing records on Garrison (albeit not very well), so there would be no real difference whether it came out on Wand or Garrison and "Humphrey Stomp" continued to sell well after its national "Garrison" release. The evidence for this came from Jimmy Raye and is in my Scepter book when Raye complained about promotion being pulled on his record by Scepter to concentrate on working "Alfie". Did you get a copy of my book? With regard to the 12266 number I agree with Tony Smith. Assuming it was mastered early in December 1966, its release would have been after that date. Wand had the record out by March 1967. When the other two presses were done is not known by me, but presumably they used the same plates (hence the 12266 number reappears).

I would say for it to be a UK release, it needs to have been available to order from high street record shops (or in a few cases via specialist clubs - e.g. Blue Horizon). Records pressed in the USA even if for UK demand (Carstairs, Milton Wright etc.) are not UK releases in my book. I am not sure that the Motown Appreciation Society 45 fits into this definition, but there is always an exception to any rule.

Hi, it will be on sale in bookshops (to order) or from several of the top record / book sites and then in time Ebay. I will provide full details shortly. Cheers, Steve Excellent, thank you. Steve

All Platinum - The Making of a Sound - New Book date Tap to view this Soul Source News/Article in full

All I can say is that most people told me that Wally Roker was a "good guy". We have no idea why the Manhattan LP came out in the UK credited to "Tyrone Davis" but it is a stretch to suggest that the US licensees were the ones behind the name change and I haven't seen any evidence to suggest anything other than the fact that the US guys licensed some tracks. It is certainly true that Roker was overstretched when he was running Canyon / Soul Clock etc., and distributing other labels such as Pride (he told me that he was over stretched himself). At the end of the day, it all comes down to contracts and what is agreed within them.

Absolutely Mark. I did go to Wigan Casino and remember thinking when they started the oldies all nighters, why would I go all that way to listen to oldies all night? A lot of "oldies" were played on Saturday nights anyway plus you had Mr M's for those that wanted just oldies. In hindsight I actually think it was started as a money spinner, but it did ultimately have a detrimental effect on attendance on the Saturdays. Not the only reason attendances wained, but one of them.

Agreed Mark. "Wigan Oldies nighters".

Mine has just arrived (ordered from Funkadelphia direct via eBay).

The point is that the gift has to be from the sender. The fact that you are buying it to give to someone else as a gift is neither here nor there as far as the authorities are concerned. Sorry, but that it is the way it is.

Wasn't aware of the "heavies" I must admit. As I recall it the Casino had closed, but someone had the idea of running "just one more" at the Casino to try and make some more money out of the brand. Reports of the time told of the club having fallen into disrepair etc. by the time of this "final final just one more" all nighter. All very sad and undignified as an ending to an era really.

You were even up late listening Mark? Yes all rather small minded. But I guess when people don't like each other, there is no getting round that.

77, 78 for sure but there was still loads of great discoveries first played in 75 / 76 and I don't remember the quality being sh*te at all until 77. Offset of course by the commercial cash in stuff that was still coming in from Soussan et al and played by his "agents" here and some of the UK record companies who wanted a piece of the pie (or should that be Pye?). Decent stuff was back with a vengeance though by 79-80 with all the new "rare" 70s finds and some great 60s discoveries as well from John Anderson and played by Richard, Nurons, Appointments, Ernestine Eady Jackie Beavers etc. It was a real purple patch in terms of the quality of music played and definitely Wigan.