Roburt

Above I stated lots of gospel acts cut for church based labels or tiny indie labels. But they don't always stay that way. Maceo Woods started out as the pastor at a little local church. After developing the church's choir, he recorded them and put out an album. A copy of this found it's way to Stax. They licensed it for national distribution and signed Maceo Woods up. Next thing, he's a nationally known top gospel artist.

Plenty of decent gospel takes on soul songs. Lots of them being great versions of those songs ... CLARA WARD Dead End Street https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zCVTutlvuM

Most soul singers started out in the church singing gospel & lots went back to sacred music after their time doing secular stuff. It's always been there & has enjoyed periods of increased interest with soulies. From the likes of the Gospel Classics "More Love" being a biggie on the UK soul scene to "Oh Happy Day" making the pop charts & through to modern soulers getting into Donn Thomas's "How Can I Help But Love You" and more, gospel has had it's supporters. When the Staples went big on Stax and ABC took over Duke / Peacock in the 70's, gospel's profile increased. Later on, the long running CD series 'WOW GOSPEL' (which featured a compilation of the best tracks released each year) did good business for over 20 years. But, thanks to DJ's like Greg Belson and interest from specialist reissue labels, gospel tracks seems more popular than even at the moment. With lots of 45's & LP's being recorded and pressed up in limited numbers and mainly sold at live concerts, there are plenty of rare items to lust after & chase. Just about the rarest release on the UK Chess label has to be the gospel comp album 'A Christmas Dedication From ..'. There are hundred's of US gospel 45's that would catch on if they were more widely known, many being rare items on obscure indie labels (many attached to individual churches or to the folk running choirs). There are even decent UK released gospel 45's and albums to go after on labels such as Chess, Atlantic, Action and more. It would be good to get a few recommendations from Soul Sourcers with regard to which tracks they play on a regular basis.

I'd GUESS at the Mojo 45 version due to the song's writers. Co-writer Jackie Avery owned Mojo Records.

UPDATE ... https://www.facebook.com/share/r/15vgRsz1bK/

You could get the Bobby Vee version for just over a quid ...

To be fair to John ... my 45's from him took a while to arrive ... BUT I also ordered a few things from a Discogs dealer in Canada a few days later. It took him almost 7 days to even acknowledge my order ... guess we shouldn't expect too speedy a service over the Xmas / New Year period.

The October / November SOUL EXPLOSION tour. I caught it @ Sheffield City Hall on 31st Oct 67. Seem to recall that Percy Sledge was too ill to fly to UK, so Lee Dorsey took his place. Sam & Dave were the real stars of the show though. At one point, one of them went off with the mike, leaving the other to sing unamplified. He went into a gospel styled performance and filled the whole auditorium (which was massive) with his voice. For a young (just turned 18) Donny lad, it was captivating. They were on in Manc the following night.

SORRY, but I just couldn't stop myself ... pics at the bottom: the 60's Hull crowd @ the Mojo, Hull lads @ the Wheel & Hull lads recently

My package from John arrived today. 2 x 45's missing that had been showing as IN STOCK on his web site when I ordered ... BUT maybe someone else went for them at almost the same time as I did.

Seems not. I ordered early when the sale started (early in the day on 26th Dec) & ordered direct off JM's web site. Got an e-mail from Paypal today stating a refund from JM is on it's way to my Paypal account. No notification from John's team as to what I will not now be receiving or when my order will be dispatched (but at least it must be being processed at the moment). I do recall the postage charged for my order was quite high even though it was to be sent by 1st class mail.

Never made it to Aruba & Curaçao (part of the ABC islands). They have a Dutch heritage though, so can't think there'd be much of interest (record wise) there now. Saying that, Surinam was also Dutch and not too far from the ABC islands -- and they had a big soul 45 scene. I've visited all the other locations but never found any record shops or 45's there. Used to be loads of soul 45's (local & US) in Barbados, Jamaica and the Bahamas (Nassau). Still some in Jamaica. Most in Barbados were sold off cheap when the local record company's warehouse was cleared and sold about 20 years ago. I've looked in Nassau a few times (not too hard though) but didn't find any record shops or 45's there.

Most of the info is freely available on the web and I 'constructed' the picture from other stuff I found on the web (though you do have to trawl through many editions of old music mags to find some of it). A really good online site that contains loads of useful info is GARAGEHANGOVER (again you need lots of time & patience to find some of the old ads -- but I've been retired for almost 17 years and need sumat to prevent me from trying to catalogue my collection). Leicester's Nite Owl was one of my niter haunts back in 67, so that's why I included a few of the club's ads in my collage.

As well as the upstairs coffee bar room, there was a 2nd room upstairs. This was beyond the stairs down to the dance areas / stage room. This room was usually almost empty & always cold, but you had to go through it to reach the gents.

It was published in Glyn Thornhill's fanzine many moons ago (around 25 years I'd guess). Somebody copied it (not too well) & put it up online (on the JACK THAT CAT WAS CLEAN blogsite).