Roburt

Yes (unless my memory is playing tricks on me) they also had a club called the Twisted Wheel in Blackpool (this would have been around the late 60's). I have no idea when it opened & closed though. I do recall being given free tickets to go to Sunday sessions there when attending a Saturday night niter around that time. As we were from Yorkshire & heading in the opposite direction on a Sunday morning, we never took up the invitation. We were also given free tickets to attend the Manc club's Sunday afternoon sessions & never went to those either. I do know that both clubs had similar music policies (i.e. soul).

Tarx Records operated out of the same NY address as Triode ... AND ... Doles Dickens worked on some of their cuts. He doesn't however get a mention on the label of this Tarx 45 from Baltimore's Benny Johnson (cut a good while before his Today stuff) ....

Which incarnation of this track ??? the Renee / 1st One-derful, the 2nd One-derful or the ABC version ??

Betty certainly must have liked this Leo Austell / Milton Bland (Monk Higgins) song as it escaped by her on 4 different US singles ... It first appeared on the Renee label in 1962 .... it was then picked up by the Leaner Bros and released C/W "I've Got A Claim On You" on One-derful (#4806) ..... that 45 was then quickly re-jigged and the cut was coupled with "I'll Be There" to orm a revised #4806. In it's One-derful form it charted locally in Chicago ..... Betty moved on with her career and had much success with Vee Jay but they went bust and so she signed with ABC Records (who always had a strong Chicago presence). With ABC, she cut the song again in 1966 with Johnny Pate acting as producer / arranger / conductor (ABC #45-10861). This incarnation of the song again did well & even charted as far away as WYLD in Feb 67. Anyone know why she seemed to like this song so much (& I know she cut quite a few Leo Austell songs so they must have been friends).

Chattin' with Lou recently and got to talkin' bout his recent / current work in the studio. He's still trying to get Bobby Jonz / Jones into the studio to add his lead vocals to a song that the backing track is just about finished for (just some lead guitar solo work to add when the lead vocals are in place, Lou doesn't want the solo to clash anywhere with the lead voice). After that we talked about the stuff cut in Harvey Fuqua's studio (which Lou still uses at times) right up to Harvey's passing. It seems that Harvey was on an ol' skool kick & had set up a few old 60's artists to record. He was gonna put out a few new releases all at once to establish an ID for his proposed new label. So Harvey had fetched Etta James into Vegas and they had cut some new duets together. He'd also recorded Brenda Holloway on new stuff and another couple of old 60's artists. But when he died, no one else in his family / circle seemed interested in taking these tracks forward or makin proper use of the studio. Lou is trying to see what he can do but the family (who obviously now own these recordings) aren't really interested. We then sidetracked to old recording work & Lou spilled a few facts .... he told me that Jan Jones (RIP some years back in a car crash) cut "Independent Woman" in Agency studio but the masters were taken over to Boddies studio to have a disc cut from the tapes. Early publicity (back at the time that the Jan Jones 45 was released) stated that a 2nd song would form the B side to the 7" release (can't recall the title now but have the details somewhere) .... anyway, the 2nd song was all ready to be recorded but Jan never got round to it in the excitement of the studio session & getting a master disc cut of Indy Wolman. So, the 45 was released as Part 1 & 2 with the 2nd song never actually being recorded. Lou's recently been in touch with Lilian Kyle in an attempt to track down the master tape for his version of "Patch Up" which was cut in an LA studio in the late 80's but she isn't co-operating with his attempts to find it. ......... MORE LATER ..........

A show in April 1968 when the Spindles were still called the Spinners .......

I now live in Oxford, so can visit the local library and check the papers for that week. I''ll do that & report back.

Reggie in action ....

Try typing Money label into the search facility at the '45cat' web site.

Yes, remember the Side Saddle well .... the Sth Yorks mod clubs all played some ska as well as the soul. I was out (in Dony) with Cliff Sirs only a couple of weeks ago (@ the Mojo revival night). He's a great guy.

It is being reported on Facebook (by a friend of his) that the Impressions Reggie Torian has passed. No more details at present but it does seem to be true .... RIP Reggie.

Interesting article ......... James & Bobby were over here all the time in the mid to late 60's (& then again in the 70's when their re-issues were hits) .... not surprised that he asked after Geno, they followed each other around the clubs of Britain .....

A couple of us are guilty of veering this thread a bit off topic ... BUT ... it is all related info ...

In 1966 a lot of soul acts appeared on RSG .... MARCH: Tempts + Stevie Wonder, Supremes, Martha & Vs, Miracles (all these off the tour). APR: Dionne Warwick, Don Gardner & Dee Dee Ford MAY: 4 Tops JUNE: Marvelettes JULY: Nina Simone, Ad Libs, Inez & Charlie Foxx AUG: NIL SEPT: Dee Irwin, Lou Johnson OCT: Supremes, Ben E King NOV: Wilson Pickett DEC: Fontella Bass, Toys, Dee Dee Warwick No doubt Kim was on RSG in 65.

There's also a Chuck Rowan 45 on Fantastix Music (a private label job) which was distributed by Stonegood. Is there anything else that Stonegood were involved with ??

Doesn't help resolve the above issue BUT does illustrate the strange world of record labels that Monk was involved with. He was the guy behind the Sack label of course which has a few obscure releases related to it (both US & UK). In 1970 it seems that he started the Stone Good label & if this newspaper review is anything to go by, 3 x 45s were made available as promos. These were by Monk himself, Mr Lucky & Helena Wright. I'm unsure of any releases on the actual Stonegood label apart from a Helena Hollins that has to be the Helena Wright mentioned above. Monk's proposed track did make it out, but on the Sack label (which was listed as being distributed by Stonegood). These tracks here were co-produced by A(lex?) Brown. The female's 45 (whatever her name) did escape on Stonegood. Anyone have knowledge of the Mr Lucky appearing on a 45 that made it into US record shops ??

I'm getting a bit off topic here ... BUT ... lots of US soul stars toured the UK in 64/65/66 .... most went on theatre tours as part of a package that was always headed by a big UK act (Beatles -- Mary Wells, Stones -- Inez & Charlie Foxx, Gerry & Pacemakers -- Ben E King, Soul Sisters as well though I can't recall who topped that bill in 64). Anyway, Kim Weston was due to tour on a bill topped by P J Proby but PJ fell out with the promoter (over a minor issue) and this led to the tour being cancelled about 1 day before the 1st show was due to take place. They had tried to get Chuck Berry to be the replacement top act & that seemed as though it would salvage the tour. But he couldn't get out of some US gigs he'd been booked for, so the tour was cancelled at the 11th hour. Now Kim was due to tour the UK for just about all of November 64, with back up provided by the Early Van Dyke Quartet (the Funk Brothers). I guess that they actually arrived in the UK but went home almost immediately. Anyone know what tracks were cut back in Detroit that November as the plan must have been to lay down tracks without the Funks that month.

RE: Ooops! Could be the wrong tour. I think that photo dates from 69. Tour poster ........

Monk Higgins wife was called Virginia. Not sure when they married, so don't know if any daughter would have been 17+ years old by 1973. Monk was born in 1936, so I guess he would have gotten married in the late 50's / early to mid 60's .... that would have made any daughter around 16 yrs old (max) in 1973. So it could have been his daughter but as he recorded a lot of stuff (& played a lot live) through the 70's and her name didn't seem to crop up again on his work, I'll leave others to decide what they think.

There was a Monica Higgins cut for UA in 73, related to Monk Higgins (cut in LA I believe). Monk was working a lot in that period with Alex Brown (MAYBE it was Alex using a different name as she was signed elsewhere at the time).

I'm just assuming all 3 are connected as the C of S 45 (# HA-123) also has a New York address .... the other C of S 45 was leased to an LA label (Venture), so I'm assuming the guys involved didn't have enough money to press up any / many copies themselves. The Johnny Thompson 45 had a different number sequence as well (N-777).

... and another ......

A photo taken during the tour .........

Anyone know how the Chicago related Contributors Of Soul 45 ("Look What You Done For Me") ended up getting released on the NY based New Miss Record label ? New Miss was 100% New York based and had connections to Sir Charles Matthews (Village Soul Choir, etc.) and Benny Gordon !! One of the cuts they put out ..........

I was a Sprotboro lad mesen, went to night school @ Granville Rd Tech College (above Sheffield Midland Stn) but attended Sunday nites @ the Mojo initially then started going to the niters there. Great place; great crowd, great atmosphere !! A picture of where the Mojo used to be; the club stood back from the road where the white block of flats now stand.