Roburt

The vocal mainstays of the Mob in the mid 60's were Little Artie & Big Al Herrera. Both had been recruited from Milwaukee group Little Al & the Pharaohs, though the pair had also recorded as Kane & Able. Little Artie was only in the Mob for a year (June 66 to June 67) before he was drafted. After Artie left, Big Al took on most of the lead vocal duties for the group and he remained in that position till they broke up at the very end of 1980. Artie & Al had been born down in Texas and were of Mexican descent. So they sang 'brown eyed' soul alongside the 'blue-eyed" soulsters in the Mob. The outfit certainly turned out some good tracks.

The Richard Adams track ...........

Deff trivia here ............ Sprightly soul OAP Lou Ragland still performs at venues in Vegas and across Nevada. He has also been running a recording studio in Vegas over recent years. This facility is (was?) funded by the local council to help keep young blacks out of gangs & trouble. They would turn up and Lou would assist them making hip-hop / rap tracks or train them in recording studio duties. ... BUT just recently Lou has been appointed to the position of ...... technician for the LAS VEGAS SHAKESPEARE COMPANY ........... ............... bet it ain't long before Lou's telling me that ........ A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be fool.

I've winged off an e-mail to Rich Adams. As I said above I suspect, that he's the Richard & Mel Adams who cut for Star West. I'm sure (if it is him) that he'll let me have the info on the recording sessions (studio), label ownership, etc.

A great piece about a fine group who did well on the US chitlin circuit ..........

Well most of the posts are about the Wes Black cut, so here goes .......... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPp2KJlG1BI ........ MIND YOU ........... regarding these releases ........... STAR WEST 152/153 - Richard Adams - What A Way To Say Goodbye / Your Love Is (Ecstacy) STAR WEST 153 - Mel Adams - Hello My Friend / Your Love Is (Ecstacy) I would say that these have to be by my old mate Rich Adams. Rich was originally from St Louis and fronted the group Mal Adams & the Cashmeres (Emerge) back in the 60's. He moved to LA in the 70's and did work with Total Experience there. He then ran his own labels & I have loads of released / unreleased stuff he has sent me down the years. I used to meet up with Rich in Vegas when I was over there ... AND .... he (along with John Wilson of S,S&W) and Lou Ragland attended John Phillips (& Carols) wedding celebration dinner in the city after I was his best man at their ceremony.

Well I can see it ...... the site seems to be one of those Russian unlicensed music vid outfits. The actual video mainly shows Toni cavorting around in panties & bra (with the bra being absent at times).

Need some clarification on the releases put out by this Chicago based label in the 60's. The label was owned / run by Paul Glass. Glass also owned All State Record Distributors and had his own recording studio (located at 48th St & Cottage Grove in Chicago). At one time, Al Perkins ran the studio for him (1964/65 ?). The initial releases on the label were pop stuff (1960/61) but being Chicago based, Glass soon started signing local blues artists and cutting them too. But he never gave up on the pop stuff and in 1966 signed a popular local group, the Buckinghams. The Buckingham, like many other Chicago based white groups, seemed to include lots of soul covers in their act & the top side of their 1st USA 45 was a cover of James Brown's "I'll Go Crazy". The group knew the guys in the Mob really well and so the Mob's James Holvay gifted them a few songs he had recently written. They cut these songs and one was used to form the B side of the Buckingham's 2nd single (the plug side being a cover of a Beatles song). The B side of the group's next 45 (USA # 853) was also a Holvay song and this single did well in Chicago (making the local radio station charts around September). Holvay's status was raised on their next outing as his song ("Kind of a Drag" USA # 860) became the plug side of their follow-up release (late November 66). This track took off quite quickly, making the local charts on release before entering the national pop charts at the very end of the year. It climbed the US charts over the next few weeks, making it to No.1 in mid February. So from summer 66 through to April 67 no doubt just about all of Paul Glass's (& USA Records) efforts must have gone into pressing, distributing & promoting the Buckingham's releases. Carole Waller was unfortunate that she had also signed with USA Records around the same time as the Buckinghams were 'making noise' for the label. Going by label numbers, Carole's 1st USA single was "Say Say Chicken Man" (USA # 854) which should have escaped around late September / October 66. She didn't like the song which was an answer to "Say I Am" by Tommy James (which entered the US charts in mid August 66) plus it was also in part a homage to a local radio DJ who went by the name (on air) of Chicken Man. Her 'next release' was her biggie "Stop & Get a Hold of Yourself / This Kind of Love” (USA # 863). This 45 definitely escaped in February 67 as it was reviewed as a new release in Billboard mag. So Glass was probably having to largely ignore most work on other USA releases to push the Buckingham's records during the period that Carole Waller's 2 singles should have been released ...... SO IT ALL SEEMS STRAIGHT FORWARD ............ HOWEVER ......... Carole insists that "Stop & Get a Hold of Yourself (USA # 863) was her 1st release with "Chicken Man" coming afterwards. As her "Say Say Chicken Man" song was written in answer to Tommy James' hit song (by her producer Bobby Whiteside I think), it probably wasn't written till September 66 at the earliest. So for copies of USA # 854 to have been 'in the shops' by early October 66, the recording, mixing, mastering, pressing process must have been done double quick. With all the pressure on USA to service orders for the Buckingham's hit 45 from November 66 onwards, it only leaves a very small window (October / early November 66) when Carole's 45 would have been getting serviced by Glass and USA. Any Chicago expert know whether its likely that some of the USA singles were released out of sequence ?. I know artists usually have poor memories when it comes to record release details & dates BUT as one of her USA single's formed her 1st ever record release, I think her memory may not be playing tricks on her in this instance. All help much appreciated.

Here's a bit of (blue & brown eyed) soul linkage ....... think it qualifies as trivia ......... ....... Kane & Able -- "Life of the Party" on Destination ...... Kane & Able were Al Herrara & Artie Herrara from Milwaukee, they had been lead singers with Little Artie & the Pharaohs back in Milwaukee. The track was produced by local promoter Joe DeFrancesco in conjunction with Jim Holvay & Gary Beisbier of the Mob (Holvay also wrote the song with Holvay & Beisbier arranging the track). Not long after this threesome had worked with the Herrara brothers on their track, DeFrancesco suggested to Holvay that the Mob needed new lead singers. He suggested Al & Artie, who had gone back to fronting Little Artie & the Pharaohs. Holvay took on the suggestion, Al & Artie were approached and accepted the offer to join the Mob. The new outfit (the Mob) went from strength to strength and made some fine records. BUT for a brown eyed duo, Al & Artie (Kane & Able) sound real soulful on "Life of the Party".

Ian, took your advice and just ordered my copy. Was gonna wait till it was actually released but, being a Yorkshireman, I had to jump right in at that price.

Also available on a Brazilian Polydor copy ............

"I'd like to see more of you" also came out in Italy with a rather strange US version look-alike label .......... the other side of the 45 ain't too bad either (in a "25 Miles" sort of way) ............. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yaDnooilU0

"Lost" also escaped on 45 .......... Colossus CS-144 "Where You Lead / Lost" ..........

A couple of pieces on the net that detail more info on the group (the 1st one is very detailed and puts the group's formation & work into context with regard to the wider Chicago soul music scene) ............... https://www.themobmusic.com/MOB_story.html https://mikebaker45s.wordpress.com/the-mob/ an extract from the above .......... By the early 1970s the group shifted into a show band switching over to the club and hotel circuit ...... it was a concert in Puerto Rico that brought the group their next break. Performing at San Juan’s Americana Hotel, they attracted the attention of producer/record company owner Jerry Ross. Impressed with the band Ross immediately signed them to his newly formed Colossus label. .......... seems strange that they had 'gone cabaret' before landing their best record deal. Carole Waller (USA Records artist) performed on shows (down in Florida) with the group and got to see them play live numerous times. She has nothing but good things to say about them & their live work. In addition, after the Mob broke up, she was actually in a band with Big Al Herrera. I'm awaiting Carole's approval to a piece I have just written on her before I post it up here. The article will hopefully contain more details on her work with Big Al.

Like most groups, the Mob seem to have played all the tunes in their live act at a faster pace that their (or other artists) recorded versions. Back in the 60's (at niters) I used to get a bit upset that the hit artists performed their known songs at much too fast a pace (compared to the record) but I guess they all did it to increase the energy level during their live shows. I'd say that they cut their version of "Open The Door" at the same pace as they performed the song during live shows. I think their early recordings were put out to reflect the content of their stage shows and to sell to folk who had seen them play live.

The Mob live back in 1969 ......... They come across sounding very similar to many of the best UK beat groups that were all playing soul songs in their live acts in the mid 60's.

I'm sure we all have 45's (& maybe albums) by this 60's / 70's outfit. They made a decent few good tracks back in the day. Following an internet campaign, the guys out of the group were reunited for a big music awards ceremony around 2 years back. Initially the group were formed in Chicago though their early vocal mainstays, Little Artie Herrera and his brother Big Al Herrera, had started out as members of Milwaukee's Little Artie and the Pharaohs. The Mob moved on from the Windy City and cut loads of further tracks in the New York / east coast area. They gigged all over the US, playing dates as far apart as Florida, New York and Milwaukee. Eventually they broke up around 1980. A US newspaper printed up a 5 part article on the group & their 2011 award .... though throughout the 5 pieces you don't really get a decent potted history of the group. An example of the articles ..... https://www.examiner.com/article/the-mob-2-from-chicago-il-to-sioux-falls-sd-30-years-or-less-overture There is some info on the group posted under this youtube video entry ............. The mid-1960s found the Herrera brothers in Chicago where they joined up with Jim Holvay (aka Jimmy Soul) and Gary Beisbier (who co-wrote hits for The Buckinghams), Jimmy Ford, Tony Nedza, Bobby Ruffino and Mike Sistak. Artie was drafted, exchanging life as a musician for a tour of Vietnam. With Al handling lead vocals as The Mob, the group became one of the first horn-rock outfits in Chicago where they released a series of singles over the next couple of years: -1966's 'Wait' b/w 'Mystery Man' (Cameo catalog number C-421) -1968's 'Unbelievable' b/w 'Try a Little Tenderness (Twinight catalog 111) -1966's Open the Door To Your Heart' b/w 'I Wish You'd Leave Me Alone' (Daylight catalog 1000) -1968's 'Disappear' b/w 'I Wish You Would Leave Me Alone' (Mercury catalog number 72791) But at least fans of the group did succeed in getting the guys back together and they got an award that helped reflect their past work, but I don't really think that the 5 newspaper articles did them justice.

I've got quite a few of them as well. Quite like em.

If they did put the above track out on vinyl, they could always couple it with this little item from Jazmine's 2010 album .........

Don't think that this has been made available yet (apart from as a download) but HOPEFULLY someone will put it out on vinyl in the near future ..... ........... Jazmine Sullivan - I Can't Take Another .......... Info on Philly based Jazmine ... https://www.jazminesullivanmusic.com/us/home

Got a spare 'ORIGINAL RELEASE ' copy of this on US Emkay that I was thinking of putting up for sale on here in the near future !!! Like all the Emkay 45's, a very rare item.

Phil Crook, a member of current group Primal Funk, used to play with Bonnie .... https://www.primalfunk.com/meet-the-band.html

It has been reported on Facebook (& repeated on Southern Soul) that Nathan Lewis of the Ovations has passed. A great group who made some fine music ..... R I P Nathan.

Listened in to a lot of the 30 minute show whilst in the car. I was a bit disappointed, more about the musicians involved & the reaction of ordinary folk living near the prisons than info on the singers themselves (though I had to go into B&Q in Swindon while it was on & I missed about 10 minutes of it). ALSO the guy presenting kept emphasizing how rare all the records were though he chatted with a guy out of the Escorts & their stuff got general release.

Sir Joe is much more well know as Joe Quarterman out of DC. He was a typical DC based funkster for most of his career and maybe didn't possess the best 'soul drenched' vocal abilities. ...... on funk he did gud ............ but maybe that was his true niche.