Roburt

A small indication of the pulling power of UK acts in the US in the mid 60's ... this booking agency was on the up & that was mainly coz it represented so many 'popular' UK acts (the UK acts getting 'top billing' above many local acts in their ad) ...

The letter was sent by Motown to the top US music mags & I copied it from an edition of RECORD WORLD as they published it.

Lots of acts that we loved (via their live performances or their records) were immigrants into the UK. They arrived here from different countries & in different ways .... The likes of Geno Washington, Sonny Childe (R B Greaves) & more were over here in the US military ... P P Arnold, Jimmy Thomas, Rosetta Hightower & more jumped ship from American acts touring here & stayed. Jimmy Ruffin, Edwin Starr, Sheila Ferguson, the guys in the Fantastics & Drifters + the gals in the Flirtations liked the UK better than the US and so settled here. Jimmy James, Jimmy Cliff, Errol Dixon & more had started his music career in the Caribbean & relocated here to develop it further. Sharon Tandy had a similar route to the UK. Starting her singing / recording career in South Africa, she relocated to the UK to take her career to a higher level. Later entrants to the UK music scene were the children of Caribbean or African immigrants who entered the UK music biz here when they grew up. Are there any decent books that document the path any of the above took to find success in the UK music biz ? I'm listening to the audiobook 'Musical Truth' by Jeffrey Boakye at present. I also seem to recall buying a book on this subject a few years back (but still haven't gotten around to reading it).

From the start of the R&R era right through to 1964, the US just about had things all their own way; pop music wise. It was US artists that dominated record sales right around the world. At the time, UK acts experienced very little commercial success in the US and so were no opposition to American pop / R&B acts. BUT after the Beatles broke thru in the States in December 63 & particularly after the group had been on the Ed Sullivan show, all things British became the new big thing there (music, fashion, cars, accent, films, etc.). This caused massive problems for the US immigration service, who pressurised by the US music biz to help US singers / musicians, banned lots of UK acts from visiting the US for promotional purposes or to play live gigs. Not liking this situation, the UK government responded by banning many US acts from entering the UK. With countries all around the world now booking more & more UK acts and 45's by British acts topping the charts everywhere, US officials could see they were onto a big loser. HOWEVER, before sense prevailed, some US music people stepped forward to back up the Brits (& so, give support to their acts who wanted to go to the UK to perform). In the end sense prevailed & a DEAL was arrived at. For each UK act allowed into the US, a US act had to be allowed to come to the UK. This agreement worked well for UK R&B / soul fans as most insipid US pop acts were now dead in the water here. The answer for US record companies, who had UK acts on their books via licensing agreements, was to team one of their soul acts with one of their UK pop acts and thus meet the terms of the US / UK working agreement. So many American soul acts came over here to play British mod / soul clubs while acts such as the Hollies, Searchers, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Dave Clark Five went the other way. I know it served their own ends, but it was nice to see that Motown was to the fore in trying to influence US government policy in 1965 ...

There are quite a number of 'covers' that I like. Not too many decent Beatle's songs covers on the soul side but I do like E,W&F's attempt + Syretta's effort too. For me, Jose Feliciano was at his best on covers -- his take on "Golden Lady" is just sublime. One song that never really did it for me was "Pony Time" -- that certainly inspired quite a few cover versions in very quick succession after Don Covay's group's original effort ...

A few bits (below) to help back up the fact that it was indeed the real VIBRATIONS that toured here back in the 60's ... they were renowned for their high energy stage moves, being great dancers ... one of the jpegs is a pic of them on stage @ the Dungeon in Nottingham. One fact that led lots of folk to believe that they weren't the real group was that 'fake group' supremo Roy Tempest ran lots of their UK tours. But these tours took place way before he started with his 'fake group' phase -- ahead of that he always brought over the genuine article. Their Dec 67 released 45 ("Talkin About Love") was a UK only effort (2 old tracks); specially released here on Columbia by EMI to tie in with the tour they were undertaking at the time.

Bought the Precisions as a new UK release back in late 1967 .... can't say I ever remember playing the B side.

I'll nominate .... O' Jays - Working On Your Case / Hold On Bobby Bland – Call On Me / That's The Way Love Is Edwin Starr – I Am The Man For You Baby / My Weakness Is You Bud Harper – Mr. Soul / Let Me Love You The Steinways – My Heart's Not In It Anymore / You've Been Leadin' Me On PLUS there's loads more that have a great dance side + a great deep side on the same single.

A bit more info on the Cutlass set-up ... Floyd Morris (from Chicago) had a 45 out on Cutlass, produced by Bunky Sheppard. Before this 45 he'd played on recordings with Johnny Pate's band and had 45's out working with the likes of Jack Daniels. Tom Tom Washington, etc.).

Anyone have the full info on this Nashville label; or at least ... on it's soul output (being from Nashville, it also put out C&W stuff). It was started up in late 71 or early 72 and by the end of 73 was gone (due to the prosecution of it's execs for bootlegging). Seems the guys who ran the company were Charles Shafer & Billy Carr. They started out with just the Cutlass Record label and then added the Hot Line label especially for their soul stuff. They obviously had a wide outlook as they were soon teamed with John Abbey / Trojan Records here in the UK, with lots of their tracks being released here on Action. The Martha Turner tracks were cut around April 71 in the Jack Clement Studios in Nashville, so her 45 has to be one of their 1st releases (though it states on the label 1972; Custom Recording Co, 16th Ave Nashville -- arranged by Billy Carr). The 73 piece on the labels says that Custom Recording was based in North Augusta, Sth Carolina. . . . . ALSO lots of their product seems to be 'bought-in tracks, rather than self produced. Anyone know how the Cutlass / Trojan tie up came about -- maybe via B&S and John Abbey ? If I remember right; I got some Cutlass / Hot Line 45's in a Contempo (B&S) soul pack around 73-ish.

Yes, Kegsy told me that his Bostock 45 sales @ the niters financed his buys of stuff (!) for a good while.

Kegsy has been in touch & has given me the full run down (just about the same as Rick stated above; but more detailed). I didn't realise Bostocks also had a multitude of 45's on Okeh, Wand, Ric Tic, ABC, Chess, Checker & loads of other labels too. Though I was getting Chess / Checker 45 stuff (& Stax / Volt / Motown) from B&S / Contempo back then (72-ish).

I've been pointed in the direction of this podcast ... COLIN CURTIS & TIM ASHIBENDE TRIBUTE TO KEITH MINSULL SHOW NORTHERN SOUL HISTORY HITMIX RADIO 107.5FM www.podomatic.com/podcasts/colincurtis/episodes/2023-01-23T03_56_29-08_00 I've given it a listen & it seems the Stoke crew were heading over to Bradford in summer 73 to buy from Bostocks.

I largely stopped 'chasing' 60's US import 45's after 1971, being more interested in newer stuff that you didn't have to send away for to the US or head off miles to go crate digging in some record dealers premises. So I never made it to Bostocks in Bradford market. Of course, with the size of their haul, you'd find some of the 45's they'd brought over here in all sorts of weird places -- 2nd hand shops / Sunday market stalls / local supermarkets (the Boyes chain; Hull, York, etc branches). When I came across any in such premises, of course, I'd sort through them & buy any I was interested in. But I never got to witness the 'mother load' back in their original UK location. They were sold so cheap at that time (5p each ?; around double that in a sold-on shop) that even if some of those singles were unknown back then, you'd still take a punt if the producer / song writer / artist name looked promising. It seems many top sounds came out of the market there and initially went on to be sold for a substantial mark-up to those not in the know. MY QUESTION ... it must have seemed that you'd be able to find any MGM / Verve soul 45 in quantity back then, so paying the pre-Bostock's going-rate must have seemed pointless for a while. BUT, many Verve 45's -- Howard Guyton – "I Watched You Slowly Slip Away" for instance -- managed to retain it's sought-after status & still go for a hefty wad. SO, which collectable MGM / Verve 45's didn't turn up in quantity in the Bostock's haul and is it known why they didn't ? Were the copies of the 'rarer' items on Bradford market (Howard Guyton for instance) issues / demos or a mix of both ?. Obviously, there was always pent-up demand from niter-goers for the Howard Guyton single, otherwise it wouldn't have been booted back in the 70's. How soon after it started getting plays was it booted & how did that tie in (date-wise) with the Bostock's haul ? Are the details of where Bostock's got their haul from known -- record company warehouse stock or from a big US record warehouse ?

No NOla folk on that list ... a major omission .. Allen Toussaint should at least figure in the standings. He was writing top songs from 1961 right thru to the 70's.

A tale posted on FACEBOOK by Neil Rushton ... GETTING LUCKY @ a 'cheapie' UK 45 seller ... . . . . . I found my first copy (of LOU RAGLAND'S "I Travel Alone") in the late 1970s. At the time I was running a Soul records wholesale business in funky Walsall and was always looking for stock. Most of it came from the U.S.A but other suppliers were much closer, especially Oldies Unlimited at St.Georges near Telford. Bill Baker and myself used to regularly nip down the A5 to deal with Anthony Lewis, the owner, who was great but quirky (for instance if I asked for x amount of copies of a single Anthony would invariably count out so many inches rather than count the amount). Oldies Unlimited imported huge amounts of records from the USA and Bill and myself would buy quantities of recent promos, cut outs and sometimes quite astonishing finds (best ever was 200 copies of Bill Brandon “The Streets Got My Lady”. Everyone on the Soul scene was aware of Anthony but he was always good to me as I had been buying from him by mail order when I was at school when he was based in Kent (?)and he often mentioned that. Anyway one afternoon he told Bill and myself that we would be allowed to look for records in one of the former chapels in the grounds of his base. We were met by a carpet of records on the floor and shelves full of them on the side. We started wading through and found some good stuff but nothing amazing, not all the singles were Soul. Anyway I slipped while reaching for the shelves and ended up lying on my back on top of the deep pile of records covering the floor, Naturally as I pulled myself up I pulled a handful records from where my right hand had landed. Two out of three were county and western, and the third - a stone mint copy of “I Travel Alone” - Lou Ragland. To add to the shock only either demos or issues (I can’t remember which)had turned up in the UK by then and the copy in my hand was the format that was unknown at the time.

A pic taken in the radio room @ Prestatyn ... me interviewing Ray Pollard & Swamp Dogg while John Poole watches on. I did the artist radio interviews each year. So I did the interviews with Lou Pride & Don Gardner in 2003. Lou had travelled over to the UK with a Severn Records label exec (Lou was recording for Severn at the time). Lou & his record label guy, being so close to Liverpool while in Prestatyn, wanted to go up there to visit the Beatles Museum. So I took them + Don Gardner up there (on the Saturday morning if my memory ain't playing tricks on me). Got to have long chats with em all, especially with Don who just came along for the ride (he wasn't interested in going in the Beatles Museum). So Don & I hung around while the other two went all Merseybeat. Had a fascinating chat with Don about his time in Sweden in the 60's + about the period in the 70's when he was Curtis Mayfield's travelling tour manager. Lou also had a few tales to tell, the one with the funniest ending being the story about how he came to write "Coming Home In The Morning". I obviously didn't take the pic in the radio room (as I'm in it), so it was most likely Snapper who took it (on my camera or on his own).

It's just been announced that Pontin's Prestatyn has closed & will not reopen. So the days of Soul Weekenders there ( & everything else) are definitely over.

A US radio stn down in Florida. This outfit kept it's full signal strength up over the full 24 hour period. I guess it's signal (at night) would reach some of the Caribbean islands.

I bet it went like this ...

Nickie Lee was already with WAME in 1963 ... each week the WAME DJ's would pick their choice of the week's releases to plug (he picks 45's by Jimmy Holiday & George Freeman below). ALSO reggae was always popular in Miami; Nickie Lee cut a cover of a Prince Buster song ahead of "Black Is Beautiful".

A pic of Miami stn WAME's DJ's in 1966 ... Nickie Lee being one of them ...

A number of guys in the music biz moved around a lot; so a small portion of their work would have taken place in Detroit. I'm thinking of the likes of Sidney Barnes & Gene Dozier but there are others that either started out in Detroit & then moved on OR who passed through Detroit, making a short stop there. I've always been fascinated by Hamilton Bohannon, who for the 2nd half of the 60's led the Motown touring band and developed long lasting friendships with the likes of Carolyn Crawford. Although he was born in Georgia, he had moved to Detroit in the early 60's. He then hooked up with Stevie Wonder & via Stevie with Motown. When Choker Campbell quit the Motown team, Hamilton took his place as band leader. Motown left him behind in Detroit, so he took his band elsewhere -- to Chicago based Dakar and started having big hits with them. Was he ever allowed to record anything in his own right or arrange any Hitsville studio sessions at Motown; would seem strange if he didn't. I could also never work out if he cut any of his 70's tracks in Detroit.

Love going through old US R&B radio stn charts. It's amazing what 'obscurities' you find lurking on them. Of course, if you have an interest in what was on their charts, it spills out to include who their DJ's were, did those DJ's run their own little labels, what area a stn would broadcast to (how far their signal reached) & similar associated topics. There are quite a few decent books out there by old soul radio DJ's or by guys in the know about US black radio. It's a pity those halcyon days are long gone -- I just about never bother to tune into any US radio stns when we have been wintering down in Florida for the last 10 years. ANYWAY, back to my point. Radio stns such as Nashville based WLAC had night time R&B shows -- their DJ's including Gene Nobles, John Richbourg and "Hoss" Allen. Their signal would reach right up to the US / Canadian border at night, so folk who liked soul would tune in from hundreds of miles away. A radio stn that was quite influential over on the west coast was KSOL (Syl Stewart being one of their DJ's for a short while). I'm posting below, some tech info on the stn. Also one of their charts & a 45 that was on the chart (though as it was on a small NY based label, no idea why it would have figured on a west coast radio stn's chart). MY QUESTION ... KSOL reduced it's signal strength at night from 1000 watts to 250 watts. No doubt, this was also coz the signal reached farther at night, so it didn't need to be as strong. BUT why do radio signals reach much further at night ?? It doesn't seem that logical to me (unless it's coz the atmospherics are so much better after sunset).

Some great pics from SNAPPER there. Brought back many memories (as they say; a picture is worth 1000 words). A pic of the Macce crowd (though Glen's not in it), a better bunch you couldn't wish to meet. I've put it up again along with one of mine, two of them down front waiting for the acts to come on stage (& Glen is in this one) ...