Roburt

Thanks for that Robb. What acts had releases out on Olympic Records in the mid 50's ?? The stupid thing about the club scene in Baltimore in the early through to late 50's was that just about all the clubs / bars that featured live acts (& there were dozens of them) booked jazz outfits on an almost permanent basis. I have found details of very few bookings in the city for the large number of local R&B groups (even the ones that were enjoying national record releases & were having big hits). Of course, once a group got a hit they were straight off to New York to perform at places like the Apollo and then they were booked onto the national chitlin-circuit. But just about the only venue that the hit groups got to play was on a package that was booked into the Royal Theatre. However, before a local outfit landed a record deal, they seemed to struggle to land decent local gigs. Yet, NY based record labels were willing to offer them contracts -- seems a strange situation to me. Lots of local acts went on to enjoy long & productive music careers, Sonny Til & his Orioles, George Jackson from the Plants and more. Bobby Hall & the Kings (who 1st recorded in 1953) eventually morphed into Little Hooks & the Kings who were still going strong in 1963 (when they were signed to Chess). A further 45 by them escaped in 1965 ....... The group certainly had staying power as they still putting out records into the 1970's (having tracks picked up by UA for national distribution).

Hopefully some knowledgeable person such as Robb K can help me out here. I'm trying to track down info on a recording group who made an appearance at the Club Ambassador in Baltimore in October 1954. Baltimore clubs in the early to mid 1950's were almost 'owned' by jazz ensembles, with very few vocal groups securing decent local gigs. This fact amazes me as some of the top black harmony groups in that period were actually from Baltimore (the Orioles, Cardinals, Swallows, Bobby Hall & the Kings, the Plants, Four Buddies, Magictones, Honey Boys, etc). Many of the local vocal groups enjoyed big US R&B hits and were soon off undertaking national tours but they didn't seem to secure many local club gigs before their national successes or after things cooled down for them & they returned to their hometown. Anyway, back to my question. A group that did land a local club gig were the Scale-tones who were advertised as being Olympic Records recording artists. Now, I can find a Scale-tones who cut for Jay Dee in 1956. This outfit had ties with the Dubs / 5 Wings / Marvels (all these groups being New York based). Anyone know of a group by this name that had a deal with Olympic Records in 1954 ? And would that Olympic Records be the New York based outfit that went out of business in the early 60's ?

The Presidents made a few great tracks ............... Their career was spoilt when they had to give up their name to a group that had used it earlier. They became Trilogy but in doing so lost their 'hit profile' and so just about all radio plays on new releases.

My memory is of him going from Hallam to Red Rose almost immediately (I think it was because he had the opportunity at Red Rose that he didn't put up a fight at Hallam). He was definitely still at Hallam for some of 1985.

Back in the mid 60's, knowing the latest dance was more important than owning the 45 that people did it to. The dances at clubs like the Wheel & Mojo changed every 3/4 weeks. The niter crowd would learn the dance & fetch it back to the local towns. The mod / soul crowd would congregate at a mid week venue & watch the niter goers dance. If you hadn't learnt the new steps within a week, you were no longer considered to be in with the 'In Crowd'.

I remember you dancing like that in the early 70's our kid (only you weren't as good) !!

Some of the VERY best music ever created came out of Muscle Shoals ........... .. & yet the local council guys have no idea what an asset they have on their doorstep. A few years back the council proposed some stupid plan (may have been erecting a huge billboard that would totally block out any views of the Fame Studio from the adjacent main highway). When the Fame guys objected, they dismissed their views out of hand. Needless to say, after the local government officials were bombarded with letters / emails of objection from around the world, they woke up to what they had and the proposals were quietly dropped. Once again, it's the case that the locals don't value the truly great work undertaken at their local studios down the years. Thank God the likes of Ace have got involved with the Hall family and all the old gems are escaping on CD & vinyl once again.

It was a long time ago so the memory is hazy now & he went quite quickly (the whole scenario occuring over a 4/5 week period, at the end of which Richard was gone) ..... Can't recall the time of year at all but I'd say it all took place in 1986.

Billboard notes that the group played live at a New York gathering held on 6th June 1964 at the Statler Hilton. The show was for the United Jewish Appeal for NY & WNEW DJ Wally King was emcee for the event. No real help with where Sonny & the group were based though.

Posted this scan up on 'Obscure - Unusual Foreign Releases' thread about 9 months back .....

I've got a few of those Thai various artist soul EP's from the 70's (think I may even have posted a scan of a couple up on here in the past).

I'll just stick with Chuck Jackson ........... it's at least 500% better !!!

Doo wop / R&B 78's (+ jazz ones) look great framed up. I use the logos off the sleeves to improve the overall effect.

The good thing about my method is that you can scan the 1st music page of the sheet music & use the scan as the backing to the 45. That way, if the front picture is great, you can frame that as a separate item.

Plus you have to be a bit careful with stuff like the Platters 'Going Back To Detroit' tracks. The backing tracks were definitely from Detroit (used on earlier indie label tracks). The orig vocals were removed & the tracks sent off to Musicor in New York. Sonny Turner would then fly in to New York, learn the lyrics, enter the studio with some local backing singers & then cut the required tracks. By tea-time, he'd be out of the city & flying back to join the rest of the group on their next live engagement. So, the music is Detroit recorded but none of the vocals were.

Dony (being a very important conurbation & the centre of the universe) had 2 council run swimming baths back in the 60's. The 'old' baths were between St Georges church & the railway (Greyfriars area just below North Bridge). The new baths were in the town centre (Waterdale area - where the Balby bus terminal was located). My Junior school used the 'old' baths for our school swimming lessons, so was there once a week at least up till around 1961.

How many live acts were put on at the venue ..... @ the soul allniters not @ Queens Hall in general ?? I know Steve Croft booked Lou Ragland for a live appearance (singing over backing tapes) coz I organised / ran that tour for Lou.

There are still a few ways to go........ you can place the memorabilia on first (haphazard or in line) and then put the 45 over the top so that it obscures some of the club cards / ads ........... .................. OR ........... you can get a frame mount with a cut out in it. Arrange the memorabilia to show thru the cut out & then have the record sit above that. Plenty of different options to consider ......... Here's examples of what I've done in the past ..... ..... haphazardly placed Soul City memorabilia; 45 placed in hole in photo mount card with record company brass plate @ bottom; or another idea that works well is to place the 45 over a copy of the song's sheet music (Bobby Hebb 45) .......

I have made up quite a few framed records, both 45's & LP's. .......... there are 2 different ways to go ........... It's easy to buy 8" x 8" or 12" x 12" square frames and records look great in these. HOWEVER .... if you want more than just the record in the frame, it's best to go for rectangular frames. An LP record with the front sleeve cover alongside it looks great but the frame has to be BIG to achieve this (24" x 12"). With a 45 its a lot easier as the size is more manageable. So a 12" x 8" or 15" x 8" frame is fine. I have framed up 3 x 78's + 1 x 45 that I have had hanging in the living room for over 20 years ...... + I made this one up (framed LP) about 12 years back as a prize at a weekender (photo awful as light is reflecting back off glass) ..... The ones I have done more recently are a lot more colourful (we just about all decent printers at home now)

Quite a few Yorkshire municipal pools would board over the pool with a dance floor and hold pop concerts in the place. It was a bit before my club going days (1963 rather than 1965 onwards) but I seem to recall the 'old' swimming baths in Dony holding such events. (no soul acts on that early but no doubt a few R&R acts were involved).

Fascinations - Girls Are Out to Get You Robert Parker - Barefooting Impressions - You Been Cheatin Donald Height - 365 Days Homer Banks - 60 Minutes of Your Love

Some early release UK songs (late 50's) written by a well known guy were credited to Barry Gordy on the record labels and sheet music ...... ...... after all, the Brits involved knew he couldn't have a stupid name like Berry Gordy.

Good on you.

Another show @ the Howard ... this must have confused a few folk in DC ,,,,,,, Top of the bill was David Ruffin & his new group (DR & his Boys it says coz David didn't want them to still go by the name of the Cavaliers). A few days later he came up with a real name for the new group and that was David Ruffin & the Fellas. Anyway, after cutting some tracks away from Berry Gordy's outfit, David was quickly tempted back into the Motown fold and the Fellas were dumped. But back to this show in DC and no doubt they didn't want to ID his group as the Cavaliers as this was the Detroit / Pied Piper outfit and not the DC based (Shrine) group of the same name.

As Jimmy McPhail got his 1st big break at the Howard, thought I'd post up some more shows from the theatre ........ .... two different (!?!?!) DC based acts feature here, the Knight Brothers and the Carltons .....