Roburt

Don't know if I'll be able to make this gig (though I would love to be there) ..... Someone who gets to chat with Spyder should ask him what he remembers about this tour ...........

I know lots on here love the music of the Shirelles and of ex group member Shirley Alston's later recordings. .... came across these recent-ish bits on here when surfing the net ..... ... good to see her looking so well just a few months back (she's over 70 years of age -- see photo below) ... https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/05/nyregion/in-brief-a-shirelle-from-passaic-high-to-the-rock-hall-of-fame.html https://www.examiner.com/article/the-shirelles-shirley-alston-reeves-to-perform-stamford The Shirelles song that is just about her fave old tune is a 1961 Scepter 45 B side..... ...... the Shirelles "Ž— What A Sweet Thing That Was / A Thing Of The Past

I'm sure, that as a young gentleman, Kegsy, and the rest of his mates from Bradford, were very cool indeed.

Just watched an hour long prog on BBC2 ............ Jools Holland selecting his fave guests from his long 'LATER' TV series. His heart really is in the right place ........... his selections included ...... Mary J Blige, Alicia Keys, Solomon Burke, Edwin Starr, Sam Moore, Herbie Hancock, Billy Preston + the likes of Rusty Springboard & a Brit guy singing Stevie Wonder's "Place In The Sun". Can't find Sam & Da .. Edwin singing "Drown In My Own Tears" as a duet but Jools & Billy dueting on "Thats the Way God Planned it" is up there ......

Yep, their 'Madam Butterfly album was just fff*kin great ...... soul at its very best .......... ... https://www.discogs.com/Tavares-Madam-Butterfly/release/1116007 ..... like it so much, I still have 2 copies of the LP. When they were on at Prestatyn, I wrote their bio and sent it off to the guys for their approval ahead of time ..... .... I called them a soul group who had some disco hits ...... couldn't have worded it better .... ... they were my 'best mates' when they turned up in Wales as that's just how they saw themselves. I asked them to perform a couple of their Chubby & the Turnpikes numbers & they were well up for it. ... but they were using their usual UK backing musicians & those musicians' leader had other ideas. He didn't bother sending back to his home base to get the music for any of those songs sent up to the venue. The group weren't to be thwarted though & they performed bits of a couple of songs (+ Strangers in Dark Corners) acapella style. They really enjoyed the reaction they got from the weekender audience & wanted to return for another gig that they wanted to record for a 'live' release.

The unreleased Motown mp3 tracks aren't now available till Monday (17th) ........... .. but if you click on UK Amazon then, you'll be able to listen to snippets of every track (& buy the ones you like).

Rod the Mod's 1st gig at the Wheel .................

Bradford .... big drug scene ........ whatcha expect, after all Kegsy was from where ????

I started a thread about him just over a month ago (in Look At Your Box)

BUMP

Probably late 60's Canadian woman cut in a Canadian studio (Toronto, Montreal, ?). Back then, Canadian radio had to play loads (a high %) of Canadian made tracks by law; that policy stimulated local releases a lot. She sounds white to me too.

Patti & the Bluebelles final Atlantic 45 ("Suffer / Trustin In You" -- 1970) was a really fine Chicago-soul coupling ... .... if only Atlantic had promoted the thing, maybe they wouldn't have morphed into LaBelle. (the 2nd of those cuts currently being up on the 'Soul Source Record Club' thread).

Yep, the Co-op Ballroom was the venue known as the Attic. It started (under that name) as a soul club and went on to become a skinhead haunt.

The Spinning Disc, Leeds ......... .. when did Jimmy Saville stop being the manager of this venue (pre-Spinning Disc days I believe) .....

Thanks for that. Which are the guduns ?

Don't remember these getting released at the time (though by September 1967 I was 100% into soul) .... Did they come out & are they collectable ??

Can't remember going to Wakefield Tiffanys but I did go to the proposed Prince Buster gig hosted at Wakefield Locarno on Friday 19th May, 1967. Prince Buster played a 17 date British tour through April into May 1967 (venues including Reading College of Technology, the Ritz Ballroom Swansea, as well as gigs in Birmingham, Nottingham, Oldham, Stockport, Stafford + the Brixton ‘Ram Jam’ Club and a ‘Ready Steady Go’ slot). He was due to perform at Wakefield Locarno that Friday but failed to turn up. We went along (well I had to as I was working in Wakefield at the time -- for WRCC Highway's Design Dept. Had been working at the M1 site office on Denby Dale Rd, Durkar till end of March 67) but was pissed off when he never turned up. Waited till the end just in case, left so late we had to hitch home to Dony. A show I did really enjoy back then was the Four Tops (+ Madeline Bell as a support act) at Sheffield City Hall on Thursday 2nd February 67.

Doc Bagby (along with Bob Crewe) was a major player from 1962 thru to the mid 60's for Perri Records. Perri Records released both singles and albums in the pop, rock & roll, soul, jazz and classical fields. Their first singles featured Doc Bagby, Byrdie Green and George Smith. Richard Osias was the president of the label. Doc also worked on cuts for the likes of Don Gardner (“Dog Eat Dog” on Tifton) & the Nite Riders (Sue). Was the Perri label that was part of the ALA Enterprises set-up (of 663 5th Ave, NY) in early 1967 the same label as that above ??

Missed those gigs at Castleford's Tin Chicken Club as by 1968 (when they were staged), I was no longer visiting Yorkshire based niters but was a regular at the Wheel. All the groups on live (see post # 94) were fakes ......... the Isley Brothers (from Detroit it said, even though even the real Isley's were from New York -- this lot were Sam, Erv & Tom aka the Diplomats also from NY), the Impressions (from New York it said even though Curtis & the lads were from Chicago -- this lot were the Topics I believe), the Drifters (from Memphis ??? -- really the Invitations) and the Fantastics (just renamed by Pete Stringfellow from the Fabulous Temptations). Most of the groups that were fetched over as 'fakes' were NY based outfits as it was cheaper / easier to fly them over here from the Big Apple.

Dog Bagby on a US 45 ........... Is the VIM 45 version (issued about 7 years later) the same cut or a re-recording ?

Doc Bagby was around on the US music scene for many many years. He even backed up Tommy Hunt, the Shirelles, Linda Hopkins & Kenny Hamber on a show at a Brooklyn Theatre in the early 60's. When not on tour, he seemed to bounce between Philly & New York.

CHEERS

Patti La Belle & the Bluebelles had a 45 out on Atlantic in 1965; “All Or Nothing” (written by Pam Sawyer & Lori Burton). The cut was picked (& played over & over) as a 'climber' by pirate station Radio London DJ's back in November 1965. It was most probably the reception / airplay that this 45 enjoyed that got the group invited to tour the UK in 1966. Vicki Wickham got to see them perform in a small club in Kensington, London and was blown away by their renditions of classic ballads like “Over the Rainbow” and “Danny Boy”, she had never heard music like this before and the group's performance really touched her. Vicki had worked as a secretary at Rediffusion TV and after asking to be involved with Ready, Steady, Go she quickly became the heart of the show with her music choices and ideas. She wanted RSG to be in tune with the music, fashion and lifestyle of the mod generation. It launched the careers of the likes of the Rolling Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Marc Bolan, Dusty Springfield, Donovan and Cream. It was groundbreaking in the way it introduced the UK to soul singers like Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Ike & Tina Turner, James Brown and Wilson Pickett. Many of the artists were appearing on national television for the 1st time. Vicki also produced The Sound of Motown TV Special, hosted by Dusty Springfield (the Supremes, ‘little’ Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Martha & The Vandellas, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles). During the run of the show, Vicki had become great mates with Dusty Springfield and it was Dusty who introduced Vicki to the sounds of American R’n’B music. They would spend every Saturday at Dave Godin’s Soul City record shop, near Cambridge Circus, buying up all the new releases on Motown, Scepter, Stax and Atlantic (45's by Big Maybelle, Bessie Banks, Etta James, Sugar Pie DeSanto & Lorraine Ellison. Vicki says that hearing this music had a great influence on the artists she chose to appear on RSG. Dionne Warwick, PP Arnold & Madeline Bell all made their first television appearances in the UK on RSG. After RSG finished, Vicki became MD for UK record label Toast. She also produced the Sunday night concerts for Brian Epstein at the Saville Theatre, London (artists including the Four Tops, Jimi Hendrix, Vanilla Fudge, Fats Domino,Garnett Mimms plus Gladys Knight & The Pips). At the end of the 60s she worked for a short time for EMI before moving to New York to run the New York office of Track Records. Wickham said of those times: "When Patti first asked me to manage them I was reluctant. The name Patti LaBelle and the BlueBelles sounded so old. I told her that if we're going to do this, it's a new day. You've been together sixteen years, you are so out of it that you can't even get arrested. You can't wear those nice little frilly frocks and wigs, we've got to rethink it. You've got to make a statement, you're women, there's a lot to be said.'" Wickham threw out the group's old name and recrafted "the girl group" into LaBelle, a provocative trio, wearing space age, daring clothes and tackling adult subjects such as prostitution, which had been off-limits to pop music before that.

Patti La Belle always liked Brits & this showed throughout her career. Patti & the Bluebelles toured the UK in the mid 60's. On their gigs they were backed up by Bluesology who featured Elton John among their number. Patti & Elton struck up a close friendship that lasted for many years (when he was due to play his 1st big Philly solo concert in the 70's, he rang her to invite her along to the show. Not realising her old mate Dwight had evolved into Elton John, she asked him who he was playing piano for on the show). The Bluebelles were much feted in the UK in 1966, their record label staging a reception for them that the likes of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards & Tony Hall attended. The group obviously met Vicki Wickham (of RSG) at the time as she was to become their manager by 1970. It was Vicki Wickham that convinced the remaining trio (Cindy Birdsong having left to join the Supremes) to change their image at the very end of the 60's, the 'new' outfit being renamed LaBelle. Vicki arranged for the group to sign a record deal with Track Records' Kit Lambert & Chris Stamp. The group were due to have a release in 1970 on Track's then proposed new label Fly (was this the label that went on to release stuff by the likes of Joe Cocker, Procol Harum, etc. The labels obviously had links coz after Track issued their Backtrack series of LP's, Fly put out some LP's badged up as Flyback). Anyway, a release on Track at that time didn't materialise; the group cut an album at Record Plant in New York with Kit Lambert & Vicki Wickham acting as producers and this LP was released on Warner Bros in 1971 (WS 1943). However, they had cut at least one earlier track for Lambert, Stamp & Track Records. This was their version of the old song "Miss Otis Regrets". This cut was recorded in London in 1970 with a full orchestra when the group first got together with Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp. The cut eventually escaped in the UK as a Track 45 in 1976 (# 2094 131) and became so well respected in music circles that it was recently included as a 'bonus cut' on a CD of new material released on LaBelle. Anyone got the Track 45; if so can they post up a label scan ??

Sadly just passed away .............. ...... https://www.sirshambling.com/artists_2012/R/lionel_robinson/index.php