Roburt

Seems like John has started a trend ...

An LP originally sold via local black newspapers ... back then (1968) it would have cost you $2.98. It costs a bit more now.

Do you mean 76 Club in Burton ? Retford's Broken Wheel has a book detailing it's life. I'm also attaching a few more old club ads -- wonder how the group appearing at the Welsh club in late 1966 came up with their name ?

I used to attend nights @ the King Mojo and have written about it in the past. Ahead of the Mojo, there was the Esquire (in the same building as the Leadmill). That was the 1st venue to book / play blues / R&B in Sheffield to my knowledge. The Leadmill crowd didn't like the Mojo lot. If an act they wanted to see was on at the Mojo instead of the Esquire, they'd rather go see them a few days earlier / later at the Wheel. There are books about the Esquire & Mojo and a couple of Facebook pages related the the Mojo. You'll find lots of info about the Sheffield soul scene on those. Of course, after the Mojo, the Stringfellows opened Down Broadway and the Penthouse, which both played soul stuff. The Mucky Duck (Black Swan pub) also used to host soul nights in the late 60's (after playing host to lots of Joe Cocker live R&B shows earlier in the 60's). The FABULOUS PLATTERS (really the Steinways) played live @ the Black Swan around 1968 (it'd be good if someone local to Sheffield would search thru old editions of the Sheffield Star. I'm sure many on here will have stories about Samanthas.

The wife was from Hull & she used to hitch up to Brid to see the likes of the Who, Small Faces & Spencer Davis Group @ the Spa ... but later in the 60's, they used to book US soul groups to play the venue. The Mandrakes were on there a lot too (they were from Scarboro), at that time Robert Palmer was their lead singer (ahead of him joining Alan Bown).

Seems things are getting no better for Dave & his wife. Their flight home to the UK has turned into a giant 'cock-up' now. You have to feel really sorry for them as this was supposed to be their dream holiday to celebrate his retirement.

AND I informed him I was putting it up here (before doing so). I believe he flew back to the UK overnight.

Nottingham was quite unusual back then as it had around 5 soul venues, all going at the same time (mid to late 60's). There was the Beachcomber, the Dungeon (that has it's own Facebook group I believe), the Boat Club, the Britannia Rowing Club and the Palais. In addition to their local clubs, the Notts crowd used to travel to attend allniters in Sheffield, Leicester & Manchester.

In passing, just noticed that a UK beat group seemed to be getting some high profile gigs back in the mid to late 60's -- at soul venues such as the Gliderdrome, Boston (alongside Otis Redding) and with the Orlons & Bluesology (Elton John's outfit) at Aylesbury Assembly Hall. Never came across them myself at a live gig and their 45's never registered on my radar (though they do seem to have loads of fans out there) ...

This place has a decent profile these days due to the NS weekenders staged there. It was also a popular venue with mods / R&B and soul fans back in the 60's ...

As the 1960's London Mod / Soul Clubs thread has seen renewed action recently, thought I'd post up this related thread. Some local soul clubs grew in stature & went on to become famous soul venues (the Place, Hanley for instance), others were known of because live soul recordings were made there (Birdcage, Portsmouth, Bolton Casino, Nite Owl, Leicester, etc). Some hosted R&B / soul nights in the 60's / 70's and have returned to the spotlight due to more recent events staged there (Brid Spa). But many have just slipped away in the mists of time. Never to be written about like the Wheel, Casino, Blackpool Mecca, etc. Some local clubs did become iconic to the crowds who attended their soul nights and so have registered in print (the Broken Wheel, Retford, California Ballroom, Dunstable; Gliderdrome, Boston & more). But venues such as the Skyline & Gondola, Hull; the Boulevard, Tadcaster; Plebeians, Halifax; Attic, Doncaster; Clouds., Derby; Assembly Hall, Aylesbury; Central R&B Club Gillingham and numerous other soul clubs are all but forgotten these days. Even some clubs that staged niters seem to get little attention these days -- Va Va's Bolton, Chateau Impney, Droitwich & Up The Junction, Crewe being amongst these. It would be good for folk on here to make mention of the venues that meant a good deal to some back in the day in places such as Birmingham, Northampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Grimsby, Liverpool, Newcastle (the Club A GoGo being the only one there with a profile) & any in Scotland.

Dave has just completed a Caribbean cruise on Holland -America's ROTTERDAM ship. Whilst on there, a bad outbreak on Norovirus occured. Both Dave & his misses came down with it & had to be 'isolated' in their cabin (standard procedure as it's so infectious). Anyway, he's back in Miami now & watching himself on a news clip about the incident ... he's recovered now BTW ... The news clip is on-line & so I'm posting up the link to it -- think that's Dave in the background 1 minute into the piece. https://www.nbcmiami.com/on-air/as-seen-on/norovirus-outbreak-on-rotterdam-cruise-ship-leaves-169-people-ill/3544809/

Don't know if this is soul or gospel but this guy is establishing a bit of a profile of late ... (he's doing a concert @ the Kennedy Centre in DC on March 13th) ...

He lived in God's country (Yorkshire) for many years ... a great guy ...

QUOTE >> Loved this at the time of its release -- Helen Baylor ... I've got this on the Expansion 12" from 1992. Also got this one (also on Expansion) from a year earlier ..

Charlie 'Cole Black' Brown dabbled with soul tracks though he was more normally to be found singing gospel as the lead with the Violinaires ... he had unissued soul tracks in the vaults @ Jewel / Paula but they got lost down the years ... More on him here... CHARLIE "COLE BLACK" BROWN : Sir Shambling’s Deep Soul Heaven https://www.sirshambling.com/artists_2012/B/charlie_cole_black_brown/index.php

Some info on the Kama label & Chadwicks Recording studio on GARAGEHANGOVER. Kama was based out of Utica (which is in the middle of nowhere in New York state -- to the east of Syracuse). Chadwicks studio was located just south of Utica, in a place strangely called Chadwicks. So I'd guess the group (white ?) were from that area. They cut other sides for Kama, each in conjunction with other singers (Danny Bowens & The Avengers "Lavender Blue" being the best of those other cuts). Kama Records was operated by a Stanley Markowski, who had a pressing plant in Utica. Seems his pressing plant was sometimes not working to full capacity, so he hooked up with mob members & pressed up bootleg 45's for them in the early 60's. The mob ran numbers rackets across the US and were always looking for 'legitimate businesses' through which they could launder their money -- maybe they financed the building of this pressing plant. Stanley Markowski, died in 2005 at the age of 82. He had lived in Erieville most of his life (just over 30 miles south west of Utica), working mainly as an auto mechanic and machinery mechanic. Being a machinery mechanic would have been handy if you ran a pressing plant. He'd have been in his late 30's when the pressing plant was in operation. The Mr. Genius label is out of Philly & that 45 track was almost certainly cut in Philly. There were quite a few groups who took the name of THE AVENGERS -- I guess these two were different groups.

The Down Broadway being run by this guy (Stringfellow), who ran the club (Mojo) that was the 1st niter (& dayer) venue I attended ... Edwin Starr's 1st ever UK gig was at the Mojo ...

Guess, as stated, Roger thought claiming to be a cousin Of Charles Hatcher would help his career. Of course the fact that he lived in Detroit & Cleveland at times in his life mirrored Charles / Edwin's bio details. In Cleveland, he must have always been asked about a connection to Edwin as Edwin started out in the music biz in Cleveland and he would return there to get musicians for his backing bands (so Edwin was still well known on the local Ohio music scene long after he moved out of the city). Roger could be a very difficult guy to deal with, maybe coz he never really received the recognition / rewards his talent deserved.

QUOTE >> .. only you yourself will know the tracks that transport us (you) ... Would make a good subject for a topic thread ... FOR YOU, WHAT TRACK TAKES YOU STRAIGHT BACK IN TIME & WHERE DOES IT TAKE YOU TO ...

In the late 60's / early 70's, Sam's career suffered coz he was busted for drug possession. Being linked with drugs was common place in the 60's / 70's for jazz , rock & soul acts, so why did Sam's career take a big nose dive. I THINK it was because he was more of a cabaret / TV star and in those sections of the biz, bad publicity could have a major effect. He did make a small comeback in 72 when his Vault 45 ("More Today Than Yesterday") was released. But radio stations didn't spin it and it quickly faded into obscurity. BUT Sam certainly learnt his lesson after his arrest. Esther Phillips had been troubled by booze & drugs from the early 60's. It really took a toll on her live workload and her recording career. Atlantic dropped her after cutting an album on her in 1966. She finally realised that she needed to clean up and went into rehab. When she got out, she still wasn't trusted in the biz. Sam F came forward to help. He organised a regular gig for her at Freddie Jett’s Pied Piper club (Los Angeles), late 1969 & early 1970 (a residency). King Curtis still had a good opinion of Esther as he'd worked with her in the studio for Atlantic plus she employed him to run her band for the live shows. He saw how hard she was trying and persuaded Atlantic to resign her to a contract. This resulted in her live album 'Burnin' -- Live At Freddie Jett's Pied Piper, L.A.' After that she went back into the studio down in Miami for Atlantic and a number of new 45's were released. So Sam helped get her career back on track & this resulted in her cutting decent new stuff for Atlantic and then Kudu -- these tracks returned her to the charts.

Lifted from a documentary about the scene ... VERY TRUE TOO ...

Soul music found me in 1965 (mainly via pirate radio of the ship based type) and by 1966 I was attending soul clubs. Got a Lambretta that same year & Niters followed in 1966 / 67. My biggest year for travelling to niters was 1967; Sheffield, Leicester, Manchester & more. The music always stayed with me but after a while it was B&S that shaped my musical taste rather than what was getting niter spins in the 70's. Came back to the NS scene (though it hadn't yet been termed NS back in 66/67/68) in the 70's via folk like Snowy & Paul Temple -- they both plundered my collection but then Paul got me attending (rare) soul nights again at places such as the Yorkshire NS nights at a power stn social club (Drax or Eggboro can't recall which). Moved jobs & house in 79 and was now ideally placed to start going to Rotherham Clifton Hall niters in the early 80's. Trips to other niter venues soon followed -- Leicester, Loughboro, Hinksey (for live shows), Stafford. Got hooked on listening to Richard Searling on Radio Hallam and soon became a regular visitor to the studio in Sheffield. Then it was onwards & upwards to Weekenders. Initially at Morecambe & Southport. Then Cleggy Weekender was started up & that was my annual fix sorted for the next 20 years. Organised a US soul trip back in 1998, to Vegas. Was asked to join the Prestatyn Weekender team and enjoyed undertaking my duties there. So now I'm the wrong side of 75 and my health ain't what it used to be -- BUT I've still got my SOUL MUSIC. The kids moved out years ago, so I've had a record room for around 30 years. Get in real trouble in recent years when the postie turns up with vinyl or CD's (as they've taken over the house) but can't resist buying both new modern music (though much less has appealed in the last 5 years) or 'new to me' tracks. Palled up with a few artists (mainly US but some Brits), ran a UK tour for one of them. Even appeared in a documentary about a soul singer, as we had become mates down the years. I now spend much hours penning articles about soul acts / music ... BUT that's good, as I find spending time as a keyboard warrior comes to me much easier than more physical pursuits. ALL IN ALL, my life would have been much the poorer without soul music. The acts who turned up to the soul nite I helped organise on our trip to Vegas ...

A couple of tracks that have gospel ties ... Clara Ward was a big star on the gospel scene in the 60's, she tried her hand at secular music too Doing the reverse of Clara, was Peggy Scott. After a successful recording career in the soul genre, she turned to gospel in later years ...

At the start of the 1960's (& into the mid 60's) RCA was represented in the UK by Decca Records. Though it didn't state it on the RCA 45's released in the UK, they were administered by Decca execs and I guess it was the Decca guys who decided which US releases to put out here. RCA 'black act' releases, certainly in the UK, seemed to be thin on the ground apart from those from big acts such as Sam Cooke. Not too many soul artists seemed to be signed to RCA. Though when Motown broke thru in a big way (in the US), they must have realised they'd been ignoring black audiences & losing lots of sales -- certainly after white teenagers got turned on to Motown / Atlantic / Stax stuff. But here in the UK, not many of the soul acts who had US RCA 45 releases enjoyed British exposure. But sometime around 1966, RCA realised they had been 'missing a trick' and took self-control, opening their own office in the UK. I don't know who was in charge of it (bet Ady does) or even who they got to press up their releases (maybe still Decca at the start). But even when their own guys were deciding what US recordings should gain UK release, not much seemed to change initially. I know the RCA UK execs decided to run a big 'country music' push in spring / early summer 67 (big ads being placed and a string of country singles being put out) but they didn't seem to follow a similar strategy for their black acts. I checked thru soul releases on UK RCA from autumn 66 thru to late summer 68, and there weren't many. There was a 'blue-eyed soul' release from Len Barry and a couple of outings from their pop guy Paul Anka (who at the time was cashing in by cutting soulie type tracks) & from Peggy March (she'd had a string of UK 45's by Oct 68), but not much from black artists. Nina Simone was a big name who signed with RCA at that time & she had a UK 45 out in early April 67. But little else escaped here -- King George's "Drive On James" being an exception in Feb 67 (though it had done nothing sales wise in the US). It seems US RCA 45's weren't selling that well coz the label didn't really understand how to market their releases to black radio stations in the US (their radio related guys only having good contacts with the DJ's working at US pop stns). As their soul 45's weren't making the sales charts across the US, they seemed to get ignored by the UK RCA execs. Nothing much else escaped here till the Four Kents single in June 68. Of course, eventually the penny dropped at RCA, more black acts were signed in the US and properly promoted and their releases started to make the charts over the pond but this would be a while later. Maybe triggered by Nina Simone's big UK chart hit "Ain't Got No, ...", which made the UK top 20 in November 68. The UK execs even signed a black British act around that time, the Chants, but did very little for the group. Around the world, soul music was in the ascendancy and RCA acknowledged this fact by putting out the Sam Cooke comp album 'The Man Who Invented Soul'. Even though this LP escaped in many countries, the UK wasn't one of them. By the mid 70's, they had cottoned on finally, but I guess that was just a knee jerk reaction to the NS scene's reverence for mid 60's RCA soul dance tracks. Anyone here know the whys & wherefores of things at UK RCA from the mid 60's to mid 70's ?