Roburt

Trailer for a documentary about him ............

King George from 4 years back ..........

I always assumed that the US King George & the guy who used that name in Sweden / Denmark were two different guys ............ ............... but it seems not from his web site ............. https://home.swipnet.se/~w-24657/bio.htm

I had the King George on UK but made the mistake of telling Paul Temple about it many moons ago. After months of nagging, I gave up and sold it on to him. Did manage to get a US copy to replace it though. Is it "Drive On James" that folk want it for now, coz back in the day it was "I'm Gonna Be Somebody Someday" that he wanted it for.

Post for me ............ loads of fascinating facts at your fingertips.

By 1970, Jerry O had obviously side-lined his Boogaloo stuff and was pushing covers of "Tramp" & "There Was A Time" as the highlight songs in his live act ................

Mention here of more stuff Rhetta was performing with Tennyson, this time in 1967 .......

Another live show review from the end of 1965; this time its for Rhetta Hughes & Tennyson Stephen ........... Here's the type of stuff they were recording at the time ............ We know her better for her straight soul cuts but in the mid 60's, she was still on a jazz kick.

I have always loved watching soul singers perform live. Many times the experience has been greatly uplifting; Sam & Dave @ Sheffield City Hall 1967, Edwin Starr @ the Wheel & Ritz, Maxine Brown @ the Nite Owl (& Cleggy), Garnett Mimms @ the Mojo & London's Saville Theatre, Ike & Tina @ the Wheel, Maze @ Rock City, Notts, Oliver Cheatham @ a Kirkcaldy club, Sam Dees @ Morecambe & Dingwalls + Jazz Cafe London, Glen Jones @ Southport, Anita Baker @ Hammy Apollo, Isley Bros @ MGM Grand Vegas + numerous weekender acts. On other ocassions things haven't been as great; Roy C @ the Mojo, Erma Franklin @ Intercon Dony, etc. But some artists seem to see themselves as a 'different animal' in a live context to their recorded output. Marvin Gaye always saw himself as the black Frank Sinatra (luckily BG stopped him turning his live shows into a MOR fest), Nina Simone often refused to sing her hits as she was always in dispute with record companies, Other acts went with the flow; if Motown, Stax or funk was selling that particular year, they would style their acts to reflect that fact rather than doing all their own material. Back in the Twisted Wheel's 'glory years', just about every act that played the club would perform "Knock On Wood" even if the song was streets away in style to their own recorded output. A couple of show reviews posted up in old copies of Billboard mag show the type of thing I'm talking about .................. This one is from late 1965 and illustrates the material that Arthur Prysock was performing in the heyday of the 60's soul boom .............

The book's officially out this week & 2nd hand copies are already up for sale on Amazon. Anyone got a copy yet ?? .... as I'm sure she had plenty to say about the UK NS scene in there (and not too complimentary stuff either knowing her views on the matter). Would guess Levine doesn't come out of it too well either.

This US ad placed by EMI in 1965 gives a strong clue as to the 'worldwide' reach of the company .......... ... it states they sold their product in the UK + 45 other countries. Some of these are easy to ID (Australia, NZ, Caribbean Islands, India, Sth Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, etc) but I'd guess it would prove a hard task to come up with the complete list.

You're wrong there Bob. The idea came to me last Thursday & so on Friday I sent a letter to the Director General of the BBC asking him when I could get acess to the BBC's record library as I needed a few of the 45's he had in there.

Well I'd guess that the picture sleeve only came with SOME copies of the 45 ..... .... but I'd have to agree that whoever paid over $140 for this was off their rocker.

This song is one of the most beautiful Motown songs ever cut. Liz Lands had been signed to Motown for a moment around 1963, though she first attracted the attention of record companies as early as 1959. She was near the end of her recording career when she cut her version of this song (ignoring her much later Motorcity efforts), when she was acting as lead singer with Bohannon's band. Her voice was still fully intact and just as fine as ever back in 1980 and she really does the song justice ............ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIZCaWFGoNA She had a distinctive voice ..... and in the 60's ..... she also had a distinctive hair style ........ ENJOY ....

Until the mid 60's & the Pirate radio stns, there was only the BBC (Light Programme, etc) in the UK. Of course, Brits listened to Radio Luxemburg & AFN Radio during those years. Many of the UK related Pirate Stn charts are up on the web (Radio Caroline; Radio London, etc).

The Will Collins & Willpower track he produced (& his friend Allan Williams wrote) .....

The song he wrote & produced on his friend Eddie McLoyd ....

The Jimmy Vick & the Victors 45 he was on ....

The song he wrote that Billy Stewart cut (he also played on this track) .........

The track he produced for Flame N King ..........

His MS play "Diamond Ring" ..........

Billy's Sue 45 track .............

BTW, Billy has his own website .................. ... https://billynicholsmusic.com/

Jimmy Vick & the Victors 'fell apart' soon after the outfit's 45 was released. Part of the reason for this could have been Cherry Records' decision to plug the 45 as just being by Jimmy. The studio / label placed at least 4 ads in Billboard mag at the time and 3 of these ads just attributed the single to Jimmy alone (and these ads just showed a picture of Jimmy)..

Billy Nichols has now been involved with the music biz for about 50 years and he's still going strong. Down the years, he has sung gospel, soul and blues plus played the guitar and drums. He's worked for Motown and played on Chess recording sessions. He's been in house bands in Cleveland and New York plus Tap to view this Soul Source News/Article in full