Roburt

We all know that Jamaican record releases leave much to be desired ......... ... the usual Island belief that everything is best left till tomorrow was also adopted by local record company guys (& in the Caribbean, tomorrow never comes). So things sometimes got a little rushed & corners were cut .... ... if the vocalist went chasing female tourists, then any guy off the street would be pulled in to sing lead vocals. ... if the songwriter wasn't watching (maybe he was even an American), you added your name as the composer. ... if they were running out of vinyl (coz someone who was supposed to order it just had a spliff instead), they just added a few floor / road sweepings into the feed hopper of the pressing machines. .... if the printed label supply ran out, you just used blank white labels & wrote or stamped on the release info. BUT, hey, they did have some quality control. They knew someone from a US label might take an interest in what you were doing with their releases. So the quality control was upped for stuff licensed in from the States -- no hand written labels or kids rubber stamper would do here. So US label designs were accurately transcribed by local graphic artists .... I mean that was much more professional than just copying a blank US label and printing up loads of them for use on a locally pressed 45. So here's an example of a locally printed 45 label for a US soul track .... this one was licensed in from Atlantic. I mean, if they had simply copied a US label, then you would see Atlantic's New York address (75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York) on the local release ....

In case you wanna see what the Italian label looks like (in its entirety) ........ here's a scan of another of Brenton's Italian 45 releases on the same label ..........

I saw Sam & Dave in the 60's ... awesome ... I also saw Hendrix twice in the 60's ... wandered off 'bored' after he had sung "Hey Joe" (good) & then a couple of totally soul-less tunes during the 1st show .... walked out of the 2nd show after he commenced his live highlight (playing his guitar between his legs as though it was his member & then setting fire to the damn thing -- the guitar that is .... yawn zzzzzzzzzz).

Got to agree with the Impressions ..... ...... I mean, what good soul tracks were ever cut in Chicago !!! ... and as for Detroit; a true soul desert IMHO.

Another wildly inaccurate post from you Mr. Rounce. I have better things to do (& am on the road at present) but if I have to (to convince you of the truth), I will sort out some of my Jamaican LP's with the ghost of hole marks in the covers, photo them & post them up here. I really do have other things to do with my time though.

Curtis, Sam & Fred all up on 125th Street ... .... and King Curtis was there as well ....

An actress, Playboy mag photo shoot subject .... ... Ohh, and Motown recording artist ......

King Curtis appeared on this mid 60's show held to raise money for radio station WBAI .... .... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Josephson

A 45 that goes well with the last ad .................

Tom Jones, Creative (Soul) Source, live show, Miami, back in the day.

You could be right about it being Prince Charles ...... ... I'm told he's got a massive collection of soul 45's (he got into collecting when he was sent promo copies of 3 Degrees 45's). I believe he's a committed OVO-tinie and would never consider playing boots at any of the big bashes he hosts at Highgrove. ............. WATCH FOR NEWS of the upcoming Highgrove Soul Weekenders; Camilla is running the memoribilia room ........... .... expect Barber coats with 'KTF' emblazoned across the back & Hunter green wellies with a black fist on the side.

Got many of the earlier 100 Club Ani 45's ... thanks to that kind Mr. Croasdell. Coz I've got a copy of many, I don't really think of them as being 'items of great value' ..... .... however, I lust after copies of most of the ones I don't actually own ..... ..... but that's a record collector 4 U; can't live with em , can't live without em. P.S. don't let the wife know that many of these 45's are very easy to sell & command a good price; otherwise she'll be posting em up on Evilbay before I can say .... WHAT !!!

RE: Frankie & Johnny -- the horrific prospect of some promotor putting them on as a "live act" at a weekender and them doing a 15 minute version ............ the very propect sends a shiver down my spine ..... God, it would put me off attending weekenders for life !!! If I ever hear the record agin in the next 20 years (or during my whole life), it will be too soon. ...... For weekender acts ........ I'd rather watch Kegsy trying to impersonate Dean Parrish than see some of the acts who had big sounds at the Casino (WiganStompas R'n'tUs).

Stating the bleedin obvious here .... but if there were 400 copies made & the guys who own 390 will never consider selling it .... ...... then copies will hardly ever come up for sale & it will be a very rare 'sale item'. Lots of folk who would want to get hold of 100 Ani 45's are no longer attending nighters or live too far away from London to get to the club on the night. So there will always be folk chasing copies of these 45's .... but many will be priced out of the market.

Gloria Lynn was on the US music scene for many years. She had records released out of LA in the early 70's, but in the mid 60's she was playing live shows in New York.

Anuda Wayne Cochran show .....

As "Sausalito" has been mentioned ....... thought I'd nominate Camelle Hinds "Sausalito Calling" ... sublime summer soul ... ....

Charles Bradley & his group (Daptone) were on at Grillstock (food + soul) on 1st July. Venue: Bristol Docks (city centre) ..... should have been great .... he was due on the main stage at 8pm ... think it was free entry but only guessing that as entry to docks area is usually free (& poss from 4 / 5 directions).

I used to visit Barbados on a regular basis & bought 100's of 45's there & dozens of LP's .... most pressed up by WIRL in Barbados but many were Jamaican releases. Many of the LP's I bought that were Jamaican pressed, have a 'drill hole' mark in the top corners of the cover, most others I didn't bother to buy (coz they cost more than I was willing to pay at the time) were similar ..... so don't rubbish my comments when you obviously don't know what you're on about !!!!

When Robbie Vincent still had his Radio 1 soul show (about 20 yrs back), he asked listeners to send in 3 recommended tracks. Summer was coming up, so I sent in 3 'hot theme' tracks & he selected em & played em. Can't remember what they were now, but think one was a 'later' 4 Tops cut ("Hot Summer Nights" rings a bell) & Lamont Dozier's "Cool Me Out" was another of em.

Lots of times, the Jamaican record company just photo-copied the US demo 45 (or LP) they were ent & printed up local labels from that. If they had 100's of blank Stax labels printed off then they would use them till they ran out. Hence (I guess) old label designs being used there on later releases. They would also photo-copy the LP covers they were forwarded from the US ... so (lots of the time) you got a Jamaican LP cover with a drill hole mark on theie un-holed LP cover).

He usually doesn't do any of his 60's recordings ..... .... coz he never earned a cent from them (royalties never paid, etc). So he doesn't view them with any pleasure (unlike record collectors). I saw him live at 'Blues & Booze' in Wallingford (Oxfordshire) about 8 years back. Got to chat with him & at least he did sign the sleeves of some of the old records I took along.

Dave, was that 45 also badged up as SPQR 1002 ?? You have to admire Frank Guida ... he did try to exploit every sales opportunity & so put some tracks out numerous times. One thing about Norfolk R&B, soul releases .... lots of times just a few copies of a record would initially be pressed up. These would be sent to local DJ's & radio stns. If there was no favourable reaction, that would be it .... no more copies were ever pressed up. If a DJ or radio stn started playing a track however, the 45 would be pressed up again ... either to send to DJ's & radio stns over a much wider geographic area (to try to get more bites & therefore playlistings) ... OR ... shock horror ... to actually get the 45 into record stores so that the public could buy copies.

A Sam & Dave 'coming home celebration' show ....... Things turned a bit sour just ahead of this when their old friend & top 'guest' on the show, Otis Redding, was killed in the plane crash. Obviously the actual line-up on the show (when it was staged) was quite a bit different to how it was advertised here.

A certain Frankie Crocker promoted this show ..............