Roburt

With regard to the Buckeye Politicians (who had earlier gone by the name of the Soul Partners) ...... they very nearly made it big ...... They were spotted in New York by a guy from EMI. He smooth talked them & flew em over to the UK. Sent em into Abbey Rd & a whole album was cut; tipped for the top. The group headed back to New York to promote the new stuff and a 45 was released here on EMI. The group's US management wanted the album master tapes so they were put on a plane to New York ... ..... ........ AND DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY. No backup tapes had been kept & so all their hard work in the London studio went to waste. The group got fed up & their career tailed off and the guys ended up heading home to Ohio for normal day jobs. .......... SAD TALE

Think quite a few Teds / R&R-ers & early mods have enjoyed similar times / scenes. ....... we are all just about baby-boomers though ...... .... if like me you are now aged around 60 to 66 ........ ... had it good in the 50's (school, etc), again in the 60's (easy to find decent higher education & jobs, brilliant night life ), more so in the 70's (cheap available mortgages, child allowance, decent NHS service for births), 80's (back on the scene with a soulful lean now the kids were off to Uni, etc), 90's (near the end of regular allnighter attendances but loads of soul weekenders so that was fine), Y2K -- still good ... (internet & yet more soul + decent (for some) pension, chance of early retirement). So we had it good in each decade ... but those that 'burnt the candle at both ends' for too long OR drank / ate too much OR didn't look after their health ........ WELL lots have fallen by the wayside way too soon. BUT I'd rather enjoy life while I can than last an extra few months (but check back with me in 10 years to see if I hold the same opinion) !!!

Another Motown group 'down on the beach' when the Temptations were playing there ...

BTW, in the above I have put a piccy of Balt's Brenda Jones next to a piccy of Dean & Jean, the duo that Ohio's Brenda Lee Jones got her start with. They do look similar (facially) to me.

Bob, that group were most probably the Buckeye Politicians (also from Ohio) ...

The 'Baltimore' Brenda Jones .......

Just getting around to listening to this show in full .... as always, Cliff plays numerous fantastic 'listening' soul tracks ..... I have some of em myself (the great O'Jays cut he plays early on) but haven't pulled that LP out in some years .... just goes to show; I listened to it (the O'Jays track) & instantly said ... I'll have to get a copy of this & then afterwards he announced who it was & what LP it was on ... DDOOOHHHH.

RE: the discoveries of the last 35 years represent obscurity for the sake of it and / or a celebration of the ordinary .... ..... Loads of great obscure sounds unearthed over the last 35 years so can't agree in the main .... ... but many 'ordinary sounds' are championed just coz they are SO RARE....... I'm much more of a SOUL FAN than a RARE SOUL FAN ....... give me a great William Bell Stax track over a messy obscure Detroit little label cut (substitute any other US city here) any day of the week.

As there's another current thread about a Brenda Lee Jones 45 & that 'style setter' Cliff Steele recently featured the Brenda Jones & Coconut Love track on his radio show, thought I'd bring her up ... This topic may well have been 'done to death' on here in the past ......if so, please feel free to point me in the direction of the best original thread ...... ....... BUT JUST IN CASE IT AIN'T ........ .... here are a few 45's by a / the Brenda (Lee) Jones ....... Brenda was recording from quite an early stage (1962/63?) as half of Ohio duo Dean & Jean (45's on Rust) ...... solo wise there was also ..... RU-JAC #08: BRENDA JONES -- Let's Go Back To School / Can't You See (1963; US) RUST # 5112; BRENDA LEE JONES -- Thread Your Needle / You're The Love Of My Life (1966; US) IMPERIAL # 66440: LONDON FOGG & THE CONTINENTALS FEAT. BRENDA LEE JONES -- Easy Mover/ Trippin' (1969; US) MERCURY # 73482; BRENDA JONES -- Super Stroke / Big Mistake (1974; US) MERCURY # 73645: BRENDA JONES WITH COCONUT LOVE -- I Am The Other Woman / Good Thing (What It Is) (1974; US) USA # 8 BRENDA LEE JONES --You're The Love Of My Life / Thread Your Needle (1975; UK) FLYING DUTCHMAN # 10671: BRENDA JONES WITH GROOVE HOLMES -- This Is The Me Me (Not The You You) / This Is The Me Me (Not The You You) (1976 US) The 1st 45 above, on Baltimore label Ru-jac, is by a lady who was a regular on the Baltimore club scene around 1963/64/65 & 'locals' there think of her as being Baltimore based but as she originally came from Ohio & seemed to end up in New York, I'm not to sure how everything fits together & if there was actually more than one Brenda Jones singing soul back then. As she recorded with Groove Holmes in 1976, you would have thought that there would be some info out there on her as jazz music people seem to research / document everything of interest. I have some club ad photos of the Ru-Jac / Baltimore Brenda Jones from around 1964 & she does seem to resemble the Brenda Lee Jones who started out in Dean & Jean. Anyone know for sure if all the above recordings are by the same lady ?

The wifes awake now ...... I have to be quiet till she wakes up or I cop it .... She tells me that she went to a Dockers Dance night (her father / brothers were dockers) at the Skyline in 1964 and someone fell off the balcony that night (so you'll need to specify when the 'fall incident' you want to know about happened as falls seem to have occurred a few times). I remember what the place was like when it was the Skyline .... you caught a lift up to the top floor of the Co-op store (4th / 5th ?) and from there walked up a wide staircase to get to the Skyline Room (it was the buildings penthouse, hence its name). The club was a large Top Rank / Mecca like place with small areas of seating at the side and a large stage area fronting a big dance floor. Back in those days, it had a balcony. When it was converted into Baileys, it became all-seating with terraced floors from front to back of the place, each floor level being 2/3 foot above the one it was behind. I can't recall a balcony in those days but that doesn't mean there wasn't one.

Baileys had been a dance hall before it was converted into a supper club. It formed the top floor of the big town centre Co-op store & was originally known as the Skyline Ballroom. I went to see loads of mod & soul acts there as they always featured live acts on (mainly) Thursday nights. I saw Rod Stewart (singing with Jeff Beck Group), Zoot Money, Mike Cotton Sound & they had the likes of Small Faces, Who, Jimmy James & Vags, Garnett Mimms, Lee Dorsey & many more on. It converted to become Baileys around 1970 / 71 and had acts such as the Flirtations, Fantastics & numerous non-soul acts on (playing week long stints). I went to see a few of the soul acts that were on when it was Baileys (married a Hull lass, so was always back in the city visiting her family & old soul friends). The newspaper this guy is talking about is the HULL DAILY MAIL. It's still going strong & even has a web site ... https://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/people/Hull%20Daily%20Mail/profile.html They publish (monthly?) editions of a 'history / nostalgia' special that just features old photos from past editions (40's/ 50's / 60's) but I think they also do reprints of specific editions (for birthday presents on someone DofB). Its worth contacting them or someone at Hull City Council Library Dept as I'm sure one or the other will help out determining which edition any report on the events detailed above occurred appeared in. HOPE THIS HELPS. ......

"So Blue" had strong 'Dells' connections (2 of the writers were members of the group and Wade Flemons + Barrett Strong wrote songs for the Dells) & the group provided backing vocals on Joe's version. Wonder if the Dells ever cut a version of the song with an actual group member on lead vocals. If they did it would have been back in their 1964 / 65 Vee-Jay period when the company was slipping into financial problems & bankruptcy. So I guess it would have stayed in the tape vaults.

I've got a spare of "I Want You" on UK 45.

Is the Noel McCalla 45 on Direction ("One More Heartache / Beggin") from 1980 worth owt on a demo ? ....... and did CBS release anything else on Direction during that time period ?

Just picked up a copy of Grand Theft's 1st 45 as I really like "Love Burns". Guess the title of the B side was quite cryptic -- "Turn It Over" -- as it's a bit of a throwaway instrumental. OK I suppose but it would have been better as a vocal track.

Meanwhile ....... In 1969, back across town, a little known Detroit group were playing some gigs

Gwen McCrae's proposed UK tour has had to be postponed after she was rushed into hospital in London just over a week ago. 67 year old Gwen had performed at (Jazzy B's ?) Happy Days Festival (held at Imber Court, East Molesey in Surrey) on the Saturday (2nd June) to great reaction but was taken ill shortly afterwards & rushed into a London hospital. Anyone know of any updates on her condition ?

So now that dozens of rare expensive UK 45's & numerous more less pricey items have been 'mentioned in dispatches'.... anyone who has their finger on current prices tempted to try to list an actual Top 10 ???

There was a Willie Hutch (TMG 885) & an Originals (TMG 1066) that were pulled. Did demo's of either of these 45's actually escape here ??

Two local acts that recorded were on this Miami charity show ... https://www.sirshambling.com/artists_2012/S/starettes/index.php

Diane Ferraz and Ferris Wheel were on at the Nite Owl (Leicester) on Saturday / Sunday 26 / 27th August 1967. A week later the Fabulous Temptations (really the Velours / Fantastics) were on at the Nite Owl niter on the Saturday night (well, early hours on Sunday morning really) and they then drove north to appear at the Mojo Alldayer on the Sunday afternoon / evening. I caught them (Tempts) at both clubs & (I'm now getting to the point of this last bit) whilst at the Mojo was talking to the club's owner (Pete Stringfellow) & he said that he was about to restart the allniters (as well as keeping the alldayers he had already booked acts for going) and was desperate to get some good live acts. I told him that I had seen Ferris Wheel & that they were great. He then said that he'd been offered the group for one of the proposed upcoming allniters but (not knowing anything about them) had turned down the chance of booking the group. When would the Ferris Wheel have been in a London studio for Pye in 67; anyone know. It must have been not too long before I saw them live in Leicester ... AND ... at about the same time that Linda Lewis was in an EMI London studio cutting "Bitter Into Sweet". Do written records exist for UK Record label (EMI, Pye, etc) recording session dates & which studios were utilised, etc. ???

For a while around 1969, Linda was in Ferris Wheel. Diane Ferraz and Mike Liston had formed Ferris Wheel with George Sweetnam also featuring on vocals for the group. Most of the other guys in the group had been members of singer Emile Ford's Checkmates. The Ferris Wheel quickly became a popular club act in London and toured widely (I saw them play the Nite Owl allniter in 67). The group were soon signed to Pye Records by producer John Schroeder & they recorded & had tracks released in 1967. The group continued to tour before Ferraz decided to leave the music business to raise a family. She was briefly replaced by Marsha Hunt (in 68) before she in turn left to be replaced by Linda Lewis (late 68 or 69). Linda Lewis was their lead singer on the group's 1970 recordings. Linda then quit the group & went to live in a 'commune' type house in London. Here she hung out with other musicians & this led to her being invited to perform at the 1st Glastonbury (the last bits of info she talks about in the above interview). ....... So what was Linda up to (musically) between cutting "Turned My Bitter Into Sweet" and her joining Ferris Wheel.

The Doris Willingham (aka Doris Duke) Jay Boy 45 was played in UK soul clubs from the day it was released here (which my shot memory tells me was mid to late 68, but I could be months out) ... even with the 'slow down' during the instrumental opening to the track.

Don't be a 'grumpy old man' Steve, what's happened ... someone broke your copy of Kylie's "Time Will Pass You by" 45 ??

1962 now & the proof writer obviously wasn't a music fan ..... How Claudine is mis-heard enough to put Cordine instead beats me !!