Roburt

Eurostar will be transporting us to Lille in a few weeks, so please post some positive responsives (but I'm not allowed to buy any more records these days, so if the wife asks ... I never posted this).

On the road at present (another short break.... but somebody has to take em) so checking up on soul facts is more diffficult than usual at present -- as is finding decent internet access -- but I'll post a few things anyway. Miami back in the 60's was a very strange place. Loads of great shows starring soul acts BUT two very different scenes. There was the 'white audience' shows at venues such as South Beach hotels & posh clubs where Motown & top soul acts were regular entertainers whilst the acts themselves had to find different places to both sleep, eat & watch shows (they were allowed on the hotel show room stages but couldn't have a room or meal in the self same establishment). Then there were the places where the black audiences went; the Continental Club being just about the top of these venues. The likes of Sam & Dave, the Professionals, Roy Hamilton, Bettye LaVette, The Laddins (aka Steinways) were regular performers in the black venues whilst the best selling Motown acts were ever present performers in the South Beach hotels. ...... But some 'strange' acts crossed over to the white venues. An outfit that landed regular gigs on the 'white' side of the divide were the Jesse Ferguson Gospel Jazz Singers. From their name their reportoire can't have been too familiar to the audiences they were playing for. Even stranger, the group decided a change in name might land them a higher profile & recording contract. So the Gospel Jazz Singers became Jesse Lee Ferguson & the Outer Limits (& they did land that record deal). A guy who got regular bookings on both sides of town was Chuck Jackson, he got loads of bookings in the black clubs on the strength of his Wand R&B hits. When his revue played the white hotels in the later years of the 60's, it was billed as 'the Motown Sound that's a leader on every chart'. An 'out of town' female to play 'white' gigs was Margie Hendrix -- well known to Ray Charles fans but hardly a household name (in her own right) in the pop charts or white households. The Original Drifters were still securing 'white' gigs in 1968 but I guess more as an oldies act who performed their early 60's pop chart hits. Another 'lesser known' act to get quite a few 'white' bookings was Teddy Washington & the Soul Searchers. I don't think this outfit had a connection to DC's Soul Searchers (but I could be wrong). Pity you can't catch such acts in the area these days.

The 'Boy Meets Girl' project & album was / is great (William & Mavis Staples + other Stax duets) .... if you don't know it, give it a try.

William's 1st recording was way back (over 50 years ago in fact) but he made fine tracks over a very long period. Here's one I really like from 1985 ..... Extra Extra Read All About It ..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvSpbsybnlM

Cheers Bob. ... Judson Moore's Capri 45 .......

Have any of our Chicago experts (Bob!!) any idea who the guy leading this review was. He had taken the package down to Miami for this1968 show. Obviously the Judson Moore who was part of the review is the Judson Moore on Capri ("Everybody Push & Pull") but does this Garie have any connection to 70's disco guy Gary Toms ?

A higher definition version of (part of) the quartets photo used in the Miami show ads .....

The Continental Club is billed as 'World Famous' coz it used to operate under the name of the 'King O' Hearts'. Back in 1960, it was the club where Dave Prater met Sam Moore and they started performing together as a duo .... they played solidly at 6000 NW 7th Avenue (in Overtown, Miami) for the next 3 years -- usually 6 nights a week ..... when they signed with Roulette 3+ years later, the record company shortened their name to SAM & DAVE ..... you may have heard of em !! BTW, Mr. Walters label was Wax-Wel and his artist was Mr. Percolator. I've got some ads for Mr. Percolator 45 promotional nights that were held at the Continental Club.

Mr. Walters gets a mention coz (apart from his shop being just across the road from the club) he promoted a lot of shows at the club. He did fashion nights (where wigs figured prominently of course) but he also had his own record label & did 45 release promo nights there & he also ran other 'live show' nights at the club. Can't recall who it was that he released 45's on at present (but they're collectable singles) .... memories shot .... I'll check & post again with further details.

Yes, I was right .... another Miami ad ......

I seem to recall that another ad I have for a show they did in Miami says ... DIRECT FROM DETROIT ... I'll look it out & confirm this. BTW, the photo above my ad post is lifted from another ad; the ad I posted just uses a 'cropped' version of it.

Ska kings lp came out twice on uk ATlantic with two different sleeve designs, orig is plum label with dancers on the cover YEP, that's the one I've got (the original). Used to also have a UK Atlantic issue 45 but that went when the mortgage outstripped the wages many moons back.

.... FROM AN EARLIER LISTING ...... They're talking about me - Johnny Bragg (Elbejay) Um um um um um - Major Lance (Okeh) I had a fight with love - Johnnie Taylor (Stax) Livin' for the weekend - The O'Jays (Philly International) Wear it on our face - The Dells (Cadet) Barefootin' - Robert Parker (Nola) Soul sister, brown sugar - Sam and Dave (Atlantic) Let's wade in the water - Marlena Shaw (Cadet) ....... all the above were massive UK soul clubs plays in the past.

RE: 14/ Betty Harris and Lee Dorsey - love lots of loving (Sansu) This was recently mentioned in the 'UK Little Labels' thread (it was on Buffalo here) & a youtube clip of it posted. Had the UK 45 for over 40 yrs now (not played it in years) ... but it does sound well good now.

So is it known which studio John Davis / Frank Fioravanti used in Philly to cut the tracks released on Concept, Omega, Philomega & the like. No doubt it was an old established place where the equipment was well out of date by the early to mid 70's (the time they were using it).

Don't want to start a war (& my personal anti-Casino opinion doesn't matter much).... ... but the sounds played at the Wheel, Junction, Va-Va's, Torch, Blackpool Mecca were around 95% fine (IMHO) whereas the sounds played at the Casino were only around 60 to 70% right (too many pop items, mindless instros, stomper tempo soulless cuts by far). In the venue's declining years, rival niters in places such as Rotherham, Cleggy & Sheffield (+ Loughboro, Warrington & Leicester) seemed to get the sounds 'back on track' but things went a lot array in Wigan's major years.

This outfit were doing lots of gigs down in Miami in 1968 ...... I'm positive that Eddie Holloway (a solo singer plus member of the Soul Pleasers & vocalist on 3rd Guitar 45) and Sharon Robinson were just other singers on the bill; they had no actual connection with the Professionals.

US SOUL CHART No.1's that year included .... O'Jays -- Darlin Darlin Baby William Bell -- Tryin To Love Two Marvin Gaye -- Got To Give It Up Tavares -- Whodunit Emotions -- Best Of My Love Floaters -- Float On LTD -- Back In Love Again E, W & F -- Serpentine Fire

MORE JIMMY BISHOP RELATED INFO ....... Bluesman Leroy Jodie Pierson was born in 1947 in north St. Louis. His home life gave him a firm and fertile grounding in music .... His father ... played a lot of black music at the house, where Pierson heard the likes of Jimmy Rushing, Count Basie, Joe Williams, among many eclectic sounds, including the early, free-form days of radio. Family outings included trips to jazz clubs to see John Coltrane, Muddy Waters and Albert King. He said "When I was a kid, I used to listen to a lot of blues. I didn't understand that it was blues. To me it was more pop music because I didn't understand categorizations of music when I was seven, eight, nine years old. I was also listening to Gabriel [a KATZ deejay], used to listen to him every night. Gabriel would play the weirdest mess of stuff. I mean, one minute he'd play James Brown, the next minute he'd play George Jones, the next minute he'd play the Howlin' Wolf. So I knew that I loved Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters and these people, but I didn't know they represented a different form. There was also KXLW, which had a daytime license; they had to go off the air when the sun went down. They had a fella on named Jimmy Bishop in the afternoons. Best deejay I ever heard in my life, bar none. When I was on the radio [his "The Baby Face Leroy Blues Hour"] I stole 90% of my patter from Jimmy Bishop. All that ho-mommy-oh stuff, that style is all Jimmy Bishop. Gabriel was always a humorous disc jockey, but he wouldn't do any slick patter. I always liked that patter business" "When I was 13 years old I started dating a girl whose brother liked blues. He gave me an album called Lightning Hopkins in New York and said, "Listen to this." That was the profound experience for me". Jimmy Bishop quit KATZ & St Louis in 1963.

The theme of this thread just keeps expanding ....... Here are interesting articles that make mention of Jimmy Bishop's time in St Louis .... https://www.mckinleygoldbugs.com/RadioDays.htm https://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6666/is_277_35/ai_n29187431/

Jimmy Bishop MC'ing a show he promoted at the Nixon Theater in Philly back in the day ....... Bishop had arrived at WDAS from KATZ in St Louis. He managed lots of groups (all the ones signed to Arctic), promoted lots of live shows (many at the legendary Uptown Theater in Philly), had his own record shop (not a bad move for a radio DJ & label owner) and produced sessions, scouted talent, handled A&R plus promotional duties. Quite a 'busy boy' then !!! JUMPING BACK TO THE INFO IN THE LAST POST ... his then wife (Louise) has stated on occasions that he fell in with the 'wrong crowd' and couldn't see that they weren't actually helping him. Jimmy had a dream to make it big in the record biz & he couldn't accept his wife's opinion that many of the people he was 'working with' were ripping him off. He thought she was trying to hold him back & they split up. Guess he 'sided' with the wrong people in that argument.

READING BETWEEN THE LINES A BIT ....... I presume Jimmy Bishop & his associates claimed ownership of many of the Arctic / Virtue backing tracks & as they were strapped for cash at the end of the 60's, sold them on for Frank Fioravanti's use. In 1967, Baltimore radio DJ Fat Daddy had hooked Kenny Hamber up with Arctic in Philly (the company being headed by ex singer Jimmy Bishop). Kenny's 1st release for Arctic was "Ain't Gonna Cry" & this 45 was followed by Kenny's remakes of "These Arms Of Mine" and "Lookin' For A Love" in 1968. However neither of these 45's received the proper attention as far as advertising and distribution were concerned. Other tracks he cut for Arctic remained in the vaults, as the label was on the verge of bankruptcy and very close to folding. By then Jimmy Bishop was in the process of jumping ship to become a promotion man / talent scout for Spring records. Since he had Kenny Hamber under contract for three singles, Bishop handed Kenny over to Jesse James (no doubt a sum of money going to Jimmy from Jesse) and the resulting cut "Camel Walk," was released on Mean records in 1969. So Jimmy Bishop was looking to move on from his label owning & producing days but still make some money from what he retained from that failing outfit. SO he could easily have just sold off all the old backing tracks then in his possession to Frank Fioravanti and then forgotten all about them. As stated earlier, the Arctic & Virtue Studio tracks had featured many of the musicians that would become members of MFSB in the early 70's & so were a 'quality product'. If Frank Fioranti was 'connected', JB could well have owed him money (loans to try to keep Arctic going) and so the backing tracks may have gone someway to repaying any debts.

I've got the Ska Kings UK Atlantic LP .. somewhere here (don't think I've come across it in a couple of years though, but it's here somewhere) !!! The UK album is EVEN RARER than the UK 45 (promo or otherwise). BTW, Ken Lazarus was featured vocalist on "Soul Time", the Byron Lee & Dragonaires US 45 issued out of Tamiami Station in Miami. This came out on the BRA label that was owned by a couple of 'Islanders' who had relocated to Miami. BRA had a subsiduary label (PAL) and it was on this label that the Jerry Williams produced tracks by (Ohio connected) female cross-dresser Jerri /Jerry Jones were released. After her earlier spells based in Ohio cities (including Cleveland where she was befriended by Kim Tolliver), Jerri spent the later years in the 60's in Miami before moving to Jamaica to cut reggae tracks in the 70's.

Later on Byron Lee went back to Memphis ...... I think Ken Lazarus had left him by then though.

Their biggie .... a big allnighter play in the mid 60's .....