Roburt

The arrangers on these 2 cuts were Robert Banks (NY/ NJ based) and Lawrence 'Larry' Lucie. Larry Lucie was New York based & a top jazz guitarist whose career went back to the 1940's. He played with loads of the top jazz big bands & then got into recording work, shows & music teaching. In the mid to late 70's, he cut tracks for his own Toy Records but I don't think this label was connected with the early 70's Toy label that put out soul stuff. In the 1960's, Larry arranged cuts for Joe Haywood (a vocalist / drummer from Spartanburg, SC). Joe had earlier been a member of Larry Lucie's band. Joe Haywood's tracks were released on Bobby Robinson's Enjoy and Fury labels (NY based) plus on Deesu (NOla) but Deesu's Marshall Sehorn had close links with Bobby Robinson. So, it seems the 2 arrangers on the Bobby Joy sessions were New York based but don't know if Sentry Records was out of Philly or NJ / NY. Hope this helps.

Another South American item .......

Had to be the Virtue studio group guys (who became MFSB & also had Philly 45's out under numerous other names). They were on loads of Philly instrumentals dating way back to early Cameo / Parkway days (though some of the early tracks were taken up to New York for 'finishing' I believe). Thus we have tracks supervised by the likes of Broadway Eddie (Warhoftig) & attributed to the likes of Georgie Woods (the famous DJ) plus all the many Philly based label instro B sides that still credit the cut to the singer featured on the A ("The Horse" being an example). So who Big Al T was, I know not .... but it's a good bet that most of the musicians on "25 Miles" ended up as part of MFSB.

Great piece on this club ......... ... it's strange how this club's story matches that of a place in Liverpool's 'twinned' city HULL. Both were / are ports with the pluses & minuses that comes with that status. The L& Y Railway linked the cities, followed later by the M62. Eastern European immigrants heading for the US came into the UK at Hull & traveled across to Liverpool to catch a boat westwards. Lots of links between the 2 cities and Hull had its own Sink Club in the 60's ...... ... the Gondola was a coffee bar by day & a disco by night (the building didn't have a basement that was big enough to open to the public). So the coffee bar became a club and even hosted live singers (Chris Farlowe, etc) at times. The local 'in-crowd' met up there -- no booze, you had to get a 'pass-out' & shoot round the corner to the White House pub. Saturday afternoon & early evening was quite busy but many of the crowd would then head out (via Dony) to the Mojo allniters in Sheffield. The club's resident DJ, Ricky Dobbs, took his musical direction from the Mojo. A new big record at the Mojo was played to death at the Gondola a couple of weeks later. When the Mojo had to swap to alldayers to try & prevent the council shutting it down, bus trips were run for Gondola regulars to attend the dayers. So the Gondola was much like the Sink Club .... just displaced by around 130 miles.

Seems that Dunn passed away this morning after a Booker T & MG's gig in Tokyo ....we have lost another great soul musician ....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AafriqbxMcwadded by siteMusician Donald "Duck" Dunn,... Tap to view this Soul Source News/Article in full

A 45 from the Wicked one ......

I'd guess that the ABC 45 had strong DC connections as well ....... the name MizAX probably being derived from Max (Kidd), the writer of the song. DC soul was in transition in 1969; the earlier era of soul singers / groups such as Billy Stewart, the Unifics, Summits, Carltons, Emanons, Epsilons, 4 Bars seemed to die out after the big D.C. riots of 1968 that destroyed much of the local record biz (buildings, stock, etc). By the early 70's, funk was the big influence on local outfits such as the Soul Searchers who would spearhead the evolution into Go Go music. Max Kidd was hooked up with Curtom (probably via Donny Hathaway & LeRoy Hutson who were at college in DC) and had secured the Stridells a deal with the Chicago label. But with the majority of local labels out of business after the riots, Max probably took this outfit up to New York to get them a record deal. Anyone know in detail what Max Kidd was up to in 1968 & 1969 ??

The 45 in question ........

You don't mean this do you ........ ... https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Northern-Soul-Mizak-and-Flizaps-ABC-11222-DJ-Test-Me-Other-Si-LISTEN-/120908134089 SORRY for pasting it up before the bidding ended, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

A Mexican Motown EP ........

One from the Islands ..........

Used to go to nights at the Jungle Club (on harbor slip road) in Brid with the Hull crowd in 1967. .... then lived in Brid from 76 to 79 but wasn't 'on the scene' during those years (more into 70's soul & never took to Wigan stompers). So never went to Fingers (in fact -- unless it was near to the Woolies store in town, can't even remember the place). Used to attend the odd NS nite at Eggboro (or Drax) Power Stn Club though; dragged along by Paul Temple who used to visit us in Brid to plunder my 45 & LP collections.

.........But why were some records hits and some not on major labels? ...... That wasn't my query .......... I wanted to know why some none hit 45's were common, whilst others remain very rare (seemingly only getting pressed in very limited quantities ?) What was the logic behind this situation & why (SAY) was one failed MGM 45 around in the 100's whilst the Velours 45 wasn't ?? Are there rare Mercury / Phillips / Fontana soul 45's ? What about ABC ?? (ABC managers were so 'useless' they junked all unissued track master tapes coz they were 'taking up storage space' -- go figure !!).

What about Columbia / Epic / Date ..... many rare 60's 45's on those labels ? Same for Amy -Mala - Bell -- some do seem to be rare items ... but which are the rarest ? .... and (though not really a major as such) Chess / Checker / Cadet / Argo ? NOT rare coz so many collectors want a copy but genuinely rare singles please. Some labels seemed to use Ohio cities as a test bed & so only sent some 45's there ..... Baltimore was another major 'breakout city' where many 45's were sent to test their popularity, which labels just sent some 45's there ?

There are rare 45's on many US major labels from the 60's .... BUT how / why did this come about. Perhaps the easiest to explain are the rare Wand 45's .... lots of these were picked up from local labels and Scepter / Wand had lost interest in lots soon after they had licensed them. I guess they sent out many promo copies to radio stns on the original local label and when no stn playlisted the cuts, they just failed to press up many copies on Wand itself. By the mid 70's, many 45's were being recycled due to the oil crisis, so lots of stuff originally released say from 72 to 75 disappeared into the plastic mincer. But why are many MGM / Verve soul 45's so rare ................ I know the company had no idea how to promote such releases, but from the 1000's of 60's Verve / MGM soul 45's that were mass imported into the UK in the 70's it is obvious that they pressed up 100's of copies of the majority of their singles. So why are some of their 45's so rare ??? RCA were in a similar position to MGM in the 60's .... lots of stuff released, hardly anything effectively promoted. So which are the rare RCA 60's soul 45's and why ??? Warners / Loma again have similar releases (some that are listed just don't seem to exist at all !!) The Atlantic family seem to have few if any such 45's (& yet they licensed in a very high % as did Wand). Rare Motown 45's only seem to be those that were withdrawn before 'official' release. Are there many rare Capitol family rare 60's soul 45's (& I don't mean rare coz more collectors desire copies than have come onto the open market).

During the Wheel's allniter years of 67 / 68 / 69 / 70, the 'management' wanted punters out of place quite quickly at the end of the session ..... when the double doors were flung open, they wanted people to file out asap ..... I was there at the end on many such a night but can't recall what track/s were played but I'm sure it wasn't usually a dancer (otherwise those still with energy wouldn't have left the dancefloors). BB's "Call On Me" was a big Wheel (& personal) favorite but I can't recall if it was played at the end of the session on most / many ocassions. Someone here must recall what the last track played at many of the Wheel niters was.

Been discussed on another thread recently ... BUT the Mojo ender (back in 66 / 67) was split between .... Artistics "I'm Gonna Miss You" (also said to have been last ever record played at Mojo b4 it closed) ..... OR ...... Billy Stewart "Exodus".

Can't tell you about that specific version ..... BUT this 45 was released 3 or 4 times on legit copies.

Love the 'remix' releases ..... have too many orig PI cuts on vinyl (45 & LP) + some CD's to invest in the big box set but can't wait for the Rareties & unissued stuff.

IAN, being totally selfish ..... every unissued Philly Int Jones Girls & / or Shirley jones track available. Love the Jones Girls stuff (almost) as much as I love The Emotions Volt cuts.

60's UK Motown & Atl / Stax / Stateside should make decent prices (not Supremes LP's though). US 60's by 'good' artists; again decent prices (if they contain none 45 dancers). 70's & 80's; some decent prices ..... many not !!!

Any chance that the Cecil Womack produced Peace Int track by Young Disciples (group name may be wrong ?) will gain release as part of one of the proposed CD sets ??

Dave Godin at Soul City had many many copies (just about all issues) of the US 45 within days of its US release. No idea if Bell sent him them with a view to him releasing it on Soul City but he definitely had a few 20 x boxs of the 45. On every ocassion that I & my mates travelled down from the north to visit the Soul City shop, he would try to sell us all a copy. Just about all of us had bought a copy on our initial visit & so kept turning down the chance to buy a 2nd issue copy for around 12/- (60 p). ..... Obviously we made a sound financial decision at the time !!!!! We all knew that a spare US issue copy would never really be of any use to us & we didn't bother to invest in one.

Happier times (commercially) for soul music ..... the US POP chart in May 1972 .....

Stan (The Record Man) Lewis was the go to guy if you needed some good soul 45's ....... He'd even sell you stuff on his own Jewel, Paula & Ronn labels !!!