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Roburt

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Everything posted by Roburt

  1. Leader of the Soul Searchers back in the early 70's and DC Go Go star Chuck Brown has passed away. Affectionately known as the Godfath... Tap to view this Soul Source News/Article in full
  2. Before Richard Searling hit Radio Hallam (Sheffield) for the 1st time around 1980, there was a Saturday evening soul show (might have been presented by Kelly Temple but it was an 'everyday' Hallam DJ who had this one soul show each week). Anyway, he always had a NS spot, the records (about 3 each week I seem to recall) were provided by Worksop DJ / collector / dealer Pete Ward. Many years earlier (1973/4-ish), Hallam had a specialist guy on who always had a NS show but I think he bought a record shop in Worksop & went off to run that.
  3. Brenton Wood out of Italy ........ A big 45 (as a new US release) at the Mojo Club in Sheffield.
  4. Jimmy Ricks was born in Adrian, Georgia before his family relocated to Florida... Tap to view this Soul Source News/Article in full
  5. Roburt

    Jimmy Ricks

    Jimmy Ricks was born in Adrian, Georgia before his family relocated to Florida. During World War 2, he moved to New York where he worked as a waiter at the 400 Tavern in Harlem (148th Street & St. Nicholas Ave). Whilst there, he met Warren 'Birdland' Suttles who originally hailed from Alabama. In early 1946, they decided to form a vocal group and recruited Leonard "Zeke" Puzey (who had just won a talent contest at the Apollo Theater) and 'Ollie' Jones. They found a manager, Ben Bart, and an accompanist, Howard Biggs, and made their first recordings for Bart's small Hub record label. They called themselves the Ravens and so initiated the trend for vocal groups to name themselves after birds. Although the group were strongly influenced by the Ink Spots & the Mills Bros, they used Ricks' bass voice rather than a more conventional tenor as the lead on their recordings and this became their trademark style. The Ravens primarily existed to showcase Ricks voice; he made Isaac Hayes sound like Betty Boop. Ricks' voice became the standard against which every rhythm and blues bass was measured for the next decade. The group had quite a few big chart hits, making it onto the national R&B chart 11 times over a 4 year period (1948 to 1952). This success made them a popular live act and they could command a fee of $2,000 dollars a night. However, Ricks quickly developed an attitude problem and his ego resulted in Howard Biggs quitting. After their initial single, "Honey", Jones had left the group and was replaced by Maithe Marshall. The contrast between Ricks' bass voice and Marshall's tenor soon became an important part of the group's success. They left the Hub label in 1947 to join National Records for whom they had immediate hits (the 1st one making the national chart early in January 1948). Their success with National prompted King to license some of their old Hub tracks for release and one of these even made the US Top 10 in summer 1948. Also that year they were landing gigs at prestigious venues such as the Adams Theater in Newark, NJ, Chicago's Regal Theater, the Million Dollar Theater in LA and a two week long stint at the Club Bali in Washington, DC. 1949 saw them play the Apollo a number of times plus the Paradise Theater in Detroit, the Royal Roost in NY (47th & Broadway), L.A.'s Club Oasis, the Earle Theater in Philly and Broadway's Bop City (Manhattan). Their run of R&B successes continued through to early 1950, with the basic line-up of Ricks, Suttles, Puzey, and Marshall essentially remaining together for several years. The group signed with Columbia & Okeh Records in 1950, before moving to Mercury the following year. In 1951 Marshall and Puzey both left, being replaced by Joe Van Loan and various other shorter-term group members. The group had its final hit on the R&B chart in October / November 1952, when "Rock Me All Night Long" rose to No. 4 (the highest position one of the group's 45's had ever reached). Unfortunately it was to be their last chart entry and in 1953 some of the recordings released as by the group were actually solo efforts by Jimmy. But with the rise of R&R, their style had became increasingly unfashionable. After several break ups within the group, Jimmy's version of the Ravens signed with Jubilee in 1955. But he soon quit the group to try for a solo career (1956). Jimmy must still have been something of a 'handful' to deal with and this showed as he was signed to 6 different labels before the end of the decade (Josie, Baton in 1957, Decca & Felsted being some of these). He was without a record deal in 1958 but was signed up by Felsted Records in 1959. Felsted Records was part of the Decca family and operated out of the New York office of London Records. They were very prolific with their releases in 1959, putting out 96 singles and about 3 LP's (one of these by the Jimmy Wisner Trio). Jimmy's first release for the label was "Secret Love" and this escaped early that summer. His new record label must have put some promotional effort behind this 45 as it seemed to do quite well (radio play wise) in the 'breakout' market of Baltimore. Here it seems to have been a popular track on radio stations WSID and WITH and this helped Jimmy secure two bookings at the top 'chitlin circuit' venue of Carr's Beach (near Annapolis) in September that year. He appeared on a bill with Hank Ballard & the Midnighters plus Faye Adams on Sunday 6th September and returned alongside the Bill Doggett Trio the following day. Jimmy continued to record as a solo singer without too much commercial success throughout the 1960's. He had records out on Atlantic, Atco ("Daddy Rolling Stone" with the Raves), Fury, Felsted Records (an earlier recording ?), Mainstream, Sure Shot, Festival ("Oh, What A Feeling") & Jubilee. Having lost his solo recording contract by 1970, he and Suttles got back together and temporarily revived the Ravens (adding additional members Gregory Carroll & Jimmy Breedlove) in 1971. At the time of his death, at the age of 49 in 1974, he was the vocalist for the Count Basie Orchestra.
  6. Another Brazilian EP ..... .. this one features the Coles & Barrett Strong ..
  7. No Bob, I think he's saying that many moons ago (30 years ?), this track was a top NS club play.
  8. Roburt

    Duck Dunn Rip

    Seems that Dunn passed away this morning after a Booker T & MG's gig in Tokyo .... we have lost another great soul musician .... added by site Musician Donald "Duck" Dunn, the pioneering bass player whose grooves drove Booker T and the MGs and hits including Otis Redding's Respect has died in Tokyo, age 70. Dunn was in Tokyo for a series of shows. News of his death was posted on the Facebook site of his friend and fellow musician Steve Cropper, who was on the same tour. Cropper said Dunn died in his sleep. "Today I lost my best friend, the world has lost the best guy and bass player to ever live," wrote Crooper. Miho Harasawa, a spokeswoman for Tokyo Blue Note, the last venue Dunn played, confirmed he died alone early Sunday. She had no further details. read rest of news article here http://www.guardian....o?newsfeed=true official website http://www.duckdunn.com/index.html
  9. ..... More info on Joe Haywood ....... https://music.yahoo.com/joe-haywood/ https://www.sirshambling.com/artists_2012/H/joe_haywood/index.php
  10. 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.
  11. Another South American item .......
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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
  15. A 45 from the Wicked one ......
  16. 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 ??
  17. The 45 in question ........
  18. 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.
  19. A Mexican Motown EP ........
  20. One from the Islands ..........
  21. 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.
  22. .........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 !!).
  23. 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 ?
  24. 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).
  25. 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.


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