Roburt

Piccy cover of the O'Kaysions 7" .......

3 US Soul City goodies on this here un .......

Don Davis takes Bobby Bland to Canada (via Detroit)

A foreign copy ..........

I'm into intense soul vocals (deep style stuff; Lorraine Ellison, Linda Jones, Knight Bros, Garnet Mimms, etc.) .... but I still like me a bit of an instro track .... two that spring to mind ..... a 60's UK club play ....... Bobby Moore -- Hey, Mr. D.J. and 1 I don't recall ever getting plays: the O'Kaysions -- Soul Clap (.... 2nd one was LP only I believe but I have it on a 7" jukebox album) (don't know how the O'Kaysions ended up with the track as it's a Johnny Pate song)

A few WEBB radio charts from the first 3 months of 1964 ....... Jay Wiggins was doing OK with "Forgive Then Forget" BUT .... there was only one winner : Stevie Wonder - No.1 for 5 weeks

Unearthed another gig that the group were on, this time at Balt Civic Center in mid June 68. The other acts on the bill included the Dells, O'Jays, 5 Stairsteps, Magnificent Men, Fashions & Shorty Long. They were still advertised as being Frankie & the Spinners and this was only days before their 1st 45 was released.

I like their T Neck / UK Epic 45 track "It Feels So Good" from 1984. I have their 1st UK 45, it was released on UK Decca on 7th April 1972 (got it on a demo & it states the release date).

I've found out a couple of UK Epic 45's by the group. Unfortunately they date from 1982/84 & were T Neck label releases in the US. A bit of background on them ...... originally from Kansas City but spent some years gigging around California. Got p*ssed off & so returned to Kansas to re-invent themselves. Had some tracks in the can but didn't want to release them as by the Sinceres. Renamed themselves Bloodstone & managed to land a UK tour in 72 as support for Al Greene. Went down a storm in the UK, so Decca signed them up. Initially a couple of their Sinceres US recordings were put out here on Decca before they were teamed with Mike Vincent. He took them off to Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire & here they cut "Natural High" (UK Pop Top 40 in August 73). Some of the guys got homesick; Melvin Webb quit & headed back to the US, whilst Roger Durham died. Group enjoyed loads more success in the US but never made the UK pop charts again. Relocated back to the US in the mid 70's.

would guess that the tracks that were to form the 45 were (AT LEAST) cut & mixed down. At some stage there was obviously a big falling out between the group & Epic. This may have happened after the proposed 45 was allocated a release number but before copies actually hit the shops. Whether promo / radio stn copies were pressed up I don't know (maybe they were pressed up & then not sent out due to whatever the dispute between the two parties was). I'd guess there's a master tape sat somewhere in LA and maybe a couple of acetates kicking around somewhere in the US. The proposed Epic 45 doesn't seem to have been reviewed in Billboard, so I'd think no issue copies ever existed but that's just me adding 2 + 2 and getting 5.

As this release consists of ......... slip-cased two CD collections that comes complete with a free Haynes Mini Guide and illustrated eight page booklet ......... I can see that (at under a fiver incl P&P) these could well become collectors items. I know that if the CD booklet front cover was put out as a poster (12" x 12"), I'd buy one & frame it up for the record room.

Bloodstone were trying to get their name back in front of the record buying public in early 1979. That pril they did a PA at LA discount record store, Freeway Records. This massive R & B related store organised a massive sale day on Good Friday that year. Loads of artists were invited along to 'meet' the public. Bloodstone were one such outfit, as was Ray Parker & Raydio, Alton McClain & Destiny, Undisputed Truth, Apollo, Glass Family plus Bobby Womack, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Harvey Mason, Tate Vega, Vernon Burch, etc. The store was selling didcounted vinyl that day & to attract extra customers ran a 'disco' on their parking lot before getting Rare Gems to perform a set actually inside the store. They certainly don't have days like that down anyone's local record shop these days. Boodstone must already have been working in the studio for Motown by this date (mid April 79)and seeking to re-establish links with their old audience.

Of course, T Neck was distributed by Epic when Bloodstone were signed with the Isley Bros label (1982) but I guess neither they (or the Isley's) cared too much about that situation. Another 'even sooner' link with CBS / Epic came via Al Johnson. Johnson had been signed (by Norman Connors) to a deal with Columbia in 1979. At the same time that he & Norman were laying down his first recordings for CBS, Al was working with Bloodstone on their first tracks for Motown (after the group had finally managed to escape their Epic deal). STRANGE OLD WORLD AIN'T IT !!

Just checked Billboard mag & in the edition dated 26th February 1977 its reported that Bloodstone had left London Records to sign with Epic on a contract supposedly worth $2.7 million. Guess, sumat went wrong with that deal as Epic certainly didn't get their money's worth from the group (who had resigned to Motown by 1979). UPDATE: Billboard in early March 77 re-report group's signing with Epic but state deal was NOT worth $2.7 million. HOWEVER, the 2 year gap in releases after they signed with Epic (for a group that had enjoyed 8 US hit soul chart 45's / 6 US pop chart hits in the previous 3 years) does seem to suggest that they were 'tied in' at Epic and were unable to escape that contract to sign with another label.

Record biz folklore has it that when 'reggae involved' record companies such as Island & loads of the London West Indian related indies needed to clear out storeroom space, lots of 'unsold / unwanted' 45's were taken up to a municipal waste tip just outside St Albans and dumped there. Reggae /soul specialist related London based distributors also followed the same practice (or so I'm told). Guess there wasn't a record collector on the 'staff' at the tip back then !!!

I love me some Bloodstone; not least because when they had just changed from the Sinceres to become Bloodstone, they relocated to the UK. They worked a lot (with Mike Vincent) just up the road from where I now live, in Chipping Norton. Unfortunately, the studio was pulled down a few years back (a workmate was around at the time & pulled loads of acetates out of the skips set up by the studio when it was being stripped down) -- such a 'den' wouldn't be allowed up there now, Chippy's where our Prime Minister, the News International skels & loads of actors / TV presenters live. Anyway back to Bloodstone, I have tons of their stuff (London, Motown, T Neck recorded tracks) and my task of helping you is complicated by the fact that some of their T Neck stuff was released in the UK on CBS / Epic ...... ALSO ...my collection is in such a state of disarray (filing wise) that it takes me days to unearth a specific 45 if I'm looking for it (the time taken being much extended as I find other 'forgotten gems' along the way). But I will look & will post again if I have any luck with regard to this 1977 single. BTW, I was in touch with ex group member Charles McCormick in the 1980's and have a cassette full of his unreleased solo efforts here somewhere (don't ask me to find it though !!).

There was a new guy in town back in 1957 .... well, in Detroit, St Louis & Cleveland at least .....

I for one never ever check out the sales, events or magazines section. Also never look at articles or gallery (which is just too much like hard work with 1000's of things to wade through to find owt interesting). I am however a regular visitor to 'All About The Soul', 'Look At Your Box' and sometimes dip into 'All Our Yesterdays'. Guess it's 'horses 4 courses' for everyone here, but I find some sections very interesting & others a total bore.

I'm sure re-issue labels put out tracks on vinyl coz they SELL, simple as that !!!

Was Johnny Dunn Paul Dunn's uncle ??

1963 ........ It was a very good year for ........

The bar in the refurbed theatre ............

Back to the Howard Theater in DC ......... it has been refurbished & reopened .......... READ a Washington Post article about it here (click on 'musicians recall past times at theater' section) ......https://www.washingto...5VxS_story.html Amongst the people remembering the old days at the Howard, is a member of the Fawns ..... Ayana "Ann" Harrell, 61, and her sisters Mia and Avis were singers in theFawns. They performed at the Howard Theatre in 1970. ........ The Marvelettes had the best stage show. They had more dance music, like "Please, Mr. Postman" and "Don't Mess With Bill." They had the best choreography. They were sassy " sassy in their movement and sassy in their delivery. [For] "Don't Mess With Bill," [it was] hands on your hip, shaking your finger at the female audience that might think about messing with their boyfriend. We were typical teenagers, you know, screaming and going crazy. We'd be singing along and dancing and clapping and just totally excited, because you probably had worn the grooves off of that 45 and played it so many times. It was just like having that record come alive. It became real to you, and it was magical. You hung on to that memory when you went home and put that 45 on again. We only performed there once. We had a local hit called "Bless You" at that time. We had these black pantsuits that had fringe on the arm. Joe Simon was the headliner. It was amazing. We felt like we were living our dream. We just got very lucky. The Howard was going downhill. There weren't many acts coming through there like it had been. We were just very grateful that we could say we got the opportunity to perform at the Howard, because it's an iconic place. That was an indelible moment for us. We had no idea that that would be the last show there. I don't think anybody really knew. Our name and that particular show stayed on the marquee for years, I understand. It was closed down and boarded up, but they just hadn't taken the marquee down.

And "Smokey Joe's La La" is on this chart as well ..........

"Smokey Joe's La La" was on the Philly & Pittsburgh Pop charts in March 1966 ........... (but then Deon Jackson, Z Z Hill, Sam & Bill, Mitty Collier, Mary Wells, Mad Lads, Isley Bros, Darrow Fletcher, Eddie Holman, Bob Kuban, Kim Weston & Lee Dorsey were also on some of these charts) ............