Roburt

When we Brits started chasing copies of the Gypsies "Jerk It" around 68 / 69, the only easy US copy you could get your hands on was an Oldies reissue copy.

A further bit of irrelevant info ......... when I flew home from NY / Newark back in those days, I always had a backpack as my carry-on luggage. All my clothes & other bits (a few 45's / LP's I'd managed to pick up on my US travels) would go in the main suitcases in the hold, but my backpack carry-on would be strapped to my back. I'd do my best to make it seem that it was as light as a feather as I boarded the plane & got off back in the UK. I'd stroll thru immigration & out into airport arrivals to find my 'lift' or catch the shuttle bus to where I'd left the car. The weight of the backpack would be killing me all the while as it would be stuffed to overflowing with CD's. Since 9 /11 (the World Trade Towers) you can't get anything on a plane into or out of the US, so those days are now long gone.

BTW, Wilson Pickett started out singing with the Violinaires around the mid 50's (the group were established in 1952). History of the group ........ https://www.thefantasticviolinaires.org/vpages/history.html They are still going strong today (now known as Robert Blair & the Fantastic Violinaires) & Charles Brown is still with them. Around 1999 / 2000 I used to drop in to see a woman I knew who worked for Bounce Records / PPI in Newark NJ. They were releasing Dunn Pearson tracks at that time & had hooked Dunn up with Beau Huggins Hush organisation (Freddie Jackson, Najee, etc). Anyway, as I was from the UK, she used to give me copies of all their releases & at that time they also represented Atlanta gospel label Grammercy. Grammercy had put out loads of CD's by old school gospel group and Robert Blair & the Fantastic Violinaires were one of these. So I ended up with 4/5 copies of every current Grammercy CD, Robert Blair & the Fantastic Violinaires' 'All About Jesus' being one of them. No idea where most of these spare copies have got to (in boxes in the loft / garage no doubt), but the CD contained some good tracks.

I have no actual info to refute your dating Robb but would guess this reissue came at the end of your suggested timescale. The Incredibles gained a UK release around September 1967 but (to the best of my knowledge) the UK 45 wasn't getting extensive club plays until 1969. I & my friends started looking for copies of it around early 1970 , by then UK copies of the 45 had just about dried up (unless you were lucky or bought a 2nd hand copy). So we chased US copies & we just about all got one ... BUT ... no one I know turned up an Era copy, we all found original copies. Maybe, it was around the end of 1970 or 1971 (or a bit later still) when Brits had been chasing US copies of this 45 for a while that it was licensed for reissue on Era.

I have some Designer 45's but not too many considering how many were issued. BACKGROUND INFO from JUST MOVING ON website ........... .... Designer is probably the label with the most gospel 45s released in the 1970s. Somewhere between 400 and 500 singles were released between 1968 and 1978. There were about 15 Designer albums released. Style Wooten and Charles Bowen were the men in charge of Designer. Memphis,Tennessee was Designer's hometown. Most of the artists on Designer were from Memphis and the Mid-South of the USA. Designer put some small ads in (local) newspapers "for $ 425 you can become a star". One record session for two songs and 500 pressed 45s was what you got for $ 425. The early releases were in 1968, the one you're after info on was a 1970 release. I'll ask a gospel expert I know if he has this 45 (my guess is that he will have it). If so, I'll pass along the info.

The CD has to contain tracks cut by most of this lot ..........

....... RE: Googa Mooga records being the 1st bootlegs, I'd have to say no to that. However, I don't doubt that their 'US sourced releases' could have been put out without the US label owner's permission. Probably the guys who licensed the 1st Eddie Parker were sent copies of his other 'recent releases' by Jack. Jack hoping they would come back to license some of these additional tracks but perhaps they just went ahead & put them out anyway. In Europe in the 60's (& early 70's), it was NOT UNCOMMON for a US recording to be dubbed off a mint copy of the US 45, a stamper made & UK / French / German label 45's run off (President / JayBoy did this most of the time I'm led to believe). ALSO, it's my understanding that very little of the stuff released on the UK Sue label from its start up to the mid / late 60's was actually licensed from the US parent companies. The guy running Sue (& I can't bring his name to mind at present) just found copes of US 45's he liked (blues & soul tracks), copied them to tape, ran stampers off, pressed up Sue copies & distributed them to UK record shops. So, bootleggers came later ........ but not everything that was done by European label owners in the 60's was legal & above board.

Mark, Have they recorded anything ?? If so, did the guy give you a CD of their tracks (hope so) ?

I'd like as many test pressings of soul 45's from this place as I can get my hands on

And you ain't got any solo tracks by him on the CD .. but here's the Violinaires lead singer, Charlie 'Cole Black' Brown, back then ......

The Soul Stirrers (again back in their Jewel days) ..........

The Violinaires (back in their Jewel days coz they're still going today) .......

Willie Morganfield ...........

Dee (Delcitia) Wellmon is a lady based out of Philly who has been involved with the music / entertainment biz for years. She currently runs Ragin Rhythms Connect ........ https://www.raginrhyt...t/about_us.html In the past she worked with (for ?) W.M.O.T. records & TEC Records. She also ran her own label; Visions East. You can contact her via the above web site .... or via ......... Ragin` Rhythms Connection, LLC, 1949 West Pacific Street, Suite #4 Philadelphia, Pa. 19140 ---- 215-223-0662 e-mail her on .......... info@raginrhythmsconnect.net HOPE THIS HELPS.

Here's one I originally picked up on 45 in a B&S soul pack way back in 1972 or 73. The Violinaires take the "Sweet Soul Music" idea across to God's side of the tracks (come on James Brown, Reffa & the Wicked one). ............. Now, this just has to be on the CD !!!!!!!!!!!!!

"God Has Been Good" the Violinaires ..........

Willie Morganfield made some great tracks for Jewel ............ This one is almost deep soul .... OR the Violinaires "God Has Been Good" which is also as close to deep soul as it's poss to get. Will either of the above be on the CD ?? The Violinaires "Groovin With Jesus" is almost funk, "He Touched Me" is more deep soul AND "Tryin To Get Ready" is a fine uptempo track --- but you can't use those cuts as they were all done for Chess.

Bob, do you know the names of the guys in the group & if they cut any other tracks (in Cleveland or closer to home) ??

More bits cobbled together from a copy of the mag ........

Charlie Brown's solo efforts (well the 2 I've heard) were soul cuts not gospel, but of course he still sounded the same as when he was singing lead for the Violinaires. Didn't Jewel (& other labels) persuade a few gospel group lead singers to try out on solo soul cuts before the singers themselves decided that they didn't really want to sing secular stuff.

BTW, The Imperial Wonders pissed off the Solid Foundation people by signing a national deal with Musicor in 1973. So the label signed up a random group, called them the Four Wonders, cut tracks on them & released a 45. Seems (as always) that the label owners wanted everything their own way & got frazzled when a group did the dirty on them.

Here's a (beat up) piccy of 9th Street Exit ..... Dunn Pearson (piano) is on the far right. Other group members are Kenny Redd (Kenneth Redon -- guitar), Benny Slocum (drums), Ernest Cary (bass) & Kenneth Hollins (percussion). The group, who were originally known as 'Shades Of Soul', cut an LP full of tracks for the label .. PLUS they backed up Jessie Fisher on enough tracks to release an album on him !!! Both albums were due for release in June / July 1974.

By all accounts, Vault Records were a dodgy outfit. The label bosses bought the Chambers Bros contract from ABC in 1965 (I know not why ABC signed the group & then sold the contract on to Vault but they did). The group's ABC contract was for 3 records (45's / LP's ?) & had stipulated royalty payments designated. Vault went on to release 5 LP's by them, plus numerous 45's & put their tracks on some compilation albums. They then licensed the group's tracks for release overseas (as per Tommy Neal & Popcorn Wylie). In all the time the group were on Vault (including residuals for later selling on of tracks for reissue), they never received one (thin) dime from Vault !!!

Still waitin' on that train ..........

I've come across more info on when Virgie Till teamed up with Sonny Til. Seems that Sonny & the Orioles secured long tenure bookings in Miami in the summers of 1957 & 1958. On both occasions, the group were booked (for up to 24 weeks) to appear on Cab Calloway's Cotton Club Revue at a Miami Beach hotel. On at least one of these occasions, Virgie accompanied Sonny on the trip (well, she was born in Miami though both her parents had passed by then). If they first 'got together' in 1957, that would have made her just 16 years old !!!! No wonder, Sonny wanted people to think that she was his sister.