Roburt

Last post from me for a few days . ...... but more later on my return .....

A chart from 1970 ..........

Apart from the odd touring soul revue back in the 60's (Motown, Stax, etc), the nearest we have ever got to this in the UK were the Prestatyn NS Weekender bills (+ a few Southport Weekender bills back in the 80's)

The Wilson Pickett Show drew to its conclusion at the Royal Theatre on 21st July, 1966. Only 4 weeks earlier, they had set up for a big soul show across town at the Civic Centre. The Civic Centre seated a lot bigger audience, so could afford to pay the acts higher fees. ONLY TROUBLE WAS, at municipal venues like the Civic, they only got to play for one night. The days of playing 7 night stints at the big city Chitlin Circuit Theatres was brought to a close ............. and as a consequence, the number of gigs the acts secured started to drop.

After Calculated Productions went 'belly up' .... Beau Ray Fleming signed on with Capitol .... here he was assigned Smokin' Joe Frazier to work with.

Chris Calloway in person ........

Chris Calloway also gets a mention here (as does Beau Ray Fleming, Calculated Productions, Dean Courtney & the Partnership, Venture & Way Out Records).

No, thats not short for blackboard ... BUT ... Billboard. As the Jobettes thread has turned all 'techie' thought I'd jump over here ............

That's because tiff files aren't as 'compressed' as jpegs ..... so they tend to be less distorted & reproduce better (in CD booklets / on album covers).

Another Billboard upload ...........

I know that the title track itself isn't the reason that Bobby T's Prelude album was released on CD and its also not the track that still has people chasing copies of the original LP, but it is still a decent uptempo offering. I have it on Italian 7" (c/w "Is Something Wrong With You"). My question is (probably one for the dealers) .......... was this track released anywhere else on 45 ??

Yep, that's how I do it, exactly as Sebastion says. It was the way I got a copy of this ad for a show in Florida on 12th October 1969. By then Archie was out of the military & back in the USA ...............

Atlantic licensed Archie Bell's "Tighten Up" around Xmas 1967. They pressed up promo 45's with "Dog Eat Dog" as the A side in early January. These were sent out to US radio stations in mid & late January. The first 'issue' version of the 45 was in the shops / with magazine reviewers in the first week of February 1968. The 45 "Tighten Up" entered the US Billboard Top 100 chart (at No. 43) on 6th April 1968. So it took around 3 months for the Atlantic 45 to make the national charts. See the Billboard 6th April 68 Soul Chart below (with insert of 45 review from same mag early Feb 68)........

The Apollo seats / seated 1500 folks.

Been written about loads of times in the past but just in case u don't know this ......... Archie Bell "Tighten Up" 45 was initially put out with this cut as the B side. A radio DJ flipped it over (weeks after the 45 had been sent out I seem to recall) & the track took off. Soon, other radio jocks in different cities were playing it & the song became a big hit. Only trouble was ........ by then ........ Archie had been called up & was overseas serving his country. Atlantic needed an album to exploit the success of 45 & not enough AB&Dr cuts were in the Ovide cupboard. So they assembled various Ovide guys & a few extra AB&Dr's tracks were made. These were sent off to Atlantic & the LP was released. Meanwhile Archie was trying to get leave to get back to the US to promote his record -- no way were the military cooperating. Not being in the US to promote his hit, loads of fake Archies went on the road & made money performing the song. Archie even got to hear (with his army buddies) "Tighten Up" on AFN radio & told them "Hey, that's me" .. of course it is they said, not believing him !!! Eventually Atlantic pulled some strings & he was able to get back to New York / Philly to cut some new stuff for follow-up 45's. These were released & a few more were hits (3 or 4). But by the time he got out of the services, he had lost loads of 'maximum earning' time and the fact that the 'real' AB&Dr's hadn't been able to tour to promote their hits meant they never really were able to cash in on their early success. The group did last for many years, had loads more hits & got to establish themselves as a credible 'live act' but would have been much bigger if they could have 'gotten out there' playing major US venues many months earlier.

The Kenny Carter on Renee is a blinding piece of vinyl !!

If a reissue company (Numero & / or Kent would be best) snagged the Way Out catalogue, they'd also get access to Way Out's later releases. These were put out on the Jenesis & SoJamm labels.

Dante Carfagna has just about every Cleveland soul 45 documented on his site ........ https://www.ohiosoulrecordings.com/

Chicago's Numero Group seem to have a fair slice of old Cleveland soul product sewn up. They bought up the Boddie Records / Studio output last year and have already issued quite a few tasty items ........ see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWGHiotuycM. We have already had a few rare 45's, some previously unissued tracks, the Mod Squad demo LP (this group grew / changed to become Sly, Slick & Wicked) and in the very near future they are issuing the COMPLETE Lou Ragland record collection (all the tracks EVER released on Lou + Lou & Hot Chocolate's live album & a couple of unreleased things). The only extensive catalogue that they have yet to land is the Way Out (& associated labls) output. That really is the prize as only about a 1/3 of what the organisation recorded ever escaped on vinyl. In the Way Out vaults there are certainly more Lou Ragland related cuts plus numerous tracks from the Sensations, Bobby Wade, Soul Notes, Fred Toles, the Occasions, Exceptional Three & many more.

I don't remember getting this caliber of record review in the Dony Free Press back in the day. I'll even forgive the reviewer for assuming Chris Bartley was a female as he had the good taste to select a few decent cuts to write about.

Bet you could have bought Nella's 45 here ......... .... I only live up the road from Wallingford . Unfortunately, its Wallingford, Oxfordshire I live near, not THIS Wallingford.

Poor old Nella, seems everyone was getting her 'stage name' wrong. Kenny Hamber was around on the same club circuit scene as Nella back in 64 / 65. ........ Kenny knew both Della ... whoops NELLA and her mother, By all accounts it was Nella's mum that hooked Arthur Conley up with Harold Holt & Band .......this leading to the ensembles 45 on Ru-Jac ....... that Otis Redding got to hear ... thus getting Arthur signed up with Jotis Records ... which led to "Sweet Soul Music" eventually being released. ............ Ain't life funny at times !!!!! BTW, Kenny H also tells me that Harold Holt & Band had two resident singers at the same time around 1964 ......... Arthur Conley & Nella Dodds !!!

What Nella looked like as a 14 yr old ......

Yes, I spelt deliberate wrongly ... BUT then ..... I meant to, so thats alright !!! Guess the guy that wrote this piece wasn't too happy when he read the title they had attached to his efforts .....

The same sort of thing was also happening in Baltimore (& just about every other big city across the US). In Baltimore, DC & the like, new 'municipal' arenas were opening up for soul acts. Some clubs saw what was coming & tried to go upmarket. Places such as the Club Venus (purpose built in a new shopping centre development) competed with the bigger venues for a few years but were eventually priced out of business ......