Roburt

No idea if this has had plays in a NS room setting (& even though I usually like soul tracks to have vocals, this would get me out on the floor) …

Seems that the play about the Temptations' story is doing big business on Broadway at present … extract from last Wall St Journal ... ALSO Otis Williams (currently touring the UK with the group) has said it's almost certain it will transfer to the UK in the near future …

Well I posted up a set of reviews that included 16 great soul 45's, so it was pretty obvious when I said there were no decent releases.

Ever heard of sarcasm … lots of us Brits use it all the time. Mayfield Singers, Flamingos, Little Milton, Freddie Scott, Janet & the Jays + Jimmy Radcliffe are my faves.

Seems a bit strange if they're all the same guy as he seemed to have links to New York, New England, Nashville & Detroit … quite a wide geographic spread there ... his Stag 45 had Detroit links as did the others tracks released on Stag … There was a vocalist with the Midnight Movers who MAY have been the same guy (the group had started out touring as Wilson Pickett's backing band but then went out on their own with Johnny handling vocals for them). There was another (?) Johnny Starr that operated out of Nashville who was more of a country folk singer (& could well have been the same guy who had Starr Studios and cut stuff released on Johnny Starr Showland Studios label).

A way of getting an idea of how the London club scene changed between (say) 1960, 1964 and 1968 is to look at Rik Gunnell's career …. He started out running jazz clubs and got involved with the Flamingo in it's later jazz times, he then took the club into it's R&B phase (with the likes of Georgie Fame & others). He took on the management of Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band (which led indirectly to the Ram Jam Club in Brixton), the Bag O'Nails followed next for him. But by 68, music tastes had evolved with blues rock groups coming to the fore. He dropped some R&B acts and got others to change their musical style. He took on bands such as Chicken Shack and Glass Menagerie (a Lancs psych pop outfit). But he was losing his influence (becoming a follower rather than a leader), so he sold his management company to Robert Stigwood and moved to New York ...

At the top of the stairs there's ...

This had quite a few MS fans heading straight for the dancefloor back in the day …

I'm a soul fan, not a NS fan … so I always include ALL the soul 45's that get released / reviewed. I did know what you meant BUT being a Yorkshireman, had to try to wind you up.

You missed just about the best 2 soul 45's reviewed that week -- the Impressions & the Otis Clay.

Shufflin Shufflin, I like modern soul & so think I'm more likely to appreciate more newer releases than a 'dyed in the wool' 60's fan … but if you actually believe that these days we regularly get up to 30 good new US soul 45's release per fortnight (the reviews above are for new US 45's in July 66), then I would have to take issue with you.

Seems the reviewer liked the Charades 45, as he'd already given it his attention a few days earlier … one of the other 45's he looked at …

Lots of folk complain that there isn't the quality of decent new soul 45 releases these days … I'd agree ... BUT things weren't always so great back in (even) the 60's … to illustrate this, here's a list of mag singles reviews from a 2/3 week period back in July 1966 … I'm sure you'll agree, there's not much of interest to us here …

A more recent outing … a classy dancer with an ol skool vibe …

The 80's are viewed by many as a 'soul wasteland' … lots of substandard output … BUT … if you lived in the Yorks / Notts / Derbys area you could tune in every Saturday evening to Searling's 'SOUL SAUCE' on Radio Hallam. Richard would find quality new releases to play every week (not all dance tempo) and he kept Modern Soul lovers in the loop for quite a few years (till forced out from Hallam & immediately getting a new show on Red Rose). The brains getting weaker by the week these days but he certainly introduced us to goodies from the likes of Zingara, Revelation (a UK 45 release), Chuck Cissel, Peabo Bryson, Keni Burke, Anita Baker, Arthur Adams, Johnny Taylor, L.T.D, Al Johnson (with Jean Carne) and many more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogfXFiMSDtU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5UmhvvlFkM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyCRm_eqIsw

By the time WCKO was going strong, most radio stns had dropped their old 'local label plays' policy (some TK and Alston stuff was still played, the more popular artists at least) .... but the chart below featured one local obscurity … AND .. the label was based just up the road from Souls Place …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZdJHRDu5Rc

Souls Place was a club located at NW 2nd Ave & 36th St in Miami. Both those were busy roads (N-S & E-W), so that particular x-road was a good place to be located. ALSO it's just to the east of the (then) new I-95 freeway and south of the I-195 freeway. So that junction survived the mass demolition that occurred when the new freeway system was blasted thru Miami. Lots of the old black clubs were swept away when the freeways were constructed, but Souls Place survived. As an established venue for local blacks, it must have prospered when other venues were shut & the buildings demolished. WCKO / WRBD was located in Ft Lauderdale to the north of this area, but the old main US highway (route 1 - which goes all the way to New York) is just east of where Souls Place was & so it was an easy place to reach. As I said above, WCKO radio stn was based out of (Pompano Beach in) Fort Lauderdale, it grew out of stn WRBD which had been going strong from the early 60's till 1972. So it's likely the WRBD / WCKO DJ's would head south after their radio shift to meet up with other Miami black radio DJ's & local celebs at Souls Place (36th St -- route 27 -- was the main route to Miami Beach). No doubt, Ian Levine would know a lot more than me about those times as my personal knowledge is from more recent times (+ research I've done about the Miami soul scene in the 60's / 70's). The X-Rds where Souls Place was located (recent pic) ...

I really enjoyed 'Blues Night: 3. Chicago Blues' which I'd seen before. In fact I lifted a still from the show & used it in the old thread 'Why Did 60's Soul Strongholds Implode in 70s ?' ………

So, if the King Sound Interpreters two singles were indeed made at Kay Banks Nth Carolina plant, the 2nd one must have been among the last records to be mastered & pressed there as that facility was closed at the end of 67 or very early in 68. Anyone know where their Nth Carolina plant was located ?

The Island Club and Soul's Place were mid 60's clubs in Overtown, the casino billboard is for a 2019 show.

The group had their 45s pressed up by an 'old-time' studio / pressing plant outfit all the way across in Minneapolis .. Kay Bank … that seems strange as they had all the Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Nth Carolina & Tennessee plants much closer to hand. It's not as if Kay Bank were soul specialists, they cut / pressed just about anything. Kay Bank had been set up way back in 1946 and the original owner sold out in 68 … mind you, it seems Kay Bank also had a pressing plant in Nth Carolina in the mid 60's, so maybe that's where the King Sound Interpreters singles were made.

It's 'horses for courses' of course ... Being that bit older than many on here, most of my niter faves are referred to by many as 'youth club sounds' … AND of course … being that bit older, many of the Casino faves mean little or nothing to me.

We winter in Florida and recently took a trip along the I-95 thru Overtown … not too surprised to see it clings onto it's black heritage still … PLUS an interesting article that deals with the subject of 60's / 70's Miami soul ... https://www.standardhotels.com/culture/florida-miami-soul-history-overtown-johnnys-records

Well Buddy Killen was doing soul missionary work up in Nashville with Joe Tex and his other black artists, so Chips should have felt at home. Mind you, he soon returned to Memphis, so Nashville can't have been to his liking.

It didn't specify which cities it was hot in … BUT Jerry O's 45 was doing well back then …