Roburt

In June 1968 @ Baltimores Civic Centre a big soul revue show was staged (see ad) ... Lou Ragland had just gone on the road as bass player in the O'Jays backing band (he wasn't a bass player at that time but he needed the job & the O'Jays needed a guy to play bass immediately). Anyway, the package headed straight out of Cleveland to Boston for their 1st show. The O'Jays toured constantly back then (they'd just started their stint with Bell Records but hadn't had a recent top selling record so needed to tour to eat) & their old tour manager had grown weary of living life out of a suitcase so had decided to stay home in Ohio. When the group's entourage got to Boston they found no hotel had been arranged for them, the club owner wasn't willing to feed them & he even cheated them over their appearance fee. So the guys were stuck with little money, no accommodation and no easy way to reach their next destination. Drastic action was needed instantly. Lou had spent 6 months touring (white clubs) the previous year as part of Terry Knight's backing band and had learnt just what went on when 'on the road' and how to overcome any adversity. So Lou was appointed the packages new tour manager & set about sorting things out for the guys. Within days of this, the package arrived in Baltimore for their show st the Civic Centre. At that time Bobby Massey was still a top member of the group on tour & Lou got on really well with Bobby (they are still very close friends even today). So Lou sorted out all the logistics; food, accommodation, etc. and the rest of the guys headed off to set up & do a sound check at the venue. Later in the day, Lou himself went to the Civic Centre and got to witness part of the show that night. He can't really recall some of the acts on the show (& he actually doubts that Shorty Long turned up to do the show at all) but he does recall that the Dells were magnificent on the night. He remembers that the 5 Stairsteps put on a good show too. ALSO that the Magnificent Men were really great live, that he immediately booked them to do a gig at a Cleveland Theatre that he part owned at the time (the Liberty Theatre). He tells me that the black audience back in Cleveland were wowed by the Magnificent Men's performance too, and didn't care a jot that the entire group were white guys.

If anyone has a strong interest in what happened (soul wise) in Baltimore in the 1960's, then I can recommend my book on Kenny Hamber as a comprehensive starter. Kenny was born in the city, grew up there & started his career there. He only moved away (heading north) at the end of the 1960's. My book, to put his music career in context starts by detailing the background to black culture in the city. From the 1930's onwards Balt was always a jazz stronghold with many clubs featuring live acts nightly. When doo-wop came along, lots of the best early groups were from Baltimore. Strangely though, they seemed to mean more outside of the city (live show wise) as the local clubs stuck with jazz acts and largely ignored the doo-wop groups (who if they got to enjoy a hit 45 would end up back there playing the Royal Theatre as part of an R&B review show). Kenny got into the biz in the early 60's and was always championed by local radio DJ's .. but he had to head out to land record contracts.

two radio charts from stns in the city ...

Baltimore black radio was also very important, lots of record labels trialling their new releases on the city's airwaves. If a new release took off there, then the company would put a lot of effort into promoting the track right across the US ...

The Royal Theatre was up there with the Howard (DC), the Uptown (Philly), the Fox (Detroit), the Regal (Chicago) & of course the Apollo ... The revue that the Valentinos were on was their 1st ever big tour (Oct / Nov 62) ... the guys came from a very religious background & this was the first time they'd been let off the leash. They took the opportunity to sample the wares of a professional lady & all ended up with the clap.

Baltimore was always one of the top destinations on the east coast chitlin circuit (Baltimore, Washington, Philly, Harlem, etc) ... After the Royal Theatre closed, the top venue for touring soul reviews became the Civic Centre ... this accommodated a lot more people than the Royal, so the reviews that played the city went from a week long series of shows @ the Royal to just one show @ the Civic (usually on a weekend) ... $3 to get to see 5 to 7 top soul acts -- seems a bit expensive to me.

Did you type the date up wrong ?? In 1943, there would have been no 45's and no LP's ... everything would have been old shellac 78's.

Some of the BBC RADIOPLAY series of albums are well worth seeking out. Pressed up purely for internal BBC use, a few copies of each were sent out to every BBC radio stn. Some of the soul tracks included on these releases were specially licensed from the likes of Motown or US producers / recording studio guys. So there are 'unreleased takes' of some Motown classics (different versions from the released track) and totally unreleased stuff on other artists (Rudy Love, Gwen Owens, etc.) ...... I've picked up a few of them down the years & even researched how the BBC came to get access to some of the unreleased stuff that was included on these LP's. https://www.discogs.com/label/95546-BBC-Radioplay-Music https://www.discogs.com/Rudy-Love-The-Right-Feeling/release/5517898

I believe much of Henry Hines labels unsold stock (both from Greenville and Chicago) ended up with John Anderson / Soul Bowl ... so I guess that means the majority of his old label's stuff now resides with UK soul collectors. I believe John had so many copies of lots of these 45's that he found it difficult to sell them all .... I guess lots would have ended up in his soul packs over time. I've been in touch with a couple of friends on the Southern Soul list and they have provided me with a bit more info on radio stn WESY ... it seems that the station operated from 1957-1958 (WESY-AM -- Leland, Mississippi) with ownership by New Ark Broadcasting Co. Joseph S. Zuccaro sold most of his stake in the stn in 1970. In September 1968 Paul C. Artman, co-manager of WESY, and a partner of his applied to the FCC to add an FM station based out of Greenville, Mississippi. Sometime between 1958 & 1965 WESY-AM must have been relocated to Greenville. The stn was still broadcasting in 1980 because another Southern Soul member visited it then & took some photographs there of the place & one of it's DJ's. Henry Hines seemed to stand by lots of his acts and cut numerous tracks on them (Alex Spearman being one). ...

Apart from the above WESY play listing from November 1965, I've now found the radio stn listed on 2 music mag ads (see below). One from 1972, the other from 1979. The stn also gets noted on an ad for a Dramatics release in 1976. So the stn must have been broadcasting for at least 14 years but I can't find out anything (else) about it.

A couple of the tracks he worked on ..

Henry Hines came from Greenville, Mississippi and was a big wheel there in the music biz. He ran numerous record labels, wrote loads of songs, arranged & produced tracks & more. He worked under a number of different names, many being variations of H R Hines. However, after marrying Vicki Williams he used the name Lynn Williams at times & his production company was titled Lynn's Productions. After initially working with New Orleans acts and cutting tracks in NO, he relocated his work base to Greenville but then in the 70's moved it to Chicago. Quite a few bits online about his labels and music career ... https://greenvilleandbeyond.wordpress.com/discography/ https://greenvilleandbeyond.wordpress.com/about/ https://www.discogs.com/artist/2242924-Henry-R-Hines https://www.discogs.com/label/857628-Lynns-Prod But in the stuff I've trawled up on him, it never once makes mention of him being a radio DJ and yet he's listed here as being associated with Greenville radio stn WESY in late 1965. The radio stn location plus the track listing (all R&B cuts) would certainly seem to suggest it's the same guy ... yet there was no WESY radio, in Greenville or anywhere else that I can find info on. There is a WESC radio in Greenville but that radio stn has always been a C&W stn & that Greenville is in Sth Carolina. I can't find info on any R&B radio stn in Greenville though there are a few gospel ones listed. However, a track cut by his wife has been posted up on Youtube and the pictures on this show a flyer that includes a picture of Vicki & a listing of radio stns that played her tracks ... WESC is included in that listing ... Very strange.

Getty Images 'appropriate' loads of the pictures they then charge others to use. Back in 1963, a young guy landed a job at the 'Northern Despatch' paper in Darlington. IAN WRIGHT was 15 and had to do the jobs no one else wanted to do. The papers photographer didn't want to work in the evenings unless it was a big story. So visiting pop acts playing local venues weren't for him. So he told Ian Wright to go along & take pictures. Wrighty caught the Beatles on all their early Nth East shows & struck up a friendship with the guys in the group. So much so that they asked him to go along on their 1st US tour to document it. So he built up a whole portfolio of rare pictures. Incidentally, he also took many early pics of the Animals & other acts who played the Club AGoGo in Newcastle in the mid 60's. I was recently chatting with him & he told me that lots of his rare pics were now up on Getty Images but they had paid him nothing & had not asked permission to use them either.

I don't think Bobby sang on any of their tracks (not lead anyway).

Bobby (sax player in light jacket) & the group playing live … Searching For My Baby was by far their biggest hit (they had 2 later 45's that charted nationally but only "Searchin" made it into pop Top 50 charts). The singer on their live shows was usually Marion Sledge (he also played guitar in the band), Bobby being the band leader & sax player. Chico Jenkins also sang sometimes & it may well have been him on lead on "Searchin" (He usually wrote the lyrics to Moore's tunes & was also credited as lead singer on lots of the group's follow-up songs to their hit). By 1968 they also included Marion's sister (wife ?) in the ensemble and she performed vocal duties too. As "Searchin" was their BIGGIE, no doubt when they played it live (& this would have been on every show), they would have extended the song somewhat. I'd bet the instrumental sections would have been given more prominence to highlight the contribution of the musicians over that of the singer/s.

A mag article about the group & their hit … January 68 …

His stuff with his brothers is also good ..

If you wanna know more about this release (or his other stuff with Togetherness or his brothers -- the Capers Brothers), why not ask him ... He's on Facebook & the studio he set up in Virginia Beach also has a Facebook page. He's a famous band leader / trumpet player who has toured Europe in the past (backing up jazz musicians) ...

Seems we'll be getting to see this documentary later in the year. It's said to contain lots of rare old footage about the company & it's artists ... https://variety.com/2019/music/news/hitsville-the-making-of-motown-acquired-by-showtime-for-u-s-1203220309/

Promoters, get em booked now ….. OHH, SORRY … they were taking those bookings here back in 69 …

We are losing way too many of our hero's at the moment … so it was great to learn that Lou Ragland (now in his 80's) is still going strong. He just participated in a big Cleveland soul show and helped assemble a whole bunch of heavyweight Ohio soulsters …

We're losing way too many of our hero's these days ….

The Steinways in Ilford & Islington … cor blimey guv …

In 1969, you could have seen Mary Wells live @ the Flamingo ... a youtube piece about the club ..

This place was a mod haunt that played ska & soul in the 60's. It moved on to feature just about 100% reggae by the end of the decade …