Roburt

As Andy said, he's the same guy as T J Williams. Timothy Williams / Timmie / T.J. all one guy ... here's his BMI song writers page ... I guess King George (Clemons) would know all about him (see separate thread bout King George -- By George)

Both groups were chasing the sound of the Impressions (& both had Chicago connections of course).

Done some more research & it seems the soul period @ the club had kicked in fully by late 69 ....

For collectors only -- US & UK broadcast organisations in-house records ... oddities that some like to acquire ...

He made another album with Discovery (in Sweden) in 1983 which included some soul, jazz & some rock songs, so I guess he remained in the country, settling down there. Maybe, he's still happily living up in Scandanavia. His most sought after Swedish recording though remains his old cover of Don Gardner's NS dancer ...

KING GEORGE -- He started out in Virginia (grew up there), relocated to New York where he joined Don Covay's Good-timers before going solo, playing club dates & doing some recording ... was then tempted across to Sweden, where he again recorded ... AND .. while based up there, played live shows in Denmark, Holland and the UK ... moved on from doing soul numbers as music tastes changed and then faded from the scene in the 70's ... Anyone know what became of him (George Clemons) ???

Yes, there's an old thread on the club ... but that just dealt with the 70's happenings at the venue. It's also been mentioned in old threads about the 60's / 70's soul club scene in Yorks / Notts ... but nothing that I can see that states when the place started to feature live US soul acts on a regular basis. A top London based soul singer played the club in late May 68 but (as stated above), I think Edwin was the 1st US star to play the venue later in that year.

They did have Amboy Dukes on in April 68 & that outfit got bookings at the Twisted Wheel too. Also had Pesky Gee on (who had been the resident band @ the Nite Owl in 67) plus State Express (who used to back up Edwin Starr in the UK back then) .... but the 1st booking at the club for a US based soul act (as far as I know) was Edwin Starr at the end of September 68 .... I think this was their first all-dayer too (& they didn't do niters) PLUS they'd also renamed themselves from the NEW BROKEN WHEEL to the BROKEN WHEEL SCENE .... I have no idea who the Soul Package were (on in August). No doubt a short lived UK group who did covers of soul songs. I lived just up the road (in Donny) then and I don't recall any Sth Yorks mods going to (or even mentioning the club) back then ... guess there were too many bigger / better / more hip places to go back in 68. ... anyone know of other US soul acts who appeared at the club in 68 ?? ...

Just when did the Broken Wheel start booking US soul acts ? I was a regular at the Twisted Wheel, Gondola / Skyline (Hull) & Tin Chicken (Cass) back in 68, so it wasn't on my radar back then ... but ads I have for gigs at the club show they weren't booking top soul acts till late summer 68 at the earliest (they did book the Alan Bown that summer but the group were already well into their 'Toy Land' phase by then) ....

The above chart & the one below illustrate that by summer 69, reggae & reissues were taking over ...

Another guy who performed soul in prison (& cut while there) was Baltimore's Jasper 'Syng' McGowan ......... Syng was first jailed in 1948/49. Eventually, he joined a singing 'convict' group in jail & they were dubbed the 'Wayward Sons'. This quartet started to perform, in & out of prison and became known nationally. McGowan, in conjunction with cellmate (& fellow group member) Russell Quarles also started to write songs (by the mid 60's, they had penned 450 together). Jasper got out of jail after serving much of the full term on his 1st conviction but was found guilty of an armed robbery offence & sent back 'inside' in 1958. His case was was taken up in 1962 by Mrs Betty Feldman who worked for 2 charitable Foundations that helped prisoners. She took up Jasper's case & eventually managed to win him a re-trail (on the 2nd offence) in 1964. In November 64, the group (Jasper -- 39 years old & serving 15 + 5 + 5 yrs for armed robbery; Russell Quarles -- 35 years old & serving 20 years for robbery; John Madison -- 23 yrs old & serving 30 yrs for murder/ robbery; Archie Shaw -- 35 yrs old & serving 20 yrs for larceny) performed at a big concert staged at Maryland Penitentiary. The group had already cut 2 songs, When his re-trail came up, Jasper was described as a model prisoner who was leader of the singing quartet, the Wayward Sons. He won that appeal but was not released from Maryland Penitentiary as he still had some time to serve on his first offence (also a robbery for which he had received a 10 year sentence). A re-trail on the 1st robbery conviction was asked for, also granted & when the Maryland State Attorney decided not to press on with the case, Jasper was released on 21st September 1965. Betty started a record label (Hope) & cut him on quite a few numbers. Associated subject ... soul singers who spent time in prison (though they didn't record while inside; Wilson Pickett, Barry White, Chuck Berry, Billie Holiday, Ike Turner, Gary US Bonds, James Brown, Ronald Isley, Rick James, Bobby Brown, Billy Preston & more AND MORE RECENT ARTISTS >> Lauren Hill, Lil Kim, Tupac (think he might be classed as a singer of sorts) + 2/3 other rappers.

The 1st R&B chart in Record Mirror was published in July 65 (it's the top chart in my 2nd post above -- with "I Can't Help Myself" @ no.1). An August 69 chart ....

AND a couple more ... lots of the top UK soul 45's (the ones that have stood the test of time) failed to register at all coz they were slipped out without any promotion or info on the artists back then ...

More of those old charts I do have ...

Anyone out there got copies of 1966 UK R&B charts ? I have some 1960's B&S mags that featured UK 45 charts but these are mainly 68 onwards. Ahead of the start up of Home Of The Blues / B&S, the only mag I know of that featured a UK R&B chart was Record Mirror. I have quite a few of those but not many from 66.

More old BBC radio show live recordings that I'd love to get to hear .........

The Raelettes @ the BBC .... (other stills from the show can be viewed on the Ray Charles Video Museum blogspot site) ...

Another BBC TV show 'missing in action' is the one recorded by Ray Charles on Friday Sept 20th 1968 ... quite a few decent still photos exist of Ray & the Raelettes in the BBC TV studio but the show itself seems lost forever. This is a great shame as I believe it was the 1st live recording made of his then new set of Raelettes (Susaye Greene, Barbara Ann Lesure (Beverly LeShure ?), Barbara Nell Terrault & Verlyn Flenaugh). This line -up had evolved since early August when the original group had quit over pay / treatment (Merry Clayton, Alex Brown, Gwen Berry and Clydie King). Before the make-up of the new group had settled as the 4 listed above, the likes of Rita Graham (of Rita & Tiaras) had been co-opted in at short notice. The line-up of the Raelettes that came to the UK soon changed again & by early 69 the members were Susaye Greene, Mable John. Vernita Moss & Estella Yarbrough. So the footage of the group that did the BBC show would have been quite historic. The whole Ray Charles package (including Billy Preston) went to do concerts across Europe straight from the UK and some footage (only B&W though, not colour) of shows from that period still exists ...

Their initial 2 UK 45 releases (Nov 66 & March 67) mainly only sold to soul & mod club fans as they didn't get too much radio exposure here. "Help Me" created a bit of a stir in the press / on the pirate stns but I don't think that transferred into big sales for the single. It managed to scrape into the bottom end of the Big L (Radio London) Top 40 chart in early December 66 but had gone by the 18th Dec (to be replaced by the likes of the Olympics - Baby Do The Philly Dog). Of course, the pirate stns charts weren't based on sales figures at all. Their re-released 45 (the A side off their 1st 2 singles) sold much better as their stuff was highly desired by collectors by then (Feb 69).

Sam on the dance floor (in Morecambe) ...

Really old news these days as he's no longer in the game ... but the gradings given to none NM records by Wolverhampton's biggest soul dealer were usually (shall we say) a tad on the optimistic side.

Red, I would have thought that Ady Crosadell and the guys at Ace Kent Records (London) would have some info that could be useful to you (they have the tapes of the James Carr sessions & info on them I believe). Ady is on here and may see your post.

Lots of posts about other TV shows BUT it's really the BBC radio show live tapes that featured soul stars that I'd like to get to hear the most. RE: the Spellbinders -- they played quite a few UK clubs including the Mojo and the Wheel ...

Back in the day (60's / 70's) many soul stars visiting the UK would be invited to be on BBC TV & radio shows (+ ITV TV shows). Down the years a great many of these old audio tapes / videos have been pulled out and the stuff on them has been released. The most famous video's from UK TV shows are of course the RSG tapes but soul acts appeared on many more shows too. With regard to live BBC radio sessions, again many soul stars got to do these. Lots of old 'At The BBC' or 'BBC Sessions' tapes have been released on vinyl & CD -- the lists of acts who have benefited from such releases include the Beatles, Kinks, Bobbie Gentry, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Thin Lizzy, Queen, Who, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Deep Purple and many more. However I don't know of any real attempt to pull out the sessions made for the BBC by the likes of Marvin Gaye, Miracles, Rufus Thomas, Howlin Wolf, Lou Johnson, James & Bobby Purify, Four Tops, Spellbinders, O C Smith, Joe Tex and the like. Surely, all the old tapes of soul stars sessions can't just have been binned.

The best way (these days) to check out if a soul release was doing well after it's UK release is to check out old charts in Blues & Soul mag ... ahead of that (say in 66) it's Record Mirror's R&B chart that gives the best indication ..