Roburt

No doubt a lot of their workers transferred to the new Aylesbury plant in 1980, after initially being employed at the Aston Clinton facility. Up to 1964, this is where all of Oriole's records were made. Thinking about the stuff the staff could have 'taken home' from the new place from 1980 onwards is totally eclipsed by what the guys in the Aston Clinton facility could have gotten hold of ... all the early Oriole America Motown stuff, all the CBS / Direction 60's / 70's soul 45's & LP's .. plus 70's stuff on Warner Bros, Atlantic, Reprise, Whitfield, etc .... ... bet there were a few priceless 45 acetates & test pressing made in there.

When I was still working (for Thames Water), I used to get jobs in the Aylesbury area a lot. Many times I'd have to attend meetings at TW's works at the end of Rabans Lane. That meant I'd drive past the old CBS Pressing Plant on that road. CBS moved from their old record pressing plant in Aston Clinton (a village just south of Aylesbury) in 1980, after starting building their new plant on Raybans Lane in 1978. From 1980 onwards, all their rekkids (& some other UK record companies) were pressed up at the Aylesbury plant. Ahead of that move, as I said, they had their factory in Aston Clinton, just to the south of Aylesbury. They'd bought this off Oriole's Morris Levy in 1964 but the plant had actually opened up way back in the 50's. JUST THINKING ... what great modern soul stuff was manufactured on Raybans Lane in Aylesbury from 1980 till the plant was taken over by Cinram in 2004. I guess some of the guys who worked there ended up taking home old 45 / 12" / LP acetates / test pressings when it was working & again when it was closed down ... Anyone from the town come across any old CBS workers who have a stash of rare soul rekkids ??

I've stirred up a hornests nest with the thread on Dora Hall, so don't want to get any flack here .... BUT .... About 90% of the time, I can't stand soul versions of pop / country/ rock songs ++ By The Time I Get To Phoenix has never been a song I like ... ... so can't say I am taken much with Court's version. Nothing against him or his vocal style, I just don't like the song.

Not quite totally true ... The Velours were brought over to the UK and made to appear as a fake version of the Temptations by UK promoter Roy Tempest. Lots of the early UK gigs they did were for Pete. He liked them & they liked him, so they asked him to become their manager. He accepted the role but got them to change their name to the Fantastics ... the rest is history ... SOME ON-LINE BITS about Roy Tempest .. ... In the late 60s I booked a lot of Roy Tempest's acts - Alan Isenberg was the agent there that I dealt with. One time I'd booked 'Fontella Bass' into a club in Wrexham for a Friday night and 'Mary Wells' at a venue in Telford on the Saturday for the same promoter. He and I went to Wrexham to see Fontella and were spotted by one of Roy's road managers. In the ensuing conversation he casually dropped in, "oh you've got Mary Wells tomorrow night in Oakengates haven't you". We had. Early the next morning, a telegram arrived saying Mary Wells had had to return to America unexpectedly, but all was not lost, Fontella was 'free' that night and could appear in her stead. Whoever the girl singer was, she was obviously being both artists. All of that said, I don't remember ever having a 'bad' act from Roy Tempest. see here for more details on the Velours & their UK backing band back then ... .... https://www.garagehangover.com/tag/roy-tempest/

Just about the biggest anthem at the Mojo ...

The news report ... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44394076

Peter Stringfellow has passed ... R I P The guy who ran the best mod / soul club in Yorkshire in the mid 60's has left us. In later life, he became a bit of a joke figure due to his lifestyle & efforts to remain young forwver BUT for anyone who was a teenager in SouthYorkshire in 1965/66/67/68 he was an icon. First with the King Mojo, then RSG, Down Broadway, the Penthouse, Tin Chicken, Queens Hall, etc. To us, Mojo members he really was KING.

Brit groups like the Move & Amen Corner always used to perform this live (though many more did "Open The Door") ... that's how it was back then ... MIND YOU ... I think a lot of the time (by 67/68-ish), their managers were telling them what to include in their live acts ... the Move, Amen Corner & Eyes of Blue all had the same manager ...

Surely this is a much better version ... the group always did it in their live show in the mid to late 60's ...

Just about all the output on the LABELS (?) named above were by her. They were owned / run by her multi millionaire husband & (as already stated) were give-away items not shop sold records. She released 100's of tracks, nearly all total crap (even if some of the songs were decent, here singing on them wasn't). She cut vanity records coz she had the time & money to do so. Most were covers of existing hits performed by a grandmother in her 60's who could no longer carry a song. SORRY, but if this is what NORTHERN has recently descended to, I will be staying in the modern room.

Chalky, you obviously don't know what gets played just up the road from you, as her "Barefootin" was a big play at King Bee Rhythm ‘n’ Blues Club in Sheffield (they promoted their nights on here too). ALSO a "Franklin St" track video was put up on YOUTUBE by Lancashire AGoGo ... and all their posts are of NS spins.

They weren't trying too hard to hide the links to the plastic cup company of this LP's record label.... wonder what HB made of it all ... Think I'll try covering this one up ...

Others by her that get plays .... AND the one Chalky mentioned ... her vocals are just as bad on this ..

I'm well out of the loop these days with regard to what gets played in 60's NS rooms BUT I do sometimes come across tracks on YOUTUBE that have been posted by Northern guys ... I was surprised to see a couple of tracks by Dora Hall posted up as NS spins ... made me really laugh .... Dora was born in 1900 and was a music hall star (of sorts) in the 1920's before marrying a multi-millionaire. She settled down, started a family & the like .. BUT by the early 60's, she was wanting to make a comeback and so started cutting 'vanity recordings'. Her hubby, via his company (Solo Cups), sponsored TV shows that starred her and added free 45's (by her) as give-aways with packs of his disposable plastic cups ... He also started (what are called on-line) a couple of fake record labels on which to put out LP's & singles by her. So her 45's were free give away items that now seem to be commanding decent money ... Nothing about the NS world shocks me these days BUT to have DJ's chasing / spinning freebies made by a rich white grandmother in her 60's seems to take the biscuit. MORE INFO on the couple & his cup company ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solo_Cup_Company#Founder

Ady would know the info much better than me (but he's busy this week) ... I'm led to believe that the track will be on a new CD out soon -- 'While The City Sleeps' another Motown compilation from Ace Records. Seems Edwin wrote the song & then produced a version of it on the Spinners (probably around 69/70) ... guess he would also have cut a version himself. Isn't there an on-line site that lists all the details of every Motown track cut (artist / track title / date / producer ETC). Seems the title track of the CD is also by the Spinners as if you do a google search this comes up for a YOUTUBE clip ... While The City Sleeps · Spinners -- Motown Unreleased 1965 ℗ 2015 Motown Records Released on: 2015-12-11 Producer: Marc Gordon Producer: Hal Davis Composer: Bill Page ... .... .... but I can't find which CD the track was included on & the YOUTUBE vid won't play in the UK.

Ledyard Hopkins current BMI registration info ...

Hoping someone here who understands the intricacies of the music biz can answer this query .... As I understand it, the best way to ensure payment for your recorded work is to register any & all songs you have written with BMI / ASCAP (in the US) or similar. If you register your compositions, then royalties due when a song is recorded / released / re-released will flow back to you. Also, when the track is played on radio / in a club or bar / used in a TV show or movie, you will be due payments. So for anyone who has written a song / songs it would seem to make sense that they register that song & then keep in touch with the organisation that you've registered it with (at least keep them updated on your contact details). Then if a reissue company comes looking, you can be traced via say BMI and a deal set up. ... BUT ... having checked on BMI & ASCAP on numerous occasions, info on a previously registered song & it's writer is (many times) missing ... even when you can do a quick check via Youtube or google to discover your old composition is now an anthem somewhere in the world. Doesn't make sense to me. TWO QUICK EXAMPLES ... LEDYARD WILLIE HOPKINS was the leader and song writer for Dallas based Love Company. He registered "Love Tempo" with BMI and his publishing company (Pocket Money Music) when it was released on a SRO 45 back in 1980 ... the cut eventually went big and so he re-released the track on his own LCM record label (Love Company Music) ... but even though he knows he has an in demand track, he still let his details at BMI lapse. So they have him registred as a composer with them, but they have no song details for his work or contact info for him. BACK IN THE 60's / 70's ... EDWIN STARR (CHARLES HATCHER) was a prolific song writer ... he signed up with BMI and registered many of his songs with them. This must have brought him a decent income stream down the years. AND YET, when you check his BMI entry, there are dozens of songs listed but not one titled "JUST A LITTLE PART OF YOUR LIFE" ... easy then, he obviously didn't write a song with that title. BUT he did and he cut it on the Spinners at Motown ... if you're registering songs that you've written, why not register them all & not just some ..... .... .... CONFUSED OF ABINGDON Anyone explain what goes on in the strange world of music publishing ??? ... an extract from Edwin's BMI listing ..

Another mag ad from 64 ...

Back to the golden days of EMI soul releases ... the Della Reese 45 (on Stateside) was a re-release of an earlier UK HMV (again an EMI label) 45 ... now I was on the scene back then & don't recall the Della Reese cut getting played at the time ... so just why had EMI put it out again .. any answers (please) ??

EMI was handling Motown product throughout much of Europe at that time ... BTW, Caston & Majors were Leonard Caston & Carolyn Majors ... Leonard Caston was a songwriter, record producer, pianist and singer. He worked for Chess in the 1960s. He co-wrote or co-produced several major hit records, including Mitty Collier's "I Had A Talk With My Man" (1964) plus stuff by the Radiants, Jan Bradley, Sugar Pie Desanto, Billy Stewart, the Dells, Laura Lee, Little Milton, Bobby McClure, Marlena Shaw and many others. He seemed to quit Chess at the end of the 60's (when the label was starting to struggle a bit). He joined Motown in the early 70's and worked there mainly with (the solo) Eddie Kendricks.

... BY ANY CHANCE ..... Are there any Soul Sourcers who saw the Steinways perform in the UK as the FABULOUS PLATTERS back in 67 / 68 ?? .... By then, Roy Tempest's scams were becoming to be known, so some top soul clubs (such as the Wheel) had mostly stopped booking his acts. So, the venues I was attending then (Mojo; Nite Owl; Skyline,Hull; Wheel) didn't have the group on. A review I saw of a show they did in the London area said that they were one of the most exiting live soul groups the guy had ever seen ... I'd love to get input from someone on here about any performances they witnessed. I'd guess Frankie Gearing would have been with them on that trip (as the real Platters were a male & 1 female mixed gender group -- see pictures of both groups in the 60's in my 1st two posts above). They must have performed a couple of the Platters 50's big pop hits and then done their Musicor stuff too.

A few more related bits ... Seems when the real group toured here in the 50's, they were billed as the Fabulous Platters but when they got back to the States after their 1958 trip to Europe, the ads called them the Flying Platters (I guess coz it was unusual for a black group to be flying all around Europe & then to & from the States as well). At that time the publicity for their trip & for a following stint at the Flamingo Hotel in Vegas was in full swing, the Laddins were doing well too & had just been signed to top booking agency, Universal Attractions. The 1st of their Oliver 45's (the biggie) got quite a bit of coverage at the time of it's release, especially in US music trade mags. Seems the publishing company (Saturday Music) put quite a bit of effort into pushing the 45 too. Their 2nd Oliver release (in Oct 66) actually got a lot more review space in trade mags than their 1st effort.

What's their US 45 worth these days ??

Guess it was made for the US beach music crowd.

Mr. Percolator was based out of Miami, where he did loads of live shows around 1968. The guy who owned the label that put out his 45's was big in the wig business.