Roburt

Wally Roker was a veteran of the music biz by the late 60's. He worked with people he knew from down the years; guys who he had done live shows with earlier in his career (Big Dee Erwin, Jerry Williams and more). By the late 60's, he was running his own record labels and also licensing others which his company distributed. In 69 his big concern was Canyon Records and they had releases that were selling well. HOWEVER, this caused their downfall as bills were coming in (for studio time, mastering, pressing plant fees, promotion, etc.) BUT the wholesale record sellers who were moving the 45's & LP's he was working weren't paying him for the records they had sold. So an outfit that seemed strong in August 70 was rapidly going under by November 70. It was failing to pay it's bills and was losing friends in the biz. So (I'm assuming), they started the Roker Record Group to take on the releases of Canyon Records Inc. Soon, as Canyon wasn't paying it's bills, no one would press records for them, the company failed and went out of business. The Roker label (part of the Roker Record Group) remained in business and stuff that would have escaped a few weeks earlier on Canyon or one of it's family of labels were now put out on Roker. But the groups, writers, producers were far from happy as they'd had hits on Canyon's labels but couldn't get any of the royalties due as that record company had gone out of business . . . . . It was great being a singer, producer, studio owner, recording artist, pressing plant owner back in the day.

It's bout wour Jackie ........ https://www.jackiewilsonfoundation.org/ OR .. . maybe they're mistaken & it's really about darts thrower Jocky Wilson.

No, it's not a post about oxford bags & vests full of badges ... it's just a youtube clip ... Billy Prince will be impressed when I forward it to him ..

Greg Tormo used to be involved with NY soul nights BUT he just moved to Palm Springs.

P P Arnold cut an 2nd LP for Immediate in the 60's but the label was going bust, so it didn't escape at the time. NOW, FINALLY, it has been put out. Most of the tracks are a bit too rocky for me but the cuts do demonstrate what a great voice she had. There's even a MOR ballad on the album (again not great) but her version of "You Made Me So Very Happy" is well worth a listen, with "Give A Hand, Take A Hand" also to my liking.

Matt (Mr Finewine) ran a good night on Houston ... mainly 60's though AND I don't know if it's still going.

A couple more old ads that are relevent to the stuff detailed in the book ... Frankie Gearing has her own chapter in the book and, in the early days, she was a member of the Laddins (that's her in the picture on the ad).

John Capouya has been in touch again to tell me that Benny Latimore now lives in Riverview, up by him in Tampa. John says he’s going to the Uni where John teaches to give a workshop the week after next. He's also attending the book launch party in St. Pete on October 27th ... live entertainment that night by Little Jake Mitchell (aka Jock Mitchell) and the Soul Searchers (venue: Palladium Theater, St Pete @ 7 pm on Oct 27). We'll be in Florida by then but don't think the wife would be up for a trip up to St Pete so soon after we arrive.

Just to the north of this Miami Uni campus is the old black ghetto area of Overtown. Here you can still find the old chitlin circuit theatre >> the Lyric Theatre . . . . https://www.historicpreservationmiami.com/lyric.html . . . . . ALSO ... there is the Wynwood Walls area ... always worth a visit (day or night) ... https://www.thewynwoodwalls.com/ The Ft Lauderdale area used to be quite soulful, unfortunately the Basin St East Club ain't there anymore.

Barbara was living off her Arctic success for over 10 years ...

We base ourselves in north Ft Lauderdale (Coral Springs). Our nearest beach is Deerfield. Immediately north of Deerfield Beach is posh town Boca Raton. 90 year old tenor sax Jimmy Cavallo usually plays a few nights a week in venues in the Delray - Boca Raton area. Also in the general area there's a church (based in an old cinema) where the pastor is a certain WAYNE COCHRAN. Of course, Wayne gets his own chapter in the book ..... Back to Dec 71 when Wayne was up in New York performing live ....

Anyone in the Miami area in mid to late November needs to know about this .... LOCATION: MIAMI UNIVERSITY Wolfson Campus, 300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132,. Sunday, Nov. 19, Room 7128 4:30 p.m. Music of the Sunshine State November 19th -- 4:30 pm at Miami Book Fair: Panel with the book's author + producer (Deep City and Henry Stone) Willie Clarke, Marlon Johnson, who directed Deep City documentary, and Helene Smith, first Miami soul queen who recorded for Deep City— discussion, Q & A and then book signing and Helene Smith sings live! Live performance by HELENE SMITH (a distant relative ?) . . . . I know where I'll be at 4.30 on the 19th November.

Bunny always denied that he had anything to do with the Benny Sigler 45 at all ... BUT THEN ... he was signed to another record label at the time. However Benny recorded with the Cooperetts for Lash Records around 1963 (2 tracks escaped on the BEST OF LASH RECORDS CD with another cut being available on amazon as a digital track). So it seems Benny was a recording artist around 4 years before the Phi-la-Soul 45. I CAN GIVE YOU LOVE sounds like a decent dancer (but being early 60's sounds a bit dated). Did it ever escape at the time ?? He also wrote a couple of songs that Alfreda Brockington cut for Lash (Give Me What You're Giving Her being a decent dancer).

At the time, I was in touch with Stuart Bascombe on-line & my son worked in New York back then. I mentioned I was visiting & he asked if I wanted to meet up while there. We arranged to meet at the rail stn in mid Manhattan which was the end of the line for the PATH (from Hoboken). We met up & went for a coffee and he fetched the other 2 Black Ivory members with him. He was keen to try to forge a UK connection as Leroy had gone solo and the other 2 were trying to find a place in the music biz still. Leroy already had a good number of decent UK contacts so was a bit bored with the whole meeting. I interviewed em about their days in Black Ivory & music biz happenings since. All 3 were good but Leroy didn't need any help, so was less interested in the meeting.

I'd have loved to have seen Ashford & SIMPSON live back in their prime (70's / 80's) ... It seems that, though there are numerous clips from that TV show up on youtube, no one has seen fit to put the bit with A&S in it up there ...

Mr Searling use to feature this track (& at least one other off the LP) on his radio shows / club DJing spots back when it was a new release. Was this one his main play, my memory is slipping away quickly ... of course, Expansion packaged both his LP's together on a CD release about 3 years back.

Ahead of it's time (sound wise) ... summer 1961 & a 45 on Craig ...

Surprised no one has yet suggested any Philly International cuts. Can't go wrong with tracks on the label from the likes of the O'Jays, 3 Degrees, Harold Melvin & B Ns, Intruders, Tramps, Peoples Choice, MFSB, Archie Bell & D's, etc. .... ohh an O'Jays 45 recommendation just beat this post onto the thread.

I don't know why (even after all these years), but UK copies on Cameo Parkway of Bunny's biggie "Let The Good Times Roll" dried up within just a few weeks of the 45's release. By then, the 45 had taken off in UK clubs and demand from soulies was growing stronger. Again, I know nothing of the industry politics behind the move, but EMI went to their French associate and mass imported French Stateside copies of the release. This 45 was probably the first import soul single that many UK soulies ever bought (coz you could just go to your local high street record shop to obtain a copy) ... even today, if you go on Discogs, around 80% of French copies of the 45 are on offer from British sellers rather than French sources.

Going way back to 1959 ... this single obviously had it's admirers back in the early 60's as copies of it were pressed up again towards the end of 61 & it was re-promoted as a new release .... maybe his 45 on Craig was doing well locally in Philly and so they reactivated this old 45 to catch a few easy sales.

I take your point so I've made a minor adjustment to the pic. Rudy is actually the guy at the bottom of the picture, seated talking with Clayton Ivey. ALSO, James Gadson really should get a better wig.

The Rudy Love name is attached to the entry above it & to the left of it ... i.e. it's his name as shown on the BBC RadioPlay LP 'The Right Feeling' ... so it doesn't need to be dragged anywhere. I know the picture is of Norman Jay as I made up the montage of stills from the film.

Rudy Love continues in the music biz & a documentary crew teamed up with him over 2 years back to document his career and the many diverse things that have happened to him since he kicked off in the industry in the 60's. He's had his ups & downs, spent time supporting other band leaders (Sly Stone), cut tracks as himself for release and numerous tracks as demo's to help sell his songs to other artists .... anyway, the documentary is just about complete, the final cut is just being finished off. The team undertaking the project have been quite thorough and so it has taken time to get all the interviews they wanted .... included in the documentary are contributions from the likes of Mick Fleetwood, Norman Jay, James Gadson, Clayton Ivey and more. There's also footage in there of Rudy's dad (Bob Love of Don & Bob on Chess Records -- "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl", the song the Yardbird made famous over here in the UK). Not long to wait now until it should be available to watch ... some stills from the documentary .....

One of his many gems .... with a topical theme for NS niter / dayer goers.