Roburt

The film features the events that occured @ the Algiers Motel, where 3 young blacks were rounded up & killed by over-zealous National Gaurdsmen / local police. ALSO at the motel that night were the Dramatics who had escaped back there after a big local gig ....

Kegsy, you got it right. You will be WRONG on all counts. You usually are !!

As far as I recall, YES, Jonathon was running things at Rock City back then. The place also staged some great live acts nights, remember the Frankie Beverly & Maze night in particular. His road crew guys were wandering round the venue ahead of the act going on. They were all wearing F B & M zip up jackets which none of them would part with.

Was living in Worksop back then & I certainly went to loads of MS nites @ Rock City in the mid 80's. Can't remember too many niters, just ordinary sessions (8pm to midnight or 1am do's). Soul Sam & Arthur were regular spinners.

Steve, I don't doubt what you're saying. I just think that the Don Gardner 45 must have been a 'bought in' cut rather than an in-house effort.

A pure guess here .... BUT ... radio play was always really important for a cut. Radio DJ's could be very funny animals. Some liked mainly playing tracks by known hit artists, others liked to spin obscure stuff or re-activate an old track that had failed on it's initial release. That way they could claim that they were responsible for making it a radio hit & then maybe a club / chart hit (sound familiar to NS club goers ??). Alvin had been known since the start of the 60's and had enjoyed hits around 1964. By 68 / 69, his labels had started calling him Al Robinson, maybe coz he was by then considered 'old hat' or 'dead in the water' with fans (don't forget, in the US, if you had gone 12 months or so without a hit, your live gigs would start drying up & labels would lose interest in putting out new cuts by you). So, JUST MAYBE, they put the SHINE artist name on the 45 to hide the fact that it was actually Alvin on the record. ALSO for this reason, I would guess that the Shine version came first.

It was of course the plug / A side of the US 45 and yet Soul City ignored it completley and put out two of his other tracks (including the US B Side, after it had been remixed).

The label must have bought in the Don Gardner 45 then, as I doubt many would describe Morris Bailey + Lawton & McCoy as delivering 'pop label' stuff.

Their local 45 and anuda 45 from Charlie & his group . . . General Norm Johnson wrote the songs on both B sides ..

There's a decent documentary online all about Charlie McClendon (& the Magnificents) who had the 45 out on L-Rev. L-Rev was owned / run by Richard Levin + Tom & Steve Herman. Charlie was also connected with Frank Guida who was the 1st guy to run labels / have a studio (408 W. Princess Anne Road) in Norfolk. Of course, Noah Biggs (Shiptown / How Big / NimBig Music) was the manager of the Showmen & helped get the group their deal with Minit back in 61. Norman Johnson (of the Showmen) wrote the original song cut by Charlie McClendon on L-Rev. Lenis Guess wrote a song that was cut for How Big. On the 'Funky Virginia' site it says Noah Biggs had a part in owning / running the Mr G (aka Gregory label). Seems all the guys down in Norfolk were tied up together in some way or other. https://virginiafolklife.org/2015/05/magnificent-the-charlie-mcclendon-story/

There were at least 4 different US rekkid labels who titled emsens Mr G Records (though one had the alternate name of Grerory Records - thereby clashing with the Ohio based Gregory / Airtown / Juke & Terry set-up) ... Anyway, are the details on these labels known; owners, producers, staff, studios used, etc ?? I know the Norfolk based Mr G (Gregory) was linked to Noah Biggs and his Shiptown set-up. This label also had links with the Luray label (that Ida Sands also had a 45 out on). Luray was owned by Jonas Walker. L-Rev Records also had links. Mr.G's main act (Al Glover) used to tour as back-up to Ida Sands. At Prestatyn, I asked Don Gardner if he had anything to do with the ownership / running of the NY based label and he said NO, the label name was just a coincidence. He did tell me who ran it but I forget the details.

I have no idea when this was BUT Soul City record shop shut in late 69 (same time the label collapsed). The exact date was detailed in B&S at the time the shop closed.

I don't have Neil's book so have no idea of the name of the person he talked with / about. But the only regular staff in Soul City shop I recall were Dave Godin, David Nathan, Sylvia & Rob Blackmore. So I guess it had to be one of those other three ....

This thread attracted quite a few posts from different folk on the Yorks soul scene back in the 60's ... so I thought I'd try this question here. An old soul mate from Hull has made mention recently of a club they used to go to on a regular basis back in the mid 60's, the Zarf in York By all accounts it was housed in the building next to the Punch Bowl pub on Stonegate (see pic below). He's tells me it was on the 1st floor of the building in the forground of the pic & you got entry via a door between the shops there. He says the local & visiting mods would park their scooters outside the Punch Bowl, have a couple of beers in the place and then shoot next door to watch groups like Steampacket. Having checked some stuff out on the web, it seems lots of Leeeds soulies also used to go there (& to the Boulevard which was situated between Tadcaster & York on the side of the mainroad - where the Premier Inn hotel is now). ANYWAY, I didn't even know this place existed but it seems it was another good mod / soul club in Yorkshire in the mid 60's and lots of top live acts played there. Anyone know any details on the place; when it opened, closed, which other acts / groups they had on, ETC.

I used to visit the Soul City record shop on trips to London in May 67 and on thru 68. When Dave G heard a northern accent (like my Yorks un), he'd say .. you'll be interested in this stuff & bring out a special box of 45's. By early 68, amongst the import 45's in his box were issue copies of Tobi Legend "Time Will Pass You By". He'd pull that particular single out & spin it as it was a real big fave of his. Needless to say, with his encouragment, I parted with my 15/- (or whatever the exact price was) & bought a copy + some more dance stuff before moving on to other nearby rekkid shops. Each time I returned to his shop & he heard the accent agin, he'd say ... you'll want a copy of this & try to force another issue copy of Tobi Legend onto me. Being a canny Yorks lad, I made sure he didn't get another 15/- out of me for a 2nd copy !!! Soul City also had a big mail order clientele & so put out a small catalogue that was sent out to folk in the north & elsewhere. I'd write off for stuff and it was always for 45's that were being played in the Yorks / Lancs soul clubs at the time. So again, he knew the lads from up north were chasing different rekkids to the London / southern soulies. So the story about him using the term (or knowing lads from the north were into a different style of soul) go back to at least 1967 to my personal knowledge. As Soul City record shop closed down in late 69, I'm sure in the 2+ years between my 1st visit & the shop closing, he would have actually said ... this lot are from Yorkshire / Lancashire, they'll be interested in the box of northern soul singles. I cant actually recall him using the exact term in my presence back in 67/ 68 but have no doubt that he would have said it at the time. I very much doubt that his useage of the term had any connection at all to the description used by UK bands playing live soul covers at that time.

This cut by the Outer Limits might be known to a few . . .

As this thread deals with the west Yorks soul scene in the 70's, thought this might be of interest to some. It's an old BBC piece on a Leeds group that recorded as the Outer Limits. They did progressive stuff (inspired by the likes of Jimi Hendrix) but before that, they had been gigging doing beat group stuff under different names (covers of R&B, soul material being the thing back then). ANYWAY, about 5 minutes into the piece, the commentator (who became Labour MP for Grimsby) visits (what looks like ) a local indoor market to question some local kids about the type of music they like. He stumbles on a load of soul / reggae fans, some of whom locals from that area might recognise . . .

I bought a new car from D C Cookes in Wath in the early 1980's,. I needed to return it 7 days later for some minor items to be sorted, so need to kill a couple of hours. Took a slow stroll towards Mexboro & while walking along Wath Rd (A6023) came across a 2nd hand shop. He had a few import 45's in a box out front. I checked thru these & found a box of Superiors, so went inside the shop. He told me he had bought them over 5 yrs earlier when he was running a market stall at the coast on weekends. Needless to say I cleared him out of the decent stuff. Back in the 60's there were always great UK 45's to be found in 2nd hand shops on Beverly Rd in Hull. This was the area the uni students had digs in & when broke, they's sell stuff to the local shops. Got a near mint UK Chubby Checker "You JUst Don't Know" there. ALSO, with it being a port, you could also pick up Euro 45's. Also got a German copy of a Dee dee Sharpe Cameo track in the same place. UK shops like Woolworths were always great for discounted UK stuff, they had piles of UK Motown, Stax, Stateside LPs for just a quid around the early 70's. Around the same time Tandys stores (UK arm of Radio Shack) had loads of import LPs in their stores cheap. The Donny & Hull stores had dozens of copies of Darrell Bank's UK LP 'D B is Here' at about a quid each. Boyes Dept Stores in Hull had loads of those US import 45's (Verve, MGM, etc) in each store in the early to mid 70's, not a shop most soulies would have frequented. Oldies Unlimited was also a decent place to get cheap (& sometimes obscure) soul 45's right up to the late 80's. They put the remnants of old stock in a disused chapel in the Telford area when a new shipment arrived. Got access to the chapel in the mid 80's and found loads of 60's / 70's soul 45's that we scooped up.

As there have been quite a few threads on here recently about old UK soul venues, thought I'd post this .... . . . The Imperial Ballroom in Nelson had a long & interesting history. The place started hitting the R&B trail after they booked the Merseybeat groups (Beatles down) in the early 60's .... from the mid 60's to late 60's, they were booking all the top US acts (some times taking a touring yank soul act for the Saturday night normal session before the act moved on to play the Wheel later the same night). ANYWAY, the place burnt down in the mid 70's, so it is long lost. BUT many of the old punters loved the place & as there was interest, a guy had a book published on the place a few years back. This was selling well and a 2nd updated print run was organised & took place. . . . . The book >> Steve Chapple -- ‘Goin’ Down Th’Imp’ The 2nd print version also seemed to be selling OK about 3 years back after the Lancs newspapers gave it a bit of publicity. Steve (from Burnley) was selling copies himself (on evilvay & the like) but the poor guy dropped dead suddenly. After that all the unsold copies of the book seemed to disappear (dumped maybe when his place was cleared). I'm trying to get hold of a copy of the book and any help SSers can provide would be much appreciated. I know library's in the Lancs area still have copies but none seem to have made it darn sauf.

The Rudy Love doc was made as a college project by a male / female pair from the US. They filmed content in the US & UK and are just finishing it off at present. They hope to get it shown in the US at selected cinemas near Rudy's base / areas where he's known. Then they'll either sell it on to a TV company or put it out on DVD (or whatever the latest format for filmed media is). I'm in touch with the production team, I'll ask for an update.

Might go up in price after the US documentary about Rudy Love's music career hits the market in the near future (editing of which is currently being finished).

Yep, stuff like Bruce Channel's "Mr bus driver", "Scratchy" + Wind and Mr Bloe's versions of "Groovin with ..." were all played in soul clubs in the 60's (very early 1970 for the Mr Bloe) . . . Wind of course hiding the id of ultra soulful early 60's crooner Tony Orlando ... . . ... AND OF COURSE ... so much pop crap was played at the Casino that's it would take forever to name all the sh*t that was played there. Back to the soulful Tony Orlando (& yes, I know two great Detroit soul ladies teamed up with him in Dawn in the 70's) .... live on your local cinema stage in 62 . . .

Joe Battan has confirmed that the Mr Love & Company name was just hiding his real identity, as it was him that cut both versions of the song.

The Buckeye Politicians had their 1st solo 45 out on Scepter in Nov 70. Although this was good, it didn't sell too well & they were dropped by the label. However a few years later they were tipped for UK success (74). They were spotted playing in the US (NY?) by a Brit (Alan Parsons) and he signed them to EMI. They had cut an album & headed to the UK with the master tapes. By all accounts, the master tapes were lost on the journey. A 45 was put out here but again it didn't sell. With the LP cuts having disappeared, they were going nowhere & headed back to the States, In 75 they landed a deal with Utopia & finally had an album out. This was quite rocky in parts but lots of the tracks off it are posted up on youtube, so it obviously has quite a few fans. Further releases followed on, so the group had some longevity.

The Jones Girls mother also had a 45 out in France (also sourced from GM) . . .