Roburt

Well, if we're all obsessed with a Beatles song, I'll go with this version ....

What Stringers is up to these days ..... ... he runs 2 gentlemens clubs in the west end (see flyers) .... BUT ... he sold the Hippodrome (now a casino) many years back. This (in the 60's / 70's) as the Talk of the Town hosted live gigs for the likes of the Temptations, Stevie Wonder & Supremes. After Stringers took it over, he returned the name to the Hippodrome and ran it for a number of years as a disco. He arranged a couple of Mojo Reunions there with the likes of Edwin Starr, Chris Farlowe & Jimmy James performing live ....

The Coasters ... COOL JERK .... UK Stateside / US King ...

Curtis covers ............

"One More Chance", a Mercury 45 in Nov 1960 is a totally different song .......

When I was involved with the Prestatyn Weekender, I used to spend a great deal of time with the artists. I took Lou Pride & Don Gardner on a trip out to Liverpool one year. Lou was a great joker & would have you laughing all the time (but that's another story) ... Don was more quiet & thoughtful. Back in the 70's, he was Curtis Mayfield's road manager, so went everywhere with Curtis. They would spend many hours together & so he got to learn how Curtis came up with his lyrics. He told me that just about everytime Curtis wrote, it was a news story that inspired his words. If he couldn't get just what he was after first time, he'd put the words down on paper & file them away. Weeks later he'd return to them to see if new inspiration had hit him & he could achieve the finished product he was after .... ANYWAY ... that leads me onto .... the wife's favorite (though it can make her cry if she's felling moody) .... MORE FROM CURTIS ..... TO BE INVISIBLE ... All the things that hurt your soul, No one would ever know,They'd never know Life so preciously, Just don't seem to me, As free as they claim freedom to be Things are going fast, To have found that all is in the past, To have to take what you can get, Sure can make a heart upset ........ So I'll be invisible

So you thought my response was serious .... get a life ..... As I said earlier, I keep my collection in dozens of boxes, many kept under the bed in the spare room. Some are in plastic boxes, some in cardboard & some in wooden ones. My faves are these collectors items I got from the Chelsea Team shop (Abramovich commissioned some to keep his 45 collection in & there were spares left over) .....

The group that evolved into the Steinways (somebody must have known they were going to be signed to a label that had a green & white label and used black ink for the label text) ....

Ady ..... perhaps a favour for playing a few Frisco tracks on the DJ's St Louis radio stn show.

Quite a few good DS cuts on KoKo from Luther Ingram & Tommy Tate ("School of Life"is a big fave of mine). Lots more on other Stax labels too; Shirley Brown, Soul Children, Emotions, Ruby Johnson, C L Blast, Rance Allen, Sam & Dave, Sandra Wright, R B Hudmon, etc.

Mr Smithy, that ain't your collection, that was a real record warehouse in Africa (Nigeria me thinks ?) ... AND .. that was the state it was in before the UK collector started to look thru the stock. Souler, RE: A Beatles collector might buy 10 different copies of 'She loves you' as it was released in 10 different pic sleeves. The 10 copies are not purchased because the collector simply loves the track. I maybe also don't collect just for the music (using your definition) as I like to buy the same track on 45s from different countries. I have some fave cuts on releases from a combination of American, UK, Bajan, French, Yugoslavian, Aussie, German, Spanish, Italian & Dutch sources. An Edwin Starr 45 with picture sleeve that took my fancy recently ...

Ady, do you know what the link was between the Frisco label & St Louis acts .... .... no doubt a local radio DJ or even Oliver Sain ...... .... if a radio DJ then probably KXOK jock Nick Charles though he had a strong relationship with Stax -- via the Arch label.

Here tis .......

Here it is .... emerging finally from the mists of time ......

Got final confirmation, from a St Louis music web site, that the Brilliants were a local band ......... No info on them but they're listed here .... https://www.stlmusicyesterdays.com/Bands.htm

This show was staged in 1966, about a year after their Frisco 45 escaped ... can't think that they were touring (unless they were tagging along with Carla Thomas) ... I believe that apart from the star act, the rest of the bill were locals (Bob Kuban In Men, Herman Grimes + Johnny Kay & the Runaways were certainly locals). The Del-Rays who had a 45 on local label Arch were produced by the MC on this show (Nick Charles) ... Michael McDonald (who sang lead on some Delrays cuts) was from St Louis ....

Q1 ... Did Frisco really put out 2 different versions of the Voice Masters 45 ... one featuring "In Love In Vain" & the other having "Dance Crazy" as the flip side ?? I guess they must have as "In Love In Vain" is numbered 15235-C, which would make "Dance Crazy" 15235-B. They didn't seem to promote this 45, so why put it out twice ?? The label must have done some deal (in 65) with a promoter up on the east coast as Frisco 110 (Danny White) charted up in DC (& I'd guess it got some action in Memphis where it was cut). 2nd Q ... my contacts in St Louis assure me that the Voice Masters 45 was released on the local Copa label first. That is where it's Frisco number originated it seems. However, I've never actually seen (in the flesh) a copy of this 45 on Copa. Anyone here got a copy of it ?? Q3 ... There was a Copa label out of Texas, was this a totally seperate entity ?

Well if they're different labels, one stole the logo off the other & they had both registered their publishing with BMI as Frisco Music ..... The Porgy & Polka Dots 45 with the Brilliants info superimposed ...

Seems one of their NOla artists passed away in 2014 ..... Warren B. "Porgy" Jones Obituary Warren "Porgy" B. Jones, a resident of New Orleans, LA, passed away peacefully after a brief illness on Thursday, August 21, 2014 at the age of 74. He grew up in the French Quarter of New Orleans, and was a student of the legendary music educator Yvonne Busch. By the time he was in high school he was performing with such New Orleans R&B greats as Johnny Adams, Lee Dorsey, Eddie Bo, Tommy Ridgely, and Ernie K-Doe, and was on recordings produced by Cosimo Matassa. After leaving New Orleans for New York, he became a successful session musician and sideman, and appeared on records by Ray Charles, Jerry Butler, Marvin Gaye, Groovesect, Gladys Knight, Curtis Mayfield, Otis Redding, Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, and many others. He performed around the world, and toured with the Red Sanders Big Band, Ray Charles, the Slide Hampton Band, and Art Blakey, among others. As recently as 2013, he had performed at the Jazz Journey event at Dillard University, produced by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation.

I know it's been mentioned in the past but this label still confuses me ...... It was based in New Orleans but had a California derived name (seem to recall the owner was originally from SanFran) .... they cut one of their artists up in Memphis (at Stax & Royal Studios utilising Isaac Hayes & Davis Porter as writers / producers), so I'm OK up to now (though still confused) ..... They started up in 1962, lapsed in 63, returned in 65 and then shut up shop for good in 66. On the face of it, they had a straight forward numbering system; 101,102,103.104, etc. BUT they put out 2 different versions of # 105 + before & after returning, put out 2 different versions of # 110 .... there was no # 112 .... BUT there were 2 St Louis related releases that had weird numbers ........ 3221X14 ... and ... 15235(A) .... Anyone know the reason for those 2 'out-of-sequence' numbers AND ALSO ... what the St Louis link was ??? Would guess the Ace / Kent team are the best to provide the answers ....

A biggie from these Voice Masters ...

The gentle genius, Curtis Mayfield ..... ....... ...... ..... .... ..... Little girl again you are blue, Another fellow has gone and left you, I see you've come back to me your best friend, To tell another tragic story again, and once more you look in my eyes, And one more time you ought to realize ....

.... INFO ON THE VOICEMASTERS, who were from St Louis ..... Back at that time (1972/73), St Louis was something of a hot bed for soul styled talent though this had largely gone untapped. Kent Washburn quickly commenced studio work with the Hypnotics, a locally based male trio led by James Thompson. Thompson had already been involved in the music business for around seven years as a singer and song writer. He had started his first group, the Voice Masters back in 1965. This outfit comprising himself (as lead singer, guitarist and songwriter), Arthur Jeffries (1st tenor), Godfrey Lewis (2nd Tenor) and Morris Henderson (Baritone). They had been signed to the Copa label and had cut some tracks with Oliver Sain (“My Love Was All In Vain” & “Dance Crazy”) which escaped on a single. Their initial recordings were then picked up by the New Orleans based Frisco label but despite gaining a national distribution deal, this second incarnation of the single again failed to make a commercial breakthrough. The group soldiered on though with Don Bodie replacing Godfrey Lewis as their 2nd tenor. Mamie (the owner of Bamboo Records) signed them before handing over the creative positions at the St Louis based label to a team from Chicago. The Voice Masters initial Bamboo release (in 1967) coupled “If A Woman Catches A Fool” with “You’ve Hurt Me Baby”. Gene Chandler led the team from the Windy City that took over the reigns at Bamboo Records and in no time at all he had transferred the labels creative base to Chicago. In 1969, a second Voice Masters Bamboo 45 escaped, this again featuring “If A Woman Catches A Fool” which on this occasion was coupled with “Never Gonna Leave You”. Gene soon recognized James Thompson’s skills as a song writer and so started using his songs on both his own sessions and those of other Bamboo artists. The Voice Masters final single was their most successful as “Dance Right Into My Heart” (again utilising “If A Woman Catches A Fool” on the flip) made the national soul charts in June 1970. The 45 peaked in the Top 50 of the chart but with James now being so highly regarded for his song writing, the group wasn’t encouraged to continue on. The Hypnotics of course had big cuts out on Reprise in 1973 and later on Emkay. The Hypnotics on Cheapo are a different outfit. The Voicemasters out of Detroit were a totally different group (Anna, Check-mate, Chess) and included Lamont Dozier & 2 guys who would later be in the Originals.

I talked to him about Earl Jackson. That was cut in the period when he was 9 to 5 everyday for ABC. It was just a job to him by then, he couldn't remember even working with Earl Jackson, anything about the guy or the tracks cut. That work was a total blank to him, even though he arranged the track, conducted the musicians on the backing & produced it. He is even co-credited with writing "Soul Self Satisfaction", so he must have changed / developed the song that Earl had fetched to the studio with him to have 'earnt' that credit (maybe Earl had planned it at another tempo & Johnny suggested doing it the way it turned out, we'll never know I'm afraid).