Roburt

The word about those nights certainly got about. At the time, I was contacted by a young guy from Scandanavia who was attending a short course at Oxford University when they were running. He was a soul fan & asked if it would be possible for me to pick him up & take him along to the night being staged whilst he was in the UK. Being a northerner & friendly type, I did as he wished and he had a great time (he even bought a few rekkids).

Before UK pirate ship radio stns (AND many many years before NS), to hear soul + R&B 45's you had to either listen to Radio Luxemburg or AFN (pre 1964). The only time the signals from these stns were any good (here in the UK) was after dark. So many school kids (12 to 15) would listen to their transisters in bed (under their WHITE SHEETS) before they'd go to sleep. In many UK towns, you still needed to listen at night to get decent signals from many pirate stns. The people this outfit have interviewed seem to be the (still living) cream of the crop of early British soul fans. So I'd say, they're doing a decent job as long as they aren't trying to take their report beyond 1970 (which is around when the UK NS scene kicked in) without making reference to the northern clubs & what they played.

Billy Stewart was one of my fave singers (Love Me, Sittin In't Park, Summertime, I Do Love You, Exodus, etc). I lived in Donny & didn't go that night as I'd seen Jnr Walker so many times in the preceding 12 months. GUTTED. My mate Tom Sleight saw him @ the Wheel but I missed that night as well (a girlfriend in Hull -- a place with a great weekend club scene back then).

Giving in (so many times in the old days) to Paul Temple's constant bickering to sell him this or that 45 or UK LP . . . . it was easier in the end to let the rekkids go than to have to listen to him asking over & over again. NON REGRET . . . . being the age I am. This allowed me to be around 'on-the-scene' (mid to late 60's) in the golden age of UK soul (mod) clubs AND to see so many great artists live in their heyday.

Rick, many times ship loads coming back from the US were lighter than loads going west from Europe to the US. To ensure ships were safe in storms, ballast was loaded to make the ship heavier. I was told LP's were loaded into containers to add weight to 'light ships'. These made a bit more money for the shippers than just filling the ballast tanks with sea water. My bro sailed from Manc (ship canal) on freighters to the Great Lakes & Argentina for some years. I know importers bought cut-out LP's but lots of 'everyday' shops / record shops (in Notts outfits like Fords, etc) sold LP's for 10p / 19p each ... some of these had to be sold wholesale to these outlets for around 4 / 5p each, so I don't see how an importer could make money on them at that unit price.

Just read the book 'Once in a Great City -- the Detroit Story' and this show gets a mention (as do the preparations made for it in Detroit, getting the bus / stn wagons ready, etc).

Lots of times, back in the 70's / 80's, LP's were shipped as bulk ballast in cargo ship holds from the US to UK . . . . cut-out LP's were cheap to buy, heavy & easy to load.

Loads of great stuff on-line from Billboard, Cashbox & Record World + other mags & newspapers . . . . . . I posted dozens & dozens up on Dave Flynn's old site years ago (SOUL TALK -- that's gone though now) . . . . still paste a few up almost everyday on Facebook.

Done some checkin' & can answer my own question ... Yes they did press up 45's locally in the 60's / 70's BUT they seem to have been MAINLY of local product (local artists) ...

A company ad from the same period . . . .

With the One-Derful / MarVlus / M-Pac stuff all getting renewed interest via Secret Stash's activities, thought a few here might be interested in this old article . . .

Off to Puerto Rico tomorrow. I know it's now a part of the US but it didn't used to be. Any idea if they pressed 45's there back in the 60's ?? . . . . or did they just import them from neighbouring countries (US / Jamaica / Dominican Rep) ?? Don't suppose such a thing as a record shop still exists there but maybe I can find a thrift shop.

I used to buy discounted 'unsold 45' stock from a NY area warehouse in 1970 ..... .... named 45's (i.e listed artist & title) started at 5c each for stuff a year old & more. The more obscure the artist, the cheaper the 45 would be. Motown 45's were about 25c each in comparison. Tea chests full of assorted 'mainly obscure' soul 45's (I couldn't afford the UK P&P on these) were sold at less than 1c for each 45 contained in the box.

Ad for the alt version of the 45 .....

Three copies have landed here in Florida, thanx to JB (out there in Egypt) . . . .

So I guess it was Paul Robinson who decided which production / arranger teams Kenny would work with & which songs he would cut (Ady will know for sure) . . . If he was signed to a long term contract, it's a real pity they stopped releasing tracks by him so soon . . .

Didn't realise Kenny was from Ohio . . . .

In 1980 I bought a new car from D C Cooks of Wath. needed to return it a week later to get a few niggles sorted. As it was a bit of a drive from Worksop, I decided to just hang about till they were fixed (3 hr or so). So I decided to take a walk in the Mexboro direction. Passed a 2nd hand shop in a terraced row & he had put a few import 45's out front in a pavement rack. Some Verve / MGM imports were among them, so I dived in for a better look. Pulled out a 20 box of the Superiors (a mix of issues & demos). Some other 'obscurish' Verve / MGM items as well. Put 17 Superiors in the box + a copy of 4 other 45's ... (a Sam The Sham being one of the others) & went to ask the owner how much for the full box (now containing 21 singles). Beat him down to £1 for the box. None of the others were decent rekkids but I made a bit from the Superiors 45's. However, I'm no business man & this was pre- Tinternet. So I got bored of having so many spares, so I swapped quite a few with guys selling stuff at local soul nights and ended up selling the last few to guys I knew for £1 or 30/- each. Should have held out and sold them more slowly.

Examples of the art work @ the Wynwood Walls project in Overtown . . . . . . .

I was down in the Overtown area today. It is being gentrified at present. Lots of new development going on plus loads of art galleries have sprung up in old buildings. A big graffiti art outdoor project is now a very popular draw over an area of a few blocks. Got back home by taking the I-95 freeway so must have passed quite close to the old record shop.

I'd have a go . . . . but some of what I remember already out there (the chapter on the Wheel in 'In Crowd' book).

UK based 'husband & wife' team (? . . . maybe brother / sister) who played live gigs most nights of the week from mid to late 60's. Used to hand out tambourines to audience members to get the atmosphere going at their gigs but always used to lose a few at every show (tea leafs in the crowd). Always put on a good show, nearly always playing covers of currently popular Motown / Stax / Atlantic type tracks. Never really broke thru on record. Seem to recall seeing them late in 1967 playing at the Nite Owl in Leicester. Root stayed in the biz for many years, in later times fronting a blues band that also recorded at times.

'And The Echoes' got their strange name by just retaining what they were known as when they sang with Tommy Vann as Tommy Vann & the Echoes. Tommy got a different set of guys to back him up & his old guys just kept on going under their old name ... they played numerous gigs over a period of years in their home town of Baltimore. Here's a gig they played with local / DC area outfit the Van Dykes ....

Dr J Bobby Cole's business card in the mid 80's .... with many thanks to 'Mad Lad' Colton . . . .

As was posted above, Stevie's "Love A Go Go" was a massive anthem at the Mojo in 66/67. "Going to a Go Go" was also massive as we all used to sing Going to a MoJo AND Love a Love a MoJo over the real words ... Stringfellow played it off the US LP from almost the day that album was released right thru to the end of the club in September 67. I bought the 'Uptight' LP when it was a new UK release and bought the French ep on a visit to USA Record Shop in Paris in the late 70's. Just in passing, I was a regular guest on R Searling's Soul Sauce radio show on Radio Hallam in the 80's and we would do Mojo related slots. On a couple of these, I played "Love A Go Go", so Richard was certainly aware of the track back then.