Roburt

Brenda can be a bit skitzy at times but her hearts in the right place (most of the time). Another guy that Harvey (& Lou) were working with is ex-Clevelander Billy Wells. A picture of them both in the studio ... .... PLUS a pic of Harvey with Phil Flowers Jnr .......

RE: By 1978, Ronnie was an important member of Cleveland based gospel outfit, the Hubbard Singers. He also secured a role in a hit stage play 'Singin & Shouting' with another member of the cast being Alltrinna Grayson ......... Alltrinna Grayson, as we all know, hooked up with Bobby Womack in the mid 80's and cut a wonderful track in conjunction with Wilton Felder (of the Crusaders) ...

We all know (or should do) that Daptone is just about the world's top record label for CURRENT soul product. Their artists land TV gigs, sell loads of tracks & tour around the world. Well, they staged a big soul show @ the Apollo (Harlem) in December 2014 & filmed the proceedings. This footage is now available for viewing ....... SEE HERE .... .... https://www.okayplayer.com/news/daptone-records-announces-living-on-soul-documentary.html

Condensing the facts on the two groups ... here's the info ... ... the members of the Magnetics who cut "The Train" in 1962 for Allrite were Bobby Peterson, Sharon Peterson, Tony Johnson (lead singer), Jackie Perkins and Candi Bell. The members of the Volumes / Magnetics who cut "Lady In Green" for Bonnie were Gerald Mathis (lead singer), Bobby Peterson, Elijah Davis, Ernest Newsome & William 'Pete' Crawford. Finally the members of the Volumes were came over to sing at Prestatyn in 2009 were Eddie Union (ex 1960's Volume), Elijah Davis (ex 1960's Volume & 'Bonnie 'Magnetic), William (Pete) Crawford (ex 1960's Volume & 'Bonnie' Magnetic) and Bobby Peterson (ex 1960's Volume & 'Allrite' + 'Bonnie' 'Magnetic). After his spell in the group, Tony Johnson (ex Allrite Magnetic) teamed with Tyrone Pickens as the duo Tony & Tyrone. Ex 1960's Volume members Ernest Newsome and Gerald Mathis passed away prior to 2009 when the group came to the UK. Another of the Volume's ex lead singers Jimmy Burger had by 2000 become a minister and was no longer prepared to go back to performing secular music. Thus the 4 guys that played Prestatyn in 2009 included the only 3 surviving members of the group that cut "Lady In Green". All the above facts are as told to me by Elijah Davis, William (Pete) Crawford, Bobby Peterson and Eddie Union (though Eddie had no knowledge at all of the groups Magnetics period as he wasn't involved with the other guys at all during those times). Further info on Tony Johnson regarding his time as half of the duo Tony & Tyrone can be found on the recent thread about them. Here's a club flyer for a gig they did with Erma Franklin in Baltimore in August 1965 ....

Following on from the message from Eddie Union informing us that Robert Peterson (of the Volumes / Magnetics) was just shot & killed in his house, I thought I'd post up my article on the group. I interviewed them @ the Prestatyn NS Weekender back in 2009. The Bonnie label single from the Magnetics is up there amongst the most sought after soul 45’s ever released. But until recently, the actual group’s history has been shrouded in mystery. This situation can now be corrected, thanks to the fact that the Volumes were booked to perform at the big UK Northern Soul Weekender in Prestatyn this March. During research, undertaken to enable a Volume’s bio to be pieced together, it became evident that the surviving members of the group that cut “Lady In Green” were current members of the Volumes. Not one to let such an opportunity pass me by; I took Volumes member Bobby Peterson aside to get the facts on the Magnetics.Bobby was born in downtown Detroit in May 1939. He grew up there, as did the other members of the Magnetics & Volumes. They all went to the same schools, Bobby himself being educated at Central High School. During that period, he started singing on street corners with his friends. They soon developed their harmony skills to a level where they were good enough to perform at parties & appear on local variety shows. This was in 1959 and the group took the name, the Marvelous Marveliers. Their line-up was Bobby Peterson, his younger sister, Sharon Peterson, Tony Johnson, Jackie Perkins and Candi (Fagan) Bell. They met some guys who were so impressed with their efforts that they wanted to fund a recording session. The offer accepted, the group cut “Down (On My Knees)” and “When We Dance”, both songs being written by Tony Johnson. Under the guidance of Gil Martin (who was later to work for Motown), Tony handled lead vocal duties on both songs.These cuts were released (as by the Marveliers) on the Cougar label in 1960 but failed to make much impact. Disappointed at the lack of success for their record, the group soldiered on but they were going nowhere and so decided a change was needed. The members of the group still got on well though, so it was decided that their new start would just involve a change of name. As a result, the Magnetics were launched onto the Detroit music scene. Under their new name, they quickly established a good following and again created enough interest to come to the attention of a local record company. The group went into Continental Recording (at 9022 Twelfth Avenue) with Popcorn Wylie and recorded “The Train” (written by Popcorn & Tony Johnson). This was released in June 1962 on Continental’s in-house label, Allrite. The other side of the single was “Where Are You” (again an R Johnson composition) which had a ‘throwback’ feel, being quite doo wop sounding. This 45 managed to gain quite a bit of radio airplay in Detroit and led to the group securing bookings at venues such as the 20 Grand, Mr Kellys, Phelps & Henrys.A return to the recording studio was called for and the group laid down some new songs; “Wonderful Moment” and “I Walk Alone (?). Again Tony Johnson wrote the songs and sang lead on them but for some reason they were never released. The Magnetics must have been quite envious of their old friends in the Volumes who were by then touring across the States on the back of their national pop chart hit “I Love You” (by a strange co-incidence Popcorn Wylie had worked with the Volumes on “I Love You”, as he had with the Magnetics on “The Train”). Yet again, the group’s career stalled, they weren’t making any headway and were starting to become stale. So Bobby, the leader, took the decision to wind the group up and its members looked for new challenges. Tony Johnson went on to team with Tyrone Pickens and they cut "Please Operator” for Ted White’s Ram Brock / Ston-Roc set-up (as Tony & Tyrone).Meanwhile, the Volumes were still soldiering on. The group had numerous fine 45’s released but unfortunately none of these would enjoy the success of their initial single. In 1965, the group had their last release on the American Arts label; “I Just Can't Help Myself”. Although released on a Pittsburgh based label, this track had been cut back in Detroit (at Specialty Studios on East Grand Boulevard) and featured the likes of Dennis Coffey on the backing track. But Eddie Union had become disillusioned with the treatment the group was receiving and so he quit, going solo. This resulted in a shake up of the group’s membership and when things settled down again, Gerald Mathis was their new lead singer (he had been recruited to this position as he sounded quite like Eddie). The group now consisted of Gerald (out front), Elijah Davis, Ernest Newsome, Bobby Peterson & William ‘Pete’ Crawford (who had started out in the Distants with Melvin Franklin, Otis Williams and Richard Street). With Gerald on lead vocals, the single “The Trouble I've Seen / That Same Old Feeling” was released on Impact. But since Eddie Union had gone solo, only two of the five strong group were original members. They started getting grief because of this and so (at Bobby’s prompting) they decided to take the Magnetics name for some gigs and to record.Thus the cuts “Lady In Green” and “Heart, You're Made of Stone” escaped on a Bonnie 45 under the name of the Magnetics. Once again, Gerald Mathis handled lead vocal duties on these tracks. As they had done on their Volumes recording sessions, the group worked with Duke Browner. The guys appreciated his writing (Duke wrote “Lady In Green”) and arranging skills, so had no problem working with him yet again. In support of their new 45, they played live gigs around the Detroit area under the Magnetics name (at venues such as the 20 Grand and Mr. Kellys) and even ventured as far away as Chicago and Cleveland for other gigs. “Lady In Green” didn’t manage to make much of an impact with the record buying public (probably due to the lack of copies of the 45 in the shops) but undaunted, they returned to the studio to cut some more songs. Yet again Duke Browner was the composer of these songs; “Hard On You” was an up-tempo number with “Some Day, Some Way” being a ballad. Unfortunately for the group these two cuts didn’t even manage to escape from the tape vaults. This set-back, coupled with the general lack of progress they were making and the struggle to maintain regular live bookings led them to throw in the towel. After Eddie Union had quit the Volumes to go solo, he found himself working with a guy who was in a soul group that was looking for a lead singer. This guy was constantly on Eddie’s case, trying to get him to join them. Finally Eddie agreed to become their lead singer, figuring that becoming a member of the Metros might not result in history just repeating itself. So Eddie sang lead with the group for a short time and they built up a decent repertoire of songs to perform. But the other guys; Gordon Dunn, Al(fred) Mitchell, Rob(ert) Suttles and Joe Buckman, soon decided that they were ready to record. This was something that Eddie didn't want to do again, so soon after his experiences with the Volumes. He told them that he just couldn't go through all the tribulations that signing a recording deal entailed and quit the group. Undaunted, the other guys (Gordon, Al, Rob and Joe) with Percy Williams on lead signed with Jack Ashford’s Pied Piper set-up and were in the studio early in 1966 laying down tracks that would be released on RCA.After the Volumes / Magnetics members went their own way, the Volumes re-formed and went on to record yet more tracks for Harry Balk & Duke Browner. They even ended up with a 45 on the Motown distributed Inferno label in 1968 (“Ain't That Loving You”). But there was too much competition from other groups at Motown and they soon got lost in the shuffle. Eddie was recruited back into the group, re-joining Elijah Davis & Ernest Newsome, and after drifting for a while Ollie McLaughlin signed them to his Karen label. In 1970, another Volumes single escaped, “Ain't Gonna Give You Up”, but this was to be the group’s last release. Meanwhile, Bobby Peterson & ‘Pete’ Crawford went off to form a number of new groups, one going by the name of the Premiers. Bobby had decided not to use the Magnetics name yet again and some of their outfits didn't even last long enough to be given names. One such nameless group was soon singing so well together that they were taken into the studio by gifted piano player & arranger Joe Hunter. Joe had worked closely with Jack Ashford & Lorraine Chandler at Pied Piper Productions (with the likes of the Metros). But on occasions Joe also took on the producer’s role and it was in this capacity that he cut three tracks with Bobby & Petes’ new group. The songs involved were “Only A Man”, ”No Money Down” & “Love Me, Hate Me”.If any of these tracks had been released, a name would have had to have been found for this 'new' group but local events conspired to prevent this from happening. In the early hours of Sunday June 23rd, 1967, the Detroit riots kicked off. Police abuse, segregation, lack of affordable housing and economic inequality coupled with rising black militancy meant that unrest in the city bubbled just below the surface. A heavy handed police operation sparked off events and 5 days later 43 people were dead, 500 injured, 7,200 arrested with more than 2,000 buildings being left in ruins. Many record company offices, studios and clubs were located in areas that suffered heavily during the riots and this just added to the chaos that followed. With most things being in turmoil, it wasn’t the time to be releasing 45’s. Locals had many important issues to resolve and buying records ranked low down on their list of priorities. Thus any plans Joe Hunter had for the tracks he had just cut were abandoned and so Bobby & Petes’ new group was stillborn. Bobby decided that his main priority lay with his family and so concentrated on his 9 to 5 job with Chrysler, so the group just fell apart.With the Magnetics now just a fading memory, it wasn’t too long before the Volumes also broke up again. Ernest Newsome however was interested in staying in the business. When approached by the Fantastic Four, he joined that outfit and enjoyed even more years of recording & performing. The years passed and the oldies scene in the US developed from strength to strength. Doo wop concerts began to be staged on a regular basis and when the Volumes were approached to appear on one of these, they re-formed. The members were now Eddie Union, Elijah Davis, William (Pete) Crawford and Bobby Peterson. Unfortunately Ernest Newsome had passed away in 1990 and ex lead singer Gerald Mathis also passed away some years ago. Another of the Volume’s ex lead singers Jimmy Burger had become a minister and was no longer interested in performing secular music. Under Eddie Union’s leadership, the four guys had a great time performing on doo wop shows and soon appeared on a PBS TV special. Now re-established on the US circuit, it wasn’t too long before UK Northern Soul fans started to show an interest. They weren’t however too interested in getting the group to sing their big hit (“I Love You”) but wanted to know if the group would be willing to perform their mid to late 60’s soul tracks for UK fans. Discussions took place, a contract was offered, accepted and all the arrangements were made for the guys to fly over here to perform at the Prestatyn Soul Weekender in March 2009.What had long been suspected by the more astute British soul fans emerged to be true. The three surviving members of the Magnetics were all in the current Volumes line up. The guys were asked if they would mind adding a couple of Magnetics numbers to their proposed show here and even Eddie (the only non Magnetic) was only too pleased to agree to the idea. So with Eddie on lead vocals, the four Volumes up on the stage at the weekender asked if there were any women in the audience dressed in green. After a positive response the guys announced … well this is for the “Lady In Green”. As the Magnetics performed the song for the first time in 40 years, the roof nearly came off the arena. The buzz around the site for the remainder of the weekender was truly incredible and the guys themselves were blown away with their reception. Bobby was so ecstatic about the audience response to their show and the interest that had been generated in them (as both the Volumes & Magnetics) that he couldn’t sleep in the hours following the show. Many questions were fired at all of them and it was ascertained that Pete was the only guy in the group to ask for (& get) a copy of the Bonnie 45 when it had been originally released. When he was told how much this 45 was now worth, he nearly collapsed. All four were truly happy with their first UK trip and are already looking forward to a return visit.JOHN SMITH; April 2009

Robert Peterson (Volumes) shot & killed in a home invasion May 17/18th. His home had been broken into numerous times. Tap to view this Soul Source News/Article in full

Phil Flowers Snr (RIP) & Vegas based Phil Flowers Jnr ...........

Made a mistake & omitted a couple of things in my bio on Ronnie (thanx Ronnie for pointing out my piece's shortcomings !!) ..... will have to update it when I can find the time ... .... BUT .... exiting news in prospect for Ronnie's upcomin' show. I'll be away in the Baltic so will not know if it all pans out to current plans ... guess I'll have to turn up on the day to see what happens .... such is life.

Nothing in the book 'Showtime At The Apollo' about the 'Shower of Stars' shows BUT then Otis Redding only gets 4 sparse mentions in the whole book. The guys who owned / ran the place since the mid 30's, had 1st owned the Lafayette Theatre. This was dubbed the 'cradle of stars' so perhaps that's why they came up with 'Shower of Stars' as a marketing ploy for shows @ the Apollo.

By all accounts, Willie is still working hard in the music biz ..... ... he just posted this info up on Facebook ..... I Am Writing Horn Parts For 'The Great Otis Rush Tribute' at The Blues Festival On Sunday 12th Of June ..... the Rehearsal Is Next Wed (May 25th). Bet that will be a good gig to be at, using real brass players as well. Wonder who the featured singers will be.

Spoke with Lou again yesterday & got back onto the subject of Harvey Fuqua's proposed new label (the label died when Harvey did). They had cut tracks on Harvey & Etta(James), Brenda Holloway, G C Cameron, a NEW Moonglows, another more recent group (Lou couldn't recall their name when we were chatting) + other artists. The label was to be called Resurging Artists & Lou tells me that a CD did escape (no idea what's on it though). Harvey also cut duets with Smokey Robinson on a couple of songs ("Tracks of My Tears" being one of them). They were also talkin' of licensing in material. They were talking / working with Phil Flowers Jnr (son of the 60's / 70's recording artist) and were going to release a great ballad he had laid down. They thought it need a bit of work though, so Lou added some backing vocals & did a new mix. Seems it will never escape though as Harvey has passed (I've got a copy of it & it's good ... but it's only for my ears unfortunately unless a deal can be sourced).

A US newspaper article ............ https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/entertainment/2016/05/17/ojays-bring-50-years-energy-friendship-wetumpka/84518612/ Can't unfortunately get to their gig mesen as we head off up into the Baltic on Sunday from Soton. But .... a related photo .... late 60's & Lou Ragland playing guitar in the O'Jays band on tour (no idea of the location though) ....

......... FROM ABOVE ........ RE: .... of course, some record companies had ways of influencing the (radio) DJ's to get them to play their records .... .... ..... like sending their artists to play 'free gigs' for radio DJs ...... ...... here's a gig for Balto DJ Hot Rod .... guess he was playin' loads of Chess Records after this show ....

A promo video for the Caviar album (CD) that finally escaped from the vaults a few years back ...........

Berry eventually fell out with many of the people who helped him get Motown going, the artists, musicians, arrangers, producers, writers .... so I guess he'll stay well clear of some tracks that punters might think he would pick.

Well when I started out on the soul club scene, NS hadn't been invented. Of course, this was back in the mid 60's & most stuff was being played as new releases. It was just all soul; so we got Stax, Atlantic, Okeh, Motown, Bell, Brunswick, Duke, Chess, Sureshot, King, Arctic, Cameo-Parkway, Sansu, Wand, Modern (as opposed to MS), Kent, ABC, in fact the lot. If it was a soul 45, you could dance to it (fast or slow dance) & it was good ... it got played.

Another WEBB 45 chart ..........

I also love old regional soul 45 charts .... the radio stn ones are my faves ...... Baltimore was a 'break-out' city for soul 45's, so many record companies targeted the three soul stns there ..... for some reason LA label releases seemed to do well there .... of course, some record companies had ways of influencing the DJ's to get them to play their records .... like sending their artists to play 'free gigs' for radio DJs ....

Willie & his guys backed up many Chess artists on their studio sessions in the mid 60's ..... A perfect example of this being the Kittens "Ain't No More Room" ..... NS class .....

He'll have to include one of the Supremes big hits (or a Diana solo effort).

Over a year had passed since Otis Clay's last One-derful 45 when he signed back with a Chicago based label; Dakar. His 1st single for the inking, cut under the supervision of Willie Henderson, was "You Hurt Me For The Last Time". The track was charting down in Florida on Ft Lauderdale based WRBD in June 1969. What would be your fave track, that Willie was involved with, that you'd like him to deal with in his upcoming book ??

Talk of the Grapevine is that Chicago musician / producer/ musical director Willie Henderson is writing a book about his long music career .... should be good if he deals with lots of his work & not just the hit stuff ..... .... as a musician, he played on loads of 60's soul tracks cut in the Windy City .... guess we'll learn the full SP on just which tracks he was on & what he thought of the sessions in his upcomin' book ... really hope this makes it to the publishers .....

Having trouble keeping him on track with regard to what he's gonna perform in the MS room @ the Cleggy Weekender in just over 3 weeks time. He does so many different songs in his usual shows (60's soul, Stax, Motown, Atlantic, Philly, 70's soul, James Brown stuff, Edwin Starr tracks, etc) that keeping him to just 4/5 tracks that he was actually personally involved with is proving a problem. One song that's a staple in his songbook is "Hold On I'm Coming" ... he sings both parts in his version (both Sam & Dave's bits OR IF YOU LIKE both Chuck & Maxine's bits).

My top 8 would have to include at least 2 x 60's Impressions tracks, a Billy Stewart, a Dells, Lorraine Ellison's "Stay With Me Baby", Artistics "I'm Gonna Miss You", Tommy Tate "School of Life" a 70's Curtis Mayfield .... jjeeessss I already got to 8 without any real MS cuts amongst em ... not an easy task this selecting just 8 top tunes.