Roburt

Either Monk asked him to sing in the wrong key OR this guy was having a really bad day vocally (he misses notes all over the place & strains in other passages). Not lead singer material.

Only 2 days from now, have to try to remember to tune in (brain cells depleting rapidly so memory shot these days).

Greg has great musical taste (& a super fab collection of gospel dancers), so this collection will be an essential buy. Just bought a copy of the CD (UK Amazon -- £10).

Last nights BBC4 show 'Arena -- 1966 - 50 Years Ago Today' was a lot better (in parts at least). In 1998 I took a large group of UK soulies to Vegas. We went to loads of shows, had 2 we organised ourselves (Nancy Y did the work on the LA one & we had 2 live acts there -- Brenda Holloway being one), Lou Ragland organised the Vegas one where we had about 10 acts perform. Anyway, we also organised a 'soul crowd trip' to the local Motown Cafe. The weekend after our visit, they were running the 'Temptations Story' TV movie on a major network all over the west coast. To promote the show, the LA news team from the network contacted the Vegas Motown Cafe. They told them to come along on the day we were there (we had arranged the day / time ahead so that they would give us a behind the scenes look round) and so we found ourselves being interviewed by the news team & being pushed up on stage to sing / dance with the 'Imitation Supremes' who were performing live numbers. The subsequent news piece wasn't too bad BUT almost 30 minutes of footage they shot was condensed down to a 90 - 120 seconds long piece for broadcast. A few of the UK crowd at the Motown Cafe (with the LP-lookalike menus -- got one of them here somewhere) ...

When Cholly Atkins (the old Motown choreographer) was still alive, he was always invited to shows given by Motown acts. As he was a bit frail in his final years, Lou would always pick him up & take him along to such events. So Lou always ended up backstage with Cholly and got intruduced to all the acts, celebs who were around. Cholly was responsible for all the Temptations stage moves, so was always welcome at any shows they gave in Vegas ...

Zoot Money's Big Roll Band were always a good watch ... Zoot (who played the keyboards) would take his pants off half way thru the show & sit there playing in spotted boxer shorts !! Saw them play @ the Mojo and at clubs like the Boulevard in Tadcaster. A live LP they had out illustrates the type of songs they would do in their live act ... https://www.discogs.com/Zoot-Moneys-Big-Roll-Band-At-Klooks-Kleek/release/6668585 A clip of them performing at Klooks Kleek ..... I saw them a few days before this at the Boulevard (Friday 30th Dec 1966) ....

My main gripe with it was their line that.... UK music fans became hippies around 1967, then got into satanism via Black Sabbath before being converted by T-Rex and then moving on to worship all things Bowie ...... I was there at the time & not one of those scenarios even touched my life or any of my friends lives ... still the BBC says that's what happened so I guess I can't really have been there.

Anyone buy soul packs (or Motown packs) from Oldies Unlimited in Telford ?? In the 80's, if you bought 100 soul 45's (for £10) you'd get about 50 US 45's on TK labels + 10 pic cover euro released things (lots of CBS labels like Philly Int stuff) + a few assorted indie label things. But you then had to wait about 6+ months to buy another pack from them or you'd get lots of the same 45's in your new pack.

From that article Derek posted, it seems Oliver converted the building into a studio sometime in the mid 60's (65/ 66). So by 1971, when it started to get lots of 'outside' useage, he should have been well skilled as a studio engineer.

Come on now ......

The group had a 'slack period' between summer 64 and early 67 and their line-up changed (3 new members) between summer 66 & summer 67. In 1965 / early 66 they were on Top Ten. Is their line-up in that period known ? If this guy was a member for a short period (before they landed their RCA deal), then I guess he COULD be telling the truth. Their membership is well documented from when they landed their RCA deal (summer to fall 66 ??).

'Soul Harmony Singles' says that the Solid Rock group are the same (Detroit) outfit as the Carrie group. They became Combination Inc .... .... G Frazier & Jimmy Hightower who wrote & produced the Solid Rock sides being in the group on Arc Lark & Stacey ...

Most likely the inspiration for the Animals version .......

More old Animals live footage ...

Don't think so. It was a staple of their live shows back in the mid 60's & they did a version on a BBC radio show back then (released on CD much later). Most of their early LP tracks were cover songs that they played live, so don't know why "Work Song" never made it onto vinyl back then. Maybe they cut a studio version but it wasn't used as enough tracks to fill an album were selected ahead of it. Maybe EMI (or Decca) had a version in the vaults.

Has the history of the various soul groups using this name been tied down yet ?? ....

Ady has most (all ?) of those Curtom EP's, so he should be able to answer this.

I know a lot of funk 45s were included in Soul Bowl 'soul packs' back in the 70's / 80's. Later on, lots of these little indie label funk cuts became big money items with the funk DJ crowd.

Archway Studios was owned & run by Oliver Sain. He liked / cut loads of funk & that was his 'bread & butter'. But he cut loads of other stuff too (his was the main soul studio in St Louis). Acts like the Montclairs, Swamp Dogg, Bobby McClure, Uvee Hayes, David Dee , Charles Beverly, Gene Anderson + loads of local gospel & soul acts used the studio. Probably Les Watson as well (who's tracks were released on Pompeii) & Jamie Ross (on Cat). Oliver was usually the engineer himself, having started the studio around 1971. Oliver actually started out in the music / recording biz back in the very early 60's, running an orchestra. He cut instro stuff & took on local acts. He was Fontella Bass's manager & backed her up on her Chess stuff. He became a sort of mentor to many St Louis acts. Not sure if Archway Studios was new when he took it on OR if he bought up an existing local studio & just renamed it. My guess is that the Sign of the Times session was bought at the studio by the act or their manager (Sid Wallace ?) & that it was just a quick contracted job for Oliver & the studio -- get em in, cut em, & create the master. I've no idea if it was the studio part or the mastering that screwed this track up but it really shouldn't have been the studio session (unless it was done around 71 when Oliver was still learning how to be a studio engineer). The Lee Stone 45 on Break Out was also cut at Archway. Oliver himself cut loads of big tracks in there & they came out sounding OK. Another guy involved with Oliver & the studio was Phil Westmoreland was had his own group (Westmoreland), worked a lot with Charles Drain, Shirley Brown, Larry Davis and Kent Washburn of EmKay Records fame (Hypnotics, Voice Masters, Otis Williams, Michael (Love)Smith, etc). Didn't Numero release some Sign of the Times stuff, I guess more about the group & their recordings will be available via Numero's releases.

Another old TV show that still exists ... Teen Town -- Motown Special ...

Back in 1975, this show was broadcast in many areas down the US east coast. It seemed to depend on whether the local Pepsi supplier would book ads for the spot as to whether it got shown on a particular TV stn or not. Loads of soul music TV shows were made locally back in the mid 60's to mid 70's but most of these are now lost to us as the tapes were destroyed soon after their broadcast date. EBONY AFFAIR is a rare exception (along with Soul Train, Soul, The Beat, etc.) and it seems there are more actual footage of the original shows still in existence than info on them.

David Yabarra contacted me to say that although Linda's story would form the basis of a good book, it was up to her if she used the current 4 part story as the basis of such a book. He confirms that his piece has a lot about her period performing as Linda Cumbo (he states ... The "Linda Cumbo"/soul music years are indeed some of the most overlooked and alluring part of her history. The first installment of the literary documentary goes "live" on the Daeida site on 7/30 .... It seems that folk can view the contents of the mag on-line for free, though of course, he's very keen to sell copies of it (the printed version). He says he has had orders from around the world for previous editions that featured articles on soul singers (he has been running the mag for 9 years now).

I don't think Contempo ever sold NS packs though did they, only soul packs containing good soul (& gospel) records rather than good dance records. It was the Bowl that sold NS packs (though I would rather buy their cheaper soul packs as you got a more balanced selection of sounds).

A UK band's Mojo gig .....

As it's his birthday today, thought I'd post this UK gig ad by the main man ...