The sight of Berry Gordy at Golden World on consecutive weekends, set tongues wagging that he was showing an interest in the studio.
It was rumoured that he was feeling uneasy about the quality that was flowing from West Davison and had approached Ed Wingate with an offer.
This may not be exactly true, however, as Gordy had to outbid a Bob d'Orleans consortium to wrestle the studio from Wingate and Bratton. This suggests that the studio had been on the open-market.
In September 1966 Gordy landed the prize by way of a reputed $1 million bid. Whether that was the figure or not will probably remain conjecture.
As well as owning the studio, Motown now owned Myto Publishing and the contracts of Edwin Starr and JJ Barnes.
It is astonishing to think that Wingate and Bratton were only based there for eighteen months.
Bob d'Orleans, who helped establish and run the studio, was out of a job and began to work with Sidra.
Mike McLean, Motown's Chief Engineer, gave an opinion of Bob's work in an open letter to the Soulful Detroit forum.......
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Future product was now released exclusively on the Ric-Tic label. All other labels ceased to exist.
A couple of Edwin Starr's 45's were released through to February, possibly suggesting that this was part of the deal.
The Ric-Tic label changed from it's simple red and black design to a more complex blue and gold pattern.
Myto Publishing no longer appeared on Ric-Tic discs and was replaced by Ric-Tic publishing, Wingate Publishing and in a couple of instances Illinois Publishing.
Remarkably the style of music being released would change too, with the old abrasive up-tempo style being replaced by a mellower, sound.
Headquarters were now based in Ed's home on Edison where a basement studio was used for rehearsals and demos.
Recordings were now scheduled at United Sound Systems on Second Avenue and Magic City Studios on Grand River.
Ric-Tic ran for another eighteen months with a fraction of the manpower.
Administrators :
JoAnne Bratton
Producers :
Ed Wingate-Al Kent-Hermon Weems-Willie Garrett
Arrangers :
Mike Terry