Frankie Crocker

Mr Big Shot, his best by far in my humble opinion - one of the records that hooked me on the music back in 1973. Gene Chandler has got to be one of the most prolific ‘Northern’ artists going with so many decent tunes to his name.

One of the weakest auctions in a long time with most records going for very modest sums. Wade Flemons the highlight fetching the auction going rate. Plenty of tonight’s records are evidently Set Sale items if they are valued at below £200.

Water, regardless of temperature, could damage paper labels on styrene records. I would have thought paper towels would be rather scratchy - a special record cleaning cloth might be better for cleaning those Shrine issues.

Not if the residue is removed by a soft cloth! Never read anything on the topic - information came from discussions with record collectors. I’ve heard that Mr Sheen residue on rough records deadens the snap, crackle and pop. Any residue in the grooves is soon removed by the stylus in a spin or two - this eliminates the very fine dust that accumulates on mint store-stock. I’ve cleaned over 10,000 records with Mr Sheen without any problems.

Mr Sheen spray is good for cleaning styrene records - use a soft record cleaning cloth. Whatever you do, never put lighter fluid on styrene as removes the gloss and discolours it

I think you’re correct on this Julian as it was unknown at the time. The mention of 6 copies merely confirms it was well and truly under the radar at the time. That said, I’ve seen it reported as a Casino spin. I picked up my copy in the early 90’s never having heard it before. Dave Skeen of Nottingham put me onto this juke-box supplier in Columbus, Ohio - when I got there, Coach Bob wouldn’t let me behind the counter but there was a copy of IDKAY sitting there. I sampled it and took it away without asking about other stock. I spun the record in public in 1996 when it was still relatively unknown but I recall having read there was a bit of discussion about it at the time. Someone who attended the 100 Club got hold of the Columbus stock and dripped them out stoking further demand. Since then, every copy at auction regardless of condition, has sold for decent money. This is a seriously good record but the demand for it will never be fulfilled so the price will only go up and up.

I was late grabbing these shots so missed a few…

Don’t recall it being spun when there in the early years. Got to doubt the assertion. Now ‘Stronger Than Her Love’ was absolutely massive - could this be song that should have been referred to? ‘Nothing But A Heartache’ is more of a Stafford era tune being mid tempo. You’re absolutely right to flag this up as so much twaddle is peddled in the media by wannabe journo’s…

Most definitely. Never seen one before. Pressed in Canada no doubt with the full backing of Jack Ashford. Would be good to know the timeline on this but surely follows the Archer pressing job.

She made a memorable contribution to the late 70’s scene. A great performance at the Ritz in Manchester along with Levine’s other acts.

Definitely a thread worth starting… The Daily Telegraph review was generally positive but The Sunday Times Culture review less so as evidenced below. I will pick the book up and thumb through the pages but I doubt there’ll be any Northern Soul. Looks like an author cashing in on the name without doing proper research…we’ll see.

Maybe Neil could add to the thread… Given the record was pressed on superior British vinyl, it would be good to know where and how - having now heard the female version, it has certainly been tinkered with by a sound engineer. Only Jack can enlighten us on the licensing of the Selectadisc release and how his Ashford so g came to be repackaged.

Thanks. I knew Lorraine was surprised to learn of this and denied involvement. I’m curious to know where Soussan sourced the backing track from - was it dubbed from an original or did he have access to a masterplate? With Soussan linked to the Selectadisc release, it’s not a wild guess to connect him to the small uneven Archer bootleg QED.

Thanks for posting. There are no demo or issue copies on Popsike showing dates. A couple show XOL of a sort indicating sales reps’ recommendations. Your copy may be part of the second Jack Ashford bulk order if it is without the large even Archer stamp. If it is, it should the miniature WME stamp that is difficult to decipher. If it has a very large WME stamp, this would be if considerable interest as it could indicate Mack Evans cut two lacquers for Eddie Parker when in fact just one would be the norm. Two lacquers could possibly indicate a remastering tweak - something for the experts to look into if they can compare the two copies with different WME inscriptions. This thread still has a way to run yet. Nobody has said anything about the bootleg pressing that I suspect was done during the mid to late 70’s hey-day of Wigan Casino - was Simon Soussan behind this? Although I’ve not heard it, Lorraine Chandler did a version of Love You Baby on the Black Magic label for Selectadisc - Lorraine denied involvement and it was reputed Soussan was behind this version. Has anyone out there got information related to these topics?

As mentioned earlier in the thread, the hand-written dates were put on the records by a Soul/Gospel DJ in the Washington DC area, possibly Maryland/Virginia. The presumption is that when he received records from a sales rep, he dated them being a fastidious person. The date could of course relate to the time he filed the records in the many cabinets he had. The records are from a large hoard sourced in an estate sale last Autumn - this treasure trove is being dripped out on eBay, most Soul items having a handwritten date on them. Normally, we collectors prefer to have our purchases without WOL, but in this case, the dates have helped to narrow down the window when Eddie Parker was pressed. Any further Ashford records with date stamps from radio stations would therefore be of interest to us.

Fear not Chalky, evidence is to hand… The copyright for Eddie Parker is dated 14th October 1968. This registration would normally follow the recording of the song which in this case took place at United Sound Studio, Jack Ashford’s preferred recording studio where Pied Piper Productions delivered a host of legendary tracks. Allow a week for the master tape to be filled and delivered to Nashville, a week for Mack Evans and Nashville Matrix to cut the master plates, transport to the Archer plant, set up the press(es) and make a limited quantity - we can now assume Eddie Parker was produced in mid-November 1968. Maybe paperwork will turn up one day to confirm this, who knows? The photos below show three WME versions received by a DJ in the Washington DC area - the hand written dates probably indicate the time the records were received and/or filed. The earliest copy is dated 2nd February 1969 suggesting the record was pressed in January or late December. Accepting that Archer being the main customer had the record pressed initially in November, the non-Archer stamped issues were produced shortly afterwards, probably in Nashville where unit costs for a larger bulk order were lower. For a sales rep to make three journeys to push the same record over a period of three months suggests there was a plentiful supply at the distributors. It looks like Jack Ashford planned all along to press his label’s first release in two locations. Both releases can therefore be considered genuine original USA 1960’s presses.

Many thanks for your continued interest Chalky - I’ll endeavour to respond to the points raised below. There is a list of Archer records pressed online. It is not complete as it excludes Eddie Parker. Despite being the first record pressing plant in Detroit, it was small and unable to produce the gargantuan quantities of records the city generated. Archer is still operating today at full capacity with a waiting list for specialist vinyl projects into the near future. The Four Tracks on Mandingo typifies its output - a minor local label pressed in such a small quantity that future rarity was assured. I suspect Jack Ashford placed a minimum order for Eddie Parker, as then, as is the case now, unit costs of production were restrictive to the small entrepreneur, especially so when the label was not an established one with cash in the bank. We have established Mack Evans in Nashville took the master tape and cut the lacquer. The matrix number on Eddie Parker includes a 95 - this is because Archer had Nashville Matrix Account Number 95; the account number was assigned by Nashville Record Productions (NRP) but the number 95 appears to be related with Nashville Matrix, the plating facility. To quote your own words Chalky, ‘Nashville Phono Matrix was a plating company - they did plates forSouthern Plastics, Archer and others’ (Soul Source 30/10/12). Nashville Matrix took the metal blanks from Matrix of Nashville and turned them into master discs using Mack Evans handiwork. For the record, Nashville Record Productions were based at 469 Chestnut Street, Nashville Matrix was based at 457 Chestnut Street and opposite United Record Pressing at 457 Chestnut Street. URP was known as Southern Plastics until 1971 - it makes sense to assume Eddie Parker records were pressed here until further information to the contrary surfaces. For the Archer plant to press up a quantity of Eddie Parker records without an Archer stamp stretches the bounds of implausibility so we must accept the bulk of the release was produced by another factory elsewhere. Gonna hold it there to keep the thread manageable but there’s more to add later…

Correct Chalky. Archer pressed a tiny number of Northern Soul records on local labels, but as a small business, it could not handle large contracts so Motown went elsewhere for bulk record pressing. The link between Detroit and Nashville was a strong one with the latter producing Motown masters and record pressings. Jack Ashford as a Motown percussionist on hundreds of records may well have travelled to Nashville with the house band, stayed in the Motown Suite and become acquainted with Mack Evans - you could ask him this perhaps - whatever the details, Jack chose to send his master tape to Mack Evans for the lacquer to be cut for the master discs. There was a finite number of record pressing plants in the 1960’s, the table below shows many of them but it is not complete. If you ignore the west coast plants and those owned by the majors, there are only a few near Detroit and Nashville pressing vinyl as opposed to styrene. Until somebody can state categorically that Eddie Parker was pressed in New Jersey or Indiana, I’m happy to go with the logical location of Nashville. We may never know for certain but the principles of external economies of scale applied in this case suggest Nashville rather than somewhere further afield without strong links to Detroit.

Only sent back to Archer, the first and only pressing plant in the city at the time. Soul Source contributors have mentioned the large quantity that went to Soul Bowl. Some were reputedly sent to Selectadisc in Nottingham. As already mentioned above, the factory paperwork has not surfaced so it becomes necessary to make inferences. For a sales rep to drive three times from Nashville to Washington DC early in 1969, dropping off Eddie Parker (and other records) at every other record store and radio station suggests there was a large number of records pressed. The fact the record was being given a sustained promotional shove suggests the record wholesaler had given the rep a big kick up the backside, possibly prompted by Jack Ashford getting on the phone to speed things up. Whatever the numbers, Archer demos and issues have turned up in smaller quantities than the non-Archer ‘tiny’ WME pressing, the so called ‘second issue’, but probably the bulk order made by Jack Ashford. The question now arises, what do we make of the non-Archer ‘large’ WME pressing that Manship confirms as genuine - was this the second issue, pressed at a third record factory or made on a second machine at United Record Pressing in Nashville? Maybe the full story will never be known but we’re working on it.

One is virtually too small to photograph - the comments made by Pete Smith and Ted Massey on August 29th 2012 and Richard Searling on September 2nd 2012 confirm this. The other on Soul Source shows up quite clearly.

The record was almost certainly pressed in Nashville as Detroit master tapes were sent there regularly for mastering and mass production, probably at United Record Pressing, formerly known as United Plastics. This plant was particularly popular with Motown artists - indeed, it had a ‘Motown Suite’ where artists could stay when in Nashville. Mack Evans spent his working life in Nashville so was well connected and a key figure in the music business - it would make no sense for an Eddie Parker master disc to be sent to a pressing plant in say Chicago when there was such a strong link between Nashville and Detroit. Copies of the WME record have surfaced in Washington DC, Pittsburgh and Chicago. Whilst this is not the whole of the USA, it is roughly half of the country and certainly the main market for 60’s soul music. The Billy Sha-Rae Soul Congress Band who played the backing track hailed from Pittsburgh, so unsurprisingly, copies of Love You Baby have turned up in Pennsylvania. I have two of the three copies left by a sales rep with a Maryland DJ hence my particular interest in the record. Nashville being fairly central, was an ideal location to press records for a large eastern market and of course had the record wholesale and distribution network in place. For a sales rep to visit a Maryland DJ three times in several months confirms there was a large quantity of records pressed for sale, pretty much confirming that Jack Ashford had huge confidence in his Eddie Parker record. The big question is, when was the large quantity of WME non Archer records pressed before being moved to the wholesaler for promotion and widespread retailing. Without a doubt, Jack Ashford place a small order with the Archer pressing plant, being seen to support local business and presumably accessing the Detroit radio stations - he also placed a large order for Eddie Parker records at a major pressing plant, probably in Nashville being the music centre it was at that time in 1968-69.

No. Several Soul Sourcers have struggled to describe the microscopic configuration whilst the other is very prominent in the run-out. They are totally different WME inscriptions.

That’s what I’ve been mulling over - two pressings at roughly the same time or one shortly after the other. The Archer pressing plant was small and probably working to full capacity in 1968. Motown regularly sent master tapes to Nashville for lacquer cutting, master disc production and record pressing - I suspect the Eddie Parker master tape went to Nashville as part of a larger job lot. We don’t know how many master discs were derived from Mack Evans’ lacquer but at least one went back up to Archer in Detroit and others were used in Nashville to press a pretty large quantity for national distribution. If anyone has copies of Love You Baby with radio station date stamps on, that would be very useful in pinning down the production dates. To return to the original question, I’m also wondering if it was one of the Nashville master discs that was used to press the uneven Archer stamped bootleg QED?

Spot on Chalky. Jack Ashford was the main driver behind the enterprise. He had huge confidence in Eddie Parker so it would have been him that placed the orders for the Archer and Nashville pressings - plus of course it was his label and production. Maybe you could check in with Jack again sometime and ask what quantities were pressed up and when. Sure, it would be great if the factory job sheets were still in existence and someone had access to them as this would enlighten us considerably - any record sleuths in Detroit and Nashville who could shed some light on this?

There’s still much to be written on the subject and I’m working on it. There are several Eddie Parker threads on Soul Source, all of which are worth a read. To pique your interest, there seems to be two variants of the WME etching; one is minuscule and barely decipherable to the naked eye, the other quite large and easily read. Jack Ashford has no recollection of the circumstances surrounding the Archer press but we do know that that Lorraine Chandler verified the non-Archer stamped records as bona-fide second issues. Readers may be intrigued to know that the master tape went from Detroit to Nashville for Mack Evans to cut the lacquer to make the master disk - this went to the Archer plant to produce white demos and issues over-stamped with the even Archer mark BUT issues were pressed in larger numbers in Nashville… Mack Evans has passed on so it is not possible to ascertain the date of his handiwork but it was put to use in both Detroit and Nashville late 1968/early 1969. Mack Evans was a master at his trade so the WME pressing is of a superb quality- I have not had an Archer stamped copy in my hands or on the deck to make a full comparison yet but intend to in the years ahead.