Frankie Crocker

Very sad news. John’s list was the best reason for getting up early in 1975 - Cool Off, Unsatisfied, Too Late etc, all the top sounds I could afford as a student. I got to know John at the Austin Record Conventions. Easy to get on with and a joy to talk to. A dealers’ dealer, held in the highest regard by all the top U.S. record dealers. John Anderson will be remembered as the greatest importer of rare soul records, one of the key figures in shaping the Northern Soul scene and an all-round nice guy, a larger than life character who will be sorely missed.

Ralph strikes me as being a pretty decent guy and a committed soulie like many of us, so it is alarming that someone would attack him. To do so at a soul event is also disconcerting as down the decades, violence has been virtually nonexistent at Allnighters, Alldayers, Weekenders and soul nights. There’s no welcome for trolls on the soul scene so just stay away.

Voila. Many thanks. Just tried your suggestion and I get what I want. Funny that eBay.co.uk keeps you in the dark...

Just tried again to view a bid history. There is an option to tell eBay what you think, perhaps because of some innovation. So, it looks like they have changed the format so you can not tell the bidding patterns of individuals such as withdrawn bids, number of bids per item etc. To some extent, this masks dodgy bidding patterns but I think it could be down to eBay simply reducing the amount of data flowing through the system. I always thought this was a very useful feature and already I’m missing it.

Thanks for the responses. I should have explained further. When you clicked on the bidder’s ID code, it used to show how many items the bidder had contested in the previous 30 days. Now, there seems to be no response when you click on the coded ID. Not sure if this is an eBay change or have I mucked up some settings?

Not sure what has happened, but when I try to check the bidding profiles of bidders competing for records I am interested in, no information pops up. Has eBay changed the settings to deny bidders insight into who is competing for a particular record (or anything else)? Any confirmation would be appreciated.

Not personally but someone on here will have. I don’t think Russ is on here though. Oddly enough, a distant relative who I have never met is mates with Russ and stands in for him sometimes - one day, I hope to catch up with them both in Wigan.

I’ve got the book and am working through it slowly. Even though I have bits of paper from three uni’s, it’s still a tough read. It is pretty academic and presented on an analytical level. I have had the book for six months but I am only up to page 64 - the next subheading where I will pick up reading next is ‘Post-subcultural subcultural play’ so you can see this is a work to dwell on rather than a page turner. The book contains some good sections that I am looking forward to. Trouble is, when you are a record collector, travelling the States and browsing online, important things like reading get put off. I will now set myself a target of reading some of The Northern Soul book every week.

You will need to contact the DJ’s of the main venues to get contact details of the promoters and management. Trouble is, we are talking about a time 40-50 years ago so any young designer then, could now be 70+. Good luck with your project but I suspect you could find it rather tricky. I think Russ Winstanley did a rough draft for one of the Wigan Casino patches so you could try to contact him. Russ is a top man and ultra-helpful so that is where I would start.

Cool stuff. Does anyone know the story about this one?

eBay does not condone acts of criminality but gets by doing next to nothing to curtail it. The corporation is really only interested in making money with the minimum of hassle. You would think the recent prosecutions of bootleg makers/ sellers would deter anyone from getting involved in illegal activity. Ultimately the record buying community should police itself by not buying fake rubbish. We should all speak out against the circulation of bootlegs that deceive record buyers and dancers at OVO events.

Good luck with the project. The demand for a quality portable is out there. They are a must for USA crate diggers. They are very handy for UK collectors when playing VG USA records needing a good groove clean. You will need to ensure the player can adapt to both UK and US records. The Bush Discassette does. I have a Discotron that only plays UK records with a solid centre so it sits in the box unused. There are plenty of second hand players that work OK and new machines from Crosley that serve a purpose. Your pricing will determine whether the project succeeds in the face of competition.

Sold for £52. Rather a lot to pay for a fake record. I concede it was worthwhile auctioning the thing from the seller’s point of view. That said, I would rather not see these things cluttering up eBay. Bootlegs had currency in the 1970’s but the way forward nowadays is to arrange some sort of licensing agreement like Kent do.

Must be a record price for the Four Perfections.

Wow. That’s a wide scatter of locations. Never seen a DJ copy of the Martineques. Only seen it on a deep blue-purple label. Always suspected it was a Detroit record and it would be nice to have that confirmed.

The record is back on eBay, up for auction and clearly described as an unofficial carver. Good that the vendor has clarified the sales pitch so the unwary will not fall into a trap. Baffled why this item should be put up for auction as it is not a rare, original release. It is a bootleg and fit only for a low buy-it-now price tag although the purists would probably rather it was not on eBay in the first place.

Interesting thread. For what it’s worth, I bought my copy of the Martineques on Me-O in Detroit in the mid 1990’s. Has anyone else out there found a copy in the wild, and if so where? There are 9 copies on Popsike, one of which has sold twice; four copies appear to be from the same source. So, this is a very rare and highly desirable record. The scarcity reflects very low sales, possibly in a single, local market, quite probably an urban area like Detroit.

Ah, but what did you pay for Cecil Washington on Prophonics?

And They’ll Never Know Why...

Sure, there’s someone out there beating us all to the big ticket items. Lost track of the rarities that have gone to a very rich bidder or bidders in the last year or so. If I had the money, I would do the same, just fritter it away on more expensive records. There’s no con involved. Record prices rise due to increased demand relative to shrinking supply. No longer can we con the US dealers to part with their records for paltry sums. Only the dim end up being conned. Everyone makes mistakes buying records but it’s not a con unless you buy bootlegs in the belief they are originals.

Good idea for a thread. Just nominate the rarest of the rare whether you have a copy or not. The total pressed though is not easily deduced from company invoices, Popsike auction price database, old sales lists etc. Many rare records are tucked away in collections and have been for over 40 years: only a small proportion of these rarities see the light of day when the owner DJs with them. Many of the records we chase after were only pressed in quantities of 200, 300 or 500. Press runs would be larger in major cities but much less in smaller cities and towns. Record companies found it very difficult to raise the cash to pay for large quantities to be pressed. Much depended on the success of early sales based on radio exposure that could result in another press run. The industry standard usually involved 25 copies going into thick or thin 25 count boxes. Four of these were put into a square 100 count box. Sometimes 200 records were put into a rectangular box, especially if it was a well known group that sold thousands. A person could carry a hundred count box easily enough and split the boxes amongst the group. A couple of 25 count boxes would supply the local radio stations and one-stop shops where reps would mark X’s on the play-side. A 100 count box could have been split at a group’s concert and given away to fans, friends and family who attended. For a group that produced one record for a very local market, a press run of 300 would generate short-term interest but hardly generate the finance to fund another release. This explains why many records are are in short supply but occasionally turn up in very small numbers.

Rotten bad luck. You did well to spot the issue though. When I get records that skip, I play them on an old 60’s or 70’s portable player a few times as this can remove blockages on worn copies. I’m on the lookout for an upgrade for my DJ copy so I looked closely at the one for sale. I put a low bid on it knowing it would go for more. My heart sunk when I saw it was flawed.

Stanley Mitchell was cracked.

A great tune. Hardly any copies in existence. Hundreds of collectors would be delighted to own it. No chance of old store stock turning up in New Orleans. This is the sort of record auctions were devised for. Might go as high as 4K depending on which two DJ’s have the cash.

That was what I suspected. The description was very detailed and presented in a way to authenticate the record. The key word ‘bootleg’ was omitted. The wrong side of the record was featured in the scan for some reason. The record was put up for auction rather than a buy it now offer. Some were drawn in to bid and then disappointed. Bootlegs are a plague on the collecting scene and sellers should be very careful about how their wares are marketed unless they are prepared to lose credibility.