Frankie Crocker

Sounds of Lancashire maybe? Stoke Soul came later. Staffordshire Soul later still. Not sure where we are now...

The LP collector is in luck. The seeker of soul 45’s will find more records advertised on Soul Source. The few 7 inch records on the shelf would not whet my appetite. I need to see square cartons with Marvlus or Onderful stamped on them to get excited.

Condition. Condition. Condition. In the last week or so, Four Voices on Voice went for about 3K, Charades on MGM for over £800 and Betty O’Brien on Liberty for over £350 These are PB’s for these records, probably due to their pristine condition. George Lemons on Gold Soul went for over 2K in Excellent condition, another price topper. This one rarely turns up in nice shape so what price for a minter?

Yes, I saw one go for this so I expected it to reach at least 5K. I can also remember John listing it for set sale at £400 over 20 years ago. Wish I’d had a crack at it now and taken out a bank loan...

Thanks for the info. If it sold for 3.5 K, John will be disappointed given the higher sums it has fetched in other auctions. The buyer will be well pleased, especially given the condition it was in.

Does anyone know how much I’m ‘Losing Again’ sold for in John Manship’s auction that ended on Wednesday 11th April?

Buyer didn’t know ‘where’s it at’...

Will you be moving into a house with a ‘record room’? If so, will there be enough space to go for waist level racks as in record stores? You certainly need a lot of crates to transport your records and I suspect you need to hire a van to shift the 45’s. White ‘200’ boxes are ideal for transport and/or storage, and perfect for retrieval so rather than shelving the records just in sleeves, I would recommend boxing the records and then shelving the boxes in rows rather than stacking them. The shelves will need to be custom made to be an ideal fit for the space available - this might mean you take your purpose built shelves and your dearly beloved with you...

Agreed. Although I did not go to the venue (until it became Placemate) think this track would have been too slow to be played at the time. Roger Eagle’s record library on the shelf may have had a copy, but that does not mean it was actually played. If a compilation purporting to be Wheel sounds is to be circulated then it should only have records that were definitely played. The Wheel sounds were of a distinct character and laid the foundations for what we now know as Northern Soul - it is therefore important that due diligence is done for historical accuracy.

This is a really common record. It was a big seller back in the day. It can easily be picked up on a trip to the States. In the U.K. it should not change hands for more than £20 if selling, but probably £15 is a realistic price if actually buying.

Ray Agee has not sold for 2K. John’s auction finishes next Wednesday. I suspect it will sell for 3-5K in the end. If I had a pension-pot, I would blow some of it on this record. Personally, I would prefer to have records rather than money - you can get the money anytime but you sure can’t get the records when you want them, even if you can afford them.

I think the thread is having a pop at sky-high prices but of course this can reflect badly on some sellers. Just seen Larry and the Larks on Veep advertised on Craig Moerer’s website for £178 - this is pure Comedy Sale Of The Day material based on one stupid auction price when the record usually sells for £20-30. Both Tim Brown and Pat Brady are offering Don Ray’s ‘Born A Loser’ for £200 and £250 respectively yet the record will not sell for that price - sure these sellers have overheads to cover but neither will have invested heavily in this record. Dealers are certainly entitled to earn a return on their outlay but the line between a fair price that’s mutually beneficial to buyer and seller, and an excessive price that makes the buyer feel ripped-off is a very fine one. I’d also add that some record dealers who turn up a title in quantity, parcel them out for resale at an agreed minimum price, which is absolutely fine from a business perspective but buyers can end up being overcharged when spun ‘the last copy’ yarn.

Don’t forget the act of ‘price matching’ This is where a record on a major dealers list is overvalued - a collector sees this and prices their copy identically. Someone else notices this and marks their copy for sale at a similar price so the higher price becomes established. The supermarket chains do this all the time. Once upon a time, it was illegal for their employees to be involved in cartel activity. Now they only need to look up each others’ prices online to match them. This is one of the main reasons our food bills just go up and up.

Butch anywhere, anytime. Never known him play a set that’s less than memorable down the decades. Always willing to chance an unknown rarity. Consistently top-drawer sets including Tranells, Walter And The Admerations, Mello Souls, Parisians, Martha Jean Love, Tomangoes, Joseph Webster, Rufus Wood, Cody Black, Milton James, Saints, Cleveland Robinson...the list of top tunes is endless.

We’ve all heard of supply and demand but there’s another trend that Adam Smith forgot about... It’s called the Northern Soul law of demand and supply. In this situation, a small quantity of good records turns up in the States and are snapped up by shrewd collector-DJ’s; the record is spun in public stimulating further demand. Other copies of the record soon come out the woodwork increasing supply. Worried collectors fearing they could miss out, end up bidding like the record may never come to market again. The usual law of supply and demand does not always apply to Northern Soul records as price increases with both demand and supply eg Exits, Nolan Porter, Joe Jama, Angela Davis, Marvin Gaye, Four Tracks, Joe Tex etc.

Russ also sold records via mail order. What is surprising is the lack of Pye Disco Demand related tunes, especially as Footsee had recently gone big. I can remember the Sharonettes being played about five times one Saturday night - by the time I got to North Western next morning, I was hearing the song bar-for-bar in my head waiting on the platform. Not too worried about the Mecca lads’ comments - the 60’s purists will agree with me and the sissy Disco boys who wore plastic sandals and white peg-legs fell off the scene thirty years ago. At least Ian Levine has admitted he took the scene too far towards the commercial end of the spectrum - pretty lazy and neglectful given there were so many good 60’s sounds waiting to be discovered. I wasn’t at the Casino for any of Levine’s spots and remain baffled as to why he was invited in the first place.

Don’t forget that Russ had a record shop in Wigan so had a vested interest in pushing particular discs. Richard was much less into the sales side of things. The Highland Room rang the changes so the Casino had to follow - there was more dross played in Blackpool than Wigan. The mid 70’s were a party compared to the early years of the decade and the Casino arrived at just the right time. The night Mel Britt was sold en masse at Wigan was electric - the record had a rapturous reception on the main floor. I associate Pointer Sisters with Blackpool more than Wigan as that’s where I first heard it. The music and times were great back then and that’s why we’re still talking about it now. Even the worst records played at Wigan were better than anything in the pop charts at the time so maybe we should count our blessings.

I think the list leans too heavily towards commercial sales rather than Casino quality. Two outings from Tommy Hunt, a Casino stalwart. Sharonettes, one of the biggest tunes at the time but pressed up on U.K Black Magic. Possible Capitol release of Earl Wright? Mel Britt bootleg soon to be on sale in Minshall’s balcony kiosk. Only a few true classic Casino biggies here - Lou Pride, Ollie Jackson and of course, Mel Britt’s superb track. Nevertheless, plenty of good dance music with Pointer Sisters standing out as a timeless oldie.

A near mint copy sold on Sunday 18th March for $191 or £136. Value has slipped down steadily in recent years as more copies have been put up for sale. Some of the demand for this Constellations record has been spurred by frenzied demand for their crossover outing, ‘I Don’t Know About You’. I suspect that some bidders on ‘ I Didn’t Know How To’ paid more than they should have in the belief they were chasing the other record.

£150 on a good night. £125 for a fast sale. Seen it go above these values lately but the demand may have peaked.

Not been booted on the DJ version. There are two DJ versions, one with Mono on the label. Check out Popsike to see the contrasting variations - there are several with Mono on. I have both DJ versions but they are buried away. The Mono version is rarer so I would grab it ASAP.

Totally agreed, the Godfather of memorable sets. I was at the 100 Club when Richard spun Holly Maxwell’s ‘Only When You’re Lonely’, an overlooked B side, and the ground moved. From then on, mid-tempo tunes became the rage, building upon their widespread acceptance at Stafford.

For sure, there are a lot of factors that make a good set - varying the tempo is indeed a key aspect that fills the floor and keeps the dancers moving after a string of up-tempo tracks. The DJ who overlooks crossover tunes is missing a trick as these now enhance an oldies set more than ever with their high ‘happiness’ quotient. Ultimately though, it is the tunes that make for a memorable set, the sequence they’re played in, their age and therefore genre etc; a few surprise tunes clinch it, that world premier, the overlooked B side, that something from out of left-field.

I remember it well as I was there. Seldom do you hear so many top tunes unleashed at once. Ady has a proven track record of introducing top-drawer sounds left on the master-tape shelf amongst sets of forgotten classics and Motown staples.

Sounds good to me. There’s loads of overlooked, obscure and highly playable tracks worth exposing. Full credit to the jocks who work hard at digging them up then taking the chance on spinning their discoveries in public.