Frankie Crocker

The legitimate reissue has the 3w’s scribed in the run-out

UK buyers only please. Payment by bank transfer preferred but Paypal F&F or add 4% fees acceptable. Special delivery postage is £8. PM to reserve or request further information. Thanks for looking. Mel Hayes-Lady Are You Crazy-Boogie Man 225: VG+ SOL stamps on label WOL artist redacted on one side, other copies have similar promotional markings £125 SOLD Soul Inc-What Goes Up Must Come Down-Emblem 101: VG numerous hairlines and light marks, WOL name written £125 Sonny & Phyllis-I’ve Got Something On My Mind-Soft 1023: VG+ 5 light scratches halfway to runout £50

Salvadors is played out as in spun in public. Bobby Paris rarely heard nowadays. Both tunes are uplifting and perhaps more accessible to Prom goers. Agreed, those Top Of The Pops LP’s were truly awful - even back then it was original vinyl only for serious record collectors.

Sorry Mark, but George Blackwell has got to be one of the dreariest rarities played out, and played to death for that matter. If the next round of Proms are to generate ‘atmosphere’ as you put it, they need some tunes with oomph like Bobby Paris’ Personally, Prophets’ Fever, Salvadors etc. I think the whole Proms experience should be imagined as being in the recording studio rather than a club like the Casino - you’ve got the Mirwood Orchestra, Funk Brothers and a host of professional musicians plus talented singers delivering a recognisable versions of tunes unfamiliar to the masses.

Record on hold for you Glyn.

.UK buyers only please. Payment by bank transfer preferred or PayPal F&F or add 4% fees acceptable. Special delivery postage is £8. Please PM to reserve or request further info. Thanks for looking. Ambassadors-Too Much Of A Good Thing-Pee Vee 1000: NM label faded and off centre £375 SOLD Ikettes-What’cha Gonna Do- Phi Dan 5009 DJ: VG+ XOL few light marks, B side damaged by felt pen marks so not playable hence 50% price reduction £100 Ambers-Blue Birds-New Art 104: Ex slight label wear £150

Fear not Mark, Allnighters and Alldayers plus Soul Nights will still continue as usual. Perhaps some Prom goers might come to their senses being confronted by proper good music for the first time in their lives and head to a local soul-do to make up the number of ‘handbaggers’, adding to the new blood promoters are crying out for. The Prom initiative is a radio spinoff - the Beeb opening the ears of the listeners just a little but more. Credit to Maconie for pushing Northern Soul a bit as it has often not had the recognition deserved. I can recommend several of Maconie’s books that reflect his upbringing and talents - he’s done pretty well for a lad brought up on the edge of Wigan.

The Albert Hall vocalists did a solid job in the absence of the original artists. It would be good to see one original artist per performance perhaps but this would be incredibly difficult to arrange. Many of the 1960’s singers are no longer alive and those who have survived are well into their 70’s and 80’s, probably have not performed for decades, not resident in the UK and therefore not available to rehearse and tour.

I expect the tracks will be more or less the same as those played at the Albert Hall. The orchestra had rehearsed a few other tracks that did not feature in the Prom but popped up in the following TV programme. Maconie will play safe and use his limited knowledge to ensure popular classics will feature as the tour of the provinces unfolds.

Ah, but value for money! For starters, it’s a concert in a major entertainment venue. There’s a full orchestra of professional musicians involved who are not overpaid. Ultimately, it’s a special night out, a rare occasion, something to look forward to and an event to reflect back on in the years ahead. Don’t get me started on football hospitality packages...now that is a rip-off.

No surprise there. Manchester and the surrounding region has been a hotbed of Northern Soul appreciation from Day 1.

UK buyers only please. Payment by bank transfer preferred but PayPal F&F (or add 4% fees) is acceptable. Special delivery postage is £8. Please PM to reserve or request further information. Thanks for looking. Red Coats Revue-Keep On Trying-Salem 501: NM unplayed £375 Jimmey ‘Soul’ Clark-I’ll Be Your Champion-Soul Hawk 003 WD: VG+ XOL label off-centre £350 SOLD Little Melvin And The Boleros-Jealous Lover-Valarie: VG few small scratches, plays with a few clicks £325

Make Up Your Mind is a brilliant track. Very catchy, classic beat, great dancer and overlooked by many.

You could flip it over and play Baby I’m Sorry...this is a superb sound, a great dancer and overlooked by most.

Well said Julian. The youths of Bristol could be dancing to our favourite sounds in 50 years time. Who knows, they might even be buying our original vinyl long after we’ve gone. As supporters of good music, it’s heartening to see a wave of enthusiasm embracing what we’ve been fortunate to enjoy for decades.

I was at the Albert Hall and there were plenty of folk new to Northern, some tourists, loads of comfy-couch soulboys (like myself) and soulgirls plus lots of young and middle aged folk boogieing along to afab set of tunes. The Bristol Soul Club were in evidence wearing t-shirts done for the occasion. Covid is almost forgotten and no excuse to stay at home and miss out on musical treats.

Having read the article by Phoebe Luckhurst, I’m now in a position to comment objectively. The article features in a special Spring Fashion edition so the context suggests this topic is something hip to consider. The article focuses on the Bristol Soul Club events started by Levanna McLean. Events are packed out and everybody is having a good time enjoying the music, dressing up in whatever pleases and dancing any old how. Old School devotees might be perplexed reading about Bristol’s youth reviving a mysterious genre of dance music but the scene there is buzzing and an indication of what can flourish when someone with a bit of get-up-and-go sets things alight. The music played is well received and the tunes spun are as good as many heard around the country. It seems all is well in Bristol and it was heartening to see the youngsters having a fun time dancing rather than queueing for the dentist or throwing statues in the harbour. Re the advert, that was a bonus in this Sunday’s paper. If it sparks a few more comments, I’ll leave it to the Mods split the thread. On a positive note, I think it’s good that places outside London may have the opportunity to experience last year’s Albert Hall concert but the event could be a slimmed down version judging from the venues. Stuart Maconie mentioned the plans just after Christmas and again last week, so it’s good to see the details finally in print. I suspect all the events will be sold out and are confident that those who attend will have an enjoyable evening. Book now to avoid disappointment...

Just a heads up for those heading to the newsagents - there’s a four page article on the Bristol Northern Soul scene in today’s Sunday Times. I’m still reading the article so will reserve comment until later. There’s also an advert for the BBC Radio Northern Soul proms in the regions on page 17 of the Culture Section.

Liking this thread the more I read it. So far, contributors have intimated that Eddie Parker 1st pressings with the large even Archer stamp are rare, scarce, numerous but in collections, widely available back in the day etc etc but clearly there is no consensus. As this record was (another contentious assertion coming up) probably the first Wigan spin to go ballistic with record buyers prompting the various bootleg pressings, it’s probably true to say that the bulk of surviving originals are in the boxes of British collectors and therefore rarely seen for sale. Now back to the Archer plant in October 1968. Jack Ashford wants to press his record and needs promo copies to distribute to Detroit radio stations. This is a costly business and there is no guarantee the record will be spun by DJ’s. Jack opts for a minimum press run, say 200 copies. Perhaps some of the run are given green labels, who knows, but think outside the box. Norman Archer’s business is inundated with orders, after all, it’s Detroit 1968 and the Archer plant is the first and probably the only facility of its kind in the city. For some reason, Archer only do a small run, like many other US plants pressing minor labels. Jack and Lorraine having faith in their great record, decide to press up a larger quantity but choose to use another pressing plant as Archer can not meet their needs. And so the 3w’s variant (as I’m now terming it) is born early in 1969. The Archer October 1968 pressing is the original issue but the early 1969 3w’s pressing or reissue may have been the main bulk pressing hence this discussion.

Known only to a few, probably those heavily involved in selling or dealing. An early thread on Soul-Source raised the question of the authenticity of the 3w variant so it was not really common knowledge 30 years ago.

But you could reason that for a song he co-wrote for the only release on his own label, he would have talked to Lorraine and agreed to press more than Archer did. That could explain why the October 68 record was swiftly followed by an early 69 pressing termed by Lorraine as a ‘reissue’. So, we could be looking at a situation like the Superlatives where the yellow and blue pressings were done at slightly different times in different places. I tried phoning Mike Archer yesterday but got an answerphone message - I’ll try again later.

An interesting point as Martin was amongst the first to hit Detroit. However, would he have checked the run-out details? The Archer and 3w reissues were pressed within a few months so he could have seen quantity of the latter. There’s an Archer discography online - it has the Four Tracks on Mandingo on it but not the EddieParker on Ashford - this helps confirm the record in question is highly elusive. Sure, most first issues are tucked away in collections so rarely crop up for sale, but the lack of data online suggests it is a very scarce record in the even-Archer format.

Thanks for this - it would be good to have more information from Jack. Sure, Popsike is of limited reliability but it does indicate what records have been coming out of the woodwork in the internet auction age. True, sales of Eddie Parker peaked at 70’s venues but many of those would have been bootlegs as they vastly outnumber Archer copies. The reference to Ashford samples was supposition on my part - if Archer could only press a tiny number of white demos for Jack in 1968, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that a few green and white issues were done to ‘pilot’ the new label, a 25 count box of samples perhaps...perhaps Jack can enlighten us?

Not the case. The 1968 Archer demo and issue are the first press. The re-issue of 1969 may be the ‘main’ issue given this is the one imported by Soul Bowl in bulk, and despite being pressed (slightly) after the Archer copies, may indeed be of more significance than previously thought. Yes, there’s much speculation but also a considerable amount is uncertain for example how many records did the Archer plant press and why so few, what prompted Ashford to use another pressing plant for the release and when were the 3m copies actually pressed? Ultimately, I think the 3m issues are worth owning as they were pressed in the USA early in 1969 or possibly even before that QED.

Still giving this record the speculation it deserves, and admittedly theorising fir the most part... Perhaps the Archer pressing plant job in October 1968 merely amounted to the white demo copies plus a few green and white Ashford samples for Jack’s approval and handing out to local connections; John Manship rates the white demos as being very rare, but on Popsike there are several and not many more even-Archer stamped issues. I don’t know where the 3m plant was based in 1969 - I don’t even know its proper name but are just calling it this for the time being. There are a few pressing plant experts out there who hopefully will add to the story. I know I have a few records with 3m’s stamped in the run-out so will eventually get round to working out where they came from. I did read that Archer was the only record pressing plant in Detroit in the 60’s - if that was the case, a lot of records would have been pressed outside the city as a matter of necessity. Given there were only a small number of pressing plants in the USA, manufacturing was widely dispersed and closely linked to the locations of the major record companies such as RCA, ABC, MGM, Coral-Decca, Warner Brothers etc. So, we might be looking at a scenario whereby the bulk of the USA Eddie Parker issues came from a pressing plant that was sub-contracted to handle an order that the Archer plant could not fulfil QED.