Frankie Crocker

Anti-climaxes galore this week. Barbara Lynn has achieved a record price for this release so I might even dig mine out and flog it but expect to be bargained down to a more realistic price 33% lower.

Original is on American Hi EP only. Came in a nice picture sleeve. One auctioned on Manship's site a few weeks back for big money. Plenty of copies have turned up so it is available for sale from time to time. Also available on an English label released in the 70's - vinyl quality superb.

John's book needs updating as it's a while since the last edition was published. That said, what he actually sells records for is one price in comparison to eBay where prices fluctuate quite drastically at times. Because the soul market is so volatile at times with latest in-sounds being chased by a small number of highly competitive bidders, the latest price guide would be inaccurate within a few moths. Nevertheless, a new guide would be most welcome, especially a variation on the fifth edition complete with a bootleg catalogue and label scans.

Sign of the times. Good records are getting harder to come by. Give me 'How' any day or 'That's The Same Thing' or even 'I Got The Power' over this particular record.

What a fantastic set of records. I'll take the Matt Lucas if you still have it? Doubt anyone will ever see the Salvadors, Tobi Legend and the Professionals up for sale on the same list ever again and certainly not listed consecutively at the end of a list. Do you ever regret selling them Ian?

Well, now's a really good time to investigate further. The scene has never been richer in terms of quality sounds and styles of music. Most punters dress how they want and dance how they feel. Still best to watch from the sidelines until you're ready to hit the floor for a serious work-out as there are a few minor conventions such as no pints on the dance floor, no stubbing out fags, no spitting out gum, watch out for the talc, no chatting up the girls, tuck your elbows in, no bombing, no running and no petting in the shallow end etc. Get yourself to the 100 Club for a real taste of what's in store.

Should have got the Mercury release when offered it then.. Ah, well, I did get four of Herman's records in the buying splurge and couldn't afford this one as well.

Good track. Thanks for posting it. Worth buying the LP for the track but aren't albums such a pain...

The B side might have some sort of flaw or distortion but the Cool a Off side plays OK.

Actually it is very rare. Andy Rix had a handful from the artist. My copy came from Herman via a dealer. Herman kept back a white demo copy. He also got rid of the one or two Mercury copies he had. This is a record that rarely comes up for sale so good luck in finding one.

Been a recent thread on this record which may help. All issues are worth close scrutiny as they are tricky to distinguish from the bootlegs. According to Manship Volume 5, you have an original so the matrix number should be deeply etched in with other markings in the run-out ie AT, S with reversed C and R in the curves. Hope this helps.

Cheers Pete. My mistake. It is a C120 tape, not the usual sort I tend to use. I still have the box somewhere but am currently in Texas doing a bit of crate digging. C120 was the longest tape available and being thinner, easily got caught up in the machine. Over the years, it got twisted several times hence the quieter and distorted patches. This was the only tape we had in our family at the time so it got absolutely hammered until it went to Wigan and then the tabs were broken out. For the record, you have put up the B side first and the A side second. Part of the tape is continuous but much of it selective as I just had to have Butch Baker and Dana Valery, the standout tunes from the previous Saturday, my first visit to the Casino.

Something fishy going on. Bidders ducking and diving it appears. The appearance of the second copy has certainly rocked the boat. Retracting bids of this magnitude sets the alarm bells ringing whatever the circumstances. I doubt if all interested parties could now bid with confidence and the sellers may well not realise the prices hoped for.

Spot on Alan. I think the DJ says N F Porter Keep On Keepin' On. Not come across this number by Sam Dees but will be picking one up soon.

Would be very interested to know the identity of the unknown track if anyone can work it out, thanks..

The plot thickens. I have named the unknown sound without hearing Pete's upload. So, it appears that this tape could well be one made off my master copy although I don't really recall making one for anyone apart from myself. The original C90 being of thinner tape got munched up a few times and then I made another copy of it before the tape-to-tape machine packed in. I have now remade the tape, a manually remastered version you could call it, and I play this on the last Saturday of March by way of an anniversary celebration. I was evidently unaware of the Pussycat release back in 1974 even though that was when I bought my first Northern records such as Butch Baker, Gwen and Ray, Bob Wilson Strings etc.

Don't recall it being around in 1974 but got the Butch Baker pressing on Cherub that summer. Snapped up the pink Pussycat version when I first saw it in 1975 or 1976. It predated the CBS Special Products release if I recall, so I didn't bother buying this one.

Remarkable Pete. This is almost identical to a live Wigan tape I made on the last Saturday in March 1974, down to the multiple plays of Dana Valery and Butch Baker as he was known at the time. There is only one track on my version that I can not name and Pat Brady could not identify it when I gave him a copy. Is one of the unknowns by 100 Proof 'One Man's Leftovers'? My C90 tape finishes off with Junior Walker's ' I Ain't Goin' Nowhere' and has the Olympics 'Same Old Thing' early on, but otherwise it is very, very similar to this one. The same sounds were also spun the previous Saturday on my first visit to the Casino - the occasion was so overwhelming, I must have said I'm going back next weekend with a tape recorder.

Hi Pete. He was offering an original on Columbia for sale in March 1974. The Pussycat pressing was not available until a few years later.

Tragic. The thing is, I've seen similar at some do's, young debutante, six pints into the evening has plucked up courage and hit the nursery slopes during a mid-tempo number. All well and good until something a bit more up-tempo comes on and then this hokey-cokey malarkey just doesn't work, resulting in another toilet break or wallflower duty round the outside...

Am after a minter but awaiting retirement pension pot. Butch has a copy. Tony Smith #1 has one also as he confirmed earlier - Kenny Burrell tried to buy it but Tony knows his records... John Manship has sold two copies in the last 15 years or so. Nancy from Long Beach sold hers shortly after the recent Manship sale. The few copies that exist play OK apart from the chipped one so there is no quality-control issue with this release. As mentioned on a similar thread in the last couple of years, the record sounds a bit like Ray's 'Hard Workin' Man' on Jewel but is infinitely better than this RnB number.

I thought the record was on styrene... Travelling in the USA at present so not able to check my copy dating back to the Wigan era. Also sold another copy a few years ago and this was styrene if I recall correctly. Great record anyway and one to hang on to.

Abominable. Not seen it before. This bloke would be out of his depth in a puddle in the car park. I've seen better Dad Dancing at a wedding. Was this an April 1st post?

Ring wear results from the friction of adjacent records moving against each other. Back in the 60's, party goers would put their unsleeved records on the carpet by the record player and as they were shuffled around, the more prominent ridges got worn. Store stock jammed on shelves and were regularly pulled out whilst searching for a particular record would rub against each other. Unsold stock stored in large boxes that were subject to occasional shuffling around also suffered ring wear. Nowadays, records sleeved, shelved and handled carefully should not really experience ring wear. Plain white cardboard sleeves are thick enough to prevent labels rubbing. What's with all these 'in' jokes anyway?

Great story. Thanks for flagging it up to us. We've all been parted from records that we'd rather have hung on to so this shows what time may throw up.