westrex

l have all 30 of the soul sounds series, and it took me over 30 years to get them. Regarding the BJD and Green Light pressings...they were made by London based company "Lyntone" who specialised in small batch manufacture...they also made those awful "FLEXI-DISCS" for magazines like "Practical Motorist" highlighting faulty engine noises etc.. and they played at 33rpm and 16rpm (sometimes) you had to place a coin somewhere between the deadwax area and the centre hole to hold it firmly to the turntable, otherwise it wouldn't play...and the sound quality was shite due to the low speed. l hope this answers a few questions. best 2U..Tony Warot.

then there were people like myself who owned a record cutter..it's a complicated skill and you need to know a little bit about sound reproduction and physics and most importantly..who your friends are cos you're gonna get a lot of dodgy phone calls from wankers claiming to be from the M.C.P.S. mechanical copyright protection society. I made a few bob (only a few bob) doing this but at the end of the day l was selling a service..it's supply and demand..LONG LIVE CELLULOSE NITRATE (it's the black lacquer on the aluminium disc sometimes called acetate but there's no acetate used at all!!) Tony Warot.

frankie..a few years ago i was deejaying in a really flash soul club, l had a rough idea of what l was gonna play simply by listening to what the guy before me played (always a good idea) anyway at 9pm l took to the stage..opened by box and selected my first record..put it on the deck..cued it up and as the playing record came to an end l thanked the previous dj, announced my disc..pushed the start button and 30 seconds later the entire town suffered a power cut and the club illuminations went "fizzzzz" at exactly 2 minutes to 10pm the power came back on and l played the remaining 2 minutes of my first record. During the black-out l was subjected to the mother of all ridicule from people accusing me of sabotage and similar, this they did at a considerable distance from the stage..but the best of it is...l got payed extra for being calm under pressure (to be honest, l'd consumed a unknown quantity of jack daniels..and it was free !!) don't ever worry about cock-ups..sometimes they're a financial god send. so carry on deejaying but best of all..ENJOY YOURSELF. Tony Warot

Majestics:David & Ruben. LINDA records date back to the 50s and featured some great tunes and turned a lot of young singers into household names. Unfortunately, the majestics "l love her". . .wasn't the simple 2.5 minute sing a long/dance to record that Dick Clark and Jerry Blavatt were featuring on US TV coast to coast, so its quite plausible to suggest that a name change, a new label and more importantly...a record buying public, bored with novelty hits who were turning their attention away from itsy bitsy teeny weeny polka dot stuff...so Rampart records reinvented them as David and Ruben...very jewish, (as were leiber and stoller) and again it fell below expectation. As for the Warner Bros revamp...someone told me the brass intro was deliberately edited off because the radio dj's talked over it and went unnoticed. I hope this answers your plea for help. Tony Warot.

polly james was an actress with nerys hughes in "THE LIVER BIRDS"

No martyn..that handwriting belongs to Andy Kaggan (aka case) who used the same studio in kettering owned by Derek Tompkins who was a sound recording engineer at BECK Amplification in Wellingborough..which explains why the discs sounded perfect. and just to clarify a definition...EMIDISC is a trade name..E.M.I. manufactured these discs for use in cutting studios to record and instantly play back music or speech to check the sound quality before a "master" disc was cut and processed into a stamper enabling multiple copies to be pressed onto vinyl. Although emi-discs are sometimes refered to as "acetates"..there is NO acetate in them at all...the lacquer coating is made from cellulose nitrate which is very combustible so care has to be taken when cutting because the 'threads' or 'swarf' produced by the heated saphire cutting stylus, can ignite if exposed to a nearby naked flame or incandescent surface. EMI no longer make lacquers, a french company called PYRAL DISQUE supplied most of the UK's cutting suites, but now a company in the USA called "TRANSCO-APOLLO supply the remaining cutting suites with lacquer discs..they have a shop in Wardour Street, Soho, London. I hope this explains a few questions. Cheers..Tony Warot.

I've got so many favourite tracks, but here's a few that first got me into soul. 1. baby reconsider. Leon Haywood. 2. baby help me. Percy Sledge. 3. things get better. Eddie Floyd. Tony Warot (westrex)

Before 1970, the importation of US records was a costly business as the import duty was as much as the cost of the records themselves. To make it easier and cheaper, the records were drilled with a small hole (usually on the label) they were now technically "damaged goods" and could not be sold at full price, Albums usually had one of the corners cut off the outer sleeve, and sold as damaged goods. Record shops such as F.L. MOORE in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, and record dealers spcialising in mail order importation of deleted and in-demand 45's, Brian "45" Philips etc, were now importing hundreds of records in this fashion and then in 1971 import duty was altered and records from america flooded into the UK and were soon being sold on market stalls nationwide and very cheaply. I hope that this makes the subject of WHO and WHERE were imports first sold? a little easier to un

hi all, just thought l'd clear up a point about pressing plant similarities, the "Soul Sounds" label bootlegs were made by PRESIDENT records, The "BJD" label bootlegs were made by LYNTONE records. Etchings in the "deadwax" area of the run-off spiral in both labels, in appearance, look engraved. Selectadisc (nottingham) owned the Greenlight, Magic & BJD bootleg labels. Thanks, westrex.

l just hope it doesn't all go pear-shaped with the wheel's future home, so much history exists in that building relating to SOUL, and so many people's lives have been changed forever. Good luck and keep it safe. Tony Warot.

MUSIC TO MY HEART by Patti Austin. still makes the hairs on my neck stand up!! Tony Warot

SLEEP,? Steve l've known you since 1973 and l've never seen you yawn at an all-niter, let alone known you to "nod off" Tony Warot.

Got stopped in the car park across the road from casino by some lads masquerading as D.S. they said "greater manchester drug squad, turn out yer pockets" l replied. . "Sonny AND Cher, now f*ck off" and walked (very quickly) away, my whole body trembled like an earthquake. I don't know where the courage to do it came from, but some friends of mine who were sat 30 yards away saw what happened and called me over to their car, the 2 'squad' officers (ratman & bobin) disappeared into the night and never returned. True Story. Tony Warot.