Sceneman

yep he is

did we mention The Choo choo ?? and the tighten up ??

how many times did they play in the UK and where if they ever did ? shame they had a short shelf life , 3 years of 60s good consistently good stuff then they faded . i read archie was shot in vietnam while on duty . well ahead of his time for 67 68 69 period ..

how long can the old fellas keep going till they have a stroke ?

judging from the comments records were arriving in liverpool by some means in bulk of varying quality and not arriving in london at the time, i know cos i was searching soho at the time ., so that only leaves some well informed business gents bringing them in in bulk on ships by some means . possibly as cargo and not being declared . we can discount lone seamen and sailors doing it i reckon. as they wouldnt have the money and knowledge at the time .. ballast is out and US bases is out .

the mention of narcotics stolen from the pharmacy is suspect as it was more organised than that by persons unknown now.

not bad but those empty venues were worrying. and its a blokes thing !!

imports in london in the early 60s were mega rare, like hens teeth ,until Transat imports opened up but the stock was very limited ,they had nothing like the imports guy stevens was playing, he would play an import then if it was well received by the mods issue it on Sue. but there is still the missing link that explains why the imports became so entrenched on the music scene of the time . the music press of the time was silent about imports.

so whats happens when they die ?thats some big collections hitting the market with few new buyers ! teds collections plummeted in prices when they died .

but surely brian mathews wouldnt propagate a myth as he has interviewed many and should know the facts. the big mystery though is who was their mentor ?there must have been some catalyst to get guys like guy stevens buying records from the USA and then playing them to kids who had never heard them . it would have needed lots of cash to import the 45s when people had little money to spare and they were buying in bulk . IMO they came from wealthier families and where not working class ,and had money backing them to take a chance . they were buying 100s of 45s at a time .

i am in the myth camp too ,as they would need to source a record shop when they arrived in the US port and listen to loads of records to find the brilliant tunes. however Eric Burdon on a jools holland prog earlier this year stated he had 'a bloke who lived downstairs in his house who was a seamen who brought records for him! so would Eric lie on camera ? but i know for sure that Guy Stevens and James Hamilton had damn good suppliers in the US sending them stuff on a weekly basis .

on the brian mathews show he played a copy of the Donays 'devil in his heart' and once again he refered to the seamen bringing back the best and rarest vynil .to supply the liverpool bands.this was a rare B side AFAIK if only we knew who these brilliant seamen were , they had just the right ear of the moment and spent their meagre wages on vynil that they might not have sold on and been stuck with . who were these buggers ?? they were very special sailors !!! guy stevens and his associates also had a bloody brilliant supplier of the very rarest and best . it always bothers me who these suppliers were . for they were so well informed as to what the buyers wanted. without these supermen the 60s sounds wouldnt have happened .. all the bands refer to the seamen but if only we knew who they were !!

they turn up at Christies record memorabilia auctions and the prices for large posters will make your eyes water .

i have a scan of the Mary Love ,'you turned my bitter into sweet' ,when i can find it . i sold it too cheaply around 10 years ago in mint .. how they bagged that i dont know

they just kinda snuck up on ya , nobody plugged them as blue eyed ,and nobody flinched that they were white boys getting in on the black boys act . they just mingled in the records and played them altogether . but are some blue eyed soul records IN or OUT ?? is for example 123 by leonard borisoff a blue eyed or a pop record ? some might say not soul but pop ,and strange there were few clones of 123 at the time . Guy Stevens used to play them all together at the Scene club ,no big fanfares or special mentions ,they just mingled in as one.

i had it on UK King label and sold it off to cheaply years ago .............the demo anyone ??

its indefinable what makes the ambiance and atmosphere in a dive ,back then they were shiteholes but everyone was on narcotics so didnt notice the paint on the walls or the grimey ceiling and no air vents

no , i had a free ticket when he was at the Apollo hamersmith years ago and never used it ,galfriend went though

try getting a publisher to publish it ,not easy when sales are slow and they are reluctant unless its a big name with guaranteed sales .in todays climate it can take years or never at all

yes theres been many highs and lows , late 60s was also a steep drop in support for the soul scene ,many rarities from then because nobody was buying them

as mentioned on the womack 110 nth street record shops . its been a long time since i saw speakers outside blasting away ,prolly Portobello road about 20 years ago when some heavy ska was heard blasting away .although there are stalls with speakers blasting out some pieces of soul and ska still today

back on topic i dont recall it even being on the radar in the 60s at all . The last Chance saloon was virtually opposite and that was a stauch Mod hangout .it may have been a beatnik/jazzy hangout in the early days but dont recall seeing any ads . The Marqee was also not far away and that had all the big names most nights.if you could afford to get in. so its early days are something of a mystery although its sure been there a long time ,longer than any other clubs in the area ,which have long gone.

he was at the Flamingo in the 60s and possible the 70s and seen around the mod dives in Soho ,and thats all i know

freddy and the dreamers copy of James Rays 'if you gotta make a fool of somebody' , is a dead copy ,not much to choose between em

Just one look by Doris still reigns supreme ,where as Bessies song was a dirge . eric burdon and the animals sure copied everything in sight ,a strange one was Timmy shaws Gonna send you back to Georgia with a subtle title change . the ska boys of jamaica did make the effort to write some original material although did they did make some bizarre copies of odd tunes ...when eric appeared on the Jools Holland show a few weeks back he was asked where he got his records from, and replied he had a merchant seaman neighbor who lived below who supplied him with imports