John Al

Original 12 below. Think issue would be rarer, only ever seen white demos. J.

....and better imho. Think it was b side of bootleg 12" which has fooled the unwary in search of the Mercury 12. Will be cheap but don't bother. John

I had this problem a few months back. My Paypal account was set up to take money from my Switch debit card and thus paid instantly. The Switch card had expired and I had forgotten to update Paypal with new number. Therefore paypal uses bank account as reserve payment method. This takes around 10 days to clear. Hope this helps.... John.

That's because I've offered him £550

Thank you my friend. How's Uttoxeter, raining? I've always loved this track but hearing it now it seems very dated. What do you think? https://the.soulclub.org/stream/Bobbie_Lee_...ou_Hurt_Me_.ram

Yes, very interesting I'm sure. I'm gonna go play some music. THAT's what it's all about. Oh, and it also passes the time whilst waiting for Bearsy to 'phone..........

Not aware it was booted Dave but there did seem to be loads of orange ones about at the time. I've never seen a demo either - or a test pressing come to that! Not much help but bumped your post Best, John.

Good point Paul. Small dos like these are the bedrock of the scene and always were. I haven't checked but I'd imagine they are all in the midlands/north. There are a lot though - surely not all for my Birthday? That's a lot of drinks to buy! Fortunately there's only one in Kent, Stolen Hours, Pegwell Bay, Ramsgate. See you there! John.

Hello Paul. "Any Other Way" is pretty good. I have it on Cookin' label, think it was his biggest hit. "Comin Down" has always been one of my favourites. Jackie lived in Canada and although transvestite was not necessarily gay. Lived life to the full and dissapeared under suspicious circumstances, never to be seen again......... See you next Saturday? John.

Yes mate, I can remember it and it did "pack the floor" - honest. Loved hearing it but funny, could never quite bring myself to buy it.... Thanks for reminding me, John.

Lots of rumour and innuendo coming out but I'm sure that Rob & Karen will overcome any small setbacks - you are bigger than that. Known 'em both over 22 years and know that there is plenty of support out there, including ours. Rob, bet you can't remember that time in my old house in Swindon when Marolyn didn't know a certain 80's record - so we sang it to her! Now THAT's friendship! Tenner says you can't remember the song......... Looking forward to Karen's birthday bash next weekend and to seeing at Stolen Hours in Ramsgate 2 weeks later for mine!! Take care, John & Marolyn.

Hmmmm, I've had a few problems here too Pete. To be fair though, he did get back to me eventually so I'm sure you'll hear soon. John.

Hi Paul, Issue or demo? I'd have said £45 for issue or £80 for demo. Not overly rare but you don't see too many. Loverly! US Tangerine ones around £30 - watch out for boots..... Trust you are well mate, John.

Only bootlegged once to my knowledge mate and very early on. Boot had Monarch Records stamp (MR) and delta you mention above with triangle in front of it. Was styrene too. You could be in luck. John.

Oh mi gawd - I was robbed!!!! If only I'd saved those pennies - my whole life could have been so different!

Loads and loads mate, bought as new release from 70's onwards, mostly from Soul Bowl, Record Corner or Voices they were cheaper than the rareties I wanted to buy. Including: Innersection - 85p Benny Troy - 85p Flame N King - 85p Raj - £1.25 Rumple-Stil-Skin - £1.25 Nolan Porter (If I Could Only Be Sure) - £1.25 Frankie Knuckles - £2 Jackson Sisters - £1.25 Clarence Carter - £1.25 Syl Johnson (Do You Know What Love Is - Red Label) 95p And probably loads more I don't even know the value of. I could go on and on and on - but I won't. Funny though, even though these go for money these days I still don't regard them as "big records". Just great ones! J.

....and then he calls the doctor and he's not there: "if Doctor Foster has got her I know I'm through cos he's got money and medicine too" Classic stuff Although Cajun Heart always gets me: "...and so I sit and watch a tree grow" John. PS perhaps it was a PRAWN shop?

Pete, I agree with you although I think it's our age! Exus Trek was a "monster track" long before the vocal emerged and then it was only of passing interest as a novelty vocal. Mark, as you probably know by now - it was real! John.

Me? I love it, it's absolutely brilliant and next time I DJ I'm gonna play it 28 times in a row and dance throughout. Could I have two copies please so I can mix them together seamlessly. Uma, could you drop me a PM please? John.

Have to say, Brett, nobody did. The music lured me in to the point where I was travelling to 'nighters on my own before I made mates on the "scene". Although I think from those early days, perhaps once person influenced me and still does although I've never met him : JJ Barnes.

Best known to us for "Take A Letter Maria" on Monument, well known session /backing saxophonist Boots Randolph has passed away. Obituary below from today's Times: Boots Randolph's saxophone can be heard on hits by Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee and Roy Orbison among countless others, but he will always be best remembered for his rollicking instrumental solo hit Yakety Sax, a version of which served for many years as the closing theme tune for Benny Hill's BBC television show. Born Homer Louis Randolph in Paducah, Kentucky in 1927, he was nicknamed "Boots" by his brother to avoid confusion with his identically named father (and grandfather). The entire Randolph clan was musically talented and performed as a family band at dances around rural Kentucky. With his father on fiddle, mother on guitar and sister on bass, he joined the lineup when he was 5. He played ukulele initially but taught himself to play a variety of instruments before deciding in his mid-teens that the saxophone was his speciality. Called up during the war he played sax, trombone and vibraphone in the US Army Band. On his discharge in 1946 he became a full-time musician, joining Dink Welch's Kopy Kats in Decatur, Illinois, and later starting his own band. His career did not really take off, however, until he moved to Nashville in 1960. This came after he had recorded a demo of an instrumental he called Yakety Sax, based upon the sax break in the Coasters' 1958 hit Yakety Yak. Randolph sent the tape to the RCA producer Chet Atkins in Nashville and the label released the record under the name "Randy Randolph". It was not a hit, but Atkins invited him to Nashville to work as an RCA session man. At the time the hillbilly roots of country and western were giving way to a more urbane and sophisticated hybrid pop sound, dubbed "country politian". With it came the demand for a wider instrumentation, and Randolph swiftly became Nashville's "Mr Sax", a key member of the city's famous session crew and the first name on the list whenever a horn part was needed. He also became a solo star when a rerecorded version of Yakety Sax, this time attributed to Boots Randolph, stormed the charts in 1963. He followed it with further novelty sax versions of songs such as Tequila! and Willie and the Hand Jive and had another hit in 1966 with The Shadow of Your Smile. Yet nothing else he did in a solo capacity ever matched the success of Yakety Sax, which was given a new lease of life in the late 1960s when a version of the tune was adapted as the theme for the comic chases which closed the Benny Hill show. Among those to exploit his talents as a session man was Elvis Presley. Randolph played sax on eight of Presley's film soundtrack albums and can be heard on such hits as Return to Sender, while his playing on Reconsider Baby was described by the American critic Greil Marcus as "the finest sax solo in rock history". Roy Orbison called Randolph his "good luck charm" and featured him on hits such as Oh Pretty Woman, Only the Lonely, Blue Bayou and In Dreams. Others who used his services included Brenda Lee, Johnny Cash and Connie Francis, but the number of Nashville sessions on which he played in more than 40 years ran into the thousands. Away from the studio, he spent 15 years touring with "The Master's Festival of Music" alongside fellow Nashville instrumentalists Chet Atkins on guitar and Floyd Cramer on piano. In 1977 he opened a club named after him in Nashville's historic Printer's Alley, which became a tourist attraction. When it closed in 1994 Randolph announced he was "goin' fishin' ", but in reality he never stopped touring and recording. In 1996 he opened a second Nashville venue called the Stardust Theatre. He is survived by his wife, Dee Baker, and one son and one daughter. Boots Randolph, saxophonist, was born on June 3, 1927. He died on July 3, 2007, aged 80

Obituary from today's Times: Bill Pinkney was the last surviving member of the original Drifters, and his deep bass voice graced such chart-topping 1950s hits as White Christmas and Honey Love. A bitter legal battle over ownership of the group's name in the mid1950s led to the entire lineup being sacked and replaced by a new group who recorded with great success as the Drifters throughout the late 1950s and 1960s. Pinkney, however, fought back and established the right to call his group the Original Drifters. He was still performing with them when he died. Born in Dalzell, South Carolina, in 1925, he began singing in church as a boy but gospel music found strong competition from baseball as he was growing up. After wartime service in the US Army, during which he earned several medals, he moved to New York and had a spell as pitcher for the Blue Sox baseball team. He was also singing part-time in a gospel group and in 1949 met Clyde McPhatter, the singer with the Dominoes. The two became friends and after the Dominoes broke up in 1953 McPhatter approached him and the brothers Gearhart and Andrew Thrasher to form an R&B vocal group. They were signed by Ahmet Erteg¼n to Atlantic Records as Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters. On their first recordings Pinkney sang in a high tenor above McPhatter's lead with Willie Ferbee singing the bass part, and it was this lineup which recorded the group's first big hit, Money Honey in 1953. Soon afterwards Ferbee was involved in an accident and left the group. He was not replaced, and the versatile Pinkney shifted down to bass. The quartet had a string of hits over the next year, including Such a Night, Honey Love, Bip Bam, What'cha Gonna Do and White Christmas. The last was the group's biggest-selling record and featured Pinkney as lead vocalist. In May 1954 McPhatter was drafted into the US Army and sold his controlling share of the group to George Treadwell, the manager. It proved to be a fateful decision and one which would embroil the Drifters and the group's various members and rival lineups in legal battles that were still keeping the lawyers active half a century later. McPhatter was replaced first by David Baughan and then by Johnny Moore of the Hornets, and the hits continued throughout 1955 with Adorable, Ruby Baby, Fools Fall in Love and I Gotta Get Myself a Woman. The latter song was the first fruit of the the long association between the Drifters and the songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller who went on to write such Drifters hits as Saturday Night at the Movies and Save the Last Dance for Me - although by then the group had a different line-up. After McPhatter, Pinkney was the first to go, unceremoniously sacked by Treadwell in 1957 when he asked for more money. Andrew Thrasher left in protest, and Pinkney formed another group, the Flyers, with Bobby Hendricks as the lead singer. In May 1958 Treadwell sacked the entire lineup, including the sole original member, Gerhart Thrasher. Claiming legal ownership of the group's name, Treadwell recruited another vocal group, the Five Crowns with lead singer Ben E. King, and renamed them the Drifters. Pinkney recruited the other sacked members and they began touring as the Original Drifters (although they also recorded briefly as the Harmony Grits). A bewildering set of personnel changes ensued throughout the 1960s with Pinkney and Gerhart Thrasher as the only constants. Pinkney continued to tour with different lineups as the Original Drifters for the rest of his life and was about to perform in an American Independence Day concert when he suffered a heart attack. Bill Pinkney, singer, was born on August 15, 1925. He died on July 4, 2007, aged 81

He's just having a grouchy moment mate, too much rain. See posting in "Can I really Be A Soul Fan" thread. That's Pete for ya! Anyway, I'm sure you'll reserve the next one you get (preferably an issue) at £100 less - right Pete? If I get my money back that is....... John

Just to let you know that I have had an email from Paypal saying that they have found in my favour and are attempting to recover my money ($860.17), they say it should be there in five days. Hopefully anyone else that has claimed will get the same result. Good luck! I'll keep you updated & thanks for help. John. PS anyone got an Elbie Parker for sale?!

Thanks mate - I'll pm you around 12th July? Sorry to hear that mate, hope it gets resolved. Not sure about that, can still see his feedback, if they suspend him it may show as no longer a member? By way of update, I found his phone number on internet and called, just got voice mail but couldn't leave message as mailbox was full. Bet that's all his "customers". At this point I'm just gonna wait for Paypal investigation, not much else I can do. It was a lot of money though and kinda puts me off the whole thing. Thanks for your help, more updates when I find out more. John.