Dean Rudland

There's a number of things here I think. Firstly there is the fact that the normal record industry works on a pre-order basis. This ties in with how the press and promo works for an artist based album. Which means that announcements are made from 6 weeks to three months up front. Most sales in the industry today are from pre-orders, so it isn't surprising this has crossed over to specialist reissues. There is no excuse for six month, but I think it is probably the result of a lot of 'hobby labels' popping up, where turnaround times are operating on as much as a 9 month period from order to a finished record being delivered and the owners of these new labels probably have to pay upfront to even have their order considered at the moment. I think you're right on the numbers for a pressing. There is rarely any need to press only 300 records, the cost per unit of that and the fixed costs for the release will probably make it more expensive to press 300 that 500 (or the difference will be marginal). However it is much easier to sell out 250 units at £20 than it is to sell out 500 at a £10, because the buyers are to a certain extent thinking that they will be able to make a profit on the record. Looking at the past decade of 7 inch sales, it is quite rare to burst through the 1000 marker for a 7 inch but it can be done - our Leroy Hutson Positive Forces did nearly 2000, and two of the Kevin Fingier's have done between 1200 and 1500. But most do between 400 and 750. At Acid Jazz and with our Fingier and Miles Away subsidiaries we like to try and do a two to four week pre-sale, which allows us time to do promo campaigns, but sometime it stretches out a bit from there for reasons beyond our control.

Chess /GRT closing down happened towards the end of 1975 so wasn't the reason that the Carstairs wasn't released in 1973.

Great list. I always love what Jeb Loy does. No love for any of the Fingier singles? The first and the latest were more popular than most of these sales wise (not that that makes them better).

I'm sure it was, I just don't think he was the first person to play it on the mod scene.

I missed the last one because there was no way I was queuing up with all those who had hardly ever been. I stuck to drinks with the crew in Soul Jazz Records upstairs!

It was hammered on the Mod Scene from 88 off reissue

I've just looked through my list and Morgan's and I think very few if any. There were unreleased tracks, but none of them seem to have been scheduled as singles. There was also a surprisingly low number of unreleased tracks considering the overall size of the catalogue. I think this was because the label recorded album projects, and just recorded enough tracks for a release. I suppose the most famous unreleased project was Joe Bataan's final album that resulted in the mono / promo single of Latin Soul Square Dance. I had a TP of a double sided single, with 'Call Me' on the other side, but it was thought until recently there was no stock copy. But even with that one has now turned up.

For Uptite I don't think so. It was pretty specifically designed as an outlet to get Fania's more soul recordings onto R&B radio, which ignored Fania as a latin label. Most of the titles appeared on Fania albums at the same time.

Hi Morgan, when I was working for Fania, I compiled a pretty comprehensive 45 discography. There are a few gaps pre-66, but I feel they might be due to their peculiar early numbering system. I think Uptite ran to 24 records and they are all listed on discogs. It's worth noting that #1 in that numbering series appeared on a Fania label.

Managers, artist representatives etc. However even if there was no one, it wouldn't excuse these people getting away with this, as they are ripping of artists who do get paid royalties, songwriters who are doing the same, and stopping labels that do it properly from releasing these records

Alan was going to say that it might actually have been you I heard playing it back then, but I'm glad I wasn't mistaken as to the timescale.

I was first played this by Andy Hynd in the mid-80s, so I think this was being played on the mod scene back then. T

I saw those and found them odd. From where I was sitting - up near the organ - he sounded great. However for me seeing Steve and Booker on stage together and properly interacting made my day. That's the best live Green Onions I've seen with the two of them on stage, in the 20 years or so in which I've seen them on stage.

Do you have a picture?

How much do you want to pay for it?

Georgie's cover of Point Of No Return was based on Louis Jordan's. He also recorded a Jack Ashford composition 'For Love The Petals Fall', which he heard Jack perform at soundcheck for the first Motown Tour of the UK. He asked Jack about it and is as far as we can work out the only person to have recorded it.

The second single was released January 1975, Wounded Woman was 1974. So David the album was recorded by then. Still no paperwork at Stax to suggest that anything but singles deals were done for David's productions.

Just looking at David Johnson's comments makes me even more convinced this didn't come out. At the point the album was recorded (late 1974) Stax was starting to find itself in trouble, it wasn't close to bankruptcy. That happened January 1976. The label obviously chose not to continue with the artist, long before the album was finished. To confirm the two singles continue to be claimed by Fantasy's successor Concord. I think it is telling that there is absolutely no paperwork at Stax for this, and that paperwork exists for contracts/ label copy for virtually all releases, including the proposed final Bar Kays single 'Holy Ghost' in December 1975 (it is unlikely that this was released). Also someone mentioned that at least one of the single tracks was an alt version/ mix, can anyone confirm that this is the case for any of the others. Finally Monarch for the Chico Hamilton LP is hardly surprising as it was part of an attempt to set up West Coast offices, headed by Chico Hamilton's son. But that album has a 1973 P date so is over two year before Stax went bust.

Just adding my two penny worth here. None of my colleagues who worked on the Stax material have seen any proof of its existence within the company's paperwork and neither has it ever been mentioned to have existed by any of the southern soul or Stax experts that we have ever talked to. (Also I see no evidence that it was known about in the 70s by anyone other than Ian) The idea that it was pressed on a green label seems unlikely as Truth was an orange label for all the releases that I have seen on LP - although cheap red labels exist of some of the 45s, and possibly a yellow for one Shirley Brown single. Also the label was virtually bankrupt at the time, scraping together just enough money to make 45s with the hope that they would become hits. So the idea that they would divert funds to make an album is unlikely. That said....the label was totally messed up at the end, so it is only extremely unlikely that it didn't make release, not entirely impossible. But as Sean has done the only thing likely to shake a mythical copy out of the trees, I will assume it doesn't exist unless it suddenly appears in picture.

That's bloody great. I'd love to know what that is, if you find out Dave.

The CD booklet has more info than the small bit of blurb on the website, even explains what Bill Vera thought happened to her. But really it is bit of a mystery. The music on the other hand is so good that the CD is one of Ace's better sellers.

To be fair Ian that is in the compilation chart, making it about the 5th most popular album in the country. But something like 40,000 copies in ten days is pretty special.

But Mik the flaw in your argument is that not everyone who is buying these records is DJing them. We've just sold about a 1000 Alice Clark's, there surely aren't a 1000 DJs playing them - i doubt there are a 1000 old soul DJs in the world. Just as you insist the only way to discover things that no-one else plays is to play original vinyl, some people just like buying their music on vinyl be it a 7inch or 12 inch.

No, Roulette - which TK was part of - was bought by EMI UK, so counts as UK repertoire.

Ian you are absolutely right. It's why all of these TK issues licensed from Henry and his son have been dubs from discs. As I understand it there are some early titles which he retained ownership of, but most are bootlegs, if licensed from the original owner. The reason that EMI never chased Henry was because he was operating in the US and they only had UK rights - Warners had the US rights. Since they ended up with EMI UK, Warner now have this for the world.