Robbk

Pete, is your friend writing a story on Lester's career?

Too bad you didn't post this in 1980. He didn't have any copies of his Labeat record, but he DID have a few artist photos of himself. I could have asked him for one. Of course, there was no Internet then, to have this forum, or the need for his photo.

M.V.P. stands for "Most Venerated Person" or MVPs (persons) - meaning a dignitary, or the most important persons at a civic meeting. Most Valuable Player for a sports league came about much later. C. O. D. means "Cash on Delivery". I guess the singing group used it to mean that they were a group who really "delivered the goods when they were on stage". But harmony group names often resulted from less than 2 seconds of "thinking". If the group liked the "sound" of the name, it stuck, whether or not it made any sense, at all. For example, some groups were named after cigarette brands or brand names of personal or household products. Many were names of cars.

Looks real enough. Seems to have a bit of groove wear *but that could be just the lighting in the video. In any case, it looks like it would play well enough.

I don't think there are many THOUSANDS of cuts that have never been heard by the public, anymore, after all the vinyl-unreleased cuts that have been released on CD over the past 20 years, plus those that have been released for digital download. But, there certainly must be at least several hundred, perhaps a thousand or two, including pop, gospel, and novelty.

Yes. I used to see many Japanese fellows grabbing Soul and also R&B records from our main sources, and even the little shops. And a few Belgians and Germans and Swiss, as well.

Well, I would say that I only came across a few Brit Soul record hunters in USA before 1977, but from 1977-1984 there were very many. Those I saw most were Nev Wherry, Bob "Larry" Wagner, Rod Shard, Dave Withers, Dave Raistrick, and Martin Koppel regularly raided my favourite place to find records (Detroit). John Anderson took away loads of great records from our Chicago warehouses. And, I had heard from the owners of many of my regular shops and warehouses that "I sold out the lot to a British guy", or some British guys came in here for 3 days and bought hundreds. After 1984, I was mainly in Europe, and didn't look for records in USA at all. But the US collectors I knew still DID have that attitude towards what The British in The NS were doing to the chances of our hard core Soul collectors (including many Black Soul fans) finding any decent non-hit Soul records with at least one fast or fast mid-tempo side. Luckily, at that time, The Soulies were still not interested in slower mid-tempos and "beat ballads". Now, they like just about all Soul. So, they are competing with us regular general Soul fans for EVERYTHING.

To be honest, I hardly talk to a living soul when I'm in USA. (L.A.). I only know my sister and her husband, and their 2 kids, and my uncle and aunt, and my brother-in-law's parents, who are Danish, and spend a few months there. I see them more in Denmark (where I am right now) than I do in L.A. I am on Skype every night, talking with my friends in Holland and Germany. All my friends in L.A. are deceased, or have moved away. Almost everyone here now speaks Spanish or Chinese. The two people I knew in USA (Bob Abrahamian and Ron Murphy) are deceased. So, I can't tell you about current Americans. But. during the late '60s and '70s there were a LOT of US collectors who resented Brits coming to USA and taking away lots of records they'd have otherwise gotten.

Yes. That did happen a lot before knowledge of The Internet became commonplace and before e-Bay became a household word. Nowadays, almost everyone in USA thinks one can get rich by auctioning off old junk on e-Bay. I'd venture to guess that MOST of the bigger collections of even the hermit record collectors who swore to "Never let those grabby Brits get a hold of my beloved Soul records" will have their kin placing them on e-bay auctions, to see what they can get.

I think what a lot of you Brits fail to realise is that a lot of Americans (and even Canadians) were buying this Soul music (yes, even the cutouts and uncharted unbacked releases, and small garage studio releases). I've heard many of you say that NOBODY wanted them back then, But that just isn't true. MANY people I knew had collecting taste the same as I, and they searched the Ghetto record shops, thrift stores, junk stores, book stores, furniture stores, Black families homes, contacted ex producers, etc. Not all of these collectors are known. Many of them kept their whole collections, but dropped ut of active collecting before The Internet came in. I know a lot of people my age who still won't deal with learning how to use computers and The Internet. Their record collections will continue to surface as they die or their houses are sold and they move to "Old Folks' care homes" or they die. I knew a LOT of collectors back in the '60s and '70s who were buying such records. More and more will be surfacing now that we are starting to get old and many of us are passing away. Now, it is different, because we have The Internet and e-bay. No one's great R & B/Soul collection will be tossed away by an ignorant group of children of a major collector. So, a lot of records that you've only known a handful of copies in Britain, will be seeing several more coming to auction every year or every few years.

"Girls" doesn't seem to be on You-Tube, can anyone post a file of it? I'd like to hear it.

"I See A Star" is lousy for fast Doowop. And just how is 1957 New York-style fast White Doowop Northern Soul???? Who is going to pay $29,000 US or £16,500 for that??? This doesn't make sense at all. Frankie Lyman and The Teenagers cuts are hundreds of times better than that,

No. That was the Chicago label, Dan-Dy co-owned, I believe, by Jack Daniels and Leroy Dandridge.

Some were picked up from their start of operation, but most were distributed only for a portion of their existences (as you can tell from the differences in their label designs when distributed by CIRCA and when not (not just having the insignia added, but different colours and/or font and label design, such as with Baronet, Theoda, etc.

Yes, there were hundreds. Many of them were also distributed by ARDCO (Allied Record Distributing Co.). Both were operated out of L.A. I'm not with my records now to list many of them. I think both of those distributors of small, independent labels were connected by ownership, or, at least in some way.

Lot's of obese people were chubby as kids. But, why would people call you "poppa" when you are a kid? Popcorn Wylie was called "Popcorn" because he loved to eat that stuff. I wonder if Chubby Checker was called "Chubby" at an early age?

I never heard of anyone else singing that song. I have it. It's almost my "newest" record (other than my Airwave, Altair and Rene records.

Nick should keep the record for a few years and let the yearning for it in the major potential bidders rise. No reason to sell off early. I wouldn't worry about others being found in the meantime. I have never heard of a really excellent Soul record having only one copy known. But, at the same time, A UK issue won't have the same international demand as a US Soul issue. It will be interesting to see what it will eventually bring.

Tom DePierro died of cancer in the mid 1980s.

I never meant to imply that Simon Soussan took the other Company File copy. I think he bought Tom's copy. I don't think Simon ever had access to records in Motown's Record files. No doubt someone else took the other one, and kept it for himself, or sold it to someone who never showed it to anyone with connections to The NS crowd. As far as Simon never showing the stock issue to a Brit, I think that is possible. You seem to think it's not possible. I don't even know if Soussan ended up with the record. I DO know that I saw him browsing through our record shelves and playing records on our turntable, while we were doing other things. I know that Tom was desperate for operating cash. I do know that ALL the records I saw were missing were all NS played at that time, or "stompers" not yet played. Maybe Tom sold them to a different NS enthusiast (but, IF so, he was likely to be a Brit). Could it have been a Brit who would never show it to ANYONE involved in The NS Scene? Highly unlikely. So, I certainly have no idea where the Motown File copy that we didn't have ended up. And, I really can't know for sure where where "OUR" copy ended up, or, really, even how it left us. All I know is that, those 2 stock pressings DID exist, and now, I seemed to have jumped to an incorrect conclusion about Ron Murphy's copy, and it was a DJ copy. So, that means there were, at least 2 white DJs, and 2 stock pressings, that got out of the hands of high Motown personnel and departments. I still don't believe that record got to the distributors, otherwise more would exist. I still think only the 6 press run masters were pressed on the stock issue.

So Ron's copy was a DJ copy??? I never saw it, myself. I always just assumed it was a stock copy because he said it came in a box of press run test masters he found at the original Detroit pressing plant. I suppose it could have been a test pressing for pressing of the DJ press run. If so, then there were only the two stock copies that I saw in the two Motown Record files, one of which we had in our office at Motown, and later. Tom had taken to Airwave. When I saw it had gone missing, Tom told me that "Soussan must have taken it, when he was browsing through our record shelves." But, I think Tom sold it to Soussan when he was desperate for cash. Other NS Motown records and other non-Motown NS records were missing, as well. Modern Soul Sucks, didn't I take you for a tour of our Airwave offices? If that was before 1982, you could have seen the Frank wilson there. But, I guess if you had seen it there, you'd have already mentioned that on this thread. So, Soussan never sold it, eh? Kept it for himself. I wonder who "lifted" the OTHER one. I guess it also never got to the market. Again, I say, Ron told me that the pressing plant people told him that 6 test copies were run before a press run. So, at least 6 Frank Wilson stock copies were pressed, even if Berry Gordy cancelled the store stock press run before it started. In addition to the two file copies I mentioned, Berry Gordy got one, Quality Control got one, and 2 were kept by the pressing plant. But that was a DIFFERENT press run from that of the white DJs. So, apparently, the 2 store stock press run test masters which were originally kept by the pressing plant, were eventually destroyed, as most are after a number of years. Ron said that the box he got was going to be destroyed.

What are you talking about? Two of those three non-demo stock records were standing before my eyes for 8 straight years. And the 3rd I have on pretty good authority, as I've never known my friend, Ron Murphy (may he rest in peace) to lie about anything. And, in addition, I heard from 2 other people that they had seen Ron's copy, before he sold it. Those people are also well known to be honest people. I've never known them to lie or stretch the truth. These were all "stock copies", with the mauve Soul logo. Simon Soussan got the one that was sitting in our offices. So, I expect that it ended up in the hands of a big-time British NS collector, unless he just kept it for himself.

No. I meant that many more white DJ records exist than store stock records of that old Town release.

I would say so. I've seen two in The Motown and Jobete Record Files, one of which was in our office for 5 years at Motown, and then at Airwave for 3 years. Then, I know of one other Frank Wilson stocker that existed, which my friend Ron Murphy found among the original Detroit pressing plant saved test pressings. That one eventually ended up in The UK. So, that's at least 3 times as many as Nicks one-off.

Apparently, The Five lyrics were a different group from The Lyrics. So, I guess Ike Perry and his Lyrics traveled to The San Francisco Bay Area to record in the mid '50s.