Neil Rushton

Sassy copies around before I found a load (800 plus) at Billy Jackson's flat in New York, but I think I was the first to find any white demos and flip side with "This Is Just A B Side". Billy said he never distributed them because he did a deal with Gamble-Huff soon after pressing up the Sassy copies. Neil

Yes, and Kevin Saunderson of Inner City almost got it from him for me as a present. Almsot!.

And to answer the question about the distributors ....Precision - that was part of PRT, who had previously been Pye.

Kool Kat was (and is) a label owned by myself and Dave Barker. It was set up in 1987 when we got into house music. The label was the first European label to really give exposure to Detroit Techno and released Detroit Techno 12's now acclaimed as all time classics by the likes of Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May and Juan Atkins. It later evolved into the Network label, which was one of the the most successful indie dance labels of the early 90's. Inner City of "Big Fun" and "Good Life" fame came out of Kool Kat but I signed them on to Virgin and managed the band. I called the label Kool Kat as I always loved Joe Matthews "Ain't Nothing You can Do". In the same way a Network offshoot label Six6 was in tribute to Earl Van Dyke's classic. The record you mentiond was obviously nothing to do with house music, but Chris King and (I think) Guy Hennigan had sourced loads of tapes from Popcorn Wylie and he had given them the rights to release in UK so I did a deal with Chris and put out a seven inch and twevle inch single. The Techno scene meant I was in Detroit a lot at that time and I used to go and visit Popcorn a lot and he confirmed the tracks had come via him. Incidentally the Techno guys all had their own label and used Detroit Soul enthusiast Ron Murphy to master their records. They loved Ron and told me he "likes the same old shit you do". I went to see him one day when he had a shop and cutting lathe in the back. He had just had some of the D-Town master tapes delivered to him and took great delight in showing them to me, along with his copy of "Do I Love You" - Frank Wilson. That was the copy that Kenny Burrell has now got. All the Best, Neil

The Vault 45 isn't a boot as I understand it as Vault was part of same company as Fat Fish or part of Fantasy or some similair link...it was a (legal) re-press for Simon Souusan and Soussan defintiely had access to a multi-track of "Baby Reconsider" which is how he got the instrumenal as he passed on the multi-track to Les McCutcheon along with Mirwood master tapes and they were stored in my garage for years. Bobby Mandolph multi-track was also there as I recall. Bob Fisher was working at EMI and was behind the "Baby Reconsider" issue on Fantasy and from what I remember was very proud of the UK sound mastering job done compared to the US Fat Fish original. I bet not many were sold on Fantasy. Neil

Chris and Marcelle, Here's wishing you the very best for the future. All the Best, Neil

SEE FLYER FOR DETAILS OF GRAHAM WARR DJ SET PLAYING 100% 45's HE DISCOVERED IN USA, BROUGHT BACK TO WOLVERHAMPTON AND GAVE FIRST UK CLUB PLAYS AT THE MIGHTY CATACOMBS. SATURDAY JULY 12, 8PM TILL 1AM, 3RD ANNUAL CATACOMBS DJ'S GET TOGETHER AT SOULVATION @ LEA HALL CLUB, RUGELEY, STAFFS. ADMISSION £6 PAY ON THE DOOR. ALWAYS A MAGIC NIGHT. AND NOTHING TO DO WITH THE OWNERS OF THE CATACOMBS TRADEMARK!

Way way back legendary British label collector Steve Glover went to Gilbraltar and found a radio station that had been sent loads and loads of demos from UK record labels, he rescued them, it was a major find.

Soul music is coming home on Friday night when Soulvation launch their brand new night at The Best Western Connaught Hotel in Wolverhampton. The venue is well known as a Northern Soul venue but research by Steve Powell for a book on the history of So... Tap to view this Soul Source News/Article in full

Getting EUK (Woolworth's) to take singles in ANY format has often been the bane of my working life. If downloads eventually mean that Woolworth's never make a penny out of music I would happily dance on their graves. They and their fellow chain stores are the destroyers of independent labels and creativity and use their market share clout to act as bullies - even once with us having the brazen cheek to ask for 10,00 singles free and then saying they were not happy with the back up marketing! (this seriously happened to me when I was running Network and in that chart world). Download sales have killed sales on physical formats but before that happened the chains (HMV,Virgin, etc) had too much power for far too long. The stupid major labels craved into their demands for huge discounts and free stock and are now reaping the consequences.The upside about downloads is that it gives the creators of music the means to control the methods of distribution of their art which is why the majors are now running around like headless chickens. All in all music has been devalued. I have recently been working with UB40 and they decided to release their new album as a free CD with the Mail On Sunday because the money the newspaper pays for guaranteed sales (albeit of CDs that are "free") and the music publishing royatlies that are generated is more than most artists/songwriters will - in the present crap sales climate - ever generate by conventional methods of releasing a record. Sad but true! Now I've got that rant off my chest I think I will have a search for that Perigents single Ian was on about.

The following albums are for sale. Postage and packing included. Please PM me to reserve. I can take Pay Pal or cheques. BRAND NEW SEALED ALBUMS - ALL MINT LET ME BE YOUR MAN - TYRONE ASHLEY (USA FATBEATS) £15 (2007 issue of album recorded for Phil-L.A-of-Soul in 1969 but never released until now. Includes the top notch all-nighter sound "I Can't Stay Away) TEASIN' YOU - WILLIE TEE (USA NIGHT TRAIN) £15 (Brilliant 2002 compilation made up of material from Gatur, Nola, Atlantic, Bonatemp) 100 DAYS, 100 NIGHTS - SHARON JONES & THE DAP KINGS (DAPTONE) £15 (includes Northern dancer "Keep On Looking) IF THIS WORLD WERE MINE - BOB & GENE (DAPTONE) £15 (Luscious Sweet Soul/X-over) BELOW ALL SECOND HAND. RETURN FOR MONEY BACK IF NOT HAPPY WITH THEM A QUARTET OF SOUL - THE PLATTERS/TOMMY HUNT/BARBARA & BRENDA/INEZ & CHARLIE FOXX(UK STATESIDE) £25 (UK release of material from Dynamo includes "Tightrope" Inez and Charlie Foxx and "Never Love a Robin" - Tommy Hunt) THE BEST OF BOBBY BLAND - BOBBY BLAND (20 TRACKS) - (UK MCA 1981) £10 TAKE ME WITH YOU - THE HONEYCONE (USA HOT WAX) £25 (includes alternate album version of "While You're Out Looking For Sugar") GET MY HANDS ON SOME LOVIN'- THE ARTISTICS (USA EPIC) £20 (same artwork as O-keh original) LIQUORICE ALLSORTS - VARIOUS ARTISTS (UK Track) £30 (includes Debonaires, The Precisions "If This Is Love" and how brilliant is it to see Parliaments "Don't Be Sore At Me" on UK Track whizzing aroudn the deck?) THE GREATEST LITTLE SOUL BAND IN THE LAND - SAME (USA CONGRESS) £20 (recorded in the UK by American JJ Jackson for UK MCA, so nice on Congress/Kapp) ALL MITCH RYDER HITS - MITCH RYDER (USA NEW VOICE) £15 WADE IN THE WATER - RAMSEY LEWIS (UK CHESS) £20 SUPREMES SING HOLLAND/DOZIER/HOLLAND - THE SUPREMES (AUSTRALIAN TAMLA MOTOWN ) £25 (includes the great "Mother Me, Smother Me) THE VERSATILE IMPRESSIONS - THE IMPRESSIONS (USA ABC) £30 (includes "East Of Java") DIRECT ME - CLYDIE KING (USA LIZARD) £20 (includes the amazing dancer "''Bout Love) AT HOME - OC SMITH (USA COLUMBIA) £30 (produced by Jerry Fuller, arranged by H.B Barnum and contains great version of "Color Him Father") JUMPING AT THE GO GO - VARIOUS ARTISTS (UK RCA 1979) £25 (Dean Courtney, Willie Kendrick, Lorraine Chandler,Michel & Raymond, Herb Ward, Cavaliers etc) SOLID SOUL SENSATIONS - VARIOUS ARTISTS (UK PYE) £25 (groundbreaking classic comp from 1974 - Sandy Waddy, Darryl Stewart, Curtis Blandon, Maxine Brown, The Masqueraders,Billy Thompson, The Charts, Jack Mongomery, etc) SUN SURF AND SOUL - 14 DORE WEST COAST WONDERS (UK HORACE'S 1994) £30 (Rita & The Tiaras,Little Johnny Hamilton, Kenard, Ray Marchand, Enertainers IV,Whispers, Superbs, Fidels, etc) CAPITAL SOUL - THE SOUND OF D.C.1965/66 - SHRINE RECORDINGS (UK HORACE'S 1991) £30 (16 TRACKS,J.D.BRYANT,EDDIE DAYE AND THE 4 BARS, RAY POLLARD, THE CAIROS ETC) SHRINE - THE RAREST SOUL LABEL (UK HORACE'S 1990) £30 (LES CHANSONETTES, EDDIE DAYE & THE FOUR BARS,THE CAUTIONS, RAY POLLARD, THE EPSILONS, THE PROPHETS, SHIRLEY EDWARDS ETC)

Max will DJ'ing at, and will presented with an award marking his service to Soul Music in the West Midlands at the debut Soulvation @ The Connaught Hotel, Wolverhampton session on Friday May 30. It would be great if as many people as many possible could turn up to show Max just how highly regarded he is. Details of the event are on the web site www.soulvation.biz All the Best, Neil

Max Millward (Blue Max) closes his record shop in Wednesfield near Wolverhampton today. He is retiring after running record shops in the area for 45 years!. I would like to wish him the very best for the future. Neil

Has anyone got a copy for sale: THE GROOVESVILLE MASTERS - JJ BARNES (CONTEMPO) Many thanks, Neil

RUNNING AWAY FROM LOVE (4.53 VERSION) - SKIP MAHONEY AND THE CASUALS (abet 12" - mint/sealed) £15 JANICE (DON'T BE SO BLIND TO LOVE) - SKIP MAHONEY (Soulvatiion Ist Anniverary single) - £10 or buy the two for £20 including postage and packing --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WALK AWAY FROM LOVE - DAVID RUFFION (USA MOTOWN WDJ DEMO) £20 STOP (DON'T GIVE UP YOUR LOVING) - THE TWO FELLOWS (MUTT) £15 HURTING - ERIC & THE VIKINGS B/W I AIN'T NO PLAYTHING - WILLIE JONES/ IN THE POCKET - DETROIT STRINGS (1987 UK KOOL KAT LIMITED EDITION RED VINYL - FIRST RELEASE FOR THESE GEMS, THE WILLIE JONES AND ERIC & VIKINGS TRACKS ARE GREAT WYLIE/HESTER) £15 BECAUSE OF YOU - JACKIE WILSON B/W LET ME COME BACK - WALTER JACKSON (TRENTHAM FINALE ALL-NIGHTER ANNIVERSARY SINGLE) £10 WHAT HAPPENED TO YESTERDAY - MR SOUL (TRENTHAM 2ND ANNIVERSARY SINGLE) £10 SAVE THE YOUTH - MELLOW MADNESS (KAY-DEE) £10 GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE/A DREAM - PEARLY JONES (JOE BOY/SIDRA) STOCK COPY - £10 WDJ LIMITED EDITION RED VINYL - £20 WHY GIRL EP - THE PRECISIONS (JOE BOY/DREW) CONTAINS WHY GIRL, INSTANT HEARTBREAK,WHAT I WANT AND PREVIOUSLY NEVER ON VINYL "I DO, DON'T YOU" - SUPERB TRACK, RECORDED IN THE 60'S AND STUCK IN VAULTS. STOCK COPY PIC BAG - £10 WDJ LIMITED EDITION - £15 100 DAYS, 100 NIGHTS LP - SHARON JONES & THE DAP KINGS (DAPTONE) £12 INCLUDES THE BRILLIANT NORTHERN DANCER "KEEP ON LOOKING" GREAT ALBUM IF THIS WORLD WERE MINE LP - BOB AND GENE (DAPTONE) £12 LOVELY CROSSOVER/MODERN LET ME BE YOUR MAN LP - TYRONBE ASHLEY (FAT BEATS) £15 INCLUDES THE AMAZING PREVIOUSLY UNRLELEASED "I CAN'T STAY AWAY" - TOP TOP DISCOVERY , AM RUNNING OUT OF THESE NOW, RELEASE IS ON INDIE NEW YORK LABEL, SO GET THEM WHILE STILL AVAILABLE. TEASIN' YOU LP - WILLIE TEE (NIGHT TRAIN) £15 ESSENTIAL NEW ORLEANS INCLUDING ALL THE GREAT WILLIE TEE 45'S - PLEASE DON'T GO, I PEEPED YOUR HOLE CARD, I'M HAVING SO MUCH FUN,YOUR LOVE AND MY LOVE TOGETHER, TEASING YOU AGAIN, THANK YOU JOHN, WALKING UP A ONE WAY STREET, YOU BETTER SAY YES, YOU GONNA PAY SOME DUES, TEASIN' YOU. POSTAGE AND PACKING FREE PAY PAY - sales@soulvation.biz FOR DETAILS ON PAYING BY CHEQUE PM ME. Thanks, Neil

ON ALL ORDERS OF £100 OR MORE TAKE 20% DISCOUNT. POSTAGE AND PACKING FREE. Running Away From Love (4.53) - Skip Mahoney & The Casuals (USA abet 12" - mint/sealed) £15 (just right for revival plays...great seventies dancer) Janice - Skip Mahoney (Soulvation Ist Anniversary single) £10 OR BOTH THE ABOVE FOR £20 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ten Per Cent - The Trammps (Network 12") £15 (Trammps version of Double Exposure Salsoul gem with brilliant remix by Nelson Romario) Save The Youth (Kenny Dope Mix) - Mellow Madness (Kay-Dee) £10 (How big would this track have been at The Ritz in the 70's? Awesome) Walking Up A One Way Street/Teasin' You/Thank You John - Willie Tee (UK Mojo) £15 What Can A Man Do- Showstoppers (UK Beacon- Green) £15 Tired Of Being Lonely/Do The 45 - The Sharpess (Soul Sounds) £15 Hurting - Eric & The Vikings/My Baby Ain't No Plaything - Willie Jones/in The Pocket - Detroit Stings (UK Kool Kat 1987 RED VINYL) £20 (Willie Jones sounds better than ever these days, again due for revival plays maybe? Popcorn Wylie at his very best, not many of these done on red vinyl, and this single, now 21 years old, was the first release of these 3 tracks anywhere) Stop (Don't Give Up Your Loving) - The Two Fellows (Mutt) £15 Trouble(original version of "The Agents) - Ronnnie Walker (Impact pic bag) £10 What Happened To Yesterday - Mr Soul (Trentham Gardens Anniversary single) £10 Because Of You - Jackie Wilson/Let Me Come Back - Walter Jackson (Trentham Finale All-Nighter Anniversary Single) £10 We're Gonna Party (Vocal to Festival Time) - Detroit Sound (Slow Fizz) £10 Waiting Round The Corner - Mike & The Modiifiers (USA Motor City) £10 (Mike Valvano on one of the the most obscure Motor City releases) The In-Crowd EP - Given away with hardback copies of the book "The In-Crowd) £15 Fab luxury picture sleeve - includes an unreleased mix of "I Miss My baby" - Rose Batiste plus "No One To Love" - Pat Lewis, "I Need My baby" - Jackey beavers and "Spreadin' Honey" - Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band ...BRILLIANT PACAGE I'm So Happy - Brenda Holloway (All-4-U Blue label ) £10 (great version by Brenda of Prince Philip Mitchell's anthem) Make Me Yours - High Inergy (USA Gordy demo) £10 Where Do I Go From here - The Supremes (USA Motown demo) £15 Control Tower - Magic Disco Machine (USA Motown demo) £10 I Love To See You Dance - Finished Tourch featuring Kenny Stover (USA Motown demo) £10 What Does It Take- Jnr Walker & The All Stars (USA Motown demo) £15 Walk Away From Love - David Ruffin (USA Motown WDJ) £20 The Bottle - Pat Lewis (All 4 U whtie label) £10 Such Misery - Timmy Willis (Joe Boy) £15 Making My Daydream Real - Frances Nero (Charly pic bag seven) £25 Footsteps Following Me - Frances Nero (Charly pic bag seven) £20 Pressure - Drizabone (Joe Boy) £10 You Hit Me (Where It Hurts Me) - Kim Weston (pressing - white label) £15 Im Ready To Give Up My Love - Sons Of Ronin Stone (Gonif) £10 POSTAGE AND PACKING INCLUDED IN ALL PRICES EXCEPT FOR OVERSEAS (PM FOR OVERSEAS RATES). IF YOU SPEND MINIMUM £100 TAKE OFF 20% DISCOUNT PAY PAL - sales@soulvation.biz For details on paying by cheque please PM me. All the Best, Neil

Mark, I pulled piles of Mutt 45's (but ot the Dusty Wilson) in quantity out of Bob Mays in Detroit 20 years or so back and so I should have a mint spare Sophisticates buried away somewhere...if I remember right Bob only had small amounts of The Majestees but the others I got loads from him. Will have a look when I get chance. Neil

If anyone can help I am desperate for a Stateside promo of Bet You Win - Tyrone Davis All the Best, Neil

The stock copies of GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE/A DREAM - PEARL JONES have finally turned up. Available at £10 each, including postage and packing. Also still have WDJ/red vinyl available - £20 each incluidng postage and packing. IF YOU WANT TO HEAR "GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE" GO TO WEB SITE WWW.SOULVATION.BIZ AND GO TO "SOUNDS" PAGE. "GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE" IS ON THE LATEST MONTHLY "CASSETTE TAPE". And still available ... LP's LET ME BE YOUR MAN - TYRONE ASHLEY'S FUNKY MUSIC MACHINE (USA FATBEATS) £15 contains the monster track "I Can't Stay Away" ...the album was recorded for Phil-L.Aof Soul in 1969 but has been stuck in the vaults since. "I Can't Stay Away" is an amazing find. Reissue is on tiny independent New York label so get this while it is still available. TEASIN' YOU - WILLIE TEE (USA NIGHT TRAIN) £15 contains everything you want from the Atlantic, Gatur, Nola and Bonaemp releases) WHAT AM I GONNA DO - GLORIA SCOTT (USA CASABLANCA RE-PRESS) £15 includes "(A Case Of ) Too Much Lovemaking" and "What Am I Gonna Do". ALL ALBUMS ARE MINT AND SEALED. postage and packing included in all prices. Pay Pal - sales@soulvation.biz If you want to pay by cheque please PM me. All the Best, Neil

Yes 800 plus on Sassy, from Billy Jackson's apartment in New York. They go for £500 each now so that was a cool £400k find....but I wholesaled most of them for £3 each. Bily confirmed the story to Butch and co when he came over to the UK some years back. I think before I found them only the issues were known about, and that was with "Love(Your Pain Goes Deep) on the flip. I also found the white dj's of these and the issues and demos with "This Is Just A B Side as the flip. The reason they were all there was that Billy had licenced the record early doors to Gamble, and was asked as part of deal not to distribute the Sassy copies. A friend,Graham Hawkins from Walall ,was a top collector at the time and he happened to drop into the office the day the haul turned up. Bill Baker and myself said we were off to the pub across the road but could he open the parcels as we thought there might be a couple of the Sassy 45's in there and we knew he was desperate for a copy. We left him to it for a bit and then couldn't stand it anymore and went back - Graham was in a state of shock and and could hardly talk, surrounded by 100's of the single. Brillaint. We missed the fact that we had both demos and issues of the version with "This Is Just a B Side", we thought that it was on just a demo or issue, but not both, and the missing format copies were found while doing a record bar at a Birmingham Locarno All-Dayer, Eddie Hubbard either found them or was there when I found them, and it was my turn to be nonplussed. Billy Jackson was a real nice guy and he also licenced the single to me for Inferno. It was good to meet up with him when he came over to the UK. Van McCoy was a right result but one of the three times in my left when I was too in awe of the person I was meeting to talk to them apart from burbling Hello or whatever...other two were George Best and Bobby Moore. All the Best, Neil

A UK (for instance) record collector who just owns an acetate of (in this case) 60's Detroit recordings would have abolutely no rights to the recordings on the acetate. Why would/should they? It's like saying if you have a rare Man U football programme with a picture of the stadium on it you own Old Trafford. The writer of a song owns the copyright on the composition and normally assigns these rights to a music publisher who looks after those rights for the writer.Or the writer may choose to administer those rights themselves. The writer of a song holds no rights to a master recording of his song unless the writer is also the recording artist or owns the master recording, but will earn from his or her song being recorded via mechanical (sales) and performance (broadcasts) rights. On the acetate we are talking about George McGregor wrote The Precisions "I Do, Don't You" and produced the the track. In fact he still has the original multi-track of the recording. But as he did it for Sidra he has no ownership of the intellectual property rights to the master recording. All the Best, Neil

The thing about Simon is that he would never do thing the right way as that bored him - he just had to be on the fiddle. I went over to LA a few days after being in New York where I had visited Billy Jackson and found over 800 original copies of "If That's What You Wanted" on Sassy. Simon was great company considering he was such a crook but I was still pissed at him for the way he had ripped off me and Ian Dewhirst on "Uptown Festival" so couldn't resist winding him up about the find. He was inconsolable and jealous beyond belief and came up with all the regular crap - "but that's not possible because I personally know Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and they have all the Sassy copies" - "but that's impossible because Billy Jackson is one of my best friiends in New York" and so it went on for days...job well done. I know he gets slagged off for his involvement with Mirwood but for the record when I met Randy Woods years later he said that Simon had paid him to get rights to the Mirwood catalogue - Simon being Simon had to take it to the edge though and pretend that the "My Sugar Baby" was Sherlie Matthews, just like he lied about "I Love You Baby" on Black Magic being by Lorraine Chandler. After it was released I spoke to Jack Ashford who had produced the new version of "I Love You Baby" for Black Magic via Simon and he was astonished that the record had got released credited to Lorraine. I actually got to meet Van McCoy via Simon in a roundabout way, at one time he was in all the right circles, and if he had done things properly he could have made a legitimate fortune. The best example of Simon losing out comes from Dave Raistrick - he asked the guys at Monarch pressing plant if they had any stock that had never been paid for? Indeed they had, stored upstairs above the pressing machines and Dave got lots of originals of records that Simon had boolegged at the plant now knowing oriignals were on the premises! His dodgy dealings had poisoned Joey Jefferson so much he wouldn't sell me an Inspirations "No One Else Can Take Your Place" on another occasion - sheer madness. All the Best, Neil

The thing about popular records from that era is that they just kept on selling. We sold all those copies of "Get Out" and I think we may have gone back for a second lot too - it was the Benny Sigler's we couldn't give away! We even went to Laurie and got 4,000 custom press of "I'm On My Way" off them AFTER the Casino Classics 3 Before 8 release was deleted. As an example of the demand in those days, look at The Poppies "There's A Pain In My Heart" custom press on CBS's Columbia Special Products label - we sold 20,000 of that. And when you think of all the copies of Dobie Gray "Out On The Floor" that were sold on original imports, bootleg imports, Black Magic and Destiny in the 70's - when I licenced it for Inferno in the early 80's it sold 30,000 plus on two different sevens, plus pic disc seven and 12". All the Best, Neil

Apologies to Adey Pierce. Neil