Goldsoul

Dave- John will have books and CDs with him during the short tour. I will ask if its ok to publish his email.

Just looking to tie up a Yorkshire date and the venues/times will be published.

Thanks for the input and suggestions. Hopefully you can get together with John and show your appreciation.

Sadly F/V has cancelled all interviews due to an illness. Thankfully MARLENA SHAW stepped in to help out. More news on a re-sched for Jersey Boy as soon as we have it.

Not a question I will ask him as I have been given 30 mins(Agents/Managers pah!) but I once hit a store in Bloomfield, NJ that FV used to buy records from(according to the owner.

Found some nice things to incl a Red Velvet Satins. I think it was around 1976.

Yup pretty chuffed. He's not easy to get to.

Already Mr Jersey Boy? Sock it to us!

Stay In My Corner the 1968 version. The be all and end all of Soul music

Other 'Wiganesque' guests will be joining us to celebrate including Chapter 5 'You Can't Mean It'

Best of luck guys....timing's perfect...it'll be a hit for ya 

Mel became a special friend to those who went on SoultripUSA 2009 to Chicago/Detroit. As the promoters of the event, we secretly arranged to pick up Mel from a motorway services near his home in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Mel accompanied us to Hitsville USA and spent time chatting with most of us including Frances Nero and Dennis Coffey.

Following a lunch and entertainment from the Capitols and others at Memphis Smoke, Detroit, he was amazed at the response as we ended the afternoon with his epic song. We dropped Mel back at the services to be collected by taxi. His words 'I know I will never see you again, but thanks for everything' will stay with us forever.

Sheila Lazenby from Rotherham will be particularly upset, as she sat with him during the coach journey. Dave Raistrick, Donna Dean, Dave Moore, Dave Ferguson and Steve Gainey are amongst those who helped during the day and on their return.

Mel was discovered in his homestate of Indiana by Donny Hathaway. Following a short stint with The Visitors in 1969/70, Robert Lee signed him to FIP. In 1972 with Tom Washington whereby he recorded 'She'll Come Running Back'. A track discovered in 1974 by Ian Levine, who in turn must be credited for finding him in 1999 for his SWONS project.

My own memory of the man was during a brief chat on the coach, he mentioned his best friend was the late Wade Flemmons, who used to live closeby. I mentioned 'Jeanette' among others, with MB announcing he was at the recording session! Not only that, Jeanette(Hutchinson) of the Emotions was Wade's girlfriend.

Special times, special people, a VERY SPECIAL MAN.

Kev and Sam @ Goldsoul

Working on it!

Pre-recorded at present...Live is a possibility though.

Just to add....the All Nighter starts at Midnight NYEve/Day with non stop Motown. 1-6 covers the Wheel, Wigan, All Nighter anthems and Massive Enders.

Transmission is across the UK on FM, DAB, Sky, Freeview and on line.

Then from Jan 13th on Smooth 70's(DAB across the UK) every Sunday 2-4pm join us for Richard & Kev's Soul Connection.

A weekly look at what happened in the 70's.

Hear 60's Northern, 70's with lots of features including interviews with 70's Movers and Shakers.

First up is Blues and Soul founder John Abbey.

Future shows include producer Norman Bergen, Chicago arranger Willie Henderson plus Jim Gilstrap, Joe Bataan, Thelma Houston, Warren Schatz, Patti Austin and more.

Richard & Kev's Soul Connection on Smooth 70's(DAB) right after Donny Osmond every Sunday from Jan 13th.

Email, Twitter, Phone in details to follow.

I interviewed him some 20 years ago and was surprised to learn how many copies of 'I Got The Fever' had sold.

A really good commercial voice. Top guy!

A close friend who wrote the foreword to my book. He appeared for me at the Cala Gran Weekender in 2000 and performed in our Do I Love You karaoke competition at SoultripUSA 2004 in Los Angeles.

A master songwriter and producer, he had a wicked sense of humour who called Berry Gordy and handed me the phone.....the one moment in my career I will never forget.

God bless you Frank....

Kev

Performing live across the UK over September and October is US singer Yvonne Vernee.

Yvonne was the lead singer of a group called the Donays who recorded for Correc-tone where she alos recorded solo recording the Northern favourite from late Wigan early Stafford era "Does He Love Me Anymore".

As a solo artist she r...

Click to view this soul article info in full

Firstly, it's The Elgins who are touring. Maybe Hitsville Chalky, the agent has a solo gig for Yvonne, but the dates Sept 21 Stoke, 22nd Blackburn and 23rd Rolls Royce Derby are group led with Yvonne adding 'Just Like You Did Me' off the back of their Motown stuff.

For those in the South, The Academy, Basingstoke is the setting on Sunday Sept 30th.

Had a great 2 hours with Carl in our hotel @SoultripUSA 2009.

Priceless chit chat. Introducing Barbara Acklin to his taxi driver Eugene Record was one such moment.

R.I.P Mr. Chicago

Could Smoothwasson and any other mishief makers please remove my/our name..,.we are NOT the promoters of the Prestatyn Soul Weekender.

Good luck to Pontins. All the best to John Poole. End of story.

Utter tripe. The producers used us!

I feel sorry for the guy who shot the footage and then only used 1 second of his hard work!

Awful truly awful. And it needed some narration.

Very honoured to have the World Northern Soul Dancing Championship @Blackpool Tower featured. Great news.

Dave- If you can email me, we can formulate a gameplan benefit for Tony. Once agreed, his friends, colleagues, family etc can share in the updates on Soul Source and Facebook.

Over to you.......

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dobie back in 99 for Signal and recently for Smooth Radio. A very talented man indeed. RIP Larry.

Here's the Wiki rundown on the greet man.....

Dobie Gray (July 26, 1940 - December 6, 2011)[1][2] was an African American singer and songwriter, whose musical career spanned soul, country, pop and musical theater. His hit records included "The 'In' Crowd" in 1965, and "Drift Away", which was one of the biggest hits of 1973, sold over one million copies, and remains a staple of radio airplay.[1]

Contents  [hide] 

1 Life and career

2 Death

3 Discography

3.1 Singles

3.2 Featured singles

4 See also

5 References

6 External links

[edit]Life and career

Gray was born near Houston, Texas, by his own account in Simonton although some sources suggest the nearby town of Brookshire.[3][4] His birth name was probably Lawrence Darrow Brown,[4][5] who is listed in the Fort Bend County Birth Records as being born in 1940 to Jane P. Spencel and Jethro Clifton Brown. Other sources suggest he may have been born Leonard Victor Ainsworth,[1] a name he used on some early recordings.

His family were sharecroppers, and he discovered gospel music through his grandfather, a Baptist minister.[3] In the early 1960s he moved to Los Angeles, intending to pursue an acting career but also singing to make money. He recorded for several local labels under the names Leonard Ainsworth, Larry Curtis, and Larry Dennis, before Sonny Bono directed him towards the small independent Stripe Records. They suggested that he record under the name "Dobie Gray", an allusion to the then-popular sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.[4] His first taste of success came in 1963, when his seventh single "Look At Me", on the Cor-Dak label, recorded with bassist Carol Kaye,[6] reached # 91 on the Billboard Hot 100.[5][7] However, Gray's first album, Look!, failed to sell.[6] Greater success came in early 1965 when his original recording of "The 'In' Crowd" (later recorded by Ramsey Lewis) reached # 13 on the chart. Written by Billy Page, arranged by his brother Gene,[8] and produced by Fred Darian,[5][9] Gray's record reached # 11 on the US R&B chart, and # 25 in the UK. The follow-up, "See You at the Go-Go", recorded with such top session musicians as Kaye, Hal Blaine and Larry Knechtel, also reached the Hot 100, and he issued an album, Dobie Gray Sings For 'In' Crowders That Go Go Go, which featured some self-penned songs.[6]

Gray continued to record, though with little success, for small labels such as Charger and White Whale, as well as contributing to movie soundtracks.[7] He also spent several years working as an actor, including 2½ years in the Los Angeles production of Hair.[1][4] In 1970, while working in Hair, he joined a band, Pollution, as singer and percussionist. They were managed by actor Max Baer Jr. (best known as "Jethro" in The Beverly Hillbillies), and released two albums of soul-inspired psychedelic rock, Pollution I and Pollution II.[6][10] The band also included singer Tata Vega and guitarist/singer James Quill Smith. After that, he worked at A & M Records on demo recordings with songwriter Paul Williams.[4]

In 1972, he won a contract with Decca Records, shortly before it became part of MCA, to make an album with producer Mentor Williams, Paul's brother, in Nashville. Among the songs that they recorded at the Quadrafonic Sound Studios, co-owned by session musicians Norbert Putnam and David Briggs, was Mentor Williams' song "Drift Away", featuring a guitar riff by Reggie Young.[4][11] Released as a single, the song rose to # 5 on the US pop charts, and remains Gray's best known song today.[1] The follow-up, a version of Tom Jans' much-covered song "Loving Arms", made # 61 in the chart. Gray also released three albums with MCA, Drift Away, Loving Arms, and Hey, Dixie, but later stated that MCA were unsure of how to market the albums - "They didn't know where to place a black guy in country music."[4]

In the mid-1970s he moved permanently to Nashville and signed for Capricorn Records, writing songs in collaboration with Troy Seals.[1] His biggest hit singles in the late 1970s were "If Love Must Go", # 78 in 1976, and "You Can Do It", # 37 in late 1978, his last solo chart hit to date.[5] He increasingly concentrated on songwriting, writing songs for a variety of artists including Ray Charles, George Jones, Johnny Mathis, Charley Pride and Don Williams.[4][7] Gray also toured in Europe, Australia and Africa in the 1970s. He performed in South Africa only after persuading the apartheid authorities to allow him to play to integrated audiences, becoming the first artist to do so in that country.[1] His popularity in South Africa has continued through numerous subsequent concert tours.[3][4]

He re-emerged as a recording artist for Capitol Records in the mid-1980s, recording with producer Harold Shedd. Gray placed two singles in the US Billboard country chart during 1986 and 1987, including "That's One to Grow On" which peaked at #35.[1][12] His country albums included From Where I Stand in 1986, and he made several appearances at Charlie Daniels' popular Volunteer Jam concerts.[7] He also sang on a number of TV and radio jingles.[4] In 1997, he released the album Diamond Cuts, including both new songs and re-recordings of older material.[1]

In 2000, Wigan Casino DJ, Kev Roberts, compiled The Northern Soul Top 500, which was based on a survey of northern soul fans.[13] Gray's "Out On The Floor", a 1966 recording which had been a British chart hit in 1975, was placed in the Top 10. "Drift Away" became a hit again in 2003, when it was covered by Uncle Kracker on his No Stranger to Shame album. The recording was a duet between Kracker and Gray, who was also featured in the video. It placed nineteenth in the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 2003.

[edit]Death

On December 6, 2011, his official site stated he had passed away. [14]

[edit]Discography

[edit]Singles

Year Single Peak chart positions Certifications

(sales threshold)

US US R&B US AC US Country CAN CAN AC CAN Country UK

1963 "Look at Me" 91 " " " " " " "

1965 "The 'In' Crowd" 13 11 " " 8 " " 25

"See You at the Go-Go" 69 " " " " " " "

1973 "Drift Away" 5 42 " " 7 " " "

US: Gold[15]

"Loving Arms" 61 81 7 " 70 2 " "

1975 "Out on the Floor" " " " " " " " 42

1976 "If Love Must Go" 78 " " " " " " "

"Find 'Em, Fool 'Em & Forget 'Em" 94 71 " " " " " "

1979 "You Can Do It" 37 32 " " 58 " " "

"In Crowd" " " " " " 47 " "

1986 "That's One to Grow On" " " " 35 " " " "

"The Dark Side of Town" " " " 42 " " 48 "

"From Where I Stand" " " " 67 " " " "

1987 "Take It Real Easy" " " " 82 " " " "

" "" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released to that country

[edit]Featured singles

Wow! What a great double header.

Tickets from www.goldsoul.co.uk

Sensational release. Buy immediately!

Very sad news indeed.

I hit his record shop Bobby's Record Wagon, Harlem, NY I975.

The first ever copies of The Carlettes(his daughters) on BR and Yvonne Daniels on Sterling Sound came out of there.

He shared ownership of the labels Fire and Fury with his brother Danny.

The best part of meeting him was seeing two DJs scratching and mixing Bongo Rock-

Incredible Bongo Band outside his shop on a really crude but effective sound system.

I asked 'what are those guys doing' BR replying 'that's hip hop man, hip hop'

Remember that was in '75!!

R.I.P BR

Kev