Ian Dewhirst

For sure not to be trusted at all Ady. No dispute there. A chancer and an opportunist without a shadow of a doubt but that's why it's difficult to sort the truth from the lies most of the time. He always told me that he often got ripped off too. He always moaned about Morris Levy 'stealing' his car horns for the UK PYE release of "Footsee" after he'd licensed it (thus not giving him enough time to get a U.S. pressing out)! Ian D

The RPR was released at pretty much the same time. I found it on Bradford Market for 10p in 1973 so I wouldn't have thought the OVO police would have a problem........ Ian D

Mmm. He always maintained that he was good friends with Madelon and he could get whatever he wanted from Audio Arts. Funnily enough those Audio Arts ones he did, did look pretty legit to me. I'm pretty sure the original label artwork was used. I take your point on the Mirwood ones for sure. What year did Randy Woods die out of interest? Simon always maintained that he owned the masters and that's how he managed to crank out all those instrumentals..... Ian D

Soussan operated in a sort of blurry greyish area in terms of bootlegs. I have no doubt that many of his supposed 'boots' were legit - especially those Modern ones which were probably pressed at a Modern's regular plant. Certainly when I was there he would regularly be on the phone with artists and labels. I'm pretty sure he had ongoing relationships with many of them because I can vaguely remember him introducing me to both Bobby Sanders and Arthur Wright (who I think he later worked with on some of his Disco recordings) as well as numerous other known people. Also, on many releases he'd press through the original labels - remember the Frankie Crocker's on Turbo as another example alongside the Modern re-presses? Also, as Kev quite rightly says and John confirms, he certainly got access to the original 2" masters in order to get the instrumentals. So that "Satisfy Me Baby" voc + inst on Soultown is probably legit too. Ian D

Well, we had two lucky winners for the competition and right now a copy each of the recent Giles Peterson, Nightmares On Wax and Expansion 25th Anniversary CD’s are winging their way over to the valiant ones who got the answer right! A brilliant crowd on Sunday as per normal so many thanks to those of you who joined us LIVE in the Starpoint chatroom. Also a big shout out to DIVERS from the Apple Scruffs who joined us this Sunday to see how 3 of their re-edits sounded on radio. I’d say brilliant! Download link below folks. Thanks for listening! Six Million Steps Presents The Original Mastercuts Show LIVE with Ian Dewhirst between 2.00-4.00pm on Sunday 23rd October 2011 on everyone’s favourite Soul station www.starpointradio.com. Featuring…… 1st Hour The Isley Brothers – Harvest For The World - Prelude Luca Fregonese feat Sterling Void – It’s Alright 2011 – Roby Arduini & Pagany Vocal Mix Bobby Blanco – 3am – Original Mix Paulo Barbato feat Keith Thompson – Burn Baby Burn – Vincent Valler Classic Mix Joseph Junior & MAQman – I Don’t See Love – Original Mix Crown Heights Affair – Say A Prayer For Two – Disco Deviance Re-Edit Jeffrey Osbourne – I Really Don’t Need No Light – Shiny Disco Ball Re-Edit Bobby Cutchins – I Did It Again – Gene Leone Remix Sly & The Family Stone – Everyday People – Apple Scruffs Re-Edit 2nd Hour Fred Hughes – Baby Boy – Apple Scruffs Re-Edit Barbara Acklin – Love Makes A Woman Lyn Roman – Stop, Don’t Need No Sympathy Charles Russell – It Ain’t Easy Spanky Wilson – Easy Lover The Pacesetters – Lovin’ Heaven & Earth – Whole Lot Of Love Leon Haywood – I Wanna Do Something Freaky To You – Apple Scruffs Re-Edit Jeffree – Mr Fix It – Chow Daddy Re-Edit Womack & Womack – Baby I’m Scared Of You – Casbah 73 Extended Re-Edit Stevie Wonder – All I Do – Danny Massure Groove Is In The Heart Re-Edit https://www.sixmillionsteps.com/6MS-2011-10-23-Starpoint.mp3 Al is back next week but the week after (Sunday 6th November) we’ve decided to join up and celebrate Al’s birthday with a jolly-up at the studio with a few mates dropping by. It’’ be LIVE and it’ll be messy! Should be fun. Ian D

It never occurred to me before, but did Carl Palmer get the name Jet Star from the U.S. label when he set up Jet Star distribution? Pama released all the UK Bobby Patterson singles which were licensed from Jet Star U.S. so did he just nick the name? Ian D

Not re-released as such but I'm pretty sure I've a Ace/Kent Loleatta anthology which includes all the GRC stuff. In fact here it is.... https://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/3872586/a/Hotlanta+Soul+Of+Loleatta+Holloway.htm Ian D

Yep, that is the sad truth. I think it's going to really impact people down the line when there's fewer acts, fewer live gigs and virtually no recordings anymore. You can already see the collossal dip in quality with today's new releases apart from the established acts who presumably have the good budgets. It's very very sad to see an industry being crippled because of the stupidity of the people who used to run it....... Ian D

It could be a good thing if these streaming services and video clip operations actually paid out decent royalties but unfortunately they don't, so there's hardly any benefit to the artists financially. To put it in perspective, Pete Waterman earned the grand total of £11 from over 100 million You Tube plays of "Never Gonna Give You Up" (which he co-wrote) off the back of the 'rickrolling' craze a couple of years back. Not much hope for the Lorraine's of this world at those rates is there? Another shot in the foot of today's music business I'm afraid..... Ian D

If you think that's good, then wait til you hear the James Well's version. Can't find a clip dammit......... But it's great.... Ian D

Sometimes it's just impossible to argue with a totally ROCKIN' production...... .......totally waaaay over-the-top vocals but I just can't help loving it.... James Wells "Baby I'm Still The Same Man" I'm one his biggest critics but I have a lot of respect for his belief and focus in his visions. He really doesn't muck about when he's serious about something and I think he was on a roll when he recorded James Wells. What a FANTASTIC vocalist. Ian found him. 'Nuff said. Ian D

Wow! Fantastic turn out for the Starpoint gig @ the Holiday Inn in Bexley a week last Friday. I was basically happy enough just circulating and drinking gallons of lager so I skilfully avoided dee-jaying until the last half-hour. But what a half-hour! A brilliant night and thanks to all who attended. I’m doing the last hour after Greg Edwards in November that’s for sure! Good job I had a room. I’m still recovering LOL….. So what else is new? Well I’ve been busy preparing for a visit to our shores of one of my all-time heroes, Kenny Gamble, who will be here on holiday in mid November and has gracefully agreed to promote the launch of the 40th anniversary of Philadelphia International Records which will kick off in Jan/Feb 2012. Plus 10 more Backbeats albums coming up which are released on Boxing Day, so it’s busy, busy, busy…… However, this week’s show has been a lot of fun already. I’ve been desperately trying to find some rockin’ new and underplayed House and thankfully I found a few gems, then I needed a couple of serious 80’s re-edits and ended up with 4 killers, then I got into a Northern/Chicago groove and that just did itself and then the final 30 minutes were totally organic and I had nothing to do with it. Exactly what a Sunday afternoon LIVE Original Mastercuts show is all about really. Plus, we have a KILLER competition where we’re giving away to 2 lucky winners copies of the recent Giles Peterson, Nightmares On Wax and Expansion 25th Anniversary CD’s! What’s to lose? Six Million Steps Presents The Original Mastercuts Show LIVE with Ian Dewhirst between 2.00-4.00pm on Sunday 23rd October 2011 on everyone’s favourite Soul station www.starpointradio.com. Featuring…… The Isley Brothers * Luca Fregonese feat Sterling Void * Bobby Blanco * Paulo Barbato feat Keith Thompson * Joseph Junior & MAQman * Crown Heights Affair * Jeffrey Osbourne * Bobby Cutchins * Sly & The Family Stone * Fred Hughes * Barbara Acklin* Lyn Roman * Charles Russell * Spanky Wilson * Main Ingredient * The Pacesetters * Heaven & Earth * Leon Haywood * Jeffree * Womack & Womack * Stevie Wonder Hope you can join us in the Starpoint chatroom for some LIVE Sunday afternoon banter. I can’t think of a better way to spend a chilled Sunday afternoon. See you @ 2.00pm LIVE! Ian D

"Home Is Where The Hatred Is" - Brenda Holloway is superb on any level...... Shame I can't find a clip.... Ian D

Makes perfect sense to me to have hard copy backups of everything Geoff. All it will take is for the Chinese to launch a logic bomb (a sort of internet armageddon) and you can say goodbye to everything that's stored electronically. Also I look at the fact that if Sony can't protect their systems properly then how much better can some of these cloud storage options be? Ian D

"Never Die" - Mandrill Ian D

When did it originally come out? I'm pretty sure I got this from Jumbo's in Leeds as a new U.S. release in the mid 70's.......? Multicoloured too..... Ian D

Oh for sure there's fresh vocals on there Bob, but I'm pretty sure they've over-dubbed onto the existing recording. I'm not complaining by any means. The only version I have over here is the original and now I want to hear the New Image version on a decent file because the You Tube clip isn't that clear audio wise. And it doesn't surprise me that they have other good recordings at all. The reason why I love "It Ain't Easy" is because I've always thought it was a masterpiece. It's one of my favorite records of all time. Certainly in my top 500 that's for sure LOL... Now it's slowly becoming apparent why. Charles had a world-class arranger on board with Dave Crawford and presumably used all the top notch L.A. black session musicians like Wah Wah Watson etc, etc. He hung in good circles which is why the record is great. If Charles wanted to get some visibility then now is probably a good time. I feel there's a really interesting story there and I'm so glad Ady's using this track on Masterpieces 3. I can't think of a better inclusion. Get me the stems and I'll get a killer re-edit done! Charle's would f*ckin' love that. Ian D

The thing is, it's really really difficult to predict future trends at whatever time you start amassing 1000's of records. It's basically impossible to look into the future 'cos musical taste evolves and mutates all the time along with normal evolution, education and changes in your own personal listening habits. All those GAZILLLIONS of Curtom and Brunswick records that I was a bit snobby about in the mid 70's because I could find 'em everywhere, 35 years later have become the staple of my current listening. I now think that many of the records that I thought were also-rans in the early to mid 70's are these days much much better than the stuff I listened to back then. A good example, was the day that I hit a warehouse in Telford around 1977 and found a 100 count box of Lew Kirton's "Heaven In The Afternoon" on Alston and a 100 count box of Arnold Blair's "Trying To Get Next To You" on Gemigo @ 25p each if I took the lot. Didn't bother with either of 'em 'cos I was too busy chasing rare stuff LOL. Jump forward 10 years later and Arnold Blair became a Warrington 2-step anthem @ Kev Edward's nights and became a £100 record very quickly and jump forward again and Lou Kirton became a Northern smash and another big money record that everyone wanted. The fact is, in 1977, "Trying To Get Next To You" sounded like a monotonous dirge with no chance whatsoever. And "Heaven In The Afternoon" was so common on a TK 12" that you couldn't give it away, so the Alston 7" copies didn't look that attractive at the time. The benefit of hindsight ay? These days I'm a bit less judgemental generally. I now treasure those records that I would have cavalierly dismissed 10, 20 or 30 years ago, so in my opinion, we never stop learning. So I'm a bit more careful with re-selling my duffers and blind buys these days because, generally, somewhere in the world, someone will really want that record for some reason or another. And it may turn out to be a much better record than you remember! Great thread Blake. Fancy another dig next time you're down here? You know you'll always find something. Next time you're down thisaway, give me a shout and we can reminisce....... . Bring cash. Ian D

Mmm. Interesting thread this. I always thought that someone invested heavily in the first recording what with using a full string section and hiring Dave Crawford for the arrangement (just before he went on to produce Candi Staton's "Young Hearts Run Free"). The investment was really all in the original recording, which is basically magnificent. It all went wrong when they pressed it and attempted to distribute it. Amateur hour since it had almost zero distribution in L.A. and presumably zero promotion as well. So it never stood a chance. They were actually lucky that Simon Soussan managed to stumble into it and put it on a tape of unknowns for a new list he was doing circa '75 (along with stuff like Eddie Daniels, Lee Mitchell etc). When we heard that tape in the UK we discussed the tracks that we liked but the problem with Soussan is that no one knew if he had a game-plan for everything that was on there and bootlegs might turn up 2 weeks later. So everything (even the great stuff) was viewed with a patina of suspicion at the time. Quite rightly so as it usually turned out. As it happens, only a copy or two of the record ever arrived in the UK at the time and I'm pretty sure Curtis ended up with one, which is probably where I heard it out first. I was desperate for a copy to play out right up until I actually emigrated to the U.S. When I got to L.A. in May '76 and met Soussan, one of the first records I asked about was Charles Russell and he told me that he couldn't get any more copies and it was a rare record despite being only 2 years old at the time. When I found those 3 copies in a shop after a few months in L.A. I was over the moon. So I've always dug the record but it really never took off for some reason. Also I've listened to both recordings now and I'm pretty sure that the original master was used on the New Image release. It's been remixed plus some overdubs, but there's no way that they could replicate the original so closely and why would they anyway? The original recording would have cost in the region of $3-4000 at the time with the people involved, so I reckon that Charles figured there'd be more cache if he told people it was a brand new recording. It just doesn't make sense to junk such a great (and expensive) original recording with some serious people like Dave Crawford involved - he would have been $1000 in cash for a start........ When Charles got a whisper that there was some action in the UK, that obviously gave him the incentive to try another release and attempt to recoup the outlay on the original version. The fact that he went for it again with a Disco version shows he had real belief in the track. And yes. I'd love to listen in depth to the Disco version. I'll almost definitely wanna play it on my show because a lot of my audience love Soulful Disco but I promise I won't share the file with anyone. That'll be 2 favours I owe you then! Ian D

Wow. I'd love to hear that. It sounds right up my street. Is it any good bearing in mind it's a Disco track.....? Ian D

Thanks for confirming Bob. I couldn't see any demand coming from anywhere else to be honest........ I'll tell you what though - I'm staggered that they would have re-recorded it. They had most of it down first time around so I don't know why they'd need to do the whole thing again. It doesn't really make sense, especially to sell just a few hundred copies. I'll have a real close listen to both recordings again and see if there's any major changes 'cos it's my guess they remixed and over-dubbed whatever Charles says...... Ian D

Snag it. I concurr with Soulman. I think it's a lot rarer than people think. I spent 6 months in L.A. hitting shops everyday of the week and only found those 3 copies in one shop and that was 35 years ago. Worth it for that mighty Dave Crawford arrangement alone! Ian D

Good point. I guess they'd all be doubles so wouldn't be cheap to manufacture. Might be worth doing a limited edition run across all 30 titles though if we thought there was enough interest to justify such a run. Ian D

I love the record. I think the production and arrangement are brilliant for a tiny West Coast label. You'd never get strings like that on a record these days....... Anyway, here are the You Tube clips.... Charles Russell "It Ain't Easy" Psyche New Image feat Charles Russell "It Ain't Easy" Bionic Ian D

OK, pm me your details and I'll get 'em over to our Press guy. Here's what's coming up with most of 'em compiled by S.S. stalwarts.......... BACKB021 Backbeats - Soul A La Mode – 1970’s Modern Soul Compiled by Ian Dewhirst BACKB022 Backbeats - What’s The Word - Socially Conscious Soul Music Compiled by Dean Rudland BACKB023 Backbeats - Smooth Grooves – Sophisticated 80’s Philly Soul Compiled by Ralph Tee BACKB024 Backbeats - Phillybusters – Underground Philly Dancefloor Gems Compiled by Kev Roberts & Ian Dewhirst BACKB025 Backbeats - Bustin’ Out – Ghetto Grooves From Dusty Cellars Compiled by Dean Rudland BACKB026 Backbeats - 2 Steps To Soul Heaven – More 70’s & 80’s Steppers Compiled by Ian Dewhirst BACKB027 Backbeats - They Call It Crossover – More Mid-Tempo Soul Gems Compiled by Sean Hampsey BACKB028 Backbeats - Mod Life Crisis – 60’s Mod Anthems For The In Crowd Compiled by Dean Rudland BACKB029 Backbeats - Lost In Time –More Northern Soul Treasures Compiled by Kev Roberts & Ian Dewhirst BACKB030 Backbeats - The Pain Goes Deep – More Deep Soul Gems Compiled by Sean Hampsey Ian D