Ian Dewhirst

And to add to the dillemma, I've seen both water-damaged and really bad presses of the original with smudged typesets too! Again, I would have to ask what was the point in booting it? It's a breathtakingly brilliant record with one of the greatest arrangements I've ever heard but it was only ever a Mecca cult item which never really translated past that....... Ian D

Actually the soundtrack album's been playing in the office all morning and there's been a constant procession of people asking what various tracks are throughout, so the Soundtrack album definitely appeals to a wide section of people. Sounds pretty good actually - like a Greatest Hits type album which it really is in a way........ Ian D

Well, by the end of my 6 months in L.A. I was more involved in other things. I'd just completed co-producing a track (with the infamous Simon Soussan) which went on to sell a million copies, so I was suddenly hob-nobbing in different circles by that point - generally around the record companies like Casablanca, Soultrain and Motown (where I introduced Soussan to a guy called Tom Depeiro who introduced Soussan to the Motown record archive where Soussan 'liberated' the Frank Wilson record). So by the end of '76 and the point where my visa ended, I was trying to tie up the loose ends with the Shalamar deal (unsuccessfully as it happens but that's another story), close off a relationship with an American girl and generally try and get back to the UK in one piece. I fully expected to return to L.A. in '77 and continue where I left off but circumstances changed and I ended up staying in the UK, so I never really continued in the full-time record-hunting business, just did it time to time whenever I was back in the U.S. from then on. I'm pretty sure some of the guys on here will remember or know Darryl. He had a collection and a half and was a serious collector although I seem to remember he collected from the 50's forward so probably a lot of Doo-Wop in there but some mouth-watering Northern too. Similarly Chris Peake who I know various other people bumped into over the years and they would have found great records there 'cos he had tens of thousands and you never knew what you'd find on any particular visit. I often wonder about some of the characters I met during that time - a guy called Al who used to be Lou Ragland's manager and who was in hock to the mob and had a houseful of great records, the guy from New Jersey who relocated to Redondo Beach with all his record shop stock and the guy who ran a household goods stall in East L.A. with 100,000 records that were left outside with just a plastic sheet protecting 'em. Happy days indeed! Ian D

Actually I never thought Sonny Herman was that rare anyway - maybe 'cos I always had it in my head it was a three-quider 'cos that's what I bought it for. And in the mid 70's it was obviously a lot easier to locate garages, shops and market stalls full of stuff. Where I remember the bulk of the L.A. label stuff being around was actually in a bloke's garage in the 2nd week I was in L.A. If I'd known then what I know now, I would have totally cleaned up from just that one location. But there were also nutcases like Chris Peake who had a bungalow packed full of mostly West Coast stuff - that's where I found the 2nd known copy of Willie Hutch, the first Judy Street and a bundle of other West Coast obscurities. Also there were some great collectors out there like Darryl Stolper who had fantastic runs of L.A. labels including all the goodies....... Ian D

Yep, I'd listened to the Sonny Herman and liked it even though it wasn't as obvious as a lot of other stuff at the time. Nice catchy tune. I found absolutely loads of things like Ray Agee, Kell Osbourne, Bobby Angelle, Troy Dodds etc, etc but actually left the vast majority of 'em either because I'd be with Soussan and ask him if he knew it and he'd say something along the lines of, "repetitive garbaaaage baby boy" or, "common as hell, I use 'em for frisbees" or something similar OR because I'd listen to 'em and in 1976 they'd often sound too slow, too RnB'ish or just too dull at the time. Remember this was '76 and I was really looking for another Bob Relf or Tempos at the time so without a crystal ball who was to know that the sound would eventually evolve and accept less obvious stuff? It became pretty frustrating when I used to bump into Sam in the 80's and he'd show me all these super rare L.A. releases that I'd left in garages in '76 including Ray Agee because there just couldn't be another great record on Soultown that wasn't already known could there LOL....?. Also what I couldn't believe was that one of Arthur Fenn's greatest hits was at Monarch where I'd hung around regularly for months and found quite a few things (including the Si Hightower test-pressing) but I never found that room that Arthur got into! It just goes to show you that however well you think you've got something covered there's always that oddball occasion when luck comes into the equation. Ian D

I dunno Sean. There's a supposedly unbelievable Sonny Turner record on Musicor that Levine used to have that's never turned up since......... The Tony Turner was always a stretch though wasn't it? Actually I think a vocal to "6 by 6" would sound about as effective as Laura Lee, i.e. like an afterthought...... Ian D

Ghost In My House by Rare Earth or R. Dean Taylor on the Rare Earth label? New one on me either way..... Ian D

I originally bought one from Brian Phillips circa 1974 for £3. And the ones I found in L.A. were sent through to Neil Rushton as part of a bulk shipment back in '76 so god knows what they went for........ Ian D

Yep, used to be a few lists in the 70's as a three quider......but then again there were many like that. I always quite liked this - a nice catchy stomper. Found a few in L.A. but no one did cartwheels about it back then but maybe the time is right these days........ Ian D

It's my guess that they probably got the film that THEY wanted rather than the film that many S.S.'ers would have wanted. I'm not in the business of even wanting to understand what today's audiences require as I'm way past the target age for most films anyway,so it's difficult to comment on whether they got their targetting right or not. However, the stats are out on the first 3 days that the film was shown in the UK via 6 screens and they'll probably be encouraged by the average cinema take in the period which puts it @ No.34 in the UK with an average £1504 take per site which isn't bad considering the meagre takings of lots of other films. Conceivably it could roll out to more cinemas over the next few weeks and build on that. However, the only real publicity I've seen for the damn film has been on here so maybe their PR needs to ramp up a notch LOL.... https://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/article/16977/UK-Box-Office-3---5-September-2010?action=fullscreen Ian D

I've just heard this on a Gospel CD and it struck me as being totally Northern with a great production and a great wailing lead vocal. I was surprised to see it was released as a single on a label called Calvary. Anyone got it or heard it and what's it worth? Ian D

Me too! I was surprised no one mentioned it earlier........ Ian D

Mmm. I dunno. Fontella Bass or Shirley Brown maybe? Ian D

Are you sure Pete? Can't believe they'd have bothered - it wasn't like it was ever a huge record......I've certainly never seen one. Ian D

There's an interesting thread over on the DJ History forum about James Hamilton, perhaps best known for his Dance Music column in Record Mirror magazine in the 70's and 80's. He was a major Soul Music enthusiast right through the 1960's but is better known for his excellent and very accurate reviews of just about every dance music release from circa '75 to '90. However, when he passed away his records got auctioned-off and there was a huge box of U.S. Gospel 45's that no one seemed to want so they were picked up for a song. Nothing ever happened with 'em and several years later an enthusiast enquired about them and picked up the whole lot - untouched since the auction. He's posted a load of scans of the original 45's with James's comments wriiten on the sleeves and, to me, it's like a priceless piece of history. Since there's just been a Gospel thread on S.S. I thought this may be of interest to Soul Source so I've taken the liberty of mentioning it. His descriptions are brilliant - his review of a Rhonda Davis Gospel release is indicative of his ability to spot talent but I'm not a Gospel freak and most of the stuff is too early for me, but I'm sure there'll be a few people that may be interested, so here's the link:- https://www.djhistory.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57141 I actually knew James in the 80's but I knew he was seriously collecting throughout the 60's and I'd often quiz him about his influences and he was just a total Soul enthusiast with unbelievable knowledge. Now I've seen these scans of the Gospel 45's with his reviews written on the sleeves it makes me wonder what else he had and who got it! Ian D

Have you heard the Chapter 5 Re-Edit yet? Now that's a f*ckin' tune! Ian D

Unfortunately you're the 'wrong type' of aficionado for this album Pete. Luckily that hasn't harmed it's commercial success. Best of luck with your next Sh*t by the way. Hope everything's hunky dory in that department. Ian D

You should hear the Larry Sanders rework of Jean Carn's "If You Wanna Go Back" too Malc 'cos that's another beauty. The more creative of some of these re-edits really allow the tracks to breath so that's the beauty of 'em IMO. I'm currently trying to sort out a Philly International Re-Edits comp for the 40 anniversary of P.I. next year, so hopefully I'll be able to get the best of the re-edits out there soon fingers crossed...... Ian D

Has anyone out there got a spare 7.6 years they wanna flog? Ian D

Interesting Kegsy. I spoke with someone earlier today who scoured the store and archive about 8 years ago and reckoned that there wasn't that much great stuff there. Certainly they got multiples of lots of mid-range titles but didn't see too much to get excited about even on his own 'last copies'. They reckoned $300,000 would be nearer the mark. They also didn't reckon that it could be described as an archive but rather simply as a large record shop stock. They did say that there were nice promos in there but really nothing to get over-excited about apparently. You probably got there first mate! Ian D

Actually these are always majorely successful events. David Guest has the ability to get these events together because he pretty much has all the angles worked out. For a start he knows all the acts personally and they'll pick up the phone for David Guest. Secondly, it's essentialy a charity event which targets the business community and will generate a huge amount of money from the charity auction bids. Thirdly, he knows how to look after the acts and the majority of the performers will be doing this gig as a 'favour' gig for David. I've gotta hand it to him. The line-up is nothing short of incredible. If this line-up was billed for a Northern Soul Weekender it would sell out in seconds. Good on him. Probably the best line-up of Soul Music talent ever. I mean, Lamont Dozier? Phew. That's good enough for me and I'm trying to blag it as I speak......... Ian D

Yep. Just f*ckin' GLORIOUS isn't it? The crazy thing is that it always was a great record but at the time it was considered to be more of a slowy 'cos it had a shuffle kinda beat so it was never really played at the height of the night. Occasionally it may have been slipped in at the end of the night in a smoochy kinda slot but it was never a 'height of the night' track. Now it is. It's only one week old and I can guarantee it's a future monster. It's exactly right for today's dancefloors. It's only taken 30 odd years LOL.... OK, the BRILLIANT Greymatter Re-Edit of Dee Dee Sharp Gamble's "Easy Money" is zinging it's way over to you now. This is just the tip of the iceberg mate. I'm a believer....... Ian D

Presumably this has been picked through I take it? If he did actually keep one of everything then I assume he'd have most of the major label stuff wouldn't he? Someone must have got to it surely....? Ian D

Obviously worth buying for the archive value alone as only 17% of his collection has ever been reissued on CD, so anyone who bought his collection would kinda have a monopoly on providing a bespoke archive service in the future. But no one's interested apparently....it's really quite sad..... Anyone wanna go halves? Ian D

Well that looks as though it may well be one of the last sunny Sunday afternoon for a while if the weather forecasts are anything to go by which means that the Original Mastercuts Winter Party season looks set to begin. OK, admittedly we've installed a fridge at the wrong end of the summer but at least we can keep those iced Mojitos rolling...... Joining me on the show this week was Original Mastercuts co-host and co-founder, Alan Champ along with forthcoming Starpoint signing, Rob Alias and even our enigmatic owner Carl dropped in for the fun. Anyway onto more positive stuff, another HAPPY show this week so let's get right down to business....... The Original Mastercuts Show with Ian Dewhirst & Alan Champ LIVE this Sunday 5th September 2010 on everyone's favourite Soul station www.starpointradio.com. Featuring...... 1st Hour Deep Sensation – Somewhere, Somehow (There's A Soul Heaven) (Mix) Ultra High Frequency – We're On The Right Track – Tom Moulton Remix (Mix) Invisible Man's Band – All Night Thing – Scott Wozniak Unreleased Bootleg Mix Leroy Burgess – It's The Weekend – Johnny Montana & Craig Stewart Remix Marvin Gaye – Praise – Desa Basshead Rework The O'Jays – Darlin', Darlin' Baby – Sweet, Tender, Deep & Disco Re-Edit The Jones Girls – Baby Don't Go Yet – Unreleased 7" Jesse Dixon – Love Lifted Me El Debarge – Mind, Heart & Soul Hour 2 Bobby Womack – Interlude # 1/I Don't Know Bill Harris – Uptown Saturday Night Pt 1 The Four Tops – Love Enough To Care Jackie Beavers – Trying To Get Back To You Girl Jo Armstead – Got My Taste Of Honey Willie Hutch – Just Another Day Alice Clark – Never Did I Stop Loving You Love, Peace & Happiness – Strip Me Naked Leon Haywood – I Wanna Do Something Freaky To You Negghead - Being Earth, Wind & Fire – Fantasy – Blaze Shelter Remix Stevie Wonder – Another Star My link Many thanks for listening folks and we'll catch you next week. Ian D