Ian Dewhirst

Dammit! The good Mr Manship has just pointed out a slight factual error in my work of art. As Johnny quite rightly points out: "Heartless Lover" by the Dick Baker Combo is not on Kool Kat (the L.A. Kool Kat, not the Detroit one) Before some smart-arse pulls you up on it, It was on Kit Kat (and not the Roundtrees one)" Doh.....! But pretty funny and a l'il embarassing 'cos I've been spealing that info out for years! But whilst Johnny's in factual mode, I'm hoping he can unveil a couple of his own tales along the line.. As he points out, the greatest record find of all time was Ray Dobard's Music City Load out of Oakland in 2004 - 250,000 mint 45s 95% SOUL and 50% Northern Soul.. there has never been and never will be anything to get anywhere near those piles of 45s. Now THAT must be heart-stopping stuff. And could there ever be another hit as good as that????? Also he had a Fort Worth hit when he found mutliples of all the Dover distributed Northern Soul New Orleans 45s which I'd love to hear about plus I'm sure there were some goodies he found in Fresno and California way back. All great stuff and this thread makes interesting reading on a lazy bank holiday weekend for some of us! Ian D

Yep. Night, night. Wasn't kidding though. Check the thread. They're words I use for sure from time to time but not in that order.... Anyway, time for one more "Curb Your Enthusiasm" then crash.... Ian D

Oh shit. I know what's happened here! I never actually said 'it was phenomenal every day'. Somehow that combination of words got dumped at the bottom of the page by mistake, so it was a sort of typo LOL. How weird is that? Anyway, I agree LOL... Ian D

Yep, welcome Dan Dare. There's always a lively debate going on on here and I don't think the participents would have it any other way mate. Weird talking about the birth of Modern Soul when a Northern Soul styled record is at No.1 in the national pop charts for the last 5 weeks and is the biggest selling record of the year though...... Theoretically, the Modern Soul re-birth should be just around the corner then....? It's just semantics really IMO. It's either good or not so good. That's my criteria these days. Ian D

If only, if only.................world weary sigh...... Ian D

God, I hate to sound like an old bastard Max, but really those were the days LOL......... I had Bradford Market, Leeds Market, Wakefield Market and Huddersfield Market right on my doorstep with a chain called Bostocks which had bought a few million 'cut-out' records from a US bulk wholesaler. Tons of MGM/Verve/Columbia stuff which is where the Tymes, the Shalamars, Dottie Cambridge, the Triumphs, the Charades, Alice Clark, the Righteous Brothers Band, Clara Ward etc, etc all came from. Manchester had Global which always turned out stuff - Rick Scott found some beauts there and didn't they have the Edwin Starr's and Vonettes LOL.......? Nottingham had places (that's where all the Ila Vann's came from). And that place in Telford, I didn't get to until after you guys had plundered it LOL... I even found Northern records at travelling fun-fairs back then ("I Can't Help Myself" - Don Gardner). Do you remember Steve Glover - a massive UK collector back then. He was from your way wasn't he? And what was it with white demos with you guys? I once went through Pep's box and EVERYTHING was a white demo......... Ian D It was phenomenal. Every day

I need a break now Blake, but I'll be back mate. And I've probably left more than I ever brought back. I used to be too choosy back then! Ian D

Yep 'Commitment' was my middle name when I realised what I probably left there! Ian D

Haha LOL. That was another great accident. I was in east L.A. driving around looking for a Saturday morning 'swap-meet' (or flea market) and somehow I just couldn't find the place where the swap meet was meant to be. I was driving mile after mile along all these roads with heavy industrial complexes and factories as far as the eye could see but no sign of any swap meet. As I was driving along one of these bleak, endless roads I noticed a hamburger stall coming up on the roadside with quite a few people milling around, so I slowed down, figuring I could ask someone where the swap meet might be. It was then that I noticed that there was a sort of household goods market right next to the hamburger van. So I parked up, 'cos I fancied a coffee and there were a couple of coffee type stalls within the market. So I got a coffee and had a mooch around the market. It was all stepladders, dusters, cleaning fluids, tool kits, buckets, bowls and thousands of other household goods. I'd pretty much covered the whole market when I noticed a stall nearest the road which had a couple of boxes of 45's in amongst all the household shit.... I wandered over, set my coffee down and started flicking through the 45's. It really wasn't very promising - I expected lots of junk and some of the records looked beaten up.......but....... Bingo! I found "We Were Made For Each Other" - Terrible Tom on Maverick.......and then another one! And then I found "You Don't Love Me Anymore" - Johnny Caswell on a pink Decca demo several records later. Things were looking up suddenly. After I'd gone through both boxes I'd found a few more so-so's - Candace Love, Fred Hughes and a couple of others, I asked the guy how much they were and he said, "Oh, just gimme 25 cents each man". So I gave him a couple of bucks and said, "Wow. I found a few things here. It's a shame you don't have any more." The guy looked at me and said "You want more 45's"? I said, "Yeah, that's what I'm looking for". And the guy said, "Yo, come around here" and waved me round to the back of his stall where there was a huge rain-soaked tarpulin covering an area about 20' x 20'... He then grabbed hold of one side of the tarpulin and threw it back to reveal...... about 20,000 45's! He laughed and said "Help yourself. Good luck." They were in a right state! Some of 'em were warped from the sun, others had been wet at some time and were water-damaged and most of the sleeves were falling apart or rotting. But everything away from the edges of the tarpulin and in the middle of all this plastic was fine! I found 50 x "Love Factory" - Eloise Laws on Music Merchant, 50 x "Memories" by the Segments Of Time on Sussex and at least a couple of hundred other goodies which were all in decent nick considering the circumstances. I also found the rarest record ever on the Belgium scene at the time - "Heartless Lover" by the Dick Baker Combo on Kool Kat (the L.A. Kool Kat, not the Detroit one). I sold it a week later for £1500 (a huge amount of money in '76 - the guy flew in from Belgium to collect it personally). So a shit day turned into a good one in the end. Whilst I figured I'd pretty much cleared everything on that visit, a couple of years later I was back in L.A. and tried to find the place again but just couldn't remember where it was. But later that day I ended up in Redondo Beach and went into a furniture store/junk shop and found a whole bunch of great stuff from New York and Philly labels - the Superlatives, Del-Larks, Lou Courtney etc, etc. It turns out the guy had just re-located there from the East Coast! All this was great, but I also remember Arthur Fenn having a fantastic hit several years later from a pressing plant I'd been to about 30 times - I think it was Monarch! He somehow got shown a back room that was packed with killers and came back loaded to the gills with Joe Hicks, Larry Atkins and bundles of other L.A. pressed goodies. Ya win some, ya lose some..... But what I'm doing here is trying to encourage Graham Warr and everyone else to share some tales with us. When he got to the U.S. it was Virgin territory for hunting Northern, so he had some great finds (see other thread). Also Kev Roberts hit in Baltimore was historic and the tales of Soussan's antics and Colony Records in New York are legendary........... Ian D

Very simple Kevin... A word begining with a 'c' and ending with a 't' mate. Commitment. Had other stuff going on that I had to get back for. Plus the basis of the trip wasn't actually to find records but to scout potential club sites and then I had to get back to mundane reality back home. If I'd have found the place at the beginning of the trip that would've been a different story and you'd probably be reading my price guides now LOL.... Just the rich tapestry of life again........... Ian D

That explains it then LOL. I was too busy being a club DJ/record company mogul, so I wasn't around for much of the 80's! How about this one though? See attached..... Love Committee "Put It At The Back Of Your Mind" The Philly recordings in the early to mid 70's really kept the Northern Soul eithic alive IMO.... Ian D 11_Put_It_in_the_Back_of_Your_Mind__Original_Album_Version_.mp3

Just got reminded of this incredible gem courtesy of Richard on another SS thread! Yet another record which has everything in my opinion and, as an added bonus, is the flip to "This Will Be A Night To Remember" - Eddie's greatest ever record IMO... But just listen to "Time Will Tell" again! Brilliant production, Northern beat, sweeping strings, an evocative song and Eddie's phenomenal vocals make this an anthem surely? And I've never heard this out anywhere..... Have permission to post on all Salsoul/Gold Mind goodies (I ran the label in the UK for 3 years), so I'll probaly whack a few forgotten gems up in the course of the next few weeks....... Enjoy! Ian D 04_Time_Will_Tell__Original_Album_Version_.mp3

Great Choice. In fact will post it on a seperate thread 'cos I have access to all the Salsoul goodies....... Ian D

Was never really over keen on "Don't Take It Out On This World" - Adam's Apples even when I used to play it (completely contradicting my point on another thread recently) - I thought it sounded like a repetitive monotonous dirge and the guy's voice annoyed me for some reason.. But played it again just recently after 30 years of avoiding it and it sounded just great. But I don't get how anyone couldn't like the Salvadores or even the Detroit Executives! Both killers.... But there again, that's what this thread is all about! Ian D

Well, the left-hand one appeared to be marginally bigger than the other one with possibly a slightly larger mammary papilla protuberence so, on balance, I'd have to say the left one for definite. Ian D

Or that scary girl with the excessively large milk-glands who used to hang around with John Vincent LOL.... Ian D

Actually I thought that's what Little Reg's book was going to be about 'cos it was called "Searching For Soul". There's some great Soussan stories as well. I'm surprised he never got killed over there LOL.... I was 2 years old in '57! You must be at least 63 then Max? Ian D

Oi You! Have a bit of respect for yer other half! Ian D

Do you think they'd stock in Smiths Max? Ian D

Yep, yer right Denmac. I've had a shotgun pointed at me in Des Moines, been surrounded by some very angry, drunken black guys in Watts, been mistaken for a government agent @ a record store in Compton which was a cover for a drug operation (but still found 2 x Charles Russell's "It Ain't Easy" and lived to play 'em), had an attempted mugging on me in Philly (and it was almost me that got arrested) and had to fight my way out of a shop in Clearwater. And those are just the ones that spring to mind LOL..... I'd LOVE to read a book about all his stuff. Maybe a chapter each on each collector's experiences in the U.S. might be a winner? Ian D

It just wouldn't ever have been played in the 70's, 80's or 90's as it was simply never on the Northern radar due to it being a minor pop hit in 1970 and no one (myself included) would have touched it with a bargepole back then. But, hey, 38 years later with a different mentality and I think it can hold it's own with anything! Sometimes records are just so great that I think rarity can be ignored. Also, conversely, many £500+ records which seem rare now, really weren't rare back then. I can still remember Wade Flemons "Jeanette" on Soul Bowl for a quid week after week LOL...... Ian D

Oh that must have been the RICH Alan Senior era? Ian D

Cheers Steve. Even if I had a boxful of ultra-rares I'd still play it. It's been a fave of mine since the first time I heard it and it elates me every time I hear it and not many records do that these days. It's almost as if Stan Watson went into the studio one day and said, "OK fellas, enough of this soppy shit, let's give those Motown guys a run for their money and put a Delfonics typa spin on it!". Also weird that there's no strings on it! There's horns on there but no string section which is unheard of on a Delfonics record. I reckon it was probably a demo which never got 'sweetened' or the string section had a day off LOL.... Oh and good luck with The Orwell on Saturday. Give my regards to Sam and Pete Haigh. I'll get up there one day, promise..... And here's "I Told You So" whilst we're on a Delfonics vibe....... Best, Ian D 03_I_told_you_so.mp3

Bloody hell! 250+ downloads in 4 days! Plenty of fans out there then....... I'd better get it on Refosoul if someone hasn't already.......... Ian D

Well obviously Lambrini with "The Snake" and Boots with Ernie K. Doe. In the past there's been plenty of ads which have used Jackie Wilson "Sweetest Feeling" and "Higher & Higher", Nina Simone's "My Baby Just Cares For Me", Marvin Gaye's "Grapevine" and Otis' "Dock Of The Bay" to name a few..... Ian D