Ian Dewhirst

Agreed. And John could probably write his own book on his finds. I heard some great stories about John A's dealings with John Lamont from Philly, who later turned up in the book "Stiffed" when he was beaten up by the Mob over a cut-out deal which went wrong. Wouldn't mind reading that book again actually as it deals with a lot of the 'grey area' of cutouts etc..... Ian D

I'm surprised you could even understand Peter Brown. That guy talks FAST. The original Harlem hustler...... Also, do you remember Rick from Global? He used to play at Leeds Central quite a bit in the early 70's? I think he discovered Gene Chandler "Mr Big Shot" out of Global............ I've never found a Silhouettes in the U.S. which always bugged me because I figured there'd be a few around with the 45 coming free with the album. Might be a few knocking around via the Doo-Wop collectors though......... Better luck next time Ernie - sounds like you're due some....... Ian D

I'm pretty sure I bumped into Gary S at a record fair in St Louis and then Chicago a couple of days later if I remember rightly. Would have been 88/89 I think....... Ian D

But where mate? Was it a localised play only at certain venues or did it spread? The reason why I ask is I must have heard it somewhere 'cos it was instantly familiar and I was singing along to it after the first chorus, so maybe I did hear it way back. It only came out in '82 so it couldn't have been played that much before Thorne could it? What years were Thorne anyway? Ian D

Playing D. Train, the Peech Boys and Gwen Guthrie at Leeds Warehouse to the groovy disco crowd LOL.... Mixmaster D

Well, all this talk about Record Finds got me digging again and I found this beauty from '82 - J.P. Rogers Jr "All My Lovin'. It came from an Inculcation album with no sleeve but also got issued on a 45. Not strictly Northern, but definitely Modern and a work of art nonetheless. Some of the Modern Soulers seem to know it and apparently it was played @ Thorne in the 80's. It's just such a great record I thought I'd share it and if anyone's got a nice white promo of the single I'm up for it...... Dammit can't upload but here's a link...... J.P. Rogers "All My Lovin" Inculcation 1982 https://www.zshare.net/audio/94612236e87944/ Ian D

Yep, I thought Florida had been cleaned out but I went to a flea market in Orlando 'cos I also collect weapons and, of all things, my missus wanted a bankers light, so she dragged me round all the furnishing and ornament stores and in the last store in the covered section there was a box of albums. TONS of great stuff Anthony White, Bobby Hutton, Jean Carn, Jones Girls, all mint, all promos. So I bought around 20 albums for a buck apiece and they asked if I wanted any more. It turns out their son was a huge 70's Soul/Dance/Disco fan and he'd been collecting for 20 odd years but died suddenly from Aids a couple of months previously. So I went round to their house the next day and there were aprox 5K albums and 2K 12"'s, so I ended up buying quite a few! Very sad though. You could tell this guy had loved his music and he was obviously very big on the great female singers of the 60's and 70's especially. Paid for the trip though and replenished my collection for the 40th time which is the probably the kick I get out of it. I still love listening to stuff I don't know and occasionally finding the odd gem.... ...in I fact found one the other day from '82 and it's one of the greatest records I've ever heard - J.P. Rogers Jr "All My Lovin'" - I'll post on a seperate thread. Think it was played @ Thorne back in the day but I've only just heard it...... See! I've got the bug again. Time to start sniffing around some of those leads......... Ian D

Well, what didn't help was that the minute they gave me access to the MCPS database, I started digging around and immediately realised that something dodgy was going on..... Because some of the entries were duplicated and sometimes several 'tunecodes' were assigned to the same song, I started wondering whether some of the writers of some songs may be spurious or even fraudulent. So I looked up the tunecode for the Jackson Five's "I Want You Back" because on the writing credits it's simply credited to "the Corporation" which was a collective of Berry Gordy, Alphonzo Mizell, Deke Richards & Freddie Perren but which an elderly typist in Streatham might not be aware of or understand correctly. So I found "I Want You Back" registered to one Pamela Motown at a P.O. box number on the Isle Of Wight! Must have made a packet over 15 years LOL........ But stuff like that didn't make me flavour of the month there, so I was ready to get the hell out and the U.S. trip and the dosh I made from it eventually lead to me having enough time and money to develop the Mastercuts series a year later. So record collecting can be good for your karma LOL..... And Reddington's Rare Records in Glendale was brilliant even after Soussan plundered it plus there was a GREAT shop over in Orange County that someone got to before I got to it in the mid 90's. Dammit. Wish I had a time machine....... Ian D

Jesus. Look at that! A veritable plethora of flying pigs just flew past the window........... Ian D

Not me mate! Luckily I was getting into Disco at that point! Ian D

It was designed for you Dave! Incidentally, big-up on your website discographies mate! I've found 'em invaluable just lately, so credit where it's due. Also I have some full discographies on Salsoul, Philly Groove and the post '76 Philly International gear if they're any good to you. PM me with your e-mail addy and I'll whack 'em over....... The thread that dreams are made of LOL...... Ian D

Well you said it mate! It looks like you'd been ingesting the crate-diggers diet - a constant diet of burgers and coffee 'cos it's QUICK LOL..... I put on a couple of stones after 6 months in L.A. due to a chain of Burger places called "Fatburger" which did what it said on the tin! Ian D

Just booked the plane ticket - I'll give Jerome your regards Sean! Ian D

Hi Paul, You've bought a few of mine over the years I seem to remember! I did EXACTLY the same thing in St Petes. Dropped the missus off in the Howard Johnson's hotel (you can see where my priorities lie) and shot round to Bananas just intending to have a quick browse. Got in the warehouse round the back and got dug in. I found a Tartans and John Rhys on Impact and a Lou Kirton white promo in the first 5 minutes. I thought I was set but then nothing for the next couple of hours..... Lucky the missus fell asleep 'cos I left @ 3.00pm and didn't get back till 8.30pm....... Still worth it though. I always work on the basis of never expect too much and then you can be nicely surprised. Naturally, after the Dobards hit, Johnny probably realises that the chances of ever getting a hit like that again are remote to say the least, which has probably dulled his future expectations........ .......only until the next hit! Ian D

100, 000 dynamite 45's and you couldn't raise a smile???? Brilliant Johnny - the stuff that dreams are made of! Ian D

LOL. Ain't that always the way Ady..... Also I wish I'd known what I know now back then. I can plainly remember leaving lots of L.A. little label stuff in L.A. garages back in '76 because they were too slow or too RnB for that period. And I think there's probably still some decent stuff archived away in some of the bigger publishing house. I had a mate who had access to Southern Music's library and he'd pull out interesting stuff from time to time.... Incidentaly, I just gave a rave review for "The New Breed With Added Popcorn" for Manifesto, so I'll PM it over...... Best, Ian D

No, it's perfectly normal behaviour to sit in a damp, smelly basement covered in rat shit looking through hunks of plastic for that one elusive moment LOL! Great story John! Many thanks mate. I wonder if there's any other ex 60's Black Music DJ's who have their records in storage somewhere? George Woods must have had a few 'cos he was involved in labels too. E. Rodney Jones or Frankie Crocker anyone? I once went to Nashville and had a stunning Album/12" hit from a C&W store. It was a Chicago DJ from the 70's and he'd moved to Nashville and just dumped a lot of his stuff in this one place. 600 items @ 50 cents apiece. Makes you wonder what he sold 'em for.... Ian D

How come the Dobard's haul didn't turn up 'til '05 though? Had no one bumped into this stuff before? What was the story there John? And , more to the point, will there ever be another Dobards? Questions, questions........ Ian D

Absolutely Brilliant!! THIS is EXACTLY what we are looking for on this thread!! Information GODDAMMIT! Whoops, drunk now but having fun. Let's keep this thread rockin'....... Best stuff I'd read in years LOL..... Ian D

Was over your way a couple of years ago - I went into New York and then swung down to Newark/Princeton area before heading up to Buffalo to check a load out. Didn't find much Northern but did pretty good on rare 12"'s (but even those are drying up now it seems). I hit a lot of out-of-way little towns and found some basements full of stuff but it was very hard work to dig out anything heart-poundingly exciting. Also, the WORST thing these days is the fact that the shops/dealers want YOU to do the hunting and then, after several hours of digging, you take 'em the pile over and they just key in the titles to a computer and check on E-Bay/Gem etc and then base their prices on that! It's taken a LOT of the fun out of things IMHO. I was in Toronto last year and went into one shop and asked how much the 12"'s were and the guy said a dollar each. I then spent 2 hours and dug out some FANTASTIC goodies, took 'em to the counter and started counting out dollars and the guy said "can you give me, like, 15-20 minutes? I need to check with the owner"? I said" "what do you need to check with the owner for? You told me they were a dollar each" He said "well, the owner told me that if I saw anyone who knew what they were doing, then I needed to check with him". I said, "you should have told me that BEFORE I wasted 2 hours of my life pulling these out". TWAT! Everyone's so clued up these days LOL..... Anyone ever checked out Salt Lake City? I just have a feeling....... Ian D

Haha LOL! Thanks Kev. I was waiting for that one! Was this one the cellar in Baltimore you told me about or did you have an earlier hit? I'm sure you went to the States before that didn't you.......? Ian D

I actually re-issued the album when I was @ Simply Vinyl which is why I have the masters so easily at hand LOL!. Been playing through hours of stuff over here - so much of this stuff was great but not necessarily Northern and I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the Mike Post Coalition had everything exactly perfect for our purposes. Which leads us nicely back onto the Mike Post thread again......... Would really like to know more about why the track was recorded so going into research mode....... Ian D

Oh blast, gotta go.....Alexander Patton on the other line LOL..... Ian D

Yep, can do all of them over the next few weeks Urrrs - we're big Roy, Family Of Eve and Leroy fans anyway. And Alan will be chuffed at the 'Fluff' Freeman comparison - he's into that sort of thing! Ian D

Blimey, we have exactly the same taste Ady. Who's your other 3? Ian D