Ian Dewhirst

LOL, haven't reached the office yet Dave but I'm on it mate! Ian D

I think Tim's got one but I'll know today for sure so I'll let you know. What would be handy is if you have any unreleased stuff that I haven't been able to source yet. I'll send a list of where we are to date and what we're looking to include. Also another thing. I've noticed that it's extremely difficult to tell which is the A and which is the B side on some of these releases, so an objective eye over the listing would be handy too. Worth a credit and a free box set. How does that sound? Ian D

Yep, pretty mundane I seem to remember. But since I'm doing all the Invictus, Hot Wax and Music Merchant 45's, A & B sides, I have to be objective..... Ian D

Fantastic! Many thanks Dave! I owe you one. Ian D

Well my mastering facility is in Holland so I'm meeting you halfway Lars.... Well, if you could do WAV files of the Johnn Billy West tracks and the Earl English instrumental I'd be very grateful. I think I've sourced copies but whether they'll arrive in time is another question. I've managed to source everything else including 25+ unreleased tracks, so these are the last pieces of the jigsaw hopefully. So yes please! Best, Ian D

Yes Dave. Thanks a bunch for that mate. Credit forthcoming! Best, Ian D

Could any of the good patrons of S.S. possibly help me out here? I'm missing three records for reference purposes to finalize the forthcoming "Holland-Dozier-Holland: The Complete 45's Collection". One of 'em is on a couple of CD comps, so would anyone out there happen to have either of the following CD's? "Cherish What Is Dear To You - Invictus Unconquered Vol 2" or "The Invictus Soul Box Set"? If so, could someone possibly send me a WAV file of "I Don't See Me In Your Eyes Anymore" by Ty Hunter please? I'm also still searching out 2 Invictus singles:- 9101 Johnn Billy West Nothing But A Devil 3.25 1971 9101 Johnn Billy West Yeah, I'm A Devil 4.19 1971 and 1275 Earl English Wanting You (Vocal) 3.05 1974 1275 Earl English Wanting You (Instrumental) 2.45 1974 If anyone can help with any of the above I'll happily zap some Harmless goodies over.... Many thanks in advance. Ian D

UK market definitely. These were early re-presses so I'd guess they were Selectadisc commissions. Ian D

Second that. Tom will tell you the rudimentary principles of melodic mixing, of which he is the undisputed king. If you need an introduction I'll fix it.. Ian D

Really? Not to my knowledge mate. Details please. I want his Peri-Tone, Mercury and Golden Horizon recordings on CD if poss..... Ian D

Decent mixing of masters is an art. Motown had it in the 60's because all their mixes were designed for small radio speakers and so the mixes were designed to belt out over a tinny speaker. That's why the tambourines, bass and snare are always so upfront. When everything started going to 16 and 24 track by the late 60'a and 70's and home systems got much better along with big club systems, then different skills were required. I learnt all about mixes by listening to the first two Trammps albums on Atlantic ("That's Where The Happy People Go" and "Disco Inferno") which I don't think have been bettered for scintillating Philly mixes. Moulton was undoubtably the master, no question. Once he paved the way then plenty of great mixers followed. As a DJ my favourite ever mixes are The Trammps "That's Where The Happy People Go", T. Connection's "Do What You Wanna Do", "At Midnight" and "Saturday Night" (all Alex Sadkin and genius mixes) and Gwen Guthrie's "Seventh Heaven" (Larry Levan). But, hey, I could list 100's..... Ian D

The biggest gap in my collection is an all-embracing Oscar Perry comp. He's well overdue for a career perspective. Ian D

The only original I ever saw of this was Colin Curtis's copy. A single-sided test-press with a full orange label I seem to recall. Did any others ever come to light? Ian D

I've always rated this as a better record than "Kiss My Love Goodbye". Sounds absolutely awesome over a big system.... Ian D

LOL, no I don't actually mate. I dicked around for a few minutes looking for a close topic button and then gave up.... Ian D

All good folks! Many thanks for everyone's help! I'll now close the topic. Ian D

Got Dave's details now thanks but still looking for Fran's if anyone can help? Cheers, Ian D

Hi All, I've just been contacted by BBC 4 who would like to locate two veteran Soulies for an upcoming project they are working on. The people in question are Dave Clegg and Fran Franklin. Can anyone help with contact details? Many thanks in advance. Ian D

The 9127 T.P. that Phil has is definitely Eloise Laws (which makes sense because they used "Stay With Me" as every 'B' side on Eloise anyway). Rumour has it that it got pulled because they needed another big hit on Freda at the time but I'm sceptical about that as "You're Mine (Baby Doll)" already sounded too dated for 1972 in my opinion. The more I listen to the releases in chronological order and study the writing credits, it's obvious that the bulk of the releases for the first few of years of the operation (late '69-'72) were mostly holdovers from the 60's. There's some pretty interesting stories now coming out as well and when they're all patched together with the whole picture, they make perfect sense. I don't want to give anything away but suffice to say we've been talking to some of the key principles and there's some good stuff coming out. The "Band Of Gold" story is very interesting......... I just went through some Parliament masters that I found. Listening to them again in 2014 had exactly the same effect on me as listening to "Osmium" in the early 70's. Unlistenable. They all sound like early rock band demos from '67/'68 which probably isn't too far from the truth. It was probably un-releasable and by then Parliament and Ron Dunbar had quit HDH anyway. Amazing how their sound mutated through the 60s to the 80's though....... Ian D

Yep. I had it at one time but I don't recall it being up my street at all. Typically, now I need one! Ian D

Does any kind person out there currently possess a good condition copy of the Lucifer album on Invictus 7309 and, if so, would they consider lending it out for a few days for a copy of the forthcoming box set - 'Holland-Dozier-Holland: The Complete 45s Collection'? Please PM if you can help. Many thanks, Ian D

That's exactly where I think it came from. An interesting label. There seemed to be a lot of water-damaged copies of "Be's That Way Sometimes" around too at the time. Another title from this period was the awful pressing of Bobbi Lynn's "Jump Back In The Arms Of Love" on Look. What the hell was that all about.....? Ian D

We were scootering to Scarborough from 1971....... Ian D

I remember a rash of these at the beginning of the 70's actually. Labels were terrible and the sound quality virtually rendered 'em unplayable..... Ian

Thought it might be...... Ian D