Ian Dewhirst

I was going to say I didn't recall us doing Soul Patrol in Interdisc times. I was actually dubious that someone would have re-pressed it as I wasn't aware of any demand...... '77 makes sense........ Ian D

The days of Johnny Moore, Duke Browner, Bobby Treetop and the sound of slamming dominoes whilst we waiited for the old West Indian fellas to pack up LOL....... Ian D

Hiya Steph, Yeah course I remember you. I still remember that story you told me about an average Saturday night in Huddersfield LOL..... Ian D

Look at the photo on your page Pete. You may as well have had an illuminated sign above your head saying "D.S. Please Arrest Me" LOL........ Ian D

It's happened quite a few times in the Disco arena surprisingly. The world is getting smaller with the internet, though some people are still next to impossible to track down. I personally have never used disclaimers as much as I've been tempted to sometimes, as I just don't like the uncertainty of the situation. Also, even if a company apparently hold the rights, it's not always the case. There are many tracks which some majors and other companies quite obviously should own on the surface, but if that all-important paperwork is missing, then really who knows? Maybe it was a lease deal? Maybe the terms of the contract were broken hence the masters could return to the original owner? Maybe something was written into the contract which would return the masters? There's many tracks which are apparently owned by particular companies but which will never be licensed or released as the paperwork has disappeared and no one wants to take the chance to clear a track that might come back to bite 'em on the arse. In the case where a major owns a subsidiary label, there's no guarantees that all the paperwork has been held intact for 40 odd years or even passed over in the first place. There are records which have been cleared in the past and even used on TV ads, that will never be cleared again as there was never any paperwork and the risk of potential litigation has simply become bigger in recent years! And let's not forget that some people had a habit of selling the same catalogues to several different parties back in the day! Ian D

Gotcha! Ian D

As we've said earlier, Numero's releases reach way beyond this scene Marc. They would have had to have sold 500 just to break even I'm sure and they'll more likely go way beyond 1K even at that price. The Syl Johnson box really caught and has been a major sucess but not necessarily within this scene - bear in mind that the box was grammy nominated in the US and the sales were presumably commensurate with that audience. When you say re-done LP's what do you mean? I thought the box set re-issued all the original Twilight recordings and other bits and pieces.....? Ian D

No, they'd prefer to never have a tune heard until 40 years later and only then heard by an elite squad of fans, collectors and DJ's on a relatively small scene...... It's amazing that Numero have probably already outsold ANY of the original pressings in that box set already. Also amazing that an artist like Syl Johnson in the twilight of his life (no pun intended), can outsell most of the records he released throughout his entire career and reach a huge fresh audience with an expensive box set. Call me crazy, but where's the downside? Ian D

Well I guess the easy answer to that, is if the original record was a flop (which 99% of Northern Soul tunes were) then whoever owns it probably never recouped on the initial outlay (most don't as 95% of releases lose money). If the artist received an advance and only sold a handful of copies, then maybe they're not due anything anyway until the owner recoups the original advance......? Ian D

Also, to be fair, there's often a lot of confusion as to who owns the master. The person who owns the master is generally the person who financed the recording. The artist is mostly simply contracted to perform the recording but usually doesn't finance or own the master. Contracts are generally worked out before the artist even enters the studio. I've heard many artists accuse people of stealing their recordings when their recording have been legally licensed from the verified owners who generally have the paperwork or chain of ownership. It's not unusual. It still goes on today. I recently had an internationally famous producer in who offered me almost his entire life's work to release and I had to gently point out that he didn't own ANY of it and that the project would be too expensive to licence from the different parties to ever make a profit. Quite a difficult conversation......... Ian D

There are legal 'get out of jail free' type disclaimers which some companies use that go along the lines of, "We have made every attempt to locate the copyright holder of this recording. If the copyright owner contacts us we will be pleased to communicate with them" or something along those lines. It also helps if the company puts any potential advance/royalties for the song into an escrow account for either 3 or 6 years (I can't remember which). I'm not sure if these strategies are 100% legally watertight, but if the situation ever went to court (which doesn't happen very often as the legal fees often outweigh anything else), then at least there's a 'chain' of responsible actions to demonstrate that there was no attempt to defraud or bootleg. In the case of the above party, the above arguement wouldn't wash if they didn't want anything out at all. Unfortunately bootlegs of 50's, 60's and 70's recordings will continue to proliferate since the owners are either dead, broke or simply too old to be bothered. I personally think the major companies and the MCPS should be doing more to combat this stuff but I guess the cases are difficult to persue and the costs will mostly outweight any eventual outcome! Legal costs are ridiculous but that's another thread........ Ian D

I don't think I'd call either of those Disco to be honest. Both pure 80's Paradise Garage tracks to these ears. I only consider 70's stuff to be Disco in the pure sense of the world........ Ian D

I won a copy of this at a local funfair in Yorkshire in the mid 70's which had boxes of odd U.S. records that they gave away as prizes so the UK obviously got most of these as Boba says...... Ian D

They've got a great audience and if the figures I'm hearing that they did on the Syl Johnson box are real, then they're doing a superb job all round. I would argue that Numero are reaching a far wider audience then the Northern scene and encouraging more people to get interested in Soul music. As you say, there's only handful of those singles of interest to the Northern scene and short of having plenty of time and money to spare, not many people would get the chance to find originals. Numero reach a really wide swathe of people with their releases and 95% of their audience aren't the Northern Soul or traditional collectors market. Two people in my office have already ordered the set and they're not particularly into any one type of music but they just drooled when they saw "Omnibus" because it really is a thing of beauty. We should be so lucky that there's a company who cares enough to go into such detail with their releases. Anyone want to buy me one for Xmas? Ian D

I remember Soussan complaining to me about UK collectors sending wants-lists to U.S. dealers because it was "spoiling it for everyone" LOL. Then, I heard in the late 70's/early 80's that he'd produced a wants-book which he then circulated in the U.S. I remember a lot of agro about that from people travelling to the U.S. and being confronted with Soussan's book when they got to certain dealers or shops. I guess the circle simply keeps turning doesn't it? Exactly the same thing's happening happening in Africa for collectors of Afro Funk. Voodoo Frank's lists are circulated throughout Africa routinely..... https://www.icrates.org/digging-africa-voodoofunk-djfrank/ Ian D

Boot Steve. The originals are on yellow Magnum..... Ian D

Even I'm venturing out to this! Ian D

Actually whilst we're on this subject, does anyone have a solid figure for what the majors would have pressed up for promo in the mid to late 60's through mid 80's? I've found some unbelievably rare 80's major promos which I've never seen before or since, so I'm curious. I would have thought it would need to be at least a couple of thousand on the basis that in the UK an average figure for that period would be 500 copies and we don't have that many radio stations. As you say, RCA having such a massive distribution network may well have pressed up a lot more promos in the 60's, especially since they continue to turn up all the time. It wasn't unusual to bump into dealers that had boxes and boxes of just RCA promos and others with Warners, Columbia, Epic, Capitol etc, etc, so I'm guessing 2K for some titlles....? Ian

That's a rare record. I found a copy via one of Lou's original 'managers' who was down on his luck when I bumped into him in 1977. That's the only copy I ever turned up. Oh, I just remembered that I probably missed one when a guy who used be involved with a UK publisher turned up at a Wimbledon Record Fair with a box full of Amy/Bell/Mala US promos but sadly Lou Ragland and Bernie Williams were missing...... I think it's fair to say that the majority of stuff has surfaced over the last 40 years but there's still stuff that's under the radar even now.That James Gilstrap record on Bell is still impossible to find but it's still out there somewhere. The sheer volume of records which were released from '63-'79 inevitably means that there's still great titles to find. You can probably expect hithertoo unknown caches of 60's, 70's & 80's stashes to feed into the market anytime as the former record company/publishing company/management company/pressing plants/mastering personnel from those eras get old, downsize and clear out their lofts, cellars or garages. There'll be some great records that everyone missed just via the majors I believe...... But we're talking serious digging here, not weekend enthusiasts. Ian D

For sure. He's one of those artists that I'm saving for old age along with John Coltrane, Miles Davis and numerous Jazz and Southern Soul recordings because that's when I'll have the time to listen to them properly. The last time I had the luxury of listening to full albums from beginning to end was back in the early 70's, so I'm saving a lot of stuff for future listening and I put Gil in that catergory. I saw him in Sheffield in the 70's and it was a great gig but "The Bottle" was what everyone was waiting for and I think most of us either lacked the sensibility or were too young to fully appreciate his depth. I'm looking forward to it if I can just prise one of those sets off Dean LOL..... Ian D

I think it's only fair to point out that I only used to wank on my occasional nights off from the sexual demands of the female population of Yorkshire at the time, which was maybe once every 10 days or so, so he's probably not far off the mark....... Ian D

Doh............ What the hell's wrong with me? I used to be good at this stuff. It must be the pressure of juggling 30+ releases a year..... Ian D

The first ones were all fancy italic. Lovely indie label which is a joy to behold. I've never seen the upper case ones but the copies of the next release, "Operator Operator" were nowhere near as fancy....... Ian D

Bob Cataneo was wholesaling 'em to the UK and I can remember them coming through in abundance. It was a Mecca only tune so it didn't translate anywhere else so there were probably more copies than actual demand at the time. Mind you, same with Marvin Holmes, Don Thomas, Oscar Perry etc, etc. There's got to have been 500-1000 of each in the UK I'd have thought......? Maybe it's spread out a bit over 40 years so the copies are dispersed around the world now.......a great record though, as so many of 'em were......... Ian D

It could take you years to add them all up mate. This was a reasonably common 50p record in the early to mid 70's, even with the fancy script. There are 100's of 'em over here, most of them probably in collections. Ian D