Ian Dewhirst

It's mega rare and always has been IMO. Soul Bowl has never had this @ £3.00 to my knowledge. I've never ever found one and only seen a couple in 40 odd years, so that's pretty rare to me....... Ian D

Did you have a penchant for check shirts and brick walls Chris? Ian D

They actually had one of my albums from 20+ years in a plastic sleeve in fromt of the counter - Classic Jazz-Funk Mastercuts Vol 1 which was nice............. Ian D

I remember getting my first oxford bags made to measure from a local tailor in Dewsbury 'cos that was the only way to get them. When I finally got them it was almost a major test to actually wear them in public because, in my area, simply wearing anything different was an invitation for trouble. Plus, they obviously looked ridiculous with hindsight... I got a very snazzy dark blue suit jacket with a light blue border (I've forgotten the exact terminology) and that was a boss jacket. It looked great and I loved wearing it. But being tall and quite soft looking, it was effectively a beacon for attracting trouble from local dickheads with no style. I once made the mistake of wearing it whilst out with my new girlfriend and visting the Mitre pub just down the road from Wakefield Tiffanies on a Saturday night. A guy came over to my table, drank a full pint and then smashed the glass into my table and then ground it down into the wood for the next 30 seconds and then just stared at me. I got the message. Don't be too flash when you drink in the Mitre LOL.... The whole Mod/Rocker//Skinhead/Suedehead and even Hippy era was good because for the first time in the UK people were allowed to define their personal identities and that helped eventually ease the way to a wider acceptance of different styles which probably peaked with Punk in the mid 70's. The original mods defined my youth without a doubt. They seemed to carry themselves with a bit more panache and style and they grooved to the best music, so it was always a no-brainer for me. Ian D

I worked in John Laing's in Bradford across from the station in 1971. The manager was a mod who went to the Wheel in '67/'68 and still loved his Soul music. When I got there it was all patch jumpers, ben sherman's, sta-prest and bags. Oh, and Bradford market every lunchtime........ Ian D

I concur with Kegsy, 'cos that's pretty much how I remember it round my way. I mostly associated skins with Reggae. Most of the real mods stayed mods and listened to Soul and some veered into Northern. Ian D

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