Ian Dewhirst

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

Yep, it's got a lot of 70's influence in it. Gonna get the album tomorrow just on the strength of this tune..... Ian D

Yep, one to get I think. I'm hearing great things about the other cuts. The only one I've heard is "That's Still Mama" but there seem to be several key cuts which are buzzing others.... Great name isn't it? A cross between Cody Black and Morris Chestnut...... Ian D

In that case, they'll be published then. If you PM me the titles I'll do a search under the songs on the MCPS database and see what it throws up if you like, i.e. other versions of the song that the publishers or MCPS registered. It may throw up the artist. Whoever financed the master owns the actual recording rights, so it may be worth trying to track it down. If it's a publishing house and only a demo, then they'd probably let you put it out for free these days..... Ian D

Not bad for a new release.......loving the horns...... Cody ChestnuTT - "That's Still Mama" https://youtu.be/fjisiV_A42I Ian D

That's great Chalky, but it'll cost me a fortune for 3-4000 45's! @ £7 per 100 singles. I need bulk storing options and something that holds 200 a time I think.... Ian D

I'm about to move house and will have to start thinking of a different way to store my 7" vinyl. I'm thinking of simple 200 count cardboard boxes so I can stack 'em if need be. Does anyone know where I can get these in bulk (20 probably) at a good price? Any suggestions? I may even have to store some in a dry garage or shed? Are the cardboard boxes suitable for this or would plastic ones be more durable/better? Anyone got any tips? I'm effectively losing my record room and my CD collection is taking over the rest of the house, so space is becoming a real issue. Any advice muchly appreciated..... Ian D

It's a phenomenal Northern Soul record in the way we understood the term in the early 1970's. I actually remember hearing this first at a Stafford all-dayer in the early 70's - either Pep or Sam playing it I seem to remember. Back then, we embraced full-bodied instrumental productions like this and "Afternoon Of The Rhino" was the best of the lot in my opinion. There was a point where every DJ at the Casino would end their spot with it because it was simply the biggest record on the scene and difficult to follow unless you gave 'em a mid-tempo breather afterwards....... I still can't believe how good this is. It's Mike Post who produced Mason William's "Classical Gas" in 1968 which is a similarly brilliant instrumental record that also managed to hit No.1 in the U.S., so I guess Mike got the opportunity to produce more stuff using a full orchestra. Lucky for us.........they couldn't give it away in the U.S. at the time. Virtually every copy I've ever seen has been a U.S. cut out....... Ian D

Yeah, but part of my service is protection and presentation of my humble goods so I can't snap 'em in half as much as I want to on occasion. Single 12" packages to Australia and Canada are a bitch where I lose about £2 a pop so I'd love to snap the bastards in half if I could but common sense and some intact loose morals prevent me from exploring such a ridiculous option.... Ian D

I'm not selling Northern but generally lots of 12" and 7"'s across the spectrum with roughly 35% UK, 35% Europe and 30% Rest of World. Postal charges are a bitch....... Ian D

It's definitely a curse Greg. I've majorely scaled down my LP's and 12"'s over the last 4-5 years and now those particular sections have become easily manageable again. I'm finally getting to my 45's and doing the same operation again which will run for the next few years before it's in a similar state. I'm moving house at the moment, which is a major focus in terms of what do I need to actually lug to another location at the risk of filling 2 rooms with physical plastic. My problem is that I've also been collecting CD masters for the last 22 years and now the sheer scale of my CD collection is challenging the sheer scale of the vinyl collection. I've been running out of room for the last 40 years now I think about it...... Ian D

Great 2 page article in the Guardian today about 25 years of Acid Jazz..... plus a fitting tribute to Terry Callier from Eddie Piller..... https://www.guardian....01/acid-jazz-25 plus a fitting tribute to Terry Callier from Eddie Piller..... https://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/nov/01/acid-jazz-terry-callier Out on Monday! Ian D

12" is super rare and in-demand..... https://www.discogs.com/Brainstorm-Were-On-Our-Way-Home/release/386315 7" is easily available....... https://www.discogs.com/Brainstorm-Were-On-Our-Way-Home/release/2336099 Ian D

Yep I guess so. I also think there was a significant juke box market. When I first went to states in the mid 70's, I never used the term 'oldies' whenever people asked what I was looking for because they'd always lead you to the re-issue 45's sections. Most of the Motown 60's hits were being re-issued by the mid 70's. I eventually knew to ask for the 'junk' or the 10 cent box because that's where the goodies always were........ Ian D

I thought your work with Oasis had led you to an early grave! Welcome aboard Brian and good luck with the project. Best, Ian D

Original release was on an e.p. in 1983. Even the 12" boot from 1990 is going for £40 these days....... https://www.discogs.com/Lenard-Lidell-Keep-It-Secret-When-Youve-Fallen-Out-Of-Love/release/1762428 Ian D

Hi Keith, Funnily enough I was going to contact you on this very issue but events superceded us from moving too much further on the project. Yep. I knew it would be a thorny issue from the off when I saw the Lovelane listing as I'd seen quite a few of the tracks on other comps over the years. Frankly, for a Jerry-O release that's only got limited appeal it's simply not worth getting into arguements with people over who owns what so it's temporarily shelved for the moment. Also, when we tried to license in some of the other Jerry-O tracks we ran into problems there as well. Being a part of the BBC we play it strictly by the book so there's no way we'll ever release anything unless we feel 100% comfortable with the licensing. So it may be a while before anything happens on this one........ Ian D

That's good detective work fellas. We had a Jerry-O project scheduled for the next batch of the Backbeats Artists series as we had a deal going with Lovelane Music, however it's currently on hold due to us trying to verify the rights on certain songs and different people claiming ownership on some of the stuff we wanted to licence in I believe. So it's on hold for the moment I'm afraid........ I'll pass the above info over to Matthew who's dealing with the licensing and see if it helps him out.... Ian D

Yes, of course it is. The machines took over and recording went from analogue to digital thus limiting the influence of old-school 'real' musicians and arrangers. I've come to the conclusion that the 70's really was the peak in terms of brilliantly produced and arranged black music. The values that were predominant from the late 60's to the mid 70's were mostly gone by the 80's. Don't get me wrong though. I love many many 80's records but for me the key period in black music was 1969-1975. I simply don't hear the same standard of production values in most 80's recordings....... Ian D

It's a much maligned decade that has a horrible rep. However, I sell TONS of 80's stuff mainly to other countries so the 80's is popular internationally. So I have to listen to what people want and every so often a fantastic gem leaps out.... Leonard Lidell "Keep It Secret" Ian D