Amsterdam Russ

Likewise, not a collector. I follow with interest the releases of couple of today's indy labels, and make the occasional purchase, but that's about it nowadays. Forget 'collector', I can't really say I'm a buyer anymore.

A few pics from a mid-week trip to Aachen to see the Christmas market and cathedral, and to enjoy plenty of gluhwein and wurst.

RIP to the first soul artist I ever saw, which was at the first proper niter I ever went to.

Where would we be musically without him? RIP Jim Stewart.

Deep in the heart of Texas... First up is 4406 Reed Road, Houston. Now home to a motel that looks more like a detention centre, but formerly the address of the Ovide label. Although it might look completely soulless, according to TripAdvisor the place is "conveniently located restaurants include Doris Kitchen - Food for the Soul, Just Oxtails Soul Food, and TP Seafood Market & Restaurant." Second is 6105 Jessamine, which sits on the corner of Rampart Street and was home to Rampart Street records and recording studio. Both Ovide and Rampart Street labels were owned by radio DJ Skipper Lee Frazer, and both released 45s by the TSU Toronadoes, of course.

Is Raphi not behind this record fair? I’m sure he was organising something similar in Brussels pre COVID.

A search on Google for the ice_kid email address brings up a few results - all related to the person posting on soul music blogs asking for digital files of the tracks being written about, and all from half a dozen years back or so. What you see is the person, seemingly from Slovakia, using a number of aliases, and you can in some instances click on their name in the blog posts and find a bit more info. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ice_kid007%40azet.sk&source

Very useful - thanks for that.

Hmm, only seen a meagre 5 out of the 20. That said, there are quite a few I’ve no interest in seeing.

Blimey, I recall a record shop in the middle of Leather Lane around 1984. That must have been it. <Digressing>I moved from Maidstone to London as a very naive 19-year-old in 1984 to be with my then girlfriend who’d started at uni. My first job was in a tiny shop at the end of Leather Lane with a company that sold office equipment and supplies and was called A and L Business Machines (say it fast a few times!!).</Ends>

In reply to a comment to this tune on my YouTube channel some five years ago about the price being around £500, I replied that a VG issue had sold a bit prior to then for around $900. It's hovered around the 1000 currency unit price ever since that time. Always been a Top-10 fave for me, right from the moment I heard it on early Pat Brady sales cassettes. Top tune, without a doubt!

Home of the Blues, 107 Beale Street, Memphis - no longer exists having been subsumed by Elvis Presley Plaza. You can see the statue of Elvis on the left. Turn 180 degrees and about 100 metres away is the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.

Zaz record label, 140 Hwy, 90 W, San Antonio, Texas. Now a computer/phone repair shop, although the building looks more recent than the 1960s.

Absolutely loving the info - and if I've not liked what you shared here, it's because... But rest assured, I really would if I could. Keep it coming...

At the very least, if you were not actually on the site of Shrine's offices, you were only a few meters away from them - and that's special.

A better view of Leland Way. Apparently the Off Vine restaurant is housed in what is described as an Arts & Crafts home built in 1908, thus I take it to be the same building that was home to the Chartmaker label.

Digging a bit deeper online, it appears 2712 West Pico has a long association with the music industry. The original building was constructed in 1921. In the 1940s, it was home to the Coinmatic Distribution Company, which was in the business of jukeboxes and record distribution. Music press adverts here from Billboard in 1945 and 1946. In the early 60s, King Distributing Company was based there and was in the business of jukeboxes and cigarettes. The article below, from Cash Box, November 1963, quotes the company as saying... From jukeboxes and cigarettes in the early 60s, it's kind of funny that the business at the address now is a smoke shop!

Ok, don't mind me doing all the computer leg work for you. This is 2712 W Pico...

As far as I can tell, 2172 W Pico would have been somewhere on this plot once upon a time.

Find anything interesting?

Yes, indeed. The two screen grabs I've posted are from last year. I could have used the most recent ones from this year, but thought the lighting was better on the earlier ones.

Thanks for the useful info. Presumably Target moved from 2847 1/2 to 3032, just a few doors away. Interestingly, that building is still there as well - and is of identical design and construction. I further presume 3032 is also accessed through the gated door in the middle.

Within Sales, I was looking at a recently posted label scan of Cookie Jackson's 'Do you you still love me" on Progress. I have a copy, but had never before noticed the address on the label, which is a surprise as it stands out. It's: 2847 1/2 W. Pico, Los Angeles 6, Calif. A quick search on Google Maps shows the address to be West Pico Boulevard. Here's a screen grab dated by Google as being from November 2021 - just a year ago. The 2847 1/2 is the gated doorway smack bang in the middle, which, based on the numbers on the door, lead to two offices or apartments. Following the numbering system, it's presumed 2847.5 is on the left - unless the two spaces run horizontally to the view, ie, one at the front and one at the back. From the info given on the Cookie Jackson label, it's unclear whether the address is where Progress Records was based or Target Enterprise. Possibly it was both. Either way, it's hardly a glamorous location, although who knows how it looked nigh on 60 years ago. And looking at the image now, I fancy I can kind of imagine Cookie Jackson belting out tunes from the upstairs window. Anyway, that got me wondering if anyone's spent any time looking up independent record label addresses online. Obviously, some of you have been fortunate to go looking for old locations in person in years past, but I was kind of thinking more about in the modern age and excluding the obvious labels such as Motown, Stax, Chess, etc. Any addresses still in existence that was once home to an obscure/indy/local record label?

@Ady Croasdell Clicking through to the link, some of the sound clips appear to be in the wrong order/mislabelled...

@Marc Forrest... Marvellos?