Gene-r

Thanks Mike! For a guy who's only 3 months away from the Big 4-0, I am flattered!!! BTW, are you at the next SITC on the 7th April? Hope to see you there mate! Gene

Does that mean you'll give me £18 + P&P to take it off your hands Mike??? (lol) Gene

I had my one until a few weeks ago Chalky - it's now in the hands of Nick Brown, for which he traded me £800 worth of rarities!! Gene

It went under the hammer??? Blimey, why would anyone want to spend that much on a fossil skeleton broken into a thousand pieces??!!!! Gene

Well done Grant - I'm pleased you got it, and I'm really happy to have been of help!! Gene

Grant, I believe Kevin Cox in Canada had a copy of "Don't Accuse Me" by the Squires for £90. Drop him a line, and good luck: arctic-soul@rogers.com Gene

Grant, I believe Kevin Cox in Canada had a copy of "Don't Accuse Me" by the Squires for £90. Drop him a line, and good luck: arctic-soul@rogers.com The Yum Yums was first booted in 1975. As a lookalike, it's so good, some people are still puzzled at a first glance!! It was done at the same time as another ABC lookalike, "Playin' Hide & Seek" by Eddie Regan. I believe an original Yum Yums demo goes for about £500, but a black issue is more likely to fetch around £1,000. Gene

On "Pressure" by Drizabone, how many people are aware that this was actually a UK Top 40 hit in 1994?? Gene

It's the light blue issue, Chalky. Gene

In addition, it's not worth doing a search for "Rock Candy" on Ebay, unless you want one of the many copies of "Big Rock Candy Mountain" always available! Gene

Actually, one sold on Ebay this morning for $93 - went to a collector in Japan! See the attached link: https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...e=STRK:MEBDW:IT Gene

Nice to see one of my personal faves "Alone With No Love" by Rock Candy being re-activated. But how many of you know the true story behind the record? Well, for those who don't, then the simple answer is Alone With No Love is NOT by Rock Candy!! Puzzled? Then read on........... Dontee 101 was released as "Alone With No Love" - The Contemplations/"Alone With No Love" - The Dontee Studio Band. According to the matrix, the tracks were cut on the 19th August 1969 - I assume it was released shortly after this date. Anyway, a year and a half down the line, along came funk/soul group Rock Candy, who cut just one track for Dontee, "I Don't Think I'll Ever Love Another". This became the A-side for Dontee 103, in February 1971. As Rock Candy had nothing to put on the B-side, a shrewd source from Dontee used "Alone With No Love" by the Contemplations, stuck it on the B-side, and credited it to Rock Candy!!! So there we have it; proof that Rock Candy's "Alone With No Love" is really The Contemplations cut from 1969. There are very, very few copies of the Contemplations in circulation, and none of them are anywhere near Mint. I've been told that if a Mint copy were to turn up, it would certainly sell for around £750. The biggest selling point of this issue is the stunning B-side which is, quite simply, the instrumental backing track with a lot of the reverb removed. When I bought my copy earlier this year, it was the first time I had heard it since Kev Draper played it at Peterborough in 1983!! (reaches for the box of tissues) I have no idea what the "Rock Candy" issue goes for these days, but I know it's much more than the £8 I sold my copy for 10 years ago!! By the way, when buying the Rock Candy issue, beware of thin vinyl lookalike bootlegs, pressed in the late '70s. They have a matt paper label (not gloss), and the matrix engravings are faint. The original, on the other hand, is pressed on thick vinyl, a semi-shiny label, and distinct engraved matrix. Hope this has made interesting reading. Here's a scan of Dontee 101 for the label enthusiasts. Gene

Janine, My sentiments echoed completely, and speaking from personal experience over the years, it's definitely a case of "it's not what you know, it's WHO you know" in some cliques (and I don't use that term lightly). I too have suffered at the hands of being blanked from odd playlists over the years, only to be replaced by a long-term friend of the promoter. There is nothing more depressing than for someone like me to spend all their money (and in some cases, money that I don't even have) on their collection, with the sole purpose of DJ work, and therefore long to provide a deserving club with a guest spot, in the know that I will make the promoter and their punters happy. Those who have booked me in the past will know full well what I mean - I don't need to further waste time justifying my point of not being taken seriously. What I will tell you for nothing is that I have been on the scene for 22 years with a passion; it's just such a damn shame it has to be marred by petulant politics. It just stinks............. Gene

Cheers Mick!!!

If you could post it on here BabyBoy, that would be ideal - I do like to hear the underplayed and semi-known, so that would be a treat. Best of luck in your venture to find one.............!! Gene

On UK Stax, I'd say about £6 for the light turquoise label, and about £8-£10 for the dark turquoise label. Gene

Well, how's this lot for a trip back to 1984, featured in these three lists: John Manship, Ian Clark and Dave Raistrick's (Vinyl Allsorts): BERNIE WILLIAMS: Ever Again (Bell) £45 TERRY CALLIER: Look At Me Now (Chess) £3 DEL LARKS: Job Opening (Queen City) in G+ nick; £50 THE ORACLES: I Ain't Got Time (OM) £20 RAY POLLARD: This Time (Shrine) £20 RITA & TIARAS: Gone With The Wind Is My Love (Dore) £30 YVONNE BAKER: You Didn't Say A Word (Parkway demo) £20 HANK JACOBS: Elijah Rockin' With Soul (Call Me) £3 ROSE BATISTE: Hit & Run (Revilot) £12 RAY AGEE: I'm Losing Again (Soultown) £90 TY KARIM: You Really Made It Good To Me (Senator) £25 JOANIE SOMMERS: Don't Pity Me (WB demo) £20 ........more Prozac, pleeeeeeeeease!!!! Gene

Right, time to put in my two shillings worth!! My first sighting of the Pages 45 dates back to 1982. The few copies that were around were yellow labels, usually of poor quality with surface bumps or slightly blurred red lettering. The single was originally a 1978 release, and I never ever saw this in quantity, or on re-issue lists, so I am led to believe that this was never bootlegged; just that all the originals are poor quality by sight. Even at that time, the going rate on them was about £5 - £8 each. Dunno what JM's bootleg guide says; is it included? Gene

Aaah - "The Snake" by Al Wilson!! With the misheard lyric : "the pretty coloured skinhead"!! .......but I need to hear it on a Maxell!!! Gene

My first memory of the Stax label was around 1968, when my brother (who was into chart soul at the time) brought home "Shake/634-5789" by Otis Redding. I even remember "Shake" distinctly jumping on the intro (in the same place every time) on our Dansette Tempo!! But for its early childhood memory, it's "Shake" by Otis Redding that has a firm place in my heart. Gene

FROM WWW.BBC.CO.UK (27 FEB 2004) Soul label Stax co-founder dies Estelle Axton, who helped create the legendary US soul music label Stax, has died in hospital in Memphis aged 85. Axton and brother Jim Stewart began the label in a former cinema, combining the first part of their surnames to create the Stax name. Memphis-based Stax was home to artists such as Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Isaac Hayes and Booker T & the MGs. Axton helped to create a soul music legend Estelle Axton, who helped create the legendary US soul music label Stax, has died in hospital in Memphis aged 85. Axton and brother Jim Stewart began the label in a former cinema, combining the first part of their surnames to create the Stax name. Memphis-based Stax was home to artists such as Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Isaac Hayes and Booker T & the MGs. Axton helped give Stax its reputation for racial harmony, as black and white artists came together there to record. The Stax studio, which became known as "Soulsville USA", was second only to Motown in its production of soul hits during its 1960s heyday. The old Stax studio brought black and white artists together It was also remarkable for being an integrated business in a largely segregated city. Axton and her brother were white, while most of their hitmakers were black. "We never looked at colour - we looked at people," she once said. Axton grew up in Middleton, Tennessee, and trained as a teacher before going into business with her brother in 1959. They originally began as Satellite Records, about 30 miles outside Memphis, but struggled to attract artists to their studio and looked for a city location. The first singers to record at the studio were father and daughter Rufus and Carla Thomas. In 1969, after disagreement about the label's direction, Axton quietly left the company. It went bankrupt in 1975, and the old Stax headquarters was demolished in 1989. Last year, a new building opened on the site as the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and the Stax Music Academy. Axton, who died of natural causes on Tuesday, is survived by a daughter, Doris.

Mind you Mick, better to read it here than have some spammer pester us all individually with junk Email promoting their website!! Gene

In response to Mark's comment about US record grading, firstly - Mark - hope you're well mate!! Haven't seen you for a while, so I look forward to seeing you around sometime..... Secondly, and getting back on the subject, my experience of US record dealers over the past 15 years leads me to believe that, generally, the Americans have a far stricter grading system for records. The term EX (or Excellent) doesn't exist in the standard American grading terms, so the next drop from MINT- is VG+ (or VG+++, etc). Most of the time, I've found VG+ to be anywhere between MINT- and EX, and VG is actually above average. However, their G (Good) does means shagged!!! I've only had a couple of bad experiences with US sellers on Ebay, but they both admitted to being newbie sellers. One described a record in VG+. When I received it, the record looked like the whole family had eaten breakfast, lunch and tea off of it (and the head of the household probably even wiped his bum on it!)!! I Emailed him to say I was sending it back and to please send me a refund. He sent me a refund by PayPal, but told me to hold on to the record!!! He also gave me positive feedback as an "amicable, understanding buyer"!! The other seller (also a newbie) sent me a record in flimsy cardboard packaging and guess what? NO SLEEVE!! Needless to say, it arrived broken in two. On this occasion, I scanned him the two halves, and he refunded my money by PayPal immediately!! I also put him in touch with Bags Unlimited, the best place I know in the USA to get 7" sleeves. So just a couple of bad experiences with US grading/packaging, but both had an amicable resolve. Gene

Good question Kevin - does the silver "A" affect the demo value over Oriole stock copies? At a guess, I would say only on the Motown (Oriole-American) releases, simply because of what they are. In general, I don't think there would be a difference in price since an Oriole demo is no more colourful than a normal stock copy. Valuewise, with regard to Bertha Tillman, I would guess that RC's quote of £50 would be correct. Given a few more plays, I guess that could probably push it into the three-figures!! Gene

Kevin, Yep - sure is a demo. In fact, the silver "A" on the centre is the only distinguishing mark between an Oriole demo and a stock copy. Interesting - all these Oriole rarities that crop up with no centre; makes you wonder whether they were issues or demos to begin with!! Gene