Sceneman

the royal mail was hacked by pootins thugs way back in january

recall him plugging rex garvin .sock it to em JB and i bought it ,and still have it

he appeared in a horror film cant remember the name

a look on discogs shows mostly US pressings and just 1 or 2 uk pressings so thats why i never saw any on my rounds in london but london record shops were not good anyway for soul45s around the 70s tobias goody had the stall in portobelo road he usually had a good selection of soul 45s for peanuts surpringly DJ demo copies that had been sold .but what DJ i dunno and then he had a shop at worlds end in chelsea but after that i dont know where he went ..for imports i used to use ernies in nashvile and colony stores in NY where i had a mate sending me good stuff but never any 5 stairsteps.... but i had to pay import tax on them

yes its serious i doubt if the 5 ever made it to the uk i dont recall em on tv shows or clubs ,they were big in america where there was a big buying public but west indians in uk were mostly interested in calypso regaae ska and dub .. uk buyers were more intrested in the uk bands and hendrix ,captain beefheart and dylan at the time of issue of the 5stairsteps 45s which were limited in london record shops as they didnt keep much in stock you had to order records and no commercial radio stations to give them air play there was also a slump in sales of soul in the 70s and mods were selling their soul collections i recall buying tamla and stateside demos in portobello road for 30 pence off stalls in the road as nobody wanted soul vinyl.. but never saw any stairsteps records

looking for a copy of this

DESPITE BEING ON CURTIS MAYFIELD lable they didnt go so well think its was bad management and weird name for the band 5 STAIRSTEPS NOT A GOOD NAME FOR A BAND https://soulstrutter.blogspot.com/2021/02/rip-james-burke-five-stairsteps.html

and how rare ? has anyone have one in their collection?

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/lee-scratch-perry-reggae-pioneer-160424996.html Reggae icon Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry has died in hospital in his native Jamaica, aged 85. The eccentric producer, actually named Rainford Hugh Perry, died in the Noel Holmes Hospital in Lucea on Sunday morning, according to local news reports. Andrew Holness, the country’s prime minister, sent “deep condolences” to his family and called him a pioneer in the 1970s’ development of dub music. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. He collaborated with an eclectic range of artists including Bob Marley and the Wailers, Paul McCartney, the Congos, George Clinton, Moby, the Slits’ Ari Up and the Beastie Boys. In 1980, Perry sent a letter to the Japanese minister of justice after McCartney was arrested for carrying 7.7 ounces of marijuana in his luggage, arguing: “Please do not consider the amount of herbs involved excessive. Master Paul McCartney’s intentions are positive.” Perry was born in Kendal, Hanover and made his name in the late 1960s as a producer of cutting-edge music by revolutionary artists.

a blocked mod wandering around soho at night could get rolled for a packet of gum as they were in short supply in the am

One of England's top rock & roll outfits before the Beatles led the early-'60s Beat Boom, Johnny Kidd & the Pirates are best remembered today for one international rock classic ("Shakin' All Over") and as a seminal influence on several more famous groups, most notably the Who. Johnny Kidd (born Frederick Heath) had formed his first band, a skiffle group called the Five Nutters, in 1957. They quickly outgrew their skiffle roots and, after a short period fronting the Fred Heath Combo, he joined Alan Caddy (guitar), Tony Docherty (rhythm guitar), and Ken McKay (drums), in early 1958 in an outfit that was dubbed Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, who were spotted by an EMI Records representative and signed to the label. The group cut their first record, the outstanding Please Don't Touch, in April 1959, highlighted by Heath's menacing vocals, which reached number 26 on the British charts. The group's subsequent records were an uneven mix of solid R&B-based rock juxtaposed with awkwardly covered standards. In May of 1960, however, the band was in the studio to record one of those standards, "Yes Sir, That's My Baby," with an original B-side that they hadn't fully worked out. That B-side, a Heath original called "Shakin' All Over," became the A-side of a number one single that became the first original rock song in England to achieve the status of an international rock standard. Driven by Caddy's guitar and a mournful, ominous lead vocal by Heath, the song topped the charts and completely astonished everybody who heard it that such a track could have come from an English rock & roll band. Unfortunately, like every other British label of the era, EMI was never sure how best to deal with rock & roll success, and the group was made to record any amount of dross in the wake of this success, amid some superb follow-up numbers. Several membership changes followed, most notably the addition of Mick Green on lead guitar. The group was among the finest rock combos of the early '60s, with a wild stage act that had them playing in pirate regalia, but it never had enough consistent chart success to put it back in the top ranks of Britain's rock hierarchy, though they received a great deal of respect from the younger generation of rock & rollers. Early in their career, the Who played on the same bill as Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, and it was through watching the Pirates at work that they arrived at their own sound of a solo singer backed by a guitar, bass, and drums; the band also added "Shakin' All Over" to their repertory. Heath and his band struggled onward into the mid-'60s, even remaking "Shakin' All Over." Green left in 1964 (replaced by John Weider) to take over as a member of the Dakotas, Billy J. Kramer's backup band, and Heath put together a new combo during this period. The mid-'60s seemed to be a more favorable period for Heath's brand of R&B-based rock & roll. He put together a group called the New Pirates, and was about to embark on a new phase of his career, when he was killed in a car crash on October 7, 1966. the New Pirates continued on for a time, with Johnny Carroll fronting the group until mid-1967, when they called it quits.

yea i used to live in fulham all my life so passed the zeta house most days ,its had a few clubs over the years

https://www.facebook.com/MyForthcomingBookModsTheNewReligion/ smilers fb page for the book

fred heath and the nutters,, didnt know the freight train had a basement and i worked locally just across the road incidently the cue club had a bad rep so we didnt go there due to the stabbings and murders there the el partido was ok though with thumping ska on the top floor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xXhU7-4W2Q

The Freight Train was opened on the corner of Berwick Street and Noel Street by skiffle player Chas McDevitt early in 1958, following the success of his record of the same name. Initially it hosted impromptu sessions, where musicians such as Diz Disley and Les Bennetts would jam into the night. It was also the venue for an early performance by Cliff Richard and the Drifters in June 1958. Unlike many other local establishments, however, the coffee bar’s basement was not transformed into a music club. Instead the Freight Train served as, “a rendezvous for many of the London-based groups, a point where they could assemble to leave for a gig or unwind in the early hours returning from work.” McDevitt claims that it was on one such occasion, in the Freight Train’s derelict basement, “surrounded by empty Coca-Cola crates and broken furniture”, that Brian Gregg, formerly in Les Hobeaux Skiffle Group composed ‘Shakin’ All Over’ in collaboration with Fred Heath of the Nutters. Heath would make the song another seminal British rock ‘n’ roll number when he took it into the charts with his group The Pirates, under his alter-ego Johnny Kidd. cribbed from soho site