It all started around 1964. I'd been a Beatles fan & they kept doing interviews where they talked about the music that inspired them & that they did covers of. Then they would talk about their own favourite artists, many being Motown acts. So I decided to start checking out the music they liked. My mum bought a copy of the Supremes "Baby Love" (October 1964) & I noticed it was a Motown recording. Next up, records by the likes of Otis Redding ("My Girl" from November 65, Mary Wells "My Guy" May 64) came to my attention. I started to check out similar stuff & soon came across Bob & Earl's "Harlem Shuffle" (July 65). Local clubs / discos were now spinning loads of great soul dance tracks & I was hooked.
So the 45 buying commenced. First getting stuff from the local high street shops. I lived in Doncaster, so it was Fox's for me, plus other local stores that had record departments (the Co-op, W H Smiths, etc.). I then realised that getting the 45's I wanted needed a bit more work. I had to order many of them in advance to get hold of most singles I wanted in everyday high street shops. So, I started to make use of specialist shops (Soul City in London) and the like. I was now going to soul clubs most weeks but finding it hard to get hold of copies of many 45's that were being played. I landed my first full time job in September 66 & after that, more money became available for purchases. The job was in Wakefield & that opened up extra opportunities, there was a good record shop on the hill between Westgate Stn and the town centre. I also found a stall on Wakefield market where I occasionally would make decent finds (there was also a similar stall on Donny's open market). I also began sending for mailed out Uk based auction lists initially, before starting to write off to the States to get hold of stuff I couldn't locate in the UK. My US suppliers of choice then were Randys Record Shop in Gallatin & Ray Averys Rare Records in California (both sent out catalogues & had good mail order departments). Then I became aware of US discount record warehouses & managed to get on the mailing list for one in the New York area (though lots of the more obscure titles they listed were completely unknown to me at that time unfortunately).
I had been attending niters since the mid 60's (Sheffield, Leicester, Manchester, Castleford, etc) & guys selling 45's could be found in most clubs -- though the prices being asked meant there were few bargains). UK suppliers such as F L Moores of Leighton Buzzard & more local outlets (Boylans Record Shop, Conisboro & Peter Hall's on Donny market) joined in & were used. B&S magazine started to sell individual in-demand 45's (US copies) & soon after bargain priced soul packs. You could travel up to London to visit Contempo's offices & they had a record sales counter. A specialist outlet opened up in Canada & other US providers came on the scene. Discounted US soul LP's began to pop up in stores such as Tandys (the UK name for the US's Radio Shack) with deleted UK LP's appearing at cheap prices on the shelves at Woolworths. The next big player was a bit of a strange one. Bostocks Market Stall in Bradford. They mass imported loads of soul 45's & sold them off cheaply. Other specialists soon entered the fray; Soul Bowl and Oldies Unlimited becoming regular sources and Selectadisc joined the race to sell soulies even more product.
We'd now reached the mid 70's and the US market opened up even more as many Brit soul collectors started to go on crate digging missions to many US cities (having been inspired by earlier trips undertaken by Ian Levine and the like). So it actually became much easier to obtain the soul records I wanted in the mid 70's, 80's and beyond than it had been when I'd stated out in the mid 60's. Mind you, by then the prices of many prized 45's had placed them way beyond my reach. Everyone will have their own story of how their collections were built, with folk in other parts of the UK utilising different ports of call to satisfy their needs but my journey was influenced by my home locations (Donny, Brid, Worksop, Northampton, Oxford) and the locations of the clubs I have frequented down the years.
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Author Profile: Roburt
John Smith | Roburt
76 years old, born in Doncaster. First got into soul in 1965. Attended nighters @ King Mojo, Nite Owl & Wheel. Started out as a mod - mohair suits, Ben Shermans, brogues & a Lambretta. Started collecting vinyl seriously in 1966 (first fulltime job). Spent time chatting with hero Garnett Mimms in 1967 (Mojo dressing room). Started buying B&S in 1969. Loves all types of soul and gospel but brought up on Stax style stuff. Regular guest on Sealing's Radio Hallam show (1980's). Started writing for soul fanzines in the 1980's and still does. Ran Lou Ragland's 1990 UK tour. Loves researching soul facts.
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