They didn't make that many but what was the best release by these fellas? Easy, 'Working On A Building Of Love'

Well I wouldn't really class them as Northern soul, but tunes like "Dangling on a string", "Everything's Tuesday", and "Give me just a little more time" would certainly be classed as classics that helped get a generation of kids into soul music. That type of sound was steeped in mystique and I am sure influenced many of our musical tastes.

They didn't make that many but what was the best release by these fellas? Easy, 'Working On A Building Of Love'

Everything's Tuesday followed by I'm on my way to a better place.

Kev

'I'll Come Crawling' and 'Bittersweet' are my two favourites! Loads of angst!!!

Jo xx

Pay to the Piper does it for me (and Finders Keepers if I'm allowed something un-northern)

Bless your Heart,Thats not a bad un

Grant

bless you, other side of everythings tuesday, boody great

They're just one of those bands that produced some great tracks. Since I posted my two I've seen another 3 that could easily have been up there too!

Jo xx

Well I wouldn't really class them as Northern soul, but tunes like "Dangling on a string", "Everything's Tuesday", and "Give me just a little more time" would certainly be classed as classics that helped get a generation of kids into soul music. That type of sound was steeped in mystique and I am sure influenced many of our musical tastes.

i love that tv clip of 'dangling on a string' where it starts with the closeup of general johnson and the camera pans back and after a minute and it's just like gogo dancers in a field in front of the washington monument, that is like the funniest shit ever.

I've been working on reissues of the entire COTB Invictus catalogue recently so I've had the chance to assess all their recordings in a relatively brief period of time.

Consequently I can say - without any fear of contradiction - that their best dancer (and probably their most obscure 45 as it wasn't on an album and it didn't come out on 45 in the UK either) is...

"Let Me Down Easy".

COTB's biggest hits are some of the best pop-soul 45s of all time. Sometimes, when you don't hear these things for a long time, you tend to forget just how much better they were, and still are, than much of what else was around at the same time.

Edited June 25, 200916 yr by TONY ROUNCE

I'd love to contradict you Tony, but I can't.

'Let Me Down Easy' is fantastic, followed pretty closely for me by 'I'm On My Way To A Better Place'.

We all discovered that H-D-H hadn't lost it. Remember seeing COTB at Pickett's Lock in Edmonton in the early 70's. They were a class act and at the end even invited the audience to join them on stage!!!

I love "Chairman of the board", brilliant vocals with a tough funky edge to the record.

I love "Chairman of the board", brilliant vocals with a tough funky edge to the record.

" Hanging On to a Memory "

Malc Burton

I love "Chairman of the board", brilliant vocals with a tough funky edge to the record.

" Hanging On to a Memory "

Malc Burton

I love "Chairman of the board", brilliant vocals with a tough funky edge to the record.

" Hanging On to a Memory "

Malc Burton

I love "Chairman of the board", brilliant vocals with a tough funky edge to the record.

" Hanging On to a Memory "

Malc Burton

Everything's Tuesday followed by I'm on my way to a better place.

Kev

Ditto Kev

Kin Hell,Malc,did you like it that much?

Yes ...... for me , as enjoyable as walking down the seafront in Bray .

Malc Burton

Edited June 25, 200916 yr by Malc Burton

Yes ...... as much as a pleasure as walking down the seafront in Bray .

Malc Burton

Oooh Hang on there pardner!! Is there something that l should know about you??

Was there last week and and The Virginia Wolves were there and they were singing?......Where did l put my coat?

Anyway back on topic was COTB version of Patches better then Clarence Carters?

Was there last week and and The Virginia Wolves were there and they were singing?......Where did l put my coat?

Anyway back on topic was COTB version of Patches better then Clarence Carters?

Sorry Phil , but I hate the song - and both versions - with venom , so count me out .

Another case of " not getting " a song that others find acceptable .......

Malc Burton

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD "I'M ON MY WAY TO A BETTER PLACE" CLASSIC OLDIE FOR ME ,JUST QUALITY SOUL SOUND ONE OF MY FAVORITES TUNES LOVE TO HEAR IT PLAYED , MIGHT EVEN GIVE IT A SPIN TOMORROW NIGHT

Chairmen Of The Board blew me away from the very first time I heard 'Give Me Just A Little More Time' in the summer of 1970.

At that time I was a student in Bangor, North Wales. In that year I became the social secretary and had the opportunity to choose the acts for the forthcoming year. Things worked out pretty well, bearing in mind that the acts were booked six months in advance. We had Desmond Dekker on the Friday after the Thursday he was No. 2 on Top Of The Pops with 'You Can Get It If You Really Want', and laughably, to keep everyone sweet I had agreed to Shakin' Stevens on the same bill for £70!!

By early 1971 I was feeling confident and booked Chairmen Of The Board for their first ever date in the U.K. Sadly the tour was cancelled and I lost money, but I can still recall my pride seeing the front page of the Melody Maker announcing the forthcoming dates for the U.K. tour with Bangor at the top.

anyone stll got a copy?

Anyway back on topic was COTB version of Patches better then Clarence Carters?

...In every way.

General Johnson really pulls at the heartstrings wihen he does the recitations, Clarence Carter sounds like he's checking off his shopping list...

I really like "Patches", it's absolutely one of my favourite COTB sides.

Question for Mr Rounce. Where does Sterling Harrison fit in the COTB? Was he there right from the beginning?

Reason I ask is he lives not far from here and I have an aquaintance who is a mate of his. I have picked up a couple of his 45's and an album and moved them on pretty quickly as they didnt do much for me. The only COTB album I have is a Greatest Hits and I dont see him credited?

I also saw COTB at Gloucester Leisure Centre some time in the 80's? and from what I remember they werent very good. I remember a long drawn out version of Love Train and Richard Searling decided to turn up in what looked like a parachute suit?!?!?

Wasn't he blind?

Who, Patches or Clarence Carter?

Yes, Clarence Carter was blind and amazingly enough he still is. Which is why I used the term "checking off" rather than "reading"...

...although of course it's entirely possible his shopping list was in braille anyway

Question for Mr Rounce. Where does Sterling Harrison fit in the COTB? Was he there right from the beginning?

Reason I ask is he lives not far from here and I have an aquaintance who is a mate of his. I have picked up a couple of his 45's and an album and moved them on pretty quickly as they didnt do much for me. The only COTB album I have is a Greatest Hits and I dont see him credited?

I also saw COTB at Gloucester Leisure Centre some time in the 80's? and from what I remember they werent very good. I remember a long drawn out version of Love Train and Richard Searling decided to turn up in what looked like a parachute suit?!?!?

Harrison Kennedy was an original COTB member, not Sterling Harrison - who, as far as I'm aware was never in the group.

Kennedy was the last of the four 'Board Members' to join, but I'm pretty sure he was there before the first single came out and he's definitely pictured on the back of the first album.

COTB fell out big time with HDH in 1972, although General Johnson and Danny Woods eventually made an uneasy and brief peace when "Finders Keepers" came out. Kennedy went back to Canada while they were not recording and he never returned to the group. He was replaced by Ken Knox who, as far as I know, is still the third member of what's now "General Johnson And The Chairmen".

Somehow I have contrived never to have seen COTB on any of their UK visits, something I still hope to put right before I die if any promoter is willing to bring them over!

Would have paid good money to see Richard's parachute suit, too...

Excellent version of "Bless You" done by Sonny Charles on A & M in '71

And then for us soppy sods there's this

Very underated soul group who should definately be heard out and about more IMHO.

Everything Is Tuesday and Give Me Just A Little More Time for me.

KTF.

Drew.

For me my fav tracks was Let Me Down Easy, Bless You, I'm On My Way to a Better Place

and i not seen anyone mention Loverboy which is a good 80's modern number

I once heard(think it was from Tony Blackburn actually on Radio 1!) that one week in 1970,the top three records in the charts were all Soul records and l think those records were; Tears Of A Clown..Gimme Just A Little More Time.....and Band Of Gold.Can anybody help me out with this??

think thats right webby early sept 1970 top 3 both invictus releases and tears of a clown. loads of soul and reggae in the charts then. look at the top40 now eh.....................full of absolute junk. are we getting old or is music today(well most of it) just...........junk

dave

Everythings tuesday and a brilliant modern track from the 90,s Hold on(i'm comin'to save you.

My fave CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARD tune is ALL WE NEED IS UNDERSTANDING which for some reason was issued under just General Johnson's name on the US 45.

They're just one of those bands that produced some great tracks. Since I posted my two I've seen another 3 that could easily have been up there too!

Jo xx

I just remembered Everybody's Got a Song to Sing - a brilliant track which helped me through a pretty awful time of my life

Jo xx

Some nice choices here

Another nice one by the Chairmen is "Someone just like you "

Some nice choices here

Another nice one by the Chairmen is "Someone just like you "

Eyup John, didn't your Mum go with you to see COTB back in the early 70's (I have this floating around waaaaaay back in my mind).

Just about the coolest Mum on the scene back then, I reckon.

Sean

Well I wouldn't really class them as Northern soul, but tunes like "Dangling on a string", "Everything's Tuesday", and "Give me just a little more time" would certainly be classed as classics that helped get a generation of kids into soul music. That type of sound was steeped in mystique and I am sure influenced many of our musical tastes.

Dont quite understand this...

CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARD not Northern Soul???? Musically, their big records epitomise melodic, uptown Northern Soul, what are we saying, that because these records were commerically successful, they are not 'northern soul'???? When I have been to the states, I have had quite a few Black Americans in their 50s and 60s refer to the northern style records we adore as 'pop soul' and COTB perfected that sound on several recordings at least.

In the past 35 years I've heard COTB played many times at Northern oldies nights to a packed dance floor and never in my life can I recall somebody going up to the DJ and complaining

that 'this aint northern soul mate'....

3 years ago me and a mate did an oldies spot at SOUL SHOES in Hampshire and I played 'Everything's Tuesday' in between Herbert Hunter and The Ascots. Result? Biggest dancefloor reaction of the night in a pretty busy hall. Raucous revelling to a truly great record I'd call it!

I think we should always do well to remind ourselves that every artist, writer and producer from 60s and 70S Black America released their records hoping they would be enormous hits commercially, albeit on the r'n'b charts or the pop charts. The main reason - AS WE ALL KNOW - that so many fantastic records bombed was because they had little or no promotion budget or resources behind them.

COTB however, were luckier, they had Lamont Dozier and the Holland Bros, fresh from a decade of chart domination with Motown. Invictus had the budgets and the names to ensure there would be at least a good few hits, given the superb creative quality also encapsulated within the company.

On the other hand....

If IAN LEVINE had found a rare copy of 'Give Me Just A Little More Time' in a florida warehouse in 1972 and it had been released 2 years before, by a small Detroit indy that had folded 3 months later, is anybody on here saying that it would not have been brought back and musically proclaimed as as an all-time 'NORTHERN SOUL' classic?????

Methinks not, methinks not!

Everythings tuesday and a brilliant modern track from the 90,s Hold on(i'm comin'to save you.

Absolutely ditto from me! ET was the song that made me realise I loved soul music generally which led to an entirely misspent youth. And "Hold one" was one of the first tunes in ages I heard it and then I just had to own it. I can't think of one tune I don't like by them.

Best,

RB

Dont quite understand this...

CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARD not Northern Soul???? Musically, their big records epitomise melodic, uptown Northern Soul, what are we saying, that because these records were commerically successful, they are not 'northern soul'???? When I have been to the states, I have had quite a few Black Americans in their 50s and 60s refer to the northern style records we adore as 'pop soul' and COTB perfected that sound on several recordings at least.

In the past 35 years I've heard COTB played many times at Northern oldies nights to a packed dance floor and never in my life can I recall somebody going up to the DJ and complaining

that 'this aint northern soul mate'....

3 years ago me and a mate did an oldies spot at SOUL SHOES in Hampshire and I played 'Everything's Tuesday' in between Herbert Hunter and The Ascots. Result? Biggest dancefloor reaction of the night in a pretty busy hall. Raucous revelling to a truly great record I'd call it!

I think we should always do well to remind ourselves that every artist, writer and producer from 60s and 70S Black America released their records hoping they would be enormous hits commercially, albeit on the r'n'b charts or the pop charts. The main reason - AS WE ALL KNOW - that so many fantastic records bombed was because they had little or no promotion budget or resources behind them.

COTB however, were luckier, they had Lamont Dozier and the Holland Bros, fresh from a decade of chart domination with Motown. Invictus had the budgets and the names to ensure there would be at least a good few hits, given the superb creative quality also encapsulated within the company.

On the other hand....

If IAN LEVINE had found a rare copy of 'Give Me Just A Little More Time' in a florida warehouse in 1972 and it had been released 2 years before, by a small Detroit indy that had folded 3 months later, is anybody on here saying that it would not have been brought back and musically proclaimed as as an all-time 'NORTHERN SOUL' classic?????

Methinks not, methinks not!

That's about it in a nutshell mate I think. Its only with hindsight now ,we can see what cracking records some of these were. New release stuff like this that went into the charts wasn't deemed exclusive and rare enough to the avid collector / nighter goer back then

When they became 'youth club fodder' alongside the likes of Tammi Lynn, Doris Troy, Tams,Newbeats,Showstoppers etc they were given a wide berth.

I did remember buying GMJALMT(as a new release) for a girl I was seeing and gave it to her and said'Don't tell anyone I've bought yer this' .

Even back then the Soul Police were in evidence

They didn't make that many but what was the best release by these fellas? Easy, 'Working On A Building Of Love'

That Invictus/Hot Wax stuff kept us soul-starved Londonders going until we discovered NS. Went to see the C of the B

at the Coliseum in London when they 1st toured, most bizare, they only came on stage one at a time and not together.

Great stuff !!

Chris L