Bargain Of The Century

[21 Again]

Pete 99 dont knock the Shakey legend could make a comeback

[Guest]

Not northern but picked up an early genesis single a few years from about 1968 for 25p sold it for £350 result always pays to study your price guides lol last northern find cant think of any really seems to get harder nowadays

[Robbk]

Wow. I honestly didn't think his tastes were as diverse as that. He seemed almost obsessional about collecting every early L.A. punk or Garage band record he could get his hands on. In fact it was Chris who first described to me what a punk was and this was way before the so-called punk explosion in the UK.

 

He was definitely weird though. Mind you, I always seem to get on with weirdos for some reason........

 

Ian D

His tastes were NEVER diverse.  He liked ONLY "the genre of the moment".  Everything else was garbage.  He dropped old likes instantly (like an estranged ex-wife or ex-girlfriend) when he got onto his new love!  Bizarre, eh? 

[Ian Dewhirst]

His tastes were NEVER diverse.  He liked ONLY "the genre of the moment".  Everything else was garbage.  He dropped old likes instantly (like an estranged ex-wife or ex-girlfriend) when he got onto his new love!  Bizarre, eh? 

 

I guess that kinda makes sense. He appeared to like Blue Oyster Cult and the Raspberries too along with the L.A. garage stuff but he was pretty knowledgeable about records generally. He reminded me a bit of Charles Manson at the time. I kept half expecting him to slam me with an axe or something if he caught me looking in one of his 'private' stacks LOL.

 

He liked a good breakfast though. I'll give him that!

 

Terrible social skills though.....

 

Ian D

Edited March 29, 2013 by Ian Dewhirst

[Robbk]

I guess that kinda makes sense. He appeared to like Blue Oyster Cult and the Raspberries too along with the L.A. garage stuff but he was pretty knowledgeable about records generally. He reminded me a bit of Charles Manson at the time. I kept half expecting him to slam me with an axe or something if he caught looking in one of his 'private' stacks LOL.

 

He liked a good breakfast though. I'll give him that!

 

Terrible social skills though.....

 

Ian D

Hahaha!!! This almost made me wet my pants! I'm alone, but I burst out laughing so hard my stomach muscles ache.      When I met Chris in the mid/late '60s, he had a moustache, beard and scraggly unwashed hair down his back to below his waist.  He wore unkempt, unwashed clothes.  His eyes look like those of "The Children of The Damned".  He looked right through you.  He wore a bent, beat up, tall, stovepipe top hat.  He looked like Charles Manson playing a fairy tale character.  Years later (presumably when he turned "Punk"), he had very short hair and seemingly clean clothes.  For whatever reason, he appeared more scary than ever! 

 

Did you get to meet John Hillyard?  Do you have any stories about him?

[Gene-R]

If only Shakin Stevens records were witha pot of gold in charity shops i would be a millionaire

 

Some are:

 

https://www.popsike.com/php/quicksearch.php?searchtext=shakin%27+stevens&x=14&y=10

[Geeselad]

I found around 30 rock and roll tunes all in grt nick, all london, mainly fats Domino, total of £440, with £210 of that for the raresty of his uk discs, just over 12mnths ago.

[Guest noss]

Have told this story before, but about ten years ago I found Jimmy Radcliffe 'Long After...' UK Stateside and Timi Yuro 'It'll Never Be Over...' on Liberty singles for 50p each in a boot sale in Peckham.

[Guest stevie frear]

Have told this story before, but about ten years ago I found Jimmy Radcliffe 'Long After...' UK Stateside and Timi Yuro 'It'll Never Be Over...' on Liberty singles for 50p each in a boot sale in Peckham.

Top find mate,Even 10 ago

[Ian Dewhirst]

Hahaha!!! This almost made me wet my pants! I'm alone, but I burst out laughing so hard my stomach muscles ache.      When I met Chris in the mid/late '60s, he had a moustache, beard and scraggly unwashed hair down his back to below his waist.  He wore unkempt, unwashed clothes.  His eyes look like those of "The Children of The Damned".  He looked right through you.  He wore a bent, beat up, tall, stovepipe top hat.  He looked like Charles Manson playing a fairy tale character.  Years later (presumably when he turned "Punk"), he had very short hair and seemingly clean clothes.  For whatever reason, he appeared more scary than ever! 

 

Did you get to meet John Hillyard?  Do you have any stories about him?

 

Definitely the same Chris Peake then?

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I met John back then 'cos his name's real familiar. I've got a feeling I may have met him at one of the Capitol Records swap meets. Some of these guys were vaguely familiar with Northern Soul at the time, mainly through wants-lists from the UK, but the rare record scene was still in it's infancy then, so I'd always spend time with these characters and try and go through what they had. I think John Manship's the best guy for John Hillyard stories as he dealt with him regularly I believe.

 

Is that guy Darryl Stolper (?) still around? He had a collection and a half I seem to remember.......? The memories are flooding back LOL....

 

Ian D

[ZootSuit]

Years ago we used to have a Friday night social, (cardgame and a few joints), anyway one night a new face turned up, invited by one of the other lads who worked with him.

This face was getting heavily into other 'highs' and after a few months he mentioned he had some records collection sell, they were soul records and he knew I used to collect,apparently he did'nt listen to them anymore. He was 15 years younger than me and I had'nt been to a Northern do for at least 15 years at the time, recently I went to the George reunion, first time to a do since 1976, and that was to Wigan with Soul Carp,also had'nt bought any records for years, this is before Ebay, SS etc, were talking about 20 years ago, but said I'd have a look.

He lived out in the sticks, literally, in a cottage, when I get there hes got this box of about 300 records, ALL in pristine sleeves so I go through them, YOU KNOW, DID'NT KNOW ANY OF THEM UNTIL ALMOST THE LAST RECORD, which was a UK Atlantic issue of Angel Baby - Darrel Banks.

He wanted £25 for the lot,so, on the strength of Angel Baby which I did know I agreed the price.

Off the top of my head some of the gems in there inc Baby take a Chance on me Jack Montgomery, Maurice Willims Being without you, Anne Sexton You've been gone too long (BOTH the vocal and Instumental copies !!!)and Sid Barnes (on Charly) I hurt on the other side, there was not one duff track in there but they are the ones that stand out, and very specifically Jack Montgomery because about a year after I aquired the collection a copy of Voices from the Shadows arrived, (remember Voices)in which Tim Brown reviewed this particular record and valued it at £20. I kept thinking Im sure I recognise that title but was not familiar with the tune, so dug through said records, which were still sepearate from main collection and found it, put it on...and REALLY kick started my record collecting again....

Edited March 29, 2013 by ZootSuit

[Jordirip]

Some are:

 

https://www.popsike.com/php/quicksearch.php?searchtext=shakin%27+stevens&x=14&y=10

 

Wow!!! That's amazing. Everyone's going to be trawling for Shaky records now. I always think of Shaky doing his erm.....dance routine on top of the pops, doing a spin but ending up only half way round facing his backing band, then he shuffled round to face the audience and carried on with his moves. It made me howl....or was it Russ Abbot?

[Robbk]

Definitely the same Chris Peake then?

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I met John back then 'cos his name's real familiar. I've got a feeling I may have met him at one of the Capitol Records swap meets. Some of these guys were vaguely familiar with Northern Soul at the time, mainly through wants-lists from the UK, but the rare record scene was still in it's infancy then, so I'd always spend time with these characters and try and go through what they had. I think John Manship's the best guy for John Hillyard stories as he dealt with him regularly I believe.

 

Is that guy Darryl Stolper (?) still around? He had a collection and a half I seem to remember.......? The memories are flooding back LOL....

 

Ian D

I knew Darryl and his brother, Jeff.  They collected old R&B records.  They had many thousands of records.  I haven't seen them since the early 1970s.

 

John Hillyard, like Chris, was quite scruffy (and also very eccentric).  He also had long hair and his clothes were far from clean.  He lived in Hollywood, and had tonnes of records-many in his apartment, and lots more in a warehouse.  He was very inconsistent in his pricing and memory.  But he knew a lot about all genres of records.

[Sheldonsoul]

Found 3 mint copy's of Kiki dee magic carpet ride for 30p each just at the time it went big, in the back room at the diskery on Bristol rd Birmingham

[Jim G]

in 2012 i picked up these from Ebay

 

Sam Dees "Lonely for You Baby" £1.47 (VG)

Little Anthony "It's Not The Same" £5 NM (sold for £75)

 

In the 70t's everything was cheap compared to today, but my fave buy was this lot for £1 (all originals) off a mate who just didn't like them

 

Thelma Lyndsey "Prepared to Love You" Magic City

Carl Carlton "Competition Ain't Nothing" Back Beat

Darrell Banks "Our Love" Ric Tic

[Pauldonnelly]

Thelma Lindsey Prepared to love you..

 

went to a record fair in peterborough bloke selling pop albums and a small box with a label saying " northern soul pressings"

 

said to bloke, "what's a pressing"

 

he gives me the history of the Northern scene from the days of the twisted HEEL. and how they used to press up to meet demand etc... thing was the The Thelma Lindsey was an orig..

 

"so how much are these pressings? "

 

"£2 each mate"

 

"fook off I ait giving you £2 for what is a bootleg"

 

" shhh keep your voice down, "give me a quid then"

 

"ok then"

[Guest drewid]

What about the well known lad who was at a rec fair and pulled out nat4 on boola boola and said to the lad how much, the lad replied "5 but Ill take 3 and a half for it " when said lad realised the lad meant £3.50 he could hardly contain himself but managed to keep calm has he duly coughed up his hard earned £3.50

Edited March 30, 2013 by drewid

[Ernie Andrews]

My Mate - Tubbs on here got a  Dr. Z LP  for a pound last year- Lucky bugger

[paultp]

I've had a couple of nice scores; Yvonne Baker for $50 in San Francisco but the hotel lost my Boss suit so swings and roundabouts.

Heard Shifty play The Game is Over in London and went home and had a google and found an issue for $6, asked if they had any more "just a demo, same price".

My favourite one was in Hanway Street just off Oxford Street, a shop there used to always have a box which had a mix of cheapies, Motown and boots. I got the Four Tops LP with Teahouse in China Town on it for a tenner then looked through the small box. With the legend "Nice Motown" on the card sleeve was Martha Reeves - No One There ..... Price £5 - Result! Still keep it in the same sleeve.

Had loads of good stuff off eBay in the past but bargains are tough to come by these days.

[Jordirip]

Found 3 mint copy's of Kiki dee magic carpet ride for 30p each just at the time it went big, in the back room at the diskery on Bristol rd Birmingham

 

I had a Rita Wright on UK Jet from there for £2.50 and I also had a Gloria Barnes LP from Reddingtons Rare records for £3 which I ended up giving to my brother as a birthday present one year.

[TOAD]

have had loads from reddingtons ! Pity the owner was a total twat. My fave outta there is wailers rude boy studio one blank @ £5 had to hassle him to play it a good job i know matrix numbers for producers best thing at the time it wasnt on any cd ! And differant to the uk 45?

[ZootSuit]

Paultp

 

 

My favourite one was in Hanway Street just off Oxford Street, a shop there used to always have a box which had a mix of cheapies, Motown and boots. I got the Four Tops LP with Teahouse in China Town on it for a tenner then looked through the small box. With the legend "Nice Motown" on the card sleeve was Martha Reeves - No One There ..... Price £5 - Result! Still keep it in the same sleeve.

42?, Hanway Street, the old Blues and Soul premises OR the shop a few doors up, only went in there once, young lady ran it, ALL the records were in Babycham crates?.

 

Now 42 Hanway Street, you went in there with latest B&S and they usually had one or two copies of the latest American releases, remember picking up The Love you gave to me (Continental 4)  and the Drifter (Ray Pollard) in there about 3 weeks after their US release

Edited March 31, 2013 by ZootSuit

[Raremusicdirect]

Great stories, nice to read............

[TOAD]

i walk into the local oxfam and theres this bloke beside me looking at the lps he pulls out a barbara acklin brunswick lp so i thought nowt here today ! He continues to pull out Queen lps and rock so i start at the opposite end to him and find bobby hutton lend a hand lp @ £2.99 RESULT

[paultp]

Paultp

 

 

My favourite one was in Hanway Street just off Oxford Street, a shop there used to always have a box which had a mix of cheapies, Motown and boots. I got the Four Tops LP with Teahouse in China Town on it for a tenner then looked through the small box. With the legend "Nice Motown" on the card sleeve was Martha Reeves - No One There ..... Price £5 - Result! Still keep it in the same sleeve.

42?, Hanway Street, the old Blues and Soul premises OR the shop a few doors up, only went in there once, young lady ran it, ALL the records were in Babycham crates?.

 

Now 42 Hanway Street, you went in there with latest B&S and they usually had one or two copies of the latest American releases, remember picking up The Love you gave to me (Continental 4)  and the Drifter (Ray Pollard) in there about 3 weeks after their US release

It wasn't that long ago so probably not one of the "known" shops, it was about 2001. I used to kid the guy behind the counter that his bootlegs looked real, he had no idea. Went in one day and he had no singles at all, he said a Japanese guy came in and bought everything priced over £30. So he said to him "I've got the rest of the stock at home come back tomorrow", then took everything out of the boxes and repriced it at over £30 - the guy came back and bought the lot.

[Guest stevie frear]

Once doing a sign for a junk shop in Frizinghall just outside Bradford "Lovejoys" it was named,it was late 90s,after collecting my sign money from the the owner,I decided to have a butchers round the shop, The usual kinda stuff furniture,electricals,bric-a-brac etc.

Finally came across a small box of 45s around 200 all the usual poptastic stuff in there,untill I came across a mint copy of The mirettes on mirwood-"He's alright with me" for the total of 50p

 

Stevie

[Rich B]

Thelma Lindsey Prepared to love you..

 

As an aside to this, all the copies that Selectadisc sold alongside the run of the mill pressings, were actually originals (as in the blue with different coloured lettering and the stamp that looks like AJP) I got my copy there for the standard 75p.

 

I didn't see a proper pressing until much later, when someone did that black & white demo look a like.

Edited April 1, 2013 by Rich B

[Guest Dave Turner]

Small fry I know but it chuffed us at the time ..

 

Circa 74 me and a mate went into the local small record shop which we frequently used to order new UK releases. We talked the woman into having a look in the back room for any older stock they had laying about. She came out with a box of about 50 45s and amongst those we got 3 mint UK copies of Nancy Wilson "End of Our Love" on black Capitol and 3 UK Bell copies of Reperata & the Delrons "Panic" for 30p each. This is when they were at the height of being played.

 

We then walked a few streets across town to an old music shop that no longer sold records but still sold record players, organs, stereograms, sheet music etc etc. Anyway upshot was we persuaded her to have a look to see if she had any old stock laying about. She came out with circa 100 45s and we got 3 copies of California In Crowd "Happiness in My Heart" UK Fontana for 20p each.

 

I think we managed to get about £8 each for 'em all at the time . RESULT!

[pikeys dog]

Big Maybelle - I got a feelin' - Okeh issue $2.99 from Hyde Park records in Chicago circa 2008.

[Milliontearsoul]

Craig Moerer's Soul Bros Inc copies ( pyramid ).......20 to 25 years ago ......Mint......! It was the good time 

[Lfcjunkie]

good thread this steve

hard to say bargains it all depends when you got it and what going rate of the record at the time if you get my drift,anyway after taking my son to halifax one cold pissing down sunday morningto watch him play rugby (league of course) with my wife and younger daughter in tow wet rhrough and knees knocking with cold i decidee]d to have look in the piece hall market wall of sound second hand record shop( left frozen wife and kids in the car)  looked through his soul box ,came across a couple of pzazz 45s little janice,len jewell boot,but this is crunch bit i swear to you i said in my mind as pulled first pzazz 45 up "wouldn't it be good if there was a Primbrock Skiggs"that was yesterday" in here" 3rd 45 up popped Primbrock Skiggs £2.50 ! at the time it was only rated around £15-20 but this was 1992-3 and still not easy to find and work was tight anyway result for me    got back to the car grinning like a dog with 2 dicks waving record to said soaked and cold wife and kids and not one of them congratulated me on my find  what's up with folks i thought can't they be pleased for you just once         

dave longy

ps still got said 45 played it at redbar sat night went down great

[Guest stevie frear]

good thread this steve

hard to say bargains it all depends when you got it and what going rate of the record at the time if you get my drift,anyway after taking my son to halifax one cold pissing down sunday morningto watch him play rugby (league of course) with my wife and younger daughter in tow wet rhrough and knees knocking with cold i decidee]d to have look in the piece hall market wall of sound second hand record shop( left frozen wife and kids in the car)  looked through his soul box ,came across a couple of pzazz 45s little janice,len jewell boot,but this is crunch bit i swear to you i said in my mind as pulled first pzazz 45 up "wouldn't it be good if there was a Primbrock Skiggs"that was yesterday" in here" 3rd 45 up popped Primbrock Skiggs £2.50 ! at the time it was only rated around £15-20 but this was 1992-3 and still not easy to find and work was tight anyway result for me    got back to the car grinning like a dog with 2 dicks waving record to said soaked and cold wife and kids and not one of them congratulated me on my find  what's up with folks i thought can't they be pleased for you just once    

dave longy

ps still got said 45 played it at redbar sat night went down great

Nice one dave good find mate, I've had some good stuff out of that shop over the yrs was a regular haunt for me,And the best thing was that Elliot never really increased is prices and also didn't have price guides etc.would be be different now tho..My best find there was Curtis Davis - Tell Me - Ronnie records from a box of 45s that was outside the shop on the floor..........10p and that was just before he moved to hudds,so not so long ago really..probably books around 200-300 maybe more, not got the latest price guides !

"you won't say nothing" T. Lewis 2nd was another that comes to mind , like I said got loads of out there but the memory fails   me, I have to see them to revoke my memory as to wear I got it

Sons of robin stone - get you back - uk altantic demo £2

spinners - i'll be around - uk atlantic demo £2

marvin gaye - get to this - uk tamla motown demo £2

And many more   

 

Elliot was a good friend of kev Roberts.....and used to get cd's and reissues 45s etc at good deals...The story is that once kev had is collection knicked once I don't know the full story (you've after here it from kev himself) but long and short of it was that the theif took the records to Elliot at the piece hall to sell, well of course Elliot was on it and stalled the guy somehow,but to cut a long story short our friend kev got is beloved 45s back    so looked after Elliot with a few goodies,and rightly so.

Nice fella is Elliot, see him from time to time around hebden where he lives , he's retired now, shame.

 

Thanks for ya input dave, as well as everyone else, I enjoy these little stories brings back memories of where I found some of mine ( old git  )

  

 

Stevie  

Edited April 2, 2013 by stevie frear

[Guest scottie]

some of these brilliant stories make for great reading the sad thing i suppose is these stories are going to be happening less and less in the future

[Arthur Fenn]

Hahaha!!! This almost made me wet my pants! I'm alone, but I burst out laughing so hard my stomach muscles ache.      When I met Chris in the mid/late '60s, he had a moustache, beard and scraggly unwashed hair down his back to below his waist.  He wore unkempt, unwashed clothes.  His eyes look like those of "The Children of The Damned".  He looked right through you.  He wore a bent, beat up, tall, stovepipe top hat.  He looked like Charles Manson playing a fairy tale character.  Years later (presumably when he turned "Punk"), he had very short hair and seemingly clean clothes.  For whatever reason, he appeared more scary than ever! 

 

Did you get to meet John Hillyard?  Do you have any stories about him?

 

 

Hahaha!!! This almost made me wet my pants! I'm alone, but I burst out laughing so hard my stomach muscles ache.      When I met Chris in the mid/late '60s, he had a moustache, beard and scraggly unwashed hair down his back to below his waist.  He wore unkempt, unwashed clothes.  His eyes look like those of "The Children of The Damned".  He looked right through you.  He wore a bent, beat up, tall, stovepipe top hat.  He looked like Charles Manson playing a fairy tale character.  Years later (presumably when he turned "Punk"), he had very short hair and seemingly clean clothes.  For whatever reason, he appeared more scary than ever! 

 

Did you get to meet John Hillyard?  Do you have any stories about him?

John Hillyard was one of the most bizzare characters i've ever had the pleasure to meet, think he worked for a big co  ( poss capitol ) at 1 time so his general knowledge was immense, he looked a bit like cat weasel with his matted long hair & god knows what holding his glasses together. The usual deal was that if you paid for his meals he would take you to his special places  . He had great records, i got the Tiarras on Seton for a few $ but wouldn't sell me the Little J Hamilton on Dore ( Butch got it ). Definately one of the west coast finest

[Stuart Russell]

About four years ago I found the Fascinations 'Girls Are Out To Get You' on a Stateside demo in a Salvation Army in Lancing, West Sussex.

 

I'd almost given up looking through record boxes in charity shops as they only ever seemed to have 80s pop records.

 

And in the same box was an original Billy Butler 'Right Track' on Okeh, Darrell Banks on Stateside and the AdLibs 'Boy From New York City' on Red Bird.

[KC Jr]

Perry and the Harmonics - Do the monkey with James  ......paid 40$ last year but not telling where I got it from.....

[Sean Hampsey]

Robby Lawson - Burning Sensation - Kyser - MINT / UNPLAYED

 

Ebay

 

Buy It Now

 

$12.00

 

 

Sean

[Steve L]

Robby Lawson - Burning Sensation - Kyser - MINT / UNPLAYED

 

Ebay

 

Buy It Now

 

$12.00

 

 

Sean

 

That takes some beating, when was that Sean, recently?

If so gives us all hope

[Pete S]

Robby Lawson - Burning Sensation - Kyser - MINT / UNPLAYED

 

Ebay

 

Buy It Now

 

$12.00

 

 

Sean

 

[Ted Massey]

Robby Lawson - Burning Sensation - Kyser - MINT / UNPLAYED

 

Ebay

 

Buy It Now

 

$12.00

 

 

Sean

you sure it wasn't one of those dodgy ones Sean check the print if I were you

[Pomonkey]

Haha I found 2 of those Keyser boots in a charity shop in Brighton couple of decades ago and got all excited for an hour or two not knowing they weren't legit, ah well

[Ted Massey]

Haha I found 2 of those Keyser boots in a charity shop in Brighton couple of decades ago and got all excited for an hour or two not knowing they weren't legit, ah well

Hi Michael they were (how many I don't know) made by the producer only a short while ago caught out a least 1 person over here

[Guest CapitolSC]

The shop in Hanway Street was called Rocks off

Ady Croesdale always had a couple of boxes of  nice originals for sale 

And Val Palmer worked there on a saturday

 

Its still there now but called something different and no boxes of Adys 45s 

 

Al H

[Pete S]

Hi Michael they were (how many I don't know) made by the producer only a short while ago caught out a least 1 person over here

 

He's on about the pink or yellow label Ted not the lookalikes

[Pomonkey]

Sadly yes Pete, I hadn't seen the original label back then or would have been obvious 

[Wiggyflat]

I thought Rocks Off was in Camden.Had loads of stuff out of there served by a woman wearing leopard print.Wasn't it Ted Carrolls shop? Had stuff out of Hanway St..Andy Neills shop.Ive a great article on Cheapo Cheapo in an old Blues and Soul with a picture of the stall...I had a boxfull of Tommy Hunt live at Wigan los out of the Cheapo shop and a few copies of the Loot soundtrack for a few quid each.

[Guest john s]

I thought Rocks Off was in Camden.Had loads of stuff out of there served by a woman wearing leopard print.Wasn't it Ted Carrolls shop? 

 

That was 'Rock On'.

[Headsy]

Last year I went to Las Vegas for the Xmas period.

I only had 1 half day available for record stores, so I decided to hit the one near the Airbase East of Freemont.

There was only a hand full of boxes of vinyl left, but I managed to find a nice clean Tobi Legend "Time Will Pass You By" on Demo marked up at $20.

When it came to settling up, the guy behind the counter knocked it down to $12 since I'd had a bit of a natter to him during the hour or so that i spent in the store.

[Headsy]

Did you buy the Tobi Legend blind Joe or did you know it?

[Guest stevie frear]

some of these brilliant stories make for great reading the sad thing i suppose is these stories are going to be happening less and less in the future

Hey it was only last year I found Edwin stars-uk soul master lp in excellent condition £2.....and received wild sensations-love somebody love-someone(ram) us....only £3 ebay in post this morning

There not million dollar bargains but bargains all the same and who don't love a good soul Bargain eh

 

Stevie

Edited April 2, 2013 by stevie frear