Like the unexpected find thread, this has probably been done before, but here goes...
Not strictly soul, but close enough for many here to understand the weeks of misery this balls-up caused... This is exactly what happened - no embellishment...
A couple of years ago was doing my usual sweep of a boot sale in Kent, asking all the cars if they had any records (unpleasant, but necessary these days if you want to get anything). The boot fair in question is not a big one and there were only two or three other record heads there, all of whom were way behind me, checking out the cars I'd already asked. Anyway, I'm getting the usual answers: "Oh, I've got loads at home"... "no, I threw them out years ago" and suchlike, along with a few people handing me stacks of Jim Reeves and Jack Jones LPs after I'd waited ten minutes for them to unearth them. It's getting to about 8.30 and I've got nothing. Then this blue van pulls in, pretty much the last arrival of the day. I wander over meaning to ask him if he has any vinyl, but, having had such a crappy day, I just glance in the back of his van, see a bunch of tools and stuff and don't even bother to ask. Ten minutes later, I'm walking back to my car when an antiques dealer I know comes over and asks me if I'd seen what these two other record heads had just found. "No", I say. "What?" "Big box of reggae," he says. "From that blue van over there."
Later, I have the misfortune of seeing for myself what the two of them bought. Sitting in the back of one of their cars is a crate of about 200 singles - all reggae, all UK label late sixties stuff and all in EX condition with centres intact. There's Blue Cats, Studio Ones, Coxsones, Crabs, you name it, UK Trojan-related labels I've never even seen before. The only flaw is that the bloke whose collection this obviously once was has written his name in tiny biro on the centre of each one. Apart from that they are pretty much unplayed. Turns out the two guys (both of whom I know pretty well, and neither of whom are into soul or reggae) had arrived at the box at pretty much the same time and decided that the only fair thing to do was to share the find, so they bought the whole box and split it later.
And the price paid for this once-in-a-lifetime find? £25
Torquay Market 1974 with messrs Ian Clowrey and Les Cockell. Record stall which I got to first. Nothing much until a Marvin Gaye Stateside red & White demo of 'How sweet it is' turns up and goes
Like the unexpected find thread, this has probably been done before, but here goes...
Not strictly soul, but close enough for many here to understand the weeks of misery this balls-up caused... This is exactly what happened - no embellishment...
A couple of years ago was doing my usual sweep of a boot sale in Kent, asking all the cars if they had any records (unpleasant, but necessary these days if you want to get anything). The boot fair in question is not a big one and there were only two or three other record heads there, all of whom were way behind me, checking out the cars I'd already asked. Anyway, I'm getting the usual answers: "Oh, I've got loads at home"... "no, I threw them out years ago" and suchlike, along with a few people handing me stacks of Jim Reeves and Jack Jones LPs after I'd waited ten minutes for them to unearth them. It's getting to about 8.30 and I've got nothing. Then this blue van pulls in, pretty much the last arrival of the day. I wander over meaning to ask him if he has any vinyl, but, having had such a crappy day, I just glance in the back of his van, see a bunch of tools and stuff and don't even bother to ask. Ten minutes later, I'm walking back to my car when an antiques dealer I know comes over and asks me if I'd seen what these two other record heads had just found. "No", I say. "What?" "Big box of reggae," he says. "From that blue van over there."
Later, I have the misfortune of seeing for myself what the two of them bought. Sitting in the back of one of their cars is a crate of about 200 singles - all reggae, all UK label late sixties stuff and all in EX condition with centres intact. There's Blue Cats, Studio Ones, Coxsones, Crabs, you name it, UK Trojan-related labels I've never even seen before. The only flaw is that the bloke whose collection this obviously once was has written his name in tiny biro on the centre of each one. Apart from that they are pretty much unplayed. Turns out the two guys (both of whom I know pretty well, and neither of whom are into soul or reggae) had arrived at the box at pretty much the same time and decided that the only fair thing to do was to share the find, so they bought the whole box and split it later.
And the price paid for this once-in-a-lifetime find? £25
I didn't sleep for about three weeks