This is a letter Ian wrote to a magazine called Collectors Soul in 1969,of which i have issues 1 to 11 .Fascinating reading they are as well.

He wrote some great articles for the magazine and even then showed great confidence and knowledge of the music.

I thought they may be of interest . I was a big fan of Ian in the 70s and post this with that in mind .

 

We have quite a few copies of this mag going back to mid-67 (along with some very early Blues and Soul) that Les Cokell gave us way back - there's some amazing levels of knowledge given the time.

Dx

Edited January 29, 20169 yr by DaveNPete

A pretty modest little thing wasn't he , with a little more pocket money than most I guess ...

9 minutes ago, WoodButcher said:

A pretty modest little thing wasn't he , with a little more pocket money than most I guess ...

He didn't have to spend it on soul records though did he ?, he could have spent on anything he wanted, I think that tells you something about his appreciation of the music.

Edited January 29, 20169 yr by Kegsy

24 minutes ago, WoodButcher said:

A pretty modest little thing wasn't he , with a little more pocket money than most I guess ...

 

well considering at the time he'd only be around 16 years old and thus started collecting when he was just 14  maybe a little youthful exuberance is understandable?

Actually Ian didn't get an big bucks from his mum & dad, when I first knew him he was buying in junk shops for a shilling a go. Here's an even earlier British soul magazine, similar but 2 years before.

"Collectors Soul" what a little mag hand typed then printed on one of those Inky "gestetners" was it  a Mark Bicknell or Richard Domar effort? Anybody fill me in on history etc on this labour of love? LOL Johnny.

31 minutes ago, conchitta said:

"Collectors Soul" what a little mag hand typed then printed on one of those Inky "gestetners" was it  a Mark Bicknell or Richard Domar effort? Anybody fill me in on history etc on this labour of love? LOL Johnny.

certainly not a mark bicknell project, he would have been about 9 or 10 in 1969

3 hours ago, Chris L said:

Actually Ian didn't get an big bucks from his mum & dad, when I first knew him he was buying in junk shops for a shilling a go. Here's an even earlier British soul magazine, similar but 2 years before.

https://www.sirshambling.com/artists_2012/L/eva_larse/index.php

Looks like they dug a little deeper in this Mag.

3 hours ago, conchitta said:

"Collectors Soul" what a little mag hand typed then printed on one of those Inky "gestetners" was it  a Mark Bicknell or Richard Domar effort? Anybody fill me in on history etc on this labour of love? LOL Johnny.

Not too sure either, but theres is some vintage R.Domar Owls Efforts in general sales Now if anyones intrested (Good Nostalgic read)

It would be great to see these old magazines scanned and added to an archive somewhere here on Soul Source for all to read ... 

Mach My One; please Pm me ASAP ,[paypal As an Amigo}  very interested in TOE is he still operational ,what aguy ,remember that thousand paged typed manuscript he produced , i would plough through Pat and J a,s weekly lists then then buy off Dickie domar,he soon twigged and got a bit irate ,LOL Johnny

He,s retired now, but his legacy lives on in his catalogues, fanzines,mail outs etc and the1000s of tapes he did of stuff thats now reknown...Love him or hate him..a Soul Legend

5 hours ago, John C said:

 This is a letter Ian wrote to a magazine called Collectors Soul in 1969,of which i have issues 1 to 11 .Fascinating reading they are as well.

He wrote some great articles for the magazine and even then showed great confidence and knowledge of the music.

I thought they may be of interest . I was a big fan of Ian in the 70s and post this with that in mind .

 

Top Notch stuffs those old papers, but then Ian was the only one where each sentence implied 'I' at least once ! Even to comment the magazine !!! Or talk about Motown... 

23 minutes ago, conchitta said:

R Mach My One; please Pm me ASAP ,[paypal As an Amigo}  very interested in TOE is he still operational ,what aguy ,remember that thousand paged typed manuscript he produced , i would plough through Pat and J a,s weekly lists then then buy off Dickie domar,he soon twigged and got a bit irate ,LOL Johnny

Mr domar getting irate... perish the thought you only had to ring two minutes early/late to get a major bollocking. Was it him that that once put on his lists " I don't have all night to talk to the pill damaged"

 

Edited January 29, 20169 yr by Kegsy

Funny, just sold an Eva Larse 45 last weekend, the flip of the Startown 45 is a slept on side, not the kind of artist you'd expect to have made a front cover then or now agree for sure. 

Also  noted a  letter from Iain  Mc Cartney from Scotland , bottom of the page .   Could anyone confirm that this is  the same Iain McCartney  of "Ask The Anorack " fame in the Manchester United fanzine   "United we Stand " and Author of maybe twenty or more in depth books on United .   I know Iain had a passion for soul and at one point I was trading Northern tapes with him for United memoribilia .   He expressed an interest to me about writing a book based around Manchester in the seventies  about characters  who lived the  Football by day then the all nighter scene after dark . dont think it ever got written , very interesting to see him ( i think its him  ) crop up on this letters page . 

Also, does anyone know if the Chris Brown from Woking[further down on the letters page] is the SoulMafia[i.e. Caister/Jazz/ Funk] DJ ? Just curious like…….

Pretty sure that Chris Brown's from Cambridge.

The letter that caught my eye was the top one from Steve Mercer,him & his bother Pat used to hang around with my older brother when he used to go to Mojo,The Wheel etc.Strange to see his name in print after all these years.

Cheers

Martyn

Hi Carty

I used to correspond with Iain McCartney circa 1970. I still have the letters in the loft.

He came from Dumfries.

We both shared a long distance love affair with the Twisted Wheel.

We almost met up at the Casino Club in Blackpool but that fell through.

[does anyone recall that place? Never seen anything written about it since]

I had no idea that he was a prolific book writer and note in Amazon that he also wrote one about his local team, Queen Of The South.

So as you will see from my last paragraph, I am pretty sure that it is one and the same person that you are interested in.

If you ever bump into him ask him if he recalls writing to a guy in Glasgow.

Thanks for mentioning him, it brought back some distant memories.

David

 

 

I think Ian's article was well written and confirmed his passion for collecting Motown, money no object. There is a hint of his interest in obscurities that would eventually broaden into collecting Northern, DJing crossover and plugging disco. There is not a hint of the megalomania that would take over when he became King Tut on the decks in the Highland Room, reinvent himself in the image of Berry Gordy to manufacture pop-soul and more recently, bid to become record salesman of the month ...

On 29 January 2016 at 13:36, Chris L said:

Actually Ian didn't get an big bucks from his mum & dad, when I first knew him he was buying in junk shops for a shilling a go. Here's an even earlier British soul magazine, similar but 2 years before.

Yes Ian used to come back to a pal of mine the late Dave Scutts house in Southport in the early Torch/Mecca days with the likes of Tubby and Legs from Accrington, Les Cokell and many others mainly the then Southport crowd and many Sunday's would be spent rooting through boxes of records in junk shops around Liverpool on Sunday mornings. I recall picking up a Tony Middleton on Polydor from one in Crosby and Ian was a bit pissed off that I had found that before he had. Halcyon days!!

3 hours ago, David Meikle said:

Hi Carty

I used to correspond with Iain McCartney circa 1970. I still have the letters in the loft.

He came from Dumfries.

We both shared a long distance love affair with the Twisted Wheel.

We almost met up at the Casino Club in Blackpool but that fell through.

[does anyone recall that place? Never seen anything written about it since]

I had no idea that he was a prolific book writer and note in Amazon that he also wrote one about his local team, Queen Of The South.

So as you will see from my last paragraph, I am pretty sure that it is one and the same person that you are interested in.

If you ever bump into him ask him if he recalls writing to a guy in Glasgow.

Thanks for mentioning him, it brought back some distant memories.

David

 

 

I REMEMBER DAVID BALL OF SOFT CELL FAME MENTIONING THE PLACE ON MACHONIES RADIO 2 NORTHERN SOUL  SHOW A FEW YEARS AGO 

KEV

1 hour ago, dwr said:

Yes Ian used to come back to a pal of mine the late Dave Scutts house in Southport in the early Torch/Mecca days with the likes of Tubby and Legs from Accrington, Les Cokell and many others mainly the then Southport crowd and many Sunday's would be spent rooting through boxes of records in junk shops around Liverpool on Sunday mornings. I recall picking up a Tony Middleton on Polydor from one in Crosby and Ian was a bit pissed off that I had found that before he had. Halcyon days!!

I went to stay with him one weekend, he'd returned from a local Blackpool junk shop with a UK Hickory Queen of fools.  Cost 1 shilling 

12 hours ago, Ivor Jones said:

Also, does anyone know if the Chris Brown from Woking[further down on the letters page] is the SoulMafia[i.e. Caister/Jazz/ Funk] DJ ? Just curious like…….

I had the same thought......I think he was, and still is from that part of Surrey.

Different CB to my local dj'ing CB then ... 

Must be this one ... https://www.caistersoul.co.uk/Raw_HTML/thedjteam/chrisbrown.html

 

20 hours ago, Ivor Jones said:

Also, does anyone know if the Chris Brown from Woking[further down on the letters page] is the SoulMafia[i.e. Caister/Jazz/ Funk] DJ ? Just curious like…….

He used to DJ at Pantiles, Bagshot just about the most famous/best club in the area. I always thought he lived in Camberley.

1 hour ago, Chris L said:

He used to DJ at Pantiles, Bagshot just about the most famous/best club in the area. I always thought he lived in Camberley.

So did I Chris,just curious though if it was the same person. I haven't seen him for a few years now,last bumped into him at Bisley Pavillion.

26 minutes ago, Ivor Jones said:

So did I Chris,just curious though if it was the same person. I haven't seen him for a few years now,last bumped into him at Bisley Pavillion.

I was a big attendee at Pantles from 1973 onward, you must know Pat Munroe then, he practically lived there.  

It must be the same Chris Brown. Excellent DJ 

On 29/01/2016 at 13:40, conchitta said:

"Collectors Soul" what a little mag hand typed then printed on one of those Inky "gestetners" was it  a Mark Bicknell or Richard Domar effort? Anybody fill me in on history etc on this labour of love? LOL Johnny.

The mag was done by Tony Berry, AKA Tony Lott, a DJ and collector here in Gloucestershire, kept the flame alive in that period but was out of the  scene by the time it really took off big time. he later worked in A&R for Arista but passed away some years ago now....

How good is that Jerry, would love to read all of the mags, any chance of putting them up on here Gilly

On 30/1/2016 at 21:02, guest said:

Never ring before 2pm I believe ? Was abrupt but alright really . He was once selling off a load of comics and was asking if customers would put an advert in their local paper for him . I did and he sent me a Lee Moses / Bad girl / Musicor , Terry and the Tyrants / Yeah . yeah / Kent and ZZ Hill / No more doggin' / Kent for free . Other times he would keep you on the blower for ages .

Was only certain days of the week as well I think, & your right he could keep talking for ages once he started  Sold me a boot once as an original, he apologised but said i could have a refund but he'd never sell me another record or I could leave the money with him as credit against future buys