Greetings all, first post in the proper forum, so hope it's in the right place.
A sound I acquired early on in my soul journey, a gift from a friend, on the Trans label 'Blowing my mind to pieces' Bob Relf, what a lovely record. Always intrigued me the little drum and sticks carved into the dead-wax, have spent ages just admiring that little touch, the sheen on the disc, and listening to it, would never get bored of it. When I spotted on the flip side credited R. Relf, yep the guy could write too, Bob Relf entered the memory as being much more than just a hired voice.
Bob and Earl 'My little girl' instrumental, real nice composition with great interesting instrumentation, really like it and found out later that the Bob was the very same Bob Relf, clearly a very talented guy and a big player in terms of Northern Soul. I'm not aware of his success level in terms of monetary success or US chart achievements but certainly a force to be reckoned with whether recognised in the mainstream or not. I didn't have this one until years later when it was on a Goldmine CD boxset I was given as a present, but a friend had the 45 back in the day and I used to ask her to spin it whenever I was at her place.
Vividly remember being at an early Keele and, it was either Brian Rae, Keith Minshull or Dave Evison spun a sound that just floored me, I'm not much of a dancing man, although I try when moved sufficiently, well this sound, new to my ears just rattled me to the core, had to run to the floor, this sublime sound, smooth, full, was like having luke-warm syrup poured into my ears, like being bathed in warm butter by a bevvy of beauties from the Temple of Vesta, seriously the word Rapture would be only just sufficient to describe this two minutes of sheer bliss. I had to have this record. I had no clue what it was and ran over to a friend (my now wife) whom I knew would know the name of it! Yes, Bobby Garrett 'I can't get away'. It might've been Tim Ashibende who had it in his box in the record bar, it wasn't expensive, maybe a fiver, somebody else paid for it. I spent a good while in that bright room studying this piece of plastic, couldn't wait to see it spin round and round and knew when the stylus dropped on it I would be in for that same blissfull hit. But, reading the credits, one Robert Relf and Earl Nelson!
Later I bought a copy of Bobby Garrett 'My little girl' win-win I thought, the Bob and Earl track with my fave male vocalist singing, excellent.
So the internet age arrives and looking into Bob Relf a bit online and find that Bobby Garrett IS Bob Relf performing under another name. His career encompassed Bob and Earl, Bob Relf, Bobby Garrett, a major talent and a very sweet voice and those compositions/arrangements, smooth!
Now, I know the esteemed collective at SS know all this, the mind boggles at the wealth of knowledge collectively stored away! So with that in mind and with these records being some of my most prized, not interested in monetary value at all, I have a couple of questions to ask.
Where was 'I can't get away' first played and by whom?' And where would you say venue-wise was it a sound most identified with?
Discovered by?
And the 45 'Short skirts' a Rock n Roll-ish RnB track Credited Bobby Garrett by Roy Lee Combo with Bobby Garrett...Is this our Bob Relf too?
Also would appreciate any recommendations for sounds to check out regarding Relf/Garrett.
Cheers and best wishes!
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