Some of the labels were reversed when it was issued and it is unclear which tune is catwalk. Both sides are good instrumentals, one starts with piano and sounds a bit like the JJ Jackson Sho Nuff tune. The other side is all brass. Anyone know which side is Catwalk and was this the side played at the Torch.

This is not the Cat Walk played at the Torch, next time I will actually listen to something before assuming its the tune I was looking for. This is of course the flip side "A Little Bit Of Soul".

Edited September 7, 20177 yr by Kegsy

Kegsy

The record I remember as The Cat Walk is not the one on your link ,although I've been told it is really The Cat Walk and the one that was played at the Torch was one of the many that had reversed labels , so this is "The Cat Walk" that really isn't as it is the other side. confusing!                                                                                                                                                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEKgaB

 

10 hours ago, Rick Cooper said:

Kegsy

The record I remember as The Cat Walk is not the one on your link ,although I've been told it is really The Cat Walk and the one that was played at the Torch was one of the many that had reversed labels , so this is "The Cat Walk" that really isn't as it is the other side. confusing!                                                                                                                                                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEKgaB

 

 

cat walk was a massive sound at the catacombs................

they put it on their advert, used in blues & soul mag. "where the sounds begin" 

10 hours ago, Rick Cooper said:

Kegsy

The record I remember as The Cat Walk is not the one on your link ,although I've been told it is really The Cat Walk and the one that was played at the Torch was one of the many that had reversed labels , so this is "The Cat Walk" that really isn't as it is the other side. confusing!                                                                                                                                                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEKgaB

 

This is deffo the one played at the Torch 100% confirmed, you can even hear it played out here in 1972, at two minutes and 20 seconds in, the Catwalk as we know it is played : https://www.mixcloud.com/garrykeen/the-torch-a-live-recording-from-1972-djs-alan-day-martyn-ellis-tony-jebb/

Edited September 7, 20177 yr by jim g
typo

Was it booted ?

11 hours ago, Rick Cooper said:

Kegsy

The record I remember as The Cat Walk is not the one on your link ,although I've been told it is really The Cat Walk and the one that was played at the Torch was one of the many that had reversed labels , so this is "The Cat Walk" that really isn't as it is the other side. confusing!                                                                                                                                                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEKgaB

 

This was the side played at the Torch, for me it's the Catwalk.

38 minutes ago, sunnysoul said:

Was it booted ?

No, but because of the reverse label thing many people thought it had been.

1 hour ago, Chris L said:

No, but because of the reverse label thing many people thought it had been.

wow............

so all copies have labels reversed??

always thought they were boots!!

12 hours ago, Rick Cooper said:

Kegsy

The record I remember as The Cat Walk is not the one on your link ,although I've been told it is really The Cat Walk and the one that was played at the Torch was one of the many that had reversed labels , so this is "The Cat Walk" that really isn't as it is the other side. confusing!                                                                                                                                                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEKgaB

 

 

2 hours ago, jim g said:

This is deffo the one played at the Torch 100% confirmed, you can even hear it played out here in 1972, at two minutes and 20 seconds in, the Catwalk as we know it is played : 

 

1 hour ago, Chris L said:

This was the side played at the Torch, for me it's the Catwalk.

Yes guys you are all quite correct, I have amended my earlier post, looks like I listened to the right tune on youtube and then copied the wrong link somehow. Apologies for any confusion caused.

25 minutes ago, 25miles said:

wow............

so all copies have labels reversed??

 

No mate, only the copies with reversed labels have reversed labels, the copies that don't, haven't.

Edited September 7, 20177 yr by Kegsy

Looks like everyone agrees that video two is the tune played at the Torch. Just out of interest I played my copy of it and timed it at 2:25 long which all the Fatback labels say is "A little bit of soul". So we have the right tune but is it the right title?

3 hours ago, Kegsy said:

No mate, only the copies with reversed labels have reversed labels, the copies that don't, haven't.

40 minutes ago, Millo said:

Looks like everyone agrees that video two is the tune played at the Torch. Just out of interest I played my copy of it and timed it at 2:25 long which all the Fatback labels say is "A little bit of soul". So we have the right tune but is it the right title?

Interesting point. So what you are saying is that the reverse label copies are the right way round and that the ones with the labels the right way round are in fact the reverse of what was previously thought, mi lud.

Any clues in the matrix ?, I sold my copy a few weeks ago so I can't look.

Edited September 7, 20177 yr by Kegsy

3 hours ago, Kegsy said:

No mate, only the copies with reversed labels have reversed labels, the copies that don't, haven't.

so if things don't alter they'll stay as the are

2 minutes ago, 25miles said:

so if things don't alter they'll stay as the are

Exactly, as my Grandma used to say "If things don't change they won't alter".

Edited September 7, 20177 yr by Kegsy

1 hour ago, Kegsy said:

Interesting point. So what you are saying is that the reverse label copies are the right way round and that the ones with the labels the right way round are in fact the reverse of what was previously thought, mi lud.

Any clues in the matrix ?, I sold my copy a few weeks ago so I can't look.

On my copy the matrix information is scratched in;

2:25 duration side reads FP 411 (crossed out B) A. This is the Torch tune.

2:20 duration side reads FP 411 (crossed out A) B.

Both sides have the Bell Sound stamp.

The other side is better.

I have a vague recollection that someone told me that someone had told them that when they asked Fatback records (or someone claiming to own the tapes) for a tape of The Catwalk they were sent a tape that played A Little Bit of Soul. So it looks like the mix up with what recording is which started with a mistake on a tape box. The changed matrix number with the scratched out A and B  on the deadwax could be an attempt to get it right. However as both tracks are instrumentals and the titles are fairly meaningless I don't suppose it matters what we know it by, but The Cat Walk sounds cool and who wants a little bit of soul.

Rick

If you go onto Youtube there is a recording made at the Torch circa 1973, The Catwalk is played you can hear it.

4 hours ago, Millo said:

On my copy the matrix information is scratched in;

2:25 duration side reads FP 411 (crossed out B) A. This is the Torch tune.

2:20 duration side reads FP 411 (crossed out A) B.

Both sides have the Bell Sound stamp.

My copy is the same as this

7 hours ago, Godzilla said:

The other side is better.

They are both good sides but I agree with you, the other side is better  ... surprised a little that they preferred Cat Walk at the Torch ...

My copy has the FP 411B on the side labelled 'The Cat Walk' along with the Bell Sound stamp, the B is not crossed out. The track is the same one that Rick Cooper posted with the jingling bells in the opening.

On the Kent CD 'Fatback's Soul Shop', the 2nd track is titled 'The Cat Walk' and is the same track with the jingling bells in the opening.

19 hours ago, sunnysoul said:

They are both good sides but I agree with you, the other side is better  ... surprised a little that they preferred Cat Walk at the Torch ...

I suppose you had to be there at the time.

i dont suppose the writers had heard this first

 

11 minutes ago, smudger said:

i dont suppose the writers had heard this first

 

What do you mean ?

 

On 07/09/2017 at 17:51, Godzilla said:

The other side is better.

Both sides are great.  Each side is better!

Perhaps some knowledgeable person will correct me, but I always thought that The Cat Walk (jingly bells tune) was played on the scene originally only because it was a play on the name Catacombs? Maybe they thought it would become their theme tune?
Obviously it's been written about many times that the Cats DJ's and the Torch DJ's swapped and traded tunes (and probably further afield as well) picking up on each others "biggies", but in my memory it was a record that was soon around in plentiful supply. 
In that era many of the flipsides were tried out and I'm pretty sure that was the case for Gerry & Paul, reckon I danced to both back then and it spread to the local nightclubs and bars (maybe it was the nightclub DJ's who didn't know which was the correct tune to play and played the flip not the Cat Walk because they had wrongly labelled copies?)
Either way up, it's a great memory of when the world was a simpler, and for me at least, a happier place !

Remember playing 'cat walk' out many moons ago and Richard Sealing telling me it was a massive play for him at Va Va's. 

Certainly has to be a moment in time , the  DNA  of northern soul   wonderful thang?

Oh, it does seem to be some kind of instrumental version, with added instruments, of J.J. Jackson's "Sho Nuff," which itself is a...well, "rip-off" might be too strong a word...which itself contains a nod to the Contours' "Just a Little Misunderstanding." 

I've always played the other side of Gerry & Paul and had never till now heard this side!

Can someone really simplify this and make a definitive post of the tune which IS the Catwalk please?

Cheers,

Mark R

According to Mr Manship, this WAS booted in 1971  ...

 

Edited September 12, 20177 yr by sunnysoul

22 hours ago, sunnysoul said:

 

 

According to Mr Manship, this WAS booted in 1971  ...

 

Anyone have one without the Bell Sound Studio stamp ?

On 10/09/2017 at 16:58, Mark R said:

Can someone really simplify this and make a definitive post of the tune which IS the Catwalk please?

Cheers,

Mark R

No one really knows which is which do they?

 

41 minutes ago, Steve L said:

No one really knows which is which do they?

 

Yes

Returning to the birth of Northern Soul, the label boasted another single that helped the scene convert yet more aspiring night owls. With a title like ‘The Cat Walk’ c/w ‘Little Bit Of Soul’ and being recorded by Gerry & Paul and the Soul Emissaries, Fatback 411 was always going to get listened to by young Brits in search of that old, soul sound for their happening dances back in the north of England. This time they weren’t even slightly disappointed. By the early seventies, instrumentals were in vogue through the likes of Motown’s Earl Van Dyke and Ric Tic’s San Remo Strings, and when the first chords of ‘The Cat Walk’ blast out of the speakers, there’s no doubt that a classic dance record is playing. ‘Little Bit Of Soul’ maintains the danceable rhythm but doesn’t quite contain the magic that ‘Cat Walk’ conjures up.

 

The Gerry of the group was Gerry Thomas, a NYC keyboard player who was also adept at the trumpet and a great musical arranger to boot. Gerry is a central figure in the Fatback story; he originally met Bill Curtis when they were both playing in a dance band run by Ron Anderson called Ron Anderson and the Versatiles. He left the band in 1968 to play in the Jimmy Castor Bunch and stayed with them for the next ten years. While he was with that group he wrote for them and performed on their big hits, but also developed an interest in the Fatback organisation which extended to him arranging the very first Fatback Band single. Paul was Paul Roland Martinez, a bass player and original member of Jimmy Castor’s various bands. In fact, it was Paul who introduced Gerry to Jimmy. Paul had been a member of the 50s group the Cadillacs, and that’s how he met Jimmy Castor, when Jimmy was doing some singing with the Teenagers after Frankie Lymon had left. Paul co-wrote ‘Little Bit Of Soul’ with Gerry while Gerry was sole composer of ‘The Cat Walk’. The Soul Emissaries were an ensemble of studio musicians who included, among others, Richard Tee, Jimmy Johnson and the king of New York session drummers, Bernard “Pretty” Purdie.

 

Now here’s a story for the serious vinyl collector; better known as anoraks to the uninitiated. ‘The Cat Walk’ was a massive record on the Northern Soul scene in the very early 70s, so much so that it was one of the first records to be bootlegged. When I first came across the bootleg copy I soon realised that the sides of the record were reversed and what should have been ‘The Cat Walk’ was ‘Little Bit Of Soul’. This had always amused me, and when I met up with Gerry Thomas a few years ago I repeated the story to him. He confided to me that the record pressing company had got the sides the wrong way round in the first place and they had sent the masters back to get it pressed the right way before selling it.  So did that mean the bootleg was an original, and which was the correct version of the titles? The fact that both sides were played at different times and they were both instrumentals made it seem like an insolvable problem. However, when we came to dub (what I thought was) the original record for this CD (it’s one of two singles for which the masters had been lost), I was amazed when our normally perfect Sound Mastering studios sent me the master CDR for approval and they had put the tracks in the wrong sequence. Luckily I didn’t go in with guns blazing, because when we compared our original single it was exactly the same as the bootleg and I was beginning to question my own sanity. Had there ever been a copy that had had my favourite side as ‘The Cat Walk’? A phone call to the ever-knowledgeable Mick Smith, a man who had been there at the time, and Keith Minshull, one of the first DJs to play the record, confirmed the existence of the original version that I remembered. All the early dance ads featuring ‘The Cat Walk’ as one of the star attractions at Wolverhampton’s Catacombs or the Bird’s Nest in West Hampstead had been correct after all. What I realised had happened was that there had been two different originals like Gerry had said and the bootleggers had chosen the wrong one to copy. It may not have meant much to the majority of soul fans but at least I could sleep peacefully again!

 

So, the "two different originals" should both have the Bell Sound studio stamp in the run out  ... as Mr Manship asserts ...

Yes

On 9/10/2017 at 16:58, Mark R said:

Can someone really simplify this and make a definitive post of the tune which IS the Catwalk please?

Cheers,

Mark R

The tune with the prominent Bobby Wells style vibes/tubular bells on the intro is the tune everybody, who was there at the time, knows as The Cat Walk. When the horns kick in you can virtually hear the words "lets do the cat walk, come on and do the cat walk".

Edited September 13, 20177 yr by Kegsy

Kegsy, you can't possibly recall who was there at the time, what they knew & which track was which ... you were always off your head back then.

On 9/6/2017 at 22:44, Rick Cooper said:

Kegsy

The record I remember as The Cat Walk is not the one on your link ,although I've been told it is really The Cat Walk and the one that was played at the Torch was one of the many that had reversed labels , so this is "The Cat Walk" that really isn't as it is the other side. confusing!                                                                                                                                                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEKgaB

 

This is deffo the side that was played at the Torch, one of my all time faves and never gets played anymore more's the pity

On 9/14/2017 at 17:05, Roburt said:

Kegsy, you can't possibly recall who was there at the time, what they knew & which track was which ... you were always off your head back then.

who wasn't !!

On 9/14/2017 at 17:05, Roburt said:

Kegsy, you can't possibly recall who was there at the time, what they knew & which track was which ... you were always off your head back then.

Friday to Monday is not always, i'll have you know, Tuesday to Wednesday was for kipping, Thursday was for scoring or shopping when the Chemists were closed.

Edited September 21, 20177 yr by Kegsy

4 hours ago, Kegsy said:

Friday to Monday is not always, i'll have you know, Tuesday to Wednesday was for kipping, Thursday was for scoring or shopping when the Chemists were closed.

LOL, good answer

what a thread, absolutely brilliant.I used to be indicisive but now i'm not so sure! Lol.                                                All the best Fred 

On 20/09/2017 at 21:59, Northern Soul UK said:

This is deffo the side that was played at the Torch, one of my all time faves and never gets played anymore more's the pity

Agreed with all of that

 

On 9/21/2017 at 07:28, Kegsy said:

Friday to Monday is not always, i'll have you know, Tuesday to Wednesday was for kipping, Thursday was for scoring or shopping when the Chemists were closed.

So was this where you headed on Thursdays ... 

 

Edited September 23, 20177 yr by Roburt

HI All I think the confusion about the Gerry & Paul 45, stems from Blackpool mecca in 72, either Tony TONY Jebb ott Allen Day,

Had the original (grained Label) , and preferred the title CAR WALK.