Ady Croasdell

Last night the lovely and extremely talented 97 year old musician and record producer died. An expert saxophonist he played with Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton as well as being a regular in the house bands of the Apollo and Savoy. He toured with the first ever Motown Revues and recorded The Manhattans, Lovettes, Lee Williams and the Cymbals, Pretenders, Norma Jenkins and many others. He was incredibly kind, friendly and funny and very appreciative of his European admirers

That's the feller; Discotrons! I've got a great photo of the Harboro skins dancing round one on a Corby estate about 7am summer Sunday morning.

Excellent info Robb, I'll try and get it in a note one day. Ady

Sorry Bob, I was going to look it up today but got carried away with a new tape discovery! I'll check on Monday and can ring up Darrell Goolsby her singing partner for a catch up. He was in the Steppers, you may know him. Ady

Ha. Sameish area, probably around 72 I went to see Frankie Valli when You're Ready Now was a hit at the Cali in Dunstable. Hitched it there and a grebo van stopped and let me in the back with them. They hadn't noticed my crombie as I'd got very long hair and proceeded to tell me how they kicked all the local skins in around their area. I had bright red socks under my sta prest and brogues and was trying to cover them up the whole trip. They were either having a laugh or incredibly dumb; I got away unscathed.

Yep Tony got it when he was working for Westside and going through the Roulette tapes. He gave it me to play at the 100 Club first and it went big. I think I gave a copy to Keb and or Butch. Another Northern Soul record company nefariously got hold of a copy of the music and issued it with a spurious license but by then the licensing situation of Mayfield was such a mess (as it still is) that they got away with it.

Never seen one and there would be no reason to boot it, it's never been in big demand.

Big Ukranian cry-baby.

From what I can gather from BMI, D Peoples was a pseudonym for Richard Parker a Chicago singer and prolific songwriter. Parker wrote at least two songs for the Chicago Vows group. Mary Love used to know the Los Angeles Vows when she started out in the mid 60s and also recorded Richard Parker's 'Lay This Burden Down', which was possibly just a coincidence that there should be two separate links to the Vows and Richard Parker. I know from an interview with a close friend of Fred Hughes that Richard worked in Los Angeles for Vee Jay and recorded Hughes there for his V-J and Exodus singles. He also wrote and produced 'If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time' for Vernon Garrett for Modern but I can't recall any other Modern/Kent productions or songs of his. If anyone knows more about his mid 60s L A connections I'd be very interested. Ady

Thanks Rob that's cleared that up. Hopefully Bob may know a bit more about Richard Parker.

Yes the LA vocal groups has the LA outfit down as the Majors but has no mention of Richard Parker. The two Parker connected records I mentioned were Chicago recorded so was it the same group or two separate outfits or a group that changed and travelled a lot!

7069 from 1967, the same date as the Ronnie White and Weston Prim. A fellow SS member has put a scan up in another thread about the song 'Millionaire'

I see Richard Parker wrote the Sta-Set Vows 45 and D Peoples which I think is a pseudonym of him co-wrote the Lost In The City on Big 3 both of which are Chicago labels I think so were there two groups? Boba may well know. Parker is fascinating, I'm guessing he worked between LA and Chicago, he certainly cut Fred Hughes for V-J in LA, but I'd love to know more about his career.

Cheers chap, bung it in the post to Ace please and I'll sort you out with some silver discs. Ta Ady

Please get editing. I don't think it spoils the magic of a record to work out what the songwriters and singer were trying to convey.

I'd love to hear Take Away This Loneliness if anyone can send me a link or soundfile to it. Ta Ady

That's poetry man: Dave Godin could have got a book outta that one.

That's the fella, i had a feeling it may have been out in two colours but I think I'm mixing it with the Elco which was on yellow and red. Let's see how Kev gets on with his scanner.

Hi Robb, That's great, it's a scarce 45. Yes please send the scans and we'll use them in the forthcoming CD. Cheers Ady Still interested in Weston Prim if anyone has an issue.

Yes please and any chgance of a sound file to compare to the Josie masters? Ta Ady

If they came out could someone post or send me scans please, I've only heard of double sided demos. Ta Ady

The flip should have been Pray For The Rain To Come If it came out could someone post or send me a scan please, I've only heard of double sided demos. Ta Ady

I could also use a sound file to compare to our tape if anyone would be so kind? ady.croasdell@btinternet.com Ta Ady

Yes Val did her own demos for Flomar and I have an acetate of her doing this one so I doubt they'd have done a girl group demo as well, hers had b vox anyway,

That sounds like a terrific version but not remotely like the Apollas or Candy & The Kisses in my opinion. I'll pass it on to some girl group experts who may spot it. Please tell Joerg that if we can track down the artist and label we'd be very interested in putting it on a Kent CD eventually