Ady Croasdell

She was at Cleethorpes with her lovely husband Phil and Tracy and Glenda. On fine form and still loopy. Still in E Anglia. Adam's got her number if you wanna contact her, pm me. Ady

Looking For A Way Out is in my top 5 ballads of all time. I'll never see her sing it live now; just as well I'd probably dissolve; very sad news.

I'll have yours then!

At a fair price please. Ady

Sorry we were talking about UK Kent. I thimnk you're thinking of U S Kent. Ady

I'm cheap in many ways Dave.

More like six Dave. i know I sold one to Ivor. I got them from the same New Jersey shop where I got 4 or 5 New York In The Dark's when it was big. I think it was their local record store.

No worries sir, I'm touch No worries sir, i think I'm going through the change!

Yep Soul_Slider, that's the story, although there were two Kent releases TOWN117 and TOWN 135. The guy selling the Horaces copy was just referring to the label. I think the anniversary single is the same mix as the others. As someone said, Roger Armstrong pieced together several takes to get the full effect that we all know and love.

I've been playing it as an oldie for the last ten years on a Grapevine demo. Does the 100 Club count even though it's in the south?

To answer the other questions. There have been a handful of white label promos of about 70% of all Kent releases. Some of the early ones were from Germany with some German technical print and sometimes I'd add handwriting especially for my own copies. They are mainly white label test pressings which I sometimes wrote the details on, a very would have my colleague the production manager's writing. We only did demos of the first two Kent 45s, red A labels and the 12" modern soul promo with Art Gentry which was about a 90 press.

Me me me me! I ain't discovered too many real records, I need to claim them all.

So you don't read my Kent sleevenotes any more Pete; they're a great cure to insomnia.

I think you're under estimating Ginger, he had Tamala Lewis and the Ad Libs off me when they were hot and broke Burning Bush after clearing the floor at St Ives but stuck with it so he was far from playing safe. I have no idea about Betty Boo Boo mind.

Quite common, Dave Hamilton did it throughout his career as he had his own studios and a crew of regular musicians/friends so they would cut on whoever they thought might be a sellable act with a view to placing the recordings when done. There is also the situation of a bigger record company cutting 3 0r 4 tracks at a session and just choosing the best two leaving the others to languish. Ady

Fabulous record that goes down well at the 100 Club. It isn't the tape that's muddy as much as a truly awful EQ on the Grapevine single. Knob twiddling improves this one no end. Ady

I like it and I only sold my copy cause I was skint. The single does have a bad eq though which detracts from it a bit, the CD EQ we did was as good as you can get the sound on it so actually sounds better than the 45. A good DJ could twiddle the knobs and get it near there but if you played it flat it wouldn't sound quite so hot. ady

Apart from a great interview, Dave has been a terrific help to Darrow in sorting this and a lot of other things out to help his career along. He's the reason this tour is happening and he has worked tirelessly and efficiently for that purpose to help Darrow along. The unissued material is really superb and we will include every bit of it. Contractually it has been one of the hardest ever so I'm not going to ask for vinyl release until the new relationship is fully established. We would ideally like to find the original art work (if there was any) that would spur us on to trying harder. Ady

Cigar to Matt, here's the details from the man who liked the pressing plant so much that he married the daughter. "I think I may have found the answer: Raines Record Inc. 181 The Flame 'n' King Up Tight/I Got Nobody It was a New York label based at 429 E. 102nd St in East Harlem. As with the in-house Golden Crest/Shelley singles, the master number seems to indicate a mastering date. In this case, RA 11 1 65-3 would appear to indicate a Nov. 1, 1965 release - around the time of the "Uptight" craze; RA of course = Raines. From Bob McGrath's "The R&B Indies," Raines 370, also by Flame 'n' King (the release numbers are all over the place) had similar matrix numbers: RA-296691-1/2. i.e., mastering in Feb. 9, 1966. In fact, the "Tell Me" side is on YouTube at Now, whether the recordings were cut at the Shelley Products, Huntington Station, Long Island studio or just mastered and pressed there, I can't say. Re. the "falling off" labels, as I said in my book, "Record Makers and Breakers," I tackled the pressing plant manager on this subject in 2000, but he was oblivious to the problem. Therefore, I can only assume the labels were fine when the singles were released but the ravages of time have not been kind to the label glue! I believe Flame 'n' King is Oscar Richardson Jr. John Broven

I know this is pedantic and its only a show but I'm interested in the scene in the North East. When do you reckon the first Northern nights were held in the area Manus? I like Geordie TV too especial;ly When The Boat Comes In and even Spender but I hated Our Friends In The North, I've never been able to take Daniel Craig seriously since.

Sorted now courtesy of Benji. Thanks to anyone who looked. Ady

I'm afraid that's stretching it Matt, I doubt there was much of a Northern scene in Newcastle in the late 60s and it was only in the context of soul records for Northerners in the shop so it wasn't really a term Northerners would use until he used it in the mag. Ady

Just expand your post in a doc to tell the full story from a news article viewpoint. A photo and scan would add to it. Ady

Not the record, just the bag please. Think Ray Charles/Darrow Fletcher mid 70s. 300 dps scan please to ady.croasdell@btinternet.com A couple of the latest Kent goodies will be sent to the swiftest in return for the favour. ta Ady

One's on the way from Ace/Kent. Maybe make it into an article for the site, or have you done that? Ady