Rick Cooper

Tales of his early days in Morocco was fascinating and how he heard soul records and then DJ'd was revealing. After a brief mention of his time in the UK he then skipped a few years to concentrate on his recordings. As with Paul, I'd like to hear more about his exploits finding so many rare records to send over here. Kev tried to get him to talk about this but we got more about Shalamar etc. Hopefully in part two we'll hear more.

No mention yet of the best ever Darrell Banks- Open The Door To Your Heart / Our Love Is In The Pocket Couple of others Jimmy Beaumont- You Got Too Much Going For You/ I Never Loved Her Anyway James Barnett- Keep On Talking/ Take A Good Look

Motown soundtrack to the film - Nothing But a Man- Don't know much about the film. Abbey Lincoln was a jazz singer, having albums issued in the late 50s early 60s. Trailer for the film - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSjgshFzHJE

Laura Lee does a good job on To Win Your Heart but it sounds like the vocal was just hastily made up to get another release. Ric-Tic/Golden World seemed to do this on a few other tracks, probably due to the way they and others recorded backing tracks with no vocalist and then added the lyrics later. Motown did this a lot but usually left space for the words so the instrumentals can be a bit sparse. Another vocal that I've never liked is Ronnie and Robyn- As Long As You Love Me, much prefer the backing track , Sidra's Theme. It sounds like it was always meant to be an instrumental until Sidra's co owner decided his children cut a vocal version.

I'm also a big fan of instrumentals , backing tracks or made as instrumentals. These are some great examples of backing track instrumentals Duke Browner- Crying Over You Luther Ingram - Exus Trek Donni Burdick- Bari Track From the Motown releases any early Supremes tracks with Diana Ross removed sound great.

Thanks for that, it's something I never knew. I tried slowing the speed on YouTube but it sounded nothing like the record at 33rpm. Her vocal was slowed but sounded to be at the same tonal range. The record at 33 sounds like a smooth male vocalist.

Slightly off-topic, which might get me a telling off from our friend Mr W Butcher. By mistake I played the single Mamma I Wish I Stayed At Home by Deniece Chandler at 33rpm.The result was a really nice mid tempo track with a sort of smoochy 1990 feel. Neither the vocal or instruments sounded obviously wrong, the main give away was the line "sixteen year old girl wild as the wind". If I knew how to, I'd put a clip on, could someone else do it.

Re Baltimore , Ed Balbier the owner of Global records mentioned that certain records were popular in Baltimore and Pittsburgh only. Two he picked out were Feathers- Trying To Get To You and Tony Galla when they were selling as Northern soul. Ed operated an indie distribution business in late 50s and 60s so would have an insight into regional playlists. He would have known loads about the US record industry but I , like others, never asked and it's too late now. To us he was just a grumpy old man.

I've not read about this anywhere but it could have been a result of the payola scandal in the 1950/60s. The Wikipedia entry for payola doesn't give a lot of information just that radio DJs were paid cash and other incentives to play records. If this included boxes of promos a limit on numbers pressed may have been stipulated. There's a lot of stuff about payola out there that may mention this but someone else might know more or be able to find out.

In the above letter from Simon I'm the "Dear Richard" and the "diddle" he refers to and denies was from when I knew him in Leeds. I used to see him , and Julian B in Jumbo Records. One time he persuaded me to sell Johnny Sayles- Can't Get Enough to him for £1.00 and then told me he had sold it for £8. Another time I swapped a Major Lance -Investigate on UK Columbia demo for Van McCoy- Sweet and Easy a week before Selectadisc had it in bulk. At the time this must have riled me a lot but now I see it as just being a smart deal for him and how things were done. I thought he was an interesting character and quite likeable although he would tell you any thing that he knew wasn't true. He sometimes sent records I hadn't ordered but these were always great. One I remember is Jerry Williams- If You Ask Me just before it went big. He probably sent this to others as well. His contribution to NS is massive so I'm looking forward to hearing what he's got to say.

From my experience ordering from major US record labels in the 70s the system was based on regional independent distributors who would represent a number of major and lesser labels. They would also do local promotion for the labels, handing promo copies to just about anyone who could get the record played either on the radio or local teen hops. They would have stock copies on their shelves ready for any shop orders. The theory that stock copies were pressed only after getting radio plays is complete rubbish, this was probably the product of over stimulated minds at the record bar in Wigan Casino and has been repeated ever since. A more typical situation is shown by Ady's sleeve notes for Northern Rarities CD which states that The Imaginations -Strange Neighborhood first pressing order was for 3500 stock copies and 5000 promo copies. So lots of promos and limited stock copies (as Roburt stated above). When a record failed to take off or the distributors only sold a small amount the remaining stock copies would be returned to the labels warehouse. This was essential so the label only paid royalties for actual sales not records shipped. Promo copies didn't count as sales so these were kept by the distributors and then sold for almost nothing, given away or binned. For major labels like Columbia they didn't want their flops in the bargain bins, not good for their image, so destroyed them or sat on them in warehouses. Other major labels would do the same, hence stock copies are rare for RCA, ABC, MGM etc. Smaller labels might have sold off unsold stock as they could have needed the money and didn't have the facilities to store large quantities of records. For hit records by major pop artists the number of promos seems to be a lot less than stock copies. I don't remember ever finding Columbia promos by the likes of Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Johnny Cash and The Byrds.

I know it's completely irrelevant to compare prices and quantities of Syl Johnson today to years ago and it is very annoying, however I'll be that tw*t. I got around 30 copies (red label) from a shop in Miami in 77 and sold then all to Japan for £1 each. No one in the UK, except Gary Cape, wanted it. Left at least 50 more , both red labels and white demos. A time machine would be handy now.

The CD Double Cookin'- Classic Northern Soul Instrumentals , CDKEND 336 from 2010 compiled by Tony Rounce mentions in the notes that " We'll save some of those (other tracks ) for subsequent volumes" I'm still waiting for these but looks like there won't be any more. It's a pity cause I've always liked instrumentals but they seem to be out of favour now. It seems very unlikely that there was even a catalogue number allocated so probably not one of the missing numbers. The CD is still available so perhaps sales weren't good enough for more volumes.

There are six Al Green singles on Motown Yesteryear. Of these I think Take Me To The River was previously only on an album. Not sure if the others are alternate versions.

In 1966 Stockport the place to be seen at was The Tabernacle Club. Opened in January 66 in a former church close to the police station and opposite what used to be Strawberry Studios. I was too young to go then but from online chat it sounds like it was a busy little club that many people remember fondly. Lots of live acts appeared there including most famously, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and The Riot Squad (incl David Bowie). Soul acts mentioned are Edwin Starr, Jimmy Cliff, Bobby Hebb, Jimmy Ruffin, The Fantastics and The Showstoppers. Another site lists Sly and The Family Stone, The Temptations and The Impressions, not sure about these, although the last two were probably fake versions. The music played was mentioned as being RnB and soul. In 1968/69 it was sold to a new owner who named it Sgt Peppers with a change of music featured. I went to see Johnny Johnson and The Bandwagon there but whatever music the DJ played was completely forgettable.