Rick Cooper

The view from the back door this morning, my workshop just visible through the bushes Managed to do the daily commute up the steps.

Zan, there's a name from the past. I think he was from Manchester or Stockport area. As a youngest I was told about some of the things that could happen to a stranger at the Wheel. One involved being relieved of money , records or a nice jacket by characters like Zan. Probably totally untrue.

Played at The Central and Pendulum ,Manchester and possibly The Torch. I think it mainly got played as being another version of a big record, it's a bit jerky for mass appeal. Do you know who Johnny and Lilly are/were? Always assumed Johnny is Johnny Copeland but that could be the obvious theory at the time.

Steve When I was working at Global / Cream records in 1972 to 1976 the pressing company (Lintone or Orlake I think) would always send three test pressings for each release. I don't think we had a choice as to the quantity. In those days no one did special white labels /promo or such like marketing tricks. I've still got one of each but don't know where the rest went. I'm not sure about US labels but probably similar. It's quite likely that bigger labels would get quite a few extra done so they could play the record to the salesmen and favoured radio DJs. I've seen an Atlantic/Stax test pressing for Wendy Rene Bar B Q that had a note from Jerry Wexler with it. The writing on your Sandra Philips doesn't look like 1960s US handwriting and there is no pressing plant name on it, but that may not be significant. Rick

The branch of Fopp in Manchester is a far better shop than any of the HMVs so I hope they can be saved if HMV folds. A better selection in all genres, more unusual CDs and an interesting selection of books. The shop tries to involve local public participation by having posters and info on local gigs and events. Last time I was there they were playing a CD that sounded interesting so I asked what it was. It was a Numero CD of obscure US Garage bands and the assistant was really enthusiastic and had a genuine passion for the music. Sadly this is lacking in the Stockport HMV. Quite agree about Derek Howe's singles counter at HMV Manchester, if only we could go back in time with a load of cash. Rick

If the HMV shops don't survive it could be the end of the type of record shop that most of us grew up with. Spending Saturdays going round the record shops was a way of life for a lot of teenagers from the 1950s onwards. Even if you didn't buy anything you'd meet up with other people with similar tastes, not the same thing as downloading or streaming. The Manchester HMV shop in the 70s had a great selection of singles when Derek Howe was there and was the busiest shop in town. I usually go in HMV in Stockport but never find anything worth buying. The stock seems to consist of loads of 2 for £10 CDs of tired back catalogue major label releases and the same old compilations of past hits. They don't stock any Kent, Outtasite , Soul Brother or other similar labels. In other genres they don't seem to have the stock to attract regular buyers. Could be the staff either don't know how to, or aren't allowed to stock any thing that could bring in committed customers. It doesn't help when they can't get the category for the artists right, this week I saw Jerry Reed and Bobby Bare in the Jazz section when, as I'm sure you all know,they belong in the bin, sorry that should be C&W section. Rick

Los Canarios- Spanish? . Massive early Wheel record on UK Major Minor

The P W Cannon record- Hanging Out My Tears To Dry- was a massive track in the Netherlands Surinam community in the late 70s. It was one of the most in demand records so was probably made available somehow. It's one of my favourite records of this type and for anyone who wants to know what they liked, give it a listen. Dancing permitted but it has to be a slow smooch with your partner. By a strange coincidence there is a UK company called P W Cannon that makes radiator grilles.

Thanks for that ,Dave. Another bush next to this one, but not a firethorn, had a pair of blackbirds nesting this year but something killed the chicks and threw them out, magpies probably but could have been one of the many local cats.

This summer a bush just outside the kitchen window had loads of flowers , and visiting bees. It now has masses of berries which attracts a blackbird every day around the same time. After about five days I managed to get a decent photo just as it picked a berry.

Very sad news. He always had time for everyone. Contributed so much , going to be greatly missed . Rick and Gill

My post of December 2015 ends with a brief mention of my US visit with Terry (Francis) Thomas. Since then Terry has sadly died so I'd thought I'd try to remember some of the visit. I was given a photo album that Terry had from the trip and found some receipts and invoices that I had kept. With these I have managed to piece together places and dates without having to rely on a not very reliable memory. I had sold a lot of my records in early 1977 as I was sick of all the bootlegs and reissues ruining the value of the originals. With the money from this I decided to have a holiday trip to the US. Terry was doing well with his badge and record business so together we had the funds for a holiday without having to make it pay by finding records. However we had made a few plans to visit certain shops and warehouses and had a few tips from Rod Shard @modernsoulsucks and Ian Levine also by then I was working at Robinson's Records who bought from the US. We had a Greyhound bus pass and Holiday Inn vouchers so after four or five days in New York we headed off down the East Coast aiming to get to Miami and back in two weeks. In most towns we found small record shops but apart from some 70s stuff we hadn't found anything to get excited about. As we had an address in Miami from Levine and the phone number for Rod's contact in Miami we planned to stay there for three or four days. Levine's lead was a waste of time as the shop had lots of records but the owner wouldn't let us look through them. He had some copies of Tobi Lark -Happiness is Here but wanted about 8 or 9 dollars each, way too much. Jose was supposed to come to our hotel but for some reason couldn't make it. Having some spare time we went to look round the area near the hotel. Fairly soon we came across a record shop still open in the evening. The shop had LPs in racks everywhere but tucked away at the back was a small glass counter with some singles in. The top record on one pile was Little Joe Romans When You're Lonesome. We asked to look at the others and found the rest were all mid 60s soul records with no C&W and pop. What more could we want, well obviously more records but that seemed to be the lot. After asking the owner if he had anymore he said there were loads in the back rooms but we had to buy at least 100 records and if we made a mess he would kick us out. The owner , Jack Howerd, was a foul mouthed grumpy old man. Although it was getting late we immediately got stuck in and soon found some great records. We had to start back to New York within two days so spent the rest of time going through thousands of records and even then couldn't get into another room as there were stacks of car tyres, fridges,boxes and other junk in the way. Some of the best finds were Tony Clarke Landslide demos, Nolan Chance and Holly Maxwell on Constellation demos, Butch Baker -Batman at the Go Go, Tainted Love and lots of titles for Japan and Netherland collectors. One of these -Syl Johnson- Do you Know what Love Is we took about 25 copies, left loads more. All these went to Japan as no one wanted it in the UK. I think the owner used to be in the record business in Chicago and had moved to Miami in his old age. Someone told me that John Anderson had found the shop but wouldn't pay the dollar a record Jack was asking and I'm sure he wouldn't stand for any haggling. I think Dave Raistrick found the shop and had a good result after us. @Dave Raistrick is that right? We had to get going so must have left loads of good records but didn't care as we had found enough to make the trip worth it. To save time travelling we hired a car and dropped the records of at Robinsons shipping agent in New Jersey. Photos, top L checking Yellow Pages, top R hitting the road, middle row, Tone Distributors in Miami, Global Records in Philly. Bottom row, Terry with Steve Alaimo at TK, Terry outside Ed Balbiers (Global owner) house in Philly. The other photos I've got are all tourist type stuff , Disney world , New York etc. etc. Various receipts. Flights cost £198 for both of us. The Greyhound ticket was £97 each. A holiday to remember but I seemed to have forgotten whole chunks of it, but other stuff was , nearly getting thrown out of disco in Miami as we didn't buy a drink from the waitress, being told to get out of the area by a passing cop car, visiting a radio station, the warm welcome at TK, the FO at Philadelphia International, NY Jazz club, Disney World and other tourist attractions. Rick

Another fact from Art Rupe's instructions to his reps is the royalty rate for new signings . This is stated as half a cent for the first year raising the rate until the artist is receiving 2 cents. So yes, half a cent was the starting rate at Specialty for Little Richard but I should think they all got more when the hits started. Did they also discuss how much they got for top billing at the Apollo or appearing on American Bandstand?

In my post above it wasn't one of the Bihari brothers (Modern Records) but Art Rupe of Specialty who had written instructions for his field reps when signing new acts. The actual quote is "Impress upon the artists that if they succeed, the publicity of having their records played constantly all over the U.S.A. will make them in demand for personal appearances . Impress on them not to look in the records for income, but to the profitable personal appearances." The royalty statement I mentioned was from Modern Records for Lee Denson ( no , me neither) from June 1958. This is - 300 records @85 cents 255.00 90% of $255 * 229.50 Artists Royalty 3% of 229.50 6.89 Artist Draw and Expenses Session musicians (6 @ 41.25) 247.50 21% to Union** 51.98 Vocal Group 75.00 Artist Advance 50.00 Total 424.48 Overdrawn Balance $ 417.59 * I think it was standard practice to pay royalties on 90% of sales to cover promo, lost or damaged records (and probably a few boxes to DJs and radio bosses) ** Musicians Union, paid when session musicians belonged to the Union. So the record company spent $424 , the musicians , musicians union , vocal group and artist all got paid but the record company lost money so far. Maybe the record sold some more after June. If my maths is right the artist got 2.3 cents per record , so the record would have to sell 18439 copies (18439 x 2.3c = $424) before his account would be in credit and he would get another cheque. This seems a lot so perhaps I've not worked it out correctly. Using this as an example a later 5000 custom press of the record would still not clear the overdrawn balance. Rick

Good question Kegsy but I don't think the artists got anything. In John Broven's book Record Makers and Breakers he quotes from an internal document for Modern Records field reps from one of the Bihari brothers. Basically it tells them to stress that an artist signed to their (or any other) label will not make much money from record sales. A hit record will let them do more and better paying live appearances . A royalty statement is also listed from the early 60s for an artist who didn't have a hit. It shows that the artist got an advance but all the recording , promotion and other expenses would be charged against record sales. I think the statement showed sales of 300 and there was still quite a lot "owed" by the artist. From the figures quoted it would take sales of nearly 5000 before any money was due. So if the record had a special pressing of 2000 10 years later the artist still wouldn't be owed anything. This is always used as evidence of the evil record labels exploiting artists but the record label put the money up and probably lost it on most releases. Meanwhile the artist got their fees from live appearances, minus the agents fee. Don Varner is quoted as saying that the money most artists earned was from live gigs. The agreement I did for the Cream issue of Seven Day Lover was with William Bell as owner of the recording. Depending on the contract he had with James Fountain any money due was a matter between Bell and James Fountain. I think James was aware that the record was issued by Cream and I'm sure he would have got any money due as William Bell is known as a trustworthy guy, unlike a lot of other record label owners. The publisher got a cut from every record sold so monies should be due no matter what the artist got. As for the Okeh, Columbia SP and RCA northern issues some artists may have been owed royalties if the record had covered the recording costs. Whether they got them or not I don't think will ever know. Some artists like Little Richard, Watson and Williams, Paul Anka etc should have got something as they were well known and probably had good management. Maybe Lorraine Chandler might know more but I should think it is a subject that is not talked about in public. Ady would probably know more but it's something that may be confidential. Didn't Dave Godin insist on the artists on his Deep Soul CDs getting paid no matter what the original contract said. Rick

Quite enjoyed the programme but wonder how it went down with the people who were there at the time. Did they get all the facts right? There was no mention of the artists and labels who made the music which was a shame. The DJs and club promoters got all the credit but the musicians,writers and artists didn't get a look-in . Next week it's about the superstar DJs. Fopp have copies of the book Life After Dark by Dave Haslam for £3.00 which includes a lot more info on the dance scene covered by the TV prog, as well as interesting facts about other clubs and scenes going back to late 1800s. Worth getting. Rick

It looks like Good Old Gold records were only available around LA / South California then. I never saw any of them around Philly/ New York and the East coast. Perhaps they didn't think it worth selling nationally or wanted to keep a low profile.

Blackpoolsoul Not sure if you're asking me on this and your other question (who,when and where) but I have nothing to add on this label, which doesn't help you any further. As RobbK and The Yank don't have any info and other sources have nothing it must have been a very secretive and obscure label. Tax write off maybe but who knows.

For most of the 1970s I was ordering oldie type singles from the US for Global Records and then Robinson's Records in Manchester. All the major labels had large catalogues of back to back hits by the popular rock, rock pop, soul and country artists. The best sellers were some of the prog rock and heavy metal stuff such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath Alice Cooper etc. The soul releases that did OK were the Motown Yesteryear, Atlantic OS series and Bell Flashback. A couple of pop northern titles sold well- Brian Hyland Joker Went Wild, Baja Marimba Band etc. The only labels I can remember that were oldies only were Eric and Lost Nite, Collectables hadn't started back then. All the labels actively promoted the releases , issuing good quality catalogues that would be sent in the boxes of records. Also the One Stops I used for some labels always kept us up to date with all the oldies labels releases. For those titles that weren't available from these places House of Sounds in Philly "found" stocks of old hits. Anyway, from my time back then I never saw any Good Old Gold records or listings. This seems strange as there are a few titles that would have been worth getting for the UK or they would have been listed by House of Sounds. It's possible the label had folded by the early 70s but old stock would have been knocking around back then. If the records weren't being sold in shops would it be possible that they were done for sale to jukebox operators only . The titles on the labels seem to be a lot of radio hits from the late 50s early 60s by lesser known artists and the labels are mostly smaller ones that didn't have their own oldies series. These would have done well in jukeboxes but maybe not too great in shops. As to the legality of the label I'll leave that up to the courts. The design of the label looks similar to the Old Soul label that had four northern records in the early 70s but could just be coincidence. Rick

My local Youth Club was The Parrish , Cheadle Hulme Stockport around 68/69 so some records I remember were new releases such as Brooks and Jerry I Got What it Takes Part 1 (but not part 2 as we didn't have time) and anything by UK groups such as The Foundations and Equals. Certain records were probably still popular from original release, a few that spring to mind are Headline News, S.O.S, Jimmy Mack,Third Finger Left Hand, Wherever I Lay My Hat, Funky Street, Knock On Wood. On Third Finger Left Hand the girls would sing "You Dirty Pig" after "He did something" and on Funky Street would dip down on "Down on Funky street", weird eh. Some Reggae got played and US bubblegum but no Northern as it hadn't been invented yet. Mark S and Drew Can't remember the ones you mention around Stockport but definitely didn't go anywhere near Blazes, very dodgy. A few Sports and Scout Clubs held one off discos .Manchester Rugby Club had one, where I first heard At The Discotheque amongst all the Top 30 dross, amazing. Probably like most on here when you looked old enough to get served in a bar the Youth Club got left behind but I remember a guy at the The Parrish that was quite a bit older, draw your own conclusions. Rick

On ebay UK I used to have a set of filters always in place and then I'd do searches by label. This changed about a month ago so after one search all the filters are removed so I have to start again, also the number of results dropped by about a third. At the same time my other collecting thing, old tools, changed so the listings on the page had no bid count. This means whenever I see a crazy price I have to look at the item to see if it has had any bids. Usually it's just some idiot trying a stupid high starting bid. All of this means more wasted time on ebay, is that what they want? There is a "Tell Us What You Think" button on your ebay page so complain to them but I'm fairly sure they never look at this. Rick

Benji I'd agree with your theory, especially as according to the Record World ads, If This Is Love was the B side. It's not uncommon for artists to add vocals to an existing track to save money on recording costs. It was John Manship who had the record as a completely different recording so I assume he had some information to state this. It seems unlikely that a new recording done by Mike Terry would be an almost exact copy of another producer/arranger. Rick

The intricacies of the bass guitar part would obviously stand out for you but for a non musician these things just get lost in the overall sound. Can you hear any other differences? Rick

Without giving it much thought I always had the Eddie Spencer recording of If This Is Love using the same backing track as the Precisions. The difference just down to mastering or mixing plus Eddie's strong vocals. However the info on John Manships auction for EP has it as a completely different recording and done in Canada. So can any one give any more information on where, how and why the Eddie Spencer record was recorded and did it sell or get any radio plays. I always prefered Eddie Spencer but a version poll could prove interesting. Ian Levine was the first DJ I heard playing EP at Blackpool around 74/75. A few months after it's first plays I found 50+ copies but as they had been packed at the top of a LP size box about half of them were cracked from side to side, at £5.00 a copy an expensive mistake. They were the only Canadian title in the shipment of US records so did it sell in the Detroit area? https://www.raresoulman.co.uk/eddie-spencer-if-this-is-love-i-d-rather-be-lonely-you-re-so-good-to-me-baby-arc-1206-163540.html Rick