Rick Cooper

Yeh ,that's where it seems more like married people as that would be one of the seven deadly sins. But in the US deep South of the early 60s inter racial relationships could be a sin in the eyes of a lot of the population. I don't suppose it matters too much now but it would be interesting to know if it was interpreted that way in the US when the song first came out. Maybe RobK would know. Rick

Great song and Roy Hamilton gets my vote. Perhaps it's obvious and every one knows it , but is the song about an inter-racial couple and not one or both of them being married. If it is, the people who are going to find them could be the girl's parents or ,even worse , a lynch mob. For a married couple the line would be "he's gonna find us". They have to hide in the shadows because it would be dangerous to be seen together by anyone in the town not just a husband or wife. Also they can't talk if they meet downtown because a white girl couldn't be seen talking to a black boy. At the time the song was written a number of films such as To Kill a Mockingbird and In the Still of Night dealt with the subject, so it was being talked about. I don't know if Dan Penn has been asked about this but maybe someone has read interviews with him. Or possibly I'm talking rubbish and should just listen to the music. Rick

Last time I bothered looking at the sellers boxes at a soul night 75% were re-issues , legit or not, 20% average oldies and the rest over priced originals. Next time I go out could the promoters make sure there is only mint originals at 1978 prices. At least on ebay I can filter stuff out. Auction Only gets rid of most of the boots and then I search for labels or artists I want. Finding any thing I want at a good price I take a look and also check sellers other items. This is fairly quick and avoids the masses of boots. Also it's a lot easier than driving round the country , scouring lists and haggling at all-nighters which was the way to get good records 40 years ago. Most of the criticism of ebay record selling applies to almost every other sort of collectible. I look for old woodworking tools and books but there is loads of the same common things that never sell . Occasionally rare tools come up which go for good money. For the very wealthy collector there is a firm of auctioneers that always gets the ultra-rare items, in best condition, markets them across the world and gets eye- watering prices (some planes fetch 10 to 15 thousand). Now who does that remind me of. Rick

Nick Fantastic find, well done. Darrell Banks is the obvious mega rarity ,but what is in the rest of the large collection mentioned at the start of this thread. A nice run of mint mid 60 s London releases would add up to a fair few pounds. Maybe once everyone has calmed down you could let us know what else you found. Rick

No one has mentioned getting any thing decent from a Global Records soul pack, which isn't surprising as they were rubbish. Ed Balbier was never one to give anything away so made sure the packs that were sold contained nothing of value. One of my first jobs when I started at Global in 73 was to open all the soul packs and take out anything of value. I think I found some copies of Maxine Brown -One in a Million but that was all. The packs were made up by laying out a large table with piles of the stock and then picking two copies from each pile. The titles would change as some ran out but anyone buying a few packs would get a lot of duplicates. As most were sold to traders this didn't matter too much. Quite a few buyers used the records as prizes at fun fairs. Once I remember making up a pack which had a Soul Survivors single on Crimson in it. I was getting one of these when I noticed the next record on this pile was Lee Andrews Never the Less ,also on Crimson. Someone in the US had not sorted the titles very well and mixed a few up. I don't know if any Lee Andrews got into the previous packs but one copy went home that day. Not many collectors ever bought Global packs but the late Chris Savoury ordered one . I used to subscribe to his magazines and met him a few times but didn't know him very well. However in his order he asked if I could pick some good stuff for him. Balbier opened all the post and read that. I parceled up a standard pack and made sure nothing special got in. As the days post was going out the door Balbier pulled his parcel back and opened it with me there to check it. Did he think I was that stupid. As well as selling packs Balbier once bought thousands of ten record packs in the US. These were shipped pack to Manchester and I had to open everyone and sort them into titles. A pattern soon emerged. Every pack had a copy of Pickin' Wild Mountain Berries by Peggy Scott and Jo Jo Benson.There was also quite a few other SSS Int titles but not one Sam Dees. It took about two weeks to sort all the packs and all I found was one copy of Honest to Goodness by Herb Ward. Many people have said what they got from Soul Bowl's packs. The decent titles they put in were deliberate not a slip up. John knew every record and what it was worth so if by putting in a few Wade Flemmons in he could shift rubbish it made sense. Global bought a lot of Soul Bowls overstocks and I would pick these up from his storage premises just outside King's Lynn. They cost about a penny each and I filled the van up until it was overloaded. There was no northern titles, not one , nothing. We sold a lot of this stuff to the Netherlands Suriname scene and the rest went in soul packs. I used to get a mixed box of 100 records from a place in New York , JAS records,every few months in the mid 70s. I got a couple of Freddie Chaves and Mighty Joe Youngs but not much else. The other records were probably quite good but all I wanted then was 100% northern so chucked out some stuff that may be worth a bit now.Where's time travel when you need it. Rick

Chris Yes, that's what I thought (and said)but messing with the pitch on the other side "Dark and Lonely" may just get Belgian couples swaying . Do you have any thoughts on the missing publishers names? Do other small 45 re-issues always have the publisher listed? Rick

Could it have been a re-press for Belgium or Netherlands from early 70's? I don't remember demand for this one from Europe but Major Lance had a bit of a following in Belgium. The publishers details are missed off the issue copy above, is that relevant? Rick

Don't know if it was ever played at the Wheel but doubt it. I remember it as an almost but not quite record from around 1974/75 but then vanished until played again in the last few years. Rick

At Global and later Robinson's Records in Manchester I ordered a few titles in the Brunswick oldies series for wholesaling to UK shops. The best seller was Higher and Higher and Have You Seen Her. Most of the series was early Jackie Wilson US hits. Brunswick didn't push them much and never seemed to issue new oldies, but I suppose they didn't have many hits after the mid 70s. They used to go out of stock for months and months. They would come from a one stop in the US as it wasn't worth going straight to Brunswick. As everyone says above the Northern titles were for UK consumption. I should think Selectadisc or whoever, asked for an exclusive on the titles. Brunswick probably "agreed" to this but must have lost count and pressed a few thousand extra which is why some turn up in the US. I once found a 200 count box of Porgy and the Monarchs- My Heart Cries For You on the Musicor re-issue in a record warehouse in the US so it seems some UK titles had extra stock not sent over here. The only other way they could be in the US would be for Selectadisc to send back unsold stock, but this is very unlikely as it would cost too much and the chances of Brunswick taking back stock are a million to one. I never tried ordering the northern Brunswick stuff as once Selectadisc had them there was no demand for more copies. Rick

The start of Roy Hamilton -Heartache (Hurry On By) where the backing singers start first then Roy comes in quietly but with real feeling. Also one that always gets me - intro to Edward Hamilton -I'm Gonna Love You, fantastic drum roll then, crash, and away they go. Rick

Apart from Ad-Libs and Stemmons Express all seem really dire and best forgotten so why do some still get played today. Just because you've paid a load for a first issue UK demo of Peggy March you don't have to play in your DJ spot. Listen to it at hone,in a darkened room, with headphones on then file it away, forever. Same goes for Charlie Gracie. Rick

Uncle Willie was a dance in Chicago which was probably a bit out of date when R&B time was recorded. The Chess TV documentary on TV last Saturday had a good clip of dancers in the US dancing in lines, girls in one line and the guys facing them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH7LRnyCLoc

Ian Let's Cop a Groove could have just about been worth booting for the instrumental flip as they were big then but ,as you say ,their were some really crazy titles pressed back then. I suspect House of Sounds or someone in Philadelphia was getting wants lists from the UK and pressing anything they had a copy of, or contact with a label owner. Ed Balbier at Global imported some real turkeys at the time, all poor sound quality and thin vinyl. Rick

Ian Sounds like a typical House of Sounds/John LaMont bootleg especially with the Philly connection, but I don't remember it being around.I don't think Selectadisc were selling it so probably not a Simon Soussan disc. Rick

Pete The Beacon release doesn't have the instrumental flip (Psychedelic Theme) which was the side played in the early 70's , so could have been booted for this .I've never seen a demo boot but used to have an issue bought from Bradford market. Rick

Heard this on an old CD today- Timmy Thomas- What's Bothering Me "a two fingered sign don't mean we dig crime, it means peace" then stops dead. Old Mecca spin that caught a few out. Rick

Quite like "Gonna Find The Right Boy" from way back but never imagined her as a young white teenager, another revelation. The instrumental flip had a few plays as it is quite similar to "The Spy". Could be the same musicians. In 1974 I was staying in Philadelphia with my boss, Ed Balbier who had a record warehouse there . One day he said there were some boxes of records in his house cellar and I should have a look. In a corner were about 15 boxes of records and in one of these were about 60 copies of the Audry Slo record on Swan which ended up back in the UK.If Rob said he never saw them around in the 60s maybe it didn't make it out of Philly and around Baltimore/Pittsburgh. In some of the other boxes in the cellar I found about 90 copies of Lenis Guess "Just Ask Me" six months after it had been pressed and issued on Route so was worth hardly anything then. Rick

The styrene copies are 100% legitimate copies ,not illegal bootlegs, done by Laurie in the 70s .Laurie had a lot of their old titles such as The Chiffons and Dion and the Belmonts still available for US shops. Hoagy Lands and Dean Parrish were done for the UK. These should be fairly common compared to the original 60s vinyl copies. Rick

Ian Levine did a tape for me around 73 or 74 with this on but I don't remember him playing it much at the Mecca. I think he was moving away from 60's stuff. As Arthur said (post 31)Ian sold it to Sam who then made it popular. Rick

Roburt Not sure if your reply agreed with me or not. I was saying that it was not a standard record company process to manufacture issue copies for lesser artists only after the record had got good radio plays from the demo copies. I think your first paragraph agrees with this. But are you saying that Way Out or other small labels never pressed issue copies unless radio stations played the record,as was stated in the first post and is the "fact" that explains lack of issue copies for some records. As you say, small companies had limited finance but from my experience of issuing singles in the 70s the cost of having 1000 copies pressed was not much more than a few hundred. The upfront cost of paying an advance to the owner then having the record mastered and stampers made was a considerable amount. From memory I think mastering alone was about £65 which for 500 copies was 13p each , which meant that a profit for a run of less than 500 was just about impossible. Maybe cost structures in the US were different, do you have any figures? Has any of the unissued Way Out recordings come out on CD or have the tapes been lost? Rick

Great record that seems to be seriously undervalued. Picked up a very good UK HMV copy a few years ago for around a fiver. Another version of this by The Exception was tipped in the 70s but seems to be forgotten now as a demo went through ebay at £4.99 with no takers . Maybe if a name DJ played it the value would rocket. Rick

Rod It had it's good points but spent most of the working day picking and packing LP orders. When a container shipment of singles arrived that was a "sweet shop" day. Richard Searling worked there before me. Many others worked at Global during the 1970s, a re-union of ex employees would fill a fair sized venue. Interesting info on the Itzy label and the Pittsburgh scene. Ed Balbier (the owner of Global) mentioned that a certain record was popular in Baltimore and Pittsburgh now and again but at the time I assumed he meant that it was popular as a new release i.e. a regional hit. It looks that it was an oldies scene as the Itzy releases were done some years after the original issues. I should have asked him more about it but being a young kid at the time I thought I knew it all, how wrong can you be. The Feathers record "Trying to Get To You" was one I remember he said was popular in Pittsburgh , so seems they liked the fast pop/ soul stuff. Has there been any discussion on the Pittsburgh scene? Rick

Never seen this Freddie Cannon/ Mickey Lee Lane record before but almost certain that it was done by John La Mont at his House of Sounds business in Philadelphia with possibly some input from Bernie Binnick and Ed Balbier. House of Sounds had a list of early Rock and Roll hits available to US shops which included all the Freddie Cannon hits. They may have been legit as someone in Philly could have a claim on the Freddie Cannon titles in the early 70s. Mickey Lee Lane would probably have been done for the UK,although some Northern type records were popular in the Baltimore and Pittsburgh areas so may have been for US buyers. As quality control at House of Sounds was not up to much they probably pressed them without checking and sold them with a correct label to stick on . The records were usually a bit thin and often warped the labels were usually quite good. Record Supermarket probably got the record from Global Records in Manchester as I remember them as a customer when I worked there in the mid 1970s. The list the shop had would have been about 7 or 8 sheets with titles listed alphabetically and each title having a price code from A to E. I quite liked " Hey Sah Lo Ney" as a record that reminds me of the early emergence of Northern. Les Cockell when he was DJ at the Wheel had it as his one to watch out for in a Dave Godin B&S column .Prefer the instrumental (Tracks to Your Mind) and always wondered how it turned up as a B side on the Cobblestone label. Rick