Rick Cooper

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

Fell for Tim Brown's "limited edition" hype so bought them all on release. Also got "For Modern Millionaires-volume 1" GSCD139. Is this common and was there a Volume 2? I was told Unknown Female on "You'll Always be in Style" (post 7 above) was the Ad Libs . Seems likely but was it confirmed or is it another myth. Rick

A contestant on Mastermind tonight has chosen Philly soul as their specialist topic. Expect Dave Moore to get them all right but what about you? Rick

Hi Pete I think Junior Walker was on at Placemate (the old Wheel site) sometime in the late 70's or could have been early 80's, not sure if this was the one you went to as I don't remember him appearing at the Oxford Rd club (not Pips), whatever it was called. Didn't go to the Hardrock as I thought it was a heavy metal venue, the clue in the name, but that show looked good. Rick

Not seen this before, drill hole in CD The CD was a 2001 US full price issue but must have had the unsold copies sold off cheap. Here is a bar code with over print to stop re selling. It is a US promo so must have been done at the time of release. Iv'e got a UK Capitol promo but this hasn't had the bar code crossed through, anyway ebayers and car booters don't bother about bar codes or promo "not for sale"

Clockwise from left top:- Pendulum moved to Bavarian Bier Keller. Pips 1976. Sgt Peppers Sunday Club Stockport 1976 Cheadle Hulme Disco Club Placemate 6 Whitworth St "What's On" and card 1977 and finally Pips card members photo ah hair......long time no see

Thanks for that Glyn, never knew that before. I thought Innocent Bystanders were a Popcorn Wylie/Mike Terry studio group.Never played the other side of Frantic Escape so is that the side with Cleaveland Horne on? Rick

Oops, sorry bout that , just got Darrell Banks and Volumes in before your post, but I'm sure JM would love to sell both these. Rick

Darrell Banks- Open the Door c/w Our Love on mint unplayed UK London issue or Volumes on Pama Surely Sandy Golden has been booted by Soussan or did I fall asleep after 2 pages of the recent and ongoing postings.

soul_bowl.pdf Hi Paul That seems likely. The reason I asked was that it was stated on a Soul Bowl list from way back , not the usual source for wild speculation. Rick

When Something Fishy Going On by Universal Mind on Red Coach came out it was said that they were the same group as The Carstairs. Is this correct as I've never heard it mentioned since then. Rick

Louis Well done on getting a great bargain. I should think the price soon went up as Ed Balbier noticed the record was flying out. When I was there I think there were about 25 -30 originals left. Any chance of posting a scan of the list up. Rick

Previous thread here on Total Eclipses has some info on 444

Picture on the link shows about a quarter of the interior so a head count may give a rough estimate of the crowd about ten minutes after the doors opened. Rick.

Not posed, it just jumped on....

Ady I think I read somewhere that in the 50's and 60's a record would have to sell at least 30,000 before the artist(s) were due any money as the advance, recording costs and other charges had to be recouped before royalties were payable. Is this true? As for live appearances , tales of guns and threats are common but it can't have been everywhere can it ? Don Varner when interviewed said that he didn't expect to make any money from record sales but made his living from live shows. Rick

Ian In a previous thread about Bostocks it says that they got the records from Soul Bowl as the shipment was so big John Anderson just sold the lot to them. I think Bostocks advertised packs of records in a trade paper, The World's Fair which was read by market traders and the like. In Manchester and Lancashire there were quit a few branches of NRS (Northern Record Sales?) who all had loads of singles especially the Chess group. I think Arthur Robinson of Robinson's Records was behind this. He also sold records to markets and fairs through adverts in World's Fair. All this was only possible when the US companies dumped millions of unsold stock for peanuts in the late sixties so long after the alleged Merseyside record spree. Rick

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Global Records in Manchester and the US warehouse in Philadelphia had thousands of If This Is Love and Instant Heartbreak and I'm sure all had plain sleeves. Does the "usual sources" you mention include that web site (not sure what it's called) that has loads of sleeves pictured. Also Richard (Premium Stuff) is the one to ask, and will probably let you know soon. Rick

There seems to be some evidence for the theory that US records circulated in Liverpool, but this has grown to the point that I heard someone on TV claim that you could walk down Liverpool streets and hear RnB and soul blasting out ,Harlem style, from houses all over the place. Gerry Marsden was interviewed on a TV show and mentioned the records he heard as a youngster via seamen ,but all the records he listed were UK releases . Record labels like London, Pye Top Rank and Stateside were all fighting to issue US records so why risk bringing back records from New York to find they were easily available in record shops. The fact that Merseyside groups played and recorded US soul songs is nothing special as everyone was doing it. My elder brother was guitarist in a "beat combo", Pete and the Mohawks, around 1965 to 67. I was too young to go to their shows but they would practice every Sunday at home so I would watch them learn new songs. They would have sheet music or a record and just keep going over the song until it sounded like the record. Songs that stick in my mind are Knock on Wood, In the Midnight Hour and Hang on Sloopy, all common at the time. They played around Stockport and S Manchester with a regular booking at The Fingerpost pub in Stockport which carries on this tradition with appearances from Paul Kidd's Wigan All-Stars. The groups and singers that played and recorded obscure soul songs, such as Jimmy James, Geno Washington, Chris Farlowe, Alan Bown were mainly from the south and London,but maybe this was down to publishers and producers. I don't recall any Mersey groups covering songs that hadn't had a UK issue. Could it be that from a few instances of US records coming to Liverpool the story has grown out of all proportion due to the scouse trait of praising Liverpool at any opportunity. On the other hand,I went to an exhibition in Liverpool some years ago, I think it was the one being promoted by the Cunard Yanks in post 14 and spoke to one of the men in the film. He had a stand at the exhibition with some LP sleeves on display. One of these was an Epic LP by Roy Hamilton, so I asked him about it and the others on display. He said he was a Jazz and Swing fan and went to clubs in New York to see live shows, including Roy H. The records he bought back were for himself not to sell. My brother went to sea in the early seventies, sailing to the mid and far east but all he ever bought back were tacky souvenir type "tribal" art objects. Rick

Dave The Cream release was done from the tape supplied by Partytime/Irvin Weinroth .He got the instrumental done at Grand Prix studios in Philly so must have used the session tape to do this. I should think he took the vocal of this tape rather than the tape used in the sixties which has the distortion on the intro. My Cream copy sounds fine but as you say the Partytime copies have a bit of hiss at the start. Rick

Dave I met Irving Weinroth in Philly once when he gave me the tapes for Four Perfections and he told me that the "Kip Gainsboro" credited as producer was a made up name,Kip was the family dog and Gainsboro was their street address at the time. The production is top rate so who was the real producer, perhaps all will be revealed in your book. The sax is quite Mike Terryish ,was he on it ? Irving also said he had never heard of, or done a deal with Simon Sousson for the Soul Galore boot. Rick

About a year ago I put quite a few of these LPs on ebay as I had never played them for over twenty years. Starting bids on them was £5.00 . Northern Soul Stories 6,7,8 went for £5 , NSS 2 and 4 reached £5.50, Soul of Detroit, Modern Soul Story and Modern Times reached the dizzy heights of £6.03. One person bought six titles so got a good deal on postage. I used to buy each one as they came out when I was working at Ames/Virgin records in Stockport. They all sold fairly well on release but not much after the first month. Kent releases sold a lot better and for a longer period. If I remember right, they were distributed by Charly and the rep once let me have a white label test pressing of the instrumental only release, After the Session, probably because he didn't want it. If they didn't have the master tapes they managed to get good sound quality ,no clicks and pops or needle hitting the record. They released a CD as well, which at the time I thought was a waste of time, who would want NS on CD?. Also not many people had CD players them. This must be quite a rare release now. Rick