Rick Cooper

Ian Fascinating info on the non release of the Sam Dees Atlantic album, and cleared up a question I've been thinking of posting for ages. Whilst the disgruntled/exploited artist always gets the sympathy it was Atlantic who put the money up, and lost it, so it seems reasonable to expect them to want to get a belated return. Anyway Warners probably couldn't care too much about one album but I'd love to have the album on CD. One question though, as Sam Dees is the main songwriter on the album would he get money from publishing if the CD came out? Warners couldn't deduct that from past costs, could they? Nice Backbeats CDs by the way, orders placed . Rick

The list above is a page from a ''House of Sounds'' list of singles they were selling around 1976. The only thing of note is what a load of rubbish it is . So just like going there to sort through the stock the lists had loads of stuff that no one wanted. They listed the titles that they had in large amounts and still boxed up straight from the record companies. I think shop returns came in all jumbled up so would have been sold as mixed lots. On one visit there I remember loads of boxes of ''Cashing In'' by Voices of East Harlem , all originals , but as it had been booted about a year before I only got 25 copies. I had a look though the Billboard archive web pages and searches for House Of Sounds or the owner John La Monte revealed an interesting selection. In the early 1970s he was placing adverts either wanting or selling records but by the late 70s and early 80s he was making the news for selling fake LPs and getting beat up by the mafia. A report of a raid by the FBI on his warehouse said that there were so many LPs (many millions) that the feds couldn't check to see which were genuine and which were fake. Even they were overwhelmed by the quantities of stock. An advert from the early 70s said they wanted to buy ex juke box records, no quantity too large. I don't know what he would do with ex juke box stock as all the ones I've seen have been trashed and almost unplayable. Maybe they went into packs of 10 or the vinyl was re-cycled. Anyone (George G) got any ideas? Juke box operators would make another story for this thread as I think in the 1960s it was a big business and again full of dubious practices and infiltrated by the mafia.The John Broven book mentioned by Chalky has some stories about this side of the record business in the late 1950s. One of the Billboard articles gives the House of Sounds warehouse address as Quarry St and Hamilton Ave, Darby, Pa and a look on Google Earth found a huge warehouse still there but not quite as I remember it, but that's not unusual. Rick

Maybe everyone knows this but I have just had a look at the places in the US I've mentioned above on Google Earth. Global Records, 2512 North Broad St. Philly is now a Baptist Church but looks the same. Tone / TK, 495 S E 10th Court, Hialeh Fl 33010, is a restaurant and industrial units but looks a bit run down Music Bag Distributors,2743 East 79th St Chicago, is now a tiny launderette no bigger than a small corner shop , a bit disappointing . Has anyone got the original address for'' House of Sounds'' Upper Darby Pa. as it would nice to have a look to see if its the same as other people describe it. Rick

Rod I got the Music Bag card with stocks of Danny Reed and Lost Family that I ordered at Global when they were getting played and never went there.I may have given you the address before you went,sorry about that. Your description of Music Bag Distributors shows the range of business set ups in the US from dodgy guys in the backs of shops to huge sheds bigger than a B&Q. Rick

The list of labels distributed by Tone in Florida is from about 1975 but is probably the type of labels that a 60s distributor in a major city would carry. There are the smaller regional labels, labels owned by Tone (which someone has put ''TK'' after) and major indies such as Chess,Brunswick,Stang and Roulette. I went to the Tone warehouse in 75 but gave up after an hour or so as there was just so many records that it would take weeks to go through and there was no 60s stuff just loads of disco. Not quite as bad as House of Sounds,Ian, but not far off. The other download may not be too clear but is a business card for Music Bag Record Distributors in Chicago but what is of interest is the top line which states ''Where Promotion is a Reality''. I think this is meant to stress that they would actively promote the records they distribute. Another layer in the distribution of records was the ''Rack Jobber''. I think these would be the small outfits that put overstocks and deleted records in to outlets other than record shops, but maybe George or Rob K could explain further. Rick

Anyone collecting US soul singles in Manchester (UK) in the 1970s would probably have been to Global Record Sales and if you were unlucky may have dealt with the American owner Ed Balbier, a right misery. However before he came to sunny Manchester he ran a record distributors in Philadelphia at 2512 North Broad St. During my four year stint working for Global in the mid 70s I went to the US a couple of times and stayed at the Philly warehouse. One time I came across some old lists and paperwork from the 60s . One of these was a list of the labels Global distributed. I think there were about 25 to 30 fairly well known indies but the ones I remember were Drew, Double Shot and Sun/Philips International. These stood out as it explained why Global had thousands of Precisions and Brenton Wood singles and a quite a lot of early Sun stuff singles,but no Elvis P Sun 45s. However there were only two Precisions titles- ''If This is Love'' and ''Instant Heartbreak''. So it seems, like George said, a distributor outside a labels hometown would only carry the labels singles that had managed to pick up exposure in new areas. I suppose if the Precisions got plays in the Philly area Global did a deal with Drew to distribute that record but didn't handle every release. All the stock Global had were probably shop returns and overstock that they may have paid Drew a few cents each for, or not paid anything for as distributors expected free stock. Similarly the Double Shot stock consisted mainly of Brenton Woods ''Oogum Boogum Song'',thousands of them. So again Global only carried a hit record from a label. On both these labels there were no overstocks of demos so Global were not doing any promotion for the labels, however the bigger established distributors such as Henry Stone or Stan Lewis did some of the promotion for the labels they represented and would carry stocks of promos. For those records that didn't take off the stock copies were sent back for credit but the promos were kept as there was no point paying to return useless 45s. Maybe they were binned or more often sold off to Del Boy (N.Y) and ended up in 10c bins and fairs. Demos of hit records never seemed to exist in unplayed stocks and I don't think I ever came across white label promos of artists such as Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Beatles etc.This is probably why some records are more common on promo than stock copies but I don't go with the theory that stock copies were only pressed after DJs had played the title. A few titles may only exist on promo but it was due to some legal hitch etc. As well as distributors there were ''One Stops'' which carried the chart records, major artist new releases and sometimes hot local sellers. They charged the dealers a few cents more per record but for the small shops it was worth being able to get everything at one stop. Its unlikely they ever bothered doing any promotion so wouldn't have demos. There was a one stop place in Manchester in the 1980s called Wynd Up. On one visit to Philly I remember the local radio station hammering ''Center City'' by Fat Larrys Band, which was not surprising, but when I got back to the UK it was about 2 or 3 months later that Record Corner imported it and Levine started playing it. So although it was on a major label it still had to break out of its home territory before it went nationwide .If this is how most new artists records worked it shows how a record could be a local seller even on a major label. For example Lorraine Chandler on RCA would have to do well in Detroit and the East Coast before it went nationwide but Sam Cooke would be available across all of the US The mention of packs of singles in plastic bags reminds me of one of Ed Balbiers blunders when he bought thousands of these and I had the task of opening them and sorting them out. Heaven you would think but after 7 or 8 days all that turned up was one copy of'' Change your Ways''- Willie Kendrick but thousands of Peggy Scott and Jo Jo Bensons on SSS Int. Rick

During the 1970s, working at two import record companies in Manchester I would order oldies singles from all the US record companies The Eric label specialized in 1950s and 60s US hit singles that were first on the smaller indie record companies . All the major labels ran there own re-issue series,e.g. Motown Yesteryear, Atlantic oldies, UA Silver Spotlight so Eric picked up stuff from the smaller companies. The titles mentioned were done around 75-77 just for the UK market. I think it would have been Selecta Disc who got them done . I suppose it would have been easier to get Eric to negotiate with Arista who owned Amy Mala Bell than do it from here.Also Arista might not have wished to do a deal with Selecta Disc for reasons that I'd rather not say. .Arista had the Flashback series for there oldies so they could have used that, but Eric must have done a one off deal for a few titles. It's a long time since I last saw one but were they all on a white label as compered to the normal black with red and silver lettering used for the other Eric releases? Rick

From what I remember about the Arctic stuff when I worked at Global is that they were a bit thinner and lighter than 60s pressings . This could have been due to the hike in vinyl prices caused by the oil crisis of the mid 70s . One result of this was a lot more than usual came back from shops as warped. Also they were always in plain white sleeves whereas 60s ones were often but not always in Jamie Guyden sleeves. Rick

Ed Balbier ,the US owner of Global Records told me the hole in singles was done to allow unsold and returns to be sold off cheaply. The record company didn't have to pay royalties etc on these. If distributors still had unsold stock billed at full price they could return them even after drilled copies had been shipped. LPs had the sleeve corner cut or a saw cut in the edge . This was done when the LPs were packed in 25 count boxes. The fraud/Mafia thing was with LPs pressed up and cut when not overstock . John LaMont of ''House of Sounds'' in Philly got sent down for this. So far no one has mentioned anything good in Global Records soul packs. That is because they were complete crap and I should know as I had to make them up. The only title that may have slipped through was Lee Andrews ''Iv'e Had It'' as I found one copy in a box of Soul Survivors single, also on Crimson, that was going in the packs. Someone at Crimson in the US must have had an off day and got one or two mixed up. Rick

Eddie According to Carl Davis who produced a lot of JWs mid 60s stuff Jamerson and the rest of the Funk Brothers were on a lot of Jackie Wilsons records. Also the Andates were on background vocals on Higher and Higher. The lead vocal was recorded in New York to the track cut in Chicago. The musicians were paid double the usual rate in cash. This is from the book ''The Man Behind the Music'' by Carl Davis which I got a couple of days ago and has already answered a couple of posts. It is available from Carl Davis at www.carldavisstory.com and is well worth getting. Rick

John Just come across a tiny photo of Nolan Chance in liner notes of Collectables CD ''Constellation of Chicago Soul'', it is listed as courtesy of Robert Pruter. Also there is a photo of Bunky in the Carl Davis book''The Man Behind the Music'' Maybe everyone knows that Bunky is(or was?) white but I'd always assumed he was black. However according to Carl Davis, Bunky ''swore up and down that he was black'' and ''talked and acted just like he was a brother'' Carl mentions Nolan Chance having a regional hit with ''She's Gone'' but '' would never again record anything else that would remotely resemble a hit''. I totally agree with your opinion of Just Like The Weather. It is and always will be one of the greatest records ever and stands head and shoulders above 99% of other records played in clubs since the year dot. Rick

Shelly, Photo-see left ..... Don't why the year is wrong or who got it done but , like you, I came across it when going through Tunstall. Rick

I went to the Kings Lynn shop three or four times with Rod Shard and Terry Thomas and picked up a few nice things but no good or bad luck stories from those trips, but it may be of interest to some people as to what happened to the millions of records that no one wanted. When I worked for Global in Manchester around 75 we needed cheap stuff to put in soul packs so Balbier contacted John ,or it may have been the other way round. Anyway I was sent off to far off Kings Lynn in the largest hire van I could get without an HGV licence. John then took me to what I think may have been an old primary school or village hall about 4 or 5 miles out of town. This was full to bursting with boxes of singles. I think a price of 1p per single had been agreed for a quantity of 20000 plus . We loaded up the van with as much as possible within the weight limit and John counted the records as 100 per box but added an extra 1000 or so to make up for any light boxes and throw in a few extra for myself. I'd leave Kings Lynn late afternoon and stop somewhere to have a root through the boxes. Not a thing ,nothing, zilch,zero. John must have been the most efficient sorter of them all.I got to keep a couple of hundred singles but they were all the sort of thing that looks better than it sounds. Back in Manchester I'd unpack and sort the records, play the ones in large quantities and send a sample of the ballad type records to a number of the main shops in the Netherlands. Usually we could sell quite a few thousand this way at 65p each and the rest could go to soul packs. I think I made about 3 or 4 of these trips and remember getting loads of Sue/Symbol/Eastern titles on one trip and lots of tiny Chicago labels on another. Some of the Netherland records were really good so why John didn't bother selling to them direct I don't know. Maybe getting £10 to £30 per record from the northern collectors was just too easy. Rick

Found this very interesting as the Belgian ''Popcorn'' scene used to be a mystery to me back in the 70s when I sold stuff to them. I found an old wants list from Luc Franken (brother of Gerry in the film) and have attached a few pages but they may not be legible as the print has faded. Amongst the well known soul artists such as Betty Lavette,Mitty Collier and Bobby Bland there are loads of weird combos, orchestras, trios and quintets and cha-cha and mambos but seeing the dance style it makes more sense now. They also had a soft spot for reggae instrumentals as listed on the last page. Luc also mentions how the value of the records would be next to nothing after they had been bootlegged, much like here in the 70s. I wonder if they are fetching more now on original issue? Rick

The ''Plug Side'' of the record, ''Walking With My New Love'' was a big record on the deep soul scene in Amsterdam in the mid 70's. It was fairly common in small quantities on the label with the arrow on but I don't think turned up by the thousand so a re-press may have been done to meet demand. Nice record for both sides. Rick

Hi Richard The Guardian had an obituary for Eddie Kikland yesterday (Friday 22nd April) and mentioned he recorded for Fortune and says he had an LP on Tru Sound in 1962 which was quite successful so the single on Lupine may be a latter issue that was done as it was still selling. Sorry I don't know how to put a link up for the obituary but I'm sure its not too hard to find. Rick

Great news Steve. The Central was definately one of the best clubs in it's day, small but fantastic atmosphere. Had a look on google earth a while back and the outside looks just the same. Now where's that membership card......... Rick

Dave Thanks for that and for taking the time out at such a difficult time in your country. Rick

Pete Yes that's what I heard but did anyone (apart from G Torch) own up to doing the mock up. Using a fictious name doesn't add much to their authority. Also most people didn't have use of computers in 1986. Rick

The Volumes on Pama question sparked off a vague recollection of something I had seen before. So after sorting through musty old fanzines in my loft I found this.It is from ''Shades of Soul'' April 1986 and shows a photo copy of the record owned by T.Weal of Sheffield. No further comment from me over to you lot......... Rick

Thanks Dave and Steve, Have done ,will do , Dave Rick

Maybe this has come up before when ''Tear Stained Face'' on Veep gets mentioned but it may help. The attached scans are from the inner booklet from a Japannese LP ''I'm Wondering- Veep Singles Collection'' issued 1980 on UA/Veep. It looks like it is a fairly detailed essay on Veep but only the artist and titles are in English. The first column lists Veep 1296 ''Meet me in Church''/ ''Tear Stained Face'' so there must be some info about it . TSF isn't on the LP . So does anyone know if it has been translated before or can anyone translate it for me? The scan isn't very clear but I may be able to get it better if anyone wants it. Another thing I remember is that Ian Levine had TSF on Veep on his wants list in the mid 70's so it was known about then so why has it never been seen? Rick

Having sold most of my records years ago this is one I've held on to . Not sure how common it is but Sue white demos don't seem to be around in large numbers. I once had a sort through the remains of Soul Bowls Sue/Symbol/Eastern stock but out and there were no white demos. Is there a demo for James Fountain ''Seven Day Lover'' on Peachtree? I asked a while ago and got no reply or answer so maybe there wasn't one but can anyone confirm. Rick