Pete S

Thats weird cos I've had 2 Betty Harris', both easy pickings, one a boot fair job and one a record fair £10 purchase, but the boot fair one was unusual in that it was white label with handwritten credits.

Well done Sherlock Holmes, how did you know? The guy's name was Sid, and the bloke who ran the shop was called Graham. Graham moved Selectavision to tettenhall end of the 70's but by about 83 84 time it closed down again. I used to buy singles packs from the village shop, 10 for a quid, remember in one there was Leaving Here - Eddie Holland - Motown and A Little Togetherness - Younghearts - Canterbury!

I had an issue about 3 years ago - only one I've ever seen - think I stuck it out at £75 and had about a dozen people after it

The Len Barry album with I'll Always Need You has to be the rarest of the lot.

That one, and Guys From Uncle - The Spy, were pressed by Global records of manchester circa 1976. Any copy with a push out centre or solid centre is only worth 10 quid maximum.

48 isn't old Paul

It is indeed rare, specially as a stock copy, because most copies that turn up are single sided demos.

I put this up because I actually thought it was a mickey take - if it's serious then I'll take it down. What does anyone think?

Yeah they peaked when muggins here was trying to get a set and then once I did they came down to the proper prices

LOL you fancy recording him Carl?

You're joking Harry, Grapevine has peaked and come down again and you can't give away Destiny, INferno and Disco demands!

Max I know someone who had one and I think if we got together we would be able to trace this guy because 30 years ago he was working in the same sort of business as yourself - he worked as a tv repairman in a tv rental and record shop, you may well know of him. I remember asking him for records and he'd go home and come back with them - he must have had an astonishing collection.

That info is probably wrong Steve and I put that down to the fact that I've had at least 6 copies myself - last one I sold for £15 or so about 6 months back (label was a bit sh*t) but I haven't had a demo.

How could I forget Sherry, I've actually got a copy here at the moment! Always reminds me of a bizarre incident - was down the Wolves circa 1982 and the dj was playing the usual pre-match music, chart hits etc, and all of a sudden from nowhere, he played Sherry by Hugo Montenegro, and Gods truth, you could see people on the south bank dancing to it (not full blown northern dancing but having a little bop)

Just thought of another one on Oriole, Jackie Trent doing a version of The One Who Really Loves You, it's actually pretty good and very scarce. There's also a rare Joe Meek thing on the label, The Dowlands?

I don't think there's much to be honest, there's the Susan Singer record (which I had on a lovely South African label with tri centre, again, boot sale job), like you say, The Donays (Yvonne Vernee on vocals?), I don't think there's much in the way of rare beat either as they folded in late 64 or thereabouts.

In 2001 someone I knew bought this at a boot sale for 50p, the demo I mean, the terrible thing is, I'd been at the same boot sale and not looked at the records that this particular seller had, because she was an old lady of about 75 and I thought they'd be the usual Ken Dodd and Val Doonicans, why she had TM in there, goodness knows. So he sold it to me the same day for £200 and I sold it to Mick Smith for £300 the day after! Nowadays - I'd say £300 issue £400 demo

Big money but rarely sell for book prices - I remember listing The Valdiers and The Modifiers and neither making the £400 reserve. (That was a weird find - friend bought a 50 box of records off a bloke in Bridgnorth - every single was on the Oriole label!)

I don't think there are any really. When I was collecting British - and I was fanatical - I had everything I wanted except one (the last record mentioned here). If you've got the money you can get any UK record except for maybe something that really is known by only a handful of copies (e.g. ben E King - Can't Break The News - Atlantic demo). The first really rare one I turned up was the stock copy of Dennis D'Ell, and for a time it was only the second ever, but I've got one sitting in a box here right now and three or four have gone via ebay. Darrell Banks on London is no rarer than a Benny Spellman or a Lou Johnson London demo. I personally think the rarest UK Northern 45 is the Billy Harner instrumental on Kama Sutra.

John - apparently the second press of Frederick Hymes is on thinner vinyl and you're going to think I'm sh*tting you now but SOMEONE I know had the two copies tested using state of the art equipment at his place of work (where they use this process) and the one copy (Soiul Sam's original play copy) was dated to approx 35 years old, the second, a recent buy, to approx 5 years old.

Did you get what you were asking for Lou Johnson because I nearly fainted when I saw your price, I struggled to get 70 quid for mine end of last year and ended up taking £60 for it, in lovely nick too. £75 is top whack price on an issue of that, surely.

I'd buy the lot off you Jayne...

The Rita one is the Rubin Parker I referred to above

Booted twice I think - first as Rubin Parker, so thats easy to spot, second on a Kapp lookalike but the "A" on the boot is black instead of red.