Jerry Hipkiss

Yes, my first ever! I'd been doing a birthday party disco, and we went up from Cheltenham on the spur of the moment - I'd had a couple of beers before, fell asleep as we hit the motorway and woke up as we pulled into Station Road! The journey home was a nightmare though - but that's another story....

Happy Christmas everyone, may it be a peaceful one for y'all. See you after the celebrations! Hippo.

Wasn't the reissue one of the batch done on the multi coloured design along with Nella Dodds, Shirelles etc...never heard of a black and white label boot, anyway! edit-sorry Roger, didn't see the last line of your post

like it

So did Ronnie never know of the original De-To release? Suppose he wouldn't be the first artist to be the last to know ...so did the two boots come from the producer? Label owner?

Yes, definitely 70's - I seem to remember that both that one and the "arrow" one were on sale not too far apart timewise...

Ah - but was it so easy 30 years ago?

Mind you, I've never been able to work out the "bongos" mix - can anyone tell the full story?

Mark, I thought that one was a (semi) legal repress, with the instr. on the other side. There's a more amateurish 70's boot with "Isn't she a pretty girl" on the other side and poor sound quality - that's the one scanned above - they couldn't "curve" the print at the bottom of the label!

Wasn't me, honest! Best laugh was the first time I went, by then I was used to Sandbach-style changing facilities, my mate Paul says "We'll stop at the Newport Pagnell superloos" - turned out to be the grimmest public conveniences in the middle of the town!

Morning Steve, thought of you on Saturday night, you would have loved it! Back on topic, now maybe I can blame Richard for the fact that I had no money left after a Saturday in the Wax Machine! But it was worth it!

Good to see you on here Richard!

Adrian Sykes? Top man, it's thanks to him I had so many good tunes to play on my radio shows back in the 80's, he later went to MCA when they were in Soho. Haven't heard of him for years now, seem to remember he was a big supporter of one of the North London footie teams...maybe one day I'll tell the long and involved story of how one of Adrians best mates, and at the time at number one in the charts, was stuck, ticketless, outside a record company bash that Sykesy was hosting, begging me to get him in...and how I emerged an hour later with pockets bulging with bottles for my mate who couldn't get in either. Oh for the excesses of the late 80's, even if the Northern side of things had temporarily taken a back seat!

Weird, huh? I was only playing "Give the little man a great big hand" to myself last night (first time I've heard it in years), and trying to remember where it figured timewise in De Vaughn's releases!

Oh well, there's another off my playlist for Yate then... (this track came up in a fag-break conversation between Dave, Ady P and I last Saturday night!)

The labels on my 45 of this are reversed - are most of them?

The (first?) boot had Detroit Execs "Cool off" on t'other side...

....or did I misread it and they were sent a UK acetate?

Ever since I were a lad, it's been one of those NS conundrums - has anyone EVER seen a US issue or demo of "All for you"? I'm reminded of this because my mouth watered on reading that the copy that Radio caroline used in the 60's was a US acetate - have a look at this page: https://www.radiolondon.co.uk/caroline/scrap60/p6scrap60.html

...and don't forget the live version on a UK Arista 7"!

Paul, will you pass on my regards, Neil's always been a top bloke...I'll never forget one night at t'Casino, I'd been after a copy of Chris Teller on Ciray, found one in Neils box and asked how much, the answer came "Hippo, as you and I seem to be the only people here who know it, you can have it for nowt!" Classic!

Never heard of that one Eddie, and as it was one of my favourite instrumentals at the time (still is) I would have made sure I had one.

I was always a bit wary of the Tony Middleton/Bernie Wiiliams Eric 45's - if I remember correctly they had Frankford Wayne stamps but the sound quality was atrocious, especially the Bernie Williams, dubbed from a knackered single, and why were they done as demos when all the other Eric things were on the usual black and red design? Or am I just suspicious by nature?

Never thought of it as a hard one - had a 7" of it since it was a new release...you live and learn!

Well, Pete's already mentioned it, but my standout track from the man has to be my all time favourite NS track - Joann Courcy "I got the power". Still gives me goosebumps...