Tlscapital

On the fantastic UK comp United Artists LP 'Sold on Soul'. Memories here too when first bought. Her best tune IMHO. But that doesn't suffer the stigma of the 'TOP 500' northern soul (what ?). Also that isn't rare enough to be pushed by "regular" dee-jays maybe. Still a 'classic here' home. Roots ! If the stockers should prove rarer (that it is) there are at least 5 American pressing plants involved as well...

Need to be very neat looking and clean playing copy as it's for an upgrade. PM me if ever.

Hmm... Freddie Chavez I always loved. The 6 sides of his 3 Look 45's even. Although none equally. Joey Delorenzo I never liked. Influenced by Freddie Chavez !? I never thought to hear it that way... There are similarities in 'sound'. True... But that's all I hear in common between these two artists.

To be honest both tutorials wouldn't help me much if I wouldn't know better the differences. Although that may be just I who couldn't learn much at school either 😉 The vinyl material is denser, softer (= more flexible) and have molded labels. The styrene material is lighter, stiffer (= breakable) and have stuck-on labels. Vinyl is often favored by dee-jay as they can back-cue more carelessly. It is also believe that styrene records are more fragile but... actually not in my experience. Although when a styrene groove is worn it can hisses, distort in the high frequencies and sound painful. True ! If dee-jays back-cue with a styrene copy and without a conical stylus (every dee-jay should know better) they will damage the groove irremediably (cue-burn). The styrene groove is also more prone to bad needle wear than vinyl since the material is stiffer where vinyl is softer. All of that gave styrene a bad 'reputation' amongst dee-jays. As some records where pressed on both materials some prefer to go for vinyl anytime they can. Where I have always compared the masterings and where my preference went with the ability of the materials to deliver respectively. A well mastered and pressed styrene record will have more depth and a wider sound stage in the frequency spectrum. Where a vinyl can't achieve such specifications. Although depending on the tunes vinyl can sound more appropriate for exactly the opposite reasons IMO.

First Atlantic 45 with the 2 letters extension after the matrix numbering. Record release dating from November 1966 : Solomon Burke's 'Presents For Christmas'. No MO pressings though for this release apparently. Corrected by 'Blackpoolsoul' here with pic below !

The discogs "reference catalogue" is open source's created. Hence why you have many pressing entries missing or doubles or more at times... Yet lately to create a new entry the whole process has become rather lengthy, complicated some and not even guarantee to be edited in the end if ever. Rather discourageing IME. This was initially aiming to address such "multiple entries" issue. But now if a seller has either a promo or stocker SP pressing of Barbara Lewis and doesn't create a new entry for it, he will probably list it for sale under another pressing banner misleading the buyer. Had that few times. On 45cat.com they show all the 'remember feeling' stockers.

SP & PL (my bad & not PS !), two of the most used pressing plants by the Atlantic/Atco group. SP for 'SPeciality' and PL for 'PLastic'. There's also a MO styrene pressing but it's rarer IMHE. MO for 'MOnarch' evidently. But I've never found those MO Altantic/Atco masterings that good. It's only from late 1966 or about that they will give those pressing plant letters extension on the labels. Left to Right ; SP, PL & MO

The American 45 Atlantic SP pressings of this are fine. The PL pressings on the other hand all have a loud very annoying continuous 'hiss' that I believe is due to the use of a poor vinyl base and/or maybe a not so strong mastering job with it. The american Atlantic/Atco masterings were at times just fantastic (even better than first local releases at times when there were) and at other times just bad. As if they were not always done by the same people with the same quality control...

Ahmad Hamilton Edward's son own words on 'willing mind' right after his dad passing ; his greatest song ! How true is that for a fact I couldn't say as it can only be subjective. But none the less the lyrics are there : deep, conscious and sensitive as is the composition and the musical arrangements. All that at a slow pace. And that alone is rare for Edward. This copy is in EX condition. The label on 'willing mind' mostly have suffered some faint humidity staining and tearing like many copies have but it looks better than the scan reveals it. Flip it for the classic finger snapper dancer 'my darling baby'. Scans an sound clip of both sides taken from the actual copy for sale. £250 FREE SHIPPING ALL OVER THE WORLD. ADD £6 TO HAVE IT REGISTERED. Grading through M - EX - VG - G... PM me to inquire willing mind.mp3

AMERICAN red label on vinyl variant press CANADIAN pressing

Ol' topic on here but at least 3 classic soul "riffs"compiled in that 'I hate to be the one to say' composition... Can you guess them ? 😮

OK thank you for clarifying that. Got mislead by some YT imagery at one time I believe since I never got to hear an actual copy...

Remember vividly hearing for the first time the "string" version on 'love (your pain goes deeper)' play out... Shocked and in disbelief I never knew about that "horrible" mix difference with the all Gamble the pressings (USA, Italy...) out there. Seing that all the Sassy 1002 stock copies were shelved back as part of the lease deal with Gamble I now get why the promo is seen as much rarer by the Brits who got the whole Sassy 1002 NOS stash by the seventies sourced directly from Billy Jackson. But what about Sassy 1002-2 ? Was this release with 'If that's what you wanted' as the 'A' side and 'love' renamed 'this is just a 'B' side' an actual third release ? Judging by the poor promotion Gamble gave to promote Frank's masterpieces that could very well be.

Yes Mark the connection. As said before both sides being Roddie Joy's tunes prior. Surrounded by the same producers and eventually composers (LOL ! 😉 ) but who are the Stoppers ? That's what bugging us still.

IMHO the for who or where is trivial in regard of the pressing qualifying matter. Although every stories behind such or such pressing is always most interesting for real. The label, the copyright ownership, the source like the 'reel tape' or the masters and all that comes into the process to manufacture the finished product are more relevant as to what to call the re-released record. And evidently the time gap between them pressings. With all the insights we now know from Ian Levine's broadcast air-play audition while in Miami back in 1973 and his desperation in that record quest. To John Anderson managing to dig up 3 radio copies somewhere in 1974 giving it the exposure on British soil at the Mecca making it one phenomenal northern soul record there an then before finally being re-issued on Gene Redd independent Red Coach label somewhere in 1975. All that makes this pink styrene pressing certainly a second issue or why not a re-issue if one prefers. Although for me the time gap between the two releases is not big enough to make it a re-issue as such. The fact that the record was re-released through Gene Redd in America makes it an 'import' in the proper sense of the word. In the end I'd call that a second or later issue. Like any re-release made to supply a public demand wherever.

You're right. My bad. I should have said that at that point the Chess/GRT distribution deal for Red Coach felt through and the record then didn't pass beyond the promo stage.

Yes we are aware of it but were hoping to get a more realistic price if ever...

Looking for a real clean PROMO only copy for a friend. PM me if ever.

OK but it's still Gene who re-released the Carstairs on his then own Red Coach label. Label that kept on releasing new materials afterward all the same.

It was pressed (or issued if you will) as white promo first in 1973. These were released under the Chess/GRT group who shut down very soon after. This Carstairs single then never got to see a commercial release. When original label owner Gene Redd got to build up his own Red Coach label soon after and just alongside his Red Lite one he re-released the Carstairs on a pink stocker with instant guaranteed sales within the UK.

The instrumental is fair. Totally agree with you there. The vocal not my thing. Even though no contender for me at that price. Even if I had a copy home I would swap it for something more "my street". At first I believed that this 45 was more either for the Detroit record collector's completists, the "forwarded" northern soul dee-jays into the funky'N'all weir stuffs or the American northern soul dudes. A rare record, OK. Now less but still none the less not that common. And really not so good either. Could it be that they're trying to push it with a "high to impress" 'bling-bling' price tag to attract the fools ?

The Johnie Brown is not 'northern soul' or at least doesn't qualify as yet. Would it have been it would have start to surface years ago. Just like the Matthew Barnett did before the internet days. With very few copies offered at first. Commanding then evidently the big price tag on the few UK dealers lists offering one. Long before the internet days things were different. Most UK dealers would set their prices accordingly to the NOS quantities thrown out on the market. Their reputation were at stake. While in the USA the dealers had to unload these soul records mostly on the European market as they had no such takers there. At one time some of the American dealers started to get better hints as how to get the most out of their finds for the European market. Price guides playing their bad part. And so they started playing another game with their regular European customers and such odd commercial behavior became the "new way" to do. With the internet everything changed even more. Major UK 'rare soul' dealers lost most their business exclusivity. The whole 'soul' market turned even more speculative, opportunistic and open to new money sharks, worldwide commercialist exploiters and fools throwing in their money pushing up the prices high up. The "sercrecy" I was referring to is as to who has the hand on all those copies and how many... Because if all of that was known, like it was sometimes the case in the past, things would be different. Now it's not known and the whole business around those records is indeed not helping the good and proper business IMO.

No bootleg of this but NOS (new old stock) maybe originating from Matthew Barnett himself but now I believe (been partly told in secrecy) all the copies are in an American dealer's hands together with the other PUFF odd (less my cup) last release on the label by Johnie Brown 'watch me work'. The 'original seller' spreads them out carefully or little by little I've been told. Mmmh. OkAy but... not really IMO. And how many still... ? Grabbed a copy as it was a rather elusive record in the past and I still love both sides like the first day hearing it. A must have record for me no matter how rare.

With all the respect due to Leonard, his memories (approximations) and his words the Rivieras 45 unarguably came out in 1966 wile the Proto Jays release only in 1968. The Proto Jays as a group and name could have record 'counterfeit girl' backed with 'can I share your love' and so actually even pre-existed the release as the Rivieras. All that could very well be but for what ever reason James Riley opted for a re-baptism of the group release. Only later the 45 got re-issued under the original group name... Hence with a later catalog number with the new office/shop address on the label. That as this newspaper snippet sadly reveals was targeted by anti 'civil rights' activists.

Can we see ? 🤓