Steve G

HI Peter, Here goes

Hi there, I think we did a thread on this a year or two back. Banners draped over the balcony "f*ck the funk" etc. when Sam came on. Those modern sounds really divided the Casino in two. Sam played Casanova before it got into the charts, and will tell you that he'd dropped it by the time it charted. Richard had his own De-Lite moment later when he played Leon Bryant "Hotsy Totsy Mighty Body" in 80/81 (sorry can't remember date). Peter is right though, I recall Sam was actually sacked for criticising the Casino Sound system in a letter to B&S or Black Echoes magazine. Whilst Winstanley wasn't happy with what Sam was doing play wise (Winstanley himself was playing disco records like Isaac Hayes Connection), Sam maintains that it was the "letter" that was the final straw that got him his cards. I can't remember now whether they published it, or just tipped "The Casino Management" off that they'd received it.

I don't think so Prophonics. Where did you get that info from? Wil Collins & willpower was always regarded as one of the 79 influx of first modern biggies when John A thought the scene needed to go in a different direction. The top DJs who got it at that point all covered it up as Love Committee, Richard Searling, Sam, Gary Rushbrooke etc. all had a copy. It was the same time as Larry Houston, Cheryl Berdell, Roy Dawson, Sammy Gaha etc. and I first heard Sam play it at Bedford Nite Spot. The Mercury one might have got played at the Mecca, but not "Anything I can do". Although amazingly I did find two copies in the basement of a London shop in the mid 80s, along with several other releases on the label (Beverly Crosby, Sophisticated Ladies etc.).

Yes Sam was there in 80, wasn't sacked until after Coffee Casanova....

Jr Walker, Major Lance, Eddie Holman Peterborough.

All true but by "no one" I meant us lot here, not the friends of the bands and singers who obviously had access to the singers they knew, but at the same time wouldn't know who was making records in the next town 10 miles away.

I was referring to the context of the scene when these records were getting discovered and we were all trying to find them after the first copy / copies had been found. It made travelling to Sheffield, Warrington, or Snaith essential to hear the latest discoveries, much the same as the northern scene. No one was rubbing shoulders with these singers that's why the records were so rare. I mean John A had got to Wil Garrison's WG set up in the late 70s with 7th Wonder and imported loads of copies. But F Smogg didn't turn up at all til the mid 80s, about 8 years later, although it's a late 70s record. Of course we'd all have liked to have been in the studio when these artists were laying em down, that goes without saying, and apart from John who was going every six weeks or so, people like Arthur went to the States to meet the producers / artists / get records etc. So were others John M, Dave Raistrick, Dave Withers, were all regulars and a few others I've forgotten. On the comments, yes of course constructive criticism is fine...but some of the ones we see I can write for the posters.

Nick, Sam had Fluorescent Smogg first. It was after Poke mid 80s, I was there at The Bowl in the barn - it was in Sam's play pile of things that John had selected and when he played it I thought "What the hell - you can't be serious?" etc. I couldn't square it with what was going down and I don't think John did either, since it was a fiver or ten quid - i.e. cheap. Sam could see it, and eventually I "got what that record was about". Took me many years to get a copy. Today I still love both sides. ..... Thing is for those knocking King Moses (and we might as well do F.Smogg as well before the "it's average" crowd pile in with their usual comments), and I appreciate some people simply don't get it, but...... back then these were the holy grail records for people into rare modern, along with Mark IV, Larom Baker etc. You can scoff all you like about "mediocre" and I'll disagree all day - but at least appreciate these records in the context of the era. Interesting that many of the knockers were not on the scene then or were "taking a break"

Am doing a show on Solarradio.com (sky0129) sunday morning at 10 a.m. Two hours to celebrate 30 years of Kent Records, feat. non stop their 70's / 80's and crossover releases. Having been through my shelves there's some killer stuff in there, quite a bit of it forgotten. Hope you can tune in.... Steve

Lars got a real bargain with it too! Mines the old Soul Bowl / Poke / JV/ NCFC/ Ian Clark/ Sam copy. At least 6 previous loving owners And BTW - LOVE the guitar break - it sums up everything those Parrliament type dudes were up to back at the end of the 70s. If you look at the youtube clip of KM he was right in that bag. Not everyone's cup of tea I know.

The mint copy is a real bargain. The Steve J copy - I remember when he got it. He first played it just before I was due to go on at a Soul people event in Preston a couple of years ago (not that I was planning on playing my copy anyway). It sounded pretty "noisy".

In any event have found out that Patti Jo signed with Scepter before being sent to work with Curtis - presumably after she'd been in the Broadway show Purdie. Curtis was under contract to produce material for Scepter at the time...so it seems likely that they placed her with Curtis. ***March 2013 - The above is now confirmed.****

Obviously some other Goldwax fans on here! Great. I'll try and find the EP tonight and post that up, unless someone beats me to it! Keep em coming.

We should all pile onto Cat 45 and stick them all up. They've got some brilliant guys on there that can date and locate a Columbia pressing just by the font size / format of font used and know all of the different litho / label printers on the East Coast. But on Goldwax they've a way to go yet.....Just as well we have em all

Good as far as it goes but it misses the Tollie demos which had Goldwax written across the top (i.e not following round the record), the light blue (e.g. well's gone dry), and the larger yellow and red variant. Steve

This Billboard "Best disco in the world" stuff is horse s**t. There would have been so much pressure from the NY clubs etc. in fact clubs all over. They wouldn't have dared!

Russ also played it dave. It was one of those 10 minute wonders.

Nice post Dave.

Len look at a stylus under a magnifying glass Len, then you'll see why...

How bizarre. I haven't used the stars just leave a positive comment thought that was enough....

Gotta tell yer Dave yer website is brilliant.

Yes there was a dark blue styrene one done in 77 with different label design to the original. Kim Kimborough not around anymore I don't think?

Bang on the money Ian as usual. All these folk that seem to think the artists own the music they recorded is very naive. In some cases they do, in many cases they don't.

Another day, another bootleg?

Reality is Pete I don't take bookings for many venues, and certainly not ones where these sort of guys hang out, so it's really unlikely to happen in the real world. I can see it being a problem for the "rent-a-DJ" crowd that beg for bookings everywhere though.