Roburt

Phil Flowers Snr (RIP) & Vegas based Phil Flowers Jnr ...........

Made a mistake & omitted a couple of things in my bio on Ronnie (thanx Ronnie for pointing out my piece's shortcomings !!) ..... will have to update it when I can find the time ... .... BUT .... exiting news in prospect for Ronnie's upcomin' show. I'll be away in the Baltic so will not know if it all pans out to current plans ... guess I'll have to turn up on the day to see what happens .... such is life.

Nothing in the book 'Showtime At The Apollo' about the 'Shower of Stars' shows BUT then Otis Redding only gets 4 sparse mentions in the whole book. The guys who owned / ran the place since the mid 30's, had 1st owned the Lafayette Theatre. This was dubbed the 'cradle of stars' so perhaps that's why they came up with 'Shower of Stars' as a marketing ploy for shows @ the Apollo.

By all accounts, Willie is still working hard in the music biz ..... ... he just posted this info up on Facebook ..... I Am Writing Horn Parts For 'The Great Otis Rush Tribute' at The Blues Festival On Sunday 12th Of June ..... the Rehearsal Is Next Wed (May 25th). Bet that will be a good gig to be at, using real brass players as well. Wonder who the featured singers will be.

Spoke with Lou again yesterday & got back onto the subject of Harvey Fuqua's proposed new label (the label died when Harvey did). They had cut tracks on Harvey & Etta(James), Brenda Holloway, G C Cameron, a NEW Moonglows, another more recent group (Lou couldn't recall their name when we were chatting) + other artists. The label was to be called Resurging Artists & Lou tells me that a CD did escape (no idea what's on it though). Harvey also cut duets with Smokey Robinson on a couple of songs ("Tracks of My Tears" being one of them). They were also talkin' of licensing in material. They were talking / working with Phil Flowers Jnr (son of the 60's / 70's recording artist) and were going to release a great ballad he had laid down. They thought it need a bit of work though, so Lou added some backing vocals & did a new mix. Seems it will never escape though as Harvey has passed (I've got a copy of it & it's good ... but it's only for my ears unfortunately unless a deal can be sourced).

A US newspaper article ............ https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/entertainment/2016/05/17/ojays-bring-50-years-energy-friendship-wetumpka/84518612/ Can't unfortunately get to their gig mesen as we head off up into the Baltic on Sunday from Soton. But .... a related photo .... late 60's & Lou Ragland playing guitar in the O'Jays band on tour (no idea of the location though) ....

......... FROM ABOVE ........ RE: .... of course, some record companies had ways of influencing the (radio) DJ's to get them to play their records .... .... ..... like sending their artists to play 'free gigs' for radio DJs ...... ...... here's a gig for Balto DJ Hot Rod .... guess he was playin' loads of Chess Records after this show ....

A promo video for the Caviar album (CD) that finally escaped from the vaults a few years back ...........

Berry eventually fell out with many of the people who helped him get Motown going, the artists, musicians, arrangers, producers, writers .... so I guess he'll stay well clear of some tracks that punters might think he would pick.

Well when I started out on the soul club scene, NS hadn't been invented. Of course, this was back in the mid 60's & most stuff was being played as new releases. It was just all soul; so we got Stax, Atlantic, Okeh, Motown, Bell, Brunswick, Duke, Chess, Sureshot, King, Arctic, Cameo-Parkway, Sansu, Wand, Modern (as opposed to MS), Kent, ABC, in fact the lot. If it was a soul 45, you could dance to it (fast or slow dance) & it was good ... it got played.

Another WEBB 45 chart ..........

I also love old regional soul 45 charts .... the radio stn ones are my faves ...... Baltimore was a 'break-out' city for soul 45's, so many record companies targeted the three soul stns there ..... for some reason LA label releases seemed to do well there .... of course, some record companies had ways of influencing the DJ's to get them to play their records .... like sending their artists to play 'free gigs' for radio DJs ....

Willie & his guys backed up many Chess artists on their studio sessions in the mid 60's ..... A perfect example of this being the Kittens "Ain't No More Room" ..... NS class .....

He'll have to include one of the Supremes big hits (or a Diana solo effort).

Over a year had passed since Otis Clay's last One-derful 45 when he signed back with a Chicago based label; Dakar. His 1st single for the inking, cut under the supervision of Willie Henderson, was "You Hurt Me For The Last Time". The track was charting down in Florida on Ft Lauderdale based WRBD in June 1969. What would be your fave track, that Willie was involved with, that you'd like him to deal with in his upcoming book ??

Talk of the Grapevine is that Chicago musician / producer/ musical director Willie Henderson is writing a book about his long music career .... should be good if he deals with lots of his work & not just the hit stuff ..... .... as a musician, he played on loads of 60's soul tracks cut in the Windy City .... guess we'll learn the full SP on just which tracks he was on & what he thought of the sessions in his upcomin' book ... really hope this makes it to the publishers .....

Having trouble keeping him on track with regard to what he's gonna perform in the MS room @ the Cleggy Weekender in just over 3 weeks time. He does so many different songs in his usual shows (60's soul, Stax, Motown, Atlantic, Philly, 70's soul, James Brown stuff, Edwin Starr tracks, etc) that keeping him to just 4/5 tracks that he was actually personally involved with is proving a problem. One song that's a staple in his songbook is "Hold On I'm Coming" ... he sings both parts in his version (both Sam & Dave's bits OR IF YOU LIKE both Chuck & Maxine's bits).

My top 8 would have to include at least 2 x 60's Impressions tracks, a Billy Stewart, a Dells, Lorraine Ellison's "Stay With Me Baby", Artistics "I'm Gonna Miss You", Tommy Tate "School of Life" a 70's Curtis Mayfield .... jjeeessss I already got to 8 without any real MS cuts amongst em ... not an easy task this selecting just 8 top tunes.

A little montage of Larry's work .... records from the US, Canada, France & more ........

Ronnie live ........... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUEBslTkB4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy6ThqTDGQE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjMDhknQ8cg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEkyMmlf0wk ...... AND ...... the 1st record his vocals ever featured on ......... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjH2iSH60x0 CATCH RONNIE PERFORMING LIVE @ the CLEETHORPES SOUL WEEKENDER

In addition to all the above career highlights, Ronnie has also been involved in a number of other projects. After Ronnie's solo spell with Aj's records, in 1988/89 he then returned to work with an old acquaintance, Hank Ballard's son Mike. The two worked on a track for Mike and this was released on Love Daddy Records (a division of BPC). The 12” was credited to Mike Ballard & After Midnight and the featured track was “Tight Jean”. Ronnie was part writer of the song which 1st appeared on the BPC label (the B being for Ballard & the C standing for Canada). More recently, he added his vocals to a cut by South African based Soul Fortune. “Missing You” (2013) has found fans across the world even though the release has been somewhat limited as it was only made available in digital format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I1xX7Ljhj4

Just a quick note to let folk know that there's a Facebook appreciation page for Larry Hancock. .......... https://www.facebook.com/groups/173304114216/ Larry started out in Cleveland group the Intertains (Uptown), he moved on to join S.O.U.L. and then was a major force in Truth. After that Larry went solo and performed / cut tracks for many more years. He recorded some duets that escaped in France (& the UK) but sadly passed away a number of years ago. Larry was very well respected and many who worked with him down the years held him in very high esteem. So it's only fitting that a page has been established on Facebook to remember this fine singer. S.O.U.L reformed to perform in the UK in the 90's (on a London concert Ace promoted) and I got to meet the guys before their show. It was a real pleasure to spend some time with Larry. ......... Truth ........... AND ... ............ Larry in London ........

Still haven't managed to track down much (if anything) about these 'annual shower of stars' shows .... ... the management @ the Apollo kept the place largely drug free BUT unfortunately, drug dealers would hang out in the alley off 126th St where the stage door was. So artists who needed an up to go on stage or a down to wind down quickly after their performance, could always get some stuff. Under the stage was a large area where groups would rehearse. The 4 Tops would go down there to practise their steps when they had a stage-dance (that went with a new 45) to get right. Posted up a pic of them doing just this on an old related thread. A review show stages in DC @ the Howard Theatre ... no doubt this lot would have ended up playing the Apollo a few days / weeks later.

A great story about the Apollo ........ .... Tom Jones had just started having hits in the US & was booked on a Dick Clark package tour of the US. He was in New York looking around before the tour commenced & bumped into Dionne Warwick outside the Scepter Records building. She knew him from playing gigs & tv in the UK. They chatted & he asked where she was going ... I'm off to the Apollo .... can I come with you, he pleaded. So she took him to the Apollo where Chuck Jackson was topping the bill that week ... he was introduced to Chuck & they got on well .... time for Chuck to hit the stage & after he starts his show, he calls Tom out on stage with him. Tom gets the chance & so sings a bit ... it was the 1st time Tom had been to the Apollo & he was out on stage singing & killing the audience ... by all counts he told folk afterwards that he'd never felt anything like that before in his career ... can't beat a chitlin circuit (Apollo) audience.

Motown Review @ the Apollo ....... ....AND ... the same package @ the Howard in DC (some changes in the line-up had occurred) ...