Roburt

As I posted earlier, the O'Jays worked with Tom Li Puma & he was originally from Cleveland (on "You're The Only One", "Cried My Last Tear", etc on Imperial).

Stringfellow must have got an acetate of the Alan Bown version of "My Girl The Month of May" as that version didn't escape until 1968 on their 1st MGM / Music Factory LP. Alan Bown's 1st UK MGM 45 was released in October 67, their take on "Gonna Fix You Good" having escaped in March 67 (their last Pye 45).

Forgot a couple of sounds that were also popular @ the Mojo ........... the Ska Kings "Jamaican Ska" (really Byron Lee & his lads) PLUS one that took off in the summer of love (67) .... Dion's original version was played 1st "My Girl The Month of May" .... but coz of it's Mojo popularity, Alan Bown did a cover version just as they were leaving the R&B room forever ......... this is by no means soul .........

The (King) Mojo Club in Sheffield was where I first got to experience the excitement of watching numerous live soul acts. Whether it was UK based outfits that played the Sunday night sessions (Jimmy James & Vags, Geno Washington & RJB, Alan Bown, Jimi Hendrix, Sonny Childe & TNT, Chris Farlowe, Jimmy Cliffe & Breakdown Sound, etc.) or the American based acts that played the Saturday 'niters' or Sunday 'dayers' (Stevie Wonder, Garnet Mimms, Spellbinders, Alvin Cash & Crawlers, Roy C, Jnr Walker, Edwin Starr, Inez & Charlie Foxx, Ike & Tina Turner, Rufus Thomas, Wilson Pickett, Ben E King, Isley Bros, etc). In addition to all the live acts there were all the great new sounds on record that the place introduced me to (either directly or indirectly). The place was so influential in Yorkshire, that a new dance performed @ the Mojo would have spread out to clubs in Doncaster, Hull, Goole, Grimsby, Lincoln, Worksop & beyond within days. The same went for all the new records that Pete Stringfellow would spin. If Brenton Wood's “Gimme Little Sign” was played on import at the niter, club DJ's across the county would be chasing a copy by the Tuesday. Top sounds @ the Mojo in 1967 were the Brenton Wood cut already mentioned, the Artistics “I'm Gonna Miss You”, Homer Banks “60 Minutes of Your love” & “A Lot Of Love”, Bud Harper “Mr. Soul”, Major Lance “The Beat”, Chubby Checker “Discotheque”, Inez & Charlie Foxx “Tightrope”, Wilson P's “Midnight Hour”, Eddie Floyd's “Knock On Wood”, Darrell Banks “Open The Door”, Phil Upchurch “Can't Sit Down”, Impressions “You've Been Cheatin”, COD's “Michael”, Rex Garvin's “Sock It To Em JB”, Lee Dorsey's “Ride Your Pony”, Fontella Bass “Rescue Me”, loads from Willie Mitchell, “The In Crowd”, “Never Like This Before”, “Billy's Bag”, “Harlem Shuffle” and many more. The list above doesn't even include any of the many Motown tracks that were anthems, as these are just too numerous to mention. The odd ska track was also still played; Prince Buster, the Folk Brothers & Roland Alphonso. But it wasn't only 45's that Pete played. Tracks such as Stevie Wonder's “Love A GoGo” and Billy Stewart's “Exodus” were up there amongst the top legendary tracks played on a regular basis. In addition to all the normal activities of an everyday niteclub, the Mojo always went further. Pete allowed local acts to record tracks at the club for inclusion on Sheffield University charity rag records, sold mostly locally for a week or two in a particular year (in 67 the likes of Joe Cocker & local black act the Pityful Souls featured on the Rag EP). In the middle of each week, Pete would disappear off to London to run the dance floor action on TV show RSG. Here, he would obtain all the new 45's (UK & US) plus make new contacts re: booking live acts. One of Jimi Hendrix's 1st live UK gigs (outside London) was at the Mojo. If you wanted to go down and be on RSG, then you only had to ask him & tickets for the show would be produced. A barrel stood at the end of the (low) stage area and the more adventurous good dancers would climb on top of this and dance. The stage was at the very back of the building, while the dressing room/s was at the very front. There was no other way to get on and off the stage other than to walk through the entire length of the club (across the dance floor). So, if the artists were really giving a great show, Stringers would encourage everyone to squash up even tighter at the front & he'd tell the act that they couldn't leave the stage until the crowd let them (when we'd had enough). Many a time, we'd get extended encores until the singer would just about collapse on stage. Little Stevie Wonder had a real torrid time as being blind, he had no real idea what was going on as he was escorted on & off stage. The usual practice, ahead of the Mojo niters, was for lots of soulies to gather in Dony late afternoon / evening at a coffee bar at the bottom of Lazarus Court (off East Lathe Gate). When a crowd from Scunny, Goole, Hull had teamed up with locals, we'd eventually head off to Sheffield, mob handed. Unfortunately the Mojo club was housed in a converted house in the middle of a residential area. Locals didn't take kindly to all these strangely clad teenagers turning up at nearly midnight every Saturday night. Milk bottles would disappear off door steps on Sunday mornings and so the club had very unhappy neighbors. The drug squad would raid the place on a regular basis but no one would ever be found with drugs on them. The place was even raided on a Sunday evening & Jimi Hendrix was questioned as to whether he had an illegal drugs. As Jimi calmly smoked a joint, he told officers that, no, he had never done drugs. But the council finally got it's way and a license was refused in early October 1967. As booze wasn't on sale in the club, it had never needed a license but then the Government fetched in legislation to make all night clubs obtain a license & so Pete attempted to gain favour. The allniters were ended, with Geno Washington being the live attraction at the last one (15th April 67). Members drifted off to attend clubs in Nottingham, Leicester, Hull, Tadcaster, Goole, Bridlington, Grimsby, Lincoln and the like. An allniter was even set up in Scunthorpe (@ the Workshop ?) on Friday 23rd June but this was canceled at the last minute as someone got cold feet. But Pete S couldn't resist catering for the old crowd, so he started Sunday alldayers. Sunday 16th July saw the (fake) Drifters play to a capacity house and just about all the old crowd returned (the Hull lot even arranging a coach to ensure they could get home at the end of the night). But the club was doomed and so Pete, seeing nothing was going to change the council's mind, briefly reinstated niters. An alldayer featuring the Fabulous Temptations featured at the Mojo on Sunday 3rd September, but on Saturday 23rd September the Drifters (Invitations) were the star attraction at a niter. It was home to Dony for a wash, drink & a bite(?) then back to the Mojo for a dayer starring Garnet Mimms. Jimmy Cliffe & the Shakedown Sound starred @ the following Saturday niter session. However the last ever session at the club took place on Sunday 8th October with Stevie Wonder holding sway for the dayer audience. The club was packed but by now all the local mini-mods had cottoned on to what was happening and you couldn't move for 14 / 15 year olds. Stringfellow quickly moved on, arranging big soul festivals at Sheffield City Halls & in Leeds. Other post-Mojo venues he got involved with included Castleford's Crystal Bowl but he was soon back in Sheffield with his own Down Broadway and the Penthouse Club (where niters / dayers were staged in the 80's). Pete was no longer happy in Sheffield, so moved on via Leeds, Manchester, London , Miami, LA then back to London with the Hippodrome & Stringfellows Clubs. The crowd also moved on (finally), with some heading down to the Nite Owl each weekend but this club suffered a similar fate on December 4th. So, by default, the majority of us ended up going to the Wheel and there we got to see more great soul acts perform. But some of the old crowd now started drifting away, they found steady girlfriends, got fed up with catching Saturday trains to distant cities or trying to scrounge lifts in cars heading off to niters. So, I lost touch with many good friends, lots of whom I would never see again. The main stays of the Mojo crowd that I hung with were this lot …......... DONCASTER: Paul Wombwell, Monica Smith, Tom Sleight, Jack Telford, John Sullivan, Foz, Frank Nixon, Hutch, Melv Curry, Paul Tag, Kev, Steve Massey, 'Sugar' Kane, Higgo, Sev, Kendrick, Al Chappell, Al Taylor, Willowboat, Cliff Sirs, Audrie, Sandie, Eleane & a few more. SCUNTHORPE: Steve K, Fred Benson, Mick Graham, Bob King, Steve P, Pip, Penny, Pete, Pete, Ben CONISBORO: Chris Farrell PETERBORO: Toots, Gunner, John LINCOLN: Gordon Raft, Johnny Street, HULL: Jill Everingham RIP), Mike Bird, Steve Jennison, Pat Mercer (RIP), Steve Mercer, Rupert, Paul Quinn, Phil Smith, Ipswich (actually from Ipswich but hung with Hull mob), Nick, Dunc, Tom, Denise, Val, Liz, Graham Bolton, Rikki Dobbs (DJ @ Gondola). GOOLE: Jean, Charlie Pettigan, NOTTINGHAM: Eric, Dave, George, Kenny Sharpe, Click, Sue, Sue YORK: Veronica, Dee SHEFFIELD: Ben, Rimo, Stew, LEICESTER: Banger, Sheila, ASHFORD: Pete, Chris WOLVES: Sinbad NORTHAMPTON Mick Murphy KIDDERMINSTER: Mick, John WALSALL: Brian BARNSLEY AREA: names lost in mists of time but was really friendly with 2 girls from village outside of town WORKSOP: Mick ?? grumpy lad from Shireoaks who later hung out with Pete Ward's crowd. Lots of the names don't give you much to go on but back then it was just … Eric from Notts is in, he's with Kenny Sharpe !! Almost all of the above went to the Mojo but as we started heading off in 67 to Leicester & Manchester, a few names above will be folks we met at the Nite Owl, Wheel who then started hanging with us in various locations. Are any of the above on here or known to folk on here ??? I know Scunny's Fred Benson is on here … AND … Mike Bird from Hull (but now living in Sth France); his younger brother is on here – Martyn Tom Sleight (Dony) - I'm still in touch with & we're off to a soul b'day party in Worksop in two weeks time. Cliff Sirs is now back in Dony & I used to see Audrie at Dony do's or Cleggy Weekender until about 10 years ago. Think Chris Farrell's on here too. Charlie Pettigan (Goole) was last heard of living in Reading (7/8 yrs back).

Terry Johnson -- Mar-keys R I P View full article

Kris, I talked with Lou again (another 90 minutes) and he told me all about his Aussie / NZ adventures. ... BUT .... he never went there with Kim Tolliver. Lou knew Kim from the very early 60's & led her backing band for some years. On & off, they were an item over almost a 10 year period. Kim, in the 60's had 6 children to look after, 3 of her own & 3 who came with her 1st husband. So Lou knew the family well throughout the 60's. However, when Kim married Fred Briggs, Fred didn't want Lou anywhere near them (& I can see why with Kim / Lou's history, so Lou became persona none grata). Kim worked outside Cleveland a lot, spending some considerable time on the road (even in the 60's) .... that's probably how she met Fred Briggs. Kim toured as part of Otis Redding's review package for some time, up until Otis's death (he was killed in a plane crash on 10th Dec 67. flying from Cleveland to Madison -- he had just completed 3 shows @ Leo's Casino in Cleveland + done a TV show there). Anyway, getting back on point, Lou wasn't allowed to play in Kim's band after she hooked up with Fred Briggs. So he never toured Australia & N Zealand in the 80's with Kim. He did tour Australia & New Zealand (6 weeks in Aus + 3 in NZ) with a group and as a solo artist, more on that later. Thought I'd finish off with an Aussie / Lou link ........ so here's a pic of Lou, Sonny Turner (Platters), me & the Gold Coast's (Aus) top soulster John Phillips. We're all together in Vegas in 1998 .........

Linked to the above, from today's Guardian newspaper ......... https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/22/how-we-made-motown-records-berry-gordy-smokey-robinson-stevie-wonder-interview

Available today on US web site BESTBUY ...........

Even Warner Bros got back into soul in the early 70's via acts like Tower of Power & indie prod deals like Lou Ragland's 45. But they didn't seem to sign up acts from struggling old school soul labels, though they did distribute Curtom for some years (after Buddah). Miami soul also rose up in the 70's (via TK mainly). In the 60's Miami product had lost it's identity as it escaped on Philly labels & NY's Atlantic in the main (for national distribution anyway).

Well majors like CBS, EMI, RCA all decided to get into soul music in a big way in the early / mid 70's (72 -- 76) as they saw it as another market that they could dominate. BUT the black labels had to go under / be struggling before the majors could tempt all their artists away. CBS certainly picked up loads of acts from Stax, Brunswick / Dakar & the like .... then 2/3 yrs on when their marketing guys had failed to raise sales figures enough (coz they had no idea how to market to the black public), just about all those black acts were dropped. So the majors were to blame, but Philly Int prospered for years under CBS distribution, so that wasn't the whole story. As the majors took over soul product, they forced US black radio stns to take their product & indie stuff was dropped from radio play lists, so diversity in the market died. Up until about 1970, each local radio stn played different stuff including lots of local product.

During the 70's, Detroit, Chicago, Memphis (Stax, Goldwax, AGP, etc.) all declined as producers of great soul music. LA & NY seemed to hold there own whereas Philly was on the upturn. .......... why was this ... Motown quit Detroit but lots of the creative people (producers, arrangers, singers, musicians) remained in the city. Chicago (after Brunswick's payola problems) went into major decline & guys moved out to other cities (Atlanta, etc.). Chess had already declined. Memphis had a burst of creativity from Hi, but Stax went under with financial woes & Goldwax just faded away. In an interview Chicago based Floyd Smith gave in 71, he said they always worked 'formally' in Chicago soul circles, no improv in the studio as Stax & Motown did. Guess this didn't help their creative juices at all & guys again moved away (didn't Floyd Smith relocate to Nashville or somewhere similar ??) Views on the decline in soul terms of these cities musical output is much welcomed !!

Seems like it might have been mainly the type of records that aren't of interest to us here ......... BUT this NY outfit went on to have it's own label & to press stuff up for foreign markets (into the late 70's at least ) ................

Came across this interesting piece from 1967 about EMI setting up in the US with a (NY based) firm that would distribute all the records sent by EMI to the US from 16 different countries that the company pressed records up in .............. .... anyone know much about the US outfit involved OR how many records were involved (100's, 1000's ??? & what period did this arrangement go on till ?) ....... ......... is there a track record (sorry !?!?!) for loads of EMI 45's from the likes of Argentina, Finland, Greece, India, Norway & Turkey turning up @ US record fairs ?? ...ALSO ... Herb Williams was leaving Capitol to join Peters Int. THAT wasn't THE Herb Williams was it ??

Robb, perhaps this was the studio the Del-Phis cut at ......... In 1950, Fred Wolf opened radio station WDOK at 1515 Euclid Ave (the Loew's State Theater building) and hired a young Navy veteran, Ken Hamann, as his engineer for both the radio and the recording studios. Hamann became chief engineer of Cleveland Recording in 1956 and over the next decade he helped build the studio into a state-of-the-art recording and mastering facility. Here many regional and national hit records were produced (the Outsiders' "Time Won't Let Me", the Human Beinz "Nobody But Me" & other successful stuff including tracks by Grand Funk Railroad). The other top local studio was Agency Recording, which was above the Agora Ballroom. Lots of top acts were recorded by Agency when they played lived gigs @ the Agora, these sessions being released many times on vinyl. But that studio wasn't above the Agora until 1967.

I think the O'Jays & their road musicians were based in / around LA until late 66 .... Lou Ragland makes mention of them returning to Cleveland around 66 / 67(?) from LA. They were broke & unhappy and hadn't had much chart success so good paying gigs were drying up. We love their Minit 45 (written by Clevelander Larry Hancock) but it didn't do much sales wise in the US (was this cut in Detroit ?). Tom Li Puma (who the group worked with) was originally from Cleveland. The group returned to winning ways with "I'll Be Sweeter Tomorrow" in Dec 67. There's a famous literary Charles DeBose who originated in Akron, Ohio. No idea if that's the same guy as the one who worked with the Symphonics though. I always thought the Symphonics were from Chicago.

Just got off the phone again with Lou, another enjoyable 90 minutes speakin' with him. He really does have a great memory, I ask, he ponders & then you get the info right back. Loads more fascinating facts have been unearthed. Lou went on the road (in his Cleveland days) in a major way on 4 different occasions. His recall of exact dates is not brilliant but everything else he remembers. The 1st time he went off was around 1964. He was an item with Kim Tolliver at the time & her guitar player / band leader. She had other singers in tow & so their show was billed 'The Kim Tolliver Revue. Top of the bill on the package was (CM &) the Impressions. The next time he went on tour was with Terry Knight, right after Terry had a hit record out. They played the 'white club 'circuit & Lou got to play the Bitter End & Peppermint Lounge in New York. Then came a long spell (after his short period as lead singer with Billy Ward & Dominoes) with the O'Jays and that road job lasted about 2 years. Lou fronted Hot Chocolate from 70 to 73 and they undertook an extensive tour (Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida). That was the spell when the group came up with "Since You Said You'd Be Mine" & when they sold their name and became Seven Miles High. When Lou was with the O'Jays, they weren't doing that well (having returned from LA nearly broke). They played the 'black club' circuit so never made top dollar then. Lou knew they needed more publicity to generate more gigs (as the group's records weren't really selling that well --the George Kerr spell about 68).So Lou prepared a 22 page booklet as publicity for the group. As well as sending copies out to get bookings, they sold copies to the public at gigs & made a few extra $$. Below is a screen grab of the front cover of that publicity booklet .....

Not the era you two are talking about .... but a piccy of the Musicor group's lead singer Sonny Turner. He's dancing with our lass @ the big soul show we staged in Vegas back in 1998 .... he broke into "With This Ring" & it's such a fave of Mrs Smith's that she had to get up to dance with him ....

I LUUVVVV me some STAAXXXXX !!

RE: The strangest Uptown release is the Shotgun Express 45, I think that might be their only non-US artist. What did yanks make of this Tower LP then ....

I guess Chuck had been 'Slippin' Around' (or was that Art Freeman ?).

Not sure as I ain't got that one .... BUT the BBC did source a whole bunch of the tracks to form these LP's from Motown. I'm after the VA LP that contains a few (otherwise) unissued Gwen Owens 'Motown' tracks cut around 1973. ALSO the Rudy Love LP 'The Right Feeling' (though I have all those cuts electronically -- sent to me by Rudy). Again the Rudy Love cuts didn't escape anywhere else in the world (these were cut in Muscle Shoals but after 'Motown South' shut down).

Another cautionary tale from life on the road .... again in Detroit ............ CHUCK JACKSON the victim .........

Robb, I bet Robey & his female partner (who ran Buffalo Booking) got some of those Detroit based artists work on their 'southern venue circuit' AND if they did, Buffalo would definitely have taken their cut of the fees. Buffalo kept a whole string of clubs / venues (across 6/7 southern states) supplied with live acts on a constant basis ........ so I see no reason why they didn't include those Detroit artists in that work. The juke-boxes in those same venues was always stocked with new Duke / Peacock / Sureshot 45's and if one of those 45's became a popular spin, then the bar / club would be asking about a visit from the artist themselves.

I'm getting ready to write up a full article on Lou, so there will not be much appearing on this thread for a while .... .. HOWEVER .... I'll be speakin at length with Lou again on Tuesday afternoon (morning his time) and so if anyone wants me to ask him a specific question about anything from his long career, post it up here. I'll then prepare a list of them (should there be any response) and ask him. To keep things tickin over, thought I'd post up a street pic of 1966 E 55th St, Cleveland, the site of the Way Out Records studio .......... a railway line ran behind the studio, so I asked Lou if the noise of trains ever interfered with a recording session. He said that the recording sessions were held at night and trains didn't seem to run on that line at night ...............