Roburt

This clip from youtube has a few bits about the Mojo Club .......... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDZJpOHpNAE

There seems to be little or nothing about the Attic in Doncaster on-line, which is a great pity as lots of top soul acts played the venue till it morphed into more of a skinhead hangout. The Attic was 'housed' in the old Co-op building ballroom (top floor of the building I seem to recall). As the Co-op Ballroom it had been around for ages and it had a link to the early UK R&B (Beat) group era via the live acts booked to play the venue around 1962/63. By the mid 60's it was seen by local mods as very un-hip and not the sort of place we would have frequented. That only changed when it took on it's Attic identity. Back in 1962 the likes of Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers (May) & the Beatles (August) played the Co-op Ballroom ............. Strangely, the most popular place for Dony Mods to hang out in 1966 was the disco room in the Excel Bowling Alley, right next door to the Horse & Groom (another place we wouldn't have frequented back then).

The guy on the left looks like Herb Reed to me, so that would make this outfit one of his 70's incarnations of the Platters. Here's a picture of one of his outfits ..........

Well Chuck Jackson is still around & I'd say he was always up there in the Premier League of soul singers. Also Garnett Mimms is still living though he has refused to sing anything but gospel for many years ............. https://articles.philly.com/2008-01-10/news/25253632_1_garnet-mimms-jerry-ragovoy-gospel William Bell made a great number of fine recordings as well.

The Jackie Opel sides were released on a King label 45 in the UK in 1965 and escaped in Jamaica on Studio One & Coxsone (but with a WIRL matrix). Don't know if the 1st Jamaican release was actually on WIRL though.

One of the gems he was involved with ...... Irma Thomas .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNZFbgszrVY Another one ...... Diamond Joe ........ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LRy9gbC00E

Sad News: Allen Toussaint R I P View full article

Seems that an auction house in Stockport is selling a box of 47 different BBC Radioplay LP's towards the end of this month (29th/30th Nov). https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/omega-auctions/catalogue-id-srom10031/lot-a032d4c4-7a06-4aa2-abf8-a43b0116c9f4 Their web site doesn't list what the individual LP's are but the front one in the box is titled 'Living For The City' so may contain Stevie Wonder 70's tracks. I'd guess that some of the albums in the box will contain soul cuts and it may be worth locally based 'Soul Sourcers' looking in at the auction house ahead of the sale to check out just what is in that box.

I got in touch with Gwen Owens and she confirmed that the 4 tracks by her included on the 'Ruler Of The Hunt' LP were cut for Woodford / Ivey's Wishbone Inc. Terry Woodford tells me that not all of the tracks (Rudy Love; Gwen Owens) were 'owned' by Motown but that he himself gave the BBC permission to include some of the cuts on these LP's. So it seems that some must have been released with Motown's permission and some with Terry Woodford's OK.

Another posting on a youtube video of the song states .......... Brenda McGregor was the lead singer, Delores McGregor, and Shirley Cook (the other members), I know because I'm Sandra McGregor the younger sister of Brenda. RE: Brenda then joining the Vonettes .......... the voices on the Vonettes 45 are supposed to be those of Sandi Sheldon & Van McCoy (according to Sandi / Kendra Spotswood), so maybe Brenda was only in the 'live' version of that group and not the studio version.

Info you want here (in the comments) ......... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mL23kfGh1M ........... The Dynells - 'Call On Me' The Dynells are one of many girl groups left out of music's history books. Frontwoman Brenda McGregor went on to join The Vonettes before tragically dying at just 25, but little else is known about the group aside from their corking songs. 'Call On Me' is a mind-blowing Northern Soul number that's utterly beautiful.Read more at https://www.nme.com/photos/20-forgotten-60s-girl-groups/290505#/photo/5#vMkzF6xUFPC3LlfG.99

James Lewis (Sho-Nuff) R I P View full article

One of the General Johnson tracks featured on this BBC LP ........ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgkO7XGUJyA

In the Rudy Love thread, I made mention of 2 BBC Radioplay LP's from 1985. Here I'm dealing with a 3rd of these 'internal-use' BBC releases. This one dates back to 1986 and features 6 tracks by General Johnson (+ 5 by Johnny Guitar Watson). The 'Gangsters Of Love' album (TAIR86014) has the following General Johnson tracks on it ....... All In The Family, Carolina Girls, Down At The Beach Club, Fool Am I, Only Love Can Mend A Broken Heart & We The People. Three of these cuts date back to the mid 70's and originally came out on Arista whilst three date from the 80's and were put out by Surfside Records in the US. The Johnny Guitar Watson tracks (all 70's releases originally) were cut for DJM. It seems strange to me that tracks from 3 different source labels should be packaged together on this BBC release. Anyone have any idea of the process the BBC staffers would have gone through to set up the licensing of these tracks ?

An old (2009) newspaper article about the music scene in the Overtown area (where Tropical Records was based ) ............. https://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/jordan-levin/article1931267.html

This track by Rudy (off his other Calla LP) was sampled by Jay Z .............

Rudy's brother Bob Love gave me this info on Rudy's work with Woodford / Ivey .............. "Those tracks originated when Rudy was doing pilot vocals for the Muscle Shoals Studio in Muscle Shoals Alabama. Rudy was given the task of recording one song after another written by various songwriters on the staff of the studio. Rudy recorded almost 48 hours straight, one song after another with just the lyrics in his hand and never having seen or heard the songs before. This was an amazing time for him. I was asked to help produce it because I knew Rudy`s voice so well. These were songs that they were specifically targeting certain artists. Everyone there was amazed at how they were coming out so they thrust one after another in front of Rudy. These sides plus a few more that aren`t on the UK album are incredible. Muscle Shoals Studio was owned by Terry Woodford and Clayton Ivey. That is where we recorded the 'This Song Is For You' album also. This studio was sometime called Motown South because they supplied some of the songs for other artists and they would record them there in a small town way away from the bright lights. Frank DiLeo who was Michael Jacksons manager at the time they bought the publishing writes to many a song and one of my songs titled Body Caress was among them. So these sides eventually turned up on that BBC album.' The album by Rudy ('This Song Is For You') was released on Calla in 1978. A track off the album ..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I47OxIeHGk Terry Woodford & Clayton Ivey's Muscle Shoals studio was known as Wishbone Recording Studios and was opened in 1976. The likes of Garland Green, Ann Sexton, Bill Brandon, Hot, Rudy Love, Millie Jackson and the Temptations cut tracks there. Bottom & Company (1976) and Reuben Howell's Motown albums (1973/74) plus cuts by Thelma Houston were cut for Woodford & Ivey's Wishbone Inc. in Muscle Shoals but I guess most were recorded in another Shoals Studio (Muscle Shoals Sound ?). "Scatchin" credited to Motown Disco Machine was probably also cut in the same studio.

Gwen Owens (when a member of Hot) cut a version of one of the Motown tracks cut by Rudy & included on his BBC LP ......... "The Right Feeling At The Wrong Time" Hot.

Rudy Love has enjoyed regular US releases that go all the way back to 1970 (Canyon, Earthquake, Calla, etc.). After his stint with major labels (which included a spell as a member of Sly Stone's group and a period with Motown in the 70's) he mainly had stuff out on his own labels but the releases did keep coming. Here in the UK he wasn't as lucky. Until his recent releases via Kent (a track on 45 + on a compilation CD), his only previous releases this side of the pond had been 2 LP's. The strange thing about both these albums was that the tracks they featured never actually escaped at all back in the US. The first of these two was the strange Manhattan Records (President) album credited to Brother Tyrone Davis (MAN 5034: 1980) which featured 10 tracks that Rudy & Company Soul cut for Canyon Records back in 1970. The second LP escaped here on the BBC Radioplay label which was a private release that the BBC pressed up to send out to their local radio stations around the UK. As such only a couple of hundred (?) of each of these LP's must have been pressed up. The 10 tracks featured on 'The Right Feeling' LP (TAIR85019: 1985) had been cut by Rudy for Terry Woodford / Clayton Ivey when they were running the Motown South operation out of Muscle Shoals ....... https://www.discogs.com/Rudy-Love-The-Right-Feeling/release/5517898. A lot of Motown artists had tracks featured by the BBC on these 'BBC Radioplay' albums at that time (4 Tops, Temptations, Miracles, Jnr Walker, R Dean Taylor, Shorty Long, Isley Brothers, Brenda Holloway, Elgins, Marvelettes, Mary Wells, Velvelettes, etc.), so some special arrangement must have existed between the BBC and Motown at the time (85/86). Other tracks that must have originated from Motown were included on the various artists 'Ruler Of The Hunt' LP (TAIR 85006). These include 1 cut by Siedah Garrett, 2 by Phyllis St James and 4 from Gwen Owens (maybe also the ones by Alex Brown & Ada Dyer) .......... https://www.discogs.com/Various-Ruler-Of-The-Hunt/release/5610427 The Gwen Owens tracks on this LP must also have originated from Motown's deal with Woodford & Ivey. Anyone here got either LP ('The Right Feeling' ; 'Ruler Of The Hunt') or has heard any of the 'otherwise unissued' tracks off these two BBC albums and can tell us if there are any gud uns amongst them.

It's also detailed (on-line) that Stevie played the Flamingo Club (London) nighter on 21st January 66 (supported or backed up by Peter B's Looners who had Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood as members at the time). Peter B's Looners (with additional members) soon afterwards changed their name to Shotgun Express.

A bit of info (& a photo) here about what Stevie was up to in the UK in 1966 (+ other years) ......... https://classic.motown.com/2014/08/14/story-behind-image-stevie-wonder/ Stevie played the Scotch of St James club in London on 3rd February ....... https://www.beatlesbible.com/1966/02/03/paul-mccartney-meets-stevie-wonder/ He also played The Marquee (London) on Monday 7th February plus a gig at the Cavern in Liverpool on that 66 visit ........ https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/nostalgia/stevie-wonders-cavern-contract-goes-9472367 As EMI had fetched him over here to promote the "Uptight" 45, no doubt many of his shows here were last minute bookings.

Bill Sampson, who owned / ran Scamm Records + VIP Enterprises, had been a DJ as far back as the early 50's (for KWKW out of Pasadena, Cal). The Sir Guy Armond 45 was the first release on his label. The label name was changed to Scamm Sound. Hayward Lee & the Marauders (who had the 2nd 45 out on the label) had started out as HL & the Bluenotes around 1965 before becoming HL & the Maurauders. They were from Freso, Cal and info on them can be found here .............. https://thebrymers.sharepoint.com/Pages/1960sSanJoaquinValleyBands.aspx Can't find much about a singer called Wardell Howard apart from a review of a show that a guy of this name undertook in 1978 in Sarasota, Florida. At that time he was one of the solo singers with the Roger Wagner Chorale (they had 2 LP's out on Chorale Records in July 67). The Roger Wagner Chorale were based out of LA so I guess this is the same Wardell Howard.

Don Griffin, the guitar player, was killed in Denver last week ......... https://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_28789242/don-griffin-killed-by-vehicle-i-25-was As well as playing for the Miracles (when his brother Billy was the group's lead singer) and Anita Baker, he was also a member of 80's funk band, Madagascar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxjFFB31nQI Seems that he was putting together a new band at the time of his death. R I P