Roburt

I met Helene Smith & Willie Clarke (+ Jackie Moore & Timmy Thomas) in Miami back in 2017 (at the launch for a book on Florida soul music). Never really had the chance to talk about Deep City with either, though they did talk about their time at the label in a Q&A session that day.

JJ worked a lot with Sidney Barnes in the mid 60's -- in New York; before JJ came to the UK and Sidney relocated to Detroit & then Chicago. JJ returned to the US around 1970 but soon 'disappeared' from the music scene. In the 80's / 90's Sidney tried to reconnect with JJ but was never able to track him down. The guy that worked out of Florida & Brazil around that time (& later) wasn't the Calla guy. Sidney & JJ wrote lots of songs together and so are due the royalties that still acrue. Sidney collects his money, if JJ did then Sidney would have been able to get JJ's current contact details. As said above, most info on JJ on Wiki, etc is incorrect.

The biggest problem the Mojo had was it's location. It was right in the middle of an affluent residential area of north Sheffield -- miles from the town centre. The locals got worried that just as they were locking up for the night & going to bed, 100's of strangely clad teenagers were milling about outside their houses (as they waited for the niter session to open it's doors). Also, it seems, lots of milk bottles used to go missing off door steps early on Sunday mornings. A good thing about being a member of the club was, as Stringfellow ran the dance floor at Ready Steady Go, if you asked you could always get a ticket to attend the tv show. Of course, Stringfellow (after he was hounded out of Sheffield) went on to bigger things. But he never forgot his 'start' and was always happy to return to celebrate reunion nights. One such was held in the 80's at the Leadmill in Sheffield (the location of Sheffield's biggest rival club to the Mojo in the 60's-- the Esquire).

I was a member of the Mojo & attended on a regular basis in 1966 & 67 (till it was closed down) ...

In the mid to late 60's, lots of strange tracks got played. Some died & were quickly forgotten, but others caught on. "Scratchy" by Travis Wammack being one of these. I seem to recall "Groovin' With Mr. Bloe" getting niter spins before it made the UK pop charts. Of course, in the Casino era, loads of tracks were played that you wouldn't dream of putting on the decks at a soul nite these days. Ender tracks were also a bit out of ordinary but were played at most soul clubs -- at the Mojo from 1966 it was the Artistics "I'm Gonna Miss You" .. too slow to dance to but just the right type of soulful offering to let the crowd know that it was time to go.

In the mid 60's, most venues booking soul acts (US & UK based) were 'cellar like' clubs -- the Mojo, Wheel, Nite Owl, Club A Go Go, Gliderdrome, California Ballroom, Dungeon, Beachcomber, Boulevard, Blue Moon, Birdcage & numerous London clubs + various Uni venues across the UK. Venues like the Place, Hanley, Clouds, Derby & Golden Torch were already involved too. It soon became evident, even to the 'square' bookers for the big ballroom chains that they'd do good business following suit. So a few dipped their toes in & booked acts like Geno Washington, Jimmy James, Jimmy Cliff (who was still doing soul back then), etc. Stevenage Mecca (a Locarno ballroom) & the Palais (Newbury) were in early. The Locarno, Streatham; Top Rank, Reading & Locarno, Coventry soon also joined in. The Coventry Locarno must have done well as they soon started to book such acts on a regular basis. Word must have spread to other ballroom chain managers as next up was the likes of Sheffield Locarno, Locarno, Bristol, Locarno Wakefield (I went to a couple of nights there), Top Rank, Brighton & Royal Pier, Southampton (a Mecca venue). Others quickly followed; the Locarno, Derby and Tottenham Royal (Mecca), Donny Top Rank (my local ballroom venue), Leeds Mecca, Top Rank, Bristol and the Skyline, Hull (a Co-op owned venue - another I used to go to). With all those other Locarno's (& similar 'chain' ballrooms) doing good business booking soul acts from 1966 onwards, I'm sure that the Brum venue must also have gotten involved -- especially with the like of Coventry's Locarno rebooking acts such as Jimmy James on a regular basis from early 67 onwards.

When one of my letters to the mag got published ... Invictus & Hot Wax hadn't yet landed UK licensing deals & I was after info on 45's such as the Fuller Brothers "Times A Wating" and Lorenzo Manley's Original Sound outing ...

Thinking of my trips to the Flamingo when I could afford it ,as the Many US acts that appeared there were expensive to see em .you name it and they appeared there. Don't think this statement (copied from above) is correct ... I checked out the Flamingo in January 66 and they didn't seem to have any decent US acts on ...

Surprised that Danny White "Keep my woman home" is classed as very rare on UK Sue, as I (& others I knew) picked up copies quite cheaply back in the late 60's.

Wonder what Fluff Freeman would have made of this version (had he still been around) ...

I opened this thread by referring to the time I'd gone to see Zoot perform @ the Boulevard in Tadcaster at the end of 1966 (Friday 30th December). He was still in Yorkshire the next night, but this time he was on @ the niter at the Mojo ... of course that Saturday session ran through to the Sunday which was New Years Day ... unfortunately for us (Tom Sleight & myself), the Spellbinders weren't on at the Boulevard with Zoot (neither were the Foretops).

Yes, I saw that. I guess the money ran out & the project withered on the vine. VERY SAD. They deserved to have their story told.

Back in 2008, "This Magnificent Moment", a documentary about the Magnificent Men was in production. A trailer had been released to publicise the project in 2006 (see below) and further work was ongoing through 2007/08. A show the reformed group undertook in November 2007 was filmed, this footage to go into the proposed documentary. Anyone know if the project was ever finished & the film released in any form ?

Used to visit the Soul City record shop in Monmouth St ... AND ... send off my postal orders to get 45's sent by them ... ... worked for British Rail at the time, so got free travel to London and to Leighton Buzzard (F L Moores) + Manchester of course.

As already stated, Sam always had a decent TV profile in the US, so he was known to folk across the States even though he had no national hits. Cos of that, a new Sam Fletcher 45 would be viewed by radio stn DJ's as a thing not to ignore ... Don't think Sam did much (live wise) down in Dallas / Fort Worth but this 45 did ... a featured pick record on KNOK in November 1964 ... ...

... "Sam appeared on a top Italian TV show in 1963, thanks to RCA records" ... .... The clip from this show of H B Barum is also up on youtube (but it ain't relevant to this thread).

Sam appeared on a top Italian TV show in 1963, thanks to RCA records. HOWEVER, this was before the Beatles / Stones breakthrough, so the music they wanted US stars to perform on this RAI Saturday night peak time show was very M-O-R ....

This version is a bit closer to home for Edwin (as he used to be the featured singer with Bill Doggett's group) ...

Sam Fletcher appeared on lots of TV shows back in the late 50's / 60's; in the US & abroad ... here he is during one of his TV appearances ...

I interviewed Johnny Pate many years ago. With all the massive tracks he had a hand in, I asked him which of the 1000's of cuts he worked on was he most proud of. He came back with an instant answer; SAM FLETCHER's "I'd Think It Over". I asked the reason for this & he stated Sam was the first BIG ACT he was trusted to work with. This was because Sam had lots of big regional hits including "Tall Hope" & "I Believe In You" ahead of his Tollie recordings. He also starred on lots of US TV shows -- 'The Dinah Shore Chevy Show' (1963 along with Barbara Steisand ) + on American Bandstand and other TV shows., So Sam had a 'high profile' on TV when only a few blacks got to star on US TV variety shows at the time.

Lots of great info on this thread about many folk involved with GW. One of those being Sonny Sanders. Sonny must have been quite switched on (business wise) as he was already getting into running labels as early as 1962 (when he was only 23 years old). Along with Robert Bateman, he had formed the Satintones in Detroit in 1957 (when 18 years old) and they were signed to Motown. But he soon moved on from Motown & with Bateman started SonBert Records (part of Correc-Tone) in 62. He was also working with the likes of Wilson Pickett, James Velvet, Gino Washington (all for Correc-Tone) and Bobby Lee Watson (Maureen). From there, he was onto working at GW and then off to Chicago. Not a bad start to a long & successful music career.

One of Radio One's soul DJ's used to play Terry Callier tracks all the time around the late 70's, guess it was Robbie Vincent (but I could be wrong). After that, his music faded from view for a while & then was picked up on by the British guys mentioned above. I saw him at the Jazz Cafe and he was just brilliant. Lots of those present had copies of his records that we wanted signing. So after the show we asked one of his entourage if Terry would come out to chat & do some signing. Nothing happened for quite a while... and then Terry came running out ... "I've only just been told you lot were waiting on me" he said ... "I'M SO VERY SORRY TO HAVE KEPT YOU WAITING" ... what a complete gentleman he truly was. HUGE TALENT coupled with COMLETE HUMILITY ... a unique combination.

Jumping back to the part of this thread that dealt with Gene Redd's work in the 1960's .. ALSO earlier Tony & Tyrone's Atlantic 45 featuring "Please Operator" was mentioned ... I added this statement, which was supposition ... Jumping back to Tony & Tyrone, their "Please Operator" seems to have gained a LATE release (Nov 67) for the people involved. If it was actually cut in Detroit, I'd say it had 'sat around' for a while before Atlantic picked it up. In similar fashion, A Musicor 45 was released in June 1968 -- the Toys "Sealed With A Kiss / I Got My Heart Set On You" (MU 1319). The B side song was co-written by Gene and he also arranged the track. But I'm sure he was long gone from Musicor by summer 68. So this track must have laid around for some time before it escaped on this 45. I don't believe with Musicor singles that it's possible to date a track from the info included on the 45's label.

We didn't have cars on our early niter trips, so usually took public transport (bus / train). When going to the Mojo niters (66/67), we'd hang out afterwards (Sunday morning) at Sheffield bus stn cafe (waiting for the 1st bus back to Donny). Then, as a big Sunday dinner would be forced on us if we went home, we'd usually crash for a few hours in a town centre cinema. When the Mojo closed, we turned to the Nite Owl (Leicester -- getting there by hitching or train usually). My mate Tom Sleight got to take us in his dad's car one week. We called at Leicester services (M1) on the Sunday morning. But after that stop, he blew the car's engine up, so we never got to use it again. Then the Owl was also closed, so it was the Wheel (going by train at first & then lifts in mate's cars). The ritual in Manc on Sunday mornings, was to wait around in the car park behind the Wheel while lads played niter sounds on Discatrons. We'd then head over to Piccadilly for the 1st available train back over to Yorkshire (or drive back mid morning).

I can't tell you which Arctic tracks were cut in Detroit but I do know when Gamble & Huff were over there (@ Motown and GW). Gene Dozier had quit Philly to try his luck in Detroit after chatting with Mickey Stevenson backstage @ the Uptown. One of the last things he did in Philly was start co-writing a song with Norman Johnson. It wasn't finished when he headed out of town. Both guys did further work on the song -- Norman's version became Eddie Carlton's "It Will Be Done (June 65). Gene laid down a demo version of his effort which was released as "Swoop Down On You" and credited to Lorenzo Manley (a 1966 Original Sound 45 release -- the uva side of the 45 being cut by Lorenzo himself in LA after Gene had moved there). So, Gene headed off to Detroit & went to Motown's studio. He didn't really get the welcome he was expecting but did get 'taken on'. He told me he sang background on Stevie Wonder's "Uptight" sometime in Fall 65. He co-wrote some songs with other Motown writers, these included one release a while later on the Marvelettes ("Too Many Tears, Too Many Times"). But he told the Motown team his name was "Billy Jackson" aka Billy the KId (coz he was still young). Gamble & Huff came into town and hung out at Motown. The guys there said ... Oh, you'll know Billy Jackson who's working here now ... puzzled (coz they knew the real Billy was still back in Philly), they asked to see the guy ... that's not Billy Jackson, that guy's name is Gene Dozier they told the Motowners. So Gene / Billy was asked to move on in late 65 / early 66. He moved across town to work with Golden World / Solid Hit. There he was responsible for Pat Lewis's "Let's Go Together" (March 66 release), Theresa Lindsey's "Daddy-O" (May 66 release) & Pat Lewis's "No Baby No" (a later Solid Hit released cut, which had obviously been cut a while before it's release) + other tracks. But Gene soon decided to move on again, this time to LA. There he hooked up with a new musical partner (Santifer) & cut the Blossoms "Let Your Love Shine on Me" (October 66 release) & tracks by the Groovettes ("Think It Over Baby", etc) put out on Reness. BACK TO THE QUESTION THOUGH ... Gamble & Huff exposed Gene Dozier's deception at Motown some time in latish 65 / early 66. So Gamble & Huff were over in Detroit to cut tracks during that time period ... so I guess those tracks would have been released on or after Arctic # 115. I guess the likes of Robb would hear the work of Detroit musicians if he listened to the right Arctic tracks from that period (late 65 through to mid 66 releases I guess). No doubt the guys that check out the Motown track recording online database can easily ID when "Uptight" was laid down and when "Too Many Tears, Too Many Times" was also laid down to get a more accurate date for Gene's work at Motown.