Roburt

I bet it was 'Hard Work' sitting through this January 1967 show ..... by all accounts, John had just been a big hit at the Monterey Jazz Festival (where his live act was recorded & released by Columbia on LP). I only became aware of his stuff in the 70's (his big hit was in 76) ... but he 1st recorded at the start of the 60's !!!

I saw Frankie Beverly & Maze at Nottingham's Rock City the 1st time (I think) they came over to the UK to play gigs .... It would have been in the 80's (mid?). They were flipping spiffing & to get 'right up close' at a club style venue was awesome.

When I first visited the Caribbean (back around 1987), there were loads of 'unplayed' (impossible to say MINT as these were Jamaican pressings) copies of 1960's soul albums in the record shops (stuff like local copies of 1960's Chuck Jackson Wand LP's & similar items). The shops had more than one copy of these LP's and I assumed that they were 're-released' versions of original LP's that had been licensed & pressed up on the 'Islands' back when they were new release albums. Knowing the way Jamaican's have always done things, I doubt they still held the license to press up these LP's in the mid to late 80's BUT that fact certainly hadn't stopped them doing so. Quite a few of the 60's Atlantic 45's that were also turning up in local shops seemed a bit dubious too as the labels on these 45's looked almost identical to other Atlantic 45's (in the same racks) by artists such as the Persuaders, Kleer & Levert.

A George Duke 45 on Epic .....

Two George Dukes now ... but from different US labels (but both Jamaican 45's appear to use copies of the US companies label as their start point).

Got a Jamaican Stax copy of the Soul Children's "The Sweeter He Is" here somewhere ... but its not in either of my Caribbean 45 boxes so can't take a photo of it to post here at present. Its just black text (& logo) on a white label though (if I'm remembering correctly) & is on the old Stax logo (the pile of 45's). The US version of this Soul Children single is however on the newer yellow label with the Stax 'finger snapping logo'.

Another Jamaican Polydor label 45 ...... again they used a copy of the US Polydor label .... ... but this time they did their best to hide the fact by 'losing' the info off the edge of the label. Just for info purposes as well, there's no black half record above the Polydor logo on this 45 (see the Jean Knight 45 I posted up earlier if you don't know what I mean here). It seems they printed up this version of the Polydor US label at too large a scale, so removed the black half record bit as most of it would have disappeared off the label edge when fixed to the 45 .... that also appears to be the reason the US Polydor data also goes right off the edge of the bottom of the label.

Don't know if it's allowed to 'expand' the theme of this thread to 45's licensed in from the US but pressed up in Barbados. Woun't post any Bajan 45 labels (may not be allowed here) but at least in Bridgetown that did know something about quality control. The labels just about always look great & the vinyl actually plays without sticking, jumping, skipping, clicking or excessive surface noise.

Russell, I have quite a few 'weird' V.A. EP's that mix up genres and get some of the track / artist info wrong .... So I'd guess your EP comes from somewhere in the far east like Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore. Mind you, none of the EP's I own (which are on labels named Stereo 4 Track Records, Express Songs, Royalsound & in one case on a label that just has a logo, no name) list any label addresses or country of origin.

OK, if this has just now become a thread about Jamaican 45's licensed in from the US ... here's a typical local effort ..... Start out with just a plain yellow label .... add a bit of text & a poor representation of the US label logo ... but make sure you print on the local distributors info .... .... and then fix the label way off centre ensuring the edge colour doesn't stay round & that most of the local distributor data is totally lost ...

Boss, we've got another problem. I've used all the blank MCA 45 labels up on the Bobby Womack single. ........ I've now pressed up some Rufus records !!! Ahh, just use anything you can lay your hands on, nobody will be any the wiser ........ after all, a rainbow on a blue background ain't a very memorable design ...

Hey, we've gotta put out George Dukes latest US 45 here ..... Well go press it up ..... we have some copies of US blank Epic labels. JUST BE SURE its impossible to tell any difference between the US logo copyright line and the adjacent ' Distributed in the Caribbean by Surrey Records Ltd' bit ... ... boss, rely on me, there woun't be the slightest difference .....

Hey, lets copy a US Warners 45 label & use that on the next Larry Graham local release ..... ... that's a good idea, where's the WB logo placed on the US 45 ??? Last time I looked it was at 10-o-clock, so be sure not to put any text there ...

Seemed to work for the Epic stuff lads ..... .. how about we try it agin with a Columbia 45 ..... and we'll emphasis the fact that it's a stereo track by printing the Columbia logo in stereo ... .... be sure to make one of the label edges straight agin though ... & I'm sure nobody will notice that we ran of of letters in the usual font before we finished the local label info .... .... after all its only 3 letters, a L, T and D.

Hey they fooled Epic / Columbia. Might just have copied a blank US 45 label, but at least they changed the colour to put everyone off the scent (& they didn't cover up the US trademark info) .... And leaving a straight edge to the left side of the label was an added precaution ...

Heck, they gone & done it agin ..... But the guys up at Elektra's offices in NY & LA will never find out .... ... nobody buying the 45 will even know what the song title was, so how could they report which 45 was involved ... Lets have a look at another local 45 licensed in from Atlantic .... this time they slightly moved the printing alignment for the local address .... hey presto, you can't really tell this time that its another copy of a US 45 label .... ... well not if you've had a few rums or spliffs first anyway ....

Whoops, guess that one was also pressed up on a Friday afternoon, when everyone had hit the rum & the quality control guy had fallen asleep. But it can't have happened for many other US labels ........ Bet they wouldn't have chanced it with an Elektra label release .....

Ohh, well maybe just that once they ran out of time & just copied a US Atlantic label. Bet it never happened for other US labels ...... No, I checked this one and all it shows is the 15 Bell Road address ...... no mention at all for Polydor's 810 7th Avenue, New York ....

So its plain to see on the Jamaican Ben E King 45 that there is no mention at all for 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York .... you just get Dynamic Sounds 15 Bell Road address ....... hey, but am I right, can't really tell .........

We all know that Jamaican record releases leave much to be desired ......... ... the usual Island belief that everything is best left till tomorrow was also adopted by local record company guys (& in the Caribbean, tomorrow never comes). So things sometimes got a little rushed & corners were cut .... ... if the vocalist went chasing female tourists, then any guy off the street would be pulled in to sing lead vocals. ... if the songwriter wasn't watching (maybe he was even an American), you added your name as the composer. ... if they were running out of vinyl (coz someone who was supposed to order it just had a spliff instead), they just added a few floor / road sweepings into the feed hopper of the pressing machines. .... if the printed label supply ran out, you just used blank white labels & wrote or stamped on the release info. BUT, hey, they did have some quality control. They knew someone from a US label might take an interest in what you were doing with their releases. So the quality control was upped for stuff licensed in from the States -- no hand written labels or kids rubber stamper would do here. So US label designs were accurately transcribed by local graphic artists .... I mean that was much more professional than just copying a blank US label and printing up loads of them for use on a locally pressed 45. So here's an example of a locally printed 45 label for a US soul track .... this one was licensed in from Atlantic. I mean, if they had simply copied a US label, then you would see Atlantic's New York address (75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York) on the local release ....

In case you wanna see what the Italian label looks like (in its entirety) ........ here's a scan of another of Brenton's Italian 45 releases on the same label ..........

I saw Sam & Dave in the 60's ... awesome ... I also saw Hendrix twice in the 60's ... wandered off 'bored' after he had sung "Hey Joe" (good) & then a couple of totally soul-less tunes during the 1st show .... walked out of the 2nd show after he commenced his live highlight (playing his guitar between his legs as though it was his member & then setting fire to the damn thing -- the guitar that is .... yawn zzzzzzzzzz).

Got to agree with the Impressions ..... ...... I mean, what good soul tracks were ever cut in Chicago !!! ... and as for Detroit; a true soul desert IMHO.

Another wildly inaccurate post from you Mr. Rounce. I have better things to do (& am on the road at present) but if I have to (to convince you of the truth), I will sort out some of my Jamaican LP's with the ghost of hole marks in the covers, photo them & post them up here. I really do have other things to do with my time though.

Curtis, Sam & Fred all up on 125th Street ... .... and King Curtis was there as well ....