Roburt

Ernie, after some good releases on Beggars Banquet from the early thu to mid 80's; Morrissey Mullen had at least 2 LP's + 2 singles out on Coda (the uda single being "One Step"). ..........

It seems that a new broom has swept in on the 'soul side' of things at this years Vintage Festival (held this year near Kettering on 13/14/15th July). Cost cutting has just been instigated & it seems that the Nolan Porter & Stone Foundation booking for the event has been cancelled ..... not a good sign me thinks. Anyone know what other cost cutting / soul act cancelling has taken place.

Back across to the Wreck Bar at Castaways again now ....... .. a guy was on that made at least one good track .....

Still down on the beach ............. a strange act that seemed to play resorts such as Miami & Vegas most of the time ... plus they made an LP that has its fans (though the tracks I've heard off it are way too MOR for me) .. anyone know much of anything bout em ....... that's THE BROTHERS RE-BORN ....

I have a couple of Morrissey Mullen 45's on Coda here somewhere .... ... no idea if this is one of them though ......... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOCY9IvW_k4

Seems that people in Miami weren't clued up enough (even after reading the above ad) to know that Herb Reed was out of the Platters ...... ... so the ad was changed a few days later to push home that point (only part of ad posted) ....

Has Charlie Thomas "Run Run Roadrunner" (EMI 45) ever managed to escape on a comp CD ??

Seems that Herb Reed split from Buck Ram (& the Platters) before Sonny Turner did ... Here's Herb and his Platters .. SORRY ... and his Other Group ... doing a show in Miami back in August 1969 ....

Is this currently her biggest track ?? .....

Steve, Louise Williams Bishop was born June 27, 1933 & graduated from the American Foundation of Dramatic Arts in 1955 after studying Communications and Radio Broadcasting. She first worked at WHAT before becoming the host /Gospel programmer for "The Louise Bishop Show" on WDAS-AM. I've worked out a date when I believe she joined WDAS and this is around 1958. So she was at WDAS a few years ahead of Jimmy Bishop. Don't know when they started their relationship, got married and then divorced but I guess they got together between the mid 60's and the end of the 60's. I think they had 4 children together and as Louise was always very religious, I guess they were all conceived whilst she was married to Jimmy ... so I'd say that they had to be spliced for at least 6 to 8 years. Ady, have you tried contacting her via this e-mail addy ... lwbishop@pahouse.net

Jimmy Bishop was a 'very busy boy' back in the mid to late 60's in Philly. He left St Louis Radio Stn KATZ in 1963 and moved back to Philly to work at WDAS there. Max Leon was the founder, owner and President of radio stn WDAS and Jimmy soon married his daughter, Sonia Leon (she was older than Jimmy). Soon after, Jimmy started Arctic Records and signed (after an introduction by Weldon McDougal) Barbara Mason to the label (she was only 17 years old). He quickly developed a 'very close' relationship with Barbara and became her manager (she also had a child by him). Before the end of the 60's, his marriage to Sonia Leon had ended and he got spliced to Louis Williams. So apart from being a top local DJ, running a record label, managing artists and promoting top local shows; he obviously still found plenty of time to pursue an active personal life.

Louise Williams Bishop: Born in Cairo, Georgia, she moved to Philadelphia as a young child. A graduate of West Philadelphia High School, she earned a degree in communications and radio broadcasting from the American Foundation of Dramatic Arts.She began her communications career at WHAT radio, as the youngest voice in radio. She immediately fell in love with radio and the power the microphone gave her to communicate with the masses on a daily basis. Moving to WDAS-AM, she hosted, "The Louise Bishop Program" for over 49 years. Her program was consistently one of the highest rated programs at the station, she used it to inform and unite people around social, civic and religious issues. Louise Williams Bishop enjoyed an amazingly fast rise in the radio ratings, this gave birth to her radio title, The Gospel Queen. In 1978 she was called to the ministry and became an ordained Evangelist by the Pennsylvania Baptist Associate. She felt God moving her to minister more than just between records on her gospel program. She did however use the power her radio show afforded her for good. Her efforts resulted in her third career; running for a state representative seat. She was 1st elected to serve in the state House of Representatives in 1988 and has been re-elected to office eleven times for the 192nd Legislative District, West Philadelphia. The area she represents encompasses some of Philadelphia's most affluent and poorest residents. It is also home to many Philadelphia institutions including St. Joseph's University, Overbrook High School and Pinn Memorial Baptist Church. As a State Representative, she has been an instrument of change and a sponsor of legislation on issues such as education, tax relief, economic development, violence prevention and nutrition. Currently she is the chair of the Majority Children and Youth Committee where much time is spent dealing with children and youth issues violence, obesity, education, foster care, and other issues effecting the quality of life of children. Louise speaking in the State House of Representatives .....

Lois Lane / Louise Williams (Bishop) still has a high profile in Philly ..... ... https://www.facebook.com/CitizensForBishop ...

Another group in town for a show .....

Bettye seems to be to trying to become the Y2k version of Tina Turner. Doing reworkings of rock songs rather than soul stuff. Can't say it's the route I would like her to be taking.

RE: WIRL was actually owned by the former Jamaican prime minister Edward Seaga! The Bajan branch of the biz wasn't (to the best of my knowledge) in the 1990's .... ... I was told that (by then), it was a small part of a big local enterprise that owned / ran 8 or 9 different businesses on the island.

To the best of my knowledge, Bettye always has (makes) time for her fans (even her NS fans) .... ... so I'd guess she would be happy to sign any records placed before her ... ...do not make mention of Ian Levine though ... ... AND ... if she sings one of your faves, but not in the same way as she originally recorded it, best not to mention that either.

Ian, I'm a happy chappy as I just got this message from Amazon ... Amazon.co.uk item dispatched .... Holy Spirit: Spiritual Soul CD ... £9.37 So I'm glad I cancelled my original order (when I was charged £10.99) & re-ordered at £9.37. Still not as good as their current price (£8.99) but I'm not gonna complain bout that.

On a visit to Barbados about 20 years ago, I came across a local Dept Store that was 'clearing out' old Bajan copies of W.I.R.L 45's & LP's (West Indies Records Ltd) stock .... they pressed up stuff in Jamaica &/or Barbados 'licensed' (or maybe not) from most US record labels. The Bajan store also had some Jamaican WIRL stuff that had obviously been shipped around the Islands for sale. I got loads of decent soul stuff (+ some reggae), though most of it was 70's & 80's released items. The local parent conglomerate that owned WIRL in Barbados had been trying to offload the record division (& locally owned studio) for some while back then. By all accounts, their record warehouse was stuffed with unsold stock. Then, strangely, the warehouse burnt down, all the stock was 'lost' and the company got a big insurance pay out ... a most strange course of events especially as they couldn't seem to find a buyer for the business.

Barbara got 'preferential treatment' at Arctic from Jimmy Bishop .... .... even though he was a married man !!!

RE: You definitely have to buy the 45 for two reasons. 1. You can't play a CD on a Technics SL1200 2. I won't make any money if you don't buy the 45 Phil, I think that's called 'having a vested interest' !!!!!

Helen Glover was still resident at the club in the Hotel Shelbourne at the end of 1969. By then, the Hotel had redsigned their club ad a little, but it was still roughtly the same. Seems no one here knows if this Helen Glover is the lady who cut for Nelber.

The Professionals were down from Detroit ......... ... but Eddie Holloway was a local ........

There are also numerous RARE Cd's you know .... ones that only a few copies were made of & they have to be sourced from specialist dealers ... you can't get every CD from Asda's. Back when I was doing most of my buying (building up my collection in the 60's & 70's), I got loads of my stuff from Woolies (they bought in huge numbers of deleted EMI LP stock -- Motown, Stateside, etc + Stax stuff), W H Smiths, Co-op, Boots (every major Boots store had a good Record Dept). I always bought UK release as my preference back then but you could easily get cut-out US stuff at shops such as the UK arm of 'Radio Shack' (was it called Tandys). Walked into the Hull branch of that store (to buy some electronic bits) & there was a rack full of Atco LP's (dozens of copies of Darrell Bank's albums -- course I only bought a couple of copies of em both) for about 20p each. In the 1980's Nottinghamshire discount store Fords (a branch in every town) had 1000's of US soul LP's at 19p each. Record store chains like Fox's (Dony) had permanent import cut-out LP racks (all as cheap as chips), Bradford market had 1000's of US soul 45's at give-away prices. So the 'if you can buy CD's at Asada' argument just doesn't stack up.

I love the above -- the Eddie Holloway track. It has quite a 'Tyrone Davis' feel to it even though it came out (mid 70's ?) after Tyrone's golden period. Eddie must have been about on the Miami soul scene for some years (about 10 to 12 at least) as I have info on him performing back in the mid 60's. Also have a club ad from 1968 when he played the Continental Club (the place where Sam & Dave had first performed together back in 1960) in conjunction with local Sharon Robinson and Detroit's the Professionals .... ... I'll post a copy of the ad in the 'Miami Soul Shows' thread.