Roburt

Paul Kelly was on this show ....

There's some more Philly related acts to come, but I thought i'd post up this piccy of a Windy City act that played Miami in 66 ...

May 62 and Detroit meets Philly on the same bill ......

.... and here's the newspaper ad for that self same show ....

Here's a copy of an example of the posters Clyde Killens had designed to promote the many many shows he promoted in Miami ...

Got a better copy of this at home (but its not on this laptop) .... but even this poor copy of a Feb 1964 ad is worth posting. The Vibrations followed Dee Dee into the Knight Beat (followed by the Impressions). BTW, when did the Vibrations start basing themselves out of Philly (they were using Philly musicians in their backing band some years before they signed with G & H's Neptune Records).

New acts used to gravitate to the local radio stns in most every US city back in the 50's & early to mid 60's. They hooked up with a local DJ at the stn & this helped them get gigs (though they would earn very little appearance money). Some acts even cut rudimentary tracks down at the radio stn studios. Kenny Hamber hooked up (in Baltimore) with Sparky Mellon at WSID and then Hot Rod, Jocko (who had started out in Baltimore before moving on to Philly & New York) and Fat Daddy. The radio DJ 'brotherhood' set Kenny up with a record deal in Philly with Jimmy Bishop. After that, Kenny used to drop in at Jimmy's B's Philly radio stn (can't recall the stn call letters at present - was it WDAS) coz that's where Jimmy's office was (where he ran his artist management agency & Arctic from on a day to day basis). Kenny also hooked up with other Philly based 'movers & shakers' and landed jobs on local TV dance shows, etc. Baltimore was an important 'radio breakout' city, where many record companies did their best to break new 45's .... so although it had no really decent recording studios (till the late 60's) and no strong local black record labels, it was still viewed as an important market by record biz execs. Jerry Williams, when based in Miami, would travel up to Baltimore to promote his new product (if he could get radio plays in the city, then stns in other cities would also start to play his track). On one visit, he took Paul Kelly with him to WWIN in Baltimore. Jerry W was networking with all the DJ's he knew but he also introduced Paul Kelly to them all. Paul was trying to get his new 45 played ("The Day After Forever / Stealin In The Name Of The Lord") but it had been out a while & was getting nowhere. Lots of people (the church, etc) had taken against the lyrics of "Stealin .. " and so the other side had become the plug side. DJ Rockin' Robin took a copy of the 45 off of Paul K and gave it a spin. He liked what he was hearing ("Stealing"), so immediately put it on the air. He liked the cut so much, he played it a few times on one show & the stn's switchboard lit up. The track took off, other stns started playlisting it & in no time at all it was on the national singles chart. So, in that case, it was Jerry Williams who had helped break a Miami 45 but Jerry wasn't the normal guy who hooked up Miami artists with Baltimore, New York or Philly contacts. Henry Stone was just about locked in with Atlantic/Atco/Cotillion back in the late 60's and early 70's. I guess it was an influencial black radio DJ down in Miami who introduced artists to Jimmy Bishop & Arctic Records but I would like to find out who it actually was.

Daft thing about that 45 was all the press interviews given by Jan & the label guys in Cleveland Town back in the day made a point of naming both the A side & B side tracks (2 different songs) and yet I have never seen a copy that wasn't Indie Woman Part 1 & Part 2. Guess there must be a couple of test pressings about somewhere that has the 2nd track on one side (& what length will Indie Woman itself be on such a 45 ... maybe longer than Part 1 on the common issued version of the record).

As well as having two distinct 'entertainment' scenes, Miami artists had 2 options if they wanted to cut records in the 1960's. Sign with one of the small local outfits & hope that the likes of Atlantic came in to license their 45 for national distribution .................... OR .............. sign with an 'out of State' label such as Duke / Peacock / Backbeat OR a Philly based label such as Arctic. The Bell Brothers went with the former whilst the likes of Della Humphrey went with the later. DAVE, do you know why so many Miami acts had 45's released by Philly labels .... who were the guys at either end that set up the links to enable this collaboration to occur ??

Bob, I believe the main items in the proposed exhibition will be original posters created for shows that Clyde Killens promoted in Miami back in the 60's. He was gonna throw these (over 100 of them) in the trash about 20 years ago but asked the Black Archives Foundation if they wanted them first. They jumped at the chance & so have had these items for a while now. However they wanted other things in the exhibition to give it more 'depth', so took many of my items as well to fill out what will be on show. The Black Archives of South Florida web site has quite a bit on the Clyde Killens (RIP) collection on their website -- a full list of all the show posters that still exist (though ones that are catalogued as '5 Big Acts' & similar don't really ID them well enough). They also have examples of letters to the show room owners, booking letters for many acts & even a few copies of the contracts he entered into with some acts. I guess examples of all of these will also be in the exhibition.

A show staged in October 1965 that featured 4 local acts ....

OK, in the picture of the group I posted (in the ads for shows they did in Miami) the 4 guys (left to right) are .... ... Regge Green (RIP),Fred (Fast Freddie) Anderson, Steve Calloway & Nance (Swiggle) Connor. ........... info direct from Steve Calloway.

Could the Chicago Garie Toms have been a musician / band leader who led a Review that featured the named singers ?

Lots of 'island' influences in Miami, so probably Voodoo Pete was someone with links to Haiti or who wanted folks to think that he had such links (no idea why though). Might have been Pete Smith under another name !! Miami was always a popular place to play especially for northern US based acts / groups (from Chicago, Detroit, New York, etc) in the winter as they could escape the bad weather back home. A group that already had a very long history by the 1960's was the Red Caps. The group had recorded "Poor, Poor Me" with George Tindley on lead and "Blueberry Hill" featuring a solo by Steve Gibson as the 50's expired. These cuts were paired for an early 1960 45 release on Rose Record's Stage subsidiary. In the spring of 1962, the Red Caps split into two groups with George Tindley going off to form the Modern Red Caps (who would later cut for Parkway, Smash, Lawn, Swan & United Artists). Steve Gibson (the leader of the original group) led another set of Red Caps and they played lots of live gigs. Steve hired new lead singers & these included Tammi Montgomery (Terrell) in 64/65 and Barbara Randolf in 66/67, but I believe that Barbara had been replaced by Pepi Mitchell before the middle of 1967. Whoever the group's female lead singer was in October 67, they had secured a booking at the 7 Seas in Miami.

September 64 and a Detroit group plays some gigs at Clyde Killens Island Club.

Back in Jan 64, you could catch Major Lance at the Knight Beat and just 5 days later Garnet Mimms was on at the same place.

RE: these are second issues and are nothing like the numbered 500 So this 2nd issue doesn't sound identical to the one on the numbered 500 ? Coz if it is the same mix, then it is NOT nothing like the numbered 500.

I have posted some similar ads to these on the net in the past. As a result of that a couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Emily Gibson of the Black Archives Foundation of South Florida. She had been checking the net & had come across one of those sites. She told me that her organisation was staging an exhibition in Miami to celebrate the entertainment scene in the Overtown area of the city back in the 1950's/60's/70's and they would like to use some of the ads I had posted. I said I'd help and I had to send her high definition digital copies of about 20 to 30 such ads (some of which I had posted on the net in the past, others I hadn't but were relevant to the proposed theme of the exhibition). Anyway, they will be using lots of the stuff I sent. The exhibition will be staged in the Ward Rooming House Museum and Gallery and will commence on June 23rd. The Ward Rooming House Museum and Gallery is located in the Historic Overtown Folklife Village on Northwest 2nd and 3rd Avenues between 8th and 10th street. Designated by the State of Florida as the Overtown Main Street Community, the mission of the Folklife Village is to restore historic sites of significance in the Overtown community, creating a regional tourist attraction showcasing the legacies of Miami's Overtown and the Harlem Renaissance, as well as the Black cultural heritage of South Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. The Overtown area is where the likes of Sam Moore grew up and Jerry Williams lived when he was based in Miami (Overtown runs Nth to Sth from around 20th to 2nd, just above Miami city centre itself). ANYWAY ............... a Miami 'Chitlin Circuit' show back in 1962 .....

There are ads for Miami' Chitlin Circuit' venues on the 'Info on the Professionals' & '(Chicago) Soul Revue 1968' threads. Here's another ad for a show at Castaways ...... as I said in the 1st post, I'm away at present & so can't really check the net for much info ... this show featured Georgie Porgie & the Cry Babies .... plus .... Bobby Cloud & the Soul Explosions. Did either of these outfits manage to land a record deal & if so, is anything they had out worth chasing ?

Anybody know if the Buck Ram group 'The Prescripion' (who look a bit like a pretend Fifth Dimension) managed to estabish themselves & land a record deal ??

By all accounts, the Drifters & Margie Hendrix were ensuring that 'dancing & delirium till 5am' was taking place at Castaways.

Eurostar will be transporting us to Lille in a few weeks, so please post some positive responsives (but I'm not allowed to buy any more records these days, so if the wife asks ... I never posted this).

On the road at present (another short break.... but somebody has to take em) so checking up on soul facts is more diffficult than usual at present -- as is finding decent internet access -- but I'll post a few things anyway. Miami back in the 60's was a very strange place. Loads of great shows starring soul acts BUT two very different scenes. There was the 'white audience' shows at venues such as South Beach hotels & posh clubs where Motown & top soul acts were regular entertainers whilst the acts themselves had to find different places to both sleep, eat & watch shows (they were allowed on the hotel show room stages but couldn't have a room or meal in the self same establishment). Then there were the places where the black audiences went; the Continental Club being just about the top of these venues. The likes of Sam & Dave, the Professionals, Roy Hamilton, Bettye LaVette, The Laddins (aka Steinways) were regular performers in the black venues whilst the best selling Motown acts were ever present performers in the South Beach hotels. ...... But some 'strange' acts crossed over to the white venues. An outfit that landed regular gigs on the 'white' side of the divide were the Jesse Ferguson Gospel Jazz Singers. From their name their reportoire can't have been too familiar to the audiences they were playing for. Even stranger, the group decided a change in name might land them a higher profile & recording contract. So the Gospel Jazz Singers became Jesse Lee Ferguson & the Outer Limits (& they did land that record deal). A guy who got regular bookings on both sides of town was Chuck Jackson, he got loads of bookings in the black clubs on the strength of his Wand R&B hits. When his revue played the white hotels in the later years of the 60's, it was billed as 'the Motown Sound that's a leader on every chart'. An 'out of town' female to play 'white' gigs was Margie Hendrix -- well known to Ray Charles fans but hardly a household name (in her own right) in the pop charts or white households. The Original Drifters were still securing 'white' gigs in 1968 but I guess more as an oldies act who performed their early 60's pop chart hits. Another 'lesser known' act to get quite a few 'white' bookings was Teddy Washington & the Soul Searchers. I don't think this outfit had a connection to DC's Soul Searchers (but I could be wrong). Pity you can't catch such acts in the area these days.

The 'Boy Meets Girl' project & album was / is great (William & Mavis Staples + other Stax duets) .... if you don't know it, give it a try.

William's 1st recording was way back (over 50 years ago in fact) but he made fine tracks over a very long period. Here's one I really like from 1985 ..... Extra Extra Read All About It ..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvSpbsybnlM