Roburt

Dave, as the 45 seems to be a private press (no label name, address or distribution info), I guess it was just sold at gigs by Chris Columbus. His band opened the show every night at the club, before they backed up the main live act. Most of the evening (by 1970), I'm sure records provided the musical background tracks in the place. In earlier years (1940's / 50's / early 60's), Chris & his band would no doubt have played all night (with comfort / drink breaks). I would surmise that these were 2 tunes that the band played in the club at that time (1970) that proved popular with the punters, so he turned them into tracks & sold the 45 at the club (by 1970 I believe he had quit the road & just played gigs in Atlantic City; after all he was 68 by then!!!).

Last years Soul Intention 45 release "I Got To Have You / Take Me Back" by Otis Williams created quite a stir. This sublime double sided soul gem was the first output from a deal the label have set up to highlight the great 1970's tracks that escaped in very limited quantity on Kent Washburn's LA based Emkay Records. The cuts that were issued on EmKay were laid down in St Louis in the mid 70's and the second 45 to result from the deal features a local St Louis group. The Hypnotics were led by James Thompson who had started out in the Voice Masters who have highly collectable outings on the Copa, Frisco and Bamboo labels. Putting together a new trio in 1972, James was soon working in the studio with producer Kent Washburn. A number of tracks were laid down and a deal for the group signed with Reprise Records. Two singles were soon issued; "Beware of the Stranger / Memories" in May 1973 and "Girl You Know That I Love You / Dance To The Music" shortly after. Neither of these got much promotion from the record company and so achieved little commercial success at that time. Kent moved on to work for Motown in LA and it wasn't until the end of the decade that any other tracks from the group would emerge. After Kent had hooked up with Spirit Records the opportunity for him to release some of his old soul recordings presented itself and one of these was the Hypnotics "One Way Ticket / Don't Burn No Bridges". "Don't Burn No Bridges" had also been recorded by Jackie Wilson in conjunction with the Chi-Lites and their version had seen the light of day on Brunswick Records back in 1975. The Hypnotics take on "Don't Burn No Bridges" (a song written by a member of Kent's team) was tackled in psychedelic soul style whereas "One Way Ticket" (penned by James) is a classy Northern Soul / Modern Soul dance number of the highest order. With both of the old Reprise 45's by the group now being much sought after items, I'm sure this new Soul Intention single will ensure the Hypnotics once again find favour with UK record buyers.

Another derivation on Chris Columus / Columbo's stage name ....... He toured up & down the east coast as Krazy Kris Kolumbo in the early 60's .....

Kenny Redon (ex of 9th Street Exit) confirmed that the group backed up Jesse Fisher on his proposed So-Jamm album tracks. As is stated on Jesse's 45, the LP was to be titled "Baby, I Can't Stop Loving You". His cuts were produced by Dunn Pearson. Yet more 'lost' Cleveland (Way Out) tracks for us to dream about !!! BTW, Kenny also tells me that Jesse ended up driving a truck for CDL.

... AND the ad brought results ............ 3 French Chess EP's to chase, lurverlea !!

"I Can't Stand The Rain" takes some beating (& John Lennon thought so too) ........ ........ but "If This Is Heaven" runs it a close second.

How French labels should have done it ...........

Will we now ???

RCA gets hip to the 'Detroit Sound' .............

Lorraine, I have been messing about with old Billboard mags today & made up this montage from Soul 45 details included in the mag dated 15th October 1966. There were a load of good singles released that week (or at least reviewed in Billboard that week). Amongst them were two put out by RCA, I would guess with little or no promo effort behind them. ..... Kenny Carter -- Don't Go ... .... .... RCA 8970 Lorraine Chandler -- She Don't Want You RCA 8980 Even though there is a gap of 9 singles between these 2 releases, it seems they escaped on the same day (guess RCA were issuing about 20 - 25 x 45's each week back then across all music types). Did either 45 get any push by RCA & if not, how did that make you feel (you may not know in relation to Kenny's 45) ? Did your 45 sell well in Detroit, coz you were known there ? If you had been in control of the release dates, would YOU have put them out together ? RCA weren't strong in the soul field back then (sales wise), so it seems daft to provide 'opposition' for their own product. RCA wouldn't set up a dedicated promo team for their soul releases but left the Pop Dept guys to push this stuff. How did that make you feel (after all most on the Pop side at RCA would have 'no feel' for such releases). Which tracks did you like best, your own recordings or those tracks you cut on 'others' (in general, I'm not asking about this 45 in particular)? ... I have more questions, but for now, I think that's more than enough for you to grapple with. ............... CHEERS

Well done Ian (& Harmless) ....... now it's time to move forward ........where's that d*mn Gospel 2fer CD ??????????

All the way from the Windy City .......

A few more artists who had to be up for four shows a day ............ five on Saturdays !!!!!!!!

I have Debbie's Arista 45 on a Brazilian 7". Brazilian 7" all play at 33 rpm -- hence they put out numerous EP's there to fill up the vinyl a bit more (a normal 1 track each side 7" has the dead wax much wider than the track part of the playing surface). So these Brazilian EP's look just like US jukebox mini (7") LP's -- 4 tracks with a LP style picture cover. Lots of these 'additional' tracks are LP only in the US / UK. Anyway, on the Brazilian copy, "Just Don't Pay" lasts 3 mins 10 secs while "I Don't Wanna Leave You" is the 5 min 30 secs version.

Here's a report on a live show I'd have liked to have been at .... ..... 1965 .... Ruby Johnson, the Vontastics & the Ideals ..... Both group's 45's had been released a few weeks ...

Back to 9th Street Exit ............. Kenny Red aka Kenneth Redon tells me that . ... "2 members (of 9th St Exit) died; Benny Slocum (the drummer) in 1980 in a shoot out and Ernest Cary (the bass player) of a heart attack in 2001... I went on to play with a band called the Force. I produced 2 singles with them...and Dunn Pearson went on to become a well known arranger / producer in New York with Mtume. We only made the 3 45 singles with Solid Foundation in 1973 & 74. In 2009 Dunn & myself made a MP3 called "Magic Touch" line dance. Also on a Internet Site called Record Scout we 're doing pretty good" BTW, Kenneth also tells me that the group's Solid Foundation LP never even made it to the acetate stage as the remaining tracks (those not put out on 45) were never even mixed down to releasable standard.

Smudger, I thought you'd b*gg*r*d off to Spain ??

Both sides of Jewel 220 are great ........ ---- The Soul Strirrers ----- I'm Trying To Be Your Friend (fastish) I'm Traveling On (QUALITY DEEP SOUL) Surely one of these 2 tracks has to B on the CD ( the DEEP B side hopefully).

And from Chicago we got ...............

If you lived in / near Manchester, Yanks was always the place to quickly head down to when Richard started playing a track off an old (70's / 80's) US LP. Unfortunately I lived on the sunnier side of the hills back then (in Gods' own Yorkshire), so it was hard to make it down to that basement before more local soulies (& dealers) had cleared out all the copies of any 'newly in-demand' albums.

Another US oldies label around by 1970 ........ (Epic) Memory Lane (Major Lance, etc). Lots of US labels (Chess, Motown, etc) just re-pressed old tracks on the same imprint (label) as the original ..... ... however the new copy would have that company's current label design NOT the label design being used when each particular 45 had originally escaped into the shops. I know they came later, but when did the Brunswick 45's with black writing on a gold label first start to appear ??

Greg & Ian ....... I CAN'T WAIT .... TELL US NOW !!! ............. or at least ASAP !!!

When we Brits started chasing copies of the Gypsies "Jerk It" around 68 / 69, the only easy US copy you could get your hands on was an Oldies reissue copy.

A further bit of irrelevant info ......... when I flew home from NY / Newark back in those days, I always had a backpack as my carry-on luggage. All my clothes & other bits (a few 45's / LP's I'd managed to pick up on my US travels) would go in the main suitcases in the hold, but my backpack carry-on would be strapped to my back. I'd do my best to make it seem that it was as light as a feather as I boarded the plane & got off back in the UK. I'd stroll thru immigration & out into airport arrivals to find my 'lift' or catch the shuttle bus to where I'd left the car. The weight of the backpack would be killing me all the while as it would be stuffed to overflowing with CD's. Since 9 /11 (the World Trade Towers) you can't get anything on a plane into or out of the US, so those days are now long gone.

BTW, Wilson Pickett started out singing with the Violinaires around the mid 50's (the group were established in 1952). History of the group ........ https://www.thefantasticviolinaires.org/vpages/history.html They are still going strong today (now known as Robert Blair & the Fantastic Violinaires) & Charles Brown is still with them. Around 1999 / 2000 I used to drop in to see a woman I knew who worked for Bounce Records / PPI in Newark NJ. They were releasing Dunn Pearson tracks at that time & had hooked Dunn up with Beau Huggins Hush organisation (Freddie Jackson, Najee, etc). Anyway, as I was from the UK, she used to give me copies of all their releases & at that time they also represented Atlanta gospel label Grammercy. Grammercy had put out loads of CD's by old school gospel group and Robert Blair & the Fantastic Violinaires were one of these. So I ended up with 4/5 copies of every current Grammercy CD, Robert Blair & the Fantastic Violinaires' 'All About Jesus' being one of them. No idea where most of these spare copies have got to (in boxes in the loft / garage no doubt), but the CD contained some good tracks.