Roburt

I have some Designer 45's but not too many considering how many were issued. BACKGROUND INFO from JUST MOVING ON website ........... .... Designer is probably the label with the most gospel 45s released in the 1970s. Somewhere between 400 and 500 singles were released between 1968 and 1978. There were about 15 Designer albums released. Style Wooten and Charles Bowen were the men in charge of Designer. Memphis,Tennessee was Designer's hometown. Most of the artists on Designer were from Memphis and the Mid-South of the USA. Designer put some small ads in (local) newspapers "for $ 425 you can become a star". One record session for two songs and 500 pressed 45s was what you got for $ 425. The early releases were in 1968, the one you're after info on was a 1970 release. I'll ask a gospel expert I know if he has this 45 (my guess is that he will have it). If so, I'll pass along the info.

The CD has to contain tracks cut by most of this lot ..........

....... RE: Googa Mooga records being the 1st bootlegs, I'd have to say no to that. However, I don't doubt that their 'US sourced releases' could have been put out without the US label owner's permission. Probably the guys who licensed the 1st Eddie Parker were sent copies of his other 'recent releases' by Jack. Jack hoping they would come back to license some of these additional tracks but perhaps they just went ahead & put them out anyway. In Europe in the 60's (& early 70's), it was NOT UNCOMMON for a US recording to be dubbed off a mint copy of the US 45, a stamper made & UK / French / German label 45's run off (President / JayBoy did this most of the time I'm led to believe). ALSO, it's my understanding that very little of the stuff released on the UK Sue label from its start up to the mid / late 60's was actually licensed from the US parent companies. The guy running Sue (& I can't bring his name to mind at present) just found copes of US 45's he liked (blues & soul tracks), copied them to tape, ran stampers off, pressed up Sue copies & distributed them to UK record shops. So, bootleggers came later ........ but not everything that was done by European label owners in the 60's was legal & above board.

Mark, Have they recorded anything ?? If so, did the guy give you a CD of their tracks (hope so) ?

I'd like as many test pressings of soul 45's from this place as I can get my hands on

And you ain't got any solo tracks by him on the CD .. but here's the Violinaires lead singer, Charlie 'Cole Black' Brown, back then ......

The Soul Stirrers (again back in their Jewel days) ..........

The Violinaires (back in their Jewel days coz they're still going today) .......

Willie Morganfield ...........

Dee (Delcitia) Wellmon is a lady based out of Philly who has been involved with the music / entertainment biz for years. She currently runs Ragin Rhythms Connect ........ https://www.raginrhyt...t/about_us.html In the past she worked with (for ?) W.M.O.T. records & TEC Records. She also ran her own label; Visions East. You can contact her via the above web site .... or via ......... Ragin` Rhythms Connection, LLC, 1949 West Pacific Street, Suite #4 Philadelphia, Pa. 19140 ---- 215-223-0662 e-mail her on .......... info@raginrhythmsconnect.net HOPE THIS HELPS.

Here's one I originally picked up on 45 in a B&S soul pack way back in 1972 or 73. The Violinaires take the "Sweet Soul Music" idea across to God's side of the tracks (come on James Brown, Reffa & the Wicked one). ............. Now, this just has to be on the CD !!!!!!!!!!!!!

"God Has Been Good" the Violinaires ..........

Willie Morganfield made some great tracks for Jewel ............ This one is almost deep soul .... OR the Violinaires "God Has Been Good" which is also as close to deep soul as it's poss to get. Will either of the above be on the CD ?? The Violinaires "Groovin With Jesus" is almost funk, "He Touched Me" is more deep soul AND "Tryin To Get Ready" is a fine uptempo track --- but you can't use those cuts as they were all done for Chess.

Bob, do you know the names of the guys in the group & if they cut any other tracks (in Cleveland or closer to home) ??

More bits cobbled together from a copy of the mag ........

Charlie Brown's solo efforts (well the 2 I've heard) were soul cuts not gospel, but of course he still sounded the same as when he was singing lead for the Violinaires. Didn't Jewel (& other labels) persuade a few gospel group lead singers to try out on solo soul cuts before the singers themselves decided that they didn't really want to sing secular stuff.

BTW, The Imperial Wonders pissed off the Solid Foundation people by signing a national deal with Musicor in 1973. So the label signed up a random group, called them the Four Wonders, cut tracks on them & released a 45. Seems (as always) that the label owners wanted everything their own way & got frazzled when a group did the dirty on them.

Here's a (beat up) piccy of 9th Street Exit ..... Dunn Pearson (piano) is on the far right. Other group members are Kenny Redd (Kenneth Redon -- guitar), Benny Slocum (drums), Ernest Cary (bass) & Kenneth Hollins (percussion). The group, who were originally known as 'Shades Of Soul', cut an LP full of tracks for the label .. PLUS they backed up Jessie Fisher on enough tracks to release an album on him !!! Both albums were due for release in June / July 1974.

By all accounts, Vault Records were a dodgy outfit. The label bosses bought the Chambers Bros contract from ABC in 1965 (I know not why ABC signed the group & then sold the contract on to Vault but they did). The group's ABC contract was for 3 records (45's / LP's ?) & had stipulated royalty payments designated. Vault went on to release 5 LP's by them, plus numerous 45's & put their tracks on some compilation albums. They then licensed the group's tracks for release overseas (as per Tommy Neal & Popcorn Wylie). In all the time the group were on Vault (including residuals for later selling on of tracks for reissue), they never received one (thin) dime from Vault !!!

Still waitin' on that train ..........

I've come across more info on when Virgie Till teamed up with Sonny Til. Seems that Sonny & the Orioles secured long tenure bookings in Miami in the summers of 1957 & 1958. On both occasions, the group were booked (for up to 24 weeks) to appear on Cab Calloway's Cotton Club Revue at a Miami Beach hotel. On at least one of these occasions, Virgie accompanied Sonny on the trip (well, she was born in Miami though both her parents had passed by then). If they first 'got together' in 1957, that would have made her just 16 years old !!!! No wonder, Sonny wanted people to think that she was his sister.

I know the project hasn't fully been 'put to bed' yet, but any hints going on how many tracks will be pure gospel & how many gospel-y soul. The likes of Charlie 'Cole Black' Brown's (lead singer of the Violinaires) soul outings certainly fall into the latter category. BTW, Gary Cape organised the release of his 2 cuts on the 'issue' 45. He has also stated in the past that "very very irritating thing is that they (the Jewel men) showed me their masters register. It showed 4 tracks by Charlie 'Cole Black' Brown - but in those days I was more interested in 45s than in masters and as they didn't have the audio readily to hand I never got to hear what the other 2 tracks were - but having been cut at the same session, it wouldn't be too much of a surprise if they were pretty good ........ ................ OOOHHHHH, lovely unissued 'Cole Black' cuts ......... what could be better !!!!

... & two of these (at least) are pretty damn fine too .....

I bet these two proved popular .............

......... Crazy Chris Columbo -- in later life. He passed away in 2002 at the ripe old age of 100.