Roburt

This is the 5 strong multi-ratial group that hit big with "Blue Moon" in 1961. The two white guys quit after trouble when they toured the southern States. When they cut their last 45 for Colpix in 1963 the group members were Fred Johnson, Richard Harris, William Herndon and Walt Maddox. I'd guess it was the same guys in the group when they cut "Letter Full of Tears" for Chartbound in 1967. As Walt Maddox & the Marcels they re-cut "Letter Full Of Tears" for Super M in 1982. ...................

With regard to laying hands on import US soul 45's back in the 60's ......... It was easy to order US soul 45's from Soul City Record Shop from 1966 onwards though usually most in-demand items went immediately out of stock (though they did have issue copies of Tobi Legend in stock for over 2 years). From 1968, F L Moores in Leighton Buzzard was the place to shop -- when it was based out of the old (detached?) house on the main drag from L B railway station into the town itself. All the downstairs rooms were set out with shelves of import 45's on each wall & you could ask after a particular 45, artist (Soul Brothers Six), label or if a good returning customer even pull 45's off the shelves yourself to scan what was there. By 1970, the shop was doing such good business, it had outgrown the old house & moved to commercial office type premises above a row of shops nearer (in?) the town centre. To begin with, F L Moores buying technique was a bit of a scattergun affair as can be seen from their ad in US trade mags (see below). Blues & Soul were soon on the scene as well, selling named imports & soul packs via the mag & their Contempo Sales office in Paddington. Import 45's could also be bought off UK based 45 auction lists by the late 60's. Randy's Record Shop of Galatin, Tenn had good mail order catalogues & posted to the UK. if you sent in a wants list, you sometimes got lucky & a radio stn promo of a (then) rare 45 would arrive packaged with the more known items you had actually ordered from their booklet. PLUS, if you knew just where to write, you could request a big list of old 45's sent out (monthly?) by a record warehouse in the New York area and buy non sold stock copies (they had bought in) for 25c each (+ P&P & import duty). I always regretted not ordering one of the warehouse's 'tea-chest' full of soul 45's which they sold off very cheaply (the shipping was always the stumbling block for me -- expensive at the time on my wages). Though as these boxes contained the stuff they thought 'too obscure' to list by artist & song title, they must have contained some rare stuff. Also, there would have been more than one copy of some items, not too appealing to a collector with little cash & no big crowd to sell stuff onto.

I have to agree with Kegsy (God, that was hard to say !!) UK London-American begat UK Atlantic & all its goodies whilst UK Stateside begat UK Tamla Motown & loads of gems. UK Sue had some great sides (especially if you include LP tracks as well) but it didn't have the 'strength in depth' of Kegsy's nominations, whilst Pye International (which begat Chess) and Cameo Parkway also put out numerous goodies but not enough again to be a real challenge. The 'lesser' EMI labels (Columbia, HMV, Top Rank, etc.) never had the same volume of goodies as Stateside. Soul City came along late and was an 'upstart' that followed the rare soul path BUT it crashed & burnt too early. So for once, I believe Kegsy is not talking twaddle.

Whilst I'm on about females who used the name Love as their stage / recording name .... is anything at all (real name, etc.) known about Marion Love ? The "I Can't Forget About You Baby" lady who cut for Capitol plus A & R. I'd guess she was LA based but apart from that (& who the people she worked with on her 4 x 45's were) know nothing about her.

You can hear the track & see a scan of the 45's label here ......... https://souldennis.blogspot.com/2011/05/willie-toliver-bit-off-more-than-i.html

RE: That Donnie Ray that's No.2 in their chart was one of the best releases from last year and a real hark back to a good ole Southern Soul floorpacker. Got to agree with Ian, "Who's Rockin You" is a great track. It's the title cut of his Ecko album from last year. If you like southern soul then the album as a whole is well worth buying. Lots of great soul ballads and very little of the 'programmed drums & keys' sound that Ecko is so notorious for. If you only like 'dancers' & embrace the modern age (mp3's), then you can get just this track for under a quid.

RE: I know some of these date back to the of the early days of the twisted wheel. I don't think that's true. My memory tells me that they started to appear around 1968/ 69 (but then my memories shot these days). The 'Wheel' type DJ's usually gave a big push to a 45 after the UK 45 had just been deleted & back then it was still far from easy to get your hands on imports (Soul City Record store was a good early source, then F L Moore & Contempo). So 45's would be in-demand & there would be no ready way to source copies, so the Soul Sounds label was born (& featured almost exclusively top Wheel sounds).

ERROR IN ABOVE ......... It seems that it was Katie Love (and not Kitty Love) that was Katie Lynch (from Atlanta). Katie Love being the lady that cut "Hurt So Good".

Kitty Love / Kitti Love is obviously a stage name, though there are a fair number of folk who have Love as their genuine surname. But for recording artists who used the name Love, it can make it really difficult to track them down in later times. There was a Kitti Love / Kitty Love who played club dates in Baltimore in the early to mid 1960's (see ad). She is listed as being a recording artist on the ad but this Kitti Love is even more difficult to ID as she used several stage / recording names. To record, she used the name Kitty Lane and under this identity she cut for Ru-Jac ("It's Love I Need / Sweetheart"). The fact that she recorded for Rufus Mitchell's Ru-Jac label shouldn't be too much of a suprise as for a period she worked as his secretary at Rufus's Ace Booking Agency in Baltimore. Working at a booking agents can't have been too bad a job when it came to helping secure club gigs for herself. But this Kitty Lane / Kitti Love was really the sister of long time doo-wop singer Lou Peebles. Lou being a member of the 5 Satins (led by Fred Paris) for much of the mid 1950's & early 60's. Another lady who used the name Kitty Love had a 45 ("The Power of Love / You Gotta Change") out on Miami based Dade Records around 1963. She seems to have had little connection to Florida (most artists who had 45's released in the Dade 5000 series had little connection with Miami) and her name doesn't appear on club ads for local live gigs. Indeed her songs seem to have a much stronger connection to Chicago (being written by Charles Colbert and published by Curtom). "The Power of Love" was also recorded by Mary Silvers for One-Derful and Amanda Humphrey for USA, both Chicago labels. It is actually thought that this Kitty Love could well have had the real surname of Lynch and have come from Atlanta. However there is also speculation that the Dade Kitty Love could have some connection to Amanda Love who recorded for Chicago based label Starville around 1967 ("You Keep Calling Me By Her Name" -- this then being picked up for natonal distribution on Chess). But Amanda Love must have gotten her chance to record via Mississippi born songwriter, record producer, and record label owner Mel London. London ran various Chicago based record labels (Chief, Profile and Age) before working for All-Points, Bright Star, Starville and USA. Amanda Love's real name was / is Amanda Bradley and she was also from Mississippi (indeed quite recently she was still singing under her real name back in Jackson, Mississippi). Coincidently Amanda Humphrey had another 45 out, this being released on the Norton label. On this she was supported by a Jackson, Mississippi based orchestra, so are Amanda Love, Amanda Humphrey & Amanda Bradley all one and the same. The plot thickens.

RE: He also went to Sheffield many times the King Mojo I think he said it was called. You're right, the top Sheffield soul club in the 1960's was Pete Stringfellow's King Mojo Club. Better then the Wheel till it was closed down in early October, 1967.

It was a big sound at Rotherham Clifton Hall niters (again for Richard Searling) in the early/mid 80's.

CAN'T READ, CAN'T SPELL, DON'T KNOW ANYTHING, I NEVER TELL A LIE, I'M REALLY A SAINT ..... You missed out that he also doesn't know what an e-mail is, has never sent a fax and can't text. Yet he lives on a street where everyone is a millionaire (including him). Someone really must have smiled on him in the past as he never bothers about money or even collecting his legitimate wages. Pull the other one please; I've got some land on the moon that I am willing to sell to any & all of the member's on that jury, anyone got their addresses?

TODAY'S NEWS > Those who make a bit of money on the side through selling on eBay may not even be aware of the need to inform the taxman. The number of people trying to make a bit of money on the side through this means has been growing dramatically as many more people feel the pinch, which means many thousands of people may have walked into a tax nightmare without realising it. Anyone making money by TRADING via eBay needs to contact their local office, inform them that they are direct-selling, and start filling out a tax return. If they only sell a few items on eBay, and aren't traders, they are not likely to be liable to tax on what they make and will not be targeted. However, it's a fine line between someone who sells a few things and someone who trades, and it's essential you know which side of the line you sit on. Gary Ashford, who represents the Chartered Institute of Taxation on HMRC's Compliance Reform Forum says: "Anyone who is worried that they have been underpaying tax - whether deliberately or in error, and whether they are covered by this new campaign or not - should get professional advice without delay. Penalties will generally be less severe for taxpayers who come forward voluntarily to put their affairs in order with HMRC." I guess that now the guys from HMRC will be doing checks on just who is selling on a regular basis on the bay and cross-referencing this info with those people's tax returns. BIG BROTHER strikes again !!

When The Volumes (minus Eddie Union) wanted to use a different name, Peterson must have suggested his old group's name ... YOU'RE CORRECT Robb

TODAYS NEWS ........ DVLA Auction: 11-series plates caused a stir because of their usefulness in spelling out names: the highest price of the auction was for DH11 LON, which sold for £80,000 because it looks a bit like 'Dillon'. Since September 1989, when private plates first went on sale, the DVLA has amassed £1.7bn from our desire to hide the age of our cars, or display something dubiously linked to a name. Last year alone, the DVLA raised £16m over the course of six auctions.

Lou pointed me towards this youtube posting .......... It contains quite a few 'rare' photos of him (though they will all see the light of day next month).

My bio on the Volumes for their 2011 return to Prestatyn can be found here ... https://www.soul-weekenders.co.uk/artistMar11n.html There's also a photo of the 4 guys performing that I took back in 2009.

As it says in my article the members of the Magnetics who cut "The Train" in 1962 for Allrite were Bobby Peterson, Sharon Peterson, Tony Johnson (lead singer), Jackie Perkins and Candi Bell. The members of the Volumes / Magnetics who cut "Lady In Green" for Bonnie were Gerald Mathis (lead singer), Bobby Peterson, Elijah Davis, Ernest Newsome & William 'Pete' Crawford. Finally the members of the Volumes were came over to sing at Prestatyn in 2009 were Eddie Union (ex 1960's Volume), Elijah Davis (ex 1960's Volume & 'Bonnie 'Magnetic), William (Pete) Crawford (ex 1960's Volume & 'Bonnie' Magnetic) and Bobby Peterson (ex 1960's Volume & 'Allrite' + 'Bonnie' 'Magnetic). After his spell in the group, Tony Johnson (ex Allrite Magnetic) teamed with Tyrone Pickens as the duo Tony & Tyrone. Ex 1960's Volume members Ernest Newsome and Gerald Mathis passed away prior to 2009 when the group came to the UK. Another of the Volume's ex lead singers Jimmy Burger had by 2000 become a minister and was no longer prepared to go back to performing secular music. Thus the 4 guys that played Prestatyn in 2009 included the only 3 surviving members of the group that cut "Lady In Green". All the above facts are as told to me by Elijah Davis, William (Pete) Crawford, Bobby Peterson and Eddie Union (though Eddie had no knowledge at all of the groups Magnetics period as he wasn't involved with the other guys at all during those times).

Out in the car this morning, so tuned into Radio 2's 'Sound of the Sixties' show. Just after 1 hr 8mins into the show Brian Matthew gave brief bio details on Lou Ragland, played "I Travel Alone", had a bit more to say on Lou's career & then moved on. You can listen to the show here ..... https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01bl4dw Can US based people listen in ? ... as I will let Lou know & get him to listen in if they can.

RE: TMG plates ...... Used to see a car with the plate All TMG (A11 TMG) on at the Cleggy Weekender years ago but can't say I've seen it there in recent years.

Tracks on a typical 'JAZZ FUNK' CD ......... Lonnie Liston Smith - Expansions (Original 12" Mix) Ronnie Laws - Always There (Original 12" Mix) Gil Scott-Heron - The Bottle (Original Version) (Original 12" Mix) Donald Byrd - Change (Makes You Want To Hustle) (Original Full LP Version) Wilton Felder - Inherit The Wind (Original 12" Mix) Spyro Gyra - Shaker Song (Original 12" Mix) Azymuth - Jazz Carnival (Original 12" Mix) Johnny Hammond - Los Conquistadores Chocolates (Original Full LP Version) Eddie Henderson - Say You Will (Original 12" Mix) John Klemmer - Brasilia (Original Full LP Version) Harvey Mason - Till You Take My Love (Original 12" Mix) Dizzy Gillespie - Unicorn (Original 12" Mix)

Betty played quite a few club dates in Florida in the mid 60's (some around Miami) .. but then loads of non-local soul singers did dates in Miami, so I guess that wouldn't have been a great indicator that she was actually from Florida. Southern soul fans had been trying to track her down for years and it was one of them that eventually 'unearthed' her around 2004 and told her how many fans for her old recordings there still were around the world.

Boba, there was (in some instances) lots of x-over between tracks played on the 2 Step, Rare Groove & Modern Soul scenes (i.e. the same cut would be played on all 3 scenes). An instance of this was Lou Ragland's "Making Love". This was known instantly to MS guys as Lou already had a really high established profile with NS / MS fans. So this cut was played from a new release (on a 12" EP put out by Lou on his own Casino label). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbseqjMSJTk On the 2 Step scene (on which tracks were initially spread by DJ's doing fans cassettes/ CD-R's) it was known as "(Got a Girl) on the Otherside of Town". The cut is just about the perfect tempo for 2 Steppers. After the 2 Step scene had picked up on it, the track was 'booted' to meet the demand from 2 Step record buyers. Before too long it was also played on the Rare Groove scene & I believe it got a RG release on CD. The daft thing was that many 2 Steppers who knew the cut really well (& would always dance to it when out in clubs) had no idea who it was by or what it was called. The wife & I popped into the florists in the main area at Euston Station (a big London railway stn) & the track was playing. As the black girl running the shop made up our order, I commented that I loved the Lou Ragland track playing over the shop's PA system and she had no idea what I was talking about even though it was her tape that it was being played from.

I put .... A 45 FAN ... on my wife's car ....... she wasn't that impressed.

I wonder what became of these ladies who were tipped for big things on the Miami club scene in 1966. I guess they failed to hook up with any record label type guys, went home & settled down to family life.