Roburt

A couple of old clips from US TV ...

Her sides were done by Teen Town Productions. This outfit seemed to originate in La Crosse, Wisconsin (a small city on the banks of the Mississippi River between Chicago & Minneapolis St Paul). They usually cut white garage bands, putting their stuff out on labels such as Coulee, Twin Town and Transaction. The writer of both songs on her 45 was Chicago based David Wilkerson (who worked a lot for One-derful / Mar-V-Lus). So (to me) that points to her being from the La Crosse / Chicago region and having hooked up with Teen Town Prods to cut her tracks which escaped on Chicago based Avin Records. Although her 45 credits just Wilkerson as being the writer, when registered with BMI the song had gained another writer; Veron Taplin. It seems that Taplin had connections with Bill Lasley's Celtex & Avin Record labels and got his name on the song via that means. One of the most NS style 'garage band' records cut by Teen Town Prods was the Unchained Mynds - GOING BACK TO MIAMI (a cover of the Wayne Cochran song done in a Mitch Ryder & Det. Whs fashion) .... This doesn't help ID who Donna was but provides some background on her cuts.

In 1965, EMI were putting stuff out in the UK plus 45 other countries (see btm of ad below). Don't know if they used the Stateside label in all those countries though. Guess Capitol Records (USA) was one of those foreign country EMI companies, so that's at least one country where there would have been no Stateside label releases. I think they only had the Capitol label in Canada too in the 60's (Cliff Richard 45's -- EMI's biggest British act with an international profile ahead of the Beatles -- had his stuff put out by EMI in Canada on the Capitol label).

In the 60's, EMI had access to the product of many US soul labels via various means. Some from deals with small US labels (Lenox, Laurie, etc), some via deals with big outfits like Amy / Mala / Bell. Many times, the 45 would have to do well in the US for it to gain a release here (for instance: Chuck Jackson's ANY DAY NOW -- this escaped in the UK about 3 months after it's US release). But when an act got an established UK profile, their new 45 would gain UK release reasonably quickly after it had escaped in the US (like Lee Dorsey's GET OUT MY LIFE WOMAN and WORKING IN A COAL MINE -- these were out here around 4 weeks after their US release date). Back then, it would take a week or so just to get the master tape / US 45 (to be used for dubbing purposes) across to London from the US. Then a decision had to be made if tracks would gain a UK release before the manufacturing process could begin. So, 4 weeks was quite a quick turn-around. With EMI's global reach, the company used the STATESIDE imprint in many other territories. In all, I believe that Stateside logo 45's escaped in 32+ other countries, just about all of those releases following on from the UK versions.

One thing I do know with regard to this topic ... most folk @ Motown in Detroit quickly acknowledged that the way they got their product out around much of the world in the 60's was via what they called 'The British Connection'. They were really pleased with the link & the fact it had such a far reach. To be honest, more than it being 'The British Connection' it was really 'the EMI connection'. EMI's global reach meant that Motown tracks that did well in the UK would soon be released in places like Australia, N Zealand, Sth Africa, India, Pakistan, large areas of Europe, the Caribbean, etc. etc. Berry wasn't daft, I'm sure EMI's massive reach across the globe was appreciated by him & that must have factored into his (the companies) decision to remain with EMI as their partner for so many years. This old ad (from 67) relates directly to EMI & Capitol Records, but it remains almost the same for the Motown connection ....

Like the earlier Baltimore group, the Persians, this outfit worked with Phi-Mar Productions (as did Michael Lizzmore plus a bit earlier T.J. (Timmie) Williams & Two Shades of Soul). Guess Phi-Mar had connections to Baltimore in some way (probably via a radio DJ from the city). I believe Phi-Mar were New York based (which would make sense in T.J.Williams case). Both James Sawyer & Lee Pittman have a number of songs they wrote registered with BMI.

Late 60's Betty .... on a NS kick ...

Old Film4 Xmas show adverts ...

The current Film4 upcoming shows ad features the Stairsteps "World Of Fantasy" as it's backing track ... the actual ad isn't up on Youtube yet though ..

One her less wild cuts ...

Seems that there's been a film documentary out there for around a year all about the music career of 70's wild funkster Betty Davis. I 1st came across her when I bought a copy of her mid 70's UK LP 'Nasty Gal' ... but she'd been married to Miles Davis in the late 60's & then cut two albums for Just Sunshine in the early to mid 70's (ahead of Nasty Gal). She was always a bit of an acquired taste (musically) but no doubt the film will be worth watching.

More US singers / groups who toured the UK extensively in 1967 .... all brought over by Roy Tempest (just ahead of him starting on his 'fake group' phase). Roy Tempest used to sign up UK based groups who's job was to open the show for the US acts and then back the star of the show up for their performance. One group that took on this job for him in early 67 was Bobby Hanna & the Canadians. Bobby Hanna (originally from Scotland, brought up in Canada, moved to London & then Australia) landed a contract with Decca shortly after this & ended up cutting a couple of tracks that were played on the NS scene in the 70's.

Here's the EP (& a track off it) ....

It wasn't just the Nth West that had great soul acts playing there in 67 .... London had even more live acts on and places like Sheffield, Portsmouth, Dunstable, Boston & Birmingham were also doing well ....

Seems the Cashbox R&B Ratings didn't quite tally with the other music biz mags that year ... ... NEW SOUL GROUPS: No Artistics in their Top 10 (though the Precisions were in @ #10) ...

More end of year listings ....

Lots of great obscure cuts made in 67, but the major labels / acts were pretty fine too back then ...

As Andy said, he's the same guy as T J Williams. Timothy Williams / Timmie / T.J. all one guy ... here's his BMI song writers page ... I guess King George (Clemons) would know all about him (see separate thread bout King George -- By George)

Both groups were chasing the sound of the Impressions (& both had Chicago connections of course).

Done some more research & it seems the soul period @ the club had kicked in fully by late 69 ....

For collectors only -- US & UK broadcast organisations in-house records ... oddities that some like to acquire ...

He made another album with Discovery (in Sweden) in 1983 which included some soul, jazz & some rock songs, so I guess he remained in the country, settling down there. Maybe, he's still happily living up in Scandanavia. His most sought after Swedish recording though remains his old cover of Don Gardner's NS dancer ...

KING GEORGE -- He started out in Virginia (grew up there), relocated to New York where he joined Don Covay's Good-timers before going solo, playing club dates & doing some recording ... was then tempted across to Sweden, where he again recorded ... AND .. while based up there, played live shows in Denmark, Holland and the UK ... moved on from doing soul numbers as music tastes changed and then faded from the scene in the 70's ... Anyone know what became of him (George Clemons) ???

Yes, there's an old thread on the club ... but that just dealt with the 70's happenings at the venue. It's also been mentioned in old threads about the 60's / 70's soul club scene in Yorks / Notts ... but nothing that I can see that states when the place started to feature live US soul acts on a regular basis. A top London based soul singer played the club in late May 68 but (as stated above), I think Edwin was the 1st US star to play the venue later in that year.

They did have Amboy Dukes on in April 68 & that outfit got bookings at the Twisted Wheel too. Also had Pesky Gee on (who had been the resident band @ the Nite Owl in 67) plus State Express (who used to back up Edwin Starr in the UK back then) .... but the 1st booking at the club for a US based soul act (as far as I know) was Edwin Starr at the end of September 68 .... I think this was their first all-dayer too (& they didn't do niters) PLUS they'd also renamed themselves from the NEW BROKEN WHEEL to the BROKEN WHEEL SCENE .... I have no idea who the Soul Package were (on in August). No doubt a short lived UK group who did covers of soul songs. I lived just up the road (in Donny) then and I don't recall any Sth Yorks mods going to (or even mentioning the club) back then ... guess there were too many bigger / better / more hip places to go back in 68. ... anyone know of other US soul acts who appeared at the club in 68 ?? ...