Roburt

In the summer of 1970, Leroy & the Drivers were getting some action with this Duo 45 ...

There were some interesting cuts included on the BBC Radioplay album releases (especially in the 80's) ... ... trying to getting hold of copies of the best ones is a difficult task these days though ...

Rudy Love & his band will be in the UK (& available for live show bookings) between Wednesday 26th September and Tuesday 2nd October (except Sat 29th Sept of course). Any venue within easy travel distance of London would be considered. I know it's pretty short notice but the maker of Rudy's film, John Alexander, will be in the UK on September 5th. So he will be easily contactable to sort out all the details.

Back in the 50's, radio was still the main form of home entertainment. Many US radio stns broadcast plays or dramatic / soap type dramas. Others hosted live musicians in their studios (lots of early doo-wop / blues / R&B tracks were cut in radio stn studios before being put onto records). Lots of stns were owned by the same big corporations (RCA, etc.), so to cut down on unnecessary expense, some music shows staged at one radio stn would be recorded, transferred to record and then sent around a number of their radio stns in different cities. Thus, jazz, blues & other forms of music would end up on transmission discs. I've picked up a few blues, R&B & jazz oones down the years. Curiosities they may be, but I like em (keep meaning to frame a couple up & hang em on the record room wall).

John Alexander (the film maker) has expressed a strong interest in getting the documentary about Rudy Love (80 minutes duration) screened at a UK soul weekender & at a couple of Euro based soul weekenders. He can supply a copy of it in DVD format or via an online link or as a mp4 file. If anyone out there would be interested in this proposal PM me or drop an e-mail direct to John ... johnalexander@post.harvard.edu Old dvd's put together by Rudy in the past ...

Morris Levy & Roulettes close connections to the mob have been well known since the 60's, he really was a piece of work. Guess the HBO tv show will be well worth watching. It's a good thing they decided to host that concert at that location east of DC as nearer to DC are the two top 60's black music venues (Carr's Beach / Sparrow's Beach). If they had used those places, the likes of Rufus Mitchell & the Ru-Jac team could well have ended up the same way (fortunate they had largely fallen out of use in the early 70's).

So it now seems that the Emeralds (from Ohio) became Lee Roye & the Emeralds (Redbug) who morphed into Leroy Jones & His Band (Spar / Hit) before becoming Leroy & the Drivers ... seems a detailed study on this outfit needs to be done by a Ohio / Nashville / Chicago soul freak ... BUT it also seems likely that they were a different outfit to Ohio based Luther Bond & the Emeralds (1950's thru to 1960) and the Emeralds on King (1967) ... . . . . lifted from discogs ... The Emeralds got together in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio during the spring of 1953. The members of the group were lead singer Luther Bond, baritone Will Miller, tenor voices Charles Godfrey and Cedric Cox, and bass Clyde Giles. As they worked on their harmony and stage presence, they were encouraged to try their hand at area amateur shows. These talent promotions were quite common in the early n nineteen fifties and were the route that opened the door for so many of the vocal groups trying to make their way to fame and fortune. Soon they had themselves a manager who was a local radio personality named Ernie Waits. He searched around looking for a chance for the new vocal group to have an opportunity to record and soon they hit paydirt with the Savoy Record Company located in Newark, New Jersey. The group was signed to the label by Fred Mendelsohn the A & R chief for Savoy. A short time after New Year's Say in 1954, The Emeralds gathered in their home town for a session with the label. With some session musicians (Russ Hampton, Edwin Conley, Wilbur Jackson, and Charles Montgomery) they recorded the songs "See What You Done" and "What If You" on # 1124. The record was listed as by Luther Bond "And His Emeralds". By March the trade papers have good sales figures for the record in the label's home of Newark, and a testimonial by "Moondog" Freed from Cleveland. In June of the year Savoy releases two songs from the January session - "You Were My Love" and "Starlight, Starbright" on Savoy # 1131. Luther Bond & The Emeralds appear at a big show and picnic outing held by radio station WNJR in Newark on July 4th. Later in July "You Were My Love" is named a pick hit of the week in the group's home town of Cincinnati. The group made a number of appearances for the rest of the year in support of their two recordings. The group had another recording session for the label in late March of 1955, again in Cincinnati. By this time Wardell Fallon had replaced Charles Godfrey with the group. "It's Written In The Stars" and "I Won't Believe You Anymore" were released by Savoy on # 1159. Two other tunes were recorded - "I'll Love Again" and "Chicka-Lee" but were never issued. All the songs were written by Luther Bond. "It's Written In The Stars" was one of the true stylistic songs of the time that demonstrated the sound that was so popular then, and remains so today for so many. During the summer Savoy Records highlights the group and their record in the music trade press. It was interesting to see that in one ad the group was identified as "Luther Bond's Emeralds", and in the other as for the record, the vocal performance was listed as by "Luther Bond" (no group). This could have been a possible reason for the break up of the group by the end of the year. By the beginning of the new year (1956) Luther Bond had put together a new group of Emeralds consisting of John Johnson, Willie King, and Robert Trice. John McGue was the group's accompanist on guitar. This time they scored a recording deal with home town company Federal Records. In September of 1956 Luther Bond & The Emeralds recorded "I Cry" and "He Loves You Baby" on Federal # 12279. By November it was a pick hit in the trade press especially in Cincinnati. The record however never really took off and The Emeralds receded into R & B oblivion - for a couple of years anyway. After sporadic live appearances and recording sessions that failed to materialize, the group gave it one more shot. In the summer of 1959, Luther Bond & The Emeralds hooked up with Showboat Records based in Nashville, Tennessee. This label was in partnership with New York based Apollo Records and recorded the group with the tunes "Gold Will Never Do" and "Jitterbug Jamboree" on Showboat # 1501. The record got initial airplay in the cities of Nashville and Memphis, but sales went flat and did not get national attention. In November Federal Records released two songs by the group that had been held in the can for two years. The songs "Old Mother Nature" and "Six Foot Hole" were released on # 12368. Not helping the group's attempt at resurrecting their career, Ray Scrivener was involved in selling off his Republic Records label and also buying out his share of Showboat Records from Apollo. The group had one more recording session that resulted in "Someone To Love Me" and "Should I Love You So Much" on Showboat # 1505 in early 1960. Soon after that record also failed to get much attention, Luther Bond & The Emeralds called it quits. So they faded into history as another R & B vocal group that remained on the periphery of the musical scene, but contributed to that very history that they so much wanted to become a greater part of. Unfortunately Luther Bond passed away in 1979, but the awesome sound of "It's Written In The Stars" will live on as long as there are admirers of this musical style. ALSO SEE REDBUG THREAD ON LOOK IN YOUR BOX

Leroy & the Drivers in 67 ... see 45 scan below ... So if (as seems highly likely) Lee Roye & the Emeralds became Leroy Jones & Band before they were Leroy & the Drivers, then that outfit's musical history is pretty much tied down from 1961-ish thru to the early 70's ... BTW, the Lee Roye & the Emeralds concert seems to be from 1964, so he was operating as Leroy Jones & Band + Lee Roye & the Emeralds over the same time period. . . . HOWEVER ... the guy who is listed as writing some of Leroy & the Drivers songs is Leroy Smith ... so it all gets quite muddy (I'm assuming that maybe Leroy Smith was the name Leroy Jones used for his song writing works).

This 1st montage shown below (mainly lifted from a thread on Facebook) is very interesting .... The recording act on Redbug was Lee Roye & the Emeralds and they recorded the song HESITATION ... The poster for the John Lee Hooker concert in Portland, Oregon shows a number of support acts ... . . . . . . Lee Roye . . . . The Emeralds . . . Jimmy Valdez (who's signature sound is listed as the tune HESITATION) ... VERY INTERESTING (to me at least) .. The picture at the btm left on the poster is I assume of the Emeralds ... but it's actually the promo picture used by Leroy & the Drivers (Duo recording act) ... the keyboard player in that group was Jimmy Valdez ... so it seems Lee Roye & the Emeralds became Leroy & the Drivers (led by Leroy Jones) ... ... so was the Lee Roye of Lee Roye & the Emeralds PLUS Leroy & the Drivers a completely different guy to the Lee Roye on Decca (who it seems was from Burlington,New Jersey). Before they cut for Duo, Leroy Jones & his band played on many HIT RECORDS sessions and had a number of releases on Hit themselves. Hit Records was of course the Nashville-based outfit (Spar) run by producer William Beasley which cut cover versions of (then) recent hit songs. . . . . .. . . . . . So many questions, so few answers ...

Anyone here know much about this Ohio label operational from the early to mid 60's ??

. . . . NOW OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED .... SATURDAY 29th SEPTEMBER ... Go here to see a clip from the film ... https://www.the100club.co.uk/events/rudy-love/

You're sure right about the Tracky Club & Londoner but they were much later weren't they ... along with others from the Greyhound soul nites in Edlington (Donny), we used to help Derek & Bub DJ at the Londoner soul nites ... but that was in the mid to late 80's I seem to think. The Tracky was also on during the same period & later wasn't it. When did both venues start hosting soul nights, as the 1st time I became aware of them was (as I just said), in the 80's.

A membership card for Tiffany's in Wakefield posted earlier ... In 67, the place to go in Wakee was the Locarno. I worked in Wakke at the time & so got changed at work at the end of the day (into mohair suit) & went to the Locarno on Friday 19th May, 67. Star live attraction that night was supposed to be Prince Buster , but the burga never turned up. Had to hitch home to Donny at the end of what turned out to be a crap night.

Staying geograpically now but as Little Richard has been mentioned earlier .... Not being able to fully accept his homosexuality, Richard was always returning to the church, giving up singing the devil's music & going over to gospel. But then he'd lapse and return to the R&R / R&B world and cut some more secular music. Even with all his retirements, he still managed to do pop tours of the UK in 62, 63, 64 & 66. He did some Yorks shows on these tours but his fave northern venue seemed t be the Imperial in Nelson (Lancs; the wet side of the hills). His 62 & 63 shows were just about all in theatres but he played the Imp Ballroom in 64 & 66. I bet he belted out a few of his R&B faves in the venue on his live shows there ... BUT BACK THEN ... the place seemed to book lots of UK R&B beat groups, UK mod groups & US soul acts ... pity I never made it over there on one of those nights (but only being 16 in 1966, it was all I could do to make it along to Yorks venues back then).

Leeds -- New Marquee ....

Reffa was just great at singing soul & gospel ... she could even make a pop or rock song her own (NATURAL WOMAN for instance) but she could turn her hand (musically) to anything .. Pavarotti got the cob on in New York in 1998, so a stand-in took his place and killed his song ... ... she really stepped out of the box & this can make me tear up ...

Otis didn't play Donny I'm afraid ... there's a fake poster on-line that shows he did but as I just said it's a fake. I seem to remember that the bill had Little Richard as the top line act but while Little Richard did play Donny Gaumont, Otis R wasn't on the bill. The Beatles played the Attic twice BUT way before it was the Attic ... back when it was just the Co-op Ballroom (lots of UK beat groups played the place including Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers). If I'd been in Boston in the week running up to September 17th, 1966, I think I'd have gone to the Starlight Room @ the Gliderdrome on the Thursday to play Tombola, rather than (having watched Otis & Chris F perform on RSG on the Friday night) going there for the Saturday night session .... NOT ...

No, I did mean the Viking in Goole. Lots of the Tin Chicken / Crystal Bowl soul nites were run by Pete Stringfellow and they were staged in early 68 (not long after the Mojo was forced to close). Back then, the promoter was still getting away with it across the board. By 69/70, most clubs / venues had sussed him out & stopped booking his acts. The Viking kept booking his groups & solo acts (if my memory ain't playing tricks on me).

I'm told the tickets for the film screening are going quite fast ... if you want to see it (it's being screened on the Sat & Sunday that weekend) go here for tickets ... https://festival.raindance.org/films/this-is-love

Yep, wasn't the Viking in Goole the venue that booked all the fake soul groups / soul singers back then (late 60's / early 70's) ... It would be interesting to get eyes on the old local newspaper from that era to see the gig ads for the place.

The above map is off google ... unfortunately their STREET VIEW facility only works for roads one of their cars has driven down, so with the Broken Wheel fronting onto the canal, you can't get a piccy of the old building off there (& Bing Maps have given up on their Birds Eye facility). Albert Rd as it looked recently ...

Obviously, being from Donny, my post is specifically about that region (all parts of Yorks, Nth Notts, Nth Lincs, etc) .... BUT ... exactly the same 'loss of info' is happening in most other areas; around Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, even London. There does seem to be some info being compiled on the Lancs & Portsmouth areas but it's by no means comprehensive (for instance, is there much out there on 60's Liverpool soul venues ?).

Attic related stuff (bet our kid doesn't have any such stuff even though he went more than me in the later days of the venue (as it morphed into a skinhead hang-out) .. 3rd piccy is my main claim to 'soul fame' ....

This might prove difficult to play ...

Playing these would cause a few headaches these days ... 16 rpm rekkids ...