Roburt

The Stylistics cut some tracks over here in the late 70's .... they toured here every year around that time. As stated earlier, US national Rocky Roberts based himself in Italy but came over here to record in the early 70's ... a UK outfit that went the other way (to Italy) was the Doc Thomas Group. It's members started life in the midlands and came together to form the Shakedown Sound (a blues & then soul band). When Jess Roden quit the group to join the Alan Bown Set early in 1966, the other members stuck it out and soon became Jimmy Cliff's backing band. After a couple of years gigging around the UK backing up Jimmy's soul act (including a niter gig at the Mojo club on 30th Sept 67 that I attended), they split with Jimmy & relocated to Italy. There they recorded an album as the Doc Thomas Group and spent another couple of years based in the country. Eventually they returned to the UK and with a new lead vocalist morphed into Mott the Hoople.

It makes sense that the acts who cut for Heatwave Records were military personnel as England Air Force Base (a former US Airforce base) was just outside the town of Alexandria. The base was closed in 1992 and now has become Alexandria International Airport. The Cheques on Boss Rock are the same group but is the outfit that cut a version of George Clinton's "Testify" for Stax's HIP label the same too ?

Seems the Beatles tour acts flew up to Jacksonville the next day (Sept 11th) and the show there went ahead as planned. Seems the Beatles performed the following songs on the show ... Twist and Shout, You Can't Do That, All My Loving, She Loves You, Things We Said Today, Roll Over Beethoven, Can't Buy Me Love, If I Fell, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Boys, A Hard Day's Night & Long Tall Sally. What the other acts did on the how isn't detailed. However the support acts that night are listed as Reparata & The Delrons, Jackie DeShannon and The Bill Black Combo. What happened to Clarence Henry & the Exciters I have no idea.

Seems strange to me that Herb Rooney (with his long, successful & varied music biz career), never managed to get the details of his extensive work documented in a book of some sort. Did anything about the Exciters gigs in 64 get put down on paper when Herb was working with Ian Levine in the mid 70's ??

We winter in Florida these days (spending about 11 weeks there between late October & early March). Many times, we take a trip down to the Keys during our stays & these have included visits to Key West. On one of these, we stayed at the Best Western Hotel (by the airport) .. this is right next door to the Hyatt Windward Pointe which stands on the site of the old Key Wester Motel. Seems the old motel went down in pop history back in September 64. We all know the Beatles loved their r&b, soul & Motown in the early to mid 60's and sold a lot of it back to white Yank fans (many of who didn't know they were buying covers of US originals) ....... just about no other singer / group's history has been better researched / documented than the Beatles ... BUT I wonder if anyone ever asked them or the other acts involved just what songs they performed during a famous jam session held in Key West on September 10th 1964. The group had been due to fly from Canada to Florida for a show in Jacksonville. But there was a hurricane over Florida & they had trouble finding somewhere safe for their plane to land. It eventually got permission to land at Key West (10th September 64) and they quickly headed out of the airport there to an adjacent modest motel (the Key Wester Motel). They hung out there for a bit & then went to the motel's bar to chill out. Late that night, a troop of other acts off the tour turned up -- Clarence Henry, the Exciters & the Bill Black Combo. They joined the Beatles in a jam session at the bar which went on for about 4 hours (locals complained about the noise & the police came and made them stop). BUT, I can't find details anywhere about what songs they performed together ... no doubt most of them would have been soul & Motown songs (seems the Pinches' twins exploits on their more recent Key West visit has been better documented). Anyone have any ideas of anything the ensemble performed that night ?? https://keywesttheblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/its-no-great-secret-that-ive-been-known.html

You're right, he hadn't been mentioned yet AND he was performing / recording over here for quite a long time ...

Another American who spent a lot of time over here & who recorded here many times was Donnie Elbert ... not only did he record himself, but he even produced stuff on British acts at times (an example being UK mod / soul group Fleur De Lys) ...

Guess none of the actual players featured on this great Hammond organ mod dancer, but the label credits the track to the Chicago Cubs Clark St Band (guess the tuva side of the 45 actually has some players contributing to it) ...

The studio has been under threat from a major road improvement scene for some time .... NEWS ABOUT IT'S FUTURE .... https://eu.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2019/01/11/united-sound-recording-studio-saved-mdot/2549585002/ https://unitedsoundsystemsrecordingstudios.com/

It was a strange release to escape on Ghetto Records as just about everything else the label released was Latin Soul … but it was produced by Jorge Febo / George Febo who was involved with the vast majority of the releases on the label (the other straight sides that came out on Ghetto being by the Edward's Generation).

The Showstoppers, the Invitations & Felice Taylor all cut here in the UK too ... plus Gloria Jones cut here after she married Marc Bolan & moved to the UK.

You're right, she passed away a year ago & the report popped up again ... SORRY for that. Reports of her death are currently all over Facebook too ... seems this is catching a lot of people out for some reason.

Cheating a bit here as she was born in Sth Africa ... but in the 60's, Sharon Tandy based herself in the UK. She signed with Atlantic and they sent her to cut some tracks at Stax in Memphis ....

Her biggie @ the Wheel & a later good recording ...

The bad news just keeps on coming ... it's reported that Denise LaSalle passed away ... https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/denise-lasalle-blues-and-r-b-legend-dead-at-78-1821931316

Rocky Roberts was a Yank who based himself in Italy ... he did come over here to record though. Was this Major Lance acetate track cut over here too ?

Bob Dylan on Clydie King ... https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/clydie-king-ray-charles-bob-dylan-singer-dead-777417/

The 4 Tops did get to record over here in 1970 ...

The Billy Ocean track cut in Muscle Shoals ...

The Tony Macaulay song the 4 Tops were going to cut ...

Bloodstone also cut numerous tracks in Oxfordshire (Chipping Norton) .....

The Freddie King track cut in Oxfordshire (A cover of a General Johnson song) ...

The thread on European 60's soul is highlighting just how many US soul singers came over to Europe back in the day. In the UK, we had Geno Washington, R B Greaves (Sonny Childe), P P Arnold, Jimmy Thomas, the Fantastics, Flirtations, Clyde McPhatter, J J Jackson, B J (Brenda) Arnau, Johnny Johnson & the Bandwagon, Johnny Moore & the Drifters, Tommy Hunt, Rosetta Hightower and more. But as well as relocating both ways, some US soul acts recorded here and a number of UK acts went on to record in the US. In addition to this, a number of US acts cut live recordings here & likewise, UK acts in the States. Lots of US blues & jazz artists cut over here (some in studios, some live -- for instance Sonny Boy Williamson cut a live album with the Yardbirds). More in the soul vein; Larry Williams + Johnny Watson plus Garnett Mimms cut live albums in the UK. A number of US Acts also cut soul tracks in the studio over here, the likes of Timi Yuro, J J Jackson (before he relocated to the UK) and Bloodstone cut popular tracks here. As time passed, some UK acts that had become popular in the US started cutting tracks in US studios; the likes of the Average White Band and Billy Ocean spring to mind. At one stage (when the Foundations were having hits in the US), it was even proposed that the 4 Tops would come to London to work with Tony MacCaulay but I don't think the session actually took place. Of course, UK pop / rock acts such as the Rolling Stones (@ Chess), John Lennon, Jeff Beck (with the Funk Bros @ Motown) had got the ball rolling earlier on. Anyone know of other US Acts who cut here or UK acts who cut there ??

As already stated, Sack was the Monk Higgins label that relocated from Chicago to LA (Special Agent was another of his Chicago based production outfits that Mamie cut for). Wally Roker was based out of LA (at that time), so I'd guess this was cut in LA. This track was included on the UK Manhattan LP credited to Doris Duke & Friends (Funky Fox) and which included a number of Monk Higgins produced Chicago & LA cut tracks (none of which had anything to do with Doris Duke at all).

Howard & Jerry Ragavoy came over to the UK to help promote his return to recording in 2003. Howard did a live show in London at the time (can't recall the venue but it was in central London). He put on a really good performance & I got to chat to both Howard & Jerry Ragavoy after the show. A truly spiritual gentleman. The pair then went over to Paris for another show, here's one of the songs he performed ...