Roburt

I've been using it for about a year now ... they have lots of ads that didn't appear in Cashbox & Billboard ... plus very different new release reviews & more ... it's good just a select a particular issue & scan thru it ... you find allsorts of great soul related stuff ...

Inially, you chased UK released stuff ... when those copies dried up, you bought import copies of stuff that you knew from UK release ... then postal dealers started selling (by auction) loads of US imports that hadn't gained UK release. I'd scan the lists for artists I knew, or labels I knew and buy blind, bidding low values for each ... I seem to recall the bids started as low as 2/6 (12p) ... I'd win some of em, not others ... some I won would be great (I liked all soul, fast, slow, funk, southern, Detroit, New York, LA), so it was easy for me as I had wide tastes. Others would be dross but overall, it was worth bidding in that style (I got Slow Fizz -- the Sapphires early on but never liked it much coz of the stupid lyrics, so I sold it on). Not long after this, outlets such as Soul City and F L Moores were selling imports by the box load, I also started to get lists from a NY area vinyl warehouse where stuff on little labels started at 10c, Motown / Stax at 25c ... again I'd buy lots of stuff blind. Then around 1970, Contempo started selling loads of imports, many being US copies of in-demand club tracks ... so it was possible to get hold of 'rare stuff' (by mid 70's standards) but it was very much a hit & miss affair with you picking up a Tobi Legend, Valentinos, Spooners Crowd, Reuben Wright, Steve Mancha by chance more than design.

AND MORE FROM 74 ....

There was loads of good jazz funk around in 74 too ....

Gladys Knight & the Pips won the 1974 Top Pop 45 Act Award .... not much change from 73 ....

AND OF COURSE .... there were all the many great soul singles (& album tracks) that didn't make the top 50 pop or soul charts ..... many deserved to but just didn't get the promotion they deserved ....

We usually think that the 60's produced a lot of the best soul music ... BUT COMMERCIALLY ... 1974 was very good for soul acts ... They were touring the world on the back of international hits, they'd broken Vegas, they were being signed by the majors & were getting decent promotion ... so the hits just kept coming ...

Why wouldn't he think we wanted his 70's hits ... after all in 74 he was No.1 with Billboard mag ....

Andre, if you could tell us more about Vic's music career (or hook us up with him direct via an e-mail contact address), then I could forward some relevant questions and using the info write an article on him to go up on here & in a UK soul magazine. CHEERS.

Another instro I recall being played around 67 (but my memory is shot these days so ...) ... . .. Bobby Moore & Rhy Aces -- Hey Mr DJ (B side to SEARCHIN FOR MY BABY). Anyone confirm if my recall is correct ??

Much of the background info in the section of the above book on Jnr Walker's night at the Wheel seems to have been a straight 'lift' from my chapter in 'THE IN CROWD' book about my first visit to the Wheel (only went then coz the Mojo was about to / did close). The 'author' even had the cheek to use a scan of my Wheel ticket from that night (also used, but with my permission, in THE IN CROWD).

TWO IN THE MORNING by SPOONER'S CROWD always does it for me. BUT REALLY any of their 60's / 70's southern soul or country soul outings as just about everyone of them is good to great.

The song was included on a UK Epic 12" single ... I think it was one of six songs mixed into one continuous cut on the B side of "I Gave It Up". No idea how long a segment of this track was included in the mega mix though. No doubt, Sam had it cut onto a carver for his use (from this or the full LP track.

It would be a total waste if he doesn't perform his many 70's solo anthems ... they're classics in the same way that his 60's Motown songs were ... BUT you get to hear the REAL ARTIST perform the 70's stuff so much more authentic ... MIND YOU ... as I'll be at Cleggy anyway, the opportunities to see him will be much diminished.

Lou Ragland will be around as he's performing on the live show ..... ....... I'll see if he thinks it would be worthwhile for him to fetch a few rekkids along to sell to visiting UK soulies ... WOULD HE GET A TABLE GRATIS if he did turn up ... He's a bit disappointed that he's only been contracted to sing 2 songs on the live show .... (not too hard to guess which two).

He played all the top variety clubs up north in the 70's. He was a regular at places like the Fiesta (Sheffield), Batley Variety Club, Wakefield Theatre Club .. .... BUT his show was totally M-O-R, very little to no soul content.

There was a Freddie Scott working in the Miami area from the mid 60's to early 70's (live work + recordings). Which the Miami / Philly links, it could well have been him. I guess the Terry Collins on Kwanza was just a Philly prod that the new label bought in to boost it's release rate.

He also worked on some Bunny Sigler stuff for PIR.

You left Eugene (Gene) Dozier off your list. He kept leaving & then returning to Philly. He initially worked on stuff for Swan, Cameo but then went to Detroit, then LA before returning to work on Neptune & Gamble stuff. He then worked as part of GH's team with the likes of the Sweet Inspirations, Wilson Pickett, Bobby Bennett, the Vibrations and more. Then he worked in DC before heading back to LA where he eventually ended up at SOLAR (where he had much success).

I was first introduced to great slow / mid tempo NOla soul back in the mid 60's via the great EMI comp LP series BELL'S CELLAR OF SOUL .... Check Discogs for the track listing on Vols. 1, 2 & 3 ... some great tracks from the likes of Lee Dorsey, Sonny Fisher and many more (not all for NOla but enough are).

A true mod / early UK soul club classic. Always packed the floor at every club it was played in from 66 to at least the end of the 60's. It was one of the few classy jazzy sounds that were regular plays back then ... BUT THEN ... it was one of the very best cuts jazzy cuts around then (certainly a lot better than SCRATCHY which also got a lot of plays). TWO IN THE MORNING had also escaped in the UK in the 60's (on a cheap LP) but that never got played to my knowledge back then ... so for instros back then it was just the likes of Willie Mitchell (but thankfully not the awful cut that Casino-ites picked up on), Ramsey Lewis, Booker T, Markeys, Rex Garvin & MC's, Little Mac and the like that were featured on a regular basis.

The Motown tour (even though they added top UK draw Georgie Fame) was very badly attended, the venues much less than half full each night .... BUT THEN... the TV show to help promote the tour (the RSG special introduced by Dusty Springboard) wasn't shown till just about every show on the tour had already been staged. There's a film of the acts on their tour bus up on youtube (or at least there used to be, ain't checked recently). The Stax tour was a success from the minute the artists landed in Europe. It was the 1st time the artists like Booker T and the members of the MG's realised they were revered musicians outside of the US. Stax was never the same after that tour, coz the musicians wanted to be treated / paid as top players, not just as some guys who were the studio group at a small Memphis studio. It was difficult to get tickets to the Stax shows coz Otis was top of the bill with all those other Stax stars also on the show. They played a big venue in Leeds (only one any where near to where I lived back then) but the tickets went quickly. Think they also played Manchester but my memory ain't what it was anymore.

An earlier Tina Turner TV ad ....

It seems that Tina had a TV ad deal with Aussie rugby league for a few years ....

Just to prove myself wrong, here's an Aussie TV ad featuring Tina Turner ....