Roburt

I lived in Donny (Sth Yorkshire) & we could pick up 270, Caroline Nth, Caroline Sth & Radio london all day, everyday. Radio City was a bit hit & miss.

Radio 270 was anchored off Scarboro ... I seem to recall they used "Wade In The Water" as their theme tune ...

In 1967, Radio London even reflected the popularity of soul cuts with it's listeners. It did this by introducing a specialist play-list titled the SOUL SET. This selection changed weekly and included many of the best UK releases from that period ... I was lucky back then coz my elder brother was a ship's engineer. He sailed from Salford to either Argentina or the Gt Lakes in Nth America. I'd always ask him to dive into a Chicago / Detroit / Cleveland record shop & buy me a few obscure 45's out of their cut out bin ... he never did (as he had no idea which of the 45's were by soul singers) but he did fetch me a few albums ... one of these was Spyder Turners great MGM LP, with another being the Freddie Scott set 'Are You Lonely For Me Baby' which included this fine track ...

Many on here won't recall the UK music scene from 1964 to 1967, so to them the pirates will just mean kids atop city tower blocks playing soul stuff in the 70's & 80's (and not too much of that being NS) ... in that era those pirates did a whole lot to spread the word with regard to good new black music. But back in the mid 60's (apart from Luxembourg & AFN), we had to rely on those DJ's out at sea to hear good soul music. In fact, stations like Radio London, Radio Caroline, Radio City & Radio 270 played some damn fine sounds. To illustrate my point, I'm posting up a couple of chart sheets from Radio London in 1967 .... I had a copy of King George's UK RCA 45 from 67 till that soul hoover called Tall Pimple pried it out of my collection. He hadn't even been aware that it had escaped on 45 here in the UK until he saw my copy BUT the single did quite well here as a new release and gained much airplay on the pirate stns (even getting into the Top 20 of Radio London's Pop 45 chart) ... one strange thing though, the popular side of the 45 is / was the US plug side, whereas here in the UK it was "Drive On James" that formed the A side of the single (though R London played both sides at first) ....

You're very picky ... I Got A Woman ... not soul ... we'll have to differ once again.

Another pop to gospel goodie from Rance ...

Numerous .... I GOT A WOMAN Ray Charles taken from IT MUST BE JESUS "LOOKIN FOR A LOVE" was a pop song taken from "COULDN'T HEAR NOBODY PRAY" by the Valentinos & then Rolling Stones ... Also tracks by Solomon Burke & many more. OF COURSE, by the 70's, gospel acts were returning the favour by re-wording secular songs ... such as ...

Can't agree with maslar ... I've not got a religious bone in my body BUT even I know a huge number of great soul singers came out of a chuch background or straight into secular music from a gospel group (especially back in the 60's). Indeed, many soul hits (& pop hits) back then were just gospel songs with the words changed from a religious love to personal love tale.

P P Arnold back in the day (with the Small Faces backing her) .... not long after this she took on the Nice as her touring backing band ...

Also still performing around southern Florida .... Joey Gilmore. He does shows in Miami and all around that area but he usually bases himself close to Delray Beach ... which just happens to be immediately to the north of Boca Raton (& our local beach is Deerfield -- just south of Boca) . ...... Joey gets a mention in the book ....

Robert Staunton, who was responsible for the Four Monitors 45 on Roker was another guy who had been in the biz for years. He had earlier worked for Motown where along with Robert Walker he cut as the Hit Pack ("Never Say No To Your Baby"). Other Motown acts also cut his songs, the likes of the Monitors (connected to the Four Monitors ?), the Temptations, Martha & V's Marvelettes (and for other labels artists such as Betty Everett, J J Barnes, Vibrations, Viola Wills & more).

Another Canyon distributed 45 in 1970 ...... STARDOM ....

Wally Roker was a veteran of the music biz by the late 60's. He worked with people he knew from down the years; guys who he had done live shows with earlier in his career (Big Dee Erwin, Jerry Williams and more). By the late 60's, he was running his own record labels and also licensing others which his company distributed. In 69 his big concern was Canyon Records and they had releases that were selling well. HOWEVER, this caused their downfall as bills were coming in (for studio time, mastering, pressing plant fees, promotion, etc.) BUT the wholesale record sellers who were moving the 45's & LP's he was working weren't paying him for the records they had sold. So an outfit that seemed strong in August 70 was rapidly going under by November 70. It was failing to pay it's bills and was losing friends in the biz. So (I'm assuming), they started the Roker Record Group to take on the releases of Canyon Records Inc. Soon, as Canyon wasn't paying it's bills, no one would press records for them, the company failed and went out of business. The Roker label (part of the Roker Record Group) remained in business and stuff that would have escaped a few weeks earlier on Canyon or one of it's family of labels were now put out on Roker. But the groups, writers, producers were far from happy as they'd had hits on Canyon's labels but couldn't get any of the royalties due as that record company had gone out of business . . . . . It was great being a singer, producer, studio owner, recording artist, pressing plant owner back in the day.

It's bout wour Jackie ........ https://www.jackiewilsonfoundation.org/ OR .. . maybe they're mistaken & it's really about darts thrower Jocky Wilson.

No, it's not a post about oxford bags & vests full of badges ... it's just a youtube clip ... Billy Prince will be impressed when I forward it to him ..

Greg Tormo used to be involved with NY soul nights BUT he just moved to Palm Springs.

P P Arnold cut an 2nd LP for Immediate in the 60's but the label was going bust, so it didn't escape at the time. NOW, FINALLY, it has been put out. Most of the tracks are a bit too rocky for me but the cuts do demonstrate what a great voice she had. There's even a MOR ballad on the album (again not great) but her version of "You Made Me So Very Happy" is well worth a listen, with "Give A Hand, Take A Hand" also to my liking.

Matt (Mr Finewine) ran a good night on Houston ... mainly 60's though AND I don't know if it's still going.

A couple more old ads that are relevent to the stuff detailed in the book ... Frankie Gearing has her own chapter in the book and, in the early days, she was a member of the Laddins (that's her in the picture on the ad).

John Capouya has been in touch again to tell me that Benny Latimore now lives in Riverview, up by him in Tampa. John says he’s going to the Uni where John teaches to give a workshop the week after next. He's also attending the book launch party in St. Pete on October 27th ... live entertainment that night by Little Jake Mitchell (aka Jock Mitchell) and the Soul Searchers (venue: Palladium Theater, St Pete @ 7 pm on Oct 27). We'll be in Florida by then but don't think the wife would be up for a trip up to St Pete so soon after we arrive.

Just to the north of this Miami Uni campus is the old black ghetto area of Overtown. Here you can still find the old chitlin circuit theatre >> the Lyric Theatre . . . . https://www.historicpreservationmiami.com/lyric.html . . . . . ALSO ... there is the Wynwood Walls area ... always worth a visit (day or night) ... https://www.thewynwoodwalls.com/ The Ft Lauderdale area used to be quite soulful, unfortunately the Basin St East Club ain't there anymore.

Barbara was living off her Arctic success for over 10 years ...

We base ourselves in north Ft Lauderdale (Coral Springs). Our nearest beach is Deerfield. Immediately north of Deerfield Beach is posh town Boca Raton. 90 year old tenor sax Jimmy Cavallo usually plays a few nights a week in venues in the Delray - Boca Raton area. Also in the general area there's a church (based in an old cinema) where the pastor is a certain WAYNE COCHRAN. Of course, Wayne gets his own chapter in the book ..... Back to Dec 71 when Wayne was up in New York performing live ....

Anyone in the Miami area in mid to late November needs to know about this .... LOCATION: MIAMI UNIVERSITY Wolfson Campus, 300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL, 33132,. Sunday, Nov. 19, Room 7128 4:30 p.m. Music of the Sunshine State November 19th -- 4:30 pm at Miami Book Fair: Panel with the book's author + producer (Deep City and Henry Stone) Willie Clarke, Marlon Johnson, who directed Deep City documentary, and Helene Smith, first Miami soul queen who recorded for Deep City— discussion, Q & A and then book signing and Helene Smith sings live! Live performance by HELENE SMITH (a distant relative ?) . . . . I know where I'll be at 4.30 on the 19th November.

Bunny always denied that he had anything to do with the Benny Sigler 45 at all ... BUT THEN ... he was signed to another record label at the time. However Benny recorded with the Cooperetts for Lash Records around 1963 (2 tracks escaped on the BEST OF LASH RECORDS CD with another cut being available on amazon as a digital track). So it seems Benny was a recording artist around 4 years before the Phi-la-Soul 45. I CAN GIVE YOU LOVE sounds like a decent dancer (but being early 60's sounds a bit dated). Did it ever escape at the time ?? He also wrote a couple of songs that Alfreda Brockington cut for Lash (Give Me What You're Giving Her being a decent dancer).