Roburt

I don't have Neil's book so have no idea of the name of the person he talked with / about. But the only regular staff in Soul City shop I recall were Dave Godin, David Nathan, Sylvia & Rob Blackmore. So I guess it had to be one of those other three ....

This thread attracted quite a few posts from different folk on the Yorks soul scene back in the 60's ... so I thought I'd try this question here. An old soul mate from Hull has made mention recently of a club they used to go to on a regular basis back in the mid 60's, the Zarf in York By all accounts it was housed in the building next to the Punch Bowl pub on Stonegate (see pic below). He's tells me it was on the 1st floor of the building in the forground of the pic & you got entry via a door between the shops there. He says the local & visiting mods would park their scooters outside the Punch Bowl, have a couple of beers in the place and then shoot next door to watch groups like Steampacket. Having checked some stuff out on the web, it seems lots of Leeeds soulies also used to go there (& to the Boulevard which was situated between Tadcaster & York on the side of the mainroad - where the Premier Inn hotel is now). ANYWAY, I didn't even know this place existed but it seems it was another good mod / soul club in Yorkshire in the mid 60's and lots of top live acts played there. Anyone know any details on the place; when it opened, closed, which other acts / groups they had on, ETC.

I used to visit the Soul City record shop on trips to London in May 67 and on thru 68. When Dave G heard a northern accent (like my Yorks un), he'd say .. you'll be interested in this stuff & bring out a special box of 45's. By early 68, amongst the import 45's in his box were issue copies of Tobi Legend "Time Will Pass You By". He'd pull that particular single out & spin it as it was a real big fave of his. Needless to say, with his encouragment, I parted with my 15/- (or whatever the exact price was) & bought a copy + some more dance stuff before moving on to other nearby rekkid shops. Each time I returned to his shop & he heard the accent agin, he'd say ... you'll want a copy of this & try to force another issue copy of Tobi Legend onto me. Being a canny Yorks lad, I made sure he didn't get another 15/- out of me for a 2nd copy !!! Soul City also had a big mail order clientele & so put out a small catalogue that was sent out to folk in the north & elsewhere. I'd write off for stuff and it was always for 45's that were being played in the Yorks / Lancs soul clubs at the time. So again, he knew the lads from up north were chasing different rekkids to the London / southern soulies. So the story about him using the term (or knowing lads from the north were into a different style of soul) go back to at least 1967 to my personal knowledge. As Soul City record shop closed down in late 69, I'm sure in the 2+ years between my 1st visit & the shop closing, he would have actually said ... this lot are from Yorkshire / Lancashire, they'll be interested in the box of northern soul singles. I cant actually recall him using the exact term in my presence back in 67/ 68 but have no doubt that he would have said it at the time. I very much doubt that his useage of the term had any connection at all to the description used by UK bands playing live soul covers at that time.

This cut by the Outer Limits might be known to a few . . .

As this thread deals with the west Yorks soul scene in the 70's, thought this might be of interest to some. It's an old BBC piece on a Leeds group that recorded as the Outer Limits. They did progressive stuff (inspired by the likes of Jimi Hendrix) but before that, they had been gigging doing beat group stuff under different names (covers of R&B, soul material being the thing back then). ANYWAY, about 5 minutes into the piece, the commentator (who became Labour MP for Grimsby) visits (what looks like ) a local indoor market to question some local kids about the type of music they like. He stumbles on a load of soul / reggae fans, some of whom locals from that area might recognise . . .

I bought a new car from D C Cookes in Wath in the early 1980's,. I needed to return it 7 days later for some minor items to be sorted, so need to kill a couple of hours. Took a slow stroll towards Mexboro & while walking along Wath Rd (A6023) came across a 2nd hand shop. He had a few import 45's in a box out front. I checked thru these & found a box of Superiors, so went inside the shop. He told me he had bought them over 5 yrs earlier when he was running a market stall at the coast on weekends. Needless to say I cleared him out of the decent stuff. Back in the 60's there were always great UK 45's to be found in 2nd hand shops on Beverly Rd in Hull. This was the area the uni students had digs in & when broke, they's sell stuff to the local shops. Got a near mint UK Chubby Checker "You JUst Don't Know" there. ALSO, with it being a port, you could also pick up Euro 45's. Also got a German copy of a Dee dee Sharpe Cameo track in the same place. UK shops like Woolworths were always great for discounted UK stuff, they had piles of UK Motown, Stax, Stateside LPs for just a quid around the early 70's. Around the same time Tandys stores (UK arm of Radio Shack) had loads of import LPs in their stores cheap. The Donny & Hull stores had dozens of copies of Darrell Bank's UK LP 'D B is Here' at about a quid each. Boyes Dept Stores in Hull had loads of those US import 45's (Verve, MGM, etc) in each store in the early to mid 70's, not a shop most soulies would have frequented. Oldies Unlimited was also a decent place to get cheap (& sometimes obscure) soul 45's right up to the late 80's. They put the remnants of old stock in a disused chapel in the Telford area when a new shipment arrived. Got access to the chapel in the mid 80's and found loads of 60's / 70's soul 45's that we scooped up.

As there have been quite a few threads on here recently about old UK soul venues, thought I'd post this .... . . . The Imperial Ballroom in Nelson had a long & interesting history. The place started hitting the R&B trail after they booked the Merseybeat groups (Beatles down) in the early 60's .... from the mid 60's to late 60's, they were booking all the top US acts (some times taking a touring yank soul act for the Saturday night normal session before the act moved on to play the Wheel later the same night). ANYWAY, the place burnt down in the mid 70's, so it is long lost. BUT many of the old punters loved the place & as there was interest, a guy had a book published on the place a few years back. This was selling well and a 2nd updated print run was organised & took place. . . . . The book >> Steve Chapple -- ‘Goin’ Down Th’Imp’ The 2nd print version also seemed to be selling OK about 3 years back after the Lancs newspapers gave it a bit of publicity. Steve (from Burnley) was selling copies himself (on evilvay & the like) but the poor guy dropped dead suddenly. After that all the unsold copies of the book seemed to disappear (dumped maybe when his place was cleared). I'm trying to get hold of a copy of the book and any help SSers can provide would be much appreciated. I know library's in the Lancs area still have copies but none seem to have made it darn sauf.

The Rudy Love doc was made as a college project by a male / female pair from the US. They filmed content in the US & UK and are just finishing it off at present. They hope to get it shown in the US at selected cinemas near Rudy's base / areas where he's known. Then they'll either sell it on to a TV company or put it out on DVD (or whatever the latest format for filmed media is). I'm in touch with the production team, I'll ask for an update.

Might go up in price after the US documentary about Rudy Love's music career hits the market in the near future (editing of which is currently being finished).

Yep, stuff like Bruce Channel's "Mr bus driver", "Scratchy" + Wind and Mr Bloe's versions of "Groovin with ..." were all played in soul clubs in the 60's (very early 1970 for the Mr Bloe) . . . Wind of course hiding the id of ultra soulful early 60's crooner Tony Orlando ... . . ... AND OF COURSE ... so much pop crap was played at the Casino that's it would take forever to name all the sh*t that was played there. Back to the soulful Tony Orlando (& yes, I know two great Detroit soul ladies teamed up with him in Dawn in the 70's) .... live on your local cinema stage in 62 . . .

Joe Battan has confirmed that the Mr Love & Company name was just hiding his real identity, as it was him that cut both versions of the song.

The Buckeye Politicians had their 1st solo 45 out on Scepter in Nov 70. Although this was good, it didn't sell too well & they were dropped by the label. However a few years later they were tipped for UK success (74). They were spotted playing in the US (NY?) by a Brit (Alan Parsons) and he signed them to EMI. They had cut an album & headed to the UK with the master tapes. By all accounts, the master tapes were lost on the journey. A 45 was put out here but again it didn't sell. With the LP cuts having disappeared, they were going nowhere & headed back to the States, In 75 they landed a deal with Utopia & finally had an album out. This was quite rocky in parts but lots of the tracks off it are posted up on youtube, so it obviously has quite a few fans. Further releases followed on, so the group had some longevity.

The Jones Girls mother also had a 45 out in France (also sourced from GM) . . .

Can't help really ... BUT ... can say this ......... the Jones Girl's mother was Mary Fraser (Frazier) Jones (who had a 45 out on UK Ember in 71). . . . Their mother had 45's out in the US on Ara & GM. So they would have been Mary or Mary Frazier's Daughters rather than Jenny's Daughters in true life.

I believe the Staples were actually signed to Epic when D-Town Devotional #206 escaped, so that's probably why it also came out as by the Stapleton Singers.

Mid 60's releases .... some of em shown here . . . https://www.45cat.com/label/dtown-devotional-series #206 is also by the Staples.

Henry Cain had made an impression even earlier in the 60's and had been signed to Vault (distributed by Atlantic at the time) . . .

Don't know if many on here saw it (or remember it even if they did so) BUT there was a documentary on UK TV many years back (10+) that showed the workings on the LA Coroner's Office. This outfit had to investigate suspicious or strange deaths, recover the bodies to the morgue, undertake the autopsy and then clean up the premises where the body had been found (after the actual events had been established). At the tme, Bill worked for the Dept. and he was featured in the documentary working at the scene of a death.

More of them live . . .

Just posted by Shirley Jones on Facebook .. . . . Pray for my strength, I am devastated as my sister Brenda was hit by a car and has made her transition. My dear Brenda I will always love you, kiss Valorie and Mom for me. Heartbroken !!

I guess that the Henry Cain who produced & arranged some of the Bem Sole stuff is the Henry Cain (organ player) who had an album out on Capitol in 68 and who had been working with the likes of H B Barnum before that. He also worked with Lorez Alexandria in 68 (Pzazz Records).

Anyone here got much info on this late 60's LA based label ? They put out a number of great 45's, many of which go for money now. Viola Wills was just about their best known artist & she must have been signed between her stints on Bronco & Supreme (67 to 71). Other artists they cut included Kenny & Larry, Beulah Palmer, Prince Brownell, Victor Green & Willie Hotfoot and the Relations. As usual (when deep soul is involved) Sir Shambling has been there with regards to Beulah Parker's two 45's but again little artist or label bio info seems to be available. None of the acts, apart from Viola, seemed to appear again on vinyl (unless they did so under other names) and the parent music company's BMI registration has long lapsed, so little to be found on-line about the set-up.

Volcanic Eruption is, of course, Lou Ragland & friends. Tuva side of the 45 . . .

Anyone know the track on the Dynamite label from 1970 titled "If I Were A King" .... Joe Bataan ran this Dynamite label (there were quite a few labels that used this name, including other US soul labels). Seems strange that just months later, Joe cut a song under this title himself, though he's credited as the writer of it . . .

Just chatted with Lou and asked him to try playing the Youtube vids. They played OK for him & this was the 1st time he had ever heard either "Hey Soul Man (I Travel Alone) or Lil Rosey (not Big Wheel, Lou says it's the 3rd track he cut at that studio session). So he's a happy man now (but not a Travelin Man). A sample of "Lil Rosey" (Lou's track with his vocals removed and Al Serafini's sax added + a new melody developed by Tom Baker for the song) ..... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lil-Rosey/dp/B005DXHUC0/ref=sr_1_12?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1490716310&sr=1-12&keywords=Al+Serafini Lou listening to "Hey Soul Man" . . .