Everything posted by Roburt
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He did a few other goodies too. Though from Texas, he hooked up for a while with Ike Turner when that guy's Vesuvius & Pompeii labels were based down in Dallas ... A couple of his best cuts were included on the German released comp LP 'A Breast of Soul' back in the day.
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The riots in Baltimore started on the Saturday following MLK's murder & they continued non-stop for around 5 days. By that time, many parts of the city were in ruins. Just a couple of days later, the Impressions & their revue were booked to play a big local show. As it would have been just about impossible for the group to get to the city at that time, I'm sure the show was cancelled. I've also no idea if the big show planned @ the Civic Centre went ahead. This Balto show was to be staged at the same time that the Impressions were getting started on breaking from ABC Records and setting up Curtom. I guess they already had some acts lined up to join the new label and some of these just might have formed parts of their revue show back at that time.
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Baltimore -- April 68 Most ghetto riots kicked off around this time because of MLK's death (the Detroit riots were different as heavy handed white cops raiding an after-hours black bar caused those) ... Many black owned stores / businesses were torched / looted. Record stores & warehouses were wrecked & looted. Clubs were closed (even if not damaged) as martial law was imposed. Many clubs stayed closed for some weeks as no one was going out late at night. Some venues were destroyed but even some of those that weren't attacked went out of business in the aftermath of the riots. Kenny Hamber told me that he & his group had been in Philly cutting some tracks that day & as they had been busy they didn't realise what had gone on. As they headed back to Baltimore in a van full of instruments / amps, they were soon pulled over by police / national guard units on the look-out for looters. It was only after the studio was phoned & confirmed their story, that they were allowed to head off to Balto. Needless to say, when they arrived back in the city, it was in flames.
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Jim, along with Glen, were true soul gents ... he'll be much missed (as is Glen). ... back to 2009 ...
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There are a few photos of the Clifton Halls (exterior) on-line but not all of them date from the 80's ... I'm also sure I've seen pics of the inside but they may have been old punta's photos.
We all live these days with 'rose coloured' glasses' on regarding the past ..... the rekkids spun were superior, the clubs were better, the crowd was more together, the ladies were sexier, ETC ETC. . . . BUT as we start to fade away, our memories become much cloudier .... I have an old diary from 1967, so I know what I did every weekend that year and seeing my old scribblings joggs the memory and I recall lots of info that was slipping slowly away .... HOWEVER ... in 1968, I didn't keep a diary and though that was a major year for allniter attending (Wheel etc), I have no idea which weekends I went or exactly who I saw .... very annoying. GETTING BACK TO THIS THREAD So, I thought ... there's loads of old soul articles posted up on the net, why not copy a few across to this thread to remind folk of some facts that were captured back when the memories were much fresher. If the thread proves popular, I'll post more stuff up from back in the day .... LET'S BEGIN ...
The silver plastic labels on UK Spring 45's started to appear (on later releases) around early 1979. So was "House For Sale" repressed at the end of the decade ... I guess so.
No idea, believe the plans for a #2 were scrapped years ago. . . . . BUT surely CHAPTER 6 of the existing book is enough compensation for everyone.
Well I can believe that you'd put a photoshopped pic out Kegsy, coz it's the sort of prank you'd do to wind everyone on the scene up. I like it when you go after soul folk just to get em riled-up.
So if the building was known as the Empress Ballroom in 1962 but had become the Wigan Casino by summer 1968, when did the name change occur ?? I know that had a decent few soul acts on live during that mid to late 60's time period (from UK acts like Harlem Jonns Reshuffle theu to US outfits like Ike & Tina Turner).
60's KING MOJO . . . >>> 70's (mainly off the scene but ) Rudy's, Scarboro ... >>> ... 80's >>> Clifton Halls . . .. 90's ... >>> 100 Club .. . Y2K . . . >>> Twisted Wheel (Whitworth St) ... this decade ... >>> Cleggy Weekender
I think I took these two pictures of Lou performing on his gig at the Queens Hall ... but we did so many shows in a short period & it was almost (exactly) 27 years ago, so I can't be sure. Can anyone confirm that this looks like the downstairs room at Queens Hall !!
I always found it weird that amongst the gold discs, US concert posters & assorted memorabilia Darryl Hall has hung on his studio walls, that there's a poster for a show staged in Coventry that he had nothing to do with !!
Most of those guys (or their reps) should be contactable via the BMI (music publishing) site ... https://www.bmi.com/
The Wigan Casino & the Bolton Casino must have come under the same ownership (or at least shared a booking agent) back in summer 68. I know this for sure as I have the actual contract booking Ike & Tina Turner to play at both venues on the same night back then. I know that Bolton Casino was still going in the 70's though it did change it's name to Copperfields (or so I understand). Anyone know if the venue was still booking soul acts into the 70's ??
Can't remember now (too long ago). I just know that one winters night (68-ish) we arrived at the Wheel too late and had to find an alternate local niter. We did, it was rekkids only, but I seem to recall we enjoyed ourselves.
What were some of the other decent soul venues in Lancs in the mid to late 60's. Obviously this place was. Then there was the T Wheel in Blackpool & the main un in Manc -- but I know if you missed the midnight (1am?) deadline to get into the Wheel and had to find an alternate venue, there were a couple of other Manc niter venues on around 67/ 68 (was one in Salford ?). But there were also places like Wigan Casino, Bolton Casino & the Imperial Ballroom in Nelson (all these booked live visiting US soul acts). In Liverpool there was the Sink Club, the Cavern (they held soul niters with US acts on live), the Peppermint Lounge & the Locarno Ballroom. But there must have been loads of others. I don't mean the little local clubs that just had a DJ who kept up with the latest UK soul releases but places that would book live acts and / or had DJ's who were spinning import 45's that hadn't also been released in the UK.
Well if Lou's appearance wasn't advertised, I must have dreamt the ad shown below . . . The deal to have Lou on @ Queens Hall was done some weeks before the show, I should know as I organised & ran that tour (which ran to about 8 shows in all). I have quite a few old photos (prints not digi copies) from that night somewhere around here.
Bur very few bootlegs have the deadwax details stamped in.
More info on Rio Records & their sub-label Siamese ... they even launched this label in the US, putting out tracks by UK outfit the Funk Masters (who's vocalist was Julie Roberts) ....
