Frankie Crocker

Cheers Tim. Hope you’re well. Butch’s box was always a joy to browse at the 100 Club with stacks of contemporary in-demanders…

Butch never had a copy in his sales box in the early 90’s. By the early noughties, the record was selling for 3K. Tim’s copy was the first I’ve seen for sale on the open market this century. The record is extremely rare. It’s also a supreme exemplar of the genre…

Values for five of the records auctioned 6/8/25 are still up on John’s site. Current auction items show a finishing date where it says ENDS…

Or just naming the artists in the first line…

Plain white cardboard sleeves are best but try to avoid the record rubbing against the sides as you draw it out or replace it. If you take care to squeeze the sleeve opening a few millimetres, the record should slot in without grazing the sides. Double sleeving the records with company sleeves has become weirdly viral but these dusty relics will give vinyl hairlines. Records for sale are often best kept in a plain white sleeve in an old cardboard sleeve, especially if only VG condition.

I agree with the comments above but Gigi really does it for me. Snagged the issue for about £100 decades ago then bagged the demo more recently on eBay. Not surprised the value has rocketed in recent years with hot competition for the few copies that have surfaced for auction. Two sides that have had limited exposure due to rarity.

Better version by far…great record!

This evenings results all over the place. Ann Perry - WOW! Frank Williams well down on recent values. Jo Ann Courcy slipped a bit. No surprises with True Image.

Very sad news. Ted was as nice a guy you could meet on the Soul scene. Always happy to chat about the music and records. He amassed a fabulous collection of brilliant sounds as those fortunate enough to witness him deejaying will testify. Ted’s contributions on Soul Source were always a joy to read such was his knowledge. Ted will be sorely missed in many ways…

Yep. Both set sale until now. The supply of OV from the US is drying up fast!

I doubt there’ll be many buyers at the current price. It’s sold for a big sum according to Popsike but the seller will be lucky to achieve that. He’d have been wise to offer a second chance first time around. Now he’s going to have to drop down closer to 2K which will be tricky. Glad I bought mine from Shifty decades ago.

Very sad news. I’ve only got to hear ‘You’ve Been Gone Too Long’ to be transported back to The Casino. The first time I heard Ann’s masterpiece, I was going from the main room balcony into Mr M’s…just blew me away. Such a great song…

Was this just a bit of marketing from Tim or what? Butch played the Parisians version out presumably because of the quality rather than its rarity. It’s Butch’s spins that’ve made the Parisians version as popular as it is. The Parisians is still a rare record and always been hard to come by. As indicated by the scans above, the song had the same arranger and producer so the musicians could be the same too QED? Was Demon Hot the small local label that was then picked up by Abet, a much larger company? The Parisians take does it for me - the Traditions take is fine though; the two groups are probably the same but the Abet version has had a few more tweaks in the recording studio.

I’ve just had a message back from the seller! He’s got four copies left. So maybe he had 5 to start with, possibly 6 if he unloaded one as a second-chance offer…or even 7 if he kept one for himself. It’ll be interesting to see if he can sell four copies at the BIN price. Anyway, what a great find in this day and age.

That’s my interpretation too. If that’s the case, then it’s unethical. If you bid, you’re committed to buy if you win. By the same token, sellers should be obliged to sell… The record was mint unplayed in the original sleeve so the case was worthy of closer scrutiny.