Frankie Crocker

‘Tis a hard one...and on styrene. Mine’s a blue issue from Herman’s own collection but I turned down the Mercury one he put up for sale, and long gone now. Moral of the story is take now, pay later - I never regret buying records but it’s painful thinking about the ones I didn’t buy when I should have.

Some plain auction items on this Set Sale list. A few more peak figures maintaining the exponential trend for classic collectables. Thanks for posting as usual.

There seems to be a resurgence of interest in this specialist field. Major dealers are selling high end rarities that once graced old-timers’ collections. There are some great sounds on British labels that I would be proud to own such as Timi Yuro, Chapter Five, Father’s Angels etc but I ignore them to concentrate on US imports. Many British records were hard enough to find back in the 70’s so collecting has not become any easier. The field is very niche but worth the trouble as vinyl quality is superb. The label aesthetics alone are worth a serious look and the appeal of gathering label titles by number perfectly understandable. I take my hat off to anyone with a full run of Stateside or Tamla-Motown records...a fantastic achievement AND loads of great tunes.

But it will never sell at that price. Craig has lost touch with reality and overprices his records at the more collectable end of the market. His auctions used to be amongst the best around but now he just sells at maximum prices.

Check out Popsike for recent auction sales prices. Plenty of data on Soul Source too. Sam and Kitty has jumped past the £200 mark recently. Your Servicemen is an original as most have labels reversed. As indicated above, records in this price bracket have shot up lately. Hold on to them a bit longer and watch the values increase further. If you have to sell, both these records should go quickly if priced in line with condition. I’m keeping mine as both are top-drawer sounds.

True, but a 70’s song worth a brief mention. Chuck’s take is the one for me, but I was not familiar with Jimmy James’ version so thanks for posting.

J. J. Barnes on Groovesville perhaps?

The advert suggests that Scepter-Wand would handle the distribution for the minor label. Earl Harrison was a common Garrison release, but extremely rare on Wand with hardly any copies showing up. As this was the first Wand tie-up, it was evidently a flop. I have never seen a Honey Bees on Wand - this is a truly great sound, and rarely surfaces anyway, so I very much doubt it exists on Wand. QED. Sure, there are some real rarities on Wand but show us the scans. Dave has, and uses, Stak-O-Wax ringbinders as one of his information sources - is Honey and the Bees listed in there?

Hi Angus. I agree, a great sound and would be a joy to hear loud in a club. This will only happen if a DJ spends more than necessary - DJ’s going in big partly explains the inflationary spiral we constantly criticise. The collectors earn the pearls they chase and deservedly enjoy them at home - this is becoming harder and harder in the face of tough competition. I would rather see a good sound go into a collection (preferably mine) rather than have a UK dealer snag it to sell on at an exorbitant mark-up. When normality returns, it might be nice to see more collectors with top collections invited to guest DJ at the bigger venues - that way, we can hear the one-off rarities and unissued acetates rather than the same old tunes... Earl Grant, Jimmy Jones, Charades, Lonnie Lester, yawn...

Yes, the italic variation. Could this be a first pressing? The more common plain text variation evidently sold well, so I wondered if this was based on early sales of the italic release?

I’m waiting for another to turn up so keeping it quiet. I will confirm it if anyone posts it though.

Three actually - 512, 514 and 515. I have two of them, and am chasing 514. On the first release, there seem to be two label variations plain text and italic - does anyone know why?

I knew it... But, I have a soulful record on Night Owl, probably blue-eyed and admittedly a cover version, but it bears comparison to the Stax version even though it could be a garage band - name that tune!

Chicago would be my guess, but Rob’s encyclopaedic knowledge would confirm this...he has just posted as I type this... On my first trip to Chicago in 1991, I found two copies at Beverley’s Records - both mint unplayed distributor stock. Nobody wanted it back then so I let the spare copy go for next to nothing. Never seen it on Sansu though.

Usual thanks for posting. Is someone desperately seeking white demos? Why is Mel Williams in demand and at this sky-high price? The Set Sale items went for Set Sale prices, or less if commission is deducted. The Auction items went for Auction values reflecting scarcity, obscurity and condition...as good auction items should be really. Ernie Washington went for less than it usually goes for so someone had a bargain. Compared to the auctions of other major British dealers, this is THE one, the best one, the most riveting. John deserves credit for using the system he does, penning reams of prose and continually turning up some of the best records around.

No surprises here. The record sold for 8K when Manny flogged his to a well known Stoke DJ a long time ago. So someone snagged a bargain here. Compared to the few on Popsike, this copy of the Tomangoe’s was vastly superior. My bid was ahead for a few days then wiped out by a couple of major players. Bidders with four and five figure feedback stats are big collectors or dealers and massive buyers. This is a real connoisseur’s record - a real growler that fits the template to near perfection. Well done to those who shopped for it back at the Casino as it wasn’t the most fashionable record at the time.

If you DJ, surely you can find a better selection of USA 45’s to spin - there’s plenty of superior records on the King label alone. The 100 Club release is a nice option to play in the house or at a wedding or even at the 100 Club Christmas Party. Despite there being virtually zero soul events at present, the proliferation of UK reissues poses a real threat to the purity of the scene when normality returns.

Thanks for the further insight. This certainly counts as a valid reason for not exporting anywhere abroad but not the UK in particular. In my experience, most dealers are prepared to regard their wares as dusty old 45’s, neglected and unwanted for decades, so value them accordingly wink wink nudge nudge... I think some US sellers, especially the bric-a-brac merchants, just prefer to avoid the hassle of international post, even though the item would be destined to the UK had the exemption card not been played.

Another record denied to UK bidders is on eBay finishing in just over three hours... Jerry Jackson-Wide Awake In A Dream-Kapp WD. I hope someone in the USA or Europe or Oz grabs it up for a paltry sum. The record sold for $56.57 giving someone a bargain. So, the seller lost about $100 by precluding UK bidders from the auction. I just don’t see the point of banning UK buyers when the many collectors in the four countries constitute the main market for this sort of music.

Another record denied to UK bidders is on eBay finishing in just over three hours... Jerry Jackson-Wide Awake In A Dream-Kapp WD. I hope someone in the USA or Europe or Oz grabs it up for a paltry sum.

Hi Paul. No need to take Tim’s review seriously. Although he is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to soul records and artists, he adopts a Rod Liddle -Jeremy Clarkson persona when at the keyboard. Right from the first sentence he is wrong as he is unaware of Andrew Wilson’s academic work ‘Northern Soul: Music, Drugs and Subcultural Identity (Routledge 2007). If Tim browsed Soul-Source sufficiently, he would perhaps have been aware of the existence of this book as it was discussed a long time ago. Tim can come across as being somewhat pompous and insecure, but there is a rational explanation for this - he runs the number two record business in the UK whilst his priceguides also rank as inferior and out of date. Tim has in fact written a very good book and I would highly recommend it to your good self despite the small number of spelling mistakes. KTF Frankie ‘the dance floor aficionado’ Crocker.

This is rather depressing news. I hope the dedicated collectors out there do everything they can to keep the rarities out of the hands of speculators. I get that some collectors buy in part as an investment. It’s also obvious that some dealers are paying top-dollar at auction so they can whack on a few hundred pounds of profit at set sale. Let’s hope us collectors can unite to thwart the wealth funds and asset-strippers.

Well, I wasn’t there the first night... I first attended 6 months after the All-nighters started. By then, the music was excellent as evidenced in the tape of sounds I recorded that ended up in the hands of Pete Smith. That first night in March 1974 and the following Saturday I also attended, were pretty busy but there was room on the floor for more dancers. A year later roundabout the Footsee period, the place was very crowded. The first anniversary was absolutely rammed and at peak capacity. I suspect the numbers grew week after week from September 1973 until 1974 then maintained the very crowded level for the duration I attended until 1978, and possibly beyond. If anyone has a First Allnighter patch for sale, I’d be interested in buying it or trading for records if preferred.

Someone should start an Emidisc Amnesty. Put a skip on every High Street so all the embarrassing evidence can be disposed of. These things were a quick fix for desperate collectors in the 70’s but nowadays are trash fit only for the bin.

Agreed. I’ve Got Something Good stomp stomp, £494 smackers in the bank...