Frankie Crocker

Returning to the original question, surely the biggest tunes are those that have been picked up by lots of leading DJ's and fill the floors in all sorts of venues, not just the Allnighters. Joe Jama on Optimum, Ray and the Blue Satins on ARV and Parisians on Demon Hot all spring to mind. If we go back to 2004, then Nolan Porter was going strong, Lonnie Lester was still being requested, Five Royales, Charles Sheffield etc a veritable RnB resurgence. Right now in 2016, lots of classics are coming back for the second time such as Earl Grant, Tomangoes Furys, Timi Yuro, Superlatives etc. Butch still has the biggest set of one-offs but much of what he plays is exclusive to the few venues he appears but credit where it's due, he was spinning the Saints on Wigwam before anyone else and plugging Joseph Webster, Patrinella Staten and others to great acclaim long before they were in the hands of other DJs.

Hi Larry. Interesting to read that 10,000 copies of Sweet Magic/Connie were pressed up. Very few of these have survived judging from Popsike where about 10 copies have been auctioned in the last decade. For sure, more copies are tucked away in collections having been bought privately since the 1970's. I Need A Helping Hand evidently sold more on it's different releases but I wonder if it could have sold more had the Patheway release had the labels not been reversed? Was this release ever withdrawn due to the pressing flaw? Are You Angry, a storming track by any standards and an extreme rarity, is one of the best ever Northern Soul Records ever adopted by the Brits and latterday followers. The Servicemen produced at least four top tracks out of the very top drawer for us Northern Soulers and that puts you guys on a par with The Beatles, Stones, Four Tops, Temptations, royalty class in the music business.

Never seen this great track on Musicor. Soulville pressing is off-centre in some cases so caution advised. Must have been a successful local release to be picked up by Josie. Copies on both Soulville and Josie are easy enough to pick up. Sure would like to see a label scan on Musicor if it exists.

Sweet Magic shades it for me but Connie is brilliant, compliments the other side without being too 'samey' and together, the two tracks add up to one of the very best double-spiders ever. Great to see you on here Larry. One of my favourite tracks in recent years is My Life Is No Better on the UK release - a really catchy dancer at The 100 Club in London ten years ago.

Hi Larry. Awesome tune. One of my favourites. Well pleased to have it in the collection.

A daft term. Really meaningless. Just an adjective for a hard hitting sound. Best if this word is merely used to hype-up sales lists methinks. Certainly not a word that bears comparison with 'stomper', a term that also fails to aptly describe a dance style but was appropriate to depict the noise coming from Cleethorpes Pier on Sunday mornings. Don't get me started on 'shufflers' though...

Hi there. Got a feeling the DJ copy is black. May even be one sided.

Top man. Totally genuine. Give him a call and he'll bend over backwards to help.

The poor man's Bernie Williams... Great tune, rarely seen at auction and a DJ must-have all contribute to this high valuation. There is also someone spending BIG money at present winning every pristine classic up for grabs so this may have gone to them QED.

I think it's the other way round ie four stars is rarest. For the most part, record prices reflect rarity and quality combined so a system like the one Manship's book uses is not necessary for general use. That said, the book benefits from the scarcity scale used despite the inaccuracies in places.

Some are more numerous than others but mainly tucked away in collections so hard to quantify. A good example would be Donni Burdick's Bari Track which was a Wigan Anniversary freebie and soul-pack staple back in the late 70's but now fetching £750: Popsike evidence suggests occasional sales in recent years as sellers cash in their bargain acquisitions. The Adventurers on Compass is another ex-cheapie that fetches big bucks due to quality and recent interest. Today a copy of Rufus Lumley on Holton has sold for a sum ten times greater than the going rate of £25 when widely available twenty years ago. The list is endless but includes many classic 70's spins such as Rubin on Kapp which pops up monthly, Epitome of Sound on Sandbag, Invitations on Dynovoice and Major Lance's You Don't Want Me No More on Okeh: the first three are on eBay right now and all four crop up regularly.

Great record and one that gets better with every listening. Wouldn't sell my copy for double the sums mentioned so far. This one will continue to rise in value so grab it when you can regardless of price.

Good shout. What about Donni Burdick's Bari Track, Jimmy Fraser on Columbia and more recently Pinkertones on Queen G.

Tricky question to answer. By common, do you mean in total or regularly up for sale? What does 'expensive' mean these days? Bill Bush on Ronn is a four figure record these days but with 40 or so on Popsike, evidently obtainable but hardly common. Curtis Lee on Mira with 40-50 on Popsike but selling for a few hundred. Masqueraders on Wand, bigger numbers and selling for more. Others that are regularly up for grabs and at prices that make you think twice are Lonnie Lester on Nu Tone, Maurice Williams on Deesu, Charades on MGM, Ann Haywood on Hondo, Jimmy Fraser on Columbia and the list goes on. Jack Montgomery, as already mentioned, possibly takes the prize with over 300 on Popsike at a costly outlay. All the records we're chasing are relatively scarce, even if there are hundreds in collections, as many will never come up for sale in the lifetime of the owner. Factor in private sales of the records above and you have some sizeable numbers stowed away but they are still very rare compared to Beatles, Elvis etc. What I need to know is which common record will be the next mega-expensive one so I can stock up on it now???

Maybe, but some auctions are fairer than others. If both buyer and seller are satisfied with the final bid then that counts as a fair auction. You are right to be alert to shill bidding as this occurs but is usually detectable.

You would be unwise to contest an auction of this sort in the age of eBay. Blind auctions were OK pre-eBay but are now outmoded. Unless there is a record that you absolutely must have regardless of rarity, cost or condition, blind auctions are best avoided. A bit of patience will be rewarded in the future by steering clear of blind auctions and awaiting a set-sale or incremental-bid auction. John Manship's auction records may be a tad pricier than similar records elsewhere but the bid-system used is completely transparent and fair to all involved.

One on eBay finishing in just over two hours time. Only VG- but bids at $113. A mint copy of this goes for well over £100 but they are seldom seen. Good luck with your search.

I wouldn't read too much into this Northern segment. In a ten year period of huge popular music transition, Wigan was a mere footnote, surely deserving a brief acknowledgement but not wanting much more than that in a series of this sort. British popular music ruled the world in this period but Northern Soul was an adopted dance craze that has stuck around much longer than anyone expected it to. The BBC continue to make their cultural noddings but just don't geddit but that's the BBC for you, a bunch of overpaid, self-important twerps who have absolutely no idea whatsoever despite (many) having attended the most expensive public schools and famous universities in the land.

Just emailed you with the phone numbers.

Bidding looks suspect to me. Wonder if it will actually sell at all? Can't think of too many other records that have had such a high minimum bid. It might be a very good, extremely rare record but the number of DJ's/collectors in the frame for this mouth-watering offering can be counted on one hand.

Thanks for the heads up. Bidding looks a bit hooky to me?. Heading back on topic, I would rate The Lady In Green as a better track despite it's slower tempo. Sure, Junior Mc Cants is very good, up-tempo and a DJ's dream-exclusive, but interms of pure catchiness, The Magnetics shade it for me.

Esther Grant now on Popsike. $6,650 or £4,308 at the current crap exchange rate.

Thought John sold this one a couple of years ago or is it another copy? Looks like the best copy on Popsike cropping up for resale... What, with a George Pepp on eBay at present and a copy of Esther Grant selling on Saturday it sure is a good time to browse (if you have a spare 5K or so). The Magnetics on Bonnie deliver two cracking tunes so this gem should fetch £8,000 plus.

Great character. Dancing DJ. Champions obscure sounds. Fair dealer selling cheap records, paying generous sums for sales stock. Good taste in Northern and RnB. Wacky sense of humour. Always joking around. Provided lots of good memories at the 100 Club, Cleethorpes and other London venues. One of the best lads on the circuit.

Sometimes, but not often enough. Am often asked this question but can't answer it precisely. When you have several thousand records, it is not easy to play them. When you acquire several per week on average, it is tricky to keep up with cleaning, playing, filing, storing retrieving etc. When you travel to the States and buy them in box loads, it becomes a challenge just to sort the sales records from the keepers. I tend to have record playing sessions when dozens are spun. Every now and again, I will make a compilation tape. I have played most of what is in the collection but there are some boxes that have records only sampled in a USA store and not yet played through - this is shaping up to be a retirement job-to-do. Like many of us, I tend to play the latest acquisitions as they arrive to test them, then repeatedly whilst to hand. Once boxed and shelved away, they don't receive the attention they used to. It is always a joy to stumble across a record in the collection you had forgotten about and play it to realise that it is way better than you recall it from twenty years ago.