Mickey Finn

That's a great observation, spot on. Recently a lot of the Outta Sight comps have been available cheap as chips (except those that disappeared fast and now are as cheap as caviar). Lots of good stuff on those, and some good notes too.

From a marketing perspective there's solid logic in not discounting even older stock - given the work that's gone into producing not only well remastered sound but also consistently informative illustrated liner notes on high quality paper, the customer understands that this is a quality purchase, built to last. Hmmm, those Dave Hamilton comps look tasty ...

Well ... I don't often come across Kent cds that are discounted, for example. Brand new they are usually fetching 13-14 quid for singles, whereas I often find those coming out via Cherry Red for much less, anything between 8 and 11 quid. But whereas Cherry Red releases (at least those on the labels that interest me) seem to have dried up a fair bit the Kents keep on coming. I'm buying most of their new releases and playing catch up with a lot of back catalogue. The new Thom Bell comp is next in line, along with the GWP collections, for example. For doubles, depending on the content, I'd normally go as high as 22, unless it was something extra special. The Cherry Red releases vary in the quality of the info attached - BBR, Soulmusic.com and Shout have all been consistently good for those of us with trainspotting tendencies, although in recent times Soulmusic has been cutting a few corners - for understandable reasons, but when your main market is serious collectors, you have to be careful not to cut too far. US reissue specialist Wounded Bird offers well remastered albums with original artwork and recording details but nothing more for a discount price, normally around a tenner GBP. Many of their reissues quickly sell out and end up going for stupid money. The Jamie/Guyden reissues and comps offer a similar type of package although in my experience tend to be more standard priced. And then there are labels like Numero (upper end of the price spectrum but backed with well-researched notes), Now Again, Light in the Attic and AOTN all digging up some wonderful rare or previously unreleased stuff. For AOTN, I'd like to see some more detail on the releases (e.g., Billy Bruner). Would be nice also to see some more cd releases from Soul Junction, which until now have been standard priced.

If you dig around online you'll find this story repeated in various places: Barry was invited by Bobby Byrd and Vicky Anderson on their Japanese tour as a support act DJ accompanying Norman Jay, Jazzie B and Aich B (Soul to Soul). On the tour Bobby Byrd said to Barrie,"I got thank you man, you brought me back from the dead." http://www.hedonistmagazine.co.uk/barrie-sharpe Norman tells the story of bringing over Byrd and Anderson to the UK and driving them around in his dad's Cortina. Marco Nelson and Femi Fem are part of all this. This was after a bootleg of "Cross the tracks" b/w Jackson Sisters' "I believe in miracles" had been put together by "Femi, Marco and myself - the Ealing posse" and was so successful it made it into the chart. Off the back of that they contacted Cliff White at Polydor who put them in touch with Byrd and Anderson in Cincinnati. During one of their car trips in London Eric B and Rakim's "I know you got soul" is playing on the radio and the hosts are going crazy about the Bobby Byrd sample, with Bobby sitting in the back quite chuffed about it while Vicky is quickly taking notes about how to get royalties. Off the back of a highly successful UK appearance at the Town & Country Club there's a European tour organised by a German promoter who was at the London gig. At this point in the story Norman and co. seem to drop out. Nowhere is Barrie Sharpe mentioned.

Yes, I found my copies years ago in bargain bins, and in reasonable nick. Discogs has some cheap copies available, especially of the first LP. Considering the interest in the revived "Don't wanna be a fool" over the last couple of years and the fact that Luther remains more widely popular, a reissue would be almost guaranteed to generate above average returns, especially if it was a twofer and promoted properly.

Thanks for posting these. There's an interview with Dave Dorrell from 2010 where he's asked ... So lets go rare groove. Who was the greatest DJ on that scene and why? (Chart above from i-D September ’87) I’d have to say Barrie Sharpe. I used to warm up for Barrie when the rare groove thing was really kicking in and Rene Gelston had just set up Black Market records, I don’t think it was even a shop, he was a hairdresser and it was just a label in his head at the time, and we got a night at the Wag called Blackmarket and Barrie was the main DJ, Lascelle was playing upstairs and I would warm up downstairs for Barrie, and he would play pretty much two hours of James Brown productions and the full breadth of that was eye-opening. I mean you can’t forget Norman Jay and the Soul II Soul boys as they pulled out some utter gems but in a funny way they weren’t as purist as Barrie. You know if you went to Africa Centre you’d hear Will Powers next to some obscure African funk track and they were throwing things in the mix so they had their own sound so it wasn’t strictly rare groove but Barrie was utterly strict and totally pure. https://testpressing.wordpress.com/tag/shoom/ I've recently finished reading Norman's autobiography, enjoyed it a lot. Don't remember him mentioning Sharpe though. Will have a closer look.

Yes, I've read that Luther himself blocked reissue of these. According to someone online, he was holding out for big bucks (see comment at bottom of link): https://luthervandrossearlyyears.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/luther-1976-cotillion-records/ Some years back Aretha was reported to have licensed those Atlantic albums for reissue on her own Aretha Records via Universal, but nothing seems to have come of that since. The story was she was holding out for money. Perhaps her estate will get things moving - hopefully also Luther's. There are various O.C. Smith albums I'd love to see reissued, including especially "Love changes". That one would probably require the cooperation of Universal, which acquired Motown which originally bought the rights from South Bay in a deal that went sour and saw Motown burying the album soon after reissuing it as a Motown release.

Add to those the Four Tops ABC albums, Luther's Cotillion albums, Aretha's last 5 Atlantic albums and a long list of one-offs and relative obscurities, many of which haven't even seen reissue in Japan. Lots of good material for any brave reissuers out there!

The compilations and reissues are almost always the highest quality in terms of packaging and content - full marks to Kent and associated labels in particular.

Thanks for sharing all of the above. Some years ago I had my credit card details swiped, I reckon by a hack of an online dealer I used regularly and had left my card details with thinking it would save time. As soon as some relatively minor oddities turned up on my monthly statement I visited the local nick and got everything cancelled. Ever since I've never agreed to allow any online retailers to save my details unless it's absolutely unavoidable (e.g., Amazon, hotel booking, or ... Paypal!). Outfits like Paypal and Amazon have got to have top security, otherwise their whole business model collapses. It will be interesting to learn how Paypal explain this mess, if you ever get an explanation that is.

Jay Player has been on legit cd at least twice via Boogie Times out of France (and now out of print) and this out of Holland, very much in print: https://www.discogs.com/Various-Nighttime-Lovers-Volume-28/release/11992927 That and the following 2 volumes of the Nighttime Lovers series are particularly strong on the modern soul content, as they are compiled by Thierry Boulanger. Rideout also appeared on a Boogie Times comp, but these are so out of print that it's good to have them available again. The track that caught my eye for Under the Influence 8 is this, originally on AVI Records: