Neckender

Seriously, even in 1999, you could have bought the hamilton movement for £2 because the US contained almost no Soul collectors.

i discovered the hamilton movement by accident. In the early 9ts i was collecting group soul records, which the Japanese collectors had got me into. I already had a couple of their releases on Look Out and bought 'shes gone' blind. When i received it i slotted it in with the other group stuff, at that time not having the desired modern northern sound. It was only when A few years later Keb started to ask me for funk records that i let him have it. The rest is history. Later the Northern scene got into that sound Just as a footnote; some people on here seem to think that where they heard a sound first must be the source. Please try and do a little bit of research before you make a contribution as some of the comments are laughable.

I found 30 copies of the Knights 45 in the early 9ts. About 8 of the copies had a crack across the run-out dead wax (hard to see unless you bend the record and didn't run into the grooves) I sold the cracked copies in a 'used and abused' box for £20 each. It's intriguing to see some sellers rating a cracked record so highly? Just to put the record straight, I never included that record on my playlist.

The Charisma 45 first popped up on a Soul Bowl list around 1975 for £5. Since that was nearly half a weekly wage, we set about looking for it at a lower price. A few years later tim Ash found a copy and I got my copy in the late 8ts. The vinyl and matrix of the Charisma copy are identical to the Tuff release.

I found the West Coast Distributors at Bob Cattaneo's place in Daly City around 1980. I had it covered up as Ron Carey & the Soul Distributors and played it around the Stafford era. There wasn't any great interest until after 2000 when a few other copies turned up. Like you say, there is something in the poor production that seems to appeal to some of us Northern collectors. Not everyones cup of tea I must confess.

I have the Andantes-like a nightmare-vip. During the mid 8ts there existed two copies in the street that i lived; my copy and Chris Savorys. Not that rare then !

I think that I found the first copies of this 45. I was in Pittsburgh in 1997 looking through a local djs records and along with a few other interesting 45s I bought the Frederick Hymes. A day or two later, I was in a local record shop, where I came across 4 more copies and assumed that the dj had got his copy from that same shop, as he was always junking locally for 45s. Back home, I gave it a few plays at the 100 club, where Keb Darge eventually noticed it and this led to him getting a copy from the small batch. We had it covered up for a year or two and it began to get a following. Eventually, Arthur Fenn got a copy from Henry and I assumed that he had found his copy in Pittsburgh because Henry liked to dig around that town. Once a few other influential djs got hold of the remaining copies it became a huge hit on the rare soul scene through early 2000. Then the copies from the dealer in Las Vegas turned up in greater quantities. The copies that I found had an orange label. I've never personally seen a copy of the so-called second press, so I can't make a comment on that side of the discussion. But my point is, that the record was found as an unknown soul 45, played in clubs and became a monster sound. It was not discovered as an acetate or from a studio tape; that is just pure speculation from someone who wasn't in the original loop when it got it's first spins here in the UK. I hope that helps in someway to push along the investigation.

mark, the first copy that I came across was from rod shard & dave withers and I bought it. About a year later I managed to find a second and spare copy and I traded it to rob marriot, who then covered it up and played the side, 'my one and only girl' If i remember correctly rob gave me the hyperions for it. At that time, I don't think the 'inventory on heartaches' side ever had the exposure in the clubs like its flip side got. Top notch Northern it is though

I just pulled it out of my reject box. Was this version worth recording?

yes, ted, john anderson had 5 copies. They came via val shively after he bought out a local record shop (butterball, the philly dj and record store owner) I got the first copy for £200 and the other 4 copies went to john's other favoured collectors. I went over to Butterball's record store a year later and checked out the basement where the J2s had been stored. Either Val didn't take everything or more stock had been put down there, but alas there were no more poets.

I bought a small quantity of this 45 in the early 8ts and found it very hard to move on. I had blue issues and white dj copies. It really didn't have the Northern sound that we were looking for at that time. I'm still not convinced that it's anything to shout about. Definitely a collection filler.

I first saw the bootleg in the US about 20 years ago when the American group soul collectors began in earnest looking for ballads (previous to the Soul Harmony Soul bible) Im sure it was booted for the group ballad side in the US. It's very easy to spot the difference between the orig and the boot, once you have seen them both.

the boot is blue only. All yellow copies and white djs are originals. There is also an original blue label copy. How to tell the difference: Originals have a slightly more squared edge and the boots are more rounded. The type face is slightly different on the original and the info in the runout groove is smaller and clearer. But the main difference is in the vinyl; you have a bootleg if both sides of the grooves/pressing look identical. The originals look as though each side has been manufactured on a different pressing machine.

I have these cuts on an edgewood acetate and have been occasionally playing them since 1990. Never really got much recognition from the Northern Scene, very much like when the 'fabulous impacts' was first played.

yes, a mid 7ts play; I remember asking John Anderson for it on a few occasions, but always out of stock. Eventually getting a copy around 78. Im sure Rod gave me a signed copy, that he got from Gene Anderson himself, some years later? Cheers Rod!

Very interesting andy. Btw, as I remember, rich rosen bought those Modo 45s in the mid 9ts, as he offered me the odd title including the four andantes. Luckily for me (because richie wanted a lot of money for them) Id already picked up my copy from soulbowl in the early 8ts (pre-stafford period) John had at least a million soul 45s on the shelves at the time and the Modo 45s had been sitting there in the M section for a number of years before I went digging.

I think this is doug banks because I have a doug banks Bell Sound acetate with the title, "this little boy of mine" It's a faster version of this clip. The flip side is "baby since you went away" which was the flip side to the argo release.

Four Andantes - Hipper than me - Mo Do; first copy came from soulbowl for £4. Found it on the shelves with some other Modo 45s. There was only one copy of the four andantes, but a few copies of each bob & gene releases.

yes, Expansion records, that Dean eventually etched a living from. Great times, when Manchester had a bunch of soul outlets.

Actually John A's (soul bowl) initial price was £2 at the shop in manchester. He had 350 copies; I know this because i put him onto the load that he purchased from Huey Meaux, the Texas record producer. I still have the sales (crazy cajun) catalog detailing the quantities of records that were for sale eg. jack montgomery-scepter 40 copies, ascots-just a few feet from the gutter 30 copies, lorrain rudolph-jet stream 700 copies, bj thomas-i dont have a mind of my own-pacemaker 1400 copies etc.

should be fred kibble. Label is COPA.

I found this record in Baltimore during a record trip with rich rosen. When I got back home I traded it to rob marriot and it became one of his big records for about a year. He liked a quick turnover of records in his spot, so he soon dropped it and started to spin something else.

re. williams cummings; I bought my first copy from soul bowl from his £1 special page in 1975. Tim Ash also bought a copy from the £1 specials around the same same time. Soul bowl originally had it priced at £4 on his rarities page in 1974 but probably couldn't sell it and like many records ended up on the £1 special page. At the same period I also bought the zeke & soul setters for a £1 (thanks again soulbowl) I can't say that I ever saw many other copies for sale, on lists or at venues, so my guess is that it was and always has been rare. You have to remember that back in the 7ts most collectors were not chasing odd-ball label obscurities, so you didn't have a great deal of competition if you wanted to buy things like william cummings. Many collectors,would see william cummings as being too left field; not strictly Northern and certainly not considered for public consumption at a club.

Im surprised that no one knew that it was released as a 45; I saw copies around during the 8ts. I never thought it was rare ?

SCOOP RECORDS....of course !