John Benson

Sad news, I first came to know him during the back end of 1973 when I was going to some of the soul nights he was involved in around the Doncaster area along with his mate Paul Curzon. I bumped into him quite a bit over the years, including when he had the record shops in Rotherham and Donny. The last time I saw him was again in Doncaster, probably last summer. RIP Bill and condolences to his family & friends...

Well, either Richard got it wrong, or you misheard him. Yes, he is the current lead singer with Odyssey, but he wasn't ever in We The People. Steven (as far as I can tell) was only in his teens when he joined his mother Lillian Lopez in the group Odyssey in 1979 and at that time he wasn't on stage singing.

Sorry, you've got the wrong guy, Steven wasn't with We The People, it was Billy McEachern who joined Odyssey https://www.discogs.com/artist/1061156-Billy-McEachern

Here's a few more Rick, can't speak for all of them, but the one I heard wasn't anything special: John Rowles - I was a boy (CBS Australia & NZ, Philips Australia) 1970 Michael Allen - I Was A Boy When You Needed A Man (USA 1970) Marakis - Mais Pou Qui, Mais Pourquoi = I Was A Boy When You Needed A Man (CBS France 1970)

Speaking of getting mileage out of a song, she recorded "Your love was good for me" quite a few times, from the Federal release through about 3 King releases - this is one of them: King 6202

Sad news indeed, It was only a few weeks ago when I was told that he was ill and now in end of life care. I only knew him to speak to a few short years, but did communicate with him online from time to time. RIP and thoughts going out to Helen and the family.

Mine came from Tandy in Doncaster about 1975 - 76 when they were importing lots of cut out LPs from the states. I won't mention the price as it was much less than a pound... As Chalky says, from the photos, it certainly looks like a 'proper' copy!

Mine says May 2006, making it only 16 and a half ish years, but before that I was on Rare Soul Forum, was that also Soul Talk? Before that was Greg Tormo's email based list on Topica and Majordomo, around the mid 90's onwards which contained many people whom I'm still in touch with today. Doesn't time fly!

I seem to recall Paul Capon bought copies of the Black & Blue 45, including a number of white test pressings from Duke Hall in the 90s. Maybe he can elaborate on this?

I think that a lot of these alternate / slightly different takes sometimes come about by pure accident. The UK label requests the tapes for a particular track and someone in the US record label tape store just pulls out a tape with the song title on, probably not aware that it's a different take. Some of these differences took years to become 'known' by the collectors over here (or anywhere else). Pre internet, things like this were mostly word of mouth and not always common knowledge. Another to add to this is the UK London release of Chubby Checker's "You just don't know" I've never heard it mentioned that that release is sightly different from the Cameo Parkway release. The drumming on the London release is way more up front in the mix, almost dominating the recording. Whether it's a mastering thing or a different take, I'm not sure, but it's definitely different.

Maybe just a coincidence, but in early 1974 I bought a Duke Browner from Keith, it wasn't all that long after those dark red bootlegs appeared, so I assumed he was just getting rid of his copy (as they did in those days). I wonder if that was the same copy Pep sold him? If so, I still have it after all those years! 😀

Hi Ian, no it didn't really, but I just dropped on it rather than actually searching for it! But on saying that, since then I haven't been taking notice how often it turns up.

"Gimme little action" - very much in the same vein as "Touch me with your love" to my ears. Just a bit better than Sylvia's version on Vibration...

That's the one Kev, plus the previous 45 from late 2013 "Stop wait a minute girl" both on Secret Stash, along with the One-Der-Ful material they are planning to release.

I'll throw in a few recent-ish things. GC Cameron " Love just ain't no fun" on Soul Brother Records The Up Tights "How long must I wait for you" on Soul 7 Records Saun & Starr "Hot shot" on Daptone Records Not forgetting the Valdons 45s on Secret Stash of course!

Result!

Yes, a great interesting article Rob, it certainly makes more pieces of the puzzle we call Soul music fit together. So many more connections I wasn't aware of!

Here's a few scans to add to this little lot: