Ian Dewhirst

An interesting comment in itself. Hiding to nothing? Ian D

Undoubtably. Ian D

I wouldn't be so sure that you'd only sell 500 copies Lorraine. You're a natural writer, you were there at the time, you're still very level-headed (which is a rarity believe me) and you have a fantastic story to tell. I can tell just from this thread that you have the skill to write a book that could touch the hearts of many people. I'll bet you a dollar to a cent that you could sell at least a couple of thousand copies to your core audience alone. And yours would probably be a much better read than Dennis and Jack's books! Could be a lovely project and an opportunity to document everything properly from your own unique angle as one of the few women that covered all angles. Worth thinking about ay? Ian D X

Ah, but what about if your taste happens to really really want a one-off record that happens to be worth £5K and you don't have the necessary funds at your disposal? Ian D

Well James never did me any favours, as most people on here know, but I'm genuinely curious about what happened. Even though he effectively attempted to ruin any level of reputation I have for no reason whatsoever, I'd always actually been quite supportive of his angry young man stance and I'd always been very civil on the couple of occasions I met him. I'm not a fan of 'schadenfreude' (a word which doesn't exist in English but is a German word for someone who takes pleasure from the misfortunes of others), I'm curious about what actually happened to him and the reasons for the fire sale of his records. Does he still DJ or even collect records anymore? What's the story Simon? Ian D

Well, I was OK until late yesterday afternoon, when for no apparent reason my left foot started swelling up to an unfeasably large size. So I'm writing this from a hospital A&E in a desperate bid to prevent to stop my left foot exploding LOL. Please give my regards to Gary and tell him I'll be happy to take the Robbie Lawson acetate off his hands. Unfortunately since he dropped off the scene, there's been a precipitous drop in the value of acetates but 'cos he's an old mate I'll give him a tenner. Can you ask him if he'd like a cracked Duke Browner by the way? Ian D

That's worth turning into a seperate thread Dancecrasher. If you don't, then I will! Ian D

LOL, I brokered the sale of one last year as it happens....... Ian D

LOL, tell it like it is Beeks. Wanna share some tunes then? Ian D

There's nought as weird as folk Mace! Ian D

and preferably via the docks ay? Ian D

Yeah, someone told me he was still in touch with Richard. He's the kind of guy who can disappear for years and then turn up with handful of ridiculously rare things. I still don't know how he kept turning up with killer records but he always did. I never got Robbie Lawson off him though! Ian D

Yep. It was actually a perfect copy until an ex managed to tread on it in an overflowing record room....... I taped the other side with a piece of brown masking tape to prevent further damage and it actually still played perfectly. No styrene burn at the intro either. I've always thought it was a bloody rare record............ Ian D

It was one of those from the box under your bed! Ian D

Wow. Look at that! It's not often that someone acknowledges a mistake! Well done Soulman. You sir, are a gentleman. Luckily you happened to choose one night that I'm hardly likely to forget which incorporated seeing seeing Pat Brady in the afternoon where I flogged him about £7K worth of stuff, followed by numerous bars, clubs, restaurants and then the Griffin, Gary Field buying a cracked Joe Mathews, more sales and bumping into folk I hadn't seen for years, followed by a rave until 8.00am, Cliff's until 9.00am and then a police cell for most of Sunday, a casino and then a 200 mile trip back to London in the early hours of Monday morning. I king hell b*stard of a weekend that was and one I won't forget in a hurry. And I still don't really know the Gracie Dumas record LOL...... By the way, where is Gary these days? Is he OK? Ian D

Actually I wasn't really talking about oldies in the first instance. I was thinking of some of the prices that I've seen for 'newer' discoveries that are being played at the moment and how much it would cost to put a couple of hundred current biggies together if you were fresh on the scene. So, really we should forget big ticket oldies here (I got somewhat sidetracked by Kev's suggestion earlier). If you had a boxful of records like the Mello Souls and suchlike, how much would that cost you? Could you amass a popular rare soul set of current in-demanders for much less than £30-50K? Ian D

True, true.......and Cantona..... Ian D

Nah, I've known that record since '74 ish. It used to be a last hour @ Blackpool Mecca record in the 70's and I had a copy circa Cleethorpes period but never really played it. Quite possibly it could have been another record but certainly not Betty Lloyd. Incidentally, that was the day I sold a whole heap of great 70's stuff to Pat Brady and the same night I sold my cracked copy of Joe Mathews to Gary (for £175 I think). I remember the night well 'cos I got busted in Chapeltown @ 8.00am on Sunday morning coming out of Cliff's. The cops stopped the car I was in, found some spliff in the back and arrested everyone, saw that I was from London and then found £8K in cash in my hotel room! Took some explaining that I'd merely sold some records.......... Ian D

What makes you think that Pete? There were two known copies of James Fountain at the time - Levine and Curtis's and Colin sold his for £500 a couple of weeks before Cream reissued it. As far as I know, I don't think £500 had been breeched at that point. It was big news at the time. Ian D

I only compiled that list 'cos Kev asked me to old bean. I actually already have 'em all in one form or another. The excercise is how much would it cost to amass a similar collection of OVO at today's prices. For sure things have moved on since LOL. That list is from 36 years ago so if things hadn't moved on it'd be weird. Ian D

I already have 'em all in one form or other Bearsy. The last thing I need is more records mate. I've got over 10K gumming up the house as it is..... Ian D

LOL, OK then. Off the top of my head here's a few:- "You Didn't Say A Word" - Yvonne Baker Parkway "Ain't Nothing You Can Do" - Joe Mathews Kool Kat "I Can't Change" - Lorraine Chandler RCA "Stubborn Heart" - Ernest Mosely La Cindy "Do The Pearl Girl" - Matta Baby Penny "Broadway Cissy" - Rosco & Co Tec "Ton Of Dynamite" - Frankie "Loveman Crocker Turbo "I'm Not Strong Enouh" - The Four Perfections Party Time "If That's What You Wanted" - Frank Beverly & The Butlers Sassy "Let Our Love Grow Higher" - Eula Cooper Super Soul "Too Darn Soulful" - Morris Chestnut Amy "Nothing Can Help You Now" - Lenny Curtis End "I'm Catching On" - Betty Lloyd BSC "Set My Heart At Ease" - Mikky Farrow Karate "Cool Off" - Detroit Executives Pameline "Never Too Young (To Fall In Love)" - The Modern Redcaps Swan "The Spy" - The Guys From UNCLE Swan "Don't You Care Anymore" - Jodi Mathis Capitol "I Really Love You" - The Tomagoes Washpan "So Is The Sun" - World Column Tower "I Travel Alone" - Lou Ragland Amy "Time Will Pass You By" - Tobi Legend Mala "Talkin' About Poor Folk" - Lou Edwards & Today's People Columbia "Take Me Home" - Donna Kng Hot-Line "I'm Com'un Home In The Mor'nun" - Lou Pride Suemi "Thumb A Ride" - Earl Wright Capitol "I Had A Good Time" - Little Eddie Taylor Peacock "Gee Baby" - The Malibus Sure Shot "My Heart Cries For You" - Porgy & The Monarchs Musicor "Call Me Tomorrow" - Major Harris Okeh "Come Back" - Ken Williams Okeh "Stick By Me Baby" - The Salvadores Wise World "That's Why I Love You" - The Professionals Groove City "Send Him Back" - The Pointer Sisters Atlantic "It Really Hurts Me Girl" - The Carstairs Red Coach "Please Give Me One More Chance" - Clyde McPhatter Deram "Lend A Hand" Bobby Hutton ABC Our Love Is In The Pocket" - J.J.Barnes Revilot "Sister Lee" - Sam Ward Groove City "Marble & Iron" - Carl Douglas Buddah "Night Owl" - Booby Paris Cameo "Bari Track" - Doni Burdick Sound Impression "Skiing In The Snow" - The Invitations Dyno Voice "Nothing Can Compare To You" - The Velvet Satins General American "I Never Knew" - Eddie Foster In "Wrong Crowd" - Prince George DPG "Gonna Be A Big Thing" - The Yum Yums ABC "What Good Am I" - Mickie Champion Musette "They're Talking About Me" - Johnny Bragg Elbejay "Love Factory" - Eloise Laws Music Merchant "Help Me" - Al Wilson Wand "You Don't Love Me Anymore" - Johnny Caswell Decca "Baby Don't You Weep" - Edward Hamilton & The Arabians Mary Jane "Don't Bring Me Down" - Rita Dacosta Mohawk "You Don't Mean It" - Towanda Barnes A&M "Manifesto" - James Lewis & The Case Of Tyme Legend "You Hit Me (Right Where It Hurt Me)" - Alice Clark WB "Watch Out Girl" - The Embers MGM "Tears (Nothing But Tears)" - Lee Roye Decca "I Thought You Were Mine" - The Natural Four ABC "Look At Me Now" - Terry Callier Cadet "Something Good's Got A Hold On Me" - Jeanette Williams Back Beat "Being Without You" - Maurice Williams Deesu "Now You've Got The Upper Hand" - Candi Staton Unity "Job Opening Pts 1 & 2" - The Del-Larks Queen City "The Larue" - Lada Edmund Jr Decca "I Hurt On The Other Side" - Jerry Cook Capitol "I'm Spellbound" - Tamiko Jones Golden World "Lord What's Happening To Your People" - Kenny Smith GAR "I Watched You Slowly Slip Away" - Howard Guyton Verve "Don't It Make You Feel Funky" - Joe Hicks AGC "Living a Lie" - The High Keys Verve "Potion Of Love" - The Ambers Smash "Right On" - Al De Lory Capitol "I Just Can't Live My Life" - Linda Jones WB "Rosemary What Happened" - Richard Popcorn Wylie Karen "Not Me Baby" - The Silhouettes Goodway "My Heart's Not In It Anymore" - The Steinways Oliver "Wash & Wear Love" - Lynne Vernado Gator Phew. That'll do for the time being. I've left out stuff that was run of the mill i.e. £2-£10 and I've probably forgotten more than I can remember anyway. I shudder to think what my first 70's collection would be worth now. How's the maths adding up Kev? This is proving to be a painful exercise already LOL........ Ian D

Yeah but it's gonna be difficult not to make comparisons with a scene that's lasted 40 years plus and those comparisons are always going to be influenced by whichever point someone came on the scene. There's no doubt whatsoever that records were easier to find back then that's for sure and similarly there's little doubt that you could pick up great records from a variety of sources very cheaply which meant that it was theoretically possible to pick up a great box of records for relatively little money in the early 70's if you were prepared to dig around and cultivate a number of sources. Just to clear up a misconception though, Global and Soul Bowl were the only regular commercial sources for rare stuff up to the mid 70's and then only if you had a good relationship with Rick Cooper or John Anderson. The majority of records up until then came from disparate sources which would either be shops that stocked U.S. imports (Robinsons, Selectadisc), market stalls (Bostocks, Cheapo Cheapo, Jim Wilson) or the handful of private collector/dealers like Brian Phillips, Julian Bentley, Jack Bollington, Brad from Burnley etc, etc. However, probably a good 50% of any playbox would come from random buys from the boxes of numerous other collectors, generally at different all-nighters and all-dayers. In relative terms compared to today it was much much cheaper. In cash terms I was always hoarding money for the next purchase and there might be an odd purchase that would keep me broke for a couple of weeks but nothing worse than that. Most records were around the £2-£20 mark up to about 1974, then the prices started creeping up the £30-£50 mark. It started going nuts in 1975 IMO, when prices started going stratospheric and creeping up to the £100+ mark. After that, James Fountain then really accelerated the whole thing by establishing a new benchmark @ £500. After that the gloves came off LOL. Another thing that I think changed the price of records hugely was the introduction of Rare Soul price guides which were probably single-handedly responsible for sharing previously little-known information with the U.S. dealers, thus helping close the era of picking up cheap bargains in the U.S. The next things were the internet and e-bay which between 'em, simply spread the information wider and turned the world into record hounds. I definitely agree that it's much more difficult to come up with great cheap finds these days but good luck to all who try! Ian D

Has he? News to me. Mind you, he might have wanted a funkier set...... No complaints from anywhere else to my knowledge...... Ian D

First time I've been accused of firing blanks! Ian D