Ian Dewhirst

Just to clarify the original story following some research and a couple of calls to those who know, the story regarding the 6 copies came from renowned Motown collector and font of all in-depth knowledge about Motown, the late Ron Murphy (the owner of the copy of Frank Wilson which passed to Martin Koppell and which now resides with Tim Brown). It was Ron Murphy who spoke to directly to the owner of ARP - the pressing plant where F.W. was pressed, when he tried to locate another copy of F.W. and the owner confirmed that just the 6 copies were pressed. Ron was in the business and if anyone could have unearthed more copies it was him. Ron Murphy had a reputation for knowing what was talking about and there's no reason to disbelieve him, so THAT'S where the 6 copies story comes from! R.I.P. RON MURPHY His career could be described as standing in the shadows of the shadows of Motown " as well as the shadows of soul, R&B and techno. Ron Murphy, legendary Detroit music producer, record collector and mastering/cutting plant operator, has died of an apparent heart attack. He was 58 years old. Bulletins started popping up on message boards Saturday night, when news of Murphy's passing shocked Detroit's techno community. House music producer Mike Grant was among the first to post; DJ Brian Gillespie had an appointment to go by Murphy's Sound Enterprises mastering studio on Merriman in Westland to pick up a collection of vintage Detroit soul master recordings last Monday. Murphy's career spanned decades and generations of Detroit's urban DIY music communities, beginning with Motown and other independent soul and R&B labels in the late '60s. As an audio engineer, he manned the classic reverb and echo units during Isaac Hayes' recording of "Walk On By" in 1971 at United Sound. When times were leaner, Murphy sold insurance to struggling soul musicians. Murphy came to the attention of the techno community in the '80s when the likes of Derrick May and Juan Atkins stumbled upon his Westside cutting plant, then called National Sound Corporation. Murphy owned a vintage cutting lathe from the '30s and agreed to master and cut the metal prototype records, dub plates, then used to manufacture techno's ubiquitous 12-inc single. His warm, full sound and attention to a thick but not too loud kick drum arguably gave many a techno record the soul part of its icy soul. He pioneered pressing lock-grooves on records, which allowed DJs to mix to a single repeated loop. Murphy's discography reads like a who's who of techno: Underground Resistance, Jeff Mills, the Throw/Twilight 76/Database electro labels and countless others all went to Murphy. Murphy's meticulous collecting and archiving of vintage soul records, master tapes and original pressings made a visit to NSC a visit to a one-man Motown Museum. Producers would come in with a DAT tape or CD to cut a dub plate for a new record on Murphy's cutting lathe, only to be treated to stories of, say, Marvin Gaye muse Tammi Terrell's wild exploits with Eddie Kendricks as well as other nuggets of vintage lore. Remembers Gillespie: "He said one thing I'll never forget. 'Success to those soul musicians back then was a diamond pinkie ring, a white girlfriend and a Cadillac.' Now you hear that and you laugh, but you have to remember, back in the '60s, that was revolutionary--socially, economically, culturally." Murphy's stories made legendary artists people, not just icons from black-and-white photographs, which could inspire as much as entertain. Still, it was Murphy's ear that was his greatest gift to Detroit techno producers "that and his affordability. As Underground Resistance's Mike Banks told England's DJ Mag in 2005, "Ron Murphy helped many a fledgling Detroit producer's early career. When they had a fucked up, out-of-phase, poorly-segued, four- or eight- track piece-of-s*** production, he would fix it. He would make it competitive to the [stuff] coming out of New York or Chicago. He did miracles with some of those records--ours included. " Adds Gillespie, "He knew a hit when he heard one, whether it was an R&B record or a techno record. When he first heard [UR's] 'Jaguar,' he knew it was going to be a hit. When he first heard [Detroit Grand Pubahs'] 'Sandwiches' he knew it would be a hit." And though Murphy wasn't a household name, he was just fine with that. "He was always like, 'Whaddya wanna hear all these old stories for?' Gillespie remembers. "He was the only guy from back then left who wasn't bitter. "He was the soul of Detroit music for a lot of us." --Hobey Echlin Ian D

I'd pretty much agree with everything you said there Andy, if it wasn't for the fact that the record has been one of the most sought-after records for the last 30 odd years on one of world's most successful independent labels, yet no more than 2 copies have managed to surface in that whole period of time, until the 3rd one popped up just now. This is despite every virtually single record collector and dealer in the world scouring the planet for the record since '77 or thereabouts. I think I'm safe in saying that this record is the exception to the rule for a major label. I'm sure more copies would have surfaced by now had they been around to find........ Also bear in mind the dedicated Motown collectors who have also been investigating every single alleyway and none of them have managed to unearth one despite their contacts. It's a much smaller world these days and anyone remotely interested in rare records could hardly have failed to hear about Frank Wilson, so I think it's safe to assume that the record is an extreme rarity..... But I'm curious myself about where the record was pressed and if anyone has any further knowledge as to how the events unfolded resulting in the record getting scrapped - I'm writing an article about all this so the more info the better....... I might give Berry a call this afternoon if I can squeeze him in......... Ian D

I think Berry almost certainly has one. When I met Tom Depeiro in 1976 (before Soussan got to him), Tom was good enough to show me the archive record library @ the Motown offices in L.A. and the library was meticulously organised in catalogue number order with everything beautifully filed, as was the custom in those days. I had a quick look through a couple of shelves which pretty much confirmed that everything was there - all pristine promos naturally. Tom was incredibly protective about the comprehensiveness of the library which is why I was so surprised that Simon managed to prise the Frank Wilson out of him, if only on 'loan'. Bearing the above in mind, I think it's extremely likely that another copy would be in the Jobete Music files. It would be an automatic system in those days with at least 1 but more likely 2 copies going to the Record Company and another 1 or 2 copies going to the Publishing company whether or not the record was ever released. It's my guess that when Berry flogged Jobete to EMI he would probably have kept the Jobete archive library as well, so I guess it's possible that 2 copies are within Berry's control - even though he may not be aware of it! Incidentaly, it's worth pointing out that Record Companies were actually a lot more efficient in those days. When I worked for Decca shortly after I came back from the States I eventually stumbled into a locked room at Decca Head Office on Albert Embankment which contained a complete run of all the U.S. and U.K. releases including all the subsidiary labels. It was an automatic process whereby the first copies off the press would always be designated for the Record Company archive, the Publisher and the rest to the A&R and Marketing Heads. In certain cases, U.S. copies would also go to their affiliate Record Companies and Publishers throughout the world, which is why, every so often, someone can stumble into a 'run' of certain labels at a record fair. I found an incredible run of Amy and Mala U.S. promos at a record fair in Wimbledon which had been rescued from the loft of a guy who was a promo guy for the U.K. publisher at the time. Anything's possible. However, Motown was very much Berry's fiefdom at the time so the 6 copy theory is entirely possible. We know where 2 of 'em are. There's now a 3rd copy, there's a good chance that Berry has another 2 and the final copy could well be residing in the U.S. national music archives! Helluva story! Ian D

Stranger things have happened........... Ian D

Sounds like an average week in my life........ Ian D

LOL, I thought you'd take the bait! I'll PM ya. I did spend an hour or two going through those Refosoul clips on the other thread and realised in an ideal world I'd need 'em on CD..... Good on ya NIk. Thanks a bunch fella........ Ian D

I was led to believe it was the other way around Chalky, i.e. Tim got Martin's copy which came from Ron Murphy. I understand that there's quite a difference between the two copies isn't there? Although truth be known that's the part of the story that's still a little hazy to me. I'd ask Tim but he's away at the moment........ Ian D

Phew! I just thought they were selling a lot less rekids! They're probably watching me through my computer as I type th...............

That sounds possible. I remember taking out an Xmas ad one year thanking everyone who I'd been involved with that year and like many others whenever we ran a Leeds Central or Huddersfield Taurus ad we always included the sounds we had at the time. Just looking through the B&S ads in those days was fun - they always contained brilliant tracks, cover-ups and unknowns and I think they genuinley spurred interest in the scene........I'm surprised it isn't done more these days........ Ian D

Yep, killer instrumental! I remember it from Mecca and Wigan and you're right - sounds fantastic LOUD! Ian D

How very dare you, you despicable criminal! Ian D

Most people were too young to know any better back then. I can remember lots of otherwise respectable people (including myself I'm ashamed to admit) haulassing over to Nottingham to pick up the new Selectadisc arrivals if there was a particularly strong bunch of titles coming out. Sometimes you'd get 5 or 6 in-demanders in the same week and it'd be worth picking up a few of each to sell locally. I remember the demand for "Afternoon Of The Rhino" being almost off the scale when it was booted........ I think the education really started with the Blackpool Mecca ads in Blues & Soul where they frequently had a pop at bootlegs and the individual behind them! Ian D

That makes sense. It also explains how Selectadisc also seemed to have a fair wack of original stuff and what was then run of the mill bulk items. Simon must have sold 'em several bulk loads of general stuff at the same time as he was booting various titles which I guess makes sense. Also there wasn't the same degree of passion about collecting originals which had just been booted back then. I bought a Eula Cooper original for £2 just after it had been booted and I still had to think about it LOL..... Ian D

Bang on Paul. A perfect analysis! I've heard so many complaints about their change in policy putting sellers off that I've lost count. And you're dead right about 'em losing the 'incidental listers' - that was what made E-Bay fun in the old days but now it seems full of a lot of mediocre records from power-sellers that are too pricy! Ian D

Hi Girth, Yep, I've noticed that a lot of the Soul stuff doesn't move so fast on Discogs but the Disco/Jazz-Funk/Dance/House gear moves at a fair old clip. E-Bay seems horribly clunky compared to Discogs and I just get the feeling that now that there's some serious competition people are less-inclined to put up with E-Bay's practises. I just put up a few hundred albums on Discogs and predictably it's the more recent stuff which seems to sell. However, when you can list several hundred items in a day without fees it makes it worthwhile having 'em up there as there's always a good drip-feed of sales. I reckon E-Bay obviously has the edge on the higher-ticket items but Discogs is just so easy to use. Hopefully the Soul stuff will increase over time as more people load discover Discogs and more people load earlier items into the database....... And as we speak I just sold a Carl Cox album and an early Grace Jones LOL....... Ian D

This is the original copy i.e. Simon Soussan - Les McCutcheon - Kev Roberts - Johnathan Woodliffe - Kev Roberts - Tim Brown and eventually Kenny Burrell. In fact, for the purposes of the auction it might be an idea to do a 'family tree' (Pete Frame does them for Pop/Rock acts with changing personnel) tracing the ownership of the 2 known copies with an enigmatic '?' for the third copy? Ian D

Nah, I know all the ramps but I sometimes lack the patience to go through 'em all........ Ian D

Wednesday evening's EXACTLY the time to look through 'em! Bugger all else happening this end...... I've never done an analysis but I reckon there's 75% less items than there was this time last year. Maybe not so much on the Northern front but in most other areas. Also I get the impression that most dance people and loads of buyers and sellers have now moved to Discogs. It could be the fact that on E-Bay you have to pay the fees whether you sell or not whereas it's easier to list on Discogs (circa 30 seconds as opposed to 6 minutes on E-Bay) and you only pay when you actually sell an item on Discogs. Anybody agree? And yep. It's difficult to get excited about the O'Jay's "I'll Never Forget You" for £125.00 when I used to swim in 'em LOL...... Ian D

I had a look @ E-Bay tonight for the first time in a few months and was surprised at the relatively small amount of records that are on there now as opposed to, say, 12 months ago. Also I didn't see much action on there in terms of bids - I presume this is because everyone snipes at the last minute. I checked a few genres, did a few different searches and noticed the same throughout - it looks like a ghost town compared to a few years ago. So is E-Bay diminisihing at a massive rate or is just my imagination? Looks like it's dropped off a cliff to me........ Ian D

Yep, I always pester for stuff I want. Usually women it has to be said but the Four Perfections would have put me on overdrive! Ian D

Hi Arthur, Yep, I can still remember my heart virtually stopping when you unveiled the record. I don't think I'd ever seen such a beautiful sight in my life LOL. I didn't realise (or I forgot) you got it off Disco Bob. And it's true, it really couldn't have gone to a better home back then. What a record mate. A million thanks some 33 years later! Could have done with you on here sooner mate. There's a "Greatest Record Finds Of All Time" thread over on the All About The Soul section and you'd be a natural for that. I'd still love to hear about that Monarch hit 'cos it still bugs me how I never found it! Anyway great to hear from you. Let me know next time your playing down South or whether you're going to Prestatyn again. I'm still laughing at when I went up to the DJ that was playing Ernest Mosely at gig in London and said to the guy "I used to have that" and you said "I know. You sold it to me you plonker"..... Anyway welcome aboard mate. You're in good company! Ian D

I reckon it was worth that to Kenny at the time Pete. It became the most-talked about record on both the Northern and collectors scene and Kenny's had 12 years of DJ bookings and publicity out of it. Fact is, it was worth it to Kenny at the time he bought it and over the course of the last 12 years has more than likely paid for itself at minimum and made a profit most likely. Put youself in the position that you were offered a Frank Wilson to sell. Wouldn't it be in your interest to publicise it as a one-off event and glean all the attendant benefits from it? Also the reasons why someone buys something at a huge price are not always clear-cut. Why can Damien Hirst sell a diamond-encrusted skull for £100,000,000? Because he'll sell it to a buyer who can use the purchase of the art to offset his tax burdon. Etc, etc. In fact Damien Hirst could be a possible bidder! It's right up his street LOL........ Ian D

Would you believe I saw a copy of this in a shop in a junk pile t'other week for £3.00 and left it....doh...... Ian D

Good point! Cheap at whatever the price! Ian D

The wife won't let you Phil! Ian D