Ian Dewhirst
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Everything posted by Ian Dewhirst
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Oh boy Covmart. I had a goody just next to South Carolina. I was on the way to Hilton Head Island for the weekend and we'd just crossed into Georgia (could have been Augusta I think) and I found a GREAT shop in the backwoods! Only had about 30 minutes there but found a bunch of stuff including all the Lorraine Chandlers, a Lee David and a lot of stuff from James Brown's personal collection. I think this guy bought up a lot of James Brown's possessions when they were auctioned off 'cos his shop was like a shrine to James Brown. Somebody on here will know the gaff for sure and I shudder to think what was in there. I was being hurried up by the American family I was staying with who wanted to get to Hilton Head before sundown LOL so I couldn't clear the shop out and I never made it back there. Very frustrating....... Good luck in Carolina. It might be worth sniffing around some Beach Music collections whilst you're there 'cos there will be stuff tucked away in collections I'm sure. An Embers on MGM perchance? I have a feeling you're going to be lucky, so keep us posted! Ian D
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Agreed. And John could probably write his own book on his finds. I heard some great stories about John A's dealings with John Lamont from Philly, who later turned up in the book "Stiffed" when he was beaten up by the Mob over a cut-out deal which went wrong. Wouldn't mind reading that book again actually as it deals with a lot of the 'grey area' of cutouts etc..... Ian D
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I'm surprised you could even understand Peter Brown. That guy talks FAST. The original Harlem hustler...... Also, do you remember Rick from Global? He used to play at Leeds Central quite a bit in the early 70's? I think he discovered Gene Chandler "Mr Big Shot" out of Global............ I've never found a Silhouettes in the U.S. which always bugged me because I figured there'd be a few around with the 45 coming free with the album. Might be a few knocking around via the Doo-Wop collectors though......... Better luck next time Ernie - sounds like you're due some....... Ian D
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Yep, I thought Florida had been cleaned out but I went to a flea market in Orlando 'cos I also collect weapons and, of all things, my missus wanted a bankers light, so she dragged me round all the furnishing and ornament stores and in the last store in the covered section there was a box of albums. TONS of great stuff Anthony White, Bobby Hutton, Jean Carn, Jones Girls, all mint, all promos. So I bought around 20 albums for a buck apiece and they asked if I wanted any more. It turns out their son was a huge 70's Soul/Dance/Disco fan and he'd been collecting for 20 odd years but died suddenly from Aids a couple of months previously. So I went round to their house the next day and there were aprox 5K albums and 2K 12"'s, so I ended up buying quite a few! Very sad though. You could tell this guy had loved his music and he was obviously very big on the great female singers of the 60's and 70's especially. Paid for the trip though and replenished my collection for the 40th time which is the probably the kick I get out of it. I still love listening to stuff I don't know and occasionally finding the odd gem.... ...in I fact found one the other day from '82 and it's one of the greatest records I've ever heard - J.P. Rogers Jr "All My Lovin'" - I'll post on a seperate thread. Think it was played @ Thorne back in the day but I've only just heard it...... See! I've got the bug again. Time to start sniffing around some of those leads......... Ian D
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Well, what didn't help was that the minute they gave me access to the MCPS database, I started digging around and immediately realised that something dodgy was going on..... Because some of the entries were duplicated and sometimes several 'tunecodes' were assigned to the same song, I started wondering whether some of the writers of some songs may be spurious or even fraudulent. So I looked up the tunecode for the Jackson Five's "I Want You Back" because on the writing credits it's simply credited to "the Corporation" which was a collective of Berry Gordy, Alphonzo Mizell, Deke Richards & Freddie Perren but which an elderly typist in Streatham might not be aware of or understand correctly. So I found "I Want You Back" registered to one Pamela Motown at a P.O. box number on the Isle Of Wight! Must have made a packet over 15 years LOL........ But stuff like that didn't make me flavour of the month there, so I was ready to get the hell out and the U.S. trip and the dosh I made from it eventually lead to me having enough time and money to develop the Mastercuts series a year later. So record collecting can be good for your karma LOL..... And Reddington's Rare Records in Glendale was brilliant even after Soussan plundered it plus there was a GREAT shop over in Orange County that someone got to before I got to it in the mid 90's. Dammit. Wish I had a time machine....... Ian D
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It was designed for you Dave! Incidentally, big-up on your website discographies mate! I've found 'em invaluable just lately, so credit where it's due. Also I have some full discographies on Salsoul, Philly Groove and the post '76 Philly International gear if they're any good to you. PM me with your e-mail addy and I'll whack 'em over....... The thread that dreams are made of LOL...... Ian D
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Well you said it mate! It looks like you'd been ingesting the crate-diggers diet - a constant diet of burgers and coffee 'cos it's QUICK LOL..... I put on a couple of stones after 6 months in L.A. due to a chain of Burger places called "Fatburger" which did what it said on the tin! Ian D
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Hi Paul, You've bought a few of mine over the years I seem to remember! I did EXACTLY the same thing in St Petes. Dropped the missus off in the Howard Johnson's hotel (you can see where my priorities lie) and shot round to Bananas just intending to have a quick browse. Got in the warehouse round the back and got dug in. I found a Tartans and John Rhys on Impact and a Lou Kirton white promo in the first 5 minutes. I thought I was set but then nothing for the next couple of hours..... Lucky the missus fell asleep 'cos I left @ 3.00pm and didn't get back till 8.30pm....... Still worth it though. I always work on the basis of never expect too much and then you can be nicely surprised. Naturally, after the Dobards hit, Johnny probably realises that the chances of ever getting a hit like that again are remote to say the least, which has probably dulled his future expectations........ .......only until the next hit! Ian D
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LOL. Ain't that always the way Ady..... Also I wish I'd known what I know now back then. I can plainly remember leaving lots of L.A. little label stuff in L.A. garages back in '76 because they were too slow or too RnB for that period. And I think there's probably still some decent stuff archived away in some of the bigger publishing house. I had a mate who had access to Southern Music's library and he'd pull out interesting stuff from time to time.... Incidentaly, I just gave a rave review for "The New Breed With Added Popcorn" for Manifesto, so I'll PM it over...... Best, Ian D
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No, it's perfectly normal behaviour to sit in a damp, smelly basement covered in rat shit looking through hunks of plastic for that one elusive moment LOL! Great story John! Many thanks mate. I wonder if there's any other ex 60's Black Music DJ's who have their records in storage somewhere? George Woods must have had a few 'cos he was involved in labels too. E. Rodney Jones or Frankie Crocker anyone? I once went to Nashville and had a stunning Album/12" hit from a C&W store. It was a Chicago DJ from the 70's and he'd moved to Nashville and just dumped a lot of his stuff in this one place. 600 items @ 50 cents apiece. Makes you wonder what he sold 'em for.... Ian D
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Was over your way a couple of years ago - I went into New York and then swung down to Newark/Princeton area before heading up to Buffalo to check a load out. Didn't find much Northern but did pretty good on rare 12"'s (but even those are drying up now it seems). I hit a lot of out-of-way little towns and found some basements full of stuff but it was very hard work to dig out anything heart-poundingly exciting. Also, the WORST thing these days is the fact that the shops/dealers want YOU to do the hunting and then, after several hours of digging, you take 'em the pile over and they just key in the titles to a computer and check on E-Bay/Gem etc and then base their prices on that! It's taken a LOT of the fun out of things IMHO. I was in Toronto last year and went into one shop and asked how much the 12"'s were and the guy said a dollar each. I then spent 2 hours and dug out some FANTASTIC goodies, took 'em to the counter and started counting out dollars and the guy said "can you give me, like, 15-20 minutes? I need to check with the owner"? I said" "what do you need to check with the owner for? You told me they were a dollar each" He said "well, the owner told me that if I saw anyone who knew what they were doing, then I needed to check with him". I said, "you should have told me that BEFORE I wasted 2 hours of my life pulling these out". TWAT! Everyone's so clued up these days LOL..... Anyone ever checked out Salt Lake City? I just have a feeling....... Ian D
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Yep, the Japs were out in force in the mid 70's mainly looking for different stuff from us at the time. In fact, the very first store I went to in L.A. had three Japs going through the 25 cent box and they passed a couple of copies of "Seven The Loser" - Eric Lomax (big at the time) which I snapped up once they'd finished. Things got worse in the 80's I think. I went to the Austin Record Fair and they were queuing up with U-Haul trucks @ 5.30am and basically going from stall to stall saying "how much for everything?" A pain in the ass LOL..... I had a brilliant hit about 15 years ago at the Wimbledon Record Fair when I found a guy who had a stack of Amy/Mala U.S. promos - he used to a label manager @ RCA and had the stuff from the 60's....... Also, one of the best finds of this type was the original UK Decca/London library which had everything in there, both U.S. and U.K. I got in once for about half-an-hour and got Lee Roye, Johnny Caswell, Jean Carter and Sweet Three for my trouble. A few years later Decca got sold and I think the original label manager got most of the gear 'cos he was advertising in Record Collector for a few years after..... Who knows how many garages, lofts and lock-ups still have stuff in? The next great hit could be round the next corner......... Ian D
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I left my missus on the beach in L.A. whilst I checked a place out and returned to find a Jesus-Freak hitting on her! On the next trip, we went to Clearwater in Florida and I left her on the beach again and came back just before sunset to find half a dozen Latino guys surrounding her saying she reminded 'em of Sam Fox! Nope, girlfriends and wives don't make crate-digging easy that's for sure! Ian D
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Oh my God Mcleanmuir - you're gonna give a lot of SS'ers nightmares over the Chinatown story! It's funny but there were tons of distributors in downtown L.A. when I was there at the time but I seldom bothered going through 'em 'cos there was too much Latino gear to go through. I think West Pico was where a lot of 'em were.... Also I went to House Of Oldies in Philadelphia once and there were simply too many records!!! If you can imagine a huge building one block long, one block wide and five stories high packed with thousands of 20' x 20' wooden crates on every floor with circa 50K of 45's in each you have some idea of what was available at the time. I spent 3 hours in one crate alone but it was all Country & Western and I got demoralised too quickly! I hit a few places about 18 months ago but it's all changed with the Internet, E-Bay and the Price Guides these days. I had a guy in New Jersey trying to convince me that the Total Eclipses was a $1000 'rare Northern Soul' record LOL........ Mmmm. Well this has livened up an otherwise dullish day! Happy Easter..... Ian D
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No luck in it Kiddo! Dedicated hunting and being in the right place at the right time and making my luck LOL..... Also, any success stories need to be tempered with the not-so-good tales. So here's one..... I got to Philly on my way back from L.A. in December '76. I had two large suitcases with me and went from the airport into the city centre. It was so cold my hands were freezing up just carrying my cases. I then decided to visit Val Shively's place in Upper Darby and made the mistake of deciding I could get there via public transport (Philly's version of the tube). What I didn't realise is that a suntanned English white guy carrying two cases stood out like a sore thumb on that particular tube journey which went through the worst parts of Philly on the way to Upper Darby. Also, I was the ONLY white guy on the tube and everyone was flat-out staring at me and whispering "he must be crazy", "is he asking to be mugged" etc, etc...... Anyway, I got off at Upper Derby, came out of the station and realised I was being followed by a nasty looking guy. So I got around the next corner and legged it halfway down the street and jumped into a shop entrance. About 20 seconds later, the guy went past the doorway almost running and I thought I'd got away with it but he must have caught me out of the corner of his eye and he stopped and walked back towards the shop entrance. I was shitting myself.... He approached me and said "Hey man, have you got the time......" But I was nervous and thought he was going to knife me and my arm shot up in a kind-of reflex action and my little finger caught him square on in his right eye. Just at that point, a cop car pulled up and two cops jumped out and asked me if everything was OK. It turns out that they'd seen me come out of the station with my suitcases and wondered what the hell a white guy was doing walking around with two suitcases on that particular line. They told the guy to get lost and ended-up dropping me off at Val's. Val was great and I ended up stopping at his place where he spent the whole night telling me some FANTASTIC stories about the rare Doo-Wop scene and the lengths that some people went to just to get hold of a record - guns, threats, intimidation etc, etc. If I get time I'll bang a couple of 'em down...... The next day I was in the back of Val's shop when I suddenly heard a commotion with Val shouting out "Hey f*%k you. Get the f*%k out of my shop NOW! You ain't buying anything else here ya scumbag". I walked around the racks and looked over and Val was facing off a huge black guy with an Afro and a full-length black leather coat. Eventually the guy left and Val told me that the guy was a collector from Toronto and had messed all his filing up on previous visits and was an asshole to deal with. Anyway, I had to leave for the airport and my cab arrived about 2 minutes later (once bitten, twice shy LOL), so I said to Val I'd catch him next time, grabbed my cases and got in the cab. Just then the black guy who'd been kicked out of Val's shop came over to the cab and said, "Hey man. Which way are ya going? If you give me a lift I'll split the fare". I said, "Well I'm going to the airport....." He said, "Oh cool man, I'll drop off on the way" and he jumped in. Anyway, he redirected the cab in the direction of where he was going and the cab driver looked at me and said "Are you OK with this"? I said, "Yeah, we're gonna split the fare, so it's OK". In the cab the Black guy told me that he travelled from Toronto around the U.S. and bought a lot of stuff to re-sell to the Japanese collectors - he had a few things on him - Mike & Bill records on Botanic and quite a few little label things which he said were Deep Soul collectors items in Japan. About 20 minutes later he started directing the cab down some dodgy streets and halfway down on of 'em, he turned to me and said, "Hey nice meeting you man" and then opened the door and hurled himself out of the cab whilst it was doing 20-25mph. The cab slammed the brakes on and stopped as I looked out the back window to see an afro-ed Black guy picking himself up off the road, shaking himself down and running off into the ghetto. And no, he never gave me any dosh, the bastard! So, it wasn't all roses. More later...... Ian D
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Hi Russ, Wow. I wondered whatever happened to Chris Peake. He was actually one of Soussan's great sources in the early 70's along with another guy called Darryl Stolper (?) who had a collection to die for but wasn't selling when I bumped into him. Chris Peake actually told me that the word 'punk' was invented at his school when an unruly pupil got asked to leave the classroom and, as he left, he took a piss into a wastepaper basket by the teachers desk. This kind of behaviour was labelled punk thereafter. Chris was into early to mid 60's 'Garage' or 'Punk' bands from L.A. e.g. The Seeds etc, so he had tons of small indie west coast labels in the hundreds of thousands of 45's in his 3 bedroom bungalow in L.A. We used to go crate-digging together on the basis that he'd keep all the 'Garage/Punk' stuff and I'd keep the Soul gear. I used to like hitting places with him 'cos he scared the shit out of most people, so when I spoke in my polite English accent people would bend over backwards to sell us the records just to get away from him LOL... He was one scary guy and when I say he had records in his larder and fridge I really wasn't kidding. I think I found the Willie Hutch in his loo........... I shudder to think of what Dave and Carl got from him 'cos the last time I saw him was '76 and so much stuff came through after then. I can clearly remember leaving tons of future small L.A. label biggies because they were either too slow or considered too R'n'B at the time! Also I spent a few days in Frisco with Disco Bob in Daly City in '76. As you say an incredibly nice guy with a ton of great stories about local acts. One of the abiding memories of that trip was me going to what was then the hottest club in the world, San Francisco's 'Dance Your Ass Off' (as made famous by the Pop-A-Groove record) and realising very quickly that it was a gay club (I was just 21 and 'hot' apparently). I managed to get out with my ass intact LOL..... Also, I remember deciding to go to San Jose purely because I've always loved the Dionne Warwicke record "Do You Know The Way To San Jose". It was a lousy drive, it pissed down all the way there and all the way back and I didn't find jack! Win some, lose some! Keep 'em coming guys....... Lovely thread..... Ian D
