Amsterdam Russ

Even though this came from the States, that's certainly a possibility - thanks. The idea of it being a home recording sounds good, although why would you want to go to the trouble of recording something you already have on 45? An early form of tape swapping perhaps? From what I've now read, home recording acetates were usually of radio shows and live performances of one kind or another, but of course that doesn't mean this one wasn't done at home. Overall the sound quality is fine, as good as you would expect from a crackly old 78. Also, if this was made non-professionally, why go to the trouble of sequential numbering?

Got a 78rpm acetate recently - no labels on either side - and am curious as to its origin. One side plays Neil Sedaka 'Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen' and the other is The Mar-Keys - 'Last Night'. The deadwax has 1-11262-78W on one side, and 2-11262-78W on the other. The 78 plays outside in. Whilst the Sedaka side plays fine to listen to, 'Last Night' starts off very wobbly, much like an off-centre cut. About 10 seconds in and it's fine. Also, a few seconds prior to each track starting there is a low frequency oscillating sound, a bit like someone slowly turning the dials in a 50's sci-fi movie. It sounds like this noise is coming from the recording process somehow, and not an external source. Once the song starts, the noise goes. Any ideas how this might have come to be made? Is it possible that both tracks were cut at the same pressing plant? Both tracks were released in 1961, on RCA and Satellite respectively, but at different times. Mind you, the Sedaka song was a massive seller for quite a long time, so it probably would have been repressed many times. Suggestions offered so far are that if they did get pressed at the same place that plant worker might have done it for themselves, or that it was a test before the pressing started. No idea how plausible either of those might be. Any ideas at all? As another question, did The Mar-Keys 'Last Night' come out on 78? Thanks in advance...

Hmm, apparently this story started in Australia and has caused such a fuss that Technics 'Down Under' have issued a denial. Well, that's what I'm reading in this news story from CNET Australia: Technics Not Dead It's interesting to note however, that in the story it states that confirmation was being sought from Panasonic HQ in Japan...

Looks like your site is down at present...

Exactly - thanks for making it simpler and clearer than I could!

Not quite. The DMCA is a piece of American legislation. As such it does not apply in the UK or Europe. Copyright laws across much of Europe are harmonised under the 'Copyright Directive', and in the UK this is applied under the 'Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988'.

You're lucky to have been able to make contact in the same way that the artists are lucky to have devoted fans such as yourself that appreciate and respect their work. I love these glimpses into moments in time that are brought about by those that experienced it. They bring the sounds to life. In fact, at the risk of sounding unintentionally corny, they give the recordings a soul. I do hope that the guys get a sense of the appreciation, respect, and almost awe, that they inspire.

I think I've just seen the light!

A press release coming out of Warner Bros, announcing their participation at the WFMU record fair in New York, also had this little snippet of information tucked away at the end: The full Press Release is here! That's a surprise to me. I'd heard some time ago that WB were looking to put out a full Loma anthology on CD, but didn't know about the reissue 45s. Seems WB thinks there's a a lot of life in the 45 format yet, especially for back catalogue stuff!

Yup, you're both absolutely right. Apologies - I didn't read all the way through the thread properly!

Sorry, you've missed the point, which is to reduce or get rid of Paypal fees. Something that can be done. Not sure what postage - or Joe - has to do with it

I can confirm that this works - tried it through John Manship for the first time recently and will do it from now on elsewhere.

I usually pop along to Utrecht for the morning or afternoon and have a mooch round with a few euros in my pocket. It's only about half an hour for me by train. Normally the first port of call is to have a chat with Rob Messer.

I moved from London to the Netherlands nearly two years ago. I've had more packages go missing or get damaged in that short time than did over the last 25 years. Such is the poor state of service from the respective postal services that I always insist on 'International Signed For' unless the item is under about £10. In something like the first six months, I think we lost about half a dozen packages, maybe a few more. Earlier this year a 'signed for' package sent from Scotland went missing. The sender contacted the PO who informed him that they could track it from his local office to a sorting depot in Glasgow. Then it disappeared - it didn't even make it out of the country. A couple of months ago I bought an acetate from someone here. It turned up in my post box with a huge warp in the metal plate. Someone must have sat on it, jumped on it, Lord knows what. What's worse is that it was supposed to be delivered to my door and a signature sought. No chance. Increasingly, small packets requiring a signature are just put in the post box having been delivered by the everyday postman doing his everyday rounds. A got a 45 carved a couple of weeks back, from a place in Belgium. It was sent super-duper 24-hour insured delivery. It turned up in the post box ten days later. Again, no signature was sought. There is one positive thing about getting packages from the UK though. We buy regularly from Amazon in the UK (there isn't one in the Netherlands) and have never had a package go missing yet. Nothing disappears when it comes via Amazon. Everything is bar-coded, tracked, traced and accounted for. All the many petty thieves inside the PO won't touch them. Well, that's the conclusion we've come to. The difference is in attitude. Amazon can take their business elsewhere, and the Post Office are all too aware of this. Indeed, I believe that they do in fact use other services as well as the PO. And there lies the rub. Amazon can take their business elsewhere - and, of course, the PO doesn't want this to happen; Amazon is too big a client for them to lose. For businesses smaller than Amazon the attitude from the PO is somewhat different. And God forbid that you should merely be a humble receiver of mail. The only solution is to try and find an alternative to the one-time monopolistic dinosaur that can no longer deliver the goods - both physically and figuratively.

I can't recall the last time I cried so much with laughter. Truly priceless!

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Meant to add these earlier...

Now that is interesting. I have his Loma LPs, but haven't come across an EP at all. Is there any chance of a scan from you???

No problem. Thanks for looking. Yes, I saw the one on eBay recently and foolishly let it pass me by! Next time...

Thanks, John - sent you a PM. If anyone's got a copy of 'Hey Girl' on Pam to offer, let me know... Cheers,

OMG - my father was in Procurement Executive @ MOD & would have been a Senior PTO (don't know if that's the correct term...) back in '77. Indeed, started at Faslane after National Service in early 60s, but hardly a fascist. Mind you, he used to wear Italian suits in the 50s, but I don't think the tailor's name was Mussolini. He often talks about the punks that served under him. I guess you both must have met then...

Really? That would be very much appreciated. I know that he settled in Chicago, and the three unique 45s I'm aware of all come from there (with Pam Records being owned by Bill 'Bunky' Shepperd, I believe). How 'Hey Girl' / 'Blues with a feeling' a New Orleans sound recorded in Chicago ended up being re-released by the Los Angeles based Loma label is bit of a mystery. As mentioned in the short write-up I've done, I reckon it's because Bob Krasnow, Loma's general manager, was trying to cash in on the nascent Blues Revival, bearing in mind that two Blues 'legend's' Son House and Skip James, had both been tracked down (some would say 'hunted') and rescued from their decades-long obscurity by Blues fanatics in the summer of '64. 'Hey girl', a song done in a style that was well out of fashion in 'pop' terms, came out in the November of that same year. I know that Carmichael was born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, and travelled the country for many years before settling in Chicago. He ended up in Cincinnati, and died there in 1982, aged either 80 or 60 depending on who you believe! Anything that helps adds to the very little that is known about Mr 'Lucky' Carmichael would be very much welcomed.

I was going to post this in the forum 'people with Soul", but that appeared to be the place for Birthday shouts... I've been trying to do a bit of digging around into the career of James 'Lucky' Carmichael. Although a blues artist, soul fans may remember him for his 1964 outing "Hey Girl" on Loma. He also recorded one-offs on Dille and Shar, and 'Hey Girl' / "Blues with a feeling" was originally released on Pam in 1962. I appreciate that as a blues artist a soul forum is not necessarily the best place to go looking for information, but hey, you never know, and there are always Loma fans out there. In attempting to research his background, the first thing you discover is that there is very little if any information available. I've managed to trace his musical career back to the first half of the 50s via a couple of newspaper clippings, but that's all. There are a number of online references to professional musicians who say they played with him early in their careers, but no insights or actual facts are offered. Further, there are a couple of mentions of him in music reference guides and in one biography that I've come across, but again, beyond the mention of his name, there's nothing added to the vague picture we have of him. Carmichael's obituary was published in issue 55 of the magazine 'Living Blues' (Nov/Dec 1982), and I'm very keen to get hold of a copy. I've already contacted the publishers, but no luck. Any soul fans with an interest in the blues who just might have a copy of this issue tucked away in the attic? If anyone's interested, I've done a bit of write-up at www.lomarecords.com - James 'Lucky' Carmichael , but that just reinforces how little I know about the man (although the scans of the 1950's news clippings I've dug up are yet to be added). Can anyone offer any further insight into this long-forgotten artist? All help appreciated.

Excellent - a swift response indeed.

Not that it means anything as you can host almost anywhere, but I see that the site is hosted in Utah by a service provider named BlueHost.com. Obviously, as documentation has been served on them for disclosure and/or withdrawal of content then an appropriate response should be forthcoming rather rapidly... If they choose not to comply then the next step, I presume, will be the application of a DMCA equivalent via Google and other search engines.