Jump to content

Funky 4 Corners

Members
  • Posts

    310
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2
  • Feedback

    0%

Funky 4 Corners last won the day on October 9 2023

Funky 4 Corners had the most liked content!

3 Followers

About Funky 4 Corners

  • Birthday 03/10/1950

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Maidstone, Kent, UK
  • Top Soul Sound
    Jerry O Karate BooGaLoo

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

Funky 4 Corners's Achievements

Regular

Regular (9/20)

  • Dedicated
  • 15 Years In
  • Poster
  • First Posts
  • Reactions

Recent Badges

103

Reputation

  1. As you will know Roburt has vast first hand experience of the Wheel and it's era and I fully agree with his views about acts not materialising. Also, from around '68 fake groups started to tour, a topic well covered elsewhere. As an unwashed teenager from a pit village near Wakefield, how would I know the difference? All I did know was that they were invariably awesome and thrilling to watch!
  2. 1970 was the last full year of the club's existence, it saw lots of imports being played which were slowly being imported from various sources, John Anderson in Glasgow, Martin Koppel on his trips to Canada, in Manchester, Barry Ancill's Record Rendezvous and Ralph's Records. F L Moore in Leighton Buzzard and Jeff King would visit the club from Leicester with a box of goodies. There were of course many other places that imported records, especially in London. Regarding the Wheel, as with the previous summer there were many 11th hour changes; July 25th saw Major Lance cancelled, August 29th was an all-nighter, September 5th, Horatio Soul & Pavements, 12th Sweet Inspirations and Johnny Johnson and 26th Fantastics and October saw the Hightimers. I've just found a flyer from autumn '69 which I've included at the end. These small flyers were gradually replaced in the final year by large A4 size black & white photos, I'll upload some soon.
  3. The Summer of '69 continue but August saw more mayhem; the 2nd saw the Crystals booked, the 9th Root & Jenny Jackson, the 23rd Ronettes, 30th, the Bandwagon. September wasn't much better - 6th, Jimmy James, 13th Jimmy Ruffin, 20th, the Drifters and 27th Coasters.
  4. The New Year of '69 was many last minute changes; February 1st saw Root & Jenny Jackson replace Edwin Starr, Johnny Johnson & Bandwagon replaced Carla Thomas on the 8th. The New Vibrations appeared on the 15th and the US Flat-Top Road Show on the 22nd. The G-Clefs performed on 22nd March and Ben E King on the 29th. Jamo Thomas was originally billed to appeared on May 24th but Bob & Earl stepped in at the last minute with Jamo re-booked for a month later.
  5. The next batch run from September '68 into February ''69. The 5th October was just an all-nighter. Oscar Toney Jr appeared on 16th November, the 30th was an all-nighter. The Original Drifters replaced the Showstoppers on 14th December and the Ferris Wheel performed on 4th January '69.
  6. Hopefully to complement this great thread, here's some Wheel fliers from the Whitworth Street era. Some advertise acts that never materialised or were replaced after the flyer had gone to print. Friday's Manchester Evening News would give the most accurate info as the fliers were mainly put out well in advance. This batch go from the opening session to summer 1968. On Saturday 14th August the M E N advertised Clyde McPhatter to appear who may well have replaced Jr Walker. Can anyone confirm this?
  7. Great images Andy, a good addition to the story! One thing I've often thought about is the origin of the La Beat name - very akin to L BEATty, I wonder if Lou's second name began with A?
  8. Introduction For over 15 years I wrote a monthly column in the now defunct Manifesto magazine, latterly under the editorship of Mike Ritson. This was a premier, glossy monthly publication that in my opinion surpassed everything since Black Music and hard copy Blues & Soul went under. Most of my submissions were record reviews interspersed with articles on labels and artists. My many box files contained information from various sources from old copies of the Detroit Free Press to heart felt letters from 60s artists seeking some sort of exposure in Britain. They were akin to bits of jigsaw, each one interesting but insufficient to create a complete picture. In a long-forgotten Detroit / Motown box were some cassettes of unissued Motown tracks from LA record dealer and DJ, Bob Cattaneo and also one time Motown employee, Tom Depierro. Connected to the latter was a letter from Tom to Soul aficionado, Ian Clark who I first met at the early 6Ts nights in London in the mid 70s, the letter gave Ian the tragic news of the slaying of Lester Tipton and how Tom and Lester had become friends in Hollywood. So here, along with other bits and pieces accumulated while preparing the `Groovesville USA` book were enough jigsaw pieces for an article but sadly Manifesto magazine ground to a halt in the spring of 2019 and the story remained unpublished, until now. LESTER TIPTON Lester Fred Tipton was born 1st September 1948 in Detroit Mi. along with twin sister Leslie Viola to their parents, Mr & Mrs Willard Tipton. The twins had two brothers, Larry and Eddie. Lester and Leslie attended Goldberg Elementary school on Marquette St. then Hutchins Jr High on Woodrow Wilson and on to Northern High, on Woodward. At Northern, Lester showed great skills in design and some of his creations were bought by local celebrities. By the mid 60s, 2000 of Northern’s students were Afro-American with the likes of Ron Banks, Smokey Robnison, Pete Moore, Sylvia Moy, Lorraine Chandler and Aretha Franklin graduating from there. Lester and Leslie were keen singers at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church on near by Elmhurst and soon after leaving school, Lester heard about a new record label that had opened up nearby at 6072 14th St. near Marquette in January ‘66 by Lou Beatty, called La Beat. Like other local young aspiring singers he would linger outside and stare in to the studios through the large windows. The building, originally a four bedroomed house was quite imposing which Beatty had converted, with the studio on street level and was well equipped with Crown two track recorders, Bogan mixers etc. Although he had experience in making music as a young saxophonist, Beatty’s inexperience in recording showed somewhat as 14th Street had heavy traffic and the recording room’s large windows allowed street noise in. He eventually overcame this by using the Universal Studios in Chicago for special sessions. No doubt in anticipation of his new venture, the previous year had seen him form a loose partnership with the Rev James Hendrix aka Hendricks who already had the Carrie label behind him, which featured both Motor City recordings as well as tracks leased from North Carolina and his home town Nashville. Hendrix’s labels originally had PO Box addresses prior to 6072 14th St. Soon other labels emerged that were connected to this address; Rambler, Arnold, Cool School and Mary Jane. Once La Beat got on its feet and Beatty became more confident he began distancing himself from Hendrix and engaged Teddy Harris Snr. as his music advisor. La Beat Studios with Beatty Beatty, who lived on LaSalle St like most other label owners in Detroit funded his sideline from his other business’, mainly Beatty Brothers Construction and motels, one of which stood almost opposite La Beat. Lester managed to get the attention of Beatty who signed the 17 year old up for one session; La Beat 6607, “This Won’t Change” / “Go On”, written and produced by Johnny Mills and Curtis Trusell, both members of the LPTs (La Beat Production Team) but it made little to no impact on the Detroit music scene and so no more sessions followed. This was not the end of Lester’s venture into showbiz however as he and sister, who were great dancers entered a dance contest on Robin Seymour’s Swingin’ Time TV show on CKLW 9, broadcast around Detroit and went on to be the show’s regular dancers. When Seymour was asked who were his favourite dancers he nominated “The Tiptons, Lester & Leslie, they were probably the most famous. They were a black couple and great dancers, they were on the show every single day...Lester and Leslie would do things, and the other kids would try to copy them. They entered this national contest that Dick Clark had and won.. they won two Pontiac auto-mobiles.” Another competition prize was a trip to Florida and a third, a trip to Hollywood. Soon to become great friends, Tom Depierro said that on that occasion the siblings decided to stay there and they soon appeared as dancers in the film ‘Thank God It’s Friday` and Lester, with a different partner in `Cindy`, both released in 1978. He also appeared in a couple of TV sitcoms inc `Love Boat` and `Hollywood Dynasty`. But singing was still Lester’s driving ambition and in ‘75 he cut two sides with Jerome Russell but the record company were looking for a stereotypical Soul performer which Lester rejected as he knew what he wanted to achieve. The recordings remained in the can. By now he and Tom had formed a very strong friendship based around Lester’s musical aspirations but Tom began to witness Lester’s growing doubts about his singing ability which Tom described as “Ludicrous...he had rich natural tones, warmth, a wonderful sense of timing and harmonics, down to earth style and one ton of class. Why we couldn’t get a deal on him is something that remains a mystery”. As many of you know Tom Depierro was in the music business and came to fame via his `From the Vaults` LP on Motown when he found hundreds of acetates that were in a skip outside a storage facility that originated from Motown when they were moving into 6255 Sunset in LA. They contained unreleased material from Detroit, recorded between 1960 – 67. With a plan to group together the best 35 tracks and then present a proposition to Motown, he approached the company but was rejected and “treated like a fool”. Instinctively however he knew the enormity of what he was sitting on and kept the idea on the back burner. He eventually found a position under Iris Gordy, Motown executive and wife of Johnny Bristol. Tom did not have a favourable opinion of Iris’s organisational skills and on one occasion when she was behind with a scheduled album release she impetuously demanded Tom deal with it. This was his opportunity to get his unreleased material onto vinyl and it was out on the streets before Motown realised it until reading about it in Billboard who had replaced a feature on Diana Ross with an article on `From the Vaults`. But by then 20,000 had been pressed and were selling well. Tom also recalls a less favourable episode in his life when a well known record `entrepreneur` visited him at the time when Lester was living with him. When Lester relieved that he didn’t own a copy of his La Beat outing, the visitor reassured him he’d get him one and he also borrowed Andantes and Frank Wilson 45s from Tom. Tom revealed that Lester never did received his record and he never saw his two rare Motown discs again. Upon hearing of this episode from Tom, his long standing UK friend Ian Clark sent him a Grapevine copy to give to Lester who was over the moon with it and sent it on to Detroit for his family, most of whom had never heard it! Tom said that he intended to record Lester on his own fledgling Airwaves label but at that point finances were not in place to promote Lester and get him the dates he deserved. By 1980 Lester had given up his dream and flew to New York City to the School of Cosmetology. Having qualified as a hairdresser he returned to California and rented in his own apartment in down town LA but on the night of 9th February 1982 someone broke in and beat him to death. The police suggested robbery was the motive but Tom made the point that Lester had few material possessions to steal only a couple of rings and a watch. His body was found five days later on Sunday 14th February by his now married sister, Leslie Russell. Ironically, `Love Boat`, the sit-com he had a part in was broadcast the following day. His remains were taken back to Detroit and his funeral took place on Tuesday 23rd February 1982 at the Lincoln Memorial Park on 14 Mile at Gratiot and the service was held at the Charles T Cole Funeral Home on E Grand Boulevard with Rev John H Kearney officiating. Anthony Earl (Tony) Thornton sang a solo and Leonard Cheatem read the obituary. Now that she had the full story about his legendary status, she told Ian that someone in England should write about her brother. La Beat Studios - The Masquraders La Beat eventually closed down in 1972 and for any indie set up to last over five years was quite remarkable. Such was the demand for Beatty’s Detroit recordings in the UK that legendary Glaswegian record dealer John Anderson, struck a deal with Beatty in the late 70s to issue his recordings on his Grapevine label including of course, `This Won’t Change`. Having never been boot-legged, this gave Britain’s Soul fans the opportunity to own Detroit Soul’s holy grail as the original was virtually unobtainable. Lou Beatty passed away on 7th March, 2001 and very sadly, John on 2nd October 2019. You will notice that I have not referred to the value of Lester’s 45s on La Beat or Grapevine. I learned something some twenty years ago when I was in contact with and eventually met Leonard King Jr. a contemporary of Lester’s in Detroit, back in the day. Leonard told me as tactfully as he could that most of us in the UK only viewed the Detroit Soul scene through a hole in a 7” piece of plastic and if a name didn’t appear on the aforementioned disc of vinyl, then we would probably never know about them. I eventually realised this was oh so true, certainly as far as I was concerned once I started looking through various 60s entertainment mags and newspapers from mid sixties Detroit. But I also know there are British guys around who know more than me because they’ve looked beyond monetary value and have been to the States and befriended these artists for more that wanting what was in their attic or garage. In Leonard’s case, as a teenager he and his band, the Soul Messengers who had one release on Impact Records were, he told me taken to the cleaners financially and so never recorded again. They, along with scores of other Detroit artists made their money and reputation on the live scene playing the hundreds of clubs, lounges, ballrooms, bar etc. in the city. I would like to thank Graham Finch, Paul Mooney and Dave Welding for their invaluable research, Ron Murphy for newspaper photos, Stuart Russell for layout and Ian Clark in particular for specific information on Lester Tipton. Keith Rylatt Video
  9. Jerry Murray is being given the place in history he deserves.
  10. As a few of you may recall I wrote a short book about Jerry O, aka Jerry Murray a couple of years ago. Unsure of the level of interest I only had 150 copies published and they sold out within a couple of weeks. As with most non- fiction books, especially those dealing with previously unpublished / little known topics, as soon as the first copies went out, previously unknown information began to emerge. Originally I was not sure exactly where Jerry was born or died other than Bernie Hayes thinking he was from Mississippi and knew he died there in a car accident around '74, on a visit t his family. My first incoming contact was from Shawn Payton, son of Larry Payton who was very influential in Jerry's entry into the recording business and I'm sure I gave a summary of this a year or so ago. The next contact was from one of Jerry's nieces from Arcola, Mississippi where Jerry was born and lived with his grandmother before moving north to Detroit. Arcola is a very small town, population 361 and sits on the crossroads of Highways 61 and 438, about 18 miles southeast of Greenville. The good folk of Arcola are familiar with Jerry's career and indeed in 2017 dedicated the annual town festival to him and I was fortunate enough to link up with a couple of other family relatives and also the Lady Mayor, Cora Shorter Burnside. They were impressed with the level of interest in Jerry, specially in the UK and I sent a copy of the book to Cora to put in the town's library. Cora messaged me yesterday to say that the book had been well received and they plan to hold a Jerry O festival annually from now on. This year's festival was held on August 7th.
  11. Featured in today's Sunday Telegraph (28th March). By Martin Glover of West Norwood. The image may be available in higher definiton on line?
  12. Hi Tony, '66 was a bit of an educated guess based on Shawn's recollection of various Beatles Lps around the house on VJ. I guess they were milking their era of catalogue once Capitoil took over probably trying to keep afloat?
  13. Thank you Alan, I appreciate this! Bit mystfied about my shed??
  14. No misunderstanding Andy, that backing track was the Maurice Jackson track, a disc that may well ahve been withdrawn or pressed in very small numbers as it is incredibly rare. Andre Williams was connected to the Soulville Record store and probably realising the commercial value of the track Jerry Murray and Tommy Dark sang `Boo Ga Loo` and `Boomerang` on top of it and that went as a demo to ABC where it was released. Back in '79 when John played it to me I realised after a few days that I had the track on HMV! Keith


×
×
  • Create New...