60s Soul Advertising
Flickr never fails to surprise. We’ve already featured DC Soul’s fabulous archive and if you haven’t seen it already you can now add this collection of 60s soul ads, we presume taken from Billboard and Cashbox back issues. Quite how the Who qualify as a soul band is something of a mystery but their inclusion ...
The Clifton Record Shop, Bristol
In the late 60s, American imports were just beginning to make an appearance in the UK and were a highly prized addition to any soul record collection. Other dealers that I have mentioned before such as F L Moore were pioneers but there was one shop located at 1 Boyce’s Avenue, Clifton, Bristol 8 that ...
Charles ‘Skip’ Pitts RIP
Another foot soldier of the sixties soul army has sadly died. Guitarist Charles Pitts, who created two of the greatest R&B grooves of the 60s and 70s – the Isley Brothers’ chugging ‘It’s Your Thing’ and Isaac Hayes’ inimitable ‘Theme From Shaft’ passed on 1 May in Memphis. A constant at Stax sessions, Charles played ...
Sonny Warner: Been So Very Long
Haywood `Little Sonny` Warner hailed from Fall Church, Virginia, and joined the Four Sons Gospel group as a teenager. The group were quite successful and under their new name the Rockets found themselves at the Apollo in New York where Atlantic Records’ Armet Ertegun spotted them and signed them to the label. Their only recordings ...
Bring It To Jerome
As sidekicks go, few were as influential as Bo Diddley’s maracas player Jerome Green. After Bo’s ‘shave and a haircut, two bits’ rhythm crossed the Atlantic any British R&B band worth its salt added rumba shakers to their line-up – the Rolling Stones, the Pretty Things, the Animals… right through to Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant. ...
Val Shively’s R&B Records
Val Shively’s record store in Upper Darby was, and probably still is, one of the first ports-of-call for UK vinyl collectors hitting Philadelphia. Val has run his business since 1962 and he boasts an encyclopaedic knowledge of doo-wop and vocal group R&B. Ever eccentric, Val doesn’t really like browsers in his store, as the posters ...
