"Bob Stanley Presents: 76 In The Shade" by VARIOUS ARTISTS – Featuring 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977 Tracks by Lynsey De Paul, Jefferson Starship, Smokey Robinson, David Ruffin, 10cc, Barclay James Harvest, Liverpool Express, Steve Miller Band, Simon Park, Cliff Richard, Blue Mink, The Emotions, Azimuth, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Hollywood Freeway, Sylvia, Carmen McRae and more (August 2020 UK Ace Records CD Compilation – Nick Robbins Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Sugar Shuffle..."

I am not really sure who this compilation is aimed at, but it sure ain't me. 

For the most part, I found it a painful listen - music that hasn't travelled the decades well no matter how smartly you present it (the 20-page Bob Stanley annotated liner notes and booklet are the usual classy affair from British reissue diamonds Ace Records). 

Loosely themed around the hottest summer then on record (1976) which many of a certain age (moi included) remember all too well - this Bob Stanley Presents "76 In The Shade" Various Artists 20-track CD on Ace CDCHD 1580 (Barcode 029667099424) is supposed to bring me back to that hot and sweaty musical maelstrom (release date: 28 August 2020, 74:53 minutes). 

But despite really great NICK ROBBINS Remastered sound - many of the tracks put up here as worthy of rediscovery are that awful middle-of-the-road mid-Seventies Pop cack – unmemorable fluff that made the breath-of-fresh-air Punk and New Wave music so necessary and so welcome. 

Then there are the dates. Many of these songs are from 1973, 1972 and 1975- so don't really fit in either. The only real 1976 gems on here are tracks I already own – the full version of 10cc's utterly brilliant "I'm Mandy Fly Me" from their "How Dare You" album, Steve Miller's beautiful and spacey "Wild Mountain Honey" from "Fly Like An Eagle" and the lovely Charles Stepney/Maurice White sexy Soul of "Flowers" by The Emotions. 

Interesting picks. The Simon Park (of "Eye Level" fame) track from a Music De Wolfe library LP is a clever instrumental choice and Gilbert O’Sullivan’s last album for Mam Records "Southpaw" in 1977 with his simple but lovely "Miss My Love Today" is another forgotten LP that deserves a light shone on it again. The Brazilian Jazz-Funk of Azimuth livens up "Montreal City" and 76 In The Shade finishes with Carmen McRae channelling her inner Amy Winehouse as she covers James Taylor’s "Music" taken from her forgotten 1976 Blue Note album "Can't Hide Love". 

But the David Ruffin song is just so bloody ordinary. Middle of the Road fare too like Liverpool Express' "You Are My Love" and the pseudo cool summer breeze of Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds and their "Fallin' In Love" are truly cringeworthy 1976 lurve tunes that in 2020 might actually make your skin crawl. It also begins on a run that is frankly embarrassing - a Beach Boys harmonies unreleased track from 1973 followed by insipid tunes from the keyboard slinky Lynsey De Paul, a sold-out Jefferson Starship and a running-on-empty Smokey Robinson - none of which make you think 1976 was a year of genius. 

But it's also the omissions. There is no Stephen Bishop and his fabulous "Careless" debut LP from December 1976 with "On And On" and "Little Italy", or how about the sexy Rock-Funk groove of "Hot Stuff" that opened "Black And Blue" by The Rolling Stones, or Scotland's Cado Belle and their great self-titled debut on Anchor ("Stone's Throw From Nowhere") or even say "Boogie Pilgrim" from Elton's second double-album splurge "Blue Moves". 

As I recall also, that hot year was dominated by American bands - Boston's amazing debut, Billy Joel and his "Turnstiles", Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and their electrifying debut, the Isley Brothers giving us a "Harvest For The World", Hall & Oates and their "Bigger Than Both Of Us", Stevie Wonder doubling-up on "Songs In The Key Of Life". Rock bands and Artists like Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak", Al Stewart's "Year Of The Cat", Jeff Beck's "Wired", Joni Mitchell's "Hejira", Patti Smith's "Radio Ethiopia" or Graham Parker's "Heat Treatment". None represented. 

I realise that some of these huge acts may have represented a licensing issue for Ace but to be peddled crud like Cliff Richard, Hollywood Freeway and the pap that is "Rock 'N' Roll Star" by Barclay James Harvest as 'smooth' or 'good' is just plain ridiculous. 

"Stay With Me" - Blue Mink pleaded in September 1972 on Regal Zonophone (all my tomorrows, yesterday's sorrows etc) – but in truth I wish that even half of this offering did just that – stay with me. I would advise a listen first before purchase...

PS: there is also a 28 August 2020 VINYL 21-Track 2LP variant on Ace Records XXQLP2 073 (Barcode 029667011914) with One Bonus Track - "Inspiration Information" by Shuggie Otis (Fourth Track, Side 2 of LP1)....

"Just For A Moment (The Best Of)" RONNIE LANE – Tracks from 1972 to 1989 on GM, Island and Atlantic Records with Guests Ron Wood, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Members of McGuinness Flint and Gallagher & Lyle, Alun Davies, Steve Simpson of Meal Ticket, Billy Nicholls, Carol Grimes, Charlie Watts, Kate Lambert and more (May 2019 UK Universal Musical Operations (UMC) CD Compilation – Jon Astley Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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This Review and Over 220 Others 

Is Available In My AMAZON E-Book 

PICK UP THE PIECES 

1974

Your All-Genres Guide To Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters

All Reviews In-Depth and from the Discs Themselves

(No Cut And Paste Crap)

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"...Found My Peace..."

There is a moment as I play 1974's "Roll On Babe" when I well up. It happens every time I play "Debris" by the Faces too from 1971 – both stunning Ronnie Lane ballad moments. I've often wondered why and especially why more so of late. 

Ronnie Lane was like this. There was just something utterly Fab about him. And his songs were often so deceptively simple too, yet the melody and joyous-spirit embedded in the lyrics had that uncanny way of making you feel better - lifting you up above the cruelty of life and city grime. Plonk (his nickname) was Small Faces infectious – rammed to the gunnels with British melodic brilliance - and that almost childlike smile of his somehow seeped into the Acoustic Guitars and Mandolins and Accordions in every one of his songs. Which brings us to this ludicrously cheap and beautiful sounding round up of his Acoustic and Folk Rock softer side. Some factoids first...

16 May 2019 saw the Universal Music Operations motherlode arrive in the shape of "Just For A Moment (Music 1973-1977)" - a 6CD Box Set in 10" x 10" packaging on UMC 675593-9 (Barcode 602567559399). It contained all four of his studio albums from the Seventies and beyond, album outtakes, BBC live stuff and some tasty unreleased. It also had a 72-page booklet and JON ASTLEY Remastering - a name associated with much-praised Remasters of The Who and Pete Townshend solo material. 

Released on the same day (18 May 2019) was this - "Just For A Moment (The Best Of)" by RONNIE LANE - an 18-track 1CD Best Of on UMC 00602577211263 (Barcode 602577211263) - culled from the bigger 6CD Box Set.  

It also has a VINYL 18-Track 2LP variant on UMC 00602577211270 (Barcode 602577211270) that comes with a Download Voucher. 

Best Of CD compilations are often a sort of poor man's exercise in recouping dosh or tapping latent affection towards an artist and his time. But whether you're a Lane fan or not and despite the last two songs from 1989 where his health, voice and even diction was failing him (so they are good rather than inspirational) - "Just For A Moment" may be one of the most perfectly sequenced single-disc Anthologies I've ever heard. Covering late 1973 through to the last two previously unreleased tracks from early 1989 – this Best Of plays so well – a genuinely deft sequencing of what made his music so loveable. Let's roll on babe to the details (62:45 minutes, total playing time)...

1. Just For A Moment
2. The Poacher 
3. Anymore For Anymore
4. How Come? (Single Version) 
5. Tell Everyone 
6. Roll On Babe 
7. Little Piece Of Nothing
8. Anniversary
9. Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?
10. Don't Try 'n' Change My Mind
11. One For The Road
12. Annie 
13. April Fool
14. Kuschty Rye
15. Barcelona
16. One Step
17. Spiritual Babe 
18. Strongbear's Daughter

NOTES: 
Track 1 by RON WOOD and RONNIE LANE - from the September 1976 UK LP "Mahoney's Last Stand - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" on Atlantic K 50308 – also featuring Bruce Rowlands of The Grease Band on Drums. Recordings made in 1972. 

Tracks 2 and 3 by RONNIE LANE and THE BAND "SLIM CHANCE" - from the July 1974 UK Solo Debut LP "Anymore For Anymore" on GM Records GML 1013

Track 4 by RONNIE LANE Accompanied by the Band "Slim Chance" - December 1973 UK debut solo 45 on GM Records GMS 011, A-side, 3:08 minutes (not on the "Anymore For Anymore" album)

Tracks 5 and 6 by RONNIE LANE and THE BAND "SLIM CHANCE" - from the July 1974 UK LP "Anymore For Anymore" on GM Records GML 1013 – Track 5 also one of two B-sides on the "How Come" single; Track 6 is a Derroll Adams cover version

Tracks 7 and 8 by RONNIE LANE - from the February 1975 UK LP "Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance" on Island ILPS 9321

Track 9 by RONNIE LANE - March 1975 UK Non-Album 7" single on Island WIP 6229, A-side

Tracks 10 and 11 by RONNIE LANE'S SLIM CHANCE - from the January 1976 UK LP "One For The Road" on Island ILPS 9336

Tracks 12 and 13 by PETE TOWNSHEND and RONNIE LANE - from the October 1977 UK LP "Rough Mix" on Polydor 2442 147 - featuring Gallagher & Lyle and Eric Clapton

Track 14 by RONNIE LANE - from the August 1980 UK LP "See Me" on Gem Records GEMLP 107 - featuring Alun Daves of Cat Stevens Band and Sweet Thursday, Steve Simpson of Meal Ticket with Bruce Rowland and Henry McCulloch of The Grease Band

Track 15 by RONNIE LANE - October 1979 UK 45 single on Gem Records GEMS 12, A-side - also on the August 1980 UK LP "See Me" on Gem Records GEMLP 107 - featuring Eric Clapton on Guitar, Carol Grimes on Vocals, Steve Simpson of Meal Ticket with Bruce Rowland and Henry McCulloch of The Grease Band

Track 16 by RONNIE LANE - from the August 1980 UK LP "See Me" on Gem Records GEMLP 107 - featuring Cal Batchelor of Quiver, Charlie Hart of The People Band and Slim Chance, Alun Daves of Cat Stevens' Band and Sweet Thursday with Bruce Rowland of The Grease Band

Tracks 17 and 18 by RONNIE LANE are Arlyn Studio Sessions from January 1989 – exclusive to the May 2019 "Just For A Moment (Music 1973-1977)" 6CD Box Set and this single CD compilation

The 16-page booklet features track-by-track writing credits, but don’t tell you who played on what (as I have done above). And while there are acknowledgements and 'with thanks' credits – there are no new liner notes which is such a damn shame. This is offset by 10 pages of unpublished photos from the 1974 'Passing Show' tour through to his rehabilitation stay in America in the late Eighties where his Multiple Sclerosis had begun to really ravage him (he'd lived with the disease for 20 years and it took his mother before him). 

But what blows you away is the Audio – JON ASTLEY Remasters that are amongst the loveliest I've heard of this material. The other Ronnie Lane set to compare notes with is the March 2014 Universal/Island double-CD anthology called "Ooh La La: An Island Harvest" (see separate review) and I feel the audio is even better here. 

The first thing that hits you as you play song after song is that those looking for Classic Rawk should look away – this is Acoustic Guitar Folk Rock, Mandolins and Accordions aplenty and often at times feeling like McGuinness Flint mated with Gallagher & Lyle and then asked Ronnie lane and his band Slim Chance to join them under the giggling sheets. The only time I feel the audio lags a tad is on the Single Mix of "How Come" but other than that songs like "Tell Everyone", the pastoral charm of "The Poacher" and the beautiful cover of the Derroll Adams Country tune "Roll On Babe" are revelatory. The two from the fabulous "Rough Mix" album with PT of The Who are gorgeous – beautifully produced Dobro notes flying around your speakers with sparkling clarity. People sort of slag off the 1980 LP "See Me" but again, two clever mellow choices from it do that forgotten album proud. And the final two are growing on me but his obvious failing health makes me sad. 

You do wish maybe they had included the gorgeous "Tin And Tambourine" from the February 1975 LP "Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance" (included the melody to "Devotion" on the first Faces LP from 1970) or more of the Pete Townshend, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones contributions to the "Mahoney's Last Stand" soundtrack recorded in 1972 but not released until 1976. That album features an "Ooh La La" sessions-vibe and was only reissued on CD properly by Real Gone Music of the USA in 2018 - that digital hardcopy already a bloody rarity in Autumn 2020. In short, more Plonk material could have been fitted in especially with only 62 minutes playing time used, but actually sometimes less is more. 

I have seen this compilation on offer for under a fiver, but as October 2020, "Just For A Moment (The Best Of)" by RONNIE LANE is still available for less than seven quid new (including P&P) and what a bargain that is (best I ever had as his buddy Pete would say). 

"...Just for a moment, I found my peace... ", Ronnie sang almost 50 years ago on this compilation's title track. And I hope in your low moments, you find the same on this beautiful CD...

VARIOUS ARTISTS - "Purple People Vol.1" – Including Four Albums by Yvonne Elliman (November 1973), Buddy Bohn (October 1971), Carol Hunter (November 1973) and the Various Artists album "Colditz Breakpoint!" (December 1973) all on Deep Purple’s Purple Records – Guests include Pete Townshend of The Who, Mick Grabham of Bandit and Cochise, Simon Jeffes of The Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Caleb Quaye and Ray Cooper of Hookfoot and Elton John's Band, Peter Robinson of Quatermass and Brand X, Ann Odell of Blue Mink, Chopyn and Roger Glover's Band with Rupert Hine of Quantum Jump and String Arrangements by Paul Buckmaster (October 2017 UK Cherry Red/Purple Records – 4LPs onto 4CDs in a Clamshell Mini Box Set – Tony Dixon Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Love's Bringing Me Down..."

When I worked in Reckless Records in Islington and Soho - none of these albums on Deep Purple's Purple Records did any business and were usually only picked up by fans of the band and label completists if they were marked down to say a fiver or less (which was often). 

The exception to that was the Yvonne Elliman album with its sexy guest list of high-end contributions (Pete Townshend of The Who to name but one). "Food Of Love" has always had its fans but the others are virtual unknowns – and unfortunately on the well-produced but dreadfully ordinary evidence presented here on Discs 2 and 3 especially – it's all too easy to hear why. Here are the purp-petraters (oh dear)...

UK released 27 October 2017 - "Purple People Vol. 1" by VARIOUS ARTISTS (Yvonne Elliman, Buddy Bohn, Carol Hunter and Colditz) on Cherry Red/Purple Records PURPLEBOX013 (Barcode 5013929861305) offers 4 Albums Remastered onto 4CDs in a Clamshell Mini Box Set that plays out as follows:   

CD1 "Food Of Love" by YVONNE ELLIMAN (41:25 minutes):

1. Casserole Me Over [Side 1]

2. More Than One, Less Than Five 

3. I Want To Make You Laugh, I Want To Make You Cry 

4. Meusli Dreams

5. I Can't Explain 

6. Sunshine [Side 2]

7. Hawaii 

8. I Don't Know How To Love Him Blues 

9. The Moon Struck One

10. Happy Ending 

11. Love's Bringing Me Down 

Tracks 1 to 11 are her album "Food Of Love" - released November 1973 in the UK on Purple Records TPS 3504 and August 1973 in the USA on MCA Records MCA-356. Produced by RUPERT HINE - guest musicians included Pete Townshend of The Who, Mick Grabham of Bandit and Cochise, Simon Jeffes of The Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Caleb Quaye and Ray Cooper of Hookfoot and Elton John's Band, Peter Robinson of Quatermass and Brand X, Ann Odell of Blue Mink, Chopyn and Roger Glover's Band with Rupert Hine of Quantum Jump.

CD2 "A Drop In The Ocean" by BUDDY BOHN (38:42 minutes):

1. Piccalilli Lady [Side 1]

2. Winter Song 

3. Cockroach 

4. Almitra 

5. Vermouth Rondo 

6. Reflecting Butterfly

7. Albert Gate Farm [Side 2]

8. Curious Yellow 

9. Sad Lady 

10. Samuel 

11. Summer Song 

12. Forgotten Sound 

Tracks 1 to 12 are his third studio album "A Drop In The Ocean" - released October 1971 in the UK on Purple Records TPSA 7503 and February 1972 in the USA on Purple Records SMAS-878. Produced by JERRY LORDAN (engineered Roy Thomas Baker) - it didn't chart in either country. Guests included Tony Burrows of Edison Lighthouse with Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway on Backing Vocals.  

CD3 "The Next Voice You Hear" by CAROL HUNTER (33:37 minutes):

1. Look Out Cleveland [Side 1]

2. Pass It On 

3. Sea Fever 

4. 5/4 March 

5. Song For A Winter's Night 

6. Dr. Pepper

7. Border Song [Side 2]

8. Dressing Room Jam 

9. Gospel Changes / Carol Without Words

10. The Norman Stand There Rag 

11. Carol Without Words 

12. Dr. Pepper (Instrumental) 

13. Soggy Waltz 

Tracks 1 to 13 are her debut album "The Next Voice You Hear" - released November 1973 in the UK on Purple Records TPS 3503 (wasn't issued in the USA). Produced by CAROL HUNTER and RANDY STEIRLING - it didn't chart.  

CD4 "Colditz Breakpoint!" by VARIOUS ARTISTS (36:14 minutes):

1. The Warsaw Concerto - MELACHRINO ORCHESTRA [Side 1]

2. Wish Me Luck - GRACIE FIELDS 

3. London Pride - ELSIE and DORIS WATERS 

4. There's A Boy Coming Home On Leave - MAURICE WINNICK 

5. Symphony No. 4 In F Major - NEW PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA 

6. Washing On The Siegfried Line - ARTHUR ASKEY 

7. Siefried's Funeral March - LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 

8. I Hear Your Voice - LUTON GIRLS CHOIR 

9. Die Fahne Hoch - SS STANDARTE 42 MILITARY BAND [Side 2]

10. Tiggerty Boo - JACK WARNER  

11. Rhapsodie Opus 79 No. 2 - NEW PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA 

12. Symphony No. 4 - NEW PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA 

13. Lili Marlene - LALE ANDERSON 

14. Rhymes - LALE ANDERSON 

15. Bless 'Em All - GEORGE FORMBY 

16. Der Fuhrer's Face - HARRY ROY 

17. In The Mood - UNKNOWN ARTIST 

18. Symphony No. 4 In F Major - NEW PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA

19. Siegfried's Funeral March - LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 

Tracks 1 to 19 are the album "Colditz Breakpoint!" - released December 1973 in the UK on Purple Records TPSM 2001 (unissued in the USA). Produced by RUPERT HINE - it didn't chart.

This 2017 four-disc label anthology takes its "Purple People" title from a vinyl LP label sampler issued December 1973 in the UK on Purple TPSS 1 that contained all of these artists (its label is pictured on Page 9 of the booklet). The four singular Mini LP Repro Artwork card sleeves are faithful to the original vinyls (back and front) whilst the new MALCOLM DOME liners in the 20-page booklet fill in all the Purple-pleasing details. There are period pictures of the artists, all those Purple Records LP labels, a picture sleeve of The Who cover version "I Can't Explain" from Yvonne Elliman that features PT of The Who and full musician credits for each platter. Alongside the glossy Clamshell Mini Box Set - it all looks and sounds great courtesy of TONY DIXON Mastering except the embarrassing and largely unlistenable "Colditz Breakpoint!" release that is made up of period recordings with the occasional orchestral interlude. To the contents...

The undoubted catch here is the Yvonne Elliman LP "Food Of Love" – her second solo album after a self-titled US debut on Decca in 1972, itself not surprisingly re-titled in the UK on Polydor as "I Don't Know How To Love Him" after the October 1970 Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice double-album track on "Jesus Christ Superstar" that made her famous. She even does a rather bitter sick-of-it parody of the song on "Food Of Love" called "I Don't Know How To Love Him Blues" – slide guitars and crazy show/God help me now lyrics. The LP benefits immeasurably from the stunning Production values of RUPERT HINE (who also contributed many of the songs with his co-writer David MacIver). 

Yvonne warns of gluttony and greed with the opening 'can't seem to stuff my body enough' song "Casserole Me Over" – a Soul-Rock groove funky enough to have been a hit single on an unusual topic. As songs like "I Want To Make You Laugh, I Want To Make You Cry" (stunning guitar solo), her cover of The Band's "The Moon Struck One" or even her own "Hawaii" (a homage to where she was born to Japanese and Irish parents) – sophistication reeks off all the sweetly arranged tunes. And while you can so hear why Purple Records chose the obvious winner of "I Can't Explain" with Pete Townshend letting rip on his guitar with such great swagger as the album's only 45-single in late July 1973 (her own "Hawaii" on the flipside of PUR 114) – you get the awful feeling that this is an accomplished album for sure but just lacking somehow in killer tunes. Elliman had a great voice (she would of course join Eric Clapton's entourage after this for huge success on "461 Ocean Boulevard") – but tunes like "Sunshine" are only saved by clever brass arrangements. 

The last time "Food Of Love" was made available digitally was in December 2008 on one of those dinky repro Mini LP Paper Sleeves but only out of Japan on Air Mile Archive AIRAC-1512 (Barcode 4571136375271). And with deletion, this sought-after wee beastie has been expensive (even extortionate) ever since (Buddy Bohn and Carol Hunter were in the same December 2008 series also on Air Mile Archive). So at least UK and US fans can get their hands on the album here in great sound and quality presentation for a reasonable sum. 

Vocally US Folky Buddy Bohn comes on like a mix between Jim Croce and Jose Feliciano with String Arrangements from Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. Every song is earnest acoustic strumming about butterflies and cockroaches and sad ladies in summer, but with overwrought string arrangements it feels like bad Neil Diamond without the tunes. His "A Drop In The Ocean" looks interesting art-wise (especially for a 1971 title), but on playing feels like angst-ridden cheese. It is really not very good at all. 

Not so much a Kiki Dee wannabe as the dreadfully dated 1973 artwork seems to indicate – Carol Hunter was an accomplished session guitarist who could also lent harmony vocals. She had played on "Indian Rope Man" for Richie Havens, before that and after for Janis Ian and impressively on the Dylan soundtrack "Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid". But her solo LP features tedious instrumentals that noodle rather than move, although she does reasonably good covers of Gordon Lightfoot's "Song For A Winter's Night”, The Band's "Look Out Cleveland", the John Williams song "Gospel Changes" as covered by John Denver and Elton John's "Border Song”. There are some impressive names contributing too like Larry Carlton and David Cohen – but too often it feels like a hodgepodge LP that doesn't know what its doing half the time and ends on a hoedown called "Soggy Waltz" that does no one any Country Rock favours. 

To my knowledge this is the first time the Various Artists "Colditz Breakpoint!" LP has ever been CD reissued – a WW II period-sounds tie-in with the hugely popular TV series airing at the time on British TV. You get field recordings of Spitfires and music from George Formby, Gracie Fields, Jack Warner, Arthur Askey, Elsie and Doris Waters and New Philharmonia Orchestra etc. Unfortunately it's a truly terrible listen – not patriotic like you would imagine – but cringing and almost somehow derogatory in 2020. 

A very mixed bag indeed then with the Elliman set being the clear winner of the bunch. "I think it's love... " – Yvonne sang on her smashing cover of The Who's "I Can't Explain". However, I think you should grab a listen first before buying...

"Sylvia Pankhurst - Natural Born Rebel" by RACHEL HOLMES (September 2020 UK Hardback Book) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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It's Cover Price in Hardback is £35 

Amazon UK are offering it at under £23 incl. P&P

"...Embodiment of the Human Mind..."

First thing, you may want to cancel your gym membership after reading this hardback. Weighing in at a huge 949 pages, it’ll certainly flex those tendons when you actually lift it up.

I bought the Hardback Edition for my 62nd birthday when "Sylvia Pankhurst: Natural Born Rebel" by RACHEL HOLMES was first published in September 2020 and it is a beast of an autobiography in every way. I cannot imagine the decade or more of archive rummaging and sleuth uncovering that it must have taken to collate this mighty tome - respectful yet thankfully honest in the transfer – good stuff and bad.

I'm presently about eight chapters in and the sheer volume of research and personal detail is still coming at me like a freight train. I mention this because it can be hard to jumble and sort the cascade of information; so you will need to invest in this book – but what a payoff.

Academic in approach by sheer voluminous necessity aside, thankfully Holmes is smart enough to bring Sylvia alive via the personal. Holmes digs in deep to every aspect of this remarkable woman's life - her formative years at the hands of parents who were political revolutionaries that seemed to spend every waking minute of every day actually practising this coda rather than spouting it out in crowd-pleasing speeches and endless correspondence to newspapers. Her barrister father Dr. Richard Pankhurst and the Suffrage Leader he worshipped as his equal in mind, body and soul - Emmeline - loom large in everything that formed Sylvia. Sisters Christabel and Adela are also woven into the campaigner fabric.

Yet, if you told the precocious Sylvia to sit down quietly in the schoolroom because calm was good for her and the other pupils trying to study, she would be the Lemmy and Angus Young drawing a rusty nail across the window pain in defiance.
Born 1882 in Stretford England and passing in 1960 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Sylvia had rebelliousness, action and staggering willpower built into her D.N.A. Famously the only one of the Pankhurst ladies to suffer the gag-horror of force-feeding, between 1913 and 1914 alone, the then Herbert Asquith-led British Liberal government had her arrested thirteen times over eighteen months and subjected to the most brutal oral attacks - often twice a day to break her. Other suffragettes were subjected to rape and physical violence with impunity – some driven to insanity by it.

From early on, Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst wrote plays, edited home newspapers, drafted speeches and fought like a demented Wylie Coyote chasing the entrenched Roadrunner of the British Establishment for real change to the abysmal lot of women in all fields – access to Education, equality in Marriage, Property ownership, the right to Academic Achievements and of course the fundamental right to vote.
The typically arrogant and appeasing young Winston Churchill actually set up a department in the old-boys network to 'deal with' the avalanche of political correspondence Sylvia Pankhurst sent them. She was eloquent too - her prose filled with purpose, the ideas thought out and executed with precision like she knew that one day, everything she ever said would be of historical importance.

Yet through all of this comes her activist spirit - beautiful - courageous - magnificent and true. You think of the D-Day little guys - the ones who actual did the job of saving the Western World - grunts storming the beaches of Normandy to end tyranny - and there would be Sylvia Pankhurst - head first into the hail and horror.

I will get to finish this astonishing book at some time in the future, but it only remains for me to say that mere admiration of Sylvia Pankhurst doesn't quite cut it. I'm in awe of her - and therefore the academic and brilliant Rachel Homes has done her job.

Check out the photo on the front cover - there is a scar above her eyebrow from a childhood fall. It required stitches, but she was back fighting the next day - even as a kid wanting to better the lot of others - wanting every life to be free and full of potential.

Buy and behold...

"The 'Sound' Of The R&B Hits" by VARIOUS ARTISTS – May 1964 UK LP on Stateside Records in Mono Plus 14 More Bonus Tracks From The Period – Including Mary Wells, The Miracles, The Marvelettes, Barrett Strong, The Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, The Valadiers, Mike & The Modifiers and The Contours (September 2020 UK Ace Records Expanded Edition CD Reissue – Nick Robbins Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"... Everybody's Gotta Pay Some Dues..."

On Page 4 of the stunning 32-Page booklet that accompanies this gorgeous September 2020 CD reissue - there is an image I love to pieces.

Relayed to us by Motown's founder and leading light Berry Gordy when interviewed by British DJ Robbie Vincent in 1995, Gordy was more than moved when he had been told of countless on-the-money British working-class teenagers taking their transistor radios to bed at night, and hidden under their sheets (often by torchlight), excited and trembling, they tuned in to pirate Radio stations to wallow in the 'cool' music of the day - especially R&B and Soul from America's 'Tamla'. 

As a reviewer of some 4000+ releases and someone who has worked/paid their musical penance in record shops much of my adult life - it's become something of a cliché to praise England's Ace Records and their rather beautiful championing of Soul Music. But this wee peach reissuing an influential British album from May 1964 on Stateside Records that did a huge amount of notice-work in bringing the mighty Motown to UK ears and turntables is surely why Ace is worshiped. 

The booklet in this sucker alone is a work of art and must surely be heading towards gong-acknowledgement come awards season. There are six pages of Discography info alone between Pages 24 and 30 that list both US and UK releases for everything - I can't imagine the amount of fact-checking that this must have taken. But before all that, there is also some preliminary explanation needed to explain what this actually is...

Tamla or Motown or Gordy (as the labels were called in the USA) did not become the UK's 'Tamla Motown' imprint until the release 19 March 1965 of TMG 501 - Diana Ross & The Supremes doing "Stop In The Name Of Love". As the first British 45 on 'Tamla Motown', it was quite late in the game when you think about it now. In fact on that Friday in March 1965 - six singles, six EPs and six LPs were issued to a baying English youth – 18 in one day. 

Prior to that Berry Gordy's American releases that actually dated back to early 1959 had been handled in Britain by London American, Fontana and Oriole - all with zero chart results despite real efforts by the independent Oriole who had managed actual long-playing albums in those pioneering early years (The Contours LP "Do You Love Me" is on Page 7 whilst the "Bye Bye Baby" LP by Mary Wells is pictured on Page 15). But all that changed when the EMI-imprint Stateside took over proceedings in October 1963 – giving the Tamla roster access to the power and reach of a major label. 

Hip and happening types like Georgie Fame, Dusty Springfield, Brian Poole & The Tremeloes (whose cover version of "Do You Love Me" by The Contours topped the British charts in October 1963 for three weeks and gave Motown their first UK number 1 albeit in a round about way) and of course the new darlings of 1964 The Rolling Stones had been educating listeners in Blighty to the Soul and R&B wonders on offer across the pond- but none more so than the Fab Four and the entourage that surrounded them. The Beatles championed the label on their first two British LPs in particular "Please Please Me" and "With The Beatles" (March and November 1963) and included with both affection and pride Mary Wells of Motown as a support act on a 1964 UK Tour (the programme is reproduced for it on Page 8). With "A Hard Day's Night" due for release in July 1964 and Beatlemania screamfests already dominating the globe - Stateside astutely assembled SL 10077 in Mono for release May 1964. And that's what you get here. A reminder of that event, 54 years on and still trembling...

The original 14-track LP was made up of American LP cuts and 45s dating from August 1961 to September 1963. Ace have simply doubled it in size by adding on 14 more period relevant songs including the ludicrously rare Mike & The Modifiers 45 for "I Found Myself A Brand New Baby" on Oriole CBA 1775 from October 1962 (released in the same month as The Beatles "Love Me Do") - yours for south of a couple of grand if you can find one. Can I get a witness indeed – let’s shop around for details...

UK released Friday, 25 September 2020 - "The 'Sound' Of The R&B Hits" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Ace records CDTOP 1578 (Barcode 029667099523) is an Expanded Edition CD Reissue of a 1964 UK Compilation LP in Mono with 14 Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (74:34 minutes, all tracks Mono):

Side 1:

1. Shop Around - MARY WELLS (from the US LP "Bye Bye Baby" on Motown M 600, August 1961)

2. Way Over There - THE MARVELETTES (from the US LP "Please Mr. Postman" on Tamla T 228, November 1961)

3. Everybody's Gotta Pay Some Dues - THE MIRACLES (from the US LP "Cookin' With The Miracles" on Tamla T 223, November 1961)

4. Mockingbird - MARTHA & THE VANDELLAS (from the US LP "Heat Wave" on Gordy G 907, September 1963)

5. Bye Bye Baby - MARY WELLS (from the US LP "Bye Bye Baby" on Motown M 600, August 1961)

6. I'll Try Something New - THE MIRACLES (from the US LP "I'll Try Something New" on Tamla T 230, July 1962)

7. Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream) - THE MARVELETTES (from the US LP "Sing / Smash Hits Of '62" on Tamla T 229, June 1962)

Side 2:

8. Money - BARRETT STRONG (from the US LP "Tamla Special No. 1" on Tamla T 224, June 1961)

9. What's So Good About Goodbye - THE MIRACLES (from the US LP "I'll Try Something New" on Tamla T 230, July 1962)

10. Let Me Go The Right Way - THE SUPREMES (from the US LP "Meet The Supremes" on Motown M 606, December 1962)

11. I Don't Want To Take A Chance - MARY WELLS (from the US LP "Bye Bye Baby" on Motown M 600, August 1961)

12. Broken Hearted - THE MIRACLES (from the US LP "Cookin' With The Miracles" on Tamla T 223, November 1961)

13. The One Who Really Loves You - THE MARVELETTES (from the US LP "Sing / Smash Hits Of '62" on Tamla T 229, June 1962)

14. Do You Love Me - THE MIRACLES (from the US LP "Doin' Mickey's Monkey" on Tamla T 245, November 1963)

Tracks 1 to 14 are the Various Artists Compilation LP "The 'Sound' Of The R&B Hits" - released May 1964 in the UK on Stateside Records SL 10077 in Mono only. 

BONUS TRACKS 

(All tracks are the A-sides of UK 45s except four where noted - 20, 22, 23 and 24): 

15. Can I Get A Witness - MARVIN GAYE (UK 45-single on Stateside SS 243, November 1963)

16. Please Mr. Postman - THE MARVELETTES (UK 45-single on Fontana H 335, December 1961)

17. You Really Got A Hold On Me - THE MIRACLES (UK 45-single on Oriole CBA 1795, January 1963) 

18. You Beat Me To The Punch - MARY WELLS (UK 45-single on Oriole CBA 1762, August 1962)

19. Pride And Joy - MARVIN GAYE (UK 45-single on Oriole CBA 1846, August 1963)

20. Oh I Apologize - BARRETT STRONG (UK 45-single on London HLU 9088, B-side to "Money", April 1960)

21. I Found A Girl - THE VALADIERS (UK 45-single on Oriole CBA 1809, March 1963)

22. I Want A Guy - THE MARVELETTES (UK 45-single on Fontana H 386, B-side of "Twistin' Postman", March 1962)

23. Hitch Hike - MARVIN GAYE (Track 1, Side 2 of the 4-Track EP "R&B Chartmakers" on Stateside SS 1009, January 1964) 

24. I've Been Good To You - THE MIRACLES (UK 45-single on Fontana H 384, B-side of "What's So Good About Goodbye", March 1962)

25. Two Lovers - MARY WELLS (UK 45-single on Oriole CBA 1796, January 1963)

26. I Found Myself A Brand New Baby - MIKE & THE MODIFIERS (UK 45-single on Oriole CBA 1775, October 1962)

27. Shake Sherry - THE CONTOURS (UK 45-single on Oriole CBA 1799, February 1963)

28. Heat Wave - MARTHA & THE VANDELLAS (UK 45-single on Stateside SS 228, October 1963) 

The card digipak folds out into three with black and whites of The Beatles with Mary Wells in 1964 on one side of a flap and the Motown Review (Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas, The temptations and The Miracles) on a London visit in October 1964 looking suitably fur-wrapped for the capitol's cold weather. The booklet (as already mentioned) is a feast for the eyes and mind with fantastic KEVIN HOWLETT liner notes followed by song-by-song appraisals and histories. In between the copious amount of text detail are photos of British and American 45s in their sexy label bags, beautiful and super rare EPs, publicity photos and charts and even a Record Mirror R&B Poll Results that from April 1964 that show readers giving Mary Wells top Female Singers, The Miracles at number one (The Stones just starting out at an impressive no. 3) and so on. The AUDIO entirely in Mono is care of Ace's longstanding Audio Engineer NICK ROBBINS and it punches and shimmies and sways out of your speakers like silk from a yesteryear. 

The listen is very much 'old' Motown especially those lesser-heard tunes like Martha's "Mockingbird" and (not surprisingly) five from The Miracles including their cover of "Do You Love Me". But for me it’s those "Way Over There" moments and Marvin's fabulous "Can I Get A Witness" and perky "Hitch Hike" that still tingle. You can just the Beatles giving it some head-jerk to Barrett Strong's plea for "Money" whilst Mary Wells checks out the emotional malls in her version of "Shop Around". Smart choices include those three B-side rarities in the bonus cuts - The Marvelettes pining in "I Want A Guy" for instance. And I love those uber-rarities like The Valadiers and Mike & The Modifiers - not tunes that will be making it onto Radio 1 any day soon. And its still unbelievable to think that even though it defined the sound of the American summer and hit R&B number 1 there – the glorious "Heat Wave" by Martha & The Vandellas was not a hit in savvy olde England (what were we all thinking).

For sure, you could say that 56-years after the event, this Mono-fest LP and its doubled-up bonuses is another Motown CD compilation most hard-core collectors could do without, especially if like me, they have collected all those tasty Motown Singles book sets on Hip-O Select which will have variants of all these tunes. But how many of us are there?

For everyone else/genre-curious newbees - I say, celebrate and enjoy, love the molten flow of Holland-Dozier-Holland and Smokey Robinson songwriting brilliance that comes roaring of this pretty reissue. And check out that retina-blazingly gorgeous LP sleeve to "Cookin' With The Miracles" (Tamla TM-223) that adorns Page 1 of the booklet (I’ve supplied a photo). All that hope, all that love of the music and all that pride - amen baby! 

I'm off now to hide under the sheets with my Roberts Radio and twiddle those knobs (if that's still legal in late 2020)...

"Showdown: The Complete 1966 RCA Recordings" by KENNY CARTER (September 2020 UK Ace/Kent Soul CD Compilation - Nick Robbins Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Land Of Heartache..."

One of the biggest disappointments of my 62-year musical journey - twenty of those years spent in a busy West End Record Shop listening to music all day every day where Soul was a mainstay 50% of the time - was playing Sam Cooke LPs on RCA Victor – and there are at least seven or eight of them.

Most people know his greatest hits that cherry pick his better singles, but not the albums that were often full of truly cheesy material picked for him and not at all in keeping with his Soul Man image ("Night Beat" was an exception where he got to control the content). They were aiming for a wide market. 

Like Kenny Carter, Cooke was on RCA Victor who in my mind had no real idea of what Soul Music was. They simply picked old crooner tunes and standards (Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra) - larruped on the strings and background girly vocals - amped up the melodrama to over-the-top Phil Spector levels - and hoped for the chart-best. Instead of actually feeling Soulful or even moving, they almost always felt old and overwrought - old white men trying to be hip – forcing their clichéd choices on superlative black artists (Aretha Franklin at Columbia felt the same until she went to Atlantic Records and the sparks really started to fly). And unfortunately (at least for me) that's what you mostly get here.

Kenny Carter had a fabulous and expressive deep voice - very similar to say Roy Hamilton or Tommy Hunt or Jerry Butler - and the nine Stereo cuts on here (the other 13 are Mono) professionally recorded in RCA's studios sound sonically stunning. 

UK released 25 September 2020 - "Showdown: The Complete 1966 RCA Recordings" by KENNY CARTER on Ace/Kent Soul CDKEND 491 (Barcode 029667099622, 67:00 minutes) absolutely rocks soundwise. This is a gorgeous-sounding CD compilation. Unfortunately the syrupy material that is being peddled as 'sophisticated' comes over time-and-time again like strangulated Little Anthony & The Imperials, but without the tunes.

All cuts are from 1965 and 1966 sessions. Six of the 22 cuts have been issued on various Kent/Soul CD compilations between 2007 and 2020 (Tracks 2, 11, 12, 17, 19 and 21), whilst Tracks 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 18, 20 and 22 are PREVIOUSLY UNISSUED. The remaining six are A&B-sides of three RCA Victor US 45s (Tracks 3, 7, 8, 14, 15 and 16). 

ADY CROASDELL has done the beautifully laid out and hugely affectionate liner notes in the jam-packed 28-page booklet - tape boxes - musician charts - Billboard and Cashbox adverts for his debut 45 "Body And Soul" b/w "I've Got To Find Her" on RCA Victor 47-8791 from April 1966 - demo labels for "Showdown" b/w "I've Got To Get Myself Together" on RCA Victor 47-8841 from May 1966 and so on. NICK ROBBINS has done the Remasters and they are stupendous.

But for me, despite the talk of legendary this and never released that - I can all too often hear why the LP never came together. Any single on real Soul labels like Stax, Motown, Atlantic or even Chess and Checker would knock spots of this well produced but ultimately overwrought mid 60ts angst. My wife told me to turn this off as it was giving her a headache – oh dear.

Those who love this sort of polished string-laden heartbreak and misery on a Soulful tip should not hesitate, but I'd suggest to all others - best grab a listen first before purchase...