The Magnificent Goldberg

I used to have quite a few of these. But since I got my new turntable, I haven't got any. I think the industry standards changed at some point so that only very expensive turntables could play LPs cut to the new standards. I also think that cramming more music onto an LP side didn't help. But what do I know? MG

Happy Birthday Paul. Thanks for many different kinds of help. MG

Nothing to say, just thread-watching. MG

I had a similar experience to Tom with a Little Richard LP in '62. This was an RCA Camden comp of all 8 of the tracks he'd recorded for RCA Victor in Atlanta in the early '50s, plus four pretty good cuts by the Buck Ram big band. Rushing to get the tube, left the LP on the bed. Not a pretty sight when I returned. They've never reissued this particular combination. Mostly, the Little Richard tracks have been coupled with some by Roy Orbison (!). Not long after, my landlady's cat leapt on the turntable while Dakota Staton's "More than the most" was spinning. She did pay me for a new one, though. You'd have thought a spinning record would be a marvellous cat attractor, but neither of our own cats ever took any notice of the turntable. I have bust at least 2 45s simply by flexing them! What an effin' cretin! Ray Charles' "Sticks and stones" and Phil Upchurch's "You can't sit down". Both were UK issues (which sold about 6 copies) and MUCH rarer than the US hit originals. MG

I have had trouble with Caiman, too. Same as others; ordering something old, from Amz mktp, CC charged, no disc. Then an e-mail from Caiman to tell me there was a problem. I e-mailed back to ask if they could provide an estimate of how long it might take to fill the order but no reply. After giving them about a month in total, I cancelled with Amz, no problem, and got a refund. But, in between, of course I had to pay my CC bill. And also, when I complained to Amz that Caiman were still offering the disc on their site, even though they obviously couldn't supply it, Amz didn't respond. I reckon the proper answer to the "float" problem - which is a total scam - is for Amz not to hit people's CCs for mktp deals until despatch is confirmed. I would only ever use Caiman for rare things anyway, since Customs charges are somewhat likely shipping to Britain. But now I steer clear of them. Once bitten. MG

Never heard of the Groove Hut label. Are they legit? Combining an Argo (now Universal) with one originally on Cobblestone (now Nippon Columbia) sounds very odd from a licensing point of view. MG

You'd have seen them after they signed up with Brian Epstein. They had a few hit singles in Britain then. The earlier material, which was produced by Joe Meek, was unsuccessful, but we liked it a lot. MG

Got around at last to visiting Virgin to cash in a birthday voucher yesterday. Ketukuba - the new album from Africando - fabulous! Hadn't realised this Pharoah had been reissued. Most enjoyable listen! MG

Would you mind putting up the track list & cat no for that Ponder, Clunky? MG

Galba Otho Vitellius (Succeeding Roman Emps to Nero)

Listened to the Bennie Green Select yesterday, while out shopping. MG

But not "Visions" or "Shades of Green" - the two I'm looking for on CD. MG

Haven't heard of Grant Green? And you must have Johnny Acea, who played piano on Don Wilkerson's "Elder Don". And Eddie Chamblee is just one of the most fantastic tenor players ever! If you see "The rockin' tenor sax of EC", don't hesitate to buy it. MG

Dave Clark 5 was the top band in North London. Boy, was I glad I lived in West London, where the top band was Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers. And they had TWO tenor players (one doubling on piano). MG

And Grant Green and Johnny Acea and Eddie Chamblee - great sidemen. (Posting to get in on this.) MG

Time for THOSE to be RVGed! (Only two GGs I've only got on LP.) MG

Althea Soon Althea Later Alligator

MG

Doug Payne has put up a listing of all Sonny Lester produced LPs on the Solid State, Groove Merchant and LRC labels here Shit, I got the link wrong. Here we go again: http://www.dougpayne.com/lrc.htm Hope it works this time. Follow the link at the bottom of the page to DougPayne.com and there's discographies of a number of Groove Merchant musicians. That's the only one I know. LRC CDs aren't included but still seem to be available at cheapo prices; I got one a few weeks ago. There seems little sense to the reissue programme, which covers all 3 labels. Beast Retro, a label you've referred to in another post, reissued some of the albums, but they seem to have gone out of business. There's some real stuff on SS/GM/LRC - and also some real crap. There are also a few Blue Notes and at least one UA album that Lester produced. They're good, to great, too. MG

Here's a wonderfully laconic excerpt from "The rise and fall of popular music" by Donald Clarke, which you can read online, here: http://www.musicweb-international.com/Rise...ll/index.htm#13 "in July 1958, Sing Along With Mitch was the number one album in the USA for eight weeks. Fourteen later male chorus singalong albums, helped by Miller’s television show, reached the top ten albums; twenty-two million were sold, and people stopped buying them only because there were so many of them in the shops that they could not remember which ones they already had." MG

Pancho Villa Ambrose Bierce Ambrose & his Orchestra

I saw Grant Green with his funk group just before he died. It wasn't great. I like Solid though Chewey, and Airegin, with Blakey is great. On It Ain't Necessarily So, Grant and Bu lock in during Green's solo so deep, it's scary! Great pic Marcello - thanks. My favourite half dozen GGs (in alphabetical order) are Alive Easy Green is beautiful Nigeria Remembering Street of dreams Talkin' about (Yes, I know - and "Matador" should be in there, too.) MG

The Wurzels The Singing Postman Pam Ayres

Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent Prince George, Duke of Kent George V

Comin' back later - gotta rush for the bus. MG