Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
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#justlanded Rotary Connection "Hey Love" Release date: 25.07.2025 🔥
When Marshall Chess decided to combine a rock group with some of the best voices he could get his hands on he invented a stream of psychedelic rock that was quite different from the one that emerged in Detroit with the help of George Clinton and Norman Whitfield.
Partly this was Marshall’s hippy sensibility, but it was one that fused perfectly with vocalist Minnie Riperton’s own word-view and the musical genius – “no other word for it”: Marshall Chess − of Charles Stepney.
Working across a cleverly arranged mix of originals and cover versions, the recordings featured some of the finest musicians that you could find in Chicago including drummer Morris Jennings, bass players Louis Satterfield and Phil Upchurch, and revolutionary guitarist Pete Cosey, who would later join Miles Davis’ group. Cosey’s guitar playing on their fourth album “Songs”, released in 1969, is incendiary and unparalleled. The vocals were arranged as a perfect choir with a series of leads most notably Minnie, Sidney Barnes and Mitch Aliota.
True success − rather than doing well enough − eluded them, with some bad decisions being made and bad luck also dogging them. When Chess left the company and Barnes the group it looked as if the writing was on the wall for Rotary Connection, but Charles Stepney wanted one more go. The New Rotary Connection came together with a refreshed vocal line up featuring Minnie, Kitty Haywood and Shirley Wahls and songs by Stepney, Minnie’s husband Richard Rudolph and Terry Callier.
“Hey Love” was the album that appeared and it is a gem, that features the astounding ‘I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun’ - later a UK hit in 1997 for Nuyorican Soul, ‘Love Has Fallen On Me’ - later recorded as a tribute to Stepney by Chaka Khan, the beautiful title track and Callier’s stunning ’Song For Everyman’. However the album failed to sell and there was no more records.
As time passed the late 60s and early 70ws productions of Charles Stepney became some of the best loved and most influential of the ear, influencing UK groups such as 4 Hero, Radiohead and more recently Jessie Ware, and “Hey, Love” has been considered one of the peaks of his work.
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#justlanded The Sonics: High Time 🔥 Release date: 27.06.2025
The selection heard on The Sonics' "High Time” singles box is reason once again, should we need it, to celebrate this band of bands with seven double-whammy garage-rockin’ slabs of rock’n’roll nirvana.
Reprising the hottest 45 singles sides that the band released in their 1964-1966 heyday, timeless classics such as ‘Psycho’, ‘Cinderella, ‘Boss Hoss’ and of course the Tacoma legends' debut 'The Witch,’ we also throw in some Sonics essentials that never originally appeared on 45, like 'Strychnine’ and ‘Have Love Will Travel.’
Additionally, for the first time, items from both the group's Etiquette and Jerden eras appear together, the latter represented by the much-loved ‘Head On Backwards’, ‘Like No Other Man’, ‘High Time’ and, making its debut on vinyl, the rare Audio Recording version of 'Maintaining My Cool’.
Assembled and annotated by Alec Palao, “High Time” is a handsome package that comes with a detailed booklet filled with rare images from the lens of inimitable Northwest photographer Jini Dellaccio. Long live The Sonics!
SINGLE 1
1. THE WITCH
2. KEEP A KNOCKIN'
SINGLE 2
1. PSYCHO
2. HAVE LOVE WILL TRAVEL
SINGLE 3
1. THE HUSTLER Etiquette
2. BOSS HOSS Etiquette
SINGLE 4
1. STRYCHNINE
2. SHOT DOWN
SINGLE 5
1. CINDERELLA
2. LOUIE LOUIE
SINGLE 6
1. YOU GOT YOUR HEAD ON BACKWARDS
2. LIKE NO OTHER MAN
SINGLE 7
1. HIGH TIME
2. MAINTAINING MY COOL
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It's Ace new release day! The following titles are all out now. 🙏
SPRINGSTEEN’S COUNTRY
CDTOP 1661
From country to Americana, bluegrass to rockabilly and even a healthy dose of cow-punk, 20 songs written by the New Jersey Hillbilly performed by his countrymen and women.
CHRIS BANGS PRESENTS THE PLAYBOX
CDBGPD 319/ BGP2 319 (2LP)
The first comp from one the pioneering DJs of the dance jazz and the man who invented the phrase acid jazz.
JOHNNIE TAYLOR
WHO’S MAKING LOVE – THE STAX SINGLES A’S & B’S 1966-1970
CDTOP 533
The early A’s and B’s of a Stax legend, issued complete on CD for the first time.
DOUGLAS WOOD / JOHN CAMERON
CRANES / DRAG RACER C/W SPROCKET SHUFFLE
NW 520 7’’
The latest DJ-friendly 7” cued up for Bob Stanley's Measured Mile label features Douglas Wood's themes for the BBC Snooker World Championships and the BDO World Darts Championship. As an added bonus on the B-side, we have John Cameron's, synth-driven theme to ITV Snooker in the 80s.
PAUL WELLER PRESENTS ~ THAT SWEET SWEET MUSIC
XXQLP2 143OR 2LP
Due to the overwhelming response to Paul Weller's "That Sweet Sweet Music" compilation which hit the charts back in April, we're pleased to announce one final yolk edition of 500 copies (shared between Ace and Rough Trade). If you missed Red or Blue, this is one last chance to secure this instant classic on coloured wax. Also included is a limited run postcard.
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Due to the overwhelming response to Paul Weller's "That Sweet Sweet Music" compilation which hit the charts back in April, we're pleased to announce one final yolk edition of 500 copies (shared between Ace and Rough Trade Records). If you missed Red or Blue, this is one last chance to secure this instant classic on coloured wax.
Soul music has always been in Paul Weller’s blood from early Jam covers of Martha & the Vandellas 1963 classic ‘Heatwave’. Along with other forms of music, soul found its way into Paul’s record collection, nourishing his ears and informing his own songwriting.
We don’t need to recap a questing musical career from the Jam to the Style Council which then blossomed into one of the most productive and revered careers of any UK solo artist. Paul has written anthems, standards and a songbook that have always developed from his own feelings.
Whilst Paul has talked about his love of soul music he has, before now, simply been too busy to sit down and curate a collection of his favourite tracks and get it into the record racks.
Ace Records are honoured and delighted to have released this Paul Weller curated collection which he has aptly titled, “That Sweet Sweet Music”.
1. God Made Me Funky - The Headhunters
2. Spanish Twist - The I. B. Special
3. Breakaway - The Valentines
4. Top Of The Stairs - Collins & Collins
5. Dont Let The Green Grass Fool You - The Spinners
6. Black Balloons - Syl Johnson "
7. Soulshake - Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson
8. I Can't Make It Anymore - Richie Havens
9. You Got To Have Money - The Exits
10. Pull My String (Turn Me On) - The Joneses
11. Run For Cover - The Dells
12. On Easy Street - O.C. Smith
13. It Ain't No Big Thing - The Radiants
14. Summertime - Billy Stewart
15. In The Bottle - Brother To Brother
16. Hard Times - Baby Huey
17. Maggie - Johnny Williams
18. When - Joe Simon
19. Pouring Water On A Drowning Man - James Carr
20. That's Enough - Roscoe Robinson
21. Blackrock Yeah Yeah - Blackrock
22. Golden Ring - American Gypsy
23. Search For The Inner Self - Jon Lucien
24. Life Walked Out - The Mist
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#backinstock "Paul Weller Presents That Sweet, Sweet Music". Look out for news of a final special variant next week. ✊
"Weller's soul music mixtape also serves as musical autobiography.... Proof that, to paraphrase one of his lyrics, music continues to light the fuse." ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ MOJO
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Bob Stanley Presents Chip Shop Pop - The Sound of Denmark Street 1970-1975 will be released: 25.07.2025 😎
At the turn of the 70s, songwriters like Tony Macaulay (‘Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes’), Cook and Greenaway (‘Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart’), Lynsey De Paul and Barry Blue (‘Storm In A Teacup’) and John Carter (‘Beach Baby’) were bossing the singles charts and Radio 1 while more serious acts like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd concentrated on album sales.
“Chip Shop Pop” is a stellar collection of super-melodic, expertly crafted songs; it gathers two dozen of the songs that got away, all potential hits written by these Denmark Street-schooled songwriters. You might have only heard these records once or twice before, coming out of a passing kid's transistor radio, or in the background in a cafe, or a chippie, and then they disappeared into the ether never to be heard again - until now.
Aside from the Fortunes, Marty Wilde and Candlewick Green, very few of these names will be at all familiar but the harmonies, the string and brass arrangements and top session musician playing will all be familiar to anyone who loves the sound of ‘My Baby Loves Lovin'’, ‘Silver Lady’ or ‘(If Paradise Is) Half As Nice’. They are all incredibly catchy.
Compiled by Bob Stanley from his sizeable collection of 70s 7" singles, ”Chip Shop Pop” revives records on Bell, UK, Young Blood and Bradley's, labels that were home to these unabashed radio-friendly sounds that would disappear when first disco, then punk, came along later in the 70s.
Dormant for decades, many unavailable for more than fifty years, here is a perfect collection of sunshine-friendly pop with a capital P.
1. HELLO, HELLO, HELLO - STORMY PETREL
2. MELANIE MAKES ME SMILE - TONY BURROWS
3. TIP OF MY TONGUE - BROTHERLY LOVE
4. LOST AND FOUND - WHISKEY MAC
5. ON A PLANE TO NOWHERE - BARRACADE
6. LEAVE A LITTLE LOVE - CANDLEWICK GREEN
7. LADY PEARL - CURRANT KRAZE
8. ON THE RUN - SCORCHED EARTH
9. I WANT TO BE WHERE YOU ARE - SCARECROW
10. TELLTALE - PATCHES
11. RUSTY HANDS OF TIME - PETER DOYLE
12. A LITTLE THING LIKE LOVE - RIVER
13. DREAMS ARE TEN A PENNY - JOHN KINCADE
14. IN THE MORNING - BITTER ALMOND
15. EVERY LITTLE MOVE SHE MAKES - WHITE PLAINS
16. SCHOOLGIRL NOTION - JANIE & THE MARLETTES
17. HERE COMES THAT RAINY DAY FEELING AGAIN - FORTUNES
18. YELLOW BIRD (HAVE YOU NO HOME) - DESIGN
19. CLOVELLY - ROGER HOLMAN & SIMON MAY
20. I NEED YOUR EVERLASTING LOVE - LIBERTY HELM
21. BYE GOODBYE - SILVER LINING
22. IT'S GETTING SWEETER ALL THE TIME - SHORTY
23. CATERPILLAR - COLD FLY
24. THIS IS MY LIFE - WEI WEI WONG
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The New Rotary Connection "Hey Love" will be reissued on 25.07.2025 🔥
When Marshall Chess decided to combine a rock group with some of the best voices he could get his hands on he invented a stream of psychedelic rock that was quite different from the one that emerged in Detroit with the help of George Clinton and Norman Whitfield.
Partly this was Marshall’s hippy sensibility, but it was one that fused perfectly with vocalist Minnie Riperton’s own word-view and the musical genius – “no other word for it”: Marshall Chess − of Charles Stepney.
Working across a cleverly arranged mix of originals and cover versions, the recordings featured some of the finest musicians that you could find in Chicago including drummer Morris Jennings, bass players Louis Satterfield and Phil Upchurch, and revolutionary guitarist Pete Cosey, who would later join Miles Davis’ group. Cosey’s guitar playing on their fourth album “Songs”, released in 1969, is incendiary and unparalleled. The vocals were arranged as a perfect choir with a series of leads most notably Minnie, Sidney Barnes and Mitch Aliota.
True success − rather than doing well enough − eluded them, with some bad decisions being made and bad luck also dogging them. When Chess left the company and Barnes the group it looked as if the writing was on the wall for Rotary Connection, but Charles Stepney wanted one more go. The New Rotary Connection came together with a refreshed vocal line up featuring Minnie, Kitty Haywood and Shirley Wahls and songs by Stepney, Minnie’s husband Richard Rudolph and Terry Callier.
“Hey Love” was the album that appeared and it is a gem, that features the astounding ‘I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun’ - later a UK hit in 1997 for Nuyorican Soul, ‘Love Has Fallen On Me’ - later recorded as a tribute to Stepney by Chaka Khan, the beautiful title track and Callier’s stunning ’Song For Everyman’. However the album failed to sell and there was no more records.
As time passed the late 60s and early 70ws productions of Charles Stepney became some of the best loved and most influential of the ear, influencing UK groups such as 4 Hero, Radiohead and more recently Jessie Ware, and “Hey, Love” has been considered one of the peaks of his work.
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TO FURTHER CELEBRATE ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR, ACE RECORDS ANNOUNCES A WEEK OF GIGS AT LONDON’S KOKO TAKING PLACE 4TH – 10TH AUGUST.
The celebration will include shows from legends spanning the label’s extraordinary catalogue, including booker t. Jones, fatback band, the seeds and the sting-rays, polished off with a northern soul and funk all-dayer
The same week ace will be returning to its Camden roots, running ace at rock on, a seven-day pop-up shop stocked with thousands of LPs & merch, staffed by some of the original rock on shop team including ace co-founder Ted Carroll, with resident DJs spinning gems from the label’s catalogue.
Today, the longest running independent record label in the UK announces a week of gigs in August at Camden’s historic KOKO venue. Luminaries of Ace Records extensive family of labels will takeover the venue in a weeklong celebration of the label’s 50 years.
On Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th August, Booker T Jones of the legendary, era-defining group Booker T and The MGs, will kick off proceedings. Considered the best instrumental band of all time, as the backbone of Stax Records Booker T & The MGs were renowned for their gritty southern soul sound, influencing an array of musicians, particularly on their ‘60s R&B classic ‘Green Onions’, which centres around Booker’s rippling Hammond M3 organ part.
On Thursday 7th, veteran funk group Fatback Band, renowned for their ‘70s dancefloor fillers ‘(Are You Ready) To Do The Bus Stop’ and ‘Double Dutch’, will shake the venue in a celebration of Ace’s historical commitment to releasing remarkable Black American music via their Spring Records, Southbound and BGP Imprints.
Friday 8th sees legendary, hugely influential American psych-garage group The Seeds perform their exciting brand of rock ‘n’ roll. Best known for ‘60s punk anthems ‘Can’t Seem To Make You Mine’ and ‘Pushin’ Too Hard’, the group stands prominent amongst a handful of mid-60s garage bands whose influence is palpable in rock to this day.
Support will come from The Sting-Rays. Originally signed to Ace’s garage rock offshoot Big Beat, The Sting-Rays were acclaimed for their brand of no-nonsense high energy rock’n’roll.
Finally, on Sunday 10th August they’ll be an all-day celebration of Ace’s northern soul Kent and BGP funk imprints with DJs spinning tunes from across the labels. The northern soul room will be hosted by Ady Croasdell and feature DJ’s including Keb Darge, while the funk room will be hosted by Dean Rudland.
The same week, in honour of Ace’s devotion to crate-digging culture and deep Camden roots, with Ace founder Ted Carroll having opened his third Rock On record shop in the town in 1975, the label will be running a pop-up shop, also in Camden, at 1 Adelaide Road, NW3 3QE.
Ace at Rock On will be stocked with thousands of LPs from the label’s diverse and extensive catalogue, exclusive merchandise, and open from 11am-7pm daily. Each day they’ll be DJs in residence, playing an eclectic selection of tunes on top-notch equipment provided by Audio Gold, and some of the team from the original Rock On Shop behind the counter – including Ted Carroll.
Building further on five decades of a deep passion for and devotion to catalogue exploration, the gigs and pop-up shop are part of a wider celebration. Throughout the year Ace’s release schedule is bursting with both physical and digital new releases, elaborate box sets and exclusive reissues, including curated compilations from Bob Stanley, Tom Waits and Richard Hawley. There will also be fan-exclusive social media stories, themed DJ club events and film projects.
Full line-up of Ace Records 50th anniversary live celebration at London’s KOKO:
Monday 4th August Booker T Jones
Tuesday 5th August Booker T Jones
Thursday 7th August Fatback Band
Friday 8th August The Seeds supported by The Sting-Rays:
Sunday 10th August Northern Soul and Funk All-Dayer*
*TICKETS ON SALE SOON. CHECK KOKO’S WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION
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JOHN EDWARDS – A CAREFUL MAN
By Tony Rounce (with acknowledgements to Heikki Suosalo)
All at Ace were sorry to hear, earlier this week, of the passing of a great soul man and a mainstay of Kent’s catalogue since the 1990s. Whether as a solo singer or co-lead for one of the most important groups of the 70s and 80s, the recordings of the late John Edwards are and always will be cherished by true soul fans as being among the finest of their kind.
A Christmas Day baby, John was born in St. Louis as 1944 was drawing to its close. Like many of his peers he grew up with gospel music, thanks to a devout mother, and from a very young age he was exposed to the music of such stellar gospel acts as the Soul Stirrers, the Pilgrim Travelers and the Dixie Hummingbirds. it was something of a formality that he would sing in church as a teenager and of course, brief membership of a group called the Starlight Jubilee Singers would follow as the 50s drew to their close.
Like most young black Americans John fell under the spell of the newly-emergent soul music as it arrived in the early 60s, but rather than pursue a career as a professional singer himself he firstly joined the US Army, where he combined his patriotic chores with the occasional singing gig on base, wherever he happened to be stationed in the world. He spent some time stationed in Georgia where he got to know upcoming artists of the calibre of Oscar Toney Jr. and James & Bobby Purify. However it wasn’t really until he was discharged from the army and moved to Chicago in 1968, to take a day job in the steel industry and try to hustle a few singing gigs on the side, that singing for a living started to become a reality for our man.
A chain of events rapidly happened that year that would escalate John’s career, starting with him meeting Donny Hathaway who in turn introduced him to Curtis Mayfield – who again in turn directed John to a newly incorporated label that was looking for fresh talent. Thus it was that John ended up on Bob Weaver’s Weis (as in ‘We Is’) imprint for a brief time at the end of the 60s, with a couple of 45s that were distributed by Stax of all companies. Both the funky ‘If I Don’t Lose My Head’ and the stupendous soul ballad ‘There’ll Never Be Another Woman’ were co-produced by Weaver and Joshie Jo Armstead (who also worked on a subsequent single of John’s for another Chicago indie, Twin Stacks Records) but despite their superior quality and Stax’ national distribution neither record made anything more than local noise. (Both the Weis singles have been reissued in the past on Kent albums and CDs…)
A couple of years would pass before John’s name appeared on another record label. Still in Chicago, and under the supervision of local movers and shakers Archie Russell and Floyd Smith, he cut a terrific version of Phillip Mitchell’s ‘It’s Those Little Things That Count’ and one of many great renditions of Smith’s song ‘The Look On Your Face’ – but again, these quality tunes reached only a limited number of ears at the time. John would however continue his working relationship with Smith the following year, after a friend got him a deal with the notorious Michael Thevis’ General Recording Corporation out of Atlanta. It was on GRC’s Aware subsidiary that John made the recordings that forged his reputation as a Premier League soul man, starting with his version of Bill Brandon’s ‘Stop This Merry-Go-Round’ which became the first of six solo R&B hits he would enjoy over the next three years, almost all of them cracking the Top 60 and one – his label mate Jimmy Lewis’ fabulous song ‘Careful Man’ – reaching the Top 10.
The success of these singles and sales of an attendant debut album led to John starting a second long player, primarily under the supervision of Memphis drumming legend Al Jackson Jr., but before too much progress had been made Al was murdered in a home invasion. That, coupled with the collapse of GRC after Thevis was jailed for a number of things that this is not the place to discuss, brought John’s time as an Aware artist to a fairly abrupt end. Fortunately his recordings for the label survived the collapse, and several decades later Kent was able to assemble “Careful Man” (CDKEND 127) a wonderful John Edwards CD containing both the issued recordings and a number of sublime unissued performances of songs by the likes of Sam Dees, Phillip Mitchell and Ashford & Simpson that were every bit the equal of those that had been issued in the first half of the 1970s.
John had to wait nearly two years for his next solo opportunity. When it came he found himself on Atlantic subsidiary Cotillion, where he recorded a great sophomore album with another Stax legend, David Porter that yielded his final two solo chart 45s. His then-business manager Buddy Allen recommended John to Cotillion head Henry Allen (no relation that I am aware of), but it would not be too long before John’s solo career disappeared and he found himself the co-lead singer of one of parent label Atlantic’s biggest groups of the era.
Following the permanent departure of Philippe Wynne for George Clinton’s Funkadelic, John became a full-time member of the Spinners in 1977 – a position he would hold until the early ‘noughties. He had deputised for an ailing Wynne on tour already, so when the mercurial singer left for good John was already fully versed in all things Spinners, and given that they shared the same management it was probably one of the easier business deals that took place that year. John led or co-led on a total of 15 R&B and pop chart hits for the group over the next 7 or 8 years, the most significant of which have to be their two globally successful medleys based around 60s hits ‘Working My Way Back To You’ and the Grammy nominated ‘Cupid’ in late 1979/early 1980.As well as peaking well inside the Top 5 of the US Soul and Pop charts, the former topped the pop charts here in the UK while ‘Cupid’ also peaked inside our Top 5. These were John’s biggest successes as a Spinner, and make him arguably the only true cult hero of soul to have ever been on ‘Top Of The Pops’…
John sang with the Spinners throughout the 80s and 90s, but a mild stroke in 2000 (when he was temporarily replaced by G C Cameron, a returning Spinner from their Motown days) and eventually a more serious one in 2002 as a bi-product of a quadruple heart by-pass operation led to an enforced retirement, not only from the group but also from music in general. When the Spinners were deservedly inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2023 John made an upbeat but emotional acceptance speech, via video, wherein he said he was ‘totally overjoyed, it’s like getting married again’. It’s always nice when someone who deserves their flowers doesn’t have to wait to receive them posthumously…
Sadly John only got to keep those flowers for another 18 months or so. At the beginning of May he was admitted to hospital due to a diabetes-related problem. He never came home and we lost him, at the age of 80, on May 9th. He will be missed and mourned not only by his immediate family, but also by his expansive soul family that have loved and supported his music for more than half a century.
JOHN EDWARDS: 25.12.1944 – 9.5.2025
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Ace Records is the world's leading deep catalog and vintage music label. We strive to bring you great sounding, well-packaged physical record releases along with expertly curated and engaging digital music discoveries.