Christmas week, December 1966, London
Soul City has been open for a few weeks and the word is out among the dedicated lovers of American R&B – which is all we sell! Local residents won’t find the latest Rolling Stones or Who records in our shop! Dave Godin, Robert Blackmore and I have worked hard in the month or so leading up to the store opening and given the need to put any profit back into the business, we agree that our ‘Christmas’ bonus will be each having a transatlantic phone call with a personal favourite artist! How Dave gets a phone number for blues and R&B singer Big Maybelle I have no idea and even less clue on how Robert reaches a particularly obscure southern soul singer Jean Stanback is lost in the mists of time; Jean’s masterful “I Still Love You” will become the 1st 45 release on the Deep Soul label which we launch in 1969….
My choice is obvious for my Christmas bonus treat: using a CBS Records’ publicity shot of Aretha Franklin I have a phone number for her manager Ted White who I know is also her husband…
