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Topic History of: "Gone To The Moon" on german radio
Max. showing the last 5 posts - (Last post first)
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Ian Shepherd |
So sorry to hear of Martin’s passing. It only seems like yesterday that he was there at 841 Harrow Road with his natural enthusiasm, including a love for his Triumph Dolomite Sprint, which got him into trouble on the North Circular.
Oh, and a very belated hello to Phil, whom I last saw at Marylebone Station in a complete chance meeting. 
At the end of my interview at Lightning in October 1976, I asked Keith Yershon whether or not ”Image Part 1” by Hank Levine and His Orchestra was still available. This is a classic track that few know about. A sleazy sax-led track drenched in the atmosphere of seedy night clubs. He replied that it was deleted.
In 1980, when I was on leave for a day, he visited the offices of Record Business magazine where I was working to promote Old Gold records. The following morning I returned to find a copy of “Image Part1” on my desk. I still have it now. It’s a treasured item that shows that Keith cared for people as well as music and business. It would be wonderful to meet him now. My recommendation to him today would be the 60th anniversary stereo mix of “Only The Lonely” by Frank Sinatra.
But, more than that, I have to thank him for believing in someone who had been turned away by many of the majors because I was over-qualified. Madness! |
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JK2006 |
Goodness me - welcome to this dear old thread. Sadly both Martin and Mike Ashwell are no longer with us. |
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Phil Simon |
I worked at lightning from June 77 to January 80. It was a great company, and all the main players were great people - ray laren, Norman mandell, Keith and Brian Yershon, Martin Wickham - but nobody's mentioned Alan Davison - great character who actually ran the Lightning label without whom you would not have heard wayne County's infamous single, or Lloyd grossman's group Jet Bronx - also didn't we help Police get their A & M deal? I met quite a few artists including Althea and Donna on one occasion, and dennis Brown on another, both when they were over to do Top of the Pops - I remember Dennis being taken out to get an outfit - Alan gave him £100 (lot of money in 1979!) and that's where the famous leather trousers came from! I've loads more but that's all for now. |
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Gee Force |
Old Gold was largely the brain child of Keith Yershon, who was one of the directors of Lightning Records and who is definitely one of the nice guys in the business.
Keith was a serious music fan and set about re-releasing tracks to satisfy the unfulfilled demand that there was for golden oldies in the late 70s.
Lightning Records' own golden oldies catalogue was also something to behold. They had loads of singles that were still available at that time, such as the Beatles and (part of the) Rolling Stones back catalogues. They also imported singles from the USA, including re-pressings and 'plugged' originals.
Best of all, they even got records pressed especially for them.
For instance, they managed to get Cliff Richard's first 6 singles re-pressed by EMI in Ireland, in glorious mono using original single masters.
They got a set of singles out of Pye, including double A-sides by the Kinks, Petula Clark and others. Largely in glorious mono. Their re-pressing of "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion" by the Kinks had the widest groove at the start to best accommodate the suitably loud opening guitar chords.
They got Decca to press some singles with a Decca label that harked back to the days of 78s. These included a double A-side by Arrival ("Friends" and "I Will Survive") and a double A-side by Alan Price ("Simon Smith And The Amazing Dancing Bear" and "I've Put A Spell On You".)
The most curious releases were two singles pressed by EMI in Greece on the Harvest label. These were "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play" by Pink Floyd. Theye were in "mono re-processed for stereo" mixes but not the same mixes with awful time delay as appeared on "Relics". Instead, they actually sounded half decent when folded down to mono because there were no time delays in the re-processing, only slightly altered phase relationships between different frequencies. |Sadly "See Emily Play" also had a slight electronic buzz running through it, possibly caused by radio interference somewhere up the signal path at some point during the single's creation.
Oh yeah, and they took delivery of a UK Records promo copy of "Old DJ's Playing New Songs", which I still have in my collection. Mutton dressed as lamb? Bah?  |
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JK2006 |
Indeed Walter - you are forgiven (and I notice you tend not to visit our Your Views board anyway). |
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