Detroit is Happening by Gary Rushbrooke  

taken from a 70's fanzine-many thanks to John Lewis

When John Poole and I decided to go to the States looking for records, there was only one place we could agree on, Detroit, the home of Motown and many classic Northern hits. With the help of Chris ”Soul Source” Fletcher to drive us to the airport overnight, we arrived in Detroit Friday 4pm local time. 

The first harrowing moments of the trip when I was detained by immigration before entering the States. I was questioned on what I was going to do for two weeks, not wanting to explain that I had flown from England looking for 20c cast off 60’s records, I made up a story of touring his fine country. Eventually he let me in, john had walked through without any hindrance at all.  

After being clobbered for a $20 taxi fare we started looking for a motel in East Jefferson, not knowing this was one of the worst coloured areas in Detroit and white people never go there. No wonder the motel manager looked at us funny when we asked for a room for the night!!!!!!!

We found our first records that very night - 2 copies of Jimmy Cliff-Waterfall in greengrocers next door, John had gone out for something to eat and had found a box of records thrown on the floor and promptly paid 50c for the two and came back smiling all over his face.

As Saturday came around, the first day of proper searching, we set out with high hopes of finding Yvonne Vernee and Johnny Hampton by dinner time and ten shops later we had not found a single record not even a Edwin Starr on Ric Tic. We were down and out when we arrived Bob Maze records to find that he had a stock of 60, 000 old records but Nev Wherry had been two weeks before us and had spent $150 on 300 records. (Is this the shop the Debonnaires came of Nev?) We decided that having no place to go we would start looking and found records like Precisions – Such Misery, Harley Hatcher - Soul Hustler, Kris Peterson - Just as much (going big) Belles, Jackie Lee, Bobby Garett on Mirwood. Apart from the Precisions there were no local labels, which surprised us greatly. 

Bob Haze, (who had been drinking all day and by 6 o’clock was well on the way to beating the world record for alcohol consumption) charged us $40 for 100 records. He also offered us 1,000 Edwin Starr 0 SOS for 40c each, but we declined. 

An unusual story we heard was that he had pressed 300 copies of Matt Lucas – Baby you better go, for the B Side, which was in demand in Detroit, he sold the last 60 copies to someone in England, so be careful when you purchase this record. 

Over the next couple of days we flitted about Detroit finding a few records but nothing special. We visited the Motown Studios and warehouse to find them all locked up and guards on patrol, there was no way we could get in there, all staff and artists having departed for California leaving the cold and rain behind. Talking to one chap in a shop, we found out that the Magic City record Studio was directly above us, this being an abandoned one-room apartment where Thelma Lindsey recorded the magic, Prepared to Love You. 

We were preparing to leave for a couple of days holiday in Toronto, the main reason being for me to pick up a copy of Gwen Owens – Just say you needed and wanted, when John decided he wanted to visit a place called Coachmans Records at Charlevoix, it was now a little bit dark and quite dangerous to go out onto the streets, but John made up his mind to go. We arrived at about 9.30pm and I have never seen anybody so startled as the three people in the shop. We did not realise that we had just entered one of the worst ghettos in America, where the saying is “they stab you for $5 and shoot you for $10”. There was me and John with over $1,000 on our person. Mr. Coachman was out so we started to leave when in walked four coloured men of about 25, one with a handgun clearly in sight, tucked down his trousers. They all stared at me and John and followed us out of the shop. We believed this is where we found out what life is all about in Detroit – (Being rolled by four men for a couple of dollars), a taxi came round the corner and we quickly flagged it down and drove off, only to find that we were being followed by the men in their car. They gave up halfway back to the Motel, our taxi driver getting a $10 tip! After this incident we left for Toronto the very next morning. 

The five days spent in Detroit were very rewarding, but I found that this is a very poor city with very little money. You couldn’t but a souvenir, they don’t make them. The whole city is totally black with the downtown area definitely a “no go” area at night. Anyone going to the States and wanting Coachmans address, I will gladly supply it. 

As this article is about Detroit, I will not go into great detail about Toronto, except to say that it is beautiful, completely different to Detroit. I said goodbye to John who was returning home early and made plans to return back to Detroit, with a friend of mine to spend the last four days looking for seconds.  

Toronto to Detroit is about 250 miles and we did it by car in just over 3 hours. The weather was in the 90’s and people were just lazing about on street corners, nothing to do, no jobs to go to, no money. 

The first place I went back to was Coachmans, this time in daylight. The person I was travelling with was a personal friend of Mr. Coachman and I got on immediately with him, so instead of everyone treating me badly, everyone wanted to help, Mr. Coachman being the number 1 man for records in the City. Being the owner of two shops and a stock of over 100.000 records I settled down for the day record hunting. But as with every other shop in the States, somebody had been before, and the only sound to be found were more recent ones, like Soul Sams Mel Britt cover up (Emanuel Taylor), which was a 1978 Detroit release, but as with a lot of small record company’s old and new, the record did not sell and was soon deleted and the stock recycled making it a rare second. 

People who don’t appreciate how records can be rare should go to this city, in the late 60’s and even this very day when a company issues a record and it does not sell they will probably go out of business, existing on a day to day existence and relying on every record to be a hit is very dangerous. Awake Records who issued Eddie Parker – I’m gone and Shane Hunter – Sweet Things needed one of them to sell so they could carry on, neither did and the company closed down and all the stock was destroyed. 

While I was talking to Larry Lick, owner of Velgo records, he recalled how he went outside and smashed hundreds of copies of Gwen Owens, so he could make more room in the warehouse, also this was a faulty recording and should never have got to the shops in the first place. Detroit in the late 60’s was great with Motown issuing hit after hit and lots of labels trying to imitate the sound. Most of the Northern classics from Detroit were based on the Motown sound. Today there is sadly nothing, as always the Motor industry dominates the city but no more great records. It’s a shame that Detroit is treated as a bit of a joke by people in America. When I was on the plane people could not understand why I wanted to go there. They said they lived in the States but would never dream of visiting the city, it’s a place they would like to ignore and forget. But you should never forget that Detroit has given so much pleasure to everybody on the Northern scene, and I for one will make sure that I return someday. 

Many thanks to Bob Maze, Mr. Coachman, Michael at Bad Records and Martin Koppel for making me welcome and Jerry White for a free copy of Bobby Paris – I Walked Away, on my last day there.