The Small Faces issued their greatest 45 in late August of 1967. The disc "Itchycoo Park / I'm Only Dreaming" was one of the early psychedelic 45 to use "phasing", and for many radio listeners and record buyers it really did provide the audio experience of a trip. The phasing on the Small Faces 45 always reminded me of an earlier record by The Count Five called "Psychotic Reaction", which also used phasing but to achieve a slightly different effect.
The Small Faces record was pressed and distributed in Canada under an agreement with Columbia Records of Canada Limited that was struck in mid-1967. The label was PINK !!! While the Immediate label had been founded by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog-Oldham in England in 1965 as an independent label, a few of the earlier Immediate UK titles had been issued in Canada in 1966 by arrangement with MGM in the USA and Quality Records in Canada. These included releases by Chris Farlowe and a duo called Twice As Much.
"Phasing" of course had been used much earlier in the early 1950s on records by electronics wizard Les Paul, and then in 1959 on Tony Fisher's "The Big Hurt". But this time "phasing" was used to make the Small Faces record sound psychedelic, and it totally worked. It made the Park named "Itchycoo" sound like a magical place to go to in order to get "high". The August / September 1967 release would prove to be the biggest hit for the Small Faces in Canada, although the group would go on to issue several more excellent 45s on the Immediate label in Canada. Lazy Sunday is another excellent record by them for example and managed to make a dent on some Canadian charts.
Other great artists on the label in the 1967-1969 period were The Nice, Chris Farlowe, P.P. Arnold, John Mayall, Amen Corner, Duncan Browne, and The Hill. The Canadian releases generally mirrored the releases of Immediate records by Columbia in the USA but the Canadian releases did not come with custom Immediate sleeves like the US releases. The Canadian 45s were issued in the stock bright orange and white Columbia sleeves. Also there were no white label promo 45 releases like there were in the US. The Canadian pink Immediate labels normally carried the text MADE IN CANADA.
By 1969, however, the label was running into problems and the deal with Columbia ended. Some further releases by Humble Pie and The Nice were issued in Canada by Capitol. The single "Natural Born Woman" will appeal to Beatles fans as it sounds a lot like "Get Back" from the same period.
The history of the Immediate label in Canada is very interesting indeed and we are pleased to add the detailed Immediate records history and discography for Canada to our Discographies pages.
The good people of Québec City were blessed with a second visit in 5 years by Paul McCartney on the Plains of Abraham. Rumours were circulating that because this show was taking place just after the summer music festival, and unlike the free show of 2008, this one originally required an investment between 100$ and 200$ a piece, that the site might not be at its full capacity. Well, skeptics were dumbfounded because from what I have seen with my own eyes, by the time the show started, the battlefields were jam packed with avid fans, from the front stage to the hills way up at the back!
The evening started with an odd first act: an unknown DJ who played a mix of French versions of Beatles songs, but who seemed to click on a playlist rather than doing actual DJ work… Sincerely, it was a good idea that had a nice local touch, but sadly, it did not suffice to keep anyone's attention after the first few minutes.
A short while later, a very nice visual retrospective of Paul's illustrious career was displayed on the big screens to introduce the show, and soon after, Sir Paul himself walked in, and the crowd went bezerk! It would be hard to compare this show with 2008 because last time, it was a first ever visit for him in the city,. The whole town was living the McCartney buzz a week before and a week after his passage in " La Vieille Capitale". This time around, we were once again treated with a lineup just as impressive as last time (almost 3 hours straight!) that explored his most commercial hits, as well as songs that we are not used to hear live; A pure delgiht from beginning to end! Beatles fans were thrilled to hear a surprising renditions of Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite, or Lovely Rita or even Helter Skelter, and hardcore McCartney fans were pleased to hear songs from RAM and Here Today, written for John.
The excitement and experience surrounding the show was perfectly captured by a fellow music blogger from Québec City, and if you understand French, it is definitely worth reading; you will feel like you were out there (!) with us!
La musicographe's blog review: The "Foule" On the Hill
Apparently, fans were still waiting for him at the airport, sleeping outside his hotel room, trying to hear the afternoon soundcheck, or trying to get a glimpse of him while he rode his bicycle by the St Lawrence river early in the morning. 71 year old Sir Paul still knows exactly how to impress people of all generations, and spread a little bit of his magic everywhere he goes (or is rumored to be going while he visits the city!). In the end, everybody got a chance to hear his voice loud and bright in the heart of the old city.
Eight Day's A Week
Junior's Farm
All my Loving
Listen To What The Man Said
Let Me Roll It / Foxy Lady
Paperback Writer
My Valentine
Ninety Hundred and Eighty Five
The Long And Winding Road
Maybe I'm Amazed
I've Just Seen A Face
We Can Work It Out
Another Day
And I Love Her
Blackbird
Here Today
Your Mother Should Know
Lady Madonna
All Together Now
Michelle
Lovely Rita
Mrs Vanderbilt
Eleanor Rigby
Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite
Ram On
Something
Obladi Oblada
Band On The Run
Back In The USSR
Let It Be
Live And Let Die
Hey Jude
Day Tripper
Hi Hi Hi
Birthday
Get Back
Yesterday
Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End
Hello, we have updated our list of records for sale. We will also keep an updated selection of items in the left column of this page for a quick view of new items we have added.
Minimum orders are $20.00 and buyers pay for postage and any special options (express, tracking, insurance).
Hope you can help us out and add to your collection at the same time.
Proceeds from the sale of records go towards the maintenance and development of the www.capitol6000.com web site.
If you wish to make a contribution instead, simply click the donation button on the left.
Thank you!
Piers.
These past thrity days have graced us with a few very rare sales. Indeed, Jack London and the Sparrows' album very rarely turns up, but luckily for us collectors, has showed up twice in the last two weeks! One warped copy sold for 42.56$, while another nice copy did not sell, but the owner asked around 250$ for it. Still in the rarities section, the withdrawn Don't Make Me Over by the Swinging Blue Jeans (probably the hardest 6000 series album to find) found a new home for 306$. Another withdrawn but slightly easier album to find also sold for 57$ this month: The Animals' House Of The Rising Sun LP, while another Canadian copy of Thrillington was traded for 50$.
Other interesting 6000 series LPs sold too: The Big Town Boys for 25$, a stereo copy of Pink Floyd's first album for 100$, a hard to find copy of Eternity's Children for 34$, The Deep River Boys for 20$ and Lee Gagnon's 2nd album Je Jazz for 56$. Finally, a blue label copy of the quirky Family Way album sold for 42$.
A recent sales column would be incomplete without any Beatles sales, and indeed many sold once again this past month. The most interesting items to be traded were a retro rainbow copy of Abbey Road that sold for 28$, and a purple label copy of Long Tall Sally still in the shrink that sold for 25$. A very interesting (and slightly mysterious) ultra thin 1970s copy of the white album with the rare original Canadian designed label was sold for 30$, while its slightly more common 1973 Columbia pressing sold fror 15$.
A cool, but counterfeit copy of Twist And Shout pressed on pink vinyl (with parr's logo and original label design) was up for auction, but did not find a buyer.
Finally, in the singles department, an odd Love Me Do 45 with apparently a -5 on one side and no dash on the other sold for 68$, while another no dash copy sold for 40$. A very nice copy of Hey Jude in a pristine white Beatles on Apple Sleeve sold for 20$, while a copy of the Canadian EP Four By The Beatles suffered a surprising bidding war that ended the auction at an impressive 938$.
The lanky Bob Stone was born in 1944 in Brampton, Ontario. He moved to Oshawa in the mid-60s and started "Robert J. Stone Associates" in 1965 out of the attic of his grandparents' home on Colborne Street.
Bob was an entrepreneur through and through. And most likely a very tough businessman.
The company name he came up with sounded so very official for someone so young and inexperienced. He was only 21 and by the way, where were the Associates?... Bob was always an "independent" operator, working pretty much on his own, and he was very proud of his maverick status.
And regarding the family photo above, Bob's brother Thomas writes:
"Piers this is Bob around 1967....I'm the little kid and my brother John is on the right, ...we come from a musical family... Mom taught piano for 50 years and was the organist at St. Paul's United Church in Brampton, and my grandfather played Coronet for probably the same amount of time with the Oshawa Citizen Band."
Bob told me that in his very first year of operation, his main focus was on getting records placed and promoted across both the record retail and record wholesale networks. It appears that Bob's special talent was for licensing unique recordings for the Canadian market that the Canadian majors did not have access to.
"Piers... when Bob moved to my grandparents in the mid–sixties it was a very large turn of the century home. His office was on the third floor, it was an attic that had been turned into a bedroom... I remember it had rock and roll posters and records scattered all about. He had so many 45s that he used to mail them to my myself and my brother John... when we got all these promo 45s we would call our friends over and let them have whichever ones they wanted, I still have a ton of 45s from those days including (the Beatles') Ticket to Ride from the Eight Arms to Hold You album". In the fall of 1965, Bob arranged with Chris Blackwell at Island Records in England to place an obscure single from the obscure Jameco Records label in New York called "Shotgun Wedding" by "Roy C. Hammond". Blackwell was an energetic hustler just like Stone. Chris had started his own record company in Jamaica in 1959 and then moved to London in 1962. He started his business in England by selling Jamaican music to the growing expatriate Jamaican community in London. Bob Stone drove to Jameco Records in New York City to get the Roy C demo having heard it only over the telephone. Stone played the demo for Chris Blackwell over a long distance call to London, England. Then he flew over to London with the demo 45, met Blackwell at the airport, handed him the disc, and then flew straight back to Canada ! Blackwell loved the disc. It became a hit in England in 1966 and to return the favour, Chris Blackwell granted Bob Stone the rights to issue Island product in Canada... for a time... and this even included the releases by the Spencer Davis Group with Stevie Winwood, and Traffic. That time turned out to be just little over two years. The Canadian Island LPs featured a black label with the Island logo. Only the Traffic Reaping LP was also issued in the MONO format. All other releases were in STEREO playable MONO. Many of the Stone/Island jackets were laminated on the front. When I interviewed Bob a few years ago, he told me that this one lucky deal with Charles Blackwell launched his career in the music industry in Canada as an "independent". Bob Stone was a young maverick in the record business, and he must have been a real hustler. Soon he was rubbing shoulders with the folks who worked at the larger labels, including Paul White at Capitol. In the fall of 1965, Bob Stone also licensed that Roy C Jameco A-side to Capitol Records of Canada (Capitol 72294), but oddly it had a different B-side (I'm Gonna Make It) to the B-side track he licensed to Charles Blackwell (High School Dropout). All of these Jameco tracks are pure Northern Soul gems. The licensing agreement between Charles Blackwell and Bob Stone for Island product lasted for almost 3 years and covered the exciting years 1966 through the end of 1968. If Stone had not done the deal with Blackwell, some pretty interesting music would never have been released in Canada. With the Blackwell deal under his belt, Stone needed to get his discs pressed in Canada. Another early deal that Bob did was to get Sparton Records of London, Ontario to press his discs. The very first 45 to be released on the Stone label was by the Spencer Davis Group and it was called "Somebody Help Me". The disc was pressed by Sparton in London, Ontario and was issued in Canada later in 1966 but did not chart in Canada the way it had charted in England. The Spencer Davis Group would chart on CHUM in early 1967 starting with "Gimme Some Lovin". Local radio station CKLB 1350 in Oshawa would become a very big booster of the early Spencer Davis Group 45s on Stone. "Gimme Some Lovin" charted at number 5 in the CKLB chart for the week ending February 17th, 1967. "I'm A Man" would chart at number 1 on CKLB for the week ending April 21st, 1967. Oshawa loved the Spencer Davis Group and perhaps there was more to that story. DJ John Donabie joined CKLB in late 1966 and he quickly became a very good friend of Bob Stone's. The first album that Bob Stone issued on his own Stone label was an English album called "Music To Make Love By" by the Syd Dale Orchestra which had been issued in England on an Island Records subsidiary label called Surprise Records. This album was pressed in Canada for Stone by Sparton. One can only imagine the market that Bob saw for this album in early 1967. Lounge music was selling well in 1966 and 1967 and just how many people put this one on their record player at home... Not long after that, he moved his new company to new and larger office space in Oshawa. Sometime in spring 1967, with Spencer Davis Group 45s hitting the charts across Canada, Stone switched from Sparton to Caravan Record Sales distribution based out of Scarborough. It is probable that this company was also set up by Bob, and that the records were now pressed under contract (like Sparton) by Keel Records in Ajax, Ontario as they were closer to Bob's home base in Oshawa. This change appears to have taken place around the time that "I'm A Man" was being pressed because there are Sparton and Caravan copies of that 45. probably April or May of 1967. Ditto for pressings of the first album by the Spencer Davis Group "Gimme Some Lovin". There are Sparton copies and Caravan copies. At the same time, Stone could now afford to move out of his grandparent's attic on Colborne Street and rent some more spacious quarters. Stone moved his operation to the basement of a recently built office building at 172 King Street East in Oshawa.
The picture below shows the building as it is today: Tom Stone has special memories of this new "basement" office space. "The office at 172 King Street East was located in the basement on the east side. It was originally a standard size office, then Bob rented the office next to it... I think he took out a wall. I spent the summer of 67 at my grandparents' in Oshawa, John Donabie was a good friend of Bob's. I remember him hanging out at the office. I also very clearly remember the night Bob took John a 45 to play of the Spencer Davis Group “Somebody Help Me”. John was on air at CKLB in Oshawa that evening". During this amazing time in 1967, Bob also promoted and pressed "local talent" singles by Kensington Market from Toronto, and The British North American Act from Montreal, among other Canadian artists. These 45s were pressed only in limited quantities and are now highly sought after. Bob's brother Tom recalls seeing the Kensington Market in live performance at the time his brother Bob was issuing their first two singles in 1967: "Yes I did, I saw the Kensington Market about 1966 at the CNE (in Toronto) ... they performed on stage just inside the Princess Gate, CHUM featured them ... I also met Bernie Finklestein (their manager) that night...yup got both 45s of the Market ...".
We are not sure who did the graphical designs for Bob's labels and jackets but they were always of a very high standard. The labels for Stone, Island, and Now are highly reflective of the very best and catchiest mid-century modern designs of the 1960s. Much attention to every detail was paid to the look and image of the products so that they would stand out in the record racks against the competing singles by Capitol, RCA Victor, Quality, Columbia and Allied. The sleeves always highlighted the fact that Stone was "Independent". Bob's brother Thomas recalls what happened after the 1960s: "Bob's last office before Courtice was at 484 Waterloo Street.He did alot of stuff there and released albums on the Canadian Talent Library label, like Teddy Roderman, Henry Questa, Bobby Edwards, Jack Zaza and Johnny Cowell etc. He also produced a great album called the Oak Island Treasury Dept 2 in 1972 on Columbia's Harmony Label. I was in the studio that night. Terry Brown from RUSH was the engineer. It was the elite of Toronto's studio musicians, as well from Waterloo Road he did all the World Records stuff which included the albums which AUDAT recorded at Audio Atlantic Studios in Halifax. AUDAT was definitely the biggest label for talent in the Maritimes. Bob and I flew to Halifax in 1970 when the studio was being put together, the day I arrived they had just installed a 16 track NEVE sound board (the studio was where the red door is at 2893 Isleville Street)... and later that day we went out to the Eastern Passage with Ryan's Fancy until the friggin fog rolled in, it was my first trip to Halifax". Additionally, Thomas writes: "In the 70s he started World Records out of his office at 484 Waterloo Street in Oshawa and became involved with East Coast music. In 1970 he started the Audat Label (Audio Atlantic Studios) on Isleville Street in the north end of Halifax. World Records distributed a vast amount of local talent from Lee Cremo to Ryans Fancy on Audat ,as well he started the Creemore Publishing company. In the 80s he became involved more in custom pressings and started the World Replication Group which lasted until he passed away in 2009... your right he was a major player in the early days of Canadian Music history…". Kal Raudoja, Brian Schofield, and I went out to interview Bob at his office in 2004. Brian was visiting Toronto from Vancouver Island so this visit was arranged while he was out east. Bob was very pleasant and seemed quite surprised that he would have fans of his work from the 1960s. Bob kindly signed a Traffic Reaping album for me as well as a Stone 45 sleeve. He also signed a Stone 45 (Spencer Davis Group) and a mono LP Traffic Reaping for Brian Schofield. When he was being interviewed by the three of us that evening, he was very modest about his beginnings, but I did gain the impression that he had always been an entrepreneur. He certainly had an air of independence about him, and it seemed that he was great at whatever he applied his skills toward. He cared about his artists and the packaging of their music. He told us that he had all of the records and promo items from that time and they were all stored in his garage. In 2006, Brian Schofield wrote to Bob Stone about an obscure 45 that had been released by a group called Rand's Children on Flop Records. It was issued in a stock Stone 45 sleeve. Here is what Brian wrote on Tuesday, April 25th, 2006: "Hi Bob, Hope you are well. You may not remember, but a couple of years ago I was over to your office one evening with a friend of mine, Piers Hemmingsen, and a friend of his named Kal Raudoja. We chatted for a couple of hours, mainly regarding questions we each had about your days with Stone Records. I really enjoyed the visit. Which leads me to another question I have! A friend of mine recently mentioned a label called "Flop" Records, and a band named "Rand's Children". This record he has is in a Stone Records stock sleeve. We just have no idea about this band - it's a 1960s beat group sound. Was Flop Records a subsidiary of Stone Records? Do you know anything about this band, ie: where they were from ? I do a radio show out in Victoria and play these records on the air - I was hoping you might have an idea as to the origins of this group, and if indeed this label was in your company. Many thanks, Regards, Brian Schofield Victoria, B.C." Bob wrote the following response to Brian on Wednesday, April 26th, 2006: "After 40 years the recall on some of the early releases is a bit rough, but to the best of my limited ability I believe this was a " custom pressing only " for the group. In those wonderful year's I was offered fifteen or twenty masters a week and only ran with what I thought had potential because of limited funds. We had numerous side deals and labels for releasing these masters on. I used Afton Chart and Wren which Columbia distributed and Now, Caledon, Thames, and others which were distributed by Sparton and Acklands in your area. I believe this one we only pressed and did no distribution or promotion. I also think this master can out of the Manitoba Sask area but I could be very off base on that. Hope this helps, look forward to hearing from you at anytime. Best Regards, Bob" The big labels in Canada during the 1960s saw Bob Stone as an upstart, but the market made room for both him and his independent approach. Other independents like Sir John A, Roman and Red Leaf were not as adept as Stone, and Bob's ties with Island in England really helped him out sales wise. He scooped United Artists who would release Traffic and Spencer Davis Group records in the USA.
Thanks Bob you will be missed, and many thanks from all of us for the amazing recorded legacy that you left behind for us all to enjoy into the future. (Special thanks to Thomas Stone and to Brian Schofield for their generous contributions to the above) For the R.J. Stone discography, please visit our Stone label page HERE.
Autumn 1965 - Shotgun Wedding
Above - Capitol 72294 (Piers Hemmingsen collection)
Into 1966 And The Spencer Davis Group
Above - Syd Dale Orchestra LP cover (Source: lpcoverlover.com)
Centennial Year 1967
Above - Radio station CKLB Oshawa chart for April 21st., 1967 with Spencer Davis Group at number 1. John Donabie is listed as the CKLB DJ from 5PM to 11 PM. (Piers Hemmingsen collection)
Promoting Some Amazing Local Talent
Packaging And Promotion Of Stone, Island, and Now
After The 1960s…
Above - Two very obscure releases from the Now label.
Meeting Bob Stone In Oshawa In 2004
An Update From Bob In 2006
Saluting The Maverick !
Above - An autographed copy of the very rare Spooky Tooth 45 on Island. The CB prefix may have been used to honour Chris Blackwell ! (Piers Hemmingsen collection)