By David Meikle (213.122.156.2 - 213.122.156.2) on Monday, August 26, 2002 - 10:35 am:

Does anyone know where Loma were based in Los Angeles?

Was it really Loma Avenue?

Dick Glasser was the man I think. Is he still around?

Does anyone know where they recorded?

Tha Apollas, The Enchanters, the Marvelows etc. What about The Voice Box? A great Northern 45.

Were these records bought in from Chicago etc? or made in L.A.?

By David Meikle (213.122.156.2 - 213.122.156.2) on Monday, August 26, 2002 - 11:28 am:

Just found out that Dick Glasser died in July 2000, same month as Lew Bedell of Dore Records which was also based in L.A.

Dick was also with Metric Music Publishers who were responsible for a number of great releases on the Minit label.

By Davie G (213.251.162.249 - 213.251.162.249) on Monday, August 26, 2002 - 11:34 am:

Hi David

Loma was actually run by Bob Krasnow - Dick
Glasser was a Warner Bros. staff producer
who did most if not all the Apollas tracks
which were LA recordings ( which studio I
don't know)

Loma did a fair amount of picking up masters
from independent producers

The Dolls were from somewhere in Texas -
probably Dallas.

The Invincibles, The Marvellos and the Olympics
are all L.A.

Most, if not all, the Jerry Ragavoy productions
are New York recordings by NY or Philly based
acts.

The Voice Box ? - I'd have to check this one
but I'm pretty sure that when Loma was wound up
the tracks were reissued on Warner Bros. but
this time credited to "John Wonderling" which
tends to make me think the Voice Box was
a studio group.

Off the top of my head I'd say about half of
Loma's output was from LA the remainder being
from various other cities - there are a handful
of garage band discs on Loma from 1966 , one of
them (Butch Engle and the Styx) is from San
Francisco, one of the others (The Belfast Gypsies)
is a Kim Fowley production on some former members
of Them.

Loma's offices were in the Warner Bros. building
(if I remember correctly) - I'll let you know
the address if I can find it.

By Davie G (213.251.162.249 - 213.251.162.249) on Monday, August 26, 2002 - 11:36 am:

David,

Just to clarify one point - the Marvellos on
Loma are a completely different group to
the Marvelows who were a Chicago group (on ABC)

By David Meikle (62.252.128.6 - 62.252.128.6) on Monday, August 26, 2002 - 01:42 pm:

Thanks Davie

I'll hold you to that address!

Now that I'm home, two other great Loma tracks were Ben Aiken "Satisfied" and The Soul Shakers
"i'm getting weaker".

I also love the brilliantly named Tony Amaro and the Chariots! (arranged by Sammy Lowe)

By Carl Dixon London (62.31.32.130 - 62.31.32.130) on Monday, August 26, 2002 - 04:16 pm:

You are both 'absolutely right' about Loma! I have a soft spot for The Apollas. I have three albums released by Warner Bros in the seventies showcasing the label, full of cracking tunes. There was a fourth and as I did not have enough money and did not know what I was buying at the time I missed it!

By David Meikle (62.252.128.6 - 62.252.128.6) on Monday, August 26, 2002 - 04:46 pm:

Hi Carl

I bought volume 1 and bitterly regret not buying more.

I think there there was even more than 4 but wouldn't argue the point.

Some of them were definitely not Northern Soul however.

I have a real spot for L.A. too.

In the Hollywood/Sunset/Santa Monica Boulevard areas plus up Vine Street to Capitol records was a real bustling music scene.

And down at Culver City was Modern.

Think of Mirwood/Dore/Capitol/Loma/Minit/Vault.

Vault even issued Popcorn Wylie's "Ggoing to a happening".

Fantastic quality!

By David Meikle (62.252.128.6 - 62.252.128.6) on Monday, August 26, 2002 - 05:56 pm:

Davie

I found the address; it was 4000 Warner Blvd, Burbank.

By Mark Speck (65.56.221.175 - 65.56.221.175) on Monday, August 26, 2002 - 08:03 pm:

I'll add a few things:

There was a 2 CD set that Warners issued here as part of their Warner Archives of Loma material. Unfortunately, it's no longer in print. Finbarr may have a few copies. I think the UK Warner label is releasing some Loma stuff on the Richard Searling comps.

There was a very interesting article about the label in the now-defunct Soul Survivor magazine. In the article, it speculates as to how the name of the label was derived: it may have been a shortening of "Elomay", which they copyrighted for a label name, or they may have seen "Loma" as part of a street name and adapted that.

The article also listed the various producers/arrangers that Loma used on records. Pretty much everybody from James Brown to Van McCoy was involved in the Loma sound.

Quite a few acts were shuffled between parent label Warner Brothers and Loma: the Invincibles, the Apollas, the Marvellos, and Ike and Tina Turner among them.

The Dolls record is an alternate version of the Linda Burns song on Ty Tex.

Best,

Mark

By acooolcat (211.78.28.72 - 211.78.28.72) on Tuesday, August 27, 2002 - 01:24 am:

I'm going from memory - but think that Dave Godin wrote sleeve notes for a Loma LP that featured the great Linda Jones. It included her wonderful recording - "Hypnotized."
I could be wrong though, it's a long time since I saw that LP.
Graham

By David Meikle (213.122.184.187 - 213.122.184.187) on Tuesday, August 27, 2002 - 03:46 am:

I think that's correct Graham.

Thanks Mark. I picked that cd up in Santa Monica when it was first released. I couldn't believe it when I saw it.

Unfortunately the liner notes could have been better.

I looked up my L.A. map a few years ago (quite a feat reading that!) and there was a Loma Avenue, North East of Hollywood. I can't find it on Mapquest now. Probably need the suburb which, like Hollywood, can be a town in itself.

According to the R&B indies book Loma was absed where Davie G suggested.

A great label.

Is Bob Krasnow still around?

By Davie G (213.251.162.249 - 213.251.162.249) on Tuesday, August 27, 2002 - 10:05 am:

David,

I checked the sleeve notes of "The Loma Story"
(the 2-cd set that Mark mentioned) - it says
that Loma was based " in the Warner Bros. lot
overlooking Loma Avenue".

Bob Krasnow ? - as far as I know he's still
around - probably lounging around on a yacht
somewhere. He's an interesting guy - before
being given Loma to run he worked in sales /
promotion for King Records in Cincinatti,
after Loma was wound up he ran the Blue Thumb
label and the last I heard of him he was the
president of Elektra / Asylum.

Re those Loma albums that WB issued in the UK -
there were seven in all - six were compilations,
the seventh was a split album that had Linda
Jones as one side, J J Jackson the other.

They were not easy to find even when they were
new - the only one I've physically held was
the Linda Jones which I bought.

It's a pity there wasn't a follow up to the
"Loma Story" CD as there are a lot more tracks
I've yet to hear.

By David Meikle (213.122.29.16 - 213.122.29.16) on Tuesday, August 27, 2002 - 10:13 am:

Thanks Davie

The 23rd Precinct in Bath street stocked them all.

I got volume 1 for £1.89!

I don't know why I never bought any more... must have been a cash flow crisis.

By Frankm (62.188.120.132 - 62.188.120.132) on Tuesday, August 27, 2002 - 02:09 pm:

I understand that no one at Warners UK could understand how they were persuaded to issue a seven album set of compilations that were never gonna sell in the first place. I presume an over enthusiastic soul fan was the drivin force. I am struggling to think of a sizeable set released by any of Warner's major rivals. Seven albums of unknown material. It would be good to have a CD re issue as the albums have about ten tracks per side which leads to a fairly thin sonic quality.

By Flynny (213.1.132.212 - 213.1.132.212) on Tuesday, August 27, 2002 - 04:28 pm:

I was told that someone at Warners UK lost his job due to that series failing to sell!
There were bulk of most of the seven volumes in Cheapo Cheapo Records in Soho many moons ago...who knows there may be some there still?! ;-)
I also had overstocks of the original double CD set a few years back...think they went into an HMV sale for @ £2.99 each!

Great label indeed!

By Davie G (213.251.162.249 - 213.251.162.249) on Wednesday, August 28, 2002 - 10:25 am:

Here's an interesting bit of Apollas trivia -

Peter Tork was their bass player before successfully auditioning for the Monkees -
he repaid the favour by having the Apollas
as the support act on the first Monkees
national tour.

Flynny - I got my copy of the "Loma Story"
in an HMV sale - £5.99 - must've gone to the
wrong branch :-)

Re the "This is Loma" lp series - the only other
comparable series I can think of off-hand is
the old Atlantic "History of Rhythm and Blues"
series but that had a far bigger catalogue to
draw on.

Cheapo Cheapo was an amazing place - I got a
copy of ther first Earl Van Dyke album there
for £1 - and a copy of the first 13th Floor
Elevators album in their 3-for-£1 box (of
course this was before anybody had really heard
of them)

By Frankm (212.250.156.11 - 212.250.156.11) on Wednesday, August 28, 2002 - 01:21 pm:

I'd heard of the 13th Floor Elevators and You're Gonna Miss Me apart thought nothing much of them.
The Atlantic Rhytm and Blues series was good apart from teh rechannelled stereo but that series had chart records on it. The Loma collections did not. Anyway I thank the unknown soul fan and P45 posessor

By David Meikle (62.252.128.6 - 62.252.128.6) on Wednesday, August 28, 2002 - 02:18 pm:

I was thinking it might have been Neil Rushton, who wrote the liner notes.

By Andy rix (195.93.34.13 - 195.93.34.13) on Friday, August 30, 2002 - 11:10 am:

If my memory serves me right when IL was doing the SWONS documentary he found the Apollos thru Pat Lewis as the lead singer ... Spirit ... was Pat' cousin

By Ritchie (62.254.0.7 - 62.254.0.7) on Friday, August 30, 2002 - 01:07 pm:

The UK issue of the Atlantic "History of Rhythm and Blues" was straight mono. BTW, I still have the US issue of volume one, and despite the "electronically enhanced" description on the sleeve, it's as mono as you could wish.

By MEL&THEN SOME (195.219.7.110 - 195.219.7.110) on Saturday, August 31, 2002 - 09:19 am:

LOMA RECORDS,what a Label(ANDTHENSOME),so many great artists,the likes of:roy redmond,apoollos,carl hall,ben aiken,paul days,brenda hall,frankie love,invincibles,young lions,clydie&the blue jays,lucky carmichael,the wonderfully named,barry(barefoot)beefus,lukas lollipop,the charlie underwood glide band etc,etc.my personel posessions being those northern/rare soul gems:roy redmond,charles thomas,ben aiken the apollos,soul shakers,marvellos,linda jones,J.J.Jackson,olympics,larry laster,ike&tina turner,the voice box,all absolute gems.One truly underated Label to say the least.MEL.

By Eli (64.12.96.230 - 64.12.96.230) on Saturday, August 31, 2002 - 11:08 am:

Loma was an attempt by Warner Brothers at an
"R&B" imprint albeit short lived due to Warners'whitebread heirarchy.
During that time they had two friends of mine, Harold Burnside and Eddie Gilreath as promotion men who were the best in the biz, but Warners lacked true vision in the Black music field.
Unfortunately, Harold was killed in a car wreck during his prime.

Eli