The Record Dealers


John Anderson 
picture courtesy of The Big Daddy

Record shops could only provide a limited supply of rare records, however, and that void would be filled by people like John Anderson from Glasgow.

Trading from a flat on the south side of the city in the late sixties, he was gradually building a reputation that would take him to the top.

I can recall visiting his flat and being amazed at the huge amount of record boxes lying outside on his veranda. Inside the flat there were records everywhere, as he tried to cope with demand from his many customers down south. Mint condition copies of the Larry Williams and Johnny Watson album 'Two for the price of one' always stick in my mind. 

Initially he was having records shipped in from the States, but that had limitations and he would soon become one of the first to hit the 'one stops' of Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit etc. 

Buying tens of thousands of 45's from warehouses, he was able to  provide fans in the U.K.  with a cheap way of building record collections by selling them in job lots of 100 records. This was known as a Soul Pack and in those days sold for £4.00 ($6).

I can remember the buzz when the packages used to arrive. Many of the discs were on labels which were being viewed for the first time on these shores. 

By this time John had moved to King's Lynn in Norfolk. There, his business would take off under the banner of 'Soul Bowl' and he would soon develop into the world's premier supplier of music to the disc jockeys and fans of the Northern Soul scene.


Notes thanks to David Meikle.
 

 


DESIGN AND GRAPHICS BY
LOWELL BOILEAU

This website is dedicated to Detroit, Soul Music, 45 RPM, Northern Soul and the great Motown era of Detroit Musics. It covers Golden World, Tamla, Wheelsville, Robert West, Darrell Banks, Johnnie Mae Matthews, Rose Battiste, Tera Shirma, Fred Bridges, Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Edwin Starr, Funk Brothers, Dennis Coffey, Bob Babbitt, James Jamerson, Twisted Wheel, Wiggan Casino and many more Detroit Souls topics.