I am assuming that the majority of people who read this blog are over the age of about 55. That being the case my question to you is what were you doing 50 years ago yesterday?
If you were a diary writer and you have kept your diaries, as diary writers are wont to do I suspect, then you could dig out your 1975 documentation and answer the question pretty accurately. I was never a good diary writer but I can say with almost complete certainty one of the things I did on the 7th November 1975, and I did it again yesterday!
In 1975 I was still at school, the 7th November 1975, like yesterday, was a Friday, so, unless I was ill, I can conjure up how the day would have panned out. Breakfast, quite possibly Shredded Wheat (I have always been a fan, and that was breakfast yesterday). Grab the bike out of the garage and cycle/walk to school, meeting up with a couple of friends along the way. I don’t know which lessons I had that day but they would have included some, though probably not all, of: Pure Maths, Statistics, Economics, and Geography, those being the ‘A’ levels I took, and I was in the Upper Sixth that year. Lunchtime (at least!) would have almost undoubtedly been spent in the Sixth Form common room (unless it happened to be the day the floor in the terrapin structure collapsed!) and involved playing darts, cards, and records. Great times. I would have had sandwiches for lunch, probably cheese and pickle, made by mum (yesterday I had sausage sandwiches for lunch made by my wife). Sometime in the afternoon I would have ambled back home with my friends (we tended to chat a lot so pushed our bikes a fair amount when we were together). In the evening mum would quite possibly have served up fishfingers, chips, and peas as fish on Friday was very much still a thing (yesterday I had mushroom wellington, made by my wife, leftover from a little dinner party she had with some friends the night before). After that I probably strolled up to the Green Dragon to meet friends and drink Courage Best. (Although, thinking about it, I may have been shelf stacking and dealing with the “offy” empties at the Co-op in the early evening). There is a certain amount of conjecture in all of this of course, but if I had kept a diary I’m betting its narrative for the day wouldn’t have been far off this.
I can say with some certainty though there is one thing I did on 7th November 1975, and that is read the Black Wax List #66. You can see in the picture I wrote the date in the top right corner. Exactly when I read it on that day I’m not sure, that would depend on whether or not the postie delivered it before I went to school. But I know I loved a list and I would have given an initial read as soon as I opened it.
Black Wax was a record shop in Streatham back in the day and sent out regular mail order lists. The first one of theirs I received was #57. I didn’t write a date on that one but it was probably sent out sometime in February 1975 (I think possibly I only wrote the receipt date of the list on the ones I ordered from). A fact I don’t think I knew at the time was that Black Wax was run by Tony Cummings, a respected soul music journalist who started and edited Black Music magazine in the early seventies. From 1974 on I had a copy of Black Music magazine delivered regularly by the local newsagent (I can’t imagine they delivered many, if any, other copies to the area). Black Wax obviously had a prominent advert in the magazine.
I still love lists and I have kept all the mail order lists I received back then (of course I have!), and so it was I found myself reading Black Wax List #66 exactly 50 years since I had first received and read it. You may be wondering what prompted me to do this? Well it was not an initially intentional anniversary act. The folder with all these old lists was to hand because I had, earlier in the week, had occasion to refer to another old list. Flicking through I noticed the date on this particular list and thought, well, I must read it to celebrate its anniversary! (The folder was relatively to hand because I had wiped the dust off it and given the lists a bit of of a going over, including this one, a couple of years ago and I intend to feature some more in subsequent posts).
In fact I did more than read it yesterday, I performed what amounts to a deep dive into it. An extra deep dive. It runs to 14 pages. The first three pages cover postage rates (11p to post a single 45), some other general information, and two pages and a bit pages of new releases – Donna Summer Love To Love You Baby (65p) was #1 in their Disco Chart. The subsequent 11 pages were dedicated to their “amazing “January Sale In November””. They were clearing oldies to make way for new stock (lots of which were probably going to be oldies too!). Just over 700 singles were listed (some feat of typing) at 30p each or 4 for £1.
So, what did I discover?
As I said I had looked at these lists a couple of years ago with a view to finding out, with the benefit of hindsight, how many bargains were on them. There were many, and I documented them. Back when these lists were issued there was, of course, no internet, Spotify, or the like and there was a lot of great ‘black’ music from the golden decade lying around in warehouses undiscovered, even though Northern Soul DJs were making inroads into that. Looking at Black Wax Lists #66 and #67 I made a list of 29 records in the 4 for £1 section that now have a Discogs median price of more than £50. To put that into perspective those 29 records would have set me back £7.25 in 1975, money I didn’t have then of course, never mind that the buying process was little more than sticking a pin on a page. In today’s money accounting for inflation that equates to around £77. The actual total of today’s median Discogs sold prices of these records is over £4000. In fact it’s reasonable to assume the majority records on these lists would have yielded some appreciation in value from the 2025 equivalent selling price of £2.68.
My deeper dive into this list yesterday was to see if at the time I ordered any records from it, and also to see how many 45s that appeared on the list I now own, mostly following my re-found obsession this century with little black round things with a big hole.
Deciphering little marks and squiggles I made on the list at the time I think I can identify three 45s still in my collection (I say still, but in reality if it is soul or funk I have never unloaded anything). Maybe I ordered more, but these were the only ones still in stock. The three are Betty Davis Git In There, Funk Inc. Dirty Red, and Ruth Brown Try Me And See. Betty Davis I knew of at the time, the others were very probably blind buys, so pot luck.
Now to the records on this list that I have subsequently bought over the years (mostly, no doubt, for more than the equivalent of 25p in 1975). I counted 70. So I now own about 10% of the records that appeared on this list. I think that’s quite a lot!
Some examples:
The most expensive/desirable record today that was on List #66 is Vivian Copeland Chaos In My Heart. This one has a current Discogs median sold price of £600. It has sold twice on Discogs this year, neither copy being in tip top condition. Of course back in 1975 the listed copy (or copies) would have almost certainly been mint dead stock.
One I wish I owned, and maybe I’ll splash the cash one day is Brothers Of Soul Candy / Dream. Current Discogs median sold price of around £270. It was on multiple lists in the cheap section back in 1975. Obviously dead warehouse stock, probably mostly brought into the UK by John Anderson of Soul Bowl fame. All of those have disappeared into collections now. My pot luck back in 1975 didn’t extend to one of them unfortunately.
Betty Davis – Git In There 1974
Gene Chandler There Goes The Lover. One of the 70 I have subsequently bought, probably about eight years ago. Current Discogs median sold price £12. A perennial favourite on the soul scene. A gorgeous slice of Windy City soul.
