BILL BUSH - A VELVET TOUCH / I'M WAITING - RONN 17, MINT, FROM ARTISTES STOCK

	£		1,020
	$		1,352

Remarkably, it’s now two years since I listed a Bill Bush 45 on eBay, as promised at the time. There will be no more eBay sales from the artistes remaining stock until April 2017.

Every time I play this record, it’s like the first time. A remarkable piece of music that, in my search for a copy, took me from Glasgow to Shreveport USA, as a guest of Bill Bush and his family.

In 2004, obsessed with Ronn 17 after hearing it played by Keith Money at the 100 Club, I set out to find a copy, instead I found Bill. Fast forward to April 2013, Bill visited the UK, bringing with him the few remaining mint copies in his possession with a view to gradually releasing this handful of rare unplayed discs in the coming years.

In 2014 Bill sadly, and tragically, passed away following an accident at home. Apart from a single copy retained by his family as a keepsake, the 45s in the UK are the only surviving stock from the original box that he had pressed with the sole intention to promote the band, like a calling card. It was not intended as a commercial release and would have been a private pressing had he not enjoyed a good relationship with label owner, Stan Lewis.

When I made contact with Bill in 2004 I undertook to sell the few copies he had left. The deal was that one copy would be sold every two years. To be clear, there is not ‘a box’ of these – what remains would fit in one sturdy record mailer, don’t be fooled by that rumour. 

Of the remaining 45s, several are pressed off centre, a known issue with this single. However, there are a few that are mint, pressed dead-centre and, apart from me checking once on high quality equipment, ‘unplayed’. To the best of my knowledge, every mint copy of the record sold from the UK in the past decade has originated from this batch, one way or another.

This is one of the perfect, centre-pressed original 45s. The disc is indeed mint, and comes in the manila pressing-plant sleeve, not a Jewel/Ronn/Paula sleeve, which was added by Lewis later for the very few copies he sold in his shop as a mark of Bill’s standing as a popular local act and well-liked character: or by record dealers to enhance the appearance of the item overall.

This remains one of the genuine rarities on the scene, a box of these has never been found, and never will be given what we know about the record. It was never distributed outside Shreveport apart from those sent to promoters by Bill (and probably binned more often than not, without even playing the b-side, I’m Waiting). The A-side is a swamp pop / country-tinged ballad, Velvet Touch, self-penned and designed for the local live music circuit.

I asked Bill about the amazing, soulful and musically complex b-side, like so many bewildered northern soul fans before me, trying to get to the bottom of what the influences were, what was he thinking of when he wrote it in 30mins before the recording session. “What was it meant to be?,” I asked. “It was meant to be the b-side,” he replied.

The mystery of what inspired this amazing record will never be solved now that Bill has gone, but it is simply one of the finest soul/jazz dancers ever. Nowhere, now or until the next listing in April 2017, will you see a better copy.

Questions are welcome, but there is no BIN on this, the auction will finish as planned. Condition is mint, but bear in mind it is 50 years old and even mint records have a feint surface noise, it’s not a CD. This has now been booted of course, but we’re not interested in that. One for very serious northern collectors only. Good luck, the proceeds go to Bill’s family after listing costs.

Footnote: I’ll be playing my own, signed copy at London’s hippest jazz/soul happening, Teen Scene, on 17 April 2015, at The Hideaway Club: I hope you can join us.