Licorice Soul Records

Working Man's Soul celebrates the forgotten world of British cabaret performers from the 1960s and 1970s and selects the cream of the cuts only previously available on privately pressed records. Manufactured by the artists themselves in miniscule quantities, these records were sold at live performances at Social Clubs, Miners' Welfare Clubs and Working Man's Clubs across the UK. Some of the artists went on to become household names; some went back to the day job; others made a successful and lucrative, albeit understated, career of playing three sets a night, six nights a week.

This selection covers everything from soul, funk and jazz to rock and easy listening; the common theme is of music recorded and performed to celebrate the good times and the end of the working week. The records from which these tracks are taken have been unearthed by Licorice Soul over many years of persistent (and usually fruitless) searching at flea markets, car boot sales, charity shops, and even the odd proper second hand record shop.

The majority of these tracks are here made commercially available for the very first time, each brings with it its own story of success, failure, or years of simply hoping, and in its own unique way, evokes the golden age of the British club circuit.

If you thumb through the various price guides or encyclopaedic discographies available in the murky netherworld of serious record collecting, you may notice that occasional rarities in the realms of folk or progressive music are not to be found on any recognisable record label, but instead are listed as Private Pressings.

Today it is common for artists of all styles to manufacture their own product, from strict-tempo organists to young bands selling their own songs on-line. It's now easy to assemble a home studio and burn a CD, but thirty years ago not everyone had a vinyl pressing plant at the bottom of the garden. The solution for some artists without a label was manufacturing a small run of records from tapes laid down at the local recording studio.

Not to be confused with major label-produced acetates or test pressings (manufactured to review a day's work in the studio or to test the qualities of a mix down) a private pressing, or road album, offered artists an opportunity to commit their talent to vinyl, make a little cash and work around the stranglehold that major labels had on record sales at that time. The majors had their own selected approved stockists and controlled the distribution channels up until the late 1970s, whereas private pressings were usually sold directly to audiences at gigs.

With the end of the cabaret circuit and the simultaneous demise of the vinyl record as a mainstream music format, the 80s and 90s saw the majority of the artists featured here move on to pastures new. Their records have languished forgotten in dusty attics since their heyday. Given such circumstances, rediscovering these recordings has been no mean feat. This selection of tracks has been painstakingly unearthed by years of (usually fruitless) searching at flea markets, car boot sales, charity shops, and even the odd proper second hand record shop.

The records presented here are not found in price guides or even usually given space in the shelves of second hand record shops, and more often than not, when discovered they can be bought for pence rather than pounds. These items are found more by persistence than purchasing power, chiefly because it takes a brave listener to gamble on the music that a privately pressed record may deliver. More often than not the sounds to be had upon dropping the needle are not altogether pleasant - but sometimes real gems are to be found, as is revealed on this album.

With this collection we aim to celebrate the era of the cabaret band with a selection of tracks originally available only as private pressings. These recordings cover many genres, including soul, funk, jazz, rock and easy listening. In some cases our chosen artists mix all of these styles within the same track. Jazz standards given a bit of pep mix it with funky big band numbers, Hammond players show off their chops, vocalists belt it out good and proper and even the drummer gets a solo. Their common theme is a strong groove designed to keep a busy dance floor moving. After all, this was music performed to celebrate the good times and the end of the working week.

There are many sub-genres within the world of privately pressed recordings. We have chosen to confine this first selection to artists operating on the cabaret and club circuit - appearing at Social Clubs, Miners Welfare Clubs and Working Man's Clubs across the United Kingdom - so we have termed this first edition Working Man's Soul.