Sticky Records - Full Story with Gallery and Links

Firstly - huge respect to the band members, namely: Willie Davis, Tommy Dawson, Chris Lynwood, Ronald Curry and Wesley Dennis - The Fabulous Capris - they hailed from East Texas USA & information on them and their recordings is very hard to come by.

I then managed to make contact with Gene through Phil York - both of whom have been so helpful in bringing this project to fruition I cannot thank them enough. (although we did start off on a bit of a bad foot!) but I have to say that they are both such consummate and seasoned music professionals and have been a real pleasure to work with.

Luckily Gene still had the original ¼ inch master tape which we attempted to re-master directly from, but regrettably quality had deteriorated and then Phil with his York Town Production Company and their technical knowledge came through with this amazing re-master from Gene's last remaining & personal copy of the 45.

Stagger Walk and In the Alley were recorded at what was described at the time as being 'a funky egg-crate rigged, little 12 track studio' - namely: Brian's Recording Studio in Tyler, Texas in 1970 and then released on March 15, 1971 on Gene's Garland based 'Domino' label as #105, only 250 copies were pressed in total and most of these were sold by the Fabulous Capris themselves direct from the bandstand in the venues they played. It is thought the band had a small amount of radio airplay in East Texas. It is no wonder that copies of this recording have remained so elusive, but off the topic of vinyl for just a second to ponder what a privilege it would have been to have seen this hot band play these two tracks live back in the day...!

Since then I have only seen this 45 for sale on two other occasions (in fourteen years). So, realising it's true rarity, I decided to do some research which eventually lead me to bring this amazing piece of music out again for release.

Gene Summers is an artist of acclaimed underground fame and has been responsible for many musical ventures over the last 40 years-largely in the field of Rock and Roll. In 1968 he founded Domino Records as an outlet for his own recordings and had also set up his own publishing company: Silicon Productions in 1962. In 1970 he was sent a tape of these two recordings by the manager of the Fabulous Capris and he decided to help the fledgling band out and issue it on his Domino Record label, this was the only R&B / Funk venture for the label. All dealings were done through the post, he never met the band or saw them perform live.

More importantly: It would be great to hear from you if you have any additional information on the Fabulous Capris or any of their other recordings. I am also trying to locate some of the band members - so if you have any info. please drop me an email (maybe you are one of the band members...)

....and, in short that's about all the story we have, the only parts I've left out would be all the legwork and logistics for release: tracking down people Stateside, phone calls, negotiating, drawing up contracts, checking out technicalities of sound, writing websites & the times of just waiting.... but all worth it for the music for sure.

With thanks to: Gene Summers, Phil York, Dean, Craig Webber, Paul Nath and to hisknibs for designing the original Sticky people artwork all those years ago: feel free to drop him an email with any enquiries..

I first heard this track in 1991 in Manchester, when Dean, my DJ partner played it at Djangos - one of the club nights we were running at that time. As with so many records in the world of funk and soul obscurity it's UK link goes back to the mighty John Anderson of Soul Bowl who unearthed it from one of his miraculous sources and it ended up in the hands of Dean, the heavyweight collector and formidable DJ. Dean ran Soul Bowl's only retail outlet, Expansion Records, where I also worked.

We were both digging deep for funk 45s around this time & Dean first played this out at one of our 'it's early doors - what new records you found this week?' sessions. The way the breakdown on this heavy monster of a track just keeps coming back in put it firmly on the wants list. So on with the hunt for this elusive 45 I went….no chance! - it took me 10 years before I could actually track a copy down & this came from a northern soul dealer in the UK who probably had this 'oddity' as surplus. (maybe sold all those years ago as part of one of Soul Bowl's infamous soul 45 packs?)