Bob Dunham
10 of Bob's favourite 45s (in no particular order)
Green Onions - Booker T & The MGs (London Atlantic)
The Dark End Of The Street - Roy Hamilton (Deep Soul)
Denver - Ronnie Milsap (Scepter)
Who Will The Next Fool Be - Charlie Rich (Phillips Int'l)
The Beautiful Lie - The Amazing Rhythm Aces (ABC)
Big Bird - Eddie Floyd (Stax)
Baby Let's Play House - Elvis Presley (HMV)
20-75 - Willie Mitchell (London)
Cadillac Man - The Jesters (Sun)
Sweet Inspiration - The Sweet Inspirations (Atlantic)
It's been a long and varied journey from being a Dansette owner in Dartford to dealing with sophisticated DAT equipment in a small oasis in the industrial wastelands of Harlesden, north-west London. Not surprisingly, Dartford (but not the record-player) gradually got left behind in the cause of a young man's social and musical education, as I gravitated resolutely towards the metropolis.
Being somewhat overawed at the time about trying for a job in the music/record business, I eventually landed in the next best thing and spent a decade working for various London film distributors. It was enough, so I came to think, to put me off office work for life. However, those activities were most sociably located in and around 60s and 70s Soho, and I did get to meet Jackie De Shannon while at United Artists, even if it was only in the lift! The work also provided sufficient funds to finance a couple of early 70s trips to the States.
My penance following those US exploits was several months' employment as a site and payroll clerk for a construction company expanding a sewerage farm. The job obviously had its drawbacks but the mushrooms were great! Fortunately, another film company heard my pleas, hauled me out of the shebang and kept my head above water until an opportunity arrived to take steps in a more musical direction.
So it came to be that the late 70s found me in the unique position of selling rock'n'roll records and cooking fry ups simultaneously down at Smokey Joe's Café in New Malden. A suburban sojourn at the home of greasy listening! Then it was back to Soho, again flogging vinyl but without the cooking responsibilities!
Next stop.Camden Town. A lengthy and educational stint in the legendary Rock On record shop also provided me with a good working knowledge of the various labels garnered under the Ace umbrella. It fortuitously helped pave the way towards my present position, where I now handle acetates and tapes (both analogue and digital) instead of vinyl.
Over a four-and-a-half-year period my main project was performing a full physical audit of all these sources held by the Company, then preparing the extracted information for addition to the main database. Following the completion of that mammoth task, I am currently maintaining and updating the tape library on a part-time basis, while dealing with all management and consultants' requests for archive material.
And, of course, I'm back in the office.
(photo caption, Bob Dunham (centre) at Rock On)
