Shrine Records – Rare Soul Sides: Washington DC 1965-1967 – Various Artists 7x 7″ Vinyl Box Set (Kent)

Set up by Eddie Singleton with Berry Gordy’s ex-wife and co-founder of Motown, Raynoma (Miss Ray) in 1964, the Shrine label, based in Washington DC, has been a buzzword for collectors for over fifty years. Shrine had no hits; in fact very few sales at all. What it did have was musical talent and a business plan that ended in glorious failure – inadvertently making the twenty singles that were pressed highly sought after by collectors.

Interest was first stirred when a few of the uptempo numbers were played on the Northern Soul scene of the 70s, notably Eddie Daye’s pounding ‘Guess Who Loves You’ spun by DJ Richard Searling at Wigan Casino. Then young Turk DJs like Keb Darge and Guy Hennigan at Stafford’s Top Of The World all-nighters in the 80s really took up Shrine’s cause and the search for the hidden gems was on. “People were buying the known records on Shrine, but no-one was buying the unknowns,” recalls Darge. Soon, copies of singles by the Cautions, Cairos and Les Chansonettes went “massive” on the scene – J.D. Bryant’s big ballad ‘I Won’t Be Coming Back’ sold for a fortune.

When the label went out of business in 1966, Singleton left the remaining stock in the office, before locking the door for the last time. Years later, after being introduced to Kent Records’ Ady Croasdell by Ian Levine, Eddie retrieved the original masters from the studio. These tapes revealed unissued gems from the Prophets (later to emerge as a 7”), Tippie & the Wisemen, Traci, Jimmy Armstrong and others.

Those first tape reissues came out on the short-lived Horace’s label and later Ace more comprehensively issued them on CD. Other labels intervened but now Shrine is back in its rightful home. To celebrate this, we issued “Shrine Northern – The 60s Rarest Dance Label” Kent LP, KENT 526 last year. We have looked at the tapes again, in greater depth, and found another 14 sides worthy of single releases. – Ace Records