One of several labels offering unlicensed American Soul sides to the British Soul fan in the first half of the '70s. Out Of The Past was run by Chris Burton of the Stoke-based International Soul Club. There were no dates on the labels of its singles, but they were certainly available from the end of 1973 into 1974, and some sources suggest that they could have started out in 1972. Its label came in two different designs: one coloured and featuring a shooting star (1), the other very plain (2). There is some disagreement about which came first. The 'Shooting Star' singles, which generally had ISC prefixes, have lower numbers, from 001 to 030 plus 032, while the white ones, which have OOTP prefixes, start at 031 and end at 054. However, an advert in 'Blues & Soul' magazine from December 1973 lists around a dozen OOTPs as being available from the Club's 'New import mail order division', while an advert in the issue of March 1974 lists much the same number of ISCs as 'New sounds now available', which suggests that the plain ones came first. It does however seem odd that the catalogue numbers of the supposedly earlier OOTPs start more or less where the numbers of the supposedly later ISCs leave off. Were the ISCs in fact the earlier of the two types, with the March 'Blues & Soul' advert being an attempt to push the older stock? Be it or nay, not long after the appearance of the second advert the legal authorities descended upon the International Soul Club and Out Of The Past was consigned to the past. Singles which featured in the various adverts are marked below, in the 'Date' column.
Copyright 2022 Robert Lyons.