music : "You Better Believe It" - Brother Of Soul (Boo 111a)

Fred was not the only family member with musical talent during those heady days.

His second wife Claudine (Dee) used to help with song writing and singing. In fact Dee still has a great voice to this day.

Fred's two elder sons, Gerald and Fred (Red) had a group called The Michaels at the end of the seventies until Gerald got very sick. A guy called Jim White was also in the group.

Red would start up another group sometime later called "The Gentlemen and I". 

"They displayed great potential" says Fred, "and it was Lawrence and myself who taught them how to sing. But my barber John Jordan, who had owned 'The Place', wanted to manage them. So did I. But he went behind my back and tried to set something up with Atlantic.

When Atlantic got wind that there was a behind the scenes problem they pulled the plug as they did not want any internal feuding.

In the end nothing got cut which was a shame.

Jordan also set the group up with some club work but that ended in problems too.

Continued