Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bob Stumpel on September 10, 2017 at 2:47pm

Autograph collectors have been discussing this online since 1994. 

People who worked with Ray for decades all share the same obeservation: he NEVER signed anything.

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Permalink Reply by Phil Spilsbury on September 10, 2017 at 2:49pm

But clearly he did sign some at least early on. Doesn't mean it was a common thing hence why people might say they never observed him doing it. The fact there are so few shown and more importantly faked backs up the thought that he signed very very infrequently and possibly stopped completely after a certain point. 

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on September 10, 2017 at 5:44pm

'Bob is correct in terms of I don't expect there are many autographs at all but to say that he NEVER signed is clearly incorrect and not something Bob can possibly know."

Hmmm.

E

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Permalink Reply by Bob Stumpel on September 12, 2017 at 6:03am

Okay, now I got you. So the epitome of a proud, well educated blind man, and a master of Braille, who ALL of his life did EVERYTHING to avoid that anyone perceived him as a disabled person, left a trail of half-a-betic scribbles to please some halfwit signature hunters in the early Sixties AND - post mortem - Phil Spilsbury.

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Permalink Reply by Phil Spilsbury on September 12, 2017 at 6:09am

Well I'm neither a half-wit (thanks for that!) or an autograph hunter. I'm not a collector or a trader, I'm just collating and selling some of a one-off collection for a good friend. But putting the personal insults to one side, how can you definitively say he never ever signed autographs? All your saying on that last comment - putting aside the insult - is that you don't believe he would as he wouldn't want to be seen weak in some way having a very basic autograph? so it's that's what your opinion is based on? I'm sorry when you said NEVER NEVER in upper case several times i thought that meant you travelled with him and could say for sure. I'm sure Paul will chuckle too when i tell him he was a half-wit autograph hunter. I suppose being a half-wit is only half as bad as being a full-wit? LOL

P.S, I'm trying to put together some information on his 1963 UK tour from local sources. If I get anything useful I'm happy to share that with for your blog. 

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Permalink Reply by Bob Stumpel on September 19, 2017 at 3:04am

Hi Paul, I'm maintaining that (Ray Charles Video Museum) blog. 

I went through music magazines like Melody Maker, but never had access to British newspapers. Anything you can set straight or add is more than welcome.

My email address is bob[at]result[dot]com

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Permalink Reply by sling on September 19, 2017 at 4:23am

have you gone thru blues unlimited, british publication?

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Permalink Reply by Paul Canning on September 19, 2017 at 1:08pm

I've got many of the same Melody Makers, NME's from that time. Certainly in Record Mail which was an EMI publication in the May addition they listed 12th-Astoria, 14th-Hammersmith Odeon, 16th-Lewisham Gaumont, 17th-Birmingham Odeon, 18th-Free Trade Hall Manchester. 

Melody Maker in April also lists all these shows including the Birmingham one plus another show in the Midlands at De Montford Hall in Leicester on the 20th May. 

The Stage is another good source and they also list the Birmingham show as the 17th. No mention of any Leeds show in any of these publications. Stage also lists the New Victoria show on the 15th. 

I know Ray mentions the Birmingham Odeon in an interview in the NME in the last week of May. 

Plus the two additional Hammersmith Odeon shows on the 1st and 2nd which you've already got. 

I've got all these papers - well Phil has - so can be scanned as I'm sure most weeks during May had interviews with him. I know Phil has also being trying to track down reviews of the Birmingham show in the local Birmingham papers but certainly Ray mentions the Birmingham show in at least one of the NME's in May. 

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Permalink Reply by Bob Stumpel on September 19, 2017 at 1:51pm

Recap: Harold Davison, certainly when it came to publicity, made a mess of every tour.

But okay, Birmingham on 17th makes more sense than Leeds (which I took from an American trade magazine). It's also in line with the "Odeon" mentioned in the captions to these photos: http://gtty.im/2jFPml0

If you find back that interview of RC, I'd appreciate to see a copy of it.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Canning on September 20, 2017 at 1:10am

Well the Odeon was also a cinema as well. It was a one screen cinema which switched between that and a concert hall. The Birmingham one at least stopped hosting concerts in late 1980's and now all the Odeon chain is a purely a cinema chain. We walked past it the other day on the way to a Kraftwerk concert and the stage door as it was is now gone. 

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 10, 2017 at 4:47pm

Hi Bob,

There's strong evidence that Ray signed occasionally until the early to mid-1960s...and perhaps VERY rarely afterwards. If he did sign autographs then, they were probably assisted signings.

The ones in script were mostly signed by Vernon Troupe, Ray's right-hand man. Ray was a voracious reader and would leave brail magazines and books in the trash at his hotel rooms.

Hotel employees often thought he left them by mistake, so they would send them to his office or later hotels, if they knew where he was staying. 

Vernon started signing "Ray Charles" on the brail books and magazines, and suddenly, they were no longer sent to Ray.

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Permalink Reply by Bjarne Soderholm on September 10, 2017 at 11:05am

I did meet Ray a few times. I were never able to get an autograph from him, because he always told me that he didn't sign anything that he couldn't see.

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