About Expansion Records
Welcome to Expansion Records. If you like real soul music, you’ve come to the right place. Based in the UK, we endeavour to provide the level of quality soul largely abandoned by the American major companies many years ago. Our purpose is to offer artists, both new and veteran, a platform for their music on the UK soul scene, and where helpful, an international stage through our vast network of music fans and business affiliates. We have been privileged to work with such great talents as Leon Ware, Howard Hewett, Stephanie Mills, Gary Taylor, Leroy Hutson, Billy Griffin, Atlantic Starr, Ali Woodson (ex-Temptations), Jean Carne, Angela Bofill, Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King, and more recently Steve Harvey, Frank McComb, Adriana Evans, Marva King, James Day, Maysa Leak, Kloud 9, Ebony Alleyne and many more. There is real passion in what we do here, and that’s what keeps us going through sunshine and rain, especially through these ever more changing and challenging times.
Not all the music we release is new, much of what we do includes re-issues of rarities/new discoveries, compilations and previously unreleased music we recognize as special and therefore a demand for. We have major distribution for both our physical and digital releases.
The label is run from London by myself, Ralph Tee, while the events side of the business (luxurysoulweekender.com, see also myspace.com/luxurysoulweekender) is headed up by my partner, Richard Searling in Manchester. Together we are Expansion where our record releases, music events and DJ’ing activities reflect the personal tastes and love of classic soul we share.
The first releases on Expansion were through Richard Searling and John Anderson from “Soul Bowl” Records in Kings Lynn. I joined at the time Ronnie McNeir released his “Life & Love” album for the label (1989), and John left after Gary Taylor’s “Take Control” the following year. Expansion’s name was thought up by Richard to mean ‘stretching the boundaries of independent soul’. Early success came with the singles “Give Me The Sunshine” (Leo’s Sunshipp) and “Memory” (James King, formerly of The Futures). At the same time I was Assistant Editor of Blues & Soul, a magazine to which I still contribute – most recently their 1000th issue on which I must congratulate them. I must also thank them for voting Expansion the UK’s No.1 soul label for 5 consecutive years. I also worked with Ian Levine to persuade him High Energy was dead and that he should devise a new brand for his new recordings on former Motown acts, hence Motorcity and ultimately for me “Footsteps Following Me” for Frances Nero, my first chart hit as an a&r man.
Through the 90s, Richard and I worked on over fifty artist album projects and released numerous compilations in legendary album series like “Expansion Soul Sauce”, “Soul Chasers”, “Winners Circle”, “Phat Jams”, and “Friend In High Places”. In 2000 we launched the “Soul Togetherness” album brand which continues to this day. The Soul Togetherness weekenders paved the way for the Luxury Soul events which thrive on the same adoration for the music as the label. More recently, some compilations have been collaborations with ambassadors of quality soul like David Nathan (soulmusic.com), Andreas Hellingh (thesoulofamsterdam.com), Paul Clifford(myspace.com/soulguru_uk), Dan Dodds, Eleanora Cutia (undergroundsoul.com), Chris Hill and Geoffrey Bingham. We welcome them to our family and embrace all who have served to bring new music to our attention, which we in turn can share with the larger soul community. Still, trust me on this, we couldn’t and wouldn’t be able to do this unless we absolutely loved it. Despite the dramas and sleepless nights it’s the secret to how we’ve kept going for so long !
