SMR House

Soul Man Records - a record label from Southend, UK. Soul Man Records was one of the most important and popular record stores in the east of England from 1989 to 1992. After first opening as a specialist Soul/Funk/Jazz/Latin/Groove store in the early part of 1989, the owner Steve Burns followed up on a suggestion from one of the shop's regular record-buying DJ customers, that he should employ somebody that could sell House, Techno and Balaeric music to a new line of customers. That DJ was Mark Summers. In the words of the owner; "Mark Summers single handedly transformed the store into a place where almost every DJ in the east of England would come to buy their records". The one and only vinyl release on the SMR label came in October 1989. Winning support from many SMR regulars that he should make a counter-attack on Quartz for not crediting him on "Meltdown", Summers released "Melt Your Body", a limited edition pressing of 1,000 copies that was funded partly by Burns, DJ Stephen Lawrence and Summers. The release sold out within one week, and was soon re-pressed in January 1990 via the London-based distribution company Greyhound. The re-pressed 12" went on to sell 12,500 copies and reached number 85 on the UK national chart. The store continued into the early 90's, but due to other local competitors selling similar selections of vinyl SMR finally closed around 1994.