Forgotten Treasure: Limmie Funk Ltd ‎”Saturday Night’s The Night” (1978, Psycho)

I live in a pretty rubbish town, 22 miles outside of London, with no real record shops apart from one middle aged guy who was into collecting psych, rock, and Beatles stuff. He had a very small shop/unit where most stuff he picked up was from charity shops, carboot sales etc. There wasnt a huge soul section, and virtually no soul 45’s.

I used to go through his records daily, listening to everything and anything hoping to find some samples, and not wanting anyone else to get anything new that came im. Looking back i was, and probably still am a little over competitive!

Then one day i stumbled across this lovely little UK released 45: Limmie “Saturday nights the night”/”Party” (Released on Psycho in 1978).

Dont know why but i fell in love with the groove straight away, it became an anthem for myself and my then girlfriend, who later became my wife for years to come.

Those were the days before the internet, when you didnt spend more time looking up the records value, who played it, who liked it, or wanted it, but instead you took it home and played it until the vinyl was begging for mercy!

You took satisfaction knowing nobody forced it on to you, instead you used your own ears to decode every single lyric, vocal tone and rhythm, so you could give it your stamp of approval as “a tune”!

I went on to grab another copy of the 45 from the same shop, but this time a one sided acetate that had written on the label “bass heavy”. Mmmm… i started to wonder about this acetate and what the history was behind psycho records.

Once i finally joined the age of the computer i decided i would do some research into Limmie and psycho records. I knew Limmie had recorded “You can do magic” on Avco, but didnt know any info about the Psycho label..

I looked on a search engine and found a Simon Cohen around the north of England, dont know why but without a lot of info thought i would call him, said his company was dealing with guitars or something like that. Strange because “saturday nights the night” was recorded in south Londons Tooting area. Thats a million miles from where mr Cohen was now residing.

Well to my amazement my very first attempt at trying to find someone who made a record and i hit the jackpot. We chatted for about 20 minutes, where he told me psycho was infact his nickmame, SI-CO (simon cohen) psycho. After exchanging details i left very very excited, where he said he had boxes of the release in either his or his brothers loft. We chatted for may times via email and phone over the years where i told him about the acetate i had also found. The stock copies from his brothers loft never did surface to this day, but better than that he told me he had some reels still very well kept from those original 1978 sessions.

After many years we finally hooked up where he passed the reels over to me, i got them transfered where indeed there was a different take on my favourite cut “Saturday nights the night” as well as a couple of lovely un-released modern/crossover soul jams. “Cant turn you loose”, “Work it out” and “Crazy”.

Our meeting was filled with him telling my so many stories of life around London’s Soho music scene. One story contained Sharon Osbourne’s father Don Arden, who was a notorious mafia type music manager, who if he wanted your act, lets just say he got it, by hook or by crook. Force was the name of the game. A very dangerous individual, who got the name “uk godfather” and “mr big”. And im told by a good source this is how he got Black Sabbath.

So this record i dug up many years ago, led me along a path of new friends, music industry mafia style stories, and un-released reels. It became the first un-issued 45 on my record label www.superdiscoedits.com And to this day i know i can put in on in my house, and it will bring a smile and a cuddle from my wife.

That in itself is PRICELESS!!