One of several Soul bootleg labels from the early '70s. B.J.D. had links to Soul record shop / importers / wholesalers Selectadisc, of Nottingham; it took its name from the initials of the Christian names of Brian Selby, John Bratton and Dave Williams. Selby and Bratton had worked in Syd Booth's record shop, in Mansfield, but they opened their own shop, Selectadisc, in Nottingham in 1969. With a lot of rare Soul records being in demand (thanks to exposure in the clubs) but being hard to get, Selectadisc began to make and sell unlicensed pressings of some of them. Three such singles came out on the B.J.D. label in or around 1971, numbered in the BJD-100s. Despite their large centre holes they were pressed in the UK. The Chubby Checker record shown above appears to have been cut by Lyntone but pressed by British Homophone; its matrix numbers are LYN-2195 and 2196 but the way they have been impressed into the run-off is typical of British Homophone. B.J.D. received a mention in 'Billboard' of the 11th of September 1971 as being a source of pirated Soul singles, though the article claimed that it was from the Leicester area. Also mentioned in that article were B.J.D.'s sister-label Green Light and the Soul Source label, which was from Leicester and which was in the same line of business. According to correspondence on the 'Soul Source' site Selectadisc was also responsible for a third bootleg label, Magic, and it stocked bootlegs made by other people on labels such as Soul Source, Soul Fox and Soul Galore (q.v. all the above). The company eventually went legitimate, launching its 'Black Magic' label in 1975. Q.V. that, too.
Copyright 2022 Robert Lyons.