A call came in to Heart Recording one day from a C & W artist named Sonny James, known in the business as, "The Country Gentleman". He was inquiring about a piano man who had a group around the B'ham area. When Mr. James was told this particular person was no longer in town, he asked if I knew a band that could back him on a date he had in a few weeks in Panama City, Florida. I told him about The Webs and although he had never heard of them, he left his number and asked them to call him. Bobby called and got the gig. The Webs went out and bought all the Sonny James LPs they could find and started practicing. They learned all the tunes, about 30 if I remember correctly, and at the first rehearsal with Sonny James, blew him away. They even knew the lead intro to every song he sang on the LPs. When they related that story we knew the guys were exceptional. There were many times when The Webs came to B'ham to record and on all occasions some good recordings were made. Heart Records put out one record by The Webs and tried to promote it over the Southern U.S. but had no distribution. We visited radio stations over Alabama and Georgia to promote the record. It got good airplay but without distribution the record died quickly. Afterwards a representative took The Webs recordings and recordings of Heart's other artists and went to New York City to try and lease some sides. It was a common practice in those days for a national label to lease a finished recording and pay the owner a royalty. The agent sold The Webs recordings to several companies, which of course, we at Heart knew nothing about. Out of that came a call from a record producer named Jack Gold from NY. He had contacted those others who had bought the recordings and made arrangements to be the sole leasee. He came to B'ham, signed Bobby Goldsboro to a recording contract, and the rest is history. Bobby was the only Web who was 21 years old. So Mr. Gold used that as an excuse not to sign the others. For all practical purposes that was the end of The Webs as a group. As far as I know, they never did play together after Bobby left for New York. Mr. Gold had told us at Heart that he was really only interested in Bobby Goldsboro because of his unique voice. The initial label was Laurie, Mr. Gold's, and eventually United Artists, whom Mr. Gold worked for as a leading talent manager and A&R man. Bobby toured England and the continent with Roy Orbison as rhythm guitarist for $65 per week. He had to pay for his own meals and get his own cleaning done himself. He later related going shopping in London on the famous clothing street, I forget its name. He said Orbison bought seven suits, taylor made, with shirts, shoes and accessories while Bobby could only afford one jacket off the rack. That incident made him even more intent on making it big in the music business. Which he did.
Thanks to Tom Pollard for sending that in.