6 votes

Does anyone know much about Barbara Stant?

Just discovered Barbara Stant on a Spotify playlist but can't find much information about her. There is only one album on there and Discogs is only showing some features. Google is coming up with a big goose egg as well.

Just curious as to whether anyone has any info about her history.

3 comments

  1. [3]
    cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    I love old soul music and this piqued my curiosity, so I decided to do some digging... which turned up this article from 2012 on Barbara Stant, the history of Shiptown Records, and the black music...

    I love old soul music and this piqued my curiosity, so I decided to do some digging... which turned up this article from 2012 on Barbara Stant, the history of Shiptown Records, and the black music scene in 1960s-70s Norfolk that centered around it: https://www.soul-source.co.uk/articles/soul-articles/barbara-stant-unsatisfied-woman-r2582/

    It seems like it should answer most of the questions you might have, including what became of her (as of 2009):

    With Shiptown in disarray, Barbara took a break. After this, she teamed up with a jazz band and started to sing again on a few local live shows. But things just weren’t the same for her and so she went back to her roots in the church. Control of the label’s catalogue slipped away from the family and that could have been it for Shiptown. But record collectors started to unearth the label’s old 45’s and those that found favour were soon commanding high prices. Howard Biggs moved on in life and pursued his own career path but 25 years on, he discovered the unending interest in his father’s record label. Encouraged, he managed to get control of the label back after realising that it was still something worth owning. With many of the old Shiptown artists prepared to support Howard, he set about re-establishing the label. Deals have been done to get some of the old tracks re-released and this resulted in “Superman” by Raw Soul (also known as the 35th Street Gang) featuring Barbara on vocals being issued on 45 in the recent past. This track being another that was produced by Lenis Guess and he also wrote the song. Still singing in church, Barbara decided the time was now right to stage a come back. Plans were made for her to record again and the master tapes for previously unreleased tracks such as “What Goes Around’ & “Stay’’ have been unearthed.

    Today, Church Street is a wide dual carriageway road that speeds high volumes of traffic past large warehouse type commercial buildings and newish public housing estates. It is totally unrecognisable as the street that was once the heart of Norfolk’s lively entertainment area. Thankfully Attucks Theatre has been brought back from the brink and now stands as a monument to what used to be. Interest from around the world in the music released on Noah Bigg’s record labels has sparked resurgence for some of his original artists. I’m sure Noah would greatly approve of his son’s efforts to resurrect the Shiptown / How Big concern. A major first step in these efforts occurred on the 1st November 2009 when a big reunion show was staged at the Broadway Club on East Virginia Beach Boulevard in Norfolk (a road that intersects with Church Street). Barbara Stant was amongst the label’s artists who participated in the show and her vocal efforts were very well received.

    Also found a couple more articles related to Shiptown records that you might find interesting as well:
    Local record label is looking for new talent
    The Norfolk Sound

    Edit: Sadly, it looks like the efforts at reviving Shiptown Records eventually failed, as the site dedicated to it is now defunct. Waybackmachine has a snapshot of it, but unfortunately not much of it was actually archived... not even the History page, which I would have loved to read. :(

    7 votes
    1. [2]
      DougM
      Link Parent
      Wow! Thank you so much for the info. When I first heard her I thought for sure she would be pretty popular but looks like she never found the spotlight. I really enjoyed the music she put out...

      Wow! Thank you so much for the info. When I first heard her I thought for sure she would be pretty popular but looks like she never found the spotlight.

      I really enjoyed the music she put out though.

      Thanks for your time.

      2 votes
      1. cfabbro
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        NP! I love soul music, history and a good challenge, so it was fun for me. :) And yeah, I really enjoyed her album too, so it makes me sad she didn't make it big as well. :(

        NP! I love soul music, history and a good challenge, so it was fun for me. :)

        And yeah, I really enjoyed her album too, so it makes me sad she didn't make it big as well. :(

        1 vote