 Meanwhile, he worked in various jobs, including butcher's boy, window cleaner and delivering leaflets.During the 1970s, his work in tracking down vintage funk and soul music led to friendships with American musical luminaries such as Isaac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield, Harold Melvin and George Clinton.In 1987, he sold many of his Northern soul records to pay for his divorce, but he had left over in his loft many other records of what he then referred to as "junk music" that he had picked up in the United States on his many jaunts to find Northern soul records there and in the UK.