Innehållsförteckning för Issue 556 från Record Collector

SEND YOUR PRAISE, MISSIVES AND CALLS FOR THE DEIFICATION OF SPENCER LEIGH TO: rc.editorial@metropolis.co.uk, or to Record Collector, 2nd Floor, Saunders House, 52-53 The Mall, London W5 3TA, or via social media rc.editorial@metropolis.co.uk www.recordcollectormag.com Record Collector Magazine @RecCollmag RecordCollectormag @recordcollectormag NEWLEY DON'T MIND Congratulations on an outstanding 5-star Issue – RC 555! X-Ray Spex, Suicide and Dwight Twilley – a great mix, and even an illuminating Beatles feature. While especially enjoying Spencer Leigh's portrait of the ‘unique’ Anthony Newley, I felt compelled to query the mildly dismissive description of his first wife, Ann Lynn, as a Tiller Girl. I realise that this is a music magazine, but a quick glance of her CV reveals her to be one of our most respected and impressive actors in theatre, film and TV.…

Sarah Gregory is a freelance music writer. Her article in this month's RC takes a deep dive into the late 60s/early 70s UK underground scene centred in Ladbroke Grove (p78) – the key players, the music, the politics, and the beginning of the ‘free’ movement. Editor of Blues & Rhythm magazine since 1986, Tony Burke caught the blues bug after seeing Muddy Waters and Sister Rosetta Tharpe on Granada TV in 1964. He bought a ticket for the Blues & Gospel Train (p58) and is still ridin’ the rails. Harry Sword is the author of Monolithic Undertow – a history of drone music. He is also a regular contributor to The Guardian, Vice and The Quietus. This month, he talks to Dylan Carlson of Earth (p70) about a life dedicated to…

How come you're back now? We were approached by photographer, Daniel Coston, in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was very passionate about a new album and willing to invest his own funds. We did everything we could to talk him out of it [laughs]. But he wouldn't give up, so, we agreed, and began recording March 2020. Don Dannemann is the reason that The Cyrkle sounds the way it does, a solid songwriter, and he sings four of his own compositions, and nine of the 14 tracks in total. Mike Losekamp, for the first time, has a pair of original songs included, and he's a powerful vocalist on three of the songs. Dance With Me Tonight has a wonderful, magical feel and sound. Even the producer and Daniel surrounded the microphone…

The Sounds Of Southern Rock exhibition, including guitars from Duane Allman, Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ed King, Charlie Daniels’ violin, clothing, props, record awards, and personal items from Little Feat, Outlaws, Molly Hatchet, is at the Grammy Museum, Cleveland, Mississippi, to 1 September. ■ The Hip-Hop America: The Mix Tape exhibition, including Notorious BIG jacket, LL Cool J hat, Slick Rose handwritten lyrics, is at Los Angeles Grammy Museum, to 4 September. ■ Ex-Siouxsie & The Banshees’ Kenny Morris’ A Banshee Left Wailing art exhibition is at Gallery X, Hume Street, Dublin, Ireland, to 23 March. ■ In February, the Yoko Ono Music Of The Mind art exhibition opened at London Tate Modern. Talk of the town Peaky Blinders and SAS: Rogue Heroes writer turns his sights on the sounds of ‘81 RC attended…

Tori Amos Little Earthquakes Possibly my most life-changing album – it was through a mutual love of Tori's 90s output that I met the future missus in 1997. Such a great collection of songs. I probably prefer the next two of hers, but this is where it all began. Salomé Leclerc Mille Ouvrages Mon Coeur An amazingly inventive and creative singer-songwriter from Quebec. Deceptively stripped back – this is complex stuff. Probably my favourite album of all time (currently). Où On S'est Trouvé is a masterclass in songwriting, sound and production. David Bowie 1. Outside I think this was delivered about a month before he died. I know Blackstar was (understandably) the big cheese at that moment, but this amazing, unique and crazy album had never been released complete on…

JOYCEFUL NOISE Ian Shirley catches up with veteran rockabilly/R&B singer/songwriter Joyce Harris, whose singles of the 50s and 60s are now classic collectables Ihave an American 7” on the Domino label by an artist called Joyce Harris. Interesting, as I see that Domino is a UK label but this is an American pressing. The tracks are No Way Out/Dreamer. It's a ballsy slice of R&B that sounds great. I wonder if you can provide any more information on Harris – she does not seem to have recorded and released many records despite having a phenomenal foghorn vocal style. Martin Jones via email Joyce Harris hailed from Kentucky but moved to New Orleans with her parents and first began singing with her sister, Judy. They signed to Dot Records as Judy…

Now includes Whole Love Of Lots CONTACTS DISCOGS: www.discogs.com EBAY: www.ebay.co.uk ELDREDS: 01752 721199; www.eldreds.net HAKE'S AUCTIONS: Tel 001 866 404 9800; www.hakes.com INDUSTRIAL SILENCE: marc@industrial-silence.com; www.industrial-silence.com JULIEN'S AUCTIONS: Tel 001 310 836 1818; juliensauctions.com MEM: Tel 01635 269327; www.rockpopmem.com POPSIKE: www.popsike.com UNIVERSITY AUCTIONS: Tel 001 203 4540111; https://auction.universityarchives.com/ Send your Most Wanted suggestions to paulrigby@theaudiophileman.com…

Bob Stanley carries pop's baggage everywhere Colouring in those spaces in your shelves Sometimes I look at my record collection like a proud father, chuckling about the shelves that have Stylistics albums cheek by jowl with Nolan Strong, The Stone Roses and The Sunshine Company. Other times I will look at it and see gaping holes that trigger a mild medical episode. Such a thing happened when I realised I only had a solitary Shocking Blue album. Shocking Blue! People love to talk about underrated loner folk obscurities like Bob Brown's The Wall I Built Myself, or even sizeable catalogues by no-hit wonders like The Free Design (and quite rightly, too). But I'm most surprised and amazed by the catalogues of acts who are well known and quite obviously great,…

Jim and William Reid are in their sixties now, and while they buried the hatchet some time ago, it's unlikely nowadays they'd traverse the proverbial 500 miles, never mind the 5,000 that separates them, for anything besides work. The pair have often had a fractious relationship, making the Gallaghers look like the Maels, but when they make music together their near telepathic understanding consistently produces the goods. William lives in Arizona today and gives few interviews, even resisting the invitation to contribute to Zoe Howe's lauded 2014 biography of the band, Barbed Wire Kisses, although a new ‘band autobiography’ is scheduled for publication by White Rabbit later this year. Jim, meanwhile, lives on the south coast of the UK juggling responsibilities as band frontman and spokesperson with the daily school…

BLUES & GOSPEL TRAIN On 7 May 1964 Granada Television recorded a special one-hour programme which featured performances by Muddy Waters and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who brought the sound of electric Chicago blues and wondrous electric guitar playing the likes of which British fans had not heard or seen before. The Blues & Gospel Train TV special, a breakthrough for electric blues in the UK, was recorded live, outside a TV studio, for the first time ever using radio mics. Every song could be clearly heard, and the artists were able to move around the set. Plus, it had a large budget. Producer Johnnie Hamp had a team of 70 Granada staff involved in recording the show, all helping to convert a disused railway station in the Manchester suburb of…

Asleep In The Back (V2 VVR 1015881, 2LP, 2001) £50 After a decade to get it together, small wonder that Elbow arrived fully-formed. Dubbed “the musicians’ musicians” by primitivist peers, adventurous prog excursions like Newborn sat next to the typically hauntingly simple Scattered Black And Whites. Leaders Of The Free World (V2 VVR 1032551, LP, 2005) £55 Their label's struggles meant Elbow's third album got lost on release. A shame, as it's the culmination of the band's first incarnation as adventurers and arena-ready balladeers. Exhilarating lead single Forget Myself, in particular, is an underrated headrush. RC's writer owns artist Michael O'Shaughnessy's sleeve painting, bought for £850 in 2009 with redundancy money. The Seldom Seen Kid (Fiction 176 472-8, 2x12”, 2008) £50 Written on holiday when they thought they'd finished the…

‘We were definitely the redheaded stepchild,” laughs Dylan Carlson, describing Earth's place in the early 90s Seattle scene. Formed as something of an answer to a question Carlson once posed himself – “what would happen if La Monte Young were to play Slayer riffs?” – Earth were formed in 1989. Initially comprising band leader and guitarist Carlson alongside Slim Moon and Greg Babior, they took their name from Black Sabbath's pre-Sabbath moniker and worshipped all things low, sludgy and slow. But while fellow Seattle bands like Tad and, crucially, Melvins had also long experimented with brutal, molasses-thick riffage, nobody – nobody – took the drone to such extreme lengths as Carlson. Debut LP Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version (1993) was a slow burning drone-metal landmark: the blueprint for what…

Windsor Free Festival, 1972-74 The Windsor Free Festival was expressly located to stick two fingers up at the establishment. Organised by the London commune, in particular Ubi Dwyer and Sid Rawle, the first iteration in 1972 was intended nominally as a Rent Strike protest against landlords. Featuring Hawkwind, Ducks Deluxe, Ace, Camel and the Global Village Trucking Company over its short existence, 1974 saw the police get involved, demonstrating such a heavy-handed approach that the government backed off from similar gatherings for a while. Watchfield Free Festival, 1975 Encouraged to shift sites away from the royals, Watchfield replaced the Windsor Free Festival. With Bill Dwyer and Sid Rawle in prison, the hippies decamped to an airfield in Oxfordshire. But there was still a hint of residual tension between the campers…

A soul-jazz pioneer whose infectious piano grooves were imbued with the black church's sanctified cadences, the late LES McCANN made his name at Pacific Jazz Records between 1960 and 1964 but enjoyed his biggest commercial triumphs during a later twelve-album spell at Atlantic Records. However, his short time at Limelight, a Mercury subsidiary where he recorded six albums in the mid-60s, is often overlooked. It was during that period that the recordings comprising Never A Dull Moment – Live From Coast To Coast 19661967 (★★★★★ Resonance) were made, capturing the Kentucky-born pianist and his trio at Seattle's The Penthouse and New York's Village Vanguard venues. Taped for local radio broadcasts, the two impeccably recorded live shows bring McCann in his mid-60s heyday vividly back to life. Highlights include the quintessential…

Robin Trower underlines why …Sighs matters Bridge Of Sighs charted at No 7 in the US Billboard 200. Did your huge popularity in America astound you? I think we took it in stride, to be honest, because we'd worked our way up from small clubs. We were very fortunate early days to get on some very big tours, where we were opening up for big acts in these big venues. That exposure helped to build it into what it became. Procol Harum had become more popular in America than they were here. I think that's true – it was definitely a big leg-up for me, no doubt about it. Jimmy and Reg were a tremendous rhythm section – you don't hear much about them these days. Not to mention Jimmy's vocals,…

David Bowie Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth) ★★★★★ Parlophone 5054197604454 (LP) The Bowie estate's repackaging industry continues to move like tigers on vaseline, as this limitededition 11-track LP (released for Record Store Day, and part of another forthcoming box set) gives us the December 1971 rough tracklisting – later, obviously, much changed – of the peerless Ziggy Stardust album. It subs in the four dropped songs, which later showed up on B-sides: the Chuck Berry cover Round And Round, the Jacques Brel song Amsterdam, Holly Holy and Velvet Goldmine. Famously, Bowie and the Spiders went back into Trident Studio in early ‘72 and, inspired afresh, came up with Suffragette City, Rock'N'Roll Suicide, and a certain life-changing, career-making, worldwarping Starman. These are left off this displaced…

English Teacher This Could Be Texas Island 5876407 (CD, LP) This is one of the most confident and charismatic debuts in years. English Teacher, a four-piece from Leeds, are reluctant to be shoehorned into any “post-punk revival” tag, preferring (if pushed) “art-indie”, but such minutiae matter little when greatness is present. They have it. They crackle. They transcend, while catching a very real moment. “Not everybody gets a time to shine,” sings Lily Fontaine on Not Everybody Gets To Go To Space, but this is theirs. From Charlotte Brontë to the Pendle witches, high and low culture are referenced as Fontaine switches between a searing, sensitive singing voice and a variation on the sprechgesang deployed by Dry Cleaning, Sorry and Yard Act. Nobody here thinks it's uncool to be on…

The title of this book clearly references Retromania. Is it meant as a companion edition? I didn't want people to come away with an afterimage of me as this old guy moaning that there's no futuristic music any more. So there's quite a lot of material concerning the last 10–15 years, such as footwork and things that have really happened after Retromania came out, like the rise of Auto-Tune. Thing is, people who are fascinated by the future are often just as interested in the past. As a kid I was obsessed with archaeology but a few years later I was fascinated by outer space. I think it's all about not wanting to be where you are. There are some lovely ironic moments in some of the older essays, including A…

A Certain Ratio April (25) Huddersfield Parish (26) Leeds Brudenell (28) Edinburgh Summerhall (29) Aberdeen Tunnels May (2) London Fabric (3) Bedford Esquires (4) Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms (5) Brighton Concorde 2 (9) Birmingham Castle & Falcon (10) Hull Social (11) Sheffield Foundry (17) Manchester New Century Hall Cascada April (25) Newcastle Utilita Arena (26) Aberdeen P&J Live (27) Glasgow OVO Hydro May (3) Manchester AO Arena (4) Nottingham Motorpoint Arena (5) Belfast SSE Arena Gun April (25) Montrose Town Hall (26) Glasgow St Luke's (27) Dunfermline PJ Malloys Giant Sand April (22) Newcastle Cluny (23) Glasgow Broadcast (24) Manchester YES Pink Room Johnny Hates Jazz April (26) Hertford Corn Exchange May (29) Edinburgh Voodoo Rooms (30) Glasgow St Luke's (31) Aberdeen Lemon Tree June (13) Cambridge Junction September (8) Scarborough…

CODA John Martyn Solid Air (Island ILPS 9226, LP, gatefold sleeve with lyric sheet, pink rim palm tree label, UK, 1973) £100 I can put myself right back in the moment I first heard John Martyn's voice. It was 1986, a beautiful, sunny, Saturday afternoon at Glastonbury festival and he started playing. I was, “Oh my god, this music is tickling my soul,” and so, ever since then I've been a fan. It was such a shame he took the path he did, but nevertheless he's left behind that beautiful voice for us all to bathe in. Billie Holiday Strange Fruit (Atlantic 45-2923, 7”, US, 1972) £11 My three greatest loves are music, cooking, and art, and I immerse myself in all three in my new book, Jazz Food. I…

If I've mentioned this before, apologies – I blame the volume. It quite possibly affected my hearing, not to mention my mental acuity. Because only the second gig that I ever attended was the Pink Fairies/Hammersmith Gorillas/Little Bob Story/Stranglers smorgasbord, as reviewed in the 8 January 1977 NME, the one described by journalist Phil McNeill in that week's issue as “deafening”. If only they'd invented a tweenies version of those infants “ear defenders” to protect against noise damage, chances are my most used word these days might not be, “Pardon?” But I digress. Point is, that night, as I waded past the dope-smoking, greatcoat-wearing survivors of the Ladbroke Grove wars, past the curious gyrating figure of William Jellett, aka “Jesus”, I got a sense of what it might have been…

This year's Record Store Day involves 273 UK stores, each offering a selection of rarities from a total of 443 releases. One of them is the Eat The Music 10” by Kate Bush, this year's UK RSD Ambassador. She reflects that, “in the same way that some people like to read a book on Kindle, but also want to have a book as a physical object, a lot of people like vinyl and streaming. Both have different appeals. The added bonus of vinyl is that it encourages people to listen to albums, an art form that I've always thought can be treasured in a unique way. An album on vinyl is a beautiful thing, given a strong identity by its large-scale artwork. There's a much more personal connection with the…

Apocalyptica Plays Metallica Vol 2 CD, blue 2LP, Napalm, 7 June: Metallica's Rob Trujillo. Camel's Colin Bass/Daniel Biro More, Sargasso, [TBC]: Andy Latimer (Camel). Chris ‘Badnews’ Barnes Badnews Travels Fast, Gulf Coast, 26 April: Jimmy Hall (Wet Willie), Walter Trout. Alice Coltrane The Carnegie Hall Concert (unissued), Impulse!, 22 March: Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders. Circuline CORE, Inner Nova, 20 September: Joe Deninzon (Kansas). Steve Conte The Concrete Jangle LP, Wicked Cool, 20 April: Andy Partridge (ex-XTC). AG Cook Britpop, New Alias, 10 May: Charli XCX. Grace Cummings Ramona, ATO, 5 April: Mary Lattimore (ex-Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore), Drew Erickson (Lana Del Rey). Nikka Costa Dirty Disco, Kartel, 7 June: Brandon Coleman (Thundercat), Greg Phillinganes (Stevie Wonder), Kaveh Rastegar (Beck). The Empty Page Imploding, Vociferous, 10 May: John Simm (Blossoms). Sam…

HIP-HOP ELECTRO Dudley Jaynes delves deep into the formative hip-hop sound of the early 80s In RC 447, we celebrated the transitional moment when disco rap came together with electro and early drum machine stylings on some classic, inaugural hip-hop releases. With hip-hop's 50th birthday this year (though of course the exact date is open to debate), we now focus on eight records, some very collectable in today's market and all brilliant exemplars of the genre. So what you are waiting for… go grab that Nike Windrunner, shell toes and a large slab of lino! THE JONZUN CREW Pak Man (Look Out For The OVC) (Boston Intl BIR 682, 12”, US, 1982) £120 The Johnson Brothers, Michael and Soni, would be the first crew to put Boston on the hip-hop map. This,…

THE BEATLES Misprint Single (Vee-Jay VJ 498) £4,000 The flipside features the song, Ask Me Why, credited to The ‘Beattles’. (eBay item number: 315016347157) Supplied by eBay PET SHOP BOYS Yes (Vinyl Factory VF003) £3,999 Sturdy Perspex box set released in 2009, packing 11 discs. (eBay item number: 335205669281) Supplied by eBay LED ZEPPELIN Led Zeppelin II (Atlantic SD 8236) £3,823 First pressing promo edition; includes stickers plus purple tint banner cover. (eBay item number: 155940544256) Supplied by eBay DONKEY KONG COUNTY 2 Soundtrack (Nintendo no cat no) £1,193 Card sleeve from 1995. Video game soundtracks are often limited in number and rarely re-pressed. (eBay item number: 18612784376) Supplied by eBay JOHN & THE WEIRDEST Can't Get Over These Memories (Tie T 101) $8,881 Northern Soul 7” single from 1967…

IHSAHN Emperor mainstay on his latest prog-metal/symphonic opus What film could your new set soundtrack? A traditional drama with a dark edge. There's a black metal version supported by orchestra, and orchestra alone. Both are imaginary soundtracks inspired by Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams and Bernard Herrmann. Is there anything still unissued? Demos for Xerasia, Embryonic, Thou Shalt Suffer. Who'd you like to produce? I recently had the pleasure of working with Matt Heafy (Trivium) on Ibaraki, and did recording, arrangements and remixes for Leprous, Trivium, Halo Effect, Lustmord. Where were you when you first heard one of your songs on vinyl? Thou Shalt Suffer 7”, 1990, in my colleague Samoth's room at his parents’ house. What was your first record? KISS’ Rock'N'Roll Over, age 10. What record made you want…

The Velvet Underground & Nico The Velvet Underground & Nico (MGM/Verve, 1967) “A blueprint for a type of music that hadn't yet been invented, and obviously a huge influence on the Mary Chain. That old cliché about everyone who heard it starting a band is probably true. It's an Empire State Building of an album. As important as The Beatles and the Stones.” The Stooges The Stooges (Elektra, 1969) “It's the same thing. To say it was ahead of its time is not an exaggeration. No one understood it at the time. It was so out of place. It was punk rock before punk rock existed. It's totally timeless. It would sound perfect in any decade.” New York Dolls New York Dolls (Mercury, 1973) “The punk rock Rolling Stones. The…

American Folk Blues Festival Live In Manchester 1962 (Rhythm and Blues RANDB 059, CD, UK, 2020) £10 ABC TV filmed the second show at the Free Trade Hall and broadcast it on their Tempo arts programme. These recordings were taped directly on to a reel-to-reel tape recorder. The tracks feature Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Memphis Slim, T Bone Walker and Willie Dixon. American Folk Blues Festival 1963 (Fontana TL 5204, LP, UK, 1964) £25 The original vinyl album was later reissued on CD by L+R and features Sonny Boy Williamson, Memphis Slim, Muddy Waters, Victoria Spivey, Otis Spann, Big Joe Williams, Matt Murphy and Billy Stepney. Recorded live in Bremen, Germany, October 1963. The Blues Of Otis Spann (Decca LK 4615, LP, UK, 1964) £70 Produced by Mike Vernon…

Say She She's Sabrina Cunningham is recalling the ‘discodelic’ trio's 2023 Glastonbury experience. “We performed four times at the festival in 48 hours which was insane,” she tells Record Collector over Zoom from the New York apartment she calls home. “We started the Saturday opening the West Holts stage, the sun was shining, there was a big crowd, we went down really well and then as the day went on the shit started to kick off.” Just before they were due to perform at the Rabbit Hole secret stage at 5pm, their Nord keyboards and guitar pedals blew up. “And then straight after that we had to go to the BBC tent to film a song with Lauren Laverne and none of our gear showed up,” Cunningham continues. “The van…

An Earth primer Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version (Sub Pop, SP65/232, 1993) £50 The one that started it all. Turn the lights out, lie down, put the headphones on and prepare to go to some very strange places. Original pressings only turn up rarely; however, it has been re-pressed a number of times since by Sub Pop, in various shades including a fittingly fetching blue. Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light I (Southern Lord, lord128, 2011) £60 Ambitious, vast and blues-infused soundscapes are the order of the day here. A fulsome, fearsome record. Primitive And Deadly (Southern Lord, lord193, 2014) £25 Has a record ever been so aptly named? A spectral, mescal-infused dust bowl of an album that ebbs and flows like a painted horse buckling in the heat…

1. Syd Barrett: visionary, casualty 2. Joe Boyd: club manager, producer 3. Dave Brock: busker, Hawklord 4. Edgar Broughton: London adventurer, outer-of-demons 5. Caroline Coon: journalist, political activist 6. Mick Farren: revolutionary, proto-punk 7. John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins: scenester, underground pioneer 8. Peter Jenner: manager, promoter 9. Miles: writer, prime mover 10. Paul Rudolph: guitar virtuoso, Pink Fairie 11. Twink: drummer, provocateur…

Reissues, remasters and compilations Manic Street Preachers Lifeblood – 20th Anniversary Edition Sony 19658843902 (CD/3CD, 2LP) Picture this. It's a Saturday morning in 2004, you are groggily flicking through channels before alighting on ITV's Saturday morning pop show, CD:UK. Host Cat Deeley introduces Manic Street Preachers, claiming their new album, Lifeblood, will be their poppiest since 1996's Everything Must Go. Your ears perk up. And then… It's called what? And is that Nicky Wire wearing a Richard Nixon mask? Well, you wouldn't get that with Westlife… This is where Manic Street Preachers were at in 2004, still a sizeable commercial entity but whose instinct for provocation was at odds with the mainstream audience they'd acquired. Despite the fact their diehard fanbase pushed the chunky, synth-driven and decidedly un-Manics-ish lead single…

Columbus, Ohio's Prix label was the brainchild of Mississippi-born Air Force Pilot Clem Price and West Virginian out-of-work attorney George Beter. It never managed a hit in its short lifespan (1969-1973) but like its neighbour Capsule, it was nevertheless bursting with talent and steadfast belief as borne out on the compilation Eccentric Soul:The Prix Label (★★★★★ Numero Group), which is getting a repress this month. It provides a snapshot of the label with highpoints including Marion Black's haunting 1972 jazz blues Listen Black Brother – a James Baldwin-esque social comment – and The Royal Esquires’ Our Love Used To Be, a piece of folk soul like Terry Callier was creating at Prestige. Eddie Ray and the OFS Unlimited, meanwhile, look to the more obvious influence of Stax, the former's tumultuous…

One day in 1975, this writer was flicking through LP sleeves in a record shop in St. Albans when a long finger suddenly stabbed at the next sleeve in the browser bin and a deep voice from behind and above my left ear said, “That's the one you want.” Since then it appears that quite a few people have wanted it, as the album has periodically reappeared in the shops, most recently on the Blood And Fire label; but that label is now dormant, making the reappearance of KEITH HUDSON's Pick A Dub (★★★★★ 17 North Parade) all the more welcome, especially in the vinyl format. Hudson was a Marmite singer – he sounded as if he was trying to sing and gargle Marmite simultaneously – but fortunately there are…

Black Jazz Records: The Complete Singles Real Gone/Black Jazz RGM-1689 (CD) Cult jazz label's crown jewels After reviving 20 albums first released on Black Jazz, the revered Oakland-based label founded by pianist Gene Russell that briefly blossomed between 1971 and 1975, US reissue specialist Real Gone has assembled a 15-track compilation comprising the label's best 45s. Beginning with Russell's gospel-inflected Making Bread with its rolling piano-led groove, the compilation takes us on a journey through Black Jazz's revered archive. With its tracks ranging from another Russell gem, his Latin-infused Black Orchid, to Moon Child, Doug Carn's lunar-themed spiritual jazz soundscape, and organist Chester Thompson's Powerhouse, a tangy slice of jazz-funk, the compilation vividly captures Black Jazz's aesthetic. Other highlights include Jean Carn's wild vocalese take on Bobby Hutcherson's Little B's…

Dee C. Lee Just Something Acid Jazz AJXLP 735 (CD, LP) Dee C. Lee was such a splendid player in pop's 80s. She enjoyed a massive hit with her self-penned See The Day, which reached No 3 over Christmas 1985 (only Whitney and Wham! were bigger) and was in two of the biggest groups of the decade: the aforementioned Wham! and the Style Council. Yet it's almost as though she was famous by association rather than for the vocal and writing talent she was. After her sole album in the 80s (Shrine), her collaboration with Robert Howard (Slam Slam), and singing with Guru later, she made two further long-players, the last of which, Smiles, was released in Japan in 1998. And then, until now, very little indeed. Twenty-five years later,…

The Mirage The Wedding Of Ramona Blair/Lazy Man Think Like A Key Music TLAS 004 1967 If The Mirage had been from the next county north, they might have become Pink Floyd. They had to settle for becoming Jawbone, and several found further ways to exercise their talents in Elton John's Rockety Men, Procol Harum, Spencer Davis Group, etc. But they had their psychedelic whimsy down to a T: choose a cute but slightly curious woman's name, describe her life and ways, add fab harmonies and a curiously rigid bass sound, and it's 1967's British way of acidrock exemplified. Lovely to see it on reissue single, joined by the somewhat blunter Lazy Man, which sounds a bit Pete Townshend-ish, like his Lazy Fat People, and those harmonies now take on…

Sell Vinyl/CDs direct to RC readers, call us on 0208 752 8172 or Email listings@recordcollectormag.com NEXT ISSUE: MAY 2024 (on sale 18 APRIL) Deadline for submitting adverts (Listings & Classified): Monday 25 MARCH Please email your advert (word doc/excel file/plain text) to: listings@recordcollectormag.com Postal address: Record Collector Listings, Diamond Publishing Ltd, 2nd Floor, Saunders House, 52-53 The Mall, Ealing, London W5 3TA Following issue: JUNE 2024 (on sale 16 MAY) Deadline: Monday 22 APRIL…

This month: JUSTIN SULLIVAN OF NEW MODEL ARMY How have you been preparing for the tour? We started real preparations in January, with a new album to learn how to play. Do you have any pre-/postshow routines? Yes, but they remain entirely private, other than the usual post-gig post-mortem. Will you be playing any songs that you rarely perform? Yes. With a catalogue of 250 songs, it's always difficult to choose. Will the set-list change much? We start with what we think is a good set-list, then usually change it within the first few days, depending on how we feel it's flowing. When we find something that really works, we'll keep it for a couple of weeks, then change it again, before it gets stale. Will you check out your…

This month: Jason Crest Think psychedelia and your mind may conjure images of the ‘beautiful people’ cruising Haight-Ashbury, King's Road, freaking out at the UFO, Alexandra Palace or Tonbridge, Kent (screech of brakes) … Hang on. Tonbridge? While this medium-sized Kent town (pop. 25,000 in 1968) is not renowned as a hot bed of musical innovation, one group, Jason Crest, would buck the trend. They released just a handful of very collectable psych 45s that saw them ‘turned on’ and ‘tuned in’ before, eventually, ‘dropping out’ (no casualties here, though, only from music). The five-piece comprised Terry Clark (vocals), Terry Dobson (guitar), Ron Fowler (bass, replaced in 1968 by John Selley), Derek Smallcombe (guitar) and Roger Siggery (drums). Many groups in that period between 1966 and ‘67 would reassess their…

The Carter Family The Carter Family: 1927-1934 (JSP Records JSPCD7701, 5CD, US, 2001) £15 For anyone interested in Appalachian music, or the evolution of American popular music in general, a visit to The Carter Family is essential. They were the first country music superstars and recorded what amounts to the canon of country songs. You'll recognise many hits here, mostly made famous by later artists, but this is where it all started. For those with deep pockets, Bear Family's 12-disc bonanza should be considered definitive, but this 5CD box set will also serve you well. Carolina Chocolate Drops Genuine Negro Jig (Nonesuch Records, 7559-79839-8, CD, Europe, 2010) £15 The Carolina Chocolate Drops have inspired new generations to revisit ‘old-time’ music, shaking off the dust and throwing open the curtains to…

This month: Eric Clapton & His Band, Garden Party IX, London Crystal Palace Concert Bowl, Saturday 31 July 1976. Back in the summer of ‘76, I paid the princely sum of £4 for a one-day event at the open-air ninth Garden Party, Crystal Palace Bowl, to see (mainly) RSO and Island recording artists support the return of guitarist Eric Clapton. It was the second date on his first full UK tour after almost a six-year absence, aside from his ‘73 Rainbow comeback and ‘74 Hammersmith shows in the capital, promoting his latest studio album, No Reason To Cry. Expectations were high. I'd travelled down, thanks to the taxi of dad, with two fellow sixth-formers, dropped off at High Barnet, continuing by tube and bus, arriving as the gates opened at…

At RC Towers, we sense new music emerging from Blind Guardian, Lily Allen, Europe, Ringo Starr, HammerFall, Lady Gaga, All That Remains, Luciferian Light Orchestra, Rihanna, Amorphis, Solange, Volbeat, Biohazard, Gorillaz, Nile, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lamb Of God, Post Malone, Killington Pit, The 1975, Lykke Li, Steven Wilson, Delta Goodrem, Ministry, Kid Cudi, Lisa Stansfield, Annihilator's Jeff Waters (three), UFO's Phil Mogg, Therion's Christofer Johnsson, Faithless’ Sister Bliss, HIM's Ville Valo, Years & Years’ Olly Alexander, Metronomy's Anna Prior (on House Anxiety), ex-One Direction's Liam Payne (Republic), Dream Theater's Jordan Rudess (InsideOut), Elles Bailey (Cooking Vinyl), Kate Nash (Kill Rock Stars), Kittie (Sumerian), Helloween (Reigning Phoenix), Sleep Token (RCA). CELLULOID HEROES Projects due include Paul Thomas Anderson's next film, with HAIM's Alana Haim, in 2025; Sam TaylorJohnson's Amy Winehouse biopic, Back…

Steven Allain is a PhD student and herpetologist at the University of Kent, where he studies the population dynamics of grass snakes in the UK, and the impact of an emerging infectious disease, which may be of conservation concern. Despite his current academic endeavour, he has a strong passion for music and the high-fidelity sound associated with vinyl records. Steven has always been fond of wildlife, and this is evidenced by his record collection. His passion for rock music is also reflected in his collection, which ranges from AC/DC to ZZ Top. What do you collect, and why? Aside from the records I collect in line with my musical tastes – heavy metal and punk rock – I also have a soft spot for vinyl that falls into the category…

No 12: Robinson's, Manchester Robinson's, on the Manchester/Salford border, was owned by Edna and Arthur Robinson. The shop bulged with vinyl records. They also ran a wholesale business (they were the UK agents for the US Starday rockabilly/country label), a singles bar with lots of US soul imports and a café on the premises. The Robinsons started record retailing in 1960. The business grew (in partnership with one Hector Gedhall) to include record shops with names like the Disc Centre and Music Box throughout the north of England. When the partnership with Gedhall ended in the late 70s, Edna and Arthur focused on three Robinson's Record shops including their Blackfriars Street emporium. They imported albums and records, making regular visits to warehouses in New Jersey/Long Island where deletions, cut-outs and…

OPINION John Fiddler was the singing, guitar-playing, bass drum-pounding half of Medicine Head, the duo who slipped blues into the Top 20 with 70s hits such as (And The) Pictures In The Sky and Slip And Slide. Long since moved on to bands – British Lions with Mott The Hoople chums and Box Of Frogs with The Yardbirds – and solo projects, his resurrection of Medicine Head as a (largely) one-man-band continues with new album, Heartwork. The last Medicine Head album was 2021's Warriors Of Love. How does Heartwork relate to that? I think it's quite different. In an earlier song, Only The Roses, I say, “The only constant thing in life is change.” My life and relationships have changed substantially, and this album is the beginning of a new…

Danny Baker has been one of the most public record collectors over the last few decades. He's shared his obsession on GLR and BBC 5 Live, and more recently on Patreon, for anything from Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Tarkus to Ronnie Barker's 1969 album A Pint Of Old And Filthy. Now he's decided to sell his collection, the whole lot, which has caused a few shockwaves among his friends and on social media. Among the collection are dozens of heavy hitters like Bowie and Ramones test pressings, the Britpsych album by Rainbow Ffolly, UK copies of The Stooges’ first two albums, and many real one-offs like a Stone The Crows album with a letter to John Peel's producer John Walters from Peter Grant. “They've all gone,” Danny tells me. “And…

Sister Sledge We Are Family (Atlantic K 50587, LP, UK, 1979) £15 From their rhapsodic disco anthems with Sister Sledge to their post-pop productions with Diana Ross, Chic's influence is writ large on Say She She – even their name is a nod to them: it phonetically sounds out C'est chi chi. Tom Tom Club Tom Tom Club (Island ILPS 9686, LP, UK, 1981) £25 This Talking Heads side project featuring husband-and-wife team Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth plus guitarist Adrian Belew bridged hip-hop, post-punk and art rock to create something both futuristic and classic. Rotary Connection Hey, Love (Chess 6310 105, LP, UK, 1971) £100 The Cadet Concept imprint's flagship group put together by Leonard Chess’ son Marshall Chess, Rotary Connection featuring Minnie Riperton and Charles Stepney melded psychedelia…

Tomorrow Tomorrow (Parlophone PMC 7042 (Mono) PCS 7042 (Stereo), UK, 1968) £500/450 Tomorrow initially suffered from the year's delay between recording and release – seemingly missing the psychedelic boat. But while the life of the band may have been curtailed, Tomorrow can lay claim to a seminal psychedelic album that blends Steve Howe's embryonic guitar chops with British garden-fete psych plus an excellent proto-metal version of Strawberry Fields Forever. The Deviants Ptooff! (Underground Impresarios IMP1, private pressing via IT magazine, UK, 1968) £400 One of the earliest albums to emerge from the UK underground and one of the most political. With its proto-punk aesthetic, Ptooff! sees an enraged Mick Farren stoking the revolutionary fire with his lyrical offensive. The Deviants’ ride may have been bumpy, but their debut remains a…

Nicky Wire on wild gestures, Richard Nixon and ghosts How has your relationship with Lifeblood changed? I think we've realised that it's one of our best records. My problem was just that it was so unsuccessful. I couldn't deal with it on that level. It seemed to sum a certain period ending for the band. But it sounds as timeless as any of our records; it just doesn't age, really. Sean has always loved it anyway. It was just me and James who always found it a bit more problematic, but I think we're pretty enraptured with it now to be honest with you. The B-sides sound like a band figuring out what they want to be… After Know Your Enemy, we realised that we'd kind of suffered a defeat.…

Robin Trower Bridge Of Sighs Chrysalis Catalogue CHRV/C 1057 (3CD/2LP/Blu-ray) Robin Trower had been going for a decade before Bridge Of Sighs made him briefly – and impressively – an American guitar superstar. From the coffee houses and R&B bands of Southend-on-Sea to festivals in California seems a long journey, but not for Trower: a consummate professional, who in personality and demeanour is very much like a genial Essex handyman – no club too small, no stadium too large. This is why he is such a survivor and has made easy professional company with artists known for their painstaking approach – Jack Bruce, Bryan Ferry and Robert Fripp for three. Bridge Of Sighs – his second solo album after leaving Procol Harum – epitomises the rock that meant so much…

Nico The Marble Index Domino REWIG 145 (CD, LP) Desertshore Domino REWIG 146 (CD, LP) “The album's cover will tell you more about The Marble Index than any words I could possibly use,” declared Fusion magazine's Ben Edmonds in 1970, striking a common nerve in an era when a sleeve could dictate an album's fate. Her trademark blonde tresses tinted midnight black, Nico glaring in stark defiant monochrome from my local record shop's paisley-hued bins in early 1969 commanded this writer buy her second solo album. Not a tough call for a Velvet Underground obsessive who'd loved 1967's Chelsea Girl debut but not even John Cale's arranger credit could hint at the foreboding fruit that lurked within. The voice was unmistakably Nico but the music swirling around her sonorous reveries like…

Ride Interplay Wichita WEBB 630 (CD, LP) Much has happened to Ride in the five years since comeback album number two, This Is Not A Safe Place. Like all bands, they found their activities blindsided by the Covid pandemic, reunion momentum stymied. Legal trouble involving a former manager, says co-frontman Mark Gardener, “threatened” their “very existence”; the press release for comeback record three also alludes to “break-ups”. On a brighter note, Gardener got his OX4 Studio in Oxford up and running, ready for the resumption of activities. Once lockdown began lifting, Ride reconvened at OX4, welcomed Flood/Alan Moulder protégé Richie Kennedy as producer and began leaning into what they knew. Broadly, if Weather Diaries was a reassertion of purpose and Safe Place a fitfully successful bid to diversify, Interplay is…

Captivating celebration of the music that pushes us ever onward. By David Stubbs Futuromania: Electronic Dreams, Desiring Machines And Tomorrow's Music Today Simon Reynolds White Rabbit, £25 ISBN 9781399618335, 416 pages Described by Reynolds as the “twisted sister” to his Retromania, published in 2011 and which concerned pop's addiction to its past, Futuromania… is not a recantation of that volume but a corollary. It's a collection of pieces dating back to the 90s, written for, among others, Melody Maker, The Observer, The New York Times, The Wire and Pitchfork but with a particular emphasis on that complex and diffuse century we currently occupy, the 21st. Subjects covered range from Kraftwerk to grime, synthpop to Auto-Tune, A Guy Called Gerald to Boards Of Canada. As a critic, Reynolds was always among…

READER SERVICES Call on 020 8752 8172 or email stockists@metropolis.co.uk for more information or to sign up today! SOUTH EAST 101 Collectors Records – ‘Established in 1991. Now under new management. Buying and selling new and second hand vinyl and cd's. Stock a range of quality artist merchandise in store.’ 101 West Street, Farnham, GU9 7EN. Tel: 01252 734409. richard.101collectorsrecords@hotmail.com www.101collectorsrecords.com Across the Tracks – ‘On busiest corner of hippest city, open seven days. Thousands of rarities in the shop that aren't on the net. All genres, including classical and new CD promos, nothing mundane. Collections bought.’ 110 Gloucester Road, Brighton BN1 4AF. Tel: 01273 677906. edfrombrighton@tiscali.co.uk www.acrossthetracksrecords.com Alan's Record & CD Shop – ‘Diggers paradise! Over 15,000 records and 3,500 CD's. Soul, Reggae, House, Dance, Blues, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Rock,…

Extreme London Kentish Town O2 Forum 19/12/23 Extreme ended their Euro tour with a chunky, funky gig, supported by Living Colour's succinct set harking back to their first three albums. Corey Glover was commanding, and guitarist Vernon Reid and bassist Doug Wimbish bedazzled. The musicianship went up a notch with Extreme, who offered new tracks and serious riffage from Six. Nuno Bettencourt was gloriously gritty on Rebel and the wailing Banshee, while the acoustic Other Side Of The Rainbow and Hurricane breezed by, before the flair of More Than Words and stomping Hole Hearted. Gymnastic Gary Cherone was in fine voice, and the Bostonians got their funk out on a decadent night. Mark Taylor Jason Isbell London Cadogan Hall 26/1/24 The ex-Drive-By Truckers star offered an endearing, selfeffacing run through…

This month: Paul Samwell-Smith Determined to learn the business of making music from the bottom to the top, Paul Samwell-Smith – bassist with The Yardbirds, musician and record producer – sought to study his contemporaries at close quarters. In Stone Alone, Bill Wyman recollects, “Young players just starting to learn their instruments would come up to us between sets, asking us questions about amps, chords, bass, strings, arrangements, songs and repertoire. At the Ricky Tick one boy introduced himself to me as Paul Samwell-Smith. He came to all our gigs there and sat watching my every move.” Having started his musical career playing lead with US bluegrass outfit The Country Gentlemen in 1959, by the time he left school in ‘62 Samwell-Smith had switched to bass guitar with The Metropolitan…