Innehållsförteckning för Issue 557 från Record Collector

How good a year for music was 1984? So good that, for this issue's 1984 Revisited special feature, we left out ABC's (How To Be A) Millionaire and Scritti Politti's Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin) singles and Soft Cell's This Last Night In Sodom album – and The Limit's Say Yeah and 23 Skidoo's Coup, and Hurt Me Deep Inside by Cook Da Books, and tons of others that only occurred after we'd gone to press – from our annotated countdown of The Best Records Of 1984, and it was still an amazing list. In 1984, Pet Shop Boys – interviewed about their 40-year career by Pete Paphides this month – weren't yet one of the artists that I collected, mainly because they only had one single out. But…

Pete Paphides has been writing about music for three decades or more. This month, he contributes the cover story interview with Pet Shop Boys (p68). His book, Broken Greek: A Story Of Chip Shops And Pop Songs, is published by Quercus. Matthew Quinlan is a British journalist and author based in Seattle. He writes on music, sound, and technology. This month, he recalls the format wars of 1984 (p80). His book on the story of sound will be published in 2025. For her book, Lead Sister, Lucy O'Brien tracked down friends, lovers and musicians to reframe the story of Karen Carpenter (p54) and her pioneering legacy. Lucy's books include in-depth biographies of Dusty Springfield and Madonna, and She Bop, The Definitive History Of Women In Popular Music. It's 25 years since…

How come you're back now? We generally play when the opportunity seems fun and it makes sense with our offstage lives. What got the writing started was, a couple of years ago, we were invited to play Primavera Festival in Barcelona. Harrison [Haynes] wasn't able to make it, so we asked Thursday's Tucker Rule to sit in. It meant a lot more rehearsals than normal, and that got the juices flowing. A few months later, Syd [Butler] started going on about writing new stuff. Tell us about your new album. It's our most cathartic and personal. I'd gone through dark, difficult times, and when we were writing, I struggled to find a way to process that in a way that made sense. Part of what came of that was me…

Swiss-based Icelander Sunna Margrét is a rising force in experimental pop. Having begun her career as a teenager touring with electro-pop ensemble Bloodgroup, she is about to release her debut fulllength solo LP, Finger on Tongue. Influenced by krautrock legends CAN and Neu!, alongside outsider synth-pop artist The Space Lady and electronic music pioneers Suzanne Ciani and Eliane Radigue, her work touches on crosscutting synth-pop, reinvented trip-hop, krautrock, and experimental inspirations. She is also an accomplished visual artist, co-founding No Salad Records as a platform for avant-garde, electronic, and post-punk expression worldwide. What do you collect, and why? I collect what I know I will actually listen to, what sparks my interest, records that inspire me to make music. I often buy records when I go to concerts – it's…

No 52: The Arches, Glasgow Hidden away beneath the imposing structure that is Glasgow's Victorian-built Central Station is a network of dark tunnels, situated in the brick arches of the viaduct leading into the railway station. In 1990 the area was used as a venue for a European City Of Culture event. One Andy Arnold then sought to develop the space as a theatre, and in order to fund this he staged nightclub events, something which would be a regular feature on the Glasgow club scene for more than 20 years. Some club nights were promoted by outside companies, others were in-house productions. The entrance was in Midland Street below the railway lines, a dark gloomy spot. Once in, you found some 84,000 square feet of space across two floors.…

DAVID BOWIE Uncensored Art £5,900 Uncensored sleeve proof for the original Diamond Dogs LP, released in 1974, with genitalia intact. (eBay item number: 145512559310) Supplied by eBay PRINCE Be My Fortune Teller (PRG no cat no) £3,658 Prince began his music career as part of funk band, 94 East. This withdrawn 7” single from the band features Be My Fortune Teller/I Just Wanna Be. (eBay item number: 266682563596) Supplied by eBay SANGRE MEXICANA Good Cause (Latin Soul LTS 114) £2,834 A Tex-Mex, psych-rock outing from 1970 on 7” with Need A Mama on the flip. (eBay item number: 276320918460) Supplied by eBay BEE GEES Bee Gees (Leaden LX 10) £2,561 Australian-only, mono 4-track 7” from 1964 with picture cover. (eBay item number: 305333448375) Supplied by eBay HARPTONES The Sensational… (Bruce…

LORNE BALFE Top Gun Maverick composer on his latest venture Tell us a bit about your most recent project. Working on the new Beverly Hills Cop movie, the second time working with Harold Faltermeyer's themes, after Top Gun: Maverick. Working with 80s analogue synths is exceptional fun. Is there anything still unissued? Plenty of early band songs and experiments. Have you done anything that fans may not know about? Jingles, from Stannah stairlifts to Coca-Cola, and quite a few films. What's the last album that you bought? Peter Gabriel i/o. Was anyone in your family a musician? My father wrote songs, including Blue Is The Colour for Chelsea FC. Have you kept studio notebooks or the like? I have all musicians and contributing team members sign the scores from sessions…

Samson Head On (GEM/RCA, 1980) £15 The New Wave Of Heavy Metal was a blast at its best, with the reliable B-leaguers Samson delivering energetic, if unsophisticated, biker-rock to the masses. Here's Bruce's debut, showcasing the air-raid-siren pipes that made him a star with his next band. Iron Maiden The Number Of The Beast (EMI, 1982) £40 Middle America soiled its collective drawers at the creepy artwork, British headbangers loved it and sent it to No 1: Iron Maiden's third album was a metal masterpiece. The still-astounding Run To The Hills ushered in a whole new era of loud music. Iron Maiden Powerslave (EMI, 1984) £40 Arguably Maiden's definitive album, Powerslave was packed with bangers, among them the epic, 13-minute Rime Of The Ancient Mariner. Combined with the monstrous World Slavery…

Blixa Bargeld is not one for small talk. When I first encounter the fearsome Einstürzende Neubauten frontman, I ask him how he is. He complains that he's sick. “I've got a very bad cold,” he grumbles. “I'll be gentle with you,” I splutter, and immediately wish I hadn't. Bargeld, the drillwielding noise terrorist with a scream that could shatter the Reichstag Dome in the Platz der Republik, sits stony-faced on our Zoom call as silence descends and memories of journalists previously devoured and spat out no doubt enter his thoughts. Once in flight, Blixa will be erudite and polysyllabic. Nick Cave, who played with Bargeld for 20 years in Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, remembered when he first entered Blixa's orbit, having moved to West Berlin in 1982: “I…

In April 1984, the original, faster Bobby Oproduced version of West End Girls was released. Twenty months later they were No 1 with the statelier Stephen Hague mix. Since then, Pet Shop Boys have become the biggest-selling UK duo in pop music history. And they're still purveying their own unique line of euphoric/melancholic electronic dance music, as evinced by their brand-new album, Nonetheless. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe talk Pete Paphides through their brilliant 40-year career while, on p. 73, John Earls rates all 15 of their albums and, on p. 77, John Coleman compiles a hefty discography. On pages 58 and 64 you will have already read about Einstürzende Neubauten and Bananarama, who both had a good 1984. There is more ‘84-related goodness here: on p80, we celebrate the…

1984 REVISITED Prince & The Revolution Purple Rain (Warner Bros. 925 110-1, LP, UK, 6/84, No 7) £20 The soundtrack from the sleaze-glam seraphim's selfmythologising movie saw him hailed the new Hendrix, James Brown and possibly Christ. Lloyd Cole & The Commotions Rattlesnakes (Polydor LCLP1, LP, UK, 10/84, No 13) £15 In love with Joan Didion, Eva Marie Saint, Dylan and Mailer, this gorgeous debut wrote the book on shrewd pop-rock. The Smiths The Smiths (Rough Trade ROUGH 61, LP, UK, 2/84, No 2) £20 Contrary to the prevailing winds of 80s pop, the maudlin Mancs’ debut placed proudly dysfunctional feelings hand in glove with highly functional guitars. Frankie Goes To Hollywood Welcome To The Pleasuredome (ZTT ZTTIQ1, 2LP, UK, 10/84, No 1) £10 They'd bossed 1984 with Relax and…

Ian Gillan on how Purple's sixth album took them to the next level. I review a lot of these box sets, and you can always tell when the record company have made an effort or not. This one is great. I think it's fantastic. I've been mightily impressed with the effort that's gone into it. Getting Dweezil Zappa to do the remixes was a masterstroke. Mind you, I don't have an Atmos system, and nor do I want one. I did an album in surround-sound years ago and I couldn't get my head around music coming at me from all different directions. I like stereo. Popular wisdom has it that Machine Head elevated Purple to another commercial level. Did it feel that way at the time? I think so. The band…

T.Rex Tanx Edsel ESDL 0193 (2CD) As 1972 progressed, Marc Bolan's undisputed 18-month leadership of ‘Dream Is Over’ pop was being contested: noisy upstarts Slade were on one flank, the Osmonds/ David Cassidy teeny-weeny axis in the middle and then, old pal David Bowie's Starman was finally on the rise among the left-field glamerati: Bolan was squeezed from all sides. The Born To Boogie film, released in December 1972 hadn't exactly enamoured the wider world to Bolan's cause. Whereas July 1972's The Slider was the album released at the absolute zenith of Trexstacy, its follow-up, Tanx, was arrived in March 1973, as the group's inexorable decline in popularity had slowly yet significantly begun. It needed to reassert Bolan's authority. Recorded at the Château d'Hérouville in Autumn 1972, Bolanists will ponder…

Broadcast Spell Blanket – Collected Demos 2006-2009 Warp WARPLP 372 (CD, 2LP) Transition, transmission. Between the late 90s and their last full studio album, 2005's Tender Buttons, Broadcast finessed an enigmatic mix of electronica, 60s psychedelic tropes and often eerie samples, earning them an obligatory mention every time somebody discussed hauntology. Which for a brief while everybody did. Hauntology involved retrofuturism – an uncertain sense of a half-lost past and a sporadically glimpsed future. Broadcast's best music still haunts, whether on 2003's Ha Ha Sound or the soundtrack for the 2012 film Berberian Sound Studio. It was subtly spooky, rather than full-on gawdy giallo. In a shrugging, shy, averting-its-gaze way, it could also be playful, fun. Trish Keenan's untimely death in 2011 effectively ended their output, and for over a…

Michael Head And The Red Elastic Band Loophole Modern Sky M 9616 UK (CD, LP) When Michael Head And The Red Elastic Band's previous album Dear Scott reached No 6 in 2022, it finally put to rest NME‘s classic front cover from 1999 claiming that Head was “our greatest songwriter” who nobody recognised. It had taken 10 albums across nearly 40 years, but with Dear Scott the mainstream had belatedly woken up to Head's genius. This being Michael Head, chart success would traditionally have led him to a grandiose act of career self-sabotage, or at the very least a disappearing act for a few years. Instead, Loophole is the joyous result of a gentle soul getting his shit together. Made on the bounce from Dear Scott, this is the quickest…

The Rolling Stones Rare And Unseen Gered Mankowitz Welbeck Publishing, £35 ISBN 9781802797336, 256 pages A new angle on old friends You may think you know the work of the famed photographer, but you don't, not by a long shot. Here are 300 images that might ring a bell (“the shot next to the famous one” he says in his introduction), expanding on those rolled out in books and glossy mags. And some in between, such as the cover photo previously hiding on the back of the Stones’ Got Live If You Want It. One glorious 1965 shot taken in his hip Piccadilly studio becomes a dozen, the contact sheet exploding into life. Mankowitz, then almost a group member, talks us through them – including passport photos that Stones manager…

Paul Dominy (second- left) backstage with Ash's Mark Hamilton (second-right) How many times have you played SXSW? Four or five. I remember 2005 and the guys from Bloc Party, who'd just exploded. What has SXSW meant to you over the years? It's always chaos! There's a lot of dragging gear down streets, and fun impromptu party shows. If you're a pampered band who don't wanna get your hands dirty, forget it. If you like chaos and wanna get stuck in, it's great! What's the secret of your musical friendship? After 32 years, Ash is a second family. We have time apart, then we get together again, and it's like time hasn't passed. We learnt to not be too precious in the creative process and also to experiment. If we're not collectively…

CODA Buddy Rich & Max Roach Rich Versus Roach (Mercury MMC 14031, LP, UK, 1959) £15 I started playing in seventh grade [age 12]. My brother's friend found out I was learning drums and offered to give me lessons. He would put an album on and teach me how to play along with it. This was one of them. They were polar opposites: Buddy Rich was bombastic; everything is chops and going for it, while Max Roach is much more rhythm, a bit tastier in my opinion. He left space where Buddy Rich didn't leave any. Ahmad Jamal Trio Poinciana from But Not For Me: Ahmad Jamal At the Pershing (London Records LTZ-M 15162, LP, UK, 1959) £20 This was the first album that really grabbed me. My oldest brother…

SEND YOUR PRAISE, MISSIVES AND CALLS FOR THE DEIFICATION OF JOEL MCIVER 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 BOOKAZINE SPIRIT Credit where it's due. I'm not a regular magazine purchaser, but I am a Fleetwood Mac superfan, so I obviously couldn't wait to get my hands on your double issue mag. I loved it! I read it cover to cover from both sides and thoroughly enjoyed the journey through the last six decades reading about the origins of the soundtrack of my life. Julia Bennet, email Thanks, Julia, on behalf of the F Mac bookazine editor, Joel McIver. A reminder that we publish a bookazine most months and…

At RC Towers, we discern fresh music coming from Epica, Cardi B, Hall Aflame, Zedd, The Dead Daisies, Selena Gomez, ex-Thin Lizzy's John Sykes, ex-One Direction's Zayn Malik, Ron Keel Band, Annie Lennox/ Wendy & Lisa, Glenn Hughes, Jet, Ex-Libris’ Dianne Van Giersbergen, Pete Townshend, Snoop Dogg, Kelsea Ballerini, Judas Priest's Rob Halford, Halsey, Kim Wilde, Lady Gaga, Jamiroquai, Mastodon, Marty Wilde, Winger, ex-Fear Factory's Burton C Bell, Maxïmo Park, Nina Nesbitt (on Apple Tree), Nightwish (Nuclear Blast), Willow (Three Six Zero), Shelby Lynne (Monument), George Benson (Rhino); and reissues from Haddaway (on BMG), Engelbert Humperdinck, plus best-of; and Uli Jon Roth’s In Search Of The Alpha Law book. CELLULOID HEROES Projects due include Alexis Spraic's The World According To Allee Willis documentary film, with Cyndi Lauper, Patti LaBelle and…

Adeem The Artist Anniversary, Thirty Tigers, 3 May: Megan Coleman (Brandi Carlile). Tenille Arts To Be Honest LP, Dreamcatcher, 3 May: LeAnn Rimes, Maddie & Tae. Aiboforcen Between Noise And Silence 2CD with four bonuses, Alfa Matrix, 31 May: Patrick Codenys (Front 242). Ex-Skid Row's Sebastian Bach The Child Within The Man CD, 2LP, gold, clear 2LPs, Reigning Phoenix, 10 May: John 5 (Mötley Crüe), Steve Stevens (Billy Idol), Orianthi. Gabriel Birnbaum Patron Saint Of Tireless Losers, Western Vinyl, 28 June: Will Graefe (Okkervil River). Blunt Chunks The Butterfly Myth, Telephone Explosion, 19 April: Ed Squires (US Girls), Diego Gaeta (Andre 3000). Zachary Cale Next Year's Ghost, ORG, 24 May: Shahzad Ismaily (Bob Dylan), Jeremy Gustin (Okkervil River). Imogen Clark The Art Of Getting Through CD, LP, imogenclark.mywaterfrontshow.com, 31 May:…

Peter Frampton Frampton Comes Alive! (A&M Records AMLM 63703, LP, UK, 1976) The fifth album of his solo career, this double helping of rock was once the biggest-selling album of all time. Nuff said! Highlights are: Show Me The Way, showcasing Frampton’ expertise on the Talkbox; the audience reaction to Baby, I Love Your Way; and the classic Do You Feel Like We Do. The Who Live At Leeds (Track Records 2406 001, LP, UK, 1970) I'd seen The Who at the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival and would again in 1970 so this album acted as a bridge between the two events. Bit disappointing that Tommy wasn't included, but its absence is more than compensated by the epic My Generation and a superb version of Shakin’ All Over. Iron…

STATESIDE SOUND AND VISION I was fortunate enough to study in New York for a six-month period in late 1976 and early 1977. I was a fan of David Bowie and so bought Low as well as the single Sound And Vision, which came in a colour picture sleeve. I have your excellent Rare Record Price Guide and so know that a Mint UK original of Low is worth in the region of £100. But what are my US copies of Low and Sound And Vision worth? Barry Keene via email Low, released in January 1977, is regarded as one of David Bowie's greatest albums. Of course, back in late 1976, after it had been recorded and delivered to his record label, RCA, there was internal disquiet as to whether…

Q&A Where are you based, what do you do, and why? The label is based in my basement at home in Stoke Newington! I have a studio that I do all my writing and production in and, with the assistance of my business partner Eric Longley, run the record label from there. It's pretty close to my kitchen and I have fairly large drinks cabinet in there as well so all requirements are taken care of… Why the name? The label is not about me being a Libertine and supporting music of an “ilk”; it's about the fact that throughout my life I have loved music from all genres and I wanted not only to support it but also show my love for all music. I'm also DJing, composing scores…

OPINION Robin Guthrie, Cocteau Twins’ guitarist and custodian, is a master songwriter, producer, musician and sonic architect, one of the pioneers of shoegaze/dreampop. The eight Cocteau Twins albums that Guthrie, vocalist Liz Fraser and bassists Will Heggie and Simon Raymonde recorded between 1979 and 1997 eschew conventional routes to beauty for a new advanced form of studio sorcery. Guthrie, now 61, lives in rural France with his family, adding regularly to a large store of solo releases via Bandcamp and collaborating on Cocteau Twins reissues as they come along. When we meet via video call, the man on the screen may resemble a bearded sage more than he does the hairsprayed goth of yore, but the passion is still there, along with a zero-tolerance approach to music-industry nonsense – as…

Stahlmusik (Eisengrau/Rip Off, 1981 ‘mass market’ edition) £80 Debut C38 cassette tape sold from the Eisengrau shop in Berlin and distributed by the Hamburg label Rip Off, it was recorded from inside a motorway bridge. Kalte Sterne (ZickZack ZZ 40, 1981) £50 Double 7” put out by Neubauten's first proper label, ZickZack. Thirsty Animal (Not on label, 1982) £80 12” self-released collaboration with Lydia Lunch and Rowland S Howard. 2 x 4 (ROIR A-133, 1984) £10 Live recordings from a variety of European dates issued by famous German cassette label ROIR. Heiner Müller – Die Hamletmaschine (Rough Trade RTD 197.1208.1, 1991) £50 A musical soundtrack by EN to the subversive East German playwright Heiner Müller's bestknown work. Tabula Rasa (Mute BETON 106, 1993) £120 Original vinyl copies of this Neubauten…

New Order Thieves Like Us (Factory FAC103, 12”, UK, 4/84, No 18) £3 A flawless non-album track which soundtracked that summer. Grandmaster & Melle Mel White Lines (Don't Don't Do It) (Sugar Hill SH 130, 12”, UK, 10/83, No 7) £5 Not a UK hit until summer ‘84, but this hiphop landmark made up for it by sticking around for ages, outselling numerous No 1s. Pet Shop Boys West End Girls (Epic A 4292, 7”, UK, 4/84, No 133 [this version]) £30 The Stephen Hague-slowed 1985 re-recording was their big British career-maker, but the (faster) original Bobby Orlando-produced take was a US West Coast club hit. Womack & Womack Love Wars (Elektra E 9799, 7”, UK, 3/84, No 14) £1 Lifted from the 1983 album: the Womacks’ knack for setting…

Famed for his horn's forlorn, anguished cry, Norwegian saxophonist JAN GARBAREK is synonymous with Manfred Eicher's Munich-based ECM label. Although 77-year-old Garbarek is still with the company today, he was an important figure in establishing the ECM brand in its infancy. Now reissued on vinyl, Afric Pepperbird (★★★★ ECM), his 1970 debut for the label, proves to be far edgier than many of the saxophonist's later releases. Fronting a quartet including guitarist Terje Rypdal, Garbarek navigates a path somewhere between avant-garde music and modal jazz-rock a la Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, with viscerally exciting results. The intense title tune and fiery Beast Of Kommodo are the best cuts. Garbarek's forceful playing on Afric Pepperbird reveals no sign of the aching bittersweet lyricism that had become his hallmark by the time…

Tanx (EMI/T. Rex BLN 5001, LP, with printed inner and poster, UK, 1973) £40 Simply put, this was the last T.Rex album that was bought and played in significant order, so of course, that means perfect copies are increasingly scarce. Whereas the fold-out poster can still be found in the package, to find it without drawing-pin holes is rare. Children Of The Revolution/Jitterbug Love/ Sunken Rags (Stateside TSS 4141, 7”, Turkey, 1972) £30 Recorded at Ascot for the Born To Boogie film, the track – with Elton John on piano – was released in September 1972, and kept off the UK No 1 spot firstly by Slade's Mama Weer All Crazee Now and then – horror of horrors – David Cassidy with How Can I Be Sure? Released on Stateside in Turkey,…

Sun Ra Inside The Light World: Sun Ra Meets The OVC Strut STRUT 288 (2LP, CD) Sun Ra At The Showcase: Live in Chicago 1976-1977 Jazz Detective (2LP, 2CD) In the year that marks current Arkestra leader Marshall Allen's momentous centenary, music archivists have exhumed two significant archaeological finds that capture his former leader, jazz mystic Sun Ra, in studio and live settings. Arguably, the paramount discovery is Inside The Light World, Ra's collaboration with Bill Sebastian, a boffin-like inventor who patented satellite designs to fund his groundbreaking Outer Space Visual Communicator (OVC), an apartment-sized fractal light projector controlled by a touch-sensitive keyboard. After initially hooking up for live shows in the late 70s, Ra and Sebastian went into the studio together in 1986, when the latter filmed the Arkestra…

Beth Gibbons Lives Outgrown Domino WIGLP 287 (CD, LP) Thirty years have passed since Portishead's Dummy, but perhaps even more remarkably, 22 since Out Of Season, Beth Gibbons’ visionary autumnal collaboration with Talk Talk's Paul Webb (aka Rustin Man). So, what's she been up to? It would be tempting to guess very little. The only music that has surfaced since 2002 was a typically bleak interpretation of Henryk Gorecki's Symphony No.3, made with Polish film composer Krzysztof Penderecki in 2019. However, the emotional weight in these grooves would suggest she has been preoccupied with more weighty concerns. Lives Outgrown is a deeply personal record – 10 years in the making – conceived during a troubled period of restlessness and self-doubt, during which Gibbons experienced the loss of several people close…

Back To Black In cinemas Workmanlike but occasionally sparkling biopic Amy Winehouse's formidable talent made her a star, but the songs on the album that gives this movie its title were written and recorded in the white heat of a tempestuous relationship that also made her a tabloid fixture. Consequently, as much as the filmmakers stress how they wanted to tell the singer's story through her music, the more troublesome aspects of her short life can't be ignored. Marisa Abela portrays Amy as a driven figure resisting music biz attempts to package her into something more instantly sellable (“I ain't no fuckin’ Spice Girl,” she declares early on), yet that single-mindedness arguably contributed to the drama of her private life. Director Sam Taylor-Johnson delivers snapshots of Winehouse's on-off romance with…

Sell Vinyl/CDs direct to RC readers, call us on 0208 752 8172 or Email listings@recordcollectormag.com NEXT ISSUE: JUNE 2024 (on sale 16 MAY) Deadline for submitting adverts (Listings & Classified): Monday 22 APRIL 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: JULY 2024 (on sale 13 JUNE) Deadline: Monday 20 MAY…

Arab Strap May (20) Carlisle Brickyard (21) Sunderland Fire Station (22) Birmingham Castle & Falcon (23) Bristol Lantern (24) London Camden Koko (25) Manchester Gorilla (26) Leeds Brudenell September (21) Glasgow Barrowlands Busted May (17) Marlow Pub In The Park (26) Brighton East Brighton Park June (29) London Chiswick Pub In The Park July (11) Leeds Millennium Square (13) Sunderland Kubix Festival (19) Newmarket Racecourse (20) Haydock Racecourse August (18) Trentham Live (23) Margate Dreamland (25) Port Eliot Tunes In The Park (26) Taunton Live At Somerset (29) Hitchin Priory (31) Scarborough Open Air Theatre The Black Crowes May (14) Manchester O2 Apollo (15) London Hammersmith Eventim Apollo (17) Newcastle O2 City Hall (18) Wolverhampton Civic Halls Billy Bragg May (8) Sheffield Network (9) London Islington Assembly Hall (10) Margate…

This month: Heidi Berry “It's the work of someone who knows what they are doing, who found a way to realise their vision.” So said Heidi Berry to RC about one of her musical heroes, Bridget St John. It's an observation which could very easily apply to her own music. Born in 1958 in Boston, Massachusetts, into a creative, musical family with Canadian roots (and as a distant relation of Jack Kerouac), her early years were divided between bucolic New Hampshire and the fertile atmospheres of New York's Greenwich Village. The family relocated to London in 1973. Those domestic musical skills meant she “wouldn't have dared” pick up a guitar at home but, despite this, she began to write her own songs, composing lyrics and melodies, stored in notebooks and…

Don Henley The End Of The Innocence (Geffen GEF 57, 7”, UK, 1989) £3 I received a call out of the blue from Don asking to write a song together, so I recorded a musical idea I had that hadn't been fully realised. Don came to my house, I played it for him, and he later called me from his car — he had one of the giant early cellphones. He exclaimed that he seemed to be writing half the song in his car on the drive back from my house. In general, I find it fascinating to step into other people's worlds and seeing if I can enhance it. Bob Dylan T.V. Talkin’ Song (from Under The Red Sky, CBS 467 188-1, LP, UK, 1990) £10 A classic example…

This month: Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Bradford Queen's Hall, Friday 1 May 1992 After a polite reception for the young support band from Germany from a small audience, the hall filled rapidly for Steve Harley's entrance. They cheered as his band first appeared, and then roared when Harley himself stepped onto the stage. I remember the opener as Sweet Dreams/Psychomodo, played faster and with much more of a rock rhythm than the recorded version. From my gallery view, it was almost as entertaining watching the crowd as the band. At stage-left in the audience, I saw two characters appearing to argue, which then developed into pushing each other around, one wagging his finger at the other as he moved away. During Sebastian, I spotted a fan in deep concentration,…

On 6 March, Metal 2000 announced its Futura vinyl pressing production plant in Lombardy. The RAV ITALY 22 Hydraulic plant can produce up to three vinyl discs per minute, thanks to its simple disc extraction and electronic processing. Its staff boast 30-plus years’ experience in manufacturing injection and extrusion presses for the plastics sector and, following in-depth study of vinyl manufacturing, started work on their plant in 2021. Metal 2000 developed, designed and manufactured it at its technical office, comprising 20-plus electronic/engineers, mechanics, designers and programmers. The Futura equipment is simple to install and can change vinyl colours extremely quickly, utilising simplified, regularised moulding, and a compact monobloc engine structure. With a three-year warranty and production time of around five months, Metal 2000 had 30 pre-orders for plant before launch,…

IN THE FAMILY WAY THE FOUR KING COUSINS Introducing… (Capitol ST 2990, LP, US, 1968) £40 The US entertainment scene has always had a rich tradition of family acts. And around the time the Jacksons, Osmonds and Cowsills came along, there were also The Four King Cousins, whose 1968 debut album is an appealing synthesis of easy listening and sunshine pop. Tina Cole, Cathy Cole, Carolyn Thomas and Candy Wilson were indeed cousins and the latest generation of a musical dynasty going back to the Mormon Driggs family of entertainers. William King Driggs had five daughters who began performing in the 1930s as The King Sisters, working with big band legend Artie Shaw and scoring a hit with Glenn Miller's In The Mood. They appeared in several Hollywood movies in the 40s,…

The other day I was listening to some Art Garfunkel – as you do – when, in among the choice covers (I Believe When I Fall In Love, Disney Girls) and total Ibiza rave anthem bangers (Bright Eyes, I Only Have Eyes For You, and some other songs about eyes), there arrived a sudden clutch of doomy piano notes, not unlike the intro to Seven Nation Army, but doomier and more piano-laden. It was the intro to My Little Town, the song that Paul Simon wrote for Art in the mid-70s, which became a one-off reunion record for Simon & Garfunkel (and as such appeared on both parties’ solo album – now there's a column: Songs Which Appeared On Both Parties’ Solo Albums. No, you go first). Remember when The…

Bruce Dickinson and I are sipping Earl Grey and munching slices of cake in Rhythm & Brews, a pleasant, rock'n'roll-themed café that the Iron Maiden singer used to frequent over the 30 years that he lived in Chiswick, west London. Some bloke on a laptop on the next table appears to be eavesdropping on the Record Collector interview, but whatever he hears Dickinson saying, he probably doesn't believe a word. After all, how many people can honestly say that they've played arenas around the world, flown jumbo jets, dropped a rock band into a war zone (Sarajevo, 1994) and amassed a list of civilian, military, academic and scientific honours while still finding the time for solo musical, writing and TV careers, actively running an aerospace company and holding down directorships…

Looking For Love/I'll Be Yours (solo 7”, Magic Lamp, 1966) Taped on four-track, Karen's solo debut was a double A single released in 1966 on Magic Lamp, a tiny LA garage label founded by Wrecking Crew bassist Joe Osborn. On this vibrant slice of psych-pop, 16-year-old Karen already sings with a deep, resonant voice. Only 500 copies were pressed, but thankfully, you can still hear it on Spotify. Another Song (from Close To You, 1970) This idiosyncratic piece of baroque fusion on the band's debut LP begins with medieval song before moving into a jam in which Karen creates a trancelike rhythm. No wonder she loved the drums – she had the chops. Sometimes (from Carpenters, 1971) The closing song on the self-titled 1971 album, this originated as a poem…

“We know where we've come from and what we've done together,” says Sara Dallin of her lifelong friendship with Bananarama bandmate Keren Woodward. “It's very rare to actually go to school together, leave home together, work together and still be friends.” Now in their early sixties, Dallin and Woodward have known each other since they were seven-year-olds. This afternoon, Record Collector finds them pouring tea in their London hotel room, presiding over an extraordinary career that's seen them rack up sales of over 30 million and earn a spot in the Guinness Book Of World Records as the most commercially successful female band of all time. Bananarama's journey to global superstardom began in earnest when they were invited to back Fun Boy Three on 1982's It Ain't What You Do…

Dream, if you can, a courtyard. An ocean of violets in bloom. Alternatively, a 1984 record shop and all its pristine treasures. Close your eyes, let's go there together. What do you see? From chest-level down – vinyl. Chest to eye-level – cassettes, pressed tight against the wall like teenagers at a school disco. High above those – picture discs, promo displays, collectibles, charts, and a menu of new releases. What do you hear? Music, some wonderful sounds, but also the soft slap of record sleeves being browsed, and perhaps, from the classical corner, an unfamiliar sound, the metronomic clack-clack-clack of CD jewel cases. The UK recording industry hadn't spent 1983 in the rudest of health. Brian Southall at EMI, interviewed on the BBC in March: “Over the last two…

Reissues, remasters and compilations Deep Purple Machine Head: Super Deluxe Edition Universal Music CX 725876 (3CD/LP/Blu-ray) There's a fascination around Deep Purple that doesn't linger around any other band from their specific 70s demographic. Uriah Heep have it to an extent, but they were always smaller, weirder, more “big in Eastern Europe” than Purple. Maybe it's because Purple are the last of the original three heavy rock acts, Led Zeppelin having called it a day over 40 years ago and Black Sabbath executing a managed exit in 2017. Whatever its source, this fascination is obvious in the fact that Purple are still going strong, and not just phoning in subpar new albums and playing clubs but writing genuinely good stuff and selling out arenas. Large numbers of people evidently still…

Bruce Watson set up Bible & Tire in 2019 to reissue ELIZABETH KING‘s early 70s gospel sides on Juan D Shipp's D-Vine Spirituals label. He also persuaded King, then 79, to come out of retirement to record Living In The Last Days, her long overdue debut album – she'd spent the past five decades raising her 15 children. Working out of Delta-Sonic Sound in Memphis with Watson and the four-piece Sacred Soul Sound Section behind her, King hit the ground running. Her vocal was deeper than it was in her youth but still immensely powerful and totally commanding, kept in shape by Sunday morning singing in church and captured again in 2022 on the great I Got A Love. Soul Provider (★★★★ Bible & Tire), her third album in four…

Blow My Mind!: The Doré-Era-Mira Punk & Psych Legacy (★★★★ Munster) compiles top moments from 45s released in the 60s by the three labels in its subtitle. It offers heaps of fun, be this delivered with the aid of organs, harmonicas or a whole lotta yelping. Highlights include the cowbell break on Ty Wagner's Slander and The Motion's vivid tale of being mugged on the sidewalk. The appearance by The Outlaw Blues lasts under three minutes. Bit of a shame, given it's called Non-Stop Blues. The groove they hit sounds like it could've rattled on eternally. Extra points for some of the band names on this double LP. The Puddin Heads? The Tormentors? Basil & The Baroques? As if they won't deliver the goods. Following his stint in The Vagrants,…

Congo Funk! - Sound Madness From The Shores Of The Mighty Congo River (Kinshasa/Brazzaville 1969-1982) Analog Africa AALP 0098 (CD, 2LP) Another crack compilation from Analog Africa The 1974 Ali-Foreman fight (and the Zaire ‘74 music festival featuring James Brown) had a massive impact on Congolese music. Out went established European record labels and in came a indie labels recording rhumba/jazz/funk and shimmering electric guitars, with Radio Brazzaville and TéléZaïre beaming the new music across Africa. After collecting 2000 tracks during two visits to Kinshasa and Brazzaville, Analog Africa's Samy Ben Redjeb distilled them down to 14 songs by the new generation including Petelo Vicka Et Son Nzazi; Groupe Minzoto Ya Zaïre and Orchestre Celi Bitshou. Comes with a superb booklet. Tony Burke Control I'm Here: Adventures On The Industrial…

Fat White Family Forgiveness Is Yours Domino WIGLP 467 (CD, LP) Fat White Family are a band who've consistently snatched defeat from the jaws of victory over the years. Founded in Peckham, London in 2011, the self-destructive tendencies they've become notorious for seem oddly anachronistic a little more than a decade later. The six-piece gives the impression of being the last great rock'n'roll survivors, living up to very 20th century expectations in the service of Dionysus. The landscape has changed and everything feels safer these days, and more to the point, nobody really forms bands anymore (and if they do, record companies are unlikely to touch them). The Fat Whites are a reminder of how we once were, which can be uncomfortable for some. It's perhaps a factor in why…

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, Punk,…

This month: MATT PIUCCI OF RAIN PARADE How have you prepared for the tour? Playing shows in California over the last 10 years, and the US West Coast in January/February. Do you have any pre-/ post-show routines? We warm up on vocals together, and try to be by ourselves for 30 minutes before the show. After it, we try to talk to fans. Will you be playing any songs that you rarely perform? Probably, but I'm not sure which. Will the set-list change much? We have a core of songs that we switch out for each other. Are there any venues that you're particularly looking forward to? Leeds Brudenell. Will there be any unusual merchandise? A tour-specific goodie that we'll help create, and at least one tour-specific release. We have…

This month: Sandy Posey As one of the many individually talented female singers of the 60s, Sandy Posey stood out from the crowd by being one of the best interpreters of countrified pop shot through with a splash of Memphis soul. Back then, you couldn't go to a birthday party, Saturday night dance or school disco without hearing A Single Girl, a moody lament that says so much about teenage anguish and unrequited lust. Born in Jasper, Alabama, in 1944, Posey was the youngest of five children raised on gospel music and deep south hospitality. She began performing in public at an early age and after graduating from high school she found work as a receptionist with several recording studios ending up at Chips Moman's American Sound Studio in Memphis.…