Innehållsförteckning för Issue 560 från Record Collector

SEND YOUR PRAISE, MISSIVES AND CALLS FOR THE DEIFICATION OF TONY CUMMINGS 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 A KIND OF HUSH Further to Daryl Easlea’s letter in RC 559 of Record Collector, may I chip in with my two penn’orth? I have never countenanced a view that some artists are ‘cooler’ than others, and that those that aren’t considered ‘cool’ should therefore be dismissed. I enjoy listening to Engelbert Humperdinck just as much as I do The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, or T.Rex, or indeed, David Cassidy. I am pleased to learn from Paul Lester’s reply to Daryl Easlea’s letter that there is to be a…

Journalist Clare Thorp experienced Taylor Swift’s Era’s Tour in Cardiff this summer, and her ears have only just recovered from the screaming. In this issue, she writes about Swift’s 18-year musical career, from country music ingénue to pop juggernaut (p80). John Coleman is a writer and DJ. A regular at RC and Sunday Times contributor, he has long been fascinated by artists in terms of their cultural impact. He takes an in-depth look at the Taylor Swift phenomenon (p84) and explains How To Buy Taylor on record. JR Moores has a whole chapter about post-US hardcore noise-rock (p52) in his book, Electric Wizards: A Tapestry Of Heavy Music, 1968 To The Present. His next tome, on Paul McCartney in the 90s, will be out in October. Derek Walmsley is the…

How long did it take to research and write your ‘door stop’? I started writing it around 2008. It took some time to get going, but I did a lot of reading and listening across those years. There are many great, deep explorations of different musical cultures on specialist bookshelves, and I’ve tried to bring some of the most interesting, important narratives from them into a broader readership, while giving credit to the pioneers. You met several broadcasters in a London pub in 1987 to market ‘world music’, with a promo budget of £3,700. Money well spent. I write a bit about that. We got a lot of stick for “categorising” artists and music, but we were categorising the audience. If I wanted someone to notice my new Muzsikas album…

Human Interest Smile While You’re Losing (An Audio Guide To Wellness) (Nice Swan NSWN 83, EP, 2024) The physical versions of this recently announced six-track collection from one of the capital’s most impressive new bands are sure to sell quickly, taking into account both the quality of the songwriting and the trusted Nice Swan Records seal of approval. Human Interest’s compelling mix of urgent riffs, dual vocals and heart-on-sleeve honesty will continue to help them find legions of new fans. There’s a rare ‘splatter’ edition vinyl being pressed to accompany the EP release, limited to just 90 copies and available exclusively via Bandcamp. Pete Philly & Perquisite Eon (Unexpected UR 067, LP, 2024) We’ve got an immaculately crafted hip hop album here from an Amsterdam-based duo who are back making…

BEEFEATING BYRDS I’ve got a single on the Pye label by The Beefeaters. It’s called Please Let Me Love You backed with Don’t Be Long. I’ve played it and it sounds a bit like Merseybeat. No doubt, they were influenced by The Beatles like many other bands in the UK at that time. Any information would be appreciated. Len Van De Minden via email Actually, what you have here is not a UK group aping The Beatles but a single recorded and released in America by the proto-Byrds. The telltale sign is the “an Elektra, U.S.A., recording” beneath the song credits. Jim (Roger) McGuinn and Gene Clark had their musical foundation in the American folk movement. McGuinn had toured as a musician with The Limelighters and Clark with The New…

It’s Timex Time (Decca 6611021, 7”, promo, Germany, 1975) £2 Boy/girl vocal group The Les Humphries Singers meant nothing in the UK but were huge in Germany and Belgium where, between 1969 and 1976, they had a string of hit singles and albums. Their line-up grew and shrank but at one time there were 12 members including future Boney M singer Liz Mitchell and Uriah Heap frontman John Lawton. Their albums were full of catchy pop songs, rock gospel numbers and medleys of glam and soul hits. Something for everyone, in fact. Then there was Timex Time, a special single released in 1975 to promote Timex watches. The back cover of the sleeve shows the singers, or at least four of them, superimposed on the dial of a wristwatch. Sadly, you…

OPINION Sliding into the progressive guitar legend’s afternoon ritual we hear about touring with Yes, solo adventures, getting into production via Joe Meek and George Martin, and why you should play a cruise ship while in dock… On your recent Tales Of Yes tour, you played the whole of Topographic Oceans, but also some ‘deep cuts’, which you’ll also presumably be playing when you tour with Deep Purple later in the year. Have you any favourites of the lesserknown tracks? I like doing it all, but It Will Be A Good Day from The Ladder is one, and it felt good because I hadn’t played it for absolutely years. I also did Southern Solo, which is a guitar break from Yes’ recording of Paul Simon’s America – that’s a separate…

Foetus Jim Thirlwell’s ability to create self-contained soundworlds using electronics and the studio as an instrument made him a kindred spirit for early Cranes. “I remember rushing out to buy the Hole and Nail albums, and my record player didn’t have speakers,” recalls Alison. “I remember listening to the sound just through the needle.” The Birthday Party They provided part of the soundtrack to Alison’s year spent as a student in Liverpool, and their brooding, chaotic group dynamic can be heard in Cranes songs such as Starblood. Public Image Limited Albums such as Flowers Of Romance, with its heavy use of effects, percussion and editing, are a quiet precursor of Cranes’ unorthodox instrumental line-up and their shuffling of the rock band hierarchy. The Chameleons Echoes of the epic vistas and…

The Return Of The Durutti Column (1980) Producer Martin Hannett immodestly claimed a role as co-creator, as he supplied the effects to supplement Reilly’s unique guitar birdsong. As with Joy Division’s two albums, he lent the sound a gothic, weathered feel, the stony air of a mediaeval cathedral. LC (1981) “Lotta Continua”: another title mischievously imposed by Tony Wilson, though Reilly had no particular interest in European political activism, The struggle did indeed continue, however, as Reilly emerged into a new light with his own singing voice and a lifelong companion as well as co-musician in Bruce Mitchell. A thing of delicate but durable beauty. Vini Reilly (1989) The subject of an expanded new release, Reilly’s self-titled album saw him come fully into his own following his brief adventure as…

Collecting Taylor Swift should be straightforward. There are 11 albums and four vinyl re-recordings released within the last 10 years, all widely available in huge quantities. For the casual buyer, standard editions are the most affordable option. In terms of collecting, though, it is worth delving a little deeper to look at Special and Deluxe editions, especially coloured vinyl versions. And meanwhile, don’t forget that, at the last count, there were no fewer than 34 variant editions of The Tortured Poets Department, the less commonplace of which will surely end up rising in value in the years to come. Taylor's Versions If you already have all the original issue LPs, my tip is to start collecting Taylor’s re-recorded LPs on vinyl. These are lovingly put together with deluxe stapled booklets…

John Lennon Mind Games – The Ultimate Collection UMR/Calderstone 5548710 (6CD/2 Blu-ray/2CD, 9LP/6CD/2 Blu-ray/2LP) “Mind Games to me was like an interim record between being a manic political lunatic to back to being a musician again,” John Lennon said when reflecting on this album at the turn of the 80s. There are two ways of looking at this mAmmoth appraisal of Lennon’s fourth post-Beatles release from 1973. The over-egging the pudding squad of critics will have a field day – really? Mind Games? One of Lennon’s least cherished albums having ALL THIS lavished on it? The first Lennon album to make it to MFP back in the day? How many different mixes can it take to polish up an average song? And let’s be clear, there are some extremely average…

After last month’s much anticipated vinyl reissue of TWO TONS O’ FUN’s self-titled debut comes Get The Feeling: The Complete Fantasy/ Honey Recordings ( Real Gone Music), a double CD package which collects together that first album and its equally ace same year follow-up Backatcha (credited to Two Tons) with single versions, remixes and extended mixes. Two Tons O’Fun were, of course, Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes Armstead, both church singers who met in the gospel ensemble NOW (News Of The World) and, as Sylvester’s ‘girls’ contributing to (You Make Me Feel) Mighty Real, were at the forefront of disco. Later they’d gain huge success as the Weather Girls with It’s Raining Men but Two Tons deserved attention too, their powerhouse vocals, inimitable spirit and LGBTQ+ aesthetic chiming with the liberating times.…

A singing star in Jamaica before his voice had broken, DELROY WILSON started recording for ubiquitous producer Coxsone Dodd. After his voice matured into a cool but soulful instrument, Delroy’s success continued undiminished through the ska and rocksteady periods and into the era of reggae and would surely have continued for longer if ill health had not claimed him at the age of only 46. At the beginning of the 70s, he began working with the highly successful producer, Bunny Lee. Their prolific collaborations over the next few years spawned the 28-track double LP Delroy Wilson: The Cool Operator ( Gorgon). Many of the songs are Delroy’s own, including classics such as the title track and the political Better Must Come but his vocal style means that he handles a soul…

The Rascals It’s Wonderful: The Complete Atlantic Studio Recordings Now Sounds/Cherry Red QCRNOW 7 BX 60 (7CD) The Rascals seemed to have it all when their rollicking take on the Olympics’ Good Lovin’ invaded early 1966’s UK pirate radio stations, highlighting the distinctive rock’n’soul, skintight chops and contagious energy taking the US by storm. Despite 1967’s beatifically pastoral Groovin’ reaching No 8 and its follow-up, A Girl Like You, nibbling our top 40, this country remained oddly unmoved. Bolstered by Richie Unterberger’s notes in a 60-page booklet, Alec Palao forensically charts the Rascals’ 1965-1971 Atlantic peak, revealing a band deserving more than the usual “blue-eyed soul” tag, predicting Steely Dan with sophisticated jazz-informed arrangements, intelligently aware lyrics and melodic pop instinct. There are 152 tracks, including non-album singles, unreleased demos…

Joe Goddard Harmonics Domino WIGLP 437 X (CD, LP) Hot Chip have now been in existence for over two decades: the group remain together thanks to their policy of incorporating all their members’ solo activities into their calendar before reconvening for their next collective communiqué. All five (six with honorary Chipper Rob ‘Grovesnor’ Smoughton) have produced a discrete universe of ornate, heartbroken music – from Alexis Taylor’s piano ruminations to New Build’s (Al Doyle and Felix Martin) dense, almost prog extravaganzas. Joe Goddard has remained the truest to the dancefloors throughout his work with 2Bears and NYC vocalist Amy Douglas on the astonishing HARDFEELINGS album. Harmonics – 14 tracks of left-of-centre dance music – is Goddard’s third solo album and picks up where 2017’s Electric Lines left off. Now based…

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,…

João Gilberto Chega de Saudade (Odeon MOFB 3073, LP, Brazil, 1959) £100 Pretty much where it all began. Gilberto had sung Antonio Carlos Jobim’s title song on a 1958 Elizete Cardoso album (probably the very first bossa nova recording), but his debut album is the first full bossa nova LP. Twelve songs, with a running time of 23 minutes, but filled with gems like Desafinado and Bim Bom, marking him out as a new and innovative artist. He would use two mikes, one for voice and one for guitar, so that the harmony between the two could be more clearly heard. Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd Jazz Samba (Verve V6-8432, LP, US, 1962) £40 Back to the beginning, and the only jazz album to top the Billboard pop charts. Saxophonist…

This month I have been collecting gigs. First, I went to see Barry Manilow at the London Palladium, a smorgasbord of schmaltz (see review p118). Then, there was Dexys Midnight Runners at Camden’s Koko, where Kevin Rowland told us in no uncertain terms What She’s Like and made ill-advised references to the Gazan crisis. And finally, the culmination, indeed the apotheosis of 21st-century popular global entertainment according to most media outlets in the wake of the concerts: Taylor Swift at Wembley Stadium. On the first of three nights, she enthralled the 90,000-capacity audience – musicians, movie megastars, members of the royal family, not to mention my seven-year-old daughter – with costume changes, immaculate vocals, and a mix of elegiacal and exuberant pop, though young Lester was more impressed by the…

On 16 June, a signed six-track demo CD by Taylor Swift, cut when she was 11 and distributed in Nashville, along with a photo and contact details, sold via goldin.co for $12,505. It includes her unissued originals, Am I Ready For Love, and a co-write, Can I Go With You, plus covers of The Chicks’ There’s Your Trouble, Dolly Parton’s Here You Come Again, Neil Sedaka’s One Way Ticket and Olivia Newton-John’s Hopelessly Devoted To You. ■ On 23 May, a Bob Dylan painting was sold via rrauction.com for $196,156. ■ On 21 May, Hank Williams Jr’s 11,566 feet2, five-bed, seven-bath house in Springville, Tennessee, with 33.7 acres, gym, workshop, pool/ house, sold via Cannon Realty for $1.55 million. ■ John Lennon’s 1965 Help! acoustic guitar sold 29 May via…

RC investigates While we recently looked at record shops on big islands down under, there are a good smattering in the south of the British Isles. Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands, so it’s no surprise that it boasts the largest choice of record shops, somewhat overshadowing Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm. As well as three welcoming vinyl outlets in Jersey’s capital, St Helier, it stages an annual Record Fair in October (12-13 this year), organised by local collectors, John Dalton and Ollie Michael. “I used to take my boxes of records to car boot sales,” recalls Dalton, and both attended small-scale events before agreeing to combine, to create a larger annual fair raising money for Jersey Hospice. Set in St Helier’s unique indoor Victorian Market of 1872,…

HESSTORY Fiona McQuarrie samples a partial discography of singer, composer, culthorror icon and writer-forElvis, David Hess David Hill was a man of many talents… and many names. In 1959, he was the first person to cover Living Doll, the song that became a cornerstone of Cliff Richard’s repertoire. But Hill’s later career was about as far away as it was possible to get from Richard’s clean-cut mainstream geniality. Hill, whose real name was David Hess, started as a folk singer and then became a songwriter. He was involved to some degree in creating Elvis Presley’s All Shook Up, which was credited to Presley and to Otis Blackwell; Blackwell, along with Hill, was a staff songwriter at Shalimar Music. Blackwell said he got the idea for All Shook Up from one…

No 14: Bruce’s, 79 Rose Street, Edinburgh By the time Bruce Findlay opened his nowlegendary record shop in Edinburgh’s Rose Street in 1969, he already had a wealth of experience in music retail. His new store, Bruce’s, would go on to become the most successful independent Scottish record shop of the 70s. Its countercultural values made it hugely popular with students and outsiders, which prepared it for the changes to come via the punk explosion later in the decade. Even more importantly, Bruce’s earned a reputation for the unrivalled passion and expertise of its employees. Findlay immersed himself in the local live scenes wherever the shop expanded, and ultimately his industry and enterprise would lead to the formation of a record label (Zoom) and to a successful spell as manager…

I’ve long been intrigued by records which were cash-in follow-ups to previous hits, but somehow managed to eclipse their source material. There must be a bunch of examples, but two personal favourites spring to mind. No one expects a novelty hit to have a successor – it’s a novelty, a one-off, that’s the nature of the beast. Yet Johnny Wakelin’s much-loved African headcharge In Zaire, a No 4 hit in 1976 and still a monster on the occasional dancefloor thanks to its crunching rhythms, was originally a throwntogether follow-up. The burly Wakelin looked more like a heavy with a bit part in The Sweeney than a pop star, but he hid his 15-years-on-the-force energy under a wide-brimmed hat. Back in 1974 he’d had a UK Top 10 hit with Black…

In August 1964 Johnny Burnette, 30, drowned after falling overboard in a fishing boat collision on a California lake. It was goodbye to another hero of early rock, gone before middle age, following Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, The Big Bopper, Eddie Cochran and Johnny Horton, as well as Patsy Cline, who’d also cut songs at the grittier end of country in the late 50s. All died in or immediately after tragic accidents, whether on road, air or water. “I was 11 when he died and he was a bigger than life character,” remembers Johnny’s son, Rocky Burnette, who still lives in California. “He was the kind of guy everybody loved, a gregarious personality who filled a room when he walked in. His passing was a big loss not just to…

Mind Games drummer Jim Keltner on how playing with John Lennon was like being in a dream, looking back to the sessions and more… Did you set out to be such an in-demand session man? I was a jazz guy. If it wasn’t Coltrane, I wasn’t interested. When I was coming up, I didn’t take rock’n’roll seriously. John Lennon became a very dear friend; he got a kick out of knowing that I’d hated rock’n’roll. John loved this story: my wife came running in the room one day and told me to watch these guys on Ed Sullivan with Eric, our little son. I watched for a couple of seconds and told them to shut up. I didn’t want her to let our son listen to anything other than Miles…

Joni Mitchell The Asylum Albums (1976-1980) Rhino 0603497827022 (5CD) The final track on Joni Mitchell Archives – Vol 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975), issued in October 2023, was revealing: a full-band arrangement of Dreamland, recorded during sessions for The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, with fusion ensemble LA Express working up a lightly funky groove for a weighty song that reflects upon colonisation, the slave trade and the tourism industry. Lyrically, it wasn’t a fit for Mitchell’s scrutiny of the bourgeoisie, but Summer Lawns did feature The Jungle Line, whose sample of Burundi drummers would point the way towards Dreamland’s eventual incarnation, on 1977’s Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter. For that version, Mitchell pared her sound back to sparse percussion, even as a small army of musicians, among them Miles Davis alumni Don…

Wild Billy Childish From Fossilised Cretaceous Seams: A Short History Of His Song And Dance Groups Damaged Goods DAMGOOD 611 LP (2LP) There have been several compilations along the way of Wild Billy Childish’s 40-plus year career, most notably 2009’s Archive From 1959 – The Billy Childish Story, of which this writer said at the time, it “pins the tail on a very inscrutable pop donkey”. A decade and-an-a-half later, it is still very much business as usual; with From Fossilised Cretaceous Seams: A Short History Of His Song And Dance Groups, released to tie in with Ted Kessler’s biography of Childish, To Ease My Troubled Mind: The Authorised Unauthorised History. These songs are just like the man himself: deceptively straightforward, at once shockingly raw and laugh-out-loud funny. They are…

Graham Gouldman I Have Notes Lojinx LJX 137 CD (CD, LP) It’s no great surprise that the latest solo record from 10cc’s Graham Gouldman echoes the classy, inventive pop of the band he cofounded back in 1972. But it’s an added bonus that, a half-century on from the year they took over the charts, this often sounds like it could be another superlative addition to the 10cc catalogue. Of course, by the time they formed, Gouldman was already a veteran hitmaker, his songs -Bus Stop (the Hollies), No Milk Today (Herman’s Hermits), For Your Love (the Yardbirds) – still favourites today. I Have Notes has all that pop sensibility along with 10cc’s playful disregard for convention. Gentle opener Floating In Heaven, which marked last summer’s unveiling of the first images…

Just Backdated: Melody Maker Seven Years In The Seventies Chris Charlesworth Spenwood Books, £25 (hardback) ISBN 9781915858221, 336 pages Evocative description of 70s music journalism As the title suggests, Chris Charlesworth – a name many of a certain age will recognise – spent seven years working for Melody Maker, at the time when it was fast becoming the UK’s best-selling music weekly. Born in 1947 his introduction to rock’n’roll came through hearing Little Richard’s Tutti Frutti at school, and 1963 saw him as one of the few males in the audience at The Beatles’ show in nearby Bradford. It was then probably foretold that his love of literature and Elvis would result in him becoming a music journalist. Stints on the local newspapers (and convincing the editor to run a…

This month: Status Quo/ SNAFU, Cardiff Capitol Theatre, 7 December 1974 On a chilly December evening, I found myself walking down Queen Street, Cardiff, with my then-girlfriend, Dyan (who, incidentally, lived opposite Tom Jones in Pontypridd) towards The Capitol Theatre to see Status Quo promoting their album Quo. Dressed head-to-toe in de rigueur denim, we really looked the part – though I was more a Lee Cooper fan than Levi. On arrival, we made our way to our seats – decent ones – near the front. SNAFU were the night’s support and they kicked things off in fine fashion with their brand of funk/rock, and featured Micky Moody on guitar, who would find greater fame and fortune with Whitesnake, and touring with other big names. And so, to the headliners,…

The Live Lounge immersive free exhibition on music and mental health is at Bethlem Royal Hospital, Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham, London, to 13 July, while the Melancholy And Madness LP, with Nitin Sawhney remixes, is out via bethlemgallery.com. ■ David Bowie album sleeve designer George Underwood’s We Like Dancing painting is part of the Sound & Vision art exhibition at 180, Strand, London, 26-27 September. An auction of items for the War Child charity runs 17 September-1 October, via theauctioncollective.com. Mick Rock photos of Bowie are part of a free display at the KEF Music Gallery, Great Portland Street, London. ■ The Beyond The Beat exhibition of 16 unpublished Merseybeat-era photos, including The Hollies, John Lee Hooker, is at the Museum Of Liverpool, to 3 November. ■ Jonathan Williams The…

How come you’re back now? We reconnected during the pandemic, and it took us a few years to finish the album, because we’re busy with other things and live in different parts of the US. It’s 10 songs that began by playing bass and drums together with Lou [Barlow]. It’s different vocally, as we didn’t do any dual lead vocals, and I sing lead on three, which is new. Producer, Scott Solter, brought out different things in our sound with his creative style and editing. Were there any amusing episodes during its creation? We laid the foundation on 15-16 July 2021, the first time that we’d played together in person since 1999. I played drums and Lou the bass, in his attic, uninsulated and very hot! That brought a ritual…

Alan Braufman was born in Brooklyn in 1951. The Berklee-educated saxophonist, flAutist, and composer was an integral part of the New York free music community in the 70s and 80s, recording as a sideman with improvisational figures including Richard Landry, Cecil McBee, Carla Bley, William Hooker, and Paul Nash, in addition to subbing for saxophonist Gary Windo in The Psychedelic Furs. He recorded Valley Of Search, his debut as a band leader, in 1975; almost 50 years later, his sound-world is as vital and inviting as ever, as evidenced by his latest album, Infinite Love Infinite Tears. What do you collect, and why? I think I have an unusual record collection. Not due to the records I have in it, more to do with the circumstances in which they were…

Q&A Label boss: Rob Sevier Interview: Jamie Atkins In 2012, we met the Chicago-based Numero Group, the archival label, currently celebrating its 20th birthday, whose outstanding work in the field of beautifully presented reissues and genre-based compilations frequently ventures to places its competitors might deem too obscure, including private-press music. RC reconnected with them to discuss their Eccentric Soul line, which has elevated work by southern soul star, Eula Cooper, and singer/trans pioneer Jackie Shane, as well as celebrating music on regional labels including Shiptown (Norfolk, Virginia) and Deep City (Miami). When and how did the Eccentric Soul series start? The original concept was a compilation, but Bill Moss, founder/ proprietor of Capsoul [Ohio-based 70s soul label], insisted that we do a Capsoul compilation and in many ways, the compilation…

DANNY O'DONOGHUE The Script singer on the Irish indie-rockers’ latest endeavour Tell us about the new album. There’s a progression in the sound due to technology changes and our age that puts different perspectives on subjects. Have you done anything that fans may not know about? A load in my early years. I wrote a song for The Rugrats soundtrack sung by Chrissie Hynde and Bruce Willis, remixes for N Sync, guitar on a TLC record, and I sang on a Jamaican Clappas album as “Irish man”. With whom would you like to make a split 7”? Linkin Park. Who’d you like to produce? A record with Calvin Harris or Mark Ronson. When did you first hear one of your songs on vinyl? The End Where I Begin. There was…

Photo: Vivien Goldman Killing Joke Killing Joke (Malicious Damage EGMD5.45, LP, UK, 1980) £27 The industrial blueprint, its sheet of noise foreboding, menacing and wired directly into the societal anxiety of the times. The Fireman Strawberries Oceans Ship Forest (Parlophone PCSD 145, 2LP, UK, 1993) £85 With Paul McCartney, Youth takes The Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows as the template and creates ambient techno and experimental rock formations. Various The Orb And Youth Present Impossible Oddities (Year Zero YZLDV006, 2LP, UK, 2010) £15 Tells the story of the WAU! Mr Modo label over two LPs. Includes the demo version of The Orb’s Little Fluffy Clouds. Nik Turner & Youth Pharaohs From Outer Space (Painted Word Records PWORD3, LP, UK, 2018) £20 Chill-out meets free jazz sax and flute as Youth teams…

CRANES "We literally had bailiffs knocking on our door when we were mixing Future Songs,” remembers Alison Shaw of Cranes. “We were in Jim’s bedroom of his ground floor flat… we were ducking so they couldn’t look through the window to see us.” The story of Portsmouth’s Cranes is one of persistence against the odds, and a stubborn streak that made them one of the most distinctive British bands of the late 80s and 90s, with their music’s echoes and amplifications of Cocteau Twins and The Cure, shoegaze and post-rock. Their determination to do things their way limited their opportunities around the rapacious rush of Britpop, but there’s a neat irony that their return to the live music circuit last year and this coincides with the long-awaited reissue of their…

VINI REILLY "Is it an art form?” rings out the sampled voice of the late Tony Wilson at the beginning of A Paean To Wilson, The Durutti Column’s 2010 album, released three years after the Factory mogul’s death. It typifies the spirit of Wilson -confrontational, provocative but genuinely inquisitive and philosophical. “He liked asking questions that would provoke thought or opinion,” says Reilly. “He liked to get a reaction. But it worked, and that’s how he got where he is.” Wilson helped make Vini Reilly: he put together his first band, selected his moniker, based on a misspelling of The Durruti Column, an anarchist unit in the Spanish Civil War, attempted to overlay his own Situationist politics on Reilly, handing out to him and fellow members of the original Durutti…

If you’ve been labouring under the impression that the ubiquitous, biggest pop star in the world has nothing to offer you – what with your superior, in-depth love of rock’s proud canon and all – and is “only” for young women, it may be time to shake it off. Taylor Swift has layers and layers within her work, and to paraphrase another American icon of verse, Walt Whitman, “contains multitudes”. Having moved through country, pop, hip-hop and indie folk, she finds the peak of her matchless fame arriving just as her records have established themselves as consistently “alternative”. Yet the genre she works in is secondary to the personality using it. Her music, a wash of wilfully repetitive, minimalist, synth-based throbs and hums chosen for their unobtrusive ability to frame…

Reissued on vinyl as part of the revived Original Jazz Classics series is the RED GARLAND TRIO’s 1957 album Groovy ( OCJ/Craft Recordings). For a former boxer who used his hands as weapons, Texas-born Garland, who played alongside Coltrane in Miles Davis’s first quintet plays the piano with a delicious, fleet-of-finger delicacy. Accompanying him are Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor, who lay down toe-tapping grooves. A fine album that more than lives up to its title. Another Texan, tenor saxophonist HAROLD LAND, served his musical apprenticeship with Max Roach, initially as a member of the drummer’s groundbreaking quintet co-led by trumpeter Clifford Brown in the mid-50s. Although from the “Lone Star State”, Land – who had a track named after him by prog-rockers Yes – became a consequential figure of…

Joni Mitchell Spots: Reprise Records (Reprise PRO 280, 7", promo, US, 1968) £90 Hear snippets from Song To A Seagull, intercut with the deep bass tones of a plugger whose baffling descriptions of the newcomer songwriter – “looking thin, lonely and wise” – are only slightly less insightful than the observation, “Joni Mitchell is Joni Mitchell. Her first album on Reprise is called Joni Mitchell.” It wasn’t. Reprise just fucked up the sleeve, cropping the title as “Son To A Seagu”. Radio Spots For Reprise Album Clouds (Reprise PRO 333, 7", promo, US, 1969) £50 That too-rich voice is back, alerting us to the 10 “touching and sensitive songs” that make up Clouds. “In today’s music world of stentorian amplification and strident cacophonies, aren’t you thankful for Joni?” we’re asked,…

Billy Childish on his latest career-spanning set This album is just so exciting. You don’t really think of that music anymore very much. My idea was to get a compilation for somebody that had never heard anything, those that say we only do one thing. It’s 32 songs – quite difficult to whittle it down, really. Every now and then we’ll do something. I think the idea is to catch up a bit. I’ve already just done five albums in the last few months as well. It means that this is all out of date. Do you record every day? No, very rarely, really. Music is my hobby. I just happened to do two albums in the blues group, two albums with the Singing Loins as the North Kent Folkways Revival.…

Humanist On The Edge Of A Lost And Lonely World Bella Union BELLA 1600 (CD, LP) In early 2020, former Exit Calm guitarist and wingman to Mark Lanegan, Rob Marshall, released his debut album as Humanist, attempting a creative rebirth with a starry cluster of alt-rock singers upfront. The world had other ideas, though. Lockdown nixed touring plans; meanwhile, illness (Marshall had cancer), loss and relationship difficulties weighed heavy. Four years on, second album On The Edge Of A Lost And Lonely World tots up the toll of trying times as he tries again, leaning into his project’s founding sense of communal support to help navigate the shadows. Far from a mere collection of diffuse songs with big voices upfront, the result is a properly wrought album of dynamic contrasts,…

Blur: To The End Cinemas Brilliant doc capturing their 2023 reunion “The less we do, the bigger we get,” notes Dave Rowntree of Blur getting to play Wembley Stadium for the first time in 2023, eight years since their previous album and 21 since their initial dissolution. While relationships have appeared amicable enough since Blur’s first reunion in 2009, To The End is beautiful both in showing their varying degrees of emotional intelligence, and in allowing everyone’s individual complexities to emerge. Few will be surprised that Damon Albarn is sometimes overbearing, yelling: “You’re making me look an amateur!” when Alex James messes up in rehearsal. But Albarn’s sweetness and humour are equally present. Coxon is fidgety, James larky and Rowntree eccentric: they all really do need each other, summarised when…

Sell Vinyl/CDs direct to RC readers, call us on 0208 752 8172 or Email listings@recordcollectormag.com NEXT ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 2024 (on sale 8 AUGUST) Deadline for submitting adverts (Listings & Classified): Monday 15 JULY 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: OCTOBER 2024 (on sale 5 SEPTEMBER) Deadline: Monday 12 AUGUST…

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This month: Peggy Seeger It’s apt that Peggy Seeger will be performing at the Cambridge Folk Festival with her sons Calum and Neill MacColl and daughter-in-law Kate St John, as she’s from a distinguished music family. Her mother, Ruth, was a modernist composer and the first woman to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, her father, Charles, was a folklorist and musicologist, and her half-brother, Pete Seeger, a famous folk singer-songwriter and activist. New Yorker Peggy reflects today: “I had a unique upbringing with classical music on one side and folk music on the other. I first performed in front of an audience at 13 on the junior high school talent night. I learnt I could make money from it when, at college at 19, I sang folk songs with a classmate…

This month: Terri Thal On 6 September 1961 – two and a half months before he cut his debut LP – Bob Dylan recorded an audition tape at New York’s Gaslight Cafe. His first manager, Terri Thal, wanted to use it for getting him gigs. Mixing traditional folk songs like Pretty Polly and He Was A Friend Of Mine with rudimentary early Dylan compositions like Song To Woody, it “sounds exuberant”, enthuses Thal now. “It’s incredibly live. The sound was gorgeous. It sounds like somebody who was really having fun.” There weren’t many club owners eager to book Dylan when Thal managed him during the first year or so after he moved to New York. The manager of Club 47 near Boston told her, “He’s too freaky for the folk…

CODA The Mighty Arrow The Mighty Arrow On Target (Arrow Records LPS 003, LP, Barbados, 1971) £15 My love of music was sparked by my dad. He came over to England in 1958. He arrived at the Liverpool docks off a boat with a pocketful of change and a bag full of records. I was born in 1964, so when Liverpool was listening to The Beatles, our house was rocking to the sounds of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, BB King, Harry Belafonte and Johnny Mathis and then also loads of calypso such as the Mighty Sparrow and The Mighty Arrow. Arrow later had a huge soca hit with Hot Hot Hot. Rush A Farewell To Kings (Mercury 9100 042, LP, UK, 1977) £12 Around 1976, I started buying my own…