Innehållsförteckning för Issue 562 från Record Collector

SEND YOUR PRAISE, MISSIVES AND CALLS FOR THE DEIFICATION OF ROB HUGHES TO: rc.editorial@metropolis.co.uk, or to Record Collector, 4th Floor, Harmsworth House, 13-15 Bouverie Street, London EC4Y 8DP, or via social media rc.editorial@metropolis.co.uk www.recordcollectormag.com Record Collector Magazine @RecCollmag RecordCollectormag @recordcollectormag BLOODY NORA! Great interview with His Peteness (Townshend) in RC 561. Regarding the caption with the photo at the Tommy press conference, the “unknown” person [p47] is, in fact, Nora Walker herself – Ann-Margret. Paul Clarke, Cambridge DAYDREAM CONSTERNATION Re: David Cassidy, RC 561. I've always felt so much of Cassidy's work was beyond or was striving to be beyond that easy teenybopper/saccharine description. DC was a complex person with a descent into alcoholism relatively late in life. I'm really surprised that his May 1975 recording of I Write The…

Having excavated Genesis’ 60s roots in RC 516, Nick Hasted reaches the fractious, musically lovely end of the Gabriel road in this month's cover story (p74). An extensively updated new edition of Nick's bestselling biography, The Dark Story Of Eminem, is out on 14 November. Oregano Rathbone hasn't ruled out getting a Paul Williams (p93) tattoo. He released an album, Since Returning From The Moon, earlier this year under his Marco Rossi pseudonym, and is writing a book about hyper-obscure Scottish avant-gardists, Chou Pahrot. Writer and journalist Chris Wheatley, who talked to Felix Cavaliere for this month's Rascals feature (p70), is a regular contributor to several leading music publications. He owns too many records, too many guitars, and not enough cats. Spencer Leigh can remember when Engelbert Humperdinck (p54) was…

Scarlet Page's 30 photo exhibition, including Foo Fighters, Lemmy Kilmister, Amy Winehouse, David Bowie, Keith Flint (The Prodigy), Stereophonics, The Verve, My Chemical Romance, Robbie Williams, is at Behind The Gallery, Whitfield Street, London, 12-15 September, with a Q&A on 14 September. ■ Manic Street Preachers’ Nicky Wire‘s My Little Empire art exhibition is at Narberth Museum, Pembrokeshire, to 13 December. ■ The Disco, I'm Coming Out exhibition is at Cite De La Musique, Philharmonie De Paris, Avenue Jean-Jaures, Paris, France, 14 February-17 August 2025. Acoustic+ Ken Liggins/Peter Solowka The Ukrainians book, Spenwood, 30 September. ■ Like Someone I Know: A Celebration Of Margo Guryan CD, red LP, with Margo Price, Clairo, Sub Pop, 8 November. ■ Amy Grant/Vince Gill When I Think Of Christmas, two new cuts, MCA Nashville, 13 September.…

VALUE ADDED FACTS COLLECTING One thing I don't understand about your Rare Record Price Guide is why it doesn't cover records imported and sold in the UK. For example, back in 1969 or maybe 1970, I actually bought a copy of Dorothy Ashby's Afro-Harping LP in London's West End. It had been imported by a jazz shop and so I bought it in the UK. Doesn't that mean it should go into the price guide? I've still got the LP by the way, although over 50 years later it does not seem to have received an official UK release. I have bought an American re-pressing in recent years – also in the UK – from Amazon! It's still a fantastic LP. Ben Waller via email The Rare Record Price Guide only…

DR Z Three Parts To My Soul (Spiritus, Manes Et Umbra) (Vertigo 6360 048) £2,500 Prog rock outing from 1971 with swirly Vertigo label. Barney Bubbles-designed sleeve art. (eBay item number: 276473634926) Supplied by eBay THE POLICE Don't Stand So Close To Me (Pye no cat no) £2,500 A 12” acetate disc of the 7” version of the single. (eBay item number: 176421615112) Supplied by eBay JOHNNY GRIFFIN The Congregation (Blue Note 1580) £2,250 Mono bop jazz outing from 1958 also featuring Paul Chambers, Sonny Clark and Kenny Dennis. (eBay item number: 135033852017) Supplied by eBay SONIC THE HEDGEHOG Sonic In Sydney Sega Mega World (Sega Enterprises Australia no cat no) £2,250 A 4-track CD single released in Australia during 1997. (eBay item number: 202655664796) Supplied by eBay JUNIOR MCCANTS…

KATY J PEARSON Indie songstress on her latest studio outing What film could your new set soundtrack? A Swedish Love Story. With whom would you like to make a split 7”? Broadcast. Trish [Keenan]'s lyrics are my favourite. What was your favourite record shop when you started out? Rise, Cheltenham, which I frequented as a teenager, and another in-basement shop there. I remember getting Blondie's Hanging On The Telephone and playing it religiously. What records made you want to go pro? The Beatles soundtracked my childhood, then I discovered Kate Bush. Wow! Is anyone in your family a musician? My dad taught me guitar and my mum sang at the annual Christmas party that she hosted. What's the oddest circumstance that's inspired a song? Alligator was partially inspired by an…

Alison Moyet greets RC like an old friend, with a huge smile and a hug. Upstairs at the Hotel Du Vin in Brighton, the city she's called home since 2013, we sit in comfy chairs and drink Coca-Cola and coffee as we chat. She's not someone who often looks back, she says, she likes to live in the present, but this year marks her 40th anniversary in the music business so she feels she had better mark it. And she's done that with Key, her 10th album, which sees her reworking her back catalogue in an electronic setting, twisting her all-encompassing hits Love Resurrection and All Cried Out with lost tracks such as Can't Say It Like I Mean It and So Am I into interesting new shapes. Her voice…

Release Me (Decca F 12541, 1967) £4 This heartbreaking song had been a country and an R&B success, but Engelbert was the first to realise its full, straight-down-the-line pop potential. The Last Waltz (Decca F 12655, 1967) £5 Formal dances ended romantically with the last waltz, so it was fitting to write a song about it. It has been so successful that the last waltz now is usually The Last Waltz. Les Bicyclettes De Belsize (Parrot 45-40032, US, 1968) £3 This song doesn't make sense without the film – and hardly anybody has seen the film. It sounds like a Continental hit but was written by a man from Wigan, Barry Mason. A Man Without Love (Decca F 12770, 1968) £5 Wonderful English treatment of an Italian success. Best to…

THE RASCALS It's just shy of 60 years since a particular group of kids in New York State came together with a generational dream of emulating The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. These kids brought with them a mixed heritage of classical, jazz, doo-wop and rock'n'roll, and fused these elements into a singular sound which would come to define the term “blue-eyed soul”. The Young Rascals comprised drummer Dino Danelli, percussionist Eddie Brigati, keyboardist Felix Cavaliere and guitarist Gene Cornish, with Cavaliere, Cornish and Brigati supplying extraordinary vocals. Now in his early eighties, Felix Cavaliere is as eloquent and lively as ever. Speaking from his home in Nashville, Tennessee, he talks with fondness and appreciation of his life in the business. “My mom enrolled me in music school at a…

When Genesis fan Richard Haines photographed them from the Brighton Dome stalls during the Selling England By The Pound tour, manager Tony Smith was sufficiently impressed to invite him to Headley Grange in July 1974 for a more professional shoot. “I was there three hours and took 12 pictures in black and white and 12 in colour,” Haines tells RC. “I only saw the kitchen and garden, but Headley Grange wasn't a picture of health. “Peter had two totally separate personalities,” he says of the band he met. “Onstage, the way- he acted and behaved was really special. Off it, he's a nice, quiet and unassuming bloke. They all seemed very relaxed and kind. I didn't sense any atmosphere until I looked at the pictures later, when I realised Phil…

Reissues, remasters and compilations Bob Dylan & The Band The 1974 Live Recordings Columbia/Legacy 19658890932 (27CD) When the first of the Bootleg Series collections arrived in 1991, it ran to three compact discs and its Volumes 1-3 subtitle hinted at the tantalising prospect of more to come. Its success also paved the way for other artists with hitherto unheard tapes gathering dust somewhere to turn a tidy coin with their own back pages. Thirty-three years on, however, no one has mined the archives with the regularity or on the scale of Dylan, and prior to The 1974 Live Recordings, the Bootleg Series makes up 17 distinct volumes – and that's only part of the story. Factor in additional sundry releases like this one, not marketed under the umbrella of the…

Paul Williams Just An Old-Fashioned Love Song East Central One PWLP 101 (CD, LP) Life Goes On East Central One PW 102 (CD) Here Comes Inspiration East Central One PW 103 (CD) A Little Bit Of Love East Central One PW 104 (CD) Phantom Of The Paradise East Central One PW 105 (CD, LP) The Best Of Paul Williams East Central One PW 106 (CD, LP) Ordinary Fool East Central One PW 107 (CD) If 70s soft rock needs a patron saint, a paradigm of piano balladry, it has to be Paul Williams. Having written or co-written (usually with fellow soft-pop supremos Roger Nichols or Kenneth Ascher) touchstones including We've Only Just Begun, Someday Man, Rainy Days And Mondays, I Won't Last A Day Without You and Rainbow Connection, his…

Antique Songs For Children's Carousel (From Kerouac To Mozart To Bartok To Brel – The Eclectic Soundworld Of Scott Walker) Cherry Red El ACME 3 CD 372 (3CD) The artists who helped shape the pioneering singer's world Even during The Walker Brothers’ glory days, Scott was completely smitten with Jacques Brel's intimate chansons (Le Mort and If You Go Away included here, naturally), but soon forsook his status as teenage heartthrob to explore more otherworldly sounds, gorging on Stockhausen, free jazz and Gregorian chants, resulting in a body of work without parallel in popular music. This highly ambitious attempt to recreate Scott's personal soundworld is lovingly curated, but even the most committed diehard might struggle through hours’ worth of Sibelius, Haydyn, Mahler and Shostakovich. Still, it's fun to join the…

Lee Scratch Perry & Youth Spaceship To Mars Creation Youth CYCDZLP 003 (CD, 2LP) It's rarely questioned that the 70s were reggae's golden age – the decade where it came into its own as a global musical force. At the forefront was Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, staggeringly prolific madcap maverick who laid original templates for dub science and produced anthems such as Junior Murvin's Police and Thieves, still riding his inimitable spaceways like a spangled shaman and torching reggae's goalposts when he passed away in 2021 at 85 years old. Spaceship To Mars started life as a collaboration and finally emerges as a towering tribute from polymath producer and Killing Joke bassist Youth, who enlisted vocalists including Hollie Cook, Blue Pearl, Carroll Thompson, Boy George and Don Letts to pitch into…

Sell Vinyl/CDs direct to RC readers, call us on 0208 752 8172 or Email listings@recordcollectormag.com NEXT ISSUE: NOVEMBER 2024 (on sale 3 OCTOBER) Deadline for submitting adverts (Listings & Classified): Monday 9 SEPTEMBER Please email your advert (word doc/excel file/plain text) to: listings@recordcollectormag.com PLEASE NOTE: NEW POSTAL ADDRESS: Record Collector Listings, Diamond Publishing Limited, 4th Floor, Harmsworth House, 13-15 Bouverie Street, London EC4Y 8DP Following issue: DECEMBER 2024 (on sale 31 OCTOBER) Deadline: Monday 7 OCTOBER…

This month: JASON ‘CONE’ MCCASLIN OF SUM 41 How have you prepared for the tour? It's our last world tour, so we've been preparing mentally and emotionally, as well as brushing up on older songs that we might want to throw in with the newest ones. Do you have any pre-/ post-show routines? I warm up on my bass, change clothes, have a shot of tequila with Tom [Thacker], then hit the stage. Will you be playing any songs that you rarely perform? We've been playing a few that we've not in a long time, like Some Say and Screaming Bloody Murder. Will the set-list change at all? A little bit. Some songs do better in certain countries than others, so we cater our sets to the country that we're…

This month: Indochine When Nicola Sirkis wanders around South Kensington where he lives, he can do so almost incognito. Locals and foreigners alike are unlikely to recognise the Indochine frontman – save for the quarter of a million French people who call South Ken home. Indeed, a good proportion of them will know exactly who he is. Indochine, you see, are giants of the new wave back home in France, though they've been largely ignored on these shores for the 40-plus years of their existence. No group across La Manche epitomises punky Gallic synth-infused pop like Indochine, and it's little wonder given that they more or less invented that sound. Despite our persistent indifference, the French survivors have not given up on us just yet. A new double record, Babel…

CODA John Barry Goldfinger (Instrumental version of theme song on Goldfinger OST) (United Artists SULP 1076, LP, UK, 1964) £30 (stereo) The twangy, spicy guitar on this is very me. Ever since I first heard the James Bond theme, I've loved everything that John Barry's done. I think it was Vic Flick playing on this – what a great sound. As a kid, I didn't buy rock records; I bought soundtracks like this and Ennio Morricone compilations. My dad took me to see this when I was about six and I asked him to buy me the soundtrack, and I eventually got all the Bond soundtracks. Roxy Music Pyjamarama (Island WIP 6159, 7”, UK, 1973) £5 My favourite record of all time. I bought it when it first came out.…

Some bands lose an original member and the shock and impact of their death or departure are absorbed, effecting little if any change. Other bands see a key player leave or die and it makes all the difference in the world: one immediately thinks of Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd and Joy Division, who, in the latter two cases replaced the lost member (sounds painful) by promoting from within the ranks. Incredibly, in these three instances, the bands thrived artistically and became, if anything, even more commercially successful. And so it was with Genesis. You would imagine a frontman and singer as characterful as Peter Gabriel would be irreplaceable. Somehow, the void left by his departure was filled with the markedly less charismatic Phil Collins – and yet with him on…

HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE News & views from the collecting world The fifth annual White Label Auction is held on 5 November, and it includes discs from, among others, The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, Spice Girls, Bombay Bicycle Club and Little Simz. In addition, there are signed test platters from The Cure, OMD, The 1975, Def Leppard, Genesis, The Who, Iggy Pop, Madness, Robbie Williams, The Orb, Cat Stevens and Sex Pistols. Collaborative test-pressings include those from Calvin Harris with Dua Lipa and Sam Smith, alongside Katy Perry and Pharrell Williams. The June 2023 auction of 230-plus lots made £54,310, with a set of The Cure test-pressings signed by Robert Smith raking in £12,300. This year's effort is supported by the enterprise's co-founders (alongside the BPI), Universal Music UK,…

How come you're back now? I used to worry that I'd run out of ideas, but when David Bowie died, I realised that running out of time is the real problem. I think that Covid lockdowns gave a sense of urgency to life, and we realised that we didn't have enough time to not be friends – 35 years was probably enough! Tell us about your new studio foray. We imploded before making a second album and there was an enduring feeling of “what if?” We've finally gone and made it, and I cannot express how happy and relieved we are. We're confident that we've made a really great record. Were there any amusing episodes during its creation? When we played for the first time after so long apart, it…

Alberta Cross The Thief And The Heartbreaker, Dark Matter, 8 November: Jack Savoretti, Katie Melua. Anna Butterss Mighty Vertebrate LP, cassette, International Anthem, 4 October: Jeff Parker (Tortoise). Peter Bernstein Better Angels CD, 180g LP, Smoke Sessions, 27 September: Brad Mehldau, Vicente Archer (Norah Jones), Al Foster (Miles Davis). The Blessed Madonna Godspeed 2LP, FFRR, 11 October: Kylie Minogue. Alice In Chains’ Jerry Cantrell I Want Blood CD; 2LP, red 2LP, with spoken-word versions, Double J, 18 October: Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses), Rob Trujillo (Metallica), Mike Bordin (Faith No More), Greg Puciato (ex-Dillinger Escape Plan). Kyle Daniel Kentucky Gold gold LP, Snakefarm, 13 September: The Cadillac Three. The Dare What's Wrong With New York?, Republic, 6 September: Billie Eilish, Charli XCX. The Funeral Party Greetings From Suffocate City CD,…

The first part of The Alarm's Mike Peters’ 1,000-copy memoir is due in a clamshell box in November. There's also a 500-copy Super Deluxe signed/numbered/boxed edition that contains a journal, reproduction Red Scrapbook, plus a red LP and CD featuring new songs. The first of his three published volumes is under the spotlight at The Alarm Literary Week With Mike Peters, which is held on 22-28 September in his scenic, historic stomping ground of Dyserth, Flintshire, with gigs (22-26) at The Red, on Waterfall Road (near to said cascade, and the Knights Templar church), along with The Story Of My Life DJ Set (27), while the finale is at Dyserth Community Hall (28). Mike Peters’ Love 1959-91 Vol I book/CD/LP and Super Deluxe Edition are out via A Way With…

Q&A Label boss: Louis Posen Interview: Charles Donovan Where are you based, what do you do, and why? The Hopeless HQ is in the San Fernando valley in Los Angeles although we have team members all over the world. I am the founder/president. I learn, laugh, and love. It all started on a dare! What is the origin of the name? Hopeless is the title of the first track of our first release: Guttermouth's 11oz 7” record. When did you launch the label and how have things changed since? The first release came out in December 1993. I have no record of the exact date, but I know it was a Friday since I came from a film background and all movies came out on Fridays. It wasn't until later…

John Mayall's influence on the late 60s and early 70s blues boom cannot be underestimated. Between 1965 and 1974 (the peak of his popularity), more than 20 albums were issued by Decca and Polydor. He championed (and played with) US blues artists including John Lee Hooker, JB Lenoir, Jack Dupree, Otis Rush and Freddie King. Born on 29 November 1933 in Macclesfield he grew up in Cheadle Hulme listening to blues 78s by Leadbelly, Big Bill Broonzy and pianists Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis and Pete Johnson from his father's record collection. He did national service in Korea, studied at Manchester Art College, became a graphic designer and, having taught himself piano, electric guitar and harmonica, played locally in The Powerhouse Four and, later, The Blues Syndicate. He was also…

Fifty years on from Mott The Hoople's final studio album, Ian Hunter is still rocking and rolling as a solo artist, even as he enjoys his 86th rotation of the earth around the sun (his birthday was in June so you've just missed the chance to send him a card). His latest album, Defiance Part 2: Fiction, continues a project begun during lockdown when stars from both sides of the Atlantic were queueing up to record with him. How did this, and 2023's Defiance Part 1, take shape? I wrote about 20 songs, played them in my basement. It was Covid, everybody was home, nobody doing much, and Andy York, my producer and partner in this, said, “People will do something if you want them.” I'd been out with the…

By 1974, Gene Clark had retreated to his coastal home in Mendocino. Looking out over the Pacific Ocean, the hypnotic lap of the waves deepened his trancelike state, the mood broken only intermittently by the occasional sighting of a whale or by the strains of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground blasting from the record player. Innervisions was one of his ‘go-to’ records of the day, alongside The Rolling Stones’ Goats Head Soup: dense, voluptuous recordings, throbbing with soulful energy. Within, the singer was searching for answers. To existence and its purpose. And to another more pressing issue: all the records he had made since first leaving The Byrds were commercial failures. Why? Gene Clark first left The Byrds in February 1966, rejoining them very briefly for some live shows in October…

The Young Rascals (Atlantic, 1966) £30 As assured a debut as you could ask for, this album fizzes with exuberance and charm. The up-tempo numbers, including chart topping single, Good Lovin’, kick hard, rivalling early Who for swagger. On slower cuts, the formidable force of those wonderful vocals come to the fore. Highlights include a muscular, soul-drenched version of Mustang Sally. Once Upon A Dream (Atlantic, 1968) £18 A watershed for the band, who swerved away from a singles-orientated act towards more complex and sophisticated material. Featuring all-original numbers, this is an album which drifts by on appropriately dreamy, powerful currents, propelled by inventive arrangements wrapped around a solid songwriting base. Freedom Suite (Atlantic, 1969) £12 Even more adventurous than its immediate predecessor, Freedom Suite goes one step further than…

When he speaks to RC, Steve Hackett is preparing for his latest solo tour. Though he left Genesis in 1977, the guitarist has become the main live guardian of their legacy, and the gigs will, in part, celebrate The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway‘s 50th anniversary. Here he reflects on some highlights he's looking forward to playing. “There's something as mighty as Fly On A Windshield,” he says, “which originally was called Pharaohs because we felt that it was kind of Egyptian, like armies on the march, with the inspiration of the Ben-Hur rammingspeed boat sequence – that sort of drumming, very basic, just really a stomp with the bass pedal. But then because you've got that amount of space and very little detail from drums and bass, it allows…

Although musical purists decried fusion as jazz's “F” word, the often-maligned genre brought a new, larger, and much younger audience that put jazz back in the spotlight in the 1970s. One of fusion's prime architects was Miles Davis, whose groundbreaking In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew albums lit the touchpaper to a jazz-rock revolution. Among Miles’ disciples was pianist Chick Corea, who launched the successful Latin-fusion band Return To Forever in 1972. In 1986, the keyboard maven launched a new group, Chick Corea Elektric Band, which brought a decidedly tech-savvy 80s aesthetic to the fusion argot. Two years after the band dissolved in 1991, he put together a new combo, CHICK COREA ELEKTRIC BAND II. They only made one album together, 1993's Paint The World (★★★★ Candid), which is…

Dorothy Ashby Afro Harping UMR/Verve (CD, 2LP) It was a struggle being a female jazz instrumentalist in the 50s when women's involvement seemed confined to the voice: Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald et al. Despite radical social change in the 60s, that pattern continued as hard bop mutated into free jazz and the New Thing. Even the Arkestra could only make room for one woman (June Tyson) and she sang, too. But for Dorothy Ashby there was an even greater problem. In opting to play harp at the expense of the piano, she encountered a further – and arguably bigger – obstacle. Ashby could sing – check out her perfect pitch on 1970's magnificent The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby – but her inner conviction never faltered that she didn't…

Mercury Rev Born Horses Bella Union BELLA 1582 V (CD, LP) For a period of a few weeks several years back, Jonathan Donahue would wake up early and, weather permitting, take to the balcony of his house in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, Mercury Rev's spiritual base. Alone in the very early morning still, amid the natural landscape of the Hudson River, he'd press play on his cassette recorder and begin narrating his thoughts: stream of consciousness, time-hopping sketches of a whirling mind reflecting on love and loss, family and friends, dreams and altered reality, a mix of hope and hurt and long-night-of-the-soul ruminations. He had no ideas on doing anything with these cassettes; he certainly didn't think he was writing songs. Yet those exact recordings, Donahue's voice…

No Easy Road Wishbone Ash Live In The 70s Snapper, £129.99 ISBN 9781399987127, 216 pages Splash the cash on a weighty tome for Ash? Hot on the heels of Snapper's 50th anniversary edition of Argus comes a slipcased and similarly priced coffee-table book catching twin-guitar legends Wishbone Ash in their first two classic incarnations. Images from the era's biggest rock photographers are augmented by a compact disc containing a 10-track Dutch radio broadcast from 1975 – worth hearing in its own right, although, of course, its exclusivity might not last forever. The line-up that survived longest in the 70s have signed a photographic print to accompany the 1,000 copies produced; Wishbone Ash are a collectable band, so this has investment potential. The on-the road stories, relatively tame for the time,…

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, World Music.…

This month: Francis Monkman As one of the founding members of Curved Air, the high-falutin’ Sky, and that supergroup that should have been (801), Francis Monkman achieved much. And yet, like the hookah-smoking caterpillar in Alice In Wonderland – whose face we never see – he remains virtually unknown Monkman first came to prominence as a member of prog pioneers Curved Air, an eclectic outfit, including Daryl Way (violin), Francis Monkman (keyboards/guitar), and Florian Pilkington-Miksa (percussion), with the addition of Rob Martin (bass) and sultry folk/rock singer Sonja Kristina Linwood, fresh from her role as Crissy in the counterculture musical Hair. It was Monkman, an admirer of the works of American composer, Terry Riley (he had participated in the first London performance of Riley's minimalist composition In C), who suggested…

This month: Genesis, Exeter University Great Hall, Wednesday 19 March 1980 Just a wee reminiscence for you. By 1980, Genesis were a stadium band but, for the Duke tour, they wonderfully decided to re-visit their youth and play small UK venues. But how to get a ticket when millions wanted them? My girlfriend (now wife) queued all night at Exeter Uni, where the band were due to play (astonishingly) the Students’ Union and missed out on tickets by five places. Her friend, Paul, was luckier! Meanwhile, I was at Portsmouth Poly and Genesis were due to play the Guildhall on 9 May. I dropped into the box office before the tickets went on sale to enquire in what order they dealt with applications. “Postal ones first,” I was told. So,…

Green Day mark the 20th anniversary of American Idiot this month with a 2LP and coloured 2LP, as well as two box sets. The Deluxe 4CD/2BD box includes a 48-page booklet, badges, stickers, patch, 13-track CD album, unissued 15-track Demos CD, 14-track B-Sides And Bonus Tracks CD, and 15-track Live Irving Plaza, New York City, September 21 2004 CD (nine unissued). The BDs include the eight-song BBC Live, and the Like A Hand Grenade and new 20 Years Of American Idiot documentaries. The Super Deluxe coloured 8LP2/BD box includes the 4CD, 36-page booklet, flag, tie and exclusive poster. Green Day American Idiot 20 2LP, red 2LP, Deluxe 4CD/2BD, Super Deluxe coloured 8LP/2BD are out via store.greenday.com, 25 October.…

A tireless, lifelong music enthusiast, Brad San Martin is the staff archivist at Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater, charged with preserving and documenting its illustrious past, vibrant present, and exciting future. As the Apollo's archivist, he spends his days cataloguing, preserving, and facilitating access to data and artifacts that tell the story of The Apollo and its outsized influence on global popular culture. He has also been involved in numerous recording projects as a musician, songwriter, producer, and liner note writer. He lives and works in Harlem, New York City. What do you collect, and why? I'm lucky: I get to collect in both my personal and professional lives. At home, I tend to focus on jazz, Latin music, avant-garde and minimalism, and the more experimental side of the soul and…

“The end of an empire,” Randy Newman once sang in his great late-period song A Few Words In Defence Of Our Country, “is messy at best.” And since bands and great singers have imperial phases, then Randy's adage applies to musicians as much as it does to ancient Rome or modern America. When a band splits up, it generally does so not with a triumphal final album and joyous farewell tour – in which all the warring members bury their differences and give their all – but with a whimper instead of a bang. There are a million examples of messy endings: the Sex Pistols imploding onstage in San Francisco, the Spiders From Mars being told they were getting the sack at the end of what turned out to be…

Chic I Want Your Love (1979) Donna Rhoden It's True (1981) Freeez Southern Freeez (1981) ABC Poison Arrow (1982) Art Of Noise Moments In Love (from Into Battle With The Art Of Noise) (1983) New Order True Faith/1963 (1987) Flaming Lips Race For The Prize (1999) Aaliyah Try Again (2000) The Radio Dept David (2009) Washed Out Belong (2011) Tyler, the Creator Yonkers (2011) 4batz & Drake Act II: Date @ 8 (2024) Paul Lester Enya Orinoco Flow (1988) R.E.M. Losing My Religion (1991) Nirvana Come As You Are (1992) The Cranberries Zombie (1994) Coolio Gangsta's Paradise (1995) UNKLE Be There feat. Ian Brown (1998) Ian Brown F.E.A.R. (2001) Armin Van Buuren The Sound Of Goodbye (Perpetuous Dreamer) (2001) Eminem Lose Yourself (2002) Evanescence Bring Me To Life (2003) Chvrches…

The beginning of the end of Genesis’ Gabriel years came in a vermininfested Hampshire death-trap, which Steve Hackett was fortunate to leave alive. “Headley Grange was literally falling apart and nearly killed me,” the guitarist shudders to RC, recalling the former 18th century poorhouse where the band wrote much of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. “As I was washing my hands one day, the floor underneath me gave way, and I just managed to step into the door in time. Just the sound of the rats climbing up through the air ducts in that so-called haunted building gave me sleepless nights, and I was in such a state. It was a time of great duress.” It would have been no surprise to find a rat, or black cat, rotting…

The Beatles Let It Be (1970) Peter Jackson's revisionism contends otherwise, but the Fabs’ personal and creative bonds eroded as McCartney tried to recreate the Cavern in Twickenham Studios’ chilly vastness. They rallied subsequently to ensure Abbey Road‘s better end, but with John gone, the original Threatles’ last act came on 3 January 1970, as they completed Let It Be with George's apposite I Me Mine. Pink Floyd The Final Cut (1983) Roger Waters squeezed Rick Wright out, Gilmour couldn't get it together and Nick Mason didn't play drums on some of this Waters solo record in all but name, as he railed at Thatcher, the Falklands War and his dad's WWII death. The final cut proved the deepest: the courts decided Gilmour and co were Pink, and they reunited…

Ezra Collective Dance, No One's Watching Partisan PTKF 3049-1 (CD/2CD, 2LP) Ezra Collective are breaking down doors. Not quietly, but with a fearless, ignore-us-if-you-dare pounding that seemingly won't be denied. Like all hungry young bands, they crave to be heard by as many people as possible, but because jazz is the sonic kernel around which their multicultural sound is built, reaching the mainstream and a bigger audience is decidedly harder. But that hasn't stopped them trying and over the last two years, their astonishing upward trajectory has continued apace. Their second album, 2022's Where I'm Meant To Be, reached No 24 in the UK chart and deservedly brought them the Mercury Prize, marking the first time a jazz act had triumphed in the prestigious award's 21-year history. In 2023, the…

Kneecap Curzon (cinemas) Straight outta Belfast… Pogoing into a gloriously messy mid-spot between reality/fiction, this semi-biopic of the Irish-speaking rap trio is a bracingly unruly pleasure. As band-members play themselves, writer/director Rich Peppiatt combines a kind of raggedly authentic spirit with lashings of anarchic style and rude wit. Even if Trainspotting‘s precedent hovers nearby, Kneecap has enough rough edges of its own to distinguish. Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh (stage name: Mo Chara) and Naoise Ó Cairealláin (Móglaí Bap) are introduced as pals, pro-republicans and part-time drug dealers who find a calling through music teacher JJ Ó Dochartaigh (DJ Próvaí). Impressed by Naoise's rhymes, JJ sets them to barrelling DIY beats. Thus are Kneecap born, ready to wreak ketamine-induced havoc in pub gigs. And draw the attention of the cops and…

Hay-on-Wye is deservedly renowned for bookshops and the annual literary festival but its many other advantages include Tom's Records. Packed with a fascinating range of music, including an impressive jazz section, it's a stylish gem in the centre of this dynamic town. Knowledgeable, music-loving owner Tom Sutherland speaks about his shop with Steve Burniston. Tell us about your shop, including its history and the kind of music you sell. I initially founded the shop in ‘98 and carried on until 2010, then took a hiatus, going to university and managing the bookshop in Selfridges amongst other things and then re-opened in 2022. Hay-onWye is known for its bookshops and literary festival, and I thought a well-curated and thoughtful record shop would work well, and so it has proved. There's a…

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