Innehållsförteckning för Issue 566 från Record Collector

I came to The Yardbirds obliquely, or tangentially. It wasn't through a classic album that I discovered them, but a Various Artists compilation called Alan Freeman's History Of Pop - 40 Famous Hits That Made Pop History, that we used to play on repeat in the car on long journeys on 8-track - you might say we were a 'Cartridge Family'. The song on the comp, sandwiched between Manfred Mann's Pretty Flamingo and Bobbie Gentry's Ode To Billie Joe, was Shapes Of Things, the penultimate one on an album that also included Kay Starr's Wheel Of Fortune and Tennessee Emie Ford's Sixteen Tons. Its penultimate positioning seemed apt: experimental, but eminently accessible to my 10-year-old brain, Shapes Of Things sounded like a signpost to a future where impossibly audacious things…

Richle Unterberger ranks Jeff Beck's work with The Yardblrds (p76) as his favourite rock guitar bar none. He Interviewed original drummer Jim McCarty and bassist Paul SamwellSmith, plus Graham Gouldman, author of their earty hits, for this issue's Yardbirds cover story. Michael Heatley bought Gorilla when in the sixth form, so the Bonzos (p46) have been a part of his life since his Into to the world of music. Interviewing all three surviving members was a fitting and, Indeed, humbling Outro. Herry Sword is a Cambridgebased writer. In 2021, he wrote Monollthic Undertow - a history of drone music - and is currently writing his second book. Ha is a regular contributor to The Quletus and The Guardlan. In this month's RC, he enters the warped world of rock's greatest…

Ex-Field Mice man squeaks You co-founded The Field Mice, so how come you're back now with a Paris-based trio, The Gentle Spring? Everything came together at the same time. Emilie [Guillaumot] and I had written a couple of songs and played them to Emmanuel Foricher, who runs the Too Good To Be True label in France. He agreed to put out a single. Then Skepwax heard it and offered to help us put out an album. So, we kept on writing, and Jérémie [Orsel] joined us to add guitar and, suddenly, we were ready to record. We wanted to make an album that we could play live. So, it's 10 songs that are as simple as possible, with acoustic guitars and percussion - less is more. We decided to record…

Our regular look at the more arcane corners of record collecting. Includes Vintage Vinyl and Label Of Love Hip hop has always been a dynamic musical form and our selection reflects its shape-shifting fluidity, starting with disco-rap before plotting a course through electro, drum machine and finally sample-based hip hop. It's no great surprise that some of these groundbreaking records now command high prices but it's a shame so many 80s hip hop heroes (Schoolly D, the late Paul C, the Audio Two) never achieved the wealth of the 90s stars; by then, of course, hip hop had captured the zeitgeist. Let's begin in 1981… UNIVERSAL TWO Dancing Heart (Golden Flamingo GF 3030, US, 1981) £120 This up-tempo party-rocker appeared on one of Peter Brown's many early-80s labels. Dancing Heart was…

Q&A Label boss: Freddie 'Steady' Kroc Interview: Nick Dalton Where are you based, what do you do and why? Austin, Texas. I'm a singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/record producer and label owner. I do what I do to make my living and quench my thirst for creative and spiritual fulfilment. Why the name? In the late 70s, I acquired the nickname “Freddie Steady”, some say because of my steady drumming, some say my character! When did you launch the label and how have things changed since? It was 2003, after I regained ownership of recordings I made under several guises. I added acts and now have two more labels. There's Freddie Steady Sound Recordings for one-off releases, and I bought Amazing Records, an Austin roots label from the mid-70s to the mid-90s. Their slogan was,…

F Scott Fitzgerald, the less-talented brother of Ella, once said something about American lives not having third acts. This I take to mean, not that everyone goes to the pub after the interval rather than pay theatre prices for their drinks, but that having revealed their initial promise and made a mark on the world, these Americans do not go on to fulfil their potential and either fade away or shoot themselves and stuff. This is clearly not true: lots of Americans continued, and still do continue, to have creative, exciting lives right until they fall off the perch, but that's less romantic, innit. And music fans do love a romantic ending, especially if it's a bit grim, the ghouls. What would some people think of Syd Barrett if he'd…

Singer-songwriter on her sixth sonic sojourn Tell us about your new set. I wrote many of the songs in a fever-dream, engulfed by huge love-feelings for someone I shouldn't. A hurricane love affair in my head. It's about endurance and restraint, and learning to discern fools' gold from the real. What film could it soundtrack? One about WB Yeats and Maud Gonne, or Abelard and Heloise. What was your favourite record shop when you started out? Revolution Records, Peascod Street, Windsor. What was your first record? Michael Jackson Thriller on LP and cassette. What's the last album that you bought? Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand Willson Williams LP at their gig. What record made you want to go pro? Joni Mitchell Blue. What records most influenced your style? Blue, Nick…

From west London, Alison Clarkson aka Betty Boo started out in hip hop trio She Rockers and toured with Public Enemy before hitting No 7 with The Beatmasters on Hey DJ/I Can't Dance (To That Music You're Playing) in 1989. She went solo the following year and immediately enjoyed success with Top 10 singles Doin' The Do and Where Are You Baby? and her debut album Boomania, which hit No 4. After 1992 follow-up GRRR! It's Betty Boo she took time out, returning with 2022's Boomerang, while this year sees the release of Rip Up The Rulebook, an empowering mix of slick R&B and rap. There was a 30-year gap between GRRR! It's Betty Boo, your second album, and its follow-up Boomerang, but only two years between that and Rip Up…

While it's unfair to boil the Bonzos down to their frontman, there's no doubt Vivian Stanshall played a major role in their rise. One of rock's most outrageous characters, he had a mile-wide self-destructive streak. It's no coincidence he fraternised with The Who's Keith Moon: the pair, who both died before their time, have memorial plaques facing each other in London's Golders Green Crematorium. Rodney Slater admits he “coped with his excesses for something like 33 years as a colleague and very dear personal friend. Which is not nice. It's alarming when someone deteriorates in front of your eyes. When we stopped going out on the road in 1970, we all had different ambitions – but I continued to remain engaged with him socially. From the 80s I started working…

The Dark End Of The Street (Goldwax 317) £15 The greatest soul record of all time? The singer was miffed when it only made No 77 in the Billboard Hot 100. It did feature on the film soundtrack of The Commitments (1991), which made No 4 on the UK album charts in 1991. Pouring Water On A Drowning Man (Goldwax 311) £12 Carr's ability to switch between moods in the course of a song was uncanny, here veering from resignation and anger to despair and self-pity. The flipside was Forgetting You, with its extraordinary howling climax, making this his most powerful single. Life Turned Her That Way (Goldwax 335) £10 The cross-fertilisation between country and soul was rarely more apparent than on Carr's records. This beauty was written by Harlan…

Wheelchair Epidemic (Touch & Go TG8 7, 7”, 1992) £10 A raucous Jesus Lizard cover of Wheelchair Epidemic, originally recorded by Austin punk rock mainstays Dicks. Gives a fine, rollicking idea of the surreal Texan roots of the band. Goat (Touch & Go T&GLP#68, LP, 1991) £60 For many the definitive Jesus Lizard LP. Contains live classics like Mouthbreather and Nub and captures the band at their best – nails-hard, rhythmically tight, thematically untethered. Hard to track down and therefore a pricy record these days. Gladiator (Touch & Go TG 110, 7”, 1992) £15 Belting, bass-driven 7” from 1992 – a stuttering, stop-start thrasher. Down (Touch & Go TG 131, LP, 1994) £60 It may have had a difficult gestation and not count among the band's personal favourites, but Down…

In 1963 MAL WALDRON, composer of the jazz standard Soul Eyes, got lucky when he survived a heroin overdose. The ordeal, however, wiped his memory of music, resulting in him having to relearn the piano. Just two years earlier, Waldron recorded one of his greatest albums, The Quest ( Craft Recordings), now reissued on audiophile vinyl as part of the revamped Original Jazz Classics series. It's a barnstorming session with Waldron leading a stellar sextet of pathfinding musicians including reed magus Eric Dolphy, tenor saxman Booker Ervin, and Ron Carter, who plays cello instead of his usual double bass. The album blazes out of the blocks with the high-octane Status Seeking, a slice of kinetic advanced hard bop but also includes a beautiful ballad, Duquility, where Carter contributes mournful bowed notes.…

Talking Heads: 77 (Sire 9103 328, LP, printed inner, UK, 1977) £25 Before changing its UK distribution to Warner, Sire was distributed by Phonogram. First pressings of 77 listed the producers (Tony Bongiovi, Lance Quinn and Talking Heads) on the label, while further pressings list only Tony Bongiovi and, erroneously, T. Erdelyi (Tommy Ramone) who'd coproduced Love → Building On Fire. Talking Heads: 77 (Philips RJ-7321, LP, obi-strip, blue Philips label, Japan 1977) £100 In late 1977, in the wake of Phonogram's questionable New Wave compilation, individual albums by the artists included (The Boomtown Rats, Ramones, Dead Boys) were packaged as a series in Japan. 77 comes with all the scrupulous attention to detail of a Japanese pressing. A white-labelled promo is worth twice as much. Love Goes To Building On Fire/New…

Cherry Red CRCD 3 BOX 178 (3CD) Punky reggae party mash-up Ignited by the Wailers, reggae's crossover to white audiences spawned a parallel movement with punk, started by Roxy DJ Don Letts, crystallised on record by The Clash, named the “Punky Reggae Party” in a Marley song. Steel Pulse mesmerising pogo-happy punks at the Vortex showed its impact and Ku Klux Klan blazes again on this 54-track set mixing the known (Burning Spear, Dillinger, PiL, Slits, Stiff Little Fingers, Aswad, UB40, Dennis Brown, etc), with assorted indie-punkers, Jamaican artists (Sir Horatio kills) and curios (XTC). Surprises; no Alimantado or Augustus Pablo but Joe Jackson and Graham Parker, andf post-punk titans Doll By Doll with a heavenly ballad. Oh, and apparently Sandy Pearlman produced White Man… Kris Needs…

Franz Ferdinand The Human Fear Domino WIGLP 495 (CD, LP) Once a precocious angular pop outfit from Glasgow with a cheeky name purloined from a historical figure, Franz Ferdinand have now been around for more than two decades; lead singer Alex Kapranos even surpassed the lifespan of their assassinated namesake a couple of years ago. Circumstances in the world have changed since the carefree early 00s when they were imploring us to take them out, and evidently not for the better. Even that impudent name, swiped from the Archduke, now takes on its own eerie resonance as we blunder ever closer to World War III. Serious times call for serious records, which Franz Ferdinand have delivered with their sixth studio album. Well, sort of. Fear in all its forms is…

Stuart Braithwaite on No 1s, hard times and “ridiculous” guitars… Did having a No 1 record last time affect you? It was a really nice thing to happen. It probably gave us a bit of confidence, as without having any live music [during lockdown] we felt a wee bit lost. When we put the record out and people warmed to it, it was a special time. But I'd forgotten about it because I was so wrapped up in making this one. Recently people have been asking, “Oh, did you feel loads of pressure?”, but I genuinely put it to the back of my mind. Was it tough to make? It felt good to have something to do, much in the same way as the last one was almost like an…

Clutter Jesus /Holy Brother PNKSLM /PNKSLM118 (7”) This is the first release from a fresh-faced Stockholm quartet who promise their own take on “dirty shoegaze-y indie”. Fittingly, the first song sounds like Kenickie crawling out of a ditch after an accident with their besequinned tour van. It's a straightforward verse-chorus affair, performed on what appears to be inexpensive equipment, with a rough'n'ready feel and debutante charm. Why not just thrash around on the chords in the place where a guitar solo might usually go? Parts of the next punky piece are reminiscent of She Walks On Me by Hole. Compared to that old grunge troupe, Clutter's rhythm section is doing funkier things, mind. The sparser and calmer breakdown, melodically at least, recalls Isolation by Joy Division. What Clutter lack in…

Atomic Rooster January (10) Liverpool Swinging Arm (11) Hull Wrecking Ball (12) Barnoldswick Music and Arts Centre March (27) Kinross Backstage At The Green (29) Wakefield Venue 23 Du Blonde January (22) Edinburgh Sneaky Pete's (23) Glasgow Broadcast (24) Newcastle Cluny (26) Manchester YES Basement (28) Leeds Brudenell (29) Sheffield Yellow Arch (31) Nottingham Bodega February (1) Birmingham Flapper (2) Bristol Thekla (4) Brighton DUST (6) London Moth Club Magnum January (21) London Islington Assembly Hall (22) Manchester Academy (24) Glasgow Garage (25) Wolverhampton KK's Steel Mill Now Booking Bryan Adams May (8) Newcastle Utilita Arena (9) Manchester AO Arena (10) Leeds First Direct Arena (11) Aberdeen P&J Live (13) Glasgow OVO Hydro (15) London Greenwich O2 (16) Liverpool M&S Bank Arena (17) Nottingham Motorpoint Arena (18) Birmingham BP Pulse…

This month: Toro Y Moi Toro y Moi has been around for longer than The Beatles were: US polymath Chaz Bear (fka Chaz Bundick) has been making music under that alias since 2009, when his synth-pop track, Blessa, established him as one of the pioneers of that internet genre, chillwave, along with the likes of Washed Out, Neon Indian and Memory Tapes. Fifteen years on, Hole Erth is the eighth album from the South Carolina singer, songwriter and producer. Then there are his mixtapes, EPs, work under his house music project alias Les Sins and other projects; for instance, a recent appearance on Talking Heads tribute compilation, Everyone's Getting Involved. Prolific doesn't even begin to describe it. Bear speaks to RC in late 2024 from a cafe in London's Gillett…

The Quintet Jazz At Massey Hall (Debut Records DEB-124, LP, US, 1956) £60 Still regarded as the greatest line-up in jazz history, this remarkable recording featured heavyweights Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet, Charlie Parker (billed as “Charlie Chan” for contractual reasons) on sax, Bud Powell on piano, Charles Mingus on bass and Max Roach on drums. This was the only time these five recorded together and the results are sublime – swinging, cool and explosive. Incredibly, due to a simultaneous boxing showdown between Rock Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott, the audience for this concert was so small that the organisers were unable to pay the musicians. John Coltrane The Olatunji Concert (Impulse! 314 589 120-2, CD, US, 2001) £20 This album is especially poignant as being the last live recording made…

SEND YOUR PRAISE, MISSIVES AND CALLS FOR THE DEIFICATION OF IAN SHIRLEY 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 LETTER OF THE ISSUE OF THE YEAR RC has arrived - it must have been the sign I put in the front garden (see left)! Warmest Winter Wishes to one and all I hope everyone at RC Towers had a great Christmas. Inspite of a week's postponement, the arrival of RC 565 promised a whopping 164-pags-turning endof-the-year event. You had mega-bites with all the trimmings, lots to re-discover and to admire, all wrapped up in your consistently cracking calender. I have to particularly pass on my delight in Terry Staunton's…

Acoustic+ Due: January (31) Barb Jungr Hallelujah On Desolation Row, Absolute February (7) Daryle Singletary/All Because Of You/Ain't It The Truth 2CD, Morello, Doug Sahm & The Sir Douglas Quintet The Complete Mercury Recordings 5CD, Floating World. Biz While the future of K-pop seemed threatened by short-lived martial law in December, sales of new CDs in South Korea in 2023 more than doubled yearon-year to 100 million-plus units. ■ On 29 November, JG Windows musical instruments and sheet/recorded music shop in Central Arcade, Newcastle, closed its door. General Manager, Alex Cole, lamented that “the retail environment, and particularly the music sector, has changed so much over recent years, despite our best efforts to transform and adapt, we've been unable to compete against falling margins, rising costs and the general shift within the…

Recent limited-run vinyl releases to look out for This dream-pop duo from Hamburg have put out several brilliant singles in the build-up to their self-titled LP in February and their upcoming UK tour in May. Characterised by heart-swelling euphoria and introspective melancholy in equal measure, it's a stunning record. As well as a regular black vinyl edition, there's a transparent red version available to order, limited to just 600 copies. French songwriter François Marry has always been an intriguing musical innovator, taking inspirations from far and wide. On Âge Fleuve, his first collection since signing with InFiné, he draws on everything from folk to jazz to lush electronic soundscapes. There's even a beautiful duet with Rozi Plain for the album's closing track. You can get hold of a limited edition…

Simon Taffe is the co-founder and head programmer for End Of The Road Festival which he founded in 2006. The 2024 End Of The Road was its 18th edition. Taking place at Larmer Tree Gardens on the border of Dorset and Wiltshire, End Of The Road has set the musical agenda each year with their lineups, pulling together a stunningly varied and wonderfully exciting cast of artists. From loud guitars and walls of distortion to contemplative drones, from winsome folk and playful electronica to boundary-pushing noise – the End Of The Road lineup is stacked with the best artists to suit lovers of the alternative and arcane. Headliners in 2024 were Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Idles, Fever Ray and Slowdive. End Of The Road also boasts a thrilling comedy and literature…

SETH LAKEMAN Folk fiddler on his latest studio strut Tell us about your new set. It's West Country-themed, the moor and the sea, recorded over four days with the original band, plus Archie Churchill Moss. If you could revisit any of your albums, what'd you change? I'd re-record the solo Tales From The Barrel House with other musicians. Is there anything still unissued? Plenty of early demos, a trio brothers album, Three Piece Sweet, and a family album, The Fredicott Frantic Five. Have you done anything that fans may not know about? Lots, from TV's Midsummer Murders to Pete Tong remixes, a collaboration with Tim Rice, and singing with Public Service Broadcasting. With whom would you like to make a split 7”? A producer with a trip hop style a…

The Style Council brass man on his latest effort What movie could your new set soundtrack? Tinker, Sailor, Soldier, Spy, capturing a mood of solitary reflection, dark, foggy, snowy skies, and a search for Truth. Who'd you like to produce? Yussef Dayes, to get his teeth into some ambient-leaning sounds. Where were you when you first heard one of your songs on vinyl? Rye & The Quarter Boys' 7”, Private Number, driving to a gig in spring 1982. It came on the radio and I almost crashed as I pulled over to listen to it. What a feeling! What's the last album that you bought? Espen Eriksen With Andy Sheppard Perfectly Unhappy. What record made you want to go pro? Chicago II, a brass-led rock album with the most unusual…

With just one hit single to their name and relatively unimpressive record sales, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band don't loom large in any history of the 60s. Yet their influence and the affection in which they're held have spanned the decades, largely due to their unique mix of music and humour. A 2006 reunion saw several cutting-edge comedians vie to be part of their show, trying to fill the shoes of late frontman Viv Stanshall. And Still Barking, a career-spanning box from Snapper Music, issued in December 2024, has brought their name into the spotlight once again. The most prominent members of the Bonzos were the aforementioned Stanshall, a complex character whose excesses were legendary, and keyboard-player/chief songwriter, Neil Innes. The other core characters were Sam Spoons (real name Martin Ash),…

Sean O'Hagan has a lot of history to cover: more than four decades in music - 11 albums with his own High Llamas, five as one half of the mighty Microdisney, one and a bit as a full member of Stereolab and many more as one of their trusted session players. But last year's High Llamas album, Hey Panda, sounds like the work of a brand-new artist. A quirky, exploratory electronic pop record, it's rich in hip hop beats and vocoder vocals. “It's a dangerous thing for a guy who's been making records for all this time to do; I leave myself open to all sorts of misinterpretations,” says O'Hagan, 64, via Zoom of Hey Panda. “It's the record I've wanted to make for quite a few years but didn't…

It is perhaps fair to say that without Lou Reed or its satellite towns, the music of Glasgow would look – and sound – very different indeed. Take away Bellshill and say farewell to Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandits, Superstar, The Boy Hairdressers and The Soup Dragons; lose the Velvets and East Kilbride, no more Jesus & Mary Chain, Aztec Camera, Meat Whiplash or Altered Images (MkII, at least). Scotland's most musical city, it also has a rich history of attracting inward cultural investment. As The Herald noted of folk legend, John Martyn: “Though he was born in Surrey and died in Ireland, Martyn was formed in Glasgow.” To that list of honorary Glaswegians, we can add the very much alive Lloyd Cole (Buxton) and Paul Quinn (Dundee) who both set…

Graham Gouldman and The Yardbirds “On the demo that I sent them, it was an acoustic guitar, some bongos, bass guitar, and vocals,” remembers Gouldman. “And that was it. But when I heard that version with the harpsichord, I thought it was amazing.” It was the first of three Gouldman-penned hits for The Yardbirds in 1965, all of them contrasting moody minor-key verses with unexpected shifts into major bridges, the tempos changing just as unpredictably as the melodies. “I don't want to do anything that's 'normal'. I want it to be a surprise. A good surprise” “I stole it from Paul McCartney,” admits Gouldman of his novel approach – specifically from The Beatles' Things We Said Today, which also alternates minor verses with a surprise gear-shift into uplifting major bridges.…

TOMMY HUNT's Human: The Tommy Hunt Story 1953-1962 ( Jasmine) surveys the great singer's work with The Five Echoes, The Flamingos and as a solo artist. The high points include his 1962 original reading of the Bacharach and David classic I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself, which was arranged by Bacharach and produced by Leiber and Stoller. Also the same year's R&B dancer The Work Song, his Bert Keyes arranged superb take on the Oscar Brown Jr and Nat Adderley song from the previous year. THE ALTONS are part of the Chicano soul (aka low rider soul) revival alongside such groups as Thee Sacred Souls, Los Yesterdays and Thee Sinseers with whom they share members. From Maywood, California, and named after rocksteady legend Alton Ellis, the four-piece have been…

The Creation Our Music Is Red – With Purple Flashes Edsel EDSL 0212 (4CD) But for musical differences and ballooning egos, The Creation might have been as successful as Small Faces or their idols, The Who. In the end, after fewer than two years in the spotlight, they disbanded, destined to remain one of the great cult acts of the 60s, the kind a certain budding Glaswegian Svengali might want to namecheck when christening his first band, or – even more explicitly – his soon-to-be phenomenally successful record label. It remains a treasured occupation among music obsessives to champion those bands who never quite delivered upon their early promise. Of those, the Hertfordshire-based quartet are among the elite, by virtue of their first two 45s, both of which grazed the…

Manic Street Preachers Critical Thinking Columbia 19802859322 (CD/2CD, LP) Over 30 years and 15 albums in and, thankfully, Manic Street Preachers have yet to call a truce with their furies. Critical Thinking lashes out against the ills of the modern world and asks vital questions about the purpose of art and their own relevance. If that sounds heavy, it's mostly set to some of the most uplifting music of their career, all shimmering, arpeggiated 80s indie, exultant choruses, and their take on the Big Music (Bunnymen, early Simple Minds, Waterboys) that set the teenage Manics' hearts racing. It begins, though, with the fantastically vitriolic red herring of its title track. Over a thumping beat, death disco guitars and throbbing bass, Nicky Wire spits out the disgusted mantra, “What happened to…

Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos on taking on his fears as well as finding his inner Greek The song Hooked, which the album title The Human Fear comes from, is wild. What's the origin of that one? For a long time, it was nothing more than just the riff played on an old 70s guitar synth which is basically like a Korg MS 20. It was just kicking about, this little thing called Dumb Korg, because it was really dumb and it was played on a Korg. The lyric came right at the end of the recording of the album, and I thought, “I've got the fear, I've got the human fear”… That's the theme of the record. It's something you only notice at the end. Tell us about your…

The Island Book of Records Vol 2: 1969-70 Neil Storey Manchester University Press, £85 ISBN 9781526182241, 432 pages Another passionately assembled salute to a much-loved label The opening instalment in this ongoing series chronicled the first 11 years of Chris Blackwell's soon to be iconic label, so the shorter time period covered in Volume 2 gives an indication of just how busy it became. As the 60s came to a close Island were establishing themselves as one of the most innovative outfits in the UK, with a roster of top-notch hard rock, prog and folk signings. Author Neil Storey, an integral part of the Island staff in the 70s and 80s, unearths extraordinarily detailed information of every record (album and 45) the mavericks put out, including several scheduled but unreleased…

Sell Vinyl/CDs direct to RC readers, call us on 0208 752 8172 or email listings@recordcollectormag.com. Rates: recordcollectormag.com/advertise NEXT ISSUE: FEBRUARY 2025 (on sale 23 JANUARY) Deadline for submitting adverts (Listings & Classified): Thursday 2 JANUARY Please email your advert (Word doc/Excel file/plain text) to: listings@recordcollectormag.com Record Collector Listings, Diamond Publishing Limited, 4th Floor, Harmsworth House, 13-15 Bouverie Street, London EC4Y 8DP Following issue: MARCH 2025 (on sale 20 FEBRUARY) Deadline: Monday 27 JANUARY davesanders2003@hotmail.com paulbailey827@btinternet.com 2blakes13@gmail.com…

This month: The Roilling Stones, London Hyde Park, 5 July 1969 I saw, or rather 'heard', the Stones in Hyde Park on 5 July '69, (I was so far back I could barely see the stage). At some point, I felt what I thought was an Insect land on my shoulder (I was wearing a sleeveless vast-type top). As I went to step at it, a female voice behind me said, “Oh, don't do that, let me.” I felt her finger brush my shoulder and her hand came around in front of me with a large red butterfly sitting on her finger. (Red Admiral? Swallowtall? It certainly wasn't one of the Cabbage Whites that were released by Mick Jaggerl) As it flew away, I started to roll my shoulders as…

Upcoming Omega Auctions sales include January (14) BBC (28) Annie Nightingale, February (11) Bill Allerton Collection (18) The Smiths (25) music memorabilia (26) rare vinyl, March (25) The Beatles. See omegaauctions.co.uk. ■ In November, The Beatles LP, No 00000006, sold via ha.com for $162,500, while a 17 December charity auction included guitars from Eddie Van Halen, KISS. ■ A 20-21 November auction via juliensauctions. com included a George Harrison guitar that sold for $1.27 million, and guitars from Prince, $381,000, Mary Kaye, $222,250, Eddie Van Halen, $104,000, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, $76,200, Eric Clapton, $65,000. A 10-12 December sale included 400plus Olivia Newton John items, notably her Grease jacket (estimate, $100,000), Xanadu picture disc LP ($10,000), handwritten lyrics, record awards, artworks, furniture, jewellery, piano. ■ On 3-6 December, the Guitar Auction,…

At RC Towers, we foresee new music breaking out from Skrillex, Queensrÿche, Outkast's Andre 3000, Down, Erykah Badu, Greg Howe, Nicki Minaj, Soutfly, Selena Gomez, Black Sabbath's Toni lommi, Saweetie, Roy Wood, The Wild Darkness (with ex-Wang Chung's Jack Hues), Burn Eternal (Killswitch Engage's Adam Dutkiewicz, ex-colleague Howard Jones), Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Dimmu Borgir, Solange, Nine Inch Nails, Azymuth (on Far Out), Mekons (Fire), The Anchoress (Last Night From Glasgow), Blue (Cooking Vinyl), Brandford Marsalis (Blue Note); and an Ozzy Osbourne autobiography. CELLULOID HEROES Projects due include Frank Marshall's Fleetwood Mac documentary film, via Apple; Carrie Underwood REFLECTION: The Las Vegas Residency concert film, on Hulu this month; Poppy Dixon's Becoming Madonna documentary on Sky Arts TV; Duke Johnson's The Actor film, via Neon in 2025, soundtracked by Arcade Fire's…

Bleeding Through Nine, Nuclear Blast, 14 February: Brian Fair (Shadows Fall). Bleed From Within Zenith, Nuclear Blast, 4 April: Brann Dailor (Mastodon), Josh Middleton (Sylosis). Confess Destination Addiction, EVIN, 30 January: George Kollias (Nile), Marzi Montazeri (ex-Pantera's Phil Anselmo). Dead Boys' latest [TBC]: Clem Burke (Blondie), Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols), James Williamson (The Stooges), Michael Munroe (Hanoi Rocks). DJ Koze Music Can Hear Us, Pampa, 4 April: Damian Albarn. Everything Is Recorded Temporary, XL, 28 February: Florence Welch, Noah Cyrus, Kamasi Washington, Alabaster DePlume, Sampha, Bill Callahan (Smog), Maddy Prior, Jan Wobble. Miya Folick Erotica Veronica, Nettwerk, 28 February: Waylon Rector (Charli XCX). Jim Ghed Wasteland, Basin Rock, 21 February: Cormac MacDiarmada (Lankum). Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood Exploding Trees And Screaming Airplanes, ATO, 21 February: colleagues Jay Gonzalez, Brad Morgan,…

The Beatles With The Beatles (Parlophone PLC 1206, Mono LP, UK, 1963) This was the first Beatles album I bought, when I was about 10 years old. I played it so much that it soon became scratched and then badly warped! I still have the album, but have since bought it twice on CD, and more recently, a better copy on vinyl. As a youngster, I used to love the track All My Loving and Till There Was You. Now I prefer Roll Over Beethoven and Money. It's not my favourite Beatles album (that would be Revolver), but this has special memories for me. Emerson Lake & Palmer Emerson Lake & Palmer (Island ILPS 9132, Stereo LP, UK, 1970) As a teenager, I started to listen to more progressive bands,…

SECRET SMILE I bought Norma Tanega's I Don't Think It Will Hurt If You Smile LP when it came out at the end of 1971. She was known for being a one-hit wonder with Walkin' My Cat Named Dog from 1966. That was an album as well, which I bought some time in 1966 or 1967. I've always rated her second LP as much better than the first, an incredible lost folk album. With so many records from this era being reissued I'm surprised that it hasn't been put out again by someone. I think it's pretty rare as well, so it would be good to get a valuation. Harry Fuller via email You certainly made a great purchase; I Don't Think It Will Hurt If You Smile is a…

Andy Paley, died 20 November, age 72. The American songwriter, musician and producer worked with Madonna and the Ramones and helped rejuvenate Brian Wilson's career. Raised in Albany, New York, a move to Boston in the early 70s saw him found the short-lived group Sidewinders. Their line up included Jerry Harrison, who would go on to play in The Modern Lovers and Talking Heads. He formed The Paley Brothers with younger brother Jonathan in 1976. The power pop act opened for Patti Smith and signed to Sire for whom they released a self-titled album in 1978. They also collaborated with the Ramones on the single, Come On Let's Go, a cover of the Ritchie Valens song. Following the group's split he joined Smith's touring band before taking a job as…

Soundtrack composer on his latest magnum opus What film could your new set soundtrack? It's all very romantic songs, so a Jaques Demy film. Is there anything still unissued? I recorded from 13 as Mr Duncan Cooked Brunch – 15 unissued albums in my attic. I also made ambient music with a friend at school – in his attic. What's the last album that you bought? Marker Starling Diamond Violence. Is anyone in your family a musician? My parents and my aunt are string players in orchestras and ensembles. My parents performed all the strings on the new album. Did you ever write songs 'under the influence'? Only if I'm writing or producing in the evening – wine. What's your most prized music item? The Blue Nile Hats LP. My…

T- his Is Goldwax (1964-1968), a new 28-track CD offering “a definitive and comprehensive” introduction to the small yet legendary Memphis soul label, kicks off with James Carr's The Dark End Of The Street. How could it have been anything else? The song, written by Chips Moman and Dan Penn, has been recorded by the likes of Prince Buster, Aretha Franklin and Elvis Costello, but it was Carr's signature number. Many consider Carr the greatest male soul vocalist, a big call to make on the back of a slender output. Peter Guralnick has written of how his singing could “could soar majestically, suggest peaks of emotion, yield layers of meaning and convey subtleties of understanding and interpretation that Percy Sledge, for example, could never aspire to vocally.” Carr's gruff baritone was…

It has only been with us since the mid-80s, but since the demise of Top Of The Pops and the Balkanisation of pop radio in the 2000s, the Now That's What I Call Music! compilation series has taken on the role of pop institution. Sales may have dropped from the series' regular million-selling days, but it remains a bulwark against an ever splintering medium, appearing three times a year in its Clinton's Cards-meets-Daz packaging. Initially set up by EMI and Virgin to shut down independent compilers K-Tel and Ronco, since 1983 it has become the ultimate pop compendium. So far, up to and including Now 119, the regular Nows have included the best part of 700 UK No 1 singles – fun fact: Now 88 had the most, with 15…

Laura Nyro Hear My Song – The Collection 1966-1995 Madfish SMABX 1284 (19CD) “Laura Nyro wasn't in the least ordinary,” wrote the late Ian McDonald in a 1974 NME piece. “In fact, I'm putting her up for candidate as the single most powerfully original woman performer in rock…totally wiping out most of both sexes on her songwriting.” Fifty years later, in his foreword to the 90-page book accompanying this awesome collection, lifelong fan Sir Elton John affirms the astonishing genius of Nyro's songs “as unique and utterly spellbinding to this day as when I first heard them in the 60s”. Hopefully, this CD successor to 2021's American Dreamer vinyl boxset, expanding her 10 studio albums with live sets, demos and rarities, will bring more awareness of this inexplicably overlooked talent…

Talking Heads Talking Heads: 77 Warner 0603497829736 (3CD/BD, 2LP) The image most have today of Talking Heads is the one of the funk-absorbing, hip-gyrating, big-suited dancing turn that seems to seep into every successive generation's taste like The Beatles, David Bowie or Aretha Franklin do. However, Talking Heads: 77 is a different beast, in its own world, sounding as fresh in 2024 as it did in 1977. It evokes the first time many saw and heard them, looking like straights fronted by a twitchy Anthony Perkins, making sinister rinky-tink beach party pop music. How Talking Heads could be mentioned in the same breath as fellow CBGB travellers like The Ramones and Blondie seemed bewildering, but it demonstrated just how wide the umbrella of punk and new wave could open. Talking…

From the mid-70s onwards, the 12-inch single became the favourite way of listening to reggae music. The format played louder than a normal single, and there was room to stretch a performance out to a satisfying length. Leading Jamaican producers were quick to adopt the new format, including Winston 'Niney The Observer' Holness who, from 1977 onwards, issued them in droves. Now Doctor Bird have gathered no fewer than 50 of these extended mixes on a neat four-disc boxed set titled The Observer Master Mix Collection Doctor Bird). The musical menu features Niney three ways, as the first disc shows. Sometimes he presents two singers with different songs on the same rhythm, like the first track Rock On, where Gregory Isaacs' Rock On is joined by Christine Joy White's Saturday…

Nicky Wire on empty phraseology, Morrissey's handwriting and more The title track is an amazing rant. How long has that been building up? It's the first time, bar Ballad Of The Bangkok Novotel [B-side of 2001 single Ocean Spray], that I've gone in the studio without a written lyric. I had ideas and phrases, but I just fucking went for it instinctively, and then refined it. It's us showing a bit of a sense of humour, as well as a lot of spite. It's what our DNA was based on. It's just about the way we're bombarded with endless empty phraseology which has infected all parts of life. What did Morrissey write to you on the postcard that inspired Dear Stephen? I've got postcards off Lawrence, the Mary Chain and The…

Mogwai The Bad Fire Rock Action ROCKACT 166 (CD, LP) In recent years, Mogwai have hit fresh peaks in their audience's affections. The No 1 chart placing achieved in 2021 for that year's As The Love Continues suggested as much. In documentary portrait If The Stars Had A Sound, fans shared how much the band's evocations of vast, tender feelings have meant to them. Exceeding most expectations for a cult-ish band of moody DIY noise scrappers, Mogwai's music had clearly made potent, precious connections with their listeners. On their 11th album, that music seems to have returned the favour to Mogwai, helping the band navigate their own tough times. With “The Burny Fire” considered as an alternative, the title is a Glaswegian reference to hell. The press release references losses…

Elton John: Never Too Late Disney+ The fears and familial harmony of Captain Fantastic The poster tagline for the 2019 biopic Rocketman claimed it was “based on a true fantasy,” allowing for exaggerated, fancifully cinematic interpretations of key events in Elton's life. Never Too Late, or rather one strand of it, covers the same ground of the singer's rise to superstardom, but with a chilling candour that might have landed the earlier film with an 18 certificate. In voiceover accompanying reams of archive footage, the singer details the physical abuse he suffered both as a child from his parents, and at the hands of former manager and lover John Reid. They're incidents that clearly contributed to ongoing insecurities, drug dependency and suicide attempts, but awkwardly woven into the documentary's parallel…

This month: Toby Lee Hard to believe but Toby Lee is a veteran of the blues scene and he's only 19. He announced himself to the world in an online performance brandishing his electric guitar when he was 10 – and, after a couple of releases of favourite covers, he's just had his first self-penned album out, House On Fire, taking in soul, Stax-like R&B, modern rock and acoustic touches and which is most definitely not simply a set of angsty loud blues solos. He may not have made a big noise in your neck of the woods yet but he's coming. Between early October and Christmas, his date sheet numbered 43 performances, 35 as a special guest on Jools Holland's winter tour with his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, along…

Sly & The Family Stone There's A Riot Goin' On (Epic KE 30986, LP, US, 1971) £60 I discovered this through a girlfriend's mother in the 80s. I don't know if it was the drugs Sly was on, but it has a looseness that I always look for in albums. He's a master at putting different styles representing the Bay Area all into one album. He captured the freedom of the late 60s and early 70s right after James Brown and before Parliament-Funkadelic. It's just the funkiest album ever and something I put on over and over again. Prince 1999 (Warner Bros 1-23720, 2LP, US, 1982) £30 At 14, I was in a reform school for bad kids run by a bunch of Bay Area radicals, including a lesbian nun,…