Innehållsförteckning för Issue 569 från Record Collector

SEND YOUR PRAISE, MISSIVES AND CALLS FOR THE DEIFICATION OF TERRY STAUNTON 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 BRUM/GLUM Re: Birmingham 45s [RC 568] Shame on you! How could you miss out the following: Larry King & The Mayfair Set Clifford T Ward The Hellions The Idle Race Traffic Carter Lewis & The Southerners The Ivy League The Rockin’ Berries The Fortunes Jasper Carrott The Applejacks Since The Applejacks were the first band from the area to chart, I find it strange they were completely left out. I can only conclude your magazine has been taken over by prog rock journalists. It was good to see The Move…

Richie Unterberger wrote about another side of Bob Dylan (p72) going electric in his story this issue. His two-volume history on how many artists went electric in 60s folk-rock is available as the ebook, Jingle Jangle Morning. As well as co-presenting the Parallel Universe podcast with DJ Marc Riley, where he rifles through vintage copies of NME, Sounds and Melody Maker, Rob Hughes has been contributing to RC for nearly two decades. This month he fulfills a long-held ambition by interviewing pop-soul legend, Dionne Warwick (p48). Jeremy Allen, who wrote the Paris 45s piece (p68), lived in the French capital for five years between 2013 and 2018, considerably beefing up his record collection from random brocantes in the process. He has nothing to promote other than a 2,000-day streak on…

How come you're back with a new album now? It seemed like the perfect time. We've been playing festivals and we gradually introduced new songs into the set. They were going down well, so we decided to write a few more for an album. We've still got something to say, with the rise of right-wing politics and racist attitudes on social media. Instead of banal, trite political slogans, let the music take over instead. We've always written infectious pop songs, and the new tracks are that. Were there any amusing episodes during its creation? Nile Rodgers did a masterclass in Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts where our guitarist Keith [Mullin] works. In the following weeks, Keith was coming into rehearsals playing like Nile, and he even wears Nile Rodgers-type headgear!…

In RC‘s May issue, we'll be taking our much-loved Best 45s Ever to Southend-on-Sea and the Thames Delta, 40 miles east of London. Sitting on the north shore of the estuary, it has a big musical reputation and, by a marvellous slice of seaside serendipity, it coincides with not one but two happenings based around the day-tripper haven this spring. Firstly, there's a map launched in May, the Scene By The Sea, which has been assembled by graphic designer Jules Balme; native author, Kursaal Flyer, producer and songwriter, Will Birch; and artist/former The Clash/ Blockheads right-hand man, Kosmo Vinyl, who loved visiting the area in his youth. The double-sided, fold-out guide pays tribute to its music heritage, the map revealing 58 key locations showing where Dr Feelgood were born and…

Atlantic Jazz Collective Seascape, Alma, 2 May: Joe LaBarbera (Bill Evans), Norma Winstone. Carl Baldassare Retroduction CD, LP, cassongle (USB-cassette), Carl Baldassare, 16 May: Nick D'Virgilio (Spock's Beard), Vinnie Cieslieski (Bruce Springsteen), Skip Cleavinger (Martina McBride). It's followed this year by three more albums on CD, LP and cassongle. See CarlBaldassaremusic.com. Babe Rainbow Slipper Imp And Shakaerator, Pdoom, 14 April: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's Stu Mackenzie. Bon Iver Sable Fable, Jagjaguwar, 11 April: Danielle Haim (HAIM). Chris Cheek Keepers Of The Eastern Door, Analog Tone Factory, 23 May: Bill Frisell Band. Changeling CD, splatter 2LP, Season Of Mist, 25 April: Bill Hudson (Trans Siberian Orchestra), Andy Laroque (King Diamond). Cloth Pink Silence, Rock Action, 25 April: Owen Pallett (Arcade Fire), Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai), Adrian Utley (Portishead). Cold Specks…

UPCOMING VINYL RELEASES MARCH (21) Cheap Trick The Complete Epic Albums 14CD box set/ clear 180g 14LP box, with Cheap Trick, five bonuses, In Color, five, Heaven Tonight, two, At Budokan – The Complete Concert, Dream Police, four, Found All The Parts EP, All Shook Up, One On One, Next Position Please (Authorized Version), Standing On The Edge, The Doctor, Lap Of Luxury, Busted, Magma KA 45rpm 180g LP, Saxon The Eagle Has Landed Pt II red 180g 2LP, Au Pairs Playing With A Different Sex, Tonic Head On Straight 180g LPs, The Icicle Works Permanent Damage yellow 180g LP, Music On Vinyl; LaMP One Of Us 180g LP, splatter 180g LP, Royal Potato Family; Roland Kirk Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith 180g LP, Verve; Dead Boys Live In San Francisco purple LP, Cleopatra; Shelagh McDonald Stargazer LP, Different Strokes;…

Andy Bell is the guitarist with indie legends Ride, who were first active in the 90s as part of the shoegaze scene and have released three albums since reforming in 2015. The most recent, Interplay, came out last year and they are still touring it around the world. Andy is also known for having played bass in Oasis from 1999 to 2009. Alongside his role in Ride, he records electronic music for the label, Bytes, under the name GLOK, and solo music under his own name for Sonic Cathedral. What do you collect, and why? I buy a few records a year on vinyl. I have kept my CDs (which I stopped buying a few years ago) and have a handful of cassettes. I started off with a mixture of…

Now includes Whole Love Of Lots CONTACTS DISCOGS: www.discogs.com EBAY: www.ebay.co.uk HERITAGE AUCTIONS: Tel 001 214 528 3500; www.ha.com OMEGA AUCTIONS: 01925 873040; www.omegaauctions.co.uk POPSIKE: www.popsike.com ROCKAWAY: www.rockaway.com; 001 323 664 3232 SAS: Tel 01635 580 595; www.specialauctionservices.com Send your Most Wanted suggestions to paulrigby@theaudiophileman.com…

ANOUSHKA SHANKAR Sitarist on her latest studio exploration Tell us about your latest project. It's the third in a trilogy of mini-albums, each with a different producer and musicians. What film could they soundtrack? A story of loss and pain, leading to healing, strength and change. If you could revisit any of your albums, what'd you change? I'd love to record all my songs after they've been bedded in live. Sometimes the album is the first draft. On the road, I dig into the songs in a different way, and they come alive. Ideally, I'd record all my albums after touring them. Is there anything still unissued? My father Ravi Shankar's archive has a lot of tapes and performances that we did in my teens and twenties. It'd be great…

When you find yourself in a room with Neil Arthur, half of synth-pop auteurs Blancmange since their founding in 1979, it's impossible to resist asking: why on Earth did you call yourselves ‘Blancmange’ in the first place? “Oh god, I don't know,” he laughs. “I've never liked it.” Sitting in a meeting room at his record label's office near Brick Lane in London, Arthur has the aura of a cool art teacher. He's 65, but he still runs seriously and plays football against much younger players. His Lancashire accent is still strong. “We were doing a one-off concert to raise funds for something at the college,” he continues, getting back to a name which feels sweet and fluffy, where the music is sleek and futuristic. He and co-founder Stephen Luscombe…

Pentangle The Albums 1968-1972 Svart 1204918 (14LP) While other artists were rootling around Cecil Sharp House disinterring old folk songs, Pentangle were trying to play their curious version of jazz in their own, idiosyncratic way. Beginning in early 1967 on Sunday nights upstairs at the Horseshoe Hotel in Tottenham Court Road in the shadow of the recently built skyscraper, Centre Point, the group were at the centre of things from the start. The new office block's thrusting brutalist modernity may have been at odds with the traditional music the group were playing, but they – Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Terry Cox, Danny Thompson and Jacqui McShee – were quickly seen as a hot ticket. Their rise and their discreet, anything-goes style seemed indicative of a London that was swinging –…

Annie Caldwell (née Brown) started out in Staples Jr Singers alongside her brothers. They had one album, 1975's When Do We Get Paid?, that was limited to 500 copies and was sold out of their front garden and outside church. Reissued in 2023 on Luaka Bop, it paved the way for a much-deserved comeback which resulted in 2024's new album Searching. Caldwell also leads her own group ANNIE & THE CALDWELLS. They comprise her guitarist husband, Joe Caldwell Sr, their daughters Deborah Caldwell Moore and Anjessica Caldwell, their goddaughter Toni Rivers and their sons Willie Jr and Abel Aquirius, who play bass and drums respectively. They harness the same fervour and spirit of the Staples Jr Singers but mix their gospel with disco and funk drawing on influences such as…

Young Americans (RCA Victor RS 1006, LP, no ‘stereo’ on label, UK, 1975) £30 The original pressing, which reached No 2 in the UK, came without the lyric sheet that was to appear in some later editions (sometimes as an inner bag) as that initially came in US editions only, along with a textured sleeve. There is no ‘stereo’ wording after Side 1 or 2 on the labels, and RCA price code ‘HH’ is to top right on rear sleeve. The Young Americans/Suffragette City (RCA Victor 102584, 7”, Australia, 1975) £20 Notable for its use of the definite article, this 7” Australian single contains the album version of the title track not the 3:10 version that was used widely for the 45. Later copies of the Australian single do contain the shorter…

Sex Pistols Live In The U.S.A. 1978 Atlanta UMC SEXPISS 78 LP 1 (LP) Live In The U.S.A. 1978 Dallas, UMC SEXPISS 78 LP 2 (LP) Live In The U.S.A. 1978 San Francisco, UMC SEXPISS 78 LP 3 (LP) Live In The U.S.A. 1978 UMC SEXPISS 78 CD (3CD) Even in the 60s, the astonishing field recordings of then-obscure blues singers captured by Alan Lomax just a decade or two earlier sounded like arcane transmissions from a bygone era; raw and primitive but enough to inspire blues booms. These 47-year-old recordings of Sex Pistols’ ill-fated US tour, dressed up on coloured wax but sounding uncannily like remastered bootlegs, can be excruciating on several levels but perform a similar function as documents of the original punk era and infamous tour that…

Edwyn Collins Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation AED Records AEDEC 30 (CD, LP) Knowledge, the first song on Edwyn Collins’ 10th solo album and the fifth since he suffered a catastrophic cerebral haemorrhage which nearly took his life in 2005, is a gorgeous and endlessly quotable piece of work. “Knowledge is a friend of mine / Once was lost, but now it's found,” runs its world-weary chorus, with Collins’ arch, reassuring croon sounding as strong as ever. There's a rustic warmth to the song's production, with steel guitar and piano murmuring away in the background and the voices of Lena Wright and Bianca White floating in gospel harmony over Collins’. “It's hard to let my old self go,” repeats Collins as the song winds down; it's a song specifically about…

Miki Berenyi on drums, scenes and loss… The MB3 emerged organically. Did you soon. see that it would work? … Does not having a drummer make the music more nimble? They're different things, aren't they? I love the power of a drummer, especially live. But it can be cumbersome, because I don't have the strongest voice in the world and a lot of what Moose does or Emma [Anderson] did in Lush is quite delicate and nuanced. And when you play smaller venues, this gets drowned out. All you can hear is the bloody drums. Being able to work on a backing track that you can control does free you up a bit in terms of adding the electronica and so on. “A lot of the liberation is that we're so…

Xeeland Zones / Wall Beast The Plague Champion Version / CV 202403 (7”) Xeeland is Jason Stoll, who runs the God Unknown label and has played in Mugstar, Sex Swing, Bonnacons Of Doom, KLÄMP, JAAW and more. Significantly less rockin’ than any of those groups, Xeeland is an outlet for his solo ambient tendencies. An LP, Water, came out last year in an absurdly limited pressing of 30 copies. There were more cassettes manufactured, oddly. A whole 50 of those. While its soundscapes grew ominous at times, Water was a mostly soothing listen in the general vein of Brian Eno or Stars Of The Lid. A second album, Master Builder, arrives this year and the preview track, Edie, suggests it might have bubblier qualities. The overriding atmosphere of Zones is…

Emmie MacNevin backstage with guitarist Mick Box What sparked the decision to call it a day on touring? We haven't entirely, to be honest. It's a wind down over the next two or three years, getting around to all the places that we want to play – in 64 countries. So, it's a bit of a trek and, you know, we're getting on a bit! How eventually will you cope with not playing shows? We'll still play some shows, but the long tours will be knocked on the head. We gotta think about our health, as, without it, you've got nothing. What songs do you most like playing live? July Morning, because I can do a bit of guitar virtuosity at the end, and Look At Yourself, which has an…

This month: Suzanne Ciani Few people have straddled the divergent worlds of popular and avant-garde culture quite like Suzanne Ciani. One of electronic music's great pioneers, she took the revolutionary sounds of the Buchla modular synthesiser – a contemporary rival of the Moog – into the world's living rooms via her commercial work for brands such as CocaCola, Clairol, Merrill Lynch and Atari while fearlessly charting new musical paths across an array of genres. Trained in classical composition, it was while studying at the University of California in 1968 that she first met Don Buchla, the inventor of the machine that would come to dominate her life over the next few years. After working long hours at the company factory, she was able to afford her own patented Buchla 200…

Rick Nelson Poor Little Fool (London 45-HLP 8670, 7”, UK, 1958) £5 I would have listened to this on the radio when I was five on a programme called Family Favourites. Tubby The Tuba just has the most beautiful orchestration in it, especially at the end. It enchanted me more than any of the classical music that my father played all the time. It was something different and more accessible to a child, I suppose, but it was the story as well, of somebody being ejected from the group, the orchestra, and then coming back and being accepted. Rick Nelson Poor Little Fool (London 45-HLP 8670, 7”, UK,1958) £5 When I was 13, I listened to this over and over on an ancient record player with a friend in her…

Tyler, The Creator Bastard (OFWGKTA, no cat no, mixtape, US, 2009) One of a number of envelope-pushing free mixtapes that gained LA hip hop collective Odd Future viral fame, this 2009 effot introduced their de facto leader as a solo artist. Entirely self-produced and at odds with the prevailing mainstream, it mixed lo-fi beats with a skate-punk sensibility and horrorcore themes. Typifying their early penchant for nihilist, liberalbaiting shock tactics, the lyrics earned the rapper a UK ban by thenhome secretary Theresa May. Regardless of their repugnancy (since denounced by Tyler himself as “horrible”), there's no denying Tyler's striking originality and charisma on tracks like French, AssMilk or Blow. Earl Sweatshirt Earl (OFWGKTA, no cat no, mixtape, US, 2010) Prodigiously talented rapper Earl Sweatshirt was just 16 years old when…

Far be it from me to dictate to you how to spend your free time, but if you happen to find yourself, in the forthcoming days, with an idle moment to spare, you could do a lot worse than type into your computer's search bar the following words: “Paul”, “Lester”, “Daryl”, “Easlea” and “Podcast”. That should then bring up something called “Needlepoint”. Click on the latter and you will suddenly be transported into a wondrous realm wherein, for 40 or so minutes, two gentlemen of a certain vintage – the aforementioned, funnily enough, Lester and Easlea – skim lightly through the latest issue of Record Collector and use the latter as the launchpad for a series of leisurely peregrinations over matters rock and pop, indie and soul (with the odd…

Acoustic+ Amy Ray Band‘s US live set, 2024, including Jeff Fielder (Mark Lanegan), Daniel Walker (Heart), [TBC]. ■ Janis Ian Breaking The Silence documentary film, with Joan Baez, Tom Paxton, Arlo Guthrie, is in cinemas, 28 March, and on DVD via Greenwich Entertainment, 29 April. ■ Kenny Chesney Heart Life Music book, William Morrow, 4 November. ■ Don Cusic Chet Atkins: Mr Guitar book, University Of Georgia Press, 1 June. Due: April (25) Ute Lemper Pirate Jenny, The Audiophile Society May (2) Vince Gill's Jedd Hughes Night Shades, Truly Handmade (9) Counting Crows Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!, BMG. Biz The world's leading collector of coloured, shaped and picture disc vinyl, and the author of Extraordinary Records (Taschen, 2023), Alessandro Benedetti, has a kickstarter.com campaign to 11 April that aims to set up a £2.5 million…

A 2 February charity auction via juliensauctions.com included a Stevie Nicks hat, $58,500, Bruce Springsteen guitar, $52,000, Dolly Parton jumpsuit, $44,450. A 25 February charity auction included guitars from Dave Grohl ($50,800), The Strokes, Ziggy Marley skateboard, and clothing from Sabrina Carpenter ($34,925), Chappell Roan ($88,900), Charli XCX ($22,225), Beastie Boys ($38,100), Garbage's Shirley Manson ($31,750), Paramore's Hayley Williams ($16,250), Olivia Rodrigo ($10,160), Prince, Juliette Lewis, Cher, Billie Eilish, Cyndi Lauper, Caroline Polachek, Toni Braxton, Kelly Rowland, Sky Ferreira, Juliette Lewis, Ariana Grande, Post Malone, Avril Lavigne, St Vincent. An auction of 400-plus items from Harry Belafonte, including instruments, awards, Tony Bennett artwork, was held 6 March. The Bold Luxury 27 March sale includes clothing from Britney Spears, Cher, Amy Winehouse, Victoria Beckham. ■ A 7 February auction by Alexander's,…

On 28 February, Poppy Reid of 7News in Australia flagged up an alleged whistleblower who charged that major record label marketing teams, A&R representatives and artist managers were involved in fraudulently inflating vinyl LP sales figures. Reid outlines the use of third parties, as well as record label staff, who, allegedly without the knowledge of senior executives, allocate part of their local marketing budgets to fraudulent schemes. In these, albums are ‘sold’ via fake myshopify.com store fronts using fake IP addresses and fake credit card details. These ‘sales’ are then allocated to a fulfilment centre that prints labels and marks LPs as being ‘in transit’ but, according to the insider, while “it counts towards the charts, no one's checking to see if it was actually delivered. They have partners and…

Recent limited-run vinyl releases to look out for Following the success of their self-titled debut back in 2023, not to mention the far-reaching live pedigree they've built up since, Somebody's Child have taken a big step forward with this second LP, full of timeless indie anthems and cinematic pop hooks. Regarding the physical release at the end of March, there are a couple of different colourway options hitting the shops, with the album available on white vinyl, as well as an ‘orange splatter’ edition. I had the pleasure of seeing this formidable trio perform live several years ago, at the annual Eurosonic Noordeslag festival in Groningen, less than an hour up the road from their hometown of Leeuwarden. They're wonderfully difficult to pigeonhole, with an intense racket that takes influence…

Jerry Butler, died 20 February, age 85. The American soul singer-songwriter was an original member of the Impressions before pursuing a successful solo career. Raised in Chicago he was a childhood friend of Curtis Mayfield, with whom he formed a group that became The Impressions. Co-written by Butler, their debut single For Your Precious Love was a success, the yearning ballad giving them a Top 20 hit in 1958. Going solo two years later, he reached No7 with He Will Break Your Heart, a song co-written with Mayfield. Throughout the 60s and 70s, he had dozens of further chart hits, teaming up with Philadelphia-based songwriting team Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff for songs such as Hey, Western Union Man, Only the Strong Survive and Moody Woman and the albums The…

The Canadian prog-rock trio, Rush, formed in 1968, enjoying an enviable career, selling 26 million copies of their 19 albums – 14 of which went platinum – and touring the world for five decades. Their sole constant member, guitarist Alex Lifeson, may have been less flamboyant onstage and more reserved off it than the trio's other two members, bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee and drummer Neil Peart, but he's still a bona fide star whose every move attracts attention now that Rush are no more, having ceased activities five years before Peart died in 2020. Lifeson, now 71, has been sporadically active since the end of Rush, jamming with Lee at occasional events such as the two Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts in 2022, but his main project these days is a quartet…

Dylan played his first live rock concert since he was a teenager in July 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival, to both boos and cheers. The strange admixture would greet him at many of his other shows in the last half of 1965, even after he got a top-flight band – The Hawks, by 1968 stars in their own right as The Band – as a backup unit. Eyewitness accounts vary as to how enthusiastically his new sound was received, but overall suggest they weren't as emphatically rejected as legend often has it. Here are some testimonials. “It was a religious experience” Neil Morse saw Dylan as a teenager in late October 1965 at Boston's Back Bay Theater “The first set was entirely acoustic and solo, with Dylan playing guitar…

Jacqui McShee on why Pentangle were out there on their own, meeting Miles and more… What were your first impressions of this new box? It's amazing. I saw the mock-ups of the sleeves, and I'm really impressed. What's a question you are frequently asked? How did you form the songs? It was organic, to be honest. We all had eclectic record collections. John had a load of blues, so did Bert, all of us had loads of jazz. A bass player in another band told me that he didn't understand jazz. You don't need to understand it: it either speaks to you or it doesn't. I love it. The Horseshoe Hotel seemed quite the scene… The world opened up. Everyone was desperate to get away from the Home Service and…

Kraftwerk Autobahn Parlophone 5021732411891 (LP, BD) Autobahn (actually released in November 1974), its 22-minute title track in particular, is commonly regarded as a cornerstone piece of electronic musical architecture. In their never ending audiovisual live presentation, they present the track as if it were not just a founding piece of technopop but the founding moment of Kraftwerk themselves. They prefer to disregard their first three albums, regarding them as “archeological”, as Florian Schneider once put it. Here, suggests Ralf Hütter, is where Kraftwerk began, trundling fully-formed off the convey belt of their Kling Klang creative process, the sound of that ignition at the beginning of the track instantly activating them. And yet Autobahn is, in many respects, the last album of their first phase, as opposed to the beginning of…

THE ILLNESS are a collective based in the north of England whose connections stretch far and wide. There was a 12-inch single, in 2020, which had two different members of Pavement singing on each side. (Not lead singer Stephen Malkmus, mind. That'd be too obvious.) On Macrodosed (★★★★* Sea Records) they've bagged contributions from David Pajo of Slint, Papa M, Zwan, etc. His gruff vocals on Speedway Star resemble Mark Lanegan fronting early Mercury Rev. That's only the headline-grabbing tip of the indie iceberg. The Illness’ LP presents a seamless smorgasbord of baritone Krautpop, tie-dyed freakfolk, exploratory post-rock and lots of other aural confectionary. With more records like this under their belts, they'll be Yorkshire's answer to Yo La Tengo. If your mate in the gravystained Strangulated Beatoffs t-shirt invites…

Elton John & Brandi Carlile Who Believes In Angels? Island EMI EMI 2124 (CD, LP) The first fruits of Elton John's partnership with Brandi Carlile were heard when their duet Never Too Late played over the closing credits of the former's 2024 documentary of the same name. After a chronicle of the gargantuan farewell tour that spanned five years and 330 concerts, viewers could be forgiven for assuming the film might be the last they'd see of the 77-year-old singer as his focus switched to family life. Who Believes In Angels?, however, is the result of a renewed creative itch that needed to be scratched, in the company of a simpatico performer whom he'd mentored for most of her own 20-year career. Feeling restless at home, Elton set himself and…

The lyrics to Knowledge are particularly poignant. What are you singing about on that song? Edwyn Collns: I'm thinking about my stroke, trying to explain it: “So hard to let my old self go.” It's about what I was like before. Six months in hospital, I was so scared, and Grace came in every single day, I'm so grateful. At first my sentences and pronunciation were all over the place, it was difficult to get it right. Now Grace says, “It's not good enough, try again.” Grace Maxwell: I'm the only person in the world with the right to be that harsh, but it works. You're really happy with the lyrics on this record. EC: Yes. You help me to communicate, and all that shit. Did you have a theme…

Maybe I'm Amazed John Harris John Murray, £16.99 ISBN 139781399814034, 272 pages A moving and important account of bringing up a music-loving child with autism Former NME journalist John Harris has carved out a niche as a political journalist with a common touch, venturing into the Brexit heartlands when nobody else at The Guardian fancied it. He brings musical knowledge as well as that natural empathy to a memoir with a difference, told through 10 songs chosen by his son James with the iPod his dad gave him at an early age. Harris is devastated when James, aged three, is diagnosed with autism, though as his son grows up, extraordinary musical abilities are discovered that are connected to his hyperlexia, and he develops a love of The Beatles and specifically…

Sell Vinyl/CDs direct to RC readers, call us on 0208 752 8172 or email listings@recordcollectormag.com. Rates: recordcollectormag.com/advertise NEXT ISSUE: MAY 2025 (on sale 17 APRIL) Deadline for submitting adverts (Listings & Classified): Monday 24 MARCH 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: JUNE 2025 (on sale 15 MAY) Deadline: Monday 24 APRIL…

This month: Wham!'s final concert at London Wembley Stadium, Saturday 28 June 1986 I'd seen Gary Glitter on a couple of occasions during his less than glamorous decline in the 80s, witnessing a rather good crowd-pleasing packed appearance at the Hammersmith Palais. His Glitter Men were always a good band. Who knew what would happen decades later when the music industry would airbrush his career from history… I didn't know that then, of course. I just thought he'd be a good bet as a support to the final Wham! show. But that lovely sunny day wasn't all about that ageing star wrapped up in silver foil. There was more. My memory is of: theft, a haircut identity, a visit to Wembley Police Station, someone else's lunch, and a Frank Bruno…

The Feel The Sound exhibition of sound installations is at London Barbican, 22 May-31 August. ■ Steve Goldman's Worst Record Covers In The World display of 100 sleeves from his 700-plus collection is at London Southgate Club to 4 April, then Northampton Museum & Art Gallery, 4 May-22 June, and Chester Grosvenor Museum, September-December 2026. ■ The Hip-Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit, with clothing from Run DMC, Melle Mel, LL Cool J, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Nipsey Hussle, Slick Rick, handwritten lyrics from Lil Wayne, The Fugees’ Wyclef Jean, is at Woody Guthrie Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 29 March-7 September. ■ The George Harrison A Gardener's Life exhibition is at Selby Botanical Gardens, Mound Street, Sarasota, Florida, to 29 June. ■ On 19 February, the 8,000 sq ft Go-Go Museum & Café…

The first part of the much-anticipated Bill Allerton auctions series was held by Omega Auctions in February. Many RC readers may have known or ordered from Bill during his long collecting/dealing life, and his knowledge and love of music and collecting seemed to know no bounds, hence the four-part showcase sale. The 470 lots offered one rainy Tuesday included first pressings of old favourites (the ‘Tonny’ Man Who Sold The World; My Generation; SF Sorrow), and a Sex Pistols A&M God Save The Queen (£14,000). But there were surprises – the UK picture sleeve of Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop sold for £500 (estimate, £150-200, RCRRPG, £250), and the acetate variant mix of Penetration‘s Moving Targets made £700 (estimate, £100-150). Both demonstrate how buoyant the demand for punk/post-punk/new wave remains. Memorabilia such…

On 26 January, the Vinyl Alliance outlined the findings of its survey of 2,000-plus, gender-balanced record-buyers, categorised by their ages as Generation X (born 1965-80), Millennials (born 1981-96) and Gen Z (born after 1997, and aged 13-28). The focus was on Gen Z, with 1,100 of them from the UK, US, Germany and other territories involved, along with 552 Millennials and 500 Generation Xers. Of all the vinylist respondents, 91 per cent buy vinyl at least once a week. The Gen Z Report found that 80 per cent of the age group own a turntable, 76 per cent buy vinyl at least once a month, 84 per cent buy from physical stores, and 57 per cent from online, with only 13 per cent doing the latter exclusively. Some 29 per…

The United States Postal Service was one of the world's first to honour the cultural importance of popular music. In 1969, they put WC Handy, one of the first bluesmen, on a set of commemorative stamps. Best-known for songs such as Memphis Blues, Beale Street Blues and St Louis Blues, a mint condition stamp is worth about 40p, according to US stamp dealer website, Mystic Stamp Company, from which the US converted prices here are quoted. Nearly a decade later, in 1978, the USPS Performing Arts series of commemorative stamps began. Running up to 1991, it featured pioneering country singer-songwriter, Jimmy Rodgers (60p), and jazz bandleader, Duke Ellington (90p), among a host of composers, conductors, opera singers and other creatives. Perhaps an indication of an ingrained Establishment conservatism, it was…

Our regular look at the more arcane corners of record collecting. Includes Vintage Vinyl and Sound And Vision After being forced out of Deep Purple in 1973, bassist Roger Glover was at a loose end. But his fortunes soon turned around, with the release of the debut solo concept album, The Butterfly Ball And The Grasshopper's Feast (Purple TPSA 7514, UK, £25), and work as an in-demand producer. “I had been pretty despondent for a few days after my departure from Deep Purple, until an unknown band, Nazareth, that I had produced suddenly appeared in the charts with their single, Broken Down Angel,” he tells RC. “It reached No 9 on the UK chart, and because of that, I was able to leave the road and become a producer.” The…

Over the last few years, I've found myself accidentally immersed in the art of the cover version. I had felt emotionally burnt out after ploughing through my own loss, trauma and grief on The Art Of Losing (2021) and taking inspiration from both Bowie's Pin-Ups and Tori Amos’ Strange Little Girls, I thought that tackling a cover version or two might give me the necessary emotional and creative respite I was seeking. Fast forward two years, and I had somehow conjured enough covers to put together a 10-track album, Versions, followed up a year later by a six-track EP, Versions: Encore. But how to decide which songs were worthy of a reimagining by me and my army of synthesizers? When I was choosing which tracks to cover, I was mostly…

Depending on your entry point, there are any number of Dionne Warwicks. There's the power balladeer of the late 70s and early 80s, storming the transatlantic charts with I'll Never Love This Way Again and Heartbreaker; the AIDS activist who spearheaded the cause with famous allies on That's What Friends Are For; the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador of the new millennium. Or, more bizarrely, surprise contestant on TV's The Masked Singer and playful presence on social media, the “Aunt Dionne” who counts The Weeknd and Chance The Rapper among her celebrity chums. But Warwick will forever be associated with the songwriting/production team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Together they created some of the defining songs of the 60s: cool, sophisticated pop-soul classics like Walk On By, Don't Make Me…

Paris is only 200 miles south of London as the crow flies and yet, culturally speaking, it might as well be the Moon. The odd name trickles across: Aznavour, Piaf, Gréco… but 99 per cent of French music remains a mystery to us on the other side of the channel. Partly, it's due to a superiority complex that has pervaded these islands since Beatlemania, a phenomenon that gave rise to a certainty that popular music made in other regions would automatically be inferior. That assumption was further validated by the fact pop's lingua franca has been the Queen's English for more than half a century, albeit with some h-dropping. Such arrogance has crumbled in recent times with artists like Bad Bunny, BTS and Rosalía leading the charge (Psy's Gangnam Style…

Though he couldn't read music, WES MONTGOMERY was a revolutionary musician who advanced jazz guitar vocabulary in the 1950s and 60s with his exciting blend of jaw-dropping virtuosity and musical sophistication. Producer Creed Taylor helped Montgomery reach a mainstream pop audience via his easy listening-style work for Verve and A&M Records between 1964 and 68 but more satisfying to jazz fans were the guitarist's earlier sides for Riverside. Considered one of his greatest works, 1960's The Incredible Jazz Guitar Of Wes Montgomery (★★★★★ Riverside/Craft Recordings) is reissued on a 180-gram audiophile LP as part of Craft's Original Jazz Classics series. Superbly mastered by Kevin Gray, the all-analogue tape-to-vinyl transfer is so vivid that it makes you believe Montgomery is playing right next to you. The album's standouts include two Montgomery-penned…

David Bowie Young Americans (Half Speed Master) Parlophone DBYA 50 (LP) In chronologies today, David Bowie ‘going soul’ is taken for granted as simply yet another of his phases. Bowie, of course, was not alone in 1975: Within a handful of months, Elton John (Philadelphia Freedom), the Bee Gees (Jive Talkin’) and Hall And Oates (Sara Smile) had all embraced the music that so influenced them. Yet to many, of all of the soulsters, Bowie's leap seemed the most seismic, considering it was a mere 20 months since the London boy had bidden farewell to Ziggy Stardust at Hammersmith Odeon in July 1973. It was the sights and sounds of his 1974 American Diamond Dogs tour than changed Bowie's landscape, as captured in Alan Yentob's BBC Cracked Actor documentary, with…

BBC Radio Sessions, Volume 2 Beggars Arkive BBQ2693TE (10x12”) Another potpourri of Peel pleasures The second in this illuminating series of vintage Peel sessions comes as a limited edition (250 copies) all-in box set, or each of the 10 treats will be available separately, staggered throughout the year. To review as a whole entity is tricky: for example, one might love the Loop and Gary Numan offerings, but be left cold by The Lurkers or The Charlatans. Other acts involved include The Fall, Silverfish, The Icicle Works and Laika. Loop are the winners here, their engorged guitar thrashings, well suited to the live context, emitting cyclonic power. It's intriguing to hear Numan driving Cars with more restraint than on the noprisoners single, while The Fall's Twister is adorable in its…

Brandi Carlile on school book reports, self-doubt and whisky sours with Bernie Taupin. What was the first Elton record you remember hearing? Well, I discovered his music when I was 11, although I was aware of who he was before then. I'd heard the name. But I read the lyric to Skyline Pigeon [from 1969 debut album Empty Sky] when I was researching a school book report, and it fascinated me. That led me to my local library where I found the song on his [1976] live album Here And There, and after that I got Tumbleweed Connection and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Those two studio releases would appear to be the most significant touchstones for Who Believes In Angels? I think so, too. I think the most Tumbleweedlike parts…

Miki Berenyi Trio Tripla Bella Union BELLA 1634 (CD, LP) “I never craved the life of a solo artist,” wrote Miki Berenyi in her feted memoir of struggle and survival, Fingers Crossed. Tasked with promoting the book through live in-stores and similar, the former Lush singer – latterly of post-Britpop/shoegaze supergroup Piroshka – followed that instinct. With Piroshka becoming increasingly “unviable”, she says, due to bandmates’ disparate locations and diffuse workload, Berenyi and partner/shoegaze veteran KJ “Moose” McKillop teamed up with prolific polymath Oliver Cherer (Aircooled, Gilroy Mere, Dollboy) to prise open fresh, combined creative pathways. Named the Miki Berenyi Trio (or MB3 for ease of recognition), the band evolved organically. Dates with the Wedding Present and Gang Of Four were booked; in the US, the drum-free trio were also…

Borrowed Times: Lennon's Last Decade Kaleidoscope Entertainment (Cinemas) The final years reconsidered The story of John Lennon's murder has been told on film before, but where the writer and director Alan G Parker's tale of Lennon's life and demise in the USA excels is in its collation of several thematic strands to form an overall story, expertly told without unnecessary drama. Parker's goal, to examine the years leading up to Lennon's 1980 murder in granular detail, is achieved with archive footage and an impressive array of talking heads. There's no official Beatles or Apple involvement here, but the tale is told in depth by people who actually knew Lennon – Barry Miles, Ray Connolly, Bob Harris, Chris Charlesworth, Chris Welch, Tariq Ali and Earl Slick among them. An emotional Andy…

Uriah Heep Birmingham Symphony Hall 19/2/25 Melodic rockers, Tyketto, fronted by the striding Danny Vaughn, impressed via the commercial clout of Lay Your Body Down and the anthemic Forever Young. Canadians, April Wine, centred on guitarist Brian Greenway, offered the radio-friendly I Like To Rock, marvellous Sign Of The Gypsy Queen and the ballad, Just Between You And Me, paving the way for Uriah Heep. Guitarist Mick Box, their sole original, strutted alongside vocalist, Bernie Shaw, giddily launching into newer tracks, Grazed By Heaven and Save Me Tonight, before classics like Shadows Of Grief and Stealin’. The sluggishness of keyboard-heavy psychedelic delight, Rainbow Demon, presaged doom metal and Box, albeit ridden with flu, still shone. He strapped on his acoustic for The Wizard's gentle, folksy charm, before the space-rock passages…

This month: Omar Hakim Born in Jamaica, Queens, New York City on 12 February 1959, drummer Omar Hakim is a prolific composer and session musician crossing over from jazz to rock, funk, and R&B has led to his appearance on hundreds of records. A soulful player with a deep, rich sound, impeccable timing and a thirst for knowledge, he worked with many of the biggest stars on albums throughout the 80s and beyond. Omar's father, Hasan Hakim (often credited under his birth name, Alphonso King), was a trombonist in bands led by Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Arnett Cobb, who recorded with Jimmie Lunceford, Tiny Bradshaw and Ella Fitzgerald. With his father's encouragement, Omar began playing drums aged five. He grew up surrounded by music. Roy Haynes and…