Innehållsförteckning för Issue 574 från Record Collector

I’m writing this Editor’s letter 48 hours after hearing the sad news that Ozzy Osbourne had died – too close to “press day” to commission an obituary and remake the issue, as we did last month with the passing of Brian Wilson and Sly Stone (though, of course, there will be a full Ozzy obit/tribute next month). It was, despite years – decades – of self-abuse, still a shock: we would now have to refer to Ozzy in the past tense. “I’ve done a good job of trying to kill myself for 64 years,” Ozzy told this writer in an interview I did in 2013 for The Guardian with three-quarters of Black Sabbath. He told me about his blackouts – “I’d look at my watch and it would say four…

Rare Record Price Guide editor and longterm RC contributor, Daryl Easlea, is soon to celebrate his silver Jubilee with the mag. This issue, the Needlepoint podcast co-presenter interviews two of his idols: David Gilmour (p74) and Robin Scott/M (p60). Chatting with Cardiacs (p64) bassist/co-founder Jim Smith, Jo Kendall outlines the story of the great British art-pop eccentrics and their late leader, Tim Smith. Beloved of Blur, Napalm Death, Mike Patton and more. Jeremy Allen explores the dark underbelly of Leeds singles (p70), unearthing choice goth rock 45s as well as some post-punk morsels to sink your vampiric teeth into. Jack Watkins still has his dad’s Brunswick 78 of Bill Haley’s (p54) Rock Around The Clock. He’ll never forget the first-time boyhood impact of hearing those crisply reverberating rimshots. He celebrates…

Following our News report in August (RC 573) on Gen Z’s outlook regarding popular music, on 23 June, the US National Independent Venue Association unveiled its own inaugural The State Of Live report about independent venues, festivals and performing arts centres. It found that, with 153,646 events held in 2024 (an average of 143 per venue), the sector served 183.7 million fans, employed 907,000-plus people (316,000 directly at venues), and contributed $86.2 billion to US GDP. However, 64% of venues reported that they did not make a profit that year, and 87% thought that this year would be the same. Worryingly, as Kriss Thakrar reported for Midia Research on 31 March, “music is… facing a disengagement trend amongst a generation of young men… The monthly engagement of 16-24-year-old men with…

On 8 July, the Royal Mint unveiled the first official Iron Maiden coin, featuring a bespoke design of the band’s mascot, Eddie, on one side, and Charlie (monarch) on the other! As well as a £5 coin, there’s a 100-copy art print available, along with a 12,500-copy colour edition of the coin, and numerous proof versions. These are the 3,500-copy 1oz silver proof, 1,000-copy 1/40oz gold proof, 450-copy 2oz silver proof, 175-copy 5oz silver proof, 200-copy 1.25oz gold proof, 75-copy 1oz gold proof, and 25-copy 2oz 24-carat gold proof (at £7,520). RC contributor Joe Shooman’s Iron Maiden: Fifty Years Of The Beast book is out via Michael O’Mara, 25 September. See royalmint.com.…

Good Morning Kisses (Full Moon no cat no, LP, US) £400 In the 70s, major record companies were the kings who ruled their land with a firm hand. These were the decadent days of endless cocaine and alcohol-fuelled parties full of scantily dressed pin-up girls, and the sky was not the limit. That is, of course, before many artists found out they were paying for all this merriment out of their own budgets, often running into serious debt to their own record companies as a consequence. This company-controlled music industry, which included music press and distribution companies, left little room for unsigned artists working in the margin. Due to the abundance of pressing plants, however, pressing records was actually quite affordable. So if major companies were too busy partying to take notice…

From guitars to amplifiers and pianos, Paul Rigby’s top collectables strike the right note. Now includes Whole Love Of Lots CONTACTS: COMPASS: Tel 001 646 982 0353; www.compass.com DISCOGS: www.discogs.com EBAY: www.ebay.co.uk JULIEN’S AUCTIONS: Tel 001 310 836 1818; juliensauctions.com POPSIKE: www.popsike.com REVERB: reverb.com ROCKAWAY: www.rockaway.com; 001 323 664 3232 SAS: Tel 01635 580 595; www.specialauctionservices.com THOMASTON PLACE AUCTION GALLERIES: Tel 001 207 354 8141; live. thomastonauction.com Send your Most Wanted suggestions to paulrigby@theaudiophileman.com…

What film could your new set soundtrack? It ranges from social conscience to ideas of existence and downright sexiness, so The Gentlemen or Léon. If you could re-visit any of your albums, what’d you change? World. Al [Mackenzie] wasn’t involved. It’d be 10 times better had he been. Is there anything unissued? Tie The Boy, many works, and also solo stuff before D:Ream. Have you done anything that fans may not know about? I’m working with my old bandmate, Tim Hegarty. With whom would you like to make a split 7”? Zach Bryan. Who’d you like to produce? CMAT. Who’d you like to remix? Chic. What was your favourite record shop when you started out? Cosmo Vinyl, Derry. What were your first records? Lloyd Cole & The Commotions’ Perfect Skin…

If Wishes Were Horses (Sweeney Todd, London PS 694, LP, Canada, 1979) £40 The 15-year-old Adams did a pretty passable job on this glam-rock curio, but the Vancouver quintet Sweeney Todd were already on the way down after their 1976 hit single, Roxy Roller, and he wisely jumped ship for a solo career. Cuts Like A Knife (A&M AMLH 64919, LP, UK, 1983) £10 While Adams’ first two albums, a self-titled effort (1980) and You Want It, You Got It (1981), were merely competent, Cuts Like A Knife properly showcased his and Jim Vallance’s songwriting talents for the first time. The title cut plus This Time and Straight From The Heart still sound convincing. Reckless (A&M AMA 5013, LP, UK, 1984) £15 The complete lack of pretension in this landmark…

Pop music has been good to Robin Scott, but Pop Muzik has been even better. His 1979 single as his shady alter ego, M, remains one of the form’s glittering examples, a record, like Donna Summer’s I Feel Love two years earlier, that never grows old, ushering in the 80s with its smart, shiny elan. Far from living in a disco, he has forgotten about the rat race, residing in the Black Mountains in South Wales. Scott – who had previously compartmentalised his work with M and his solo material - realised in his bucolic setting that the two could perfectly co-exist. The result is The FAQs Of Life, an album that looks at life with grace, and, being Robin Scott, has more hooks that a Peter Pan pantomime audition.…

Leeds! Leeds! Leeds! The former mill town on the River Aire is one of the best live music cities in the country, hosting the Leeds Festival and boasting historic venues like the Brudenell Social Club. They’ve made some pretty fine records up in Leeds, too, as we’ll see. But before we go any further, we need to talk about the ‘G’ word… Leeds’ recorded output is as eclectic as you might expect from a city with more than half a million inhabitants, though the conurbation is forever synonymous with the gothic rock movement of the 80s. The Le Phonographique goth club became a petri dish for creatures of the night to express themselves in the ways of darkness. The Sisters of Mercy were formed in Leeds by Andrew Eldrich in…

Although a cameo alongside Tom Hanks in the 2004 Spielberg-directed film The Terminal briefly introduced him to a wider audience, the late BENNY GOLSON, who died aged 95 last year, was one of jazz’s underappreciated geniuses. Alongside Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, Golson is undoubtedly one of the idiom’s finest composers, with several of his tunes – among them the immortal I Remember Clifford, Whisper Not, and Killer Joe – becoming jazz standards. Golson was also a formidable tenor saxophonist who helped shape the hard bop sound that rose to prominence in the 1950s. Long out of print, his fifth LP, 1959’s Gone With Golson ( Craft Recordings) is now back in circulation as part of the Original Jazz Classics series. Aided by trombonist Curtis Fuller and a rhythm section comprising…

The season of Perrymania continues apace as Doctor Bird continue their quest to make every track originally issued on the Jamaican Upsetter label available on CD. LEE SCRATCH PERRY’s Lee Scratch Perry Presents Confusion ( Doctor Bird) shows what a busy lad the producer was in 1971 as it gathers 52 tracks issued on Upsetter singles in that year across two CDs. The set opens with Confusion by The Inspirations, Billy Dyce and Jimmy London, a strong song on a strong rhythm which shows the shape of things to come as Perry uses it as the basis of three further tracks, of which the pick is tenor saxman Val Bennett’s muscular, blues-based playing on Big John Wayne. Other tracks of note include The Upsetters’ two-part instrumental medley All Combine, Dave Barker’s…

At what point did the three of you discuss the idea that this would be the last Saint Etienne album? We’d already talked about whether we’re going to do live shows anymore. Obviously, we’re all of a certain age and we’re all living in different places, and we don’t want to go around the country in a Transit van. So we talked about slowing that down, or maybe not doing it at all. And then I thought, we’ve had this career that feels like a nice arc. If we go out with a bang and do an album that’s like getting our old school year back together, it would be a nice thing to do. And that’s probably a good place to call it, and say, ‘That’s the last album.’…

Tearing Down The Orange Curtain Nate Jackson & Daniel Kohn Da Capo, £25 ISBN 9780306832963, 400 pages More loud Orange men from the USA “Aggression, tension, release, blood, sweat, and devotion”, as this nostalgic history’s two authors put it, is an apt summation of both the theory and practice of Orange County punk rock, a subset of SoCal punk whose beginnings they isolate to a club in Costa Mesa called the Cuckoo’s Nest, opened in 1979. They track down and interview a huge number of venue owners, musicians, photographers, club patrons and associated hangers-on to tell the tale, an origin story still very relevant to today’s musicians, judging by the members of Blink-182, Bad Religion and other bigger bands who either got their start on the OC scene or admired…

Sell Vinyl/CDs direct to RC readers, call us on 0208 752 8172 or email listings@recordcollectormag.com. Rates: recordcollectormag.com/advertise NEXT ISSUE: OCTOBER 2025 (on sale 4 SEPTEMBER) Deadline for submitting adverts (Listings & Classified): Monday 11 AUGUST 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: NOVEMBER 2025 (on sale 2 OCTOBER) Deadline: Monday 8 SEPTEMBER…

Ash September (9-10) London King’s Cross Scala November (16) Swansea Sin City (18) Newcastle Boiler Shop (19) Manchester New Century Hall (20) Glasgow SWG3 (22) Blackpool Bootleg Social (23) Sheffield Foundry (25) Oxford O2 Academy December (13) Belfast Ulster Hall February 2026 (6) Tunbridge Wells Forum (7) Cambridge Junction (8) Wolverton Craufurd Arms (10) Exeter Phoenix (11) Bristol Trinity (13) Liverpool Grand Central Dome (14) Stoke Sugarmill (15) Hull Welly (17) Norwich Epic Studios Keyshia Cole, Lil’ Kim September (23) London Greenwich O2 (25) Manchester AO Arena (26) Birmingham Utilita Arena Discharge September (12) Portsmouth KOLA October (11) Huddersfield Parish (31) Newcastle Cluny November (15) Wolverton Craufurd Arms Feeder September (26) Leeds O2 Academy (27) London Brixton O2 Academy October (2) Manchester Academy (3) Glasgow O2 Academy (9) Bristol Beacon…

This month: Dave Cousins Nowadays when people discuss the folk/rock movement they usually cite Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, and even Pentangle, but rarely mention the Strawbs, who played a hybrid version all their own. Originally formed as the Strawberry Hill Boys in 1964 by Dave Cousins (vocals/various instruments) and Tony Hooper (guitar and vocals), they were primarily a bluegrass band, but as Cousins’ songwriting markedly improved he gravitated towards the folk/rock genre, to become one of its founding fathers. In 1967, for the sake of expediency, they shortened the name to the Strawbs, and when Cousins saw Sandy Denny performing in a nightclub he invited her to join the band. Together they recorded an album, All Our Own Work, for Sonet in Copenhagen, which, irrespective of its instant appeal, was…

Love Forever Changes (Elektra EKL 4013, LP, UK, 1968) £200 There’s a beautiful, dissonant strangeness to the chords that goes straight to the deepness inside of me, although there’s a surreal weirdness and a lot of poignant, raw things, too. I heard this when I was 15 but didn’t get it. I liked garage rock, the harder stuff, but everyone was telling me, oh, this is the record. Some of the best records have this quality where it might take 10, 20, 30, 40 listens to really get it. By the time I was 18 this was the holy grail – and there’s something that keeps bringing me back to it. Black Sabbath Black Sabbath (Vertigo VO 6, LP, UK, 1970) £500 I could have picked any of the first…

SEND YOUR PRAISE, MISSIVES AND CALLS FOR THE DEIFICATION OF BOB STANLEY 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 BRILL COMMUNICATION There is one slight problem with Colin Rowlands’ suggestion of [an addition to the city singles running feature] 45 x 45 records from the Brill Building. Record Collector has been claiming music originating from Aldon Music as coming from the Brill Building for years. Ken Ward, Crewe LIFE OF BRIAN Just a brief note of appreciation for Bob Stanley’s perceptive and heart-felt tribute to the late Brian Wilson [RC 573]. Even though Mr Wilson’s passing was not unexpected, it feels to me like the ending of an era.…

On 7 October, the sixth White Label Auction In Aid Of The BRIT Trust returns, with 300-plus test-pressing LPs, CDs, 7”s, 12”s and cassettes. Among the artists contributing are Black Sabbath, Doves, Monty Python, Deep Purple, Free, Uriah Heep, The Beatles, Mystery Jets, Status Quo, Mott The Hoople, Sex Pistols, Aurora, The Chemical Brothers, Little Simz, Florence + The Machine, Dusty Springfield, Iggy Pop, Tom Misch, Squeeze, Buggles, Cat Stevens, The Beach Boys, Caravan, John Mayall, U-Roy, Mike Oldfield, Fairport Convention, The Stone Roses, Shed 7, Cast, The Police, OMD, Dio, Thin Lizzy, Phil Lynott, Pulp, The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, The Who, Pete Townshend, Cream, Blind Faith, Steve Winwood, The Charlatans, Squeeze, Def Leppard, Therapy?, The Catherine Wheel, The Human League, Heaven 17, Culture Club, Black Grape, The Cranberries, James…

Andy Turner of Instigators on their reissues and live reunion 32 years on How come you’re back now? Boss Tuneage are reissuing restored/remastered LPs of Phoenix and Shockgun early in August, and a 12” Full Circle is on Sanctus Propaganda with new recordings. Also, I have no moral compass, I’m easily led, a vain old man and, if we don’t play now, we’ll not get many more chances. The last couple of years weren’t great in my personal life and, after coming through that, it sorta made sense. Something positive to look forward to. Daz Russell booked us in the 80s and kept saying he really wanted us to do his Rebellion Festival in Blackpool. He kept chipping away, as did Eugene Butcher at Vive Le Rock magazine. And for…

The David Bowie Centre opens at London Victoria Albert East Storehouse, 13 September, with free curated displays by Nile Rodgers and The Last Dinner Party, including unrealised projects. ■ The A Great Day In East LA: Celebrando The Eastside Sound exhibition, including items from Los Lobos, is at Los Angeles Plaza De Cultura Y Artes to 23 August 2026. ■ The An American Beauty: Grateful Dead 1965-95 photo exhibition is at David Kordansky Gallery, West Edgewood Place, Los Angeles, to 16 August. ■ In July, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire unveiled the Richard Tandy (ELO) production suite, featuring his instruments, studio equipment and record awards.…

Two vintage rockabilly acetate discs are out on 45s and a CD this month via Atomicat. The 45s feature Don’t Bug Me Baby by an unknown artist, with The Lonely Side Of Town by Clyde Pitts on the flip side, and Jake The Snake/Tokyo Stomp by Chuck Fayne. Don’t Bug Me Baby was penned by Daniel Luallen & Johnny Bragg, inmates of Nashville State Penitentiary. Bragg was the lead vocalist in The Prisonaires, who recorded for Sun, and claims to have penned tunes for Elvis Presley. Bragg bragged that he knew Elvis, though it’s questionable if RCA would’ve let him record a song penned by felons. Fabor Robison, owner of the Fabor label, bought the song, Don’t Bug Me Baby, and had an acetate of it made, but he didn’t…

This month, Nirvana have a 12CD box set out, including an 88-page book. The albums collected in it are The Story Of Simon Simopath (Stereo), (Mono), All Of Us (Stereo), Dedicated To Markos III, Local Anaesthetic, Songs Of Love And Praise, Orange And Blue, Me And My Friend and Secrets. They’re bolstered by three Bonus Material CDs, comprising a 15-track collection of B-sides, alternate takes, and early versions, including Spooky Tooth, a 15-track set of demos, instrumentals and alternate mixes, and an 18-track rarities anthology. Nirvana The Show Must Go On: The Complete Collection 12CD/book box is on Madfish, 12 September.…

One of the UK’s most-cherished modern-day songwriters returns with a stunning new record, teaming up with her esteemed band of regular players, who include Paul Weller, Polly Paulusma, Ed Harcourt and Leo Abrahams. It’s an album of delicate poise and sweeping instrumentation, adding beautiful layers to Williams’ unique brand of folk. There’s a limitededition pink version of the vinyl, which you can pre-order now. This second album from Dutch indie icon Kester is a wonderful mélange of urgent, percussive synth-pop and nocturnal electronica. It’s a stirring collection of songs, veering beautifully between dreamy soundscapes and fierce clarity, underpinned by Kester’s lyrical insights. Memphis Industries have pressed a batch of ‘opaque blue’ vinyl copies, exclusively available from independent record shops, while Rough Trade and Platomania also have a clear version of…

LUST FOR POP I bought Iggy Pop’s The Idiot and Lust For Life when they came out in 1977. I also saw him perform in Manchester – though not with Bowie on keyboards – around that time. I always find it strange that a lot of writers focus on Bowie’s Low and “Heroes” from the same year but tend to overlook the Iggy albums. Bowie had a big hand in both of them and surely they should be linked more closely. After all, they shared a flat in Berlin! An up-to-date valuation of The Idiot and Lust For Life would be welcome. Robert Davis via email To say that 1977 was a busy year for David Bowie is an understatement. The release of Low in January and "Heroes" in October…

No 22: Buzz Music, Widemarsh Street, Hereford Buzz Music was at the heart of the music scene in the market town of Hereford from the early 70s until the mid-80s. Along with selling records, the shop did a healthy trade in instruments, both sales and repair, and music lessons. But it was the supply of PA rigs to touring bands which attracted musicians from across mid-Wales and the Midlands. Hereford is a small city, not well-connected with other urban areas and under-served by motorways and public transport. Local people struggled to buy records, source instrument repairs, or hire kit. Alan Kitchen and his business partner Mark Thompson understood the needs of this community and opened a shop for true music fans and musicians. The shop was a roaring success for…

Connie Francis 1937–2025 The American singer and actress was one of the biggest pop stars of the 50s and early 60s. Signing a recording contract with MGM Records at the age of 17, her first few singles met with limited success. After her version of Who’s Sorry Now? was played by Dick Clark on his American Bandstand show in 1958 the single proved an international smash, reaching No 1 in the UK. The double A-side, Stupid Cupid/Carolina Moon, also topped the UK charts that year and a stream of hits followed including Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool, Lipstick On Your Collar, and Mama. Her 1960 recording, Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool, became the first single by a female artist to top the US charts. While the hits had begun to dry up by the…

What film could your new set soundtrack? It’s about losing a friend to cancer, and I play hundreds of electric guitars, overdubbed. My friend loved Star Wars ‘rip-offs’, so The Black Hole remake. If you could re-visit any of your albums, what’d you change? The first two Hefner albums’ vocals. Is there anything still unissued? Tapes, DATs, MiniDiscs, hard drives. Half of what I’ve ever made. Have you done anything that fans may not know about? I’m making a record not under my name, I’m doing a Pete Ham [Badfinger] song for a compilation, and I did an advert for a Decathlon tent. With whom would you make a split 7”? Guided By Voices. Who’d you like to produce? Paul McCartney could learn a thing or two. The lad could…

Francis Rossi has been Status Quo’s mainman since the early 60s when they started life as The Spectres. This year has seen his band’s classic 1976 double vinyl Live! expanded to an 8CD set, while a demo collection entitled The Way We Were is his current solo release. A new band album is due out next February, while Rossi is taking two bites at the touring cherry this year with a series of spring and autumn two-man-show dates. Having just turned 76, he gives RC his straight-from-the-shoulder views on bandmates, contemporaries, punks, new romantics and the baffling but enduring appeal of Live Aid anthem Rockin’ All Over The World. What motivates you after all these years? One of the reasons I’m still working is selfishness. When I go out there…

There are not too many 50s rockers with a CV like Bill Haley’s. Crazy Man, Crazy was the first white rock’n’roll record to enter the Billboard pop singles chart and go on to become a hit. His cover of Joe Turner’s Shake Rattle And Roll was a million-seller. (We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock was the first rock song to top the American and British pop singles charts. On the way to selling over 25 million copies worldwide, its inclusion in the teen movie Blackboard Jungle was enough to set off a frenzy of riotous seat-slashing in cinema auditoriums from Cardiff to Copenhagen. Although Haley was a derivative musician, he and his noisy band, The Comets, created a distinctive, immediately identifiable sound. With simple, catchy lyrics, and guitar and sax…

ODYSSEY’s Odyssey ( Real Gone) was the group’s sole album, issued on Motown’s short lived subsidiary MoWest in 1972. The group are not the same one that emerged in the late 70s and hit big with Native New Yorker and Going Back To My Roots though. Instead this one was a six-piece featuring Chicago’s Donnie Dacus and Royce Jones, who was later a touring vocalist with Steely Dan and Ambrosia. Produced by Michael Goldberg, arranged by Gene Page and with Don Peake on guitar, the album employs a no musical borders approach, with touches of Latin jazz, country rock and baroque pop all thrown in. Single Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love with its easy-going vibe and Battened Ships, an infectious crossover number, are the jumping off points,…

Sisters Of Mercy First And Last And Always: 40th Anniversary Edition Warner 502173 2634474 (CD, LP/4LP) Here’s a 4LP box set, on black and red marble vinyl, of the Sisters Of Mercy’s first album First And Last And Always, plus the Walk Away EP (1984) and two three-track singles, No Time To Cry and Body And Soul. It’s a touch perfunctory, without liner notes, the Sisters’ earlier singles or relevant live stuff such as the summer ’85 Royal Albert Hall show at which this early line-up hit their peak, but musically it’s hard to fault. The Sisters Of Mercy formed in Leeds in 1980, based around singer Andrew Taylor (professionally Eldritch) and guitarist Gary Marx: by 1984 they’d recruited bassist Craig Adams and another guitar player, Wayne Hussey, using a…

Suede Antidepressants BMG 964174131 (CD, LP) Suede have always been knowingly adept at constructing the parameters of their own universe. Singer Brett Anderson grandly calls this Suedeworld, a certain aesthetic – a sort of romantic literate realism where cold and grit meet broken beauty – that whether writing about chemically enhanced sex or the insecurities of fatherhood, has survived 10 varied albums across a 35-year career that has necessitated numerous reboots, a Suede speciality. Both 1996’s pop-facing best-seller Coming Up and 2013’s post-reformation Bloodsports represented new starts, the latter reintroducing the band as durable energised creative entity after first era Suede’s slow malaise. There was another gear shift with 2022’s Autofiction, which after 2018’s superb, elaborate hinterland probing The Blue Hour successfully reset Suede as a potent, urgent rock band…

Saint Etienne International Heavenly Recordings HVNLP 240 (CD, LP) Do You Believe In Magic? Those five words, borrowed from The Lovin’ Spoonful and serving as the motto of Heavenly Recordings, are repeated, emphatically, throughout Saint Etienne’s 1992 Italo House single Join Our Club. More than merely a question, they posed a challenge, a gauntlet thrown down. The particular magic in which Saint Etienne believe is the magic of POP. On paper, of course, it shouldn’t work. Precisely because Saint Etienne appear to have literally come into existence on paper. A group formed by two writers and a drama-schooled singer for hire ought, by rights, to be a dry and theoretical exercise. Instead, Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs and Sarah Cracknell have released some of the most emotionally moving pop music ever…

The Extraordinary Miss Flower BFI An epistolary tale of sexual liberty, featuring a cameo from Nick Cave The premise for The Extraordinary Miss Flower is a fascinating one, or rather the premise of Emiliana Torrini’s Miss Flower, the 2024 album upon which this film is based. Torrini came into the possession of a trunkful of letters belonging to her late London neighbour Geraldine Flower, written over the years by her many paramours and suitors. The Icelandic singer then set about composing a 10-song concept album based upon their epistles of desire and despair. Their portraits help us form a picture of Miss Flower, an errant and likeable bohemian defying the standards of her day. Now comes a musical and documentary from Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, the team behind 20,000…

Nova Twins backstage with Emmie MacNevin Tell us about the album out in August. Amy Love: It’s something of a bridge between chaos and beauty. Georgia South: It was recorded in tranquil woods. It’ll be out on vinyl? AL: We believe in the power of the album. With vinyl, you put it on to listen to it all, with no skipping. That’s so important. Georgia’s dad’s got a massive record collection and we’ve both got record-players. We love vinyl, though it’s not cheap! GS: Marshall are amazingly supportive and they let us have a lot of creative freedom. What about your collaboration with Nandi Bushell? AL: She drummed on Soprano. Amazing. We want women to band together, and we just bounced ideas off each other. What do you think about playing…

This month: Celia Cruz “Mix Ella Fitzgerald and Donna Summer in equal proportions, add a generous dose of Caribbean seasoning, then turn the heat way up and you have Celia Cruz,” wrote Latin culture critic Enrique Fernandez in Billboard in 1982. Cuban musicians have periodically burst out of their homeland to enjoy acclaim on a wider stage, including Tito Puente, Perez Prado, Gloria Estefan and Compay Segundo. But none did it more exuberantly than Cruz, the poor girl from the Santos Suarez neighbourhood of Havana who rose to become one of the most celebrated Afro-Latinas in the world. Born 100 years ago this year, she was dubbed the Queen of Salsa for her part in the music genre’s popularisation. She preferred the moniker La Guarachera de Cuba, because it reflected…

KMD Mr. Hood (Elektra 9 60977-1, LP, US, 1991) £120 MF DOOM – real name Daniel Dumile – began his career under the name of Zev Love X. Signed to Elektra, his hip hop group KMD’s line-up included his brother DJ Subroc and Onyx the Birthstone Kid. The trio were tipped for crossover success after the release of this debut album. Exemplified by exuberant single Peach Fuzz, it’s a classic example of hip hop’s fabled ‘golden era’: upbeat R&B samples underpin inventive rhymes which meld Five-Percent Nation black consciousness with offbeat humour. KMD Bl_ck B_st_rds (Readyrock Records RR 2001, 2LP, US, 2000) £50 KMD’s follow-up LP was a far darker affair. It’s tempting to speculate what impact its politically charged lyrics and rugged, jazz-laced productions might have had on the…

This month: Pink Floyd My best friend Stacy and I drove 18 hours straight from Seattle to LA for Pink Floyd’s 7 February 1980 concert, the first show of The Wall World Tour (LA, NY, London, Dortmund). As the Floyd hadn’t played Seattle since 1974 (when we were 13) this would be our first (and sadly only) chance to see them with Roger Waters. Twenty-third row centre tickets from an LA ticket service cost the exorbitant price of $50 each. I’d refrained from even a puff before the show knowing this was something I’d want to remember. At the end of In The Flesh, pyrotechnic blasts caused the curtain above the stage to begin smouldering, eventually forcing Roger to shout, “Hold on, stop the film!”, and some poor roadie was…

Acoustic+ Kenny Chesney HEART*LIFE*MUSIC book, William Morrow, 4 November. ■ Bob Dylan Point Blank (Quick Studies) book, Simon & Schuster, 18 November. ■ The Be Good Tanyas’ Frazey Ford Indian Ocean Deluxe LP, DL with three unissued, Nettwerk, 19 September. ■ Woody Guthrie Woody At Home CD, 2LP, with 22 unissued (13 unique compositions, three spoken-word) from 1951-52 demos, Shamus, 14 August. ■ John Prine Lost Dogs And Mixed Blessings Deluxe 2LP, blue-green 2LP, CD with six bonuses (one unissued), Oh Boy, 12 September. ■ Billy Bragg A People’s History book, Spenwood, 24 October. Due: August (8) The Charlie Daniels Band Volunteer James 111, 1V, Floating World, Harry Nilsson Duit On Mon Dei/Sandman 2CD, BGO September (26) Kathryn Williams Mystery Park, OLI. Biz Following the October 2023 launch of a UMusic Shop stocked with Universal audio/visual releases on Takeshita…

On 12 July, the British Music Vault launched at the UK Academy Of Contemporary Music guitar conference in Guildford, Surrey. Established to create an archive of British music experiences of musicians and music industry workers, it aims to store historically important memories in a secure Vault for reference, research and future generations’ enjoyment. One exclusive element of the Vault’s archive is an unseen interview with George Harrison and Mo Foster, filmed in 1995 at London’s Abbey Road Studios during the making of The Beatles Anthology. Other contributions come from Ray Russell, Simon Phillips, Osibisa’s Gregg Kofi Brown; documentary film director Alan Boyd; retailer Sid Bishop; promoter Juliet Sharman Matthews; and SongLink editor David Stark. Future accessions are set to include unseen recordings of Jeff Beck on the 1980 There And Back…

Hope I Die Before I Get Old is the title of a book by one time Whistle Test presenter and pub argument provocateur, David ‘Heppo’ Hepworth. The general thrust of this tome is that the modern antique rockstar has no need to retire because the filthy lucre is just too good to turn down: Mick, Big Paulie Mac, Big Neil, Little Bruce, they cannot stop rockin’ and poppin’ until their chubby little hands have caught all those dollar bills falling out of the sky and stuffed them up their woolly jumpers. Mr Hepworth is, to a degree, correct. However, there is another kind of musician of a certain age, who may not be blessed with the audience of the Stones or even The Searchers. This musician is also not retiring,…

It’s been 41 years since Bryan Adams entered global consciousness with his 12-million-selling album, Reckless, although he’d already enjoyed plenty of success in his native North America with three earlier LPs. Reckless was chock-full of hit singles – Summer Of ’69, Run To You, Somebody, a duet with Tina Turner called It’s Only Love – and just what the world was ready for at the time. Compare the similar levels of adulation afforded Born In The U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen, also released in 1984, an album that delivered a similar brand of heart-on-sleeve, heartland anthemic rock. Seven years later, Adams stepped up even further with his signature song, (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, a Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated power ballad from 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves soundtrack. Those…

The 300-page, A Big Book And The Whole World Window [inset], was published in January, limited to 1,500 units through US artist-entrepreneur Aaron Turner [above] and his Melodic Virtue imprint, home to books on Ministry, Butthole Surfers, The Residents and more. Now sold out, available copies are hen’s-dentures rare. When did you first hear Cardiacs? Back in November of 2019, I was hiking in Utah and decided to see if any bands I liked were playing in the area. Sure enough, my friend Rob Crow’s band Pinback was at The Urban Lounge. I stopped by early so we could catch up, and he asked me if I was familiar with a band called Cardiacs. I wasn’t. That’s when he pulled up the video for R.E.S. on his phone. Needless to…

Dr. Feelgood Down By The Jetty Rhino 5021732578976 Malpractice Rhino 5021732579010 Stupidity Rhino 5021732579027 Sneakin’ Suspicion Rhino 5021732579034 Looking across from the modest cliffs of Southend suburb Leigh On Sea towards Canvey Island at night, it could, just could, be Memphis twinkling away on the Mississippi. These were the lights that Dr. Feelgood grew up under; and the mythology that John Wilkinson & Lee Collinson brought in in the mid-70s under their respective noms de band, Wilko Johnson and Lee Brilleaux, enabled a modern storytelling as theatrical as prog yet wrapped in a wholly different cape. Dressed in their suits and ties – initially as they’d just come from work to a gig – they were supported by the most vigorous of rhythm sections, bassist Sparko (John B Sparkes) and…

Talking Heads More Songs About Buildings And Food: Super Deluxe Edition Rhino 0603497816767 (3CD/BD, 4LP) From its wry title through to its deceptively fussfree deployment, Talking Heads’ second album wears its achievements lightly. Road-tightened from more than a year’s worth of heavy gigging – including a stint in the UK supporting fellow CBGB OGs Ramones in the late spring of 1977 – the group knocked More Songs About Buildings And Food out in a matter of weeks across March and April the following year, in unfamiliar surroundings and with a brand-new playmate, both of which would go on to aid the Heads as they developed into a new-wave funk juggernaut. At the time of the album’s recording, however, Compass Point Studios, in the Bahamas, was an untested facility, rented out…

Was it fun to be a Sister Of Mercy? It was, even though we were all on the dole. When we were on tour, we would have to go home in the middle of the week to sign on, which was a bit difficult when we were in Europe. Fortunately we signed to Warners and we were put on a wage of £25 a week or something. I remember we played York Racecourse in September 1984 with the Bunnymen and Spear Of Destiny, which was quite a big deal, and on our little minibus back to Leeds, Eldritch gave us a fiver each as a bonus – the generosity of the man! In fairness, by that point we had an office and staff in London that needed to be paid…

Why Antidepressants as a title? I thought it’s quite a cheeky title, because you can take it in the most literal sense. What are the antidepressants I’m referring to? I’m referring to the 11 songs on the album. In lots of ways, music is my antidepressant. It never loses its magic for me. My life is split into two missions. One is being kind of like a good husband and father, and the other is trying to make the greatest music that I can possibly make before I die. “We’re the missing link to Bruce Springsteen and Crass” How would you describe the themes of the album? One of the alternative titles for the album was Suppression, but it felt too dark. But it’s that sense of 21st-century life being…

John Fogerty Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years Concord 1000178311 (CD, 2LP) On an album choc-a-block with fan favourites and past triumphs, one of the less widely-known tracks is arguably one of the most significant. Porterville was tucked away on Side Two of Creedence’s eponymous 1968 LP, having been an all but ignored single the previous year when the band were still known as The Golliwogs. It came to Fogerty when he was serving in the US army, the seeds sown while marching at a sweltering Fort Lee in Virginia. “I began to hallucinate in the heat and 90 per cent humidity, and this drone sort of sound filled my head,” he recalls. “It struck me as an interesting way to write a song.” The “drone” was the spark for…

The Lemonheads Deep End / Sad Cinderella Fire / FIRE 804 (12”) To think the prolific J Mascis was once considered the lazybones of American altrock. Under the direction of their only continuous member, Evan Dando, The Lemonheads haven’t released any original material since a self-titled LP in 2006. Their (or his) last two albums were all cover versions and even they came out a decade apart. Maybe Mr Dando will explain himself in his forthcoming memoir. It was originally scheduled to be published in 2022. Mascis guests on this overdue comeback single, Deep End. You can tell it’s him because the too-brief guitar solos sound like a bewildered Eddie Hazel shredding over an entirely different piece of music. Another co-write with Smudge’s Tom Morgan, the song has a slacker…