Innehållsförteckning för Issue 578 från Record Collector

It's the season of good will to all, so I won't sully the mood by mentioning the parlous state of the world. Throughout my life records have thrilled, educated, comforted and inspired me. They've made me smile, they've made me weep, and they've helped make me the cantankerous gobshite that I am. Some have bored the hole off me, too! Record Collector has long been the parish newsletter for our peculiar has long been the parish newsletter for our peculiar congregation – the ones who listened to pirate radio under the covers, who reminisce about life-changing live shows, and who still believe that a 7” single can change the world, or at least your mood for a few minutes. Records are time-machines, memory triggers and emotional detonators. I can still…

Bob Geldof is the first Guest Editor of a Record Collector Christmas issue since the Brian May/ Roger Taylor takeover in 2021. He's the leader of The Boomtown Rats and a Knight Of The Realm who achieved some success with Band Aid and Live Aid throughout 1984-85. This issue, he explores his record collection (p84), edits features on 10cc and Queen (p100), Christmas No 1s (p94) and 70s landmark singles (p112), and pens the Editor's letter opposite. To paraphrase Rod Stewart, he swears it well. Over the last 40 years, radio producer and documentary maker, Phil Ward-Large, has interviewed dozens of significant musicians including Jeff Beck, Joe Cocker, Jeff Buckley and Steve Winwood. One of his personal favourite conversations was with the late Danny Thompson (p52). Paul McNulty’s new YouTube…

The Live Aid: Music, Power And Unity exhibition is at the British Music Experience, Cunard Building, Liverpool, to 4 January 2026. ■ Rory Gallagher’s 1961 Fender Stratocaster guitar is on display at the National Museum Of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin. ■ The free Punk – The Art Of Rebellion exhibition is at Manchester Central Library, St Peter's Square, Manchester, to 31 December. ■ The Spirit In The Dark: Religion In Black Music, Activism And Popular Culture exhibition is at the African American History And Culture Museum, Constitution Avenue, Washington DC, to April 2026, while the Treasures And Trouble: Looking Into A Legendary Blues Archive exhibit of the Robert ‘Mack’ McCormick archive, and America’s Listening recorded sound equipment exhibition, are at the co-located National Museum Of American History. ■ Laurie Anderson’s…

In November, financial authority Forbes compiled a list of the Top 25 celebrities of the millennium regarding the earnings of their estates. The king of rock'n’roll, Elvis Presley, was second on the list, at a cumulative $1.2 billion, while in No 1 position is the king of pop, Michael Jackson, raking in $3.5 billion. Clearly, their catalogues are still popular with their fans, and their sales indicate that their reissue/memorabilia markets at least are alive and kicking. The highest-earning deceased celebrities each year for this millennium Michael Jackson 2010, £275 million, 2011, $170 million, 2013, $160 million, 2014, $140 million, 2015, $115 million, 2016, $825 million, 2017, $75 million, 2018, $400 million, 2019, $60 million, 2020, $48 million, 2023, $115 million, 2024, $600 million, 2025, $105 million Elvis Presley 2001,…

DEVO GET STIFF I have an interesting album by the band Devo. It is called B Stiff and is on Stiff Records. The date on the album is 1978 but when I look at Discogs, it lists their first album from 1978 as Q: Are We Not Men? on Virgin. I was hoping that you might be able to clarify the matter for me. Paul French via email Devo formed at Kent State University in 1973 and “evolved” to their final line-up of Mark Mothersbaugh (vocals/keyboards), Bob Mothersbaugh (guitar), Jerry Casale (bass/vocals), Bob Casale (guitar) and Alan Myers (drums) as they toiled in obscurity. By the time that punk emerged in 1976/77 the band were a hardened live act and suddenly in the right place at the right time, breaking…

It is late 1968; I am one year old. There is a hit TV show on. Ostensibly for kids, though it might be for the Heads. Of course, I have no memory of this TV show in real time, but it will go on to haunt me via its reruns all the way up to 1982. Ladies and gents of the RC readership, I present to you the exorcism of The Banana Splits show. As we in Record Collector world know, by 1968, pop music had shape-shifted into unrecognisable forms. Herman's Hermits and Freddie & The Dreamers et al had been wiped out by music-concreteTrojan-horsed-into-the Universal-Mind by The Beatles via Revolution 9. Meanwhile, The Beach Boys were being courted by Charlie Manson, and The Monkees – the world's first manufactured…

What film could your new set soundtrack? It delves into the bittersweet beauty of human life in a tumultuous world of shifting seasons and harsh elements. Some songs would suit a reimagining of The Wicker Man. Is there anything still unissued? Vocal demos for Dorset songwriters when I was 14-15, and the Black Box Recorder archive is full of early gigs. What was your favourite record shop when you started out? Scorpion Records, High Wycombe. My dad's best friend, Jeff Amor, owned it, and I got lots from there. What was your first record? Madonna, age 12. My favourite song was Borderline. What's the last album that you bought? Portishead's Dummy LP from Boiler Room Records, Poole, where I live. Was anyone in your family a musician? My great-grandmother and…

Brian Wilson's genius is a matter of record. Younger brother, Dennis, also has his fierce proponents. Close scrutiny of The Beach Boys’ records, especially the late 60s and 70s ones, reveal the wealth of talent elsewhere in the group: Carl Wilson, Bruce Johnstone, Al Jardine, even the dread Mike Love, have all contributed brilliant music to America's Greatest Band. The truth is, while The Beach Boys are an all-American institution, most popular accounts read like The Life Of Brian, his brothers and bandmates typically reduced to mere bit players whose collective presence largely serves to carry the Brian Wilson myth forward. But there's an alternative narrative that's equally beguiling. Imagine discovering a new favourite band – a little known, albeit hugely innovative, underground sensation, boasting a phenomenal catalogue. Then consider…

As the 70s came to an end it was widely reported that disco was dead, but many thought otherwise. The idea that such gloriously life-affirming music could be snuffed out by a racist, homophobic lynchmob blowing up 10,000 disco records at a Chicago baseball game was ridiculous to anyone familiar with its history. Maybe the term ceased to exist for major record companies axing their disco departments but the underground that spawned it was built of stronger stuff. Led by New York City, the dance music community simply carried on regardless, defiantly retooling its next incarnation for the 80s with the mirror ball beaming brighter than ever. Embracing the drum machines and synths concurrently rewiring hip-hop – NYC's next sociocultural movement to take the world – disco morphed into electro-boogie,…

The Damned – New Rose (issued 22 October 1976) (Stiff BUY 6, 7”) £50 The Vibrators – We Vibrate (19 November 1976) (RAK RAK 245, 7”) £15 Sex Pistols – Anarchy In The UK (26 November 1976) (EMI 401, 7”) £120 The Stranglers – (Get A) Grip (On Yourself) (28 January 1977) (United Artists UP 36211, 7”) £10 Buzzcocks – Spiral Scratch EP (28 January 1977) (New Hormones ORG-1, 7”) £150 Eater – Outside View (10 March 1977) (The Label TLR 001, 7”) £20 The Clash – White Riot (18 March 1977) (CBS S CBS 5058, 7”) £30 The Boys – I Don't Care (12 April 1977) (NEMS NES 102, 7”) £15 The Adverts – One Chord Wonders (22 April 1977) (Stiff BUY 13, 7”) £40 The Jam – In…

The Virgin Prunes …If I Die, I Die (Rough Trade ROUGH 49, LP, UK, 1982) £25 Following the ritualistic and dissonant A New Form Of Beauty project and the indie hit Pagan Lovesong, the Prunes’ debut album was much anticipated. Producer Colin Newman of Wire managed to streamline their anarchic creativity into a surprisingly commercial set that included dark disco favourite Baby Turns Blue. Virgin Prunes The Moon Looked Down And Laughed (Baby Records BABY 005, LP, Fr, 1986) £25 Record company wrangles delayed the release of the final Virgin Prunes album by a couple of years. Produced by the late, great Dave Ball of Soft Cell, it's a diabolic, pulsating mix of Weimar cabaret and twisted pop, the brooding intensity offset by a playful theatricality. Knowing it was the…

Sometime in 1978, The Monochrome Set found themselves auditioning for a German record company. “They hired this place and we played our stuff for them,” recalls frontman and chief songwriter Bid. “After a while they said, ‘You're not jumping up and down! We want more spitting!’ So, we told them to fuck off. Another time, we were halfway through our set at the Royal Standard Hotel in Bradford when everyone started turning over their cups. The owner said, ‘That's it, lads, get out of here. You're not a punk band.’” Such reactions were not uncommon. The London quartet may have been forged in the residual heat of punk, but they had little to do with their contemporaries. The Monochrome Set instead took their cues from The Velvet Underground, 60s R&B…

It's the time that every Santa has a ball, although – just to give you a heads up, full disclosure and all – there's a world outside your window and it's a world of dread and fear. It's Christmas time. There's no need to be afraid. Look to the future now. It's only just begun. Confusing, isn't it? Wait till we tell you the story of the Christmas No 1 spot. Hark, take a trip down the weirdest of chimneys. It's nuttier than chestnuts roasting on an open fire. The Beatles may or may not have been, as Lennon posited to the fury of the US Bible Belt in 1966, “more popular than Jesus”, but in his defence they'd spent since 1962 being more popular than Christmas. They'd held the…

1. GEESE Getting Killed (Partisan) It was a huge breakthrough year for Cameron Winter and his band. Just months after his impossibly charming solo debut, the New York quartet he fronts released this magnificent fourth effort, a hypnotic, woozy blend of psychedelic grooves, Strokes-y rock'n’roll and Can-style invention. 2. PULP More (Rough Trade) Their first album in almost a quarter of a century showed Pulp were still a magnetic tour-de-force in the here and now, fun and wistful and stacked with life-affirming tunes. 3. SUEDE Antidepressants (BMG) Suede's second act hit exhilarating new heights on the record that Brett Anderson described as their post-punk album, their status as one of the UK's most special bands indisputable. 4. SPARKS MAD! (Transgressive) Has anyone ever been in the midst of such a…

Blind from the age of two, RAHSAAN ROLAND KIRK was a sight to behold on stage. A hurricane of barely controllable energy, he was renowned for playing multiple instruments simultaneously. His producer at Atlantic Records, Joel Dorn, once described him as “a Christmas tree from Pluto,” an apt analogy for the array of wind and percussion instruments hanging from his neck and shoulders. Kirk's live act was a provocative blend of brilliant musicianship, political sermonising, and stand-up comedy. Despite initial misunderstandings from the jazz establishment, his musical talent was always unmistakable. To celebrate Kirk's genius, producer Zev Feldman has unearthed two previously unreleased performances from the 1960s for an RSD Black Friday vinyl release. The jaw-dropping Vibrations In The Village: Live At The Village Gate Resonance), featuring pianist Horace Parlan, was…

A precocious talent on piano and organ, JACKIE MITTOO joined Jamaica's top ska band The Skatalites while still in his teens. When they broke up in 1965, he continued working for Studio One for almost a decade, recording ska with The Soul Brothers, rocksteady with The Soul Vendors and reggae with The Sound Dimension. 18 of his numerous sides comprise the CD Reggae Magic Soul Jazz). The title track is one of his rare, cool vocal outings; the rest of the album is instrumental all the way, starting with the bluesy reggae of Melody Maker which shows that he's been listening to, and learning from, Jimmy McGriff. There are a number of familiar rhythms: Dawn Penn's You Don't Love Me is the basis of Ghetto Organ, and Sure Soul is…

Black And Blue boasted the Stones’ fullest studio sound yet, rendering the Steven Wilson remix treatment not entirely vital The Rolling Stones Black And Blue UMG 7507049 (CD/2CD/4CD/BD, LP/2LP/5LP/BD,) Keith Richards hit the nail on the nail on the head when he told this writer, “I remember Exile on Main St being slagged off all over the place when it came out then the same guys later saying, ‘Oh, this album's not as good as Exile…’” If that had certainly applied to Goats Head Soup and It's Only Rock ’N Roll, Black And Blue polarised fans and critics like no other Stones album when released in April 1976. But then, no other Stones album had been created under such extraordinary circumstances: lead guitarist Mick Taylor announced he was quitting three…

Taylor Swift The Life Of A Showgirl Republic 7837204 (CD, LP) It's possible you caught a snippet in the media about it: Taylor Swift, a 35-year-old American singer/songwriter, recently released her 12th album. It's breaking sales records and has, like all Swiftian activity for many years now, been a genuine Big Pop Event. Short of sailing a 30-foot replica of herself down the River Thames, as Michael Jackson did in 1995, or flying 150 journalists around seven countries in seven days, as Rihanna did in 2012, there's not much more a game and tireless Swift could've done to promote it. If such a colossal pop phenomenon is in no way interesting to you, you're tired of life. Such is the way of the calendar that this review arrives with you…

Far Above The World: The Time And Space Of David Bowie Paul Morley Headline, £25 ISBN 9781472289476, 400 pages Morley, messing with the fabric of language, has always been to music journalism what Nicolas Roeg was to film. Trad notions of linear narrative and story structure are subsumed by a desire to dig to a deeper truth, a poetic essence. Thus he is deemed “divisive” by a genre which has now retreated into conservatism, a low-paid wing of the advertising world. His 2016 book The Age Of Bowie was thought pretentious by some: similar moans, over the years, have greeted his work spinning off Joy Division, ZTT, Kylie, Dylan, Jackson and classical music. Yet for every sceptic there's a devout believer, and if you're a fan of this legendary writer,…

Sell Vinyl/CDs direct to RC readers, call us on 0208 752 8172 or email listings@recordcollectormag.com. Rates: recordcollectormag.com/advertise NEXT ISSUE: JANUARY 2026 (on sale 30 DECEMBER) Deadline for submitting adverts (Listings & Classified): Monday 1 DECEMBER 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: FEBRUARY 2026 (on sale 22 JANUARY) Deadline: Monday 5 JANUARY www.happening45.co.uk grant.schofield@hotmail.co.uk…

This month: Win Those of a certain age will remember a mid-80s advert for McEwan's Lager in which ragged, brow-beaten workers pushed weighty boulders up a Sisyphean incline. Visually and aesthetically, it was ahead of its time, but so was its soundtrack – an incongruous yet somehow perfect power pop song with catchy, spiky guitar and heavy synth. This was You've Got The Power by Scottish band, Win. Fronted by Davy Henderson, Win released only two albums during their brief run, but they left behind a collection of remarkably freshsounding, forward-thinking tracks. Davy Henderson grew up in Clermiston, a suburb of Edinburgh, “playing my brother's tennis racket in front of a mirror! I just always wanted to be in bands. When I was a threeyear-old, I wanted to be John…

Happy End Kazemachi Roman (URC URG4009, LP, Japan, 1971) £200 Formed from the ashes of psych band Apryl Fool, Happy End backed legendary protest folk singer Nobuyasu Okabayashi before striking out on their own. The group's second album, Kazemachi Roman’s swaggering native-sung folk rock helped persuade their fellow countrymen that pop music needn't be slavishly rendered in English – as was then the norm – and brought a Japanese sensibility to western-influenced music. A benchmark recording for a newly confident scene, its lasting influence was reflected in Rolling Stone Japan naming it the greatest Japanese album of all time. Sachiko Kanenobu Misora (URC URG-4015, LP, Japan, 1972) £400 Sachiko Kanenobu battled against male bias to bag a record deal, her friendship with Happy End's Haruomi Hosono leading to this solo…

SEND YOUR PRAISE, MISSIVES AND CALLS FOR THE DEIFICATION OF JOHN COLEMAN 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 1980… FORE! Re: RC 577. Nineteen-eighty must have been a better year than I remembered, because you omitted Blondie's Autoamerican (OK, you did refer to it via For The Record in a roundabout way), but no apologies for The Cure's 17 Seconds or (very sharp intake of breath) The Damned's The Black Album… and don't get me started on the omission of Motorhead's Ace Of Spades, either… Tim Rigby, email I saw the Get Happy!! 1980 Special cover in the newsagent. I thought to myself: who is missing? And I…

Biz The 8,000 feet2 Gibson Garage Miami, with 500-plus display guitars, opens at 2600, NW 3rd Avenue, Miami, spring 2026. ■ The annual Independent Venue Week runs 26 January-1 February 2026, with Nova Twins its Ambassadors. Around 150 venues are participating, with gigs including Buzzcocks, Nick Harper, Inspiral Carpets’ Tom Hingley, The Magic Numbers’ Romeo Stodart & Ren Harvieu, Mad Professor. See independentvenueweek.com. ■ The 4,000-capacity Eutopia Warehouse of four venues opened on River Road, Barking, London, in October, as did the Town Hall venue, Bidborough Street, King's Cross, London. ■ The 3,500-capacity Derby Ultra venue/club opens 31 December. ■ In October, the Museum Of Christian & Gospel Music opened on Commerce Street, Nashville. Blues Due: December (2) The Original Blues Project Reunion In Central Park, Retroworld (12) Robert Lockwood Jr Right…

Before the introduction of the CD, DVD, HD-DVD and BD, lasers had an established place in the music and film industry, as Bowie acknowledged in his 1974 song, I Am A Laser. Numerous formats of laser-discs were produced, aside from novelty laser-etched vinyl records. While one-sided discs with an ‘etching’ stamped onto the blank side became quite common from the 80s, some had the visual effect forged across their grooves while remaining playable. The world's first laser-etched vinyl (so stickered on the picture sleeve) was Styx’s The Best Of Times (1980), etched on both sides. The band's name can be read in large letters on the playing area of both the A- and B-side of the 7”, the effect akin to a rainbow-coloured shadow, providing a 3D hologram effect on…

HIP HOP: BACK TO THE OLD SCHOOL Dudley Jaynes’ pick of collectables from 1979 to 1982 Having examined the early foundations of hip hop culture in the 70s Bronx in RC 339, we now plant ourselves in the time when hip hop made its jump to vinyl. Though this moment is often associated with Fatback and the Sugarhill Gang, it wouldn't be long before the culture's trailblazers, such as Grandmaster Flash, harnessed the vinyl medium to innovate their craft. FUNKY FOUR PLUS ONE MORE Rappin And Rocking The House (Enjoy #6000, 1979) £20 Alongside Sugarhill Records, Enjoy would be responsible for the early proliferation of hip hop beyond the Bronx. Many of hip hop's earliest exponents would begin their recorded legacy on Enjoy, before jumping to Sylvia Robinson's Sugarhill. Groups including…

Now includes Whole Love Of Lots CONTACTS AVISON YOUNG: www.avisonyoung.us BONHAMS: Tel 020 7447 7447; www.bonhams.com DISCOGS: www.discogs.com EBAY: www.ebay.co.uk EWBANK AUCTIONS: Tel 01483 223 101; www.ewbankauctions.co.uk INDUSTRIAL SILENCE: marc@industrial-silence.com; www.industrial-silence.com MEM: Tel 01635 269327; www.rockpopmem.com POPSIKE: www.popsike.com Send your Most Wanted suggestions to paulrigby@theaudiophileman.com…

CHRIS HERMSDORFER German symphonic metallers’ guitarist on their latest outing Tell us a bit about your latest project. We focused on the topic of communication today – this important part of our social lives. Is there anything still unissued? Hundreds of song ideas on my studio hard drives from different decades. Once in a while, I find an idea that still feels strong and I start reworking it. Who'd you like to produce? Disney movies and acts. Working with one of their teams would take my songwriting and production skills to another level. What records most influenced your style? Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses, Queen, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Pantera, Dream Theater, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen. Who's taken music forward in the last decade? The bands who really changed the game…

Tell us a bit about your new album. It's about my relationship to the muse that has helped me to write songs and make music since the beginning. It could be seen as a dual-haunting, where the muse haunts me and I haunt the muse. What film could it soundtrack? Close Encounters Of The Third Kind has the kind of ecstatic experiences that have powered some of these songs. Things living on the fringe of our reality. Is there anything still unissued? A huge amount stashed in all kinds of formats. But I don't believe that there's value in mining old material. Have you done anything that fans may not know about? I've been recording covers for a long time with bands that I've loved or loved hanging out with.…

Forever (Sunflower) Dennis sings lead, with beautiful falsetto backing from Carl. In Brian's words, “The most beautiful thing I've ever heard. It's a rock'n’roll prayer.” California Saga (Holland) The album's enchanting three-in-one centrepiece, written and performed by Al Jardine with Mike Love. Feel Flows (Surf's Up) Carl's psychedelic wonder. That fluttering flute over those brain-crushing Moog synths is trippy as hell. Disney Girls (1957) (Surf's Up) From Bruce Johnston, a much-underutilised resource, who serves up a gorgeous slice of sweet nostalgia. Long Promised Road (Surf's Up) Carl's first true song composition, and what an accomplishment – it starts out like a 90s R&B slow jam before ramping up the pace. Cuddle Up (Carl And The Passions - “So Tough”) Written with Daryl ‘Captain’ Dragon, Dennis’ mournful, melancholy string-laden epic, laced…

More than any other UK band, The Clash found themselves in the thick of the post-disco uproar gripping New York City in the early 80s, presenting black artists as opening acts at 1981’s legendary Bonds International Casino stretch and hearing their songs played on KISS FM and WBLS. Going down a storm when played at the Paradise Garage, proprietor Michael Brody wanted to book The Clash before Bonds prevented it. Of all The Clash, Mick Jones [pictured with Kris Needs recently, above-right, next to an image of Jones’ 1982 mixtape] was deepest into the electronic revolution transforming New York music, his bandmates nicknaming him ‘Wack Attack’ as he introduced mastermix techniques (The Clash were later acknowledged as the first British rock band to explore rap). Visiting Mick's flat after he…

In January 2000, IT administrators at Indiana University blocked Napster. The music sharing service, which never touched the music, just introduced supply to demand, had launched seven months earlier with no marketing, but it was already gobbling up two-thirds of campus bandwidth. Music fans couldn't get enough. Napster rode the internet into every home, built on choice, convenience, and no cost to the consumer, before iTunes then digital streaming platforms (DSPs) did the first two cheaply enough to make a clean criminal record and better-quality audio worth paying for. In the spring of 2000, the most traded song on Napster was Metallica's I Disappear. The song multiplied to thousands, perhaps millions, of copies. This was about as far from rare records as it was possible to get, but it had…

As our Christmas present to you, Record Collector spent several hours over several weeks in the company of this issue's editor: Bob Geldof, Knight of the Realm, Live Aid hero, sometimes conscience of the world, but deep down a music nut to the tips of his toes. Daryl Easlea went to deepest Kent to find out the tunes that have kept Geldof grooving for the past 74 years. Over the ensuing 21 days, we reunited in Essex and Cambridgeshire, continuing the conversation in shops, concerts and, well, at funerals… Meanwhile, as part of Sir Bob's remit to look after the commissioning and editing of the cover story and its numerous constituent parts, we have, on page 94, a tongue-in-cheek survey of 60-odd years of Christmas No 1 singles by Chris…

The 70s as a pop decade, for all its bounteous produce, felt overshadowed by a sense of societal decline, a post-60s hangover, and the ongoing absence of The Beatles, whose break-up felt traumatic, as if the world itself were broken. Nevertheless, it was studded with transformative moments, achievements beyond the dreams and capabilities of the Fab Four, driven by new technologies, greater ambitions for pop and rock – songs of Experience, rather than Innocence, in Blakeian terms, forged by more existentially adverse circumstances than those of the wide-eyed 60s. Some of its greatest singles would prove to be profoundly influential, even if they were not recognised as such at the time; others were simply achievements in their own right, great wonders from another era which remain intact and impressive decades…

1. DAVID BOWIE I Can't Give Everything Away (Parlophone) And so the series of box sets covering Bowie's life and work comes to an end with his exceptional final phase. Blackstar might have been the perfect curtain call, but this showed there's so much more to dig into, including ecstatic live recordings, outtakes, covers and remixes. 2. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Tracks II (Columbia) This superlative follow-up to 1998’s Tracks underlined just how much ace material the Boss has sitting on a shelf in his archive, seven discs of unreleased material that were (mostly) far too good to be hidden from view. 3. WILCO A Ghost Is Born (Nonesuch) The US indie-rockers dramatically expanded the world of their adventurous 2004 album with this mammoth box set, featuring nine LPs, four CDs and…

RAY CHARLES’ dialogue with soul, R&B and country music on his 1962 albums Modern Sounds In Country And Western and Modern Sounds In Country And Western Vol 2 were huge successes and introduced country to a wider audience. He returned to the genre on 1966’s Crying Time and several times more throughout the decades, including on 1970’s Love Country Style Tangerine Records). Arranged by Sid Feller, it was issued on his own Tangerine label and featured countrypolitan soul readings of songs by Micky Newbury and Leon Payne although it's his hear-it-to-believe-it reworking of Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire as sheer soul spectacle that steals the show. TINA TURNER’s Good Hearted Woman – The Definitive Edition Cherry Red) captures the raucous-voiced singer investing everything in her own country set that includes covers of…

Frankie Goes To Hollywood Welcome To The Pleasuredome: Super Deluxe Edition ZTT 6570666 (2CD/7CD/BD, 2LP, BD) We hacks usually write that an album “defies categorisation” if its songs all sound a bit different and can't be lumped together with a convenient genre title. It's a lazy device, but one that applies perfectly to this still-astonishing album, the Liverpool quintet Frankie Goes To Hollywood's only notable LP – and one that still confounds the brain when you try to describe it. The difficulty is that there are three tentpole pop hits on Welcome To The Pleasuredome whose dimensions both overshadow and obscure the lesser-known cuts, many of which are synth- and sequencer-based prog. What's more, this is a producer's album by any definition, as it's essentially the work of the ZTT…

Florence, your delivery on this album is more melodic than ever, even singing more. Why has that developed? How has that evolution been for you? Florence Shaw: I've always sung sometimes in Dry Cleaning songs. It gets less attention than the spoken word, I suppose, because that part of what I do is such a novelty for many people. But it is true, on this album I'm singing more. That's been a natural thing, just the result of playing around. It's a different quality, less controlled, I feel much more vulnerable singing. You say that Secret Love is “sad and dark”. Why do you say that? FS: Because so many of the lyrics are on this record. And I feel close to them still. That's what I think of when…

The Making Of The Coral J6 Films/Sony Music Vision (Cinemas/ DVD, BD TBC) Growing pains of the Wirral wonders… Essentially an origin story, this affectionately DIY documentary plots the early history of the Wirral's psychedelic tearaways as a tale of teenage bonds and mischief. Ditching talking heads, director and longstanding friend James Slater taps archive videos, faded photos, scrappy animation and voiceovers to foreground a “total gang” mentality: friendships forged through music are the (skeleton) keys to this story. Like the bandmates’ bonds, the footage stretches back to childhood, where The Coral grew up in working-class twitching-curtain suburbia and bonded in playgrounds over toys. Youthful hi-jinks included DJ-ing, ghost-hunting and smoking weed – until, it's said, “One day you woke up and Oasis were there…”. With that energising example set,…

This month: The Residents, Birmingham Town Hall, Monday 27 June 1983 In June 1983 the mysterious Residents, did their first tour outside the US, performing their Mole Show in the UK and mainland Europe. The original tour schedule began in London, at the Hammersmith Odeon. My mate Rob [pictured as a ‘Resident’ inset-below, middle, with Philip far right] and I quickly bought tickets, even though it was for a work day. This would mean travelling from Birmingham to London and back on the same day. However, after purchasing the tickets, another performance was announced for the day before the London gig, at the Birmingham Town Hall, which was, literally, more up our street than London. So, we went to both performances. The Birmingham performance was particularly chaotic. The Residents used…

At RC Towers, we anticipate new music from Band Of Joy, Blind Guardian, Foghat, The Cure, My Ruin, Type O Negative, Robyn, The Prodigy, The Stray Cats, Alexisonfire, Nick Jonas, Joe Lynn Turner, Akon, Five Finger Death Punch, Henry Rollins/ Fugazi's Ian MacKaye, Slayer's Kerry King, 50 Cent, Soft Cell, The Commander In Chief, Lorde, Masterplan, The All-American Rejects, Europe's John Norum (on Frontiers), Sunn O))) (Sub Pop), Quartz (Battlegod), Deadmau5 (mau5trap), Waxahatchee (Anti-), Mika (Republic); Xmal Deutschland reissues (4AD). CELLULOID HEROES Projects due include Sam Wrench's Christina Aguilera: Christmas In Paris concert film, in cinemas, 14,21 December; James L Brooks’ Ella McCay film, cinemas, 12 December, soundtracked by Hans Zimmer, as is the six-part Schwarzes Gold on German TV in December; Adam MacDonald's This Is Not A Test film, due…

A Sound & Cinema auction is held 30 November-3 December at Bonham's, Knightsbridge, London, while a 29 October sale included masks from Ozzy Osbourne, Nicki Minaj. On 5 November, a world record was set for album sleeve art, with the sale of Duffy's David Bowie Aladdin Sane original artwork for £381,400. The Sound & Cinema auction to 3 December includes charity artwork from Don Letts, Joe Talbot (IDLES), Steve Ignorant (Crass), Phil Selway (Radiohead), DJ Provai (Kneecap), Roni Size. ■ An ELP record award was offered 23 October via dreweatts.com. ■ Annie Lennox Sweet Dreams handwritten lyrics were offered 28 October via auctioneum.co.uk. ■ A 23 October andersonandgarland.com auction included signed Pink Floyd drumhead. ■ A Kenney Jones signed drumskin was offered 22 October via iritamarriottauctioneers.co.uk. ■ A 22 October lotsroad.com…

Warren Kurtz began collecting records in the 60s and has written about music since the 70s. For the past 10 years, he has been a contributing editor at Goldmine – The Music Collector's Magazine in the US, writing over 700 articles for the publication. Kurtz has a weekly interview series called Fabulous Flip Sides, where he and an artist discuss a few songs from the past and their latest recordings. Kurtz also writes the monthly In Memoriam series which often includes artists’ quotes on their fellow bandmates and music heroes. What do you collect, and why? The collection started when I was nine, with AM radio Top 40 singles in 1967, buying three 45s a weekend, and flipping them over to see if the flipsides came close to matching what…

(CBS Special Products LSP 15036, LP, UK, 1981) £5 Let's face it, football records have a mixed reputation. An enduring impression, mostly derived from the 70s, is of a bunch of players bedecked in quasi-Christmas jumpers and questionably-designed trousers belting out cruise ship-style shockers. For a sport sometimes burdened by self-importance and fashion failures, however, there are many examples of memorable football records. Back in 1981, the Football Association participated in an interesting concept to celebrate 100 years of the FA Cup. The resulting album compiled a hugely entertaining selection of songs. You want singalongs? Check. The Nolans? Check. A brass band? Check. Some 10cc connections? Check. It's all here and much more…. The album's structure is impressive; each song is interspersed with selected commentaries from English Cup Finals between 1953…

Ace Frehley, died 16 October, age 74. As the flamboyant lead guitarist for KISS, the American musician played a key role in their huge success. Born in New York, he was a founding member of the hard rock group alongside Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, and Peter Criss, designing their iconic logo as one of his first acts. Performing in theatrical black and white make-up and costumes, KISS were a larger-than-life act whose members were cast as comic book style characters. Frehley's ‘Spaceman’ was the wildest of the bunch, playing a guitar that emitted smoke onstage as if on fire while he revelled in the drug and alcohol excesses of the rock'n’roll lifestyle – in contrast to the more businessminded group leaders Simmons and Stanley. Playing on all KISS's albums until…

What film could your new project soundtrack? It is actually part soundtrack, and it's a beautiful album; a collection of snapshots from Out There – A Deep-Space Love Story, which eventually will become an opera, a musical, and an animated fulllength feature film, or a nail-biting, disturbing, tear-jerking blockbuster movie. It came about in 1996 with the gifted writer, Russell Hoban. We started with just one song, but we got carried away and burst through the reality membrane into a distant galaxy and just kept going. We tried to drum up development funding, but no luck, so we went back to our separate worlds, he to his next novel, me back on the road with Status Quo. Russell passed away in 2011 but, last spring, I received an email from…

It's 60 years since Brinsley Schwarz made his recording bow, a handful of singles with the semi-psychedelic pop band Kippington Lodge, but he became a more visible presence later in the decade when he lent his name to the pub rock figureheads who also included Nick Lowe in their number. Following their demise in the mid-70s, he resurfaced as one of Graham Parker's trusty lieutenants in The Rumour, a relationship that continued well into GP's subsequent solo career. He made his belated debut as a solo artist with Untangled in 2016, and this November brought the release of a third album, Shouting At The Moon. The new record is described in advance publicity as the third part of a trilogy. Was that always the intention? Not especially. I only began…

“I grew up at the time of Frankie Laine and Guy Mitchell,” Thompson began. “When I think back, it was a bit of a grey time, so I got into skiffle. I was interested in blues from an early age, about 11 or 12. I think Chris Barber never gets enough credit - fought tooth and nail to bring American blues players to this country. So, I went down that blues line; not exactly folk, playing my tea chest bass, and I started listening to New Orleans traditional jazz and street bands like Papa Celestin and George Lewis and eventually to people like Earl Bostic. “Then,” he continued, “about the age of 16, I got my first double bass. The night I got it, I tied it on top of…

Inspired by 1973 film That'll Be The Day, Shaun Ryder formed Happy Mondays in 1980 with a line-up completed by bassist brother Paul Ryder, drummer Gaz Whelan, keyboardist Paul Davis and guitarist Mark Day. With influences spanning The Beatles to Funkadelic, they recorded their 1985 debut EP, Forty Five, an indie-jangle, avant-funk jumble produced by Factory A&R Mike Pickering. By 1986 single Freaky Dancin’ with Bernard Sumner as producer they had recruited Mark ‘Bez’ Berry as Ryder's freaky dancin’ foil. Success wasn't immediate, but when it came, it was all-consuming, and by 1990 the group were pursued by every music paper, as much for their hedonistic lifestyle as their eradefining run of releases: WLF (Wrote For Luck), Madchester Rave On EP, Step On, Kinky Afro, album Pills ’N Thrills And…

1951 Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof is born 5 October in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland 1963 Sees and meets The Beatles in Dublin 1965 Sees The Rolling Stones in concert 1966 Purchases Good Vibrations from Murray's Dún Laoghaire 1973 Works on the building of the M25 1974 Writes for The Georgia Straight in Vancouver 1975 The Nightlife Thugs become The Boomtown Rats after their debut concert on Halloween 1976 Relocates to UK. Boomtown Rats sign to Ensign Records, the new label founded by Nigel Grainge and Chris Hill 1977 Debut single Looking After No 1 and debut album The Boomtown Rats released 1978 Second album, powerpop masterpiece A Tonic For The Troops is released in July. In November, the Rats reach UK No 1 with Rat Trap. Geldof tears up picture of…

I'm Not In Love was beautiful. I'm into music, into listening to it, and reading about how they stacked up their harmonies, one on top of the other, which is a piece of piss to do today. I like to hear stacked harmonies: Good Vibrations, all those sorts of things. Probably because of [producer] Mutt Lange, the Rats used big choruses, too. Bohemian Rhapsody is a total fucking stand-alone outright, balls-out classic. There's just no way it isn't. The minute you hear it, you go, “What's that?” You can say it's overblown pop, yet you still think … tune. I Don't Like Mondays was just a spur-ofthe-moment thing. I was trying to learn how to play [Elvis Costello's] Oliver's Army on the guitar. They're standard chords, literally one key. That…

120 From The Vaults 130 New Albums 136 Books/Movies 138 Singles 152 Lives Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here 50 Columbia/Legacy 196873561073 (2CD/3LP/BD/77”, 2CD, 3LP) David Gilmour and Roger Waters both took their shows around the world in 2023/2024; artists at either extreme of the musical and ideological spectrum of Pink Floyd, the group they shared for 18 years. To emphasise their difference in attitude to their old turn, their respective shows only featured two co-written songs from the 120 or so they recorded in their fertile period together. One, Comfortably Numb, in performance perfectly illustrated this fundamental disparity. Waters opened his show with it; a stripped-down guitar-less version infused with icy minimalism. Gilmour concluded with it – a traditional, timeless rendition, ladled generously with his career-defining guitar solo. However,…

Thin Lizzy 74-75 – Nightlife / Fighting Universal Music Recordings 7539580 (7CD/BD) As an esteemed Record Collector reader, you've likely experienced the unpleasant sensation of repressing a surge of simmering fury while a pub bore or edgelord critic spouts a revisionist account of a favourite band's career that's as accurate as an archer with a skinful of absinthe. The usual targets are The Beatles and The Sex Pistols, invariably repositioned as the boy band puppets of Machiavellian managers. Thin Lizzy also suffer more than most in this regard, with retrospectives often dismissing anything other than Whiskey In The Jar, and the albums released between 1976 and 1979, as subpar. The fact that Van Morrison and Bob Dylan have praised Phil Lynott's songwriting in the years since his passing suggests that…

Two Tribes (Hibakusha)/War (Hide Yourself)/Two Tribes/One February Friday (12”, ZTT XZIP 1, ZTT sleeve, UK) £15 The recent RCRRPG’s only Frankie entry reveals a lack of enthusiasm among UK collectors – or is it just that because they sold so many damn singles here, there aren't any rarities? Two Tribes (Hibakusha)/War (Hide Yourself)/Two Tribes (We Don't Want To Die)/One February Friday (12”, ZTT X 14065, Australia) £100 This is listed at over £400 at Discogs, but like the instigators of nuclear disarmament, we're taking a more sensible approach. Welcome To The Pleasuredome (Real Altered)/Get It On/ Happy Hi!/Relax (International) (12”, ZTT 12ZTAS7, UK) £6 Yes, that is a T.Rex cover on this single from the end of the Pleasuredome campaign. Relax (DJ Mix)/Relax (Sex Mix)/Ferry/Relax (12”, ZTT WIPX 902, Italy)…

Dry cleaning Secret Love 4AD 4 AD 0868 LP (CD, LP) “I make sure there are hidden messages in my work,” sing-speaks Florence Shaw on Cruise Ship Designer, the second track on this third album by London art-rock quartet Dry Cleaning. Shaw is taking on the persona of a nautical entrepreneur who is convinced their work has social value. But it's a line that rings true given a certain indecipherability and the need to de-code has been a feature of Dry Cleaning's allure. Shaw was a visual artist before becoming Dry Cleaning's frontwoman and lyricist when the band formed in 2017, and her layered, impressionistic, surrealist wordplay – snatches of overheard conversations and uncontextualised thoughts – comes over like cut up ruminations of a fractured world, asking the listener to…

What motivated you to write a second Bowie book, in a crowded field? What do you do, for example, in Far Above The World that you didn't do in The Age Of Bowie? This one is more a series of overlapping moods and impressions than The Age Of Bowie – setting me up for a possible trilogy. I'm still chasing the idea of finding the perfect book about Bowie as artist and explorer, when there is so much that seems known, so much that is familiar. Plenty has changed over the past 10 years since my last Bowie book – not least the state of the world, of reality, and of how the songs of Bowie now fit into that world and reality, and seem a commentary on the current…

S. Carey Watercress Jagjaguwar/JAG 472LP (12”) All things considered, there are too few songs about watercress. There's Roger Watson's Watercress-O and a few older folk tunes on the produce and those who once sold it. Then there is the huge number of songs that would've been improved if they had been written about the green plant so rich in its vitamins. Smoke On The Watercress, for instance. Bridge Over Troubled Watercress. Hell Or High Watercress. Watercress Sunset. Bring Your Daughter To The Watercress. I could go on, as this is my cress to bear. Sean Carey's addition to the canon, Watercress, is such a gentle lullaby it even includes the word “lullabies”. It's about the autumn, or “the fall” as the season is known by this Wisconsin native and member…

All Time Low January 2026 (20) Glasgow OVO Hydro (22) Cardiff Utilita Arena (23) Manchester Co-op Live (24) London Greenwich O2 Orianthi January 2026 (24) Manchester Band On The Wall (25) Glasgow Oran Mor (28) Leeds Brudenell (29) London Islington O2 Academy (31) Trecco Bay Planet Rock Winter's End February (1) Southampton Brook Now Booking Boyzlife February 2026 (12) Guildford G Live (13) Chatham Central Theatre (14) Worthing Assembly Hall (15) Cardiff New Theatre (16) Southampton O2 Guildhall (20) Torquay Princess Theatre (21) Stevenage Gordon Craig Theatre (22) Brentwood Entertainment Centre (26) Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (27) Dumfries Easterbrook Hall (28) Edinburgh Usher Hall March (1) Stockton Globe (5) Stockport Plaza (6) Derby Becketwell Live (7) Hull Connexin Live (8) Stoke Hanley Victoria ( 12) Eastbourne Congress (13) Cheltenham Town Hall (14)…

This month: Phil Wainman The Boomtown Rats’ I Don't Like Mondays was a first, even if some felt it should maybe also be the last: a pop hit based on an American junior school shooting. And yet the 1979 No 1 record that has become a timeless classic wasn't exactly the first. Producer Phil Wainman, the man behind a wealth of hits by Sweet and Bay City Rollers, chuckles and says: “There were two other versions: Mutt Lange did one, and Gus Dudgeon did one.” So how did that come about? Says Wainman: “I'd been offered the Rats twice before, when they sounded like the Stones, and I'd thought, well, there's already a Rolling Stones. Nigel Grainge who ran their record company, Ensign, and I had history from his Phonogram…

Slim Galliard & His Flat-Foot-Floogee Boys Matzoh Balls (Vocalion 5301, 10”, 78rpm, US, 1939) £20 Slim Gaillard played with lots of people, but the lineup with Slam Stewart from 1938 is my favourite. Slam harmonises with a bowed bass, which is really good. For me, Matzoh Balls stands for pre-war jazz/pop/blues: risqué humour, reefer songs! I first saw Slim & Slam when I was in my teens – the BBC showed a screwball comedy called Hellzapoppin’. Slim & Slam actually appeared; a still from the film is on one of the albums I have. Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five Saturday Night Fish Fry (Decca 9-24725, 7”, US, 1949) £8 Post-war, things moved on a bit. Big bands started shrinking to combos. In Saturday Night Fish Fry, Louis Jordan is…