Groove Issue 1: The Kinks

Best Band Names Of 2013?

http://www.avclub.com/article/georgia-oqueef-meet-slutvomit-the-year-in-band-nam-200590

Groove Issue 1: The Jackson 5

Citadel Miniatures Catalogue Third Edition 1983

Vinyl Odyssey: Strawberry Switchblade - Who Knows What Love Is?

More mid 80’s bal-ard. Years ago when I had a shop, there was a bloke who used to come in and chat- well he’d come in speak at me for 5 minutes and then abruptly leave (never bought anything). He mostly used to talk about music and would repeatedly tell me how much he liked Bal-ards. “J.G. or concrete?” I felt like asking.  

The B side to this has the extended ‘kitchensynch’ mix up version that should have been the A side to the 12” version mentioned in VO#6- replete with drum machine breaks (reverse snare et. al.).  Anyway Who Knows What Love Is? is a bit of a dreary domestic love song- all cups of tea, bored living rooms and glossy magazines with lyrics not quite as good as this sentence. Track two, ‘Poor Hearts’ is much better. Here's an unreleased version that sounds far better than the one on this record, which has the bog- S.A.W.-standard 80's production.


 Who picked the first one to be a single?  According to Wikipedia it only got to number 84 in the charts.   Fun Fact: Jill Bryson now records as lovely sounding The Shapists:

eBay info: 

A Side:
1. Who Knows What Love Is? 2. Poor Hearts

B Side:
1. Let Her Go (Kitchen Synch Mix-Up)

Korova Records 1985
KOW 41T (249 057-0)
Matrices:
KOW 41T A//1420V
KOW 41T B//1420V


This record has been recently tested and is scratch free.
The outer sleeve is in excellent condition with only a few minor creases.

 

Vinyl Odyssey : Strawberry Switchblade – Let Her Go 12”

Most 12” singles from the 80’s where just the single with an extra bit of drum machine at the beginning middle and or end. Except for this one, which just has the standard single on the A side but 2 tracks on the B. Let Her Go is ok as far as pop singles go, but it’s no ‘Since Yesterday’.  Side B’s first tracks is a ballad, a bit slow but also a bit of a ‘grower’- it suffers from mid 80’s soulless production and would sound better done Mazzy Star / Country-Gloom style, with more guitars and less drum machine.  Track 2, ‘Michael Who Walks By Night’- has got the cheesy keyboard set to a slow tempo Bossa Nova and sounds like she’s singing  “my cocoa’s fine”??

eBay info:
Strawberry Switchblade: Let Her Go 12" single
B Side:
1. Beautiful End
2. Michael Who Walks By Night

Korova Records 1985
KOW 39T (24911-0)
Matrices:
KOW 39T A//1420V
KOW 39T B//1420V


This record has been recently tested and is scratch free.
The outer sleeve has one small crease on the top right corner and is otherwise in excellent condition.

Laserdisks! Star Wars Empire Strikes Back Rare CBS Fox Laserdisk 1985

Star Wars
Empire Strikes Back
 CBS Fox Laserdisk 1985
Stereo 1425-70
CLV Longplay PAL/SECAM 625 Lines

Laserdisks! Back To The Future Stereo CIC Video Laserdisc 1985

Back To The Future
 CIC Video Laserdisc 1985
LVH 1204
PAL/SECAM 625 Long Play Stereo

Laserdisks! The Best of The Kenny Everett Video Show Thames Video 1982

 

Thames Video Laserdisc
1982
112 Minutes
Mono. CLV, Long Play. PAL/SECAM
 featured guests include: David Bowie, Elvis Costello, David Essex, Cliff Richards, Thin Lizzy &; Roxy Music

Mark E Smith Interview From 1986

RICHARD LOWE - our man in London with a tape recorder and a portion of chips - tracks the rise of THE FALL and captures some of the latest nuggets in that ever-expanding volume of work, The Thoughts Of Chairman Mark. Photographs by BEEZER.

MARK E SMITH is a happy man. His group The Fall's last single, Mr. Pharmacist, was their most successful ever.

It got to 75 in the charts. Their eight year career had hardly been a staggering commercial success, but The Fall have managed to

maintain a loyal and consistent audience for their

peculiar brand of rock' n ' rant music.

'We usually manage to sell about 20-40,000 copies

Of each record,' he says. 'We do all right. We're not

exactly in Rolls Royces yet, but we make a decent living.'

Indeed, The Fall's latest LP Bend Sinister entered

the charts at a respectable 34 at the time of writing,

and it's this august body of work that Mark is here to

discuss, particularly some of the more curious song

titles such as Shoulder Pads, Terry Waite Sez and

US Eighties And Nineties. Shoulder Pads is just

about a lot of different people and why I think

they're twats - there's two parts to the song, one

on each side of the LP, but really I could have written

about nine different songs on that subject. I suppose it

is an odd title; it' s an American football term and I can't

stand American football. It's so boring and complicated

-like a sort of moronic chess.

'Terry Waite Sez isn't about the Terry Waite,

although I do dislike him intensely; we were in this

pub in Stockport and there was this drunk there called

Terry Waite and I noted down all the things he was

saying and used them for the song.

'US Eighties And Nineties is about America

and how it's changed over the years. When I've been

there before it was the freest place I'd ever been to in

my life, but the last few times I've been it' s been a

very oppressed place – as bad as Russia or somewhere.

'Have you ever been behind the Iron Curtain? It

shits you up. I've been to East Germany and Yugoslavia

- horrible places. I suppose they have a better standard of living than we

do, but that standardisation of life is a danger.

Everybody wears brown pants and everybody wears

check shirts . That's why I don't agree with socialist

views. I don't think turning Britain into East Germany

is going to solve anything; it'll just make things worse.

'And those bands that go on about socialism, those

Red Wedge people, they don't really know anything

about politics - they don 't know anything about history

or 'owt and I think they do more harm than good.

And the way I see it , it's dangerous because next

year it could be the Nazi party and they wouldn't

know any different.'

The Fall, however are not averse to playing the odd benefit. They recently played an anti-apartheid gig at the Albert Hall with The Smiths and even  played at a benefit for Derek  Hatton's legal battle fund. 'We insisted on being paid for that. We're not tramps, we're working class people doing a job , so why shouldn't we be paid for it? I'm not a socialist but I think it's wrong the way that guy was persecuted, especially by the Labour Party, and he's only going to be replaced by some line toeing middle-aged guy who's not going to do anything for the working class people of Liverpool.' A staunch Mancunian and a man with such songs a s The North Will Rise Again and Lucifer Over Lancashire in his repertoire, Smith never the less refutes the suggestion that he's one of that most irritating of breeds - the Professional Northerner. 'I'm always accused of that, but it's just not true, it's just something that's been tagged on me over the years. I don't dislike people who come from the south. It's terrible to say things like that; all that northern thing is getting very tiresome. ' I thought what Edwina  Currie said about northerners was outrageous, though. I mean just look at all these Londoners; they're knackered , aren't they? The water's shit and they live in horrible over crowded conditions. It's hilarious. And if you go to Newcastle they're all so revoltingly healthy it makes you sick, - they all go running and

everything. 'With 87 just round the corner, the media are getting starry-eyed and nostalgic about the 'heady days of punk rock' . Smith (a bit of a legendary punk veteran),has an interesting viewpoint. 'All this punk retrospective stuff is just a media hype - The Fall haven't been going for 10 years for a start, and nor have a lot of the other bands that are getting lumped into all that stuff. Like we did this Tenth Summer thing in Manchester, which was meant to celebrate the tenth anniversary of punk and there were bands like us, New Order, The Smiths, OMD, The Virgin Prunes none of those bands have been going ten years, it was all a bit off. It was a nice day though. 'People go on about it all now, but no-one cared about us when we were starting out; The Buzzcocks helped us out a real lot in them days but they're he only ones who did. I must admit I'm more into all those groups now than I was then, especially Sham 69 I saw them on the telly again and they were great, pure vaudeville, like a comedy act or something. But I'm not into all that glorifying of the past. I'm more interested in the present. 'The present for The Fall is a tour of Britain and America ('we're treated more like demagogues over there, it 's like doing a lecture tour or something'),and then this month a new single, as yet untitled, which will coincide with, and be based on, a play, written and performed by The Fall themselves. 'The single will be the same title as he play, and it's all about Pope John Paul I, the one who died after about 30 days. I wrote the play and we'll all be acting in it. It's based on this book I read about him which reckoned there was a conspiracy to murder him involving all these Italian fascist guys and this bishop from Chicago. Apparently the night before he died he'd made this list of people he wanted to get rid of in the Vatican. It's all contention of course, no-one really knows if it's true or not. Things like that fascinate me.'

Doubt if it'll make number one in Italy though.

Vinyl Odyssey: Sparks: Propaganda

 Propergerner?

Proper Ger Nerr!

This could have been sides 3 and 4 of "Kimono My House" but I think that one got all the best tunes. Still some good stuff on this though, Track 3, "Reinforcements"  sounds like a footstomping Sweet or Mud track.  "Something For The Girl" sounds a lot like ‘This Town….’ “Achoo” sounds very familiar- like the Arctic Monkies or something modern (i.e. early 21th Century to those reading this in the "future") and has another slightly annoying ending that must have sounded awesome in the studio. I’ll blame Muff ( and/or cocaine. Probably.) In retrospect “Who Don’t Like Kids” could be seen as a rather unfortunate title, considering it was the Nonce-Friendly 70’s.

 eBay listing info:

Island Records 1974
ILPS 9312
Matrices:
ILPS 9312 A -1U
ILPS 9312 B-1U


Record has been recently tested and is scratch free~ there are some minor scuffs / thin scratches on the surface but these do not affect the audio.
The outer sleeve has very few creases or dints and the corners are in good shape. The inner sleeve is crease and crinkle free with some slight foxing in one corner. The only thing really wrong with this item is the glue on the outer sleeve is coming adrift (see photo).

More glue issues with this one.

Vinyl Odyssey: Sparks: Kimono My House

Where would Muse be without Sparks, another band that I’m aware of without actually listening to any albums and after giving Kimono My House a spin it sounds like I’ve been missing out! Everybody knows “This Town…” but the rest of the tracks are equally good although the last track, “Equator” is a bit irritating.  Produced by Muff ‘Don’t  Ask How I Got My Name’ Winwood.  Fun Fact: When he was an A n' R person he signed Welshelvis ‘Shakin’ Stevens. Thanks Muff.

eBay listing:

“Island Records 1974
ILPS 9272
Matrices:
ILPS 9272 A -2U
ILPS 9272 B-1U


Record has been recently tested and is scratch free.
The outer sleeve has no creases or dints and the corners are in good shape. The inner sleeve is crease and crinkle free. The only thing really wrong with this item is the glue on the inner sleeve is coming adrift (see photo).”

Would it be right just to glue down the inner sleeve and not mention it? I’m going with honesty as a best policy here and I don’t want to do a botched restoration job even on a 40 year old record sleeve. 

Dr Alimantado - Johnny Was a Baker

Vinyl Odyssey: Tubeway Army: Replicas

Surprisingly good this- not heard it before, apart from "Are ‘Friends’ Electric" of course.  Much more guitars than expected, but then I remember seeing some doc where Mr. Numan says they only discovered synths when they got to the studio and you can tell- this is a guitar band with a lot of synths and not a full on electro band.

~ I Nearly Married A Human- the most synthy track on the LP

Here’s the eBay listing info:

“Beggars Banquet 1979
Bega 7
Matrices:
A - S-15 BEGA-7-A1 STRAWBERRY EG
B - S-14 BEGA-7-B1 EG- STRAWBERRY

Missing the poster and the inner sleeve with lyrics. Outer sleeve is in very good condition with only very slight creasing to the spine.
Record has been recently tested and is scratch free and only the occasional 'vinyl pop'. There are a couple of visible scuffs but these do not effect the audio.”

Now the listing is live I’m wondering how much of a problem not having the original lyric sheet sleeve and poster will be. If it doesn’t sell maybe I should try and find a duff copy of the album that has the proper sleeve?

Vinyl Odyssey: I Bought A Record Player

Now that I’m selling on eBay full time my elder bro Karl suggested we flog our old vinyl collection- most of it’s his and a lot of it I’ve never listened to properly. Knowing that detailed information is the key to eBay flogging I figured that it would be a good idea to actually test the records I was hoping to sell in order see if there was any major scratches or problems that might result in ANGRY NEGATIVE FEEDBACK.

Not having owned a record player for about a decade and a half I went on the lookout for something to play them on. I didn’t want to fork out 100’s of squids on a new ‘deck’ so I went on the hunt for an old fashioned ‘hi-fi’. After drawing a blank on freecycle local ebay listings or gumtree I took a Misery Bus into town and went mooching round the charity shops.  4^th time lucky I found what I was looking for. A British made Fidelity MC5 (really) all-in-one ‘phono’, ‘tuner’ and ‘tape deck’. £20. I already had some decent speakers (80’s era Technics I’ve been carrying around house move after house move hoping one day to find a use for them), so I was all Ready-to-Rumpole with my Vintage Fi.

I got the thing set up and attached the speakers (by mashing the bare wires into the little holes) and switched it on. And there it was again, that forgotten pop and hum of an analog  amp (and thus I turn into a typical 40something banging on about analog. And vinyl.) The sound was a bit wonky and vary-speed but a quick look on the internet (on a website I forgot to bookmark and now, chillingly, I can’t find*) gave me the solution and after cleaning the spinning rubber disk thing and the underneath of the turn around bit the record goes on it worked fine. Fantastic. 

So now I’m in the process of listening to and then listing on eBay mine and my bro’s record collection. I’ll do a brief update/review of each one as I go along. There’s quite a lot, and I’m just grabbing random chunks of them each time I go round to visit, so there won’t be any logic or order to them and expect a LOT of New Wave/Prog/80’s stuff (Karl’s records – will no doubt be in the best condition and sell better), and Metal/80’s Rock (mine- probably unplayable and unsellable). There’s probably some of my parents Nana Mouskouri LP’s buried in there to.

     

*I remember it going on about the plural of Stylus is ‘Styli’ and not ‘Stlyus’s’s’ and they’re definitely NOT called a ‘needle’.