Table of contents for Issue 545 in Record Collector

SEND YOUR PRAISE, MISSIVES AND CALLS FOR THE DEIFICATION OF JOE GEESIN TO: rc.editorial@metropolis.co.uk, or to Record Collector, 2nd Floor, Saunders House, 52-53 The Mall, London W5 3TA, or via social media rc.editorial@metropolis.co.uk www.recordcollectormag.com Record Collector Magazine @RecCollmag RecordCollectormag @recordcollectormag PREPOSITION NORMAL I noticed on page 74 [of the Eddie Piller feature, RC 544] that the photo caption at the bottom of the page states that the picture was taken in Amsterdam in 1982. But on closer inspection you can clearly see a British parking restriction sign (“At any time”/“No loading 8.30am – M'night”). I don't recognise the building – maybe one of your readers might know where it is in the UK (presuming it's still standing!). Graham Johnston, Burton-in-Kendal CRISIS TALK Very interesting article on The Cost Of Collecting…

Jeremy Allen once missed out on the chance to interview Paul McCartney due to a cockup; in this month's RC, he contents himself with speaking to the world's second greatest living songwriter, Ron Mael from Sparks (p74), alongside his brother Russell. Lois Wilson bonded with Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall (p48) over their shared love of the late Roger Eagle, Twisted Wheel DJ and Eric's proprietor before they got down to RC Interview business. Lois also interviewed Rhoda Dakar (pl28) and wrote this month's soul column. After a working lifetime writing about music, Michael Heatley currently plays for a living with south-coast combo the Otis Jay Blues Band. He's always admired great vocalists, of whom Family's Roger Chapman (p58) is undoubtedly one, and is delighted to finally bring the band…

How come you're back now? I never stopped but, by 2014, I'd burned out. But I love to write, record and perform. A gift and a curse. Tell us about the album. It's our most mature-sounding to date, no double-tracked vocals, except Feelings Cure – rawer. Were there any amusing episodes during its creation? Some was recorded during lockdown in Queens, New York. There was a hole in the floor and, one time, recording vocals, I heard moaning through my headphones – downstairs having sex! How long did it take – the album, that is? Two years. What else were you up to during the interregnum? I tried improv comedy – so liberating. I performed in New York bars and clubs almost every night. What was the standout moment? Playing…

Joe Armon-Jones & Maxwell Owin Archetype II, Aquarii, 9 June: Shabaka Hutchings. Appice-Perdomo Running Up That Hill, Cleopatra, 26 May: Billy Sheehan (Mr Big), Derek Sherinian (ex-KISS), Jimmy Haslip (Yellowjackets), Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal (ex-Guns N' Roses), Phil Soussan (Last In Line), Tony Franklin (ex-The Firm). The Police's Stewart Copeland Police Deranged For Orchestra, Shelter, 23 June: Armand Sabal Lecco (Paul Simon), Rusty Anderson (Paul McCartney). Laura Cantrell Just Like A Rose CD, LP, Propellor, 9 June: Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Rosie Flores, Mark Spencer (Lisa Loeb), Jeremy Chatzky (Bruce Springsteen), Kenny Vaughan (Marty Stuart), Fats Kaplan (Jack White), Dennis Crouch (Robert Plant), Jen Gunderman (Sheryl Crow). Lauren Calve Shift, laurencalve.com, 1 September: Fred Eltringham (Willie Nelson), Audley Freed (Sheryl Crow), Robert Kearns (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Marlon Patton (Lera Lynn), Jared Reynolds…

JUST THE TICKET The more that printed slips for gigs become forgotten artefacts, the more their value, both financial and sentimental, increases for Michael Green As well as records, I collect music memorabilia such as flyers, posters and, of course, gig tickets. These are not just bits of paper; they're a collection of a lifetime of memories. Years ago, tickets were often discarded after the event, but in more recent years, they've become desirable objects in their own right. The value of a ticket depends on several things including the popularity of the artist, the condition, and the rarity of the ticket. Used concert tickets now sell for well over £100. Tickets for The Beatles typically fetch between £150 and £500 and early tickets from the likes of The Rolling…

Mark Stewart, died 21 April, age 62. Good natured and galumphing, Mark Stewart in person belied the colossus he was in postpunk history. In 1979, when The Pop Group first travelled to New York, Stewart made cassette recordings of very early rap and hip-hop which he then brought back for distribution across Bristol, scattering seeds for future scenes. That was Stewart – all channels open, all channels pursued. Stewart idolised The Clash, but The Pop Group were arguably more crucial than Strummer and co, exploding rather than reinforcing leatherbound rock tropes. They were inaugural. ABC's Martin Fry is in thrall to them, and though A Certain Ratio adopted funk in an inverted, Gothic way they willingly acknowledge The Pop Group's influence. Ian Dury & The Blockheads brilliantly adopted funk and…

Allan Clarke co-founded The Hollies with school friend Graham Nash. Between 1963, the year they started, and 1968 when Nash left to form Crosby, Stills & Nash, they notched up nine Top 5 singles including Just One Look, Llere I Go Again and I'm Alive, their first of two No Is. Their post-Nash successes, meanwhile, included 1969 s Sorry Suzanne and He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother (their second No 1 when reissued in 1988) and 1974 s The Air I Breathe. By then, Clarke was also recording as a solo artist with 1978 s (I Will Be Your) Shadow In The Street making waves in the US. In 1999, he retired but returned in 2019 with his album Resurgence. Its follow-up, I'll Never Forget, reunites him with Nash. “We've…

GALEN & PAUL In 2014, Galen Ayers and Paul Simonon bonded in support of Damon Albarn and a lighter way to enjoy chocolate. The duo's first outing together was as audience members at one of Albarn's Royal Albert Hall stop-offs on his Everyday Robots tour, sharing a box with friends. “With Maltesers,” recalls Simonon, the bassist whose history includes The Clash, Havana 3am, The Good, The Bad & The Queen and Gorillaz, among other artistic and environmental pursuits. “Throwing them at people – let them eat chocolate!” recalls Galen, daughter of late Soft Machine luminary Kevin Ayers and a singer, songwriter and activist herself. “Like chocolate cannonballs,” adds Simonon, the Clash bassist embracing the confectionery of SW7. Almost a decade on, Ayers and Simonon have reconvened as Galen & Paul…

A Legend (1970) £80 The best of The Sunsets. The rough-edged magic includes a thrilling The Train Kept A Rollin', Hawkins Mood and a version of I Hear You Knocking that, according to singer/drummer Rockin’ Louie, inspired producer Dave Edmunds’ subsequent hit. Marie Marie (1980) £18 Shaky was still on the threshold when this came out, but the album was quickly renamed and reissued as This Ole House on the back of the latter single's huge success in early 1981. Shaky (1981) £5 His only No 1 album catches him reaching his peak as a master pop stylist, while still rocking. Has a high proportion of very catchy self-penned songs, as well as a boppin’ Mona Lisa and the monster hits, You Drive Me Crazy and Green Door. Now Listen…

Wonder GirlRogerGirl From GermanyDo Re MiThis Town Ain't Big EnoughFor Both Of UsHasta Manana MonsieurNever Turn Your Back OnMother EarthHow Are You Getting Home?Get In The SwingTitsBig BoyThrow Her Away And Get ANew OneForever YoungGoofing OffThe Number One Song In HeavenMy Other VoiceWhen I'm With YouRock'n'Roll People In ADisco WorldTips For TeensThat's Not NastassiaI PredictSherlock HolmesCool PlacesPopularityWith All My MightProgressChangeMusic You Can Dance ToSo ImportantMadonna (French version)When Do I Get to Sing ‘MyWay’The Ghost Of LiberaceAmateur Hour (with Erasure)Something For The GirlWith Everything(with Faith No More)BallsScheherazadeThe Rhythm ThiefSuburban HomeboyDick AroundWaterproofGood MorningLet The Monkey DriveJohnny DelusionalSo Many BridgesEdith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)Missionary PositionSelf-EffacingLeft Out In The ColdThe Girl Is Crying In HerLatteNothing Is As Good AsThey Say It Is…

“It was like having your record collection come to town,” once quipped Oscar Peterson, recalling the impact the famous Jazz At The Philharmonic jam sessions had on the American public. Begun by the visionary jazz impresario Norman Granz as a one-off benefit concert at New York's Philharmonic Auditorium in 1943, the venture proved so popular that it quickly expanded into a brand name (JATP) and achieved renown for presenting star-studded touring shows as well as releasing seventeen volumes of live recordings. The specialist reissue label Mosaic first focused its attention on JATP back in 1998 with a box set covering its 1940s output but now offers a sensational companion volume, Classic Jazz At The Philharmonic Jam Sessions 1950-1957 (★★★★★ Mosaic), a limited edition 10CD set collecting albums originally released via…

Eagle-eyed readers of this esteemed magazine will have noticed how often the psych columnist, at your humble service, likes to sing the praises of BARDO POND. That's not going to stop anytime soon. So you might as well get onboard with the far-out Philadelphian free-rockers or else, erm, go away and listen to The Best Of Tom Grennan. You square! Peel Sessions (★★★★ Fire) does what it says on the tobacco tin, compiling trips to Maida Vale in 2001 and 2004. The BBC studio's engineers did a fine job of bottling the band's thick and dizzying sonic gloop. If the archives are correct, Slip Away was also recorded for the first session but for reasons possibly related to groove-space it doesn't appear on this record. Peel Sessions loses one star…

Black Lace And Voodoo Drums – Lux And Ivy Dig That Sound ★★★★ Righteous Psalms PSALM 23112 (CD) Craziness that drove the Cramps From the opening scream of pa-pa-oohmawmaw by Bobby Lee Trammell on Tollie Frollie, Black Lace And Voodoo Drums… is a wild world of madcap vocals, pounding bongos and echoing guitars, 30 tracks of 50s-60s rockabilly-fuelled, soulswinging, R&B wonderment that transfixed youthful Lux Interior and Poison Ivy of the Cramps. The guitar on Dan Kubiak and the Sound Waves’ Finding You is a fabulous rock ‘n’ roll squark, Glen Willings’ You Tarzan, Me Jane is a veritable zoo – and Sugar Diabetes, Eddie Banks suffering too much sweetness from his baby, wouldn't even get written now. Gimmicky 45s, yes, but they unite as a rock‘n'roll whole with witchcraft,…

The Sleazoids VHS Death/The Black Lodge Spinout Nuggets SN 080 A rumble of bass so clear, you can hear the plectrum. A roar of guitar, like Johnny Thunders on upbeat drugs. A snare drum surrenders to a methodical battering. Welcome to the debut vinyl 45 by The Sleazoids, a Sheffield trio who play condom-tight garage with a dose of trashiness, like they really have spent all their waking moments watching junk movies on VHS as the A-side suggests. Singer Missy Tassles, a Cher lookalike, has a handy line in fierce guitar, and spits her lyrics with venom. But why is she so bothered about the loss of her video cassettes when they are easily replaced by trawling Freecycle? Ms Missy's admirable axe is shown off to strong effect on the…

NEXT ISSUE: JULY 2023 (on sale 15 JUNE) Deadline for submitting adverts (Listings & Classified): Monday 22 MAY Please email your advert (word doc/excel file/plain text) to: listings@recordcollectormag.com NEW Postal address: Record Collector Listings, Diamond Publishing Ltd, 2nd Floor, Saunders House, 52-53 The Mall, Ealing, London W5 3TA Following issue: AUGUST 2023 (on sale 13 JULY) Deadline: Monday 19 JUNE…

This month: JOHN RZEZNIK – GOO GOO DOLLS How have you been preparing for the tour? We've been doing rehearsals and I'm working with a vocal coach. Do you have any pre-/post-show routines? Pre-show routine is getting into stage clothes and an hour vocal warm-up, talk shit with the other guys and laugh a bit, then go out and play our asses off. Will you be playing any songs that you rarely perform? One or two new songs, but ya gotta play the hits! Will the setlist change much? It always does, so, depending on the audience, I'll change a song if it feels right. Will you check out your tour support? Yeah. I've heard some of Those Damn Crows’ music, and it's really cool. I'm looking forward to meeting…

This month: Small Wonder Records Operating from 162 Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London between 1976-'83, Small Wonder became recognisable due to its logo. As featured on its famous brown paper bags, the design centred around a well-dressed Edwardian family; the mother was white-skinned while the father and vicar were black. The baby in the picture was mixed race and RC has tracked down Pete Stennett (pictured above, who ran Small Wonder alongside Mari Stennett), who has said that this “provided him with the inspiration for the name Small Wonder”. Small Wonder, however, was not just a shop. It went on to release records by The Cure, Bauhaus, Crass, The Cravats, Patrik Fitzgerald, Cockney Rejects… to name but a few of the bands who had their first release on this influential imprint.…

CODA Various The Wonderful World Of Reggae (Music For Pleasure MFP 1355, LP, UK, 1970) £4 I got it for Christmas 1970. I was 11. That year we'd made an abortive attempt to emigrate to Jamaica and were living in Brixton. Like most kids that age I was obsessed with music and the Dansette was in the front room, and I'd put this on and dance around to it. I was already taking dance classes and had been singing in old people's homes since I was nine, old show tunes, that kind of thing. I was writing songs, too, but I never thought I'd be a singer and songwriter. You didn't see people like me singing on the telly. There was Shirley Bassey but that wasn't me. David Bowie The…

You don't need me to tell you that collecting comes in many forms and guises. In our Diggin’ For Gold section this month, Michael Green tells us about the rising value of gig tickets and the increasing viability of collecting same. I wonder how many people own all the tickets for the May-June 2008 gigathon by this month's cover stars, Sparks, during their 21-night “spectacular” in London, where they played each of their studio albums in chronological order during the first 20 nights and premiered their then-new album, Exotic Creatures Of The Deep, at the 21st show. Were you there every night to, as it were, collect the set? Or, forget the actual gig tickets – did you, in an abstract sense, “collect the set” by attending each of the…

The UK's oldest blues club, Shakedown Blues, founded in 1966, closes 27 May, with a show by ex-Manfred Mann's Paul Jones. Founded by Gerard Homan, Shakedown Blues’ first gig was Alexis Korner. Using local venues around Peterborough, it presented British blues/-rock artists, including Tony McPhee, JoAnn Kelly, Chicken Shack and Jethro Tull, as well as visiting US acts, including ‘Champion’ Jack Dupree, Sunnyland Slim, Lightnin’ Slim, Juke Boy Bonner, Eddie ‘Guitar’ Burns and Mississippi Fred McDowell, up to 1972. In 2005, after a 30-year hiatus, Homan promoted new Shakedown Blues gigs at the 150-capacity Castor Village Hall, booking US artists (many as one-off gigs), including Artie ‘Blues Boy’ White, Big George Brock, David Dee, Texas Johnny Brown, Frank Ace, Lazy Lester, Louisiana Red, Mojo Buford, Robert Penn, Little Willie Littlefield…

Paul Mayer, a creative director and musician, has been collecting “Exotica” music on vinyl since he was just 12 years old. In the 70s, his parents took him to Hawaii where, at a young age, he saw the great Martin Denny perform at the Surf Room in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel at Waikiki. That music made an impression on Paul, and years later he would become a staple at record fairs and record stores, “digging” for vinyl throughout the US. His obsession with the exotic music and “tiki culture” led him to build a 1958 tiki lounge at his home in Lisbon, Connecticut. What do you collect, and why? When I was young and exposed to Martin Denny, it was all about the “cool” bird calls and the percussion. As…

I like the idea of musicians getting paid but I'm fugged if I would fork out in excess of £100 to see a small singing dot on the horizon, even if she or he is magnified by a big screen. I am a male over the age of 80, not a young woman, but I like Beyonce. Yet the thought of paying a small fortune to see her at a stadium doesn't work for me. When I saw James Brown at Wembley Arena in 1986, it wasn't a patch on his gig at Brighton's Top Rank five years previously. I'm glad I saw Bowie's Serious Moonlight show at Milton Keynes Bowl, but how much better would he have been at Hammersmith Odeon? I have enjoyed some stadium gigs: U2 and…

Mick Hucknall is calling Record Collector from his flat in North London to talk about Simply Red's latest album, Time. It's the follow-up to 2019 s Blue Eyed Soul. While that one was all about the singers who had influenced him, Time is all about him, his inner workings – as he says, “What makes me tick, where I've come from and where I am in my life now.” From the album's easy-going vibe, it would appear he's in a happy place. Today is given over to promotion and he's already done BBCBreakfast TV. Your reporter stupidly feels the need to tell him, this being about promoting Time, that some of RCs questions might overlap with theirs. He responds amiably, though, following a brief pause, he does add, with a…

FAMILY “Family came on in brilliant form. The lead singer, with his stoned, haunted, Trotskyite eyes, smashed his tambourine mid-way through the second number and then set upon the microphone, hurling it about the stage.” This graphic description of Leicester band Family supporting The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park in July 1969 comes from Richard Neville's book, Playpower. Published the following year, it explains how frontman Roger Chapman came to be the face of the band, even though they were at pains to operate as a democratic outfit. And we haven't even mentioned his vibrato-soaked howl, a visceral sound that remains unique to this day. “I suppose I was the sound of Family because I apparently had a weird voice!” he cackles. “That's really what people put it down to:…

LINTON KWESI JOHNSON The arrival of the Windrush Generation in Britain enriched society and culture, having a profound effect on the development of music in this country. Readers wishing to take a deep dive into the music imported and created by the first Caribbean settlers to arrive in 1948, and enjoyed by those in the next three decades, and by their children, should check out the National Caribbean Heritage Museum's Windrush 2022 playlist on Spotify. In between Lord Kitchener's infectious calypso postcard London Is The Place For Me (1948) and Captain Ska's The Windrush (2018), you'll find Sonny's Lettah (Anti-Sus Poem), Linton Kwesi Johnson's forceful indictment of the way in which racist elements within the police force abused the “Suspected Person” law to stop, search and arrest black youths in…

Jean-Luc Goddard: “We really immersed ourselves in French New Wave cinema as students at UCLA,” says Russell, “whether it was Goddard or Truffaut. And then there was Japanese cinema with Kurosawa or the Italian cinema of Antonioni or Fellini. Those were part of the vocabulary of film watching then. It was a much healthier situation with cinema than it is now.” Jacques Tati: The French comedy giant cast Sparks in a movie that would have been called Confusion, though funding problems exacerbated by health problems meant his final scenario got left unmade by the time he died in 1982. “That regret is always going to be there,” says Ron. “Just the fact you had one opportunity to work with an artist like Jacques Tati and it didn't work out.” James…

OHIO PLAYERS’ Observations In Time (★★★ Charly) is the Dayton outfit's 1969 debut album that was originally issued on the Capitol label. Produced by Johnny Brantley, it captures a group still finding their sound on gritty originals (the Stax-like Bad Bargain; the brassy instrumental Lonely Street, the tough Here Today And Gone Tomorrow, the euphoric Street Party), reimagined standards (Over the Rainbow, Summertime) and a cover of Allen Toussaint's Mother In Law which places them in Funkadelic/Parliament territory. On translucent green vinyl, it's expanded over two discs with further Brantley productions including 1968's Trespassin’ and Northern soul spin Love Slips Through My Fingers. Ohio Players 1977 (★★★★ Cleopatra) captures the group on 12 March 1977 in San Carlos, CA, on their Contradiction tour. The group with what's widely acknowledged as…

Various Artists Let's Stomp! Merseybeat And Beyond 1962-1969 ★★★★ Cherry Red CRJAMBOX 014 (3CD) Merseybeat gave us The Beatles, Gerry And The Pacemakers and The Searchers but it's far more than a footnote in their stories. For during the first half of the 60s, it was the soundtrack to where the action was, giving rise to the birth of the UK beat scene. Local teens got their kicks putting their distinct Scouse stamp on US rock'n'roll, R&B and Motown in tiny sweaty clubs: the Cavern, the Jacaranda, the Iron Door etc while also honing their craft at the infamous Star-Club in Hamburg. What an absolute thrill it must have been to witness. Let's Stomp!: Merseybeat And Beyond 19621969 pays tribute. It's both a joyous listening experience and an invaluable history…

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Council Skies ★★★★ Sour Mash JDNC 63 (CD/2CD, LP/3LP/LP+ 7”, Cassette) Since Noel Gallagher's third album as a solo concern, he's released an LP's worth of new music across three EPs and a Best Of compilation, 2021's Back The Way We Came. Nonetheless, Council Skies is Gallagher's first full album in six years: a surprising statistic for someone with such-a usually reliable release schedule. Having successfully furthered his psychedelic side with producer David Holmes on those EPs and 2017's Who Built The Moon, Gallagher has kept elements of that adventurousness on his return. Mostly, as implied by its title – taken from a book by illustrator Pete McKee – album four is Gallagher in reflective mood, offset by a musical grandeur. In place of Holmes,…

READER SERVICES Call on 020 8752 8172 or email stockists@metropolis.co.uk for more information or to sign up today! SOUTH EAST Across the Tracks – ‘On busiest corner of hippest city, open seven days. Thousands of rarities in the shop that aren't on the net. All genres, including classical and new CD promos, nothing mundane. Collections bought.’ 110 Gloucester Road, Brighton BN1 4AF. Tel: 01273 677906. edfrombrighton@tiscali.co.uk www.acrossthetracksrecords.com Alan's Record & CD Shop – ‘Diggers paradise! Over 18,000 quality used 7” /12” LPs/CDs. Specialising in Reggae, Soul, Jazz, Rock, Hip Hop, Dance. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 11:30am, Wednesdays by appointment only. Independent and stubbornly individual.’ 218 High Road, East Finchley, London N2 9AY. Tel: 0208 883 0234. alanrecordman@tiscali.co.uk Ben's Collectors Records – Long standing record shop in the heart of Guildford…

This month: A&R legend Andrew Lauder Quicksilver Messenger Service Happy Trails (Capitol ST 120, LP, UK, 1969) £35 One of my favourite albums, which is why I stole the title for my book. I was really into the whole San Francisco scene of the late 60s, and everything about Happy Trails was just right, from the design and packaging up. It was really hard to hear a lot of the stuff at the time, let alone buy it, so there was always a sense of reward when you tracked something down. I think the internet's robbed collectors of that thrill these days. Bonzo Dog Band The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse (Liberty LBL 83158, with booklet, LP, UK, 1968) £70 I'd heard their singles on Parlophone, but it was seeing them…

A reader's recollection of a key music event This month: The Beatles, Capitol Cinema, Cardiff, 7 November 1964 It's November 1964, I'm 16 years old, and my dad is driving me and my then-boyfriend John from Port Talbot to Cardiff in our grey Austin A55. The reason: I'm going to my first ever live music concert. The venue: The Capitol Cinema. The artistes: well, I can hardly believe it, but The Beatles are the headline act. We arrive in good time for the 6:30pm show and with our tickets (7/6 in old money, 37.5p in new) safely in our pockets we make our way to the Cap. We take our seats early and I soak up the atmosphere and building excitement. Then the house lights go down and Bob Bain…

On 18 April, Eddie Van Halen's stage-played/Hot For Teacher video guitar sold via sothebys.com for $3,932 million. ■ On 21 May, a charity auction of 800-plus Janet Jackson items is via juliensauctions.com at Hard Rock Cafe, Times Square, New York, which has a presale exhibition. It includes costumes from tours, videos, TV, awards, and her personal wardrobe, along with art, furnishings, jewellery, props, microphones, road cases, household items, record awards, and 2003 Aston Martin V12 Vanquish car (estimate, $70,000). ■ A 3 April auction via ICZ, Palm Harbor, Florida, included signed guitars from Led Zeppelin, Pink Fioyd, Bruce Springsteen, George Harrison handwritten lyrics, 16 April, sketches from John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, 21 April, Metallica guitar. ■ An 8 April auction by GWS, Agoura Hills, California, included Elvis Presley Heartbreak Hotel…

The Diva exhibition at London V&A Museum from 24 June includes clothing, photos, artwork featuring Elton John, Billie Holiday, Cher, Lizzo, Diana Ross, Josephine Baker, Edith Piaf, Shirley Bassey, Debbie Harry, Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Grace Jones. ■ A free New Edition exhibition is at the National Museum Of African American Music, Broadway, Nashville, to 30 June. ■ The Arlo Guthrie Ramblin’ Son exhibition, including guitar, handwritten lyrics, photos, clothing, is at Folk Americana Roots Hall Of Fame, Tremont Street, Boston, to 28 May. ■ The free David Bowie In The Soviet Union exhibition, including documents, photos, film, is at Wende Museum, Culver Boulevard, Culver City, California, to 22 October. ■ Brian Aris’ Celebrating George Michael free photo exhibition is at Proud Galleries, John Adam Street, London, to 27 May. ■ The…

A 7CD Written In The Soul collection of 146 tracks, 140 unissued, is due this month. It features cuts by Carla Thomas, Jeanne & The Darlings, William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Homer Banks, The Staple Singers, The Newcomers, Bettye Crutcher, Mack Rice, March Wind, Leon Moore, Veda Brown, Shirley Brown, Carl Smith, Shelbra Bennett, Frederick Knight, Denise LaSalle, Joe Shamwell, Deanie Parker, Delaney Bramlett, Steve Cropper, Booker T Jones, Wendy Rene, Henderson Thigpen, The MGs, Jimmy Hughes, Marshall Jones, John KaSandra, Jimmy Hughes and Willie Singleton. Written In The Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos 7CD is on Craft, 23 June.…

UPCOMING VINYL RELEASES Sex Pistols Anarchy In The UK 4576-copy red 7”, 25 May, Holidays In The Sun 4577-copy white 7”, 20 July, Pretty Vacant 4577-copy red 7”, 22 September, Universal. Fridge Happiness 20th Anniversary LP, bonus, Temporary Residence, 26 May. Heart-soul And Inspiration 180g LP; clear, brown, bone, silver LPs/7”s, Tidal Waves, 26 May. Fear Factory Mechanize brown, smoke 2LPs, CD, three bonuses, The Industrialist remix silver, splatter 2LPs, 2CD, six bonuses, Nuclear Blast, 23 June. Norah Jones Little Broken Hearts Deluxe 3LP, 2CD, with eight-track Bonus Tracks & Remixes, unissued Live At Austin City Limits, Blue Note, 2 June. RATT The Atlantic Years box, with Out Of The Cellar, Invasion Of Your Privacy, Dancing Undercover, Reach For The Sky, Detonator 180g LPs, 7”, sticker, plectrum, poster, repro programme/backstage pass; 5CD, Rhino, 9…

CASE OF THE CRAMPS Everyone goes on about punk rock from the 1976-1978 period – that there was a full-on Teddy Boy revival seems to get overlooked. I was a Ted rather than a punk and let me tell you it was just as exciting to discover artists like Jack Scott and Charlie Feathers whose music, in my opinion, was better than anything the Sex Pistols put out. Better still, we had our own bands! As well as those that emulated classic rockabilly we had artists like The Cramps from America who took elements of punk and blended them with rockabilly. I remember being shocked when I first heard them and somehow got my hands on their first two singles, pressed in limited numbers on their Vengeance label in the…

GARY CHERONE Extreme frontman on their first studio outing in 15 years Tell us about the new set. There are some songs on this record that are as good if not better than any that we've ever written. What was your first record? Alice Cooper Killers. What's the last album that you bought? Jim Croce I Got A Name. Is there anything still unissued? Many demos of pre-Extreme club bands, Extreme, Van Halen. TOJ, Solo, Hurtsmile. Some may see the light of day. What would you like to remix? Van Halen III. The production fell short. The mixes were too harsh, and the arrangements could've been tighter. What was your favourite record shop when you started out? Headlines. Malden. Maryland. Who'd you like to cover one of your songs? Elton…

In his boppin', swayin', finger-clickin’ heyday, serious music scribes had little time for Shakin’ Stevens. Reaching his commercial peak in an innovative era for British pop, he was a throwback to the days when solo singers ruled the charts and a recognisable voice was the passport to success. A rocker with a feel for melody, Stevens was a stylist in the classic mould, able to put a personal stamp on songs old or new, but reviewers were too sniffy to notice. Shaky's old-school values were considered too safe for him to be recognised as the interesting misfit he really was. The hits kept coming, but critical acclaim never did. His new album, Re-Set, is the latest in a concerted effort to present himself as an artist capable of creative progress.…

SPARKS Things have been going suspiciously well for Sparks of late. Having somehow managed to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory so often over the last five or so decades, Ron and Russell Mael are now cruising on a tide of upward momentum. The FFS album, recorded with Franz Ferdinand, saw them return to the more traditional band format eight years ago after some time away, and since then, the albums Hippopotamus and A Steady Drip Drip Drip have both graced the UK Top 10 album charts, in 2017 and 2020 respectively. Moreover, a well-received Edgar Wright documentary, The Sparks Brothers, gave die duo a much-needed push back into the mainstream. Now, with The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte, expectations are riding high, not least because the Mael…

Reviews From The Vaults Reissues, remasters and compilations Tears For Fears The Hurting ★★★★ Mercury ARHSLP11 (CD, LP) From Mick Jagger painting it black to Gary Numan locking all the doors in his Cars, neurosis has long had a place in pop. Few musicians, however, have examined their inner psyches so intensely, or so early in their careers, as Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. Has there ever been a radio-friendly hit single with a more despondent lyric than “the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had”? Yet, the doom and gloom of Mad World paved the way for Tears For Fears’ 1983 debut album to soar to No 1 in only its second week of release, heading for worldwide sales in excess of one million. Clearly, soul-baring…

Sonny Rollins Go West! The Contemporary Records Albums ★★★★ Craft CR-00434 (3CD, 3LP) It's March 1957 and 26-year-old Sonny Rollins feels like he's in dreamland as he stares into a camera lens under the blazing sun in the middle of the Mohave Desert. It's the New York saxophonist's first time in California and he's in a celebratory mood. He's just met model Dawn Finney, the girl he's going to marry, and has also finished recording his debut album for producer Lester Koenig's Los Angeles-based Contemporary label. A longtime aficionado of cowboy movies, Rollins agrees to let noted jazz photographer William Caxton take pictures of him for the album cover wearing a 10-gallon hat and gun holster; though some accused Rollins of cheapening his talent with unnecessary gimmicks, the saxophonist-as-gun-slinger image…

David Bowie Aladdin Sane: 50th Anniversary Half-Speed Master ★★★★ Parlophone 5054197183140 (DBAS 50) (LP) Covid has done something interesting to the David Bowie reissues schedule: delaying the 50thanniversary box sets by a year (The Width Of A Circle, a live and rarities counterpart to The Man Who Sold The World [1970], appeared in 2021; Divine Symmetry mapped out the road to Hunky Dory [1971] in 2022. We hope for a The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars companion collection this year). We now have the opportunity to deep-dive one aspect of Bowie's past while also immersing ourselves in what was coming around the corner, via the latest attempt at the holy grail: the perfect vinyl pressing. Where the half-speed masters are concerned, it's all about…

Bowie Odvssev 73 Simon Goddard ★★★★★ Omnibus, £16.99 ISBN 9781913172824, 176 pages Fantastic year-by-year epic gets it on like once before In the year when Bolan said glam rock was dead, Bowie looked at his watch and thought, “Oh, God, I'm still alive.” It was hard enough to keep formation, yet Bowie's 1973 saw him, just, stay sane – or at least close enough to sanity to survive. And to thrive, in terms of fame and career. He was cracking like an actor, but those cracks let the starlight in. Pop was spinning with its most wildly wonderful transitions. As ever, Goddard's book-per-year series is so devotional and healthily delirious that you can smell the greasepaint and hormones. “That's the sort of thing you connect with David Cassidy!” splutters a…

Many collectors rate Brighton as one of the UK's key locations for record hunting. Full of all kinds of music, new and pre-owned, Ewan Hood's Rarekind Records is a fine example of the city's diverse record shops. Long-term collector Ewan tells Steve Burniston how it all happens. Tell us about the shop and the kind of music you sell. Rarekind is a smallish shop in Brighton. We've been going in various forms for nearly 20 years selling new and second-hand records. The stock's about half and half, new and used. We have all sorts from rare records on the wall to cheap crates for diggers on the floor. We cover pretty much all genres of music. If we specialise in anything it would be hip-hop, funk, soul, jazz, reggae and…

The Aristocrats June (12) Glasgow Garage (13) Newcastle NUSU (14) Coventry HMV Empire (15) Bristol Fleece (16) London Shepherd's Bush O2 Empire (17) Manchester Academy 2 Arab Strap June (8) Carlisle Brickyard (9) Birkenhead Futureyard (11) Birmingham Hare & Hounds (12) Bristol Fleece (13) London Hackney Earth Theatre (14) Brighton Chalk (15) Manchester Yes (16) Gateshead Sage 2 Bastille June (30) Newmarket Racecourses July (1) Margate Dreamland (2) Powderham Castle (7) Manchester Castlefield Bowl (9) Bridlington Spa (13) Leeds Millennium Square (14) London Alexandra Palace Park (19) Warwick Castle (23) Ludlow Castle The Black Keys June (21) London Greenwich O2 (22) Manchester AO Arena (23) Glasgow OVO Hydro The Boo Radleys June (13) Reading South Street Arts Centre (14) London Islington Garage (15) Tunbridge Wells Forum (16) Birkenhead Future Yard…

This month: Harry Beckett A fiery, innovative trumpeter, Harold Winston “Harry” Beckett (1935-2010) was a major force in the UK's post-war jazz scene, playing alongside the best that Britain had to offer. Although his personal taste skewed towards the avant-garde, Beckett was highly adaptable, and soon widened his scope to encompass a remarkably varied range of music. His natural talent, lyrical style and sympathetic ear made the trumpeter an in-demand session musician and collaborator for forward-thinking rock and fusion artists. Beckett's solo albums remain important documents in the history of British jazz, but his influence extends much further. Born in Barbados, Beckett arrived in the UK in 1954, at the age of 19, and quickly found work in bands led by fellow trumpeter and immigrant Leslie ‘Jiver’ Hutchinson, and well-regarded…