Table of contents for Issue 550 in Record Collector

SEND YOUR PRAISE, MISSIVES AND CALLS FOR THE DEIFICATION OF PETE PAPHIDES 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 VIVA ‘78 I loved your 1978 issue. The interview with Chrissie Hynde was brilliant. I was a bit surprised that Wings' London Town was not included in the Top 50 albums of the year, or even mentioned. McCartney had the No 1 single going into 1978 and he certainly did well with London Town. It was still another great issue. Aaron Badgley, email Oops. Full disclosure: London Town was originally in the list, but we took it out to make room for the marginally more revolutionary Being Boiled (Human League).…

Robert Sellers is the author of several books on popular culture including authorised biographies of Oliver Reed and Kenny Everett, celebrations of Handmade Films and Ealing Studios, and a history of Radio 1. He writes this month about London's legendary Marquee club (p70). Jack Watkins was sad to hear British soul stalwart Cliff Bennett (p62) had hung up his mic when they spoke recently. In their 60s pomp, Cliff & The Rebel Rousers were great value on the live scene. Out in his garden when Jack rang, happily, watering the begonias could wait while he shared a few memories. John Tucker became a Deep Purple obsessive after his older brother brought home a copy of Machine Head. He talks to Glenn Hughes (p50) about the bassist/vocalist's solo career and upcoming…

How come you're back with your new project now? I'm not sure. I just needed time to let things grow and mature in my mind, and rest. Nothing presented itself, and I was starting to feel depressed. Then, suddenly, I was hit by a tsunami of lyrical and musical ideas every day. I'd never experienced anything like it. Tell us about the album. It's quite unique, for me – a concept album. It developed as I went along, one song after another. Then I realised that I wasn't going to sing all the songs myself, which was pretty shocking. How long did it take? From writing to recording, two years. What were you up to during the interregnum? Tribute shows in Holland, 80 per year over eight months, plus work…

Amorphis Queen Of Time (Live At Tavastia 2021) red, green LPs, CD/BD, Atomic Fire, 13 October: Anneke Van Giersbergen. Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Les Jardins Mystiques Vol 1 3CD, 4LP, Brainfeeder, 10 November: Jeff Parker (Tortoise), Bennie Maupin (The Headhunters), Kamasi Washington, Thundercat. Steve Aoki HiROQUEST: Double Helix, Dim Mak, 17 November: Akon, Paris Hilton. Jimmy Buffett Equal Strain On All Parts, Sun, 3 November: Paul McCartney, Emmylou Harris, Angelique Kidjo. The Black Keys' latest, 2024: Noel Gallagher. Magenta's Christina Bar Room Prophet, Tigermoth, 6 October: Steve Hackett, colleagues Chris Fry, Jiffy Griffiths, Dan Nelson, ex-The Storys' Steve Balsamo. Zooey Celeste Restless Thoughts blue, violet LPs, ATO, 3 November: Jake Portrait (Unknown Mortal Orchestra), Abe Rounds (Devendra Banhart). Joel Corry Another Friday Night, Asylum, 6 October: Charli XCX, Rita Ora, David Guetta.…

Rick Wakeman 32-disc prog box with unissued live sets due A Rick Wakeman box of 26 CDs and six DVDs is out in December, including 12” x 12” hardback scrapbook, 10 postcards, repro programmes for Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, Crystal Palace Garden Party, 1974-75 US tour, 1975 Japanese tour (two), 1976 UK tour, 1976 UK In Concert, 1977 White Rock Premier, four posters, four press packs, six photos. The CDs take in The Six Wives Of Henry VIII, Six Wives Alternative Versions, The Three Wives Radio Session 27 February 1973, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, The Other Half, The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table, The 1974 Canadian Broadcast, Koseinenkin Hall, Osaka, Japan, January 21 1975, Live From…

MARVA-LLOUS I bought Marva Whitney's It's My Thing when it was first released here back in 1969. I thought, and still do, that it was a great soul/funk album – she really could belt out songs. I know that James Brown produced it – she was in his band, as I recall – but never understood why her career didn't take off. Anyway, I see that it's worth money these days so it appears that I was one of the few who bought it back then rather than one of the many. My record is Ex/Ex. I played it a lot but I did look after it. David Freeman via email Marva Whitney was “discovered” by famed soul singer James Brown. “I'll tell you one reason I signed Marva,” Brown…

Now includes Whole Love Of Lots Send your Most Wanted suggestions to paulrigby@theaudiophileman.com CONTACTS 991: Tel 0844 264 1 991; 991.com DISCOGS: www.discogs.com BONHAMS: Tel 020 7447 7447; www.bonhams.com DISCOGS: www.discogs.com EBAY: www.ebay.co.uk GWS AUCTIONS: Tel 001 760 610 4175; www.gwsauctions.com INDUSTRIAL SILENCE: marc@industrial-silence.com; www.industrial-silence.com MEM: Tel 01635 269327; www.rockpopmem.com MYNT AUCTIONS: Tel (888) MYNT-123; www.liveauctioneers.com OMEGA AUCTIONS: 01925 873040; www.omegaauctions.co.uk POPSIKE: www.popsike.com…

The 80s were a sack of shit, weren't they? Thatcher, the dole, AIDS, Radio 1 Road Shows, Reagan, soap operas, The Style Council, John Lennon getting murdered. Record Mirror, vinyl records. All rubbish. Hold up! Did I just say vinyl? I certainly did, kid. Let me enlighten you as to the plight of the recording artist in the 80s. I cut my baby teeth in the 80s, a few years before the dawn of the compact disc. The problem with making records in the 80s was that the recording tech got so far ahead of the artistry that any chance of making a good record got lost in the dark new digital forest. I find it difficult to listen to almost anything from that dismal decade. The horrific gated reverb…

Two of the self-penned songs on Paul Young's latest album were first released by other acts, which may seem a surprising reversal of roles to casual observers. However, while it's true the singer initially reached the higher echelons of the singles charts as an “interpretative artist”, putting his own spin on established material, he's never been a stranger to songwriting and scored an early big hit with his own Everything Must Change. Prior to that solo success, his first serious group, Streetband, were arguably cursed from the start, when their decidedly un-serious ode to breakfast, Toast, clawed its way to No 18 in the UK in 1978, saddling them with the hard-to-shift tag of a novelty act. A rethink and change of name spawned the Q-Tips, a nine-piece outfit (including…

In appearance, The Marquee was nothing special. It was, for most of its life (March 1964 to July 1988), a small club on Wardour Street in Soho. There was little to see from the street, except a plate-glass front door, while inside, the main room looked like a bomb fall-out shelter. “The Marquee was seen as the ultimate place to play,” recalls Ray Laidlaw from Lindisfarne, “but it was much smaller, scruffier and more downmarket than we imagined. We had better-looking gigs in Newcastle. However, what it lacked in decor it more than made up for in atmosphere.” The Marquee could only legally accommodate about 600 people – although that limit was frequently broken. Most of the bands that played there were unknown at the time and had to contend…

It's almost impossible to present a definitive list of who played how many times at The Marquee on Wardour Street because the club programmes and weekly ads in the music press often omitted to name the support acts – which could change at short notice anyway. This list, then, is of the 30 artists with the highest number of advertised performances at the club. 200 Long John Baldry, solo, and with The Hoochie Coochie Men, Cyril Davies and Steampacket 99 Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers/Blues Brothers/Manfred Mann/Manfred Mann's Earth Band 93 The T-Bones/Gary Farr and the T-Bones 87 The Mark Leeman Five 60 Dumpy's Rusty Nuts/Bolts/DRN/Dumpy 53 Brian Auger, with his Trio/Trinity/ Oblivion Express, solo and with Steampacket 53 Cyril Davies All-Stars 53 Jimmy James & The Vagabonds 49 Rory Gallagher/Taste 48 Mahatma Kane Jeeves/Mahatma 47 Chelsea 47 John Mayall's Bluesbreakers 46 UFO 45 The…

Pete Townshend on the battle for The Who to be taken seriously, picking up the pieces from the Life House project and how Glyn Jones helped shape the record. How did the Who's Next / Life House box come about, and how much have you been personally involved? This is something the folks at Universal do to try to screw a little bit more income out of the assets they now own. But they've been doing it for years before they bought our catalogue; the last, lovely one was The Who Sell Out. And generally they do good stuff. This one was always going to be special, and I knew I'd have to write something for it. I relied on my colleague and archivist Matt Kent to gather some info. What…

Various Artists Produced By Tony Visconti Edsel EDSL 0144 X (4CD/6LP) Anniversaries of their deaths, plus a robust market for reissued and repackaged product, guarantee that David Bowie and Marc Bolan continue to generate press coverage, and more often than not their most celebrated producer warrants a mention too. Those twin guiding lights of glam were by no means Tony Visconti's only clients, though, and this sumptuous box set trains a roving spotlight on sundry others who've benefited from the TV touch during a career closing in on six decades. It's a collection of 77 recordings that could justifiably be subtitled How To Avoid Pigeonholing, as the producer – also a musician and arranger in his own right – helps navigate paths that follow tempo-twisting prog (Gentle Giant, Rick Wakeman)…

Compiler Hunter Lea on how Nancy Sinatra changed his life and the challenges of sequencing a compilation and mixing antique recordings. How did your interest in Nancy Sinatra begin? I was a teenager when I heard These Boots Are Made For Walkin' featured in the movie Austin Powers, and it was big part of solidifying my love for 60s culture and the music of Nancy Sinatra. When I found some of her records and the Nancy & Lee duet album I was hooked. Nancy's music and artistry has had a huge positive impact on my life. About 15 years ago I was diagnosed with cancer and, while I was getting treatment, I would search for Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood vinyl online. Immersing myself in their music was a great escape…

OMD Bauhaus Staircase 100% Records 100LP 138 (LP, CD/2CD, Cassette) “All the world needs is art and passion… I see the future in yesterday,” croons Andy McCluskey on Bauhaus Staircase, the opening and title song of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark's 14th album, and fourth since his and fellow founder member Paul Humphreys' 2007 reunion. Set against a dramatic fusillade of cutglass synthesiser melody, it's a line which summarises this group's sterling contribution to popular electronic music over more than four decades, while the song passes on the torch to those who come after. The title inspiration for both song and album is Oskar Schlemmer's 1932 painting Bauhaustreppe (Bauhaus Stairs), which showed students traversing the stairs of Walter Gropius' famous, Weimarfounded art school, the stairs and the people both presented…

Moving Words Tragedy and comedy viewed through a prog-rock lens. By Joel McIver My Effin' Life Geddy Lee Harper Collins, $40 ISBN 9780063159419, 512 pages On page 40 of My Effin' Life, Geddy Lee writes, “In the next chapter I'm going to relate my parents' experience of World War II… If you find it half as harrowing to read as I did writing it, you may be tempted to skip right along.” Skipping any of this book would be a mistake, given how vivid a life the Rush frontman has led, but understanding the horrific experiences of his parents Malka and Moishe Weinrib in Nazi-occupied Poland is particularly important, for the historical record as well as its profound impact on their son. Lee's investigation details their incarceration in AuschwitzBirkenau under…

A Certain Ratio November (10) London Moth Club (11) Preston Ferret (12) Glasgow Stereo (15) Gateshead Sage (16) Reading Face Bar (18) York Crescent December (2) Liverpool 24 Kitchen Street (10) Manchester Band On The Wall Anne-Marie November (20) Cardiff International Arena (25) Birmingham Utilita Arena (26) Manchester AO Arena (29) London Greenwich O2 Alabama 3 November (9) Northampton Roadmender (10) Newcastle Uni (11) Liverpool O2 Academy (16) Holmfirth Picturedrome (17) Glasgow SWG3 (18) Edinburgh La Belle Angel (19) Leeds Brudenell (23) Cambridge Junction (24) Birmingham O2 Academy 2 (25) Manchester O2 Ritz (30) Southampton 1865 December (1) Exeter Phoenix (2) Cardiff Tramshed (6) Bournemouth O2 Academy (7) Brighton Concorde 2 (8) Bristol O2 Academy (9) London Kentish Town O2 Forum Rick Astley November (1-2) London Royal Albert Hall February…

This month: Dorothy Ashby Harpist Dorothy Jeanne Thompson, who performed and recorded as Dorothy Ashby, was born on 6 August 1932, in Detroit, Michigan. As a black female musician playing an instrument unusual in her beloved jazz setting, Ashby battled triple opposition to became recognised. Although not the first to deploy the upright harp in jazz, Ashby did more than any other to bring the instrument into the limelight, proving its capabilities as an improvisational tool in the bebop scene. She left behind a string of critically acclaimed, yet underappreciated, solo albums, and provided accompaniment to recordings by some of the biggest names in music. Ashby came from a musical family. Her father, guitarist Wiley Thompson, would often bring musicians home for jam sessions, with which Ashy would eventually join…

CODA The Beatles Can't Buy Me Love (Parlophone R 5114, 7”, first pressing, UK, 1964) £20 My earliest memory as a person involves me sitting on a floor at a little party my parents had taken me along to. My brother may or may not have been alive. If he was, he would have been in his pram. And they were playing Can't Buy Me Love, so my actual first childhood memory is music. The Beatles were always there in our house growing up. Like most people, I probably thought Lennon was the talented one and the older I got the clearer it became that I was wrong. T. Rex The Slider (T. Rex Wax Co./EMIBLN 5001, LP, printed inner black on red text, UK, 1972) £40 I don't think…

David Bowie Young Americans (RCA RCA 2523, 7”, UK, 1975) £5 Spanning the career of a man who helmed many of our favourite records, the new Produced By Tony Visconti box set offers both legends and lessser known gems. His work with Bowie is, of course, about as good as the whole damn game gets, and among the selections included is the track which announced another innovative shift in Visconti's old pal's oeuvre. Philly soul, impressionistic Englishman-abroad lyrics and impassioned vocals: it threw everybody off-balance. T.Rex Hot Love (FLY BUG 6, 7”, brown label, UK, 1971) £5 Eight albums and an exuberant fairground ride of peerless pop hits with Marc Bolan, defining the early 70s, began on the 1968 Tyrannosaurus Rex debut. As Bolan's boogie burst into new life with…

In some cases, the music venue is as big, as famous, as the bands or artists who have played there. One thinks of The Hollywood Bowi, Shea Stadium, Fillmore East, Cafe Wha?, Madison Square Garden, Whisky A Go Go, CBGB, Max's Kansas City… They have all made their important contribution to the culture, have their own secret histories, their own mythologies, each one as redolent of a certain time or place as a powerfully memorable song. Some venues have had songs written about them: Hammersmith Palais is an obvious example, and a pertinent reminder that Britain can boast as many evocative clubs and club names as the States. Some are sheds/hangars, others are dives; some are still going, many are lost to the mists of time. All are worthy of…

Collecting's roads less travelled At RC Towers, we divine new music vibes emanating from The Vamps' James McVey, Anvil, The Libertines, Firstborne (Megadeth's James Lomenzo, ex-Lamb Of God's Chris Adler), Saxon, Thunderstick, Yngwie Malmsteen, NERD, Satyricon, Biohazard, Paramore, Paradise Lost, Korn, Martina McBride, Halestorm, Shania Twain, Wolfsbane's Blaze Bayley, Bastille (on EMI); reissues from Manafest, Consortium, The Apparitions, The Jackals, The Bedlam Four, The Dirty Wurds, Grapefruit, The Twlights (via Cherry Red), ex-Styx's Dennis DeYoung; a Cher memoir; and a musical from Pearl Jam's Mike McCready. CELLULOID HEROES Projects due include a Cher biopic; Greg Kwedar's Sing Sing film, soundtracked by The National's Bryce Dessner; The Bangles' Susanna Hoffs' This Bird Has Flown film, via Universal; Edoardo De Angelis' Comandante film, soundtracked by Robert Del Naja (Massive Attack); Kevin Costner's…

LABEL OF LOVE LIGHTYEAR ENTERTAINMENT Q&A Label boss: Arnie Holland Interview: Charles Donovan Where are you based, what do you do and why? I am CEO and owner, based in Studio City, California, and my EVP Sky Spooner is in Brooklyn, New York. Lightyear does music and movie distribution. Our music label is distributed by Virgin/UMG. Why the name? Lightyear was born in 1987 as a management buyout of RCA Video Productions, Inc. We had to change our name. Lightyear appealed to us because it seemed futuristic, it implied great distances and high speeds. When did you launch it and how have things changed since? In 1981, I left Capitol to join RCA VideoDiscs in New York City as VP of Business Affairs. We were charged with developing the home…

BRUCE SOORD The Pineapple Thief frontman on his hot off the press long-player What film could your new set soundtrack? One where you leave it crying like a baby, in a good way. Is there anything still unissued? Extreme death metal duo, Dominus, with my mate, Neil. We'd hire 4-tracks and drum machines and spend our weekends riffing, him growling. What were your favourite record shops when you started out? London HMV and Tower. Was anyone in your family a musician? Grandad played clarinet with a big band on Eastbourne's seafront bandstand. Have you kept studio notebooks? I've kept everything. Handy for the recent box, if quite emotionally draining to go through. What's the oddest circumstance that's inspired a song? My twin boys were leaving the house for their maths…

STREETBAND Mystery From London (Logo LOGO 1012, LP, UK, 1978) £3 The debut album by Young's first band, produced by Blockhead Chaz Jankel, contained the Top 20 novelty hit, Toast. However, tucked away on Side Two is this paean to TV cop shows like Z-Cars and The Sweeney that features spoken-word interjections from Jankel's more regular partner-in-rhyme, Ian Dury (“It's a fair cop, guv!”). SQUEEZE Black Coffee In Bed (A&M AMS 8219 DJ, 7” promo, UK, 1982) £7 Lyricist Chris Difford first envisioned this minor Squeeze hit as a country song, but writing partner Glenn Tilbrook felt the words more suited a soul arrangement and drafted in Young and Elvis Costello to provide Motown-like backing harmonies. The following year Young would perform the theme song to the Channel 4 sitcom Father's Day,…

Having ADHD, if I had dealt with things properly I would have so much more music released,” says DJ, producer, remixer and more recently restaurateur Arthur Baker, speaking via Zoom from his London, Old Street apartment. He was diagnosed with the condition as a child, and he explains, “I lost focus on projects, so they never came out. It was the 60s – I got thrown out of school because I couldn't pay attention and focus.” However, needs must when there's a living to be made: “When you're getting paid, and they tell you it needs to be done by a certain date, you do it,” he says. “When you're doing stuff on your own, and there's no pay cheque, then it's easier to fall into ADHD. Being a remixer…

Nick Pendleton is the only child of Harold and Barbara Pendleton, who founded the legendary Marquee back in 1958 and ran it until 1988. In 1961, Harold and Barbara launched the Richmond Jazz Festival, and several changes of venue led them to Reading, where the festival continues today – although the Pendletons stopped running it in 1991. Nick grew up at the Marquee, heading to the club where his parents had offices upstairs most days after school. At the time, he was more interested in the Space Invaders machine than the music, although as a teenager he got a kick out of seeing one of his favourite bands play a secret gig there: The Police. These days Nick chairs Entec Sound & Light, the music production company developed by his…

No one knows where the hard bop pianist SONNY CLARK’s body lies. After his tragic death at the age of 31 in New York in 1963, his relatives were sent the wrong corpse to bury. It was a horrid mix-up that was never resolved but some conjecture that Clark may lie in an anonymous burial plot in Potter's Field, a cemetery on New York's Hart Island, where, ironically, he once dug graves as an inmate of Riker's Island prison. Though Clark was just one of many junkie jazz musicians who came to an ignominious end at a young age, he left a rich legacy of recordings behind, all recorded in a purple patch between 1957 and 1961. The Complete Sonny Clark Blue Note Sessions (★★★★★ Mosaic) is a richly rewarding…

Tony Visconti, on taking chances and treating singers as actors. What was the most valuable thing you learned from your mentor Denny Cordell? Denny was a great communicator, and very calm. He never shouted, but was very persuasive by giving direction to an artist in the form of a question, like “Could you put more energy in the last line of the verse?” I learned early on it was an excellent way to get an artist to do their best. He wasn't a musician but he respected my chops as both an arranger and a musician. It was a fair trade-off. You seemed to help Thin Lizzy stretch themselves beyond traditional rock tropes. What especially appealed to you about them? I respected them before we met; the energy on stage…

Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee Los Angeles PIAS PIASR 1440 LP (CD, 2LP) At the outset of their weekly podcast Curious Creatures, post-punk icons Lol Tolhurst and Budgie make the proclamation: “You may think you know the territory, but we drew the map”. While that might be slightly immodest, it's still true. Tolhurst founded The Cure with Robert Smith and played in the band for 11 years; Budgie aka Peter Edward Clarke drummed with The Slits and Siouxsie & the Banshees and, as the First Gentleman of Goth, was half of The Creatures with Siouxsie Sioux. Their CVs are certainly not in question, though with super-producer Jacknife Lee on board, their nomenclature is. Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee is a mouthful, the thinking being that these…

Sell Vinyl/CDs direct to RC readers, call us on 0208 752 8172 or Email listings@recordcollectormag.com NEXT ISSUE: DECEMBER 2023 (on sale 2 NOVEMBER) Deadline for submitting adverts (Listings & Classified): Monday 9 OCTOBER 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: CHRISTMAS 2023 (on sale 30 NOVEMBER) Deadline: Monday 6 NOVEMBER…

This month: JOEY TEMPEST of Europe How do you prepare for each show? Occasionally, I walk around, asking the guys as they're getting ready, “Is that really what you're gonna wear?!” That usually gets them a bit insecure and, subsequently, ups their game for the show! Will you be playing anything that's rarely aired? It's our Time Capsule 40th Anniversary tour, so it'd be a crime not to dig up some deep cuts for the 150 minutes. Are you looking forward to any particular venues? Two nights at the legendary London Palladium. The icing on the cake of the European tour. Will you have any supports? No. It's more fun sitting in the dressing-room prior, listening to great tunes, rather than some obscure, abysmal prog-metal band! Will you be recording…

This month: Hey Colossus As a shapeshifting rock unit heavily embedded in the DIY scene, Hey Colossus have weathered plenty of storms over their 20-year existence. Detailed by bassist Joe Thompson in his 2019 Sleevenotes memoir, these have included changes in personnel, the occasional shambolic performance, constant conflicts with day jobs and family commitments, having to write and record on the fly with members living in different corners of England, and the financial logistics of spray-painting 250 limited LPs by hand. See page 120 of his book for handy advice on the latter and next time you're crate-digging keep your eyes peeled for any individually numbered copies of 2011's crunchingly hypnotic RRR. It's an absolute monster. In 2020, the band released their most ambitious recording so far, the epic doublealbum…

No 8: Hurley's Record and Toy Shop, Pontypridd, Glamorgan At 10 Taff Street in the heart of Pontypridd, opposite the landmark Drinking Fountain (now a Grade II listed building), this family-run shop specialising in toys and records was well established by the time I entered my first year at grammar school and became aware of the wonders therein. The two departments were spread over one floor. The front of the shop sold toys and in the music section at the rear were musical instruments, sheet music – and a vast array of albums taking up three walls of racks/bins. There wasn't a listening booth but there was a turntable and the staff were more than happy to play your chosen record before purchase. I made regular visits to the shop…

GLENN HUGHES Born in August 1951 in Cannock, Staffordshire, Glenn Hughes first tasted fame as a member of Trapeze, alongside guitarist Mel Galley and drummer Dave Holland. With three albums to their name (Trapeze, Medusa, and You Are The Music…We're Just The Band, released 1970-2), their blend of rock and funk set them aside from many of their contemporaries and they were a big draw in America. However, when the offer came to take over from Roger Glover in Deep Purple Hughes handed in his notice and played his last gig with Trapeze on 17 June 1973. Galley and Holland decided to recruit new blood and carry on, while in September, Hughes, along with vocalist David Coverdale, was introduced to the media as a member of Deep Purple. Two months…

Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force – Looking For The Perfect Beat (Tommy Boy TB 831, 12”, US, 1983) £10 Having achieved the electrification of funk and rap with Planet Rock, Bambaataa/ Baker jettisoned the Kraftwerk template for this follow-up, making the language of electro-funk their own. New Order Confusion (Factory FAC 93, 12”, UK, 1983) £10 On which Baker enabled the former Joy Division members and Gillian Gilbert to rewire themselves for the 80s. Ian Curtis never made it to America – New Order did. This is what they made of it. Rockers Revenge – Walking On Sunshine (London, LONX 11, 12”, UK, 1982) £5 Baker's reworking of the Eddy Grant composition was the dance soundtrack to 1982, a huge hit in the UK and US, strutting and stretching to…

The Yardbirds Five Live Yardbirds (Columbia 33SX 1677, UK, 1964) £250 A rough-andready recording that captures the energy and barely restrained chaos of a Friday night session at The Marquee, climaxing in the bass-driven ‘rave up’ that was the band's version of Howlin' Wolf's Smokestack Lightning. Recorded on 20 March 1964, issued December 1964. The Alan Bown Set/Jimmy James & The Vagabonds London Swings: Live At The Marquee Club (Pye Records NPL 18156, UK, 1966) £30 Two bluesy soul bands, both Marquee club regulars, get a side each. According to saxophonist John Helliwell both bands were recorded on the same night: “It was just like a gig, maybe a little bit more time in-between the two bands in order to set up the microphones, but get out there onstage and…

Reviews From The Vaults Reissues, remasters and compilations The Who Who's Next / Life House UMC 3587307 (10CD/Blu-ray) It's one of rock's ironies that an iconic album like Who's Next, first issued on vinyl in August 1971, was salvaged from the wreckage of Life House, a movie project Pete Townshend had planned as the follow-up to The Who's 1969's rock opera epic Tommy. He'd found big-screen funding easier to get than the task of selling the concept to his bandmates, already tired of flogging the “deaf, dumb and blind boy” tale around the world. Live At Leeds had been an attempt to prove to band and audience alike that there was more to life than Tommy Walker, though it contained no new material. The funding for the film was suddenly withdrawn…

Nancy Sinatra Keep Walkin' Singles, Demos & Rarities 1965-1978 Light In The Attic LIT 208 (2LP) It can't have been easy being Frank Sinatra's kid, especially if you sang and yearned to follow in his footsteps. There would always be disparaging comparisons and allegations of nepotism. But in 1965, Nancy Sinatra escaped her old man's considerable shadow to become a shining star in her own right, which she achieved by reinventing herself both sonically and visually. To some onlookers, Nancy's startling reboot – from a hitless brunette ingenue to a blonde, chartbusting, go-go-booted sex kitten – could only have resulted from a cunning PR masterplan but according to the singer, it was nothing of the kind. “It was sheer luck,” the 83-year-old singer confessed to compiler, annotator, and producer Hunter…

Autonomy – The Productions of Martin Rushent Ace CDTOP1636 (CD) Celebrating Human League and Stranglers producer Producer Martin Rushent excelled at flooding his recordings with light. Autonomy compiles 19 of Rushent's most immediate productions – licensing restrictions permitting. Between 1977-79, no one bettered Rushent at delivering aural slaps in the face. Are You Receiving Me by XTC, Autonomy by Buzzcocks and Destination Venus by The Rezillos all boast the crunchiest guitars and crispest vocals the era had to offer. However, it was Rushent's embrace of synths that made him such a player in pop's next phase. His studio stewardship of The Human League – represented here with Hard Times (Instrumental) – is a matter of record(s), but Je Suis Passée by Hard Corps and Don't Touch Me by Hazel O'Connor…

Glen Hansard All That Was East Is West Of Me Now ANTI EPIT 27976-2 (CD, LP) The first album in almost four years from influential frontman of The Frames, at the cutting edge of the Irish scene in the 90s and 00s, sees Glen Hansard in an enigmatic yet rock'n'roll frame of mind. While Hansard relishes the past, this is very much about now, the music growling and thundering from the very start, The Feast Of St John with throbbing, bass-y guitar leading into a barrage of noise, a welter of squealing feedback as Hansard bellows the vocals over the top. Then there's Down On Our Knees with its bass riff and near electro soundtrack, bringing a hint of New Order to mind, breathless and dangerous. But then things start…

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