Table of contents for Issue 552 in Record Collector

SEND YOUR PRAISE, MISSIVES AND CALLS FOR THE DEIFICATION OF TERRY STAUNTON 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 Hello, and welcome to Rc552 Welcome, indeed, to the Christmas edition of Record Collector, a bumper affair with a good few dozen more pages than most of our recent issues. That means lots more reviews of the latest albums (Beatles, R.E.M., John Wetton, Madness, Peter Gabriel), books and DVDs, and articles on rarities and memorabilia, including one on seasonal toy aliens. Ho ho ho. It also means more in-depth features than usual. This month they run the gamut of genres and eras: interviews with everyone from Micky Dolenz to Wreckless…

Maren Morris/Karen Argow Addie Ant Goes On An Adventure book, April 2024, [TBC]. ■ Willie Nelson Long Short Story: Willie Nelson 90 Live At The Hollywood Bowl 21-track 2LP, 39-track 2CD/BD, with three video bonuses, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Keith Richards, Grateful Dead's Bobby Weir, Gov't Mule's Warren Haynes, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews, Beck, Jack Johnson, Snoop Dogg, Tom Jones, Lyle Lovett, Lumineers, Chris Stapleton, Kris Kristofferson, Legacy, 15 December. Due: March 2024 (8) Marry Waterson/Adrian Crowley Cuckoo Storm, One Little Independent. Biz On 20 October, Universal Music Japan opened its four-story Universal Music Store Harajuku, on Takeshita Street, Tokyo. It includes pop-up shop space, its first custom outlet being The Rolling Stones RS No 9 store, with exclusive merchandise. ■ In October, Merch Traffic, acting for Metallica, filed local US…

Barry Hansen enters what was once a two-car garage, filled to the brim with “more records than any sane person would have”. He has to walk sideways around the albums spilling into the aisles. The man adored by novelty music maniacs as renowned radio host, Dr Demento, is searching out remnants of a past life as an employee at Warners, where he curated and annotated most of the label's Loss Leaders samplers. The innovative, idiosyncratic series encompassed 35 releases, running from the heady hippie days of 1969 to the new wave world of 1980. Not sold in stores, and never reissued, these mail-order collections (mostly 2LPs) featured the esoteric side of the label's roster, deep cuts by major artists, and some rarities, all at bargain prices. The collectable samplers sport…

One of the things no one will miss about Twitter when it finally dies in a hail of Elon Musk's bullets is that you won't see a beloved name trending and then feel your heart sink into your stomach. This morning it was Roy Wood. No, not Roy Wood? And, of course, it turned out to be a completely different Roy Wood – correctly known as Roy Wood Jr – who was trending, a big cheese in American TV, apparently. Phew. Somehow, I still think there's time for Roy Wood to revive his career and score another Christmas No 1. In any sane world, it would have been Roy who got the call ahead of Jeff Lynne for… well, everything. Imagine a world in which Roy had been a Traveling…

The term ‘consummate entertainer’ (see also ‘national treasure’) is bandied around with such imprecision nowadays. Yet if the phrase was ever predestined for anyone, it would be George Michael Dolenz. It has been said that Dolenz was born with tinsel in his veins, as his mother and father (Janelle Johnson and George Dolenz) were both in showbusiness. By the age of 11, young Dolenz was starring in Circus Boy, a major US-networked TV series. After appearing in 59 episodes, he returned to his studies and sporadic television work. Dolenz, who had by now been vocalist in his own band Micky & The One-Nighters, had a private audition for The Monkees after the infamous advert looking for ‘Ben Frank's Types’ had been placed in The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety in…

WRECKLESS ERIC Wreckless Eric has travelled the Whole Wild World. It's not just the enduring attraction of his most famous song, but of the world it has created for his career and his life, both of which have veered from charming boyish pop to chaos and heartache. Yet the world's now spinning in the right direction. He survived a near-death experience with Covid, has spent the bulk of the past 30 years in either France or the US – often chasing his demons – but now with wife Amy Rigby, the American singer-songwriter, a new life beckons… in Cromer. But he's far from retiring to the seaside. The grin still has an edge, and the voice is as laconically upbeat as ever. And there's a new album, Leisureland, up there…

“Everything was shaking,” Chan Marshall, better known by her stage name Cat Power, is explaining to Record Collector. “It started with my left leg and then my butt cheek and then my other butt cheek and then my other leg and then my arm and then my other arm and then my jaw, and so I made my hands into fists and crammed them into my suit's pockets and I pressed down really hard and I just went into that first song, which was She Belongs To Me, and it was intense.” Marshall is vividly reliving the moment when she stepped out onto the stage at the Royal Albert Hall last 5 November to recreate Bob Dylan's legendary May 1966 Manchester Free Trade Hall Concert. The original performance, which was…

Plenty of artists selling records to teenagers at the end of the 50s had ambitions to sing for older audiences. Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Ben E. King, Bobby Rydell, Tommy Sands and Neil Sedaka variously dabbled in recording pop standards or singing in supper clubs. None managed the transition better than Bobby Darin. His finger-clicking version of Mack the Knife, which originated from a German play of the 1920s, out-Sinatra-ed Sinatra. He took Charles Trenet's rousing French classic, La Mer, translated by Jack Lawrence in the 40s as Beyond The Sea, and reconfigured it as another irresistible swinger. The two songs were on Darin's 1959 album, That's All, which re-presented the art of crooning to the hepcat generation, as well as catching the ear of the more musically sophisticated. “What can…

MARC BOLAN Hippy Gumbo (Parlophone R 5539, 1966) £650 Spooky, and utterly bizarre, here Bolan recounts an encounter with the devil in disguise: “Hippy Gumbo, he's no good. Chop him up and burn the wood!” This was the record that got John Peel hooked on the fantastical world of early Bolan. DAVID BOWIE The London Boys (Deram DM 107, 1966) £450 Surely Bowie's greatest B-side. An operatic tale of disillusionment and despair in the big city for a 60s teenager on the run. THE SWEET Slow Motion (Fontana TF 958, 1968) £400 Their very first single, and hauntingly effective. Sweet start off soft and, er, sweet, but it has a beauty which endures. THE 'NBETWEENS You Better Run (Columbia DB 8080, 1966) £300 Slade start their career with a Kim…

READER SERVICES 1-57, 59-64, 66-69, 71, 74-79, 81-85, 88, 93, 97-109, 111-118, 121, 123, 126-129, 131-137, 139-142, 144, 146-150, 153-163, 165-193, 197-199, 201202, 204-223, 227-229, 231-233, 237-242, 244-252, 254-257, 259-269, 271-274, 276-283, 286-292, 294-313, 314, 315, 317-318, 321-333, 336-339, 341, 342, 344, 346-349, 351-356, 358-360, 362, 368, 369, 372-375, 379, 382, 387, 407- 408, 410, 469-470, 489, 502, 531, 532 (issues listed in bold are available in digital format. Prices vary for digital issues). For digital copies, please go to www.pocketmags.com/record-collector-magazine/issues. Digital back issues are now available from issue 408 onwards on iOS, Android or Amazon. Buy online at www.recordcollectormag.com or call 020 8752 8193 for the special offer Features are listed below… With discography – D (Discographies include values current at the time each issue was published); Interview – I…

1. JALEN NGONDA Come Around And Love Me (Daptone) 2. SAY SHE SHE Silver (Karma Chief Records) 3. ROBERT FINLEY Black Bayou (Easy Eye Sound) 4. BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA Echoes Of The South (Single Lock Records) 5. GABRIELS Angels And Queens (PLG UK Frontline) 6. BILLY VALENTINE Billy Valentine And The Universal Truth (Acid Jazz) 7. BETTYE LAVETTE Lavette! (Jay Vee Records) 8. DURAND JONES Wait Til I Get Over (Dead Oceans) 9. BLACK PUMAS Chronicles Of A Diamond (ATO Records) 10. TAJ MAHAL Savoy (Stony Plain)…

1. THE MAYTALS Essential Artist Collection (Trojan) 2. VARIOUS ARTISTS Who Wants Some? (Greensleeves) 4. JOHN HOLT Essential Artist Collection (Trojan) 5. KING TUBBY The Roots Of Dub (VP) 6. CHANNEL ONE SOUNDSYSTEM Down In The Dub Vault (VP) 7. CARROLL THOMPSON Carroll Thompson (Doctor Bird) 8. PRINCE LINCOLN THOMPSON AND THE ROYAL RASSES God Sent Dub (Burning Sounds) 9. MAX ROMEO Every Man Ought To Know (VP) 10. THE ALTONES Vol. 1 (Self-released) 3. DESMOND DEKKER King Of Ska (Trojan)…

It's a CHICK COREA reissue bonanza this month. The late keyboard magus, who died in 2021, served his musical apprenticeship in Miles Davis’ groundbreaking jazz-rock band before making his name leading the fusion behemoth Return To Forever in the 1970s. In the 1980s, the Massachusetts-born pianist assembled a new band, the CHICK COREA ELEKTRIC BAND, which in its original lineup included guitarists Scott Henderson and Carlos Rio augmenting a powerhouse rhythm section comprising bassist John Patitucci and drummer Dave Weckl. The five albums they recorded for the GRP label – Chick Corea Elektric Band, the Grammy-winning Light Years, The Eye Of The Beholder, Inside Out, and Beneath The Mask – are all now available individually on CD or together as part of an opulent Bernie Grundman-mastered 5LP vinyl box set,…

GREGORY ISAACS was only a few years into his four-decade career when he hooked up with producer Alvin Ranglin in 1973 and wasn't yet the Cool Ruler. But his In Person ( Doctor Bird) was a landmark in the singer's career, his very first of many albums. Doctor Bird, as is their wont, have expanded it into a double CD. The original 12 tracks are based on carefully constructed rhythms by the G.G. Allstars. Kicking off with the hard-hitting roots statement Sweeter The Victory, the set then follows a more romantic path with numbers like The Way She Walks and Dreams Come True. Gregory isn't quite the finished article yet: at times his voice strains a little and he hasn't yet perfected that trademark lusciously languid delivery. But songs such as…

Bryan Ferry Mamouna/Horoscope: Deluxe Reissue BMG 405038885477 (3CD, 2LP) Just out of reach, glowing. From Stranded through Country Life to Siren, Bryan Ferry led Roxy Music into a golden period of yearning, of seeking the exquisite, the sublime, the probably impossible. As time went by he was to take the odd year or two off, but he never quite gave up the quest. That's the thing with incurable romantics. They're incurable. It's safe to say that members of that tribe will be well up for a nine-minute funk version of Mother Of Pearl. Yes, you read that right. This redux Mamouna comes bejewelled with such treats. Prior to the 1994 release of the original, Ferry had “three or four miserable years”, he once said. However, '93's Taxi, a (by his…

Trevor Horn on echoes of the past and pulling in favours. How did you select what to record for Echoes: Ancient & Modern? I always look for songs that mean something lyrically. I like them to have a bit of a story to tell, even if it's a universal one, that gives the singer a role to play. White Wedding is reborn as Gothic Americana, and does sound like a short story now. I was trying to take the songs away from where they originally were, and I think that one in particular lent itself to being presented as a different scenario. Billy Idol has an attitude that tends to trump any kind of subtle message, to the point where I think the lyrics might be overlooked, but White Wedding has…

Mutiny In Heaven: The Birthday Party Cargo Film (Cinemas) Australian group take London and then Berlin; carnage ensues! On one level, Mutiny In Heaven is a standard rockumentary about how bands used to rise to prominence before splitting up again. You know the score: school friends form band, band is championed by John Peel, band rises to prominence, band sacks drummer, band encounters smack, band dissolves in an internecine hullabaloo of egos. On another level, this is The Birthday Party, one of the most beautifully grotesque gothabilly groups ever to stalk the earth. Director Ian White maintains the energy required for such a live wire and degenerate rabble, fronted by a young, irresponsible, piratelike Nick Cave. We get nearly the whole video of the Hieronymous Bosch-inspired ‘Prayers On Fire’ while…

Oliver Gray (right) backstage with Bobby Elliott My first gig was The Hollies, here, in 1964. How has touring changed since? We travelled in an old Ford van with two amps and my drums. Today, we have a big double-deck sleeper bus and a huge truck packed with lights, sound equipment and video screens. Your memoir ends in 1982. Are there plans for another? I should get off my ass and get all my old diaries out of the barn. Writing is a joy when the words are flowing. Your US tour was stymied by the Covid pandemic. Will it be rescheduled? We live in hope. How does the current line-up's chemistry work? On the road, band and crew are family. We rely on each other. The standing ovation at the…

This month: Norrie Paramor During his reign as an A&R man, Norrie Paramor was second only to George Martin in terms of prominence and influence. He supervised and scored many big-selling records for Columbia Records. Not all his judgements were infallible – he had initially wanted Cliff Richard to release Schoolboy Crush as his first single in 1958, with Move It relegated to the B-side. At the insistence of Jack Good, Paramor reversed his decision and so British rock’n'roll (with an appropriately curled lip) was born, and Oh Boy! became the most popular teenage TV show on which Richard would go on to make 20 appearances. So began Paramor's close association with both Cliff and The Drifters (later The Shadows). Paramor was sensible enough to allow Bruce Welch to reconfigure…

This month: Buxton Festival, 5-6 July 1974 I'm not sure what John Thomas (friend and car owner) and I were celebrating at the Meadow Vale Country Club, Tonyrefail, on the night of Thursday 4 July, but, clearly, it wasn't that exciting, because we decided to drive to Derbyshire and sample the joys of the Buxton Festival 1974. So, it's straight home, a quick change of clothes, collect a couple of blankets, not forgetting the road atlas, and off we go. Arriving mid-morning on Buxton Moor, we choose a parking spot on the festival site and join the queue to buy our tickets. The festival site couldn't be more remote and exposed to the elements, and what elements: the weather is bloody awful – cold, windy and very, very wet –…

The Billy Joel My Life – A Piano Man's Journey exhibition, including instruments, unpublished photos, audio-video installations, awards, memorabilia, is at the Long Island Music & Entertainment Hall Of Fame, Main Street, Stony Brook, New York, to 1 September 2024. ■ The Fragile Beauty: Photographs From The Sir Elton John And David Furnish Collection exhibition, including shots of Miles Davis, Chet Baker, is at London Victoria & Albert Museum, 18 May 2024-5 January 2025. ■ The War Child charity's Secret 7” exhibition is at Now Gallery, Soames Walk, North Greenwich, London, 2-17 March 2024, featuring 100 designs each for seven 100-copy 7”s by Paul McCartney, The Specials, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Chemical Brothers, Hozier, Celeste and Aurora that are offered for auction. Prospective sleeve designs can be submitted via secret-7.co.uk to 9…

At RC Towers, we foresee new music coming from Santana, Taylor Swift, The Offspring, Offset, Rihanna, Down, John Francis, Gojira, TI, Kreator, Oliver Wakeman, Cast, Blink-182, The Shins, Elton John, WASP, Frank Ocean, Skid Row, Sheppard, Courtney Love, Jean-Michel Basquiat, S Club, Dark Tranquillity, ex-All About Eve's Julianne Regan & Tim Bricheno, Björk, Carly Rae Jepsen, Halestorm, ex-Guns N’ Roses’ Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal, Little Mix's Perrie Edwards, Tesla's Dave Rude, Foals’ Yannis Philippakis/Tony Allen, Slayer's Kerry King, Slower (on Heavy Psych Sounds), Wale (Def Jam), Interlaker (Hassle), Fireball Ministry (Ripple); a Gordon Giltrap reissues vinyl box set; Pete Townshend’s The Age Of Anxiety rock opera; and another Britney Spears memoir om 2024. CELLULOID HEROES Projects due include Toby Genkel's High In The Clouds animation film, soundtracked by Michael Giacchino, with…

Pete Rand spent 40 years in retail sales running award-winning businesses both as MD and senior manager. But his real passion came from collecting contemporary music and, in particular, Steely Dan. In the early 70s he was first introduced to the band by a friend and got hooked. A stint working in a WH Smith record department provided him with both their vinyl and numerous pieces of instore display material and he was away. Since then, he has built up one of the largest collections of Dan vinyl and memorabilia, forming friendships with many including the band's former manager, Joel Cohen, who provided some real gems for his collection. What do you collect, and why? I have collected vinyl since 1970 but as my collection got bigger I had nowhere…

DENIECE PEARSON Five Star singer on her latest solo offering What film could your new album soundtrack? Black Panther. Is there anything still unissued? A couple of my demos from earlier days that I may consider revisiting. Have you done anything that fans may not know about? I've recently done vocals for Sting's Message In A Bottle stage show. With whom would you like to make a split 7”? A remake of one of my dad's songs, singing with him. Where were you when you first heard one of your songs on vinyl? At home, Essex, 1982. We had to phone in to Tony Blackburn's radio show to vote for our All Fall Down. We put a kitchen cloth over the handset and pretended we were someone else [laughs]. What…

FIVE OF MICKY'S BEST The Monkees The Monkees (RCA RD 7844, LP, mono, UK, 1966) £15 A snapshot of where machinetooled pop was in America in 1966. Just listen to Dolenz's lead vocals on Last Train To Clarksville. The Monkees Headquarters (RCA RD 7886, LP, mono, UK, with different ‘beard’ photo on back, 1967) £25 The Monkees gain control. Although Randy Scouse Git is Dolenz's showcase, his vocals on Tork's For Pete's Sake are astounding. The Monkees Head (RCA RD 8051, LP, mono, UK, 1969) £90 Head contains Goffin-King's As We Go Along, complete with guitars by Ry Cooder and Neil Young, and Dolenz's career-best performance. Micky Dolenz Unattended In The Dungeon/A Lover's Prayer (MGM K 14395, 7”, US, 1972) £25 A jazz-inflected wayward number from the solo Dolenz, part…

SLOWDIVE A funny thing happened when Slowdive reunited in 2014. A proposed tour of – by singer/ guitarist Rachel Goswell's reckoning – eight festival bookings more than doubled, reflecting huge interest in the resurgent shoegaze veterans. And as Goswell sat in the dressing room before the band's performance at Pitchfork Festival in Chicago, something else struck her. “I heard this band kind of coming through the sky,” she tells RC while taking a break from rehearsals for Slowdive's summer 2023 festival dates, “and I was like, that really fucking sounds like Slowdive. Then it got really heavy…” The band were San Fran post-metal crew Deafheaven, Slowdive fans whose merger of shoegaze and “really heavy” sounds affirms a congruency between shoegaze introversion and extroverted rock strategies. And the Deafheaven posse were…

FIVE MARSHALL MARVELS Dear Sir (Runt, 10”, Italy, 1995) £40 Raw, gritty, utterly absorbing, Marshall's soul is laid bare on her debut album, that produced by Ed Douglas sits somewhere between Courtney Love's Hole and Nico. The highpoint, an emotion-capsizing reading of Tom Waits’ Yesterday Is Here, marked her out as a talented interpreter. Moon Pix (Matador, LP, UK, 1998) £25 Her breakthrough album, half written in a single night after experiencing a hallucinatory nightmare while alone in a farmhouse in South Carolina. Recorded in Melbourne with Dirty Three's Jim White and Mick Turner, it's spartan, haunting horror folk, peaking with Cross Bones Style. The Greatest (Matador, LP, US, 2006) £40 Marshall goes to Memphis’ Ardent studios and with the Memphis Rhythm Band channels Dusty, Aretha and Etta on 12…

That's All (London, 1959) £15 Only 23 when this was released, just established as a teen idol, Darin's audacity was remarkable. Richard Wess, the young conductor/arranger, also worked with Ruth Brown, Connie Francis and Sammy Davis Jr. Oh! Look At Me Now (Capitol, 1962) £6 His first Capitol album. Teamed with Billy May, Darin was in the adult league now, swinging oldies like Roses Of Picardy and I'm Beginning To See The Light as if born to it. In A Broadway Bag (Mame) (Atlantic, 1966) £5 About to ditch the blazer for denim, Darin was still the best of his generation when it came to rendering Broadway swingers or ballads with conviction and authority. If I Were A Carpenter (Atlantic, 1966) £8 An album owing much to Tim Hardin, who…

A SECRET HISTORY OF GLAM “I've got a heart-shaped guitar – do you remember that?” says Mud guitarist Rob Davis from his home in Bromley. “In the 80s, I got a message from Prince's management – he wanted to buy it. But I couldn't bear to sell it. Still got it. It's iconic, it's been on Top Of The Pops countless times.” In keeping with the glam tradition of having one designated member effete and outré – with The Sweet it was Steve Priest, with Slade, Dave Hill. Rob Davis played the role with Mud, a florid, extravagantly trousered counterpoint to the Teddy boyinspired machismo of singer Les Gray and the rest of the band. “The guys wore drapes. There was this guy, Colin, in Carnaby Street, who put together…

TOP 25 1. SPARKS The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte (Island) The veteran pop duo continued their late-career renaissance by adding another masterpiece to the catalogue, crafting an exhilarating electronic-pop record stuffed with intoxicating hooks and the odd diversion into psychedelic and orchestral experimentation. A relentlessly brilliant album from a band seizing their moment in the spotlight. 2. PJ HARVEY I Inside The Old Year Dying (Partisan) This mysterious and fantastical return may have required a few listens to get your head round but became essential once it got its grips on you, melodies slowly emerging from the sonic murkiness on an album that mixes eerie folk with hazy synth ambience. 3. BLUR The Ballad Of Darren (Parlophone) Damon Albarn and co's live shows may have been euphoric nostalgia…

TOP 25 1. PINK FLOYD The Dark Side Of The Moon 50th Anniversary (Pink Floyd Records) The final word on the prog landmark, available in an array of formats but none more jaw-dropping than the mammoth deluxe box set, a fitting commemoration for one of the finest albums of all-time. You might need a new shelf – or room – to fit it all in, though. 2. THE WHO Who's Next / Lifehouse Super Deluxe Edition (UMR) A collection containing a whopping 10 discs and 155 tracks, taking you inside and outside the album that took The Who to the next level, plus a trip inside Lifehouse – the record that never was. 3. BOB DYLAN Fragments: Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996-1997) The Bootleg Series Vol.17 (Columbia) Captivating set…

From The Vaults REVIEWS Reissues, remasters and compilations How the alternative rock titans re-emerged from the toughest moment of their career. By Jamie Atkins R.E.M. Up (25th Anniversary Edition) Concord 7253273 (2CD/2CD+Blu-ray/2LP) As album openings from multi-million-selling bands go, it's certainly brave. The smallest sounding of beats, potentially a toy keyboard's preset rhythm. The cosmic hum of a droning synth. Squalls of feedback that could pass for a distressed Wookie. When Michael Stipe arrives, he is barely recognisable – muttering in a low register about airport lighting and business travel. Shiny Happy People, Airportman is not. R.E.M. had warned fans that their 11th album, Up, would be different. In a statement issued in October 1997 to announce the departure of founder member and drummer Bill Berry, Stipe mused, “I guess a…

BOOTSY'S RUBBER BAND’s This Boot Is Made For Fonk-n’ ( Music On Vinyl) gets a first official (translucent magenta) vinyl reissue since its original release in 1979. Co-produced with George Clinton and featuring the P-Funk crew, highlights include Under The Influence Of A Groove and Jam Fan (Hot) and it also comes with a replica of the original's 8 page comic book by Overton Loyd. Discovered by former Ann Arbor radio deejay, producer and label owner Ollie McLaughlin, THE CAPITOLS were a trio from Detroit who hit No 7 in the US Billboard singles chart with Cool Jerk in 1966. Part of a series of records dedicated to ‘The Jerk’ dance craze including The Contours’ Can You Jerk Like Me?, The Miracles’ Come On Do The Jerk and Jerk And Twine…

John Wetton An Extraordinary Life Cherry Red SOUMBOX 003 (8CD) The love for John Wetton only truly became apparent with his passing in 2017 – like many musicians with such long careers, he seemed taken for granted. This estate-curated 12 × 12 eight-CD set An Extraordinary Life aims to set the record straight. It is a cornucopia of delights. Most listening will know and love his work with King Crimson, U.K. and Asia, less so across his six solo albums. The production values are there throughout, and no matter how sketchy the material may be at times, Wetton stamps his authority with his remarkable, soaring baritone – never showboating, always serving the song. After his prog supergroup, U.K., finally crashed and burned, Caught In The Crossfire was Wetton's first album,…

Peter Gabriel i/o Real World PGBOX 21 (2CD/2CD/Blu-ray, 2LP/4LP/2CD/Blu-ray) Peter Gabriel's first in ages is interested in age. The songs poetically explore time, great big intimations of mortality, humankind and nature, darkness and light. They sound, in terms of sound alone, like Peter Gabriel songs have sounded since the 90s. Considered, cerebral structures are made accessible and enjoyable by a foundation of artfunk, with his rich, sandy voice providing emotion aplenty. He remains a very, very good writer, who in focusing on the personal ensures there's enough oxygen flowing for it to be universal. Dry, raised-eyebrow humour leavens the gravitas. And because of that skill, that shrewdness, what could in lesser hands be so wilfully deep and clever it's stifling becomes a celebration of survival, of love, of life. It's…

Madness Theatre Of The Absurd Presents C’est La Vie BMG 538974492 (CD, 2LP, Cassette) Hark back to the very beginning and the chant of “they call it madness” from the Prince Buster song that was the B-side of their first single, and while times may have changed, Madness are pumped full of more of their titular fuel than ever. After years of will-they won'tthey carry on, will they simply be content to be a high-end greatest hits live combo, they've pulled out all the stops for a glorious melée that takes them bouncing into the future. The title? Well, Theatre Of The Absurd Presents C’est La Vie sounds like – good grief – a concept album yet it's more of a wild, wacky stage show waiting to happen, kicking off…

Dave Davies Father Christmas EP Red River Entertainment BFD 575 LP Funny how things work out. Given the size of their catalogue, it seems unlikely that Father Christmas, their punky little mid-70s tale of seasonal niceties gone wrong, should have become one of The Kinks’ mostcovered and best-known songs. Here it is again, delivered with no little fire and finesse by Brother Dave, who proves quite a punk vocalist. All four quarters within this seasonal 12” are previously available live versions from different gigs in 2000 and 2003, but form a very decent whole. Who's Fooling Who is chunky-punky boogie; Imagination's Real (my apostrophe) squirts along nicely with a sizzling guitar solo, and Love Me Til The Sun Shines, penned by Dave for the flip of his wryly pathos-laden 60s…

Sell Vinyl/CDs direct to RC readers, call us on 0208 752 8172 or Email listings@recordcollectormag.com NEXT ISSUE: JANUARY 2024 (on sale 28 DECEMBER) Deadline for submitting adverts (Listings & Classified): Monday 4 DECEMBER Please email your advert (word doc/excel file/plain text) to: listings@recordcollectormag.com Postal address: Record Collector Listings, Diamond Publishing Ltd, 2nd Floor, Saunders House, 52-53 The Mall, Ealing, London W5 3TA Following issue: FEBRUARY 2024 (on sale 25 JANUARY) Deadline: Tuesday 2 JANUARY…

Kate Rusby December (7) York Barbican (8) Bradford St George's Hall (10) Cambridge Corn Exchange (11) London Cadogan Hall (12) Brighton Dome (14) Sheffield City Hall (16) Birmingham Town Hall (17) Bristol Beacon (18) Nottingham RCH (20) Gateshead Glasshouse (21) Manchester Bridgewater Hall Mari Wilson December (7) Stroud Sub Rooms (11) Bury St Edmunds Apex (16) Wavendon Stables (17) London Shepherd's Bush Bush Hall Now Booking Amaranthe, DragonForce March 2024 (22) Bristol O2 Academy (23) Manchester Academy (24) London Camden Roundhouse George Benson June 2024 (26) Bournemouth BIC (28-29) London Royal Albert Hall July (1) Glasgow RCH (3) Leeds First Direct Arena Blind Guardian April 2024 (12) Glasgow SWG3 (13) Manchester Academy (14) London Kentish Town O2 Forum Jon Gomm December (7) Southampton 1865 (8) Brighton Arch (9) Frome Tree…

CODA Annie Laurie It Hurts To Be In Love (DeLuxe 45-6107, 7”, B-side, US, 1957) £5 I lived in Muskegon, Michigan. My parents loved music: my mom, pop and country & western, my dad R&B and blues, especially BB King. At the weekends, they sold corn liquor – this was the 40s and you couldn't go to a bar if you were black, so people came to our house, ate fried chicken and sandwiches and bought pints or half-pints. There was a jukebox in the living room and my parents would put me on top of it and I would dance to the songs and sing along. Annie Laurie's It Hurts To Be In Love was the first R&B song I learned to sing from that jukebox. The Miracles Shop…

Peter Huxley played guitar in Mark Kermode's Border Incident, has written for several music magazines, and provided sleevenotes for Hawkwind and New Order. He wrote this month's cover story on glam stars before they were famous (p84). Favourite glam song: T.Rex's Get It On. “Who,” asks Peter, “said guitar riffs need more than one note?” Lois Wilson discussed family, sobriety and covering Bob Dylan in concert with Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power (p70) and, elsewhere, with soul great, Bettye Lavette, the records that changed her life (p152). She also wrote this month's soul column. Favourite glam song: T.Rex's Children Of The Revolution. Anne-Marie White is a designer and illustrator residing in Shipley, West Yorkshire. She loves records, especially Northern soul and 60s pop. Her other interests include Leeds United, brutalist architecture…

How come you're back now, for the first time since 2011? We found the original mastertapes of my third album, Him, from 1995, which wasn't commercially released. EMI went through a big transition then, and quite a few records never saw the light of day. So, we decided to clean the songs up, remaster them, and include a few on my first proper best-of. We've done a few new edits and added some fresh mixes across various formats. Did anything stand out during the collection's creation? Looking back in the archives at the handwritten album notes and the studio sessions details. It was recorded between a few different studios, including Metropolis at Chiswick in London, and it was fun to reminisce about the sessions and what we got up to…

On 10 December, the Third Man label has a free record fair with DJs at London Bridge Omeara. Along with wares from Third Man, those offering rarities include 4AD, AD93, All Flowers Group, Be With, Bella Union, Brace Yourself, Communion, Dash The Henge, Drag City, Ecstatic Peace Library & Daydream Library Series, Erased Tapes, French Workwear, Ghostly Recordings, Heavenly Recordings, Honest Jon's, Late Night Tales, Mute, Ninja Tune, Numero, Otoroku, Partisan, Sacred Bones, Rough Trade, Secretly Group, Sonic Cathedral, So Young, Soundway, Speedy Wunderground, The State51 Conspiracy, Stones Throw, Sunday Best Recordings, Tatty Devine, and Unified Goods. See thirdmanrecords.com.…

Vera Sola Peacemaker (City Slang SLANG 50552 LP, LP, 2024) After releasing a jaw-dropping debut album via Spectraphonic Records in late 2018, Vera Sola has returned, having signed to the marvellous City Slang roster. Recorded in Nashville in almost total isolation, the songs on Peacemaker harness the feeling of intimacy of her earlier work and apply it to a string of expansive, farreaching soundscapes. It's a longawaited new record from a true creative visionary. You can pre-order the LP on ‘oxblood red’-coloured vinyl now. Marika Hackman Big Sigh (Chrysalis BRVC 106, LP, 2024) This wonderful record marks Marika Hackman's first collection of original material in over four years. Having co-produced the album with Radiohead and Frank Ocean collaborator, Sam Petts-Davies, Hackman has added further dimensions to an ever-evolving sound, while…

BIRTHA THE BLUES I have an album by a band called Birtha. It's on the Probe label with the catalogue number SPBA 6267. It's a great slice of hard rock by an all-female band. I tried to look up its value in your excellent Rare Record Price Guide but could not see it there. Does that mean that it's worth less than £15? Harold Buchanan via email Birtha were an American blues band sporting a lineup of Shele Pinizzotto (guitar/vocals), Rosemary Butler (bass/vocals), Sherry Hagler (keyboards/ vocals) and Olivia “Liver” Favela (drums). They formed in Echo Park, LA in 1968 and, gravitating to blues rock, worked the club circuit before securing a record deal with Dunhill in 1972. They were put into the studio under producer Gabriel Mekler whose previous…

Dwight Twilley – singer, songwriter, musician and producer – died 18 October, aged 72. A widely admired artist whose original style drew upon The Beatles and Sun Records rockabilly, Twilley's musical odyssey took him to the legendary Memphis studio (following a chance encounter with Sun founder Sam Phillips’ son Jerry), Leon Russell's Shelter Records, London's Trident Studios and beyond. With longtime musical partner Phil Seymour, he led Oister. Sincerely and Twilley Don't Mind – the pair of late 70s albums from that group (renamed by the label The Dwight Twilley Band) – are held in high regard in the power pop world, as are later archival and live releases. Twilley had the ingredients for superstar success: sharp songwriting skills, a keen melodic sense and pop star good looks. But while…

OPINION Pete Townshend's history as guitarist and songwriter with The Who scarcely needs re-telling. And 2023 was a big year for the man whose band, founded in 1964, not only toured with a full orchestra but released an 11-disc box set of Who's Next, their first and only UK No 1 album from 1971. This incorporated the latest and probably ultimate exposition of Lifehouse, a failed futuristic movie concept whose songs were salvaged to form the core of Who's Next. The Who having played their last scheduled live gig in the grounds of Sandringham in late August, Townshend, 78, exclusively reveals to RC his future plans, both solo and with fellow band founder Roger Daltrey. You have returned to Lifehouse after nearly 25 years – half its lifetime. Is this…

Ten other flange fetishists MOOSE Moose's floor-focused stage presence helped sire the term shoegaze. Early EPs boasted loud guitars, before they embraced acoustic pop, strings and country influences. Recommended album … XYZ (Hut HUTLP 5, LP, UK, 1992) £40 Where are they now? Guitarist KJ ‘Moose’ McKillop, he of the pedal-focused gaze, is partner to Lush's Miki Berenyi; they now play in shoegaze-y supergroup Piroshka. DROP NINETEENS Boston's Drop Nineteens fused shoegaze with US college rock, cutting the influences of Dinosaur Jr et al into those of their sonically expansive British cousins. Recommended album Delaware (Hut HUTLP 4, LP, UK, 1992) £215 Where are they now? Recently ended a 30-year break with new song Scapa Flow, and a third album, Hard Light, out now. THE BOO RADLEYS Wirral quartet the…

All UK pressings unless marked. ALICE COOPER SELECT DISCOGRAPHY MARC BOLAN SELECT DISCOGRAPHY JOHN'S CHILDREN (featuring Marc Bolan) SELECT DISCOGRAPHY DAVID BOWIE SELECT DISCOGRAPHY SHANE FENTON & THE FENTONES (ALVIN STARDUST) BLUESOLOGY (featuring Reg Dwight aka Elton John) ELTON JOHN SELECT DISCOGRAPHY MUD SELECT DISCOGRAPHY DOC THOMAS GROUP (featuring Peter Watts and Mick Ralphs of Mott The Hoople) (FREDDIE) “FINGERS” LEE (featuring Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople) THE SCENERY (featuring Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople) AT LAST THE 1958 ROCK AND ROLL SHOW (featuring Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople) CHARLIE WOOLFE (featuring Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople) MOTT THE HOOPLE SELECT DISCOGRAPHY PIDGEON (featuring Jobriath) THE PLEASURE SEEKERS (featuring Suzi Quatro) CRADLE (featuring Suzi Quatro) PAUL RAVEN (GARY GLITTER) STEVE BRETT (featuring Noddy Holder on guitar…

1. BLOSSOM DEARIE Discover Who I Am (Fontana/UMR) 2. CHARLES MINGUS Changes: The Complete 1970s Atlantic Studio Recordings (Rhino) 3. SONNY CLARK The Complete Sonny Clark Blue Note Sessions (Mosaic) 4. MILES DAVIS QUINTET Workin’ With The Miles Davis Quintet (OJC/Craft Recordings) 5. GEORGE COLEMAN Live At Small's Jazz Club (Cellar Music Group) 6. SHIRLEY SCOTT Queen Talk: Live At The Left Bank (Reel To Real) 7. THELONIOUS MONK WITH JOHN COLTRANE Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane (OJC/Craft Recordings) 8. OLD AND NEW DREAMS Old And New Dreams (ECM) 9. CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT Mélusine (Nonesuch) 10. IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS Protect Your Light (Impulse!)…

1. BARDO POND Peel Sessions (Fire) 2. SOM IMAGINÁRIO Banda Da Capital (Far Out) 3. WILLIAM TYLER & THE IMPOSSIBLE TRUTH Secret Stratosphere (Merge) 4. ACID KING Beyond Vision (Blues Funeral) 5. ECSTATIC VISION Live At DunaJam (Heavy Psych) 6. THE MEN Fuzz Club Session (Fuzz Club) 7. BLUE ÖYSTER CULT Secret Treaties (Columbia) 8. THEE ALCOHOLICS Live At The Piper (Human Worth) 9. BECK, BOGERT & APPICE Beck, Bogert & Appice (Epic) 10. CANDY CLAWS Ceres & Calypso In The Deep Time (Two Syllable)…

Mike Mills on becoming a three-piece, poor timekeeping, and which Up song makes him laugh. What was going through your head when Bill dropped that bombshell? I was surprised, but not shocked. Bill had a couple of bad things happen to him on the road over the years, and I knew that he was unhappy with a lot of things, but I didn't expect him to actually leave the band. How did losing Bill affect your relationships with Michael and Peter over the months that followed? Well, there had been a balance – even in something as seemingly mundane as punctuality. Michael and I tend to show up a little bit later, Peter and Bill were always, at least on time, if not early. When Bill left, Peter was often…

The Beatles 1962-1966 Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe 5592053 (3LP, 2CD) 1967-1970 Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/Ume 5592080 (3LP, 2CD) 1962-1966/1967-1970 Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/Ume 5592100 (6LP, 4CD) It really is time to reiterate the bleeding obvious. The Beatles are fabulous. The magazine you are reading would not exist without them. Their path from Love Me Do to Tomorrow Never Knows in just 46 months, while also conquering most of the western world and inexorably altering popular culture forever, is still one hell of an achievement. And then to repeat it as they went from Strawberry Fields Forever to I Me Mine in a further 39 months is doubly astounding. Assembled by Allen Klein as a reaction to the US TV advertised Beatles bootleg collection Alpha Omega, the ‘red’ (1962-1966) and the ‘blue’ (1967-1970) albums became…

MOGUL THRASH Mogul Thrash (RCA SF 8156, LP, 1971) £150 A ‘heads’ outfit if ever there were one, Mogul Thrash were formed by Jimmy Litherland after leaving Colosseum and featured not only a young John Wetton on bass, but Molly Duncan and Roger Ball (“the Dundee Horns”), who would go on to be so central to the Average White Band. KING CRIMSON Larks Tongues In Aspic (Island ILPS 9230, LP, 1st pressing in shrink wrap with ‘King Crimson’ sticker, pink rim label/’palm tree’ logo, printed inner, 1973) £150 Robert Fripp's most audacious reinvention of King Crimson was when he asked Wetton to join the band from Family, alongside Yes drummer Bill Bruford. Fripp called this rhythm section the ‘flying brick wall’. It's heavy, man, but amid the sheets of noise,…

Trevor Horn Echoes: Ancient & Modern Deutsche Grammophon 4860614 Production techniques of the 80s have a tendency to sound hopelessly dated in more modern times, but many of the records that bear the name of Trevor Horn have managed to avoid such dismissive attitudes. In particular, his work with Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Grace Jones and ABC remains vibrant and relevant, and Echoes: Ancient & Modern finds him only partially living in the past. Horn has taken a clutch of his favourite songs (some of which he had a hand in originally) and given them new homes, astutely finding vocalists to give them different complexions, with often surprising results. It's seemingly been a labour of love for a producer whose keen ears are matched by his daring and invention, a man…

Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story – Rude Boys, Racism And The Soundtrack Of A Generation Daniel Rachel White Rabbit, £25 ISBN 9781399607483, 544 pages The definitive document of a crucial musical movement For fans of music with a story that means something, of sound as a conduit to social history, Daniel Rachel's exhaustive study of the birth, life and afterlife of the movement surrounding the 2 Tone Records label offers enough to hook them with its opening words. It promises “a tale of ideals versus reality, of a working-class fan base led by middle-class musicians, of women challenging male privilege, of cultural identity fought out on dancefloors across the country.” Too Much Too Young… promises, and it delivers. Rachel begins by introducing Coventry itself, a character…

READER SERVICES Call on 020 8752 8172 or email stockists@metropolis.co.uk for more information or to sign up today! SOUTH EAST 101 Collectors Records – ‘Established in 1991. Now under new management. Buying and selling new and second hand vinyl and cd's. Stock a range of quality artist merchandise in store.’ 101 West Street, Farnham, GU9 7EN. Tel: 01252 734409. richard.101collectorsrecords@hotmail.com www.101collectorsrecords.com 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 Ben's Collectors Records – Long standing record shop in the heart of Guildford with an ever changing large stock of records cds &…

How have you prepared for the tour? I planned it a few years ago, and prep started then. We're in the musical arrangement stage that starts six months ahead of going on the road. I have a great creative team who plan the stage, lighting and set. The final part is rehearsals with the band for a few weeks, then full production run-throughs. Do you have any pre-/ post-show routines? Before the show, I try to move my body, whether a workout or stretch, then vocal warmups. I love to sing Aretha Franklin's Say A Little Prayer. It's become a ritual. Afterwards, a vocal warm-down, as my main priority is my vocal health. Will you be playing any songs that you rarely perform? A few that I haven't done live…

This month: The Rubettes The Rubettes broke through with golden era r’n'r pastiche Sugar Baby Love, in 1974. Luck was involved: the song had been offered to various artists who all rejected it, including Showaddywaddy. Ironically, Showaddywaddy passed because they wanted to write their own songs, only to spend their career churning out retreads of 50s hits. More good fortune was involved when Sparks were forced to cancel a scheduled appearance on Top Of The Pops as they didn't have a work permit, only for The Rubettes to be invited to fill in at the eleventh hour. In fact, there was no Rubettes when the song was originally recorded – the band members were all session musicians (some of whom appeared on Carl Douglas’ novelty No 1, Kung Fu Fighting).…

Various Artists Complete Cuban Jam Sessions (Craft Records CR00101, 5LP, US, 2018) £160 A remarkable and historic collection of tracks dating back to the late 50s and early 60s, originally released through Cuba's Panart label, this five-disc box set is a must for anyone interested in the development of Cuban music. Played by a who's-who of greats, including Niño Rivera, Israel “Cachao” López, Walfredo De Los Reyes and more, these cuts influenced artists far beyond their native shores. This was an extraordinary period in Cuban music, and these songs leap from the speakers with a shimmering vitality. Buena Vista Social Club Buena Vista Social Club (World Circuit WCD050, CD, UK, 1997) £6 In the mid-90s, producer Nick Gold invited guitarist Ry Cooder to participate in a collaboration between African and…