now U2 see it, now U2 don't

Heard about the recent invasive automatic download of the latest U2 album on iTunes? Of course you have. After the thickheaded publicity stunt cooked up by the corporate monster (choose your pick which one it is) Apple have now done an about face and made a removal tool available after gazillions of complaints of not being able to remove the playlist once it had arrived in their iTunes music library. They have also added in somewhat sour grapes fashion, words to the effect of, once you remove it you can't play with our toy no more.
If you would like to rid yourself of 'Songs Of Innocence' get the download here
And before we all have a quiet smirk at how that's all turned out remember it's been downloaded by 33 million people already. A more sobering thought altogether.

fruits de mer 7 and 7 singles

And now something that won't be forcing itself on you and is much more desireable, the new Fruits De Mer "7 and 7" singles release. A box-set of fine vinyl 45s featuring some of the labels favourite bands reinterpreting songs by some of the best bands that came out of the USA in the 60s.

The Bevis Frond play Clear Light
The Higher State play 13th Floor Elevators
The Chemistry Set play Love
Sendelica play the United States of America
King Penguin play The Byrds
The Gathering Gray play Moby Grape
Black Tempest/The Seventh Ring Of Saturn play Spirit/Grateful Dead

All in FDM's bespoke packaging and even with a free 7" bonus vinyl.
Details of ordering from fruitsdemerrecords.com Here's a preview of one of the treasures within - Nature's Way' by Black Tempest (originally recorded by Spirit).

nuggets anniversary new york

You know the name Nuggets. It's that fab compilation vinyl album of garage beat and psyche from the mid - late 60's, or as was properly titled 'Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era'.
The original album was released by Elektra in 1972 and overseen by Jac Holzman, founder of Elektra Records, and Lenny Kaye, who later went onto be lead guitarist with the Patti Smith Group (shrewd choice there by Patti with Kaye being one of the first to use the term "punk rock" on the Nugget sleeve notes. And yes punk rock did first begin in the States and not the UK as some might like to believe).

Anyway all of that is now well documented rock history, but it is one hell of a good chunk of vinyl if you haven't got one yet.
The point is in June this year and slipping under the radar somewhat was a reunion called "Summer of Nuggets 2" at the New York City Winery, and joining Lenny Kaye were various and assorted guests all gathered in to recreate those throbbing beat songs of the era.
Here's a little seen clip from the night with Lenny Kaye, Glen Burtnik, Tony Shanahan, Jack Petruzzelli Jay Dee Daugherty and the Red White 'n' Blue rhythm section playing 'She's About a Mover' which is a 1965 song by the Sir Douglas Quintet.
Although in this clip you won't be seeing much of the band because the camera was operated solely by someone who had his lens on one thing. The Nuggettes. !
And The Nuggettes were rather unsurprisingly two go-go dancers who wiggled and shimmied in proper 60's fashion, even down to the white knee length boots.
During the evening the bands do a pretty good job of keeping the beats moving but you can't help but think that maybe with a couple of them using music stands to read the music this might have lost some of the early reckless spirit of the originals. It would have been good to see some young dudes trying their hands at this stuff.
Still, except for the last shot and the drummer in the background we don't get to see any of the band in this clip because of course we'll be going go-go dancing.
Lets go go.

youtube plan to strangle independents

The Guardian newspaper reported

Independent artists could disappear from YouTube "in a matter of days" after the Google video service confirmed it was dropping content from independent labels that have not signed up for its upcoming subscription music service.

And that subscription service will basically be much like the Spotify model. They'll charge people to watch and listen to music without ads. They further add "YouTube will block videos from labels that do not sign licensing deals for the new premium tier".
The independent labels have naturally accused You Tube/Google of bullying tactics. Billy Bragg joined in saying "They are in danger of launching a streaming service that lacks the innovative and cutting edge sounds that independent artists bring."
The Guardian report goes on

A YouTube spokesman said the site "provides a global platform for artists to connect with fans and generate revenue for their music", adding: "We have successful deals in place with hundreds of independent and major labels around the world, however we don't comment on ongoing negotiations."

So that's a nice state of affairs. YouTube over the years has been an outlet for much of the independent music about and their fans use it as a first stop for the latest releases. And that is exactly what YouTube have been waiting for and the reason the whole pay to hear service will march ahead no matter who protests.
By the way their royalty rates to the labels will be less than Spotify return to artists, which is pretty mean as it is. You just knew it was going to happen. With major record labels squirming over their diminishing returns over the last decade and more they are the first to embrace the whole business. Much better to get what you can than little or nothing at all. The superstars and big business will reign supreme.

Will this eventually catch up to artists that self release there own material? So far they've not been included as independent labels, and rightly so, but the first sign they do there could well be a mass exodus to Vimeo or another rising video channel. And we'll be in that queue as well.

Here's a track that Valis at Trip-Inside-This-House radio program started off his show with this week. It's by Secret Colours doing their version of the Lennon/Beatles classic "Tomorrow Never Knows". It's self released and has no adverts.

petty rare

"Before the modern Internet, lots of media was "rare" -- bootleg recordings, strange videos, obscure bands -- but today, nothing is rare."
Rex Sorgatz/Medium.

And that's no lie Rex. His whole article can be read here by the way. Mind you one thing that is increasingly rare is a web page that doesn't spew a dozen flash embedded adverts that either grind the page to a halt or crash the browser because you haven't upgraded to the latest data collecting plug in.
Anyway back to it. Here's another thing that's going to be rare, the below embedded Soundcloud clip of a track from Tom Petty's new album "Hypnotic Eye". You can expect this little taster to disappear in reasonably short time just like Neil Young's did a couple of weeks back. Seems the old guard of rockers are very frosty when letting you hear something for nothing. They are all doing their very best to get their money's worth from the fan before the albums released because once it is.. well you know what's going to happen. It'll be sprang on the web as fast as you can say "rarity".
Which means it now looks like the key to successful sales happens on the build up to the album release date with advance orders, and before anyone can get their hands on the actual disc.. or in most cases the digital copy.
At the moment apart from this one Soundcloud track that's being hidden away to most eyes, Tom has also given a further 2 tracks to another embedded player, but this time not at Soundcloud. You don't even notice before you hit the inviting play button but as soon as you do up comes a small on top window saying "you're nearly there... to join up to Spotify".
Gawd almighty it's another ad and this time with a join up. No thanks Tom I can do without hearing your track until it's on YouTube, and it will be. And then we can all decide whether we want to buy it or not.
You see not too long ago that's how it worked. You went into a record shop, you asked the assistant to play something and she played it and then if you liked it you bought it. Nope, you didn't have to sign up for anything.
It seems like everyone is completely scared they're not making enough money. Or is it that it's now very rare for anyone to want to pay for the music. Sure there's plenty of it about nowadays, but fans are pretty loyal and they will pay if they like what they hear.

So here is that rarity, you can hear the new Tom Petty track "American Dream Plan B* from the forthcoming album 'Hypnotic Eye'.
And it's quite a change for Tom because it doesn't sound at all like his usual Dylany intoned nasal voice. He's gone and made a rock and roll record. Good guitar break in it too.
See, that's some free advertisng right there. Now all you do is decide if you want to pay for it because it probably won't be here for too long

fruits de mer new releases

Our favourite independent label Fruits de Mer have just announced their new colour vinyl 7" releases for spring. Packaged immaculately as usual here's 5 more modern collectables to add to the impressive back catalogue. These sell out quickly so advanced orders are recommended. All the ordering info is on their website - fruitsdemerrecords.com

Over to Keith at FdM to break down these 5 bundles of fishiness.
"Old songs, new songs, old bands, new bands....acoustic folk, progressive rock, pop-psych, concept double 7" EP(!), cult movie themes... it's all here".

• cat no. Crustacean 46 : Schnauser 'As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still' 7" - Schnauser are new to Fruits de Mer but music critics have been falling over themselves to heap praise on their latest album, so I am more than a little pleased with myself to have secured their first venture onto vinyl, and they really go for it in style, taking on the Wyatt/Ratledge song, 'As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still', taken from Soft Machine 2, and they couple it with the Yes track from 'Time And A Word' that helped to establish the 'Yes sound'; scarily good stuff! (45rpm)
• cat no. Crustacean 47 : Crystal Jacqueline and The Honey Pot double 7" - I'm not sure where to start, or end, with this one - for now, let's just say there are four sides of great psych covers from Crystal, Icarus and his band - ranging from Mighty Baby to Curved Air, Pink Floyd to Jefferson Airplane and The Electric Prunes - all contained within a gatefold sleeve, and with an 8pp insert booklet featuring a short story from none other than Andy Bracken that weaves the whole thing together - sort of (33rpm)
• cat no. Crustacean 48 : Schizo Fun Addict 'Suspiria' 7" - the Schizos are back! It's taken them over 5 years to recover from launching FdM with 'Theme One' back in 2008 and they've somehow managed to recreate the same warped feel on their new single, which sees (hears?) them doing strange things to the theme to Italy's most famous horror film, and something equally strange to 'In The Long Run', taken from Russ Meyer's 'Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls' - talk about having a lot of front (45rpm)
• cat no. Winkle 14 : US and Them 'By The Time It Gets Dark' 7" - everyone's favourite Scandinanvian duo reinterpret a Sandy Denny song, and do it beautifully. I always thought Britt was capable of doing justice to one of Sandy's songs and my god she doesn't disappoint - it's sweet, innocent and utterly spellbinding. Plus 'Jabberwocky (from 'HMS Donovan') and an epic new Us and Them composition - and it's damn-perfect listening for these cold winter nights (33rpm)
• cat no. Winkle 15 : Bronco Bullfrog 'Time Waits For Norman' 7" - the band's first recordings for FdM, Bronco Bullfrog turn the clock back to 1966/67 and deliver two self-penned songs that don't just recreate UK pop-psych, they are CLASSIC pop-psych songs in their own right - once you've heard them, you'll be completely hooked. AND they add in a cover of Sands' 'Listen To The Sky' to make sure it's an essential 7" (45rpm)

We'll post clips of the releases when they come on line in the meantime this is what Schizo Fun Addict can get up to with "Pterodactyl" from their recent album 'The Sun Yard'.

rare velvet underground

Universal Music are releasing The Velvet Underground White Light/White Heat 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition boxset on December 10th.
They (UM) asked life long enthusiast and a pretty decent authority on the Velvet Underground, Richard Metzger to pick a track to preview on their soundcloud page.
Metzger did a good job too and chose the little heard recording of "I’m Not a Young Man Anymore". A track which has previously appeared on bootlegs but was never actually studio recorded or released on album. An odd thing in itself as the song compares extremely well with other 1967 White Light White Heat recordings.
Reed himself never said anything about the track or was never asked, and it was only until after his recent death Rolling Stone was asking Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) for a memory of Lou.

"I was at South by Southwest in 2008, playing at a Lou Reed appreciation concert. I’d just heard “I’m Not a Young Man Anymore,” which had just surfaced on a Velvet Underground bootleg. It was this powerful song I’d never heard before. Before we went on, I was talking to Lou and told him about it and he said, “How the hell do you know about that song?” I said, “It just surfaced on a bootleg on the Internet.” I said I thought it would be a good song to play since I just turned 50. And when I said that, he looked at me, half smiled and embraced me. It was wonderful and completely unexpected."

With it's insistent riff and classic Reed vocal it embraces all the chaos and experimentation that was Velvet Underground in 1967.

VIA DANGEROUS MINDS

the human expression

What a name to conjure with. The Human Expression. There must have been a hundred ways they imagined subjects for their songs back in 1966 when these 4 guys formed in Orange County, California.
And just to compound that idea the original 'B' side of their first single was called "Readin' Your Will".
No, surely they couldn't have written something about actually reading your will.
Well they did and guess what it was later dropped as such by the record company.
This original piece of lyric writing was actually a cautionary tale about a friend who indulged in too much illicit sex and drugs.
So, a little preaching going on here to the hedonistic lifestylers of the 60's.
What a vocal delivery it is too. Definitely 11 on the garage rock sneer meter.

By 1967 the band had evolved from the garage rock and now rather than condemning the drug culture that there friend had participated in on "Readin' Your Will" they were now thoroughly embracing the psychedelic experience with the single "Optical Sound". That being a tale where the singer is collecting his thoughts after a drug experience. How times have changed in only a year.
The rarity of the single on original vinyl today would have then kept their stash topped for the rest of 60's with a recent sale going on Ebay for $2,300.

The continuing slow sales of their records might have explained why the manager, and also one of the members Dads (aagh.. never do it), brought demos of two songs by then-unknown songwriter Mars Bonfire, with the band rejecting one of the songs that then went on to be Steppenwolf's monster hit "Born to be Wild,"
"Doh!"
It just wasn't mean to be. The Human Condition was over.

Here is the raw garage rock of "Readin' Your Will" and below that the psychedelic "Optical Sound".

islands prog rock samplers

If anything summarises the birth of progressive rock and all it would entail at the end of the 60's it would be the Sampler series put out by Island Records. The hugely popular budget price of less than 75p (15/6 old UK) meant the poorest of students, who usually were the poorest rock fans could hear a selection of all the UK artists released on Island Records, who along with Chrysalis were major players for new music.
In 1970 Island were then to release probably the most popular of all three samplers, 'Bumpers' double album. This was rolled out at twice the price of the previous releases.
In 1969 Island was a major record company who actually took an interest in giving people some value and inviting their audiences into hear their other artists they'd maybe not otherwise know. This useful bit of PR didn't appear again until the Punk scene some 7 or 8 years later with some independent labels doing similar. After that and with the birth of the CD, prices would rise and keep rising as they'd grab every bit of your hard earned cash they could get.

You Can All Join In (1969)
Side 1
1. A Song For Jeffrey - Jethro Tull
2. Sunshine Help Me - Spooky Tooth
3. I'm A Mover - Free
4. What's That Sound - Art Garfunkel
5. Pearly Queen - Tramline
6. You Can All Join In - Traffic

Side 2
7. Meet On The Ledge - Fairport Convention
8. Rainbow Chaser - Nirvana
9. Dusty - John Martyn
10. I'll Go Girl - Clouds
11. Somebody Help Me - Spencer Davis Group
12. Gasoline Alley - Wynder K. Frog

John Matyn's Dusty a similar sound to Jethro Tull both vocally and instrumentally. Was it indeed Ian Anderson on flute?

Nice Enough To Eat (1969)
Side 1
1. Cajun Woman - Fairport Convention
2. At The Crossroads - Mott The Hoople
3. Better by You, Better Than Me - Spooky Tooth
4. We Used To Know - Jethro Tull
5. Woman - Free
6. I Keep Singing That Same Old Song - Heavy Jelly

Side 2
7. Sing Me A Song That I Know - Blodwyn Pig
8. Forty Thousand Headmen - Traffic
9. Time Has Told Me - Nick Drake
10. 21st Century Schizoid Man - King Crimson
11. Gungamai - Quintessence
12. Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal - Dr. Strangely Strange

Time Has Told Me - Nick Drake. A surviving outake of the track rather than the actual track that appeared on the album.

Bumpers double album (1970)

Side 1
Every Mother's Son - Traffic
Love - Bronco
I Am The Walrus - Spooky Tooth
Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gauranga - Quintessence

Side 2
Thunderbuck Ram - Mott the Hoople
Nothing To Say - Jethro Tull
Going Back West - Jimmy Cliff
Send Your Son To Die - Blodwyn Pig
Little Woman - Dave Mason

Side 3
Go Out And Get It - John & Beverley Martyn
Cadence & Cascade - King Crimson
Reaching Out On All Sides - If
Oh I Wept - Free
Hazey Jane - Nick Drake

Side 4
Walk Awhile - Fairport Convention
Maybe You're Right - Cat Stevensv Island - Renaissance
The Sea - Fotheringay
Take Me To Your Leader - Clouds (intended to be on their Chrysalis album to be released Autumn '70)
Here's the little remembered Bronco track Love.

working at the record store

Hasn't everyone wanted to work in a record store at some time in their lives. The perfect job. Endlesss music, the touch of vinyl, the in depth knowledge, the first pick for the collection, the latest, the greatest...
and then there's the public.

lot 46154 : the white album

It was thought that The White Album No.A0000001 never existed...
but it does and it's being auctioned by Heritage Auctions at the moment. Just start your bidding at $10.000 and this rare vinyl is yours providing you have bottomless pockets to outbid the rest of the Beatles/Vinyl/Art/Antique dealers, or whoever else holds their nerve.
It currently belongs to a guy who bought it from a guy who bought it from a Capitol Records executive in San Francisco, on April 2, 1989, and there's a letter to prove that in case your wondering.
Here's where you place your bid for the "precious"... 46154 (and not the above form, because you'll find that is a jpeg)

And here's a rather good little clip giving you some background on what 1968 and The White Album was all about.
source:Paul Gallagher at Dangerous Minds

fruits de mer release new singles

Fruits De Mer have once again picked a fine platter of 7 inch vinyl singles to drop on you this August.
Keith at FdM "With this crop of new singles, Fruits de Mer is doing what we set out to do five years ago - getting new artists (and one or two who aren't quite so new) to reinterpret classic and long-lost songs from the 60s and early 70s, with the emphasis on psychedelia."

Jack Ellister has turned to Sgt Peppers' track by George Harrison ' Within You Without You' backed with Mark Fry's 1972 psychedelic 'acid' folk rock and a Syd Barrett song.

The rest of the singles look equally as exotic.
Crystal Jacqueline (FdM 39) Cousin Jane (The Troggs) / Play With Fire (Rolling Stones) / A Fairy Tale (Second Hand)

Stay (Regal Crabomophone Winkle 10) I See The Rain (Marmalade) / If I Needed Someone (Beatles) / Guess I Was Dreaming (The Fairytale) / Mersey Dream (Stay)

White Sails (Regal Crabomophone Winkle 11) Laguna Sunrise (Black Sabbath) / Fluff (Black Sabbath) / The Answer (White Sails) / Death On A Pale Horse (White Sails)

Me and My Kites with Tony Durant, from Fuchsia (Regal Crabomophone Winkle 12) The Band (Tony Durant) / Isis' Adventure (Me And My Kites)

After the Stones at Glastonbury 2013 played a 'version' of 2000 Light Years Away From Home.." could it be time the album that spawned it - 'Satanic Majesties Request' gets it's due attention as an all time classic psychedelic album? Certainly Jack Ellister, on last years August releases by FdM, already knows the answer to that when he released a great version of "Citadel" from that very album.

modern vinyl collectable

'Plankton' is the first in a new series of albums from Record Collector magazine, called ' Modern Collectables', with 10 tracks from the early days of the Fruits De Mer label. It's all in a limited edition 180gram vinyl with a lovely gatefold sleeve and there's a bonus one-sided 7" single from The Pretty Things - featuring an exclusive live version of 'Midnight To Six Man'.

Vibravoid, Mark Fry, Stay, Us and Them, Alison O'Donnell, The Chemistry Set, Hausfrauen Experiment, Sidewalk Socoety and Schizo Fun Addict are all there, from the early days of the label.
Keith at FdM "It's hugely flattering and pretty bizarre that Record Collector chose Fruits de Mer to kick off the new series - I hope they know what they're doing!

SIDE 1
Schizo Fun Addict - Theme One
Stay - Rainy Day, Mushroom Pillow
Vibravoid - Eye Shaking King
Alison O’Donnell with Head South By Weaving - Day Is Done
Mark Fry with Nick Franglen - Dreaming With Alice

SIDE 2
Us And Them - Home To Stay
Sidewalk Society - Red Chair, Fade Away
The Chemistry Set - Silver Birch
Vibravoid - Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
Hausfrauen Experiment - Baby's On Fire
with Free 7” vinyl single
The Pretty Things - Midnight To Six Man (live)

It's available in the UK, Europe and WorldWide from this direct link to the Record Collector ordering page.

Here's Schizo Fun Addict's version of Van Der Graaf Generators 1972 track 'Theme One' which gets side one of the album started.

vinyl vault

Now here's a novelty, a record store with a really good idea.
As quoted from their website Amoeba.com.

Vinyl Vaults is our boutique, curated collection of digitized vinyl and 78s, available for download exclusively here! Vinyl is the ultimate expression of an artist's work, and we're doing our best to preserve our history! Enjoy the depth and warmth of these vinyl masters, and for the full sonic impact upgrade to M4A (Lossless) or WAV Files.

The owner Jim Henderson goes on to explain what to expect
"We've been digitizing a lot, what you see now is the lost-between-the-cracks, underappreciated, undervalued (music) from dead labels, (obscure) artists, stuff that we really stand behind. It's mostly in the rock genre, with a lot of jazz, a lot of blues, some country, some spoken word. There are some oddities for sure."
extract via boingboing

So if you like poking around shelves of old and lost vinyl, and frankly who doesn't, here's the direct link to the Vinyl Vaults

vinyl scratch: jefferson airplane

The first Jefferson Airplane album 'Let Me In' was a garage classic and one of the seminal records to begin the psychedelic era in 1966. The record was repressed after its initial run after RCA thought the lyric "fantastic trips" on the track 'Runnin' Round The World' had made reference to LSD and the song was removed for a new second pressing.
A few of these original versions managed to avoid the shredder and after nearly 50 years since the first "controversial" pressing was made it's since become one of the rarest records any collector can find reaching an eye watering $10,000* for one of three stereo albums that have since surfaced, and half that for one of the five mono versions.

The albums re-pressings didn't end there though, with RCA being further consumed with puritan jitters over what they thought as explicit content to a couple of lines in the lyrics, "staying here with me" and one as banal as "don't tell me its funny" they had the lines replaced in the song for what was to be the final repressing. RCA proving the 1960's were far from the hedonistic free for all that is assumed from the psychedelic free-love era.
The version 2 of Airplanes re-pressings has a slightly more modest collectors value of up to $1000* for a stereo and $700* for mono. In 1966 far more people still had mono record players than stereo so fewer would have been pressed.
*Source: Record Collector. Jan 2013

The YouTube videos for all of Jefferson Airplane tracks are tattooed with the ever present advert so they won't be shown here, but the whole album has been uploaded (search : Jefferson Airplane Let Me In)
There were also three singles taken from 'Let Me In' so pleasingly, and far more fittingly the A side 'Bringing Me Down' and the B side 'Let Me In' of one those singles is played for us all here by uploader 'lelapincosmic' who obviously has the original in all its crackly mono glory.
Got to be worth a few bucks don't you think?

it was 20 years ago today...

..well actually it was 45 years ago this year, and on June 1st to be exact, that Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released to the world.
This November 2012, artist Peter Blake's original artwork for the insert in that iconic 12" LP sleeve was sold by Sotheby's auction for £55,000. The Senior Specialist of Modern British Paintings at the auction house, commented:
“Sir Peter Blake’s collage is a tangible slice of rock history. Sgt Pepper had a huge impact on the cultural landscape. It was the first concept album, when music, story, image and studio expertise all came together.
It's a small note but it was also the first time any lyrics were printed on a record sleeve, which sounds almost impossible but true.
So in the summer of 1967 one whole load of people sat down around their record players and heard Sgt Pepper for the first time, and most of those people would have heard it with their friends. Because that's what you did in 1967.

But its 45 years later today.. and it's the polar opposite. Rock bands don't make concept albums.
Tracks are received in any order when they're downloaded, which is how most music is obtained now. They're then mixed up according to how the individual wants them so a concept in the running order can't be easily planned for an album.
Artwork is irrelevant on downloads so no artist really needs to get involved with a rock band in the first place.
Groups of people do not usually sit around and just listen to music for entertainment.

So maybe the comments left on YouTube are the modern day substitute for the shared experience on a piece of music, except that you just might be joined by some net troll who you'd have certainly not invited into your group of friends.
In a recent blog by influential DJ Greg Wilson (here) said he'd recently been inspired to set up a listening group by John Cunnick at Seattles 'Helix' underground newspaper who'd referred to young people in 1967
"would sit for a couple of hours, not talking, hardly moving, living in music".
Well, illegal substances aside it was a very common activity for many years, to escape the parents or the rest of the nerds at college or work or where ever and get together with the people who had the shared love of the music you were into, or you trusted would have a similar taste.
Maybe the times are a changin'.. and to quote Mick Farren in his excellent new book 'Elvis Died For Somebody's Sins But Not Mine'..

"The thing to remember neighbours, is that we are hardly typical. We go the trouble of reading a music paper. That shows a devotion over and above the call of duty. It could be that rock and roll is sliding out of the preeminent position it has enjoyed for so long. It could be that the world is simply waiting for some thing new to appear, born from the waves like Aphrodite. If the latter's the case it is one hell of a long time coming"

And that neighbours was written for the New Musical Express in 1975!
So remember all things come around. Don't forget to share your music in 2013.

Band misunderstands 'concept album'

There's lots of ice in Sweden. Vinyl records have made a big comeback in Sweden.
I know let's make a... (will someone turn the heating down)

vinyl scratch

In 1958 John 'Duff' Lowe joined a group with 4 local lads and after back room practicing and playing some local gigs on the 12th July that year went off to record a song in a small studio in the living room of a Victorian terraced house. It was a special one off acetate recording costing under a pound and likely to wear out if it's played too often with an old stylus. But the 78rpm acetate was carefully passed around the group until they eventually called it quits months later and it ended up left with 'Duff' because like with all young men life changes and they all moved on to new things. There's nothing special about capturing a young mans youth on a recording.
Except in 2012 that very acetate became the rarest recording of all time and was estimated at £200,000.
The full line up of the group being John Lennon (guitar/vocals} George Harrison (guitar, and then only 14 years old !), Paul McCartney (bass/vocals), John 'Duff' Lowe (piano), Colin Hanlon (drums).
Fortunately you don't need to pay nearly a quarter million to hear The Quarry Men play Buddy Holly's 'That'll Be The Day'.

vinyl scratch

"$19,471 (£12,590 approx) for this rare vintage Sex Pistols record on eBay, placing it among the highest-priced Sex Pistols memorabilia monitored in recent years.
The record, listed as a 35-year-old 7 inch promotional acetate featuring the controversial song "God Save the Queen" and "No Feelings" by the English punk rock band ’The Sex Pistols,’ has an L.T.S. record label that is apparently a substantial rarity. According to the sellers listing; "This is one of only two copies known to exist."
In their early years... The Sex Pistols had an extremely turbulent history with several of their record labels (detailed in the video below). This led to a small number of record pressings before the group would leave one label to sign with another. Some of these (limited pressing) records are considered by collectors to be among the most valuable in the UK."

No Future?... there is on ebay. Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

vinyl scratch

Try this with your limited edition collectors release.

via dangerous minds via facebook labels : vinyl scratch,humour,