Living To Music July 2012

Join in if you can, alone or with friends, this Sunday at 9pm with Greg Wilson's Living To Music worldwide communal listening experience. This month's selected album is Parliament's The Mothership Connection.

http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2012/06/living-to-music-parliament-mothership-connection/

And Your Bird Can Sing

No car boot today; I have no transport and it's been pretty wet too.  Last Sunday however, was dry and I got a couple of records.  First for £1 was the 12" of Comfortably Numb by the Scissor Sisters:

Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb (2003)

As well as the single version of my favourite Scissor Sisters record (sorry Floyd fans!) there are two remixes.  Unusually this 12" singles plays at 33.3rpm instead of 45 and the wider groove spacing allows for a wider dynamic range and therefore better sound quality.  This slower speed really enhances the low end, which makes the bassy Paper Faces Mix sound fantastic.

Next was one of my all time favourite albums; the mighty Revolver:

The Beatles - Revolver (1966)

Rear of sleeve

After delving in to the fascinating, complicated and often contradictory world of online Beatle record label and matrix number bingo I figured that this is a fourth UK pressing, probably from 1971.

It's a stereo two-box "The Gramaphone Co. Ltd. ..." label, matrix numbers Side 1 Yex 605-1, Side 2 Yex 606-2, Doctor label which meant nothing to me until now and which I'll probably have forgotten by the time I finish typing this sentence.  It's probably worth about £15-20 in it's excellent condition, which is fab because the seller was asking £16 and I haggled her down to £12.50.

Beatle-nerdery aside, as well as being in lovely condition, the sound is absolutely sublime.  I'm no audioslave but even to these cloth-ears it sounds wonderful - full, fresh and vibrant from the opening "One, two, three, four..." of Taxman to the cacophonic close of Tomorrow Never Knows.

Here's my favourite song from Revolver, with on-screen lyrics if you fancy a bit of Beatles karaoke:

Smalltown Boy

Bronski Beat

Bronski Beat consisted of pre-Communards singer Jimi Somerville and musicians Steve Bronski and Larry Steinbachek.

In 1984 they released their debut album Age of Consent, a copy of which I found for 95p in a local charity shop several weeks ago.

Age of Consent was the only Bronski Beat album to feature Jimi Somerville before he left to form The Communards in 1985 with Richard Coles (now Reverend Richard Coles).

Its frantic disco and sleek pop vignettes deal with various issues of 80's gay life; predominantly prejudice and homophobia.



In fact the sleeve notes include information on the age of consent for gay men in Europe at the time as well as a 'phone number for a gay legal advice helpline.  Jimi's singular voice may put some off but no-one could argue against it's clarity and power, which sets the album apart from its synth-pop contemporaries.  It produced the singles "Smalltown Boy", "Why?" and a cover of Gershwin's "It Ain't Necessarily So", the latter featuring a gay male choir, The Pink Singers.

Bronski Beat - The Age Of Consent (1984)

My favourite tracks other than the singles are Heatwave, No More War and Junk.  The album reached no. 4 in the UK and no.36 in the US, and is being re-issued in a deluxe 2-cd format on the 3rd of July.  It will include the remix album Hundreds And Thousands plus other remixes, b-sides etc. 

Here's the 1996 re-issue on Spotify:

Car Boot Vinyl Catch-Up

I'm getting a bit of a backlog of car boot/charity shop vinyl yet to appear on the blog, so last Sunday's records will all appear here, in a quick run-through in order to catch up a bit. Here goes:

A double album that includes five songs leftover from the "Darkness..." sessions,  Bruce Springsteen's The River  reached no.1 in the US and no.2 in the UK.

Bruce Springsteen - The River (1980)

It's listed as number 250 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and I bought it for £1.50.         Spotify:  Bruce Springsteen – The River

Next was Flanders and Swann's At The Drop of Another Hat, bought for £1.

Flanders & Swann - At The Drop of Another Hat (1964)

It features 14 selections from their musical revue of the same name which debuted at London's Haymarket in 1963.  Produced by George Martin it includes such delights as The Gas-Man Cometh and Song Of Patriotic Prejudice .


An Elvis compilation is always a good thing to have around and at £1.50 this collection of 40 songs was a good £s to hits ratio:

Elvis' 40 Greatest (1978)

On double gatefold pink vinyl, it looks good too:

Also for £1.50 was Fire Brigade by The Move:

The Move - Fire Brigade (1972)

It's a compilation of Roy Wood et al's hits including Blackberry Way and  Brontosaurus .


Finally for £1 was Pelican West, from eighties popsters Haircut One Hundred:

Haircut One Hundred - Pelican West (1982)

Nick Heyward and co's debut album of brassed-up new wave includes the singles Fantastic Day and Love Plus One.  It still had the "free booklet and 2 Bandfax cards" tucked inside the sleeve.  I got Graham and Les (Les!).

Spotify:  Haircut 100 – Pelican West Plus

In addition I bought a copy of Bruce's Darkness On The Edge Of Town for £1.50 to send to my brother.

Six great albums including two doubles, all in great condition for a total spend of eight of your English pounds, a sunny couple of hours spent rifling through records with other keen vinyl hunters, plus a jumbo hot dog on the way out - my favourite way to spend a Sunday morning!