Mostly Madge

If you've read this blog in the past you may know that I find it difficult to walk past a Madonna 12 inch single, particularly her 80s ones (her heyday as far as I'm concerned, before she learned to sing).  Yesterday's car boot sale was packed and I came away with four such examples:

Madonna 12" singles.  Clockwise from top left: Into the Groove,
Like a Virgin, La Isla Bonita, Express Yourself.

I also couldn't resist the 12" version of another 80s favourite; Miami Sound Machine's Dr. Beat:

Miami Sound Machine - Dr. Beat (1984)

I've amassed quite a few twelve inch singles from car boot sales and don't listen to them as much as I'd like.  Since our new (old) car has only a cassette player in it, I thought it'd be fun to make a mixtape of a selection of 80s 12"s.  I recently bought a load of new blank cassettes at a boot sale, so yesterday afternoon I re-lived part of my early teens and did just that.  Madonna singles filled all of Side A and spilled over into Side B, which I finished with tracks by Michael Jackson, Pet Shop Boys and Kraftwerk among others.

I'm now thinking of doing something similar with my box of 80s 7" singles, but that may take a bit more effort.  Anyway, in keeping with recent sporting news, here's the Kraftwerk track playing on my vintage Dual HS 34 record player:



Congratulations Bradley and Mark!!

So Emotional

Like a lot of pop fans today I was really sad to hear about the death of Whitney Houston.  I loved her early records, and was pleased to find a 12" copy of So Emotional for 50p in a charity shop a couple of years ago:

Whitney Houston - So Emotional Extended Mix (1987)

Here it is playing on my old record player:

For more poor-quality home videos of crackly old records, see my youtube channel "Random records on my Dual HS 34".

Bonus Beats

I found a 12" De La Soul EP for 50p at a recent boot sale.  There'd just been a huge downpour and the box of records I'd been looking through was pretty soggy, but luckily this was at the bottom and mainly dry:

De La Soul - 4 New Remixes (1989)

It contains 12" remixes of four of their most well known songs.  Tracklisting:

Side A.  The Magic Number (Too Mad Mix), Say No Go (Bonus Beats).

Side B.  Eye Know (Daisy Bass Mix), Me Myself And I/Say No Go.

It's not on Spotify and I couldn't find a decent youtube vid, so I made one myself.  Here's Side B.

Nothing To Fear

Sunday's car boot sale had lots of old vinyl to flip through.  The morning had started cold but by the time I'd worked my way around the field I was thoroughly warm and in the possession of ten LPs, most of which cost 50p or a pound.

This was £1:

Depeche Mode - A Broken Frame (1982)

This second album, coming after 1981's Speak & Spell was Depeche Mode's first without Vince Clarke, who'd left to start Yazoo.

A Broken Frame is generally seen as their weakest album.  I can see why this is the case but for me it has several high spots, including the instrumental Nothing To Fear and the singles Leave In Silence and See You.

It marks the beginning of the change from the poppy debut towards their later, much darker material, and reached no. 8 in the UK album chart.

Spotify:  Depeche Mode – Nothing To Fear



Keep the frequency clear

I got this last summer at a boot sale for 50p:

Bomb The Bass - Beat Dis (1987)

This was the debut single from Tim Simenon a.k.a. Bomb The Bass.  Said to contain a whopping 72 samples, it was one of the first tracks to herald DJ and sampling culture going overground and enjoying chart success.

It reached no.2 in the UK and can be found on the 1988 album Into The Dragon, which peaked at no.8 in the album chart.  I was 13 at the time and my big sister had the album on cassette, which I used to borrow.  I recently bought myself a cassette copy via eBay for 99p and the Proustian rush was enormous!

Here's the single on my Dad's old record player:

Beat Dis

Break it

I got a couple of breakdance singles last year at different boot sales, probably for about 25-50p each.  The first is the soundtrack to the 80's film 'Breakdance - The Movie' (called Breakin' in the US).  My friend had both Breakdance movies on video and I loved them.  As far as I can remember, they revolved around saving the local youth club somehow through the power of breaking.  No, really.

  

Anyway, here's the video to Ollie & Jerry's UK no.5 single There's No Stopping Us, which also reached no.9 in the US chart.  Prepare for some toprocking, downrocking and power moves.  Plus a lady in legwarmers, obviously.

Ollie & Jerry - There's No Stopping Us (1984)

The next was Break Machine's Street Dance.  This peaked at no.3 in the UK in March '84 and no.6 in the US dance chart.  This video is a tad quieter so you'll need to whack the sound up a bit more.

Break Machine - Street Dance (1983)

The squeak at the start of the film is my cat Ethel meowing.  She loves this song too.

The Filth And The Fury!

I got this for £1 a few weeks back:

Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks (1977)

The Sex Pistols were signed to EMI in Oct 1976, but then dropped on Jan 6th 1977, not long after a controversial TV appearance where some effing and blinding had taken place.  It wasn't their first public controversy, or indeed their last.  After a very short-lived signing to A&M, they finally released Never Mind The Bollocks on Virgin.

My favourite song is the album closer, written about their first record label.  It ends with Rotten blowing them a raspberry:

Sex Pistols - EMI

The former owner of this copy has identified it with their punk name.  Just inside the cover, scrawled in biro, is the alias 'Sick Nick'.  Brilliant.

Spotify:  Sex Pistols – Holidays In The Sun        Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen



Love Me Do

Now it's September and the weather is already taking a turn for the worse, car boot season is coming to an end.  This gives me the opportunity to post about vinyl that I've found at car boots sales and charity shops before I started this blog back in July.

I'll start with my favourite buy of all, a mono copy of the Beatles' debut album Please Please Me (1963), bought for £2 earlier this year.

The Beatles - Please Please Me (1963)

It has a little bit of crackle (just the right amount in my opinion!) and jumps once on Twist & Shout, but I'm as pleased as anything with it 'cos it's a brilliant record, still so vibrant and exciting.  The beginning of an amazing story, too.

Here's a little film of I Saw Her Standing There:

The Beatles - I Saw Her Standing There

The fact that it spent thirty weeks at number one, only to be knocked off by their next album With The Beatles, is incredible.  No artist these days could comprehend such a statistic, unless of course their name is Adele!

Disco diva

On Sunday I popped over to Aldeburgh with two of my sisters.  After stuffing ourselves on chips and ice creams we had a look around the shops and I got this LP in the charity shop for £1:

Gloria Gaynor - Never Can Say Goodbye (1975)

The title track reached no.2 in the UK charts, and features on side 1 as part of an uninterrupted disco mix with the other two single releases Honey Bee and a cover of Reach Out, I'll Be There.  The album reached no.32 in the UK and no.25 in the US pop chart (#21 in the R&B chart).

Just for fun, 'cos I've never used the video function on my camera in all the years I've had it, let alone uploaded one, here's the first song from side 2, All I Need Is Your Sweet Lovin', playing on my Dad's old Dual HS 34.  He bought this record player in Berlin whilst posted there with the RAF in the 70s, and now it's mine after a recent loft clear-out.  You may need to whack up the volume a little, and yes, it does skip at around the 2.50 min mark!

Gloria Gaynor - All I Need Is Your Sweet Lovin'

Rok Da House

Sunday was fine and sunny, and I came away from a local boot sale with six LPs.  The first two took me back to my early teens; some late 80s commercial house:

Various - Best of House Megamix (1987)

Various - Best of House Vol. 4 (1988)

These are from a compilation series released by Serious Records and I got them for £1 each.  Volume 4 features eight 12" mixes of tracks including Bomb The Bass, Raze and The Beat Masters Featuring The Cookie Crew.

The Megamix is two sides mixed by The Bovver Boys and Double Trouble.  I'm not ashamed to say that when I got these on the turntable on Sunday afternoon, some uncoordinated yet energetic dancing took place in the privacy of my living room.

See Side A part 1 here:  http://youtu.be/rYoX2Awbskk

and Side A part 2 here:  http://youtu.be/XAwTKkk9Q8k

Side B Part 1 here:  http://youtu.be/3Jl3YteYAKA

and Side B Part 2 here:  http://youtu.be/27ad7K05ovs