recent vinyl finds
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- Gardener0
7" finds on a recent dig in Northampton, from 3 x car boots + 8 x charity shops
Anything on Marmalade is interesting and this one singing the praises of pirate radio stations Big L and Caroline is well groovy man!
Also on a sea tip is this cover version of the Sutherland Brothers song which I prefer to Rods' version.
The classic Coke jingle has been re-issued in many versions but it's the B side that makes this disc worth keeping.
Promo flexi for Pepsi featuringthat jingle multiple times.
I was surprised to hear this version of the well known theme, this is much more upbeat than the original.
From the same year as the Steptoe & Son single is this very early Ska release by the splendidly named Ernie Faulkner & The Planets.
Christmas Cambridge Childrens Hospice charity single by oddly named Jailbreakers who have kindly signed the label.
Scottish synth tune featuring Craig Ferguson under the pseudonym Adam Eternal on drums, the label is signed by bassist Paul McMahon .
Issued with Revell modelling kits, most likely with one of their rockets and featuring the sounds of spacemen on the moon.
Nicest find was this single by Arthur Lee's Love with it's beautiful graphic logo, not sure about that writing credit though.
- that exposure track is greatkingsteven
- I love that 45 label.CyBrainX
- Gardener1
I was so pleased to find this album from 1979 recently, I never knew it existed and it wouldn't excite most collectors but the photo on the front was taken in my grandparents front yard! I really couldn't believe it when I found it as it features Kirkstile Inn on the right and Loweswater Church (where both my grandparents are buried) in the middle, the sleeve is now framed in my studio.
- Gardener0
I have picked up all sorta interesting singles and albums in the last few weeks, I visited my old digging grounds down south and found some gold in them thar shops. The car boots are about dried up for the year but the auctions and charity shops still deliver the goods. The rarest album I found was an original Jackson C. Frank on UK Columbia but most of these singles came from the Groovy Record Fayre II which was in North London at the end of October. Many familiar faces came along including Jonny Trunk, DJ Food, Thurston Moore and Stewart Lee, there was a free disco in the evening with Jarvis Cocker on decks but I was there early to dig deep, will post up the albums soon.
One stall turned up some great cheeky 7"s at £2 a pop, I picked up about 20 of them from a lovely lady's stall, including these ones.
This was probably the oddest of the lot, a 1985 split single issued on Rebound Records between Wanda and Fifi, but the sleeve has been doctored as a 'Greetagram' for a chap called Brian Pennington ('bi bi Brian') added to the front and it also includes a specially typed poem inside the gate-fold, I bet Brian was delighted!
On a far less smutty tip, this record celebrates the joys of the city of Leicester, however the singer blotted his cv with his next 7", a pro Tory record titled Maggie Will Always Be Around.
A pair of 7"s of only 3 ever released by this middle aged chap, who needed his surname explained on the sleeve (bless) however his backing band were the excellently named The Venatics.
The debut single by another old chap who was to become a familiar face on British TV in the 70's/80's.
I don't need this to teach me to say the longest place name in Wales, I learned it from a very early age in fact I even speak a bit of Welsh - true!
I picked up a load of these kids records a month or so back but a kind stall holder kindly gave me the wee bag that they would have originally came in for free, some folks are very kind.
The debut release from the man who will forever be the definitive TV Jesus, for me at anyway.
No prizes for guessing who this promo is for, I wonder if they still care as much as they claim?
Just one of the joys of travelling on a Trident plane in the 60's would have been given this free gift as you got off.
I was really pleased to find this sole single by the American singer who was so nearly nearly a star, he sadly died just a day or so before David Bowie.
- Gardener1
These are my album finds from this once a year event in London, I had a stall there again which although it paid for itself with the records I sold I was also hit with parking charges
and an emissions charge just to drive into the city which I hadn't known about until only the night before, so it's probably a good job this fair is just once a year for me then!
A beautiful original UK Stax with a very frameable sleeve.
The special one-sided vinyl + poster & postcard extras was just too irresistible, it's not out until the end of the month so was an early Xmas pressie to myself.
Nice find in a £1 box, loved this film when it came out and am sure it's stood the test of time.
I have a 7" by this lady but not seen the long player before and with a title like that how could I resist?
I was pleased to have a few chats with Sonic Youth mainman Thurston Moore who I guessed would probably be coming after seeing him last year at the same event,
so this time I came armed with a handful of SY 12"s which he kindly signed. I was also lucky enough to get Edwin Pouncey to sign this copy of Death Valley '69 too as he did the artwork under his more familiar alias of Savage Pencil.
A curious album I bought new from the same stall as the lady who had the cheeky 7"s I posted earlier.These 3 records below actually came from a charity shop in Northampton, the guy said they had just come in and were £3 each, I also bought a few more but these were the stand-outs.
- Gardener0
This live album recorded in Blackpool turned up in a pound bin in Arbroath, interesting fact - Jack and his band turn up in the movie Get Carter playing ’30-60-90′ which is also featured on this LP.
No doubting the rarest single I have picked up in the past few weeks was this Jamaican 7" which has been reissued on different coloured labels but this is the original blue.
Another scarce one that cropped up in a box of mostly common pop singles at a local auction was this British Funk tune which never bothered the charts in 1984,
oh and no relation to the Sex Pistol with the same name of course.
Another pair of interesting singles that were in the same auction win box including a previously unknown record shop jingles promo for Columbia Records.
The first three World Party albums in the same box, I already had and really like Goodbye Jumbo but Bang! turns out to have some good tunes too.
Four from a whole box full of folk I came across at Scotlands largest car boot just outside Perth on Sunday, the guy wanted a pound each but let me have 20 for £15 with no complaints from me.
From the same box was this gem that rarely seems to turn up in good nick.
A few flexi-disc & tape finds
Is it just me or did Tayside grammar police miss of an 'of' on the title of their debut cassette release? tsk
- Gardener1
Album finds on a recent trip down south, digging deep in glamourous locations such as Northampton, Bletchley and Newport Pagnell.
A nice copy of her 1st UK album from 1964 and I never really figured Fontana as a Ska/Blue Beat label, but they were to release Skinhead Moon Stomp by Symarip in Germany a few years later.
I already have this album somewhere but I had to get it again for the unique sticker, I was hoping I might find a signature inside as it was a competition prize but as the man himself would probably say, alas.
In the same £1 box as the Donovan were these 2 albums, it's only the second time I have come across that lovely printed polythene inner before.
It's also only the 2nd time I have ever come across a Muzak album, this one is quite different to the one I have but that too has a similar art sleeve.
The best finds of the week for me was a £20 auction lot win of Caedmon albums, around 10 of them all in beautiful condition, played once and stored I imagine.
There were a few nice and creepy horror ones too including one by E.A. Poe and a gruesome pair by H.P. Lovecraft.
I picked these two up for a mate who's a West Ham fan who will have been too young to go to Wembley at the time, but inside I found the prog for one of the matches as well as reciept and future releases insert.
- Gardener0
Some really nice finds since Xmas, I took another trip down south with great results but records have turned up amongst dead peoples things at the local auctions.
I bidded up to £650 on one lot that finished yesterday that was just stunning, all the Pentangle, Jansch, Tull, Davy Graham originals, even pink eye John Martyn albums all
in NM condition but got pipped at £700, the auctioneers percentage is an outrageous 24% + 11% extras so I would have been paying another £200+ if i'd carried on, but I didn't. These are some of the albums I did find tramping around various high streets in Milton Keynes and the backwaters of Northampton.
This was a pretty incredible find in a Cats Protection Shop box, I had just went in to donate with 2 boxes of unwanted LP's I'd won in an auction and there is this gem I'd only ever heard of before just sitting amongst the Perry Como and Mantovani, quite incredible, and I like to think karmic.
In the same auction lot that I dropped off I did pull this classical album I'd not seen before that has a woman playing the violin on the front so I assumed it was good, it is.
documentary about the artist
7" odds & ends, not all found in these boxes
I assume this is signed, couldn't really find much about it online or if it's the same religious singer who released a handful of singles in the 60's, never seen that cool label before though.
I took a £2 punt on what looked like an interesting single in an antique centre, there were lots of promos at £10 each but I just liked the label of this one.
Scottish new wave/ska band from the early 80's.
- Gardener0
I've picked up quite a few Scottish records in recent weeks, mainly from auction lots when I am bidding for something else in the box, but there were nice surprises...
Lochee is (apparently) one of the roughest parts of Dundee these days, I've visited it a few times as there are a few charity shops but this 7" caught my eye for it's football related b side.
This is a very odd find, I picked up the same single a few years ago (label pictured below) which has the same cat #, same labels, same picture sleeve, same songs, but the one I got this week bizarrely has a different name for the artist! I've not come across a record like this before and it's pretty rubbish tbh but it is a charity disc so I'm giving it some slack but it's a curious find indeed.
Other 7" odds and ends that caught my eye in the bargain bins
LP's I've found, listened to and have unexpectedly enjoyed some of them.
Weirdly likeable ABBA covers.
Later CBS issue promo stamped on the back, my dad used to have this album and was a fan of the single taken from it below.
This sole album by the Scottish singer is really nice dreamy, psych folk, curiously released on a Welsh label.
- Gardener0
I have been so busy this past week, driving for over 9 hours down south to go gigging (Average Life Complaints, Hotel Lux) painting a friends front room & kitchen, doing a record fair and of course plenty of digging, with some good results. I was kindly given this first record which looks like a record but actually contains a (blank) record and comes with a CD, it's an art project by a fellow DJ and vinyl collector Martin Parrott, I include it here as he only has a few left.
A lovely handmade edition of his sampled music (mostly Xian Folk) with his own weirdy twists, he also used to do a show on my station with his wife but does other projects now, he is such a lovely fella and I think I remember him saying that the reel to reel on the front has an exclusive track too! More info: https://structureddisasters.band…
Released on UK label President in 1979 this odd album sounds pretty much like a pub band doing cover versions in a football stadium, however there are some good spoken word links in English & Russian.
I think the best find was this privately pressed school album which has some beautiful ethereal covers and originals sung and played by 13 young ladies in 1970.
In the same £1 box were these 4 albums.
A nice pair of albums released in Hong Kong - above is a compilation of what (to me) sounds like easy listening lounge (restaurant?) music from 1980 and below from 1970 Wong Ching Yuan with The Stylers who were the HK equivalent of The Shadows.
I was really pleased to find this late 70's Japanese flexi on red vinyl by Japan, the rear of the sleeve references and has lyrics to a couple of their early releases but it turns out the disc is all spoken word, in Japanese!
- Gardener1
I came back with quite a mixed bag from Scotlands largest car boot on Sunday.
LP's
singles
- Gardener2
7" car booty this morning
This is an odd one, the sleeve notes mention the well known tune 'I Wanna Be Like You' featured on this 7" as being from a film called The Skinhead of Notre Dame - which I could find no trace of ever existing, unless it went under a different title I couldn't find any reference to it being used in a film earlier than The Jungle Book, so it's very strange indeed unless anyone knows more?
The only record ever released by the Scottish National Party.
The word happy is noticeably absent from the title.
Possible early gay anthem?
Blue before Out of The Blue.
A nice pair, of tunes not the shorts.
No relation to the Jimmy Page/Paul Rodgers band, I assume, but not sure about the guy on the right.
A classic.
- Gardener1
Travelling from Scotland through England and down to Wales for a wedding at the weekend gave me the chance to stop off at various towns along the way and make time for some digging with mixed results.
From Broughty Ferry, Perth and Stirling.
The only 7" by an Irish band recorded in England singing about a mythical Scottish monster and signed by the lead singer.
Debut album by the Scottish singer/TV star released in 1972.
The lovely sleeve of this caught my eye in the 50p Cancer Research bin.To Carlisle and Shrewsbury.
Featuring some of the first songs ever recorded by Barbara Dickson in 1969.
Does exactly what it says on the cover.
Who knew the great author wrote lyrics for a building society song with the composer of the TV advert for Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre?!
Ending up in Wrexham and Llangollen.
Spin off single from the kids TV show, sadly not a cover of the ABBA song.
I'd not come across this edition before, still stands up as a great pop tune.
Pretty good tracks on this budget album, performed by The Underground Set and The Good Earth featuring Ray Dorset who went on to form Mungo Jerry.
I was pleased to find a nice vinyl copy of this compilation released in the mid 80's on Creation by one of the great New Zealand pop groups.
Sound effects recorded by Bruce Catton, the map inside the gatefold shows where he put his mics for best effect.
- Gardener2
The high's and lows of vinyl digging this week.
The story behind how I came across this album is very nice. I met a chap in a charity shop who told me he had some records at home and I was welcome to come and have a look as he told me no longer played them. So I went to his house and went through the inevitable huge pile of Jimmy Shand and Alexander Brothers albums which seems to have been the staple musical diet for the over 70's in Scotland and came across this album. He was surprised why i had picked out this particular one out of so many as he said he was actually on it! He then told me the story of how his band the Angus Cronies had won a coveted Scottish TV talent show twice and that their prize was a fancy wooden bowl (which they had to return at the end of their year long reign) but they released this sole album in 1962. He then proceeded to go through all the names of the band members on the back and what they got up to when the band split up and who had died and which ones were still alive and where they lived!? It really was a lovely afternoon in his company and he kindly signed it on the back for me - he said that it was the only time he had ever been asked to sign an LP and that he was 92, such a lovely fellow and his name is Lyall and he played the mouth organ.
Beautiful chamber music by The Fires Of London with the prolific composer/conductor, the production was a presentation by the great film director Ken Russell.
On an unexpected trip to Edinburgh i came across these odd gems.
In other boxes at a car boot were these folk albums including 2 by the short lived poetry band whose gatefold sleeved debut was produced by John Peel.
I was very pleased to find this nice original US copy of one of the few albums by Nina I don't have.
Probably the most unexpected find of the week happened just as I was leaving a car boot, every stall had pretty much been picked over early on, so I was just loitering about trying to remember what else I actually need to buy other than records at 8:30 on a Sunday morning when I pass a stall with a pile of LP's on the table with a big piece of card saying £1 each. Of course it's usually Jim Reeves albums that are reserved for that honour but unbelievably there was a Blue Note album on the top! OK it was a re-issue but I lifted the pile of about 8 records up and noticed there were 4 copies of the same album by Kenny Burrell as well as some others by modern artists I didn't recognise - my son chastised me for not recognising the album by Olivia Rodrigo (who????) pictured in the middle. the bloke said I could have them all for a fiver - SOLD!! Have you any more I asked, yes he replied but he has his records in a storage unit on the other side of Edinburgh. He said I was welcome to come and see so we arranged a date and I took off on the long journey from my house on Tuesday morning full of optimism. Anyway to cut a long story short it was a massive anti-climax, yes he had hundreds of albums but no more Blue Notes or anything remotely modern so it proved to be a wasted trip but I did get the chance to dig around the city, just a bloody long way to go for slim pickings, but the car boot find probably paid for the petrol.
- lovely story about the 92 yr old dude <3... and nice Nina find! (I sometimes blast "'Nuff Said" while cooking)PonyBoy
- Gardener1
Pretty good digging at a couple of early car boots at the weekend, I am off to Northamptonshire next weekend so I hope my finds are just as fine.
A previously unknown album on the Deroy label by the Buckhaven High School from 1977 which isn't all that good but it must be pretty rare.
UK issue of a Quincy Jones soundtrack from 1965, the film pays more than a passing nod to Hitchcock.
Unexpected find of the week was this album with authentic sounds recorded in The Grand Canyon as well as a full 11 minute track with narration by Johnny Cash.
Even more bizarre than the sounds of a canyon are the sounds of a 3,000 year old intrument called a Lur from the Danish Bronze Age.
Sleeve of the week winner is this one which looks like a giant box of matches.
Sleeve of the week runner up is this one with 4 ladies on the front not wearing any trousers.
A UK 10" from the late 50's featuring some great Hank Williams covers.
Even though it was only VG+ condition I was more than happy to pay £2 for this Trojan album I'd not come across before.
These two beautiful ladies were nestled in the same box at the car boot, I do have to get up bloody early to find gems like this you know!
I didn't even have to get off my arse to get this one however as I ordered it from the Buried Treasure Bandcamp and recommend you do the same here : https://buriedtreasure.bandcamp.…
- Gardener2
A lovely lass on the cover of this flexi who may well have been the inspiration for 10cc's hit single released a year later.
A singer I'd not heard of before but she was given a lavish tri-fold out sleeve for what I can only assume was her only release. The greetings card + 7" single trick I had seen before but this was issued to raise money for disabled kids, although the poor things were not called that back in 1969. Interestingly the organist on this later went on to play at the wedding of the Earl & Countess Spencer and performed for Princess Diana and Prince Charles.
In the same box at the Wellingborough market I also came across this 7" released on the same small Northamptonshire based label. The Pauline Huckle 7" above was honoured with Janay 0001 and this is Janay 0003, but who knows what Janay 0002 is or even if there was a Janay 0004, we may never know...
This pair of acetates also came from the same box as above, they're both early 60's recordings of horse races including a lot of banter about the different horses chances of winning. Not sure who the market was for these recordings and I doubt they were ever going to make the top 10 charts but there's neigh chance I would be selling them.
Released at the end of 1973 LFC were Division 1 Champions and won the UEFA Cup that year, best less said about the season 50 years later.
Promo spoken word disc given away with every purchase of the latest smell or lipstick or eye shadow at the ladies counter in posh stores, in the 60's, probably.
Late 70's Scottish comedy record, probably criminal, signed on the back to Peter.
A pretty brilliant compilation of Stax in their prime with Booket T, Sam & Dave, Otis, Eddie Floyd etc and the immortal Soul Finger.
When I saw the cover I assumed this was some dippy hippy album but it's actually a late 80's band on SST who sound like some bizarre cross between Television & Grateful Dead. The smash hole through the label adds an extra charm that thankfully doesn't affect the music on the grooves.
A couple of groovy things came in the post this week including the latest 5" one sided white vinyl mini-single released by R-Bennig Records. I am heading down to North Wales next week for their Disappointing Welsh Arts Week event in Bangor and looking forward to meeting their main-man Johnny R. who has been kindly keeping me in their releases for over 20 years, and on Wednesday I'll finally get to meet him!
This is a handmade 5" wooden disc which spins around to reveal the moon cycles, it's available via the Oxfordshire based artist Duotone.
- Gardener1
I had a couple of days in North Wales this week, mainly to check out the Disappointing Welsh Arts Festival, which was... disappointing! There were meant to be galleries of art - they were closed, free psychic readings at a house in Anglesey, when I visited they were out and several other events which were either cancelled or never really on in the first place. Which all makes it seem like a complete waste of time but funnily enough was anything but. With my mate Chris, we wandered around several places including Bangor, Holy Island, visited interesting monuments and castles, saw beautiful coastal scenery and dropped into several charity shops to see what vinyl delights were on offer in what was the most Welsh part of Wales I think I've ever visited and I should probably know as I travelled about and even lived there for a few years, albeit in the 70's, but it probably hasn't changed that much to be honest boyo.
Welsh greeting above a pub doorway (it was shut but hey ho)
The B&B was really nice with a truly excellent full (English) breakfast, which set us both up for the rest of the day. The owner said the house had been used in a Welsh language TV series called Porc Pei which he claimed was absolutely appalling but I've not seen it so cannot confirm this. He also proudly proclaimed he based his lifestyle in the bed and breakfast on Basil Fawlty and that he supported Everton. When I mentioned I support Liverpool I then added that I hoped he wouldn't spit in my scrabbled eggs in the morning breakfast to which he got quite pissy about, but his wife thought the idea was hilarious. Also I was well impressed with the bath/shower facilities there too, hot tub bath and disco shower!
Digging started locally with all manner of nice classical albums turning up as well as the inevitable Welsh records.
Mid 70's compilation on Sain.
This odd but fairly Trad Jazz from the Leicester groups only release was the only record on the Hungry i imprint, nice cover too.
Spoken word comedy album based on the Lancashire dialect which may sound hilarious but I've not listened to it yet, features an ex TV newsreader though.
I could kinda tell these racks hadn't been dug into for a while, also because the woman behind the counter said they had been shut for ages, music to my ears!
I pulled just a couple of 50p singles from the box on the floor though including an EP from the 1963 French contender for Eurovision exactly 60 years ago and a demo by this season's Premiership runner-ups.
We spent a good hour chatting to the lovely lady who runs this second hand shop in Bangor, she was a bit bashful though.
Other vinyl finds in Bangor, including a 6" Russian disc.
The gallery where the Disappointing Welsh Arts Festival was supposed to be based was all locked up, but I did manage to get the roller for the front door to open, so I wasn't too disappointed.
Holyhead on Holy Island at the top end of Anglesey was a delightful visit and even had a few shops worth popping into, the pic above is the view from a bridge of it's main railway station.
I've not come across this Disney soundtrack album before.
I've not had a chance to listen to this one all the way through yet but it has a groovy Donovan cover version on it.
Fish & chips by the lighthouse at Penmon Point was a really nice way to finish off a busy day travelling all over the island
- Gardener0
Sunday digging at a couple of boots today, I didn't go to Errol (Scotland's largest car boot) so no idea what I missed out on, but I did find other things across the River Tay.
I brought home what just seemed like an unusual embossed sleeve classical record, I never checked the condition as it was in with others but imagine my surprise when I took it out when I got home to find it's a an promotional picture disc album for the German company's Endoscopy camera system, lovely!
I was really pleased to pick up this ridiculously badly shopped 12" picture disc and also a stone mint original vinyl limited edition double pack of Faith No More's magnificent Angel Dust which was a great deal as my own copy of the album is totally battered, both of them for £20 which is probably the most I've paid for a record at a car boot in years.£1 to £3 album finds
Jackson Browne bootleg from 1975
Millie Small in a banana boat
A couple of quid bargain for this early 70's Howlin' Wolf album on the Rolling Stones label.
Which was alongside this soundtrack album featuring Ron & Ronnie.
An unusual privately pressed record by Dundee poet Peter Trust reading the notoriously bad poetry of William Topaz McGonagall.
An unplayed 10" of music from the beautiful Orkney cathedral in Kirkwall.Only a couple of singles today.
Music played by Jan Rosol along with French phrases for schools issued on BBC Records in the early 70's.
A set of 3 promo card backed flexi-discs issued by Payne's Poppets, which are still available in the shops, I should know I bought a packet from Asda only yesterday!
