Boy A “They said I can choose my own name, any name?” says Eric Wilson, a.k.a. Jack Burridge, in the opening scene of Boy A. It’s a line that immediately establishes what…
Friday the 13th -Lucy Bellingham
Whither Jason? – The Drama and Dichotomy of Friday the 13th Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th might not have been the first slasher – not by a long chalk – but…
The Symphonies of Hans Werner Henze – Jonathan Taylor
Gesamtkunstwerk in the Head: The Symphonies of Hans Werner Henze For all its claims to absolute music, the symphony has always been a hybrid – maybe even omnivorous – musical genre, constantly renewing…
Classical: Beethoven Outliers -VOX and Rudy Van Gelder!
On my weekly pilgrimages around the charity shops of Nottingham I have noticed an increasingly prevelant trend. There are NO rock or jazz records any more….NONE…unless already priced way beyond their feasible…
Going to the Carnival (Mordaunt Shorts)
Picked up a pair of these Mordaunt Short Carnival 2 bookshelf speakers from mid 1970s in perfect nick from local charity shop last week. Was going to team up with the Toshiba…
Mono Record Players X2
I am the proud owner of a 1978 Toshiba Music Centre ( thank you Terry) and after replacing the belt which had perished and a gentle straightening of the original Shure stylus…
Amy LaVere – Painting Blue
https://amylavere.bandcamp.com/album/painting-blue I came across Amy Lavere by chance through Johnny Dowd’s new record which is produced by her husband Will Sexton (Charlie’s Big Brother) . I now know she and Will played…
Trail of Tears: Mark Eitzel and the Great American Songbook
Writing a music blog is a little like masturbation, it generally something one does on one’s own and if it is shared it with very few and certainly very like-minded people. That…
Canadee-I-O in Nottingham: Del Barber and Sarah Jane Scouten
My last post was a tad downbeat about music futures in Nottingham and indeed in general as the outlook for touring acts looked grim and the fundamentals still pretty much the same….
Dirty Realists – Touring a fixed bout?
Last night I attended the Rod Picott gig at The Running Horse Nottingham which was enjoyable but also raised more questions than it answered. Rod Picott has been plying his wares around…
The Lost American Songwriter – Tom Pacheco
Back in the olden days before Camden Town turned into a cheap seaside and etsy version of itself..before coffee shops and beardy tattoo parlours there was an excellent record shop at 281…
Rare Car Boot Violinists – Kogan and Oistrakh
One of the joys of car-booting is you never know what you might turn up. The charity shops have long since armed themselves with discogs and ebay, so much so that some…
The Go-Betweens – a life-time commitment
I recently met a neighbour who unbeknown to me shared a life-long passion for the Australian group The Go-Betweens. He introduced me to a facebook group called Right Here: The Go-Betweens Appreciation…
Sinatra Capitol LPs – the Grey Label search
The Sinatra Obsession The Fascination become an obsession. Through reading avidly on the Steve Hoffman forums ( he remasters for Capitol) where such matters are discussed in immense detail I have come…
Open Country – The crazy CBS/Sunday Times triple LP sampler 1972
I picked up this insane triple album in Nottingham for a pound…i.e. 33 1/3p per disc 🙂 The image is a woman with plastic animals all over…mad but reminds me of…
Joe South – Midnight Rainbows
Bargain of the year! This almost mint copy of Joe South’s second to last album from 1975 cost me 50p. I have seen cover many times over the years but never investigated…
White Music – January 1978 – XTC in the shires..
White or Red Stripes? The out-takes from cover photo session for Virgin first album. You can see the cans of lager in these other photos. The record company airbrushed out on the…
Chuck Berry re-takes on Mercury 1966
If you see this mid-price compilation from Spain from 1967 grab it as it is a re-badging of the Mercury Studios 1966 re-takes session Berry did when he swapped labels moving…
Ramblin Jack Elliott and Trailer Star
I always had a soft spot for Ramblin Jack Elliott (born Elliot Adnopoz in Brooklyn yes the original Jewish Beat Cowboy before Zimmerman 🙂 ) not only because of the obvious Dylan…
Eve of Destruction – Barry Maguire
Do not know where or when I picked this up. Probably bought for the cover and a little familiarity with the title track. Produced by Lou Adler on his own Dunhill Records…