Recent Vinyl Finds

[Easy_To_Assemble]

I've started seeking out older Techno records, as many are too obscure to get even a digital rerelease on Bandcamp.

What's irritating about new Dance music releases is the vinyl-only trend. It's as if they're trying to recreate the spirit of 90's crate-digging, but it seems pointlessly misguided and elitist. Back then, people put out limited vinyl runs, because A) not much cash, and B) it was the only way DJ's were going to get you played. Not making digital files available feels a bit absurd. Not least as you'd be curtailing your own revenue.

Producers weren't deliberately seeking cult-like anonymity, but for many decades, we've held onto this reverence of the "cult artist".

[Head Gardener]

Despite the very rainy weather in Scotland this past week, there have been several interesting albums turning up, a few of which came from the same box from the back of a Glasgow charity shop. Light detective work revealed that the previous owner of many of them was a musician who had spent time in Bermuda, I know this as he wrote his name on most of the sleeves and they are from Bermudian artists I'd never heard of before.




A beautifully gold embossed sleeve on this double album of jazz flute released on Mushroom Records in the mid 70's, far out indeed.









In the same box as the record recorded inside a pyramid was this dark folk album privately pressed on... the Pyramid label, stand out track Burn Your Dead.






This is a mid 70's folk album recorded at two Scottish venues by various artists, the building is McCaig's Tower, a folly overlooking the beautiful coastal town of Oban.









It is one of life's great mysteries how this compilation album of new wave and rock bands from the Horsham, Sussex area turns up in a Cat's Protection League shop in Arbroath.








Described as 'Comedy Erotic Soul' this cheeky record was also released in a different sleeve, but this is the limited edition safe version.




The pick of some of the odd albums that once belonged to bassist Wally Russell from Bermuda.

[Head Gardener]

Here's a tale, I had a call recently from a woman in Glasgow who was moving to Arbroath (quite near me) and she said she wanted rid of her late husbands record collection as she didn't want to bring them with her when she moved. She explained how he was a collector and also a bit of a dealer so my interest was piqued especially when she said they were ALL classical records which I do know a fair bit about. So I bit the bullet and took the long drive to Glasgow which I had never been to before, but thanks to the sat nav found her right in the heart of the city. There were a few thousand albums, which seemed great but I would have needed a big van to take the lot if she accepted my offer. So I explained how I'd be happy to pick say 100 for £200 and she was happy with that on one condition, that I would have to dispose of the rest among the local charity shops of the city. Seemed like a fair deal I thought so i cherry picked this incredible collection and even though I was often pulling ones out by instinct or I just liked the cover (haha) I probably pulled around 200, "that's OK" she said, "take what you want as I just want them gone!"

So I was then left with the conundrum of where to get rid of the rest of these albums, I filled the car and headed to the local Oxfam Music shop, they accepted a few hundred but said no to the rest as they claimed to have too much stock (probably coz your a bit over-priced, I muttered under my breath.) Bear in mind these were NOT rubbish classical I must add, so quite why they turned the majority down was a mystery to me until I saw the floor to ceiling piles they had out the back, ridiculous amounts of over stock. Salvation Army claimed too that "no-one buys records anymore" WTF?! they also said they had so many out the back they didn't want anymore, i didn't even have time to go and have a look! I was confused and also getting slightly desperate to get rid of these records. Finally i found a small second hand shop in a back alley, I think it was called Relics and he was grateful for all the rest, around 2000 of them which ended up being 5 car trips from house to shop. The lady at the house also said I could help myself to any of them for free too as I was doing all the toing and froing, in the pouring rain I should add. 
I was really happy with the ones I picked, so I shall flip a few of course to pay for petrol etc but the majority are keepers and the condition of all of them (apart from a 78 of Lenin's speeches which was cracked) was near mint, four of them below.

[Head Gardener]

A rarely seen and by the look of it a never played disc by the legendary budgie called Sparkie Williams. According to his Wiki page he was acclaimed as the world's most outstanding talking bird in the Guinness Book of Records, EVER! He only released one single and most of the 20,000 sold in 1958 were 7"s this is the original UK 78rpm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparkie_Williams

[Head Gardener]

I had a message from a friend telling me a shop in Forfar had bought 10 huge crates of 7"s in the recent auction of the old stock from Dundee's now defunct record shop Groucho's. So I headed over early and luckily no-one else seemed to know about it so had first dibs, but after digging for 2 hours the shop slowly filled up. I actually decided against going to the original auction itself just a few days earlier as I knew the prices would go nuts - which I later heard the did, but on top of anything won there the buggers add 26% commission & fees, which to me is just ridiculous so I just stayed away in a pathetic record collecting strop protest. So I happily digged into the boxes of singles the shopkeeper says he won blind and wasn't interested in records anyway and was happy to knock them out at 50p each, 3 for a quid, so I found 170 which he kindly let me have for £50, anyway here are some of them and there's nothing really rare here but some nice ones I don't have.





One of the baa-dest records I've heard for a while.

19 Beatles tunes crammed on one side and 15 on the other and yes, it's horrible.






Great French picture sleeve, dunno what the image has to do with the song though.

This short lived band included Neil Innes and Roger McGough and only released a couple of singles.

Another artist who only released 2 singles has nicely signed on the back.








Local musical drama group oddity from the late 60's.







Hendrix sampling Hip-Hop trio from High Wycombe unleashed in 1991.

The debut 7" by ex Radio 1 DJ 'Diddy' David Hamilton who recently celebrated his 85th birthday, apparently every copy of this disc is signed.





I have promo singles by the Manfreds promoting Ski yoghurt and Maxwell House coffee but this is their first one, for Michelin tyres in 1969.






Early 80's Scottish Goth Rock with heavy Bauhaus and whistling vibes.

[extraordinary walnuts]

A great day for pristine 12" promos!



Dan Hartman - Instant Replay
Yoko Ono - Walking On Thin Ice
Chic - Le Freak
Marvin Gaye - Funky Space Reincarnation
Frankie - Relax
plus a 7" of the 1975 Soul Train theme

[Head Gardener]

I had a great day here last weekend, I have been to the previous 2 Groovy Record Fayres but this one seemed to be the busiest so far. Celeb spotting was always fun but I didn't see Stewart Lee or Thurston Moore this time but chatted to Gilles Peterson who picked up some Albert Ayler albums and DJ Food found some nice singles on my stall. I spent over £100 on LP's & 7"s but took over £600 so it was worth the ULEZ charge, parking fees and even the 3 hour journey home (thanks for playing at home on the same day Arsenal, cheers!) These are just a few of the singles I found and most were only £1 each, some incredibly good stalls on the two floors, one guy had dozens of singles priced at over £3,000 each! but it certainly helped me to be there early to find the cheap stuff.





I was quite excited to find this one had a selection of photos inside the sleeve as I flipped the disc out, they could have been Beatles related but instead turned out to be someone's early 60's climbing adventure.






Lovely sleeve for this early 70's advert sung by Samantha Jones for the Ford TC-1.




I'd never come across a good copy of the UK debut 7" by one of my favourite bands, love that price sticker too.




I've a white label test pressing of this great and truly fucked up record, but have never come across an original stock copy before.




Sadly not a bra advert disc as the record that comes with it is a promotional EP featuring Scott Walker & Dusty Springfield, could have been worse I guess.






How could I leave this in a pound box?! Sadly not from the TV show of the same name but a West End musical from the late 60's.

This was probably the rarest find, I picked it up for the title alone and it's musical style is chutney.

The top one caught my eye as it was written by Jeff Lynne and it turned out to be released the same month as his debut LP with The Idle Race and the one below name checked Robert Smith's band.








This French band hit both big mid 70's trends with one record.

Great mid 60's EP by Georgie Fame with a sleeve photo by Dezo Hoffmann.




Anything on this label is always of interest and this one doesn't disappoint.




It's not all that rare but I've never seen or heard this one before.




This one though is pretty rare, the debut record by Dame Edna himself released in Australia only in 1958.

[Head Gardener]

I thought I'd post this here as it is record related, the kind folk at everyedition.ch publishing have just sent me a copy of their latest book to which I contributed several record sleeves. It's beautifully illustrated with over 300 colour photos of record sleeves featuring the artist with an animal on the cover. I sent them several examples and as it was a while ago can't quite remember which ones exactly, but it's a lovely book and it would make a great Xmas present for a record collector friend.

[Head Gardener]

Some recent album finds.




A beautiful US copy of a stereo disc in a mono sleeve with stereo sticker added on afterwards.

It would be a question too hard for most pop quizzes, but bizarrely these 2 albums are connected to the furry litter pickers of Wimbledon Common. To look at the one above by Richard Hittleman released on CBS in 1973 and the one below by folk duo Thoughts & Words in 1969 it seems they couldn't be more different from each other. But both were produced by none other than the king of The Wombles himself Mike Batt, who also composed the music for the yoga record which was featured in a popular TV series, AND unbelievably The Wombles and Yoga For Health were released on the same label, just WoW.

I came across a box full of albums with no sleeves which all had 50p written on the plain card covers, there were reggae, folk and some odd jazz but most intriguing was this late 60's prog rocking debut by Jody Grind in minty clean condition. I had a copy years ago when I ran a market stall and let it go for peanuts but it wasn't in such nice condition, however it did have a sleeve.




Another bunch of prog rockers with a record on the same label (but with a later design) was this album by Skin Alley. They released only 4 albums and their debut is by far the rarest, but this is the final one from 1973.




New Zealand cheesecake, yum.





This is another flavour of cheese that caught my eye, with it's bold claims to fame in the sleeve notes and spooky echoey vibes to the whole album sound it kicks off with a track called The Wonderful World of The Young in which he sings about himself, I have to assume so.








Best spoken word album I've come across for a while was this one featuring a pair of Scottish poets going head to head, perfect title too.







I thought it best to start with a yoga disc at the top and an exercise one at the bottom (arf) which originally came out in 1978 but never actually got a proper UK release until 1993.

[Head Gardener]

This weeks more interesting vinyl finds, there were loads of others not quite so interesting (to me) but they are now in my car boot and heading to the local Cancer Research in the morning.



A great messed up version of Je t'aime allegedly from a film that I could find absolutely no info on ever being released in the 70's. Curiously the copy listed on Discogs/45cat etc is a version that has a blank B side, but this copy has 2 versions including a Disco Mix (!?) and as an extra twist I have a white label copy which I've had for years which is 2 sided too, I've never come across the one sided one, yet.






I spotted a local listing of records on Facebook Marketplace in the week and I went round to the chaps house to have a dig. He had hundreds of 7"s and a few nice albums (and loads of crap ones too of course) but there, in a box with about 30 Elvis albums were these 3 singles by Nico. I was blown away at such a find and when he said that all the records were a quid each, well I filled my (car) boots.
The Desolation Angel EP is an Italian bootleg and the sleeve came fully laminated along with an insert, simply beautiful.

A non-hit wonder from the early 80's with it's useful lyrics for the B side Chat Up Lines printed on the back of the sleeve.







I love coming across old records still in their original mailers and this one came complete with order form and letter to the Head Teacher from EMI extolling the virtues of poetry for kids, I might be wrong but I doubt they still do such poetry reading in schools today.






A lovelee olde recorde frome nineteen seventee eight by ye Courte Singers.



A mixed selection of jazz and funky stuff turned up at the car boot this morning including these albums.



Pretty good covers of old R&B tunes.






This first came out on Blue Note in 1968 but this is a US label variant from 1970.




I found another interesting sleeveless record in lovely condition, one day my sleeve will come...





Sweet original UK pressing in great condition, though the gate-fold sleeve has some wear but for a couple of quid i think I'll cope.

[Head Gardener]

Despite arriving late (8am) I picked up a handful of nice albums at the car boot this morning, a Malaysian couple had a box of LP's most folks seemed to have ignored as I assume they just thought it was weird foreign music. There were a several I took a punt on because they looked interesting and were cheap, along with a few by Teresa Teng who is rarely spotted out in the wilds of Scotland!




Reg Guitar or Reggie Verghese as his mum knew him was a famous guitarist and producer in Singapore during the 60's/70's and had his own band called The Quests who were comparable to The Tornados or The Shadows. Released in 1974 this album is one of his several solo albums.

A more traditional folky instrumental collection in the box from 1969.



I guess the couple must have travelled around the world a few times too from New Zealand...




To Spain...



Love that little sticker on the front!




Other odds and ends.


I found the same chap's Lost Sheep 7" recently and this is his first single issued on 12" and produced by Ron & Russell of Sparks.





I'm a sucker for a good poetry album.






Oddity from 1963 which features a calypso tune and the future Tory MP Sir Keith Joseph giving a speech on the flip asking to Keep Britain Tidy. He was later to become Thatcher's Secretary of State for Education and was involved in the introduction of GCSE exams.



A drug company promo to persuade doctors to prescribe the sedative Lormetazepam on one side and 2 pieces of classical music on the othe......zzzzzzzzzz

[Head Gardener]

I made another trip down south to Northants at the weekend, not just for digging but to clear out more stuff in storage at my mum's house. I was pretty ruthless this time ditching loads of albums to the local charity shops which can sometimes have a karmic effect of blessing me with finding vinyl things I actually want to keep, and so it proved to be this time. The journey home to Scotland was awful though taking over 11 hours thanks to jams in Berwick and Edinburgh and I was glad to make it home safe as I saw several cars broken down with the drivers trapped and having to sit and wait for hours to be rescued.





Beautifully stacked singles in one shop "please put them back as you find them" said the manager who kindly let me dig in their cellar, there were so many LP's I'll have to make a second trip in the new year.






I pulled about a dozen 7"s from the pile which were a pound a go but he let me have them for a tenner. The most unusual one was this sole release by a twee Indie Northampton band released in the mid 80's I had not seen or heard of before. It wasn't until I got home to clean the records that I discovered a poster for one of their local gigs inside the sleeve.








I never realised the once popular entertainer had even released a record so was surprised to come across this one which is his cover of the well known Beatles tune. A quick Google search reveals he was a school pal of Lennon and has been in the news recently by smashing his car into parked cars for which he was fined £716 and received five penalty points, but he is 83 bless him.

Lovely summery Beach Boys harmony pop.

Not really my cuppa tea but produced by Bill Wyman and on Deep Purple's label, I'd have thought this would have been better but one to flip I guess.

Mysterious white label fully signed by the band but I could find nowt about them online.






A lovely promotional picture disc for the German chocolate company Suchard released in 1987.





A nice UK picture disc for an early Scritti Politti single, though I admit The Sweetest Girl is even nicer.

A scarce gay Cold Wave single issued in the late 80's.




Russian Folk music from the late 80's, lovely sleeve but not sure of the meaning in the translation.




Quite possibly the worlds first square 7" single*



*can't be arsed to fact check but wouldn't be surprised.

[extraordinary walnuts]

Shocked and delighted to find a sealed copy of this



On closer inspection it appears to be a bootleg repress from 2020 but I'll take it!

[kalowski]

Shocked and delighted to find a sealed copy of this



On closer inspection it appears to be a bootleg repress from 2020 but I'll take it!

I got that a few weeks ago. Not sealed, but not a bootleg either.

[extraordinary walnuts]

It's a crime that it's out of print. Who Will Take My Place and Country Girl are two of his all-time best jams, this album is easily as good as Scott 1 or 2 I think

[Head Gardener]

A few albums I've found recently, not all of them behind this door but the Beatles box set was a well spent tenner from a lady who had her mum's collection in 2 boxes under the table covered in dresses.





Taiwanese bootleg box set of 10 albums, all of which seem to be the US issues which didn't include Yellow Submarine or Please Please Me.








I was really pleased to find a nice UK flip-back copy of L The P especially as it came in such a charming outer sleeve.

A fully signed copy of the debut album by Oasis would be worth a small fortune, alas this is a fully signed album by the Christian band with the same name.








I have had the flexi-disc promo 7" of this collection of Western themes for years and finally I've found the full album in a charity shop for 50p, phew. To think I actually smoked these horrible bloody things for years and never once felt like a cowboy.






Yet another tracking test disc to add to my collection of erm, seven. A Japanese Quad Testing disc being the best of the ones I've ever found.




I always love finding unusual discs and this 78 sounded especially lovely on my gramophone.





The link below to the best of the 2 sides from this cheeky sleeved album of samples and loops by DJ Flare.

It seems Leo's Endless Flight goes on forever.

[Head Gardener]

Things found in Feb.



I was surprised to find this single in an old bag, but it wasn't from that record shop it was from...








Another unexpected 7" find was this Bowie & half of Floyd take on their classic debut.

A couple of nice 78's, the Marilyn one is from 1954 and the disc by the other bird is from 1930.








Odd albums included this debut by a Scottish folk-a-billy band The Humpff family who are still going strong and playing in Falkirk in April.



It appears to be signed or at least written on with the address to a party!







A 10" single by another Scottish band and this was their sole release in a rather delightful sleeve.





I picked this up for the title and it's OK tbh, it's a signed copy in a completely different sleeve to any other issue I could find online, god it must be worth a fortune.






A few interesting African sounds and music albums I'd not seen before from the same box at the car boot.










I have B&B 1 somewhere in the racks but got this for their version ofTheme From Shaft

[Head Gardener]

Some odd 7"s I've recently found in boxes under coats in charity shops, a village auction house and a shipping container at Scotland's largest car boot.




George Harrison was behind this deeply dippy hippy peace chant from 1969, hear both sides, now.

A lovely original picture sleeve for the Thunderbirds Theme and although this one was a bit grubby but the disc is decent.

From a handful of Calypso discs in the same box, I liked this one for it's sleeve which is from Trinidad advertising BWIA (British West Indian Airways) who folded in the early 00's to become Caribbean Airways.








Also released as part of their Heads Down, No Nonsense, Mindless Boogie 2 x singles pack + 75p sticker, this version has the sleeve & label redacted, the other pressing didn't so not sure why they did it on this.

First issued in 1939 and a UK #1 in 1982, however this version didn't even scrape into the charts.








Another non-charting record was this debut release by J.G. Thirlwell which was in an auction win of heavy metal records. I was really pleased to find this as I have never come across one of his 7" singles before.






I had a pang of déjà vu when I saw this as I can't help thinking that for some bizarre reason I already have this 4 track EP by the Sheffield Youth Squash Choir.

[Head Gardener]

I found this 7" today, it was released in 1966 to raise money for Scotlands pirate radio ship.

[extraordinary walnuts]

Nice find! Hadn't heard it before, I was expecting it to be a version of this ghostly jingle that has remained lodged in my head since I was a kid:

[Head Gardener]

Finally got the fab threesome

[cosmic-hearse]

Finally obtained a reasonably priced copy of this monster

[Rizla]

I was surprised to find this single in an old bag, but it wasn't from that record shop it was from...

I'm pretty sure the Other Record Shop was started by a guy who used to work for Bruce's Records, at the time the hedgemonic Scottish chain of disc retailers owned by the ex Simple Minds (and my own band's) manager, later edged out by Branson and HMV. Funnily enough I bought a suit the other week in George St and had to get it tailored round the corner in the former original Bruce's in Rose St. They had a little shrine with original Bruce's bags in the wall.

[Head Gardener]

Footage I took of wandering around a big record fair last weekend in Reading.

[Head Gardener]

I've had a busy week down south, doing only my second record fair in six months and clearing out a lot of records, mostly to dealers so that they can lug the heavy boxes around week after week, I'd rather undercut them so I don't have to take so many back home or hide in my mum's garage!



After the fair I did deep digging in Northampton, Daventry and the Kettering tip shop below, with mixed results.




I found many albums (I'll put them in another post) but this is the pick of the 7"s many I had not seen before and were mostly 50p a pop.




This dirty old man released a very appropriate song in 1963 a year after Steptoe & Son started, he was to star in a film by some Scouse lads a year later.

A much catchier song than Wilfrid's which was released on the same label in 1964.




I assume this is the Neath in Wales but I found it in Daventry underneath some Mantovani albums, curiously the band are called English With Tears.







Theme from a TV soap about London market folk in the 60's beating EastEnders by nearly 20 years.

This was a lovely find and both sides are catchy, a cover of the Smokey Robinson classic it was her only release in 1971.

6 track EP by a song & dance group from Israel.







The only flexi I found on my travels was this which allows the listener to hear the voice of the man who has helped thousands of people make millions of pounds (selling cosmetics) which is nice.

[Head Gardener]

I've been digging up in Northern Scotland around The Cairngorms for the past week with mixed results considering it's a mountain range! Checking out charity shops in Aviemore, inverness and a small town called Forres which had 6 charity shops. I came away with some rare Blues albums and a couple of unusual world & poetry records, one of which I couldn't find anything about online which always makes me happy.






Beautiful Swedish folk music played on a lur and a clarinet recorded live on a farm, Walter comments in the sleeve notes that he was awoken with the sound of birds who joined in as he played.

Late 60's funky guitar sounds from Hong Kong, quite how this ended up a recycle depot near the town of Findhorn is mind boggling.

Featuring poetry by John Lennon to Sylvia Plath and Philip Larkin, this lovely record was used in conjunction with a book of the same name to teach 60's schoolkids.








Also on a poetic tip were these three 10" discs in the same box and in near mint condition.









A mid 80's compilation to raise money for families struggling during the miner's strike, appropriately released on the Rock 'n' Dole label, it came with a big poster.









I liked the cover of this and had never seen it before, but it turned out to be pretty good floaty space jazz, a keeper.

The best finds of the week by some distance were these two albums also in the same box at £3 each two for a fiver!?!? I think I'm either incredibly jammy or blessed.








This might have been even rarer if it wasn't signed!






Original German pressing of her 1966 album which had a £1 sticker on the front which has thankfully peeled off OK.



In the same box was this banjo album which still had the shrink so I pulled it off with the price sticker.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I was at a record fair at the weekend. Wasn't too impressed overall but was chuffed to get my hands on the Breaking Glass soundtrack for £4.