Blog
The Smiths - Bootlegs
A few words on The Smiths taking in: vinyl bootlegs, CD bootlegs, Diana Dors, Doris Day, Margaret Sullavan, Hattie Jacques, Jean Howard, Glenn Miller and 1950s “Marlboro Baby” advertisements. The most beautiful bootleg in my collection is Unreleased Demos & Instrumentals a double LP that came out at the end of 2010 featuring previously unreleased studio demos, outtakes and instrumentals. The cover is a still of Diana Dors taken from 1956’s Yield to the Night. It’s a beautiful sleeve.
“Records give you more of what you want” - CBS Records
In the last post about David Ackles I mentioned Moby Grape’s Moby Grape ‘69 album album that I found in a “3 for €10” box at the Dublin Flea outdoor market at Newmarket Square off Cork Street in Dublin 8 over ten years ago. I love the inner sleeve of this album. CBS give eight reasons how, “records give you more of what you want.”
Dark Star - Twenty Twenty Sound (Harvest, 1999)
My recent post about Hip-Pocket Records and my 4” Flexi-disc of ‘The Letter’ by The Box Tops got me thinking about other unusual records in my collection. Dark Star released a 5” clear vinyl version of their tune ‘Graceadelica’ in 1999. Dark Star were formed by Christian Hayes, David Francolini and Laurence O'Keefe after their previous band Levitation had disbanded. Terry Bickers had formed Levitation with the lads after leaving The House of Love.
The Box Tops – The Letter
‘The Letter’ by The Box Tops is one of my all-time favourite songs. It’s 1 minute and 53 seconds of greatness and still sounds absolutely amazing. I never tire of this track no matter how often I play it. My own copy of this 7'' is a 1974 French pressing of ‘The Letter’. But it’s not my only copy of the single.
American Spring
I was recently a guest on Keeping Track, Dave Hackett’s UCC98.3FM radio show. Dave asked me to pick seven songs to play on the show. It was really hard to pick the songs but I knew that ‘Fallin’ in Love’ by Spring was going to be my first choice.