In "town" for a haircut today...BHF: Innervisions and Songs In The Key etc (expanded edition 2CD) by Stevie Wonder and It's Great etc by Black Grape (all of which I only had on cassette before) all in pristine condition. £6 the lot which is smashing!
Out east-ish on Friday, getting soaked for my troubles: CDs Buzzcocks s/t (2003). Don't know it but it's alleged to be one of their better latter-day efforts. The Tragically Hip - Trouble at the Henhouse. Know nothing about this band apart from the fact they are Canadian, and that some people like them. Will see. I passed on two of the finest albums ever issued (Low and Station to Station) though. £5.99 each from Oxfam! And then a couple of LPs which are strictly outside the scope of this thread as they were from a stall in an antiques/collectibles outlet and slightly above charidee pricing. Both in surprisingly decent nick anyway: Neil Young - After the Gold Rush (UK 1972 repress). Pink Floyd - Relics - looks like the 2nd or 3rd Starline pressing (1974 or 1975). From that era, I have Piper and Saucerful on vinyl but Relics (which I remember as a Music For Pleasure cheapie in the 1980s) has several good songs which aren't on those albums.
My memories of James last stem from the records that used to be in the club where my grandparents used to do the catering for weddings and other parties. One of the Non Stop Dancing LPs was in there. After hearing that I was almost put off for life. Well Kept Secret (anything but these days) and The America Album are the ones that I am on the look out for. I'd also pick up Seduction, and Dubmart will probably laugh, Carribean Nights. There is something about those cheesy reggae covers that appeals to me despite my love of Roots and early Dancehall.
James Last might warrant an exception. I’d just like to stop flipping through the same stack of smelly records!
I picked up all the good easy listening comps when they came out, but by then I was already pretty much done with the genre and had everything I wanted, eighties and early nineties boot sales were inundated with easy records including the good ones for pennies, the only record I can think of that I don't have, and I'd pick up now is the Gunter Kallmann Choir album with "Daydream" on, no idea which LP it is, but I love that track, a top ten easy listening track for sure. I think Polydor, or Universal as they are now, should donate several million to fund the recall of James Last and other easy LPs.
I can't be sure without checking, but I think it's one from (not so) Well Kept Secret. Those In Flight CD comps are fabulous, aren't they.
Perhaps I should do a video series, "One Hundred Ways To Destroy A James Last Record", does anyone have one of those industrial shredders or a flamethrower?
Indeed. If you never knew you wanted to hear James Last covering Hawkwind, T Rex and Alice Cooper, you do now... One of my favourite YouTube videos!
He's barley conducting in that video, it's just a lot of standing around with his arm approximating a beat
Slightly off topic, but having been unable to go to the car boot sale for the last few weeks, I treated myself to a Virtual Car Boot with a 20% off voucher for Music Magpie, mostly following up on new discoveries from the car boots this year. It arrived today, just in time to pick up my spirits after a tough weekend. Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas, original mastering on Nimbus. Human League - Dare, original mastering (presumably with pre-emphasis) on what I'd guess is EMI Uden Ultravox! - Ha! Ha! Ha!, original mastering (yay!) but on UK PDO (boo!). That said, I think it looks OK - it's one of those PDOs with a uniform gold colour applied to the front face. As I understand the bronzing issue, it only occurred to discs that *didn't* use the yellow tint. There are a few scratches though, so some testing needed. Heaven 17 - The Luxury Gap, EMI Swindon, hopefully with the right pre-emphasis flags. I have been playing the hell out of Penthouse & Pavement. Melvyn Tan - The Beethoven Broadwood Fortepiano (complete Bagatelles, Fantasia in G Minor). Fun trivia - if you live in the UK, you've almost certainly heard Melvyn Tan play, for all that he's a fairly obscure period instrument specialist. Anyone out there know why? Handel - Coronation Anthems. I watched a bit of the big send-off with my son, mostly for the funny hats, and was reminded that my complete Trevor Pinnock Handel set doesn't include this disc, and figured I'd grab it before the price spikes next year. Blondie - s/t. This is the '94 remaster, an EMI Swindon. This sounds fantastic - the '94 remasters have a great rep, but the one of Plastic Letters I found earlier this year has odd EQ, missing lower mids or something. That might be the recording, though. Between UK PDOs and dubious pre-emphasis flags, it's pretty fraught trying to pick up original issues of 80s CDs. Hopefully the Ultravox! is good, as the original masters command quite a premium if labelled correctly.
The Luxury Gap (non-remastered) is one of my favourite-sounding CDs. I only have the 2001 Blondie reissues (the ones with extra tracks) and I've been wondering if I should "downgrade". EG.
Many years ago I couldn't resist! James Last & His Hammond Bar Combo - Hammond À Gogo 1 I've got Volume 2 as well I'll get me coat
