'You and Yours,' on BBC Radio 4 today, had a feature on "The end of the CD?" which, despite the title, was quite upbeat about them. Producer Stephen Street was very positive about CDs. From 11' 10" to 17' 40", and then the last 30-odd seconds of the programme (don't miss this bit!), from 39' 22" to the end. You and Yours - Funeral pricing: the end of the CD? - BBC Sounds
Been out on my travels, got some bits from people, also left what appeared to be a very clean pair of Nike trainers by one of the local little libraries, I have zero interest in trainers.
It's a surprising one to say the least. The guy donating them isn't getting rid of everything he has either. There hasn't been any other Husker Du yet. Bob Mould - Workbook and Sugar - Beaster have been in there. I love Beaster.
I bought a Carl Orff 6CD box set in a slipcase for £3.99 recently... ...I told the Oxfam lady that the perfect condition heavyweight jewel cases was what I wanted (not the music). She looked at me as if I was mad... ...but once I got home - I used those perfect jewel cases to re-house various high value 80s discs.
I volunteer in two different charity shops and look after the media and book sections in both. We tend to get donated a lot more DVD's than CD's. With regards to CD's (and DVD's) I carefully inspect each one. Any 'common' CD which is scratched goes for recycling, if it is an older album and less common,then,if lightly scratched, then I'll still put it own with a 'sold as seen' sticker. But anything badly scratched (and a lot of CD's and DVD's we receive do look as if someone has been skating on them !!) will just go for recycling. As for pricing, I'll always put a minimum of £1 per disc,perhaps £1.50 for a double album. But it depends on the artist. Today we had several CD's by Van Morrison donated and I've put £2 each on them. Also there were both volumes of the Beatles Past Masters CD's and I've tried £2.50 for them. At the end of the day an item (CD) is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If they haven't sold within three weeks they'll be sent onto another of our shops. All of the above applies to vinyl records of course. MOR artists I tend to price at about £1 to £2 but pop/rock etc albums I'll put out at about £3 to £5. Again, disc (and sleeve) condition is everything. The best individual vinyl album sale I achieved was for an album called Tarantula by Tarantula. I did a bit of research and I seem to remember they were an Australian prog rock group. Anyway,I put £40 on it....and got it...much to the disbelief of my manager. Maybe I should have priced it higher(although it was sitting in the cabinet for a couple of weeks receiving zero interest until the customer who saw it bought it) but it was forty quid in the till and everyone was happy so ......! And for anyone interested in DVD's, they are mainly £1,unless they are sealed (new) and then I'll put £2 on them. Blu-rays I tend to put £2 on them. Any recently released title I'll perhaps double those prices. I have no guidelines to follow so I tend to price according to what I would have paid had I seen a CD/DVD/ Record that I wanted in another shop.
Quickly nipped in to my local BHF this morning just as they were opening and picked up the following for £1 each: More Specials - The Specials remastered reissue 2002. Highway To Hell - ACDC remastered reissue 1995. Porgy And Bess - Miles Davies remastered reissue 1997. Amnesiac - Radiohead 2001 Music From Twin Peaks - Angelo Badalamenti 1990 Each of the price stickers had today's date on them, so they must have just put them out for sale.
I was off work last week with Covid (thankfully very mild), and only started testing negative on Tuesday. Anyway, I figure that at this point I’m basically bulletproof, so I’m celebrated by going for my first professional haircut since 2020. After that, well, it would have been rude not to stick my nose in a few charity shops. ABBA - Greatest Hits Vol 2 on Polar. Smooth sided case, but the CD is alas only silver face, not blue. Absolutely mint, though. I probably didn't need this (I have all the albums plus The Singles: The First Ten Years), but it's not the kind of thing you leave behind. Duane Eddy - Have "Twangy" Guitar Will Travel and $1,000,000.00 Worth of Twang. I knew the name, but had never heard him to my knowledge, but there’s always room for instrumental guitar music and John Matousek Motown masterings in my life. Presumably these are mono. The Sixteen - Spem in alium and other early English music. Too interesting to leave behind for £1, a hybrid SACD with surround option. I kind of fear Spem in alium, having once been roped into a scratch sing of it where I got lost on page 2 then spent the entire 10 minutes trying to work out where I was, before concluding it didn't matter. The other content is interesting though, and The Sixteen are generally excellent. Mum - Finally We Are No-One. Chuffed with this! I used to have MP3s of this back in my misspent adolescence, and the second track, Green Grass of Tunnel, is one of the most tingly-hairs-on-your-neck bits of music I know. Big Star - #1 Record. Amazingly, I've somehow never actually heard this band, despite loving Power Pop groups who namecheck them constantly (e.g. Teenage Fanclub). Pleased to finally find one of their records. John O'Conor - John Field Nocturnes. I have heard good things about this disc, generally love nocturnes, and it was 50p. Deerhoof - Offend Maggie. The most obscure thing here, in the first shop I went into, for 50p! I confess I struggle to remember which one is Deerhoof and which one is Deerhunter, but this was the one was thinking of, who Marc Riley used to play fairly often. Scissor Sisters - while this might look like a chazza staple, it's the really-hard-to-find version with no bonus tracks! First one I've ever seen, I was wondering if it existed at all. I make a hobby of tracking down bonus-trackless versions of otherwise common albums. Now Everybody Wants The Same Thing is the album closer it was always meant to be.
To Longridge this morning. £1 each in the North-West Air Ambulance shop - Genesis - Foxtrot Jethro Tull - Too Old To Rock'n'Roll: Too Young To Die Peter Gabriel - Shaking The Tree comp The Albion Band - Rise Up Like The Sun £1 at St Catherine's Hospice shop - Joan Armatrading - This Charming Life 5 for £1 at YMCA - Bobby Womack - Across 110th Street - 2-disc including two other albums. I went to the till and checked how much this one was, but I don't think the guy there had a clue and he said I could have another four for the £1. Them featuring Van Morrison comp Karl Jenkins - Still With The Music comp The Best Of Sonny Boy Williamson The Bee Gees - Live At Melbourne 1974 bootleg Then best of all, on my way home, I got a text from a guy in Longridge telling me that he'd successfully managed to transfer to DVD a 1986 Virgin Records promo video tape that I'd dropped off earlier this morning. The mimed performance of a single isn't on YouTube, and the band members (Red Guitars) have never seen the video. The promo tape had mould on it, so it's a huge relief to save the video.
Seem to have been in loads of shops during the past week and found nothing to get excited about (let alone buy) but today we went on a trip to Windsor and in Oxfam's delightful book and music basement (the shop itself is half timbered) I found these CDs: Beach Boys - That's Why God Made The Radio Although not expecting another Pet Sounds, I'm looking forward to hearing this one, produced by Brian Wilson. Akiko Yano - Love Life This was a really unusual find. I've heard some of her music but never seen any on record or CD. She used to play with Yellow Magic Orchestra, one of my long time favourites (and was married to Ryuichi Sakamoto for a time). I suppose she is the Japanese equivalent of Kate Bush in that she ploughs her own rather eccentric and individual furrow. Old And In The Gray -S/T The band Old And In The Way featured Jerry Garcia, but this is the remaining members since his passing. Acoustic bluegrass. The latter was my wild card as these were 99p each with a 3 for 2 offer, which I noticed as I was going back up the stairs so I went back to get the third CD. So less than £2 total for these.
Great Albion Band find! I'd love that to show up for the extras. I have the vinyl and play it a lot. The first two tracks in particular are favourites of mine. Good work!
First time I've heard anything by The Albion Band, but really enjoyed listening to it. There was also a 2CD Steeleye Span comp, but I'm not a big fan of the Steel Ice Band, so I left it.
Right place right time. I volunteer in the shop they were in, but I went in as I was passing by to collect a parcel (a Sam Cooke LP) from the Royal Mail collection point across the road and I wasn't due in. I don't think I'd have got them had I not gone in that morning.
It's generally regarded as the best Albion Band album. I picked up years ago when I was first getting into Fairport and related stuff. That CD is long out of print and difficult to find. I don't have a lot of Albion Band stuff, just a couple more LPs from around that time.
There are quite a few different Albion Bands - the early Albion Country Band which featured Martin Carthy among others, who also gave their name to the classic No Roses with Shirley Collins; several Albion Dance Bands (albums like The Prospect Before Us and Shuffle Off), another Albion Band fronted by Cathy LeSurf which had some almost prog elements among the folk, then there's the Albion Bands 89 and 90 which were a bit more rocky, followed by Albion Bands that were more acoustic and singer-songwritery. Then there's the Albion Christmas Band... Something for everyone (hopefully), all led by the Guvnor of folk rock, Ashley Hutchings. Yes I like them! I've got quite a few favourite Albion albums, Rise Up Like The Sun being one of them.
I'm certainly going to be picking more up from them. I have Battle of the Field and The Prospect Before Us. No Roses is high up on my wants list.
My preference in English folk-rock is much more towards Fairport Convention than Steeleye Span, and the Albion Band album I've just heard fits in nicely alongside the Fairports.
