Cataloguing The Collection

Currently working my way through all my owned music and making lists, adding them to Discogs as I go.

Thought I still had about 3,500 7" Singles, they had been in a cupboard untouched for about 10 years, but it seems I only have 2,168. Amazing how many I sold during the boot sale days of the 90's to 2000's.

Quite sad about that as I seem to have parted with a lot of valuable stuff all sold for a fraction of the real worth. Records still in my collection that I thought would be valuable aren't, whereas some the weird and wonderful discs collected in box loads of boot sale bargains turn out to be pretty valuable.

 

So far I've finished the 7" vinyl, the 10" 78's, the CD singles, Cassettes and the music video tapes.

Still to touch the vinyl albums and 12" singles and CD albums.

 

Can't remember the last time I bought any new records, and has been about 10 years since I picked up any boot sale bargains.

 

Hate to think how much room I would have needed if I had carried on collecting, as I am a hoarder and struggling to find room for the current music collection.

Also have about a 900 DVD's and still got 300 video tapes (despite throwing a couple of hundred away).

Still Good

I've just given the John Peel for Virgin stores collection another listen for the first time in years.
Posted here 10 years ago, after collecting it several years earlier from an un-remembered source uploaded by former Virgin employee Haze.
Just did a quick check on the John Peel Wiki and it appears these 3 editions (2, 5, 10) and a one sided (1) from October 79 are still the only ones to have seen the light of day on digital platforms, even though it is recorded there were at least 10 tapes.
Such a shame that we might never hear these :(

Cassettes

The current project during my enforced time off is re-creating my old cassettes into mp3 format collections. As you can see from the post below it's a bit of a long winded process.
I do have a cassette to mp3 converter but sadly a lot of the tapes have been lost or are now unplayable, I lost quite a few of the tapes back in the late 80's when my car got stolen with  a box of tapes in it, so lots of empty cases for which I still have the tracklists but a few where the case went as well so I'll never know what was on those :(
The chart hits collections were a combination of vinyl rips and radio chart show ones, so for every good track there seems to be a number of "why on earth did I record this" songs.
But it's still good to hear some stuff I probably haven't heard in 30 years.

Cassette Magic

Stumbled on this old archive of weird and wonderful music recently.
A digitised collection of old cassette tapes including some great stuff from around the 80's.
All free and legal to listen to - https://archive.org/details/noise-arch

John Peel - For Virgin Record Stores

Let's get some credibility back to this blog, these are really good.
Picked these up from somewhere (big thanks to Mr Original uploader, whoever you were) about 3-4 years back and only recently gave them a good listen, brilliant stuff from John Peel. All tapes recorded for use in Virgin record stores in 79/80 each one contains about an hour of current (at the time) releases with some great fill-ins by JP.
Not 100% sure of some of the band names and titles just going on what it sounds like to me.

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For Virgin Record Stores 16/10/79

First up is one listed as being recorded 16th October 79.
Good selection here with 3 Specials tracks and the brilliant "Turn to red" by Killing Joke as well as some good ones I didn't know before like the Capital Letters and Freshmen tracks.

Great lines from Peel in this one include -
On Killing Joke "it could be Public Image having a joke at our expense except I don't think Public image are as good as that"
On the Girl track "Here's your chance to bang your head against something solid and immovable, a member of the Virgin staff perhaps"

(Part One)
Specials - Stupid Marriage
Killing Joke - Turning Red
Sneak Preview - Slugweird
Capital Letters - Unemployed
Home Service - Wake Up
Girl - My Number
Cabaret Voltaire - Kirlian Photograph

(Part Two)
Specials - Dawning Of A New Era
Freshmen - You've Never Heard Anything Like It
Pink Military - Spellbound
Jackie Lee - Do The Duck
Killing Joke - Are You Receiving
Phillip Rambo - The Sound And The Fury
Secret Affair - Let Your Heart Dance
Specials - Too Much Too Young
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For Virgin Record Stores 05/12/79

Second of three of these Virgin stores tapes, another excellent selection with a few well known names thrown in.
Best Peel comments on this one - On U2 "A Boomtown Rats for the 1980's", and "wait until you hear the other side of the tape .. absolute crap".

(Part One)
U2 - Out Of Control
Kid Thomas - Rocking This Joint Tonight
Clash - Rudy Can't Fail
Beat - Tears Of A Clown
Ruefrex - One By One
Michael Campbell - Dubwise?
Capital Punishment - Save Your Kisses For Me
Undertones - Baby It Hurts

(Part Two)
Beat - Ranking Full Stop
Delta Five - Mind Your Own Business
Mikey Dread - Saturday Night Style
Clash - Working For The Clampdown
Screaming Jay Hawkins - I Put A Spell On You
Mekons - Trevira Trousers
Derrick Morgan - Moon Hop
Rentals - New York
-----------------------
For Virgin Record Stores 19/02/80

Here's number three, another random selection of old and new from Peel.
This one had more tracks that I didn't know than the others but still worth listening to.
I guess these were done in one take as the Stunt Kites record gets stuck halfway through which isn't a good advert for a record shop.
The first track which sounds like it's from an early Jackie Chan movie is actually the 1979 German Eurovision song contest entry!! obviously Peel wasn't aware of this as he says it's "a wildly over the top record from Hong Kong".
Best Peel comment on this one - "buy, buy and then fuck off out of the shop"

(Part One)
Lamb - Dschinghis Khan
Clock DVA - Brigade
Derrick Morgan - Moon Hop
Bodies - Art Nouveaux
Selecter - Every Day
Cuff Links - Guided Missiles
Any Trouble - Yesterday's Love
Stunt Kites - Beautiful People
Burning Spear - Getting From Bad To Worse

(Part Two)
Jimmy Reid - Shucks Hush Your Mouth
Vice Versa - Genetic Warfare
Misfits - Horror Business
Paul Williams - House Rocking
Tiller Boys - Big Noise From The Jungle
Sugar Minott - Carry Me Gone To Jailhouse
Siouxsie And The Banshees - Happy House
I'm So Hollow - I Don't Know

Clash - Demos 76-79

Another from the "Destroy Tapes" series, mainly a collection of demos from the Polydor, CBS and "give 'em enough rope" sessions.
Most of these were available recently on the DOA album although I think the quality is better here suprisingly? must be some technical reason why the CD version sounds so flat compared to this cassette version.
Incidentally the cover tracklisting misses Stay Free but it was on the tape, although it ends a bit sudden so the tape might have ran out.

01 Career Opportunities
02 White Riot
03 Janie Jones
04 London's Burning
05 1977
06 1 2 Crush On You
07 Pressure Drop
08 The Prisoner
09 Safe European Home
10 Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad
11 Stay Free
12 Groovy Times
13 Drug Stabbing Time
14 Last Gang In Town
15 Ooh Baby Ooh
16 One Emotion
17 You Can't Judge A Woman (By Making Love To Her Mother)
18 Kill Time

Tracks 1-5 - Polydor Demos Dec 1976
Tracks 6-8 - CBS Demo Jan 1978
Tracks 9-16 - Rope Demos 1978
Track 17 - Wessex Studios 1979
Track 18 - Live In New York 1982

Jam - Rare Trax 77-81

I'm pretty sure I owned this one (or something similar) in the distant past which is long gone, so was quite pleased when I found this for download (once again thanks Mr original uploader).
Some great versions and a few really rough recordings but it all brings back memories of listening to this stuff on an old fashioned radio I had at the time.
Mainly Peel sessions, 4 tracks from a show called B15 which I don't remember, 2 from the legendary Revolver which I'd love to see again as it used to be on late on a Saturday night and as I was rarely sober on a Saturday night I missed a lot of that show.

01 - In The City
02 - Art School
03 - I've Changed My Address
04 - Modern World
05 - London Girl
06 - Bricks And Mortar
07 - Carnaby Street
08 - All Around The World
09 - When You're Young
10 - Saturday's Kids
11 - Thick As Thieves
12 - Eton Rifles
13 - Absolute Beginners
14 - Tales From The Riverbank
15 - Funeral Pyre
16 - Sweet Soul Music
17 - David Watts
18 - A Bomb In Wardour Street
19 - In The City
20 - The Modern World
21 - Reach Out I'll Be There

Tracks 1-8 - Peel Session April 77
Tracks 9-12 - Peel Session July 79
Tracks 13-16 - B15 BBCTV 1981
Tracks 17-18 - Revolver ITV 1978
Tracks 19-20 - Elstree Demos 1977
Track 21 - Soundcheck Music Machine 1980

Various - Spools Paradise RMC60 1985

Really pleased with the quality of this cassette considering the age of the tape and how many times it was played in the car.
A real good selection of alternative artists and styles which introduced me to several of these bands who went on to become famous for the first time.
A record Mirror compilation although I can't remember if this was cover mounted or I had to collect tokens for it, but I'm glad I got it either way.
Favourites for me were the Lloyd Cole, Win and Pogues tracks.

Win - You've Got The Power
Pet Shop Boys - Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money)
Lizzie Tear - Kima (Hey! Ma Ma!)
Brilliant - Ruby Fruit Jungle
Colourbox - Arena
Chakk - Turn The Sound Out (Higher Than I Want To Be)
Pogues - A Pair Of Brown Eyes
Animal Nightlife - Love Is Just The Great Pretender (Undressing Mix)
James - Just Hip
ABC - Fear Of The World (In Cinemascope)
Tippa Irie - Complain Neighbour
Virginia Astley - I Live In Dreams
Hipsway - Forbidden
Del Amitri - Heard Through A Wall
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions - Rattlesnakes (Live)

Various - Exposed No. III New Noise For The Nineties

Some of my old cassettes are virtually unplayable these days but a few like this one sound as good as ever luckily.
Another random selection of bands on this cover mounted cassette which I assume came with Exposed magazine although that's long gone.
The Bjork album track is the only one most people would have heard before.

Bjork - Come To Me
Wool - EFF
Goats - Typical American (Baked Potato Mix)
Wild Orchids - Traffic Of Tears
Frenzy - (It's A) Mad Mad World
Morphine - Good
Scuttlebutt - Magic Wand
Magic Dragon - Splash
Purple Dreams - Anywhere Else
Flowerdrum - The Heat Is On
Shining - My Hollywood

Ian Dury And The Music Students

Ian Dury And The Music Students - 4000 Weeks Holiday.
Another cassette, quality is not too bad no obvious distortion that happens sometimes with old cassettes.
This one's from 1984 and spawned a couple of singles which failed to trouble the charts, it's surprising that although Dury is so well known he only had 4 top 40 hits!!
Tracklist - (You're My) Inspiration, Friends, Tell Your Daddy, Peter The Painter, Ban The Bomb, Percy The Poet, Very Personal, Take Me To The Cleaners, The Man With No Face, Really Glad You Came.

John Peel Show 19/03/80

I came across this old tape which had part of a John Peel show from (as far as I can find out) 19th March 1980.
Only 44 mins sadly (one side of a C90) but well worth a listen to hear Peel in his prime.

Tracks 
(Fade Into) Snatch - Shopping For Clothes
Undertones - She's a Runaround
Pauline Murray - Dream Sequence
Cigarettes - Can't Sleep at Night
Joy Division - Atrocity Exhibition
The Fall - How I Wrote Elastic Man
Bob Marley - Rastaman
Echo and the Bunnymen - Stars Are Stars
Prefects - Going Through The Motions
Ranking Joe - Sheer Show Off
Comsat Angels - Independance Day
Pauline Murray - Shoot - (Ends Suddenly as Tape ran out).

Sure I've got some more, but not sure if I'll find them as most of my cassettes were
either stuck up in the loft or possibly thrown away after they got jammed in the car tape player.