Dr Feelgood - Roxette

The 1974 original mono studio version of Roxette, I think it lacks the feel of the live version posted previously but is still a great track and you can still imagine Wilko strutting backwards and forwards on this, the B side is a good version of the classic Route 66.

01 Roxette
02 (Get Your Kicks On) Route 66

Boston - More Than A Feeling

Another of those classic songs that still sounds good today more than 30 years after release, like School's out this is again being used for a current TV advert keeping it alive for another generation.

01 More Than A Feeling
02 Smokin

Nazareth - Hot Tracks EP

And now a blast from one of the best of the Seventies bands.
This 1977 release showcased four of the best Nazareth tracks on one single.
Star billing for me is their version of Joni Mitchell's "This flight tonight" which still rates in my top 100 of all time.

01 Love Hurts
02 This Flight Tonight
03 Broken Down Angel
04 Hair Of The Dog

Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap

The Rats first number one from 1978.
Used to have the picture sleeve of this but it's gone with the others, this is the wife's non pic sleeve version.

This one is topical for me as the company I work for has a rat problem and the traps go off quite a lot, if it helps anyone with a rat infestation Tomatoes seem to be the rats favourite!! they're not keen on Cheese or processed meats from Somerfields :)

01 Rat Trap
02 So Strange

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.

-----------------------
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

Led Zeppelin - IV

The fourth of Led Zeppelin's untitled albums and one that most people will know even if they don't follow the band due to including the track that most people will associate with them "Stairway to Heaven", it also includes all time greats "Black Dog" and "Rock and Roll" and five other great tracks although I'm not a fan of "The Battle of Evermore".
I still have this on vinyl which I think I kept because it came on pink vinyl (see below) and I hoped it would be worth something one day :)

Useless info - I downloaded well over 100 different versions of Stairway to Heaven from the WMFU blog a few years back, and about 10 were really good :)

01 Black Dog
02 Rock And Roll
03 The Battle Of Evermore
04 Stairway To Heaven
05 Misty Mountain Hop
06 Four Sticks
07 Going To California
08 When The Levee Breaks

Boot Sale Tales

I went out Sunday morning to a boot sale for the first time in over a year determined to buy some more vinyl, always in the hope of coming across someone selling the stuff I sold about 20 years for a pittance.
It was looking like a waste of time for the first 2 hours as every stall I went to that had boxes of vinyl were asking stupid prices for some poor quality stuff :(
One stall had a load of 12" singles and after going through the lot found only 2 that I might have bought in amongst a pile of crap, "how much" I asked, "a pound" she replied, "each?" "pound each" "anything off I buy a few?" "pound each" she says giving me a dirty look, now probably 95% of what she was selling you'd find in any charity shop for 10p.
The next one had some singles all in tatty covers and mostly scratched, "how much" "from a pound" was the reply, I saw a copy of Dr Feelgood's milk and alcohol on brown vinyl I'd sold my copy many years back when I was broke, "is this a pound" I asked "no that one's 3 quid" I was told :(

The boot sale was close to ending and I saw a box of singles with no covers, I was told they were 50p each, I said in that state the box full was only worth a pound and to my surprise he accepted it :) now most of them are virtually unplayable but 4 T-Rex singles for a pound seemed reasonable to me.








As I was walking back to the car one last stall had a box of albums, I started looking through and saw a few good ones and was told they were 4 for a pound, while going through them he said I could have the lot for £3 :)
So £3 straight in his hand and I got 82 albums and a laserdisc!! which works out at about 4p each, about half of them are by artists I have liked so it was well worth it, mainly 80's bands like Tears for fears, Human league, OMD, Erasure, China Crisis, Christians etc, although if I hadn't spotted the Yachts album I might have walked on and missed out.

Slade - Skweeze Me Pleeze Me

From the period when Slade were the chart kings, this was their fifth number one in under two years and if I remember correctly it had gone straight in at Number One which was rare in those days.
As with the Sweet record this is still in my collection because it was the second record I ever bought, another 47p worth :)

01 Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me
02 Kill 'Em At The Hot Club Tonite

Sweet - Hell Raiser

1973 hit for the Sweet, it was the follow up to their only number one "blockbuster", I would rate this as one of the Sweet's first serious singles after a long line of "novelty" hits like Wigwam Bam, Co-co, Little Willy etc and showed their heavier side the B-side Burning is more in the style of more serious acts of the time.
As for Hell Raiser it has a nice bit of punk style guitar in the first 25 seconds.

On a personal note this one is still in my collection because it was the first single I ever bought, 47p brand new from a local record shop after raising the money washing cars! people weren't as generous back then and I think the best me and my mate got was 20p for a car.
Who says nostalgia ain't what it used to be :)

01 Hell Raiser
02 Burning

Cheap Trick - I Want You To Want Me

Recorded live at the Budokan Japan in 1978 and sounding pretty good even now.
I think I had a problem with putting labels on bands around this time, anything that sounded good I'd call punk but as it turns out Cheap Trick were more of a "hair" band or soft rock but I've seen this on a punk compilation so maybe it's not just me.

The B side Clock strikes ten is also a live track although the label says it's from Cheap Tricks studio album "In Color"? I think it's another Budokan track, and just to be pedantic the label says it's 3.40 long but from the needle hitting the first groove till the last is only 3.30 so maybe they put the wrong version on?

01 I Want You To Want Me
02 Clock Strikes Ten

Elvis Costello And The Attractions - (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea

The second Elvis C track to hit the charts from 1978, taken from the excellent album "This Years Model" the B side was also on the album.

01 (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
02 You Belong To Me

I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea but some times you had to,
this was one of the more memorable occasions :)

Derek And The Dominos - Layla

Classic guitar riff from 1970 from Eric Clapton's band at the time.
I like this shortened single version at less than 3 minutes it has the best bit of the 7 minute album version.

01 Layla
02 Bell Bottom Blues

Blondie - Blondie

The 1976 debut album plus a few bonus tracks on this 2001 Re-mastered CD version.
An interesting mix of styles with many of the tracks having an early Sixties feel right through to the more punky tracks like Rip her to shreds and Kung Fu Girls.

Blah blah … I picked up the “In the flesh” single in a cheapie box for 10p a few months before “Denis” hit the chart and many years later sold it on for £10 which is a 100 times what I paid for it!!
If only I could have done those sort of deals on everything I’d be a millionaire haha, and sadly with hindsight even this was a missed opportunity as that cheapie box had about another 20 copies of it and I bought only one :(

01 X Offender
02 Little Girl Lies
03 In The Flesh
04 Look Good In Blue
05 In The Sun
06 A Shark In Jets Clothing
07 Man Overboard
08 Rip Her To Shreds
09 Rifle Range
10 Kung Fu Girls
11 The Attack Of The Giant Ants
12 Out In The Streets (Original Instant Records Demo)
13 The Thin Line (Original Instant Records Demo)
14 Platinum Blonde (Original Instant Records Demo)
15 X Offender (Original Private Stock Single Version)
16 In The Sun (Original Private Stock Single Version)

Blondie - Eat To The Beat

This is still my favourite Blondie album and sadly (in my opinion) it was all downhill after this.
3 great singles and tracks like Shayla and the title track would have made good singles as well.
Aaah makes me all nostalgic ... sob

01 - Dreaming
02 - The Hardest Part
03 - Union City Blue
04 - Shayla
05 - Eat To The Beat
06 - Accidents Never Happen
07 - Die Young Stay Pretty
08 - Slow Motion
09 - Atomic
10 - Sound A Sleep
11 - Victor
12 - Living In The Real World
13 - Die Young Stay Pretty (Live At BBC 1979)
14 - Seven Rooms Of Gloom (Live At BBC 1979)
15 - Heroes (Live At Hammersmith Odeon 1980)
16 - Ring Of Fire (Live) (From The Roadie OST)

Blondie - Parallel Lines

Possibly the biggest selling of the Blondie albums and most well known, 6 of the 12 tracks were released as singles with most of the rest ending up as B-sides.
Once again 4 bonus tracks to fill the CD.

01 - Hanging On The Telephone
02 - One Way Or Another
03 - Picture This
04 - Fade Away And Radiate
05 - Pretty Baby
06 - I Know But I Don't Know
07 - 11:59
08 - Will Anything Happen
09 - Sunday Girl
10 - Heart Of Glass
11 - I'm Gonna Love You Too
12 - Just Go Away
13 - Once I Had A Love (AKA The Disco Song) (1978 Version)
14 - Bang A Gong (Get It On) (Live In Boston 1978)
15 - I Know But I Don't Know (Live In Philadelphia 1978)
16 - Hanging On The Telephone (Live In Dallas 1980)

Blondie - Plastic Letters

First up is Plastic Letters which was the second commercialy released Blondie album in 1978, as it included Denis and Presence it was probably the first one most of us bought.
My favourite track is Contact in Red Square which was a B-side to Denis.
This is the 2001 reissue disc and includes 4 bonus tracks a demo an outtake a B-side and a live track.

01 - Fan Mail
02 - Denis
03 - Bermuda Triangle Blues (Flight 45)
04 - Youth Nabbed As Sniper
05 - Contact In Red Square
06 - (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear
07 - I'm On E
08 - I Didn't Have The Nerve To Say No
09 - Love At The Pier
10 - No Imagination
11 - Kidnapper
12 - Detroit 442
13 - Cautious Lip
14 - Once I Had A Love (AKA The Disco Song) (1975 Version)
15 - Scenery
16 - Poets Problem
17 - Detroit 442 (Live In Philadelphia 1978)

Blondie

I bought all the early (70's) Blondie albums on vinyl and sold most in the early nineties, bought them all again on CD in 2001 when they were reissued and recently sold most to raise funds again :(

Santana - Moonflower

Another from my recently sold CD collection, here is another of the 70's supergroups Santana.
This double album was originally released in 1977 and is one of many albums that I've bought on both vinyl and CD.
A nice mixture of live and studio tracks which work really well together.
Everyone has a guitar hero someone who they think is the best guitarist in the world - mine is Carlos Santana, listen to the guitar solo on disc two's Transcendance and agree with me that this guy has some serious skill :)

Disc 1
01 - Dawn Go Within
02 - Carnaval
03 - Let The Children Play
04 - Jugando
05 - I'll Be Waiting
06 - Zulu
07 - Bahia
08 - Black Magic Woman Gypsy Queen
09 - Dance Sister Dance (Baila Mi Hermana)
10 - Europa (Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile)

Disc 2
01 - She's Not There
02 - Flor D'Luna (Moonflower)
03 - Soul Sacrifice Head Hands And Feet (Drum Solo)
04 - El Morocco
05 - Transcendance
06 - Savor Toussaint L'Overture

Disc 1 - Studio tracks 1,5,6,7 - Live tracks 2,3,4,8,9,10
Disc 2 - Studio tracks 1,2,4,5 - Live tracks 3,6

Alan Parsons Project - Tales Of Mystery And Imagination Edgar Allen Poe

A concept style album from 1976 loosely based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe.
My first thought is usually about Vincent Price for the old horror classic version of the Raven although none of the dialogue is used here :)
A few famous names guest on vocals and instruments including "crazy" Arthur Brown, John Miles and the 2 guitarists from pop band Pilot!
I never actually owned the vinyl of this but loaned it from our local record library and taped it (as I did with many albums in the pre computer days), I finally bought this CD about 10 years ago and it sounds different from the original version I suppose this was to persaude us all to bin our vinyl and listen to the new improved digital versions, which is not something I'm really happy with.

01 - A Dream Within A Dream (Instrumental)
02 - The Raven
03 - The Tell Tale Heart
04 - The Cask Of Amontillado
05 - (The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether
06 - I Prelude
07 - II Arrival
08 - III Intermezzo
09 - IV Pavane
10 - V Fall
11 - To One In Paradise

Blue Oyster Cult - Agents Of Fortune

Back in about 76/77 I was just getting into a wider range of music (as in non chart music) from the blossoming punk scene to the album bands (prog/soft rock etc) and certain stuff took my fancy, this album was one I really liked at the time and most will know the track (Don't Fear) The Reaper.
I think many of the tracks here are really good although I stopped liking the band after seeing them live in the late 70's, the performance was good but I suppose it was just the look of the band? too much hair or some other shallow reason :)
Not sure if track 4 is spelt wrong on purpose but this is what's on the sleeve.

01 - This Ain't The Summer Of Love
02 - True Confessions
03 - (Don't Fear) The Reaper
04 - ETI (Extra Terrestial Intelligence)
05 - The Revenge Of Vera Gemini
06 - Sinful Love
07 - Tattoo Vampire
08 - Morning Final
09 - Tenderloin
10 - Debbie Denise