Every Record Tells A Story
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Early Candidate For Music Book of the Year: “Beatles With An A” by Mauri Kunnas
In the year after the release of Mark Lewisohn’s 1,800 page Proustian Beatles biography “All These Years”, (merely part-one-of-a-trilogy) most Beatles writers have, quite justifiably one suspects, thrown down their pens in despair, turned to drink, or begun to dust off their Rolling Stones records and collect stories on The Beatles’ main rivals. However, this…
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Remember Smash Hits Magazine…?
Let’s compare Smash Hits to its modern day equivalent…… It’s very tempting to look at how things were with either misty-eyed nostalgia, or like one of the Four Yorkshiremen in that Monty Python sketch (“Luxury! Kids today don’t know they’re born!”) One thing that appears to have been much better in the eighties is the…
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Pop Music: A Bluffer’s Update on the VMAs, X-Factor and the Grande v Royal Blood Chart Battle
It has been a busy week in the world of pop. At the weekend (and on TV on Monday) was the MTV VMAs – Video Music Awards – traditionally the scene of all manner of unpleasantness generally involving pop stars cavorting with snakes. In previous years viewers have witnessed the unedifying spectacle of Britney Spears and…
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Up Your Game With Personalised Rock T-Shirts
With Prince gently encouraging fans to wear purple at recent shows and Arcade Fire requesting fancy dress be worn by the audience for their latest tour, it appears that even rock stars are wearying of the traditional audience attire / uniform of jeans and black t-shirt. Although perhaps not as tricky as that impossible fashion…
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$903 For Your Vintage Rock Concert T-Shirt? Yes Please…
One of the problems of not having a time-machine (and there are many) is the difficulty in predicting exactly which bits of accumulated old tat you should throw disdainfully in the nearest skip, and which you should wrap in linen and ceremonially preserve in a casket in the loft with full military honours. The Egyptians had…
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Rock and EDM: ZZ Top and David Guetta Collaborate On New Tracks
The news this week that ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons teamed up with David Guetta in Ibiza to record an album is surprising to many. At first sight, it looks like there’s a too-strong batch of Ecstacy going around the island. After all, why would an ageing 70’s throwback with a silly beard be allowed to…
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How To Buy A Set of David Bowie’s Classic Albums on Vinyl For Less Than £100
The story so far: I have made a bet that I can buy a full set of Bowie‘s albums (in their original vinyl versions – and in excellent condition with all the inserts) from The Man Who Sold The World to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). That’s fourteen albums in fourteen days. Total budget: £100.…
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The David Bowie Bet: Pin Ups, Low and…The Fonz?
The story so far: I have made a bet that I can buy a full set of Bowie‘s albums (in their original vinyl versions – and in excellent condition with all the inserts) from The Man Who Sold The World to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). That’s fourteen albums in fourteen days. Total budget £100.…
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David Bowie’s Live Albums – on Vinyl
The story so far: I have made a bet that I can buy a full set of Bowie‘s albums (in their original vinyl versions – and in excellent condition with all the inserts) from The Man Who Sold The World to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). That’s fourteen albums in fourteen days. Total budget: £100.…
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How To Buy David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane on Vinyl
The Challenge: Buy a full set of Bowie‘s vinyl albums (in excellent condition with all the inserts) from “The Man Who Sold The World“ to “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)“. That’s fourteen albums in fourteen days. Total budget: £100. The loser has a heavy penalty: to buy drinks – and wear a Westlife T-shirt. I…
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David Bowie’s Vinyl Albums: The Man Who Sold The World, Scary Monsters and Lodger
part 4… The Challenge: I have bet that I can buy a full set of David Bowie‘s albums (in their original vinyl and in excellent condition with all the inserts) from The Man Who Sold The World to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). That’s fourteen albums in fourteen days. Total budget: £100. The loser has a…
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David Bowie and The Man Who Sold The World
The story so far: I have bet my friend Chris that I can buy a full set of Bowie‘s albums (in their original vinyl and in excellent condition with all the inserts) from The Man Who Sold The World to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). That’s fourteen albums in fourteen days. Total budget: £100. The…
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How To Buy David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust on Vinyl
How To Buy Ziggy Stardust The story so far: I have made a bet that I can buy a full set of Bowie’s albums (in their original vinyl versions – and in excellent condition with all the inserts) from The Man Who Sold The World to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). That’s fourteen albums in…
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How I Tried To Buy David Bowie’s Classic Albums on Vinyl For Less Than £100
Just how cheaply can you buy a full set of Bowie‘s ’70’s vinyl records? “The trouble with buying old records” said my friend Chris after several pints of Adnams, (if I can paint you a brief picture) “is that everyone suspects they’re worth something, so it is difficult to get a real collector’s item unless…
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Richard Hawley’s Cole’s Corner: £150 on Vinyl, 99p on CD…
One of the by-products of iTunes, mp3s, downloads, streaming and so on is that the price of second hand CDs has fallen lower than the spirits of Brazilian football supporters. Music fans on a budget, or tight-wads generally, are able to rip a CD to their hard drive and then sell it on eBay to…
Every record tells a story 