Tag: Vinyl

  • Paul McCartney, Wings and The Making of Band on the Run

    Paul McCartney, Wings and The Making of Band on the Run

    Introduction I have a friend who has never heard any of Paul McCartney’s solo and Wings LPs, except for, as he put it, the Frog Chorus, the one about no man’s land at Christmas, and Ebony and Ivory. His view of McCartney is tainted. As he puts it, “my whole opinion on him is based…

  • McCartney in 1972/3: Red Rose Speedway

    McCartney in 1972/3: Red Rose Speedway

    Introduction: I have a friend, Steve, who has never heard any of Paul McCartney’s solo and Wings LPs, except for, as he put it, the Frog Chorus, the one about no man’s land at Christmas, and Ebony and Ivory. He’s not much of a fan of (who some might describe with justification as) England’s greatest…

  • Paul McCartney in 1971: Wings – Wild Life

    Paul McCartney in 1971: Wings – Wild Life

    What’s this all about? I have a friend, Steve, who has never heard any of Paul McCartney’s solo and Wings LPs, except for, as he put it, the Frog Chorus, the one about no man’s land at Christmas, and Ebony and Ivory. My job is therefore to share with him some of McCartney’s best songs,…

  • The Story of Paul and Linda McCartney’s Ram:

    The Story of Paul and Linda McCartney’s Ram:

    Are Paul McCartney’s solo and Wings albums worth buying? Was Wings really “the band the Beatles could have been”? This is the third in a series of McCartney articles, but you can read each one independently should you prefer. The first part is here I have a friend, Steve, who has never heard any of…

  • The Story Of Clube da Esquina – One of Brazil’s Greatest Treasures

    The Story Of Clube da Esquina – One of Brazil’s Greatest Treasures

    Clube da Esquina by Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges was one of only five Brazilian albums to be featured in the book “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”. If you have yet to hear this fusion of Brazilian music and Beatles-inflected pop, this may whet your appetite…

  • Should You Buy Nineties Vinyl?

    Should You Buy Nineties Vinyl?

    …and a discussion of Record Collector’s Logic. Also: The Great R.E.M. CD / Vinyl Hunt… Have we reached peak vinyl? Should we all pile in to CDs now the price is a tiny fraction of the cost of vinyl?  Is nineties vinyl going to be a great investment? Or would we all be better off…

  • The Search for Kraftwerk’s Ralf and Florian

    The Search for Kraftwerk’s Ralf and Florian

    It’s 1971, and Kraftwerk are playing on German TV show The Beatclub following the release of their debut album, Kraftwerk 1. The trio feature the hirsute rock god Michael Rother on gold Les Paul guitar, Klaus Dinger in white, angel-winged shirt flailing away on his drum kit, and a dungaree-clad Florian Schneider on jazz flute…

  • A Hendrix Discogswhack

    A Hendrix Discogswhack

    Ever buy an album variant that wasn’t already on Discogs?

  • World Records: A New Book about Record Collectors

    World Records: A New Book about Record Collectors

    In 2008 New York photographer Eilon Paz was shown a photo of a man, Frank Goessner, a German, who lived around the corner from Paz in Brooklyn. Goessner was wearing combat gear, holding an AK-47, surrounded by a mass of records. As a music fan, Paz was intrigued and (perhaps bravely) met Goessner to ask…

  • The Beach Boys Vinyl Challenge: Finale – How To Build Your Own Beach Boys Record Collection

    The Beach Boys Vinyl Challenge: Finale – How To Build Your Own Beach Boys Record Collection

    The challenge: The Beach Boys have a legion of fans, but I had precisely two of their albums. What had I overlooked? And was it still possible to build up a concise collection from The Beach Boys twenty-nine studio albums that a) didn’t cost the Earth and b) that were good enough to get regular…

  • The Beach Boys Challenge: Part 4: Which Early Beach Boys Records Are Worth Buying?

    The Beach Boys Challenge: Part 4: Which Early Beach Boys Records Are Worth Buying?

    The challenge: After a chat with a friend revealed neither of us had any Beach Boys albums outside of Pet Sounds and Surf’s Up, could I convince myself and my friend there were other gems in The Beach Boys’ back catalogue? A good local record shop is the gift that keeps on giving. That is,…

  • The Beach Boys Vinyl Challenge – Part 2: Holland.

    The Beach Boys Vinyl Challenge – Part 2: Holland.

    The challenge: To find lesser known moments from The Beach Boys catalogue and build up a concise collection of Beach Boys records that a) don’t cost the Earth and b) that are good enough to get regular plays on the turntable. I popped into Wow and Flutter in Hastings while taking a couple of days…

  • The Beach Boys Vinyl Challenge Part 3: After Pet Sounds

    The Beach Boys Vinyl Challenge Part 3: After Pet Sounds

    The challenge: The Beach Boys are best known for their Californian surfing-and-cars image. But fans who have dug a little deeper have found many gems in the back catalogue. When a band has produced 29 studio albums and nearly double that number of compilation LPs, it’s hard to know where to begin. My challenge was…

  • The Beach Boys Vinyl Challenge

    The Beach Boys Vinyl Challenge

    Can you still unearth great vinyl records without breaking the bank? Finding cheap vinyl records has become harder since Covid turned the world into online shoppers. But maybe it isn’t impossible… In this series we examine the vinyl legacy of that most Californian of bands, The Beach Boys. We were having a beer. It had…

  • Record Collector’s 100 Ways Vinyl Can Make You Money In 2021

    Record Collector’s 100 Ways Vinyl Can Make You Money In 2021

    In its latest issue, Record Collector has sought to identify a hundred records that show “investment potential”. The cover boasts “The 100 Best Music Investments” and “How Your Vinyl Can Make You Money In 2021”. This is no bad thing. After all, we could all do with a few extra quid, if only to spend…