Category Memoir with Music
1969 ARCHIVE DIVE (PART 1)
As many readers know, we love anniversaries here at Vinyl Connection, especially the ones ending with a zero. One decade, two decades, three decades, four… And of course the half century! Over the past couple of years we have featured many albums from 1967 and 1968 and reckon it’s a tradition worth continuing. But because […]
WHITES OF THEIR EYES
I remember the first copy vividly. Bentleigh Sewing and Records, that oddest of retail combinations, lurked down the western end of Centre Road, owned by veteran sole-trader Bill McAndrew. Those entering his domain seeking records had first to negotiate the labyrinth of sewing machines and associated paraphernalia that crammed the front of the shop. As […]
ALL THINGS MUST PASS
In Australia we did not get the impressive boxed version of All Things Must Pass. Our version was a three-panel gatefold sleeve with the lyrics printed inside. We did get the poster, though. A dark 3’ x 2’ portrait of a morose, hairy George. But our flimsy fold-out was disappointing. The box had solidity, gravitas. […]
DARK SIDE OF THE MOOMIN
Having had a less than stellar university career the first time around, it would be fair to say I was a little nervous about returning to higher education a mere three years after having been shown the door. Trepidation notwithstanding, back I toddled for another crack, this time via the Creative Arts stream in an […]
THE KING HAS ABDICATED (1)
It was always worth checking out Allans sales. Although determinedly mainstream and totally in thrall to the hits of the day, the music shop occasionally ordered—and got stuck with—oddities, outliers and obscurities. These ended up in the SALE bins, usually at excellent prices. I loved those sales; you could take a punt of three or […]
DOUBLE LIVES
SIDE I I’ve just walked out of a record shop in Mont Albert clutching the 2018 re-issue of Pink Floyd’s Pulse. Four vinyl records and a 12” x 12” hardcover book in a handsome slipcase. No flashing light on the spine but it still cost a bomb. I’m thinking, Why? Sitting on the shelves at […]
PLAY IT AGAIN, TIM
Video may well have killed the radio star, but the song also came very close to provoking the death by strangulation of my friend Tim. Released in September 1979, “Video Killed The Radio Star” was co-written by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley a year earlier. Fans of Yes will know the first two […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT, SO CLEAR
It’s a Friday night in the late nineties. Steven and I are lounging around talking shit about music. A single slice of Capricciosa sits uneasily in the grease-stained box and half a bottle of red stands on the coffee table. The pizza gets ignored; we’re either too full or too polite to take it. Not […]
HOT DOG!
My first job in tertiary Student Services was at an Institute of Technology in the industrial inner-west of Melbourne. The institution was, in all truth, more interesting than my job. But the team was diverse and lively, and it was here I first entertained the notion of becoming a counsellor. It would mean more study, […]
CIMMERIAN CLASSIC
Prior to an overseas trip in the early nineties, I hosted a Book Party. The goals were threefold: to reduce the amount of stuff I needed to put into storage, see people for a farewell drink and chat, and perhaps raise a few shekels for the travel fund. So I put the word out, mentioning […]
I GOT THE NEWS
[Recording: Bright daytime voice over fade of smoky alto sax solo] This is independent station WJAZ, all night jazz and conversation. Now back to your host, Lester The Nightfly LESTER Hello Baton Rouge. It’s coming up to 2:15 on a drizzly Saturday night… or Sunday morning if you’re that way inclined. Continuing our tribute to […]
CURRANT BUNS FOR TEA
I’ve got a bike. You can ride it if you like It’s got a basket, a bell that rings and Things to make it look good. I’d give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it.* Despite painful learning as to the aptness of the name ‘stinging nettles’, it was one of the […]
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