Category ACROSS THE DECADES
THE ROAD GOES EVER ON
Songs For Beginners Wild Tales Earth & Sky Innocent Eyes Songs For Survivors This Path Tonight Sipping black tea and staring at the pirouetting ghosts in a bush campfire are conducive to having a bit of a sing. I learned this when I participated in the Adventure Camping program of the Anglican Department of Christian […]
I’LL BE GONE (BUT NOT YET)
The silver-haired gentleman in the skull motif shirt may have had an iPad to remember the set list, but the singing was strong and the words tumbled out like freshly minted coins. The band were great—tight and energetic—and their fearless leader even managed a few quirky dance steps during an uptempo number. At a time […]
SATAN 🖤 PSYCHEDELIA
The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones No.2 Out Of Our Heads Aftermath Between The Buttons Their Satanic Majesties Request Derided by some at the time as a second-rate Sgt Pepper or a cynical (and late) cash in on so-called Summer of Love psychedelia, Their Satanic Majesties Request is, simply put, neither. Full of great uses […]
IN ORBIT AROUND THE SATELLITE HEART
Hear It Is Oh My Gawd!!!…The Flaming Lips Telepathic Surgery In A Priest Driven Ambulance (With Silver Sunshine Stares) Hit To Death In The Future Head Transmissions From The Satellite Heart By the mid-90s Compact Discs were the only game in town for listening to music. Prices had dropped and the volume being sold meant […]
ECHOES
Piper At The Gates Of Dawn A Saucerful Of Secrets More Ummagumma (½ live–½ studio) Atom Heart Mother Meddle Meddle (1971) was the first Pink Floyd album I owned. Purchased second-hand from Bentleigh Sewing & Records, probably in late 1973 or early ’74, its centrepiece, the side-long “Echoes” mesmerised me as I sat in the […]
VALE, DALE
Richard Anthony Mansour, child of a Lebanese father and a mother with Polish-Belarusian roots, died on 16 March 2019 at age 81. Known to the world as Dick Dale, the guitarist credited as a founding force in the creation of surf guitar had a sound that was big on reverb and steeped in middle-eastern scales. […]
GIVING IT ALL AWAY
My mate Steven (writer of the Vinyl Connection Hendrix posts) passed on a copy of the ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’ DVDs. For those unfamiliar with this revered TV music show, it ran from 1971 to 1988 in the UK, featuring an eclectic array of rock artists performing in a tiny studio. The DVDs include comments […]
FROND FRIENDS: INTERVIEW WITH NICK SALOMAN
Coinciding with the recent-ish release of Bevis Frond’s latest album, We’re Your Friends, Man, Vinyl Connection was delighted to have the opportunity to chat with the band’s founder and well-spring, Nick Saloman. VC: Hello Nick. Thanks for talking to Vinyl Connection once again. NS: Always a pleasure, Bruce VC: Congratulations on the latest release. A […]
BEVIS IS BACK, MAN
As mentioned recently, Vinyl Connection was delighted to have a chance to meet and greet the latest Bevis Frond album. We’re Your Friends, Man was released late in 2018 and is a genuine old-fashioned double album containing 20 slabs of fresh Frondness spread across two CDs or four sides of vinyl. For those not familiar […]
THE FUTURE’S SO BRIGHT
When it came to writing songs for his first solo album after leaving Steely Dan, Donald Fagen heeded that timeless advice to authors, write about what you know. The record was The Nightfly and the year was 1982, though you wouldn’t know it from the cover. Fagen is photographed in a Peter Gunn era radio […]
FIRE DOWN BELOW
You know how in Facebook there are those little numbers in red squares that magically appear? What are they about? Some appear to be called ‘Notifications’ but often are just FB trying to sell marketing tools. Others seem to be congratulating me on someone liking something. It all seems so trivial and pointless I usually […]
GENTLEMEN TAKE POLAROIDS
The stereo in our living area has an old Sony CD player that clunks a bit but still works fine. I could replace it, but it has a capacity that is sometimes very useful. It is a five-disc changer. For those unfamiliar with such fancy modern technology, this machine allows you to load up to […]
