Category ACROSS THE DECADES
THE VINYL CONNECTION ANNUAL REPORT
It’s a little over a year since Vinyl Connection started adding alphabet clumps to the swirling word-clouds of the blogsphere. Fifty-three weekly posts of 1,000 words (give or take), roughly the same again of Cover Art specimens, plus a few odds and sods along the way. In these past twelve months, VC has attracted ten dozen […]
JAZZ DAY
A Mundane Day In The Life … Saved by its Jazz Soundtrack Last night I drank too much red wine. It was the wine’s fault, not mine. Rich and deep, it warmed my veins and got inside my head. This morning its oak and tannins were hanging around my system in a fuzzy sand-papery way […]
MAMA WAS A ROLLING STONE
Through much of the 70s I worked part-time (Friday nights, Saturday mornings) in a small suburban music and electrical goods shop. As mentioned previously, the eponymous owner-operator of Max Rose Electronics was a decent man making a modest income in a shopping strip with no less than four stores competing to meet the music needs […]
ERIC & THE VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR
I The High School I attended was pretty large for the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The area had been a ‘growth corridor’ for some years and its previous life as a market garden area must have lingered in air and soil as children were plentiful. There were five classes of 25 wide-eyed primary school graduates […]
ART CRIMES IN FRANKFURT
Fourteen years is a pretty long sabbatical in anybody’s language, yet that’s the elapsed time between Donald Fagen and Walter Becker winding up Steely Dan after 1980’s Gaucho and reforming the band to tour in 1994. A recording of that tour duly appeared as Alive in America which all self-respecting Dan Fans rushed out and […]
OMAR AND THE DEAD
For those who share Vinyl Connection’s love of cover art, the Album Cover Art Hall of Fame blog is worth a visit. In a recent article film-maker and long-time record collector Eric Christensen shares some of his favourite covers. One comment caught my eye. It relates to the striking 60s designs of San Francisco artists Kelley and Mouse whose iconic […]
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN…
Carlos Santana was rather busy in 1973. Early in the year he got together with British master-guitarist John McLaughlin to continue working on the exciting, spiritual music that appeared on the under-appreciated Love Devotion and Surrender. To celebrate the end of recording they went out to buy a snappy white suit which the cover shot suggests that […]
THE SHOW THAT NEVER ENDS…
Easter 1972. The rambling gambolling bead-strung throng that was The Grateful Dead tribe arrived in Europe for a major tour. Musicians, technicians, kids and consorts; amps and desks, instruments and condiments, the Dead family was primed and ready for a leisurely trundle around the continent… and Britain too. Naturally the shows were recorded; obviously there […]
WELCOME BACK MY FRIENDS…
During the wildly exciting process of compiling the new Vinyl Connection Index page it was noted by the VC auditor that many months have elapsed since we last ventured into the sweaty mosh pit of live recordings. How better to remedy that lamentable oversight than by tackling that monster of vinylosity, the triple live album? […]
FULL SHELVES AND WILD TALES
Dear Vinyl Agony Aunt I have a problem. It’s a space and time problem. Yes, I know, I should just call Dr Who but I’ve lost the piece of psychic notepaper with his mobile number and you’re my next best guess. Also, you have helped me before. Being such a busy virtual confidante you won’t […]
FLYING FAST ENOUGH
Neil Finn has been part of the landscape of popular music for a very long time. This being a public sort of life, fans get to go along for the ride; turning the pages of the album from the cheeky faced Split Enz teenager to the handsomely greying solo veteran. And there was that band […]
WENT TO SEE A STANDING STONE
I like to think I was a druid in a previous life. It’s not about the hooded robe or doing despicable things to small furry animals. No, it’s about Neolithic megaliths. You know, standing stones. Yep, if it wasn’t for the absence of sanitation, decent food and (most importantly) electricity, I’d be an enthusiastic candidate […]
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