Category Particular platters
EXAMPLE 22 – ALBUM REVIEW
After sending off my questions to Nick Saloman, I continued listening to Example 22, the new Bevis Frond album, and wrote a tight three-hundred word review to follow up the interview. How organised was that? Assuming Nick came through (which he did, entertainingly and with astonishing promptness) I’d have a feature and a follow-up post in […]
EXAMPLE 22 – AN INTERVIEW WITH NICK SALOMAN
A new Bevis Frond album is cause for celebration. So when Example 22 arrived in the post recently, there was a surge of excitement in Vinyl Connection land. Surfing a wave of Bevis energy, I contacted the band’s founder and enduring mainspring about an interview and was delighted by his prompt acceptance. What follows, then, […]
MULTI-COLOUR OF THE RAINBOLD
An opening electric guitar chord, solo-strummed, then the drums and bass kick in. It is a simple, powerful rhythm that is instantly inviting and enveloping. If it was a concert, you’d be on your feet already. You could sway to this intoxicating rhythm forever, but Steve Marriot’s voice enters, There’s wheat in the field […]
VERY FROND
Over a decade ago my friend BB introduced me to The Bevis Frond. This was both a blessing and a curse. The blessing part was simple: enjoying Nick Saloman’s psychedelic-infused, guitar-driven songs has been no chore at all. In fact, my respect for his extensive songbook has grown steadily over the years. Which leads us […]
LISTENER’S DIGEST #2: YOUNG, FOCUS, SEA AND CAKE, TPOTUSA, SCHOENBERG
Having been doing the single parent thing for well over a day now, our appreciation of Ms Connection’s contribution to the good life at chez Vinyl Connection is shooting up the charts with a bullet. Amongst the chores, errands, boy-wrangling and general infrastructure maintenance there has, nevertheless, been space for spinning a few discs. Here are […]
SONG TO ODYSSEUS
I We tended to play Dungeons and Dragons without music in the background. Distractions could be dangerous — while you were tuning in to Bauhaus or Tangerine Dream, the chances were you’d get smeared by a troll or jumped by some pesky hobbit thief. But during the refreshment breaks (food, drink, mind altering substances, as […]
YOU SCROOGE, YOU LOSE
Having had a crack at describing categories of record collectors (called Vinyl Hunter-Gatherers around these parts), this post continues looking at further case studies, your correspondent once again being the mandated patient. Sorry, that should read ‘volunteer’. Enthusiast (B): ‘Excellent — a very satisfying find. Wonder if I can swing a discount’. Chicago — Live […]
DIGGING
TOWARDS A TYPOLOGY OF VINYL HUNTER-GATHERERS While admiring the melodic pop savvy of Paul McCartney, I’ve never felt compelled to follow his solo career that closely. I was always a Lennon man. Yet you cannot help picking up info and vibes about an album —a magazine article here, an on-line mention there— which eventually resulted […]
DEACON DAN
Over the past two-and-a-half years, Vinyl Connection has avoided writing about many of its long-term favourite albums. How to put the love into words? Can something fresh be discovered? Steely Dan’s sixth album is a case in point. It has long been a favourite —as seen in those troublesome ‘Best’ lists— yet I have baulked […]
’77 JAZZ FUNK STRIP
Jazz has nearly as many sub-genres as metal, and that is really saying something. Having stumbled across the jazz-funk of The Crusaders in the early 80s, I began exploring this laid-back but groovy territory, finding it an enjoyable late-night adjunct to the frantic fusion I’d been fuel-injecting for nearly a decade. So I accumulated albums […]

