Tag Archives: Record Collecting
REARVIEW MIRROR #3 (AUTUMN)
Being an multi-part wander through the Vinyl Connection year in music MARCH Taking a stall at a record fair is good for the soul. A chance to reduce the holding a little, clear some shelf space, clean the springs. Bullshit. Though it wasn’t when I started doing fairs in the mid-90s. Then I was flogging […]
REARVIEW MIRROR #2
Being an multi-part wander through the Vinyl Connection year in music FEBRUARY On-line consumerism is a trap, isn’t it? I seem to succumb to the siren call of internet shopping in the late evenings. But is there more to the pattern than time of day? Is it more frequent, perhaps, at the end of a […]
ARE YOU THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE?
It opens with a delicate piano piece, an ambient overture. “The struggle of the magicians, part three”. Credited to composer Thomas De Hartmann and mystic cum guru Gurdjieff (1866 – 1949), this is a lovely neo-classical piece that seduces with a gently pastoral beauty suggesting the magicians aren’t straining too hard. Next is a wispy […]
VARIOUS ARTISTS GO DECADE DIVING
1957 Folk, Pops ‘n Jazz Sampler [Elektra SMP-3] Country tunes rub shoulders with calypso jazz in this time capsule from the early days of long-playing records, when tracks were known as ‘Bands’ and the previous volume was available for $2 from your dealer. At $17.50 in today’s money, that seems quite expensive. Love the album […]
VARIOUS ARTISTS — AN INTRODUCTION
Compilations. Collections of tracks by various artists. They have been around as long as long-playing records and aren’t stopping any time soon. We’ve bought them, made them, mocked them and sometimes even played them. They are ubiquitous. Everyone has some, everyone files them differently. Various Artists. Compiled albums. They include tacky TV specials and curated […]
FAIR GAME
Getting ready for a Record Fair used to be quite a stimulating process. Organising and pricing the records, loading up the car for an early start, lumping eight 20 kg crates of vinyl into a big draughty hall… OK, it wasn’t all enjoyable, but there was a small jolt of anticipation when you were finally […]
WE LOVE BEACHES
Australia. More stunning coastline than any country in the world, most of it uninhabited. Two thirds of the population live within striking distance of an ocean or bay. The result? Most people can swim, a summer holiday simply must involve sun, sand, and fish and chips, plus we have the highest rate of skin cancer […]
THE RINGWRAITHS RIDE IN BLACK
Peter Jackson’s famous films were not the first cinematic journeys into Middle Earth. American animator Ralph Bakshi visited back in 1978 with rather mixed results. Clearly holding the J.R.R. Tolkien books in high esteem, Bakshi adopted such a respectful approach to the epic fantasy that the result is, despite the adventurous content, quite slow-moving and […]
TOP TEN EXCUSES FOR BUYING RECORDS
The review I read was really positive 1 The price was a lot less than Discogs 2 It’s my birthday 3 I’ve never seen it ‘in the wild’ before 4 The cover art is nice 5 It fills a gap in the collection 6 It will be my birthday in 10 days / weeks / […]
TIMELESS
I remember where but not which. The shop was in Princes Gate Arcade, down the end in a kind of cul-de-sac where only record hunters and lost commuters ended up. I remember a big window, counter, racks—sparsely distributed around a loungeroom-sized space—and bean bags where you could audition an LP of your choice under headphones […]
DO THE POP?
In 1977, being on a trial separation from the University of Melbourne (it ended in divorce) I was working at Max Rose Electronics in suburban Melbourne. At the time I was deeply into prog heavyweights Yes for the playing, the complexity, even the unfathomable lyrics. All the things smart-arse music journalists were queuing up to […]
GOOD VIBRATIONS
We’ve spent quite a lot of time in 1967 recently. (Running tally here) Time to pogo forward ten years to 1977 and one of the ‘first wave’ punk bands, The Vibrators. Pure Mania was released in June 1977 Is it ‘true’ punk? There is some debate amongst sad (now middle-aged) former punks as to whether […]
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