Occasional Albums Thing 077 - Kate Bush “Hounds Of Love”I was DJ’ing recently at a charity event in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support and Shropshire Cat Rescue (shhhhh don’t tell the Whippets !) and they were having a raffle. One of the prizes was a set of autographed prints by local DC and...
Occasional Albums Thing 076 - Chelsea “Alternative Hits”Chelsea are, or were, genuine first wave Punks. They were right there in the thick of it as Punk simmered away in London during that heatwave summer of 1976. They were put together by John Krivine and Steph Raynor, owners of the Acme...
Occasional Albums Thing 075 - The Keys “The Keys Album”I first encountered The Keys in the early 2000’s when I found a series of Spanish (I’m pretty sure they were Spanish) compilation CD’S called “Shake Some Action” (those in the know will be nodding sagely and humming the Flamin’...
Occasional Albums Thing 074 - Wishplants “Coma”Wishplants were the other band that supported The Wonder Stuff up in Scotland in August of 1992 (see Occasional Albums Thing 070). When they turned up at Aberdeen Music Hall for that first show I gotta admit Wishplants looked like a bunch of...
Occasional Albums Thing 073 - The Flying Burrito Bros “Close Up The Honky Tonks 1968-1972”Gram Parsons is someone we’ve talked about in this Blog quite a lot. He joined The Byrds, they thought, as a piano player but that was never Gram’s goal. He leaned on Chris Hillman’s existing love of...
Occasional Albums Thing 072 - The Undertones “All Wrapped Up”I’ve only ever owned 2 singles by The Undertones, “Teenage Kicks” of course (the Sire re-issue sadly, never the Good Vibrations original) and a green vinyl copy of “Jimmy Jimmy”. “All Wrapped Up” is a 2 LP summary of the...
Occasional Albums Thing 071 - Flesh For Lulu “Blue Sisters Swing”The first thing to clear up here is this…is “Blue Sisters Swing” a 12” EP or a Mini Album ? It plays at 33 1/3 RPM and it has 5 tracks. I’m almost certain (although we all know how unreliable my memory can be) that on its...
Occasional Albums Thing 070 - Rialto “Neon & Ghost Signs”In late August of 1992 The Wonder Stuff played three shows in Scotland (Aberdeen, Livingston and Irvine) as warm ups for their headlining set at the Reading Festival on the 28th August. I’d got Married the day before the Aberdeen...
Occasional Albums Thing 069 - Various Artists “Modernists”/“Mod Jazz”/“Planet Mod”Cheating here by, as I have done previously, lumping a bunch of related comps into one entry. So what we have here is music for Mods, in order of how they’re listed in the header there’s an Ace...
Occasional Albums Thing 068 - First Aid Kit “Palomino”Do you ever get a new album and it becomes difficult to find your way into it ? It’s like there’s a barrier keeping you at a distance from liking something you really want to like. Until one day, you “listen” to it in a different...
Tracks Of My Years 60th Birthday EditionI had a significant birthday in December of 2022 and this here was written at that time and inspired by something my friend Keith did for his 50th birthday. As I have now hurtled past my 60th and being as music has been such an important part of me for most of...
Occasional Albums Thing 067 - First Aid Kit “The Big Black & The Blue”I first stumbled upon First Aid Kit on YouTube. They have this thing in Sweden called the Polar Music Prize. It was inaugurated by Stig Anderson, best known as ABBA’s manager, and is awarded annually to one contemporary...
Occasional Albums Thing 066 - NEU! “NEU! ‘75”We first met NEU! in this Blog in January 2024 when looking at their classic debut album “NEU!”.“NEU! ‘75” is their 3rd album, the follow up to the imaginatively titled 2nd album, “NEU!2”, and was released in, and I’m sure this will...
Occasional Albums Thing 065 - Steve Earle & The Dukes “Terraplane”When it comes to “The Blues” (and we’re talking musical styles here and not Birmingham’s pre-eminent football team (we’re named after our City and not someone’s house…)) you can take your allegedly virtuoso white...
Occasional Albums Thing 064 - Steve Earle & The Dukes “Jerry Jeff”The final installment, #4, of Steve Earle’s tributes to other songwriters brings us a collection of songs written by Jerry Jeff Walker. As the Hype sticker from the cover tells us “This record completes the set, the works...
Occasional Albums Thing 063 - Steve Earle & The Dukes “Guy”Part 2 in Steve Earle’s series of albums dedicated to other songwriters he regards as his “first-hand teachers”, this one concerning the works of Texas singer-songwriter, and luthier, Guy Clark. Steve Earle has recorded 4...
Occasional Albums Thing 062 - Steve Earle “Townes”“Townes” is the first instalment in Steve Earle’s series of tributes to his “first-hand teachers” (the others being “Guy” and “Jerry Jeff”, coming to a browser near you real soon) this one delivering Steve’s interpretations of...
Occasional Albums Thing 061 - Steve Earle & The Dukes "So You Wannabe An Outlaw"One of those “the joys of owning your own record shop” items. There’s a guy lives near Shrewsbury who buys a lot of records, a lot, new releases which he appears to listen to once or twice and if he doesn’t...
Occasional Albums Thing 060 - Steve Earle & The Dukes (& Duchesses) “The Low Highway”We’re heading into quite a run of Steve Earle records that I’ve either recently acquired or forgot to write-up when I did acquire it (don’t know how that happened), so buckle up we’re heading for...
Occasional Albums Thing 059 - Scott Walker “The Best Of…”By the start of the 1980’s, aside from oldies radio replays of his hits with the Walker Brothers, Scott Walker was pretty much a forgotten man, particularly as a solo artist. After his 1970 album “Til The Band Comes In” his next...