Occasional Albums Thing 087 - Generation X “Generation X”I’ve been on an ongoing quest to (re)collect (what I regard as) a set of the classic first wave Punk albums. “Ramones”, “Damned Damned Damned”, “Never Mind The Bollocks…”, “The Clash”, “In The City”, “Another...
Occasional Albums Thing 086 - Thrum “Rifferama” (revisited)The observant among you will note that I have written about this album before, here in fact, just over 2 years ago. So why then am I writing about it again ? A number of reasons spring to mind. Firstly, this wonderful record has been...
Occasional Albums Thing 085 - Max Romeo & The Upsetters “War Ina Babylon”Following Millie Small’s worldwide hit “My Boy Lollipop” in 1964 the floodgates opened for Reggae music, particularly in the UK. There was already a large Jamaican/West Indian population in Britain and they...
Occasional Albums Thing 084 - Elvis Costello & The Attractions “Trust”We covered Elvis Costello (& The Attractions in part) first three albums waaaaay back in April/May 2023 (start here and work forward a few days). I love those those first 3 records still but as I said about “Armed...
Occasional Albums Thing 083 - Ian Prowse “No Names”Ian Prowse started a Kickstarter back in March to fund the release of this latest album. I was nervously checking the running total daily to see how close it was to reaching its goal, as Ian had hinted to me that it was an “all or nothing”...
Occasional Albums Thing 082 - Various Artists “20 Blazing Bullets”During the 1970’s albums like this were everywhere, issued by labels like Arcade (set up by chartered accountant Laurence Myers who had a number of clients in the music industry), K-Tel (a multinational budget record label) and...
Occasional Albums Thing 081 - The Real People “The Real People”In the summer of 1991 The Wonder Stuff were booked to play at the Hultsfred Festivalen at the People’s Park in the small town of Hultsfred, population just over 5,000, in South Eastern Sweden, not far from the Baltic Sea. The...
Occasional Albums Thing 080 - Purple Hearts “Beat That!”I’ve told you all previously that I was fully on board with the Mod Revival that flared brightly in 1979 and 1980, more for the Sixties element than the Revival bands but there were some that caught my ear. The furious Punk rush of 1977...
Occasional Albums Thing 079 - Vent 414 “Second”30 years…30 freakin’ years! Jaysus, even Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac didn’t procrastinate that long over a follow-up album.Noted Indie supergroup and power trio Vent 414 released their debut album in October of 1996, so we are just 5 months...
Occasional Albums Thing 078 - The Mighty Lemon Drops “Happy Head”The Mighty Lemon Drops might be considered the first of the Black Country bands of the mid 80’s to make their mark, the forerunners of the Stourbridge scene in a ways. They were from Wolverhampton, dressed in black leather and...
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...