Occasional Albums Thing 048 - Ian Dury “New Boots And Panties!!”It’s funny now looking back at the year Punk hit, 1977 (yes some would say 1976 but it didn’t hit us until ‘77). Of course we had the Pistols, The Jam, The Clash, The Damned and so many others that fit what people think of as...
Occasional Albums Thing 047 - The Clash “Sandinista!”Triple albums…that’s Prog Rock territory ain’t it ? ELP, the Grateful Dead, PMF, Yes…that’s who makes triple albums…not tough Punks from under the Westway and the squats of Ladbroke Grove. But on 12th December 1980, just 2 days...
Occasional Albums Thing 046 - The Damned “Music For Pleasure”Shhhhhh…whisper is quietly but I prefer “Music For Pleasure” over their debut…even if was produced by a member of P*nk feckin’ Fl*yd !!!“MFP” was released in November 1977, just 9 months after their Stooge-esque debut...
Occasional Albums Thing 045 - Bruce Springsteen “Tracks II: The Lost Albums”Dear lord, these favourite artists of ours have us vinyl junkies wrapped around their l’il ol’ fingers don’t they !Bruce Springsteen released the first volume of “Tracks” in 1998. It was a 4 CD box set...
Occasional Albums Thing 044 - Spandau Ballet “Journeys To Glory”This much is true (see what I did there), somewhere between the release of their second album, 1982’s “Diamond”, and their third, 1983’s “True”, Spandau Ballet morphed from somewhat pretentious Blitz-kid bastard...
Occasional Albums Thing 043 - My Life Story “Mornington Crescent”Back in the late 80’s/early 90’s I was lucky enough to be spending a lot of time around The Wonder Stuff, practically living full time in London at their flat in Fitzrovia, right behind Great Portland Street tube station,...
Occasional Albums Thing 042 - Duran Duran “Duran Duran”I met Deb, my wife, in the late summer of 1981. I remember this because The Jam split up in 1982 and I managed to take her to see them before that fateful day. But during that period we were getting into very different stuff, more electronic...
Occasional Albums Thing 041 - Bruce Springsteen “Greatest Hits”Yes it’s a Bruce Springsteen Greatest Hits compilation and you may well be wondering, as I’ve covered all the Springsteen albums in some detail elsewhere, why do I need to write about this, surely we’ve already covered...
Occasional Albums Thing 040 - Blondie “Plastic Letters/Parallel Lines/Eat To The Beat”A 3-in-1 special today…Blondie formed out of the scene that developed at the Mercer Arts Center (home gig for the New York Dolls for a time) in Greenwich Village, NYC in the early to mid 1970’s. Always...
Occasional Albums Thing 039 - Harvey Andrews “Writer Of Songs”As you know, I have a record shop…some people come into the shop just to say hello and have a chat. They’re never going to buy anything they’re just friendly faces you see occasionally, we talk about music or the matters of the...
Occasional Albums Thing 038 - Neil Young “Harvest”Neil Young has appeared in this Blog before, back in October 2024 to be precise (have a look here https://www.whiterabbitrecords.co.uk/blog?row=4&year=2024 for the whys and the wherefore’s). I’ve always kept an eye out for acceptable...
Occasional Albums Thing 037 - TV Smith “Channel Five”If you’ve been following along here then you’ll likely already know that I am something of a TV Smith fanboy. For those that are in the dark about this absolute hidden treasure, TV Smith was the singer and principle songwriter for The...
Occasional Albums Thing 036 - Screaming Blue Messiahs “Gun-Shy”Stop sniggering at the back, there’s a lot more to the Screaming Blue Messiahs than the admittedly laughable “I Wanna Be A Flintstone”. They were formed from the ashes of Pub Rockers and Beefheart fans Motor Boys Motor. In...
Occasional Albums Thing 035 - Rolling Stones “Through The Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2)”I love music from the 1960’s. Mostly obscure British and US Freakbeat/Garage/Psyche bands, obscure groups that made one, or if they were lucky two singles, and lesser known Soul artists. But I do like the...
Occasional Albums Thing 034 - Kirsty MacColl “Free World: The Best Of 1979-2000”If you read my blog post about The Wonder Stuff’s “Never Loved Elvis” (and if you didn’y you’ll find it here...
Occasional Albums Thing 033 - Bob Mould “Distortion: The Best Of 1989 - 2019”I was never really a big an of Hüsker Dü, their early records were much to harsh for me but there was a period in the later 80’s around the albums “Candy Apple Grey” and “Warehouse: Songs And Stories”,...
Occasional Albums Thing 032 - The Psychedelic Furs “All Of This And Nothing”The Furs (as we always called them), was it Psychedelic ? Was it Post-Punk ? Who cared, one thing we did know is that we bloody loved them. They released their debut, eponymous, album in the early Spring of 1980 and I...
Occasional Albums Thing 031 - The Grays “Ro Sham Bo”Once upon a time there was a band called Jellyfish, they were made up of Andy Sturmer, Roger Joseph Manning and Jason Falkner. They made an album called “Bellybutton”, a heady brew created by a mixture of American sunshine pop, Kansas,...
Occasional Albums Thing 031 - Damien Dempsey “Shots”If you’ve been with me for a while here you’ll very likely know how I feel about Damien Dempsey. Although the records I’ve been able to write about have been few and far between and of variable quality. Due to the time through which Damo...
Occasional Albums Thing 030 - Various Artists “The Midlands Roots Explosion Volume(s) One & Two”Back in the halcyon days of 1977…hey! I was 14 going on 15, having the time of my life and we discovered Punk Rock, they were great days for us…not only did we discover Punk but hand in hand...