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...
Occasional Albums Thing 058 - Blancmange – Happy FamiliesThere was a time in the early 80’s when it felt like every gig you went to, the support band was Blancmange. In just over 6 weeks (Nov 4th to Dec 17th) in 1981 we saw them support both Depeche Mode at The Powerhouse and Japan at the Odeon...
Occasional Albums Thing 057 - Various Artists “Studio One Rockers”A friend was working for a promotions company in ‘that’ London, pushing new releases to chain shops, radio stations, magazines etc. on seeing him one time he handed me a fist full of CD’s, presumably ones he was working on,...
Occasional Albums Thing 056 - Emmylou Harris “Light Of The Stable”If you’ve followed along with this blog you’ll know I’m a sucker for female singers and particularly Emmylou Harris, from her beginnings with Gram Parsons & The Fallen Angels right through to her groundbreaking album...
Occasional Albums Thing 055 - Flesh For Lulu “Flesh For Lulu”Flesh For Lulu were another band that shoulda been huuuuuuge. Formed in 1982 by singer and guitarist Nick Marsh, drummer James Mitchell, bassist Glen Bishop and that trio were eventually topped off with former Wasted Youth guitarist...
Occasional Albums Thing 054 - Iggy Pop “Blah-Blah-Blah”Upon, earlier this year, reading Chris O’Leary’s excellent books “Rebel Rebel” and “Ashes To Ashes” which detail all the songs David Bowie has been involved in writing and recording (based on O’Leary’s website “Pushing...
Occasional Albums Thing 053 - Various Artists “The Front Line III”As I said at the end of the last piece, I only recently discovered (in the last year) that this Volume III even existed and I managed to find a copy at last. One thing you do notice is that, and I presume this is perhaps because...
Occasional Albums Thing 052 - Various Artists “The Front Line II”We covered the first issue of Virgin Records Front Line compilations way back in April (here https://www.whiterabbitrecords.co.uk/wrrb/just-at-the-right-time) and it had, upon its release, quite an influence on a group of scrawny...
Occasional Albums Thing 051 - Bruce Springsteen “18 Tracks”Bruce Springsteen has always recorded much, much more material than he has ever released. Tracks would turn up on bootlegs and dodgy tapes passed between fans. Then, in 1998, Springsteen opened his vault and released “Tracks”, a...
Occasional Albums Thing 050 - The Kinks “Spotlight On The Kinks”The Kinks are another of those 60’s bands I’ll take over other far more feted contemporary combos. I have a handful of their singles and the wonderful “The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society” but had always...
Occasional Albums Thing 049 - David Bowie “Small Club Broadcast: Paris Show 1999”Bowie released his 21st studio album “Hours…” on 9th October 1999. It was the first album by a major artist to be made available in its entirety by download from the internet…of course Bowie did that first....
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...