59. Back once again.....

Paul and Tim are back, with all your favourite record collecting nonsense. Cremation into vinyl, records for under a fiver, vinyl stupidity, Japanese shopping and Gareth from Clash magazine with a new vinyl round-up. Plus a completely bonkers quiz featuring an old friend of the show.

Hosts

Paul Field and Tim Scullion

Written & Produced

Paul Field

Editor

Tim Scullion

Twitter: @WeBuyRecordsPod
Twitter: @wmt_network
Website: wemadethisnetwork.com

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We made this. Hello and welcometo weed By Records. I'm Paul Field,

(00:46):
and I'm joyed as ever by mylovely co host mister Tim Scully and
Hello Tim. Hi Paul. It'sanother of those episodes where we have to
open up this show with a profuseapology for how long it's been since the
last one. These do seem tobe becoming something of a thing that we
do. I'm sorry everybody. Yeah, well, it couldn't really be helped,

(01:07):
particularly when we were due to comeback, and then I felt like
seriously sick, but not seriously thatI couldn't go to work. It just
had that. I think in theimmediate it was called the one hundred day
cough. People in Hastings have beendropping with that as well. It's definitely
it's at least a europe wide phenomenon. Yeah, people here were dropping like

(01:29):
flies with it. A temperature onand off for nearly three months, coughing
for nearly two months. Then itleft me with damaged membrane and my lungs
and stuff, and then I gota massive throat and ear infection. It
was just one thing after another.It was just driving me mad. And
then one day last week, Iwoke up and it felt like somebody'd undrawn
the curtains, and I thought,oh, this is what it feels like

(01:52):
to be normal. Oh man,it was so weird. And you were
off traveling. Yes, I wasin Japan for for a lot of November,
so I think the plan was wehad summer, then I went to
Japan, and then we thought,right when I'm back from Japan, Bongo

(02:12):
will do this will be we'll beback on it. And it just yeah,
for what one reason or another,it just didn't happen. So I'm
sorry everybody. We're back now becauseI appreciate it's I don't want to waste
people's time by being a podcast thatcomes out twice a year, so we
like an attempt to actually be back. And you know we need your coffee

(02:35):
money. No we don't, Tim, Yeah, can I just say no,
let's not take any more coffee moneyoff anyone apart from mister paul A
Taylor who sends it every month.Thank you, Paul, Right, Tim,
let's do the news. Tim,do you want to be cremated right
now? So there's a there's acompany. I think we may have even
mentioned this once before, but it'sreappeared in the news yet again that you

(03:00):
can now for the princely some ofone five hundred pounds be cremated and have
some of your ashes some pressed intoa vinyl record along with a recording of
yourself to pass on to your lovedones. Horrible idea. I mean,
I don't know. I suppose foris it for people who are obsessed with

(03:24):
records or is it for the lovedone of the person who's obsessed with records,
because surely if your stupid record obsessedhorder partner dies, the last thing
you want is one more fucking record. I suppose it would be a good
idea if it was a properly licensedservice where you could actually have your favorite

(03:47):
record, so something that you lovedand then the people could put on and
remember you by, rather than whatthey are typically offering. Is you having
a conversation with someone or you sayingsomething for you know, from beyond the
grave. It sounds a bit morbidthat listeners. Do you fancy this?
I mean I can see that obviously, if there's a product that you can

(04:09):
make that somebody will buy, you'llmake it. I wonder if there's any
specific things that they need to do. Do they need to be like an
officially licensed ashes operator to do this? Canny? Can any Tom Tick or
Harry get your ashes? And Isuppose I suppose you can. I suppose
once you've the trick Paul is gettingthe ashes in the first place. I

(04:30):
suppose once you've got them, itmust be cheaping fifteen hundred quid. I
don't want to slag it off,because if it could be a very meaningful
thing to have, but it's notfor me, Paul. What if you
scratch it? I have no ideato get another one made. I guess
just just pitch, just pinch alittle bit of ashes from the urn and
put pop it in the post andget them to do you a new one

(04:51):
for another fifteen hundred quid? Whowill be the first secondhand record shop to
get these? In a box ofmixed records through the door? Have veg
plus Fred who died in two twentyfour. He was seventy nine recommended for
fans of Fred. Yes, Timwhose albums have been crashing and crashing and

(05:17):
crashing in price, it's our oldfriend Adele. Listeners have very kindly been
charting how much you can buy acopy of Adele's album thirty four on final
a rough trade, of course,asking how much they're asking thirty eight great
British pounds. You can now pickit up on discogs for a fiver.

(05:42):
I had two of these and ittook forever to sell them. I'm not
going to lie, and I've reducedthem, reduced and reduced them, and
eventually they went. But coming uplater in the show, we've got some
ideas from us and from listeners ona much better way to spend your five
pounds. Tim, tell me aboutAndre three thousand because I don't even know
who this is. Yeah, finallyfor the news segment, Yes you do,

(06:04):
do I? Yes, he's morefamously associated with Big Boy. Does
that help? No, something's neverchanged him. Have you heard of the
world straddling hip hop colossus that isOutcast? Yes, right, he's half
of Outcasts. Oh okay, he'sback Paul with a new album which is
quite exciting. We've listened to alittle bit of it on streaming. It's

(06:29):
good. Now, what would youexpect from a hip hop superstar like your
friend Andre three thousand? Paul annice double album thirty five quid? However,
can I just say I already Ialready know what's in the package,
but you actually don't. How muchis it? First of all, well,
it's it's a triple album. Butthe other thing in case anyone,

(06:53):
in case anyone doesn't know, whichof course everyone knows, it's not a
hip hop album. It's a spiritualjazz opus with him playing a kind of
modified synth flute. I think it'sa real flute thing, but that he
can he can plug it into hiscomputer and record it digitally and then process
it so it doesn't really sound likea flute. But I think it's quite

(07:14):
good. It's not what a lotof people are expecting from him, Paul.
It's a triple album, okay,And you can log you can log
onto the rough Trade website. AndI think it's too quid off one hundred
pounds. Ah. But Tim,the thing you're missing is the printed matter.
Has it got printed matter? Well? It comes with a fold out

(07:38):
poster, okay, fold out,so as opposed to what an unfold out
poster, A printed inner sleeve againas opposed to what just a blank blank
is that mentioned in the blurd Butit's a printed in the sleeve. But
here's the kicker this. I thinkthis is the first time we've had this,

(08:00):
some more printed matter, a notefrom the artist, note from the
artist. Is this a post itnote that says thanks for the ninety seven
pounds, so I know what thatwill be. That won't be a unique
note from the artist. I don'tknow. It just says a note from
the art maybe. Oh and it'salso limited edition. That's just going to
be a printed insert with a littlemessage from Andre saying sorry, there's no

(08:22):
wrapping on it. It does actuallyright up front say instrumental. So Rough
Trader getting in early to stop anyreturns. You're going to be queuing up
to buy this. So it hasn'tcome out yet. I don't think on
final but this is the pre order. As always, Rough Trade are about

(08:43):
fourteen percent more expensive than anywhere else. You can find it for I think
eighty eight pounds something eighty five pounds. If you shop around and you want
the bargains, Paul, you canfind it for about eighty five pounds.
But Rough Traders doing it for Ithink ninety seven ninety nine strictly one per

(09:03):
customer, strictly, yes, whata fucking joke. Records have become Paul
is, but you know what,I think it's because we've been away.
Yeah, they've been taking the piercein our absence. We've not been here
to keep them in check. Yeah, exactly, we haven't been here pouring
scorn on record prices and look whatAndre does, Tim Paul, would you

(09:24):
like to talk about scams? Yeah, I want to talk to you about
scams. We've seen a lot ofthese, especially on Instagram and Facebook.
Yep, legit looking websites which offerbig name box sets of your of your
Beatles, your Stones, you who, your Floyd, your Smith's for eighty

(09:45):
to ninety off the retail price.They look pretty legit. You can click
through, you can visit the website. It all looks quite legit. They
will have URLs that named things likeBMG Collector's Music. Basically they look pretty

(10:05):
legit. They do. The warningbell should be that this Rolling Stones in
Mono box set is twenty nine toninety nine on vinyl, and I mean,
of course it isn't, but ityeah, it looks. It's that
kind of thing where you're like,of course it's not real, but what

(10:26):
if it was real? And whatif there's some Chinese factory making vinyl bootlegs
now and they're amazing and what ifit's what if it is? Well,
Tim listener Vince Williams, he actuallyordered one of these to see exactly what
happens. Ah, what do youthink happened? Tim? I reckon that
the box set turned up and itwas even better than he expected. No,

(10:48):
that's not what happened, to know. So it was a while ago
he did this, but he spottedthe complete Rolling Stones vinyl box set twenty
pounds yep. But he paid viaPayPal, so he knew he could always
claim a refund or fraud. Didn'thear anything for a month, so he
started the refund process. Then theysent proof that the package had been sent.

(11:13):
Oh, he thought, oh,this might be real. The package
turned up a few days later andwas three cheap plastic toys and a note
saying sorry that the order for therecords has been delayed. So this part
of the scam is that they havetracking you've received an item, they've apologized

(11:33):
for the delay by sending you this. And it's a ruse to let the
time frame for a claim to eitherrun out for you to lose patients,
forget about it. It's a sheernumbers game. If a thousand people order
it, how many of them aregoing to either not follow through, go
through all the refund process, etcetera, et cetera. But there's a

(11:56):
kick at him. Surprisingly, onemonth later, one Rolling Stones album from
China turned up. You're joking.It was very cheap. It was one
percent of bootleg and the order detailshad been changed on their system from a
random selection from the Rolling Stones boxset. Wow. So again another attempt

(12:22):
to trick to fall to obsd skateobs what's the word obfuse skate? Yes
that one, so say that again? So no say again? Oh sorry
to obsford scale Yes, so toobfu skate the returns. I'm leaving all
of this in by the way returnsprocess. I mean it's sneaky and devious.

(12:43):
So that. So yeah, ifyou're thinking of ordering from one of
these sites, please don't. Isee them nearly every single day on Instagram,
and they're always offering eighty to ninetypercent off. They are all a
scam. Okay, you're definitely right. But now that Vince has told us
that a Chinese bootleg vinyl record turnedup, I had thought, well,

(13:09):
obviously there's never really going to beany records at all. My next thought
is, I wonder how much itwould have to be on one of these
scammy websites. How expensive would ithave to be for you to actually get
the set of Chinese Rolling Stones bootlegs. I have no idea, it's just
a thought, Paul. I'm justwondering, would seventy pounds get me the

(13:33):
actual set? Not that I'm condoningbootlegs, but let's face it, the
Stones have made enough money many,many, many times over that if anyone's
going to be bootlegged in China,I'm quite comfortable with it being them.
So Tim. Quite a while backnow, Discog's made some significant changes to

(13:56):
the way they click revenue. Theyput up their fees, but they also
wrapped in the postage cost into thefees. Yes they did, and I
think we mentioned this in the lastepisode that although the headline is, oh,
we've put it up one percent,the reality is very very different when

(14:16):
you actually do the maths and lookat what fees you're paying. So I've
been in touch with the friend ofthe show who's a very serious discog seller.
Thousands and thousands and thousands of items. Would you call him a power
seller. I would indeed, sosomebody who knows Discog's inside out has been
using it for many, many years. It's going to remain anonymous. But

(14:37):
he did send us this little updateon the actual real world impact. I
now pay fifty percent more in feesto discogs than I used to. What
that's the bottom line? Yep,we did this with somebody clever did the
maths, and it actually works outthat it's fifty percent higher. I think
I didn't understand it. He goeson to say, I Discog's stupid and

(15:01):
offensive suggestion to raise prices to coverthese increases. But this is a thing
with them. They truly don't understandor care about sellers. From the bullshit
that this was a one percent rise, to suggestions like offering free shipping to
avoid the fees now being applied tothe shipping costs, and while fees have
gone up, the level of servicethey offer has got worse, a lot

(15:24):
worse. Service requests take weeks,straightforward feedback reviews take weeks, and in
the meantime they keep announcing features thatI just can't see the point of.
They let their selling liaison bidgo ayear or two ago they've never been replaced.
Again, they don't give a shitabout sellers, despite taking in my
case fifty percent more in fees.They're twats. He does got to say

(15:46):
though he's listing a lot more.He lists really good stuff, and I
know his prices are always matched,all below the lowest. So it's actually
increased his sales since this came in, but oh in terms of volume,
but his fees have gone up.I mean, he does mention that they're

(16:07):
a database company originally that doesn't knowwhat it's doing in regards to the marketplace.
It was a happy accident that that'swhat it's become. But they have
they have a new guy in chargenow and he's trying to shake things up.
Well perhaps for a long time itwas a happy accident that they that
the top bross at Discog's just said, well, let's not be too cutthroat

(16:30):
about it. It's you know,I mean, don't forget that it's the
it's the fans on the site whocreate everything for them. Discos don't have
to put any of that data inthemselves. Maybe they used to think,
well, the trade off for thatis that the fees aren't too bad,
because let's face it, guys,they do all the work, so maybe
they should benefit in terms of fees. And then someone new comes along,

(16:52):
sees the database, sees how goodit is, Well, we can make
much more money setting through this platform. Maybe not quite getting that it's like
Wikipedia in a way. Yeah,it's a difficult one. So a friend
of ours tried about five months ago, four months ago to set up a
new discogs account. This is justagain perhaps suggesting that maybe they don't know

(17:15):
what they're doing or they're struggling atthe moment to figure out what to do
next. And he didn't hear anythingback, and he attempted to sign up.
They said, thanks for signing up, you're not eligible to sell yet,
but will let you know when youget approved. Didn't hear back,
didn't hear back, didn't hear back. Months later, didn't hear back.

(17:37):
Kept asking them and they just saidoh soon when they replied to him at
all. It turned out because Ispoke to an insider, Paul, and
it turned out that they were havingissues with they had had some scams,
some scam sellers, and they werepanicking about letting on new people in case
they're a scammer, and they listload of stuff and then don't sell it

(17:57):
and run off with the money.So they were waiting and waiting and waiting
for some fancy new security sort ofID system to come in to some kind
of anti scam measure, I think, like a new software thing, and
they put him off, put himoff, put him off, and eventually,

(18:18):
about two weeks ago, so literallymany months later, they just said,
okay, can you send us aphoto of your passport please, which
which they could have done on dayone instead of thinking, no, we're
going to have this super snazzy IDthing in place. But wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait wait wait. It's a bit like the old,
untrue anecdote about America spent a billionon trying to make a pen that

(18:42):
would write in space and then theRussians rocked up with a pencil. Excellent
anecdote there, which I don't thinkis true. But yeah, so Discog's
maybe something's going on. I don'tknow whether there could be chaos behind the
scenes. I don't know, butthat's my Discog's anecdote for you listeners.

(19:03):
If you attempted to be a newseller in the last six months, did
you get on? How long didit take I would genuinely like to know,
because I'm interested in what's going onthere now. Tim you've been on
your travels, and I'm very excitedto hear about this. How was Japan?

(19:26):
Was super fantastic, as it alwaysis. We're lucky enough that because
part of our kind of business modelof the shop is selling Japanese records and
Japanese toys, we can justify gointo Japan. Before the pandemic we went
almost once a year, and witha bit of luck, we're now going
to be back to going almost oncea year, perhaps every eighteen months something

(19:51):
like that. It was really good, Paul. But let's get to the
bit that people want to hear about, which is records. In the four
and a half years since we hadlast been, something quite big has happened.
You know that the press around theworld says records are back, Records

(20:14):
are back, records are in,Records are back. Sales are up,
sales are up, sales are up. I have now got proof with my
own two eyes from going to Japanthat the record the second hand certainly record
industry has changed and has gone moremainstream because in the good old days,

(20:34):
and we're talking for a sort ofeight year period, seven year period,
and I'm sure more. You couldgo to the most central Tokyo record shops,
have a bit of a dig andfind cracking prices on Beetles stones,
Pink Floyd Smith's Yellow Magic Orchestra,you know, the big name is in

(20:57):
Japan and the West, and youcould find Japanese Beetles pressings with the OBBI
for a fair price. Right mmhm. You can't do that anymore.
They have gone. Ah, theyeither sail straight away to tourists, by
the way, it's the tourists,or they're still there and they're four times

(21:18):
the price ouch because Japan has obviouslydiscovered that tourists now who rock along and
they're in the center of Tokyo,they're in Shiboyo, Shinjuku. They go,
oh, let's go to the let'sgo to the record shop and pick
up a Japanese record. I don'tthink that mainstream tourists used to do that.
I think it was nerds like uswho used to do that. It

(21:41):
now seems to be everyone. It'snow on the list of what you might
do, go and pick up ashade record with an obi, and that
is a massive change. And Icould not fucking believe how much worse and
more expensive every central shop had got. And what's funny is, if you
think of say London or I don'tknow, maybe not, maybe New York,

(22:04):
if you go to the central recordshops in any capital city, you
would expect them to be more expensive, quite a lot more expensive, perhaps
than you know you're going to paythe city center premium on a Beatles record,
right, would you expect that?Yes? I don't think that used

(22:25):
to be the case in Japan.I think they were just fair across the
board, and maybe they were evenmore cheap out of the center, but
they were not overpriced in the center, and now they are. So my
warning to anyone going to Tokyo is, don't expect to get any bargains in
the center. You're going to haveto go to the suburbs. And so

(22:47):
now it's become like I guess,any other city than any other country,
where if you put in the effort, you'll find gold. But I swear
to you, Paul, it usedto be that in Japan you didn't have
to put in effort. So thehappy ending is we still came away with
a couple of hundred fantastic albums twelvesand seven inches, but the effort required

(23:11):
any highlights from what you from yourhall. A perfect condition first Japanese press
of Purple Rain by Prince with posterinsert Bobby in basically untouched condition that we
got for a really good price andit's worth it's not worth ridiculous amount,
but it's oh god, it wasso nice. Pot It was like going

(23:32):
into the shop in eighty five orwhatever and just buying it new. It
was phenomenal. I mean, justpull so much good stuff. Loads of
Yellow Magic Orchestra once we hunted someother nice Japanese pop, loads of Beetles,
quite a lot of krowd rock,loads of amazing jazz, like phenomenal
John Coltrane, Myles Davis, SunnyOrllins. Just it's all there. It's

(23:55):
all there. All the jazz isin Japan them. The headline for every
listener who fancies going is you're goingto have to dig and maybe get in
touch with me and I'll tell yousome of the places that you might want
to dig. Tim do you everget any weird customers come in your shop?

(24:18):
No? Not in a record shop, Yeah we do. Why do
you want to know, I've noticed, well, I've noticed lately obviously being
in a capital city here and beinga bit of a crossroads, certainly from
people from Russia and Ukraine at themoment, I have been getting some very

(24:40):
odd people in the store. Now. I don't want to single out the
Russians, but I am going tomost of them are lovely. I've lots
of Russian DJs, I think,as long as you single them out from
an informed position, exactly so.A couple of recent examples, a guy
walked in, very stern, veryaggressively said where is your Russian eighties progressive

(25:04):
rock section? I'm like, I'msorry, what? And you pointed him
to it, right of course.And then another guy comes thing is where
is your section for Russian cabaret music? Oh no way. I'm telling you
why because he's stuck in my brainso hard, because what the how?

(25:29):
And how do they respond when yousay I ain't got any They get very
fucking annoyed. They proper get thehuff. Isn't that strange? They're come
in and asked for Russian bands andstuff, and I'm like, but it's
not just record shops. My friendstelling me that quite often they'll come into
the pub and asked why there's nocavea available in the pub. Wow,

(25:52):
okay. But my favorite recently isthis happened actually this weekend. A woman
from the Ukraine came in. Iknow this because she's told me five times.
But then she demanded i'd turn themusic off in the shop so she
could FaceTime her husband, and didyou well? I turned it right down
and then she because I just thought, oh, okay, maybe she wants

(26:15):
to show him some records or something. There was the customer listening deck was
busy and another DJ was using thecash desk register which plays over the speakers,
but she wasn't. She was justhaving a chat. You are joking.
So my first thought was, obviouslyshe wants to talk him through some
records new holy shit. So aftera few minutes I did have to step

(26:41):
in and so I'm really sorry.I've got a customer here who's auditioning records
that he wants to buy. Themusic's going back on. Did you suggest
that maybe she could use her legsand walk outside of the shop. It's
so weird. But the one theone that takes like I just I'm just
going to finish on this. Sowe if we find records that the sleeves

(27:04):
can you know, a bit wrecked, or there's a there's a skip,
or but it's too good to throwaway. There's a pile of records by
the door that you can take forfree. Mm hm. And not very
often, but you know the mybest student might come in and regular customers,
Oh there's a copy of that.Yeah, no, same, yeah,
same, we've got we've got afree box. It's a nice thing
to do. I wasn't working,Young Peter was working in the store.

(27:29):
A guy came in again, aRussian guy who had opened a new business
coffee shop I think it was,and uh asked to buy some cheap records
and we said, well, Petersaid to him, you know, we
have records here for five hundred denilsfour euros or that's too expensive. What
are these? Oh that's the freerecord part. Great took the lot and
left what in front of Peter?Yeah he didn't, he didn't. Wow.

(27:59):
Wow. So we have had thebox cleared out, but at least
the people have had the good graceto do it secretly. And when we're
not looking to take all of ourfree records to do it blatantly in front
of you. Wow, it's theentitlement. I just can't get my head
around it. There is one guyin the local area who will take things
from our free box and then comein with them and ask us what they're

(28:23):
worth if he were to sell them, And he does that quite often.
So he'll come in with you acopy of the sound of music he's just
taken. And I'm not saying hedenies it. He'll openly take it from
the free box, come up withit and say, oh, yeah,
I'm getting I'm taking this today.What do you reckon this is worth?
Then? Well, it's in thefree box. Yeah. We have our

(28:49):
fair share of rude, weird,annoying customers. There was a guy the
other day who came in and listento what we were playing and rated our
sound system set up as one outof ten. Oo brutal. Right,
Tim, it's time to hear fromthe lovely Gareth and Clash magazine. Oh
I've missed Gareth, take it awayright, Well, we're going to take

(29:12):
a little tour over the last coupleof months. I'm not going to recap
the entire period as you can imagine, but we'll pick out a few bits.
Erasure have been on quite a runfor the last few years, and
we talked about them on the Podpreviously with the stuff around the album The
Neon, and that was then followedobviously by remixes and EPs and all sorts
of things, and then they've nowreleased The Neon Live, which captures a
performer of two performances technically from Manchester'sO to Apollo back in October of twenty

(29:34):
twenty one, and it was doneusing the Live here now a team who
are sort of masters of doing concertrecordings. People will be accustomed to their
work. In the past, youused to be able to get a sort
of CD burned at the end ofthe show that you've been at, so
you pop back to the machines atthe foyer of the venue after about twenty
minutes when the show had finished,and they'd deliver you that show to take
away with you. And they've increasinglyramped up their work these days and now

(29:56):
they work with artists and labels toproduce proper live albums after the fact.
And so what you've got here isa three LP set pulling from across those
two shows and pressed at the Vinylfactory, so you're getting a very very
good quality pressing, yet a twelvepage glossy booklet as well, with some
imagery from the gigs and some nicebits and bobs. It works as a
fine souvenir in that respect too.As is often the case with these live

(30:18):
recordings, they are not designed tohave kind of audio file and surround sound
aspects to it. You do geta slightly boomy, reverby room feel,
but then I think that is kindof the point of this, is that
it feels a bit like you're standingin the room and if you crank it
up, what you'll get is somelovely sparkling electronics. And you know,
Vince Clark's work is beautiful across thesound stage, and Andy Bell is in

(30:38):
tremendous voice throughout the whole thing.It just ends up a little bit centered
and like I said, with alittle bit of reverb on it. It's
one of those things where do youwant that on vinyl because it's not necessarily
an kind of audio file experience.But at the same time, it's a
very well done vinyl set. Andif you like your erasure and you're collecting
it, I think you'll be prettypleased. You know, they've done a
very fine job of it. Musically, as you can imagine, it's got
a wealth of wonderful stuff. There'ssome fantastic tracks on that excellent album,

(31:00):
The nee On, and then ofcourse things like chorus who Needs Love like
that, love to Hate You,Blue Savanna, and a wonderful little respect
to finish, as you might imagine, but a really nice set. Very
impressed with that. I thought they'ddone a good job, particularly considering they're
working from one of those fairly rapidconcert recordings. And some of you may
recall The Wonders and this is verybeard, but you may remember mid Lake

(31:21):
when they were at their pomp inthe late noughties and then into twenty ten.
Their first kind of big breakthrough wason their first album, but the
big breakthrough was Trials of Van Occupanther, and then in twenty ten they did
The Courage of Others, which Iactually cherished. I think it's a beautiful,
dark, moody, atmospheric record.And then they're from man Tim Smith
left and so we never got anotherglimpse at that particular combination. Obviously the

(31:44):
band's sound was important too, buthis very melancholic vocals, which ached beautifully
were a big part of their sound, and once he left they didn't quite
manage to hit those sites. Theychanged the vocalist, and everyone knew that
Tim Smith was still working in thebackground, wait and see what would come
next, and finally his kind ofmeaningful solo project Harp, in which he
technically works with his wife the music, but goes by the name Harp.

(32:05):
This album, Albion, came outright at the end of last year through
Valley Union. It is understandably quitesimilar to some aspects, particularly of that
the Courage of Other's album from twentyten, which for me was obviously a
great thing and really aching sounds beautiful, kind of melancholic DNA running through it,
sweeping soundstage that takes time and buildshypnotically. You know, if you
want to have a little cliche forkind of atmospheric beard music, I'm pretty

(32:29):
much ticking off the list here,but it does do that stuff fantastically many
highlights, but I particularly suggest shiningSpires if you want to get a bit
of a sense of what it soundslike musically. Just builds and builds and
builds, swirls out of the speakersand nul some of them's done a really
decent mastering for this. It's atacked pressing, so faintly concerned as I
slipped that out of the sleeve,but actually the copy I sampled sounded excellent.

(32:50):
The mastering was so good as well, largely very quiet vinyl. It
was quite limited, so it's oneof those things where you're more like to
find it in a rack than beable to pick it up on a website
that easily. At the moment aspect, that'll probably repress it because it was
so well received, But Harp's Albionis well worth a listen. And finally
from our new collection. It's technicallya compilation, but it's a new compilation
the Tommy Boy label. A wonderfulbox set called and You Don't Stop,

(33:13):
a celebration of fifty years of hiphop and came out as we hit the
end of last year. It's awonderful set. Actually six discs pressed at
GEZ, but all pretty well lookedafter a linen slipcase with gold foil effects
on it and all sorts of stufflike that. The disc cleaned up lovely
tiny bit of surface noise here andthey're blou have to say, the mastering
was very impressive and playback was great. You know, sound stage on this

(33:35):
House of Pains jump Around had greatbottom end, but the mid range was
really distinctly done. Vocals were great, and Della Soul's Me Myself and I
actually thought sounded better than it didon the recent Della Soul reissues, So
you know, they've done a goodjob here. Case Sevan's Come Baby Comes
sounded enormous, as you know,a retro flashback to the ninety to sounded
really good, you know for them. Vocals on things like coolio Ce when

(33:57):
you Get There and stuff like that, you know, just sounded really crystal
clear. I mean, it's oneof the things where it would be easy
to get too lost in the basefor something like this, And actually I
don't think they have. I thinkthey've done a fabulous job of really mixing
the sound stage up beautifully, andlike I said, discs played back brilliantly.
There's liner notes all about the genre'sorigins going back to at nineteen seventy
three, hence the explanation of thetitle, because technically the music really comes

(34:19):
from a twenty year period in themiddle of all of that. But there's
been remastering by Tony Dorsey at Phantomand honestly, if you've been looking at
and considering it, I would highlyrecommend it. It sounds fab So Gareth,
who's taken a harder money and notreally delivered, It's time for the
naughty step. This is a trickyone in the sense it's a band I
absolutely adoreram Are a band that wefeatured on here in Good and Bad con

(34:42):
Season in the past, and Ithink they are, in that respect one
of the most unreliable when it comesto re iss. She's not their fault,
obviously, they're not making these decisions, but listeners may remember that when
they did the New Adventure in HighFire Review, we were raving about that
because it was done at Palace andthey mentioned on the hype stick, and
it was the start of a conversationwe had on the pod about how labels
were embracing telling people where they pressingtheir records because they were pleased about it.
What's happened here is a similar problemthat we've had with a few of

(35:04):
their re issues in the past,in that the US version has been pressed
in one place and the European versionhas been pressed in a different place,
and the US version uses one masterand the UK version doesn't. So US
customers get a Kevin Gray cut andKevin Gray's because the person behind all the
audio fold jazz reissues like the BlueNut Tone Poets and things like this.
European fans do not. They appearto get an in house cut from GZ.

(35:25):
And while the mastering is okay,there's several factors there. One you're
not getting the mastering and two you'regetting GZ pressed discs which are all right,
they need a clean and you'll beplaying GZ roulette because when I tried
them my first set one had quitea lot of noise. The second set
wasn't so bad. Ordered an Americanset just to compare the you know,
the distance between the two wasn't massive. But at the same time it's clear

(35:45):
that the US one sounded better andit's worth I'm just mentioning it more generally
because they also had a number oflate catalog reissues as well, So around
the Sudden Came Out, Reveal CameOut, we also had the latter two
albums as well, Accelerate and Collapseinto Now and once again in the UK,
they were pressed at GZ and onlyone of them used the cuts that
were being used in the US.I mean, weirdly one did, and

(36:07):
you sort of think, well,why one and not the others. So
it's a very confused thing. Soif you're an RAM fan looking for the
best sound, it's not ideal.And if I had to put one in
particular on the Naughty schet, Iprobably wouldn't actually put up there. I'd
put Accelerate, which when it firstcame out was a two times forty five
rpm cut, ludicrously loudly mastered album, but they managed to make it sound
pretty good on the vinyl cut,and now to try and get rid of

(36:27):
the fact that it's so badly mastered, rather than remaster it, they just
seem to have squashed the sound downand turned down the top end and then
pressed that to one disc. Andit just sounds weird. I mean,
I can't quite describe. It's alittle bit like sort of listening to it
with a pair of socks in eurears and sitting in a bin. It's
it's weird, and it's one ofthose things when it's probably worth seeking out
the original because not many people carethat much about the album. Well,
it won't be cheap, it'll soundan awful lot better. So yeah,

(36:49):
a bit of a shame. Whycan't we all just get the same versions?
Always my favorite part this a tripinto reissue world. What have you
got for is Gareth So First upChrysalis, who've been some great excavation of
catalogs in the last few years.They go wherever they like. It's wonderful
and they've done a twenty fifth anniversaryedition of Black Box Recorder's debut album,
England Made Me, and it's oneof Luke Haynes's many projects. Many people

(37:10):
known from the Oteurs as well,and this band was particularly known for Sarah
Nixy's incredibly distinctive, quite disaffected vocalsthat she delivered on those and most people
know the Facts of Life, whichwas a hit from a later album.
This first album though, some greatstuff on there, songs like Girl Singing
in the Wreckage, Child Psychology,Hated Sunday, really evocative lyrics, you

(37:30):
know, all the kind of malevolencethat you might expect from Luke haynes lyrics,
Lukenes's lyrics. You've got Phil Kinraidat Air doing the remaster as they
often do with the Chrysalis reissues andAlex Wharton cut the vinyl at Abbey Road.
So these are good sounding discs.H You get a really excellent soundstage,
lots of nuance in the mid range. This is a bonus ten inch

(37:53):
as well. Is get a standardLP and a ten inch. Now,
originally it was a two times fortyfive, so there is some argument about
a loss of fidelity. I'll behonest with you. I think the remasters
excellent and I think the cut istremendous, so I can't imagine there being
much to gain from seeking that out. The bonus ten inch has some extra
tracks, including an intriguing cover versionof Seasons in the Sun. But the
packaging is lovely. The pressing isa great vinyl factory involved. Again,

(38:15):
just really really good stuff. Soif that's something that you've been waiting for,
you've been eyeing up an original,I would actually say this reissue does
the job. On the subject ofother kind of nineties excavations, Heavenly Records
have reissued East Village's album drop Out, which was originally done at the very
start of the nineties but didn't getreleased until nineteen ninety three. They're an

(38:37):
indie pop band from Buckinghamshire and theyfell in with Bob Stanley from Saint Etien,
who I think we'd all recognized asgeneral good egg in the world of
music, both for his music,his production and then also his fabulous books,
including the recent one about the Begs, and so he outfund the recording
of this record. And if you'rea fan of the Go Betweens or teenage
fang Club, and let's be honest, if you've got ears, you probably

(38:58):
are, then this band will tickthose boxes for you. Really beautiful lots
of moments where you know there's akind of again we've used aching and melancholic
already today, but it's definitely inthere. There's a bit of murk because
it's that kind of early nineties indiessound, and in some respects it was
a little bit outdated by the timeit was finally released in nineteen ninety three.
Guy Davia Electric Mastering has done thejob for this. When it sounds

(39:20):
pretty good, it's a GZ pressingand a lovely tip on sleeve. You
may have to do a little bitof roulette and the experienced a tiny bit
of noise to start with, butit's been beautifully done. On top of
all of this, as well asgetting lovely jangly Indy that you know,
ticks all the boxes I mentioned previously, you get a fabulous note by the
man, the legend that is JohnSavage. So one of the great music
writers has come into bat for thisone. So it's well worth considering that

(39:42):
too. And on top of allof that, and these things get forgotten
these days. There is a doubleCD edition, but if you buy the
vinyl there's a download that will giveyou lossless audio of the album and all
of the tracks from the bonus CD, which is a nice thing to do
for people paying lots for vinyl reissues. Paul McCartney continues the half speed mastered
versions of his albums because of coursewe've done the archive collection, but we
not finished the archive collection. Whywould we want to finish the archive collection.

(40:04):
It's not like Beatles fans are inany way demanding, so that's still
on pause, and so for thetime being we're doing these half speed masters
every year from Miles Shoal. However, it's banned on the Run and when
they did the archive collection, theystarted with Band on the Run and didn't
perhaps milk it for as much cashas they could, so this time around
they're not just doing the half speedone, which you can buy separately in
all shops. And don't worry,folks, it has the OBI strip.

(40:24):
If that sort of thing matters toyou. If that sort of thing matters
to you, have a word withyourself, but it is there if you
need it. The two LP versiondoesn't have the OBI strip, so apologies
for fans of OB's. However,it does have a bonus disc, and
the bonus disc is what's being lovinglyreferred to as under dubbed, which is
just basically means we've taken off allthe strings and the fancy bit so you

(40:45):
can hear what the song sounded likebefore we put all the extra bits on.
And all it makes you realize isthat they should put all the extra
bits on. I mean, it'sinteresting enough, you know, when it's
Paul McCartney, of course there's goingto be an audience that want to hear
all of these things. What Iwill say is I think the half speed
vinyl cut by Miles Shoal is betterthan the original vinyl cut of the same
master in twenty ten. So myunderstanding is essentially the same transfer obviously gets

(41:07):
treated slightly differently before a half speedcut. Playing that against the twenty ten
reissue, I thought this one soundedbest, so I thought there was a
tighter nuance amongst the rhythm section.Instrumental layers felt a little bit less hot
than that twenty ten cut actually,which very much appealed to me. The
downside is it now has Helen Wheelsinserted into the track listing, as was
the case with a few additions,which I'd rather it didn't. But yeah,

(41:28):
music now, I mean seemed likeblue Bird. It sounds about as
good as it can really encurrent edition, so that's well worth a listen.
Both dispressed are optimal and sounding prettymuch near silent throughout. Alex Wharton,
however, cut the second disc,which doesn't appear to be half speed.
That's where the under dubbed stuff lies. Taken from the original takes in the
MPL archive and put into the orderit was in at that stage, because
obviously the album got various different treats, particularly after the original demos got nicked

(41:50):
and all sorts of different things.So Instrumental nine hundred and eighty five I
think sounds pretty tremendous. You geta real sense of the ferocious rhythm section
to that no words, you geta real understanding of dbus to the backing
vocals this way as well. It'sinteresting, you know, and you know
Beatles fans MACA fans will find thatsomething curious to listen to. My question
is, when you've got the entirecatalog of the McCartney, the Beatles and
everything else that you're going to havein the racks, will you honestly play

(42:13):
the underdob mixed more than a coupleof times. I don't know if you're
collecting the half speed thinking you're gonnaget sad about the ob. The one
LP edition will do the job.But they're very nicely done, so you
know, if it appeals, itappeals. It's just one of those things
where I struggle to get too excitedabout it. So a couple of quick
things I wanted to mention off forthe back of what you were saying,
Now, how self aware do youthink GZ are? Because I've had a

(42:35):
few new records in the store latelywhich have little hype stickers on them that
say manufactured at GZ. Would younot think that would be some kind of
repellent rather than a kind of abuying signal that is interesting. I mean
there's been obviously with the kind ofBrexit laws and things, there's been a
lot more transparency around manufacturing for thestickers on the back of shrink wraps.
So we've seen things like made inGermany, made in Czech Republic. I

(42:57):
have to say, I've not seenlabels say actually made in GZ. I
have no idea. I mean,they're very proud of their products, and
they do go out online and defendthem. And you know, if you
go to the world of the Hoffmanforums, there is an employee of GZ
who takes them on whenever they canwhen there's moaning going on. But yeah,
I mean I think if you're inany way nerdy about it or frequent
and of the online portals around Vinyl, then g Z's not you know,
he's pretty much an open secret,isn't it. Oh lastly, a record

(43:21):
you mentioned earlier is one of theonly records has actually been stolen from the
store. So whichever fucker nick theknee on live fuck you awful? Awful?
I mean good taste though, right, Gareth, what's your pick of
the pops? So this one I'mreally excited when I heard this was coming
out. Giles Peterson has got adeal with Warner to release on a label

(43:43):
called Arc Records, and they've donea cut the bits and bobs so far.
And you know, he's been responsible, or at least had his name
on a lot of excellent reissues overrecent years. And there's a lot of
jazz re issue stuff, British JazzExplosis and things like that that followed his
work in the past. Often he'llcurate and then somebody else does a lot
of the legwork, and Arc Recordsis putting out some fruscinating stuff and they've
just turned to ROBERTA. Flack.So, when First Take was given a

(44:07):
deluxe reissue back in twenty twenty,as part of the archive process, they
dug up a load of demo recordingsthat were made just prior to the main
album and these were, you know, being listened to for the first time
properly, and people realized they wereincredible. And so what they've done,
rather than try to do some massivebox out that puts things out that people
have already got just to put thosebits out, they've just culled those and

(44:29):
turned them into a fresh release calledLost takes, and so the artwork has
been fashioned to look like first take, but in different color scheme but similar
sorts of style. So it hasthat kind of quality of the era whilst
giving these unearthed releases their own specialplace. And it is a fabulous thing.
Indeed, Tony Higgins has been involvedin the production's version, who's the
guy who often works with Giles onhis reissues. Stuart Hawk's at Metropolis has

(44:51):
done some beautiful vinyl mastering for it. There's contemporary photography all the way through
the gatefold, so again it feelsvery much like it's part of that era.
Harmony Holidays written a superb sleeve notethat really builds up the excitement.
It's a vinyl factory pressing and it'stwelve tracks across two discs at forty five
rpm. Come on down now.At this point you'd expecting me to say,
and it's forty five, but noit's not. You can get it

(45:13):
for under thirty if you look around. So that's under thirty for two times
forty five vinyl factory, beautifully mastered, gorgeous set that's been done with a
lot of love. I mean,this is what we are crying out for.
Right. If you need a modelfor twenty twenty fours vinyl reissues and
indeed releases whatsoever to follow, thisis the one. There's an opener to
side to Afro Blue that ignited Pieteron'senthusiasm for the project. It's pretty ovious

(45:37):
when you play it. Why he'dlove to put this out. There's an
incredible high speed sprint through eight nomountain high enough that feels like it's going
to fall apart at any second,and the fact that it doesn't is what
makes it so incredible, that reallyworth listening to. But honestly, the
percussive aspects across the record sound huge. The sand stage is massive, flax
vocals are just gorgeous. They reachright out of the speakers up and forwards.

(45:59):
The room just fills with beautiful,beautiful music, near silent pressing.
Like I said, Vinyl factory involvedon that just gorgeous. There's an obe
strip as well for people who likethose things. But you know, it
doesn't make any difference to me atunder thirty two disc forty five. Honestly,
it's one of those things where notonly does it sound great, but
we kind of need to send themessage to labels that this stuff is good
and I think it's doing well already, but well worth seeking out when you're

(46:21):
next in your local record imporium.Thank you so much, Gareth, very
appreciated as always, Thank you brother. You're a mensch now, Tim.
We mentioned this earlier about spending yourfive pounds on a Dell, but rather

(46:44):
than that, somebody wrote in andasked us about good records that you can
find in the bargain bind so ofunexpected gems, and of course I took
to Twitter, which you don't usethe Twitter anymore? Do you don't like
it? Don't use it anymore?I'm sorry, Yeah, I can understand
why. Well, my plan isto set up a Facebook page thing for

(47:07):
all the boomers who enjoy our podcast, so they can interrupt with us on
Facebook, because I am on Facebook, even though I don't like that either.
But watch this space. I mightdo that, I might not,
but no, I'm not on Twitteranymore. I don't know why you are
still. I don't know where anyoneis still, but no disrespect, but
I don't know why you're on itanyway. Carry on anyway, So Tim,

(47:30):
listeners have suggested some absolute gold andwhat you can pick up in your
bargain bin for under a fiver.Now you have a section in your shop
of five quid classics, we havea bin of four euro records, so
fairly similar. Now. I hada quick nose in my section and the

(47:52):
three that stood out to me wereHoward Jones. There was a couple of
Howard Jones albums in there, perfectlygood one I always recommend, especially with
young people. I've got a lotof money. This can you recommend me?
So from this box is Haircut onehundred, Yes, just such good
fun. I think there's more thanone of their albums in there. And

(48:13):
Black Wonderful Life, Yes always turnsout. Yeah, yeah, lovely fantastic
song. Yeah. Weirdly, theysold loads and loads of copies of that
in Yugoslavia as well, so Iget endless copies of that in but it's
still a fun, fun record.Well, I'm quite annoyed because I've been
wanting for about a year now todo a fanzine that is all about five

(48:34):
quid and under classics. And Ifeel like the listener who got in touch
stole my thunder by coming up theidea before I got a chance to actually
make the fansy. I've got many, many fancine ideas that I'm never going
to do, so it's probably fine. Yes, I've got loads of these,
loads of these. Now. Myslight caveat is that it may be

(48:54):
that the copy that is a fiveor under might not be near mint.
Is that fair? Is it okayto include songs? It is VG plus?
Yeah, a decent VG plus copy. An obvious one would be Breakfast
in America by Super Tramp, whichI have seen for more than a five
and many times and often is.But you can find it for a five
if you've got a tiny bit ofpatience, you'll find it. The Bonzo

(49:19):
dog Doodar Band one of the severalseventies reissues of their debut album Gorilla,
which I think is just a fantasticslice of sixties psychedelic pastiche music, hall
comedy, pop art, just fun, creative, great lyrics, really brilliant,
like a bit of a British masterpiece. And you can find the reissue

(49:43):
of that for a fiver, whichis ridiculous. It's Neil Innes who went
on to work with Monty Python's FlyingCircus and Eric Idol and Vivian Stanshall,
the legendary Vivin stan Shaw. It'stheir band, highly recommended. Good time
for peanuts really. I would alsosay of Harry Nilssen and Randy Newman albums
you can find for a five orunder, and they kind of go together

(50:06):
in my head somewhat because Harry covereda lot of Randy songs and they I
think, you know, they they'vegot a similar a similar aesthetics, something,
there's something about them goes together,so they count as one for me.
But I'd recommend any any Harry Nilsenor Randy Newman that you see for
a few quid in a record shop, take a punt on it. It'll
probably be great. But yeah,as you as you touched on earlier,

(50:30):
we have got a five quid classicsection in the shop and it just stuff
just flies out of there. Sosomeone will come and pick up Oxygen by
Jean michel Jar or Tubular Bells byMike Oldfield or now that's what I call
music compilation and they just or likea Brian Ferry album and they just go

(50:50):
There's tons and tons of stuff outthere that shouldn't be more than a fiver.
So Paul Our Our some our Twitterfollowers have also suggested some some crackers
here, so let's let's go throughthem. To happiness. Stan at Paul
mcfadd's says, genuine statement, stonyEnd by Barbara streisand a seriously good record.

(51:15):
He says that you can find fora quid if you look long enough,
we've we've currently got I think anear mink copy of that in the
bargain bin Paul for two pounds.There we go. Eric Trump, he's
certainly some protogues of stuff you canfind for a five or all under Janet
Jackson's control. Mm, yeah,record that you actually sent me. Joe

(51:37):
Jackson Night and Day. Yep,his stuff's great and a five or less.
Alison Moye alf classic yep. GlennCampbell Greatest Hits and Quincy Jones The
Dude. I think the Dude iscreeping up, but yeah, the Dude
is still not an expensive record andis great. And I also I strongly
agree about Glenn Campbell. I thinkhis greatest Hits is fantastic. Tour at

(52:00):
Meldale on Twitter says Richie Haven's recordsare usually four or five quid and a
really great unique voice and some greatcovers that's actually a really good shout.
Is he is cheap? And Idon't know why Birmingham eighty one has sent
me these cheap as chips Harry Krishnaalbums. Everything you see is Me by

(52:22):
Rasa and Golden Avatar A Change ofHeart. I don't know either. Is
that any good then? Apparently soGolden Avatar Change of Heart? We get
in that, we get in allthe time and it goes straight into the
three four five. Is that agood record then? Apparently so? All
right, give it a listen.Next time we get that, I will
give it a listen. Steve Carr, now this is this is a great
one. Carol basically the Carol Kingrecords that aren't Tapestry. I have certainly

(52:49):
noticed Tapestry went from being a twoquid record fifteen years ago, which I
know is a long time ago,to like a lovely conditioned original UK of
Tapestry is now about I think fifteenquid. Some shops might even ask twenty
quid. But you can find herother albums like Rhymes and Reasons Music,
Wrap Around Joy. Steve Carr haslisted here. You can find them cheap

(53:15):
and he's right, and they're stillgreat they're just not taper stry. They're
not the big one. But allof her stuff is fantastic. He also
points out Elton John Records, forexample, the Best of Volume one and
Volume two, Billy Joel, InnocentMan, Paul Simon, Harts and Bones,
and the album Something by Shirley Bassey. Yep, you can pick up
all of those four two to fivepounds. Billy Edwards are certainly in four

(53:37):
suggestions here, but I think oneof these may have slipped outside of the
maybe more than a five. Andnow let's have a look. So Randy
Newman, good Old Boys, Yeah, Rod Stewart, Every picture tells a
story, Billy Joel glass Houses,yep. But the Human League Dare,
Yeah, No, if you're lucky, or if it's scruffy, it's crept

(54:01):
up. Definitely crept up. I'mnot saying you can't. He's totally right.
You can find it for a fiveor under. In fact, we
have got a copy in the fivecould Classic section, but it's only just
a VG plus copy. Something hasdefinitely happened with Dare's It's a creeper,
it's a creeper, it's creeping up. Ed Kruiz says, I recently snagged

(54:24):
the first two Peter Gabriel albums onRepress for five pounds each. Absolutely mint,
that's a pretty good that's pretty goodgoing. So only a Northern soul,
he says. This one caught meoff guard. Wasn't what I was
expecting. Were listened to it.I only knew the big hit see it
all the time in the bargain section, the Bluebells sisters. I don't know

(54:45):
this, yeah, okay, same, I only know the big hit.
I have to admit, all right, I'll check that out. Mono Stereo
Shop on Twitter says, see whatyou think of this? Poor Terrence Trent
Derby's neither Fish nor Flesh is muchbetter than it's made out to be and
it's pretty much always dirt cheap.Well that the second part is true.

(55:05):
I totally agree. Oh really,yeah, don't might a bit of terror?
Okay, I'll give him a go. Steve Jenny has got I have.
This is sat right at the frontof our bargain bit at the moment,
Kid Creole and the Coconuts absolute classic. That was Susan's my partner are
on the shot with That was herpick as well. She said, if
you find if you find space mentionedTropical Gangsters by Kid Creole, because yeah,

(55:29):
absolute banger and it's a fiver.And I also have this in the
bargain box as well. Joan Armortrading me myself. Yes, well any
any Joan. I think she's abit underrated and a bit overlooked. So
yeah that you can always find Joannumber trading for two to five and she's
totally worth it. Ash on Twittersays the three seventies Deaf School albums can

(55:52):
often be picked up for under afive reach and they are great, and
ditto the first couple of Thomas Dolbyalbums. And yeah, I mean this
is one we haven't really touched uponyet. Lots of greatest Hits records,
so for example, Motown comps,Atlantic Soul comps the Greatest of the Eagles,
although he says he knows that's controversial. Yeah, it's like Motown Chartbusters.

(56:15):
Fantastic stuff on there, and theytend to be a fiver. As
I said, a lot of those, the Now compilations or the Hits compilations,
we tend to do for a fiver. Well. O's OL's Records has
recommended Sylvester step Oh yes, theGeno Soccio. I don't know that one
outline Motown chartbusters. There we go, yeah yeah and Sultan Pepper. Oh

(56:42):
yes, that is classic. Yesyou can, Yes, you totally can.
That's a great shout. Billy Edwardswill we'll round this off today.
Billy Edwards says, I'm regularly stunnedthat you can find Elvis's Son Sessions LP,
one of the most seismic rock androll collections, for next to nothing.

(57:02):
He's right, you know, thecovers a little bit naff. It's
got a weird airbrushed image of Elvisdoing one of his Elvis moves. But
the music contained within is fucking great. So look, there's loads of them.
There's loads of them. Records don'thave to be twenty five quid and
up premium items in lieu of doingthe zine that I'm probably never gonna bother

(57:24):
doing. I'd love to make thisa regular feature, so please, please,
please, listeners get in touch withus. If you've got more five
quid and under classics that you wouldheartily recommend, you can reach us on
we Buy Records pod at gmail dotcom. Thanks everyone who got in touch
with your examples. I do lovea cheap good record. If you drop

(57:47):
onto our Twitter feed and just hitthe reply to that question, you'll see
all of the examples listed there,and many many more that we weren't able
to read out. Tim Yes,would you like a quiz? Yes?
Now, while we've been away,an old friend of ours has been very

(58:09):
very busy no, no, yes, yes, yes. Oh mister kitchen
Cabinets from Scotland has been very busyupdating his listings with lots of new information
and new items. Hey, hehad a three sales last year and it's

(58:29):
not not the fellow's absolutely gunning it. Do you want to just for listeners
who are new to the pod orwho don't have good memories? What are
you talking about? Okay, there'sa gone Discogs who runs an account which
professes to offer you the best qualityused record available. He ships them in

(58:52):
plywood, or if he's out ofplywood, that's of old kitchen cabinet.
Hence his postage and stuff exorbitant,and he makes the most outlandish and wild
claims about storage and condition and everythingis mint and anyway, we visited him,
I think maybe twice on the show, but I just somebody sent me

(59:14):
a how it came about. Someonesent me a thing. Oh, you
need to look at this seller.Their prices are mad and I looked at
them and they were quite high,and I thought, I wonder what our
old friend is up to. Well, Tim, you were like, that's
not a knife. This is aknife. This is a knife. So
Tim, I have some of hislistenings here. I'm going to ask you

(59:35):
what you think they should be goingfor, and then we'll tell you what
our friend wants, and then we'rejust going to do higher and lower.
There's some bonus points available if youcan nail the okay correct price. So
Tim, I'm ready for the CureStaring at the Sea VHS. Oh oh
oh yes. Now let me tellyou, Tim, this is Mark.

(59:58):
This is a nineteen eighty six VHStape. It's Marks as Mint obviously.
Uh, but it's untested because hedoesn't have a VHS player. Well,
then it's not Mint, is it. I think you're going to be saying
this fair bit during the quiz.So Tim, it's untested, is what
it is. Yeah, what ifyou had you had if you had a
lovely VHS copy of the Cure ofStaring at the Sea in store, how

(01:00:21):
much would you be asking your customersto part with I've got no idea at
all, and you might be surprisedto know that we don't sell VHS tapes
in the shop. I don't know. Maybe it would be six quid.
Do you know what you would askfor six? It actually goes for four.
So that's that's that's a given,that's a that's a that's a bonus
point. How much does our friendwant two two five? No, he

(01:00:47):
wants ninety nine pounds, So that'sone point from there. Now we move
on to a twelve inch single,which you just you just never see this,
Tim, I don't think I've everseen a copy in your shop or
my shop. It's David Bowie andMick Jagger dancing in the street. Oh

(01:01:08):
no ah, that it is minthim. Oh it's Mint, is it?
I don't know. It's not reallya spectacular, well a spectacular near
mint one. I guess we'd putfour quid on it. I'm going to
give you that because the cheapest oneof discogs is two pounds. That's another

(01:01:28):
bonus point. Yeah, so itwas ninety nine pounds for a VHS.
How much for this incredibly rare twelvein its higher or lower than ninety nine
pounds lower, lower, No,it's higher. It's two one hundred and
twenty pounds. So you've got yourbonus point. But that's what I guessed
for the first one. God,so a nineteen seventy five reissue of Physical

(01:01:53):
Graffiti by Lead Zeppelin. Okay,okay, so this is a per fit
to black vinyl copy with no visiblemarks. He's listed all the matrix numbers.
Of course, there are only thirtyother copies for sale. But how
much do you think what's the realprice of this? Okay? So,
so the very very first, thetrue first press of Physical Graffiti, the

(01:02:15):
very earliest press, is worth acouple of one hundred quid in narming condition.
This isn't that. And then there'sthe much more standard second one,
which people think is the original,but it's actually the second one with slightly
different matrix numbers blah blah blah,and that in near mint is maybe forty

(01:02:37):
quid. I'm going to give youthat it's fifty quid. So you've got
you've got bonusupporting every one of these. I'm guessing the price. How much
does our frame want for his copy? Is it higher? Or lower than
two hundred and twenty pounds obviously higher. Do you want to have a guess
how much higher? Yeah, sixhundred and fifty two thousand, five hundred

(01:02:58):
pounds but still double points there.Wow? What why? R. E.
M's Green again? Very very veryrare album you never see. So
this is Let me read the descriptionof this because you're going to get annoyed.
Okay, are you ready for this? Mint? But my favorite,

(01:03:21):
my favorite two words put together,it's mint, but for some superficial surface
marks. The original No, theoriginal picture in it is also mint,
except making this up for extremely minorblemishes and a whole But there is good

(01:03:49):
news, Tim. This has beenstored in three layers of plastic sleeves,
right, and I've just just tosee on the protection level. I've actually
been in touch with the Cathedral ofJohn the Baptist in Turin, and they
can confirm that the Turin shroud isonly stored in two layers of plastic sleeves.

(01:04:13):
So this is believable more protected thanthe Turin shroud. This copy of
Green by RM. But Tim,how much is a love lovely minty original
copy of that the government should havegone to him? For PPI I mean,
wow, green, okay, Sofifteen quid, eighteen quid I'll give

(01:04:38):
you that. That's this twenty twentyquid for a good okay, But is
it higher or lower than the unineteenseventy five Led Zeppelin reissue. So just
to confirm, it's got surface scratchesand a hole in it. Yep.
But it's mint, but it ismint lower. It's mint apart from those
yeah, apart from that, it'smeant lower than two grand two and a

(01:04:59):
half grand. Okay, it islower, But how much lower? I
reckon? He's asking? I meanit's green by Irim, he's asking four
hundred pounds all, I mean it'sall just guess four hundred pounds. It's
one pound lower. He wants twothousand and four hundred twenty nine pounds.

(01:05:24):
Hell, Tim, you won't haveagain. You won't have seen one of
these. It's David Bowie's Life onMars on seven inch, a reissue with
the Knockout Center. Just to clarifyhere, Tim. The shipping charge for
this item includes the costs of bubblewrap, cardboard, masking tape, packaging

(01:05:44):
tape, fragile tape, the printingof the postage labels and the filling out
of the customs form. The additionalweight of the plywood also adds to the
cost of the postal service. Seesee the praise lavished upon the wooden squares
in my third he ate one hundredpercent customer reviews. At the time of
writing, I have sold a totalof sixty eight items. Anyway, Tim,

(01:06:10):
Oh, it's wonderful, isn't it. How much would you want for
a reissue knockout center Davy Bowie Lifeon Mars seven inch? That's one of
those things where if it's less thansort of excellent plus it's a pound,
right, but not a nar mintone four quid I'll give you that is
a fiver, so you've got abonus point. So you're at two four

(01:06:35):
hundred and ninety nine pounds. Isit higher or lower? It's so stupid
lower, of course lower. Howmuch lower? Do you think he's got
worse? Yeah, these are newlistings. He's gone completely mad. I

(01:06:57):
reckon, he only he probably onlywants about one and a half thousand for
that Bowie seven inch. Well,you're actually incorrect. It's actually higher.
No, come on, it is. It's one pound higher. Again,
he wants two thousand and five hundredpounds. Tim, Do you know what
I reckon it is? Hmmm?I reckon he's heard that records are back.

(01:07:18):
Do you think so? Do youthink he was in Japan recently?
That's what? Yeah, that's whatit is. Wow, Tim, have
you ever had a copy of PaulMcCartney and Wings banned on the run in
stock? Yes? Have you?Well, I've got news for you.
According to this it could be quitevaluable. I need to slightly elaborate on

(01:07:41):
this one. It's actually a LIELUKvinyl copy which he claims is the UK
original, and I've checked it's not. It's Dutch because all the copies of
the Dutch and it says made inHolland on it. Anyway, so well,
I've never seen that. I've neverseen it, so maybe it's definitely
not the UK original. Maybe thirtyfive quid, it's twenty five euros.

(01:08:04):
But I'm still going to give youthat because you're in you're pretty much there
or thereabout having never seen one.But does he want more or less than
life on Mars? I'm going tostick with what I've said most times less
because we've got to We've got toput a lid on this. It is
less, thank god? How muchless? Is it one pound less?
Paul? No? Is it twopound less? No, it's significantly less.

(01:08:29):
Well, I was going to justcarry on with that. He probably
just wants a cool grand I'll giveyou that one thy two hundred. What's
a nutter? The Beach Boys twentygolden grates. I've never seen a copy
of you. Come on, he'sbothering to list stuff like that, by

(01:08:49):
the way, annoyingly, it's ablue vinyl, that is We'll hang on.
That is a sub that's a fivepound or under classic. Oh yes,
and that is the if. It'sthe one with the badly air surfer.
That is the Beach Boys record thata long time ago, in fact,
on cassette. That's what made merealize how brilliant the Beach Boys were.

(01:09:10):
Was that compilation. So it deservesa premium for that, right?
Did you say it's on blue vinyl? Yeah? Again, I've never seen
one on blue vinyl. No,are these bootlegs no? Six pounds?
Yeah, I'm going to give youthat eight ninety nine if we still biting
you, I think how much doesour friend want for the Beach Boys twenty

(01:09:34):
golden grates. Is it more orless than one two hundred pounds? So
once again I'm going to say lower. It has to be lower. It
is lower. It is lower.There you go, You've got your point.
But would you do you want tohave a guess how much lower?
What a waste of time? It'sjust insane. I think he wants one

(01:10:00):
hundred pounds more or less? Youwhat's a grand I mean, what's one
hundred quid between friends when you're talkingabout the Beach Boys twenty golden grapes.
Man, we haven't made this up. By the way, this is a
real This is a real man listeners. Who is really listing the records for
real on discolds at these prices?Yeah, I've heard of these young upstarts
the Beatles, Oh yes, nineteensixty seven to seventy. Now this does

(01:10:27):
turn up quite often, the onein the one on blue vinyl. Do
you know how much you sell thosefor? Yeah? When they're in nice
nick, I think we sell themfor thirty quid. That'll do you.
There's your bonus point, thank you. But how much does our friend want?
Is it more or less than athousand pounds? It's got to be
more. The sky's the limit,Paul, it's the Beatles. You're wrong,

(01:10:50):
it's lower bargain. How much isit? Nine hundred and ninety nine
pounds? It's a quid less right, been nearly then, Tim nick Low.
Yeah, I'm not laughing at Nicknick Low. I'm laughing at the

(01:11:14):
knowledge that nick Low is going tobe about a grand which is funny.
Right. So it's a nineteen seventyeight USA seven inch by nick Low.
It's mint, but played. Thereare no scratches or marks. The paper
labels are immaculate, the sleeve ispristine, give or take the odd anomaly.

(01:11:39):
I love the way he words theit's mint, but it's mint,
except it's so ridiculous. But anyway, Timoul, I mean with that going
your pound box? How much doesit? So? It goes seven inch
by nick Low? Pound box?Nothing, pound box. I'll give you
that. It's a couple of quid. How much does our friend want is

(01:12:00):
more or less than nine hundred andninety nine pounds and ninety nine pence of
the Beatles? It depends on hischarging a premium for the anomalies the odd
anomally give or take less less lessless less, less less yep, it
is less. It's eight hundred quid. You've done really well here, right,
fucking deranged. I should also pointout he's also selling a rare,

(01:12:25):
not quite life size nick Low shotdisplay that looks a bit like Paul McCartney.
Has he put that? That isgenuinely what it says in the listing.
Yeah, I'm selling a rare andnot quite life size nick Low shot
display that looks a bit like PaulMcCartney. Fuck it's going on. Oh

(01:12:49):
I think he's mad. I loveit. When it was the last teo,
we had a nineteen eighty two copyof Porlography by the Cure, but
not a UK one, a Canadianone. Okay, not that it is
not that common. Again this iscaused. This is mint. But when
you get to USA, Canada andstuff like this for the Cure, the

(01:13:11):
price tend to be significantly lower thanthe UK and maybe about eighteen quid.
Well I'm going to give you that. You can get a scruffy one for
that. But the thing is,I've had a look. You can get
a sealed one because you're That oftenhappens in America and Canada. For some
reason, these records are found stillsealed, and that would set you back

(01:13:32):
seventy five quid. So brand spankersokay, sealed copy from nineteen eighty two.
Our friend's copy, of course,is not sealed. But how much
does he want for his? Isit higher or lower than five thousand pounds?
I think it's I think it's higher. It's two and a half thousand.

(01:13:55):
But you can have a double pointsthere, So plum you did.
You've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen for fifteen out
of a possible twenty. That isabsolutely outstanding work, sir, Thank you
very much. He's nuts, Paul. I've got an exciting Kappa for the
quiz. I was valuing some recordslast night. Thank you by the way

(01:14:18):
for doing that. I enjoyed that. I mean I didn't enjoy it because
it's so it's so ridiculous and awfulthat it's just a horrible experience to have
to hear what he does. ButI kind of enjoyed it. I was
finding records last night and I sawthere was an album which seemed to go
for about a tenor in sort ofexcellent near mint condition. But I saw

(01:14:41):
in discog's past sales. You know, it's got the like med highest,
lowest, and median it said,you know, lowest one pounds seventy seven,
median ten pound eighty highest three hundredand fifty. Oh god, and
I thought that's weird. That's weird. Well, okay, so I went
to the trouble of clicking through sayingthat I'm not a robot to get to

(01:15:04):
the actual raw data. And itsold loads and loads of times ten quid,
ten quid, eight quid, tenquid, twelve quid, seven quid,
ten kid, five quid, threehundred and fifty quid. And the
write up for the three hundred andfifty quid one posting the winter months in

(01:15:25):
wood no I found in the wild, randomly no a record that he has
sold. Paul, Oh my god, I can't believe that. That is
amazing. It was like Christmas.It was so exciting. It was so
exciting, and that thing, itgoes through your head. Who bought this?
Why did they buy it? Whatis the story here? Who clipped

(01:15:48):
through this relatively red common record.And by the way, he'd pointed out,
only twenty one copies currently on discogs. It was all of his trademarks
were there. I was so excited, so excited, and then today to
have the quiz of his madness,it's just oh like yesterday was Christmas,

(01:16:09):
today's Boxing Day. I promise,I promise. I can't actually promise,
but let's let's never have to visithim again. Yes, actually I will
take that as a promise, Paul, if that's all right. Yes,
And I'm sorry to the listeners forgoing back to the well, but I
just I just happened to be glancingit. I just thought, oh no,
I can't resist. It was worthdoing because his prices did used to

(01:16:30):
be two fifty three point fifty threehundred, one hundred and eighty quid.
They're now two and a half thousand. Nearly everything is now two and a
half thousand. There are pages andpages of records that are all two and
a half thousand pounds. Yeah,I think it was worth it, right,
Join us next time for more adventuresin Vinylon. We bye, but
not from that bloke. Record