Fruits de Mer Records - Psychedelia, Krautrock, Progressive Rock, Acid-Folk, R&B, Spacerock and Vinyl Heaven

CLICK TO VISIT OUR SHOP LATEST NEWS DISCOGRAPHY MEMBERS CLUB BLOG CONTACT US HOME


blogs are so 'last year', but then again Fruits de Mer is so last century it's as close to cutting-edge as we're ever likely to get (unless the monkey gland injections start to kick in)...so this is the FdM blog and you're very welcome to it.

(it's all supposed to be related to music but sometimes I lose the plot, with typically uninspiring results)

RSD 2024

I haven't tried very hard, but I haven't seen anything listed so far that I'd spend hours in a queue to buy - maybe I need to try a bit harder - but is it really enough to put the standard record out on colour vinyl?
I noticed that the 'extras' listed for the Yes live LP (the one release I've found that I'd take a good look at) include a white inner sleeve, shrinkwrapping and a 'marketing sticker'...good grief!


MAIL (DIS)ORDER

A third Royal Mail price rise in 12 months has been announced; it's not a flat rate increase - in fact some prices have actually gone down - but it must average out at around 5% and I'm guessing prices have risen by at least 25% in the last year.
I appreciate the company is under pressure, but the whole business of posting and receiving stuff has changed dramatically in the last 5 years and the Royal Mail hasn't.
Reduce deliveries to 5 days a week, letter deliveries could come down to four; charge a serious premium for next-day service; introduce real-time tracking of parcel deliveries; rethink the service outside Europe - competitors are faster, cheaper, more reliable.

Moan over.


WHO NEEDS IT?

Two tracks from the groundbreaking Tangerine Dream album, 'Phaedra', edited down to fit on a 7" - c'mon, who needs it?
Me apparently - once an obsessive, always an obsessive.

MONSTER, MONSTER

I finally got round to watching the early 80s film, 'The Monster Club', which includes my favourite band - The Pretty Things - playing 'live' at a party. The film stars Vincent Price, never known for his underacting, and once seen can never be unseen...it's dreadful; a bizarre mix of horror, attempted comedy and naff 80s music. The Pretties' scene is right at the end and sadly isn't worth ploughing through the rest of the film to get to - they play a cod-reggae song called 'the Monster Club', and I never want to hear it again; at least I'll no longer be looking for the soundtrack LP in record fairs.


NEVER MIND THE QUALITY

That's unfair, the bands might be brilliant, it's just that I've never heard of any of them - but 12 bands for £10 at a Brighton Hope & Ruin all-dayer is too good to miss - I've be there with my two lads, no doubt after visits to other local drinking establishments beforehand.


ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY?

Just been watching quite a good documentary called 'Punk '76' on the London Live satellite channel; it was somewhat ironic to find afternoon TV on the channel is sponsored by a company called CareCo, who sell springloaded armchairs and similar for the elderly.


RIP DAMO

Very sad to hear that Damo Suzuki has died, he was a true one-off and of course was part of Can in their most creative period, including the legendary 'Tago Mago'.

I was fortunate enough to meet him at a festival we ran in Germany with Sunhair Records and he seemed a really nice guy, happy to be photographed with this grinning fool as well as allowing me to include one of his recordings on a Fruits de Mer compilation CD; he also chose an FdM album cover to be photo'd with a few years earlier, preferring 'A Phase We're Going Through' to 'Head Music'.


SHEER GENIUS

I've been enjoying for the nth time the unmitigated brilliance of 'Team America:World Police'; if you've never seen it, do yourself a favour and seek it out.


OLD ORLEANS

Just back from a bucket-list trip to New Orleans for a few days of Mardi Gras. The place is pretty knackered - potholes you'd could lose a Mini in, and the crowds, and bands playing in the streets for dollars, are more entertaining than the parades; but one good bar makes up for most things and we found it in The Drinkery on Bourbon Street - and a record shop, of course, The Louisiana Music Factory.
By the way, The US has found creative new ways to increase your bills - a sustainability charge added to the cost of a cup of coffee, a kitchen staff appreciation charge added to a food bill, and would you like to add 20%, 25% or 30% service charge - the choice is yours?

Team America....


VIP SERVICE

It's been a while since I got to visit a big record fair but I put that right on Jan 27th with a visit to VIP's London Fair in Victoria's Horticultural Halls.
I wasn't alone, VIP's boss Rob Lythall told me around 600-800 vinyl obsessives make the pilgrimage.



...I MADE MY EXCUSES AND LEFT....

...but not before emptying my wallet at VIP's London fair in return for some 60s/70s sounds on vinyl, some of which might once have been thought to have slightly dubious origins, but seem fair game these days as the labels responsible are stocked by reputable mail order services...
...after that, I had just about enough cash left to enjoy a swift drink with two old friends in Jack Ellister and Heyday Mail Order's Nick Leese - a good day!


THOSE WERE THE DAYS

my radio of choice for listening to everything from Radio Peking to the wonderful Radio Geronimo in the 60s/early 70s was an Astrad…a great big lump of a Russian radio with a dial on the side that made an almighty ‘clunk’ as you changed from medium wave to one of several short wave bands


HEY MICKEY

I've posted this photo just because I can - the very earliest inarnation of Mickey Mouse of now out of copyright. Not sure how I can exploit this, although it has been suggested in the past that Fruits de Mer is something of a Mickey Mouse label...


HOLIDAY READING

A very entertaining read - sex, drugs and rock'n'roll in the early 60s, but with surprisingly little reference to sex or drugs. Goes into a bit too much detail, but I'm looking forward to reading the follow-up, '2Stoned', which starts where 'Stoned' ends - just before Immediate Records (I hadn't realised he written three volumes!)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here's hoping 2024 will be even better one than 2023 (and if 2023 was a bad one for you, here's hoping 2024 will be a vast improvement)

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

Perhaps the most unusual gift this year came from one of my kids - pickled sprouts.
Now I'm up for pretty much anything pickled, but this was a new experience.
Nick asked me to describe them..."crunchy, pickly, a bit sweet and - worryingly - a bit fizzy".
I'll leave you, dear reader, to imagine the follow-up...


PRETTIES FOR ME

A late winner for me - after scouring the shops for something in vinyl (don't go there) for Christmas, Juno came up trumps with a Pretty Things 'unofficial'release, which is currently gracing the FdM record-deck


AN EARLY CHRISTMAS PRESENT? MAYBE, MAYBE NOT

Villa play tonight (Dec 22) before the rest of the clubs at the good end of the Premiership; if we win, we go top - albeit for less than 24 hours. If we lose...well, we'll still be third and that's way better than any of us would have expected when the season started.

Admittedly, on the basis of our last game, we're living on the edge right now but it's fun while it lasts...


...and we did it! OK, so it was for a matter of minutes, before our first goal was (criminally) disallowed by VAR and we ran our of isdeas, scraping a draw in injury time, but this was the league table on the BBC website for a few moments, and that counts as far as I'm concerned


IS IT JUST ME?

I scour the online stores at the start of December each year to find a 'surprise gift' Liz can buy me for the festive record-deck, but this year...nothing.

OK, that's an exaggeration - by nothing, I mean nothing that I'd be happy to buy myself for an Xmas pressie if I didn't have an excuse to blame/thank Liz - the Yes 'Fragile' and 'Who's Next' box-sets are very tempting, but not at £90+ for an LP + 4CDs, or £220+ for 11 CDs!

There IS a 4LP version of Who's Next for £70, but the three 'bonus' LPs seem to bear no relation to the original album. Looks like I'll have to keep looking...

20 INFLUENTIAL ALBUMS

Fred Laird has challenged me on Facebook to nominate 20 influential albums from the last 50-odd years of buying and listening to them, albums that influenced my taste in music; if you're interested, they'll be on my Facebook page, and in the group I look after CLICK HERE...but feel free to ignore, there aren't many surprises.

Here are some of our earlier ramblings.... PREVIOUS BLOGGINGS http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/blog2022.html ">PREVIOUS BLOGGINGS

...and some even earlier ones... PREVIOUS BLOGGINGS

All copyrights reserved 2023
www.fruitsdemerrecords.com
...hear the tracks.. ..buy the vinyl.. ..smell the fish...