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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)
Brilliant goal by Ollie Watkins to get us into the final - my lad Nick and I might have got a bit carried away in front of the TV at home, but it was great to see Villa's main man and Cole Palmer being given the chance (at long last) to take the game to the opposition; I even managed to win Nick 50 quid on a stupid accumulator of goals and bookings.
ALMOST ON A PAR WITH DR. SARDONICUS
Dr. Haze - a rather fine craft beer from Greece that I discovered while on holiday in Rhodes - up there with the best UK IPAs I've tasted.
There was also a very more-ish 7" Voreia IPA on tap - surprisingly malty and creamy,but it's hard to photograph a tap with a generic logo and make it look as good as the beer, so I didn't bother.
FUNNY GUY
Peter Crouch seems to be a genuinely funny bloke - this was a post of his on 'X'/twitter
IT WAS THIRTY YEARS AGO TODAY...
Actually, it was thirty years ago in May, but I forgot all about it...
I remember Loaded with great fondness from my magazine days - so many great stories, many of which never quite made it to the pages of the magazine...happy, edgy days!
....and I've just discovered that the magazine has been relaunched, although the tagline of "for men who should know better" has been replaced with "for men who know better", so I already have a sinking feeling, not helped by the news that the editor is a "fitness influencer"...
SINGLES MISSING
It's now three months since Record Collector magazine ran a singles reviews page; losing Ian McCann to retirement was a big enough blow as he was such a great supporter of the label, but having no-one in place to take over is getting really worrying.
It's hard enough to get a single reviewed in print these days - RC and Shindig! have been fantastic - but at the moment two have become one and I hate having to (mis)quote Spice Girls lyrics.
BOOTLEG HIM
I'm amazed at the number of 'unofficial' live recordings of the likes of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin that are now being listed by Amazon and Juno.
I thought such releases were still illegal and sought out advice through Facebook. I'm told that recordings of gigs that were broadcast on radio ro TV are fair game - as long as the recordings are taken FROM the radio or TV broadcast, and not the original source.
Interesting! (If anyone has more information on this, please email me)
BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID
I certainly was back in 1963, when it ran on ITV - the whirling of the space station and the sliding doors' whooshing sound really freaked me out. Talking Pictures are going to re-run the entire series from mid-June - 60-odd years on and I'll probably be just as scared.
If you didn't see it first time round, give it a go - it's pretty crude technically, but it puts the likes of Fireball XL5 in its place
DON'T TELL LIZ
saw this photo on Facebook and felt obliged to share it - not a laughing matter at all, of course...
SENDELICA vs
OZRIC TENTACLES
Two great sets at Komedia in Bath - first time I've been to the venue and it's an impressive place.
Made one grave mistake in letting my lad Chris choose the pubs before and after the gig - 10% triple IPA to end the evening? Never again.
FRIDAY NIGHT BATH
Looking forward to seeing Sendelica and Ozric Tentacles in Bath on Friday night - it's been a while since I've seen Sendelica playing away from home, and the Ozrics will be a first for me
WIMBLEDON XXXD
Unexpected star of the Kingston Beer Festival - a 12.7% cask bitter from the Wimbledon Brewery. A bit on the sweet side, almost inevitably, but smooth and rich, with a bit of creme brulee mixed in somewhere.
GOOD NEWS FOR THE FEW
I was surprised to find - turning up about 10 mins before early opening - that there were less than 20 people ahead of me in the queue. Once inside, surprise turned to something better as the fair was HUGE! Probably 150 stalls - as advertised (but not always delivered on by some organisers) - but a complete lack of us punters.
I spent a very happy 90 mins picking up some very cheap slightly-unofficial releases - such as four different Genensis double LP recordings from the early 70s for £10 a time.
It did liven up a bit by the time I left, I just hope the dealers did OK and there's a return match later this year - well worth a visit if there is.
A few thoughts on what I saw and heard - lots of 'overstocks' stalls, selling new albums at £10 a time; some very expensive 'collectible items' stalls that I soon gave up on; surprisingly few CD stalls, and they seemed to be doing very little business. I overheard some stories of dealers being offered bulk quantities of well-known artists on the cheap - lots of Queen/Beatles/Hendrix/Dylan available, for instance.
TAKING THE PROVERBIAL?
£45 from HMV.
I lost count on Discogs how many times this has been reissued; this time - no extras, just a different colour vinyl.
Sometimes I wonder if record labels are starting to take the…
(but a great album all the same!)
FAREWELL IAN McCANN
Huge thanks to Ian McCann, at various times editor and singles reviewer for Record Collector magazine, who has recently retired from the magazine. As well as being a remarkably nice bloke for a journalist, Ian has been a massive supporter of Fruits de Mer Records, indie labels and artists, and vinyl in general for god only knows how many years.
Ian - your kind words will be sorely missed - and if you're ever in a Walton on Thames pub between 2.45 and 3pm on a rainy Thursday afternoon in July, the first drink is on me (as long as it's only a half)
NONE MORE BROWN
The annual beer festival in Kingston claims it's keeping pace with the timesand there'll be more keg and more hazy beer than ever before; although my kids have been gradually weaning me off the brown stuff I still think the best way to enjoy a hazy beer is to stare hard at your sixth pint of Marson's Pedigree
BAD NEWS FOR THE BANK MANAGER
Looks like a seriously big record fair on Sunday - and it's almost within walking distance of home - it would be churlish not to go
UTV!!!
Our first time in the Champions League for over 40 years!
OK, we fell away a bit in the last three months, but Unai has transformed the team on the pitch, he's changing the club behind the scenes and he's even got the fans believing - and we're a dour, pessimitic bunch at the best of times!
PARDON?
Despite a couple of equipemnt glitches, Acid Mothers Temple made a storming start to their UK tour at the Hope & Ruin in Brighton. Loud? I managed to get to the front, facing Kawabata Makoto and Higashi Hiroshi, and my ears are still ringing nearly 24 hours later
ASCOT ON SEA
A great way to build up to the Acid Mothers gig - Brighton races...a lovely way to spend a hot sunny day, overlooking the south downs (albeit a pretty ropey way to spend a cold, wet and windy one).
ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE
Off to Brighton soon to see AMT with a couple of mates and one of my kids - should be interesting as the venue (the Hope & Ruin) has a capacity of 150, but feels a lot smaller and is sold out.
Hopefully I'll be able to fight off some of the big kids and nab a tour lathe-cut off Phil '345rpm' Macy!
LOLLAPAGOOZA 2
Lollapagooza 2 at the Hope & Ruin on April 27 in Brighton - loads of bands for a tenner - good fun, although we saw less than planned due to a clash with Villa's (very disappointing) game vs Chelsea.
Headshrinkers were the most impressive of the acts we saw, not at all swayed by the fact that they're from the Black Country.
FLYING THE FLAG
...for British football in Europe - who'd have thought it? (Not me, that's for sure)
ANOTHER CRIMSON KING
A remake of the King Crimson King, with musicians including Todd Rundgren, Ian Paice, Mel Collins and Steve Hillage - got to be worth a listen... CLICK HERE
NOT THE TOWN I KNEW
I'm from the black country, rather than Birmingham and I left the Midlands for London by the end of the 70s, but 'This Town' didn't really do it for me...dodgy accents, almost inevitably, it's hard to believe anyone talked with a Brummie accent in real life (we/they did!); as for the 'live' music - that last song in the last episode would surely have had the skinheads bottling the band, not singing along with them?
RSD?
RSD 2024 looms and I've got nothing planned for the day, so do I crack? My days of queueing are long-gone, but maybe a mid-morning trip to Banquet Records in Kingston... better have another look at what will be on offer, I suppose...
Well, I had another look and all I've come up with is the Yes live album, so it looks like a lie-in.
BARRY THE FISH
You'll hear about Barry 'The Fish' Melton in relation to an FdM release soon, meanwhile check out this gig at the Cellar Bar just a few days before this summer's Dr. Sardonicus festival - a chance to see one of the psychedelic greats of the 60s on stage...
GULLIBLE IN GUILDFORD
Once in a while there's a decent record fair at GLive in Guilford, and I was there - I couldn't resist a double LP of mid-60s Small Faces live recordings - even if the release is a bit 'dubious' - and who could refuse an official Small Faces live set, with the back cover signed by Kenney Jones?
THE PIG'S TROTTERS
If I had a scooter (ok, if i could ride a scooter for starters), this is the scooter I'd want - Small Faces branded.
WHO KILLED JENNY?
I've lost touch with South Park in recent years, but happened on this 'special' on a holiday flight - and it's brilliant! I won't spoil the initial joke (too much) but it looks at what happens when Disney revisits classic characters and 'adjusts' them to meet current sensibilities. It tears into Disney, but takes a more general swipe at TV/film-makers - and it's bloody funny.
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
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www.fruitsdemerrecords.com
...hear the tracks.. ..buy the vinyl.. ..smell the fish...
www.fruitsdemerrecords.com
...hear the tracks.. ..buy the vinyl.. ..smell the fish...