if you're not already a member, and you're buying pretty much every Fruits de Mer release that comes out, email me now to find out what you're missing out on by not being in the club(fruitsdemer7@hotmail.com) - there's no financial commitment, just a bit of trust on both sides and an ability to put up with more emails from me than you ever thought possible - 'benefits' include a chance to pre-order new releases before anyone else, competitions to win white label test pressings, maybe the odd freebie/bonus item during the year AND - if you really do buy regularly from me - a members-only something-or-other at year-end. All that said, if you ARE in, this needed no introduction and you're probably getting bored by now so, in the words of the late, great Vivian Stanshall, "now read on"....

OLD POSTINGS, NEW POSTINGS...ACTUALLY, JUST OLD POSTINGS...

FRIENDS OF THE FISH

club members will know what I'm referring to - if you're not a club member, look what you're missing....I could mention nick nicely, Vibravoid, Stay, The Bevis Frond, Sendelica, Soft Hearted Scientists, Hi-Fiction Science and a tribute to George Best(!) but i don't want to irritate non-members, so i'll just suggest you check out this page on the FdM site

TELL US ABOUT YOUR FIRST TIME...

...the first time club members bought an LP, with their own money, that is.
That's the challenge in the latest FdM club competition, with goodie-bags of err, goodies, for three of the entrants.
Check out contributions from members whose purchases ranged from embarrassing to classic, interspersed with admissions of guilt from a few 'names' who will be familiar to members and non-members like - step forward nick nicely, Leo O'Kelly, Dick Taylor, Ian McCann, Beay and more.....
I'll try to add a few more over the next week, but here goes...

Let's start with Beau, who has - possibly - the longest memory of anyone so far! He started with Elvis, but went onto Duane Eddy, and soon had his own band, The Raiders, who finally made it onto vinyl - 50 years late - on Fruits de Mer's 2014 Annual...
"The very first album I bought with my own cash was Elvis Presley’s “Elvis Is Back” in 1960. It cost me 32/6 (£1.63) at Vallance’s in Leeds – £27.64 in today’s money! Makes present-day vinyl seem cheap! Like millions of others, I’d been eagerly awaiting Presley’s return to recording after leaving the military. The first single – “Stuck On You” – had been OK (though a bit smooth for my liking), but I had high hopes for the album. Actually, I was really disappointed when I got it home. I know now of course that Elvis was already musically dead, but that’s with 20/20 hindsight. Gone for ever was that raucous, anarchic energy and power that had been the Presley trademark in pre-army days. Strangely though, I do still have the album – it’s in front of me now. The gatefold sleeve, ‘Laminated with Clarifoil made by British Celanese Limited’, is a bit yellowed with time but, sad to say, the record’s still in pretty-near mint nick. It’s had very little play. On balance, I should have bought my second album first; Duane Eddy’s “Especially For You”. That DID get a lot of play..."

Timelord Michalis was already running his own music business by the time he bought his first album....!
"This is so hard! I mean, the first Record I bought with my "own" money? I think, that i already had around 50 LPs when I actually earn a few cash (by recording a couple of cassette compilations and sell them to some school mates). So, I got 300 drachmas and went straight to the local record shop... I must admit that i hadn't too many LP choices... Most of the records were traditional Greek folk and assorted like Mpouzouki, Sirtaki Dance etc.....So, there was a box with a few second hand records that "a hairy guy left them in order someone might be interested"... So, when I first saw the cover, I went "Hey, I know the Beatles, but why in this photo are so "hairy"? After a few more searching I saw another look-like LP, Red this time, with the familiar "clean" Beatles faces... So, which one to choose? The Red or the Blue? The 1962-1966 or the 1967-1970? And the winner... was the Blue Album! I think it was sometime early 1982, around 11 years old. Single vinyl was 150 drachmas and the double 300. Of course, a few years later I bought the Red one. At the same record store, was in the same box, waiting patiently its new owner..."

Al Simones (who has his single out on Fruits de Mer very soon!) was another guy who financed his first album purchase through his 'business interests' (and i love it that his girlfriend at the time was called Mary Lou)...
"While I had been buying 45rpm singles for quite some time ...it wasn't until 1969 when I purchased my first full length album. I was 11 years old at that time ...and money was scarce ..at least for me. My resource of finding the occasional nickle, or quarter that had fallen down into the couch just wasn't reliable. Having spent a lot time hanging out at local "Texaco" gas station where the older guys were often preoccupied working on their muscle car in preparation for the next drag race ... I was told that I could keep $2 for each tire I would change - balance - and mount for customers who would come in. In 1969 ..that was good money! Soon after, I graduated to buying albums. The first album I bought was "Three Dog Night ~ Captured Live at the Forum". The album was purchased in the plaza just near the gas station at a department store named "Topps". The price on it was something like $4.77 ..a typical price back then.
If I wasn't hanging with the older "gear heads" at the gas station ...I was at my girlfriend "Mary Lou's" house. She had 3 older sisters ..who of course had cool "hippy" boyfriends that were often around. It was there were I frequently heard the album ..and wanted my own copy. Since my collection has grown vastly, I don't listen to that record often these days. However ..I do still think it's a pretty good album, and still enjoy it on occasion.. It has great vocals and harmonies, really nice heavy organ and some tasty guitar as well. I think they were a pretty good band. I also very much enjoyed their album entitled 'Naturally'
". I'm so glad those sounds were part of the soundtrack to my youth."

Bill Sweeney from King Penguin has fond memories of The Monkee's first album, and of the band....
"Ours was not a musical household. There was a TV and my father watched sports on it. There was a radio and my father listened to sports on it. Somehow how though one of those latching mono phonographs made its way into the house. With it came a few singles, novelty stuff like "Georgy Girl" but also "For What It's Worth."
Eventually, an impressive if plastic stereo followed. Three albums from that era stick out - "Paul Revere and the Raiders Greatest Hits," "Sgt. Pepper" and "The Monkees." The latter was first. With it, rock became an infatuation, as was the case for young people all across the nation. We knew of the criticism that they "didn't play their instruments" but it mattered not. We knew they were real. We knew they were the American Beatles. It's been said that the Monkees put guitars into the hands of more U.S. kids than any other band. That was true. It wasn't real unless it was on television. You could point to the TV, to the Monkee, to the the guitar you wanted. Maybe you didn't come away with an expensive Gretsch but the Japanese import was fine.
The first group was the Ravens. The lead guitarist/vocalist was Lanny Sichel, now a bandmate in Fruits de Mer Records' King Penguin (note the avian theme). Also on guitar was Stu Newman, who we just saw play on Ave. A in New York. Stevie Towner was our Gene Clark/Davy Jones, playing tambourine and singing and looking cool. There was a drummer.
When the Monkees came around recently, Lanny and I ended up with tickets to different concerts. Davy Jones was missed but it was an incredible and emotional performance with suitably psychedelic overtones that added a Fruits de Mer atmosphere. When i got home, i went online and bought scalper tickets to the next night's sold out show. I went up the balcony and found Lanny. We embraced.
Hey, Hey, we're King Penguin."

Mike Stax, the Ugly Things magazine boss, started his LP-buying with a Pretty Things album and never looked back....
"The first album I owned was David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, a Christmas present from my parents in 1973 in the then-popular prerecorded cassette format. I was 11 years old. It would be a year or two later before I purchased my first actual VINYL album on a market stall in Leicester: Emotions by the Pretty Things. I think it cost me 70p. I’d read about the Pretty Things, and I knew “Rosalyn” and “Don’t Bring Me Down” from Bowie’s Pinups album. I was curious to hear more. The album cover resonated with me: the shadowy faces, the long hair, the gelatinous orange lettering of the title, which reminded me of Rubber Soul—an album my dad had turned me on to. I was already feeling the magnetic pull of the 1960s, and this seemed like as good a jumping off point as any. I jumped off.
I have to confess I was a little disappointed when I first played it. It was nothing like “Don’t Bring Me Down.” There were horn sections jumping in at odd intervals, while other songs were smeared with violins and cellos. But I persevered, and played it again. And again. And before long it started to hook me, especially the lyrics. Each song seemed to be a small, self-contained story, relating a different experience of life in the big city: “Death of a Socialite,” “Children,” “House of Ten,” “Photographer”—there were entire worlds contained in each of these songs. There was something almost otherworldly about “The Sun.” I think it was that song that made me fall in love with Phil May’s voice. Within a short time, the Pretty Things were my favourite band, and almost forty years later they still are.
I still have that copy of Emotions. The best 70p I ever spent."

Geoff 'Static Caravan' Dolman recalls the genesis of his LP-buying habit...
"It was Ashton in Makerfield Secondary School, probably early 76 when I discovered the ‘Rock Club’. This basically consisted of sitting in a school room whilst the English teacher played albums that got filtered by him to fit the ‘Rock Category’ , they also took us on trips to gigs. Floyd at Bingley Hall for the ‘Animals ‘ tour.
I remember ‘2112’ for sure being a defining record but then that thing that clicks with you , that knee jerk reaction. What is this I need to find it and it was ‘Trick of the Tail’.
Yes my first Genesis album wasn’t a Gabriel led album but the first post Gabriel album. I then spent some time looking at records, getting singles as pocket money gifts , taping the Phil Easton show on Radio City before finally I got some Birthday money that allowed me to buy an actual album of my own choice. Trick of the Tail was out of stock but Wind and Wuthering was available and I went for it . I loved it , I love it now. Like all great bands and albums it is better than the sum of its parts. Like all great records it has an awesome sleeve, gee I mean it was textured for starters. Afterglow would still probably be a favourite for me and live it always made me just happy to be alive.
This really did start the journey for me. Getting all the releases , going to live shows, then following the label, realising that actually this was a great way to discover unknown to me artists. Phil Collins plays on ‘ before and after science’ , I need to buy this. Gabriel is starting a ‘ world music ‘ festival , I need to go."

Curvey, from The Luck Of Eden Hall, is another musician to have started his LP-buying journey with Three Dog Night...
"Okay, okay. I have to start off by saying I received my first batch of vinyl from my Aunt Sue. I was lucky to inherit a bunch of her 45s including the Stones, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the McCoys, the Monkees and loads of other goodies. As for the first LP I ever purchased with my own money, a-hem, Three Dog Night’s album Naturally. I’m ashamed to admit I thought they wrote Your Song (Elton), Woman (Free) and god knows what other blasphemes, but I was in 3rd grade. I purchased it brand new and still have the LP because I’m a pack rat. Originally I went to the store to buy Maggie May with my Mom, but it was sold out. Honest! "

Let's hear from Dick Taylor, The Pretty Things' legendary lead guitarist, recalling his first-ever LP purchase...
"As far as I can recall the first album I bought with my own money was 'Yes Indeed' by Ray Charles, I already had quite a few singles and EPs, but left the albums to my sister, who was five years older than me and largely shared the same tastes, I also was an early home taping freak, I used to borrow the imported Chuck, Bo and Jimmy Reed albums that my classmate, a certain M. Jagger used to buy on import and stick them on a reel to reel, which I also connected to the radio. As for the Ray Charles album, I ordered it from a local shop and was highly delighted when it arrived, and just as highly cheesed off to find the completely wrong album in the sleeve! I finally got the correct disc and nearly wore it out, I finally lost track of it about 15 years later when I moved, but by that time it was pretty unplayable.
I would be lying if I said how much the record cost , but i guess around thirty bob (slang for one pound ten shillings or one pound fifty in "new" money). I had pretty broad tastes at the time and had a large list wish but small pockets, I know I bought a Mingus album and a Muddy Waters one shortly after, I still have the record player we used to play them on, which my sister bought, it had a coaxial input so it also doubled up as a way of amplifying a microphone when Mick, and later on Keith used to come round and rehearse."

Then there's Robert Camassa, club member and Radio Cyprus' answer to John Peel...
Still a teenager in 1977 trying to balance school with DJing in a club (every night). Becoming a DJ at an early age was my ticket to financial freedom as the 70s were tough times I'm my part of the world. So, off I go to Nicosia's leading record shop "Studio 7" who actually made their income by pirating music on cassettes rather than selling records. I had one thing and one thing on my mind : "Stranger in the City" by John Miles. I made sure by calling the owner to make sure he did not sell the only copy available. I pick up the album and browse through the other new releases (about 8-for the whole month!) and the Television cover with the imposing figure of Tom Verlaine just cannot stop staring at me. I look back at the black and white cover of the John Miles record.
"Can I listen to this?"
"You should know better than that. The turntables are all busy dubbing tapes." I waited a good hour and finally, through the headphones I heard that unique, unusual, unprecedented, utterly thrilling guitar interplay between Verlaine and Lloyd.
"I'll get this one instead"
"What do you mean! What am I gonna do with John Miles?'
"Stick it where the sun don't shine?" (We were actually good friends with the owner) Of course I revisit Marquee Moon from time to time and it has a special place in my collection which is… vast, to say the least. Where would The Edge or Frusciante be today without Television? These guys were post punk before punk broke. And if you cannot notice the subtle psychedelic nuances in the music, well…

..and this one is from FdM club member Hanspeter Kuenzler...
"I bought the Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds' in Ex Libris in Zürich Oerlikon.
I was about 11 years old then. 'Sloop John B' had been the first single I bought and, apart from 'Revolver' and a handful of classical albums (the parents thought this was the way to go) I also had a German Beach Boys compilation, an Xmas present, called "Surf, Beat, Fun". When I listened to Pet Sounds for the first time I was deeply disappointed.
Were these even proper songs? However, I kept playing the album, initially just because the money didn't seem quite such a waste if I at least played the damn thing. Slowly, I started to make out contours in the mist, however. And about a year later, it clicked. From then on, I listened to "Pet Sounds" several times every day for a few weeks. One day I shared my enthusiasm with a family friend. He handed me a bundle of carrier bags and told me to borrow as many albums from him as I wanted. Thus came the next step of my musical education: Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, Incredible String Band, Amon Düül 2. I still have my original Pet Sounds."

Club member Craig Palmer remembers his first album as a toss-up between David Bowie and Noddy Holder...
"In November 1973 on my 10th birthday, I walked to 'Sounds Right Records' to buy either ‘Aladdin Sane' or 'Sladest'. As 'Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me' roared through the speakers; this pleezed me & helped me decide. Slade it would be.
When the owner removed the LP, he'd neglected to remove the cigarette out of the corner of his mouth, so this was my first coloured vinyl experience (black with grey ash swirl). It had a gatefold sleeve with an 8 page booklet with pictures of the band. I recall feeling very sad whilst I looked at my hero Don Powell & wondered if he would recover from his car accident. As a very special treat my parents allowed me to play 'Sladest' in the living room. I was familiar with most of the hits & loved 'One Way Hotel'/'Pouk Hill'/'The Shape of Things to Come' 4 years later I part exchanged 'Sladest' for the 'No More Heroes' LP. I asked my mother if it was OK to listen to it. 'As long as there is no swearing on it' . Approximately 15 minutes later during the first chorus of 'Bring On The Nubiles'
my mother issued me with a lifelong restraining order regarding playing records in the house & she banned me from buying records 'Forever'.
Sometimes I wished I'd taken her advice.
Dedicated to Roy & Marie."

Nick Saloman (The Bevis Frond) remembers his first album...
"Okay here's where I make myself sound about 1000 years old. First album I bought was The Shadows first LP in 1961 when I was 8. I saved up my pocket money for weeks, and went and got it from National Radio in St. Johns Wood High Street. I don't remember what it cost, but I guess it was probably something like 32/6 (£1 12s 6d). I bought it because I was totally into The Shadows. I didn't want any other album, I was saving up specifically for that one. I had just started playing guitar, and Hank Marvin was my hero at that time. I loved the album, played it to death. I still have it, and still love it. The second album I bought was The Shadows second album, 'Out Of The Shadows'! But shortly after that The Beatles appeared and things began to change..."

FdM club member Ray Canham shows his age when he describes his first LP purchase....!
"I turned 14 and spent my birthday money on a budget Bill Haley record. I was either strangely attracted to quiffs or wanted a change from making sticky, deformed Airfix model planes. Halfway through side one I started a lifelong addiction. Bill Haley gradually became Jerry Lee Lewis who morphed into Quo and Sabbath. I discovered pirate radio and worked at the local chip shop to fund my growing habit. I had Bowie, T Rex and Pink Floyd scrawled on my pencil case. My best friend had the Confederate flag and Showaddywaddy on his. I like to think I won. Living in Suffolk we were surrounded by American airbases, which delighted the inner nerd in me. (“So that’s what an A-10 Tankbuster is supposed to look like” I’d sigh, stamping another failed Airfix kit into the bin…) It exposed my youthful self to American service families with exotic record collections. Lou Reed, The Stooges, MC5 and Funkadelic were swapped for Deep Purple, Sabbath and UFO. Then came punk! In the space of a year my world exploded into a thousand musical fragments, every one more exciting than the last. And yes I still have that Bill Haley record, nothing could make me part with it, although If you look closely you can still see a finger mark that looks suspiciously like it’s made with Airfix glue."

andclub member David Donovan had to dig deep to find his first album...
"I brought my first album from Derricks hardware shop in Upton Park (There were loads of boxes of LP’s outside the shop all the time) around 1971-2 I would love to say it was something cool by Floyd or Can etc but it was called ‘Thunderball and other secret agent themes’ on a label so cheap no artist was named.It cost 25P and was that or a ‘Top of the pops’LP but due to my love of James Bond I had to have it.I had many happy hours playing 007 while listening to it ,but once I got the original soundtracks it had to go."

Record Collector magazine's editor, Ian McCann remembers his first time....
"I lost my album virginity to Deep Purple’s Fireball. I’d bought it after Christmas 1971 on the recommendation of an older cousin, Michael. “It’s great,” he’d nodded in his bedroom sanctuary, which he’d painted… purple. He didn’t play it to me, but had long hair and rarely spoke, so his word carried weight.
Armed with a record token, days later I dashed to HMV, Walthamstow, cradling Fireball home like a first-born – slowly, deliberately; almost suckling it. I span it on the Dansette Popular in a state of bliss, poring over the lyrics, seeking clues about the meaning of life and when to start shaving, probably.
“I’ve bought an LP,” I told my brother, who’d seen the Purps at The Roundhouse – Dagenham, not Chalk Farm. “It’s weird,” I added, smugly.
“You shouldn’t have bought it, then,” growled my earwigging dad. Ritchie Blackmore agreed, claiming in an interview that it had been dashed off after the title track charted.
A decade later, homeless, I stashed some albums at a kindly friend’s gaff. When I eventually returned, I discovered she’d flogged them for ganja money. In 1990 I acquired Fireball again at Backtrax, Ilford. It doesn’t get played often, but dad and Ritchie were wrong – twice."

Icarus Peel had the same urge...
"The first album I actually shelled out for was, I believe, Fireball by Deep Purple. Previously I had to rely on gifts and my brothers infrequent rejects. I bought it from a record shop in Sydenham that was wonderfully extensive and diverse, the owner even let me browse his singles book to find gems I may not have otherwise discovered. I loved the album for it's marvelous design work and the unique smell of printing and vinyl almost more than the music, it was really a very tactile thing. I can remember being a little disappointed that there were not as many flat out Fireball clones as I should have liked, but overall it was a wonderful buy. My brother had got me "In Rock" for my birthday and they sat so well together. The famous whoooosh at the beginning of the Fireball track can still send me back to that time with an almost violent nostalgia. Saw 'em twice on the Made In Japan type English tour and still have Ian Paice's drumstick somewhere........

nick nicely demonstrated that one man was an island...
"that's tricky . Probably going to be 'Nice Enough To Eat' compilation...the first version with all the pills on the cover (the joke was a bit too risqe so Island changed it for all subsequent pressings (lightweights) ). Don't remember the shop ...could've been Woolworths in Barnet .
14/6d was the price . I bought it because it was cheap and liked the druggy cover and wanted to get an idea of what these artists were like . There were other compilations around , another Island one 'You Can All join In' was it . My mate bought Gutbucket and later Fill Your Head With Rock(s) (our joke at the time) 'Bumpers' was another .All second rate imo .
The album was/is just wonderful , no other comp came close imo . Schizoid Man, Free, Blodwyn Pig ,Spooky Tooth, Nick Drake ,Tull...all time favourite track '40, 000 Headmen' from Traffic ....all the way through to Strangely Strange . I've recreated it at home but am still missing the Heavy Jelly which I loved at the time and haven't heard since .
The album that I bought inspired by this comp was Tull's 'Stand Up' I'd loved the way-wah solo on comp track ,We Used To Know..but there was none on Stand Up , disappointed but Stand Up was ok . This classic comp album was a tragic casualty of a parental clear out a few years later .

and Paul Foster played a Queen when Ray Canham was playing the king...(sorry, Paul!)
"The first album I bought was Queen II. It was second-hand from the much missed Alan Fearnley’s in Middlesbrough and cost me 80p. It was sometime in 1975. I was eleven.
I often stayed with my granddad, and two of my uncles who lived with him were avid record collectors. I was raised on a menu of Tommy, In Search Of Space, Spring (two melotrons!), Selling England by the Pound, Forever Changes, Kimono My House, I had too Much to Dream Last night and all things VdGG. One uncle used to take me round various record shops in Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool and exotic places like Whitby. He’d also take me to toy shops where I’d buy model railway things and subutteo teams. It was on one such trip that I decided I’d had enough of childish things and wanted my own gatefold sleeve to pore over. The one that caught my eye was Queen II. So 39 years later do I still play it? Yes. Not the same copy though. I do still have it but I’ve bought it in better condition since. I still think it’s their best and most experimental album and it’s one of the first things I’d grab if my house was burning down."

Leo O'Kelly from Tir na nOg has fond memories of his first album purchase...
"Easy! First LP was Donovan's What's Bin Did And What's Bin Hid.(Great title!) Bought it in 1965 from Mahon's Electrical Shop in my hometown, Carlow. I'd recently bought his Universal Soldier EP, which was the very first record I ever bought...well it would have been if I hadn't returned Rolling Stones' Got Live If You Want It...too noisy! My musical course took a sharp turn there! It cost 30 shillings. I loved it, and still do. Skiffle, blues, Woody, great original songs! The whole idea of singing songs with just an acoustic guitar just spelled freedom! I lent it to my best friend, Noel, who hung onto it!...I sang Catch The Wind at his funeral a few years ago, so it doesn't look like I'll get my original copy back now. Just this summer Tir na nOg were playing at Lunar Festival in Tanworth in Arden, and I found myself and Donovan having breakfast directly across the road from the little churchyard that Nick Drake is buried. There were just the two of us there, and I just had to introduce myself to Donovan, who was most gracious. I started the conversation by telling him about my first ever LP purchase. He said the album was called Catch The Wind in USA. I couldn't even begin to tell him the amazing and wonderful journey his first LP sent me on. Thank you Donovan."

Stuart A Hamilton went from Mel Blanc to AC/DC in one step when he moved from singles to his first album...
"I was 13 years old, I’d just got my work permit from Lothian Regional Council, which allowed me to work 6 days a week including Thursday afternoons and all day Saturday. I was as an apprentice butcher, and with morning paper and milk rounds, and Sunday paper round, I’d never seen so much money. £10 a week, and after I gave my mother £7, I had money to burn. Uncle Bill had promised me a record player for Christmas, and had been to the auction at Stewart’s Ballroom, where a white melamine Elizabethan brand turntable had my name on it. I thought I’d better add to my Mel Blanc Tweety Pie and Showaddywaddy singles, in anticipation. so bunked off school and went to Ezy Ryder in the Oddfellows Hall market. This was where the cool kids went, so I was bit leery, but courage summoned up, I started rummaging. I didn’t know what I wanted, but with second hand albums at £1.80, I was having something. And there it was! The coolest album cover ever. A schoolboy impaled on a guitar! It was mine, it was AC/DC and their “If You Want Blood” live album. I was a rocker!"

club member Jan Poulsen started his diet of buying albums with a Danish....
"After having bought dozens of singles for three years I finally made it to the bigger format at the age of 8 in 1971 where I bought the then brand new self-titled lp by the most popular and rebellious Danish rockstar in the 60’s, PETER BELLI, who was actually the first person in Denmark to serve time (60 days) for smoking hash. I bought the lp at the local record store in the Valby-part of Copenhagen where I grew up. It costed Dkr 44,50 (approx 5 pounds today but I have no idea how much it was then).
The lp was more pop than rock with Danish versions of popular songs such as Ringo’s Octopus Garden and Peter Sarstedt’s Where Do You Go To My Love but they were not straight translations but rather social conscious interpretations.
I do still have the lp and I do still love everything about it from the orange gatefold sleeve via the beautiful b/w photos inside to the music itself. And it is still one of few studio-lp’s I do know of where the artist is introducing – in a rather poetic spoken way – all the songs. A year later I lost interest in Danish music and in the spring of 1973 - now 10 years old – I bought David Bowie’s ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ as my first non-Danish lp. But that’s another story which I have already written a book about…"

Mike Simpson hit the LP-buying road with....
"I remember planning for September 1974 for a long time....soon I would be off to University at Cardiff...independence at last! I was fortunate to have a brother who loved music so my record purchases were non existent, after all why buy something when your brother used his hard earned money instead! But when I left home for Uni I had one great shortcoming, not only did I not have a record collection, I didn't have a record player either, so my first priority was to buy a cheap system and after a visit to a local hi-fi supplier I bought some ex demo cast offs....I could not wait to try it out.
I remember listening to some obscure radio show the night before and on came a song that will stay with me forever. Here was a Krautrock band called Kraftwerk and we were given an short excerpt from their new release Autobahn. Well all I can say it that the radio station could only play a few minutes but I knew I had to have it so off I went clutching my grant money and I purchased what I now consider to be one of the most innovative LP's I possess. I can't remember how much it cost but soon came to appreciate that I had to look after such an investment which cost me the equivalent of a few days food and drink so i also bough plastic dust covers!! I bought this from the infamous Spillers Records in Cardiff, the shop intrigued me as it purported to be the oldest record store in the world. I thought that that was a good selling line but needless to say subsequently found out it was true! When I played the title track, all 23 odd minutes i was completely mesmerised, and had to play it again and again, two hours later it was ingrained in my psyche.....wow!!! This investment led me on a road from which there was no return and 40 years later my first purchase is still with me in pride of place and in the same plastic dust" cover!"

Dylan Line from Soft Hearted Scientists come clean on his first album...
"It was Miles Davies' Bitches Brew and I was three. That of course is a lie....
...Antmusic for sex people ! " Having barely turned eleven years of age it sure felt great to be a sex person, be it a pre-pubescent one, and I was committed to the cause. Graduating from the single's counter in Woolies, £3.99 was spent at ' The Turntable ' in Newport, Shropshire, to this day I remember the shop sign, it was a turntable. Having devoured the Ants' campaign of singles I was already familiar with a chunk of the record but to then hear ' Killer in the Home ' and ' Ant Invasion ' I was steered from the popularity of the charts, and pop music was beginning to feel obscure and different ( two million primary school children also felt the same way. ) A musical sparring partner to this day, my friend Nathan purchased the album around the same time and as conscientious objectors to " Who wants to play Army " we paraded the school playground at break-time " Who wants to play Adam and the Ants " taking turns to be Adam or Marco ( Not certain we were confirmed pacifists though forcing Stephen Baldock to walk the plank singing " Hoist the Jolly Roger" ) The eclecticism of KOTWF would have had a formative influence in furthering my musical appreciation. If ' Rumble ' by Link Wray is purported to be the first Heavy Metal record, I heard the riff first on Kings, and soon I would be revisiting The Turntable to buy Saxon albums. At odds to The new wave of British Heavy Metal the funk driven ' Don't be square be there ' may have influenced the role in my first band proper, a psychedelic baggy disco group. Kings remains a classic. Leapfrog the dog and brush me, daddy oh."

FdM's resident engineer/producer/mastering guy and many other 'things i don't understand' expert - Fran Ashcroft from Happy Beat Studios started his album collection with a little-known band from his local area...
"A Hard Day's Night, bought at The Galleries junk shop, 12/6d, in either 1968 or 1969. I'd heard If I Fell for the first time on the radio that morning, and was utterly captivated by the harmonies. I still am. Albums were 32/- at the time - I couldn't possibly have afforded a new copy on a schoolboy's wage. I would have jumped at any other Beatle album for that price (which I did a few weeks later when Please Please Me and With The Beatles turned up for five bob each in the same shop - obviously the fabs had got too weird for Preston folk by then).
However, the first RECORD I bought was The Beatles Hits EP, back in 1963. NEW, 10/11d. Opted for that as better value than a single (6/3d). My best mate already had the Twist and Shout EP, so between us - ALMOST an album.
Of course, I kept them all - they sit there today, on the same shelf as the latest FDM releases (plug, plug). Isn't it great how records have stories? "

Fruits de Mer club member Ray Collins still bears the mental scars from his first LP...
"The first album I bought with my own money was Mike Oldfields "Tubular Bells". I was around 10 years old and had been avidly listening to my older brothers records by this stage and was already addicted to LPs by The Who, Rolling Stones and David Bowie. I had bought a few singles by this stage and I recall the excitement of going into Timothy Whites record department in St Albans to buy it for £2 having heard it spoken about in revered tones by those much older and knowledgeable than me. You cannot believe how underwhelmed I was by this one track "instrumental" album! Where were the songs?! I then realised why there were no singles released from the LP! I played the album a number of times trying to force myself to like it but ended up just playing the first few minutes and the guitar sections as these were all that interested me. I have kept the original album to this day and I still can't play it all the way through as it reminds me of my disappointment all those years ago although it hasn't stop me buying "a few" other albums since...!!!"

FdM club member Pete Bowman couldn't believe it wasn't better when he got his first LP home...
"This is what happens when your dad finally buys a record player, you’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket and you’re desperate to buy a ‘grown up’ record but you’re miles away from a ‘proper’ music shop.
Not even by the man himself, this was basically a phoned in performance by some session bloke and hastily rattled out on the ‘Music for Pleasure’ label to trap unsuspecting youngsters like me. I was lured into a TV shop on Dovehouse Parade (they weren’t called shopping centres in those days) where they had a spinning wire rack chock full of ‘MfP’ LPs. I must have just glazed over in awe.
Took me an embarrassingly long time to twig that it wasn’t Presley – not because it was a great impersonation, but because I was 13. Strangely, I came across this LP again a few weeks ago in our local Oxfam shop.
Oh, and if anybody asks this question nowadays, I always tell them it was ‘Sticky Fingers’."

Ken Halsey from The Past Tense bought his first LP 35 years ago and clearly still hasn't grown up...
Tra La La La La La La – Of Course its THE DICKIES – THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING DICKIES.
"With Banana Splits riding high in the charts in 1979 and my first coloured vinyl 7” single safely bagged, my 13 year old self decided that this was the music for me. With a Vinyl Junkies sticker on the cover (little did I know how well that applied to me then) , a cheap A & M special price and in Coloured vinyl, yellow vinyl to be precise, it had to be acquired, so I trekked down to Earfriend (still the best name for a record shop ever) and spent my pocket money on it. Still hooked to this day I have bought everything the Dickies have ever released including the Blue and Orange Coloured vinyls of this Album ( i have a feeling someone else recently has cottoned on to the multiple coloured version releases of the same item eh. Keith !!). In 1979 this was certainly not the music for your parents and I still laugh when I recall I’d taped the album to play in the car whilst being taken on holiday to a caravan in Bognor Regis. Eve of destruction came on and the Dickies changed the line “ this whole crazy world is just to frustrating “ to “this whole fucking world is just to frustrating” and my mum making it quite clear that she didn’t recall those being the songs original lyrics.
They still play live and only a few days ago I was jumping around at the front, at the FLEECE in Bristol, thinking I was a teenager again. Happy Days then and now"

Marc Swordfish from Astralasia remembers the tactile pleasure of his first album...!
"first lp brought with my own pocket round money was t.rex 'ride a white 'music for pleasure,it was 49p or 99p i think,it was a toss up with move fire brigade mfp lp ,both had textured covers which i loved ,next one was bob downes deep down heavy,my local newsagent had a little rack.floyds meddle after that again that textured sleeve was next purchase but that was from w.h smiths.
i still have t.rex lp its a great comp of early stuff,thats prob why i got mushroom band to indulge me in my version of 'king of the rumbling spires' - still as yet unreleased."

Nick Leese, from Heyday Mail Order got stoned when he bought his first LP...
"The first album I bought was The Rolling Stones compilation ‘Get Stoned’ in 1977. It was bought from the local Woolworth’s. It was released on the Arcade label. Arcade, like K-Tel, was a TV advertised label. I remember seeing the advert so well for this album, despite it being about 30 seconds long! Just a snippet of Jagger’s face filling the TV screen singing ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and I was on the road to ruin! This was exciting! Terrible cover, huge ‘rubber’ mouth, corny I know, but cool pics inside, I mean, they were so cool weren’t they?
This was the year of Punk remember! ‘No more Elvis, Beatles and the Rolling Stones....’ Hmmm. Well maybe for my friends, but not for me!
A bit of background...Christmas 1977 was important. I was to have my first record player. A Fidelity UA4 no less! White speakers an all! For some reason my mother bought it for me in September and stashed it on top of the wardrobe until I was allowed to use it at Christmas! No point really - no records! I bought ‘Get Stoned’ with pocket money in late November. In preparation, of course...After that, each morning before school (and after my mother had gone to work) I’d get the box down, set the player up and play ‘Get Stoned’. Then again at lunch time, and if I had a chance, after school before she arrived home. Then it was a mad rush to pack the player back up, and place it back on top of the wardrobe. By Christmas, the album was well played! This music was the most vital I’d ever heard. Hard to tell the difference between ‘Satisfaction’ & ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ at first for some reason, but I soon got over that. I was shaken to the core. Why was no-one else at school into this? I was ribbed about it quite a bit actually.
I’ve still kept the album for sentimental reasons, but don’t play it now. I have all the other Stones albums, which play at Heyday Towers on a regular basis. They are my favourite band!"

The Chemistry Set's Dave McLean went for strings with his first LP purchase....
"A young Mod bought it at Our Price records in Putney High Street in the winter of 1978. It was a Saturday afternoon and they were actually playing it in the shop when I walked in. I stood there enthralled. I couldn't wait to get it home, get out the tennis racket and play air guitar !!!! ! That album also had a funny connection to my future self. Some of All Mod Cons was recorded at Eden Studios in Chiswick and 12 years later we recorded at Eden with Roger Bechirian producing and he was the engineer/tape op on "All Mod Cons". Yes really!!!! Do I still play it? no but I never forget the feeling of sheer energy it gave me and neither does my tennis racket!"

FdM club member Steve Tongs went for broke when he bought his first album..
"I had a few tapes, given as presents, Boomtown Rats, Buzzcocks and a couple of Beatles tapes which were being well chewed by my Bush tape recorder. Brought a music centre at the end of 1978 with birthday and Christmas money. First real slab of 12" vinyl I brought was Hawkwind's Space Ritual. Visited my elder long haired cousin who told me about this amazing record he had seen at Hobbs Records in Eastleigh, so we walked down and I brought it. Can't remember the price but it cleaned me out. At the time I wanted the Pistol's NMTB but he told me this was far better.
I was totally blown away by the album, and it started my love affair with all things Space/Rock/Progressive/Psychedelic. Still got the album, still love it"

Pete Bingham from Sendelica was a another teenager seduced by the feel of the record sleeve (not to mention the lure of big money) when he bought his first new LP...
"I bought a few singles as a young teenager along with a few second albums from a local hippy shop.... I recall buying stuff like Who Live at Leeds and a Wild Man Fisher album!!, that was certainly an eye opener. But the first 'brand new' album that I bought from our local record emporium in Blyth, Northumberland was Alice Coopers Billion Dollar Babies..... I was seduced by the gatefold snakeskin sleeve and then when I saw the free giant Billion Dollar Note THAT WAS IT... DEAL DONE!! Lol... nothing was going to compete with that.
Onto my little dansette it went and I loved it... it was so dark and almost forbidden.... my parent hated it!! I held onto it for many years but was sold, amongst many others, in the late 70's as a student when I needed to eat.
Still remember that Billion Dollar note though"

FdM club member Mark Waters remembers it was no joke when he bought his first album...
"My first LP was Cliff Richard and The Shadows Aladdin and his wonderful lamp.1964....My younger sisters and brother and I went to this Panto as a treat with Aunty Lottie a wonderful old woman....and I loved it so much (I was 11 at the time)I saved up 32 shillings to by it....my only disappointment was that there was not enough of Arther Askey's jokes!
Still have it ! Fortunately, help was around the corner with Out of our heads following closely behind..and of course John Mayall's Blues breakers... much to my parents chagrin! and my delight!"

Dave Smith needed somebody to love in his formative years, and bought this first album...
"It was 1967 and the Summer of Love had passed Stafford by. I'd bought “Somebody to Love” 7” by Jefferson Airplane after hearing it on pirate radio, even though I did not possess a record player. Some weeks later while on holiday I found a small record shop by the quayside in Lymington. Such wonders in that store! The Animals, Buffalo Springfield, Pink Floyd, Pretty Things – all were considered. However I zeroed in on “Surrealistic Pillow” by JA – I think it cost me 19s 11d – a full weeks paper round earnings!
Several days later I got to play the LP on a friend's Dansette – oh no – nothing like the single! Later in the year I was able to afford a record player and after playing the disc a few times, I got it. "3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds" and "Today" got played more often but I grew to love the LP. I bought every Airplane record after that.I had to replace the vinyl a couple of years later (thoughI still have the original, battered, copy) and eventually bought the cd."

Colin McCready's mum persuaded him to buy this, his first album...mine would have killed me if I'd come home with this under my arm...
"The first album(s) I bought were a couple of top of the pops compilation albums from John Menzies in Motherwell ...I'd been watching the TV during the week & saw the Rolling Stones video for their latest single "start me up " & was completely blown away by the sleazy sexiness of the opening riff . I didn't know anything of the stones other than the TV ads for rolled gold so for me they were a new band .
We got 2 the shop & I spotted the "tattoo you "album behind the counter & told my mum that's what I wanted but she said no that they were a load of rubbish & made me buy 2 crappy albums because they were buy 1 get 1 free ! Ever the bargain hunter.
She redeemed herself years later tho as we went together to see the stones at hampden park on the urban jungle tour"

When he set out to buy his first LP, John Sewell wanted fame, Well, fame costs, and Hornsea was where he started paying...
"Circa 1982, Cordocks toy shop in Hornsea had a small record section. Sometime that year, I entered with several weeks accumulated pocket money, and left bearing… Queen’s first album. A cheapo £2.99 “Fame” reissue, of which Cordocks had many, most of which were by then-unloved old 70s bands like Nazareth and Hawkwind. I chose it because I liked Queen – my Dad had bought “Greatest Hits” when it came out – and being OCD, even at that age, I thought that the beginning was the place to start.
At home, I played it and listened. Hmm… not like the then-current Queen at all, quite heavy in places, pinching from the Who and Zeppelin in equal measure (not that I’d ever heard Zep at that point.) I rather liked it, being on the brink of the heavy metal phase which a lot of boys went through aged around 13. Brian May going for it on the guitar solos of “Great King Rat” was exactly my sort of thing! More Queen followed on Fame, plus a Hawkwind album I’m not entirely sure why I bought. Still got that copy of “Queen” though – scratched and battered, but taken out for a spin now and again!"

Black Tempest's Steve Bradbury also bought in bulk on his first album shopping trip...
"Although I'd bought a couple of singles previously (my first was T.Rex's Ride a White Swan), it was a while before I had the money to buy a full album - and then I went mad and got two at once - Lindisfarne's Fog On The Tyne and John Lennon's Imagine. If I remember correctly I got them fro the record shop in the Sunbury-on-Thames shopping centre, although it may have been from the Ashford High Street record shop - it was so long ago now I really can't remember. I can't remember how much I spent either, but I must have been saving my pennies for a while to get both - I was only 12 at the time (1971). I still love both albums - it is nice not to be too ashamed of my early purchases!"

for his first-ever LP, Ian Shirley, editor of the Rare Record Price Guide, started out with a cheapo RCA Camden compilation - but at least it WAS the original artist...
"I think it was Elvis SIngs Burning Love and other hits from his movies. I saw in in the shop window of one of 2 record shops where I lived and as I was a young kid and watched Elvis films on TV all the time I had to have it. I am sure it cost 99p but that was a lot of money back then as I was only 10 years old in 1972. I know that it took me a couple of weeks to save up for it. I reckon though that I bought it in 1973 as by that time i was buying singles. I still have the LP."

FdM club member Stathis Paraskevopoulos splashed out on two LPs on his first spending spree (but maybe it's the single he bought earlier that's the purchase to home in on...)
"Greece 1977. Age 14. The day I bought my first two LP's not one. First venture with friends to a record store in downtown Athens... if I remember correctly it was called Philodisc... Money in pocket we enter and start browsing the Rock Record section. I saw two record: one of a giant robot terrorising the masses and another of a strange man cooking in the woods. Both intriguing .... so out comes the cash and off I go with Queen's News of the World and Jethro Tull's Songs from the Wood. I loved Songs from the Wood (intricate, sarcastic, playful to my young ears and strangely enough I ended up as an interpreter fro Ian Anderson at a press conference in the 90’s – Man does he speak fast!!!). News of the World left me indifferent. Not sure how much I paid but something around 500 drachma for both. Don't have either of these two albums - an unfortunate story of Vinyl treachery and theft of my original record collection.....
But the first slab of vinyl (single) I bought with my own cash was this... http://youtu.be/QBG2Fpg1x-Q Pinky and Perky singing Yellow Submarine. I think this where the madness started at the tender age of 7 in South Africa. 40 years on the obsession continues."

Fruits de Mer's very own Andy Bracken had sleepless night over his first album purchase...
"Blondie 'Parallel Lines' in Woolworths in March 1979. I was 11, which is a number comprised of parallel lines, I just realised. No idea what it cost, but I wouldn't think any more than £1.99.. I do recall it being a toss up between that, Squeeze or The Undertones.
Talking of toss up, I liked it very much, especially the sleeve, which invoked quite a few difficult nights before sleep would wash over me...Debbie Harry. Thank heavens it wasn't a gatefold...
I do have a copy, but not that copy, and it isn't the album I remember it being, sounding tame as the years have passed. Incidentally, my original, along with a couple of thousand other records, was sold to a man with a van by my ex-wife one day whilst I was at work. It's one of the reasons she's my ex-wife."

Andy Butler went all the way to Belper to buy his first LP...
"The first LP I bought with my own saved up pocket money was Mott by not surprisingly Mott the Hoople. It was in 1973 and obtained from Woolworths in my home town of Belper for (I think) the princely sum of £2.49. I had heard the 2 singles from it, Honaloochie Boogie and All the Way From Memphis and loved them both so it was an easy choice to make. I loved the 'sort of' gate-fold sleeve, the lyrics written on the inner paper bag and even a poem by D.H.Lawrence on the back!
It was first played on my parents radiogram (can't remember the make) and I hate to admit that it was recorded a few times on cassette for a few of my mates to show off that I had moved on to LPs from singles! The record is still played today and even the quiet El Camino Dolo Roso instrumental sounds awesome. Instead of being a lonesome piece of vinyl and cardboard it is now in the company of many many others but they all know what started it all off in the first place!"

Pete Banahan has a longer memory than most of us (sorry, Pete!) and going back to the early sixties for his first LP...
"Way back in 1963 I started collecting Merseybeat type singles from my paper round money, then in 1964 I heard this sound that hit me right between the ears. It was the Kinks 'You Really Got Me'
So the first opportunity I got to visit my local record shop ( The Musical Box in Old Swan, Liverpool), I was there, hoping that they might have a copy in stock - THEY DID, so I eagerly parted with my hard earned 2/11 for the single. I don't know how long the single had been out, but the owner (Diane - not my wife) who new me quite well by now through all my previous visits, told me that they also had an L.P. out as well, so I said 'don't sell it I'll be back'. So I ran home as fast as I could to raid my biscuit tin full of money hidden in my wardrobe, grabbed the money, I think it was 22/11 and dashed back to claim my record.
I thought the album was fantastic (still do) and it certainly broadened listening horizons, which prompted me to buy my second L.P. The Pretty Things 1st album another wow.
But even after moving on, through sixties psych, heavy rock and blues, one record from my Merseybeat collection is still up there as one of my too numerous to mention favourites 'Some Other Guy' by 'The Big Three' Fortunately all my early stuff is still in excellent condition, even though in those days we weren't buying to conserve for the future."

Dewi Roberts rang a few bells with me in describing his first LP purchase - when i was about 7 i quite liked Frank myself...!

"The first album was "with the Beatles" it was a toss up between that and a Frank Ifield Album. I've still got it and it's an original first pressing. Since then I've got five different pressings as well as 4 cd versions. The weight on my danssette pick up was heavy and didn't play the intro on Roll Over Beethoven and wasn't until a few years later when I bought a music centre that I realised it existed. That record started me off on my record collecting first buying merseybeat records then rockabilly and 50 years later I'm still collecting. I used to enjoy visiting different towns and cities and hunt out Record stores but now most are extinct and I have to research where they are. I'm lucky that a new store has opened locally that sells new vinyl. As I approach my final years I wonder what my last record purchase will be and how my kids will dispose of my collection. So now I have to catalogue and price everything up ....now where did I put the first single I bought - Sun Arise by Rolf Harris!"

Chris McGranaghan from FdM stockist/great shop Those Old Records could always spot a bargain and his album-buying habit began with splashing out a quid...
"Well, for me it was Buffalo Springfield's Expecting To Fly on an Atlantic budget label. Paid £1 at a small record shop on Ashton New Road, Droylsden, Manchester circa 1970. I was listening to brother's collection at the time so this was my first venture into LP's. Still listening to the band and have collected most of Mr. Young's releases over the years"

Vasilios Spanos had to choose between a Metallica LP and his girlfriend, when his record-buying habit began...
"It was Metallica's Master Of Puppets, which i purchased in my hometown Thessaloniki, Greece in a record Store called Blow-Up in early summer 1986.
I was living/breathing Metallica in those days given all their material in tapes from a cousin of mine (and pretty much a loner back then in that city for a boy that age), and a week or so before the school closes for summer i saw it in the record store shelve...and nobody else got it.Nobody.I had to buy it.I just had to.The new album,the cover,the back cover...i could not sleep anymore. So after school closed i found a job (as a 15 year old) in serving sandwiches in a small shop just to gather the 700 Drachmas and off to the record store!
I went back home and i put the record on and Battery starts...and sit back in ecstacy...my girlfriend (she was with me at that first listening) making a negative comment for the album...bye bye girlfriend!
Nowadays, although i'm completely into garage/punk/psychedelia i still got a special place in my heart for this album and it's still in my record collection in a really battered shape,full of crackles,emotions and memories."

Eroc, drummer with the wonderful Grobschnitt and now producer/mastering engineer to the world found a new way of making friends with his first LP purchase...
"My very first album was "Out Of Our Heads" by the Rolling Stones. I bought it in summer 1965 at a local shop in downtown Hagen, which it showed in their window. The next day I brought it back because they had sold me the stereo version. Because I didn't have stereo equipment at that time it sounded somehow weird and scratchy on my cheap turntable.
I had to wait a few days on the mono version which I then carried home luckily. It didn't sound that better but I was blown away anyway and became a hero among my classmates, because nobody else could call THAT album his own.
But I already ran a small studio with two tape-recorders, ready to copy records to tape and I suddenly had many, many 'friends'..."

Mike Bradshaw from Totally Radio in Brighton sneaks in, despite his first album being a cassette, on the grounds of DJ'ing the best breakfast show around....
"Up until 1973 I bought mainly seven-inch singles. I had a few albums – but not proper ones – just those disastrous sound-alike efforts ‘Top Of the Pops’ or ‘Hot Hits’. Money was hard to come by back then.
In the Spring of 1973 I'd managed to save up the incredible sum of £2 and, on holiday at my grandparents in Highcliffe-On-Sea, I managed to cadge another 50p in order to go to their local record shop to buy Tanx by T.Rex. Sadly, I bought it on cassette tape - I didn't have my own record player at home. I was disappointed with the album – it didn’t have any hit singles on it and I thought the songs were weak. I had to keep playing it over and over though – I had no choice.
Eventually – many years later - I sold it, along with a few other T.Rex tapes, to a completist Bolan collector. At the same time I sold him a T.Rex poster that used to be on my bedroom wall in the ‘70s. I’d written ‘Bolan is best’ on it in felt tip. But Tanx wasn’t his best - wish I’d bought Electric Warrior instead."

John Blaney, boss of Mega Dodo Records, bought in bulk on his first LP-buying trip...
"I think it was a copy of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. I had a summer job at Clifford's Dairies which meant I had some cash for the first time. I remember walking in to Bracknell one lunchtime, it must have been a Friday because I'd have been paid in cash, into Bentalls and buying what at the time was an expensive album. It's still one of my favourite albums and I still have the copy I bought that day. I've listened to it a lot but I'm still finding layers of meaning hidden deep within Harrison's remarkable songwriting. I even like the Apple Jam album. Some of those tracks really rock. Harrison and Clapton were at the top of their game during the recording of that album. While it's true that all things must pass, something's stick with you. All Things Must Pass is one of those albums that will stick with me for a very long time. "

Tom Woodger from the Blue Giant Zeta Puppies started out buying a Music For Pleasure compilation LP in a supermarket, and went downhill from there...!
"When I was pretty young ( nine maybe?) we went on holiday to stay with my (older) cousin and his family.....in the evenings he and my older sister and me would sit in his bedroom and play records.....i felt very cool to be included in such a 'grown up' activity......one of his records was Fire Brigade by The Move. I loved it...... A few months, maybe even a year, later, I came across Fire Brigade reduced in a spinner by the till in a supermarket, I couldn't believe my luck! I don't remember how much it was, but I do remember it was an incredible bargain. Never was pocket money better spent.......Still have it....still play it....still one of my favourite albums........."

FdM club member Till Wolff broke the bank when he bought his first LP - a double...
"The first lp I bought was the White Album from the Beatles for a today unbelievable 35 German Marks (ca 17.60 Euro) in March 1970. That was 7 months pocket money then and I had to invest all my savings in this purchase from Radio ZERFASS in Bochum / Germany - they had to order it since it was not in stock but the price was the same in all German record shops. An Lp costed 22 DM - doubles 35 , a single 5 ...tell this to your kids today. I also considered Abbey Road and Live at Leeds but the value for money for 2 Lps was better ...
At home I had a nasty surprise listening to the tracks on my ancient mono Philips recordplayer (10 grams pickup weight) since this was a stereo version (no mono Lps in Germany published) - so birthday was eg more an instrumental. I had to wait until my 14th birthday in June and the new stereo turntable (a joint present from the relatives ) to listen to all tracks in full beauty.
This is still one of my all time favourites - although the poster got lost at a school party and the 4 fab photos on my wall were pulverised during an improvised indoor football game in my room 1972 but everyone is still surprised that this record is still playable and has much more dynamics than the remastered version I bought years later - and of course some cracking noises bring back memories of long gone parties - although I think side 4 from Revolution No.9 onwards is probably still mint -..."

some killers, some fillers - Permanent Clear Light's Markku Helin on his first-ever LP purchase...
"I bought my first album when I was a stupid ignorant little kid. The album was the Beatles' Help and I bought it pretty soon after it was released in my hometown, Jyvaskyla, Finland. I mainly bought it because of the title track; it was played a lot on the Finnish radio, and I just adored it. Still adore it. And I still have the album! As a whole I found the album a bit of a disappointment; still do: too much filler. I consider it one of the weaker albums in the Beatles' holy catalogue. But there are killer tracks, of course: the title track, Yesterday and Ticket to Ride are still magnificent! And I feel that Ticket to Ride sort of showed the way to heavy rock."

A TASTE OF HONEY(2)

Thanks to Knut Tore Breivik for the photo of the Honeypot seeds he received (as a secret and totally random extra with his 'Crystal Jacqueline and The Honey Pot' double 7" set), now in full bloom, and hopefully attracting honey bees from miles around. My packet of seeds are still growing but show no signs of bursting in flower - the local bees are seriously pissed off.

WHO WAS YOUR FIRST?

mine was a Moody Blue...and if you've no idea what I'm talking about, you've either not read your latest members club email from me, not received it or you're not a club member. If it's the middle one, please email me - if it's not, then the solution rest with you!

A MORE THAN MOMENTARY LAPSE OF VINYL

'A Momentary Lapse Of Vinyl' - this year's members-only freebie - already a double CD of Floyd covers - continues to grow like topsy (try translating that if you're not from the UK). I went for a double CD as i thought i might be able to put together up to 100 minutes of music, but I'm currently having to ask artists to curb their enthusiasm as I'm in grave danger of not being able to squeeze everything onto two CDs and i just CAN'T stretch to three (I've already bought the double CD cases, for a start) - I'm edging closer to 2 1/2 hours of great music - pretty much NONE of it previously available on CD or vinyl! Everything is pre-Dark Side, it ranges from delicate to demented and i reckon it's light years ahead of the stuff that mainstream music magazines offer as freebies, but of course i might be a little biased. (it'll also look pretty cool, with a great cover image of Syd - designed by Martin Butler

MAKING A PRETTY PENNY

One FdM club member decided to cash in on the Pretty Things new LP signed test pressings i was recently able to offer - selling his copy for £130 on ebay... http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Pretty-Things-Live-White-Label-Autographed-LP-Fruits-De-Mer-FDM-/291163494835?pt=UK_Records&hash=item43cab259b3
it's not exactly what i had in mind when the members club was set up, but he bought it from me fair-and-square, so good luck to him

THE COVERS THAT DIDN'T MAKE IT....

A number of UK members have asked how many different 'early/rejected design' postcards there are (I've been slipping them randomly into UK members' parcels for a while now - apologies to international members, but some of you you DID get an international members-only free CD from Nick Leese recently, so you're not doing TOO badly!); well, there are 30+ and i keep finding new candidates - I'll try to post a montage of them on the website sometime for the hell of it, and maybe rustle up a couple of sets as competition prizes, if anyone is really interested

EXORCISING THE DEMOS 2

the first 100 club members who ordered the complete set of June releases from me - and the first 100 to do the same with Nick Leese at Heyday Mail Order - received a copy of this follow-up to the first Soft Hearted Scientists FdM-exclusive compilation CD (By the way, the band have a new album released this autumn, 'The Slow Cyclone', essential of course)

...AND THE NUMBER WAS 151...

...no, not the number of World Cup goals, the serial number of the private-pressing Tor Peders single that Simon Clarke won in the instant pop-up members club competition

WORLD CUP WILLIE RIDES AGAIN

The latest members competition is running, and everyone is in with a chance of winning - at least until we're most of the way through the tournament. Funny how no-one so far thinks England have got a hope in hell of winning the whole thing (and, as it turns out, they were SO right)

THE SCHIZO FUN ADDICT and PINK FLOYD COMPETITION WINNERS ARE SORTED

Prizes are on their way, and the year-end Floyd compilation will have many names thanks to club members, including 'Mad Carp Laughs' and 'Sea Anenome Play' (flashes of sheer genius)

THE SFA COMPETITION CLUE IS...

Back Of Her Car

EXORCISING THE SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS

a second CD compilation of the Scientists' demos will be included in parcels of the first 100 UK members who've ordered the complete set of June releases from me - and the first 100 international members to do the same from Nick Leese at Heyday Mail Order. There'll also be one or two more inexplicable extras in the early orders - our generosity knows no limits (as long as it's cheap (/h4>

FLOYDIAN COMPETITION

Lots of members are busy coming up with terrible puns for the Floydian competition that's currently running - if you don't know anything about this, it means you're either not reading your emails or not a member. If you think ARE a member and you ARE reading all your emails, please drop me a line - my highly sophisticated database has probably fallen over again

A TASTE OF HONEY?

There won't be many of these - and we can't send them outside Europe - but there'll be a little something extra in a few members' parcels when i finally get to send out the new crop of singles; nothing to do with music, but i wouldn't want things to get too predictable

XMAS 2014 MEMBERS FLOYDIAN FREEBIE

I'm starting work on this year's members-only giveaway - it's very likely to be a Pink Floyd covers compilation CD in a 7" sleeve - a bit like the strangefish five freebie - with one or two rather interesting tracks already safely tucked away for it; and the next members competition is probably going to be linked to it (although i might sneak one more competition in first)

EXORCISING THE DEMOS

the first 100 club members to order the complete set of March releases from me - and the first 100 to do the same from Nick Leese at Heyday Mail Order - will be getting a copy of this rather nice little CD EP of demos from the Soft Hearted Scientists - exclusive to FdM, naturally

FIRST COMPETITION WINNER OF THE YEAR

congratulations to Philip Greathead for being the first to guess that the final sponsor of Crabstock would be Fisherman's Friend. some other great guesses - including Durex and Beady Eye (I said the sponsor wasn't linked to music), but Philip wins the set of March test pressings

2014 - AND IT ALL STARTS AGAIN

...there'll be another FdM freebie for members at the end of the year - i have absolutely no idea what - but then again i can't remember what i had for breakfast this morning so there's no point planning too far ahead, BUT...
The rules for getting it are unchanged:
- you HAVE to be a club member (if you don't know whether you're a club member then it's 99% certain you're not - email me if you think you should be one)
- you HAVE to buy pretty much every vinyl release during the year DIRECT FROM ME, OR FROM NICK LEESE AT HEYDAY. It's the only way I can easily keep track of things - if you prefer to buy from other fantastic FdM stockists then that's great but please don't ask me at the end of the year for the freebie

EXORCISING THE DEMOS

...is a Fruits de Mer exclusive demos compilation CD from the Soft Hearted Scientists - and it's free and exclusive to the first 100 members who ordered May releases from me, and a further 100 who ordered from Nick at Heyday. The UK copies went within a few hours!!!

£179 FOR THE 2010 MEMBERS FREEBIE?

...or maybe £150? Two copies of the 'A Phase We've Been Through' CD sold on ebay recently, suggesting Christmas might be getting tight for a couple of members - but maybe not for the buyers!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2013 MEMBERS CLUB POLL WINNERS

... 13 different artists got votes for 'best artist', every 7" and every album released in 2013 got at least one vote in the best 7"/best album polls; every sleeve was voted a personal favourite by at least one member - oh, and 38 different tracks got at least one vote in the 'best track' poll!

But the 2013 winners are:

Best artist
1st - Vibravoid
2nd - Soft Hearted Scientists
3rd - Vespero

Best 7"
joint 1st - 'Shrunken Head Music' + Vibravoid 'Colour Your Mind'
joint 3rd - 'Fruits de Mer Live In London' + Vespero 'Careful With That Axe'

Best Album
1st - 'Whatever Happened To The Soft Hearted Scientists'
2nd - 'Re-Evolution : FdM Sings The Hollies'
3rd - 'strange fish one'

Best track
1st - 'Careful With That Axe Eugene' (Vespero)
2nd 'Colour Your Mind' (Vibravoid)
joint 3rd - 'Cousin Jane' (Crystal Jacqueline) + 'The Glorious Om Riff' (Jay Tausig)
+ 'Set The Control For The Heart Of The Buddha' (Sendelica) Best sleeve 1st - 'Whaever Happened To The Soft Hearted Scientists' joint 2nd - 'Re-Evolution : FdM Sings The Hollies' + Vespero 'Careful With That Axe Eugene'

A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR CHRISTMAS?

...no, not the members-only single - I've told you all about that already (but it is rather bloody good), but there'll be something extra in Santa's stocking for everyone who's been really good and ordered all the November singles. I'll say no more for now

NEW MEMBERS COMPETITION

..that's a new competition for members, not a competition for new members. I'm not going to tell you what the competition is, 'cos you should have had an email telling you what it is - if you haven't, then either:
- your email host is blocking my emails
- you're not a club member
ican't really help on the first - you need to put my email address on your safe list, but I CAN help with the second - drop me a line and we'll take it from there

I'M NOT GOING TO ASK YOU AGAIN...

...if you've been buying Fruits de Mer releases regularly this year, you really should become a club member - no cost, just more irritating emails from me. And if you're buying those releases from me (or from Nick Leese at Heyday if you're outside the UK), you're in line for a year-end freebie - and this year it's vinyl. But it really is exclusive to members who buy regularly from Nick or me - no exceptions!

STRANGE FISH COMPETITION WINNERS

so the competition was to send in photos or drawings of...strange fish...Originality is my middle name (or would have been if we could have afforded one in the Jones household). The winners are Sreve Howard and Brian Long and here are their entries...

congratulations to Steve and Brian, who both win rather exclusive boxed sets of strange fish CDs. Lots more great entries - i'll post a few more in due course - there's even an mp3 from Marc Roberts, which I've already put on the 'sounds' page - cool or what?

2013 MEMBERS FREEBIE

If it's August, it must be time to think about the year-end freebie - and this year it's going to be 7" of lovely vinyl - exclusive to FdM members who've been buying regularly from all year (or buying from Nick Leese at Heyday if you're outside the UK). If you're NOT a member, but you HAVE been buying regularly from Nick or myself this year, please email me NOW so I can fast-track you to membership of the FdM secret society - so you won't miss out

GOOGLEFISH WINNERS

Congratulations to Markus Klare and Richard Jewels on getting closest to the final figure of 38,000 in the strange fish/GOOGLE competition - they both win complete sets of test pressings of the strange fish albums

strange fish/GOOGLE COMPETITION

A couple of days ago, there were over 30,000 listings of "Fruits de Mer Records"/"strange fish" on google, today there are 4,550. god knows whether google has tweaked its algorithms, but one thing is for sure - i don't have a clue what the final figure will be when i check on the day the strange fish albums arrive here at FdM Towers and the competition closes

strange fish/GOOGLE COMPETITION

If you've entered the snappily-named 'How many mentions will there be of "Fruits de Mer Records"/"strange fish" on google on the day the new albums come out' competition, you might like to know that as of today (May 19), there are 17,500, according to my PC (and it's my PC that counts). That's about 3x the mentions I'd expected when i set up the competiton, and there's another month to go yet

'NAME A FRUITS DE MER COMPILATION' COMPETITION

I asked recently members to come up with suggested titles for a ficticious 'best of the early releases' LP - with test pressings of the new albums as prizes.
Some great answers, many of them very funny, most of them repeatable - here are my favourites:
'Never Mind The Molluscs' (Ray Canham)
'Thanks For All The Fish' (Sean Gibbins)
with notable mentions for: 'Fill Your Head With Fruits' and 'Plankton'
...one day, one day...

MEMBERS EMAIL PROBLEMS

a message to all Fruits de Mer members.....(already sent by email - and here as a double-check - if you haven't received this direct, please please make sure 'fruitsdemer7@hotmail.com on your 'safe list' with your service provider...OK, here's the email you SHOULD have received (complicated, isn't it?)

....sorry folks - hotmail seems to have it in for me at the moment - apparently some of you STILL aren't getting in emails through from me. This is as simple an email as i can send - no links, no attachments - so it should get through!
I'm also posting this on facebook, and on the FdM website - if you see it there but haven't received it direct, please email me as soon as possible.
If you've received this email, but hadn't heard from me by email for a while - please check that 'fruitsdemer7@hotmail.com' is on your 'safe list' in your email account - files with attachments can often can treated as spam by some service providers.
Any problems, please email me!!!
So, just to be sure....the new albums should finally be reaching me, Heyday and Shiny Beast in the first week of March - we'll all send out your orders as quickly as possible.
The Pretty Things live LP is currently as artwork stage - i don't have a release date, I'm guessing at mid-summer; it will be released on the band's management's own label, not on Fruits de Mer (I get their singles!) but i WILL be able to give you ordering details, once they're confirmed.
AND finally - here's a quick members-only competition - entries by March 1st please - win a white label test pressing of 'Whatever Happened To The Soft Hearted Scientists' or 'Re-Evolution: FdM Sings The Hollies' (if you have a preference, please tell me with your entry)...
If I was ever to put together a compilation LP of the early releases on Fruits de Mer, what would be a good title for it? (please - nothing too serious!)
oh, the joys of the internet.....Keith

BEST OF 2012

A couple of weeks ago, I asked FdM's members to nominate their favourite releases, artists and tracks from Fruits de Mer in 2012....
It's taken me far too long to add up all the voting, but at last i have and here are the results:

Best FdM Release of 2012
A four horse race, with The League of Psychedelic Gentlemen a very creditable 4th, The White EP just edging out Sorrow's Children for 2nd place, but the clear winner was 'Head Music'.

Best FdM Artist of 2012
16 different artists got the 'no.1' vote from at least one FdM member, but in a very closely-fought race, The Bevis Frond came in 4th, The Luck of Eden Hall grabbed 2nd spot from Cranium Pie/The Baking Research by 1 point, and the winners by just a few votes were The Pretty Things.

Best individual track on FdM/Regal Crabomophone in 2012
Incredibly varies responses in this category, which i think is a really good sign for the label, with 53 songs receiving at least one vote and 16 different songs named 'best track'; in 4th place came 'Pegasus' by Temple Music, Crystal Ship by The Luck Of Eden Hall was 3rd, The Pretty Things' version of Helter Skelter came 2nd, but the overall winner was nick nicely's classic 'Hilly Fields'

THE BEST OF 2012?

Winning members - who each get extremely limited special pressings of two December releases are:
Christophe Stolz in France
Ron Backx in the Netherlands
Stathis Paraskevopoulos in Greece
...results of the poll soon....what poll? See below...

Before i start trying to part you from your hard-earned cash yet again in 2013, I thought I'd give you the chance to win something from the Fruits de Mer archives - an odd-coloured slab of vinyl or two this time - i can say no more, except they're worth winning! - and it's not even a proper competition....I'd like you to vote for your favourite FdM release, artist and track of 2012 - it would be really helpful for me to know what has worked best for you in the last 12 months - there are no 'right answers', so I'll just pull one or two entries out of a virtual hat on January 8th and get the records in the post to the winner (or winners) a day or two after that, and I'll let everyone know who came out on top.
So all i'd like you to do is email me, telling me:
Your favourite Fruits de Mer/Regal Crabomophone release of 2012
Your favourite FdM/Regal Crab artist of 2012
your favourite FdM/Regal Crab track of 2012
- you can choose up to three in each category but, if you do, please mark your choices 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Thanks

3D WINNERS

Congratulations to Harri Huhtala, Andy Young and Tony Buckley who all win test pressings for their photo entries in the latest FdM members competition - coming up with the best photos featuring some part of the Permanent Clear Light 7" package from October. Here's Harri's winning entry...

MORE CRABBY NEWS

I'll get round to listing all the artists involved in creating the 2012 members freebie very soon, but for now I'll just mention Sendelica, Paul Roland, The Pretty Things (The Pretty Things!), Earthling society, Stay, Vibravoid, King Penguin, The Bevis Frond........there are even two artists that won't be releasing anything on FdM until 2013 but this'll be your first chance to hear them. If you don't find a few tracks on this that tickle your earlobes, then I'm a Coventry City supporter (I'm not, that's old man Bracken's weakness)

MAXINE PEAKE!

Well, i didn't expect to type that on the FdM site. But Maxine is interviewed in the latest issue of PROG magazine, and there's a copy of 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' featured prominently on the bookshelf behind her - what excellent taste she has! Result - an instant members competition to spot the mystery cover - won by Brad Bell in Australia, who picks up a set of October release test pressings (actually, he doesn't have to pick them up - I'm posting them to him, it's pushing it a bit to ask Brad to fly several thousand miles to collect them personally

THE CRABS SELL OUT/THE CRABS FREAK OUT

this year's members-only freebie is just about complete and it's quite, quite ludicrous - 2 1/2 hours of exclusive music by your favourite FdM artists on a double CDr (and no, i couldn't stretch to a 4 LP box set)
....totally free, totally not for sale commercially, the only copies that will see the light of day and the inside of a CD player will go direct to Fruits de Mer's most loyal supporters ie FdM members who've been buying from me or Nick at Heyday all year, together with a small number of FdM-friendly reviewers, bloggers and DJs, plus a couple of copies for each of the artists who have kindly offered up tracks to me at no cost just so they can join me in saying thanks for all your support through 2012

THE CRAB SELLS OUT COMPETITION WINNER

...congratulations to Dave Barber for his entry in this competition, to design a cover for the 2012 members freebie.
Unfortunately i then went and subtly changed the title to 'The Crabs Sell Out/The Crabs Freak Out' as one CD became two, and so screwed up everyone's chances of actually designing the cover - but Dave won his test pressings all the same

PORKYS PRIME CUTS COMPETiTION WINNERS

congratulations to Andy Butler and Paul Snell for coming up with the winning entries in the 'write a message for an FdM run-out groove' competition. Andy greedily cam up with two of the three winning entries - i'm not telling you what they are, you'll have to check the October releases to find out!

OLYMPICS COMPETITION - THE ENTRIES ARE IN

...and here they are - the total number of medals (gold+silver+bronze) you think GB will win - and who has guessed.............

89 Bob Whittle
86 Raj
83 Simon
78 William S
78 Stathis
72 Robert
71 Rupert
65 Russell
65 Taylor
65 Terry
64 Kelly
64 Juergen
64 Simon C
63 David S
63 Knut
63 Ray C
63 Gary
63 Ian H
63 Robbie
62 Keith D
62 Sean
62 Brad
62 Andy P
61 Peter
60 Andy B
60 Steve S
60 Paul C
59 Chris Purdon
59 Tony
59 Mark
59 Shuggy
59 Kendall
58 Curt
58 John M
58 Stuart
58 Ray
57 Oliver
57 Ian
57 Paul C
56 Dave B
56 Gunter
56 Roman
56 Austin
55 Phil
55 Clive
55 Marc
55 Jason
54 Chris Dale
54 Markus
53 Steve Lade
53 Philip G
53 Martin
53 Nick L
53 Darren
52 Trev
52 Jerry G
52 Dave B
52 Harri
52 Peter C
52 Stephen H
51 Perry
51 David B
51 Prem
51 Rich
51 Alison
51 Trevor
51 Clive
50 Henry
49 John K
49 Kevin
49 Andy
48 Jez
45 Kev S
45 Andy
45 Carol
44 Michalis
43 Gary B
43 Percy
43 Marc
42 Paul Snell
42 Adam
42 Arne
41 Geoff H
41 Brian
41 Douglas
39 Don
38 Dave Adamson
38 Joshua
38 Mike B
38 Stefan
37 Ron B
36 Steve W
35 Ken
35 Peter S
35 Stephane
35 Matthew
35 Paul F
33 Jason
33 Allan
33 Ray
33 Barry
32 Stephen Dix
32Jerry Smith
31 Jan P
31 Matthias
31 Martin
03 Stuart

Whoever gets the right answer - or guesses closest - wins a set of white label test pressings of our August releases. If more than one person has guessed the same number of medals, whoever got their entry into me first wins - and they're listed at the top of each 'number of medals' (so, in the case of '31', Matthias got his entry in before Martin). BUT I promise that if you DO get the right answer, you'll get at least one white label test pressing from me however many members guessed the same number.
...and the winning score is....

65 - congratulations to Russell, Taylor and Terry, who each win a set of white label test pressings of the three August releases

THE BRADLEY WIGGINS EFFECT

The Man With The Flying Sideburns has finally managed to kick-start British media's interest in the Olympics after two weeks of the crappiest news reporting I've seen for a long time (how many stories about "possible queues" at airports, on roads and at the gates to Olympic events can TV and press possibly come up with, laced with totally pointless voxpops with clueless individuals who want to grab their 10 seconds of fame by moaning for Britain - what a miserable, negative nation we can be) and Fruits de Mer is celebrating with its 100% unoffocial Olympics competition; you should have received an email from me about it - if you haven't, email me quick - entries have to be in by 9pm Friday, UK time

PRETTY THINGS IN BLACK

...one of the perks of the job of being a Fruits de Mer member is that you occasionally get a chance to get hold of a release in an especially-limited colour. That's certainly the case with The Pretty Things' 'S.F. Sorrow Live in London' 7" - around 200 black vinyl copies will be pressed up - 50 are going to UK members and 25 to international members (via Nick at Heyday), another 25 will be available via Clear Spot/Shiny Beast - the rest will be going to Ugly Things in the USA and to the band themselves for gigs

TO BE, OR NOT TO BE

...a member, that is. I keep promising/threatening to spring-clean the FdM members list as membership is gratiously bestowed on people who are hooked on vinyl from these here parts, and a few of you haven't actually shelled out on any releases so far in 2012. I'll be going through the UK list while watching water archery, synchronised modern pentathlon or something similar in the Olympics, and I'll be dropping a line to all international members soon too. If you're not currently buying Fruits de Mer stuff, but would like to keep in touch by moving onto the main FdM mailing list, that's not a problem at all

MORE WINNERS

...congratulations to Adam Wheway in Wales and Jan Paulsen in Denmark, who were first out of the FdM virtual hat and so have each won white label test pressings of 'Head Music' (AND promo CDrs of the album - what generosity) in the 'Top 5/10 krautrock tracks' competition. I'll be posting a few of the top 10s over the next week - lots of classics and quite a few tracks I've never even heard of! Here are a couple for starters...

from Russell Gill:
1: The Model - Kraftwerk. One of my favourite songs ever, in any genre of music. I also love Snakefinger's cover of this beautiful track. Kraftwerk for making Krautrock more accessible and popular with the masses.
2: Hallogallo - Neu
3: Autobahn - Kraftwerk
4: It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl - Faust
5: Riding On a Cloud - Amon Duul II

from Jerry Kranitz:
1:Amon Duul II - "Yeti" (from Yeti)
This was my introduction to extended, improvised freakout music. But there was still something about it that had direction, like an army marching into battle. This was the late 70s and it would be some years before I could track down other ADII albums, but when I did find more I gobbled 'em up. I was into this album before I even discovered Hawkwind. My #1, top of the list favorite Krautrock band. (Yeah, I like the later more accessible song-oriented stuff, but they don't move me like the earlier albums did.) 2:Guru Guru - "Stone In" (from UFO)
The first track on the first Guru Guru album I ever heard. Another discovery made in the late 70s. After hearing this album I played it for all my Hendrix loving friends, telling them... "this is like Hendrix!! But all spaced out and crazy!!" Everyone I played it for thought I'd lost my mind.
3:Can - "Halleluhwah" (from Tago Mago)
I loved Can because they did songs, but also extended improvisations. This side-long piece was, for me, the best of both those worlds. Another example of early discovery, where I'm learning about music that just takes off and explores, and took me along with it.
4:Tangerine Dream - "Origin Of Supernatural Probabilities" (from Zeit)
I was introduced to Tangerine Dream through their Virgin years albums. So when I heard this earlier album it was a bit of a shock. The music was so much more subtle and quiet, yet demanded so much more of my attention. I kept listening to it with headphones. This is one of the albums that taught me about attentive listening and how you can discover something new with repeated listens. I chose Origin Of Supernatural Probabilities as my favorite because... well... all I remember is playing this side over and over, but I don't recall why. It was so long ago! When I revisit it these days I strap myself in and listen to the entire set (though now I listen to the CD reissue that transitions seamlessly from one track to the next).
5:Neu! - "Isi" (from Neu! '75)
One of the simplest, catchiest, and most memorable combinations of melody and beats I've ever heard. This song still makes me swoon.

from John Kearney:
1: Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express – this is the song that legalized Kraut rock
2:Can - Mushroom - Can could and they did innovate Kraut rock
3: Jane - Waterfall - a mainstay of the Kraut rock scene
4: Ash Ra Tempal - Schizo - commercial in their own way
5: Neu! - Negativeland - as fresh as ever
6: Trio - Da Da Da - commercial as hell and hummable but this is the song that killed Kraut rock

from Matthias Lang:
1: Epitaph Stop look and listen
2: Jane - Out in the rain
3: Nektar - Remember the future I und II
4: Birth Control - gammy ray
5: Eloy - poseidons creation
6: king ping meh - fairy tales
7: grobschnitt rockpommels land
8: kraftwerk autobahn
9: neu - Sonderangebo
10: Epitaph - Visions

from Peter Ward:
1: Neu: Hallogallo: the sound of infinity, this track could literally go on for ever, with no beginning or end….could listen to this forever, brilliant!!! Much copied but never bettered
2: Brainticket: Brainticket pt 1 & 2
3: Can: Mushroom
4: Manuel Gottsching: Echo Waves
5: Edgar Froese: NGC 891

from Wolfgang Opel:
1) FAUST - It's a rainy day, sunshine girl : from Faust - So far LP (1972)
Why this track and band? This was the first track I've ever heard from Faust and it stays in my head forever. Never heard anything like this before in 1972. It opened a totally new dimension in music for me. To describe the track, maybe you can call it a never changing experimental country funk? It is so interesting and so monotone..I love this band up to this day. Always interesting music.
2: Can - Yoo doo right (from Monster Movie LP)
3: Siloah - Krishna Golden Dope Shop (from 1970 LP)
4: Kraftwerk - Ruckzuck (from 1970 first LP)
5: Guru Guru - The meaning of meaning (from Hinten 1971 LP)

from Adam Wheway:
1: Faust - J'ai Mal Au Dents from Faust tapes - This was my 'gateway drug' into the world of Krautrock when I heard it round a friend's aged 15 or so. When I heard the Faust Tapes, it was so extraordinary (and still is) that I had to find out who it was and search out a copy. Back in those days (mid '80s) you had to hunt for these obscurities and outside of a few obsessives, hardly anyone was interested. I had to source a copy through a 'record finding service' . I well remember the day when, having shelled out my paper round money, a copy of the Faust Tapes (which I still have) arrived along with a copy of 'The Aerosol Grey Machine' by Van Der Graaf Generator. 6 quid each! The Bridget Riley design on the Faust record had been gouged, I reckon by a deranged hippie driven into a bad trip by the disturbing sounds, or possibly a disappointed Mike Oldfield fan who was upset that the rest of Virgin's roster wasn't quite as friendly to the ears. Have two chords ever been better played than on this track? To this day I think the Faust Tapes is the wildest and most creative thing I've ever heard. As John Pee'’s sleeve notes say, it's like someone with so many ideas they have to get them out in snippets before it's too late.
And here are my other choices, in no special order:
Can - Mother Sky
Kraftwerk - Ruckzuck
Amon Duul 2 - Kanaan
Tangerine - Rubycon (I know – a bit long!)

COMPETITION PRIZE WINNERS

...the prizes are listed in the previous entry, and the winners are:
top prize (the illustrated poster, but signed by Phil May and Dick Taylor!) - Timelord Michalis for a great poster AND a radio ad Phil May recorded for his radio show some years ago
runners-up prizes - Markus Klare (for translatung a Phil May interview in his local cinema magazine from 1987), Darren Chittick for describing SF.Sorrow getting caught up in the Ulster troubles in 1886 and Alan Last for his record collection disaster.
My thanks to everyone for your entries - posters, photos, recollections, poems, artwork, reviews - a lovely mix of entries, including quite a few members who first discovered the band in the 80s.

WIN A SIGNED PRINT OF FRANK SUCHOMEL'S 'SORROW'S CHILDREN' COVER ARTWORK

...signed by The Pretty Things' Phil May and Dick Taylor, that is.
Frank Suchomel's sleeve design is so amazing I wanted to let the guys from The Pretty Things see it in advance – and Phil and Dick very kindly agreed to autograph prints for all the bands involved, and for Andy and myself . I have one copy spare (actually i have two, but I'm holding one back in case a band copy goes astray) - and it will be won by the FdM member who send me the best Pretty Things-related story, memory, review, photo, drawing, whatever - and be happy for it to appear on the Fruits de Mer webiste and facebook page. Judging will be by missus Liz, who has seen The Pretty Things live almost as many times as I have.
Send your entries to keith@fruitsdemerrecords.com, by April 9th. Second prize is a white label test pressing of 'Sorrow's Children' - there are only 20-odd of these in existence and most of them will be going to the bands on the album.
Be creative, dig through your archives, make something up, this is a chance for two FdM members to win some classy Pretty Things memorabilia!

AN UPDATE FOR INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS...

As I hope Fruits de Mer members know by now, with Andy Bracken putting down his paypal account and taking up his ballpoint pen in anger, I've had to take the tough decision to hand over all orders and distribution outside the UK to people more experienced and better-equipped than I am to handle them - namely Heyday Mail Order (www.heyday-mo.com ) and Shiny Beast (www.shinybeast.nl).
Many members already know Heyday and Shinybeast and buy from them regularly, but for some people I appreciate the change is a hassle – "what's going to happen to the FdM personal service?", I’ve been asked - it’s a fair question, but you can’t get much more personal than a one-man record label and I'm going to do my best to keep in touch with as many of Fruits de Mer's supporters as possible, not least through the members club.
But some things have to change for me to be able to keep Fruits de Mer alive and well AND to be able to devote sufficient time to the music – which in the end has to be what matters most.
I've known Nick at Heyday for years and he'll do his best to make this all as seamless as possible – and he's a lot better at selling and dispatching records, running mailing-lists, taking orders and stuff like that than I'll ever be; Shiny Beast are the retail end of Clear Spot, one of the biggest international distributors around – they did't get where they are by being poor at customer service.
This doesn't signal big changes for the label itself, I'm not trying to become a 'big' label – I like FdM the way it is – I hope you do too, but word IS spreading, putting compilations together like 'Head Music' is a challenge AND it's exciting too, getting to work with bands like The Pretty Things and artists such as nick nicely are opportunities I never envisaged when we started out in 2008 – I'm loving it and I want to do more, but once in a while I have to step back, make sure that I've got a vague grip on how I spend my time and tweak the way I do things - I hope you'll understand.

SIGNED COPIES OF 'WICKER MAN', ANYONE?

Anders, from Us & Them, tells us he still has a few copies of his supply of 'Summerisles' available. Ask him nicely and he might even be persuaded to sign a copy with Britt and post one to you from Scandinavia, in return for a fiver or so. Email Anders at us_and_them@ymail.com if you'd like to grab a copy

Possibly Andy's last 'official' note to all members....?

See, I know how it is. You're sat there being all Bah-Humbug, bemoaning Christmas as a commercially exploitative holiday that forces you to spend time with people you don't really want to spend that much time with, and, let's be honest, any wrapped gift anyone can get you will be a disappointment before it's even opened if it isn't record shaped.
But I really know that you can't stop sneaking a look at that advent calendar and willing it to be December 1st so that you can open the little door and snaffle a piece of chocolate. When I was a kid, advent calendars just had little pictures in. Except for number 24 – that had a bigger picture in. No chocolate. I don't think chocolate had been invented on our estate back in the 70s.
Thus it is that we are delighted to announce the 3 - that's THREE (like wise men) – FdM releases are in and ready. Lo and behold - and it's still November (OK, it isn't now).
There's gold aplenty in the Grass double-LPs - 22 quid a pop, with full colour gatefold sleeve and coloured vinyl (the plant was so impressed, they sent us a picture as it was being pressed!!).
Frankincense peppers the air around the Smellyvisual fantasticness of the Do Not Adjust Your Set EP - a fiver for that puppy.
Myrr...mirh....mirrrrr...the other thing is practically popping out of the double-ended cracker that is this year's ANNUAL double-7" malarkey. 8 spondoolies will paper hat that, so to speak.
And so it is that a full set will be 35 UKP.
Please note that the secret special extra free bonus doobry thing will only be sent to those who buy all of the above! So there. So, by my reckoning, that's at least 34 tracks for 35 quid posted to your lovely door with the mistletoe atop! Get in there. Give us a kiss for Christmas darling.
As always, me ducks, bulk buyers drop me a line, and if you don't like links because you're either wise with wisdom or petrified with paranoia, you can always wang the wedge via Paypal to info@fruitsdemerrecords.com
Quite a lot of alliteration in this email, which makes me moist amidst the mirth of the madness I've managed to make!
There you have it. If you only want select records from the above, email me. All orders will be acknowledged as soon as I can, but if no acknowledgement arrives within a few days, chase me (round the tree!).
Okay - aim is to try and get all these to Members by Christmas. Let's do it. Oh, and if you don't want your copies, please let me know, and we'll let them go to the over-subscribed reserve lists!
Okey-dokey - one, two, three, four, we three kings of orient are, one in a taxi, one in a car, one on a scooter bibbing his hooter, going to Leamington Spa. Or something.

Ho-Ho-Ho!

Wise King Andy (& Jonesy - he's more of a wizened old queen, if truth be told, and he's always flashing his baubles)

November missive to all Members...

As this label gets just a little bit bigger with every release, and has now hit a sort of tipping point, might I restate that the Member Club exists primarily to ensure the people who have been buying our records since back in the day, when we were resoundingly ignored by all but an enlightened few, get first dibs on our releases. It's also to ensure people who want everything we release can do so as effortlessly as possible. That means anyone on the Member list who joined in the belief that it will allow them to cherry-pick and still pick up their Christmas freebie will be politely asked to re-join our not-members-but-still-friends list.
In short, it's a place where we can identify and look after the people who look after us! Bless 'em.
Non-Members will always get the chance to reserve records, but that's not an unlimited state. Either as Members or 'Reservists', there is a time period during which records will be held and available. We have had to start 'reserve reserve' lists for some releases, and we can't hold copies indefinitely.
As I write there are 13 Members who haven't taken their Wicker Man and Luck Of Eden Hall EPs, yet we have 180 reserves on the Wicker re-press. Needless to say, I have now decided to let the records go.
Enough of all that - i feel better for clearing the air. Now for some sugar-coated sweeties with sherbet in the middle!
Recently, two examples of unprompted generosity have flushed our waters like a refreshing spring.
We get hammered on international postage, especially to Australia. We actually lose money on those orders, but it's off-set by others.
Last week two payments arrived in the FdM account that I couldn't, erm, account for. On investigation, they were unprompted 'extras' sent by two stockists, one in Oz and one in Germany. These are people who sell our records via ebay and suchlike, and gambled on them one day being worth a few quid.
Absolute fair play to them both. We expect nothing from that, and wish them every success. However, when they clocked what the postage of the last packages came to, they both sent extra money to us to cover some of that postage cost.
How refreshing is that, in this day and age? I have nothing but total respect for them both, and am honoured to have them as customers and Members.
Thank you to all who send sweet messages about our releases - keep 'em coming, as it keeps us going. One really resonated with me recently, because of who sent it.
I've been a fan of the Static Caravan label for years, and own much of their catalogue. Indeed, I've stated in more than one interview that it was an inspiration behind me starting a label.
I saw the email from Geoff at SC asking to join the list a few months back, but didn't say owt - didn't want to be too sycophantic, you know? Just acknowledged it and added him.
After he bought some of our stuff, we began corresponding. Whilst it didn't sit quite right, I was so flattered to hear Geoff refer to us thus: "firstly yes YES all you say is bang on, and inspirational.", along with the comment "All you can do is do what you think is right in your heart and if you love music it shines through, this my friend seems to be happening to you"
Not necessary to add anything to that. The highest of compliments from a top man. If you don#t have everything on Static Caravan, you should. Hunt them down!
Geoff, if you read this, hope you don't mind me putting it here, and we will arrange that meet up and get a few jars one day soon. Thanks, mate
. And now to the photo competition winners - here they be in all their glory. Gotta love 'em. Sweet indeed.
- Robert in Cyprus for his stunning shots of the more mountainous aspect of the island.
- Andy in Guildford for taking lovely snaps on his holiday long afore the competition was even announced.
- Johnny in New York for having the coolest looking lad I've seen in quite some time.
- Phil in Sussex for calming his daughter's nerves on her first day at school (no, really) by totally exploiting the situation to win a prize.
- Jani in Finland for the high-class artiness. I have a feeling Jani may be doing a sleeve for us one day soon.
- Sean in Hants for his Bagpuss-like crab and not at all for the other one he sent!
Note to self: whatever the next competition is, Kevin in Luton will be in the mix.
More sweetness coming your way if you've bought all our 2011 releases. We're planning a free slab of vinyl from the Bracken vaults with unique artwork and stuff for Christmas. It'll be sent with the records available in December. Do nothing - it shall be done.
Lots of interest in the Telly EP - people seem to be loving that idea. And thanks to Maconie on the Beeb for playing it on his Freak Zone show - a sweetie in a bag largely full of empty wrappers
The sweetness continues – pure cane at that. No artificial sweeteners here, peeps. Thank you to Johnny and Stefan for the CDs you sent, and to Ulrich for the free copy of the Cosmic Price Guide he authored. I am not worthy. If anyone is interested in the CPG book or any others available at http://www.cpg-books.com/index.php - they come hugely recommended. The Brain, Vertigo and CPG ones are essential.
Keep on licking up the sugary sound of vinyl...!
Till next time.
A & K

Now here are a big bunch of the entries for the photo competition that the bit above this rambled on about

confused..?
....here's the members-only email from Andy that triggered you sending in the photos....

Ah, alright Members - I shall pepper this email with colloquial terms from my youth, whilst imparting a great deal of pertinent information. You fit?

- DEAD IMPORTANT BIT - the CRANIUM PIE LP is set to land on Regal Crabomophone in early-September - and it'll blow your mind. Now, due to the deal we've worked with the band, we shall only have 350 copies available. To put that into perspective, we sold 400 of the last releases in about a week.

But fear not - as Members you're well in. But only at the level you bought the last 3 releases. Thus, if you're one of the nearly 30 Members who haven't bothered to buy the Earthling Society and Chemistry Set EPs, chances are you ain't getting a Pie LP - though the last 2 releases are still available - nudge, nudge, wink, wink!

But if you also happen to be one of the dozen or more Joeys who didn't buy the Spacerock LP, you're going to struggle a bit. Sorry, but it's the only fair way to do it.

So - I NEED numbers from all Members now on what they want. Please email me (andy@fruitsdemerrecords.com) with the quantity, and I'll start a list. I like lists. I've got loads of lists. I may even start a list of all the lists I have.

To reiterate - it's very important you do the emailing me the quantity thing. Failure to do so may well result in you missing out. By the end of July would be smashing. Thanks chaps (and chapattis).

COMPETITION time

Ha! Right - what we want are your pictures...not those ones! Low-res (80 dpi or something) jpeg or gif (or something) - don't fill my in-box with big ones, please! The picture must be - either literally or laterally - something to do with FdM. Perhaps a slab of our vinyl in "a situation" or an FdM scarf draped over an otherwise unclad....I'll stop there. Or any suitable seafood sign or image. Use your imaginations, peeps, I know I am.

Jonesy will then add them to our website, and we'll pick a few favourites to send some prizes to. We've got a couple of Test Pressings lying around, and there's a full set of Roq planes, and other goodies that I can't remember. Closing date for submissions is sometime around the middle of August.

Aside from that, there are loads of releases coming together for later in the year - we've got those Luck Of Eden Hall boys on a cracking EP, and Us & Them are back - and how!

With a Wicker Man EP - that's how!

Some seriously top stuff coming in the autumn, me ducks.

Stay alive to it...

Right - peg it!

Andy (& Jonesy, the daft apath). Fight, fight, fight.....teacher, teacher!

www.fruitsdemerrecords.com - it's where people who haven't bought the last 2 releases can buy the last 2 releases.

a new Fruits de Mer forum...

FdM members will, we hope, enjoy contributing to our new forum - hosted. handled, managed by Fruits de Mer fan and all-round social-network-savvy guy, Sean Gibbins. Sean's new forum is here... Fruits de Mer Forum - please check it out.

NEWS FLASH (oo-er, missus)

...assuming everybody remembered to move their clocks forward an hour, Andy Bracken will be live on the air on Steve Di Costanzo's RADIO BASE CAMP on WPKN in Connecticut, USA this Friday, April 1st (foolish?) at 7pm UK time. That's 2pm EST in the USA of A, and quite late in India, not to mention quite early in Australia. It can be listened to live at www.wpkn.org by clicking the LIVE button, and can also be found archived there after the event via the other blue button.
Hook up with Steve at his Facebook thingy here - www.facebook.com/radiobasecamp
Here's the station's blurb on proceedings:
Andy Bracken of Fruits de Mer Records will be joining us on Friday's show to explore his journey from inquisitive child to running one of the most collectible and innovative record labels out there (and it is "out there"). He'll choose a selection of tracks that illustrate just how one becomes obsessed with vinyl, and map out the path that took him from a rockabilly pioneer to acid tinged psych rock via goth and the indie underground...oh, and there's stuff about football as well! The journey will be driven by questions sent in by the Fruits de Mer Members Club, which is all terribly exciting!