Monthly Archives: May 2019

Northwich, UK | Omega Records founder Steve Harrison excited for Northwich’s Dead Dead Good Weekend: As the town counts down to the Dead Dead Good Weekend, Gemma Sproston speaks to Steve Harrison, founder of Omega Records and the independent label from which this three-day festival takes its name. During its glory days, Omega Records was the lifeblood for music fans across the north west and beyond, playing a pivotal role in the indie and dance explosion of the late 80s and early 90s. Famous for launching The Charlatans’ career – amongst other bands – the store and label hold an affectionate place in people’s hearts and they’re responsible for so many first memories, whether its singles, albums, fanzines, gigs or festivals. Customers and friends included Morrissey, Doves, Johnny Marr, Ian Brown, John Squire, Billy Duffy, Bernard Sumner, Tim Burgess, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Tony Wilson, and former employees have gone on to work across the music, film design and TV industry.

Boise, ID | 11th-Annual VPS Boise Record Show and Swap at The Basque Center, Saturday, May 4: The annual Boise Record Show and Swap bills itself as “Boise’s first, oldest and only all-vinyl record convention”—and considering the traction that Boise’s own record headquarters, The Record Exchange, gets each time it throws an event or expands its collection, there’s no doubt it will bring in a crowd on Saturday, May 4. The Vinyl Preservation Society will open the doors to the old-school party at The Basque Center at 9 a.m. for VIP ticket holders ($10) and 10 a.m. for everyone else ($5). Along with vinyl sourced from four states, people can check out a raffle and other record-related merch like vintage audio equipment (turntables, anyone?), concert posters and collectibles. Don’t forget your records—or your wallet.

Hudson Valley, NY | Experts are Talkin’ Vinyl in New Series: Original Vinyl Records, the Hudson Valley’s newest record store, announces their new in-store live event series Talkin’ Vinyl. Beginning on Sun., May 5 from 4 to 5 p.m. Original Vinyl Records, located at 314 Rte. 94 South #7 in Warwick, is inviting vinyl experts to come and share their knowledge about artists and recordings and the back story for legendary albums. On May 5 historian Joe Conzo, Sr. will play never before heard recordings from his private collection from Tito Puente, Machito and Ray Barretto. Conzo, who is currently writing a book on the “Big Three” bandleaders Machito, Tito Puente, and Tito Rodríguez, owns an unrivaled collection of Machito live recordings. He is the producer of many recordings by Latin artists on prestigious labels such as Sony Music and Pablo. He currently serves as the Director of the Tito Puente Legacy Project – an archive of Puente memorabilia based at the school.

Melbourne, AU | Review: Revolutions: Rebels and Records, Melbourne Museum: A retro exhibition brings the Sixties back but with detail you’ve never seen before. Revolutions come in many forms. Some spin at home in black vinyl while others take to the streets for riots and placards. For this exhibition based on the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) collections of costumes, posters and more, the revolution is a period of the late 1960s that made noises in London then echoed out across the world. You might think you’ve seen the Sixties before but Revolutions looks deeper. The scale of Revolutions is mind-bending with 500 objects telling the story of 1966-1970…Because the objects could only tell so much of the story, there’s an aural layer. The accompanying headphones play through a Sixties playlist complete with vinyl crackles between tracks.

Kingston, ON | When it comes to vinyl, what’s old is new again: Out with the new and back in with the old. Vinyl records, once having been a thing of the past, have in recent years been brought back out into the limelight. It hasn’t just been 15 minutes of fame for these classic beauties. Record stores have also become reborn again and are a lot more common nowadays. With that in mind, Zap Records presented the Kingston Record Show and Sale on Saturday, a one-day event held at Princess Street United Church. Vendors lined up with table upon table of records inside the church. You could find any type of music your heart desired, from jazz to metal to blues and everything in between. The doors to the event opened at 11 a.m. and the event carried on until 4 p.m. Zap Records has been doing this at least once a year. If this one proves to be successful, they will continue with the huge sale again in the fall.

Chicago, IL | Vinyl record sale to benefit Libertyville Township food pantry: Anyone looking to add to their collection of vintage vinyl, replace a worn favorite or rekindle memories will get the chance at an upcoming pop-up sale in Libertyville. “There’s going to be some interesting finds for people to dig through,” said Lance Schart, one of the organizers and participants in the second annual vinyl record sale to benefit the Libertyville Township food pantry. Last year, the inaugural event held in the garage of one of the sellers raised $1,400 in cash and 400 pounds of food for the pantry. “We’re looking to double everything this year,” Schart said. That means more visibility in a larger space, and more selections and offerings for visitors. The sale will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 11, at 330 N. Milwaukee Ave., an empty storefront in downtown Libertyville. Six local residents who each have been collecting for more than 30 years will be offering more than 2,000 new and vintage vinyl selections. A variety of genres will be represented and more records will be added to the inventory every hour.

The best turntables for 2019: If you’re serious about vinyl, or you’re looking to get more out of your existing collection of records, buying the right turntable is an essential part of the process. After looking at dozens of models at a variety of prices, we believe the EAT B-Sharp is the best turntable. With its outstanding build quality, sublime audio, and thoughtful extra features, it could easily be the last turntable you ever buy, which is probably a good thing, considering it’s not the cheapest turntable we’ve ever auditioned. Our team has over 50 collective years in the consumer and pro audio markets, and some of us are downright obsessed with playing music the old-school vinyl way. We’ve spent countless hours dropping needles on everything from Nat King Cole to Nipsey Hussle, and we know which gear produces the best sound.

Mumbai, IN | Of vinyl and folk artists: How Amarrass is putting rural musicians on the map, reviving interest in records: “The legends are out there. We don’t know them, but that means it’s an opportunity to go out and find them,” says Ankur Malhotra. Malhotra speaks of the music legends who live in rural India, far from urban gig venues and studios. A shared passion for music and shame at not being able to name ‘the greats’ of Indian folk motivated him to start the record label Amarrass Records in 2009 with Ashutosh Sharma. The duo got on the road with microphones in hand, scouring the Rajasthani countryside for rural talent. Among others, they found Sakar Khan, simply described as one of the greatest kamancha players the world has seen. The musician, who had been playing all his life, finally released his only album At Home: Sakar Khan in 2012 with Amarrass, which received five stars on Songlines. In 2012, Khan was awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution to Indian folk music. “These are people for whom the sole purpose, the sense of being on this Earth is to perform and play music,” Malhotra explains.

The Rolling Stones And ABKCO Announce Deluxe Reissue Of ‘The Rock And Roll Circus’: The Rolling Stones may have had to put their highly-anticipated return to North America on hold while singer Mick Jagger recovers from heart surgery, but that doesn’t mean the famous rock band is sitting around doing nothing but counting their riches like some kind of British Scrooge McDuck. Earlier this week it was announced that The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus, the band’s 1968 all-star concert film featuring guests like John Lennon and Yoko Ono, The Who, and many more, will be given an expanded reissue this coming summer. The concert, which was professionally filmed in front of a live audience in London in December 1968, featured performances by The Stones, in addition to notable pop (and non-pop) acts of the day including, Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and The Dirty Mac–a spontaneous supergroup comprised of Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, The Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell and John Lennon.

David Bowie “Diamond Dogs” Red Vinyl LP out Friday 24th May. Shop sales only: Released on 24th May 1974 ‘Diamond Dogs’ gave David Bowie his third UK number one album and his first top 10 album in the US. To celebrate the 45th anniversary there will be a special limited edition red vinyl version of Diamond Dogs on 24th May 2019, exactly 45 years since its original release. Preceding the album by more than 3 months, Rebel Rebel peaked at number 5 on the official U.K. singles chart. The original single mix was substituted by the shorter, ‘phased’ New York Remix single version in North America, featuring a new arrangement and overdubbed vocals. The album originally peaked at number 1 in the official albums chart in the U.K. and number 5 in the Billboard album chart in the U.S.. This will only be available to ‘bricks and mortar’ retail stores and not through online stores.

Trade opinion: Record Store Day, the inspiration for Local Bike Shop Day: Saturday 13th April 2019 saw another successful Record Store Day (RSD) with thousands of record shops across the globe coming together to celebrate their unique culture and community. It has become one of the biggest annual occasions on the music calendar with exclusive vinyl records created, artist performances and events throughout the world to mark the day. RSD has become the success that it is today because it is both, exclusive to indie record stores and, an entirely inclusive event, inviting everyone to take part…Like RSD, Local Bike Shop Day (LBSD) is an annual event for independent bike shops across the UK to come together and celebrate the passion and knowledge that sets them apart from the larger national chains. The inaugural LBSD in 2018 was a huge success bringing together over 50 bike shops across the UK in celebration. This year is already promising to be bigger and better with over 140 bike shops taking part.

Meet the Record Label Turning Video Game Soundtracks Into Cool Vinyl: It’s not often artists like Weezer and Courtney Love are mentioned in the same breath as Hollow Knight, Darkest Dungeon and Nuclear Throne. For Ghost Ramp, a boutique record label based in Southern California, representing video games soundtracks alongside traditional music is a typical day at the office. Founded in 2008 as the music blog of Nathan Williams, the frontman of San Diego punk/pop group Wavves, Ghost Ramp evolved into a fully-blown independent record label in 2011, when it backed a handful of west coast indie acts such as Antwon, Cloud Nothings and So Stressed. Fast forward to 2015 and Ghost Ramp extended its purview to video games, when Williams and label manager Patrick McDermott – both lifelong gamers – pressed an official limited-edition vinyl run of Austin Jorgensen’s score for the quirky post-apocalyptic side-scrolling role-player LISA.

The music world’s Holy Grail: The 45 rpm 7″ vinyl single Do I Love You (Indeed I Do ) by Frank Wilson on Tamla Motown record label, value £25,000, original pressings, 1979 re-release £30, DJ copies, £60….Frank Wilson (1940-2012) was an American songwriter, singer and record producer for Tamla Motown records who had written and produced many hit records for Motown artists, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Miracles, The Four Tops, Diana Ross/The Supremes and many others. One day, he decided to cut a single of his own for release. The song was first pressed and recorded in 1965. No one is absolutely sure of how many demos were made; 250 is the accepted figure, but some say it could be higher. After playing it for Berry Gordy, head of Motown records who gave the song a lukewarm opinion, Frank had all the demos destroyed, although two, possibly three copies survived, one of which, when auctioned, sold for £25,742 in May 2009.

NZ | Rare Elvis Presley record found in old pile of records and donated to museum: Elvis may have left the building, but somehow, one of his extremely rare, 64-year-old records ended up in a South Island secondhand shop. And the original New Zealand-pressed E-Z Country Programming No. 2 LP from 1955 was discovered by none other than a travelling church organ tuner. Oamaru musicologist Dr Ron Newton, who has a PhD in NZ organ history and a museum of pipe and reed organs, was tempted to throw the valuable piece of vinyl away until he did some research. “Then I looked it up and discovered it was sought after by collectors all around the world, and I thought, this record needs to go to a museum,” Newton said. It is a copy of the first 12″ vinyl LP recording of Elvis’s music ever made and is sought by collectors because of two featured tracks: “Mystery Train” and “I Forgot To Mention To Forget.”

Read More »