Having dashed back to my homeland for Fathers’ Day this year, I’ve had a great weekend. Okay so we managed, by our very presence, to bring torrential rain to an area that hadn’t had it for weeks and got almost comically soaked on a walk yesterday but a good time was had by all.
My dad gave me a present he had picked up from his antiques centre, a tin of Jefferson Airplane ‘Surrealistic Tea’, a herbal infusion of the strictly legal type that promised ‘an aromatic cup of organic love’. Yummy! We two patriarchs wondered when this quirky artefact was from, 60’s? early 70’s? it puzzled us. Right up until, eagle-eyed as always, I spotted the web address on the back of the tin!
Again, swiftly brushing aside all the wholesome family goodness, wonderful walking and gratifying parental experiences of the day we called in at my dad’s antique centre* only for me to find that one of the units he lets out has been taken up by a record dealer … yes, I (sort of) have a dad with a record shop! All my adolescent fantasies** finally realised at the age of 43! There was a rather good selection of cheap, not very rare stuff there. Brushing aside the obligatory Abba and Lindisfarne LPs^ I was happy to unearth a load of Ian Gillan solo LPs, some interesting early jazz and some interesting 80’s rock – this could be my opportunity to catch up on all those Tigertailz albums I want, snag that Bonfire 12″, that Fiona album, or to fill the missing gaps in my Warlock collection.
After boring my children rigid – Deal with it! This is Father’s Day!, I plumped for these six beauties.
I tend not to buy many LPs at once, because it makes it difficult to take them all in and experience them properly but I couldn’t leave these. Why?
Ian Gillan Band Clear Air Turbulence: I’d never seen it before and Chris Foss is my fave sci-fi artist^^.
T-Bone Walker The Blues Of …: Again a great cover and an LP from an artist I wanted to explore. This 1965 compilation is quite brilliant.
Rainbow Difficult To Cure: To replace my taped copy that I lost some time in 1989 and because I just love ‘Can’t Happen Here’.
Crumbsuckers Beast On My Back: I remembered that, despite looking a bit fluffy and clean-cut on the cover they were a hard-as-nails thrash/punk crossover act. Sounds great on first listen, really tough.
Poison Flesh & Blood: Purely for nostalgic reasons, I used to really love half of this LP. Plus Bret Michaels really sings the blues on the last track; T-Bone Walker really could have learned a thing or two from him.
Ennio Morricone The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Just because.
Best of all? none of these LP’s cost me more than £3. Bargain. My head is spinning at 33 1/3, bring me a cup of organic love!
559 Down.
*The Works in Llandeilo, should you find yourself in South West Wales with some time to kill.
**well the ones not involving Sam Fox and/or Lita Ford, owning a spaceship, having X-ray vision and playing blindside flanker for Wales, anyway.
^all second-hand record shops in the UK must at all times carry their full discographies, along with either a)Status Quo’s entire 1980’s output, OR b)four copies of any two Barclay James Harvest LPs; The Second Hand Record Retailers Act (1992), Section 9 (a)iii – iV, Para 24.
^^I now know this LP was cut during his jazz fusion phase. Hmm.