Hola to all you boppers out there, all you street people with an ear for the action. I’m just back from a week in Andalusia. I am certainly not going to moan about the few days of bad weather we had in light of the horrific, utterly tragic flooding seen up in Valencia but we certainly caught the tail end of that same weather.
Undaunted, Mrs 1537 and I hopped and bopped about between Malaga, Granada, Córdoba and Seville. I have wanted to go for years to see the Sierra Nevada mountains, the architectural legacies of the Moorish rule over southern Spain and to explore Seville.
Long story short: it was brilliant, the The Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba was my real highlight a really beautiful, spiritual building; the Setas de Sevilla were everything I had hoped they would be and, as is our wont, we walked and walked Seville having a lot of fun exploring it, especially during the evenings.
But you didn’t come here for my travel writing*. Like all good city breaks this one involved me finding a few good record shops ‘accidentally’ along the way. The best by far was Record Sevilla on, the wonderfully named, Amor de Dios about 3 minutes walk from our hotel. The owner was playing Magnum when we went in and saw Judas Priest at the same Leeds show I did**, from quite near to me too (as we saw when we compared pics). We had a brilliant chat about all things metal and I loved when he called Blackie Lawless ‘a vanker!‘. If you are ever in Seville you MUST go, hell, if you’re ever in Europe, you MUST go.
So I treated myself to the following goodies:
Descendents Milo Goes To College. I have wanted this beauty for a decade at least before I found this copy. The cover alone would grant it asylum in my collection, let alone that there are tracks as great as ‘Hope’ and ‘I Wanna Be A Bear’ on it.
Mother Love Bone Apple. Heard it once when, ironically, 1537 Went To College, dismissed it loftily as ‘the Cult covering Jane’s Addiction‘^ but have then itched to own it for a long time since. I have played it twice today already and I am floored by how damn good this LP is.
Sweet Sweet Fanny Adams. Why on earth has it taken me 52 years to own a Sweet LP? this is a brilliant album (the execrable ‘Peppermint Twist’ aside). Finding a cheap 1974 UK original in Seville was a bonus, the least I could do was to repatriate it. The track ‘No, You Don’t’ is astonishingly good, Steve Priest sounding a lot like a certain OO.
In other vinyl news, I may also have recently splurged on the following treats:
Amyl & The Sniffers Cartoon Darkness. A band who get better and better with each LP I reckon. How could I resist a version with an alternative, rather tactile sleeve, glow-in-the-dark vinyl and a signed print? basically, I didn’t.
Gillian Welch/David Rawlings Woodland. Not listened to it yet, it came while I was away but I am very excited by this one. 2024 has been a good year for new releases thus far.
Blood Incantation Starspawn. I’m playing catch-up with my new fave death metal space prog band’s back catalogue. This debut is crushingly great but if its okay with you I am just going to pretend I bought this in 2016 when it came out? possibly that the band gave me a copy before it was released? that the band gave me a copy with no music on 20 minutes after they had decided what they were going to call themselves and hadn’t had a chance to record anything yet? you are all so unhip compared to me!
Public Service Broadcasting The Last Flight. My first zoetrope vinyl, signed by the band, obvs. Definitely the best concept LP about the final voyage of Amelia Earhart that I own. This is a really lush, very humane and rather moving album.
Mose Allison V-8 Ford Blues. I’m finally exploring away from the greatest hits collection I own and Mose is basically the messiah as far as I am concerned. From the cool cover art on in this is just sophisticated wonderfulness, the Foolkiller’s voice and utterly deceptive piano playing are like nobody else, ever. If it is okay with you I am just going to pretend that I bought this when it was released in 1962?^^
Which is not to mention all the other recent pre-orders by The Smile, Chubby & The Gang, Nubya Garcia, Scarlet Rebels, Jake Long, Sam Millar, White Hills and The Cure.
No wonder I needed a holiday.
1251 Down (still).
*you want 1542 blog for that one, please just don’t get it confused with 1524 which is my subscription-only one for rather niche erotic stories.
**same one as you Tim P!
^direct quote from my diary there.
^^with a different LP title and cover back then, but let’s not quibble with what I was doing at the age of -10.
We are visiting Malaga, Granada, and Alicante in April and hoping to see some good record stores there. What are the prices like?
Hiya, I can only comment on Sevilla but prices were roughly UK equivalent, with some classic 2nd hand LPs a bit cheaper. Shops were happy to sell unofficial rereleases of LPs though, labelled as such – which I don’t think is a bad thing from a punter’s point of view.
Hope that helps.
That is so cool! I’m picturing a Spanish record shop owner roaring up through Europe on his Harley headed to Leeds with “Freewheel Burning” soundtracking the ride! Trust he enjoyed it??
Totally agree on the Amyl and PSB albums, are you catching either live? Must check out the unameable ones (“Blood Incantation, Mum, we’re called Blood Incantation!”).
He was dressed as a crusader apparently, in homage to Saxon. He was particularly into Uriah Heep too and is jetting in to see Maiden at the NEC next year – Mrs 1537 were chatting about them through the ages.
Going to see PSB live in Liverpool and the Manics in Glasgow next year – very excited about both. I saw Amyl around the 1st LP and they were great too, missed out this time.
‘Son, why couldn’t you get a job in accountancy, like your Uncle Mike? Blood, what? I can’t read what that says. Elton John always puts his name on his CDs very clearly’
I remember buying that Mother Love Bone CD back in 1990 and then read an article in RIP Magazine a few months later that they were no more as the singer passed away. Stardog Champion was and is a great track. I need to revisit this one ….
Glad you had a great trip Joe!
Yeah, it really surprised me just how great Apple sounds. It’s a bootleg copy (damn good one too), I’d much rather buy a new one where the money goes to the artist properly but that isn’t an option; neither is buying an original!
They’d completely sold out by the time they released Starspawn if you ask me. I have a bunch of Sweet albums… tend to love particular songs rather than the entire albums.
Personally I think it all goes wrong when bands choose a name. That’s when I lose interest.
Peppermint Twist is so bad it spoiled the whole of Friday for me.
Can even think how that one goes… must have blotted it from memory to protect myself
Architecture, history, culture, vinyl. Perfect holiday.
I could respond to a few of the albums, but will settle for celebrating your membership to the Brotherhood of Mose. He is totally too much and you can never get enough.
Thanks Bruce, Mose piano style is so unique, utterly minimal, there are elements of stride piano in there like Fats Waller, but he almost seems to play the gaps between the notes.
I have a greatest hits history with him since the early 90’s but have only explored further this year.
Yeah, the greatest hits comps of Mose are really great, but they tend to skim over his marvellously under-stated piano-ing.
Great song, CB. Love it!