Rock-A-Boogie Birthday Rock
Posted: October 4, 2012 Filed under: 50s, England, Flexible Records, Rock´n´Roll Records Leave a comment »
With this short little rock´n´roll song I´d like to celebrate the birth of my “new” blog! Just saw this hanging on the wall of a antique bookstore in my neighborhood last week and took it home for a measly 2 euros and fifty cents.
By coincidence it exemplifies the sort of copyright friendly material I was writing about in #2 of the blog ethics. The cardboard record was issued by a defunct “record company” and recorded by anonymous artists. There is no mention of copyright anywhere on the card either and it is definitely more than fifty years old, because it runs on 78 rpm, a format discontinued in most western countries by 1960.
The perfect birthday song for rockin´and rollin´teenagers! And old geezers too…
“Hep-Heppy Birthday to you!”
“Hep-Heppy Birthday to you!”
You ain´t no square! And I know that!
Let down your hair! You´re the coolest cat!
Push back the chairs! Get yer carpet rolled!
Just ROCK!. . . . . And you´ll never grow old!
TOP SIX, No.18, 1965
Posted: September 9, 2010 Filed under: 60s, Beat records, England, World 3 Comments »
Last week I also purchased this British cheapo/department store EP at the charity shop. When I bought it, it didn´t have a sleeve. Luckily, later when we played our new acquisitions, the missing Top Six company sleeve was on one of the 45´s that my friend had bought at the same place. Generously he let me have.
There are six cover-versions of 1965 British hit songs played by unnamed bands on this EP: “The Price Of Love” by the Everly Brothers, “I´s Just A Little Bit Too Late” by Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders, “Colours” by Donovan, “I`m Alive” by The Hollies, “She´s About A Mover” by The Sir Douglas Quintet and “Crying In The Chapel”, that Elvis took to number one on the British charts in 1965 where it stayed for two weeks.
I´s Just A Little Bit Too Late
THE CHANCELLORS, My Girl, 1965
Posted: April 16, 2010 Filed under: 60s, England 2 Comments »
A mixed bag of records this week: Polish beat, British beat, the (German) king of the slop, communist propaganda, private weirdness and some of the usual Berlin-related music. Most of them I found in the last two weeks. I have a whole box of old records that are still waiting to be posted but fresh finds always seem a little more interesting.
As you noticed I finally found out how to install the little audio player that WordPress offers. It only took me three years to learn how to use a simple HTML shortcode. Still I´m quite proud of myself for that because I learned it without the help of others. All by myself! I also now use Dropbox for file sharing because it seems that my other hosts will soon run out of bandwidth again this month. But Dropbox works just the same as the others.
This is probably the best song this week, the Chancellors from Manchester on the Swiss Elite Special label. I found it last week in a local thrift store for one Euro. It looks pretty beat-up and there´s a little hiss in the first ten seconds but besides that it plays pretty good. The drum-intro on My Girl copies the Rivieras California Sun but its a whole different song.
A great fast-paced rocker!
THE CHANCELLORS, My Girl, 1965
THE CHANCELLORS, Jenny Jenny, 1965
THE TUNNEL USERS, Sun Arise Dub, 1982
Posted: February 25, 2010 Filed under: 80s, England | Tags: 1980´s, Liverpool, New Wave 1 Comment »
Sun Arise is actually the b-side of this single but for me that´s just what it felt like last night when Holli from Jungle World got my new hard drive going again: the sun was rising.
So, I´m back! It took a while to re-install all the programs, photoshop, wavepad, the scanner and of course the internet but now I´m almost set like before. Holli even managed to save the files from my old broken hard drive although I realised after thinking I had lost them for good for a week that I didn´t need 90% of them anyway.
After being on withdrawal for a week I´m almost over the addiction so for this week I will take it easy with the blogging. Only one record. More to come next week. By the way, our last radio show on Tuesday was a lot of fun. Franky Fuzz played some of his hits live in the studio and I played mostly good music for a change. I hope I´ll be able do it again some time.
On Friday evening I´ll go over to the other studio of Herbstradio 99.1 to play music on the Dschungelfunk show from 6 to 8. It´s a special show about religion and I´ll spin a couple of really rockin´gospel records, some weird German religious music that I´ve posted on this blog before and some outright blasphemous tunes. What the hell, I might even find some Satanist music until Friday.
Also, am Freitag auf Herbstradio 99.1 von 18 bis 20 Uhr Dschungelfunk
I found the Tunnel Users 45 a couple of years ago in a Berlin second-hand record store and took it because of the nice graphics, somewhere between the B 52´s and the Revillos.
Musically they´re much more pop than the sleeve suggests but I like both songs.
Dance? is about a girl who takes the initiative because the boys are too shy to dance.
Sun Arise Dub is a sort of sped-up dub-style cover version of Rolf Harris´British #2 hit song from 1962 Sun Arise but with some added 1982 background noise.
The Tunnel Users were from Liverpool and I found the only information about them on a Welsh music site:
Tunnel Users - band (1981-83) feat; Colin Pennington (gtr,voc) (later of Decemberists, Hell Fire Sermons, James), Phil Butcher (voc), Clint Gannicliffe (keys), Gary Rowlandson (drms) (died 2006), Paul Maloney (bass), Geraldine French (voc), Jeff Hill (keys). Played Larks in The Park Festival 1981 and noted for their live performances rather than recorded work. Rel ‘Ideas’ tape (Mar81) on a label(?) was run by Garry Gannicliffe and based at Gladville Road, Mossley Hill, L’Pool, L17, and 7″ Dance on Ex-Jukey Recs (Jul82).
THE TUNNEL USERS, Sun Arise Dub, 1982
THE TUNNEL USERS, Dance?, 1982
The cartoonist and musician Rolf Harris will be turning 80 on March 30. While looking for a 1962 version of Rolf Harris singing Sun Arise I found these videos instead.
Rolf Harris doing Wild Thing:
And Rolf Harris painting and singing:
BUD ASHTON, Kon-Tiki, 1961
Posted: January 28, 2010 Filed under: 60s, England, Instrumental Records | Tags: Instrumental Rock`n`Roll 3 Comments »
I have posted budget records before, mostly focusing on the German variety: Tip, Tempo, Rondo, Okay. This here record came out on the legendary British budget label Embassy owned by the Woolworth chain store and exclusively sold through stores at half the price of major label releases. Apparently there are quite a number of collectors already occupied with assembling Embassy releases as can be seen on this Embassy label tribute website.
Isn´t that a beautiful sleeve!? The label operated from 1954 to 1965 producing mostly double-a-side singles with cover versions of hit songs. Just like the musicians that worked for other European budget labels, these musicians were professionals. Considering that they had to record these songs in a very short time, it´s amazing that their versions, like this instrumental originally recorded by the Shadows, turned out to be so good.
FINGERS LEE AND THE UPPER HAND, The Midnight Run, 1965
Posted: September 11, 2009 Filed under: 60s, England, World | Tags: British Rockabilly, Freakbeat, Piano 3 Comments »
I found this 45 at the flea-market last Saturday. My girlfriend and some friends were standing behind me and my girlfriend said: ” Are you buying records again? You bought 200 records in the US last month!! You´ve got flea-market-Verbot!!!”
Well, it was only 50 cents so I got it anyway from the old lady that sold it. I didn´t know what it was either but Fingers Lee sounded pretty close to Freddy “Fingers” Lee, the famous British Rockabilly pianist. Later at home a quick Internet check confirmed my assumption. And when the needle hit the record I was floored! PURE FUZZED-OUT BRITISH FREAKBEAT!!!
Freddy Fingers Lee was a regular on the British Rockabilly Scene in the 70´s and played with Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers. Because he only had one eye he always wore a eye-patch and his trademark cowboy hat. He cut many records and toured Europe extensively.
In the early 60´s he played with Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages and later moved to Hamburg where he played in the house-bands at the Top Ten and the Star Club. His own band, The Upper Hand included bassist Ian Patterson (Ian Hunter) and Pete Phillips on drums. Ian Hunter later joined Mott The Hoople.
Here´s a video of a legendary Freddy Fingers Lee performance doing “Lights Out”. Watch how he takes the axe and destroys the piano while all the British Teddy Boys cheer him on!!!
The Midnight Run appeared on Volume 9 of the Incredible Sound Show Stories compilation LP series that came out in the 90´s .
Oh yeah, it´s WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILD!!!!!!!
FINGERS LEE AND THE UPPER HAND, The Midnight Run, 1965
FINGERS LEE AND THE UPPER HAND, The Storm, 1965
NIX-NOMADS, She´ll be sweeter than you, 1964
Posted: September 11, 2009 Filed under: 60s, England, World | Tags: British Freakbeat, Ray Charles 2 Comments »
This kinda fits with the Upper Hand record. I bought this a couple of month ago at a thrift store. It´s quite a beat-up copy but that´s why it was only 1 euro. It plays well and I play it a lot.
The Nix-Nomads from Ipswich attracted a devoted mod following and released only this single.
She´ll be sweeter than you is a stomping Rhythm & Blues influenced British Beat number while You´re nobody ´til somebody loves you , a Ray Charles cover, is slower but equally heavy.
She´ll be sweeter than you has been featured on the British R&B and the British Freakbeat comps.
NIX-NOMADS, She´ll be sweeter than you, 1964
NIX-NOMADS, You´re nobody ´til somebody loves you, 1964
THE BRITISH LION ORCHESTRA, The Girl On The Motorcycle, 1968
Posted: July 9, 2009 Filed under: 60s, England, Instrumental Records | Tags: Alain Delon, Marianne Faithfull, Motorcycle Leave a comment »
This is from the soundtrack of the film Girl On A Motorcycle written by Les Reed starring Marianne Faithfull and Alain Delon. The Girl On The Motorcycle starts with a roaring engine and then goes into some weird mix of Les Baxter Orchestra meets the funky organ.
THE BRITISH LION ORCHESTRA, The Girl On The Motorcycle, 1968
About me:
My name is Andreas Michalke. I´m a cartoonist from Berlin, Germany and I like collecting records. Most of the records I find in thrift stores or at flea markets here in Berlin. I like a lot of music but I thought I`d focus on odd German records. Preferably with cartoon covers.
All my scans are high-resolution. If you double-click on them they will get much bigger.
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