Uptown Soul

Linked posts here, here, here and here.

Billy J, don't be a - eeeeeuuurgh!

Remember Clifford T. Ward? Gaye: "You're the tray of bright rings I upset yesterday" - or some such. Look it up somewhere: teacher, long blonde hair, possibly first championed by John Peel, possibly not. Sorry, I just don't have time for elementary online research, and there will undoubtedly be lot of fan sites about him. And I have recently been told - unkindly, in my view, but let it pass - that mine would not be the first online destination should a certain someone need dependable musical knowledge about any artist.

So why am I mentioning Clifford T. Ward at all, when there will be so many dedicated websites, and how can I hope to compete? Well, the answer is I'm not interested in the broad sweep of his achievements but only in one tiny but perfect fragment from his work. After the success or non-success of Gaye ("You allay my every fear in a most extraordinary way" etc), certainly a turntable hit of sorts if nothing else, he penned a ditty which may or may not have been called (again, I'm just too busy) Home Thoughts From Abroad, and it is a detail of that to which I direct the reader. From memory it runs:

I've been reading Wordsworth, Keats and Robert Browning [...]
I like the things they say and I like the way they say them,
You know, Home Thoughts From Abroad is a beautiful poem.

Yep, up there with Bernie Taupin and Marc Bolan in the lyrical achievement stakes. But the reason I mention him is something which happened to me on a train journey yesterday.

Cheapo Cheapo's Vinyl stock still for sale - updated link

If anyone reading this is interested in buying or enquiring about Cheapo Cheapo's vinyl stock, here* is an updated link. (If you're new to this blog, find more information about Cheapo by scrolling down the last few posts.) Presumably the Gumtree site only allows ads for a certain amount of time; this was reposted on 7 June. 13,000 records are available for £2000. A small sample is given in the ad but if you email the seller you will be sent a much larger list.

If the ad has disappeared again you can check if the stock is still for sale by going to gumtree, here*, or if that doesn't work, enter the following categories (click on screengrab below to enlarge)

I do hope the stock gets sold and not melted down or whatever. Perhaps the Museum of London could recreate the shop. Is there a record collector who could love all the styles represented?


*  Sadly, the links are no longer relevant.

Cheapo - slight return

Some days or weeks after my visit to Cheapo's old premises on January 19th  I went back - and this time actually crossed the road and pressed my camera against the window pane. Not much was visible on the day itself and I didn't bother uploading the photograph here, as one pile of debris looks pretty much like another, but that worn floor in the image taken from flickr in the prevous post now makes the following foggy image more readable, so here it is: Click to make it larger.

[Add title which punningly alludes to all songs mentioned]

There is an episode of the UK sitcom Hardware (sadly, the clip above has been removed) in which Peter Davison, playing himself, gazes upon a photograph of Kenneth Branagh in a cafe and says something like: "Doesn't really do it for me, but you know - well done him." That's sort of what I feel about the disc below. I include it here, however, because it was a favourite of a friend whose anniversary is coming up soon. Spent a bit of time on youtube checking for what can only be termed the bootingest version - and this seems to be it, with what seems like an authentic vinyl whump: