Friday, July 24, 2009

SCAVENGERS ARE AN IDLE RACE

Between the numerous giant opaque clouds I caught a glimmer of light and, dodging raindrops, dived into a charity shop or nine. The paucity of vinyl in Cancer Research and the Shooting Star Hospice encourages one to speculate on a vinyl revival. Every couple of years the press hark on about the revivification of vinyl and plodding through puddles from one CD-saturated charity shop to the next I felt it likely such a piece would surface in the Guardian or Times in the coming weeks. Along with the copious CD's a worrying abundance of ignominious dance 12"'s are now the inevitable unwanted guests; they are the 21st century equivalent of all those queasy listening LP's by that bearded party-lover James Last that choked charity shop doorways back in the nineties. I have often wondered what kind of people would zombify their guests with Last's listless renditions of pop standards; surely the sort of parties that only exist in Two Ronnies sketches in which one of the Ronnies casts impure glances at some airbrushed blonde the BBC has plucked from a Top Of The Pops LP sleeve.

But I digress and I can almost hear your gruff impatient voices yelling at me, demanding an explanation for all this inane chittering. This prevarication is pure indulgence, me savouring a moment, extending my pleasure as far as I feel I can keep your attention but now I cease my teasing. I found a Fantastic Something LP for a £1. No that's not it, though it is true. However, more amazingly, I found an Idle Race LP called Time Is for £1, listed at £130 in the RRPG. And it doesn't stop there, I also scooped up a single by a band called Track 4 of whom I know nothing, but it's also listed in the RRPG at a staggering £100.

3 comments:

Trudi said...

Hmmm... feasty.

Of the three I'd go with the 'Something. Then Idle Race, despite the spectre of Jeff Lynne, then Track 4. By the way, does your Track 4 have a cloudiness on the vinyl? Many do. If no-cloudy, an even toppier score. Nice one.

Raining here.

Rupert Cook said...

It's cloudy as if it fell in a puddle. Fantastic Something is the best of the bunch, once again proving that value rarely reflects the quality of the music.

At least by then the Idle Race was Lynne-less though his presence might have injected a little more of a pop sensibility into what is a fairly ordinary LP.

45 Revolutions said...

On the Fantastic Something tip, have you heard Magna Carta? I know, I know, but just go here:
http://www.magna-carta.info/index.htm

...and tell me "Airport Song" isn't cut from the same cloth.

Don't develop a scavenge-lust for Vertigo though, it'll only end in tears.