EYE ON EBAY

Street People's Personal Values EP sells for £103.25. They came from Scotland and the single rarely crops up. 45 Revolutions declares it to be an impressive effort. I'll have to take their word for it as I failed to win it.

ON THE SCAVENGE IN EAST SHEEN & STREATHAM

The Cancer Research, Streatham. What splendid objects of desire lurked within....................

"Howard's Way, it's bloody Howard's Way." Useful for obscuring the ugly things in life.

We find a gem in the Streatham Oxfam. Elliott Smith's XO on vinyl. It gave me the three chin smile.

Who will save us from this giant green bird?

We're back in East Sheen again. This harmless chazzer houses an inferno of a record as you are about to see.......................

This is the kind of insurrectionary filth the middle class kids of East Sheen were listening to back in the eighties.

Come on then if you think you're hard enough. "Who had the no.1 version of the Star Wars theme?" That must be in the US because it only got to no.7 here. 30 pence, the bargain of the day.

After being turfed out of the Cancer Research we wander the streets until we spy this unexpected island of tat outside the cinema. Note the wariness of the woman about to cross the road, she's seen our camera and she fears she's about to become another victim of the surveillance society.

Here we are at the Cats Rescue stall. I was not allowed to buy a miniature model of a Route Master bus despite my plea of "Think of the cats, think of the cats", so I consoled myself by caressing some terrible records.

Streatham's murderous roads will not deter the Scavenger.

Galway and Mancini, flutes and strings. We just didn't have the courage to buy it.

Formed from the ashes of the Room this is a great Benny Profane 12". Discovered snugly cosying up to some Mission 12" 's. Bauhaus, Family Cat and some goth compilation featuring Every New Dead Ghost to be played only after dark were also unearthed in the new arrivals section.

A 12" on Peasant's Revolt Records. Unfortunately it features a Chumbawamba track. That'll get a dousing with a jug of water when I get home. Also discover Dragon's Revenge by Anhrefn. Love the dragon which reminds me, isn't the Welsh flag the best?

We sign a petition to save the Missing Persons' shop in East Sheen. If it shuts who will find the missing? Inside we find nothing but an America LP from the late 70's. We send it packing on a horse with no name.

What glorious baubles await inside................................

Get me the number of that window cleaner.

What a haul. Barnados has a rich selection of LP's I already own. Except the Steeleye Span which I rejected.

Discovered in Barnados, East Sheen, Stomu Yamashta's East Wind. That reflection effect
is down to my camera operative. She's on half pay from now on.

Turntable Revolution Record Collection 15

TURNTABLE REVOLUTION TOP 20 august 15

1 Fauves : Tortured Soul
2 Sea Urchins : Summershine
3 Pains Of Being Pure At Heart : Come Saturday
4 Astronauts : Back Soon
5 BTP Folders : All Of A Sudden
6 Gobblinz : Communique
7 Indelicates : America
8 Ting Tings : Shut Up And Let Me Go
9 Exhibit A : Distance
10 Vivian Girls : Wild Eyes
11 Newpolitans : Duck Town
12 Tagmemics : Chimneys
13 Penny Candles : Memory Box
14 Pathetix : Love In Decay
15 Lucky Soul : Add Your Light To Mine Baby
16 Tuxedo Moon : Pinheads On The Move
17 Summer Cats : Lonely Planet
18 Wave Pictures : Strange Fruit For David
19 Manhattan Love Suicides : Clusterfuck
20 Alphabeat : 10,000 Nights

Green numbers indicate new entries.

Only A Northern Love Song

1. Many years ago, 1980, in a rainy city named Manchester a record label called Object existed. Grow-Up was responsible for one of the label's greatest pop moments. It was their second release on Object, the first featured six tracks of tentative and twisty half-formed songs. An LP called The Best Thing was an extension of ideas that had been toyed with on the debut single. Then suddenly out of nowhere came Joanne.

2.

A stop-start paean to young love among the rocks kissed by the North Sea surf, the jittery nervousness of that first crush, the awe in which the loved one is observed while doing the most mundane things, these are touchingly conveyed. "From Scarborough Harbour to Whitley Bay, I'm gonna love you for just one day", they sing and then declare, in glorious contradiction, the genius line "Will you marry me before I go gay?" If they had been a hundred miles further north they would have been Orange Juice. The b side has two tunes called "The Affirmation of Existence" and "Gggdadgadadad" so they were probably art students who eventually merged into one and became Tracey Emin, but for the sake of Joanne we can forgive them that.

3.

Another LP was released, Without Wings on the Up label, shortly before they grew up too much to devote time to an unsuccessful band. Much of the LP was more in the spirit of Joanne with occasional daring adventures into jazzy pop; their tuneful tinkering deserved more than the oblivion that embraced it.

4.

Listen to it on imeem.

EYE ON EBAY

Here's a first on T.Rev. I'm commenting on an auction that is due to finish later today. Up for grabs is Ten Feet Tall by the Flowershop. It's not a cover of the XTC song. It is though a cracking C86ish pop tune and one I stumbled across in a charity shop last year along with a batch of Cherry Orchard flexis. No bids as yet but it's available as a buy it now at a very reasonable price. Any lovers of pop left alive? That Noah And The Whale single can wait until next week, sand down your bidding fingers and prepare to pounce. Trust me, I'm a blogger.

Turntable Revolution Mixtape 2 Revolving

1. The Cybermen - Cybernetic Surgery
2. Scrotum Poles - Pick The Cats Eyes Out
3. Reacta - Sus
4. The Desperate Bicycles - The Medium was Tedium
5. Martin & the Brownshirts - Boring
6. Bleach Boys - Chloroform
7. Sema 4 - up down around
8. Art Attacks - Neutron Bomb
9. Pseudo Existors - Now
10. The Wasps - Teenage Treats
11. Sods - No Pictures
12. Satan's Rats - In My Love For You
13. Negatives (Bradford UK) - Love Is Not Real

Turntable Revolution Record Collection 14

Nostalgia is not a modern obsession

Nostalgia is not a modern obsession. The fifties American family was celebrated on the cover of this 1988 flexi release by the Peach Thieves. Prosperous and fun-loving, the uniform of happiness for the girls is pleated skirts which implies a rigid adherence to structure and formality. Are the men wearing bespoke trousers? The little girl is goggle-eyed as if she's never entertained the notion of a spherical object propelling itself forward without continuous aid from a human limb. One feels this is not an instant or an ecstatic seizure, rather that this family was permanently in thrall to joy. The elder girl is already accepting her future role to some stifling husband as she brings forth the crass nectar of 1950's corporate America, Coca Cola. And where better place to offload all that youthful energy your kids are harnessing than the bowling alley? The adamantine ideals, such as truth, justice and the attaining of the American dream, parents are eager to instill in their offspring can be forged in the healthy competitiveness sport encourages.

The sleeve is misleading as the two tracks the Peach Thieves offer us are in a C86 style. They came from Lindal-in-Furness, Cumbria and they were Philip on vocals and guitar, Johnny on guitar, Shaun on bass and Chris on drums. Johnny is modelling himself on Johnny Marr on the reverse sleeve. The record is dedicated to Vic Godard. I'd hazard a guess he never heard it. Both tracks are accomplished. Morecambe Bay is a slow wistful paean to the summer of 1987 when the boys were apparently being bullied by surfers on the beach.

What became of the Peach Thieves? Who were they? Did they ever release anything else?

Hear Out Of The Nowhere on imeem.

TURNTABLE REVOLUTION TOP 20 august 8

1 Indelicates : America
2 Astronauts : Back Soon
3 Sea Urchins : Summershine
4 Fauves : Tortured Soul
5 Exhibit A : Distance
6 Pains Of Being Pure At Heart : Come Saturday
7 Gobblinz : Communique
8 Vivian Girls : Wild Eyes
9 Newpolitans : Duck Town
10 Penny Candles : Memory Box
11 Alphabeat : 10,000 Nights
12 Manhattan Love Suicides : Clusterfuck
13 Lucky Soul : Add Your Light To Mine Baby
14 Wave Pictures : Strange Fruit For David
15 Ting Tings : Shut Up And Let Me Go
16 Squad : Red Alert
17 Pathetix : Love In Decay
18 Tuxedo Moon : Pinheads On The Move
19 Tagmemics : Chimneys
20 Reacta : Stop The World

Green numbers indicate new entries.

EYE ON EBAY

The Machines aggressive muddily-produced True Life ep accrues £83.25. If you want a taste of the Machines I suggest you buy the compilation Bored Teenagers 4 on Bin Liner records which also contains the amusing Public Pisstake and a powerpop classic by the Elevators.

Turntable Revolution Record Collection 13

Singles Selection