Having been away last weekend in Italy* with work the boot sale withdrawal symptoms were apparent as this weekend drew close, so I was hoping for at least one day of good weather. (*Unlike the UK, Italy had been sunny and very warm, not that I could
enjoy it as most of the time was spent in the office – only managed to eat
out for two of the five nights I was there, it was take in pizza the rest of
the time). As it happened yesterday was OK weatherwise hereabouts, but in the end I didn’t
feel the need to haul myself out of bed at stupid o’clock for car booty action because
I had already sated my vinyl urge very well at the local chazzas on Friday and
Saturday.
It is a long time since I had had much
luck browsing the charity shops, and my vinyl hunting focus has very much
shifted to car boot sales lately. Having said that, very recently I have been
getting a bit disillusioned with those as it seems there are more and more
vinyl hunters around, and not much vinyl around in early season visits. So it was
a pleasant surprise to score some good vinyl finds at my local charity shops in
the last few days. It was strange, but almost all the shops I visited seemed to
have some new stock, and a variety that I had not seen for a long time. Perhaps
it’s the spring cleaning effect; or are the chazzas finally cottoning on that
Mantovani and James Last just don’t shift; or is it the “vinyl revival” stories
encouraging them to put more out front? It’s just coincidence I’m sure, and
probably a flash in the pan too, but meantime I’m very happy.
My haul includes some keepers (Jess
Roden, early Bonnie Raitt, and late Captain Beefheart for instance) and a few
that I will probably sell on that will hopefully more than cover the cost of
the keepers. As it has been a typically wet Bank Holiday here in the UK what better way to spend the day than playing all my newly acquired vinyl.
Here is one that I am very happy with,
especially at the princely sum of 99p, Madeline Bell’s 1976 album “This is One
Girl”.
Madeline Bell is a fine singer who should
be better known than I think she is. You may know her as the female singer of
the late 60s-early 70s pop/rock group Blue Mink. (Their “Bannerman” single was,
I think I can say, the first song I ever obsessed over). Looking at her back catalog it was a surprise
to me that she actually has as many as eight album releases to her name, but it
is as a background vocalist, session singer, and stage performer that she has plied most of
her trade. Her background vocals can be found on early Elton John, Rod Stewart,
and Joe Cocker releases for example, and often in conjunction with the likes of
Lesley Duncan, Kiki Dee, and Clare Torry.
The album “This Is One Girl” features the
rare groove classic (so I am informed by the interweb) “That’s What Friends Are For”. This track
is held in such high regard in that genre it got a 45 re-issue on the Jazzman
label a few years ago. So is this album a one tracker? Certainly not, in my
opinion. The session artists on this album include some erstwhile Blue Minkers,
and the credits also read like a who’s who of the UK Library music scene – for instance
Alan Hawkshaw, Duncan Lamont, and Alan Parker appear. “That’s What Friends Are
For” is credited to Alan Parker/Madeline Bell and there are three other tracks on
this album with the same credit that are all worth an admission price of much
more than 99p.
Inceidentally, Alan Parker has also had an interesting
career, and if you grew up in Britain from the 60s on you will have undoubtedly
heard his guitar playing (uncredited on some famous albums – Bowie’s Diamond
Dogs for example), and compositions on the TV (he has composed many TV and film
theme tunes and incidental music). The other track I’m featuring from the album, it seems made an appearance on an episode of the long running, cult(?), UK TV
series Prisoner Cell Block H! (presumably as a backing track and originally as
a piece of Library music?) Don’t let that put you off what is another lovely
vehicle for Madeline Bell’s voice and Alan Parker’s guitar.
Latin flavours….
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