Being a Kate Bush fanatic has its drawbacks: old singles are hugely expensive and lots of illegal releases are too. Every now and again, you can't resist temptation when a cheap illegal item comes within your grasp, and this is how I got my hands on this picture disc.
Illegal as hell, this picture disc uses an interview by Martin Buchanan from 1985 on both sides. The interview was broadcast on the old satellite TV channel Music Box - the European answer to MTV - and gives the buyer two black and white pictures of Kate. Interview singles aren't the most interesting discs to play but at least this one looks attractive.
My collection: 7" single no. 5657 Found: Record fair, Utrecht, November 23, 2014 Cost: 3 euro Tracks: Interview [1985] (on both sides)
Being one of the biggest names in pop music, you would wish for the Beatles that if they got a musical tribute, it would be a worthy one. 'Beatles', written by Sven Olov Bagge and Claes Bure, was not that song. It was a calculated move by the Swedish band Forbes to use English phrases, motivated by the fact that the 1977 Eurovision Song Contest took place in the United Kingdom.
The audience cheered at the song, but the juries had another opinion. The song finished last, with only two points from West Germany.
At the Swedish singles chart, it peaked at number 3, amazingly.
My collection: 7" single no. 5636 Found: Fun Records, Berlin, received August 29, 2014 Cost: 2 euro Tracks: 'Beatles' / 'Sweet kiss of fire'
Sometimes I buy a single and I can't believe my luck. This EP from 1964 (!) in very good condition and a 'Factory sample - not for sale' sticker on the label appeared in my hands during the recent record fair in Utrecht. I think the dealer didn't know what he was selling, because this EP appears online for a tenner or more.
This 'A Song For Europe' EP was released on the occasion of Matt Monro's appearance in the TV programme of the same name, also known as the national final of the Eurovision Song Contest in the UK. The song that was chosen was 'I love the little things' (track 3 on side A), which ended second in a field of 16 competitors in the Contest that year.
My collection: 7" single no. 5656 Found: Record fair, Utrecht, November 23, 2014 Cost: 2 euro Tracks: 'Choose', 'It's funny how you know', 'I love the little things' / 'I've got the moon on my side', 'Ten out of ten', 'Beautiful, beautiful'
'Chanteur de charme' ('Crooner') was the French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988, performed by Gérard Lenorman.
The song was performed nineteenth on the night. At the close of voting, it had received 64 points, placing 10th in a field of 21 competitors.
As befits the title, the song is a ballad, with Lenorman singing about the subject matter that crooners traditionally sing about. That is to say, he sings about the subject matter itself, rather than singing the type of song usually associated with the style. Indeed, he likens the songs themselves to "these stories of three times nothing, which rhyme badly, which do good" and later adds that "Nothing has ever prevented us from setting to music, those endlessly repeated clichés, romantic feelings" and remarks that his heart "stupidly proposes on the first page of a paper".
My collection: 7" single no. 5648 Found: Discogs.com, received September 11, 2014 Cost: 2 euro Tracks: 'Chanteur de charme' / 'Heureux qui communique'
Although I already own the original version of Stool Pigeon and this remix version, the double pack pictured here looked like an even more attractive package. Regular readers will know that I'm a sucker for limited edition packages, and especially when they are cheap. Well this one was 'two singles for the price of one', and in the second hand market, even less than that.
However, the second single serves only as proof that Kid Creole and the Coconuts are not necessarily an attractive package as a live act. Perhaps the quality of these recordings are to blame, but I find these two tracks rather clunky. Oh well, you can't win them all.
My collection: 7" single no. 5429 Found: unknown Tracks: 'Stool pigeon (remixed version)' / 'In the jungle (remixed version)' // 'He's not such a bad guy (after all) (live version)' / 'There but for the grace of god go I (live version)'
The single Lass die Sonne in dein Herz has appeared on this blog as far back as March 2009, but this copy is quite different from that one. This one is the original German release, probably released right after their triumph in the national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1987. It features the B-side 'Immer dabei' instead of the English version of the A-side song (like on that other copy).
Like I wrote back in 2009, the song was written and composed by longtime Contest contributors for Germany Ralph
Siegel and Bernd Meinunger. It is a reggae-oriented track with a
lyric full of positive platitudes.
My collection: 7" single no. 5604 Found: Chelsea Records, Antwerpen, August 10, 2014 Cost: 1 euro Tracks: 'Lass die Sonne in dein Herz' / 'Immer dabei'
The title track of Heaven 17's debut album 'Penthouse and pavement' was released as the band's fourth single in 1981. The band never played the songs live until more recent years. Martyn Ware commented about this in 2010: "We absolutely resisted touring. We decided not to tour at all, or
perform. Because Ian and I were members of The Human League, as you
know, we spent two and a half years touring everywhere in Europe and
Britain. And in those days - can you imagine this now? - the record
company were paying quite a lot for tour support to get on big tours. So
we toured twice with Siouxsie & The Banshees and with Pere Ubu,
Iggy Pop, Stranglers, blah, blah, blah. And whilst it got us loads of
coverage in NME and various style magazines, we weren't actually selling
that many albums. (...) By coincidence it was just the start of MTV when we started BEF, and we
thought that was an ideal mechanism for us to service a lot of markets
simultaneously, spending the same amount of money we would have spent on
tour support but instead spending it on videos, which is what we did."
My collection: 7" single no. 5450 Found: unknown Tracks: 'Penthouse and pavement' / 'Penthouse and pavement (instrumental)'
