Old man fiddle - Pihasoittajat

Finland has regularly stunned Eurovision audiences with eccentric entries. This year's 'Cha cha cha' is reasonably modern, but I wonder if Pihasoittajat wasn't totally out of step when they performed this in 1975. 

'Od man fiddle' is the English version of 'Viulu-ukko', the song they won the Finnish national final with. Thanks to the relaxed language rules that year they could at least perform in English, and so they didn't totally bewilder the juries. 'Old man fiddle' reached seventh place in a field of 19 competitors.

My collection: 7" single no. 6982
Found: Discogs.com, received 2 May 2023
Tracks: 'Old man fiddle' / 'Summer call'

Don't give in - Snow Patrol

Sometimes when you wait long enough records become affordable. Take for instance this 10" single from Snow Patrol, released on Record Store Day in 2018. It features only two tracks, but it was pressed on off black colour recycled vinyl in commemoration of International World Earth Day 2018. Hence the price target of almost 20 euros. 

However, during the last record fair I visited, a stack of these records were on sale for only 5 euros. Obviously that was what I was waiting for. I like Snow Patrol, but not so much that I am willing to shell out 20 euros for two tracks. 5 euros? Better.

My collection: 10" single [unnumberd]
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Don't give in' / 'Life on earth'

Don Quixote - Nik Kershaw

It's hard to resist a beautiful picture disc, and some great ones were released in the Eighties. Not that this one is particularly stunning, because it simply recreates the picture sleeve of the regular single, but the photograph does warrant a picture disc edition nonetheless.

According to Nik Kershaw: "The lyric that ended up as 'Don Quixote', was actually 'Gorgonzola'! So I was walking about the house singing 'gor-gon-zola' all day long, trying to think of a lyric. Basically the music was a sort of Samba thing, which reminded me of Spain, and Don Quixote happened to come to mind so I thought, 'Why not write a song about Don Quixote?'. So I went and bought the book."

My collection: 7" single no. 6978
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Don Quixote' / 'Don't lie'

In the name of love - Thompson Twins

It has to be said that I already own the music on this single, as I bought the European edition in 1985. It was on red vinyl too. But it's hard to resist an original UK pressing, especially when it comes in the original picture sleeve. And so I got this single, which is a bit of a repeat of the one I've owned for almost four decades now.

At the time of the release of this single, Thompson Twins were a septet, consisting of Tom Bailey, Alannah Currie, Joe Leeway, John Roog, Chris Bell, Peter Dodd and Matthew Seligman. Only the first three would go on to release the very successful album 'Into the gap' in 1984.

My collection: 7" single no. 6977
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'In the name of love' / 'In the beginning'

Wot! - Captain Sensible

Captain Sensible achieved his only chart hit in the Netherlands in the last weeks of 1982 with the single 'Wot!', a track that featured the female backing singers Dolly Mixture. 

According to Captain Sensible, the song came to be when he was in the USA during a tour with the Damned. He heard this horrible pounding sound coming from outside at 5am. It was coming from a building site and as it was so early and he wanted to sleep in the hotel, he recorded the noise to make a complaint. He played it to the reception, informing them that it was disgusting and a ploy to upset British bands, and he was trying to get some sleep, and they just said, "Have a nice day". Nothing was done and he got no sleep. When he returned to the UK, he played the tape to Tony Mansfield who took the tape and created a loop (backing track) from it within about 10 minutes. This sound loop formed the basis of the song. The loop can be heard clearly at the beginning and near the end of the song. 

'Wot!' reached number 10 in the Dutch Top 40 and number 26 in the UK singles chart. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6976
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Wot!' / 'Strawberry dross'

Love lies lost - Helen Terry

I bought a copy of Helen Terry's 'Love lies lost' 13 years ago and I wrote about it on this blog. (I can't believe it's been around for that long, actually!) The single was a minor hit in the UK but it was also Helen's only hit. 

Then last weekend I suddenly found a copy of the single's picture disc. It's always hard to resist a beautiful picture disc and especially when it's only 1 euro. And so of course I snapped it up. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last Helen Terry release I'll ever buy.

My collection: 7" single no. 6975
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Love lies lost' / 'Laughter on my mind'

Goodbye cruel world - Shakespears sister

The single 'Goodbye cruel word' was actually released twice. I didn't know that before, but I bought this single and then discovered the other one that was already in my collection. And so the blurb I wrote before actually refers to this single from 1991, while the one I wrote about in 2009 was actually a re-release from 1992.

This would explain the different B-side: this single has the non-album track 'Black sky' on the flipside, whereas the re-release features an album track instead. I found out about all this thanks to purchasing this single, which proves yet again that record buying is a learning experience. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6974
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Goodbye cruel world' / 'Black sky'