Confessions Of A Vinyl Collector

The ‘last of the birthday money’ edition……

Went to Cardiff on Sunday for a record fair at a new and quite different venue. Rather than the hall or community centre that you normally find music fairs this was held in the passageway of a Victorian Market arcade opposite Cardiff Castle. Quite picturesque and surprisingly spacious it was a shame that only 8 or 9 dealers showed up but nevertheless there was a decent amount of both CD and vinyl for sale. As usual then, here is the haul….

Firstly I picked up two further additions to my collection of The Beatles album reissues. The 90s reissues were direct metal mastered from digitally re-mastered original tape so given the current state of the Beatles CD releases these vinyls probably represent the best sounding media. Certainly better than a good or very good original or early reissue which would otherwise be about the best I can afford. Anyway for £12 I got A Hard Day’s Night, in my opinion the best of the pre-Rubber Soul stuff and the only album I think where every song is a Lennon-McCartney credit. Secondly I finally got the 2lp White Album although this set me back £15 although I was pleased the see the lyric/collage poster and the individual portraits are still part of the deal. Unfortunately so is Revolution 9!

Moving onto the second hand stuff the ‘everything a pound’ box on one stall heralded…

Survivor - Premonition…. 1981 release from the American AORsters and not a Rocky theme in sight!

Rush - Permanent Waves…. can’t go wrong with an album boasting both The Spirit Of Radio and Freewill for just a quid can you?

Bryan Adams - Reckless…. for all the faults with his more recent uninspired offerings you just can’t fault his early stuff if your into melodic rock. This was his most successful release and again a bargain at a pound. I also like Cuts Like A Knife and Into The Fire a lot as well and needed this one to bridge the gap.

From the same dealer but this time in the £2 box I picked up the album Straight Between The Eyes by Rainbow. I’ve long discarded the latter day Rainbow preferring the Dio era by a long way but after hearing the new Joe Lynn Turner album I’ve been wanting to re-assess. I know Stone Cold is a good track but can’t recall anything else from the days I used to have this on cassette.

Another dealer was advertising everything half price which enabled me to pick up two I was after, one I was pleasently surprised to find and another two I’ve been wanting to check out for some time….

Firstly, for £4 the controversial Deep Purple live album Last Concert In Japan. From the ill-fated Tommy Bolin line-up with the mighty David Coverdale on vocals a nine track live album that captured a sporadic Purple. Features Bolin’s Wild Dogs within the set and I’m all the more pleased as this copy has the Japanese OBI and the lyric sheet.

Next up and again at £4 the final (and that time…) Deep Purple studio release Come Taste The Band. A fine but significantly different Purple album with Coverdale, Hughes and Bolin all at one point or another pulling the band in different directions. Features the superb Lady Luck which is worth the price alone.

The surprise was finding the 1992 Magnum album Sleepwalking on vinyl and in good condition. Priced at £8 and worth every penny of the £4 half price I handed over for the cover alone its an album I only ever had a copy of before and one I’ve been outbid on eBay for in the past.

For my two wild-cards I went for Brinsley Schwarz’s Original Golden Greats (£6), an album I’ve been looking for since Classic Rock rated it highly in a 70’s special although I’ve heard absolutely nothing by them before and Canadian hard rockers April Wine’s 1979 LP Harder Faster (£2) based on hearing I Like To Rock on a compilation although interested by a cover of 21st Century Schizoid Man.

A couple of AC/DC picture cover 7″ singles in the shape of Who Made Who and That’s The Way I Wanna Rock n Roll got rid of a bit of loose change and capped a successful forage.

To complete this entry I need to also mention £5 worth of finds at one of my usual spots in Ammanford the other week where I added Aerosmith’s reunion album Done With Mirrors, Rush’s Moving Pictures and another AC/DC 7″ picture cover single Guns For Hire, whilst shortly after enjoying the Tangier album that I reviewed here recently I found their Stranded vinyl for less than a pound on eBay.

So that’s it for a while with trips although I have a little in paypal to fund a bit of ebay buying! As usual, what do you think - good finds or turkey’s?