Now Yearbook Vault 1984

I did suggest it was going be a busy period on music releases last week and on Friday while sneezing my nosy off something a bit familar but also a bit different arrived.

Now Yearbooks, we covered them here looking from 1982 and before with 1977 due next month, rounding up on three very well filled lps the main hits of each year complement my original Now and Hits Lps from the 1983 and 4 respectively and then some older compilations.

In June Now launched a sub series VAULTS, which aims to cover minor hits of the sort that tended to pad out our Ronco and K Tel sets as much as we may of preferred some of them to the big hits back in the day and also American Hits which unless someone did a American Hit compilation you didn't get so I'd buy the 45's where available.

We didn't bother with 1983 as that was well covered on the vinyl front and I have many American and Canadian acts albums from that year I liked anyway so the initial title got a miss here.

Yesterday though they issued Vaults 1984 which although 1984 is well represented with a half of Now 2 and the whole of Now 3 and 4 plus the first Hits  did miss out a number of these min or hits and American hits that never were over here so I thought "What the heck!" and ordered it.

Like the regular Now Yearbooks on LP, these are coming out in three lp sets, three discs stuffed in a single sleeve which means we do miss some of the tracks from the 4 cd version in cheapskate wraparound card or fuller book forms but most of the essentials make it.

Record one  begins with some pop gems from established artists such as Heaven 17, ABC, and Scritti Politti ahead of Wild Life a U.S. single release from Bananarama followed by the solo debut from Helen Terry who had sung back-up vocals on the previous years’ massive seller ‘Colour By Numbers’ from Culture Club features along with Level 42, Soft Cell and Talk Talk who close the first side with ‘Such A Shame’. 

Flipping the record over we get to enjoy the sumptuous vocal pairings of Teddy Pendergrass and Whitney Houston, and Dennis Edwards and Siedah Garrett. The side also features the debut from the Colour Field, M+M’s ‘Black Stations/White Stations’, a commentary on racially defined radio in the States and established artists Tom Robinson and Marillion.

Record Two kicks off with a stunning collection of indie-pop, including Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie And The Banshees, The Icicle Works and the Top 40 debut from Everything But The Girl… plus Malcolm McLaren, The Associates and Blancmange with their cover of ABBA’s ‘The Day Before You Came’, whilst the dance-floor beckons on the other side with electro-dance and Hi-NRG from Sheila E., Divine, Evelyn Thomas, Miquel Brown, and chart regulars Shalamar, Donna Summer and Sheena Easton – with Arrow closing the LP with carnival favourite ‘Hot Hot Hot’.

The final record focuses on singles that found chart success in the U.S. and opens with Culture Club’s ‘Miss Me Blind’, which didn’t get a single release in the U.K, alongside a selection of U.S. new-wave hits from The Fixx, a British group who found more success in the States, Go-Go’s and The Cars. Synth-led tracks from The Psychedelic Furs, Visage and Sparks close the side. 

The Pretenders open the final side with ‘Show Me’, which was a U.S. hit, but not issued as a single in the U.K. Daryl Hall & John Oates, and Rick Springfield continued their run of Stateside hits and Bon Jovi debuted with ‘Runaway’. Scorpions and Judas Priest are up next with rock classics ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’, and ‘Freewheel Burning’… and the concluding moment is given to ZZ Top with ‘TV Dinners’ one of four singles from their massive ‘Eliminator’ album.

It's a slightly off the beaten track musical overview of 1984 covering much that wasn't on those pioneering 1984 compilations regardless of quality and for those reasons gains a spot in my vinyl compilation collection

Erasure - Always

This week we're going to look at one present I had this christmas.

Sometimes although I may of liked an artist but for a variety of reasons I may not have an album solely by them and that can be for a variety of reasons such as during the mid to late 1980's  the decision buying may be influenced by what format it was issued in.

Then sometimes an album may of had different versions with either a twelve inch single added or as with one of this groups albums a remix album being added too and Erasure were a good example of that with many tracks on compilations and the odd single.

Erasure arrived in 1985 via Depeché Mode where Vince Clarke was a early member before forming Yazoo with Alison Moyet who knew Andy Bell and formed in London signing to Mute records who had signed the other bands.

From 1986 to 2007, they achieved 24 consecutive top-40 entries in the UK singles chart. By 2009, 34 of their 37 chart-eligible singles and EPs had made the UK top 40, including 17 climbing into the top 10. At the 1989 Brit Awards, Erasure won the Brit Award for Best British Group.

Erasures hits include "Oh L'amour", "Sometimes", "Victim of Love", "The Circus", "Ship of Fools", "Chains of Love", "A Little Respect", "Stop!", "Drama!", "Blue Savannah", "Star", "Chorus", "Love to Hate You", "Breath of Life", "Always" and "Run to the Sun". 

What this compilation, in reality a reduced version of the three cd set in record form issued in October 2015 that included remixes but issued on vinyl only recently does is just compile the hits you remember some from albums like Wild! and The Circus and others from single only releases in chronological order in fine fidelity.

It also is more up to date from 1992's Pop! The first twenty hits.

It doesn't just take you back in time but does feature some of the finest 80's and 90's synth pop in double gatefolded lp package.

Now yearbook 80-84 EXTRA!

We mentioned the Now Yearbook series here in past entries in connection with the limited edition three lp selections that had been issued for the years 1979 through 1982 as my priority was adding selections I didn't have on older compilations such as the NOW and HITS albums of the 1980's bought at the time.

As we discovered when the Vinyl Now Extra Yearbooks 80-84 were issued last year they were not a straight selection from the cd versions but more of a bonus for vinyl fans who'd bought the main volumes in that form.

The answer to the question of what was going to be the follow up to the main Now Yearbook 80-84 which was issued as a four cd set apart from the vinyl edition we posted about was... another extra set exclusive to compact disc!

I decided to get this one as it covered a chunk of hits issued before the NOW and HITS series started  in 1983 and 4 respectively and while the Now series has been re-issued on cd although with a few issues, the HITS series only came out on cd from Hits 5 in late 1986 (and then initially as a single cd).

This set is one a handful of places that does have the actual singles mix of Sister Of Mercy by the Thompson Twins and Nik Kershaw's Dancing Girls rather than the more common lp versions.

As a Japan and David Sylvian fan this also has the 1982 Steve Nye remix of European Son issued around the time the excellent compilation Assemblage was issued, David's Pulling Punches from 1984 and that collaboration between Japan's Mick Khan and Ultravox's frontman Midge Ure After A Fashion from 1983.

It's also the home of the different singles version of Penny Lover from the Can't Slow Down album by Lionel Richie that near enough everyone owned in 1984 - a fine soul album and Kim Wilde's haunting Cambodia that came out on her Select album of 1982.

For the modest price of this three cd set it's worth picking up at your local HMV,supermarkets or on Amazon.

Teenbeat XXIIII - Elton on vinyl

A good few years back, going back the last dying days of my original laptop I did post something about my collection of Elton John cds and his "To Be Continued..." box set of 1990 of which my copy is Canadian.

During a period in the late 1980's through early 90's much of my original vinyl and tape collection of his got converted into cds some of which are specialty gold re-masters of better than regular cd quality.
Feeling the need as I got back into vinyl for some of this prolific singer/songwriters output in that form, I decided to add a couple of well chosen compilations.

 My original copy of this the 1974 Greatest Hits album was the MCA edition that had a different track selection but it was an album much played growing up and to which I have the DCC gold remaster that over twenty years on still stands out.
What's on it ten essential tracks including such vignettes as Crocodile Rock, Candle in the Wind and plaintive Border Song.
I got the UK lp which sounds like he's almost in your room singing.

 That compilation was followed up three years later by another that because he had just switch labels required some cross-label licensing that has caused issues with the US cd edition since to the point I remade the selection digitally.
The strength of this compilation was it housed on lp form a number of non album 45's such as Pinball Wizard, Philadelphia Freedom and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and his Rocket Records duet Don't Go Breaking My Heart with Kiki Dee which was a British #1.
I decided to get the UK version as it sounded better and between both volumes of Greatest Hits I was only missing one song, Levon, and that didn't matter so much.

Probably his best album overall is Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and this is my 1976 Japanese reissue which has the same sort of tri-fold sleeve as the UK original, inserts and is in immaculate condition.

Previous posts:
Rocket Man Part One
Rocket Man Part Two

The "ShallowMemory special" phono cartridge part II

Way back in 2013 I wrote  a bit about how for those of us who use turntables that use removable (SME) type headshells we could have a easy to fit and install cartridge for getting the music on our records  to our amplifiers phono input so we could enjoy.
Link:
The shallowmemory special phono cartridge

To recap, the long bit from the screw in fitting to the tip where the red dot is comprises of the Ortofon Concorde Pro cartridge usually seen with a robust stylus for dj work such as scratching but by fitting a more home Hifi type stylus and setting the downforce appropriately, we can get a great sound knowing unlike mounting a conventional cartridge into a headshell this it well perfectly aligned geometrically for optimum performance at the factory.
Following changing the record deck recently and the main amplifier, I had heard a good deal more detail coming from it and three years on was thinking about at least getting a new stylus for it as they do wear in time.

What I was interested in was getting was a stylus that was a more accurate fit to the groove in the record so fine detail would be clearer especially on loud tracks toward the end of the record that would just push on so I'd use the older one for, say, 45's and testing used records with and this the better one for albums.
*Fitted and playing Tom Petty's Greatest Hits (Universal/ Geffen  records)

When fitted and set to around 1.6 grams downforce, it gives cleaner sound on 'hot' cut albums and less surface noise provided obviously you've cleaned your records plus copes with those last tracks on the side better.
Although expensive it gives a performance comparable to Ortofon's 2M Blue but without the complications of mounting and aligning it properly in a separate headshell which, believe more many forests have been written with charts and print out protractors to use!
School geometry did have a practical application after all!
Now to continue cleaning out a jammed email inbox brought to my attention by Lucy last night!

Music on the go

The idea of music on the go or at least wherever I was sat always had that kind of an appeal with me simply cos I don't feel like being confined to one space to enjoy it in much the same way I loved it when having gotten my first laptop I could pretty much use it anywhere convenient to me.
The first truly portable devices were tape based  although quite a number of smaller radios did have earphone sockets as the one I had during high school did which I used a lot and I can recall my second best friend at high school getting her tape device, it was a Sony Walkman quite well with a mains unit which in some ways restricted the idea of being just anywhere but in the days before rechargeable batteries were common, I could see the savings over changing the batteries every ten or more hours.
The first one I got was around 1985 having gotten that other entertainment essential of that era , the large stereo radio-cassette recorder to listen to the radio on and play your tapes on and mine was an Aiwa.

 

It was this, an Aiwa HG-G35 which automatically changed tape sides when you came to the end of one and resumed playing the other which was a great boon not least when you were walking around although I always had to have a grown up with me anywhere near roads cos apart from the risks of not hearing traffic, my road sense is poor anyway.

It had a tape selector in case had tapes made on anything other than regular type I  tapes and a three band equalizer to alter the tone with if you needed to and on the  tapes I made you didn't.

The mechanism unlike later models was nearly all metal.

It actually sounded really quite good on a pair of good quality headphones, much better than a later Sony one I had did.

I had  rather a lot of cute paper based self adhesive animal stickers on the front of mine that phazed some folks when I worked and a good indicator of how even in public my Middle with a little side was coming out even then but I wasn't bothered listening to Rush,Duran Duran and Five Star albums on Maxell type II tapes during breaks.

These days I have my Fiio player that plays digital files on Micro SD cards which technically is better but I loved the simplicity of that player.

Billy Joel, the piano man part IV

Like me we're going on back this week in time to 1981, when I was still in high school a little older but feeling still 12 to when I first heard this album.I was just starting to come out a fog following the death from a sudden illness of a very close school friend who also really interested in music so among the many memorable release of that year, this one comes to mind.

Coming after the new wave inspired Glass Houses album, this was a live album of songs some of which were on his first two albums and a few others not previously recorded. Lesser artists might of called this "Greatest Hits Live" but Billy being Billy gave it a proper and meaningful title "Songs in the attic" because it comprised of songs he thought the original recordings didn't do justice to such as Captain Jack or had literally been in his attic untouched and unrecorded.
Unlike the majority of live albums too, this yielded two top 40 hits "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" and "She's Got A Way" aided by the fact Billy had a great great live band backing him and his piano playing being caught well by the recording equipment, something this disc re-issue (on vinyl and regular cd with super audio cd layer for suitable players) really does justice too.
The specialty record  company Mobile Fidelity have recent reissued it as part of their program of very high quality reissues licensed from Sony Music of his back catalogue.
As at the time I only had the European cassette to have an excellent cd version packaged like a lp couldn't be nicer and a pleasant reminder of those days gone by.

Rewind to the past!

Going back in time I recently re-watched this "Arrival From Cybertron" VHS tape of the 80's series Transformers which as was the norm then was edited from the original episodes to make up a 1hour 4 minute full length tape version.One of key features of the show was each character could transform at the critical moment adding unpredictability to the scene.
Although the tape showed obvious signs of wear it played well enough and sure was fun.