cassettes & flexis - xPQwRtz compilation #4

after mentioning an old pastels bootleg tape i used to have i spent a long time hunting for it.
and i've found it!

listening to it made me want to make a compilation of songs from old cassettes and flexi discs.

and so i have:



i was going to keep it to myself for a while - after all you've had 3 xPQwRtz compilations in as many months.

but, having listened to the compilation this afternoon, i want you to have it NOW.

BEWARE - the quality is quite poor in some parts. after all some of these cassettes are 20 years old and some of the flexis are nearer 25 years old!


CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD


the track listing reads like this:

pastels - 25 unfinished plays (kid jenson session track, circa '84)
savlons - and what's more
remember fun - apple of my eye
television personalities - biff bang pow! (creation flexi disc)
bob - brian wilson's bed
sperm wails - cheryl playthings
pale saints - colours and shapes (from their second demo tape)
twins & rig veda - creep
applicants - crush
emil - edwin blaze
mctells - english sinner
the williams - i know i'm nothing special to you
steamtown - living and loving
mackenzies - man with no reason (dog's breakfast) (ron johnson 4 track sampler flexi disc)
food scientists - my day today
kitchen cynics - our love was built to last (like simon dee)
big paintings - penny picture postman
st. christopher - remember me to her
14 iced bears - saloon bong (balloon song live)
haywains - shine
cannanes - sunday
sindy arthur - waiting for a raincoat
supreme cool beings - who's that? (old K cassette release)
laughing apple - wouldn't you? (creation flexi disc)

...so there you go - 24 songs taken from knackered old cassettes and creased old flexi discs.

hope you enjoy it.

:)

indie girls are back

xPQwRtz compilation #2 (indie girls) is back on line.
hooray!

fires, flats & the band of holy joy

do you have records or songs that come complete with smells, sounds and images?

band of holy joy were wonderful.
a beautiful sounding band with the most fantastic storyteller as a lyricist.
they're still on my iPod today.

but whenever i listen to their "manic, magic, majestic" album i can smell fire, see snow and feel the cold of winter.
it's a shame as the album is actually very summery - lively and warm.

so here's how it happened.

we'd moved into a tiny flat in shrewsbury, spent time decorating it in primary colours with matching habitat furniture and were working a few miles away in telford.
it was january.
it was snowing hard.
before going to work that morning one of us (and i'm pretty sure it was me) had put some washing around the fire to dry (remember the t-shirts i mentioned in a previous post? they were all there - mctells, 14 iced bears, television personalities, pastels, the lot).
at some point during the afternoon our cats had knocked the clothes horse against the fire.

we had a long drive home that day - it was slow going due to the snow.
i'd taped "manic, magic, majestic" and it was all we listened to in the car for weeks.
as we pulled into our street we could see a fire engine and all our neighbours.
"oh", we said in unison.
"oh dear."

our flat had been put out before the rest of the block went up in flames, but it was trashed.
we weren't allowed in that evening and so we found the cats and drove to wales.
we sat in shock until the following day before returning to view what was left of our home.

there is a kind of happy ending though.

our insurance company sent someone over to estimate the loss.
the man sent out met us in the early evening and it was dark.
he hadn't thought that the electricity may be out and he hadn't brought a torch.
i think he may have been new to the job, because instead of saying he'd come back in the daylight he simply asked us to make a list of all the things we'd lost and they'd cover it.
we also convinced him that we should be staying in a hotel until the flat was habitable again.

the next evening we sat in a rather nice hotel room in the middle of shrewsbury and decided on all the things we might like.

- we claimed for 500 LPs (we lost about 20).
- we claimed for a new guitar (a fender telecaster) and a new bass (like the one lemmy plays - can't remember it's name).
- i wanted a skateboard so we claimed for one of those.
- we claimed for our clothes of course, and the carpet and furniture.
- we got a professional cleanign crew in to clean all the records and put them back on our shiny new shelves in alphabetical order.
- we claimed for a whole heap of stuff we wanted. most of which we didn't have before the flat caught fire.

the only thing we couldn't replace was all those t-shirts i'd printed.
but that was a small price to pay as the money we received for the "lost" records bought us a new car.

an apology

sorry to everyone for lack of communication and for the compilations disappearing for a few days.
i've been having serious server problems.

everything is now (fingers crossed) up and running properly.

as for the compilations, #1 and #3 are now back up for download.
i've mislaid #2, but it'll go back up as soon as i find it.

in the meantime normal service will be resumed shortly and i'll start boring you all again with silly tales of records bought, records lost, girls kissed, concerts attended....the usual.

also there'll be a new downloadable album coming very shortly that i'm quite excited about.


in the meantime why not have a quick glimpse at my old 80's band the colgates and download all their albums for FREE!

JUST CLICK HERE

an aside and an apology

just realised that the last compilation (#3) seems to have disappeared from the server.
this will be rectified by tomorrow morning.

i wish someone had said!!!!