The story behind how I came across this album is very nice. I met a chap in a charity shop who told me he had some records at home and I was welcome to come and have a look as he told me no longer played them. So I went to his house and went through the inevitable huge pile of Jimmy Shand and Alexander Brothers albums which seems to have been the staple musical diet for the over 70’s in Scotland and came across this album. He was surprised why i had picked out this particular one out of so many as he said he was actually on it! He then told me the story of how his band the Angus Cronies had won a coveted Scottish TV talent show twice and that their prize was a fancy wooden bowl (which they had to return at the end of their year long reign) but they released this sole album in 1962.
He then proceeded to go through all the names of the band members on the back and what they got up to when the band split up and who had died and which ones were still alive and where they lived!? It really was a lovely afternoon in his company and he kindly signed it on the back for me – he said that it was the only time he had ever been asked to sign an LP and that he was 92, such a lovely fellow and his name is Lyall and he played the mouth organ.
Beautiful chamber music by The Fires Of London with the prolific composer/conductor, the production was a presentation by the great film director Ken Russell.
On an unexpected trip to Edinburgh i came across these odd gems.
In other boxes at a car boot were these folk albums including 2 by the short lived poetry band whose gatefold sleeved debut was produced by John Peel.
I was very pleased to find this nice original US copy of one of the few albums by Nina I don’t have.
Probably the most unexpected find of the week happened just as I was leaving a car boot, every stall had pretty much been picked over early on, so I was just loitering about trying to remember what else I actually need to buy other than records at 8:30 on a Sunday morning when I pass a stall with a pile of LP’s on the table with a big piece of card saying £1 each. Of course it’s usually Jim Reeves albums that are reserved for that honour but unbelievably there was a Blue Note album on the top! OK it was a re-issue but I lifted the pile of about 8 records up and noticed there were 4 copies of the same album by Kenny Burrell as well as some others by modern artists I didn’t recognise – my son chastised me for not recognising the album by Olivia Rodrigo (who????) pictured in the middle. The bloke said I could have them all for a fiver – SOLD!!
Have you any more I asked, yes he replied but he has his records in a storage unit on the other side of Edinburgh. He said I was welcome to come and see so we arranged a date and I took off on the long journey from my house on Tuesday morning full of optimism. Anyway to cut a long story short it was a massive anti-climax, yes he had hundreds of albums but no more Blue Notes or anything remotely modern so it proved to be a wasted trip but I did get the chance to dig around the city, just a bloody long way to go for slim pickings, but the car boot find probably paid for the petrol.
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...