Sample page of new Tori Amos interview with pull-quote: “You Have To Speak About Betrayal”
Second page of feature: full-page colour photograph of Tori Amos
Front cover of May 2026 Record Collector featuring Paul Weller
Two-page foretaste of new Tori talk in May 2026 Record Collector
Wow… this overlooked Brummels album is finally coming back to vinyl
A little boy emerging from the foliage in a tree, pictured in profile. Beneath him are two geese walking towards a shed or outhouse of some kind. Specific location unknown, Africa.
Boy in the tree, taken by my father, 1968
Oops, it’s Johnny Go Home, not Go Home Johnny
Quite shocked by the horrible attitude some of the residents have towards legal squatters – one of them thinks they should be killed. Like the astonishing Go Home Johnny (1975), it’s made by Yorkshire TV and must have aired on ITV.
In my ongoing trawl through YouTube for great 1970s documentaries, I’ve now landed on Goodbye Longfellow Road - about a street (I haven’t quite placed it yet, possibly near Walthamstow?) where demolitions and evictions are happening.
Thank you. It was a total secret to me until I came across it after my father died.
A woman sitting next to a toddler on a train. She’s wearing a blue headscarf and reading cosmopolitan, he’s sucking his thumb
My favourite of my late father’s slides, 1977 #mothersday
An inner-sleeve of a mid-70s album by Alasdair Clayre. Using what looks like felt tip, a previous owner has written four lines commemorating the death of the artist in 1984 (he jumped in front of a London tube train).
Gosh… further to my last post, a previous owner has written a rather grizzly in memoriam on the inner sleeve of the Alasdair Clayre album (it’s true, sadly).
Four album covers – John Renton, two by Alasdair Clayre, one by Bruce Fisher. The Renton and Fisher album covers are photographic portraits of the artists. The albums are lying on a red-blue rug. My feet are just entering the picture.
Four album back covers – John Renton, two by Alasdair Clayre, one by Bruce Fisher. The albums are lying on a red-blue rug. My feet are just entering the picture.
I'm so lucky to have a vinyl fairy godfather... and he always sends such interesting things.
I can’t stand the sound of most transitive verbs used intranstively, but I’ve come to like the tabloid use of “stuns” (eg Kelly Osbourne “stuns” at the Brit Awards) because it’s taken on an air of camp. I think that’s partly because they use it so indiscriminately. There is no one who doesn’t “stun”
I don’t think I cottoned on to her until I began to see her name crop up in more and more articles, from maybe 2008 onwards. And I might not have read those pieces if they’d led with a patronising “You’re quite basic and won’t have heard of this person” heading!
Of course we’ve “probably never heard of” Karen Dalton, whose work has been treated to a series of widely-reviewed reissues over the last 20 years. Grrr… when can we kill off the horribly high-handed “you’ve never heard of” headline? And why are some titles so eager to talk down to their readers?
Album cover: Cat Dancer/Sandy Stewart. Portrait of the artist in B&W glancing over her shoulder and carrying ballet shoes. Modern Records, 1983
Album back cover: Cat Dancer/Sandy Stewart. Portrait of the artist in colour seated on the floor and striking a pose. Her collaborator David Monday is standing to the left
Inner sleeve with credits
Three images of Sandy Stewart’s brilliant Cat Dancer
Yes - never reissued (and she made lots of non-album singles for the same label, so a really good expanded version could be made). I know it’s not particularly well-liked by Catherine though.
Album: Catherine Howe - Harry (RCA, 1975). The cover is a portrait of Catherine near (or maybe in) Hebden Bridge
The second Catherine Howe album. Perhaps not as good as her first (or third and fourth) but still good.
Residential street with two rows of bare trees. The sky is clear and blue with what looks like an aeroplane trail in the middle
Avenue of bare trees, Kilburn, today.
Album: Electric Warrior/T.Rex. The album is upright on a pale carpet. Behind it is a red armchair and shelves
Gatefold Electric Warrior
Two baking trays containing cookie pies that have just emerged from an oven.
Bang at it again. I’m not ashamed. It’s who I am.
Pigeon on a chimney, London, mid-80s, by my father
Deep dish cookies with Smarties
Deep dish cookies with Smarties
I love making these. I just love the anti-meanness of their proportions. This is the sort of biscuit I wanted as a child instead of the dry, impassive, emotionally withholding Rich Teas that were often cruelly brandished at me.
Delighted to have contributed to this booklet (with Joe Marchese). I’ve been a Mary (McCreary-Russell-Bridges-Rand) head for quite a long time.
Ah, yes - Stepney? I think as well as Come To My Garden he was involved in Hey Love by Rotary Connection, which has Minnie all over it (though sadly not soloing much!)
He has some really great ones in the mid-70s to early-80s part of his catalogue and also produced excellent albums by Syreeta, Marvin Gaye and Melissa Manchester
Indeed. And I think it was by looking at some of the credits on her albums that I ended up getting into the Leon Ware albums.
This plus Stay In Love are my favourite Minnie albums after Come To My Garden.
