Glebe record fair

Zalatnay - cover image - LP found at Glebe record fair Sept 08




Saturday morning - wasted my first 3km walk to Leichhardt - I made an early arrival to the advertised 'record fair' turned out to be 1/2 a hall full of books - records were there in plenty but quality was not there - except for a Siouxsie & the Banshees "Once Upon A Time" - near mint for $5 - the only thing to end up in my backpack. When I headed over to the 45s it was dismal (no original company sleeves & no picture covers...) but worse still, I felt I was in the battle of the stamp collector or, hey, shouldn't these smelly oily men with the rattling breath be looking for cassette tapes or those 8-track cartridge things http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-track_cartridge (I love Wikipedia - thought they were called 6-tracks...)- and they weren't moving for anyone!

right oh, this is crap - I'm off to Glebe - a fun trek through side streets & a little window shopping on the way - 4 km & $3 later & I'm in music-o-rama! Did the rounds, said hi to that handsome guy from Egg Records... Then - oh dreamy score - 3 Australian Dusty EPs - covers excellent & records in great nick plus bargains to boot!
that same yukky man from the Leichhardt fair was there too! I bet he drove over... of course he did, he had to keep leaning heavily on the table he was standing at... looking at 45s... Rats! he got the Patsy Cline... oh sick feeling... what will he be doing while it's on the stereo... hmmm, it does play for at least 2.5 minutes.

I made an escape to the next isle, resisting the urge to flash my near mint Shangri-Las ep... just to hear that snot rattle & the bronchial gasp. This other isle was way interesting - vendors had wonderful mini players and I've got to say that my Hungarian Diva, Zalatnay sounds way better and kitsch-ier on one of those players rather than our flash Yamaha set up at home... but, credit where it's due - it is really good fun (cover pic above) - here's just a hint of the latest fab diva to be carried under our threshold!




here she is in an early clip (you tube rocks!)

is she the Hungarian Dusty? (that's what AH reckons - I reckon more like the Euro Lulu or something - Z is not as gutsy or charismatic as DS) did this fall into my hands for a few bucks by accident? by fate? hmmm... when it comes to pop, who can really say...

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Dinner tastes better on a Kathie Winkle plate

In July my parents sent a money note for me to buy a birthday present. I went to a favourite shop in Erskineville: Revolver Records - a fab shop that sells good vinyl records & ephemera plus collectables. In the corner, a set of Broadhurst plates & bowls with the Rushstone design by Kathie Winkle circa 1968. Kathie Winkle began working for the James Broadhurst & Sons Portland Pottery company after leaving Shorter and Son in the early 1950s & was asked day if she could draw. Accounts say she said, "sort of" and, with no formal art design training by 1958 she was producing her own designs. She came up with about 100 different designs from 1958 until the mid 1970s
.... damn, I wonder if there's curtains to match!
Dinner does taste better on a Kathie Winkle design.

Day trip to Manly

Last Sunday was AH's birthday and we spent the day hours on a little visit to Manly - ferry from Sydney Harbour & then a walk over to Shelly Beach, up the hill, through an hole in a old sandstone wall & we were in our own piece of national park for the day. there were more flowering plants than any other time we visited and when we ate our lunch, a family of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos gave us a swoop and flying display - not bad!
I took my pocket point and shoot so the bird shots are crap but the images are in my head. camera behaved for an OK record of some wildflowers - Flannel Flowers, Heath Banksia, Bush Pea, Pimeleas, Spiny-headed Matt-rush, heaps of Grevilleas to name about a fifth of what we walked past. I could look up all the Latin names and be a smarty pants but I can't be bothered - it's too nice to stay inside being pedantic... Anyway, common names are fine an suit point and shoot.
We finished the day back in Newtown for champagne & Thai food.

Somewhere in New Zealand... in a radio station....

I recently bought a Japanese 45 vinyl from a New Zealand online store. It's in pristine condition and I'm very happy with the purchase. When I bought it, I added on another 45, just to even out the postage - Originally released in the UK 11 June 1965, this New Zealand made 45 of Dusty Springfield's, In The Middle Of Nowhere was first played on the radio 7 August 1965 and was stamped each time it was played over the next 20 years with its final date stamp 20 June 1985
I didn't expect this little bit of history to come with the 45 and the record itself, surprisingly, plays quiet well - well with a bit of surface noise but both sides play all the way through - atmospheric, one could say




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Here's Dusty Springfield performing said song at a NME (New Music Express) awards concert 1966:



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Pizza Delivery from The Netherlands!

Been having a couple of bun fight battles on EBay, collecting Dusty Springfield on vinyl - sometimes in Glorious Monotone but this delivery took the cake... yeah, umm, pizza.
I walk over to our post office to pick up the parcel delivery - how fun, this is recycling across the world! Pizza Delivery from Holland - the seller calls himself "dike" - and this dyke, loves pizza!

But, of course, it's the fabulous & rare 45s that were inside that made my day. Home delivery Dusty - yes please!





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vinyl fix

on the way back from a swim at the local university pool (very civilized sans splash pools and nappies), I took the plunge and headed in Goulds Bookshop to check out the vinyl records up the back. this place is huge and you risk your own life squeezing bewteen towering shelves topped with tettering piles of books, books and more books.

Up the back there must be 5000 LPs. trouble is most are in poor condition but that doesn't stop Gould pricing them from $5 to $15 and some look like they won't play at all.


I figured I'd be methodical and go through it section by section. After an intensive 1 & 1/2 hours, I came up with 3 surprises - Suzi Quatro, Peter Gabriel's 1st album in better condition than my well loved copy and a 1980 rare Tommy Stewart and His Orchestra - Circle Records, Atlanta USA - cool jazz.



Then! there it was the first LP from Jefferson Airplane... took the record out & oh dear! I couldn't sell such a hacked record to anyone Plus old gould wanted $14.95 for - think I know which decade of which century he's living in.
I did go back another afternoon & spent 2 more hours there and only managed about one 20th of the collection and gave up after the 10th copy of Phil Collins in the air tonight & if I see one more Mondo Rock album... no to mention all those dreadful 80s pop boy bands... brrrr.

So, this was my venture into vinyl trash and it occured to me all the times I've moved house and how much of a drag it was carting all those LPs in milk crates that they never quite fit in properly. Think I'll stick to 45s - that's the fun stuff and it keeps me from being reported missing, only to be found under a toppled pile of b-grade science fiction books in some obscure corner of Goulds.