The Art of the 12” Single. And a Cry for Help.

Much of my vinyl attic “archive” (as I never refer to it) is made up of 12” singles. I think the first one I ever bought was Thompson Twins’ King For a Day picture disc, sadly no longer in my possession and probably thrown out when my sense of undergraduate post-modern irony was underdeveloped. Which makes me wonder what that Rick Astley one is still doing in there…? And that’s where my problem lies…

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The Wedding Present – The Hit Parade (1992)

Alright, I cheated on this one. This isn’t random.

A few weeks ago I noticed that the associated Twitter account to this blog (@recordatrandom) had a new follower (a rare occurrence!) and I was delighted to see that it was David Gedge (@weddingpresent). Ever savvy, David must have picked up on the Twitter chat this blog was engaged in when planning the next record club event (I was pushing for some Weddoes to be played that night). Lo and behold, the next day David is following both the blog and the record club (he’s been invited along next time he is in the area).

So David, errr, this one’s for you….

Happy Record Store Day

I’ll probably give record store day a miss this year. My dislike of queuing and sheer lack of independent record shops where I am this weekend makes it very hard for me to take part. Plus there’s not much I really want from the list (a Kate Bush 12″ and Wedding Present ep sung in German were the only things that interested me) and I go to record stores all the time anyway. I don’t need to be told by BBC 6Music to go. So I shouldn’t feel guilty.

The Smiths – The Queen is Dead (1986)

Received wisdom was that The Queen is Dead is The Smith’s greatest album. It’s a great album. But not their greatest. That would be Strangeways Here We Come. It’s true. Morrissey and Marr agree with me. But I only have that on CD and cassette so it’s excluded (at least for now) from this blog.

Nevertheless, this is still an “all killer no filler” kind of record. I played this copy the other day when some friends visited, and provided a talking point while the kids ran about the rest of the house. It struck all of us that there just isn’t a duff track on here. Even the one person who didn’t really like The Smiths grudgingly agreed.

Our piano

We have a piano in our house. It’s digital but sounds and plays as near as dammit to the real thing. I bought it as a present a little while ago for my wife. She was always playing the one at her parents’ house when we visited and we had often talked about getting one if we ever had the space. And she plays beautifully for someone who has not had any lessons since she was a child.