Record club regular, Keith, took control in November. He went with a theme of “Being Difficult”—that is, artists which have challenged the status quo by being “difficult” in some way.

Just to be difficult, Keith messed with the format for this event, so rather than pick three complete albums, he played side 1s from six different albums.

• The Residents: ‘Meet the Residents’, 1974
• Tangerine Dream: ‘Rubycon’, 1975
• Holger Czukay: ‘Movies’, 1979
• Sonic Youth: ‘EVOL’, 1986
• Test Dept.: ‘The Unacceptable Face of Freedom’, 1986
• My Bloody Valentine: ‘Loveless’, 1991

Records:

EVOL

Artist:

Sonic Youth

Year:

1986

Event:

November 2012: Being Difficult

After the success of Death Valley ’69, Sonic Youth set their distorted re-tuned guitars on stun and knock out an album of beautifully dischordant tunes. It’s Pop, Jim, but not as we know it.

EVOL on Wikipedia

Loveless

Artist:

My Bloody Valentine

Year:

1991

Event:

November 2012: Being Difficult

The record that nearly bankrupted Creation, recorded in 19 different studios over two years, provided a no-compromise vision of music as how it really sounds in your head. A very influential album, they found it almost impossible to follow up, but they did, 22 years later!

Loveless on Wikipedia

Meet the Residents

Artist:

The Residents

Year:

1974

Event:

November 2012: Being Difficult

Featured in the ‘Being Difficult’ event, this album cover upset the Beatles’ label. The Residents’ first album set their manifesto: throw away everything you learned about making music, and start again. No genre is safe from deconstruction or parody.

Meet the Residents on Wikipedia

Movies

Artist:

Holger Czukay

Year:

1979

Event:

November 2012: Being Difficult

Can’s bassist and engineer goes solo, and shows off his avant garde qualifications as a former student of Stockhausen and early adopter of World Music and Sampling.

Holger Czukay on Wikipedia

Rubycon

Artist:

Tangerine Dream

Year:

1975

Event:

November 2012: Being Difficult

Widely regarded as one of their best albums, this second outing on the Virgin label capitalised on the success of Phaedre, but with a more hypnotic and rhythmic result.

Rubycon on Wikipedia

The Unacceptable Face Of Freedom

Artist:

Test Dept.

Year:

1986

Event:

November 2012: Being Difficult

This collective of political artists prefer metal bars, industrial materials and hammers to musical instruments and produce a surprisingly musical result.

Test Dept. on Wikipedia

Sandwiched between the year defining events of 2012, the Jubilee and the Olympics, July’s event had a Jubilympics theme.

Here’s what YOU did…

You picked out some records that were released in either a Jubilee and/or Olympicyear, and that you wanted to hear at the July Record Club.

So WE selected some of them for the vote.

So YOU voted and you chose the records below.

Again it was a lovely intimate night, with record talk, nostalgia, good company and a fine bar (even if we were a bit more disorganised than usual).

Lovely to see both new and returning faces. Thanks to Daz for the photos

If you have ideas for future events tweet, or email us.

Records:

Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols

Artist:

Sex Pistols

Year:

1977

Event:

July 2012: Jubilympics!

At last a Jubilee record. God save the Queen!

Like many albums you think you know, for some of us this was the first time of hearing it all the way through. Intersting to hear it 35 years on, and trying to work out what all the fuss was about back then!

Never Mind the Bollocks on Wikipedia

Seventeen Seconds

Artist:

The Cure

Year:

1980

Event:

July 2012: Jubilympics!

This was a big one for a few of us in our teenage years.

Winner of the Jubilympics vote, personally I was quite surprised. It had made it into the vote on a whim and went on to win it.

 

Seventeen Seconds on Wikipedia

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Artist:

David Bowie

Year:

1972

Event:

July 2012: Jubilympics!

A popular choice that came second in theJubilimpics poll.

The instructions on the sleave read “Play at maximum volume” so we did. (Well obviously that would have been too loud – but it did sound good cranked up a bit!)

Ziggy Stardust on Wikipedia

A box of records was given to the Record Club by a couple who were moving, and needed to get rid of their vinyl collection (long ago copied to digital). The records in the box include Hendrix, Dylan, Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Fairport Convention, Martin Carthy, Madonna, Velvet Underground, Yes, Steeleye Span, Carly Simon, John Mayal, Cream, and more.

We put a few of these to the vote in order to pick 3 albums for the main event. Hendrix, The Velvet Underground, and Ian Dury canme out on top.

The box of records was available for people to pick through at the event, so we played a few tracks from the other records in between.

We also had Steve turn up with an ace collection of singles, so we were treated a few great 45’s fropm his collection. Maybe he’ll come and curate an evening for us in the future.

Records:

Axis: Bold as Love

Artist:

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Year:

1967

Event:

June 2012: A Box of Records

This was voted as one of the records to be played at our June event.

David said: “Because our impression of Hendrix has probably been formed by many different influences, it’s interesting to listen to an album in full, and Axis has many great songs that you might not think would be the kind of thing Hendrix and co. would do.”

Axis: Bold As Love on Wikipedia

Do it yourself

Artist:

Ian Dury & The Blockheads

Year:

1978

Event:

June 2012: A Box of Records

“I can’t help thinking that the title is probably a bit rude, knowing what Ian Dury was like” – Daz

Do It Yourself on Wikipedia

The Velvet Underground

Artist:

The Velvet Underground

Year:

1969

Event:

June 2012: A Box of Records

“I had this compilation album Diving for Pearls for years, with some great tracks on it, and Pale Blue Eyes is on there by Edwin Coillins and Paul Quinn. It wasn’t until I dug this out of our gifted box of records that I realised it was a cover” – David

The Velvet Underground (album) on Wikipedia

In May, we played the vital vinyl that you’d rescue from the flames if your house was on fire.

For this event the turntable was at the mercy of the Record Club audience/members/punters. What would they save and why?

We had 8 people lined up, including: @boemason, @LeeGoater, @Mezandy, @Danbliboos, Nagbea, Paul, Brian, and Bill, bringing along about 30 minutes worth of music on vinyl, to show, tell and play for the rest of us.

We ended up with Nagbea, Bill, Paul, Brian,  Andy, @boemason and  @LeeGoater. Set lists below:

Nagbea played:

1. Sweet Gene Vincent (Ian Dury)
2. King Creole(Elvis)
3. Hot Diggity Dog(1910Fruit Gum Co)
4. Cuz it’s You Girl (James Walsh Gypsy Band)
5. Natural Mystic(White label Band Mix) (Bob Marley)
6. Rudi’s in Love (Locomotive)
7. Life of Copntradiction(Joe Higgs)
8. 20 Seconds to Comply (Silver Bullet Band)
9. Young Americans(Bowie)
10. Groovy People (Lou Rawls)

Bill played:

1. Joy Division – Transmission
2. The Sisters of Mercy – Marian
3. Grant Hart – All of my Senses
4. Sonic Youth – Hyperstation
5. Bob Dylan – Boots of Spanish Leather
6. Throwing Muses – Hate my Way

Paul played:

1. Stan Freberg – John and Marsha
2. Faust – Exercise with several hands on a piano
3. Faust – Exercise with voices, drum and sax
4. Faust – Faslhback Caruso
5. (All from The Faust Tapes)
6. The Fall – War
7. The Fall – Cab Driver
8. Cabaret Voltaire – Just Fascination
9. Devo – Social Fools
10. Devo – Turn Around
11. Stan Freberg – The Word is Waiting for the Sunrise

Andy (@Mezandy) played:

1. Bob Tilton (side one of “wake me when it’s spring time again” 7″ ep) songs – My very own rope & Ring o’ roses
2. Policy of 3 (side one of the “American woodworking” 7″) song – Nine years old
3. Polaris (side one of the Polaris/ Baby harp seal split 7″) song – Monkey puzzle
4. Bob Tilton (side two of above) songs – Veronica & Gears Turn
5. Baby Harp Seal (side two of split 7″ with Polaris) song – If you Saw me
6. Voorhees (split 7″ with Stalingrad) Song – Powertrip

Any questions? Contact us, or leave comments and suggestions below.

Records:

Gleatest Hits

Artist:

John Otway

Year:

1986

Event:

May 2012: House is on Fire

This is the album that gave us the title for the House is on Fire event in May 2012.

It will probably never get played in full at the record club – more’s the shame. I only got this recently, but had it on tape from about 1987 I reckon.

John Otway on Wikipedia