Books - Comments / Reviews by albert

Books - Comments / Reviews by albert

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
albert 30th Jan 2023		Book B. George - International Discography Of The New Wave Volume ll 1982 / 83 (1982)	When this book came out it took me a while to commit to buying it, as it cost the equivalent of 3 or 4 LPs, but after constantly returning to the bookshop to browse I realised that I just had to buy it. At home I proceeded to read it cover to cover and soak up all the info within, wildly imagining how wonderful a record by say Beatles Costello would sound, and equally disappointed at the realisation that such wonders were unlikely to ever come my way. (little did I know what the future would bring). Because early punk/new wave was becoming unfashionable at the time of the book's release, I was able to pick up a lot of obscure 7"s secondhand for pennies and I always had the book handy to check what I was buying. Unfortunately in my reckless youth I also discarded or sold on many records that I felt didn't come up to scratch, aIso adding my own briefly disparaging notes below the artist's book entry - many of which I simply cannot comprehend these days (though it does give me a laugh at how unforgiving I was). In the 2000s I came across a mint copy of the book at a record fair for something like £5, regrettably I did not purchase it, my own copy is rather dog-eared and the spine is worn. These days I believe the book sells for a lot more, that is if you can actually find a copy.
albert 30th Jan 2023		Book B. George - International Discography Of The New Wave Volume ll 1982 / 83 (1982)	Review Very comprehensive, though attracted later criticism for including pre-release or proposed entries that were subsequently shelved. A lot of the information was apparently sourced from John Peel's record collection, so maybe some of the rumoured-to-exist records actually do exist in some form. The entries are for worldwide releases, though the majority are from English speaking countries. Honorary mentions are given to most of the important proto-punk bands. Each page has unique doodles/art to fill in blank spaces and maybe helps to take the strain off your eyes. Every so often you get a page crammed with pics of record sleeves. If I can remember correctly volume 1 of this book was fairly slimline and had a red cover (all entries duplicated in this volume 2). 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 9th Sep 2022		Book Patrick Humphries - Nick Drake: The Biography (1998)	A couple of years later I had another go at reading the book but again found the author's rambling on about nothing to be way too tedious to engage me, eg a particular beer that Nick might have drank at some gathering, then a paragraph about said beer. I dumped the book.
albert 20th Oct 2019		Book Mark E. Smith - The Fall Lyrics (1985)	Fairly fragile book. Not something you would want to bend open and stick on a scanner for some random pest.
albert 6th May 2019		Book Alan Aldridge - The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics [2nd Impression] (1970)	Hey don't take the lyrics too literally, oh dear they just did! ....The Beatles have a lot to answer for.
albert 6th May 2019		Book David 1904 - Discographie Vinyl Du Rock Français (2008)	Review The book appears to be pretty comprehensive on documenting what the author set out to do, which is to list every vinyl record released by French bands between 1977 and 2000 which fall broadly into a 'rock' category. It doesn't keep strictly to it's definition, there are examples of overspill on the dates in that listed reissues and compilations tend to stretch beyond 2000 and I think it also lists records by French bands that got released outside of France. The book skips all of the boring info, the listings tend to just give the briefest description of what a band sounds like, and then lists their releases (many with pictures). Recommended 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 6th May 2019		Book David 1904 - Discographie Vinyl Du Rock Français (2008)	The author gives very little away about himself, he just writes 7 lines then signs off as "David 1904", and the publishers details are equally brief. I uploaded some images of pages from the book, if you are fairly experienced at judging records by their covers/song titles/band names then this book is just enough for what you need, you can easily check out a record online, youtube, bandcamp, even retailers like amazon will give you more info and maybe a sound sample. Here is the publisher's punk rock website 'Euthanasie Records', there is a comment about the massive archive needing to be scanned (I know the feeling). The book should cost 30 Euros, it may be available on the website above, else try some of the better record shops in France, I got mine from Born Bad in Paris.
albert 6th May 2019		Book Van Burnham - Supercade (2001)	Author's website, and a flip through the book: [YouTube Video]
albert 13th Mar 2018		Book Patrick Humphries - Nick Drake: The Biography (1998)	Just read the first few pages today, the forward, introduction and then some random paragraphs inside the book. The author begins with some tenuous link between Nick Drake and the Titanic (yes The Titanic) via the author's uncle Jim who watched the ship's launch, and gives other mundane happenstance reasons for writing this book. 20 minutes later and I was flipping through the book, some random paragraph tried to convince me that no other English singer except Peter Skellern, maybe, sang in Drake's particular English way. Other paragraphs waffled on about non-Drake stuff giving the impression of padding out. Perhaps one day I will have enough idle time to waste on this, but for now the book has been filed away in the big cardboard box at the back of the cupboard.
albert 28th Dec 2016		Book Steve Hanley - The Big Midweek (2014)	Just finished reading this book and quite recommend it. As the book progresses the text gets better and the dirt gets juicier, but I think the time frames also speed up, so towards the end it reads like one disaster after another when its more likely that the really bad gigs were few amongst the gigs that went OK. Mark E. Smith has a terrible reputation but reading the story you can see that his dependence on alcohol is the main source of all the trouble and his long suffering band mates, despite often being sacked and abused, do get welcomed back in the band again and again.
albert 21st Nov 2016		Book David McGillivray - Doing Rude Things (1992)	all day and all of the night
albert 6th Nov 2016		Book Carol Schwartz - VideoHound's Cult Flicks & Trash Pics	Brief notes taken from the cover: "1313 film reviews. Forward by Bruce Campbell. Cult diva and connoisseur of mongrel video Carol Schwartz and video lord Jim Olenski, assisted by a staff of notable critics and scribbling outpatients, deliver the reviews as they see them, and we've been assured they have seen them many, many times. This rip-snorting, brain-tickling new edition includes 75 sidebars that may bring you up close and personal with the underworld of fringe movie making. An amazing array of indexes, including director, cast, category, alternative title, writer, cinematographer and composer are sure to lead you somewhere. We've included a vast number of startling photographs you'll surely want to cut out and place in your wallet or set in a proper frame for public display."
albert 6th Nov 2016		Book David McGillivray - Doing Rude Things (1992)	The original book launch was at the Scala cinema with an all-day event "British Doing Rude Things". I was there for the 10 hour marathon and then I believe I stayed for the all-nighter too, it was a very long day.
albert 25th Oct 2016		Book Various Authors - Long Time Gone (1988)	Review Probably half of this book (about 200 pages worth) is given over to details of Crosby's drug abuse and scouting for drugs, the money he spent on drugs, his ill health because of drugs, and how he let down everybody time and again because of his addiction. The stuff that I wanted to read about, ie the music and the funny stories, is mostly skipped over in short paragraphs between the druggy episodes. The reviews go on about how open and honest the biography is, I just felt that I was reading a drug programme confessional. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?