More Flags...

Clive Hetherington has sent us a couple of images of some rare Flag EPs which he's managed to pick up. These aren't cover version EPs, but are important in plugging hitherto unknown gaps in the Flag discography.

Clive has discovered EP 14, a collection of Tijuana Hits, and EP 20, with Classical Greats on. These are most likely spin-offs from other Flag/Boulevard LP projects.

These non-cover version records can be added to the other two we know of, EPs 15 and 17 in the set:

So now, we're down to just three EPs to still identify (assuming we're right that EP 10 was the first, and that EP 26 was the last). So our label discography now looks like this:

• EP 10 - cover versions 
• EP 11 - cover versions
• EP 12 - cover versions
• EP 13 - cover versions
• EP 14 - Tijuana Hits
• EP 15 - Hawaiian Hits
• EP 16 - cover versions
• EP 17 - Dixieland!
• EP 18 - Country & Western Hits
• EP 19 - ?
• EP 20 - Classical Greats
• EP 21 - cover versions
• EP 22 - ?
• EP 23 - cover versions
• EP 24 - ?
• EP 25 - cover versions
• EP 26 - cover versions

Please let us know if you can identify any of the missing EPs.

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UPDATE - May 2017

Clive Hetherington has contacted us with details of EP 18 - Country & Western Hits by the Arizona Night Riders. It carries a yellow label, like EP 14, above. Thanks again to Clive - discography above updated.

Super Hits - Pop Express Band rarity

There's rare, and there's rare, and then there's the LP below. It's called "Super Hits" and was released on the Turnover record label, probably at the start of 1972...

What do we know about this record? There are several things to note - not least the appearance of the record label. Look vaguely familiar? It does if you view it next to one of the Deacon labels of the era:

Note the similarities of text placement, and of course, the typeface used on the label name. A straight connection then? Probably not. We think the coincidence is just that, and the similarity is a red herring. In terms of pinning down the background story, we turn instead to the Flag/Boulevard label, and their "World Top 12" series.

The tracks on the LP are all from the pop charts in the latter part of 1971, as follows:

1. Coz I Luv You
2. Till
3. Banks Of The Ohio
4. Gypsies Tramps And Thieves
5. Jeepster
   
6. Tokoloshe Man
   
7. Is This The Way To Amarillo
8. Mammy Blue
9. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
10. Brandy
11. Simple Game
12. Maggie May

When we listen to them, we find that they match the Flag releases in all cases where we are able to do a comparison. To recap - Flag not only issued the regular "World Top 12" but also end-of-year round-ups and a nice run of six-track EPs, numbered in sequence.

What we now know is that four tracks are from "World Top 12" volume 36 (tracks 3, 5, 6, 7); two are from the end-of-year "1971 Top 12" (tracks 1 and 12); and four more are from the EP number 21 (tracks 8, 9, 10, 11):

 

 

The inclusion of tracks from the EP is especially curious. Nearly all the Flag EPs use tracks from Flag's main LP series - except this EP number 21, which has non-LP tracks. It's odd that this very EP should be purloined to make up a third of the "Super Hits" album.

Then there are the other two tracks, "Till" and "Gypsies Tramps and Thieves", which so far as we know, don't turn up in the Flag discography at all. This though could just be the result of incomplete data - we don't have a track listing for EPs 20 or 22 in the set, so it's possible the recordings did appear on one of those. Time will tell.

Getting back to the album itself, we are able to link it in to one known album series through the use of the "Super Hits" title, plus the name, Pop Express Band. These, we've seen before:

The album above appeared on the Polymax label in 1971, and contains older recordings leased from Avenue. Polymax issued a run of five such albums in 1971, all with older material, and forming a set which sits nicely with the usual cover version series. (See here for a listing.)

There's every reason to assume that the name "Super Hits" and the Pop Express Band identity on this Turnover album provides a direct connection with the then recent Polymax set - and so we can link the two labels and view this "Super Hits" album as installment number 6.

There must be a back story here, though we don't know the full details. Suffice to say all of the Polymax/Turnover albums are hard to find, so adding this one to our collection was a real bonus.

Copycat ... er ... Covers - part 5

Another installment of our ongoing series of blog posts, bringing together cover version and budget LP sleeves which resemble other cover version LPs. We'll kick off this selection with some overseas albums using similar artwork to our own UK covers LPs...

First up, the Boulevard LP, "16 Hit Songs", which is in fact volume 1 of what would become Flag's "World Top 12" series. Below are four annual releases from the US, rounding up cover versions of summer hits. Notice how on the fourth they have simply discarded the cover model!

Next, to Stereo Gold Award's "12 Tops" series. The cover of volume 8 featured a model who would shortly turn up on the front of the German album, Tanz-Party 2 - the photo is from the same session:

"12 Chart Buster Hits" volume 15 was issued in the UK by Pye around Easter 1975. Probably around the same time, volume 4 of "Special Disco Party" was released in Israel, with the same photo on the front:

Next up is Rediffusion's "Hit Parade Special" volume 8. There are two overseas albums with similar photos. The first is the German LP, "Amarillo", the second an Australian album called "The Hits of Simon & Garfunkel", which we've featured before in this series, but which is worth juxtaposing with the other two; the photo has been flipped over:

Another one we've seen before is the Israeli album below left, which has a similar cover photo to that used on Contour's "16 Chart Hits" volume 10. We're re-running it here as we've found a third: "Top Hit Famous Theme From Films", which we believe is an Italian release.

...which leads us nicely onto the UK/UK examples below, the first of which features another photo from the session. Here, the model's swapped her hat for a fag. (No chance that would be allowed these days!)

The rest of these don't need much introduction. They are all UK albums with similar or identical photographs on the covers...

Check back here for another installment in a few days' time...

Flag EPs - rare picture sleeves found

I've been interested in cataloging Flag's EP series for some time, and last updated the known discography in September. This week, things took an unexpected twist with the discovery of not one but two picture sleeves - the first and so far only such sleeves known. They belong to EPs 11 and 13 respectively, and here they are:

As everyone knows, these EPs were usually sold in paper sleeves with a photograph on them. One such paper sleeve is pictured below, and has the same artwork as the picture sleeve on EP 13:

Where does the image come from? It seems to originate with the Boulevard LP pictured below:

The other EP sleeve shown above has no vinyl equivalent so far as we are aware (drop us a comment if you know otherwise).

So, it appears that at least two of Flag's EPs came out in picture sleeves - numbers 11 and 13. What are the odds that number 12 got the same treatment? And will a copy ever surface for us? Watch this space...

Sleeve variety on Parade of Pops volume 14

How did this one slip under the radar for so long?? Once it's been pointed out, it seems so obvious - but it took blog regular Declan to bring it to my attention this week. Volume 14 of Windmill's Parade of Pops LP series includes a striking variety. Here are the two sleeves - spot the difference...

No prizes for getting it right! For some reason, the song titles have been shifted from the top to the bottom. It's difficult to understand why, but both covers were printed up and put into circulation. Variations like this are rare. Here's another, though less obvious:

The alteration here is near the bottom of the song panel - see how "Daniel" and "Do You Wanna Touch Me" are on the same line - undoubtedly an error in this case.

Anyway - back to that Parade of Pops. I had long had a suspicion that the model on the front was a man in drag. Even close-up the photo's not exactly sharp, so it's hard to tell, but I wondered if Windmill were having a bit of a joke - until I chanced upon the record cover below, on a Boulevard label LP. It's the same model (I think). Same wig and dress, anyway:

What do readers think?

World Top 12... on cassette!

I was pretty surprised last week to come across a cassette edition of an album from the "World Top 12" series - the covers LPs put out by Boulevard and Flag in the early 1970s. I'd heard of 8-track cartridge editions before, but never cassettes. I managed to obtain the cassette, and although disappointed to find the tape itself was somewhat mangled inside (and outside) the shell, have added it to my collection. Here are some images:

This is of course volume 2 from the series. Interestingly, it is not on the Boulevard label like the LP, but on the same firm's Opus imprint. The track listing is the same, although the songs are shuffled into a new order.

Below are scans of the associated 8-track cartridge. Just to confuse matters, this is on the Boulevard label although we know that later cartridges in the series were Opus. So what's going on there?

Let us know if you've seen any more of these Boulevard/Flag/Opus tapes on your travels...