Car boot sales: here goes 2014

Today marked the start of the car boot sale season down in my part of the country, with the first proper outdoor event held at Sayers Common in Sussex. For me, boot fairs are one of the main sources of cover version music, not to mention pleasant ways to while away a sunny Sunday morning - so needless to say, I was there at opening time, wants list in hand.

As usual, most of what I discovered was already in my collection - "Hot Hits" LPs and the like - but I did manage to come away with one nice item for the bargain price of 25p:

As all collectors know, these cassettes are pretty hard to come by. On the few occasions one turns up on Ebay, it will tend to attract bids of up to £20, making them beyond the practical reach of most collectors. It's especially pleasing then to find them for pennies, and with this particular example - almost pristine in condition - one of many gaps was filled in my own set.

The album, Best of Top of the Pops '78, was the final release to be made up of Bruce Baxter-era productions, as Top of the Pops switched to buying in external recordings at the close of that year. It also has the distinction of being one of a relatively few Top of the Pops albums to have been released on all four main formats: LP, cassette, 8-track and, more recently, CD, and I'm pleased to say I now have one of each: