Sensational new find: unknown UK Top of the Poppers LP!

Blog posts like this don't come along too often. I can date my interest in Top of the Pops back to my early childhood, while I started properly collecting and cataloguing them maybe 15 years ago. So how amazing is this new find? A UK album by Top of the Poppers, which I had never previously seen a hint of, in all my time collecting and researching.

Here are some scans:

Some of this package will look familiar to the collector. The back-story is a little convoluted, so we'll start at the beginning. 1975 - and Pickwick decided to compile a single disco album from Top of the Pops tracks. Here's the cover, and it's the same graphic as on our latest find:

What happened next is not entirely clear, but let's take a guess at the correct sequence of events. It's now 1976 and Pickwick are starting to take an interest in issuing double albums - hence, the Top of the Poppers were subject to the 2LP treatment with the following:

This double album contained the former compilation LP as disc 1, adding a second 20-track disc to complete the package.

And so to the newly discovered LP - it's a re-issue of the double LP, but with artwork from the earlier single LP! The records inside are not re-issues in the usual sense, though. They are literally the same pressings, just housed inside a different cover (a single sleeve, by the way, not a gatefold).

And to cap it all, Pickwick squeezed in a third LP - the eponymous Mac and Katie Kissoon on its original Hallmark press, from 1975. Below is the original commercial sleeve:

This Pickwick triple album has no catalogue number, the original vinyl discs retaining their own numbering. This factor, accompanied by a complete lack of small print, makes dating this new discovery very difficult. We assume it compiles the previous releases, but...

Note the "40" on the front of the double LP above. This album appeared just as Pickwick were branching into their "50" series of double albums. Is it possible therefore, that they launched the triple album just before this idea began, then had a fast re-think and issued the double Poppers' album separately, to fit into their new branding initiative? That might explain why the cover art follows on from the very first LP. If so, the sequence of events changes, and the triple LP actually pre-dates the double.

There's no way of knowing for sure. If you know anything about all this, please let us know!

Meantime, we're delighted to add a new title to the UK discography Who'd have thought it??

12 Tops volume 2 - coloured vinyl

A new addition has been found for our list of "12 Tops" pressed on coloured vinyl. A reader of this blog has contacted us with news that volume 2 was also pressed on what he described as "cherry red" vinyl, which like the others, appears to be normal black until held up to the light.

Here's a photo:

This copy is currently for sale on ebay - check HERE

As a result, we can update out list of confirmed coloured editions from this series, which now encompasses all of the first seven LPs:

• Volume 1 
• Volume 2
• Volume 3
• Volume 4
• Volume 5
• Volume 6
• Volume 7
• Volume 10
• Volume 15
• Volume 17
• Volume 19
• Volume 21
• Volume 22
• Volume 25
• Volume 27

Sounds Like Hits - White Label Promo!

White label promos are almost unknown in the world of the budget cover version. So much so, this is the first I've seen - I'm not counting this white label test pressing.

I was lucky enough to pick up this LP from Ebay for a couple of quid, and although it didn't come with a sleeve, it is a worthy addition to my collection:

It is, of course, Fontana's "Sounds Like Hits No. 5" from early 1969. Presumably this was not the only one from the series to be put out in promo form, but none other has so far surfaced. Here are the commercial copy labels and front cover:

Nice find!

Another coloured vinyl from "12 Tops"

A break from our ongoing series of one-off releases. (Yesterday was the blog's fourth birthday, by the way - yay!)

This post comes courtesy of Holger Schoeler. A couple of weeks ago we reported on the discovery that many of the "12 Tops" albums were pressed on Pye's little-known coloured vinyl formulation. The earliest we had proof of was volume 3 - but Holger has turned up a copy of volume 1 on what he describes as 'violet'.

Here are the images, and we must say he's done a better job than we did with the photography! Volume 1 duly added to the list. Let us know if you have any more...

Here's the updated list of confirmed coloured editions:

• Volume 1
• Volume 3
• Volume 4
• Volume 5
• Volume 6
• Volume 7
• Volume 10
• Volume 15
• Volume 17
• Volume 19
• Volume 21
• Volume 22
• Volume 25
• Volume 27

12 Tops - more 'colured vinyl' discovered!

We recently posted on the subject of coloured vinyl editions of Pye Chartbusters, a discovery made after years of assuming they were all ordinary black pressings. Now, thanks to a tip-off from blog regular, Bro19, we have learned that these were not the only such editions in the world of anonymous cover versions.

According to Bro19, the 12 Tops series got the same treatment - so we dug our our set and duly did the 'torch test' on the playing area. What we found is a little confusing, and we suspect there are multiple editions of some (if not all) of these, doing the rounds.

The coloured editions are essentially of the same nature as the Pye Chartbusters albums - very dark, but allowing light to shine through either very dark red, or in some cases, untinted. Here are a couple of 12 Tops LPs, held up to the light:

Using the torch, we can see the tinting at close quarters:

From what we previously knew, it would be fair to assume that the coloured editions were all made by Pye, this being something of a secret trademark. However, 12 Tops sometimes stated "Manufactured by Pye Records" on the labels, and so one would expect these to all have the colouring.

Not so. Just to confuse us, some of the Pye pressings are regular opaque black (unlike the Pye Chartbusters which are all coloured), while a few of the non-Pye pressings are coloured. That's if the print on the label is anything to go by...

Below are example label details from volume 7 (erroneously labeled as volume 6, but that's another story). The non-Pye copy ("Made in England") has a deep cherry red tint to the vinyl, while the Pye pressing is completely opaque.

Examples like these show that there are different types of pressing in existence. When we went through out collection, we similarly found both types for volumes 5 and 10. Others we had no coloured editions at all, but that's not to say they don't exist. Here's a list of the coloured editions we have:

• Volume 3
• Volume 4
• Volume 5
• Volume 6
• Volume 7
• Volume 10
• Volume 15
• Volume 17
• Volume 19
• Volume 21
• Volume 22
• Volume 25
• Volume 27

Let us know if you have any missing from the list, and we'll add them to our database.

Brazilian beauties

This post covers a couple of 'virtual' finds - which is to say, records I discovered online without actually obtaining copies...

Both stem from the "Top of the Pops" series, one an impressive alternative edition, the other a non-UK compilation. Here's the first:

Here's what it looked like in not-so-sunny Blighty:

It's the Gilbert O'Sullivan tribute compilation of course, wrapped in a bright new sleeve. Interestingly it's on the RCA Camden label, which had links with Hallmark, and in the UK, had further links with Mike Morton's "Non Stop Hits" series.

The Brazilian label states 1976, three years later than the UK edition!

And next, to this release - a Brazil-only compilation of "Top of the Pops" tracks pulled from volumes 67 to 71:

Also on RCA, this album has tracks which cover the period before and after Bruce Baxter and the in-house team were recording the albums for Hallmark, so it straddles the two main "Top of the Pops" eras. It dates to 1979. 

The LP came housed in a risque topless sleeve. One other detail to note is the inclusion of the "16 Fabulous Tracks" logo at the bottom - a device which the UK albums carried (in most cases) from volumes 70 onwards. Here's the first of them:

Top Six EP - white label pressing

White label pressings from the world of budget records are a pretty rare thing. I've only ever come across a couple, both from Avenue (one an LP see here and the other an EP see here).

Over Christmas I was lucky to obtain another, not from Avenue this time, but from the Top Six EP series of 1963-67. This one is EP number 8, released around October 1964:

Of course, you can't tell what it is by looking at the scan. I have the advantage of being able to read the matrix numbers in the dead wax - SIX 8A-1M and SIX 8B-1M. Try as I might, I couldn't get a decent image of them, so you'll just have to trust me!

The tracks are as follows:

Side 1

• Do Wah Diddy Diddy
• Twelve Steps To Love
• You Really Got Me

Side 2

• Have I The Right?
• I Won't Forget You
• Promise You'll Tell Her

This EP, the eighth in the series, also comprised half of the same label's "Top 12" volume 4, which was the last installment of their short-lived covers album series - the first such series known from the UK. Here's the sleeve of the LP:

Now, I don't actually have my own copy of the standard EP pressing, so I can't show you the proper labels. But by a stroke of luck, the fantastic website Forgotten Vinyl just recently posted up this EP, complete with sound clips so you can hear it online! I have taken the liberty of borrowing their label scans, and please pay them a visit and check out not only this EP, but the rest of them on the site. CLICK HERE. They really are doing a fantastic job of preserving some of these "forgotten" discs.

Oh yes - and a Happy New Year to you all !!!

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?

A peek at the original Avenue / Marble Arch tapes

I recently ran a post mentioning the different stereo/mono editions of the Marble Arch albums, and in response, Colin Richardson of Artistry fame kindly sent me some photos of some of the original studio master tapes for these albums. Fascinating they are too, and we learn that some of the stereo tapes were prepared but never pressed to vinyl.

Here's a shot of some of the tape spines:

These are all Avenue tapes, but constitute master recordings for the Marble Arch LPs, whose catalogue numbers are showing. As will be apparent, there are different tapes prepared for mono and stereo pressings, for instance one tape for MALS 848 (stereo), another for MAL 848 (mono) - which should come as no real surprise.

The tops of the tape boxes show the track listings, and here are a couple of examples. First, the stereo and mono tapes for MAL/S 760:

These are accompanied by typed information for the record labels, which details the track listing and also gives the exact release date: 17 November, 1967.

Mono copies of the album, Big Hits of 1967, were duly pressed by Marble Arch. I am not aware that stereo copies ever appeared, despite the proof above that the album was supplied to the label in both mono and stereo formats. Here is the commercial record sleeve and the labels for the mono release:

Next, we have the same items for MAL/S 848:

The label info gives the release date as 13 September, 1968:

This time we know that both mono and stereo editions were manufactured, and here are some images of the commercial mono pressing, Autumn Chartbusters:

Returning to the original image, there are in fact four pairs of stereo/mono tapes pictured. Besides Big Hits of 1967 and Autumn Chartbusters (shown above) there are also tapes for MAL/S 776 and MAL/S 788. The albums in question are Chart Busters, the very first in the series, and More Chart Busters, the second. Again, these are only known to have been pressed up in mono, but thanks to the tape boxes we know they were mixed/mastered for stereo as well:

Returning to the full set in the photo, besides these Marble Arch albums, there are some other tapes shown next to them. Here is the image in full:

Notice that these additional boxes show catalogue numbers starting STR. These belong to later (1970s) albums on Avenue's sub-label, Stereo Plus 3. Discographies are hard to find, but with a little help from Google we have managed to identify every album in the frame.

STR 003: 22 Smash Hits of the 60's
STR 004: A Tribute to Michael, David and Donny
STR 005: Goodbye Beatles
STR 010: Three Stars Featuring the Songs of...
STR 011: The Best of Atlanta (Original Artists)
STR 012: Stay Later (Eric Winstone & His Orchestra)
STR 013: TV Stage & Movie Themes

Here are the covers of the commercial LPs (excuse the poor quality of some of the images):

Thanks to Colin for sending us the tape photos, and thereby enlightening us that it was, in fact, down to Marble Arch (and the parent company, Pye) that stereo continued to be shunned until the second half of 1968. It seems amazing nowadays that mono was preferred, but in truth, stereo never really became the dominant format until the end of the 1960s. Marble Arch were, so far as I know, the only one of the budget cover version labels to issue albums in both formats, until they finally abandoned mono at the start of 1970.