New CD issues from Artistry

Exciting news has come through once again from the guys at Artistry, with the release of more CDs compiling from the old cover version albums - "International Edition Tops In Pops"; "Tops In Pops of the 60s Vol 3" and a collection of "Instrumental Chartbusters".

There are some fantastic track selections on these latest discs, one in particular catching my eye, as we did a post on it recently - "Tops in Pops of the 60s Vol 3" contains the coveted version of "Love Me Do" by the Sparrows, which was the first cover version of a Lennon-McCartney song anywhere in the world! This, I believe if the first and only time it has been released on CD - so a little bit of music history there.

The rest of the tracks raid the Avenue vaults for vocals by Martin Jay, Danny Street, Peter Lee Stirling, David Byron and others - many of them familiar from the LPs released back in the day. Some are much older and a tad rarer - "Two Silhouettes" for example, was an Embassy label B-side for Paul Rich back in 1963.

Fans of Elvis Costello will also note the presence of Ross McManus on one of these albums - he's Elvis's dad of course! (And need we mention a certain Elton John?)

Below are some track details from the CD inserts. These should be available any time now, on EBay - head over and track them down. As ever, full credit to Colin Richardson and the Artistry team for preserving these fab recordings.

Brand new Artistry CD - Tops in Pops

The crew at Artistry have done it again. Following their CD re-issues of recent years, which have seen many classic cover versions from the 1960s preserved in the modern digital format, they have just announced the release of a new collection: "Tops in Pops of the 60s".

Here's the front cover - a striking pastiche of a certain sleeve design from years gone by...

Many of these tracks are known from the EP catalogues of the 1960s, and originally turned up on labels such as Cannon, Crossbow and Top Six. Others are familiar from the early Avenue LPs, but while those original records did not always credit the singers, this CD puts the matter right. Here's the full listing with artist creditations:

We will post details of how to obtain copies when ready - meantime, to check out Artistry's other CD releases, click "Artistry" on the menu, right, and head over to Ebay to track them down.

Artistry are an independent label, and are fighting the battle along with other independents, to keep the CD format alive in this age of downloads. Help them out by placing an order, and hopefully there will be more CDs in the pipeline.

Thanks to Colin Richardson and his team for their sterling work.

Artistry release new CD of David Byron sessions

The Artistry label has done a fantastic job in the last couple of years, preserving some of the old Avenue recordings on CD - not least, those sung by David Byron in his pre-Uriah Heep days. The label has already issued two collections of Byron's vocal slots, which we covered in this blog post back in 2012. Now, a new volume has been added to the CD discography: The Early Sessions Vol. 3.

The notes describe the delicate nature of the task undertaken by Colin Richardson and his team, working with aging studio tapes with techincal issues, to produce a 20-track selection of songs worthy of the CD format. And an interesting set it makes too. Byron is nothing if not versatile, and displays his talents with a challenging range of singing styles from reggae ("Love of the Common People") to Bob Dylan ("Lay Lady Lay") to Motown ("Tracks of my Tears") and even the 1970 England football team ("Back Home")!

Many of these recordings will be known to collectors of Avenue, having turned up on vinyl around 45 years ago. But with the scarcity of those early LPs and EPs a matter of common knowledge and frustration, having another set available on CD is fantastic news.

Readers can pick this disc up, and others released by Artistry, on Ebay. Thanks and congratulations to Colin Richardson and the rest of the crew for preparing this new disc. Here is the track listing:

1. Hitchin' A Ride
2. Need Your Love So Bad
3. My Melanie Makes Me Smile
4. What Does It Take?
5. Yester Me, Yester You, Yester Day
6. Young Gifted And Black
7. Lay Lady Lay
8. Gimme Dat Ding
9. Son Of Hickory Holler's Tramp
10. Love Of The Common People
11. Rainbow Valley
12. Tracy
13. My Lady
14. In The Bad Bad Old Days
15. Lazy Sunday
16. My Sentimental Friend
17. Tracks Of My Tears
18. I Can't Tell The Bottom From The Top
19. Back Home
20. All I Have To Do Is Dream

Sounds Great ... tastes great, too

The LP below (thanks again to Declan) was put together in 1970, and was assembled from the recordings which had originally appeared on LP and EP for Avenue label. I've finally been able to get hold of a copy and give it a spin...

Since these recordings are from Avenue's 1970 catalogue, Elton John can be heard on several tracks, although not singing lead (although it has been suggested he takes part of the lead role on the difficult-to-identify "Wandering Star"). Rather, these versions of songs like "In The Summertime" and "Yellow River" are fronted by David Byron, and are of course the same versions as appear on his latter-day Artistry label CDs. Here are some of the uber-rare original LPs which appeared on Avenue  in 1969-70:

An interesting point about the Sounds Great '70 album is the inclusion of a company logo - in this case, Meredith & Drew who were a biscuit-maker. This album must have been the result of a commercial tie-in of some sort and raises the possibility that the record was only available by mail order. Maybe listeners had to munch through 20 or so packs of ginger nuts to be able to send off for it? We'd like to hear from anyone who remembers getting a copy from new!

 

For Purple Velvet, read... David Byron!

During an otherwise fruitless week looking out for cover version gems in East London, I spied the album below on sale at Spitalfields Market. The cover was in a "right old two an' eight", but I managed to clean it up. I don't normally go in for tribute albums to specific acts, for two main reasons. First, they just don't have the same appeal for me as those rounding up the current pop charts. And secondly, there's the issue of space in my home. It's a toss-up which will snap first - the floorboards or the wife.

Anyway, I spotted this one and noted the label - Avenue - realising that it probably contained a few selections from their main covers LPs, despite the fact that it claimed on the front, to be by a group calling itself Purple Velvet. Nonetheless, I took a chance and parted with my £2.

The album itself turned out to be exactly what I had hoped - a sprinkling of tracks from the Avenue album series, bulked out with new recordings to make up the numbers. As fans will already know, some of these Avenue sessions featured a certain David Byron (of Uriah Heep) on lead vocals, and to my delight, I found that at least three of these recordings were indeed by him - "Bad Moon Rising", "Long As I Can See The Light" and "Travelling Band".

Byron is, of course, nowhere to be seen on the sleeve or in the notes. Neither is anyone else for that matter, except the mysterious Purple Velvet, and arranger/conductor/producer Hal Carter. And the record label says 1972. But hang on a minute, the original Avenue recordings, with Byron present, were certainly not produced by Hal Carter in 1972. We know for a fact that they were from 1969-70. I wonder why Avenue were so coy about plugging their own back catalogue, particularly while the Twelve Top Hits series was still in full flow?

Luckily for me, my hunch paid off, and this LP becomes a welcome addition to my own collection, albeit slightly outside my normal collecting area.

Rare Avenue vinyl from 1969

I am grateful once more to record-collecting enthusiast and covers album fan, Declan, for the following LP. It's one you will be very lucky to see 'in the flesh', which is why I thought I would post some images.

The title is "12 Top Hits", and it forms part of the celebrated Avenue series, also known as "England's 12 Top Hits", since it later had a tweak in name. These early albums are extremely rare, a situation exacerbated by the presence on many of them of Elton John and David Byron, both of whom appear here, and who have attracted vinyl junkies like Hoovers to the few copies still in circulation.

The 12-track LP features several lead vocals by David Byron ("Sugar Sugar", "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", "Soul Deep" etc), as well as Elton who sings backing vocals on a few titles and lead on "Don't Forget To Remember".

As with most of their cover version albums, Avenue also released this collection across two 6-track EPs, AVE 84 and AVE 85, which are slightly easier to find than the LP. AVE 84 contains all of side 1, AVE 85 all of side 2.

If you want to hear some of David Byron's vocal slots in glorious modern stereo, we have to recommend again the two Artistry CDs which collect many of his session recordings together. You will find them on Ebay - between them, volumes 1 and 2 include four tracks from this elusive LP and many more from the series. Cover photos and track listings can be seen on my post of August 30.

Exciting news from Artistry

We were pleased to hear from Colin Richardson, head honcho at the Artistry label this week, who tells us of some more archive recordings heading for CD release shortly. Colin revealed:

"The next CD is 'Artistry Remember the Stars of Easy Beat and Saturday Club'. This is a 21-track disc with vocals by the three stars of the show, Danny Street, Laura Lee and Tony Steven. Release date is Oct 16, 2012. 

"This will be followed by 'Artistry Beat Club', a 30-track compilation from the vaults of Artistry, with early sessions by Elton John, David Byron, Ray Dexter, Chester Kamen, Paul Wilson and others - with Accompaniment Direction by Alan Caddy, Richard Franklin, Steve Cameron and Chester Kamen."

So there you have it - more treasures unearthed from the vaults and coming to CD for the first time, which is bound to be of great interest to collectors.

We should take this opportunity to remind readers of Artistry's two David Byron session CDs (below), which are currently available through Ebay. Both contain material originally recorded between 1968 and 1970, for the Avenue label. David Byron is supported on vocals by artists such as Peter Lee Stirling (Daniel Boone), Reg Dwight (Elton John) and Dana Gillespie.

David Byron: The Early Sessions

•  Soul Deep
• Come And Get It
• Yellow River
• Bad Moon Rising
• Viva Bobbie Joe
• Behind A Painted Smile
• Let's Work Together
• Rainbow
• Mony Mony
• I'm Gonna Make You Mine
• Give Peace A Chance
• Long As I Can See The Light
• Cold Turkey
• American Woman
• Urban Spaceman
• Reflections Of My Life
• Melting Pot (duet with Dana Gillespie)
• Good Morning Freedom (duet with Dana Gillespie)
• Soul Sister Brown Sugar (lead vocal Peter Lee Stirling)
• Something Is Happening

David Byron: The Early Sessions Vol. 2

• Ragamuffin Man
• Race With The Devil
• Man Of The World
• Keep On
• Question
• Yummy Yummy Yummy
• Travellin’ Band
•  Hurdy Gurdy Man
•  Hello I Love You
•  Where Do You Go To My Lovely?
•  Hello Suzie
•  He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother
•  Ain’t Got Time Anymore
•  By The Way
•  Natural Born Bugie
•  Heather Honey
•  Instant Karma
•  Wet Dream
•  Sugar Sugar
•  Lovin’ Things