Very rare box set on Ebay

Back in 1968 (we think!) mfp took the extraordinary step of re-issuing their first four budget cover version albums in a special box set - containing the albums, Hits '67, Smash Hits, Heart Hits and Hits '68.

Some years ago I spotted one online and bought it - I have never seen or heard of another copy anywhere until now. Remarkably, one of these mega-rare box sets is up for sale on Ebay:

More info on this box set can be found here. And here's an old blog post I did about my own copy back in 2012.

For a reasonable £29 plus shipping, this holy grail for cover version fans can be yours if you're quick. Here's a link to the Ebay listing.

It looks to be in reasonable condition, with some light wear and tear, and also has the original printed insert. Judging by the photos, the inner sleeves are later, but could easily be swapped for plain white ones, as originally issued. And some sticker removal would be in order for at least one of the record labels! Nonetheless, a great item for someone out there.

=================

**UPDATE: Item is sold.

Covers album fetches a staggering price!

We always like to be bang up to date with our news, so we have pleasure in bringing you details of an Ebay auction which closed on, er, November 11th. So, only three months ago! Nevertheless, when we were alerted to it by blog reader Bill Williams, we felt it was too sensational a story to let go.

The auction concerned the Boulevard LP, 1970 Top 12, which features a good number of contributions from Elton John. Here is a screen grab from the Ebay auction after it ended. Click the image below to enlarge, Then rub your eyes, and look again.

This "budget" album fetched an amazing £681.53. There is no reason to think the auction was not bona-fide, and the two parties exchanged regular feedback afterwards. I am on pretty safe ground I think, when I say this has to be a world record for such an LP.

If you are lucky enough to own a copy, look after it! I myself have a copy, but I only came by it recently, and it was such a big deal for me that I celebrated it with a blog post of its own (see here), where you can find some background details of the album.

With prices like this in the air, how long before the "serious" music press starts to recognise the budget covers format? I'm not holding my breath, but I do believe the official airbrushing of these records out of pop history is an anomaly, which I hope will someday be rectified. Over to you, Record Collector et al.

Casette auctions on Ebay

I wonder how many budget cover version LPs have gone to landfill over the years? Probably millions. No-one buying them on the cheap in the 1970s would have imagined that 40 years on, there would be an internet and a collectors' scene, or that these items would attract decent prices on the market. As for the cassette editions, even more disposable, right?

Well, there have been a couple of interesting sales on Ebay this week, illustrating the continuing interest in these old albums - and particularly the rarer cassette versions. First came the item below, which needs little introduction.

This 69th album in the series was the last one to be produced by Top of the Pops stalwart, Bruce Baxter, who signed off at the end of 1978. This scarce cassette edition closed on Ebay at a handsome £20.99.

We were alerted to the auction below by an anonymous post on the blog, and of course followed the auction with interest. We have already featured the vinyl edition twice on this blog, once when we investigated the original UK release and again when we learned that it had been issued in, of all places, Brazil. See posts here and here.

Amazingly, this is a cassette edition which contains four tapes housed inside a compact box. From what we can tell, the tapes contain a whole LP on each side, so all six albums are crammed onto three cassettes.

It's nice to see the fourth cassette present too. It's the 'extra' album, Rock 'n' Roll of the 50s, which there was some uncertainty over whether it was included in the UK set at all. This discovery all but proves that it was.

I have never seen this cassette box set before, and there are presumably very few copies left in circulation. The closing price for this example was a respectable £16, and for the lucky winner, a real rarity for the collection.

If you spot any unusual or interesting items on Ebay, drop us an email. We're always interested in what's out there and what collectors are up to. Tip: There's a copy of Top of the Pops vol 91 on Ebay right now!

Avenue EPs the rarest of the rare for sale

Doesn't time fly? It's been about four weeks via Christmas and the New Year since my last blog post! Glad to say, therefore, that the first post of 2014 is a corker.

An Ebay seller renowned for his scarce Avenue label items has just uploaded one of the most amazing ever. He's listed a copy of an Avenue EP from 1971 which no-one, including me, ever knew existed. The disc itself is a white label test pressing, and it sounds from the details like no commercial pressings were ever made.

NUE 153 would logically have followed NUE 152, but never appeared. Instead, the EP series jumped straight to NUE 154, leaving an inexplicable gap. So here we have a solution to the mystery of the missing EP. Well, partly, that is... this is what the seller has to say:

"I am not listing the six recorded titles on this disc! This will be known only to myself and the successful purchaser of this enigma in recording history...

"The six recordings on this disc were recorded in 1971 at Intersound Recording Studio of Wembley, Middlesex, England. Only one of the 6 tracks contained on NUE 153 was released on the AVENUE U.K. series of TOP HITS - thus I hope, by now I have whet your appetite."

So, he's not giving too much away! We know from the catalogue number that this dates to mid-1971, so it could contain almost anything from that era. What a mystery - and what a fantastic record, probably the only one of its kind. If you're interested in purchasing it, you can see the Ebay listing here. You will need deep pockets though - this is a bona-fide rarity.

For sale: the Avenue LP that never was

The treasures that turn up on Ebay! This week a lot has appeared which the seller describes as follows:

Here are the two 10"  15 i.p.s. STUDIO 1/4" MASTER TAPES of the very collectable AVENUE RECORDS. Release to be titled 'ENGLAND'S TOP TWELVE HITS' Catalogue No:  AVE 0139

These 12 recordings were made at COMMAND STUDIOS in early November 1973. Regrettably, there was not enough cash in the AVENUE bank account to pay for this record to be pressed.

The last 12" AVENUE ENGLAND'S TOP TWELVE HITS followed a few months later bearing the Catalogue number AVE 0141 and was pressed outside of the United Kingdom.

Full re-sale and manufacturing rights for these Master Tapes will be assigned to the purchaser.

I imagine I am not the only one who did a double take on reading this. In essence, these studio tapes contain the original recordings of what would have been the penultimate Avenue LP in their "England's 12 Top Hits" series, but which was never pressed up, let alone released. According to the details, session supremos Danny Street and Martin Jay are on these sessions, although there is no indication of which songs they appear on.

However there IS a full track listing given for this LP that never was, which is also just about readable on the tape boxes above. The proposed listing ran as follows, with the original hit artists in brackets:

Side 1:

1. Let Me In (Osmonds)
2. Top Of The World (Carpenters)
3. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John)
4. Won't Somebody Dance With Me (Lynsey De Paul)
5. Photograph (Ringo Starr)
6. The Day That Curly Billy Shot Down Crazy Sam McGhee (Hollies)

Side 2:

1. Daydreamer (David Cassidy)
2. My Friend Stan (Slade)
3. Sorrow (David Bowie)
4. Daytona Demon (Suzi Quatro)
5. Helen Wheels (Paul McCartney & Wings)
6. The Old Fashioned Way (Charles Aznavour)

Although this album never materialised, it is noticeable that five of these recordings did make it out after all. At the end of the year, Avenue released their annual round-up LP on the Stereo Plus 3 label, 20 Smash Hits of '73, and on it you can hear "Won't Somebody Dance With Me", "Photograph", "Let Me In", "Daydreamer" and "Sorrow".

What price to hear the remaining recordings? Well, the Ebay ad has a starting price of £5,250, which includes rights to start production of this LP forty years on. Please - someone with the means at their disposal, do it! Find the listing by searching for item number 150994339377 and make us covers fans very happy!

Amazing hoard of Flair label EPs discovered

Last week, an advert appeared on Ebay from a seller who reported finding a huge consignment of cover version EPs on the Flair label, in a loft. In all, there was reckoned to be more than a thousand records in boxes and packages, stashed away unopened since the 1960s. The whole lot consisted of multiple copies of the first five Flair EPs, no doubt originally intended for delivery to record shops. This is a photo of what he unearthed:

In a million-to-one chance, Declan, a regular contributor to this blog (as well as a keen cover version collector) happened to be visiting the owner's home town in the next day or two - and arranged to drop by and pick up a set of one of each record for himself, and also a set for me! So incredibly, I am now the very happy owner of five unplayed Flair label EPs, in pristine condition. Here are the cover scans:

  
The seller has since decided to assemble more batches of EPs, with one mint copy of each disc - so if you want a set yourself, get over to Ebay now! They are currently listed at the very reasonable price of £9.99 per set, although there is no way of knowing how long they will be available. (Type in the search words rare, set, Flair and they will appear near the top of the page.)

Both Declan and myself have been curious to identify the original recordings on these discs, but between us we have drawn a blank. Normally cover version EPs contain recordings which are more commonly heard elsewhere, on one or more of the LP series which were in production. However these don't seem to match any albums, meaning they were recorded just for the EP series itself.

Here are a couple of sample tracks, in case anyone reading this recognises them from elsewhere:

FLAIR Lazy Sunday.mp3

FLAIR I Say A Little Prayer.mp3

It is interesting to read that on EP number 5 (in the red sleeve), Norman Smith is named as musical director. Assuming it is the same Norman Smith, he was also the engineer on all the Beatles' albums up to and including "Rubber Soul", nicknamed "Normal" Smith by Lennon. He went on to record a few hits of his own, under the name Hurricane Smith, and several covers LPs include versions of his singles, "Don't Let It Die" and "Oh Babe What Would You Say".

Now comes the tricky task of completing the collection with a copy of EP number 6...

Another Top of the Pops album goes high on Ebay

This week saw another Top of the Pops album fetch a surprisingly high price on Ebay. The LP in question this time was a copy of the annual Best-of for 1981, incidentally the last one to appear during the album series' life. The funny thing is, the album itself is not too hard to find - the attraction of this particular lot was the inclusion of the original poster/calendar, as shown in the photo above.

This album must have sold in fairly small quantities, as the series was winding down and sales were dwindling. Plus, there is evidence that, contrary to what one might have expected, the annual review LPs - packed with hit songs - sold in smaller numbers than the main LPs. This is shown clearly in the chart stats: while these LPs were apperaing in the main charts, budget charts, NME charts etc, the Best-ofs always performed much weaker than the regular album releases.

How many of these LPs survive, with the original poster still intact? Clearly not too many. With a winning bid of a round £64, that's one impressive calendar, and an extremely hard to fill space finally cracked for the lucky winner.

Top of the Pops LP fetches £155 on Ebay

I've seen the occasional Top of the Pops album break the £100 mark on Ebay, but it's certainly a rare event. Previous sky-high sale prices seemed to be reserved for the extremely scarce volume 91 - so when someone mentioned the outcome of this auction to me, I could scarcely believe it.

This copy of Top of the Pops volume 87 is certainly among the hardest to locate - some say it is the rarest, which on the evidence here, might well be the case. As you will see, the cover is far from pristine, with marks on the laminate, and what the seller describes as "some handling wear". The record is graded Excellent though, which is undoubtedly a contributiung factor to its successful sale.

Anyway, the lucky winner gets to fill this difficult space in his or her collection, while the seller pockets a cool £155.15 for his trouble. Now - anyone know where I can find a spare copy?!...

Amazing studio tapes surface on Ebay

The phrase "once in a lifetime" is over-used, but certainly applies to three items up for grabs on Ebay this week. They consist of original studio master tapes from the Pye/Marble Arch/Avenue stable, featuring recordings by cover version luminaries David Byron, Danny Street, Laura Lee and others, plus Elton John whose work on these records needs no introduction.

 

All three are quarter-inch studio tapes, and the seller has helpfully provided details of the commercial record releases they were for:

Avenue EP (AVE 59)

"Top Chartbusters of '69" on the Marble Arch label

"Soul Spectacular Volume 3" on Marble Arch

If you want to pick up a genuine piece of musical history, and true cover version gold, then stop by Ebay and check them out (warning - you'll need deep pockets though!).

See the Ebay listings here, here and here.

Collectable Top of the Pops

Over the last couple of weeks we've spotted some of the rarest Top of the Pops LPs appearing on Ebay. Volume 90 went for a respectable, though not sensational £12, while two copies of the "holy grail" volume 91 fetched £54 and £12 respectively.

This though, is just the tip of the iceberg. The LPs have twice featured in Record Collector mag, which expressed surprise at the high prices some of these records achieve. The report below about another copy of volume 91 is understandable - we've seen copies break the £100 mark on more than one occasion, but the other report, from earlier this year, mentions a sale price of £92 for an unidentified edition. There's also a copy of volume 25 pictured... which went for the sum of... 1p!