New find

Your blogster has been busy on several different projects over recent years and no longer has the time or energy to collect budget records. However he hasn't entirely forgotten about them, and in idle moments still has a browse around the internet, just out of curiosty. The odd find is made, and duly added to the ever-expanding database.

Which leads me to this new find - one so amazing to me that I thought it deserved some kind of spotlight - not just another unnoticed addition to my Top of the Pops website. So here it is...

 

What is it? None other than a unique edition of Top of The Pops Europe Edition, Volume 1. It even has the same catalogue number, EHM 3001. This is how it usually looks:

This is in fact a copy of the Lebanon issue, on their Empire label, and came out in 1971. The track listing is exactly the same as normal - but check out that cover. So unlike what we are used to. 

In fact, I do wonder if the image on the front is from the same shoot as this - it's hard to be certain...

Equally surprising is that this Lebanon LP was accompanied by a trailer single consisting of two of the tracks, 'Help (Get Me Some Help)' / 'One Way Wind' - issued on the same Empire label. Here are the 45 labels:

 

And here's a mock-up of what it would have looked like, inside one of the company singles sleeves. 

There you go. See you in 2030.

 

 

 

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...

World Top 12 - cover photo stripped back

Some of the most arty sleeves in the cover version world were produced by the Flag label, specifically for their "World Top 12" series. One of the most adventurous was volume 36, from the start of 1972. This photo is heavily colour-adjusted to give it an almost psychedelic feel:

Until just now, I'd never seen the photo in its original state. But then I stumbled across the image before it was adjusted. It seems it was shot in a carefully lit studio, apparently with a red spotlight on the model:

This image is from the cover of an Italian LP called "Guitar Parade" by The Guitar Brothers, released on the UP label in 1977. Here's the full record sleeve:

The fact that Flag went to such trouble with the image (or at least, selected one which offered more than just the raw shot) shows how much consideration they gave to their artwork in the 1970s. And in fact, the image is well-travelled, having appeared on a number of different LPs, sometimes with alternative colour filtering:

What's equally interesting is taking the original Flag LP and literally making a negative of it:

This gets us back to something resembling the natural colours again. I wonder who the photographer was - and come to that, who the model is?...