LINK – 1975. Rare unreleased song “Break the Ice”
Sep 24BREAK THE ICE – was to have been Link’s follow up single to the top 20 hit ‘Only Time Could Let Us Know’ – but it was never released and lost in archives for 35 years. This video clip was made possible with the help of rock photographer KEVIN HILL who captured stunning images of the band from that era. Coupled with the rediscovered music and production credits provided by Dave Kennedy – the song is able to surface and be shared with the...
HARVEY MANN – Earth Cry (demo)
Jul 02New music from legendary guitar player Harvey Mann. “Earth Cry” – a short video demonstrating some of his guitar playing. Recorded and mixed at his basement studio 2011. Harvey Mann is best known for his 70s era psychedelic blues playing (in the wake of musicians such as Jesse Harper and Jimi Hendrix). He fronted the last incarnation of the Underdogs in 1970 and went on to form Space Farm (1971-2) and then Living Force (1978-9) – with Ticket’s Eddie Hansen. These days he specialises in 3D art and still plays at local clubs in Australia’s Gold...
Medium, Rare and Well Done – Hard To Find NZ LP’s From The 1970’s and Early 80’s
Jun 15
There are some rare little gems from the shaky isles still on vinyl which have never been re-mastered and released on CD and for years it was assumed that they never would. Sadly, this means that they are as rare as hens teeth and attract ridiculous prices from vinyl scalpers around the world. Case in point are “original presses” of albums like “Ticket – Awake” which up until recently changed hands at prices akin to gold … well not quite, but a 120 gram vinyl record selling for $400 USD has got to be considered gold. There is some call you’d think to reissue these on CD and thus alleviate the pressure on prices. Only the resellers benefit; the bands themselves get no royalties for second hand sales and as for those who simply want to listen to the music it’s just downright hard to get hold of, if you can. OK there are a few “Best Of’s” and various artist compilation albums about – but they are largely eclectic collections that leave you somewhat wanting. Basically, nothing beats getting the original album, with perhaps a few bonus single tracks added. Now back in the 1980s when I started up my archival music collection (I’m still going some 30 odd years later) I tried to track down bands to see if they would be putting out their records on CD. To my dismay I discovered that record labels like CBS had dumped the original masters. But it gets worse… other producers sold the rights off-shore and as to access to the masters, well, who knows … the bands certainly don’t have the rights! Then you get all the label buy outs and the signing away of rights in perpetuity, so that even if the artists want to release their own works 30 years or more after the so called “sound recording mechanical rights” normally expire – it all just becomes ‘too hard’! There is some relief in play though – Ticket have released their classic 1971 album AWAKE on CD, so it’s available to the world again (and hopefully this will take the sting out of second hand record prices). You can now buy this in music stores, on eBay and on websites (like www.gocatalogue.com ) around the world. Wellington band ‘Highway’ have re-release their only self titled album on CD – great, I won’t have to try and...