if there's a better compiler than Bob Stanley out there, I'd sure like to know...

ps hiya arthur!

I have to say, though, that the Finders Keepers releases I own do not get into the rotation as much as, say, The Trip or Velvet Tinmine...

Mind you, I'm glad they do. The St Et The Trip comp is exceptional (will somebody tell me more about Mandy More?) and the Selda album which Votel's recently reissued is a thing of wonder.

Can't tell you anything about her, but here's a few titbits online about her LP:

- from a Q&A with Bob Stanley @ saintetienne.com:

"Ember Glance asks who the hell is Mandy More. Well, her mindblowing If Not By Fire appeared on The Trip. It's from an album called But That Is Me on Philips in 1972 (which includes a great cover of God Only Knows, an almost impossible feat!). I know she did a few equally intriguing non album singles including Coffee Cups which is very proto Kate Bush. Most of the album is, too."

- review @ the vinylvulture.co.uk forum:

"Mandy More – But that is me, Philips 1972
A beautiful and moving album, one I know nothing about. On playing it through I discovered that ‘If Not by Fire’ was familiar – featured on St Etienne’s Trip compilation. This is one of the 2 tracks which features some great electronic / moogy effects (freaking out at the end) and is mighty fine. But the album is so not a 1-tracker, it is one of those perfectly formed complete albums. A little like Melanie’s earlier LPs, but IMHO so much better. Mandy More has a great voice and the arrangements are gloriously baroque – strings, harp, layers of voices, piano – and great songs too. Highlights, if I must pick them are: ‘But That is Me’ (almost a single – catchy uplifting song), ‘Listen Babe’ (gentle grooving number), ‘Come to me Jesus’ (lush complex orchestral, with a great twisting and swelling ending); ‘If I smiled on Saturdays’ (catchy uptempo number featuring congas and melodica). For me the best is the closing number – a fantastic cover of ‘God only Knows’ – the moog comes back (or it might be guitar through effects) and the drums are funky even has a harmonica solo from Mandy! Produced by a certain Tony Hall, if that means anything to anyone.... Find this album if you can, you need it!"

related to xposts: can anybody tell me more about Esther Williams (not the swimmer who turned up on the cover of the first Blur LP, but the soul singer whose "Last Night Changed It All" appears on The Trip)?

I liked that Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word comp Votel did, and the welsh one he did with Gruff Rhys, but thought the prog one was just dreadful. Though I'd probably have dug the song selection if I was out at a club and those were the records a dj was playing. It didn't work so well as an at home listening experience for me.

those 2cd Virgin compilations were so beautiful.... i'm the only fan of "monster, robot and bugmen" compiled by simon hopkins and "jazz satellites" by kevin martin )and "kosmic kuruschi monster (vol.1, sigh....))? wish kevin martin would/could compile more...

Was going to say a similar thing but wanted to articulate *how* and not sure i can right now.

I've been waiting for eons for Vol. 2. Jazz Satellites Vol. 1 was a life-changer. Some key person at Virgin must've got sacked, because it seems like all those amazing comps stopped issuing forth about 5 years ago.

Check out this lineup for the unreleased second volume: http://wlt4.home.mindspring.com/adventures/articles/satellites.htm

talking of wire/tony harrington compiled comps, the wire 3cd box on Mute i think is really good, but have never seen reviewed or talked about. Check the tracklist:
http://www.discogs.com/release/125213

Anyway bored that downloading will actually be a pain for little (or big) records companies that will decide so that to issue comps, and the problems about it (licensing), it's no long useful and profitable (even if of unavailable music).

The Garbarek-Coltrane-23 Skidoo-Melle stretch on Jazz Satellites is one of my favorite sequences.

big list of comps here:
http://www.saintetiennedisco.com/compile.html

that there website is a great source, thanks to whoever is doing it!...hopefully, it will be updated over time...(off the top of my head, I can think of two omissions: The Bobbie Gentry Capitol Years comp and the liner notes for the Jasmine Minks Soul Station Creation comp...I think Stanley/Wiggs also did a Dusty Springfield comp)...

yeah, it's actually far from complete. anyone got something better?

psyched 2 read

http://thequietus.com/articles/13523-bob-stanley-yeah-yeah-yeah-interview

Yeah, mine arrives tomorrow.

I was just reading someone’s account of going to a birthday party as a kid and one of the parents brought over ‘Tiger Feet’ by Mud and said, ‘You’ve got to play this, nobody has a party without playing the current Number 1!’

Oh, I was actually that kid!

Tiger Feet was the Gangnam Style of 1974 I guess.

and then the Cat crept in.

Got this for my birthday!

Happy birthday!

Yeah, yeah. (yeah)

only skimmed it so far (it seems like a book that warrants skimming really), but yeah yeah yeah, his history of pop seems interesting, though it seems to have zero interest in recent pop, and its all a bit too much of a flash through pop, never really getting deep into it. inevitable i know, but, it felt like a very post-internet way of writing about music history (should probably sit down with it a bit longer first, its just that after all the amazingly positive reviews, i think i expected something a bit better. the faber book jon savage and hanif kureishi did seems a slightly better approach to what stanley is trying to do, if more skewed towards rock, stanley is more open minded, and more equal in his appreciation of diff genres).

Looks good. I know the Kincade track, and I recognise the names of a few others that I inherited and sold on.

This looks very up my street. Reminds me of the britgum canon, such as it is, although Bob's compilation extends further in scope and time. Give how toytown pop has been anthologised at least twice it's nice to see its evolution into high quality, similarly somewhat faceless/session musician-heavy but less whimsical 70s pop get more of an outlet.

I've checked, and 12 of these 24 have passed through my hands, selling for a total of £43.80. So if I get the CD, I'm quids in!

I really didn't expect to get blown away by a compilation of 60's beat pop in 2025 - figured I'd long exhausted that genre's best stuff - but Liverpool Sunset, the CD only comp Stanley brought out earlier this year, is really strong stuff. Doubly surprised to find my favourite track on it is by Billy Fury:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMA7x8I-YJ0

I really didn't expect to get blown away by a compilation of 60's beat pop in 2025 - figured I'd long exhausted that genre's best stuff - but Liverpool Sunset, the CD only comp Stanley brought out earlier this year, is really strong stuff. Doubly surprised to find my favourite track on it is by Billy Fury:

📹

Why can I hear the 5th Dimension singing this in my mind?

I thought it would be about "Halfway to Paradise."

"Safe In My Garden - American Pop In the Shadows 1967-1972" will be released 31.10.2025 🙏

Peace and love in late 60s America did not come without parallel feelings of fear and confusion about the social situation – specifically about Vietnam. “Safe In My Garden” is the latest Ace compilation in an acclaimed series compiled by Bob Stanley – it’s a companion piece to the much-praised “State Of The Union (The American Dream In Crisis 1967 – 1973” Ace CDCHD 1533/XXQLP2 057 2018).

The music on “Safe In My Garden” is harmony-laden, beautifully produced soft rock. Sunshine pop, even - a melodic, innovative style of American music that grew in the mid-60s out of the folk and surf scenes, exemplified the Beach Boys and the Mamas and Papas. You will hear orchestral arrangements, and soft boy-girl vocals. But it wasn’t made in isolation from what was going on in the outside world. There are clouds and minor chords, plenty of melancholy in those harmonies.

“Safe In My Garden” includes songs of escape (Mark Eric’s ‘Move With The Dawn’, the Groop’s ‘A Famous Myth’), loss (the Eighth Day’s ‘How Can I Stop Loving You’, the New Colony Six’s ‘Prairie Grey’), dreamscapes (Tommy James and the Shondells’ ‘She’, Nancy Priddy’s ‘You’ve Come This Way Before’), rebirth (Smokey and his Sister’s ‘Creators Of Rain’), a simpler world (the Free Design’s ‘My Brother Woody’) and a philosophically sounder future (Chad & Jeremy’s ‘The Ark’, Best of Friends’ ‘Summer Sound’).

It contains some surprisingly dark messages paired with beautiful melodies, as well as songs of hope. Thousands of young musicians in cities, suburbs and small towns across the States from the mid to late 60s spent their mornings hiding from the mailman, dreading the draft. This is the Sound of Young America in the late 60s, keeping its fingers crossed.

1. ALWAYS YOU - THE SUNDOWNERS LP Decca DL 75036 (1969) 2.58
2. MOVE WITH THE DAWN - MARK ERIC LP Revue RS 7210 (1969) 2.43
3. SHE - TOMMY JAMES AND THE SHONDELLS Roulette R-7066 (1969) 2.10
4. A FAMOUS MYTH - THE GROOP Bell 800 (1969) 2.24
5. DREAMIN' IN THE SHADE (DOWN IN L.A.) - BREWER & SHIPLEY LP A&M SP 4154 (1968) 2.11
6. I DON'T THINK I KNOW HER - TEE & CARA LP United Artists UAS 6683 (1968) 2.46
7. KNOCK ON WOOD - HARPERS BIZARRE LP Warner Bros., Seven Arts WS 1784 (1969) 2.09
8. THE VISIT (SHE WAS HERE) - THE CYRKLE Columbia 4-43965 (1967) 2.18
9. I SEE IT NOW - FARGO LP RCA LSP-4178 (1969) 2.25
10. SUMMER SOUND - BEST OF FRIENDS LP Quartin LP-RSQ-4 (1971) 2.50
11. A MOMENT OF BEING WITH YOU - THE CRITTERS LP Project 3 Total Sound PR 4001 SD (1968) 2.44
12. BLIGHT - THE MILLENNIUM 3-CD Sundazed Music SC 11102 (2001) 2.52*
13. JILL - GARY LEWIS AND THE PLAYBOYS Liberty 55985 (1967) 2.18
14. I CAN SEE ONLY YOU - ROGER NICHOLS AND THE SMALL CIRCLE OF FRIENDS LP A&M SP 4139 (1968) 2.52
15. LITTLE DREAMS - THE NEW WAVE LP Canterbury CLPS 1501 (1967) 2.24
16. MY BROTHER WOODY - THE FREE DESIGN LP Project 3 Total Sound PR 5019 SD (1967) 2.32
17. CHRISTINA'S WORLD - NANCY PRIDDY LP Dot DLP 25893 (1968) 2.42
18. THE ARK - CHAD & JEREMY LP Columbia CS 9699 (1968) 4.52
19. CREATORS OF RAIN - SMOKEY AND HIS SISTER Columbia 4-43995 (1967) 2.42
20. HOW CAN I STOP LOVING YOU - THE EIGHTH DAY LP Kapp KS 3554 (1968) 2.46
21. LOVE IS A RAINY SUNDAY - LOVE GENERATION LP Imperial LP-12408 (1968) 2.40
22. SPRINGTIME MEADOWS - THE SUNSHINE COMPANY LP Imperial LP-12399 (1968) 4.27
23. THE WORD IS LOVE - THOMAS AND RICHARD FROST Imperial 66405 (1969) 2.42
24. PRAIRIE GREY - NEW COLONY SIX LP Mercury SR 61228 (1969) 2.43

Final Boss Material -- Freddie & The Dreamers box over at Cherry Red: https://www.cherryred.co.uk/freddie-and-the-dreamers-you-were-made-for-me-the-complete-recordings-1963-1970-5cd

• The complete recordings by Manchester beat group Freddie And The Dreamers for EMI in the 1960s compiled and annotated by respected author and pop historian Bob Stanley of St. Etienne.

• Includes the UK Top 10 hits ‘If You Want To Make A Fool Of Somebody’ (#3), ‘I’m Tellin’ You Now’ (#2), ‘You Were Made For Me’ (#3) and ‘I Understand’ (#5) and all their albums including their UK Top 5 self-titled debut.

• The band were also loved in the USA where they were part of the “British Invasion”, ‘I’m Tellin’ You Now’ topped The Billboard Hot 100 and they reached the Top 20 with ‘Do The Freddie’.

• Two albums, Sing-Along Party (1965) and what Bob Stanley refers to as a “psychedelic pop primer for kids” Oliver In The Overworld (1970) are issued on CD for the first time plus another makes its debut on CD in the UK, King Freddie And His Dreaming Knights (1967).

Bob Stanley writes in the the box's booklet notes that:

"Freddie & The Dreamers were the jokers in the pack of the British beat boom, or what America knew as the British Invasion. They were a great visual act and, especially, a conduit for children who may have loved The Beatles too but wanted someone of their own. TV shows like Crackerjack and Blue Peter were happy to invite them on, and gave them a ready-made audience. The Monkees may have been tagged the Pre-Fab Four, but there’s little doubt some of their zaniness sprung from the on-stage antics of Freddie Garrity and the group’s candy beat, proto-bubblegum music."

Drink This It’ll Make You Sleep.

Scariest song title ever!

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTJJ1HyBVXWvPfp46zDFPz6d8Lng7RGwPOGK8zQDLuI8y9Uz4PzIZUZrbKO&s=10

Kelsey Grammer Freddie Garrity looks like a motherfucker with some dark secrets

Their 1978 album has one of the most baffling, not to say unfortunate, sleeves of the age

Stanley on patreon the other day was praising a Freddie & The Dreamers track and then went "or maybe I just have stockholm syndrome", explaining he was working on this box. It kinda reminds me of when one of the movie critics I follow falls into some rabbit hole of cinephilia and ends up reviewing twenty films made by some mediocre journeyman trying to tease out if there's something special there. Truly fascinating to see someone attempt that with Freddie & The Dreamers but the complete recordings...I don't think I can handle that.

I would recommend the CBS version of the "Oliver in the Overworld" soundtrack - it's not in this box but the original version is.

Their 1978 album has one of the most baffling, not to say unfortunate, sleeves of the age

Oh wow

https://i.discogs.com/JZYGxy5-E0hPrQev52r5P94xPDaV8n9mR1D_m1d8p6g/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:576/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI4Nzky/MjUtMTQ4NTYwNDY5/MC05NDcwLmpwZWc.jpeg

I mean, I love Bob to the moon and back, but Freddie & The Dreamers? Really?

I'm reminded of a moment years ago when a friend of mine told me that a friend of his had told him he looked like the guitarist of Freddie & the Dreamers. "I don't see it at all," said my friend.

In fact, he was the spitting image of Freddie Garrity himself, and I found it funny that he was unable to see that the message got garbled and obviously his friend meant that he looked like Freddie.

what exactly does "compiled by" mean in the context of "the complete recordings" ?

i pretty much have time for any british invasion band's (1) 1967-ish psychedelic cash-in record and/or (2) 1970-ish rootsy sepia-sleeved record. the '67 and '70 freddie records are hard to come by. whether they offer anything interesting, i have no idea, but all the research i've done (admittedly not much) has indicated no

XP I think it's just a catch-all for producing/cheerleading/instigating/realizing the project.

Even for "complete recordings" there are decisions to be made regarding the presentation and ordering of the material, annotations, etc.

When I read Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Pop Music, I made a Spotify playlist of every song mentioned, if anyone wants to give it a go. It took me two years to listen to it as my go-to “I don’t know what to listen to” walk the dog playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3seDeDLhycytZX5WxUNvkl?si=k0mtofByTIqka1fxtTvWBw&pi=Y9gDsx0HTaWhB

Nice, thanks! Once upon a time I started a Spotify playlist called Stanley Sez, and was meant to include all of the more obscure/unexpected songs that he's championed over the years, in liner notes, reviews, blog entries, etc. A daunting list, as you can imagine! I bailed not too long after I started, but one day...

Scrolling to the bottom of the 3145 song playlist to see what Spotify suggests was left out. Waterloo Sunset, lol.

lool!

I mentioned, some years ago, the song "Drink this up, it'll help you sleep" from the first F&TD album, to Bob. I couldn't bring myself to listen to it, seeing as how that's the creepiest song title I've ever seen.

This looks fun!

https://www.acerecords.co.uk/weds-morning-6am-radio-hits-from-the-small-hours-1970-1983

This is a good idea, I have many lasting memories of the kitchen radio being on as my brothers and I ate Captain Crunch and were shuffled off to school. Tracks like "Breakdown" by Alan Parson Project and "Blinded By The Light" (Manfred Mann's version) are permanently etched into my brain in that context.

Ooh 99 Miles From LA - Art Garfunkel

"Motorway City - The Golden Age Of Car Travel 1966-82" will be released: 31.07.26. Available to preorder now.

MOTORWAY CITY is a superb, driving-based collection of library music. The tracks on this album were all written between the mid-60s and the early 80s to hymn car travel, back when the petrol-operated motor car was seen as the transport mode of the future, when motorways were new and thrilling. It was car travel’s golden age.

The tracks are highly collectable rarities from the libraries of De Wolfe, Chappell and Hudson. It has been compiled by Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne who has also written the informative sleevenotes. It stretches from mod movers to proto-ambient, something for every car journey.

Library music soundtracked the many short films that extolled the virtues of TopTray restaurant at Watford Gap or the comfortable leather seats in an Alpine Sunbeam. These tunes illuminated the joys of motor travel, and were given titles such as ‘Fast Lane’, ‘Super City’ and ‘Clearway’.

Many of these tracks seem time specific. The sun peeks over the horizon for Basil Kirchin’s ‘Through New Territory’; Reg Tilsley’s ‘Hold The Road’ is so bright at midday that you’ll need to wear shades to stop the sun getting in your eyes; John Fiddy’s ‘City Skyline’ has to be seen (and heard) at dusk.

Ex-Soft Machine Karl Jenkins provides the tense ‘Wheeling’, and Peter Reno’s thunderous ‘Convoy’ shifts the mood up a gear. Maybe you should risk nudging the speed up, 80-plus, to the soundtrack of Alan Hawkshaw’s ‘Fuel Injection’ or Simon Park’s mellow-but-dynamic ‘Big Road’.

Beautifully packaged in a gatefold sleeve, MOTORWAY CITY could be the soundtrack to your summer holiday.

https://www.acerecords.co.uk/motorway-city-the-golden-age-of-car-travel-1966-82