BACK TO BLACK CONTINUED.....

I've written before about my recent return to collecting Vinyl, and my collection continues to grow sporadically, through the occasional trip to second hand record shops in Notts, and the occasional find in local charity shops. I haven't purchased much in the way of new vinyl, mainly due to the prices (there will be a shopping spree in the run up to Christmas though!) so used it is. A couple of weeks ago i was given a box of used 7" singles by a mate, by way of a peace offering, and although a good half of it was knackered through poor storage and water damage (my mate got it off ebay i think), there were still plenty of gems hidden in amongst the rest. 3 Stranglers singles, a couple of Visage, and quite a few 80's pop gems from my early teens. This picture doesn't include them all, just a small selection.

There were two older 7"s in there that sparked a nostalgic feeling, namely one that reminded me of a childhood spent listening to my parents' record collection, which mostly consisted of 70's glam rock and pop. Slik were a Scottish glam-pop band in the vein of Bay City Rollers, and having signed to Bell Records, they joined up with former Rollers songwriters Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, who wrote their 1976 No. 1 hit "Forever And Ever", an odd little love song that switches from doomy church organ, chiming bells, and chanting monk styled backing vocals in the verses to a more familiar chugging pop chorus and back again. They never had another big hit after that - equally baroque follow-up single "Requiem" stalled at 24 - but a couple of their members would go on to enjoy varying degrees of success in other bands: lead singer Midge Ure joined Ultravox and became one of the biggest bands of the early 80's, as well as having a solo career and co-writing the Band Aid single: Drummer Kenny Hyslop was briefly a member of New Wave band Skids and played with Simple Minds on their Sons And Fascination tour.

The other single was a novelty pop hit from 1978, "Car 67" by Driver 67, a folk-pop tale from the point of view of a taxi driver. The story goes that Driver 67 receives a request from the controller for a pick up at 83 Royal Gardens, and refuses the job, eventually explaining that the address is now the home of his ex-girlfriend who had split up with him the previous night. The song is performed as a conversation between Driver 67 (singer-songwriter and producer Paul Phillips) singing the lyrics, and the voice of the taxi controller coming in over the radio with the pick up request, asking why he can't do the job, and so on - "Calling all cars, etc" - in a West Midlands accent. The single was a collaboration between Phillips and American musician Pete Zorn, and was their only hit, reaching No. 7 early in 1979. They made a second single, "Headlights", but it sank without trace after radio refused to play it, because of the dark subject matter - a lone female driver being menaced by a truck driver on a lonely back road - and that was the end of that. Phillips wrote the lyrics to "Car 67" during an unsuccessful stint as a London cabbie, apparently!