Record Collector – February 2023
English | 142 pages | pdf | 278.52 MB
Hello and Welcome at Record Collector Magazine February 2023 issue
I was going to start my letter off this month by saying how “vibey” the year so far had been for us (I was even prepared to use the word “vibey” in a serious national publication), certainly if our first two covers – last month’s radiant Iggy Pop and this magazine issue’s celebration of soul music at its most incandescent – were any measure. Then news came in that Jeff Beck had died. In football terms, if Hendrix was Pele, the total performer, and Clapton Maradona, capable of breathtaking runs, then Beck was Cruyff, all virtuosic flash and dazzle. Arguably his best, most inventive work was done by 1975-6, by Blow By Blow/Wired, but you could never rule him out, and he continued to cut an intriguing figure: I interviewed him at his flat in London circa his 2016 album, Loud Hailer, and he seemed incredibly youthful and plugged-in for an artist in his eighth decade, as happy to discuss his 60s glory days as he was his latest,
somewhat politicised project, even if the PR did later insist I excise from the transcript Beck’s numerous digressions into chemical trails and assorted conspiracy theories. See next month for a full appreciation of the great man.
Three all-time greats are remembered in our obits pages this month: the shaprshifting Terry Hall, symphonic soul maestro Thom Bell, and the astonishingly versatile multi-instrumental half of The Associates, Alan Rankine. But as I say, overall, the mood is celebratory, from the news story about vinyl sales being at the highest level since 1990 to David Quantick’s ebullient review of New Order’s Low-life, to the cover story which goes into detail about the 73 best soul/R&B albums of 1973 and speaks to several of the artists – including Millie Jackson and Eddie Levert – who were there.
Elsewhere, there’s the usual broad range of interview and feature subjects – indiedance band That Petrol Emotion, 70s “pub rocker” Mickey Jupp, Davy Henderson the Scottish early 80s star-who-never-was of Fire Engines and Win – all of whom discuss their artistry and address the idea that they, to varying degrees, sabotaged their chances of success. And for a change, in the light of the fact that everyone’s buying vinyl again, we look at the best vintage turntables for playing your records on, oh, and RC’s Terry Staunton meets Joan Armatrading and witnesses her openly laughing. A lot. See you next month,
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